Massively Meta

'Tis the season! Just... not that season. This isn't one we really want; it's not a season of joyousness and brotherly kindness. No, this one's more akin to scattering LEGOs and thumbtacks all across the floor then dashing barefoot from wall to wall just to hit your head against them over and over. We understand the pain. Truly, we do. And The Stream Team is here for you.

They say nothing's certain in life except death and taxes, but we disagree! We'd totally add Massively TV to that list. Have we ever left you in your times of need? No! And we know you need us now more than ever. We're here to help you, with a full line-up of shows to help ease the pain and take your mind off the traumas that cannot be avoided. So take a load off and check out this week's schedule, catch a few reruns, see the highlight of the week, and take part in our two polls. Then remember, at least this only happens once a year!

Continue Reading

At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post.

This week, wuxia-themed Age of Wushu launched officially, turning loose a hardcore, Chinese-flavored, martial arts sandbox in the MMORPG space. Persistent-world junkies are hoping the game marks the first of the big-budget sandboxes aiming to revamp the genre in the next few years. What sandboxes are those? I'm glad you asked. Massively's Jef recently prepped a guide to the bigguns, including ArcheAge, EverQuest Next, and Star Citizen.

Read on for a peek at the rest of our top MMO stories.

Continue Reading

Keep it down, now. We here at the Massively offices are watching our stories. These stories are very important to us. They contain a large number of cast members, and it is vitally important that we keep up with each and every one of them. During our story time, we don't want to hear about how RIFT is shutting down or World of Warcraft is launching an expansion about narwhals or Camelot Unchained is actually just Super Mario World with a few new sprites. We're watching our stories.

If you're so bored you can just read this week's installment of WRUP, which contains all of the Massively staff's plans for the weekend. Well, the plans of those not too involved in watching our stories to reply. These are really important, you see. Here, just sit down and watch with us. Or read our plans past the break and let us know what you'll be up to in the comments -- that works too.

Continue Reading

A few weeks ago, our sister site Joystiq posted a story about Incredipede, an indie game whose slow sales over a four-month period were eclipsed by a single day's worth of sales on Steam. And when I looked back through our coverage of MMOs on Steam, I realized that the platform has quietly become a big deal for our genre, too; MMO publishers clearly believe Steam is a place they need to be. Final Fantasy XI's expansion landed there in recent memory, as did The War Z, Age of Conan, APB Reloaded, and dozens more. My own Steam account shows EVE Online, Champions Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and Spiral Knights, just to name a few.

The convenience of Steam and the fact that my friends congregate there is the key draw for me, in spite of my lingering distrust for such services, so today, I'm wondering whether I'm alone. Are you guys more likely to download and try an MMO, F2P or otherwise, if it's on Steam?

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!

Bree pulls into Starbucks because her internet's on the fritz, Justin's giddy about minipets, and a wild Jef arrives to give us his thoughts on the first week of Defiance. Massively Speaking: It's super effective!

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
[iTunes] Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
[Stitcher] Follow the podcast on Stitcher Radio.
Listen here on the page:



Read below the cut for the full show notes.

Continue Reading

It's definitely not a new thing. Throughout the ages, when intense frustration strikes, a colorful epithet can slip past the lips of even the most soft-spoken. Heck, at particularly annoying times, a full string of them has been known fly forth from the most unexpected sources. And we all know that there are plenty of frustration-inducing situations in gaming. So it's not hard to equate swearing with gaming, right?

Of course, we at Massively TV advocate a responsible use of language during our adventures. While there could be a time or a place for the universally known curses, we prefer bursts of creative language skills. And if there's one thing The Stream Team has, it's an abundance of creativity! We've learned it is possible to express frustration while avoiding the censors because censors are mean and carry big, painful sticks! Ouch.

Need proof? Pop into any of the shows scheduled this week or the reruns from last; watch how deftly (or not) our intrepid streamers react to curse-creating incidents. Hope as they might, nothing can go smoothly all the time... or for the very unlucky, at all! A perfect demonstration of this is highlighted in our newest section, a place devoted to showcasing a stream of the week. Catch MJ's colorful repurposing of the English language first-hand in Highlight Reels, then offer your most creative expression in the Outtakes.

Continue Reading

At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post.

Trion's trans-media-synergy MMOTPS Defiance launched Tuesday -- just ahead of its TV show debut next week -- to the usual smattering of launch-day bugs and issues. But on the whole, Massively's Jef found the game moderately appealing and potentially worth the dough for some light but brief MMO-shooter fun, as chronicled in his four-part launch impressions piece.

Read on for a look at the rest of Massively's top MMO stories from the past week.

Continue Reading

We've been friends a while, right? So I'm going to ask you something honestly, and I want you to answer me honestly. Is my face on fire? Right this moment, is my face wreathed in an infernal bouquet? Don't be worried about hurting my feelings; be worried that my face is burning. Or not.

I have to be honest. I can't tell myself. I mean, I see a bright light in the bathroom mirror, but that might just be a glare from the sunlight. My lips have been pretty chapped, but that's normal for this time of year. Also I smell burning hair, but you know me; my sense of smell is terrible. So really -- is my face on fire?

Oh, wait. Before you tell me about that, you should check out this week's installment of WRUP, all about what the Massively crew is up to over the weekend. And you should let us know what you'll be up to down in the comments. This face thing is probably fine; it can wait.

Continue Reading

Google Reader might be on its way out, but old-school RSS is here to stay. If you haven't jumped to Feedly or some other RSS platform yet, July 1st is your doomsday. How is this relevant to your interests and why am I telling you this in Ask Massively? Well, many of you readers probably don't camp our front page, and if you're not into social media and the latest faceplustweet craze, RSS can help you keep up with the parts of Massively you want to read (and avoid the ones you don't).

Continue Reading

As I wound down my time at PAX East recently, I couldn't help but notice how different this convention was compared to when I went a couple of years ago. Yes, the exhibition floor was bigger, and there were many more in attendance, but the overall feel was different as well, and part of that was the increased presence of children.

We normally don't think of a video game convention as a family activity, and yet the fact that so many adults brought their children is telling. And whether you agree with it or not, there's something to be learned from the presence of kids at game conventions.

Continue Reading

MJ returns from her grand GDC adventure, and boy does she have stories to tell! Most of those stories will be to her therapist who will help her overcome the trauma of five days of non-stop interviews, but some of those tales will be related in this podcast. Also, you won't hear her sing the baby monkey song, but she totally did before we started recording and it was awesome. You had to be there.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
[iTunes] Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
[Stitcher] Follow the podcast on Stitcher Radio.
Listen here on the page:



Read below the cut for the full show notes.

Continue Reading

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.

Though infrequent, it does happen: Once in a while two holidays go toe to toe on the calendar. This year, it just so happens that April Fools' Day rides in on the tail of the Easter Bunny. So what do you do when these very different holidays bump up against each other? You do what any self-respecting Stream Team fan does: You watch more Massively TV! Of course, that's pretty much the answer to everything, isn't it?

Some day these two holidays might actually overlap. If that were the case, who do you think would come out on top in a brawl over celebration rights -- that floppy-eared frolicking rabbit known for leaving chocolate or the fool (with or without a bell-tipped hat) who delights in pranking and tricking? After watching Rise of the Guardians, I think my money is on the bunny. Worst case scenario is they team up together and we end up with trick chocolate.

While contemplating this match-up, join us for a week of intense livestreams with your favorite hosts, playing such classics as Fruit Ninja and Fruity Loops Studio.

Continue Reading

At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post.

This week, we're building on our PAX East 2013 roundup from last Sunday to present even more of our PAX coverage combined with what we've released so far from our GDC 2013 recon. Dragon's Prophet demo? Check. How F2P saved SWTOR? Yeppers. Infinite Crisis hands-on? Roger that. Star Citizen's crafting system reveal? Yup, nabbed that too. All that and the rest of Massively's top MMO stories from the past week await beyond the break.

Continue Reading

Look, a submarine is a terrible war vehicle. Submarines are underwater and boats are above the water. There's nothing to shoot at except for other submarines. And Captain Nemo, but he's usually busy with giant squid-related shenanigans. But there are a lot of fish under the water, and since fish are dumb they'll think the submarine is just another fish.

We should just be using all the submarines to catch all of the fish, and then we'll re-fish the oceans with all of the fish bones. Fish work like plants, right?

I'm going to be pretty busy getting the first underwater fishing company going, but you can entertain yourselves for the rest of the day by reading this week's WRUP, all about the Massively staff's plans for the weekend. Oh, and you can let us know what you'll be up to yourself down in the comments. Hopefully you'll be getting ready for delicious fish yanked straight out of the water in what I'm dubbing the Fishermarine.

Continue Reading