Archives for Mar 21st, 2014
Betawatch: March 15 - 21, 2014
SOE announced this week that EverQuest Next Landmark will leave alpha and enter closed beta on Wednesday, March 26th. Land rush incoming! What else is new in the world of MMO testing? WildStar is hosting another beta weekend event and opened up preorders. Black Desert ramps up its beta testing ...
World of Tanks to become better-looking than ever before in 2014
World of Tanks is poised to get a major graphics upgrade this year, and the devs want to show you a preview of the changes. Hopefully you're cool with that. Wargaming promises that the look of the game will become clearer, more realistic, and more detailed when the changes go into place. The tea...
Lord of the Rings Online accepting applications for its second player council
Turbine has opened up the doors for fans to apply to be part of Lord of the Rings Online's second Player Council. The studio will take the best of the applications along with its own picks from the community to be part of this influential board that meets with the devs and discusses current issues ...
ArcheAge Russia punishes 57,955 destructive players; ArcheAge West opens forums, streams
If you're lucky enough to be playing the Russian version of ArcheAge, then you're probably pretty annoyed at the MMO's recent server downtime. It might make you feel better to know the outage was the result of Mail.ru's investigation into mass exploits plaguing the game since its soft launch last m...
The Stream Team: EQ Next Landmark's last alpha update
Last week EverQuest Next Landmark introduced cooperative building. And now that alpha is almost over, there are even more goodies in game to explore. Groups? Check. Group harvesting? Check. Wild and crazy shenanigans? Always -- as log as Massively's MJ is involved! Join MJ as she delves back into t...
Final Fantasy XIV releases the first half of patch notes for 2.2
Final Fantasy XIV is dropping its next major patch on March 27th. Are you ready? Have you been relentlessly following news on the coming content? Then you'll want to get an eyeful of the first half of the patch notes for patch 2.2. Yes, it's only the first half. And it still outlines a number of hu...
First Impressions: Nosgoth is all right, but that might not be enough
Let me begin with a somewhat tortured analogy: Nosgoth is sort of like discovering an obscure bit of British nobility of dubious importance. Those intimately familiar with the relevant lineage will be somewhat perplexed by this stranger, who is not really at all what they expected. Everyone else wi...
Guild Wars 2 dev blog explains critical damage changes
ArenaNet's Roy Cronacher has authored a new dev diary that deconstructs one of the balance tweaks heading your way in Guild Wars 2's April Feature Pack. "Ferocity is being introduced to make bonus critical damage easier to understand, more easily scaled across the whole game, and to help foster a h...
Ask Massively: Too many MMOs still lack serious LFG tools
David is angry. No, David is pissed. And he's right to be. He wrote to Ask Massively with the following rant: Developers clearly see PvE instances as a key part of the MMO experience. So why do so many of them fail to ensure I can access this content with a solid group finder? I have been trying t...
Black Desert ramping up beta testing
Black Desert's upcoming closed beta test will run for three weeks, according to Korean publisher Daum. The firm seeks five to six times more testers than in the previous closed sessions, 2P reports. There are also some new Black Desert screenshots making the rounds, and Steparu has details on the b...
Marvel: Avengers Alliance to shut down on Playdom
Playdom has announced that Marvel: Avengers Alliance will be shutting down for good on April 20th, 2014. "Although it is a difficult decision to shut down a game," a note to the players states, "this decision will allow us to focus on building new, more engaging games." This shutdown will aff...
The Daily Grind: Is story more fun for you than game mechanics?
Yesterday Bree asked if MMOs need to be fun, a question that was based off the statements of Assassin's Creed devs at this week's GDC. As I was reading that particular panel recap, I couldn't help thinking that the AC dev duo got it wrong. From my perspective, games most definitely need to be fu...
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Massively Speaking Episode 331: The long goodbye
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