MMO Updates

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• The Game Archaeologist: How DikuMUD shaped modern MMOs
• WRUP: MMO resolutions
• The Daily Grind: What would you like Massively to cover in 2015?
• Betawatch: December 27, 2014 - January 2, 2015
• Shroud of the Avatar shows off zone diversity
• Star Citizen's Chris Roberts looks back on a year of growth
• One Shots: Pumpkin rider
• PlanetSide 2 implant changes aren't a 'money grab,' Smedley says
• Elite: Dangerous server goes haywire, creates instant billionaires [Updated]
• RuneScape delivers its 2015 manifesto

The Game Archaeologist: How DikuMUD shaped modern MMOs Posted: 03 Jan 2015 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, The Game Archaeologist, Miscellaneous Even though there are hundreds and thousands of MMOs spanning several decades, only a small handful were so incredibly influential that they changed the course of development for games from then on out. DikuMUD is one of these games, and it is responsible for more of what you experience in your current MMOs than you even know. Of course, that doesn't mean everyone knows what DikuMUD is or how it shaped the MMOs that came out after it. You might have seen it used as a pejorative in enough comments that you know it is loathed by many gamers, but I find that there are varying degrees of ignorance about DikuMUD in the community. What is it, exactly? Why is it just the worst? And is it really the worst if we like the games that can point to this text-based MMO as a key ancestor? Today we're going to dispel the mystery and myths of DikuMUD to lay it out there as it was and is today. Continue reading The Game Archaeologist: How DikuMUD shaped modern MMOs The Game Archaeologist: How DikuMUD shaped modern MMOs originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Jan 2015 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

WRUP: MMO resolutions Posted: 03 Jan 2015 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous Welcome back to Massively's What Are You Playing, the game in which we tell you what we're playing this weekend and you tell us your MMO resolutions for the year and which ones you've already failed to keep three days in. Continue reading WRUP: MMO resolutions WRUP: MMO resolutions originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Jan 2015 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: What would you like Massively to cover in 2015? Posted: 03 Jan 2015 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Massively Meta, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Ahh, did you get a whiff of that new year smell? Mmm. Wish I could bottle that up. There's so much to do, so many lands to visit, and so many virtual boars to kill for their valuable livers. Since it's still early in 2015, I'll toss out an interesting question for our readership: What do you want Massively to cover this year? Is there a game, a topic, or a focus that you'd love to see get some extra attention? Do you have the most awesome idea ever for an article? Hit us up in the comments below! As a post-script, don't forget that you can always contribute to the site by sending in news tips, podcast emails, or One Shots submissons! 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: What would you like Massively to cover in 2015? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Jan 2015 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Betawatch: December 27, 2014 - January 2, 2015 Posted: 02 Jan 2015 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Business Models, Launches, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Massively Meta, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Pathfinder Online's early enrollment period opened for backers this week. If you're not a backer and still want to play, you can pony up $100 to join; that includes three months of access. Goblinworks' Ryan Dancey dropped by the Massively comments to assure readers that "from this point forward there are no planned server resets." Unplanned rollbacks and resets are a possibility, but accumulated XP "will never be revoked." What else is new in the world of MMO testing this week? Project Gorgon was greenlit on Steam! There's no ETA for early access yet, but the game is already in a classic open testing phase if you want to jump right in for free. Space sandbox AD2460 formally moved from open beta to launch on December 29th. MJ gave Landmark's beta a post-PvE-update checkup. Closers Online launched open beta in South Korea. Shroud of the Avatar laid out its testing plans for the new year. City of Titans showed progress on its placeholder model. Tree of Savior's first closed beta begins in Korean on January 15th, 2015. Our complete Betawatch roundup lies ahead. Continue reading Betawatch: December 27, 2014 - January 2, 2015 Betawatch: December 27, 2014 - January 2, 2015 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Jan 2015 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Shroud of the Avatar shows off zone diversity Posted: 02 Jan 2015 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Patches, Previews, Shroud of the Avatar, Buy-to-Play If this week's Shroud of the Avatar newsletter is any indication, there will be something interesting to look at in this game no matter which direction you take. The team showed off several different areas and biomes in the letter, including the undead realm of Brightbone Pass, the craters of Shardfall, the graveyard of Wyrmsands, and the desolate Dragon Pass. The Shardfall biome will be available for the first time in-game with the upcoming Release 14. Shroud of the Avatar will be on the floor at CES in Las Vegas next week as part of a partnership with Plantronics. Shroud of the Avatar shows off zone diversity originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Jan 2015 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Update of the Avatar

Star Citizen's Chris Roberts looks back on a year of growth Posted: 02 Jan 2015 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Previews, News Items, Sandbox, Star Citizen 2014 was a pretty big year for Star Citizen, and not just because the Arena Commander module went from its first release version to 1.0 over the course of the year. A recent letter from project head Chris Roberts states that over 2014 the studio has gone from having 70 employees in one location to 180 employees in four locations across the globe. He also notes the huge increases in funding that the game has seen from both new backers and old. So what's in store for 2015? Big stuff for backers. The first episode of Squadron 42 and the beginnings of the game's persistent universe will be reaching backer hands, along with the first iterations of the FPS module. There's no exact timetable given, but the developers are certainly planning big for the year ahead. Take a look at the full letter for more statistics on the year past and the one just begun. [Thanks to Cardboard for the tip!] Star Citizen's Chris Roberts looks back on a year of growth originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Jan 2015 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Letter from the Chairman: Happy New Year

One Shots: Pumpkin rider Posted: 02 Jan 2015 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Culture, One Shots, Miscellaneous What better way to usher in the new year than to take a look back at Halloween? OK, so I'm still catching up on all of the terrific player-submitted screenshots in our email, but we're getting closer than ever! In any case, I would not want to let this gourd-headed hero go unnoticed. Reader JohnD is the man behind the mask: "Here is Frani, my level 29 Hunter celebrating the Harvest Festival in Lord of the Rings Online. She got the mount, clothes, and pumpkin mask all this season. Fun time was had by all." 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: Pumpkin rider originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Jan 2015 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

PlanetSide 2 implant changes aren't a 'money grab,' Smedley says Posted: 02 Jan 2015 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, Patches, Free-to-Play, MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2 Gaming blog In An Age is tracking the recent saga of PlanetSide 2's implant system, noting that the team quietly nerfed the drop rate of free implants and downwardly adjusted the power of tier 1 through 3 implants in order to push sales for the new tier 4 implants. Implants offer temporary buffs or abilities for characters and require an energy cost to activate. SOE President John Smedley defended the move on Twitter: "Sorry, but we are actually trying to make money. I don't consider it a money grab." In a later tweet, he clarified that the team "made the drop rate [for implants] too high a while ago." Commenting on accusations of promoting a pay-to-win environment with these changes, CM Tony Jones responded on Reddit, "Depends on how you define P2W. If implants are P2W, then yes, you may not like everything in the future." PlanetSide 2 implant changes aren't a 'money grab,' Smedley says originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Jan 2015 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: John Smedley Twitter, In An Age, Patch notes, Reddit

Elite: Dangerous server goes haywire, creates instant billionaires [Updated] Posted: 02 Jan 2015 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Bugs, Economy, Events (In-Game), MMO Industry, News Items, Sandbox, Elite: Dangerous The Elite: Dangerous server has had a relatively smooth launch since it released just over two weeks ago, but all that changed last night when the server went absolutely haywire. A suspected transaction server failure caused a whole slew of bizarre bugs for those playing the game last night, from benign errors like players getting disconnected to catastrophic failures like deleting a ship's entire cargo, rolling back ship upgrades, and deleting credits. The worst problems involved players having ghost cargo that could be sold over and over again, allowing them to rack up millions of credits in minutes. Though the problems were reported promptly, the server wasn't rebooted until its usual maintenance period over six hours later. In a feat of remarkably bad timing, the server problems happened on a national holiday in the UK, and so the developers at Frontier were taking time off to celebrate the new year. There has been no official announcement on the problems yet, and players are speculating on the damage that would be caused or reversed if Frontier performed a server rollback. Reports from the Elite forum suggest that developers may not be back to work until as late as January 5th, at which point it's unlikely that developers will roll the server back. The damage from last night's errors continues to cause problems today. One player was left shipless and unable to log in when the server reversed a ship purchase transaction, and another's ship teleported back across the galaxy and is being held hostage at a station with no shipyard. Dozens of players have reported broken cargo holds or missing cargo and credits, and one player logged in this morning to find 5 billion credits sitting in his wallet. These events have naturally prompted a resurgence of complaints about Elite's always-online gameplay, as players have found themselves unable to play without problem even in solo mode. We have reached out to Frontier for comment. Continue reading Elite: Dangerous server goes haywire, creates instant billionaires [Updated] Elite: Dangerous server goes haywire, creates instant billionaires [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Jan 2015 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Elite Dangerous Forum, Elite Dangerous Reddit

RuneScape delivers its 2015 manifesto Posted: 02 Jan 2015 10:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Previews, RuneScape, Free-to-Play, Humor We don't know what's better: the above teaser art or the fact that it represents RuneScape's upcoming 200th quest in which players will go to "a parallel universe where you, the hero, never existed and the bad guys won." This is just part of RuneScape's 2015 Manifesto, in which Mod Mark gives a brief overview of the game's next 12 months. He says that players will guide the game's development via suggestions from its RuneLabs site as well as additional polls. "You can be sure that next year will be a fantastic cocktail of your best ideas mixed with the best of ours!" Mark gushes. Other events in store include several updates to skills, new combat tactics, an Ocean's Eleven-style heist, a purpose for in-game shops, and a tussle with Tuska the World Devourer. RuneScape delivers its 2015 manifesto originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Jan 2015 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: 2015 Manifesto

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