MMO Updates

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• One Shots: Worlds within worlds
• The Daily Grind: When have you let your group down?
• Female avatars are likely to be more exposed than their male counterparts
• Embers of Caerus team puts out December newsletter and development update
• Earthrise accepting test applications, prepares alpha phase
• SWTOR fan site posts cartel market poll results
• The Tattered Notebook: My EQII journey with the ghosts of Frostfell
• The Mog Log: Parties and roles in Final Fantasy XIV

One Shots: Worlds within worlds Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Screenshots, Culture, Guild Wars 2, One Shots, RIFT, Miscellaneous, PlanetSide 2 When it comes to winter holidays, I'm always disappointed that they come so darn early in the season. We could really use all that cheer, celebrating, and lighting come, say, February after we've been wallowing in the cold and dark for months. No matter; what's done is done, and we have a giant snow globe as proof. Reader Trevor sent in the following picture from Guild Wars 2's Wintersday, as he took a photo of a world within the larger world and wrote, "Happened upon this giant snow globe amongst the flurry of gifts, giant flying colorful snowflakes, and Wintersday cheer. If you listen closely, you can hear my computer screaming in pain." Oh, we'll make more than your computer scream in pain before this column is done! Continue reading One Shots: Worlds within worlds One Shots: Worlds within worlds originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Dec 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: When have you let your group down? Posted: 30 Dec 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous I'll let you in on a little secret: I live in mortal fear of letting my group down in MMOs, which is one of the reasons I don't often group up with others. I hate the feeling of stress that accompanies the first run through a dungeon or during a tricky boss fight, because I just know I'll be the one to slip up and end up wiping us all. It's not just paranoia; it's happened. Last year, my Guild Wars guild was doing a lengthy Underworld run for a Hall of Monuments point and everyone wiped. Except for me. Great huh? Yeah, except that I didn't have a resurrection skill slotted, any resurrection items on me, and I couldn't go to the town to get some. So there was a lot of awkward silence on Vent and me mumbling apologies. Go me! So what about you? When have you let your group down and just how much did that scar you for life? 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: When have you let your group down? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Dec 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Female avatars are likely to be more exposed than their male counterparts Posted: 29 Dec 2012 05:00 PM PST Filed under: MMO industry, Second Life, Virtual worlds, Humor, Miscellaneous You really needed to be told this, right? You may not have been sure whether a lady-type avatar was more likely to be closer to naked than a manly-type avatar. If you were dying to know and really had no idea, there's an actual study now to get you all informed. Anna M. Lomanowska and Matthieu J. Guitton went into Second Life and examined 404 (192 male and 212 female) avatars of the humanoid-but-not-furry type. They found that 57% of lady-type avatars had less than half of their skin covered, compared to only 10% of masculine-type avatars being similarly exposed. Lomanowska and Guitton were not privy to the actual sex of the folks controlling the avatars. Do you feel enlightened? Female avatars are likely to be more exposed than their male counterparts originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Dec 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: PLOS ONE Via: Polygon

Embers of Caerus team puts out December newsletter and development update Posted: 29 Dec 2012 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Previews, News items, Sandbox Embers of Caerus has an ambitious feature list, a dedicated development team, and a long road to walk before the game is ready for public consumption. But as the year closes, the development team behind the game has produced a brief newsletter and a development update to let fans know where the game is now and what can be expected as we move into 2013. It's also a first look at the in-game environment, starting with the first major city of the game and its surrounding environs. The development update makes it clear that the programming team is hard at work integrating middleware solutions while getting the game servers to full functionality, while the art and lore team continues to flesh out the lore and models. Along the same lines, the newsletter mentions that the developers are moving toward working in a less volunteer capacity, establishing a central office and working for more than just a love of the project. If you're keen to see what the fruits of the game's Kickstarter project have been so far, take a look at the full rundown in both dispatches. [Thanks to Dave for the tip!] Embers of Caerus team puts out December newsletter and development update originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: EoC December Newsletter, EoC Development Update

Earthrise accepting test applications, prepares alpha phase Posted: 29 Dec 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Earthrise, Sandbox Earthrise might have gone down hard in February of this year, but a last-minute play by German studio SilentFuture kept it from becoming a permanent addition to the MMO graveyard. Ever since learning that this post-apocalyptic sandbox would be resurrected in a new form, we've kept an eye out for a sign that Earthrise would be, er, rising once more. That day is today. Just in case you were wondering. SilentFuture is taking test applications for what it's now calling Earthrise: First Impact. The site notes that just applying does not guarantee entry into the alpha or beta tests. The studio announced that the alpha will begin soon, although there is a technical issue preventing players from downloading the client. [Thanks to Marc for the tip!] Earthrise accepting test applications, prepares alpha phase originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Dec 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Earthrise test notice, Earthrise forums

SWTOR fan site posts cartel market poll results Posted: 29 Dec 2012 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Polls, Culture, Free-to-play, Star Wars: The Old Republic Following BioWare's promise that the studio's made substantial changes to its Cartel Market in Star Wars: The Old Republic, fan site Darth Hater polled over 2500 players about how they use the item shop (if at all). The results are quite fascinating. Most of those polled (89%) are still subscribed and have made purchases from the Cartel Market (87%). Only half of those polled spent real money on store currency, but of that sample, most had spent over $20 and 26% had spent over $100. The most popular purchases on the Cartel Market from this survey were random Cartel packs (80%), legacy unlocks (61%), armor (33%), and XP boosts (20%). 22% of those surveyed said that they were disappointed with the market, while 40% were satisfied with it. SWTOR fan site posts cartel market poll results originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Darth Hater

The Tattered Notebook: My EQII journey with the ghosts of Frostfell Posted: 29 Dec 2012 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook As the year comes to a close, it's really amazing to look back and follow the twisty path of EverQuest II's evolution. This past year in particular stood out for me because the first half was marked by unconventional (some would say radical) ideas that broke away from the EverQuest tradition. The second half, though, revealed a return to the game's roots, and to what longtime players associate with the EQ franchise. In fact, when I look back even further, there are many things I've really come to appreciate in EQII, and I miss them when I'm playing other MMOs that don't have them. So in this week's Tattered Notebook, I'm meeting up with the EQII ghosts of Frostfell past, present, and future to look at what I love most about the game and what I want to see in the game as we approach 2013. Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: My EQII journey with the ghosts of Frostfell The Tattered Notebook: My EQII journey with the ghosts of Frostfell originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Dec 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Mog Log: Parties and roles in Final Fantasy XIV Posted: 29 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Classes, Game mechanics, Endgame, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log, Dungeons Final Fantasy XIV's party setup already makes a bold step away from normal conventions. Where most games these days top out with parties of four or five players, a full party in Eorzea is eight people with according benefits. It's definitely a game of numbers. This offers some unique drawbacks and advantages all at once. The drawbacks are implied just by the sheer size: It's harder to get three strangers to work with you as part of a team; it's harder still to gather up seven without one person dragging you down through a combination of cluelessness and hapless malice. But considering the pre-relaunch game offered a lot of content that could be done solo or in ad hoc groups of varying sides, perhaps this won't be such an issue in the long run. So let's talk about the potential advantages. I think the game is uniquely poised to deliver on this front simply because having more people in the party allows you to do things that more modern games don't have the space for -- things that Final Fantasy XI was quite good at doing in party composition, as it happens. Continue reading The Mog Log: Parties and roles in Final Fantasy XIV The Mog Log: Parties and roles in Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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