MMO Updates

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• The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's big fanfest reveals
• Massively's MMO guide to the 2014 winter holidays
• One Shots: Cruising for Borg
• The Daily Grind: Can you get immersed in an accessible MMO?
• MMO Week in Review: Are you Elite or Dangerous?
• EVE Evolved: EVE Online vs. Elite: Dangerous
• EVE Online plans security crackdown on RMT rule violators
• Star Citizen releases Arena Commander 1.0

The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's big fanfest reveals Posted: 22 Dec 2014 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Expansions, Endgame, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log, Subscription Christmas came early for the forward-looking Final Fantasy XIV player this year. I know some people are upset at the fact that there were more revelations in the Japanese fan festival than in the ones in Vegas or London, but the timing is different. (I'd also point out that the expansion was announced in Las Vegas.) We've gone from having only a dim view of what's coming to having a pretty clear picture of what awaits through the next few month. One of the things that awaits is, of course, endless yelling about Machinist. Because boy. So let's start unpacking the stuff we learned from Tokyo. I say "start" because there is no way to get everything in one column, certainly not with deadlines and other considerations to take center stage. It's going to be a few months, but there's a lot to chew on just about 2.5, even if we ignore all of the expansion stuff, which I have no intention of doing. Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's big fanfest reveals The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's big fanfest reveals originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively's MMO guide to the 2014 winter holidays Posted: 22 Dec 2014 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Events (Real-World), Events (In-Game), Game Mechanics, Lore, MMO Industry, Patches, Previews, News Items, Massively Meta, Humor, Promotions, Miscellaneous Winter break: that time of year when I think woohoo time to sit around all day in my jammies and play video games but instead I have to work and bake junk food and wrap presents and go to family gatherings. First world MMO problems, right? Those of you who get to game this week better bank some experience points for me, and maybe check out some of the MMORPG genre's winter holiday events and promotions, conveniently rounded up for you in our guide below. The list isn't exhaustive, so feel free to chime in with any we've missed that you love. Happy holidays from the Massively crew! Continue reading Massively's MMO guide to the 2014 winter holidays Massively's MMO guide to the 2014 winter holidays originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 22 Dec 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

One Shots: Cruising for Borg Posted: 22 Dec 2014 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Screenshots, Culture, Star Trek Online, One Shots, Miscellaneous We're kicking off our two-week series of daily One Shots with this picture of a pair of Star Trek Online starships getting ready for some serious action. Reader Chris sets the scene: "Futures passing in the night. A Galaxy-X dreadnought from the TNG finale All Good Things dangles in space with a heavily Borg-modified Galaxy-class ship in the background. Borgified Galaxy cruisers always remind me of the chilling moment at the end of the episode Parallels where Riker exclaims, 'You don't know what it's like in our universe. The Federation's gone! The Borg is everywhere! We're one of the last ships left...'" Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots! One Shots: Cruising for Borg originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 22 Dec 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Can you get immersed in an accessible MMO? Posted: 22 Dec 2014 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Sandbox, Elite: Dangerous I like Elite: Dangerous. The game's not a revelation at this point, but it's a solid space shooter that could grow into something more. My favorite thing about ED is the docking. I imagine that most people find it tedious, but personally it adds an extra layer of escapism and conjures plenty of old-school flight sim nostalgia. And, of course, it's mechanically satisfying to fly an efficient approach, squeak a big boat through the slot, and micromanage your thrusters all the way down to the landing pad. All I do in ED is take courier missions, investigate unknown signal sources, and dock. Technically I guess I'm progressing toward a bigger bank account and thus bigger ships, but my particular gameplay experience is pretty simplistic and pretty slow-paced. Is it sandboxy? Eh, not really, but at least it doesn't feel directed, linear, or otherwise pre-planned even when I'm purposely repeating gameplay patterns. There's this sense of being a small part of a larger world, which allows ED to deliver -- somewhat paradoxically -- bite-sized chunks of deep immersion. What about you, Massively readers? Assuming you're a fan of immersion, have you found it in accessible games or do you think it mostly stems from prolonged engagement with more feature-rich titles? 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: Can you get immersed in an accessible MMO? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 22 Dec 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Week in Review: Are you Elite or Dangerous? Posted: 21 Dec 2014 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post. In spite of its ongoing offline mode controversy, Elite: Dangerous formally launched this week, earning congratulations from rival Star Citizen's Chris Roberts, who's said he'll be playing Elite himself over the holidays. Massively's Brendan Drain has been zipping around in this online sequel to Elite and examined it in comparison to internet spaceship genre cornerstone EVE Online. We also brought to a close Massively's 2014 awards series and our predictions for next year. Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: Are you Elite or Dangerous? MMO Week in Review: Are you Elite or Dangerous? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 21 Dec 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: EVE Online vs. Elite: Dangerous Posted: 21 Dec 2014 03:00 PM PST Filed under: EVE Online, Business Models, Culture, Game Mechanics, Lore, MMO Industry, News Items, Hands-On, First Impressions, EVE Evolved, Elite: Dangerous Like many EVE Online players, I grew up playing early sci-fi games like Elite and its sequel Frontier. In fact, CCP's recently released stats on the distribution of ages within the EVE community shows a peak around 29 years old, meaning that most players grew up in that same gaming era. A big part of what initially drew me to EVE Online was the prospect of playing the same kind of massive trading and space exploration game with other people, and for over 10 years it's scratched that sci-fi sandbox itch. I've watched EVE grow from a relatively unknown game with around 40,000 subscribers and laggy cruiser skirmishes into a vast game where thousands of players wage war for territory, profit, or just the adrenaline rush of PvP with something valuable on the line. Now that Elite: Dangerous is finally here, I want to see whether it can scratch the same sandbox itch as EVE and to what extent the two games can be compared. Both feature customisable ship fittings, open-world PvP with a criminal justice system, and real financial loss on death, for example, but the end result is two very different gameplay styles. And both also have that same intoxicating notion of exploring the unknown and try to make you feel like you're in a living world, but they take very different approaches to world design, content, and travel. Elite may not be a full-fledged MMO, but with a sandbox made of 400 billion procedurally generated stars and an open play mode that seamlessly merges players' games together, does it matter? In this edition of EVE Evolved, I compare my experiences in Elite: Dangerous to my experiences in EVE Online and look at their differing strategies with regard to server model, active and passive gameplay, and the new player experience. Continue reading EVE Evolved: EVE Online vs. Elite: Dangerous EVE Evolved: EVE Online vs. Elite: Dangerous originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 21 Dec 2014 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Online plans security crackdown on RMT rule violators Posted: 21 Dec 2014 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Patches, Previews, Dev Diaries, Sandbox, Subscription Players who have been skirting EVE Online's TOS might find themselves on the bad side of a ban come 2015, as the studio is rolling out tougher rules on violators in the new year. CCP posted a security blog in which it outlined how real-money traders will be punished, as well as those engaging in other activities such as input broadcasting and multiplexing. While CCP didn't post the number of bans it performed in 2014, it did show a few graphs illustrating where the problem areas lay. Banned accounts this year, permanent and temporary, were divided up by macro use (56%), ISK selling (18%), ISK buying (5%), modified clients (4%), ISK spamming (1%), and other (16%). On the brighter side of news, the team is hard at work on January's Proteus patch with sneakier combat recon ships, improved asteroid belt visuals, and the retirement of industry teams. [Thanks to Chrysillis for the tip!] EVE Online plans security crackdown on RMT rule violators originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 21 Dec 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: 2015 preview, Team security blog

Star Citizen releases Arena Commander 1.0 Posted: 21 Dec 2014 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Patches, Sandbox, Star Citizen, Buy-to-Play Pilots, start your engines, for Star Citizen's Arena Commander 1.0 is here! Arena Commander is the next significant milestone for the modularly developed space sim. With AC 1.0, pilots can take their ships out for dogfighting or just to experience flight among the stars. Arena Commander 1.0 also has the effect of growing Star Citizen's feature list. The team's tripled the number of flyable ships with 14 new vessels. Missiles were improved, while the game added a lobby system, a friends list, a ship signature system, a thruster power system, and a lateral g-force system. The team also improved many of the visuals, animations, and audio effects. [Thanks to Chrysillis for the tip!] Star Citizen releases Arena Commander 1.0 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 21 Dec 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Arena Commander 1.0 released

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