Massively

The Soapbox: Game developers are not rock stars

Shawn Schuster — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

Take a moment to think of your single favorite game developer. Is this person your favorite because of his talent? Maybe he made a game that influenced you growing up, or he has a charming personality for interviews. Whatever the reason, we probably all have our favorite game developers whom we hold on a pedestal of greatness.

But did this one person make the game entirely by himself? Did Sid Meier write every line of code for the Civilization games? Did Richard Garriott draw every texture in Tabula Rasa? No, of course they didn't, but their names are right there on the box, showing ownership. Despite my own fanboy appreciation of certain devs, the title of this article says it all. With a few notable exceptions, those who make our favorite games make up a collective group of talented people who come together under proper leadership and design guidelines to create something that keeps us entertained for hours/weeks/months/years.

So why do we pick out one or two and treat them like rock stars?

Continue reading The Soapbox: Game developers are not rock stars

The Soapbox: Game developers are not rock stars originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EverQuest giving away 12 one-year subscriptions for its 12th anniversary

Krystalle Voecks — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, Contests, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, News items, Giveaways

Twelve years ago, several brave adventurers took their first steps into the world of EverQuest and helped to shape the MMO genre. Now, Sony Online Entertainment is gearing up to celebrate all the myriad achievements between that first day and now -- and the company is kicking everything off with a huge giveaway just perfect for dedicated Norrathians! Earlier today SOE announced a Facebook contest that will hook a dozen lucky winners up with a full year of EverQuest game time. However, much like the game it honors, this giveaway quest is only for those adventurers who savor a challenge.

Starting today, the SOE community team will post a daily image on Facebook that has a trivia question on it. All you have to do is drop by the EverQuest Facebook page, look at the image, and mail your answer in to the company's contest email address. From there, one winner will be picked from all the correct answers received each day until all 12 days' worth of giveaways are done. So, if you're up on your Norrathian trivia and would like to land some free game time, then point your browser at the SOE Facebook page and check out all the details!

EverQuest giving away 12 one-year subscriptions for its 12th anniversary originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Meghan "Patience" Jenks leaves Turbine, Andy Belford departs Mythic

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Lord of the Rings Online, MMO industry, Miscellaneous

Today, Turbine lost its Patience -- but not in the way you're thinking. Over Twitter, Meghan "Patience" Jenks announced that after six years, she is leaving the studio to move back to California: "I guess it's time to break the news -- Friday is my last day at Turbine. I'm heading back home to CA. It's been an AMAZING 6 years working on amazing games, but I need to be closer to my family."

Jenks has been the online community manager for Turbine since 2004; she was one of the studio's most vocal personalities and the face that the community most often saw in interviews and on convention panels. She indicated that she does indeed have a new job lined up, although she called her stint overseeing Lord of the Rings Online's community "THE highlight of my career."

If this news upsets you, then Jenks has a few words to cheer you up: "Don't be sad -- if you play Turbine games, you're still in excellent hands with the awesomeness of the Community Team! And no -- YOU CAN'T HAVE MY STUFF. :)"

Update: Meghan's not the only one going to California. BioWare Mythic Community Manager Andy Belford also made his farewells on Twitter earlier today. "Jumping on the go west mentality... I'm no longer with BioWare Mythic. I'm moving closer to the family and have a great new opportunity. [... ] Thanks to the WAR and DAOC communities for the last 2+ years. Thank[s] to Mythic for all of the amazing opportunities. I'll forever be grateful." The west coast (and, no doubt, the gaming companies therein) is certainly about to become much richer! Best of luck to the both of you!

Meghan "Patience" Jenks leaves Turbine, Andy Belford departs Mythic originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively's in-depth interview with SWTOR Community Manager Stephen Reid

Larry Everett — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, New titles, Massively Interviews, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Last Friday, Star Wars: The Old Republic finally revealed the Crew Skills crafting system. In a slightly less important announcement, BioWare also announced its new Community Manager, Stephen Reid. OK, I'm teasing. It is very important announcement. Since Sean Dahlberg stepped down, the community team has been without a face and voice to the community. Those left behind had to put in extra effort into providing the fans with the latest releases from the SWTOR news room, and for a while, the community was unsure who, if anyone, would be able to fill the shoes. Now, Stephen Reid has taken the helm of the massive community starship.

Now since we have a new voice of the SWTOR community team, Massively thought it would be interesting to get his thoughts on the game, on the community, and on how we, the fans, could best make Star Wars: The Old Republic the game it should be. Massively Senior Editor Brianna Royce sat down with Stephen at a recent LucasArts event for an in-depth interview -- join us past the break to see what he had to say!

Continue reading Massively's in-depth interview with SWTOR Community Manager Stephen Reid

Massively's in-depth interview with SWTOR Community Manager Stephen Reid originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

New Ryzom patch enhancing PvP and other social functions

Eliot Lefebvre — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, Ryzom, News items

PvP is a tricky matter to balance in a game with players in all sorts of different gear levels, not to mention accounting for different player skills. Ryzom has tackled the age-old bugbear with its latest patch, attempting to extend and expand the PvP system in the game to everyone. The system has modified the rules for attacking, flagging, and supporting other players, with a small chart in the patch notes explaining who is allowed to do what to whom and when.

In case skewering other players isn't your thing, however, you can invite them into your personal apartment now as well as take advantage of the newly added variable tags for the chat system. There are also enhancements to the apartment customization focusing on getting involved with the community team and as usual a smattering of bugfixes and general performance improvements. If you're part of Ryzom's dedicated audience, take a look at the patch notes to see what 1.10 brings to the game.

New Ryzom patch enhancing PvP and other social functions originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

NYCC 2010: Our interview with FFXIV's Sage Sundi and Yasu Kurosawa

Eliot Lefebvre — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Events, real-world, Interviews, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV

If there were an award for the most controversial game on Massively, that award would probably have to go to Final Fantasy XIV. It's a game with a very different approach to many of the elements that are considered de rigueur for MMOs, which has produced a great deal of affection from some players, a great deal of enmity from others, and a flamewar that burgeons in nearly any thread about even the most innocuous news.

I had a chance to sit down at New York Comic Con with Sage Sundi, FFXIV's global online producer, and Yasu Kurosawa, FFXIV's North American online producer. It was certainly an interesting experience to chat with two of the people responsible in no small part for one of my personal favorite games, but both gentlemen were very polite to discuss the game, its worldwide community, and what lessons had been learned already from launch.

Continue reading NYCC 2010: Our interview with FFXIV's Sage Sundi and Yasu Kurosawa

NYCC 2010: Our interview with FFXIV's Sage Sundi and Yasu Kurosawa originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

SOE is sending you a streaming video of love

Seraphina Brennan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items

The holiday of love is rapidly approaching, and SOE is doing something a little different this year. In addition to your standard Valentine's Day events, like EverQuest II's Erollisi Day, they're also putting together a streaming video Valentine's Day party.

The party will commence on Friday, February 12th, at 1 PM PT (4 PM ET) on SOE's Ustream channel. The community team will be gathered to make paper hearts and answer your questions live in the Ustream chat room while they deliver player submitted Valentine's Day greetings and announcements. SOE developers will also be dropping by the party to talk with players, so you never know what will happen!

Today, however, is the last day to submit your own personal greetings to the party! The full instructions are available at the official announcement on any of the SOE sites, but you can be lazy and click this link to go straight to them on the EverQuest II site.

SOE is sending you a streaming video of love originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Final Fantasy XI's community team goes on a podcast tour

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Culture, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, Interviews, News items, Consoles

The Final Fantasy XI community team members are going on a virtual tour, stopping by each of the major podcasts to answer some questions and get in-depth with what they do on the long running fantasy MMO.

Pet Food Alpha, Limit Break Radio, and He Says She Says will each be playing host to various members of the community team, with Pet Food Alpha leading the way on the first show. PFA will be covering topics on global support, as well as the premier and community websites with special guest Robert Peeler. He Says She Says will be all about the many in-game seasonal events with special guest Matt Hilton, and Limit Break Radio will be covering the topic of live events with both Matt Hilton and Robert Peeler.

Pet Food Alpha has already posted the first show, with the He Says She Says show coming only two days away from now on May 6th. Lastly, Limit Break Radio will be posting their podcast on May 13th, next Wednesday.

Final Fantasy XI's community team goes on a podcast tour originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 May 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Aion's European community team makes the leap across the pond

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Culture, MMO industry, News items

Going along with the continuous restructuring of NCsoft West, the European Aion community team has recently been invited to take the long swim across the Atlantic Ocean and join US community manager Liv in Seattle, forming a unified Aion community team.

Sebastian "Ayase" Streiffert, the United Kingdom community manager, and Martin "Amboss" Rabl, the German community manager will be flying to the United States, while Loic "Atreid" Claveau, the French community manager, has declined the position in favor of moving to the marketing department in Brighton.

Ayase, Amboss, and Atreid have all written blog posts reflecting on their individual decisions, and they can be read over at the Aion Europe community site. Amboss's and Atreid's posts have been written in their native languages, but it's nothing that a web translator can't handle. (And by handle I mean rip to shreds, but at least give you the general idea.)

Welcome to the United States, Ayase and Amboss!

Aion's European community team makes the leap across the pond originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Tabula Rasa to get emote-tional at Comic-Con

Chris Chester — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Contests, Events, real-world, Tabula Rasa

With all the flaws we've seen in Tabula Rasa over the last eight months, one thing we'd never criticize the game for is a lack of creativity from the community team. They've consistently done their best to keep their community engaged, despite the fact that said community is disbursed around the internet due to the lack of an official forum. Their support team has pulled in similar praise in the past as well.

Continuing their reign of awesomeness, the Tabula Rasa community team is going to be spear-heading a new event at this year's Comic-Con. Critters and co. will be setting up a booth giving away free Tabula Rasa goodies, an exclusive Lumin pet, and filming fans performing their best real-world emotes. They'll take the footage back to their Austin offices and vote on which one is the best, and actually recreate it in-game. It's a pretty neat contest, and we recommend you check it out (booth #5209) if you're headed to Comic-Con this year.

Tabula Rasa to get emote-tional at Comic-Con originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Tell the LotRO Community Team (tenth in a forum series)

Matt Warner — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Forums, Opinion

Massively sees what the sneaky community specialist Tolero is up to with this running feature over on the official Lord of the Rings Online forums. Every week questions are posed to the players, when it's all said and done the information is data-mined by the developers with the help of some Hobbits. All of this is then used to make the game a shinier/happier place. This week the following questions are:

When playing any multi-player game, which of the following best describes you?
When you visit community forums, what is your primary interest in doing so? (examples: news from developers, socializing with server mates, at work and can't log in, etc)
What is your most happy and/or memorable in-game moment?

Feel free to join in on the discussion over on the official forums. We really like this; it's a feature is a great way to foster community and collect feedback from the playerbase.

Tell the LotRO Community Team (tenth in a forum series) originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 May 2008 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Give the LotRO community team a piece of your mind, part IX

Kyle Horner — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Lord of the Rings Online, New titles, Opinion

The community team for Lord of the Rings Online once again wants to ask you (their players) some questions so they can hear your answers. There's an ongoing thread on the official forums where your answers can be posted. Think of this as both a way to give the community team your feedback and any express thanks you may have for them. There isn't a more auspicious community space than this to make writ your words.

Congratulations are due to the Lord of the Rings Online community team for these threads, as they are a wonderful way to speak directly to the entire community team. There's a question in the thread that we felt was worth answering ourselves and that question is, "If you could thank a Turbine representative for something, what would that something be?" Our answer to that is: For being awesome.

Give the LotRO community team a piece of your mind, part IX originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Week 5 of the "Tell the LotRO Community Team" series

William Dobson — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Forums, Opinion

A fresh batch of questions has been cooked up by the Lord of the Rings Online Community Team, and players wishing to contribute to the growing feedback repository can visit this week's thread. The new questions are:

Of your characters that you enjoy playing the most, or the most often, what is the highest character level you've achieved? (Example: You currently have a level 45 Minstrel, a level 20 Lore Master, and a level 12 Champion, but these days you find yourself playing your Champion more consistently than your Lore Master or Minstrel. The response to this question would be "level 12".)
What was your favorite in-game event you've attended from any game, LotRO or otherwise?
When talking with friends/acquaintances about LotRO, what's the first thing you mention to them?

You're free to comment on last week's questions along with this week's answers, and they can be found here.

Week 5 of the "Tell the LotRO Community Team" series originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

"Tell the LotRO Community Team" is back for Round 4

William Dobson — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Forums, Opinion

Lord of the Rings Online community specialist Tolero has returned with some more questions for the fans to answer, in the fourth week of the "Tell the LotRO Community Team" series. Another three new questions are posed:

What is your favorite LotRO creature and why?
How often do you play LotRO?
What was the most difficult aspect about LotRO when you were a new player?

Go through to the forum thread to join the discussion and give your answers -- it looks like there are already lots of varying and interesting answers out there, especially for the third of these questions, which should provide very helpful feedback for future improvements. Like in previous weeks, you still have the option of answering Round 3's questions in this week's thread too.

"Tell the LotRO Community Team" is back for Round 4 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Round 3 of "Tell the LotRO Community Team"

William Dobson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Forums, Opinion

We're into the third week of the "Tell the LotRO Community Team" series at the Lord of the Rings Online forums. For the uninitiated, this is yet another way in which Turbine is collecting feedback from the player base to make sure that LotRO is kept relevant and fun for the foreseeable future. Three new questions are in this week's thread:

How did you first hear about LotRO?
What do you find yourself spending the most time doing when you're not questing?
What is the most important feature a game can have to make it enjoyable for you?

As with round two, you can answer last week's questions in this week's thread if you didn't do so before. People are still getting really involved with this project, so jump in and join the fun.

Round 3 of "Tell the LotRO Community Team" originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Four new questions for "Tell the LotRO Community Team #2"

William Dobson — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Forums, Opinion

Round two of "Tell the LotRO Community Team" is underway, and four new questions have been offered up for players to take a stab at. This week's questions are:

Is this your first MMO?
Imagine you've been appointed to be the lead developer -- what's one of the first things you would do on your very first day on the job?
If you had to pick one of these words, which would it be? Winning, Fun, People, Stories
What's something about LotRO that you hope never changes?

We have to choose? Why not Fun Stories about Winning People? Join in the fun and give the Community Team your valuable feedback -- and don't forget that you can answer last week's questions along with your answers for round two, if you missed out before.

Four new questions for "Tell the LotRO Community Team #2" originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Your chance to "Tell the LotRO Community Team"

William Dobson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Forums, Opinion

A new feature at the Lord of the Rings Online forums called "Tell the LotRO Community Team" is giving players an opportunity to voice their opinions on various game-related topics. These topics are chosen by members of the LotRO community team, and new questions will be posed each week. For last week, the questions were:

If you could describe your favorite playstyle in one word, what would that word be?

What is your favorite thing about LotRO?

If our CEO gave you three wishes, what would you wish for?

Over 10 pages worth of responses have come in, and players are still free to add their two copper. A new set of questions should be brought up soon, but even when they do, the community team have said that last week's questions will be included for those that didn't get in on the previous round. The aim of all of this is to bring important issues that you may have to the attention of those that can do something about it, and also to give props to the kind of thing that you want to see more of -- so head over to the forums if you want a hand in shaping LotRO's future.

Your chance to "Tell the LotRO Community Team" originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments