MMO Updates

---

• Yoshi-P says something's happening with FFXIV on January 7
• Mechanist says no to huge pauldrons, revamps City of Steam NPC duds
• New vids detail Blade & Soul's Spiral Labyrinth dungeon
• ArcheAge's Korean OBT features lengthy queues, intro cinematic released
• The Daily Grind: Is it worth investing in the mid-game?
• Torchlight 2 has sold more than a million copies
• Rumor: Blizzard's Titan is not a new IP and could be heading to consoles
• The Soapbox: The heartbreak of altitis
• Flameseeker Chronicles: Hopes for the new year in Guild Wars 2

Yoshi-P says something's happening with FFXIV on January 7 Posted: 02 Jan 2013 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, Final Fantasy XIV With the exception of some lucky alpha testers, Final Fantasy XIV players didn't have a game to play over the holidays. The title shut down a couple of months ago in preparation for its rebirth as A Realm Reborn. Now, however, it looks like FFXIV fans have something to look forward to come next week. In a New Year's greeting that talks about the release of FFXIV's next incarnation in 2013, producer Naoki Yoshida tells players to mark January 7th on their calendars. Unfortunately, he gives no other information beyond this teaser, so the significance of the date is up in the air. Will it be a beta test, a launch, or something else completely? We just can't say, but we will keep you updated when we find out! Yoshi-P says something's happening with FFXIV on January 7 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: New Year's greetings post

Mechanist says no to huge pauldrons, revamps City of Steam NPC duds Posted: 02 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-fi, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Browser, City of Steam It didn't take Mechanist Games long to release its first City of Steam dev journal for 2013. Today's steampunk browser title update focuses on an NPC uniform revamp, and while clothes aren't quite the stuff of epic MMO legend, we must admit to digging the new Victorian duds. The NPCs in question are Nexan guards, the original outfits for which featured gigantic shoulder pauldrons and some sort of checkerboard faux pas motif. The new uniform is noticeably sleeker, "much more respectable, and far less gaudy," according to the devs. Have a look for yourself at the official City of Steam website. Mechanist says no to huge pauldrons, revamps City of Steam NPC duds originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 Jan 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev journal

New vids detail Blade & Soul's Spiral Labyrinth dungeon Posted: 02 Jan 2013 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, PvE, Blade & Soul, Dungeons Blade & Soul's newest endgame dungeon release is called The Spiral Labyrinth, and Steparu has posted an extensive look at the content complete with multiple videos. The dungeon features three floors, each of which ends in a boss fight, and there's a bit of randomization in the mix, too. Each time your party enters a particular room, you'll need to fight a miniboss. Defeating him triggers a random door which leads deeper into the dungeon level and eventually to the floor boss. With a new dungeon comes new drops and new equipment. Steparu says that farming The Spiral Labyrinth will likely be necessary to compete in the game's upcoming PvP content. Have a look at the dungeon's first minotaur boss after the break, then head to the source link for several more gameplay videos and analysis. Continue reading New vids detail Blade & Soul's Spiral Labyrinth dungeon New vids detail Blade & Soul's Spiral Labyrinth dungeon originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 Jan 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Steparu

ArcheAge's Korean OBT features lengthy queues, intro cinematic released Posted: 02 Jan 2013 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Trailers, Video, MMO industry, New titles, News items, ArcheAge, Sandbox ArcheAge's Korean open beta is finally here, and XLGAMES has a lot of fans banging on its front door for a chance to test drive the new sandpark title. According to ThisIsGame, the firm opened 20 servers, some of which feature entry queues ranging from 500 to 2,300 players. Steparu is hosting a look at the game's intro cinematic which features a "Nuian goddess summoning a gigantic portal and sacrificing herself to save her people." Check out the two-minute clip after the cut. Continue reading ArcheAge's Korean OBT features lengthy queues, intro cinematic released ArcheAge's Korean OBT features lengthy queues, intro cinematic released originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 Jan 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: ThisIsGame

The Daily Grind: Is it worth investing in the mid-game? Posted: 02 Jan 2013 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous One of my new year's resolutions is to dust off my lowbie Warden in LotRO and get her to the level cap. I'm heartened by the thought that the devs have smoothed out several of the zones, such as Evendim and Moria, as well as extended the awesome open tapping and remote looting to the entire world. Yet a vast majority of MMOs, once established, focus almost exclusively on the endgame when it comes to adding content and features. It might make sense from a numbers perspective: When most of your steady playerbase is at the cap, that's where most of the effort should go. But does that come at a cost of alienating new players who have to go through an aging mid-game before getting to the good stuff? So what do you think: Is it worth investing in the mid-game or not? 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: Is it worth investing in the mid-game? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 Jan 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Torchlight 2 has sold more than a million copies Posted: 01 Jan 2013 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, News items If you're the proud (or maybe humble; that's OK too) owner of a copy of Torchlight 2, you're far from alone; Runic Games recently announced that over a million copies of the game have been sold. If you're not the proud (or maybe humble) owner of a copy of Torchlight 2 but have been toying with the possibility, this is a pretty good time to pick it up. Steam, known for its annual wallet-eating sales, has marked the game down to $9.99 (or 50% off). You can also pick up Torchlight for a measly $3.74 if you're the kind who likes to test out the original. Torchlight 2 has sold more than a million copies originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Jan 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Steam winter sales, Runic Games

Rumor: Blizzard's Titan is not a new IP and could be heading to consoles Posted: 01 Jan 2013 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Rumors, Miscellaneous What is Titan? All we know about it right now for sure is that it's being developed by Blizzard, and we've been told on occasion that the game is not a new installment of one of Blizzard's existing franchises. But that may not be the case. According to rumors collected by the fans over at Titan Focus, Titan may indeed be a spinoff of an existing IP and might even be aimed at the console market. The hints have been coming from a fan known in the community for being fairly reliable in his rumors, lending this some credibility, but it's still just a rumor at this point. If it's true, then we can expect the game to be tied to one of the existing Blizzard franchises, albeit not as a direct sequel. Considering how quiet the studio has been on the project for some time, we can only hope that the surfacing rumors are a sign we're getting closer to some hard information. Rumor: Blizzard's Titan is not a new IP and could be heading to consoles originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Titan is not an entirely brand new IP

The Soapbox: The heartbreak of altitis Posted: 01 Jan 2013 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Opinion, Humor, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous In the MMO culture, there are those who alt and those who don't. Sometimes there's a hilarious rift between the two factions, as one side can't understand why you wouldn't want to try out all of the game's classes and the other side can't understand why you wouldn't specialize and excel in a single character. I'm one of those who alt, which is a blessing as much as it is a curse. I blame City of Heroes for starting me out on the path to altoholism. C'mon, it was simply impossible to play that game and not be rolling a new superhero concept every other day. By the time I moved on to more "traditional" titles, I was hooked on the idea of alts. It's a curse as much as it is a blessing. I'll be the first to advocate that alting can give you a wider perspective in a game, offer you more play flexibility, and perhaps keep you in a title far longer than if you played a single character until you burned out. But there's a darker side to it, a path to heartbreak. For those of us who alt, this is the unspoken danger that lurks in every reroll. Continue reading The Soapbox: The heartbreak of altitis The Soapbox: The heartbreak of altitis originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Flameseeker Chronicles: Hopes for the new year in Guild Wars 2 Posted: 01 Jan 2013 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Flameseeker Chronicles It's the dawn of a brave new year. Guild Wars 2 is still in its infancy, really -- ArenaNet's work in this year will do a lot to shape the future and lasting impact of the game. With apparently an expansion's worth of content coming out in January and February, this certainly promises to be an exciting year. I don't know whether the following things are predictions or hopes, but they can't be all that much more inaccurate than fondling sheep guts. Continue reading Flameseeker Chronicles: Hopes for the new year in Guild Wars 2 Flameseeker Chronicles: Hopes for the new year in Guild Wars 2 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Jan 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

You are subscribed to email updates from Massively To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610