MMO Updates

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• The Game Archaeologist: Steve Nichols' The Realm Online debriefing, part 1
• WRUP: In honor of Javier Placeholder edition
• The Daily Grind: How much time and effort do you spend on your character's appearance?
• Betawatch: November 10 - 16, 2012
• EVE Online's New Eden Open tournament starts tomorrow
• Storyboard: The first stage of madness
• MMObility: A deeper look at Fleck and its adorable zombies
• Guild Wars 2 starts Lost Shores, previews new PvP map
• DayZ mod is going for the hobo appeal
• The Firing Line: Star Citizen shouldn't be EVE with joysticks
• RuneScape's oracle predicts through 2013
• MMO Blender: Beyond Shawn's Thunderdome
• Star Citizen cargo ship boasts functioning interior, detachable fighter
• Browser beauty: Hands-on with City of Steam
• Hell yeah, it's an Infinity update

The Game Archaeologist: Steve Nichols' The Realm Online debriefing, part 1 Posted: 17 Nov 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, MMO industry, Massively Interviews, The Game Archaeologist It's been called one of "the internet's forgotten games," and yet there are those who will never forget the impact that The Realm Online had in their gaming lives. For some gamers in the mid-'90s, it was the very first taste of a graphical MMO. Though it was little more than two-dimensional cartoon graphics added to the then-standard MUD setup, The Realm Online nevertheless helped to forge a path to the brave new world of MMOs. The Realm, as it was originally called, was a project of Sierra On-Line. Development on the title began in late 1995, with a 1996 beta and launch following soon after. As with other early graphical MMOs, Sierra had little experience or comparisons to draw from while making The Realm but somehow made it work anyway. The resulting game featured a strong emphasis on roleplay, trade, and turn-based combat, although a robust questing experience this was not. Sierra On-Line never fully got behind The Realm, eventually selling it off to Codemasters in the early 2000s, which then turned around and handed off the title to its current operator, Norseman Games. To date, it's one of the longest continuously operating graphical MMOs in existence and can still be enjoyed by today's gamers. We reached out to one of the lead developers on The Realm Online, Stephen Nichols, who agreed to an interview on the condition that we give him a very big horn in a tent. Just kidding; the horn is from his private stock. Let's get to it! Continue reading The Game Archaeologist: Steve Nichols' The Realm Online debriefing, part 1 The Game Archaeologist: Steve Nichols' The Realm Online debriefing, part 1 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

WRUP: In honor of Javier Placeholder edition Posted: 17 Nov 2012 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous Javier Placeholder was born when the randomize button in City of Heroes failed to generate my new hero but succeeded in generating a stand-in. After filling in for someone who was scheduled to be the victim of a freak nuclear accident, Javier Placeholder was supposed to develop fantastic powers, but instead he got some storm-related powers or something until the kinks of his real powers could be worked out. He's not the hero we need, nor is he the hero we deserve, but he is a hero who will definitely show up until the main guy can get over here. In unrelated news, welcome to this week's WRUP, wherein the Massively staff discusses our weekend plans as well as whether or not we think players expect too much out of free-to-play games. Check our plans past the break, and let us know what you'll be up to in the comments. Continue reading WRUP: In honor of Javier Placeholder edition WRUP: In honor of Javier Placeholder edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: How much time and effort do you spend on your character's appearance? Posted: 17 Nov 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Guild Wars 2 has an interesting way of handling dyes, with a pool of colors that you can alter at any time that propagates to all of your present and future equipment. It also makes me stop dead in the middle of my leveling and spend about an hour trying out color combinations and then start over when I got a new chestpiece and a nice new pale green dye -- something that I will no doubt do all over again as soon as I replace the existing chestpiece. This isn't unusual. I spend a lot of money in Guild Wars on dyes and mixing them for just the right look. I've spent huge chunks of time in Star Wars: The Old Republic hunting for just the right modifiable pieces of armor. These are times spent looking for things that look the way I want, not actually spent playing the game or improving my character in any other way. But what about you? How much time and effort do you spend on your character's appearance? Is it a major part of the game for you, or just something that you barely consider? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind! The Daily Grind: How much time and effort do you spend on your character's appearance? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Betawatch: November 10 - 16, 2012 Posted: 16 Nov 2012 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, News items, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Usually a game leaves the beta list because it launches. Glitch was an odd case anyway, having launched and then returned to beta. But unfortunately, the quirky sandbox MMO is not getting another shot at launch. The game's closure was announced this week and marks the end of a long journey for a unique and interesting game. In happier news, a whole slew of launch dates were announced, and Age of Wushu opened its doors enough to let in some closed beta testers. Alliance Warfare entered its open beta stage, and RIFT's first expansion went live at long last. It was a good week if you're into Korean games that may or may not come over to the other side of the world, as well, with a new preview of Cabal II's character creation and the launch dates for the upcoming sandbox Black Desert. After this week's shakeups, the list has done quite a bit of moving around, but you can still check out the full run-down past the break. If you notice something missing or something we haven't added, let us know in the comments! Continue reading Betawatch: November 10 - 16, 2012 Betawatch: November 10 - 16, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Online's New Eden Open tournament starts tomorrow Posted: 16 Nov 2012 04:30 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, real-world, PvP, News items EVE Online is a game all about competition, frequently with everyone else who happens to be within range of your weapons. As a result, it seems like an oversight that the game hasn't already gotten in on the prestigious field of competitive online gaming. That changes starting tomorrow with the first New Eden Open, a tournament of players competing for a grand total of $10,000 in prize money, hopefully not being carried on a vulnerable freighter in the form of PLEX. The contest kicks off tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. EST complete with continuous live coverage on the official stream channel. Twenty-seven teams will be taking part in the double-elimination tournament, with the grand prize sitting at $6,000. Matches will be run each weekend until the finals on December 2nd. If you're on one of the competing teams, make sure your ships are up to snuff, and even if you're not in for the prize money, be sure to tune in and cheer for your favorite players. EVE Online's New Eden Open tournament starts tomorrow originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: New Eden Open begins 11/17, Stream channel, Tournament format

Storyboard: The first stage of madness Posted: 16 Nov 2012 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous Madness is a very powerful narrative tool. Unfortunately, it also gets used horribly, taken out back, and worked over with brass knuckles until it bleeds. Instead of diving into madness, players are most often more content to flirt with the surface elements, have a character who spits out funny non sequitors, or behaves with eccentricities. Let's talk about madness. Let's talk about using that effectively. Let's talk about making a character who's something more than just a crazy happy random quote machine, someone who is at once fascinating and disturbing and quite possibly unpleasant to be around because that is what madness is. There's a lot of potential for roleplaying there, a lot of stories to be told, a lot of consequences to be explored. So many consequences. What, then, is a madman? Where do we start when we discuss insanity in roleplaying? How can we impersonate it? What can playing that role accomplish? Continue reading Storyboard: The first stage of madness Storyboard: The first stage of madness originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMObility: A deeper look at Fleck and its adorable zombies Posted: 16 Nov 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Real life, Screenshots, Video, Business models, Game mechanics, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile, Casual, Humor, Livestream, Miscellaneous, MMObility Fleck is a very interesting title that has quietly been doing some great things in the location-based MMO space. A location-based MMO is essentially an MMO that utilizes the real world via Google maps or real-life landmarks as a background for an MMO. Imagine that you are at your favorite eatery and you take out your phone and are instantly shown a world built on top of the world you're in now; that's location-based gaming. Fleck works like many other location-based MMOs but doesn't link itself to the real world as much as some of the others. Instead, it allows players to build and explore freely all while attempting to avoid (or defeat) zombies of varying strengths. Yes, zombies! There are some really cool features in Fleck, one of the them being real weather updates like rain, snow, or fog that changes according to the player's location. If a player wants to, she can build a house literally on the spot where she lives in real life or anywhere else in the world -- on top of a Google map. There's much more to the game, and this week I want to share a recent video I made and look into just how unique this game is. Continue reading MMObility: A deeper look at Fleck and its adorable zombies MMObility: A deeper look at Fleck and its adorable zombies originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Guild Wars 2 starts Lost Shores, previews new PvP map Posted: 16 Nov 2012 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Events, in-game, Patches, PvP, Guild Wars 2 Hot on the heels of Halloween 2012, Guild Wars 2's Lost Shores content update seeks to prove if the masterminds at ArenaNet can keep up the pace and quality of their releases. The multi-stage event began today at 3:00 p.m. EST and will continue through Sunday, November 18th. Massively has you covered on all the info, from a primer on the event to the official schedule to a spoiler-free look at the new content. If you have a couple minutes before rushing into the game to check out the event, you might want to stay tuned for a 15-minute video on the game's new PvP map, Temple of the silent Storm. ArenaNet PvP Coordinator Jonathan Sharp takes us through all of the intricacies of the new map mechanics. Continue reading Guild Wars 2 starts Lost Shores, previews new PvP map Guild Wars 2 starts Lost Shores, previews new PvP map originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Lost Shores announcement, Gamebreaker

DayZ mod is going for the hobo appeal Posted: 16 Nov 2012 01:30 PM PST Filed under: Horror, Culture, MMOFPS, Post-Apocalyptic, Miscellaneous For all DayZ fans who feel that the inclusion of powerful weapons and relatively plentiful supply caches don't accurately portray their personal vision for a horrible post-apocalyptic zombie world, then a new mod in the making might do the trick. Called DayZ 2017, the mod seeks to progress the game world forward five years to a time when everything's a lot harder to come by. Modder Luke Hinds explained his reasoning on the DayZ 2017 website: "I now want to go back to basics and really focus on what made Rocket's mod really tick with players, and that was scarcity and threat. The main changes will be taking out most loot and making what's left very rare." Hinds cites films such as The Book of Eli and The Road as inspiration. He created "hobo-like" characters who look far more worn-down and a combat that slants more toward melee than ranged. DayZ 2017 hopefully will arrive by the end of the year. Recently, the makers of DayZ cracked down on a different mod that sought to monetize the game through a bounty system. DayZ mod is going for the hobo appeal originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: PC Gamer

The Firing Line: Star Citizen shouldn't be EVE with joysticks Posted: 16 Nov 2012 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, Opinion, Sandbox, The Firing Line I've been spending a lot of time on Star Citizen's forums of late. And when I'm not doing that, I'm replaying Wing Commander, Wing Commander II, and Privateer (thanks GoG) and generally wetting myself with excitement for Chris Roberts' newest space sim. The one thing that gives me pause, though, is the unsavory player type that SC is already attracting. You know the guys I mean. They're PvPers, which is great, but they can't type a sentence on a message board without using the word carebear a minimum of three times while making sweeping generalizations about the playstyles, sexual orientation, and parentage of any and all who dare to disagree with them about what makes gaming fun. That said, I like PvP and plan to engage in Star Citizen's version of it. I'm not naive enough to think that the no-holds barred nonsense being advocated by some in the game's pre-release community will result in anything other than a niche title, though. Continue reading The Firing Line: Star Citizen shouldn't be EVE with joysticks The Firing Line: Star Citizen shouldn't be EVE with joysticks originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

RuneScape's oracle predicts through 2013 Posted: 16 Nov 2012 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Previews, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries With the clock running down on 2012, one might be forgiven for overlooking the rest of the year in favor of what the next will bring. That's a mistake with RuneScape, as the devs have promised that they've saved the best for last with a couple of sizable updates to the game. On tap for the remainder of the year is the addition of a super-tough Grandmaster-level quest, player-owned ports, and a very lonely dog that will need help come Christmas-time. Looking ahead to 2013, Jagex revealed its ambitious plans for a variety of content as well as something called RuneScape Next Gen. The description of the latter is quite intriguing: "Featuring our innovative new browser-based technology and with big investments in graphics and gameplay, RuneScape is set to take a monumental leap forward in 2013. Higher visual and audio fidelity, improved camera mechanics and a much more customizable interface system are but a taste of what you can expect." RuneScape's oracle predicts through 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Behind the Scenes

MMO Blender: Beyond Shawn's Thunderdome Posted: 16 Nov 2012 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Game mechanics, Opinion, Post-Apocalyptic, Miscellaneous, MMO Blender If there's one thing I've noticed about these MMO Blender articles, it's that the Massively staff members seem to really like their sandboxes. Maybe it's not even so much a staff preference as it is a statement about where we all are as MMO players. Themeparks have been done and have been perfected, but many of us want to stretch the limitations of a truly persistent and open online world. At least that's what I'd like to think. It's an ideal situation I can dream about, but do we all really want a truly open world with limitless possibilities? What would we do with so few rules? My perfect MMO has what I'd consider to be the best of all worlds. The trick is, of course, getting it all to work in one game. Continue reading MMO Blender: Beyond Shawn's Thunderdome MMO Blender: Beyond Shawn's Thunderdome originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Star Citizen cargo ship boasts functioning interior, detachable fighter Posted: 16 Nov 2012 10:30 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Galleries, Screenshots, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Sandbox Remember those old ship blueprints that came folded in your Wing Commander box circa 1991? No? Well, get off our lawn. Assuming you do remember them, or assuming you're as excited as we are about Chris Roberts' new Star Citizen space sim, you'll probably get a kick out of some images just released on the official site. The has a preview interview and accompanying concept gallery that features a player ship called the Constellation Mark III. There are plenty of schematic views, lore-appropriate statistics, and of course renders of both the interior and exterior of the craft. Yep, apparently that answers the question as to whether or not we'll be able to walk around inside some of Star Citizen's ships, as many of the renders show off everything from the cockpit to living quarters to various observation decks and stations. Oh, did we mention that the Constellation boasts its own detachable star fighter? Roberts also puts to rest any notions of Star Citizen being a typical combat-only shooter. One of his goals is to let you actually look at the cargo in your ship's hold while you're in space. "There's a big focus on simulating and showing everything that you would imagine to be inside and functioning on a spaceship in Star Citizen," he explains. "So if you're hauling it you should see it in your hold (if you can walk back into your hold), if you activate a system, you should see your pilot avatar lean over and switch it on, and so on." The images come courtesy of Ryan Church, a familiar name to sci-fi geeks thanks to his concept art work on the Star Wars prequels. [Thanks to Eric for the tip!] Gallery: Star Citizen Star Citizen cargo ship boasts functioning interior, detachable fighter originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Introducing the RSI Constellation Mk3

Browser beauty: Hands-on with City of Steam Posted: 16 Nov 2012 10:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Game mechanics, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, City of Steam Browser games aren't supposed to be like this. Browser games are supposed to be Flash-based trifles and social "gaming" money printers. They're supposed to have simple graphics, shallow gameplay and zero narrative. Put simply, browser-based games are supposed to be bad. City of Steam, a free-to-play, browser-based MMO developed by Mechanist Games, isn't content to live in this world of assumed browser-based inferiority. In fact, the game almost feels like a challenge to the industry: If this is what browsers can do, why isn't everyone doing it? City of Steam has the potential to shake the foundation of the MMO world by proving that full, engaging game experiences can be delivered instantly and on-demand, as long as its final execution lives up to its current promise. From what's been revealed so far, Mechanist appears to be on the right track. Continue reading Browser beauty: Hands-on with City of Steam Browser beauty: Hands-on with City of Steam originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hell yeah, it's an Infinity update Posted: 16 Nov 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Dev Diaries, Sandbox Being a fan of Infinity is an exercise in delayed gratification. The sci-fi sandbox MMO has been in development for-seemingly-ever, but given its nerdgasm-inducing feature set (which includes seamless transitions from space to planetary flight and huge, procedurally-generated heavenly bodies in a physics-based universe), the wait will likely be worth it. Today is a great day for fans, though, because developer Keith Newton has published a new update on the game's website for the first time in six months. Newton states that his team is getting "ready to increase our communication significantly," and he also says that he is leaving his regular job to focus full time on I-Novae Studios and Infinity early in 2013. Finally, there's a Kickstarter project in Infinity's near future, and Newton also fills us in on various technical details including terrain engine updates and something called pre-computed atmospheric scattering. If you're unfamiliar with Infinity, check out the pre-alpha tech demo videos embedded after the break. Continue reading Hell yeah, it's an Infinity update Hell yeah, it's an Infinity update originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Infinity update

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