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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: What City of Heroes needs for its ninth year

Eliot Lefebvre — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Culture, Opinion, Free-to-play, A Mild-Mannered Reporter, Anniversary

The past year of City of Heroes has been in no small part defined by the free-to-play revolution moving into full swing. 2010 was the year in which it became clear that free-to-play could work; 2011 was the year in which nearly every game moved over to the new model, with only a handful of stalwarts clinging to the subscription-only model. Unfortunately, this also means that the once-present divide between business models no longer exists, and by and large there's less sense that free-to-play games are inherently worse than subscription games. The imaginary barrier simply doesn't exist as it used to.

What does that have to do with City of Heroes for its next year of development? Almost everything. I've talked about how the game has two obvious and direct competitors in the superhero genre, but now they're all competing with the same business model. They all have the same initial outlay, instead of City of Heroes being the oldest, most respected, and cheapest option. In order for a game to be successful, and it no longer has to convince players that it's worth $15 a month for a few months -- it just has to convince you that downloading it and giving it a shot is worth the effort. That means flash, fun, and a quick dose of what you're looking for.

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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: What City of Heroes needs for its ninth year originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 May 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Runes of Magic on its third anniversary

Jeremy Stratton — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, New titles, Opinion, Free-to-play, Rumors, Runes of Magic

Runes of Magic's third anniversary is finally upon us. Frogster has been gearing up for the event by holding diamond sales and cash-shop specials. Each anniversary, you can also take part in multiple frog-related quests and events. Frog-bashing, frog disguises, and more frog-bashing have long been a staple. Frog-racing and frog etiquette have been added to the roster. What's frog etiquette? Why, it's either insulting or complimenting frogs, silly. During the festivities, various freebies are usually handed out to players who log in, as well.

The real question is what's new in the land of Taborea, but if you wanted to know about new lands or dungeons, you'll have to wait a little bit longer. There's no official word, but given the time that's passed and the unofficial images and information that are floating around the Internet, we know Chapter 5 can't be too far off. There are still players out there who are far from making their way through the Chapter 4 content, but many guilds on the cutting edge are starting to trample Tomb of the Seven Heroes into a well-worn path.

During this intermediary period, Runewaker added the random attribute extractor and the costume interface. This isn't a replacement to aggregating; it's more like an extension. Most recently, the team introduced a patch containing bug fixes and a sprinkling of changes to the user interface, guilds, pets, vendor NPCs, quests, crafting, and skills. Some of the most exciting information is sketchy but does point to two possible new classes. And what class (or race?) could possibly have skills with names like "forge" and "runecraft" in them? Hmm...

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Runes of Magic on its third anniversary originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Star Trek Online looks to anniversary updates, free-to-play updates, and beyond

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, Previews, News items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play

Star Trek Online's second anniversary is just a month away, but the game's transition to a free-to-play model is even closer than that. In the game's latest developer diary, executive producer Stephen D'Angelo talks about updates leading into the business model shift, the anniversary, and the eventual rollout of the game's next season. A couple of new bug fixes and feature improvements will be rolled out to the live game before January 17th, at which point the game will shift over to the free-to-play mode.

In February, the game will be celebrating its anniversary with a new KDF flagship, the debut of the Odyssey-class Federation ship, and soon thereafter a series of Dominion featured episodes. Players can look forward to season 6 sometime in June, with the development team aiming at something new in the game roughly every other week once the game is free-to-play. It's a tall order, but Star Trek Online fans at least have those frequent updates to hope for if not necessarily expect.

Star Trek Online looks to anniversary updates, free-to-play updates, and beyond originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vanguard's fourth anniversary raises new questions

Beau Hindman — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Opinion, Vanguard

Vanguard is somewhat of a unique beast among other "AAA" MMOs; it's a forgotten child that still offers great adventure, open-world excitement, and hardcore raiding. While we all have heard of the botched launch and practically dead-in-the-water development cycle of the game, the fact of the matter is that players are still playing it. You can't force a player to enjoy himself, so why are the members of the Vanguard community still playing?

Is it possible that they are having a good time? Or do social ties mean more than great adventure? Could it be that players simply have not found a game that they enjoy more than Vanguard, warts and all? We asked the players on the official forums and received a total of four responses. The thread was immediately pushed down by standard complaint posts. Could it be that the community has been the worst thing for the game, a game that needs, more than anything, positive word-of-mouth?

Click past the cut and we'll look into it.

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Vanguard's fourth anniversary raises new questions originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: What little events do you celebrate?

Eliot Lefebvre — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Events, real-world, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Humor

It's Saint Patrick's Day, and if you're in the US that means a celebration of Irish culture... or at least, it means a celebration of wearing green clothing and drinking an exceptional amount for the middle of the week. And while it's not the biggest holiday, some people look forward to it as much or more than major seasonal events. A few games even celebrate the event, such as Fallen Earth with a pub crawl and Everquest II with its Brewday celebrations. It's a holiday with no real overarching purpose except enjoyment, and that's hardly a bad goal.

Every game has little events that keep running long after they're no longer hugely pertinent. Every gamer has anniversaries or dates they remember, or holidays that they feel are important even if the game doesn't have a holiday event. So what small holidays or events do you observe in your favorite games? Do you make a point of memorizing important in-game lore dates and celebrating their anniversaries? Do you take part in no-longer-vital elements, such as the Elemental Invasions in World of Warcraft? Or do you just take the opportunity on days like today to outfit your Star Trek Online crew in green uniforms and hang around drunk?

The Daily Grind: What little events do you celebrate? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively Speaking Podcast Episode 51

Shawn Schuster — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Podcasts, Culture, Opinion, Massively Speaking

Massively Speaking Episode 51 is just full of Jo(h)ns this week as Contributing Editor Jon Shute and special guest John Nicholson from Limited Edition join Shawn to discuss all things MMO. Topics include Free Realms' launch, WoW on the iPhone, tons of MMO anniversaries and more!

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot us an email to podcast AT massively DOT com. Maybe we'll read your letter on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
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Listen here on the page:

Read below the cut for the full show notes.

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Massively Speaking Podcast Episode 51 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: MMO Anniversary Extravaganza!

Shawn Schuster — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, Events, in-game, The Daily Grind

This next week is quite a big week for anniversaries, birthdays and celebrations in our favorite MMOs. We kick off the festivities today with Lord of the Rings Online's 2-year anniversary, and finish off next Tuesday with a 5-year for City of Heroes, a 5-year for Lineage II and a 4-year for Guild Wars. Each of these games promises to have their own unique anniversary celebration in-game and out.

So the question is, which of these games have you stuck with since day one? As traditional MMOs are entering their golden years, yelling at those younger F2P games to get off their lawn, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to stick with one game. Even if it's not one of these games celebrating a milestone this week, which games have you stuck with for years and years?

The Daily Grind: MMO Anniversary Extravaganza! originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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