Humor

There are a lot of MMOs out there. A lot. Sometimes I rattle off a list of MMOs during a conversation with fellow fans and they look at me as if I have butter pouring from my fingertips. They don't believe it, but they know it's happening. There are that many MMOs out there? Yes, there are. There are literally thousands in the world, hundreds in the United States. Out of all of those many different titles that I have played and come across, I like to say that most aren't really bad or horrible, but just... the same. Bland, boring, vanilla, dull. I like to throw the figure "80 percent" around to represent how many of them are just ugh.

The Aurora World is an MMO. It has systems. It has skills to learn, and pets and monsters and quests and all of those trademarks that have, unfortunately, given MMO developers blanks to fill in on a checklist that is titled "MMORPG." There are a few tricks up the game's sleeves, but only a few. Actually, The Aurora World reminds me of one of my favorites, Zentia, but it lacks the soul that made me love Zentia.

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Might and Magic: Duel of Champions is a new collectible card game brought to us by Ubisoft Quebec. Some folks might say that trading card games are a dime a dozen and that once you've played one, you've played them all. But I think the genre is always moving forward and expanding, introducing new designs and interesting ways to play, which is true of Might and Magic's latest go at the TCG market. During my tour, I found myself up against producer Stephane Jankowski. Unfortunately for me, he is no stranger to the game. He takes it quite seriously, going so far as to "go easy" on me so that I was not embarrassed. Little did he know that I am a noob at every game out there, so no harm was done.

Might and Magic: Duel of Champions is a great game for those who want not only more strategy but also a faster pace. The tutorial walked me through some of the basics, but I learned more in the hour I played with Stephane than I had playing during the previous week. Click past the cut to watch the livestream and read up on what makes this one stand out.

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Last night, WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney posted up a dev blog recapping the first days of the game's closed beta, which you are likely not in. We feel for you; we're not in either. Who is in? An Aurin by the name of Poptart, who became the first closed beta tester to make her way through character creation and set foot on Nexus. The first player-created UI mod, a friend-finding tool, was also whipped up within 24 hours. (Massively broke the news on how WildStar's modding system will work back in February.) And apparently, the Algoroc zone is a nasty place; it boasts four of the nine mobs most responsible for player death.

Gaffney offers up these metrics for humor, but he's actually serious business about data parsing and player feedback even as he wants the early invitees to enjoy themselves:

We're tracking almost everything that goes on in the game. Combat timings, level timings, movement, you name it. The players' actions matter to us. Betas aren't always fun per se (there's often a big difference between "playing" and "testing"), so we've tried hard to make sure the game is actually fun even in this, our very first round of external testing.

Tester feedback, he says, is funneled to straight to a rapid response team to deal with on a daily and weekly basis. And if testers don't submit that feedback? "One player actually found that some taxi drivers in a fit of generosity would give you money for flying to your destination instead of taking it and spent four hours riding back and forth," Gaffney admits. "We left him with 50 copper of the 14 gold he farmed as thanks for making us laugh."

OK, yeah, how could I not do this? I know that we at Massively have gone a little ga-ga over ArenaNet's stellar April Fools' Day prank-slash-massive update, but when I saw that the team released a half-hour of original score in addition to all of the pixelated monkey mayhem, I knew I had to review it.

Your enjoyment of Guild Wars 2's Super Adventure Box and its score will largely depend on your memories or feelings about old-school video games. For a kid who grew up on 8-bit and 16-bit games, the sound of SAB is pure nostalgia (even if it is original composition). I think it's also as catchy as cooties.

Composers Maclaine Diemer and Leif Chappelle put in a lot of effort to not just make a classic-sounding soundtrack here but specifically reference and pay homage to plenty of old-school hits. Hang with me as I highlight the best of Super Adventure Box, and I promise that next week we'll get back to serious business.

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I remember playing and disliking Champions Online when it first came out. My wife and I had the same reaction when we both thought it looked funky and played oddly. It was as though the game was attempting to be some sort of kitschy '60s-inspired comic book game, so it was hard to take it seriously. It just wasn't that much fun. Granted, that was a long time ago, and since then the title has changed hands, been patched up, and been smoothed over. I've played it off and on since my first experience but always felt it lacked... something.

I knew I needed to give it a second chance, and what better avenue to do it in than this very column? I've been really diving into it over the past few weeks, and I've discovered that the game is actually really good. And really fun. And that it looks good! I streamed it live just to double check, and sure enough, the game holds up well and made me so happy that I continued to try it out. I even subscribed! (Will wonders never cease?) So today, I want to tackle the game from a fresh, newbier perspective than the one taken in our weekly superhero column, A Mild-Mannered Reporter, where Eliot has been chronicling the playerbase's frustration with the game's content-update shortcomings.

Be sure to check out the embedded livestream later in the article. It really shows off how fun the game can be, as well as covers some of its finer details.

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Humor is in the funnybone of the owner, so today's topic will most likely lead to a wide range of responses. That's cool. Some of us like slapstick, some like horrible puns, some get a kick out of corny pop culture references, and some enjoy a smattering of witty dialogue. In the end, it comes down to what lightens our hearts and makes us laugh, doesn't it?

So what's the funniest MMO out there? I'm going to cast my vote for, oddly enough, Fallen Earth. There's a bizarre streak of black humor that you only seem to get with a post-apocalyptic setting. The massively ugly mutated prairie chickens always make me smile, as does the weird-as-crap quotes that the wasteland inhabitants spout.

But my opinion doesn't stand alone; I want to hear yours! What MMO makes with the funny the best?

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!

World of Warcraft usually puts together some pretty ornate pranks for the first of April. It's hard to forget about the console version of Molten Core, the Bard class, or the Tinfoil Hat. This year, fans were treated to... well, nothing. That's a pretty dramatic departure, and it prompted community manager Zarhym to take to the field and answer the obvious question about why no one got to have a laugh this year.

Zarhym explains that there were two main causes, the first being that the team simply hadn't come up with a joke that really stuck despite several ideas being bandied about. Add to that the fact that the team members usually responsible for assembling these jokes were otherwise occupied, and they were left without a joke and without people to implement the gag. So this year will go down as being sadly bereft of foolery from Blizzard.

Enjoying your Super Adventure Box groove in Guild Wars 2? Then you've probably noticed the kicking 8-bit tunes as well. ArenaNet Composers Maclaine Diemer and Leif Chappelle put together 26 minutes of brand-new (and old-school) music tracks to power the super adventure, and you can listen to the whole shebang on SoundCloud.

"It's not easy reducing a lush, bombastic orchestral piece into just the four channels we have available to us for 8-bit music," Diemer said. "After the initial statement of the theme, a galloping rhythm and bass line with more of a classic Zelda feel kick in, followed by a new melody that bridges the gap between the Guild Wars 2 we know and love and the world of Super Adventure Box."

What's even better is that each of the tracks has composer notes attached to them, so if you're interested in how the duo came up with these catchy tunes and what inspired them, your curiosity shall soon be sated.

If our awesome Massively Online Kickstarter project didn't clue you in, it's April Fools' Day and liars, fibbers, and jokesters are everywhere. Some might be annoyed with the constant misdirection, but we find that it brings out a lot of creativity and humor in an industry that often needs more of both.

You probably saw Guild Wars 2's incredible (and playable) Super Adventure Box, but that's not the end of the pranks that went around in the virtual world. There are strange new offerings in DDO's store, The Repopulation has an insane list of patch notes, SWTOR announced dance combat, and Puzzle Pirates is allowing players to sail... a barrel. Then there's Super Hero Squad Online's Bag-Man, World of Warcraft's Crabby, World of Tanks' zombies, EVE Online: Odyssey's new features, Razer's Mousephone, and TERA's small-ass monsters trying to get you to turn that frown upside-down.

Those musically inclined will undoubtedly enjoy RuneScape: The Musical, and those in need of a bedtime story should turn to The Elder Scrolls Online. And if you haven't played League of Legends: CHEW, then you haven't lived. Just saying.

We all know that "MMORPG" stands for massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, but have you ever heard of an MMMORPG? Well, you are going to a lot from now on because a Massively massively multiplayer online roleplaying game is in the works!

Here at Massively we've been reporting on MMOs for years, but we feel it's time to dip our toes into the other side of the lake. It's time to put our great ideas and complete lack of development experience to use and actually make a kick-ass game. We're going to make the MMO we all want to play -- and we need your help. Just because we are obviously paid off by every major and several minor game studios out there doesn't mean we have infinite resources (that yacht isn't paying for itself, folks). But collectively, you do!

So we're taking a cue from the cool kids by appealing to crowdfunding to make Massively Online happen. It's going to have swords so big that you'll need a prehensile tail just to hold one. It's going to have particle effects so mind-blowing that the console crowd will be weeping on their knees in envy. It'll have sexy voice-overs done by the Massively team. It'll have sixteen pillars of gameplay. And it's going to have levels. ALL THE LEVELS.

And you can get in on the ground floor by supporting our Kickstarter project! Just check out those special rewards and become a backer today.

A few months ago, I dived into Salem, a hardcore sandbox MMO that promises actual permadeath. That means if your character is killed while in game, he or she stays dead and loses everything. Not of your possible scores of skills are passed on, all items are lost and your homestead -- similar to a deed in Wurm Online -- can be destroyed. Heck, your homestead can be destroyed even if you're not dead. People can literally block your path, call you names, and attack you over and over. It makes me cry!

Nah, it's not as bad as it sounds. It never is. If there is one thing I have learned over the years, it's that you should really try a game for yourself before you believe everything you hear about it. Don't worry about trolls or griefers because the worst that can happen to you is that you end up leaving the game to find a better one. That's why we're called gamers.

Salem is actually about 50% killer and 50% silliness. I don't want to describe the killer part as "bad" because there is something the game is offering that so many others are not, and that's real danger and actual permadeath.

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For most game developers, being seen as funny is a good thing. It makes the game's development team seem more likable and human. It also shows that the team is paying attention to the various in-jokes of the community. On the other hand, when a developer tries at affable humor and fails, it comes off like your octogenarian grandmother quoting Family Guy.

Some developers are excellent at getting a sense of community humor, something Blizzard has done well with World of Warcraft. Some developers are good at cracking jokes, like Final Fantasy XIV's Naoki Yoshida. And some developers, like Carbine Studios, just seem to have the whole comedy thing built into their very structure.

But it's not like any of the aforementioned need to be funny to sell their games. It really comes down to what the players want. So do you like it when developers try to be funny? Or would you prefer they just work on the game instead of engaging the community?

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!

I vividly remember a conversation I had with my then-girlfriend's parents back in 1996 about the potential of this growing "internet" phenomenon. With my limited understanding, I made it sound downright noble, a Library of Congress available at the fingertips of the average Joe or Jane. What I really should have said that it would be a tool for the distribution of pornography, nerd rage, and cute animal pictures.

I have no idea how big the cute animal picture industry is, but there have got to be millions of aspiring photographers daily who prod little baby critters with encouragement sticks in the hopes of eliciting a few "awws" out of strangers. Even when the serious business of MMOs came a-calling, cuteness infested fantasy lands near and far.

Whenever I see something absurdly cute in an MMO, I always smile because I know that somewhere, some uber-elite, way-too-serious player is developing facial tics from being in the same game world as it. So twitch away, as here are 10 of the cutest critters as seen in-game!

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In League of Legends' Classic mode, jungling is my second-most preferred role. I prefer ADC first, since it is very taxing on attention and raw skill matters more than strategy. However, as a jungler, I can impact the game more meaningfully. While being ADC allows me to usually win the game in spite of awful teammates, jungling helps me prevent those awful teammates from throwing the game away.

When I'm going for a gank, there's nothing worse than someone mucking it up for me -- except when I screw it up myself. It's frustrating when I ping for a gank and my mid lane proceeds to engage and die to his opponent before I get there. It's even worse when I run through a place that I know is warded, attempt a gank anyway, and get jumped by three opponents. Sometimes a gank wasn't meant to be, but most of the time, we botched it all on our own.

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