Undead Labs has been putting out a steady stream of information for potential players of Class3, the company's upcoming single-player prelude to the massively multiplayer Class4. The last major update in January showed some previews of the game under development, something that prompted a great deal of discussion about how the game will play. As a result, this month's session of questions and answers focuses on player speculation and the game's open-world environment.

According to this set of answers, players will be able to explore the game through a variety of means, including taking shelter inside the houses across the landscape, jumping over fences, and making careful use of vehicles found through the world. There's also discussion about making use of the environment as a weapon via ragdoll physics plus a tantalizing hint that more information will be forthcoming about the game in the spring. Fans of the upcoming zombie apocalypse will want to take a look at the full set of answers, which will hopefully serve as a precursor to an epic MMO in the same vein.

If World of Warcraft is credited with a smooth initial launch, that's only because time tends to smooth over the growing pains that come with every MMO. Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce was quite up-front with the studio's stumbles in 2004 as WoW launched to unprecedented demand; he's admitted that Blizzard execs "grossly underestimated" how many people wanted to play the game, forcing the company to cease shipping boxes to stores while tech was improved to deal with the influx.

"I don't think we had any idea what we were getting ourselves into," Pearce said at the recent DICE executive summit. The studio quickly ramped up from its 500-employee taskforce to 4,700 people in 11 cities across the world.

Pearce also addressed the issue of addiction in MMOs, saying that Blizzard "think[s] about it all of the time. If there's something that you're really passionate about, whether it's video games, a book, a TV series [or something else]... we have to consume it in moderation."

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.

Haters jeered this week as seven-year-old World of Warcraft dropped another 1% of its playerbase, but Blizzard had the last laugh, as the game is still the largest subscription game in the West and the company is still making money hand over fist, something that will likely only continue once Battle.net Balance is thriving and Diablo III has launched this spring.

Haha, just kidding -- we all know Diablo III is never coming out.

Enjoy the rest of the week's top MMO stories past the break!

Continue Reading

Earlier this week, CCP Games released a much-needed complete overhaul of the official EVE Online website. Having been in operation for nine long years, the old website had become a mismatch of marketing information aimed at new players and tools for the existing player community. The overhaul split the page into two awesome websites, with a new community site to cater to existing players and an impressive new main page to attract future players.

The main page uses HTML 5 to deliver incredible interactive views of the EVE Online galaxy and dozens of in-game ships right there on the website. The community website houses all of the news, devblogs, knowledgebase articles, fictional chronicles, and support tools that existing players use, but with a much neater layout than the old website. In web developer CCP Alice's recent In Development video, she revealed that the team would be working on new community tools following the launch of the new websites. With the community site completely de-cluttered, there's now room to incorporate a lot of the tools players want or currently use, opening up some interesting possibilities.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I discuss the new EVE Online website and community portal and speculate on awesome new community tools we might possibly see in the future.

Continue Reading

Continue Reading

You know, I haven't been as head over heels in love with the graphics of a game in a long time as I am with Cloud Nine. As I get older, I find myself disliking more realistic graphics and tend to enjoy cartoony, or even better, stylized graphics that do not quite push into cartoony territory. It's not like I'm trying to relive my youth; I just take a game more "seriously" when it attempts to look less serious while actually being pretty serious. I'm talking about games like Free Realms or Ryzom or Glitch: games that are cartoony and not ultra-realistic but do boast some serious gameplay or even lore behind the art. I love that.

So when I first logged into Cloud Nine, you can imagine how I felt.

Continue Reading

Riot Games adds a new champion to League of Legends' growing roster every few weeks to keep the game fresh, and this week Riot revealed the game's next champion Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths. Nautilus is a tank with a unique initiation ability: He throws his massive anchor toward a target, and then drags himself toward the anchor. His abilities encourage spreading damage around during team fights, with his passive adding bonus damage to his first attack against a champion every twelve seconds and immobilising them slightly. A shield ability and area-effect damage spells make Nautilus a dangerous tank to be near during team fights.

A number of gameplay and balance changes will be coming in the Nautilus patch. Shen is getting a complete ability set retuning to make him scale better to late game, and let him function better as as tank. It's been a long time coming, but unsurprisingly LoL's dominant support champion Sona is due for a few nerfs in the upcoming patch. The mana regenerated by Soraka's Infuse will be increased but she'll no longer be able to cast it on herself to essentially have limitless mana. Nerfs are also on the way for Vladimir, aimed at decreasing his early game presence without disrupting his fun gameplay. Check out the full patch preview video after the cut for more details.

Continue Reading

Welcome back to Previously on MV TV, your source for highlights from last week's Twitch.tv streams! If you happen to miss one or want to check out some of our shows for the first time, then this is a great place to start.

This week we have some Guild Wars developer fun with Richie and then again with Adventure Mike, a bit of Wurm Online exploration and construction with Jeremy and the creator of the game, the first stages of owning land and building a house in Second Life with yours truly, some MOBA action in Heroes of Newerth with Dylan, and the usual Star Wars: The Old Republic goodness with Larry.

So what are you waiting for? Click past the cut to catch up on the streams you might have missed. While you're at it, bookmark our Massively TV guide so you won't miss any more!

Continue Reading

Amidst all of the new games being released and the veteran titles still chugging along, it can be easy on occasion to overlook the titles that are no longer with us. Games like Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, and The Matrix Online all had fans, but they are no longer available for players to enjoy in any form, leaving some with memories and others with the wish that they had tried it when they had the chance.

So which games would you jump on if you had the chance again? What games stick out as ones that you wish you had tried or seem like old friends that are now sadly departed? We've seen a lot of closures over the past several years, ranging from small free-to-play titles to a few high-profile departures, so there's almost certainly one game you can think of that's no longer with us. What dead game would you play if it got a revival?

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!

It's time for another Lime Odyssey dev blog, and today's piece focuses on the free-to-play fantasy title's soundtrack. Aeria Games tapped veteran composer Yasunori Mitsuda to create the score, and though this is Mitsuda's first MMO project, it's definitely not his first video game suite. You've heard his work before if you've played Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, and Xenogears, and you can hear his latest in the sound samples we've got for you after the break.

Click through to read a bit about the themes for Blue Coral, West Tumbara, and Pripet.

[Source: Aeria Games press release]

Continue Reading

Final Fantasy XIV takes place in Eorzea, which is one of the continents of Hydaelyn. It's also the smallest continent, and it's generally sort of off in the middle of nowhere. The land is surrounded by tiny islands, it's filled with bickering city-states of varying influence, and it generally seems to be seen as a place that's both wild and not always particularly pleasant. And from the player's perspective... well, we don't even see all of the continent.

So every single player adventure has taken place on a small portion of the smallest continent in the world. And yet despite this, this tiny little land mass has apparently become massively important.

The Garlean Empire is preparing to sweep into the land with all its might, and the land has become a hotbed of activity as the various city-states try to stop stabbing one another long enough to mount a defense. But all of that prompts the question about what, precisely, makes Eorzea noteworthy. Why is this tiny little corner so important?

Continue Reading

For years, EverQuest II fans have quietly suffered in silence as the EQ2Players site remained broken and buggy. We watched other games, with their Armories, Magelos, and extensive databases, and we pined for the day when we could once again look up things like characters, gear, stats, and guild rosters.

The wait was worth it, though, and EQII players have gone from famine to feast. This past week, we got a glimpse of the newly refurbished EQ2Players site, but what's really exciting is that the EQII team has been working with fansites to provide the data feed and allow community figures to create their own resource sites. Morgan Feldon and Dethdlr, who do an amazing job with EQ2Wire, did just that, and on Friday, they officially launched EQ2U. It's a thorough and regularly updated database of things ranging from character stats, gear, and AAs to spell lists and warder pets. What's more, you can look up gear, track spells, and create your own wish list for your character. Feldon and Dethdlr have been working on this for the bulk of the past year, and Massively had a chance to talk with them about the project. Read on for a glimpse into the site's early beginnings and learn how EQ2U will help you get your characters up to snuff!

Continue Reading

As I reported last week, I've recently rerolled as a Hobbit Minstrel in an effort to refresh my attitude toward the game, to get a different perspective, and to continue my series in which I go through all of the single-player quests in the game.

It's been, in a word, smashing.

Having been away from the tamer lands of Eriador for so long, I had forgotten the charm and serenity that these lowbie areas exude. Plus, it's always fun leveling up a brand-new character, since there are plenty of goals and ways to develop your character that your level-capped toons have long since surpassed.

As I've been plugging away at Bree-land quests, I began to make a mental list of exactly what's so special about the low-level game in Lord of the Rings Online. The mental list became an actual one, and after a period of milling and refining, I've baked it into a nice loaf of observations to share with you.

Continue Reading

Massively columnist Larry Everett has informed me that despite having sent in a different response for this week's WRUP, he will spend this weekend staring at chest hair. Why will he be staring at chest hair? I don't know, exactly. Perhaps he's captured by the primal energy it offers, the sense of a fundamental connection with mankind's somewhat savage roots. Perhaps he just really doesn't feel like logging into a game. Whatever the reason, he dared me to share this with the world, and now I'm doing precisely that.

Where were we? Oh, right, WRUP. This week's edition is... well, like every other edition, with the Massively staffers letting you all know what they'll be up to over the weekend. We're also talking about the maximum fee we'd pay for a subscription to an MMO. So jump on past the break to check out our gaming plans, then let us know yours down in the comments!

Continue Reading

War. War never changes... the platform war, that is. But even those of us who game from the comfort of decked-out PCs can feel sorry for our Mac brethren when one of the Apple MMO offerings, already in short supply, goes dark. That's exactly what's happening to the Mac version of classic EverQuest: SOE is sunsetting the single Mac server due to low population and ancient code. Apple gamers must get a PC or sample one of the other Mac-friendly MMOs like Warhammer Online, Fallen Earth, Ryzom, or Free Realms.

So today we ask: Do you play MMOs on a Mac, and if so, which games? And is it really as bad as PC-loyalists like to think?

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!

When BioWare first announced the addition of a regular community Q&A feature for Star Wars: The Old Republic, the team stated that each session would answer about 10 questions. However, the first installment has gone up with a grand total of 15 and answers more questions about the Legacy system. Patch 1.2 will bring in the first set of rewards, allowing players to combine races and classes in new ways, but the company promises there will be more enhancements and expansions for future patches.

In fact, the next major patch is will bring several requested features. A new same-faction Warzone, the Hue to Chest feature, Medium and Heavy social armor, and guild banks are all on the table for the update. For players more concerned with the immediate state of the game, there are also answers about the best ways to submit feedback and how the team prioritizes which bugs to fix. It's certainly a good place to kick off the series, and community members should find something to be pleased with in the answers.

The best stories have an ending. And if you want to tell a decent story in a roleplaying format, you're going to need some sort of an ending eventually. The problem is that most endings have a pretty strict sense of finality to them, and really ending your roleplaying kind of implies that your character is riding off into the sunset and possibly sipping martinis. (Depending on the game, they may be space martinis. Lots of things are possible.)

So you want to end the story without ending your character's story on a whole. That's a good approach and one that can be handled. But it's also one that's a bit easier said than done, hence my devoting an entire column to it. So let's talk about creating a satisfying ending that manages to wrap up a story without subsequently wrapping up every aspect of your character.

Continue Reading

If you were among the players put out because Diablo III seems too pretty to be hardcore, you'll be happy to know that Blizzard hopes to re-earn your love, not with art but with gameplay. The company has released a video in which key DIII devs talk up the game's nightmare, hell, and inferno difficulty modes. They promise a veritable ass-kicking complete with hours of wiping and mounting repair costs. Quoth the devs:

"Normal mode was pretty casual. It's very fun -- you're one-clicking and you're having laughs. Once you get into Nightmare mode, it starts turning into all business. [...] The game really starts [...] at Nightmare. [...] The way the game is tuned right now, people have no idea what they're getting themselves into."

Perhaps not coincidentally, the Battle.net World of Warcraft blog is now daring gamers to join a community-driven Iron Man WoW Challenge. Participants eschew luxuries like buffs, talents, and grouping and charge into the world to see just how high they can level. Death, of course, means game over for the hardest of the hardcore.

The Diablo III vid is embedded just behind the break!

Continue Reading

Mmgame USA's Rise of Dragonian Era joins our closed beta list this week. The F2P sandpark title is aiming for a March launch, but prizes (including cash and video cards) await those who give the beta a spin this weekend.

Massively also secured codes for Seven Souls Online's beta, which begins on February 15th.

Finally, we're keeping an eye on the ongoing TERA sneak-peeks and beta events. If you preordered, you should be able to participate starting today.

Read on for the complete Betawatch roundup!

Continue Reading

The GamersFirst crew is back with a closer look at one of the exciting PvP features that's being created for Fallen Earth: Global Territory Control. The idea behind GTC is that the devs wanted a comprehensive system that would track faction dominance in PvP across the entire game world.

Global Territory Control takes in data from Conflict Towns, Faction Control Points, and open PvP areas, crunches the stats, and spits out a single point rating that shows how well (or forehead-slappingly bad) each of the game's six factions is doing. The new system will go into place for the entire game except for Sector 1, and you'll have to be level-appropriate for the zone to contribute to your faction's GTC score.

If a faction earns enough points, then an insanely nice buff is handed out as a reward -- but only one faction can have it at any time. The buff increases the speed of crafting and harvesting and also improves the gain of random AP, Death Toll, faction points, and XP.

This system is still being prepped for a future update.