MMO Updates |
- Choose My Adventure: Basically Han Solo in Elite: Dangerous
- League of Legends introduces Ranked Restrictions for toxic players
- Rumor: Blade & Soul 2 is under development
- Analysts estimate Blizzard's lost investment after Titan's cancellation
- ArcheAge addresses AFKing, character slots in patch
- The Daily Grind: Are giant characters at a disadvantage?
- Be a Hong Kong gangster in the upcoming Triad Wars
- Jukebox Heroes: Chatting with Neverwinter's Kevin Manthei
- The Stream Team: Adios, Elite: Dangerous
- MapleStory 2 shows off its housing system
- Albion Online makes it onto Steam
- Massively Speaking Episode 314: Queue queue
- Skyforge teases retro skycar, seeks tester guilds
- EVE Online improves cloaking graphics
- Hyperspace Beacon: Exploits and SWTOR_Miner
- Guild Wars 2 opens limited free trial access [Updated]
- Blizzard officially cancels Titan
- The Elder Scrolls Online asks players for a tale of the dead
- Trove transitions to beta on Thursday
- Kickstarter project aims to revamp galactic sandbox Chosen Space
| Choose My Adventure: Basically Han Solo in Elite: Dangerous Posted: 24 Sep 2014 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, PvE, Hands-On, Choose My Adventure, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, Elite: Dangerous, MMORPG, Buy-to-Play  Last week's Choose My Adventure poll set me on the path of the smuggler, challenging me to secure illegal goods and to sneak those goods by the feds to net a healthy profit. Results were mixed. Continue reading Choose My Adventure: Basically Han Solo in Elite: Dangerous
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| League of Legends introduces Ranked Restrictions for toxic players Posted: 24 Sep 2014 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, News Items, Free-to-Play, MOBA, League of Legends  Rank restricted players will have a certain number of games that they must play before they can return to queueing for ranked matches just like with chat restrictions. Players who are deeply into negative territory and rank restricted at the end of a given competitive season will also be ineligible for receiving special rewards for ranked play, meaning that poor sportsmanship doesn't pay at any level of the game. While there are potential abuses for the system, it's an obvious effort to make the play experience on all levels a more positive one for players.
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| Rumor: Blade & Soul 2 is under development Posted: 24 Sep 2014 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items, Rumors, Blade & Soul  The Shanghai studio behind the concept art was a part of the original team responsible for the game's art direction, so it could very well point to something new in the works. Whether that means a sequel, an expansion, or even an actual release on this side of the pond is all up for speculation. It's too early to flag as anything but a rumor, although the concept art that's been leaked certainly looks as if it comes from the game in question.
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| Analysts estimate Blizzard's lost investment after Titan's cancellation Posted: 24 Sep 2014 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business Models, Economy, MMO Industry, News Items, Miscellaneous  "Development costs for Titan may have amounted to tens of millions, perhaps $50 million or more," says one such analyst, Billy Pidgeon, as quoted in a GamesIndustry.biz piece yesterday. Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter upped that estimate: "My guess is 100 - 200 people at $100,000 per year, so $70 - 140 million sunk cost. It's pretty sad that it took so long to figure out how bad the game was. I expect them to go back to the drawing board." Still another industry observer, David Cole, argued that the current games market simply no longer tolerates seven-year development cycles and high overhead. Pidgeon stresses that it's not all doom and gloom, however: "Blizzard has cancelled several games in various stages of development in the past. Costs for unreleased games can be significant, but launching substandard games can harm the reputation of a successful publisher such as Blizzard. Expenses for development can be considered R&D, and benefits can include invaluable training, IP and technology that can be applied to other games."
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| ArcheAge addresses AFKing, character slots in patch Posted: 24 Sep 2014 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, ArcheAge  Idling or AFKing during character creation or selection will now boot you from the server rather than hold your place in line. Better still, "available character slots (via Character Slot Expansions or deleted characters) will now be recognized prior to logging into a game world." Massively's MJ confirmed yesterday's lifting of the character creation embargo as announced via Twitter. The full patch notes are on the official forums.
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| The Daily Grind: Are giant characters at a disadvantage? Posted: 24 Sep 2014 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  For starters, speed normalization means that big characters appear to run very, very slowly (even though they're going just as fast as everyone else). Your character is blocking more of your screen view and is sometimes hated by other characters for blocking theirs. And then there's the lovely fact that larger toons are easier to target in PvP. So do you think giant characters are at a disadvantage? Do they have enough pluses to compensate if so?  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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| Be a Hong Kong gangster in the upcoming Triad Wars Posted: 23 Sep 2014 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Real-Life, Video, New Titles, News Items, Crime, Miscellaneous, Sandbox  The game is set for a PC-exclusive release sometime next year and retains most of the gameplay elements from Sleeping Dogs, from the combat to the driving. As an online game, it's explicitly a game that can change from year to year, with the stated purpose being that nothing is necessarily the same over time. So if you want to drive a car through Hong Kong before setting up an underground gambling ring, keep a close eye on the development here. [Thanks to Celestial for the tip!] Continue reading Be a Hong Kong gangster in the upcoming Triad Wars
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| Jukebox Heroes: Chatting with Neverwinter's Kevin Manthei Posted: 23 Sep 2014 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, Free-to-Play, Neverwinter, Jukebox Heroes, Music  Kevin Manthei: Hi! I am Kevin Manthei, a Minnesota-born, California-living composer. I write music for film, TV and games. I have been doing this for over 20 years and have worked with most of the big publishers in the gaming world and have scored music on feature and indie films, television shows, and animated projects. Currently I just finished scoring the Guardians of the Galaxy section of Disney's Infinity 2 video game and am in the middle of scoring Season 3 of the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series for Marvel/Disney XD. I also recently started work on the animated series Transformers: Robots In Disguise for Hasbro/The Hub network. I have been working with Cryptic on music for its games since City of Villains. I have scored music for City of Villains, Champions Online, Star Trek Online and Neverwinter. Each project I worked on for more than a year, and each game has about 100 minutes of music I scored. Continue reading Jukebox Heroes: Chatting with Neverwinter's Kevin Manthei
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| The Stream Team: Adios, Elite: Dangerous Posted: 23 Sep 2014 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Video, PvE, Massively Meta, Hands-On, Livestream, Sandbox, The Stream Team, Crowdfunding, Elite: Dangerous, MMORPG, Buy-to-Play  Tune in at 7:00 p.m. EDT for all the spacey action. Game: Elite: Dangerous Host: Mike Foster Date: Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014 Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT Enjoy our Stream Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Adios, Elite: Dangerous
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| MapleStory 2 shows off its housing system Posted: 23 Sep 2014 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, News Items, Housing  While open-world plots are rather expensive, rooms can also be purchased for characters to use, offering many of the same benefits. Some decorations are purely cosmetic, while others offer a function; the video shows off using a cabinet for storage and a mannequin for quickly changing to a new gear set. There's also the option to quickly teleport back to your home as necessary once you own one. Check out the full video past the break for a clearer picture of the housing setup. Continue reading MapleStory 2 shows off its housing system
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| Albion Online makes it onto Steam Posted: 23 Sep 2014 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, MMO Industry, PvP  As with other MMOs available through Valve's digital distribution platform, Albion Online will remain accessible apart from Steam. The game is currently in alpha and has founder's packs available for purchase. [Source: Sandbox Interactive press release]
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| Massively Speaking Episode 314: Queue queue Posted: 23 Sep 2014 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Podcasts, MMO Industry, News Items, Massively Meta, Massively Speaking, Miscellaneous  Get all of our opinions and analysis on the most important stories of the past week right here on Massively Speaking, the industry's leading MMO podcast. And if you have a comment, question, or topic for the podcasters, send an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air! Get the podcast: [RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. [iTunes] Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. [Stitcher] Follow the podcast on Stitcher Radio. Listen here on the page: Read below the cut for the full show notes. Continue reading Massively Speaking Episode 314: Queue queue
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| Skyforge teases retro skycar, seeks tester guilds Posted: 23 Sep 2014 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Screenshots, Guilds, Previews, News Items, Skyforge  In other Skyforge news, if you're part of a guild that might be interested in playtesting, the team wants to hear from you. "We're looking for everything from small groups of friends to big clans," says the post.
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| EVE Online improves cloaking graphics Posted: 23 Sep 2014 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Patches, Previews, Dev Diaries, Sandbox  The new stealth graphics will not only look spiffier but be easier to see, according to the devs: "Fully transparent is not what we want! Pilots need to see their ships, remember, so we have a static effect that pulses along the surface of the ship from the spot where the cloaking started." There are more details about what gets cloaked and how other characters see you (hint: They usually don't) in the rest of the dev diary. This change will come with EVE's Oceanus release on September 30th.
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| Hyperspace Beacon: Exploits and SWTOR_Miner Posted: 23 Sep 2014 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Patches, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Hyperspace Beacon, MMORPG  However, last week something happened that redirected my thinking. Late last Monday night, Miner posted on Twitter, "Just got word that @SWTOR is cutting ties with fan sites that have dealings with me. Guess I won't be coming in from the cold." Of course, the whole community went bug-eyed, wondering what exactly had happened. So when I sat down to talk to SWTOR_Miner, the only thing I wanted to talk about was what's going on? Continue reading Hyperspace Beacon: Exploits and SWTOR_Miner
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| Guild Wars 2 opens limited free trial access [Updated] Posted: 23 Sep 2014 11:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Events (Real-World), News Items, Guild Wars 2, Promotions, Buy-to-Play  But there's a catch; free access to the game lasts for one week only, beginning at 3 a.m. EDT on September 25th and ending 2:59 a.m. EDT on October 2nd. ArenaNet says it has already opened registration for the trial so that interested gamers can start downloading the client ahead of time. Old trial accounts will work for this promotion. Earlier this month, Guild Wars 2's second feature pack overhauled the early game experience, making this an ideal time to be a newbie in the buy-to-play title. [Update: ArenaNet has posted a number of mechanics changes that will be in place for the trial and affect trial accounts, including restrictions on mail and chat.]
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| Blizzard officially cancels Titan Posted: 23 Sep 2014 11:15 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, MMO Industry, Miscellaneous, Sunsets  "We had created World of Warcraft, and we felt really confident that we knew how to make MMOs, so we set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine," CEO Mike Morhaime commented. "And it didn't come together. We didn't find the fun. We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no." Senior Vice President Chris Metzen said that the decision was necessary as the studio goes forward: "We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place." The studio didn't put out details on what Titan was going to be, except that it had "some cool hooks." Blizzard also said that it isn't going to be working on another MMO at this time, but won't rule out the possibility of a follow-up to World of Warcraft in the future. If you want to tease yourself with "what if," you can read Massively's summation of the Titan project.
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| The Elder Scrolls Online asks players for a tale of the dead Posted: 23 Sep 2014 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lore, News Items, Consoles, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription  Players who'd like to participate need only post their entry to the official contest thread before 11:59 p.m. EDT on September 26th. The three winners will each receive a $25 electronic gift certificate to the Bethesda store as well as a free t-shirt. If that sounds good to you and you think you can tell a convincing story about this guy, it's time to crack your knuckles and get writing.
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| Trove transitions to beta on Thursday Posted: 23 Sep 2014 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, New Titles, Patches, News Items, Sandbox, Trove 
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| Kickstarter project aims to revamp galactic sandbox Chosen Space Posted: 22 Sep 2014 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, New Titles, Browser, Sandbox, Crowdfunding  Developer MMO Lab is attempting to secure £5,400 to finish the previously self-funded project. The new Chosen Space: Relaunched will feature improved graphics, new features, and additional features. "We've developed our own game engine called MMO Lab which will allow us to finally make the Chosen Space we've always imagined, and which the players have always deserved," the studio posted. Chosen Space is a "living" sandbox that balances strategy and RPG elements as players customize ships, explore the galaxy, and engage in trading and conquest. The new version is preparing to go into alpha testing at the start of the new year. We've got the crowdfunding pitch video after the break for your edification. Continue reading Kickstarter project aims to revamp galactic sandbox Chosen Space
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