Opinion

With Issue #7 A Dream to Kill inching closer and closer, my anticipation for the new auxiliary weapon coming to The Secret World is reaching near impossible heights. I'll admit it: As a pyro at heart, I am giddy with the thought of wrapping my hands around a permanent flamethrower! And I'm certainly not alone in that sentiment, either.

But an excitement for the new weapon doesn't diminish any of the current ones that are already in game; each auxiliary weapon -- the rocket launcher, the chainsaw, the quantum brace, and the whip -- is awesome in its own right with distinct skills and style. Is one right for you? Heck yeah! If you aren't taking advantage of an auxiliary weapon, you are depriving yourself of some extra oomph in your fights, not to mention an eighth active and passive skill on your hot bar.

How do you know which one is better for you? Honestly, you needn't choose just one; as with regular weapons, you can earn all four. But with a hefty price of 35 SP per weapon, payable all at once, it's impossible to get more than one at a time. So which do you choose first? And then how do you go about getting it? This guide will give a general overview of the four current auxiliary weapons and the paths to acquiring them.

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There are many things you could say about people who play MOBAs. Most of those things would be negative. Games in the MOBA bracket, most notably League of Legends and Dota 2, have a reputation for being unkind to new players, both in terms of the mechanical skill required to play and the vitriolic communities that tear apart new players for not being instantly granted that skill upon downloading the game.

Conduct in MOBAs is so awful that it has become a design issue. Riot Games created a Tribunal system that allows players to report the bad behavior of others, and Valve has done much the same thing. Every new developer showing off an in-development MOBA is at some point asked the question, "How are you going to deal with all the jerks?" Built-in mechanisms for handling abusive teammates and opponents are now considered mandatory features.

There is no question that some MOBA players are bad apples. But something has always bothered me about the pigeonholing of these gamers into this negative space. Surely not all MOBA players are elitist snobs waiting to smack down any new player stupid enough to join a public match. Surely not all of these passionate gamers are horrible humans waiting in the dark to pounce on unsuspecting noobs with a barrage of verbal abuse; there have to be some friendly diamonds in the manure-piled rough.

I swung by the first-ever Chicago Dota 2 Open, billed as the biggest open Dota 2 tournament in the Midwest, to find out.

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Last week the unstoppable Jasmine Hruschak was one member of Massively's crack team who braved the traffic of Los Angeles to take in the sights, sounds, hawking, yelling, and craziness that was the Electronic Entertainment Expo. While she was there, she interviewed Star Trek Online's Executive Producer, Daniel Stahl, and put forth a few questions from the Massively team.

Stahl was able to drop a few hints about the future of Star Trek Online in his responses, so join me past the jump as I deliver the highlights from their conversation!

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I like WildStar a lot. You knew from an early time that I liked the game's aesthetic and sense of humor, and as time went on it became clear that I also liked the mechanics and the approaches it has toward an endgame. When I finally got my first hands-on playtime with the game, I liked that, too. What I'm getting at here is that WildStar is currently fighting with Final Fantasy XIV for the title of my absolute favorite MMO, and they both coexist in a space of I want to play you both all the time.

But some people aren't in that boat. Some people aren't that wild about the game, even some people whom I work alongside. And that is totally fine.

Last week's events made me decide to do one of my periodic column-topic-switches to discuss the fact that there is going to be bad press about WildStar out there, sometimes even bad press that complains about things that you don't think are relevant. And the best thing you can do is be cool.

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So the big E3 MMO news centered on consoles this year, with existing titles like DC Universe Online and PlanetSide 2 as well as upcoming projects like The Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV's reboot unveiling their plans for extensive console ports.

For today's Daily Grind, we're interested to know what you think about the increased consolization of the MMO market. Do you think it's a good thing, or do you think it will ultimately water down what have traditionally been complex PC games? Are you planning to play any of the aforementioned titles on a console? How do you feel about the current console MMO trend?

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!

Tech 1 ships in EVE Online used to be arranged in tiers that determined the cost and power of the ship and what level of the appropriate skill was required to fly it. This gave a sense of progression back in 2004 when all we had was frigates, cruisers, and battleships, but developers have since filled in the gaps between ship classes with destroyers, battlecruisers, strategic cruisers, and tech 2 ships of all shapes and sizes. In a recent game design initiative, CCP has been removing the tiers from within each tech 1 ship class by buffing the lower-tier ships up to the same rough power level as the largest ship in its class.

The recent Odyssey expansion saw the humble battleship buffed beyond all recognition. The Megathron, Raven, Tempest, and Apocalypse all became extreme damage-dealing powerhouses, but the Dominix, Scorpion, Typhoon, and Armageddon were buffed the most. Each of them can now fit several monster setups, dealing upward of 1,000 damage per second or completely disabling enemy ships with energy neutralisers and electronic warfare. The build costs of these tier one battleships were more than doubled in the expansion, but prices are only slowly rising due to the existing stock on the market. That makes the tier one battleships incredibly cost-effective PvP powerhouses at the moment, and players are beginning to take advantage of it.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I experiment with PvP setups for the newly revamped Typhoon, Armageddon, Scorpion, and Dominix battleships.

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I remember playing Ragnarok Online, the first one, quite a while ago and semi-enjoying it. I liked the isometric views and even enjoyed some of the gameplay, but it was a bit of a mess much of the time. I walked away more confused than entertained. At the same time, I met reader after reader after reader who seemed to have grown up on the game. This "grind generation" was made of steely reserve and tougher stuff than I was because the game was notoriously grindy. How did they play it?

Even now as I was looking for a few different views on Ragnarok Online 2, I came across a video that was hosted by a player who acknowledged the "boring grind" that left players with literally "nothing to do but level alts," yet he played the game to the max level, several times. If only we could get these guys to put that much energy into world peace, I might be having dinner in the middle of a former warzone right now!

I found number two to be a bit like its older version but surprisingly modern and more fun than I thought. But only a bit more fun.

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While I'm totally rocking the minivan these days (no, I was never cool), I actually love my car. It's not just an object that transports me from point A to B; it's a mobile base of operation. It has hookups for my gadgets, diaper bags, DVD players, and so on. It's home away from home, as it should be.

What about our mounts in MMOs? Most of them do nothing other than give us a nice increase in speed, with a select few granting us a pilot's license and clearing us for flight. But do they have functions other than just transporting us? Once in a while I read about a mount that allows you to pick up passengers, or one that offers a vending service, or even one that fights alongside of you.

What do you think? Should mounts do something other than just transport, and if so, what?

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!

Nestled deep within the Sony booth at E3 amongst a horde of gamewatchers was the Warframe demo. It's a PC title from Digital Extremes that will be released on the PS4 platform at launch. Free for anyone subscribing to PSN, Warframe is a third-person shooter that is definitely undertaking some experimentation in the graphics and control departments.

The PS4 demo was graphically superior to plenty of titles, running in full 1080P without a hitch or glitch in performance. Controls were responsive (although they took some getting used to), and playing with a handful of players was exhilarating at the Sony booth. I'm used to more of a keyboard-and-mouse control setup, but console fraggers will feel right at home.

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The third phase of Final Fantasy XIV's beta is here, and with it, the NDA is summarily gone. Images from phase 3 can be posted; video and audio cannot. This is the fast track to finally being back in the game for real, to play your old characters once again, to enjoy the game again.

Am I excited? Of course I am because I haven't been able to play yet. I'm writing this from the past, and by the time you read this, I will be awash in Eorzea.

There was also a major industry event this week, one that's known officially as the Electronic Entertainment Expo and known more colloquially to everyone in the world as E3. Final Fantasy XIV was there making an impression, revealing jobs at long last, and generally carrying on as if it owned the place. So let's talk a little bit about what we saw from E3 if you can tear yourself away from the beta client for, like, five minutes.

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One habit that I'm constantly trying to break myself of is assuming that everyone who reads this column or plays Lord of the Rings Online is going through (or has finished) the most recent content that Turbine's pumped out. Over the past few weeks, I've had discussions with Massively staffers, guildmates, and podcast co-hosts who all have admitted to being way behind the content curve in LotRO, many to the point where catching up to the endgame crowd seems like an insurmountable task.

As a particular person asked me, "But what if I'm three expansions behind? Is it even worth paying for all of these expansions and pushing myself to get to Rohan?"

This is a valid concern and obviously one that several folks have, so for today's column I want to talk to those of you who aren't level 85. Maybe you haven't even seen the interior of Moria yet, or maybe you have been following the most casual, sporadic path through Middle-earth possible over the years. Maybe the one-expansion-per-year pace is actually pushing you away from the game. Here's what I think will help.

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I had a friend once in World of Warcraft who had never taken part in a single dungeon. She knew she wasn't geared very well and hadn't built a very solid character, and she didn't feel like dragging others down. She focused instead on socializing through roleplaying and helping out lower-level players with extra money. That was fun for her, far more so than trying to force herself into the raiding endgame, and it was something she just couldn't do in a single-player environment.

For some people, being social in an MMO means doing group content or nothing. For others, being social means putting on a musical performance in Lord of the Rings Online even while you prefer to solo rather than group to clear content. So what about you? How do you like to socialize in MMOs? Is it strictly through content, other activities, or a mixture of both?

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!

Certain phrases just tend to stick in my craw. For example, the idea that back in the day MMORPGs really supported roleplaying, but now they don't any more. You can't really lose yourself in modern games. You get the idea; I've talked about this before.

The calls that roleplaying is dead are quite convincing except for the fact that roleplaying continues and does not appear to be going anywhere. If anything, I'd argue (from anecdotes, so without much scientific merit) that roleplaying populations seem to be expanding, which makes sense, since with more and more people playing games online, more and more of them are going to be totally keen on pretending to be an elf.

But I can understand the sentiment because from another perspective it can seem totally on the mark. So I'm going to just go for the simple version and discuss the ways in which things haven't changed all that much after all.

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This will be my last week using the new Chromebook Pixel, at least here on Massively. I will continue to look at its techier side of things on my personal blog, just as I did with the original Chromebook All-In-One project. The shorter time frame for this series can be explained by the fact that Chromebooks do admittedly cut out a lot of the browser-based MMOs out there by not allowing the usage of Unity or other plugins. Flash is allowed, but Adobe and other companies' recent disapproval of the use of Flash for mobile platforms came with a reason: It's often hard to run. Once HTML5 becomes more standard thanks to publishers like Jagex, I'll be able to comment more on that. It's also important to note that the Pixel is really just a nicer Samsung model, so you can refer to the older posts as well.

I want to encourage everyone who is interested in Chromebooks to check out the Samsung ARM-based Chromebook I talked about last time. It's very inexpensive and quite literally does everything that the Pixel does, albeit on a much smaller screen that is attached to a weaker device that has a much lower build quality. Still, my time with the Pixel has amazed me with a wonderful, touchable screen, but the Pixel has also convinced me that the Samsung should be the flagship device for Chromebook, hopefully kept at the same price range while slowly improving in quality.

Now, let's talk about the games. I found a few that run much better on the Pixel's beefier stats, but please refer to my Samsung coverage for 30 MMOs that run on both machines. The following list is especially good for touchscreens.

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