MMO Updates |
- Rise and Shiny: Dawn of the Dragons
- One Shots: 100% Guild Wars 2
- The Daily Grind: What hairstyle do you prefer?
- Embers of Caerus newsletter updates beta development
- SOE Live scheduled for August, Planet Hollywood
- The Tattered Notebook: Experimentation in EverQuest II
- Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin site details Geomancer abilities, Naakual bosses
- En Masse Entertainment unveils TERA: Rising patch notes
- Bullet Run shutting down on March 8th
- The Mog Log: Final Fantasy and sexism
- Guild Wars 2 adjusts dynamic leveling system
- The Road to Mordor: Digesting the LotRO dev chats
| Rise and Shiny: Dawn of the Dragons Posted: 03 Feb 2013 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Business models, Game mechanics, Previews, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, Rise and Shiny, Livestream  Let's not pretend that even the most immersive, realistic, epic MMO in the world cannot be turned into a series of button-smashings. We've all known a player in almost any game who has reduced her electronic adventures down to an efficient science. Does a game like Dawn of the Dragons just do away with all of the mumbo-jumbo to get to the meat of the gameplay: the button mashing? Continue reading Rise and Shiny: Dawn of the Dragons
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| Posted: 03 Feb 2013 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Culture, Guild Wars 2, One Shots  So you know what? We're throwing out the rule today. Today's all about Guild Wars 2 as we dig through the growing backlog of photos. Reader Jacob kicks us off with this awesome pose of his toon: "This is my Charr engineer pretending to be a statue in the hidden strawberry patch in Diessa Plateau. Rather angelic looking for such a fierce race!" There's more where that came from, so leapfrog over the jump and let's get moving! Continue reading One Shots: 100% Guild Wars 2
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| The Daily Grind: What hairstyle do you prefer? Posted: 03 Feb 2013 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  Since many of us have remarkably dull hairdos, there's a temptation to go full-on exotic with the character creator. Maybe we want to just look cool, and pick whatever hits the spot in that regard. Maybe we want to be contrarian, and thus choose the most bizarre offering. Or maybe we want to express our emo, hipster, or middle-aged soccer mom sides with our hairstyles. Personally, I go for ponytails on my female characters. I pick this solely because the devs usually have to animate the hair, and I like my hair to move and bounce around. So what about you? What hairstyle do you prefer?  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!
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| Embers of Caerus newsletter updates beta development Posted: 02 Feb 2013 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Lore, News items, Sandbox  Embers of Caerus' second monthly newsletter is out, and the various department teams are eager to share their progress in it. The landscaping is coming along, especially in regard to the quality of the trees. Populating the world is a different matter, however. The creatures have moved on to the modeling stage, and the concept team is also working hard at building up the city of Thaal. Lore, audio, and even ocean wave simulations are all in the works as well. The newsletter also contains a link to the recent game livestreams as well as a note about Gamer Safety Week. [Thanks to Flint for the tip!]
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| SOE Live scheduled for August, Planet Hollywood Posted: 02 Feb 2013 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, MMO industry, New titles, News items, EverQuest Next  SOE hasn't officially announced this as of yet, but some sharp eyes at EQ2Wire picked up on the company's Live-related tweeting and the tiny dates at the top of the SOE Live web page. The company also hasn't announced an official itinerary as of yet, though it is expected to show off EverQuest Next for the first time at the late summer event.
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| The Tattered Notebook: Experimentation in EverQuest II Posted: 02 Feb 2013 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook, Crafting  But let's face it -- I don't always choose things on the basis of logic; a Vulcan, I am not. What actually drew me to the experimentation prestige line, even before I had any clue what it would do, was a remark from the devs during the panel and my interview at SOE Live: that failure was an option! Experimentation became the choice because it would bring back some of the feel of EQII's original crafting. You vets out there will know what I am talking about -- when there was some real risk involved in crafting and your skill meant something. I may still not have the chance to die at the forge anymore (booo!), but failure with experimentation comes with much more of a bite. Sound intriguing? Take a walk on the wild side and let's explore experimentation. Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: Experimentation in EverQuest II
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| Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin site details Geomancer abilities, Naakual bosses Posted: 02 Feb 2013 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Classes, Expansions, Lore, News items  And from the looks of things, players will need all the help they can get in order to take down the dreaded Naakuals, described as "the seven most bloodthirsty hellions that reign over the wilds surrounding Adoulin." Three of these Naakuals have been revealed on the expansion's site. The first is Tchakka, the Riptide Naakual, which takes the form of a nasty shark-like rockfin. There's also Achuka, the Firebrand Naakual, representing the dinosaur-esque gabbrath family, and Colkhab, the Matriarch Naakual, the most dangerous of the bee-like bztavian family. To have a look at these ferocious foes for yourself, head on over to the FFXI: Seekers of Adoulin official site. [Thanks to zengarzombolt for the tip!]
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| En Masse Entertainment unveils TERA: Rising patch notes Posted: 02 Feb 2013 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, TERA  On February 5th, En Masse Entertainment will be bringing TERA to the masses with TERA: Rising, which will see the game transition to a free-to-play business model. To help give players a leg-up on the competition, En Masse has released the patch notes for the upcoming update, and the list of changes is rather extensive. Some highlights include the introduction of the three-on-three Champions' Skyring battleground, the new competitive dungeon Crucible of Flame, a number of tweaks to many of the game's classes, and of course the much-needed crafting overhaul. The notes state that the game's crafting system "has been overhauled to streamline the process and simplify the amount of additional materials needed." But because of the game's change to F2P, one of the biggest chunks of the upcoming patch is the addition of various account tiers. Accounts are divided into Elite Status, Standard, and Founder. The Founder account type will be granted to players who purchased TERA prior to the F2P conversion, Standard accounts will be given to new F2P players, and Elite Status is available via a $14.99 US per month subscription. For the full patch notes and all the juicy details on the switch to F2P, head on to TERA's official site to sate your curiosity.
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| Bullet Run shutting down on March 8th Posted: 02 Feb 2013 12:00 PM PST Filed under: News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, Miscellaneous  Sony Online Entertainment has announced the imminent closing of its short-lived multiplayer FPS, Bullet Run. In a post on the game's official forums, the studio announced that "after much review and consideration, Acony Games and Sony Online Entertainment have mutually made the decision to discontinue development on the free-to-play FPS game, Bullet Run." SOE will be officially sunsetting the game on March 8th, 2013. Until that time, however, the servers will remain up-and-running for any players who want to have one last hoorah before the game takes its final bow. Membership billing, however, ended yesterday, February 1st. Any players who still had time on their Platinum Memberships as of that time will receive a "pro rata refund for any time remaining on [their] Bullet Run subscription[s]" from SOE. The full details can be found on the game's official forums, and we wish the best of luck to the game's dev team in its members' future endeavors. [Thanks to Jack Pipsam for the tip!]
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| The Mog Log: Final Fantasy and sexism Posted: 02 Feb 2013 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Culture, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log  Some games are better or worse about this than others. The Secret World allows you to dress up either gender to be as sexy or as casual as you like, and Guild Wars made a point of keeping skimpy armor as skimpy armor for both genders in most cases. (Although not hardly all.) But the question that's actually relevant to this column is how Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV stack up, and the answer is that they acquit themselves remarkably well. So much so that they're among the most even-handed games I've seen, if not at the top of the list. Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy and sexism
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| Guild Wars 2 adjusts dynamic leveling system Posted: 02 Feb 2013 10:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Guild Wars 2, Dev Diaries  Cartwright claims that the goal of these changes is to "more accurately reflect the attributes [players] should have at that level for a similarly geared character" and adds that even though the changes will increase the difficulty of some lower-level zones, the team wants to ensure that "all areas of Guild Wars 2 [are] exciting and fun for players of any level." And last but certainly not least, Cartwright notes that "in 2013, one of [ArenaNet's] main goals is to add more content to map of all levels, as well as stronger reward structures for playing across all locations in the world."
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| The Road to Mordor: Digesting the LotRO dev chats Posted: 02 Feb 2013 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Opinion, Free-to-play, Community Q&A, The Road to Mordor, Housing  Personally, I am pretty excited about 2013 for the game. It feels as if the team isn't slacking at all, and while there are always my wish list items that go unfulfilled, often the devs add cool changes (like the Bree update) that are equally welcome. So let's sift the wheat from the chaff and see what we come up with from these dev chats as well as the recent producer's letter! Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Digesting the LotRO dev chats
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