MMO Updates

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• Outspark closes, gamigo acquires Fiesta Online
• MMObility: Modern War almost gets it, but only almost
• Fallen Earth devs prepping two-man Dome PvE content
• TERA doubling its dungeon drop rate through Monday
• The Daily Grind: Would you pay to interview a developer?
• The Guild Counsel: Rethinking the dreaded bench
• EVE Online steels players for summer changes [Updated]
• World of Warcraft subs drop to 9.6 million
• Hands-on with Neverwinter's character creator
• Players look to crowdsourcing for EVE Online documentary
• Why I Play: Star Wars: The Old Republic
• Ask Massively: Choice paralysis and the perfect MMO
• The Summoner's Guidebook: Winning LoL games takes good decisions
• World of Tanks' 8.4 adding new destroyers, tutorial, and more

Outspark closes, gamigo acquires Fiesta Online Posted: 08 Feb 2013 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play Free-to-play publisher Outspark has officially closed its doors, but its Fiesta Online MMO will live on thanks to an acquisition by gamigo. Outspark CEO Philip Yun says that "a substantial part of the team has joined gamigo, and will work from gamigo's San Francisco office to manage and support the games." A press release on gamigo's website also mentions that the firm will be moving its New York-based North American office to San Francisco. Outspark closes, gamigo acquires Fiesta Online originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: gamigo announcement

MMObility: Modern War almost gets it, but only almost Posted: 08 Feb 2013 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Screenshots, Trailers, Video, Bugs, Game mechanics, Previews, PvP, Opinion, War, Free-to-play, Casual, MMORTS, Miscellaneous, MMObility Modern War by Gree has some pretty neat things going for it. A lot of the gameplay is not really state-of-the-art, and most of it we've seen before in many social-style games, but it allows for some cool and relatively persistent play on your mobile device. It's hard to find MMOs in today's mobile market. A lot of the time I'll download a new one only to find out that it's not really an MMO at all. There are some really great titles in the mobile/smartphone market, but it takes work to find them. Modern War is a sneaky one. It's more of a pseudo-MMO but does a few cool things that more MMORTS titles should. It also works nicely on my Nexus 7 tablet, for the most part, except for a few odd problems that I'll cover in a minute. After I'm done, you might understand how mixed up the game feels as it's pretty close to becoming a good game. Continue reading MMObility: Modern War almost gets it, but only almost MMObility: Modern War almost gets it, but only almost originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Fallen Earth devs prepping two-man Dome PvE content Posted: 08 Feb 2013 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, PvE, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic, Dev Diaries The Fallen Earth dev team has posted a brief state-of-the-game letter for February. In it, we're treated to a preview of something called the Dome, a two-man PvE arena concept that is currently in pre-production. The Dome stems from a desire to provide "more ways for PvEers to distinguish themselves and provide a competitive outlet to test their mettle outside of PvP." Players will trigger a series of consecutive skirmishes that get tougher as a team gets farther, and of course the rewards will scale accordingly. Fallen Earth devs prepping two-man Dome PvE content originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: State of the game

TERA doubling its dungeon drop rate through Monday Posted: 08 Feb 2013 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, PvE, Free-to-play, TERA, Dungeons If you're still on the fence about checking out TERA's new free-to-play flavor, maybe this will change your mind: double loot drops! En Masse is running a bonus event that begins at noon Friday and continues through noon on Monday. All TERA dungeons will feature double the normal drop rate, which means "more weapons, more gear, more cash -- more everything," according to the announcement on the game's official website. TERA doubling its dungeon drop rate through Monday originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

The Daily Grind: Would you pay to interview a developer? Posted: 08 Feb 2013 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Daily Grind, Mortal Online, Community Q&A, Sandbox Earlier this week, we reported on one of the stranger interview setups we've seen in a while. A player of Mortal Online who goes by the handle Aralis was given the chance to interview Star Vault CEO Henrik Nystrom about the state of the game. There was just oooooone little itty-bitty catch: Aralis landed the interview only because he'd been the top donator to the game in January. In fact, he'd ponied up $1000. The interview is fraught with a few other issues, such as the fact that Nystrom dodges some of the player's questions and smooths over others, which'd probably annoy me if I had just effectively spent $1000 for the privilege of emailing a few questions off to a dev I admired (but then again, I'm pretty used to getting my questions ignored for free). Readers also pointed out the weirdness of "donating" to an MMO in an era of free-to-play. But let's stick to basics. What do you guys think? Would you pay any amount of money just to snag a sit-down with your favorite developer? How much, and what would you expect, exactly, in return? 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: Would you pay to interview a developer? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Guild Counsel: Rethinking the dreaded bench Posted: 07 Feb 2013 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Guilds, Opinion, The Guild Counsel, Miscellaneous A while back, I wrote a column that looked at the issue of benchwarming and raiding. It's not fun to have to sit out a raid, and I covered ways to avoid the scenario. The harsh truth, though, is that it's nearly impossible to consistently raid with a full force every night unless you recruit with surplus in mind. But having a surplus raid force might not actually be a bad thing, and guild leaders might be wise to build their rosters with the idea of having extra raiders. In this week's Guild Counsel, let's look at why benchwarming might be a good thing for a raiding guild. Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Rethinking the dreaded bench The Guild Counsel: Rethinking the dreaded bench originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Online steels players for summer changes [Updated] Posted: 07 Feb 2013 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, real-world, Expansions, Patches, Previews, Sandbox When EVE Online's next expansion lands in summer 2013, CCP anticipates a surge of confusion and complaints over the "far-reaching consequences" that will occur when the studio reworks its ship requirements. To head off any possible negative feelings, the studio released an in-depth look as to how it's going to be changing the progression of ship captaincy and what will be required to jump into the next tier of spaceships. In addition to this expansion preview, CCP posted another article concerning the improvement to corporation recruitment tools that will come even sooner with Retribution 1.1. The post goes over these improvements, such as an automatic welcome mail to new recruits, and invites players to test out the changes right now. Finally, when Fanfest 2013 arrives in April, the event will be kicked off with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra performing the EVE Online soundtrack. CCP posted a link for those who may be interested in obtaining tickets. Update: The studio also confirmed that the convention will include an "unorthodox fight" with MMA fighter Gunnar Neslon and a series of speakers discussing real-world space technology, such as space elevators. EVE Online steels players for summer changes [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Summer ship changes, Recruitment tools improvements, Fanfest news

World of Warcraft subs drop to 9.6 million Posted: 07 Feb 2013 02:30 PM PST Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, MMO industry Activision has posted its Q4 2012 earnings report today showing a rise in profits totaling $1.14 billion, or a 257 percent increase over last year. While this is certainly good news for the company and fans of most of its titles, World of Warcraft subscribers have dropped to 9.6 million from the Q3 2012 number of 10 million, but still up from the Q2 2012 figure of 9.1 million. Of course, World of Warcraft is in no danger of losing its position as the number one subscription-based MMO title, according to the company, but with most MMOs switching over or launching with no subscription, the competition in that realm continues to dwindle. World of Warcraft subs drop to 9.6 million originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Q4 2012 earnings report

Hands-on with Neverwinter's character creator Posted: 07 Feb 2013 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, Previews, Free-to-play, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions, Neverwinter Cryptic is well-known for giving players powerful tools to create from the get-go when a new character is rolled in one of its titles, so it stands to reason that Neverwinter would fall in line with this philosophy. Because of this, I wanted to mine some of the details of Neverwinter's character creator so that you might be able to start planning out your ideal character -- if only in your mind (for now). At the time of the press preview yesterday, Cryptic was still keeping a few classes and races under wraps. Even so, I was able to make some interesting class/race combos, like a Halfling Devout Cleric and a Tiefling Guardian Fighter. What was of more interest to me was how these characters can be customized, both visually and personally, so I quickly skipped past this step to get into the good stuff. Read on for a look at my hands-on and a pair of videos exploring the character design process. Continue reading Hands-on with Neverwinter's character creator Hands-on with Neverwinter's character creator originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Players look to crowdsourcing for EVE Online documentary Posted: 07 Feb 2013 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events, real-world, Sandbox It's called A Tale of Internet Spaceships, and it's a movie that hasn't happened yet. A group of Swedish EVE Online players are turning to crowdsourcing in order to fund a documentary of their favorite online game, asking for a total of $6,000 through Indiegogo from fans. If funded, A Tale of Internet Spaceships will be filmed at this spring's EVE Fanfest in Iceland. Following the convention, the "full-length" documentary will be pieced together and finished by later this year. "We'll be bringing our cameras to document the community in action: to capture the spirit of the game and to explore the sometimes complicated relationship between said community and CCP Games themselves," said project manager Petter Mårtensson. "We hope to find the answer to why the players love and live EVE Online in the way they do." Players look to crowdsourcing for EVE Online documentary originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Indiegogo

Why I Play: Star Wars: The Old Republic Posted: 07 Feb 2013 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, Humor, Massively Hands-on, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Why I Play There is something about the cold of space and the hum of my faithful ship that makes Star Wars: The Old Republic feel like home. Or wait, it might actually be the hum of my lightsaber and the cold attitude of my companion. Oh, forget it: Star Wars is awesome, and I'm going to tell you why. I'm a member of Massively's Stream Team, which produces live coverage of MMO titles every week with commentary and special features. So you won't be surprised to find out that this is an unconventional edition of Why I Play in that it's actually a livestream-style video rather than an article. Have a look and listen after the cut! Continue reading Why I Play: Star Wars: The Old Republic Why I Play: Star Wars: The Old Republic originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ask Massively: Choice paralysis and the perfect MMO Posted: 07 Feb 2013 11:00 AM PST Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Community Q&A, Miscellaneous, Sandbox Welcome back to Ask Massively! Today's readers don't want much. They just want to know all the things about all the games and then be told what to play. To wit, reader Lord Baron Xooper wrote in with the following request: Hello, Massively people! I need your help; I have nowhere else to turn. I need a new MMO. I'm tired of World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2 and Champions Online. I'm curious whether you could help me find a sandbox MMO with a heavy RPing community. Thank you! Love, Lord Baron Xooper No pressure or anything, yeah? Thing is, Xoops wasn't the only one with this question. We get it a lot. Maybe once a week. Continue reading Ask Massively: Choice paralysis and the perfect MMO Ask Massively: Choice paralysis and the perfect MMO originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Summoner's Guidebook: Winning LoL games takes good decisions Posted: 07 Feb 2013 10:00 AM PST Filed under: PvP, Opinion, Free-to-play, Guides, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook Decision-making is a broad topic, so I am a bit hesitant to cover it directly. It's the little things that contribute to victory in League of Legends, and decision-making is not a little thing. It's a big topic with a lot of ground to cover. As I've said many times in the past, experience is the best teacher, and I can only tell you what to look for. However, I wanted to bring the column back around to talking about what it takes to step up your game. By now, you've heard me talk at length about mechanical things -- things like last-hitting or aiming skillshots that you can sit down and practice. I've talked more on narrow things like how to make a good team composition or execute ganks. Now I'm going to begin to put everything together and talk about what things you should think about before you click to move on the minimap, place a ward, or ping your team to go for dragon. Good decisions win LoL games, and whether you're a pro or an amateur, you can improve on the choices you make. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: Winning LoL games takes good decisions The Summoner's Guidebook: Winning LoL games takes good decisions originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

World of Tanks' 8.4 adding new destroyers, tutorial, and more Posted: 07 Feb 2013 09:30 AM PST Filed under: Historical, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, War, Free-to-play, World of Tanks Want a preview of World of Tanks' 8.4 patch? Good, because the game's official website has one. The title's tank roster will expand to include new destroyers for British and Soviet players, while German drivers will see some new light armor in their tech tree. The update is also bringing a "visual and rendering overhaul" to four of the game's maps. Ensk, Live Oaks, Fisherman's Bay, and Steppes will all be getting a makeover. Finally, 8.4 will feature a brand-new tutorial designed to ease the new-player transition by providing training in tank controls, shooting mechanics, and combat tactics. You can take a look at the new British tech tree after the break, then head to official WoT website for more information and a screenshot gallery. [Source: Wargaming.net press release] Continue reading World of Tanks' 8.4 adding new destroyers, tutorial, and more World of Tanks' 8.4 adding new destroyers, tutorial, and more originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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