MMO Updates |
- Age of Wushu is probably the greatest sandbox you'll never play
- Storyboard: Nobody gets your character
- The Daily Grind: What's your MMO of the year?
- The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaming up to fight in League of Legends
- City of Steam fans treated to dev humiliation video for reaching goal
- Keep celebrating Christmas with this RaiderZ event trailer
- Pathfinder Online addresses the Escalation mechanic
- The War Z executive producer blames problems on the game's success
- Blizzard scraps Diablo III PvP mode, starts over
- The Guild Counsel: How reader replies identify larger issues in MMOs
- Final Fantasy XIV lays out beta test roadmap
- Exclusive: Storybricks dev diary expounds on bringing NPCs to life
- Ragnarok Online 2 open beta begins
| Age of Wushu is probably the greatest sandbox you'll never play Posted: 28 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-play, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions, Sandbox, Age of Wushu  Imagine my surprise, then, when I sat down to play Age of Wushu last week and found something utterly unlike most of the genre in every way that matters. It's difficult to compare the sprawling martial arts saga to other titles, but if you're looking for AoW's closest MMO relative, it would have to be EVE Online. Continue reading Age of Wushu is probably the greatest sandbox you'll never play
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| Storyboard: Nobody gets your character Posted: 28 Dec 2012 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous  It's also likely that you realized a few years later that none of the above was true, and if you were lucky, your parents were polite enough to point out that you thought you had the purest love of all time simply because you had no basis for comparison. (If you haven't gotten there yet, it's cool; we'll be here when you have.) Those around you understood better than you thought; it was more a matter of your not getting something. There are many roleplayers who seem to believe that their chief problem is that no one understands their characters. All of the drama and poor roleplaying is a result of other people not getting something crucial. I invite readers to draw the obvious comparison. Continue reading Storyboard: Nobody gets your character
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| The Daily Grind: What's your MMO of the year? Posted: 28 Dec 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, The Daily Grind, Community Q&A, Miscellaneous  Remember, the games and expansions you're voting on had to have been released in 2012 (that means Star Wars: The Old Republic is more or less out for having launched at the tail end of 2011, but if you want to write it in anyway, that's OK too -- we did for our awards too, after all). We don't really have room for every game in the poll, so feel free to do write-ins at the end and then tell us why you voted the way you did. Continue reading The Daily Grind: What's your MMO of the year?
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| The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaming up to fight in League of Legends Posted: 27 Dec 2012 06:00 PM PST Filed under: PvP, Opinion, Guides, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook  It might not be readily apparent how ideas like the mission of a Marine rifle team might apply to a five-player team in LoL, but there are more similarities than you think. The tools are different -- for example, games use different means to suppress the enemy than real soldiers -- but the tactics are surprisingly similar. This week, we're going to cover the beginning of a fight. Starting a fight at an advantage is important element in victory, as the opening seconds of a battle matter the most. If you can leverage an advantage early on in a fight, you can snowball that advantage into a decisive win. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaming up to fight in League of Legends
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| City of Steam fans treated to dev humiliation video for reaching goal Posted: 27 Dec 2012 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Trailers, Video, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Humor, City of Steam  Check out the humorous -- yet eerily accurate -- depictions of character creation, the tutorial, looting, and PvP in the video after the break! And if you want to see how well the devs have lived this humiliation down, then tune in to Massively TV this Friday, December 28th, at 9:00 p.m. EST for a dev-filled stream spectacular. [Source: Mechanist Games press release] Continue reading City of Steam fans treated to dev humiliation video for reaching goal
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| Keep celebrating Christmas with this RaiderZ event trailer Posted: 27 Dec 2012 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Trailers, Video, Events, in-game, New titles, News items, Free-to-play  Get a glimpse of the winter festivities in the screenshots below and the trailer after the break. You might even see some familiar faces from the Diago server! [Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release] Continue reading Keep celebrating Christmas with this RaiderZ event trailer
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| Pathfinder Online addresses the Escalation mechanic Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, MMO industry, New titles, Sandbox  Lead designer Lee Hammock and game designer Stephen Cheney address the topic of Escalations in this latest video, explaining that each area of the map will have creatures that need to be dealt with or their power will escalate over time. These unchecked monsters will eventually burden the zone's resources and make it more difficult for a settlement to thrive in that area. But if the threat is dealt with completely, you will earn bonuses for your settlement. Be sure to watch the entire video after the cut for more on Escalation cycles and how they work. [Source: Pathfinder Online Kickstarter update email] Continue reading Pathfinder Online addresses the Escalation mechanic
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| The War Z executive producer blames problems on the game's success Posted: 27 Dec 2012 02:30 PM PST Filed under: Horror, MMO industry, New titles, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox  Titov states that there are "hundreds of thousands of players" on the game's servers each day and blames the overwhelming early success of the game for its eventual negative impressions. "I was too focused on how great we are and how a small independent team got their first game to over 700,000 users in a two-month period," Titov says in the email. Admitting that the team made many mistakes in communication and rushing the game out before the holidays, Sergey says that they'll soon be hiring additional community managers and moderators to properly respond to any problems that might arise in the future. You can read the email in its entirety after the cut. Continue reading The War Z executive producer blames problems on the game's success
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| Blizzard scraps Diablo III PvP mode, starts over Posted: 27 Dec 2012 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, PvP, Dev Diaries, Diablo III  Lead Designer Jay Wilson wrote a dev diary in which he explained the concept of PvP in Diablo III and why Team Deathmatch wasn't working. He said that arena combat put too much of a focus on class balance that the team doesn't want, that there wasn't enough incentive to fight more than a couple matches, and that feedback from players was mixed. You still waiting for the good news? Here you go: Wilson said that the team is implementing dueling in the new year and has started work on a completely new form of PvP for the game. This new mode will focus more on objectives and "possibly even integrate PvE elements and rewards."
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| The Guild Counsel: How reader replies identify larger issues in MMOs Posted: 27 Dec 2012 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Polls, EverQuest, Meridian 59, Guilds, MMO industry, Opinion, The Guild Counsel, Miscellaneous  This week, I'd like to look at three noteworthy topics that have often popped up among reader comments: nostalgia in MMOs, the clash between "the brotherhood" and "the game," and why guild leadership often feels like a thankless task. Let's look at a few reader responses to these topics and consider the larger issues with MMOs and guild leadership today. Continue reading The Guild Counsel: How reader replies identify larger issues in MMOs
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| Final Fantasy XIV lays out beta test roadmap Posted: 27 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIV  The main goals of the beta test are to rebalance level progression, the battle system, and crafting; to refine the user interface; to test the importing of characters from version 1.0; to stress test the servers; and to report and fix bugs. Legacy status holders and Final Fantasy XIV account holders are automatically included in the beta, while other interested parties need to apply. [Thanks to Segun for the tip!]
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| Exclusive: Storybricks dev diary expounds on bringing NPCs to life Posted: 27 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Dev Diaries, Sandbox  In this exclusive dev diary, Brian "Psychochild" Green and Stéphane Bura discuss making AI that can interact with players on an individual basis, adapting to individuals' choices, needs, and emotions and even remembering and drawing on past interactions to make a deeply engaging sandbox experience. Check out their thoughts in the full dev diary after the break! Continue reading Exclusive: Storybricks dev diary expounds on bringing NPCs to life
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| Ragnarok Online 2 open beta begins Posted: 27 Dec 2012 10:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Free-to-play  The open beta may be undergoing hiccups right now, as the official website is down and Wikipedia is reporting "connection problems." We'll be keeping an eye on its progress for those of you interested in this title!
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