Massively

RuneScape: Seventh anniversary retrospective

Brendan Drain — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, MMO industry, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser

Although RuneScape officially launched in 2001, today marks the seventh anniversary of the end of the RuneScape 2 beta. This was a complete gameplay and graphics overhaul that signaled the rebirth of the game, and it's a date well worth celebrating. The past year has been filled with massive content updates that added clan support, upgradeable clan citadels, a new website, and countless new quests. Player-made battlefields put game design in the hands of players, who have used the system to produce ton of content.

Understandably, most people will likely remember this year for one thing: This was the year that RuneScape beat the bots. Following the momentous Bot Nuking Day, players logged in to find a distinctly emptier world but one filled with real people. RuneFest 2011 was a success, with presentations from the game's developers and a special focus on breaking the bots. This year also saw the interesting story that the Dutch Supreme Court ruling that stealing RuneScape items is the same as theft of real life goods.

In this anniversary retrospective, I look back at some of RuneScape's top news stories and game additions of the year.

Continue reading RuneScape: Seventh anniversary retrospective

RuneScape: Seventh anniversary retrospective originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Not So Massively: Diablo III shows signs of release

Brendan Drain — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Video, Events, real-world, Launches, New titles, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries, Not So Massively, MOBA, League of Legends, Diablo III

Diablo III saw its clearest signs of release ever this week after a succinct tweet from Jay Wilson and the announcement that PvP is being cut from release in favour of getting the game out sooner. Firefall revealed its plans for attending events and trade shows this year and showed off its world-building tools and talent in an awesome new video devblog. Blacklight: Retribution continued its open beta with the release of a new map set in a laboratory during a virus outbreak. Developers also revealed the game's newest hero, Grendel the heavy weapons and explosives specialist.

It's been a slow week for news in the MOBA world, with developers pulling out all the stops for GDC 2012 and planning for upcoming events at PAX East 2012 and beyond. This week League of Legends announced that several of the game's classic skins will soon be retired and are available temporarily for a 75% discount. Riot Games detailed plans for its upcoming events at PAX East, and the IntelEM tournament finals went off without a hitch. The latest Dota 2 patch added a new passive bot difficulty mode that forces bots to stay in their lanes and introduced a series of balance tweaks.

Continue reading Not So Massively: Diablo III shows signs of release

Not So Massively: Diablo III shows signs of release originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Online nukes over a thousand botters from orbit

Matt Daniel — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, News items, Dev Diaries, Sandbox

Look upon CCP's works, ye botters, and despair! EVE Online players recently noticed "by virtue of reading various shady forums" that the CCP team has suspended or banned a large number of botters. CCP Sreegs stopped by the official site today to respond to some of the community reactions to the mass bot-nuking. Many fans seem to believe that the bannings are a publicitity stunt to drum up interest in the upcoming Fanfest. CCP Sreegs responds that, of course, this isn't the case. He notes that during CCP's recent periods of turbulence, there was no team responsible for "handling the technology responsible for nuking botters," but now that there's a full team once more, "[CCP has] now thrown the switch again and turned on the catching bad guys machine."

Other players are crying out that the current three-strike system is too soft-hearted. Sreegs respectfully disagrees, citing the fact that, of all players that go on to receive two strikes, only something like 3% go on to earn a third. But what's to stop these problem players from transferring their characters to a new account and carrying on as usual? Sreegs also announced that a new system is being put in place that will indefinitely revoke the character transfer privileges of any suspended players, no matter how many strikes they have against them. For the full story as well as a bit of insight as to how CCP deals with botters and cheaters, just click on through the link below.

EVE Online nukes over a thousand botters from orbit originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

League of Legends update bringing sharper AI, new bots

Matt Daniel — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Patches, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, MOBA

League of Legends is well known for its challenging team-based gameplay and its rather steep learning curve, leading many users to play co-operatively against AI in order to hone their skills. In addition, co-op vs. AI is "the primary game mode for a surprisingly large percentage of users" according to senior producer Mark Norris. In light of this, Riot Games is bringing a huge new update to League of Legends' AI matches.

For starters, Riot will be introducing AI bots for a whopping 40 of the game's champions, allowing players to test their mettle against a wider variety of opponents. In addition, the AI itself is in for an update that will allow bots to behave more like their human counterparts by utilizing predictive targeting for skillshots (such as Ashe's ultimate) and employing a great deal more strategy than the current bots. Of course, there are still some things that bots can't do (such as intelligent jungling), but Norris suggests "that's actually a huge advanced area that we do want to look at and get into, that we're in the the real rudimentary stages of trying to figure out right now."

For the full details on what awaits players in the upcoming AI update, just click on through the link below and read the full story.

League of Legends update bringing sharper AI, new bots originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Silkroad-R adding new server, gearing up for re-launch

Jef Reahard — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Silkroad Online, Free-to-play

When we heard about Silkroad-R, our first thought was buhwhat? Is Joymax getting into race cars or something? As it turns out, the "R" stands for rebirth, and the free-to-play fantasy MMO is being groomed for a new launch in 2012 (sans some of the problems that plagued it in its original run).

A new Joymax press release describes the leaner, meaner Silkroad as "the all-new, light and easy- to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game that picks up where the original left off." The company is also touting a "bot-free and lag-free experience" that includes a new server to cope with the expected new-user demand.

Open beta testing is going on now through January 17th, 2012, and you can learn more about the reboot at the official Silkroad website.

[Source: Joymax press release]

Silkroad-R adding new server, gearing up for re-launch originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Do you feel companies do enough to fight bots?

Eliot Lefebvre — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

They lurk in the dark corners of every MMO, sometimes farming gold, sometimes just taking care of tasks that actual players feel are too tedious to bother with. Bots have been a part of the MMO sphere for years now, and while games like RuneScape have recently brought them back to the foreground of attention, nothing has ever managed to push them completely out of the limelight. If you play an MMO, you have to work around them.

Development teams, of course, regard bots as fundamental problems, and usually a great deal of time is devoted to trying to quash bots for farming or repetitive tasks. But do you feel enough is done to try and stop them? Do you believe they're a result of game systems that are designed for too much grind and not enough fun? Or do you think they're just another face of cheating and deserve no special attention?

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!

The Daily Grind: Do you feel companies do enough to fight bots? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Free for All: The real damage of botting, in the words of a botter

Beau Hindman — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Economy, Opinion, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser, Free for All

I received an interesting email from someone the other day, someone who wanted to let me in on the lifestyle of a botter. Frankly I was a little embarrassed for the guy since he seemed to believe me to be naive about the entire process. The truth is that I have met plenty of shady characters and heard stories that would make your eyes bug out of your head. I've heard these stories from the developers and players themselves. There truly is some nasty stuff going on in MMO gaming.

The saddest thing is that cheaters honestly think that what they do cannot possibly result in much harm for the game they are botting in, cheating at, or hacking up. It's sad because the truth is that a cheater, as one person, might not have much of an impact on the game. Add up several thousands of these scam artists and the results are mindboggling. Drive by your local dump to see just how much trash can pile up, one person at a time.

I want to shine some light on just how damaging botting can be. Click past the cut.

Continue reading Free for All: The real damage of botting, in the words of a botter

Free for All: The real damage of botting, in the words of a botter originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

RuneScape dev panel highlights incredible success of bot bans

Brendan Drain — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Patches, News items, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Casual, Dev Diaries

Over the past few weeks, we've heard a great deal about browser MMO RuneScape's struggle against botting and RMT. The bot problem has become progressively worse over the past year, with bot makers countering every change developers made to stop their bots from working. This week developer Jagex celebrated bot-nuking day as it deployed a massive update designed to permanently stop all of the popular reflection and injection bots from working.

At this year's annual RuneFest event, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard presented a fantastic insider panel on the facts and figures behind bot-nuking day. Mark explained the company's position -- that normal players botting to speed up gameplay was counter to the goals of RuneScape. "We don't want your computer to play with our computer," he told attendees, "we want you to have fun with our community." Before delving into facts and figures, Mark reminded attendees of the element of unfairness that bots create. "I want to know that if I'm putting in 30 minutes this evening, that that 30 minutes is equal to everyone else's 30 minutes."

Want to know how many million accounts were banned since bot-nuking day? Read on for a summary of the facts and figures from the talk and to watch the full video in HD.

Continue reading RuneScape dev panel highlights incredible success of bot bans

RuneScape dev panel highlights incredible success of bot bans originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Free for All: Why RuneScape is almost perfect for me, not bots

Beau Hindman — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: Screenshots, Culture, Opinion, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, Free for All

As I write this, I am eagerly awaiting the morning and the Bot Nuking Day in RuneScape. Hopefully, this means that "98 percent" of the bots in game will be busted, destroyed, banned and "nuked." Of course, I can't say that I have ever met a bot. For all I know, they are a friendly bunch, restricted only by the crippling desire to grind out items and gold. Poor fellows; this is going to hurt to watch.

Other than the bots (who otherwise seem like charming individuals,) I enjoy myself in the game. In fact, I love the game. There are few titles that reside in that warm spot in my gut (I keep my heart there), but RuneScape is one of them. If you'd like to skip the article so you can post snarky comments about how horrible Jagex is and to claim I'm not actually having fun, you have my permission.

Otherwise, click past the cut!

Continue reading Free for All: Why RuneScape is almost perfect for me, not bots

Free for All: Why RuneScape is almost perfect for me, not bots originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jagex levies a lawsuit against RuneScape botters

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Legal

As RuneScape staggers under the assault of thousands of bots, Jagex is pulling out a pair of big guns to meet the problem head-on. The first weapon was yesterday's "Bot-Nuking Day," in which a patch was released that was supposed to deal with 98% of the botting in the game. The second is an official email sent to suspected botters threatening them with a class-action lawsuit if they don't desist.

In the email, Jagex calls out the suspected behavior and offers the player a "one-time amnesty lifeline" to shape up. These players will be placed on a watch list and will be monitored for any further botting action. If the player persists in cheating, then Jagex promises to not only remove their account permanently but to include the player in a mass lawsuit.

"If you ignore our offer and instead continue use botting software, we reserve our rights to pursue statutory damages against you for between $200 to $2,500 per act of past, present, and/or future botting," the letter states.

A Jagex mod on the RuneScape forums confirmed that these emails are real.

Jagex levies a lawsuit against RuneScape botters originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

RuneScape celebrates 'bot-nuking day' this Tuesday

Brendan Drain — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, MMO industry, Patches, RuneScape, Free-to-play

Last week we reported that veteran browser MMO RuneScape was losing its ongoing war on bots. Players have begun botting on a massive scale, and it's become increasingly difficult to distinguish bots from ordinary players. Developer Jagex asked for help from the playerbase in solving the botting problem and announced its intention to continue fighting legal battles against the creators of bot programs.

In a new community update this week, Jagex Chief Executive Officer Mark Gerhard announced the release of a new doomsday weapon in the war on bots. In an upcoming patch on October 25th, Jagex will be "launching our most formidable bot-busting weapon in our history, targeting what we believe to be 98% of the bots seen in game." This update permanently prevents reflection bots from working and the effects should be immediately visible in-game. To celebrate "bot-nuking day", Tuesday's patch brings four days of events and minigame bonuses for regular players.

[Thanks to David for the tip!]

RuneScape celebrates 'bot-nuking day' this Tuesday originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

RuneScape is losing the war on bots

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, MMO industry, News items, RuneScape

We have an expectation of conflicts made up of good vs. evil. What we don't usually expect is for evil to win. But in RuneScape's war against the evil of botting, that appears to be what's happening. In a letter from Daniel Clough, it was explained that despite the development team's best efforts, the war on bots is being won by the botters. The re-introduction of the Wilderness and Free Trade has resulted in an explosion of gold farming and botting that just can't be held back.

The letter goes on to urge players to not utilize these services and report anyone known to be using them and outlines the steps being taken to try to beat back the tide. But as Clough puts it, while the staff sinks significant time and money into fighting the problem, it's fighting an opponent whose only business goal is to get back into the game. It's grim news for the game's players, certainly, and it doesn't bode well for the many other games waging the same battles.

RuneScape is losing the war on bots originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Fighting the EverQuest hacking wildfire

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, Bugs

While hacking and botting may not be a source of frustration to you in your daily MMO, to the denizens of EverQuest, it is a real and ever-present headache. In what is already not the easiest MMO on the planet, players are experiencing an onslaught of hackers who go out of their way to ruin the fun for everyone.

In a three-part series, Ten Ton Hammer exposes the systematic problem of rampant hacking in the game, especially on the new progression servers. While guilds are doing their part to crack down on hackers in their midst, it doesn't seem to be enough to stem the flow, especially as with a much smaller team in place these days.

Ultimately, fighting this problem does not seem to be SOE's current priority. EQ Producer Thom Terazzas addressed the issue of hacking by saying, "The expansion is something that we're really focused on right now. That has gotten, I would say, 80 percent of the focus here. So doing anything that dramatically combats the hacking is something that we would really like to do, but it is not something we've been able to do."

Terazzas followed that up by talking with the Customer Service team and promised that the hackings will receive higher priority once the expansion crunch is over. In the meantime, he urged players to file reports with CS if hacking was observed.

Fighting the EverQuest hacking wildfire originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Online introduces new bot-reporting feature

Brendan Drain — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items

Botting is an almost universal problem in the MMO scene, disrupting in-game economies and often funding shady RMT operations. EVE Online has always been a big target for the RMT industry as much of a character's progression relies on in-game currency. In a world where you can buy a bigger ship, better modules and even the loyalty of player-run mercenary corporations, demand for the illicit sale of ISK is high.

Several years ago CCP banned over 6200 botters as part of Operation Unholy Rage and launched the PLEX system to provide a legitimate way to buy ISK that doesn't harm the game economy and helps cash-poor players fund their subscription with in-game ISK. This week, CCP continued its plans to rid New Eden of bots with a devblog on its recently implemented "report bot" feature. The devblog explains how to identify a bot, how to report it and the steps GMs take after investigation of reported characters.

EVE Online introduces new bot-reporting feature originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

North Korea employing MMO hackers to fund government

Jef Reahard — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Lineage, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, News items

What's a dictator to do when his third-world economy is wheezing along on its last legs? Hack some video games, of course! According to a report in the New York Times, North Korea's Kim Jong-il unleashed an army of young computer crackers on popular South Korean online gaming portals to find ways to make quick cash.

South Korean authorities claim that a squad of approximately 30 hackers operated from a base in China and were given the mission of breaching online gaming servers (including those of the immensely popular Lineage) to set up bot factories and automated farming collectives. The digital booty was then sold to gamers for a reported $6 million over two years.

Chung Kil-hwan, a senior officer at South Korea's International Crime Investigation Unit, says that the hacker group "reports to a shadowy Communist Party agency called Office 39, which gathers foreign hard currency for Mr. Kim through drug trafficking, counterfeiting, arms sales, and other illicit activities."

North Korea employing MMO hackers to fund government originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu

Brendan Drain — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Culture, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry

EVE Spotlight is a new bi-weekly feature in which we interview prominent members of EVE Online's player community or development team. Twice each month, we'll be shining the spotlight on a player or developer who has a significant impact on EVE to highlight the efforts of EVE's most influential people.

It's almost an unwritten rule of game development that someone from quality assurance should never be promoted into a game design role. Game testing and QA are said to be so fundamentally different to design that it's argued the roles require incompatible skillsets. Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason has definitely proven that this isn't the case, successfully migrating from QA to game design and finally being promoted to senior producer on EVE Online. Taking over from CCP T0rfifrans, Arnar has become a very public figure for CCP in the EVE community.

Older players will remember Arnar as CCP Zulupark, that horrible guy who nerfed their carriers back in 2007. Alternatively, you may remember a fantastic forum thread from 2008 in which he personally answered countless player questions on game design and balance issues. Since becoming senior producer on EVE, Arnar has been a strong advocate of this kind of heavy communication with players. Through devblogs, interviews and interactions with the Council of Stellar Management, he's helped to fill the information vacuum players have become accustomed to.

We caught up with EVE senior producer Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason several weeks ago at the EVE Fanfest. In this EVE Spotlight, I ask him about communication with players, the role of live events in future expansions, and other topics.

Continue reading EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu

EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

BBC suggests gold farming may bolster poorer economies

Jef Reahard — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Culture, Economy, MMO industry, News items

Who says gold farmers are devilspawn and deserving of a fate worse than death? Well, a lot of MMO gamers say that, but a news blurb on the BBC's website suggests that some virtual currency farmers may have a higher purpose after all.

Citing a report at InfoDev.org, the BBC posits that gold farmers are simply filling a role in the global supply and demand economy. "Western players who have limited time for gaming are buying game cash, gear and high level characters from people in China and Vietnam that are paid to play as a job," the article states.

The BBC also notes that the most recent global virtual sales estimates put the total market worth in the neighborhood of $3 billion. Approximately 30% of that is generated by legit players, 50% comes from bot farms, and the remaining 20% is pilfered from compromised accounts. Whether or not you tremble in anger at the thought of MMO gold farming or dismiss it as a modern-day reality, it seems as if it's here to stay, and according to the BBC, it might even provide economic aid to poor nations. "The virtual economy can have a significant impact on local economies despite its modest size," according to the article.

BBC suggests gold farming may bolster poorer economies originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively's EVE CSM interview: EVE Gate, microtransactions and more

Brendan Drain — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion

Earlier this month, the official minutes of meetings between CCP Games and EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management were published to the general public. EVE's democratically elected council of volunteer players meets with CCP's developers twice per year at the company's headquarters in Iceland. At the meetings, the concerns of EVE's players and details of upcoming expansions are discussed. Response to the December summit's minutes has been largely positive so far, which is a huge turnaround from June's tirade of negativity.

EVE blogs have been considering some of the problems raised in the meetings, and insider Keith Neilson delivered his assessment of how the meetings went right here on Massively. The only people we have yet to hear from are the council members themselves. To make sure the CSM has its say in the public arena, Massively interviewed council member Dierdra Vaal about the summit and asked some critical questions on CCP's plans for EVE's future. In this first of two interviews, we discussed EVE Gate, the growing botting problem, user interface upgrades, CCP's microtransaction policy, how the summit went in general, and how attitudes within CCP have changed toward the CSM.

Skip past the cut to read the first of two illuminating interviews with EVE Online's CSM.

Continue reading Massively's EVE CSM interview: EVE Gate, microtransactions and more

Massively's EVE CSM interview: EVE Gate, microtransactions and more originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Global Agenda hints at new Dome Defense mission

Jef Reahard — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, News items, PvE, Free-to-play, Global Agenda

Just when you thought it was safe to park your agent in a secluded corner of the dome and troll the city chat, Hi-Rez Studios is hinting at a new Dome Defense mission coming soon to spy-fi shooter Global Agenda. In a series of teaser posts to its Facebook page, Hi-Rez says the mission is "not quite ready for the public test server yet," but is the nonetheless exciting enough to warrant three new screenshots.

In keeping with Global Agenda's free-to-play theme, the new mission won't cost game owners a dime, and it will feature attacks from Recursive Colony bots as well as grim-faced NPC Dalton Bancroft in a support role. Check out the new screens in our gallery below and stay tuned for further info.

Gallery: Hi-Rez Studios and Global Agenda Gallery

Global Agenda hints at new Dome Defense mission originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Rise and Shiny recap: Dofus

Beau Hindman — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Dofus, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Mac, Casual, Rise and Shiny, Livestream

Years ago I had to find a job in my new home state of Texas. Luckily for me, my wife hooked me up with a friend who helped me get hired at Starbucks. At first, I hung my head in shame. Later, though, I enjoyed dealing with customers and the free coffee. I had a co-worker, a real chin-scratching, coffee house wanna-be intellectual who would often spend more time dreaming about some game than about getting people on their breaks. He even brought his Macbook to work to sneak in time in the game.

I glanced over his shoulder one day and was delighted to see an odd-looking, cartoony, turn-based game on his screen. It turned out that the game was Dofus. I tried it immediately and fell in love with it, but that was years ago. I still found time to revisit the game, but once I started working at Massively, most of my time became dedicated to every other game in the world.

Well, it's time to visit it again. During the first part of this week, though, I thought this was going to be a disaster. I stayed strong and battled my way through bot after bot, spam message after spam message, and eventually found the great game I remember. Click past the cut to see exactly what I found!

Continue reading Rise and Shiny recap: Dofus

Rise and Shiny recap: Dofus originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Wings Over Atreia: What's in a name?

MJ Guthrie — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Opinion, Wings Over Atreia

Classic balladry informs us that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Would the same hold true of an Elyos or an Asmodian? OK, maybe sweet-smelling and back hair don't necessarily mix (and let's not even ask how long that Elyos has been stuffed in all-encompassing armor), but there is no denying the impact a name has in Aion.

Unlike those handed us at our birth (and with few exceptions kept throughout our lives), names in games are completely self-inflicted; we have control over what the floaty text above our heads announces to the rest of our pixel world. And announce it does -- more than many people even stop to think about. A name is so much more than just a convenient way to send whispers or in-game mail to others within Aion; with only a glance, your name implies much about you, your playstyle, and your personality. It is not uncommon for people to actually base their grouping decisions, their legion recruitment, their trust in you, and more on just a simple glance at your in-game moniker or your legion tag.

Whether the impact is born of reputation or of first impressions, others have a reaction to and make decisions based simply on names. Fly past the cut to see how different monikers influence the world we live, fly, and fight in.

Continue reading Wings Over Atreia: What's in a name?

Wings Over Atreia: What's in a name? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The lesser of two evils is still evil

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Exploits, MMO industry, Opinion

There are a lot of choices we face where we don't so much pick a good option as we pick the option that's least negative. Most people would argue that going to work is a better choice than faking illness and calling out, but not really a choice they like. Kill Ten Rats recently posed an interesting question along the same lines: would you rather your game have gold farmers or cheaters?

As the full piece argues, gold farmers are the greater evil to the companies running the game -- they aren't paying customers and they're disrupting the playerbase. But the average player is more likely to run into cheaters than gold farmers, and they're more likely to have a direct negative effect upon the experience of the game. Yet teams tend to be more active in pursuing gold farmers (witness Aion's theatrical destruction of them) because cheaters, to the company, are a slightly lesser problem.

Obviously, it's not a binary equation, and some games (such as Final Fantasy XI) place both at an equally high target priority. The fundamental question, however, is an excellent one -- cheating jerks, or RMT bots? There's no good option.

The lesser of two evils is still evil originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

See an Aion GM in action blowing up spammers

William Dobson — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Humor

NCsoft has always been fairly vocal about about their assault on Aion's goldspammer and bot epidemic. They bolstered the game's spam filter a while ago and their Game Surveillance Unit reportedly banned over 27,000 botting accounts just last week. It's great to hear about these positive statistics, but if your game experience has been ruined in the past by some of these unsavory characters, you might be looking for something more visceral -- and thankfully, we've got that for you.

Enter Youtube user MidoriPeanut, who managed to catch an Aion GM in the throes of a banning spree and recorded it all for the rest of us to enjoy. The movie features the GM blowing up a number of goldspammer ad stores, all set to the dramatic Syringe by Emilie Autumn. Sure, this could all take place behind the scenes and the offenders would quietly disappear from the world, but isn't it a lot more fun seeing them cast off to hell by a cutesy animal? Get out the popcorn and head past the break to see the banishing in action.

Continue reading See an Aion GM in action blowing up spammers

See an Aion GM in action blowing up spammers originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

NCsoft bans 16,000 Aion accounts

Kyle Horner — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, News items

One of the continued complaints we hear from Aion players is that bots litter the game's digital landscape, severely reducing the enjoyment of actual flesh-n-bones players. So we feel inclined to shout, "Good news, everybody!" at today's announcement by NCsoft that nearly 16,000 accounts have been banned during a recent unscheduled server reboot.

That's a huge number and certainly nothing to scoff about. This should hopefully alleviate much of the problem, at least temporarily -- and then future banhammers will likely come crashing down.

We hope nobody was caught in the crossfire with today's bans, but if you do find yourself without an Aion account to play and are 100% sure of your innocence, you can create a support ticket. Obviously, this isn't ideal if you're suddenly without your account, so with any luck there aren't any cases of mistakenly banned players.

NCsoft bans 16,000 Aion accounts originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

GDC China 09: Netease speaks on combating botters

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play

GDC China 2009 is currently in high gear until tomorrow, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about some of the panels today! One of the highlights for the MMO industry was certainly the talk given by Yunfeng Lin, the design director at NetEase, on keeping up with botters and bot programs.

NetEase, the operator of the three Westward Journey games, Flyff (and here's the American version of Flyff), and the 100 pound gorilla that is World of Warcraft, is in a very unique position to speak on the troubles botters present to online communities. Westward Journey and World of Warcraft both draw huge numbers of people in China, but that also means they draw a huge number of botters.

Continue reading GDC China 09: Netease speaks on combating botters

GDC China 09: Netease speaks on combating botters originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Big improvements in Aion 1.5.1 patch

Brooke Pilley — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Patches

The folks over at AionSource were kind enough to translate the latest Aion patch notes being tested in Korea. ~~There's no word yet on when western players will see these changes~~, but the notes are still worth reading because there are some big improvements. Three items stood out to us especially.

Based on the table shown in the notes, quest experience is being increased; to the tune of almost 500% on average (if our calculations are correct). The craziest example is a level 44 quest going from 13,300 to 703,820 experience (53 times as much).

Extracting aether now has a chance to debuff you with "Aether Venom." This debuff reduces your chance to successfully extract a gatherable down to 0. Players can remove this effect with a "Word of Purification" ability. Each character has this ability but to successfully use it, one must properly type in a captcha. This seems like an obvious attempt to prevent bots from gathering up all the game's resources.

Finally, Spiritmaster pets can now fly. We're not quite sure how this issue ever made it into the game at launch (design oversight or complication?), but 1.5.1 aims to finally remedy it so Spiritmasters aren't totally gimped in aerial PvP. Be sure to check out the full notes here.

[Update: These notes are for the Korean test server, so they're not final notes for the Western version.]

Big improvements in Aion 1.5.1 patch originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: What do you think of the WoW downtime in China

Lesley Smith — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Expansions, MMO industry, Patches, The Daily Grind

For the citizens of China, Azeroth is silent. During the transition from The9 to NetEase, the servers have been taken offline leaving millions of people with nothing to do. There are other MMOs, plenty in fact. Some from the west and loads with that distinctly eastern vibe. Yet I'm sure WoW has the vast majority of the Chinese MMO player base suffering major withdrawal and pining for Azeroth. Of course, many will have transferred to Taiwanese servers where Wrath is already live, up to date and there is no downtime but the vast majority will be left waiting.

The most contact we have with Chinese players is usually through whispers asking if you want to buy gold, gnome corpses in Ironforge linking to websites, phishing scams and bots. I admit, I've noticed a marked decrease on my own server and the corpses have moved to Stormwind instead. Gold farmers aren't exactly the most positive form of contact and most Chinese players seem to be branded gold farmers regardless (guilty until proven innocent) and treated with disdain. So readers, how have you found the last couple of weeks in Azeroth? What do you think of the forced downtime? How do you think this will effect Chinese players (and I mean players, not farmers or bots)? Do you play on a Chinese realm? Have you migrated and rerolled or are you playing the waiting game?

The Daily Grind: What do you think of the WoW downtime in China originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The U.S. Army to enter the WoW botting business

Shawn Schuster — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Politics

The United States government, in an effort to establish credible and human-realistic AI for their newest literal killing machines, is looking to test the "humanity" of this AI in popular MMOs. According to a recent article, two named MMOs that have been cited as examples for this project include World of Warcraft and EVE Online. "We want to use the massively multi-player online game as an experimental laboratory to see if they're good enough to convince humans that they're actually human," says Dr. John Parmentola, Director of Research and Laboratory Management with the Army's science and technology office.

Regardless of the dozens and dozens of jokes we could easily throw out there (feel free in the comments though!), doesn't it seem odd that U.S. tax dollars are going towards government-issued spam-bots that would essentially violate the Blizzard/CCP EULA? How would you feel knowing that there's a potential government-created Terminator in your guild or raid group? Reserve your Sarah/John Connor character names now!

[Via Brokentoys]

The U.S. Army to enter the WoW botting business originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Magic World Online's open beta starts tomorrow

Samuel Axon — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New titles, News items

Magic World Online -- an MMO from Chinese company Ingle Games -- is an underdog in the MMORPG arena, what with being 2D and all. It's been in closed beta testing for a while now, but if you're curious about it, you'll be pleased to know that the open beta will begin this Friday. You can download the client right away. We haven't played MWO ourselves, but there's an item mall, so we presume it's at least partially microtransaction-based. The interface (and even the website) are ripped almost exactly out of World of Warcraft, though.

MWO hosts a whole bunch of unique features, such as integrated video chat. It also has legitimate, developer-supported bots. Bots -- programs that automate tasks like repeatedly using skills to level them up -- are discouraged in any form by most game developers. According to MWO's website, though, making these tools available to everyone will make the game "the most fair MMORPG." We suppose that's not much different in practice from EVE Online's offline skill training and autopilot traveling.

Magic World Online's open beta starts tomorrow originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMOGology: Attack of the bots

Marc Nottke — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Culture, Exploits, Game mechanics, Opinion, MMOGology

A few weeks ago Tateru Nino wrote a great piece about the use of bots in Second Life as marketing tools to make virtual worlds feel less lonely and appear more populated than they actually are. The article got me thinking about the use of bots in games and the many purposes they serve, not only as virtual avatars, but more frequently as tools used by players to assist them with everyday tasks.

So what exactly is a bot? Although bot is short for robot we're not talking about Tom Servo or Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (although I guess technically they're puppets). Bots are programs with some level of artificial intelligence that are typically created to automate mundane tasks otherwise performed by a human. At their finest, they are tools that help make a gaming experience more enjoyable by streamlining our gameplay, providing us with useful information, or automating otherwise irksome tasks. At their worst, bots are exploits used by hackers to grind through a game while the player is away from their keyboards. For the purposes of today's article, I'll be referring to the "legal" variety.

Even if a bot is perfectly legal to use and is not technically exploiting the game, it's still automating tasks you'd otherwise be performing yourself. When we're talking about playing video games, if a bot is doing some of the "gaming" for us, then what exactly are we doing? In automating some of the hum-drum tasks of a game has something of the fun or challenge been lost; or, do bots just help us get to the parts of the game that are fun and challenging?

Continue reading MMOGology: Attack of the bots

MMOGology: Attack of the bots originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 12 May 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Would you play an NPC?

Akela Talamasca — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Classes, Game mechanics, Professions, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Roleplaying

Back in The Day (before all this new-fangled 3D whozits and everything was text-based), when you wanted to roleplay, you weren't constrained by existing character classes or types; you could be anything you wanted. You could be a 10,000 year old vampire bartender, or an infant with a goldfish for a head, or anything in between. Nowadays, there is a clear distinction between player characters (PCs) and non-player characters (NPCs). The former are guided by humans, and the latter are bots.

But what if you had the opportunity to play the role of a traditional NPC? What if you could be that quest-giver, that fish vendor, that city guard? Instead of getting the same spiel over and over as you do now, a player could go have a leisurely chat with an actual person, making your favorite game world feel inhabited and real -- would you be that NPC? Would you do it for experience points that you could transfer to any of your alts? What if there were a leveling system in place for your fish vendor? Would you do it for nothing at all?

The Daily Grind: Would you play an NPC? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

[Updated] Gliding through a nasty Blizzard

Andrew Russo — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Economy, Events, real-world, Exploits, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Legal

Blizzard recently announced the folks behind the creation and sale of the popular Glider program, MDY Industries, are the latest target in an ongoing campaign against bots, hackers, and gold farmers. Blizzard claims that Glider, a third party software program that turns your character into a bot, has caused them in excess of US$20 Million in revenue. In their motion against MDY they claim:

Since Glider levels players faster, Blizzard lost revenue from shortened subscriptions
Glider violates their EULA and TOU through bot-ting
Glider can be used for gold farming, damaging the in game experience of others
Blizzard must spend money and time tracking down Glider users

MDY claims innocence, of course, stating that nowhere in the EULA or TOU (at the time the motions was filed) was a violation dictated that covered the use of the Glider program. Glider does not modify any of the game files nor does it mine or hack data from any of the game servers and thus, they argue, is not a violation of any of the rules governing the use of WoW. MDY believes that Glider 'has actually increased WoW's subscription revenue' since players hit the critical level 70 faster, with less frustration, and often find themselves craving more and opening a second account.

As the creator of Glider, Michael Donnelly, makes clear, it all started as a noble desire to catch up to his friends and enjoy content together. The case has caused Blizzard some bad press over the method used to inform Mr. Donnelly of their desire to sue his company. An unidentified private investigator, a lawyer, and a nice little note at the door asking him to stop selling the product they believe hits them in the wallet. Has Blizzard gone too far? What defines cheating? Who is truly at a loss? All questions we have to find answers to amidst the approaching storm.

[Updated to fix links]

[Updated] Gliding through a nasty Blizzard originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Cinemassively: Virtual Firefighter Training Center

Moo Money — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, Video, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Second Life, Free-to-play, Cinemassively, Machinima

It's getting late and the sun is starting to set when you hear the fire alarm. The fire truck stops in front of a burning building, and you start to canvas the area for survivors of the disaster, while the others are fighting the fire. A man is discovered and is led to safety. This probably happens every day in real life training to be a firefighter, but how often does it happen in a virtual world?

The MASA Group has prepared a Second Life area specifically for training the future heroes. An interesting tidbit to note is that, while we're not sure of the status of the firefighters themselves, the victim roles are all bots. Most departments have live fire drills, with about 99 firefighters killed between 1994 and 2004 from them. Which method do you think is more effective?

For a more comprehensive video of the action, stay tuned after the cut ...

Continue reading Cinemassively: Virtual Firefighter Training Center

Cinemassively: Virtual Firefighter Training Center originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

A brief history of botting

Brenda Holloway — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Exploits, MMO industry, MUDs

Botting -- the act of using a program (a 'bot') to kill mobs, perform quests, harvest nodes and so on -- usually is explicitly banned by a game's EULA, and at least ethically gray even where it wasn't directly ruled out. Right or wrong, botting has been with us since the very dawn of massively multiplayer games, in MUDs -- text-based Multi-User Dungeons.

Raph Koster -- Ultima Online developer, Star Wars Galaxies architect and CEO of game-development-for-the-masses Areae -- brings us back to the days of yore when MUDs first met botters -- and how they dealt with it. It's a stirring tale of autohunters, deathtrap rooms, trigger phrases, healbots and the devs who loved them.

A brief history of botting originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

FFXI "Special Task Force" takes on cheaters

Chris Chester — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:05:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Economy, Exploits

Square Enix proves once again that they are willing to bring the hurt on people who use hacks or exploits to gain an unfair advantage over other players or destabilize the economy of Final Fantasy XI. In a Special Task Force Report, they break down the approximately 8000 bans and suspensions that they've doled out since this time last month.

Among the groups most actively targeted are people using illegal fishing bots, Chinese gil farmers, and people abusing the auction house system for use in real money trading schemes. In so doing, Square plucked a staggering 2.3 billion gil from the hands of cheaters and money traders.

It makes you wonder why more companies aren't actively reporting the numbers of exploiters and gold farmers that they're busting every month. It's not like we don't know the practice exists, just tell us what you're going to do to stop it!

FFXI "Special Task Force" takes on cheaters originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments