Archives for Oct 13th, 2011
Wakfu unveils the nation of Sufokia
Players of the upcoming tactical MMORPG Wakfu will be able to visit all sorts of interesting, exotic places. One such location is the freshly announced Sufokia. The paradisiacal archipelago is not all sunshine and shining seas; it holds its fair share of dangers, like the irritable Albatrocious...
Star Trek Online's free-to-play starships prepare to leave spacedock
As Star Trek Online's free-to-play final frontier approaches, the Cryptic team is fast at work trying to strike the right balance between the standard-issue starships that come with the game and the C-Store options available for purchase. In a new dev blog, Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo say...
THQ says WAR40K release date, features list is 'pure speculation'
Mass conspiracy? Over-eager fans? Or deliberate misinformation? No matter what the case, it turns out that recent information about Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online was not passed down by THQ itself, and these "facts," such as the launch date and class list, should be treated as speculative ...
The MMO Report: Angular blocky dragons edition
This week on The MMO Report ("where Steve Jobs is an exalted Buddhist saint of secular humanism"), Casey Schreiner chats about Neverwinter's new status as a full MMO, PlanetSide 2's famed story-writer, and Fallen Earth's long journey to the land of F2P. He also discusses Star Wars: The Old Republ...
Champions Online offers temporary free premium archetypes
If you're a Silver-tier Champions Online player who's always wanted to play a premium archetype but can't quite scrounge up the coin, furbish up your superhero tights and get ready to roll a new character. Cryptic Studios has today announced a limited-time promotion that allows free players to te...
Eligium using Facebook to start the beta push
Earlier this year, Frogster announced its upcoming new MMO, Eligium - The Chosen One. But before you can test yourself in the game to see if you are in fact the figure of destiny referred to in the title, there's a much more functional test that has to take place. Specifically, the beta test. Yes...
City of Heroes adding a haunted house to the Halloween event
In a game all about creating colorful costumes, you might expect that Halloween would be a major holiday. And for years that's been the case in City of Heroes, with a special costume slot only available via taking part in the event. But this year it's time to bring back something that's long been...
Returning EVE players receive discount as part of CCP apology
Last week CCP Games proved that it's still an indie studio at heart when CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson issued a formal letter of apology to the entire EVE Online community. In the letter, he admitted that development had been purposefully shifted away from the in-space features players wante...
LEGO Universe offers $15,000 US in prizes in the Nexus Force Championships
Given the age of the average MMO gamer, it's safe to say most of us grew up with the amazing creative freedom of LEGO. The LEGO franchise has given rise to countless computer games over the years, including kid-friendly MMORPG LEGO Universe. The game recently went free-to-play, and now a huge con...
The Secret World dev diary video delves into The Secret War
Time to don your tin-foil hats, conspiracy theorists. It's time once again to delve into the mysteries of The Secret World. Funcom has released a new developer diary video outlining The Secret War, which is the PvP component of the upcoming horror title. We got our first look at the PvP as...
Dark Millennium Online has conflict of interest with potential Space Marine sequel
If you've been waiting for the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO Dark Millennium Online, you may have checked out recent single-player title Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. In an interview on the two games with Shacknews last night, THQ's VP of Core Games Danny Bilson described a potential conflict of i...
Behind the Mask: Practical indestructibility
It's not very commonplace to showcase a single build on Behind the Mask. In fact, aside from the Archetypes, I've never directly addressed any of the millions of build options in Champions Online. However, one build in particular has garnered a lot of attention lately. It's infamous for its incre...
Patch notes for Final Fantasy XIV's 1.19a update unveiled
Patch 1.19 is still fresh in the minds of every Final Fantasy XIV player; it was a big change for the game that ushered in a lot of welcome additions and improvements. But not quite everything was ready for prime time when the patch went live, leading to the promise of a patch 1.19a with a few mo...
Ask Massively: Alan Smithee edition
Alan Smithee is not a real person. Or to be more accurate, he's several real people. The name was used for several years by directors of films when it could be proven that the director's vision for the film had been undone by editing and overhead pressures. Essentially, it was a way for a directo...
GDC Online 2011: RIFT's Scott Hartsman on surviving and thriving in today's MMO climate
Recently, we took time to look back on the past six months of RIFT's milestones, and this year at GDC Online, Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman sat down for a question-and-answer session to do the same thing. While we've seen the results of Trion's post-launch efforts, Hartsman...
Blizzard auctioning off retired WoW servers for charity
What do you do when you upgrade your MMO's servers and end up with a bunch of hardware you don't need any longer? If you said, "Hold the world's geekiest garage sale," then you're absolutely right. Recently Blizzard upgraded its fleet of World of Warcraft servers and has decided that instead o...
Lineage II celebrates Play Your Way with October Bonanza
Lineage II players, are you ready for a bonanza!? If you said no, then too bad! To celebrate the game's new Play Your Way business model, NCSoft is throwing an October Bonanza that players surely don't want to miss. It all kicked off on October 12th with new Loyalty Subscription Gifts. Any...
Paragon Studios games for charity with Extra Life
Paragon Studios, being the charitable bunch that it is, has announced that on Saturday, October 15th, it will be taking part in the Extra Life charity event. The game-for-charity marathon benefits the Children's Miracle Network and its associated hospitals, making it a more-than-worthy endeavor...
Captain's Log: The voices of reason
Captain's Log, Stardate 65284.2... Hello, computer (and players)! It is often said that the voices of the gaming community are some of the loudest, and most passionate, around. This is especially true within the Star Trek Online community. While some may see particular posts made in Cryptic's ...
The Guild Counsel: Why not all guild departures are equal
"I'm only a tell away." The line is one that MMO players see all too often, and it signals the departure of a guildmate. I used to joke with one of my guildies about that line, and while we went through the motions and said good luck, deep down inside we resented the fact that someone chose to ba...
Former Diablo III dev decribes his work on post-apoc L.A.W - Living After War
Since we first heard about the post-apocalyptic MMO L.A.W - Living After War (OMG the lack of a period after the W drives me insane), the Massively team has been excited about seeing what this new title can bring to the table. Post-apoc MMOs are nothing new, but this one offers real-time strategy...
Conquer Online arrives on Facebook
NetDragon's Conquer Online is looking to live up to its namesake by spreading to every platform possible. First it was Macs, then the iPad, and now Facebook. The top-down, free-to-play title has launched the beta version of its Facebook client for all to experience. The Facebook version is ver...
Transformers Universe gives fans a chance to name two classes
As Transformers Universe continues to be pieced together, one sentient component at a time, Jagex is looking to players to help with the development process. Specifically, to help the studio choose names for two of the classes in the upcoming game. Two polls will help the company make its deci...
GDC Online 2011: SWTOR's Georg Zoeller on analyzing in-game feedback
Star Wars the Old Republic is rapidly approaching its launch date, and questions constantly pop up about what the game will be like. Some longtime MMO veterans are even a bit skeptical about whether BioWare will be able to release a game of this scope in a finished state. At this year's GDC Onli...
GDC Online 2011: CCP talks community management
As we all know, every MMO has its share of crises. They can range from an unpopular game nerf to bugged content to full-out server meltdown. Ironically, CCP Community Manager Valerie Massey submitted her plans for a GDC Online talk the day before, as she put it, "all hell broke loose at CCP." Fro...
GDC Online 2011: BioWare's Damion Schubert takes a wrecking ball to the casual vs. hardcore model
"I'm trying to finish a product, Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I am not going to talk about today." Thus began BioWare's Damion Schubert's seminar, Double Coding: Making Online Games for Both the Casual and the Hardcore, at this year's GDC Online. "This is more of a weary man, sort of stream...
THQ releases flood of new details for Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online
If you're a fan of Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online, you are likely pretty happy to have a launch date. You're also probably anxious for details about the game itself, which have been in short supply until now. We've got good news for you though: THQ has released a huge list of data on de...
Introducing Shadowrun Online
Cliffhanger Productions, the makers of the upcoming Jagged Alliance Online, has announced another title in progress: Shadowrun Online. Based on the popular pen-and-paper game, Shadowrun will share a similar top-down strategy format with Jagged Alliance. Shadowrun takes place in a dystopian 2070 w...
EverQuest joins Ultima Online in GDCOA's Hall of Fame
EverQuest may not be the recent hotness that everyone's talking about, but its impact on the MMO genre continues to be felt to this day. As such, it's great to see this classic game reaping its reward, as the Game Developers Choice Online Awards inducted EQ into the Hall of Fame yesterday. Eve...
The Daily Grind: Do you prefer historical settings?
This week, Massively's Karen Bryan attended a GDC talk by Charles Cecil, the creator of Broken Sword, on the topic of writing games that employ history and historical themes. Cecil wisely noted that historical themes tap in to the audience's shared mythology to generate a compelling game and to s...
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