Battlestar Galactica Online

Bigpoint has let us know that it's about to kick off what it calls "space trials" for some new carrier-class ships in Battlestar Galactica Online. The craft will be visible on the Kobol beta server today in both Colonial and Cylon variants.

Carriers function as support and supply vessels and can also serve as mobile outposts with repair and recharge capabilities.

What's that? You say you want to pilot one of these shiny new vessels? Well, this is Bigpoint, so you'll need to enter a lottery via the community forum for your chance to jump in the cockpit of BSGO's latest and greatest. If you're not up for that, the ships will be available to all players on all servers after the completion of the trial period at the end of this month. You'll need to be level 40 (and in possession of nearly 500,000 in-game cubits) to get one for yourself.

If mankind's exploration into outer space has taught us anything at this point, it's that sooner or later we're going to need to strap big guns on our bubbles of life support and blast each other out of the cosmos. It's already a prevailing theme among MMOs, with titles like EVE Online, Star Trek Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Black Prophecy, and Battlestar Galactica Online allowing us to jump forward a few hundred years of technological growth so we can have some space shootin' fun.

As of late there seems to be two camps developing regarding MMO space shooters. With the advent of SWTOR, some are warming up to the cinematic on-the-rails style of its space combat game. Tunnel shooters allow for a more scripted -- and potentially more exciting -- experience, and this type of combat has a long history in single-player games dating back to Starfox and before.

Of course, the other camp just loathes rail shooters, much preferring the ability to fly anywhere one wants and engage in combat on one's own terms. The freedom of this style of space combat appeals to the inner individualist who doesn't want to conform to what everyone else is doing.

In which camp have you struck your tent? Are you for free-form space combat or on-the-rails shooters? Let your vote be heard after the jump!

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Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

I have been tasked with explaining to Massively readers why I am OK with Bigpoint's very public policy on selling "advantages." I imagine that this will not be an easy task. After all, we gamers aren't much different than the rest of humanity in the way we tend to care about things that have little or no effect on us. We all have an opinion on "selling power," but I think it's high time that someone attempts to explain why it really isn't always power that Bigpoint is selling -- and why it would be fair even if it were.

I will attempt to stick to the specific topic of Bigpoint's policies, but much of what I say will probably apply to any game developer that sells practically anything for real world money. Yes, I am talking about those wonderful collector's editions and favorite cash-shop mounts. They all fall under the same category that Bigpoint's ships or special drones do.

Click past the cut and I'll explain why.

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Bigpoint's in the news again this week, and for once the company is steering clear of microtransaction controversies. It seems as if there's a giveaway afoot, and Battlestar Galactica Online fans will be pleased to note that they have a chance to win a life-size Cylon statue (settle down guys, it's a Centurion, not a Number Six).

The browser-based sci-fi MMO also features 15 new paint jobs for Cylon and Colonial ships, each of which may be purchased with real money or in-game credits.

Bigpoint says more color schemes are on the way, and oh yeah, if you want a chance at the statue, you'll need to log in at least five times during the month of December. Head to the official BSGO forums for the official contest rules.

Bigpoint just can't seem to stay out of the news today, and whether its the incendiary pay-to-win remarks of an executive or an update to its Battlestar Galactica browser MMO, there's a lot of interesting buzz swirling around the company of late.

The devs are adding a new line of fleet recon ships to Battlestar Galactica Online, and the craft will enable both Colonial and Cylon players to jump directly to their targets while "in proximity of an erupting battle." The ships will debut in mid-September and are modeled on the Raptor and Heavy Raider craft from the beloved Syfy television series. Bigpoint's latest press release also mentions that the Brimir-class carrier will be "available this fall, though its size, complexity, and impact on game balance must be optimized before its general release."

Finally, the company is trumpeting some new metrics, and the release says that BSGO has surpassed the five million registered player mark.

[Source: Bigpoint press release]

Recently, fans of the upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic had the pleasure of plopping down 150 clams to pre-order a special collectors edition of their favorite game they have never played. I've seen this before, and have even pre-ordered a few in my day (I'm looking at you, giant Warhammer Online box.) Pre-orders are the oldest form of virtual goods...they were cash-shops before cash-shops appeared in every game. The funnest part is seeing hardcore cash-shop haters gladly paying huge sums of money for a robot pet or a cool looking cape. Somehow, they see it as a different thing altogether than buying a shiny mount or pink dress from in-game.

Still, I understand the impulse. I get it every time I am in the check-out lane and the new flavors of gum have been released. Even worse is when one of my favorite games releases new items in their cash shop. New mounts, housing goods, heck even new weapons or stat-increasing potions...they make me drool.

So, I decided to take a 150 dollar budget and see what I could get for it. Click past the cut and let's look at the list!

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Bigpoint broke all the conventional rules when creating Battlestar Galactica Online as a browser-based MMO. Now, the developers are continuing to improve on this unique title by giving players the ability to challenge other players in PvP matches. These instanced matches can be 1v1 duels or ranked dogfights with members of the same or opposite faction, adding a little bit more excitement in the search for Earth.

If you're into PvP for the pure sport of it, you can duel any consenting player of any faction, rating, ship size, or class in a private 1v1 match. However, if your into the rewards or you want to prove that you are indeed the best, join in the ranked matches. The game's matchmaking system pairs up players of similar arena rating, ship size, and class in their own private portion of space for a battle to the death. The top 100 on the Top Gun Leaderboard will be recognized with a special icon above the pilot and ship name.

And when you're playing BSGO with the three million other registered players, check out the two new star systems in the Veil Sector: Nilfhel and Muspell. These two areas contain high-level NPCs for you and your allies to conquer.

For more information, visit the official website, or better yet, just play the game. It's free!

Bigpoint and Mail.Ru Group have just announced a corporate partnership that aims to bring titles from each publisher to new prospective markets. Bigpoint, a browser MMO specialist most famous for its free-to-play Battlestar Galactica title, will bring its games to Mail.Ru's Russian-speaking audience via the latter's existing portal delivery service.

Similarly, Bigpoint users will find Mail.Ru titles like GodsWar Online accessible via the Bigpoint website. Bigpoint games will also be making their way to Mail.Ru's Odnoklassniki and My World social networking services.

"As successful browser-game providers, Bigpoint.com and Mail.Ru are a match made in heaven. We're happy to expand both our game portfolio and our international network of partners at the same time," said Bigpoint CEO Nils Holger Henning in a recent press release.

This week's MMO Report is all about Casey's ego. Not one shred of MMO news bullied its way onto the show this week, unless you count a story about Battlestar Galactica Online reaching two million subscribers as news. OK, maybe you can count Age of Conan going free-to-play, or maybe the newest Minecraft update is technically news. Perhaps Perfect World Entertainment buying Cryptic Studios would be considered news, too. But let's not forget: The MMO Report is really about Uncle Casey's Mail Bag. So that is exactly what will fill the rest of this post.

The Mail Bag this week is all about love, love, and memes. Fans share their love for each other, love for Casey, and love for Morgan Webb. Yes, she's been gone for two weeks, but apparently Casey's manly smell has not ousted the memory of the time Morgan hosted the MMO Report. One fan has not forgotten; he was so inspired that he created a meme about it just to show how much he cared.

Jump past the break if you are interested in catching a glimpse of Casey Schreiner's ego. We have the full video ready to go. Maybe you will catch the news that we missed while staring at Casey's incredible beard.

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Today's One Shots illustrates something that the MMO world is learning pretty quickly: You can find great-looking games right in your browser window. Dezmo has been enjoying Battlestar Galactica Online:

Dezmo here, checking in from the Beta Antini System. If you haven't had a chance to check out Bigpoint's browser based space game, it would be a great idea if you did. Behind me is a human outpost ship, one of the many moons and the blazing light from a star. My Rhino is in the foreground. It's quite a hearty little ship. Off to make some Cylons pay!

Sci-fi week continues tomorrow: Are you loving Perpetuum? Immersed in Battlestar Galactica Online? Beta testing Black Prophecy? Let your favorite sci-fi game strut its stuff this week by sending a great screenshot to us at oneshots@massively.com. Include your your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing, and we'll post it up and give you the thanks!