Lore

It's been a while since we've featured a PlanetSide 2 lore update, mainly because more interesting gameplay info was on offer from Sony Online Entertainment. In the absence of new vehicle screens and Matt Higby Q&A's, though, we'll happily tell about the latest story-centric update to the official site (hey, some PS2 news is better than no PS2 news, amirite?).

Last night's blurb features one Tom Connery (presumably no relation to Sean, since it's the year 2640). Connery is prone to making holovid records of his life in the Terran Republic, and his latest is a somewhat harrowing account of a collapsing wormhole and the plight of the 40,000 colonists stuck on the wrong side of it. Click over to the official PS2 website for the full report.

Humans are the standard basis for comparison in games that feature non-human races, almost as if said games were being made by humans for other humans. But there's still a distinct flavor to the human race depending on the setting. Case in point, the latest WildStar "interview" with one of the three lore characters from the cinematic trailer gives players a peek at a typical human, and he's a bit different than what you might have been expecting.

While the other major characters identify a specific world as "home," humans are portrayed as being a bit more free-forming, having roamed out in space for so long that they're really not bound to a location. The entry also discusses some of the lore behind being an Explorer and some of the perils associated with intentionally venturing into the unknown (it involves lots of things that try to eat you, if you need the short version). If you've been enjoying the flavor of the world Carbine Studios is slowly building, you'll probably enjoy this latest look as well.

A very clever Massively poster once remarked that BioWare is indeed famous for story -- the same story, over and over. OK, so he was exaggerating for effect, but even I sometimes feel as if I've seen this scene before once or twice in BioWare's storygames. That hasn't driven me to skip over cutscenes or dialogue, not yet, but judging by how many gamers are already sitting in the endgame of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I have to wonder whether that's exactly what everyone else is doing.

So 'fess up -- are you wearing out your spacebar key skipping through dialogue, or are you drinking in every last line?

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!

If you think about characters in the online Final Fantasy games compared to the console-based equivalents, you have to come to a kind of demoralizing conclusion: Your character online is pretty weak. In Final Fantasy XI, you can cap out your Black Mage and you'll still never learn Ultima. In Final Fantasy X, by the time you have your Black Mage using Ultima, you've still got most of the endgame ahead of you. Final Fantasy XIV might move the power scale upward, but at this point your character hasn't even actually mastered being a Paladin, much less summoning anything. Final Fantasy VII, by contrast, gave us three different versions of Bahamut to summon just to keep him relevant, and he was still nowhere near the best.

And you know what? It makes the games much more fun to have these barriers in place.

Players have been clamoring for high-end summons in Final Fantasy XI since forever ago, and the fact that it's not even on the visible horizon for Final Fantasy XIV is disheartening to some. But there's something to be said for a play environment where these touchstones of power remain out of reach, certainly for now and possibly forever.

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There's a lot to be learned about the setting of WildStar before the game starts in on testing, but there are also a lot of prospective players eager to learn whatever they can. So they'll probably be happy to take a look at the latest entry on the official blog, a mock-interview with the Aurin character Liara from the game's original cinematic trailer. Aside from providing some character insights, it gives a look at the Aurin as a species beyond the obvious.

The Aurin come from the forested planet of Arboria, where large ears and long tails for balance have some decided evolutionary advantages. Unfortunately for the Aurin, the Dominion invaded the planet and began cutting everything down, leading to the displaced animal-people lending their knowledge to the Exiles. It's an interesting glimpse at the game's lore for both the Aurin and for Scientists, something that several eager WildStar fans will no doubt devour with vigor.

Guild Wars 1 players are familiar with the Jotun race, mostly as "the giant creatures that won't stop KDing me," but they're going to have a continuing and more involved presence in Guild Wars 2, according to the ArenaNet blog.

Ree Soesbee took a close look at this race in the newest ArenaNet blog post, "The Savage Pride of the Jotun." In the post, she explains how the Jotun have essentially devolved over the years thanks to infighting: "Over the centuries of their existence, the Jotun have fallen far from their state of grace, losing command of technology and magic they once utilized, and remembering their place as kings of the land only in legend and story."

The post delves more deeply into the past and present effects of this change, then switches gears for a behind-the-scenes look at the race's creation. The full post is a good read for anyone interested in the game from a lore or development perspective.

Funcom has taken the wraps off another locale for The Secret World, and this time the focus is on an area called Blue Mountain (no, not those Blue Mountains, Tolkien fans). The location is just west of Kingsmouth, and it boasts a deep, dark history that includes some sort of "desperate battle fought [...] long ago."

Presently, the mountain is home to the Wabanaki native American tribe, which has fallen on hard times due to the greed and machinations of the modern age. Funcom says that an ancient evil is sleeping beneath the rock, and draugs, wendigo, and golems are overrunning the surrounding areas as a result.

There's also a substantial government/military presence in the area, and players will be tasked with helping various agencies as well as reliving the mountain's dark past through the powerful magic of the Wabanaki tribe.

[Update]: Funcom released an accompanying video late yesterday evening, and you can view it after the cut.

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The night before I started writing this column, I finally managed to clear Chapter 1 in Star Wars: The Old Republic with one of my characters. I overcame great obstacles, beat back horrible odds, and defeated a great menace to the galaxy. I was hailed as a hero by the authorities in charge, and while it had been at great cost to myself, I was now more than worthy of respect, accolades, and the gratitude of a galaxy unaware of how close it had been to almost insurmountable danger.

But then I finished the quest.

This problem is not unique to Star Wars: The Old Republic at all, though. By the end of my career in World of Warcraft, I had slain several unique individuals dozens of times on multiple characters, including several kills that were noted by NPCs as being once-in-a-lifetime achievements. Final Fantasy XI made me a pivotal figure in historic events that I could then jump right back into any time I had a friend doing the same quest. And let's not even get into the chronological strangeness that can erupt in Lord of the Rings Online. What's to be done when there's an ongoing story that your character is part of and not a part of?

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With Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning just around the corner and Project Copernicus waiting in the wings, 38 Studios is fattening its golden website for the upcoming feast. The studio has expanded the site devoted to the world that both of these games inhabit, and those looking for hints and portents of the studio's upcoming MMO would do well to seek lore within its pages.

Describing the website expansion as a "treasure trove" of new info, 38 Studios has added new landing pages, navigation features, and information about one of the game's races: the Gnomes. The Gnomes are described as "an enigmatic people. They bestow wondrous gifts of knowledge, medicine, and magic to befriend the other kingdoms, yet seldom reveal their plans or intentions to outsiders." It's interesting to note that the Gnomes are divided up into three casts, which does tempt the mind into thinking the word "classes."

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the single-player RPG that's meant to fill the role of a prologue -- in both real-world and in-game time -- to the much larger Copernicus MMO.

[Thanks to Sketchit for the tip!]

He's been the face on the package, the man on the cover, the big guy above all other big guys. But today, he is no more. Statesman, the most iconic hero in the City of Heroes lore, is going to meet his end, and it's time for everyone to say goodbye. Episode 5 of the signature story arc is live today, and while the titular question "Who Will Die?" has been answered, it's time to see what happens when Statesman does meet his end.

There's more to do than just go play through the arc, however. A new issue of the Intrepid Informer is available in which Matt Miller discusses why the team decided that now is the right time to kill off the game's biggest hero. And if you need a little more help catching up with the story so far, the final vidoc on the arc is embedded just past the cut, giving players a recap of what the Freedom Phalanx is, what is represents, and what this death means for Paragon City.

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Tomorrow, Star Wars: The Old Republic will launch its first content update, and you will most like be up to your eyeballs in Rakghouls and Hutts... or maybe you've not made it to 50 yet because you've been absorbed in the story and leveling alts. According to BioWare developers, there are 200 hours of gameplay in each class story, so even if someone were to have played eight hours a day every day over the last month, he would only have one level 50. I say, don't feel bad if you haven't hit 50 yet. It means that you are enjoying the game the way it was meant to be enjoyed and not skipping anything.

That said, it's not going to hurt to learn about this new update, although I suggest that, if you're into the story as much as I am, you don't read the patch notes... spoilers! Dang, BioWare, could you be a bit more ambiguous about the PTS patch notes next time? It's like someone leaning over halfway through the first screening Empire Strikes Back and saying, "Oh, by the way, Darth Vader is Luke's father." NOOOOO! It's impossible!

Being someone who is interested in the story revolving around SWTOR, I do love the continued use of Rakghouls in the newest update. Sure, some would call it an easy storytelling trope (zombies and all that). I'll admit it. I'm not going to hide behind "these are ghouls, not zombies." I love the story, but in truth these are Star Wars zombies. But I do find the history of the Rakghouls interesting. Honestly, I don't know how much of the story has been retcon'd after their first appearance in BioWare's first venture into the Star Wars IP, Knights of the Old Republic, but the roots of the Rakghouls stem from the birth of the Sith Empire. I love the way it all comes together.

[Update: BioWare postponed the patch to the 18th after the column was written. The first paragraph has been changed to reflect that.]

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Do you have questions about the Illuminati? Of course you do -- that's sort of their whole method of operation. But when it comes to The Secret World, some of those questions got answered via yesterday's community question-and-answer session on Facebook. While you'll have to Like the page in order to view all of the answers, you're rewarded for doing so with a breadth of facts about the secretive power-mongers and hoarders of secrets.

Among the first questions was the simple one of how the Illuminati aren't in control of everything in the game world if their operatives have infiltrated the highest level of government; as it happens, with the world exploding and lighting up with the supernatural, the Illuminati are too concerned with working overtime to keep things under wraps to try to take total control. The answers also reinforce the idea that the Illuminati crave power and competence above all, up to the organization's willingness to discard lesser members for valuable information. You can take a peek at the full set of answer on Facebook, but keep in mind that you're going to need to Like the page first.

What do giant transport vessels like the Galaxy and tiny ATVs like the Quad have in common? They're both built by Nanite Systems, of course. Who the heck is Nanite Systems? You'll have to brush up on your PlanetSide 2 lore to find out, and luckily the official website is here to help.

Today's reveal showcases the Quad, and Sony Online Entertainment tells us that "it has the highest top speed of any ground vehicle and is easy to acquire." As you would expect, the speed comes at a price, and let's just say that you don't want to be riding on a Quad when it takes a hit. Head to the PS2 website for a couple of screenshots and some backstory.

When you're done reading about the Quad, click on over to SOE's Liberator reveal to get the goods on another Nanite Systems product. The Liberator is a gunship, and while it boasts a ton of firepower and decent armor protection, it pays for its bristling bulk by being quite slow in the air.

A month after Star Wars: The Old Republic began its official journey in the public eye, the developers of this game-changing MMO are ready to extend the story, which they call the fourth pillar of the MMO genre. In patch 1.1, which also brings the usual round of bug fixes, players will be introduced to a brand-new level 50 flashpoint as well as a completed version of the Karagga's Palace 8-to-16-man operation.

In the official press release for 1.1, BioWare founder Greg Zeschuk notes, "A month ago when we launched the Early Game Access program for Star Wars: The Old Republic, we promised our fans that this would just be the beginning of our journey together." That's all well and good, but we want details. So we rang up BioWare's Gabe Amatangelo to discuss the new flashpoint, Karagga's palace, Ilum, and the future of SWTOR PvP.

Be aware that there will be some minor spoilers, but we'll warn you in advance!

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There are certain villains that just resist all logic and refuse to go out of style. Case in point: Nazis. Despite the fact that they were a political party in a war that ended about 70 years ago, somehow it's still satisfying to beat them up. That was the basis behind the initial placement of the 5th Column on the launch of City of Heroes... a position that was later usurped, then reclaimed, and now remains in a sort of back-and-forth limbo.

You can't talk about the 5th Column without talking about the Council because the two groups are almost the same. Of course, one is a lot more reprehensible than the other, which oddly makes them far more interesting. Put simply, it's a tangled web of subterfuge and backstabbing, and the two organizations are still struggling for dominance on the streets of Paragon City. They're like a slightly more accessible version of Nemesis for one another.

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