Massively

Making the 'jump' from Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2

Brianna Royce — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Guild Wars, Business models, Classes, Economy, Game mechanics, Guilds, Lore, Previews, PvP, Endgame, Guild Wars 2, Hands-on, Guides, Dungeons, Crafting

The second Guild Wars 2 press beta weekend has come and gone, and Massively was there every step of the way. Stay tuned throughout the day today for even more guides, impressions, videos, and Q&As to get you ready for the highly anticipated sequel to Guild Wars.

Guild Wars 2 is on the way (when it's ready), and classic Guild Wars players probably understand that soon they'll be competing with a younger sibling -- a smarter, more attractive one who's sure to get more of mom's attention. And while we're sure that some of the more stalwart Guild Wars 2 fans are also Guild Wars players, not all veterans of the first edition are dedicated to licking up every drop of sequel info squeezed out of blogs, conventions, and betas. Those veterans might just be wondering, what exactly can Guild Wars 2 offer them, other than Hall of Monuments tie-ins? What's changed? What's the same? What will they love, what will they hate, and what could possibly make them jump ship to the new hotness?

The first and most important thing you must know is that yes, you can jump in Guild Wars 2! Seriously, though, jumping is more than just a thing you do with your spacebar when you're bored; it's a symbol of boundlessness. Guild Wars 2 itself is trying to jump a lot higher than its elder brother, and probably the essential difference between the games is that feeling that the walls have come down and gravity is letting loose. That alone should urge classic players to take a peek, but if that's not enough for you, fire up your Jeremy Soule soundtracks (yes, he's onboard for an encore!) and read on...

Continue reading Making the 'jump' from Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2

Making the 'jump' from Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Scott Hartsman: A fully dynamic RIFT 'lacked clarity'

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Interviews, RIFT

It's a well-known fact that throughout a good portion of its development process, RIFT was designed to be a completely dynamic world free from the traditional questing system. So why did Trion Worlds feel the need to shoehorn in these established MMO elements?

Scott Hartsman doesn't duck the question in a recent interview but gives an open explanation for how the process came to be. He said the team originally began with a huge concept of a world where everything could change and be transitory but discovered that it had one big flaw: Players didn't feel connected to the world they were supposed to be saving.

"A lot of it came down to a lack of clarity," Hartsman admits. "People need to feel like they have a place in the world in order to feel like it's a world they want to keep coming back to." To provide a way to anchor players in the story and place of the world, the team went back and added a static layer in addition to the dynamic one already present and created new ways for the two to interact.

Hartsman reveals that everything in RIFT is created, balanced, and scaled by designers, as the team rejects fully machine-generated content (although the devs have used programs to assist in the design). He says that the team's main focus, from before launch until now, has been to get its subscribers to play together, as those relationships help "stick" a player to a game like nothing else.

Scott Hartsman: A fully dynamic RIFT 'lacked clarity' originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ultima producer's letter teases 2012 content

Jef Reahard — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Ultima Online, Sandbox

Did you know that Ultima Online turns 15 this year? It surely does, and if you're not having a geriatric fit over that fact and wondering where the time has gone, well, get off our lawns.

In all seriousness, UO grand poobah Jeff Skalski has favored the masses with a producer's letter, and he drops several hints about what's to come for the 2012 version of Sosaria. Publish 74 is officially live, and the dev team is already hard at work on its followup, which Skalski says will address "a handful of long overdue bugs" as well as further the game's dynamic story arcs.

Skalski also tells us that the artwork for the enhanced client is still in the oven, and in fact the makeover has turned out to be "more challenging than planned." As a result, it's not quite ready for primetime, but rest assured that it is still a priority. As always, more info is available at the official UO website.

Ultima producer's letter teases 2012 content originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Fallen Earth developer blog talks territory control and world events

Eliot Lefebvre — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Game mechanics, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic

The conversion to free-to-play has gone live, but there are more changes in store for Fallen Earth. A new developer blog entry has just been unveiled, discussing two of the bigger features in store for the game -- world events and territory control. The former will be dynamic content that appears at random, with multiple events able to feed upon one another and create some changing landscapes for players to explore.

Territory control, by contrast, will start off in a single region north of Blaine. The region will have a total of 13 different control points for factions to hold, with six of them out in the open and seven in more fortified locations. There will be notable rewards for players holding these objectives, including resource nodes, increased experience gain, and improved death toll. It should certainly lead to some interesting battles in the wasteland as players fight over the region's spoils.

Fallen Earth developer blog talks territory control and world events originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Newest Star Trek Online blog details upcoming event system

Eliot Lefebvre — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Previews, News items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play

One of the major elements of the shows that Star Trek Online follows is one that assures there's always something happening. No ships are just idly floating about waiting for another urgent mission. That's where the new events system detailed in the latest Path to F2P blog comes in. It's a dynamic set of events and missions for players to take part in for a limited time, ranging from pure combat encounters to more social challenges among cadets and civilians.

As the blog outlines, players will be given access to a calendar showing the in-game events planned for the next 48 hours, with other special events popping up and leaving on a less regular schedule. Players can queue up to take part in these events as they become available, giving an alternate path to the extant missions and episodes. It's a fairly involved system overall, and it's the sort of thing that could help convey a sense of a dynamic universe.

Newest Star Trek Online blog details upcoming event system originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

LotRO dev diary talks Dunland, new dev tools

Jef Reahard — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play

Lord of the Rings Online's latest dev diary is hot off the presses, and to no one's surprise, it's all about Dunland (i.e., the new content region released in this week's Rise of Isengard expansion).

Turbine's Jessie "Vastin" King is your guide to what's new and exciting in virtual Middle-earth, and the blog entry is heavy on LotRO's story elements as it explains the devs' approach to setting the game slightly off the path trod by Tolkien's famous fellowship. "It's in these areas where interesting characters, environments and stories lay in the tantalizing realm of suggestion," King explains.

The dev blog also mentions a new approach to dynamic quests, NPCs, and events, and King says that the expansion is just the beginning as Turbine seeks to make its version of Tolkien's world that much more immersive. "As we settle into the use of some of these new tools, you should discover yourself in the midst of more dramatically changing towns, actively engaged NPC's, and roiling conflicts," the diary states.

LotRO dev diary talks Dunland, new dev tools originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Wasteland Diaries: Why do I PvP?

Edward Marshall — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, PvP, Opinion, MMOFPS, Wasteland Diaries, Post-Apocalyptic

Lately I've been asking myself, "Why do I PvP in Fallen Earth?" The game isn't designed around PvP combat; it's more of a sideshow. The factional conflict was what made me decide to try it out in the first place. But after getting to max level, I realized that there wasn't a true faction conflict. There were just sporadic skirmishes arranged by the same core of players. So what is it that motivates me to do it? What is it that motivates other PvPers to do it? I can think of a few possibilities, but even if I look at my best reasons as objectively as possible, they aren't even remotely good reasons. Yet I keep doing it.

In this post I will take a look at what drives one to PvP in Fallen Earth. What are the benefits? What are the risk vs. reward factors? Are there objectives or goals? When I look at the cold, hard facts, I'm still not quite sure what motivates me (or the others who still hang around). After the cut, I'll go over all the potential reasons to PvP in FE (that I can imagine) and possibly narrow it down.

Continue reading Wasteland Diaries: Why do I PvP?

Wasteland Diaries: Why do I PvP? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lost Pages of Taborea: What could have been

Jeremy Stratton — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea

We always face changes in our favorite MMOs. A new patch comes along and changes multi-click gathering to single-click, a cool pet system gets added or our main class gets nerfed. Sometimes changes happen before the game ever sees them, though.

Runes of Magic had some different features planned that were never implemented. Tile-dungeons, a streaming client and party-spells are a few of these features left on the cutting-room floor. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, I want to insert a titular line and look at what could have been.

Continue reading Lost Pages of Taborea: What could have been

Lost Pages of Taborea: What could have been originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lost Pages of Taborea: Improving versatility in RoM's content

Jeremy Stratton — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea

I'm bouncing off last week's Lost Pages of Taborea to elaborate on why Runes of Magic's content is lackluster, especially in light of the ability to over-gear but also to come up with some ideas to keep it from becoming meaningless and boring. It's not absolutely necessary, but it will help if you've read last week's article.

RoM's gear-system ensures that you get a lot of variety in choosing what kind of character to make and how you want to play it, but there's a threshold at which the only way to allow for even more diversity among class builds is to offset the linear difficulty of new content by replacing your stats with more powerful versions of themselves, adding refinements and tiering, upgrades that just up your sheer power. Players get funneled into more restrictive builds as they gain levels.

The downfall is in the content itself because it becomes super-easy-mode killing after over-gearing. It's turning on a cheat code. Any need -- or desire -- to manage blood bars or skill rotations gets thrown out with the trash. It's a foreseeable issue in just about any game across any platform or genre in which you would allow the players to gain extra amounts of power. But is there a way to allow for it and keep in some challenge and variety? Some solutions might be to slow down the pace of combat, stretch the utility of player bars, make content more dynamic, or throw in some sandbox behavior.

Continue reading Lost Pages of Taborea: Improving versatility in RoM's content

Lost Pages of Taborea: Improving versatility in RoM's content originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lost Pages of Taborea: Content needs to meet the versatility of gear-upgrading

Jeremy Stratton — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea

Last week I compared looting and class-bending in Runes of Magic with similar features found in RIFT. RoM's system of gear customization was a part of that article. This week, I want to talk business. Don't worry, I'm not a business major about to sling pie charts at you or talk about quarterly earnings. I want to talk a bit about business, specifically about how it might relate to decisions developers make concerning what kind of balance to put into an MMO.

RoM's gear system is extremely flexible on the outside, but inside there are some restrictions. Some of these restrictions are imposed by the game, but some are imposed by players. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, let's take a look at how the flexibility and choice of RoM's gear system -- and other systems -- are in opposition to the game's content and some desires players have.

Continue reading Lost Pages of Taborea: Content needs to meet the versatility of gear-upgrading

Lost Pages of Taborea: Content needs to meet the versatility of gear-upgrading originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Wasteland Diaries: Coming soon

Edward Marshall — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, Fallen Earth, Business models, Opinion, Free-to-play, Wasteland Diaries, Post-Apocalyptic

Due to the new partnership between Fallen Earth and GamersFirst, there are some huge changes coming in the very near future and massive changes headed our way before the end of the year. Sector 4 is going to be released soon along with a major re-write of the skills and abilities system. There are still a great many questions that remain unanswered, but the developers on both sides have dropped some subtle and not-so-subtle hints here and there.

There are still many players asking questions in global chat and on the forums that have been answered already. A few of the answers given have left me scratching my head, but I'm still optimistic at this point. But there's still a lot of confusion within the community about what is coming and when. I've dug up many of the responses to the toughest questions by Marie Croall of Fallen Earth and Joe Willmon of GamersFirst, who are holding their cards close to their chests but have nevertheless given up some good info. After the cut, I'll try to clarify what's going on in the short and long term, but it may result in some speculation on both our parts.

Continue reading Wasteland Diaries: Coming soon

Wasteland Diaries: Coming soon originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Enter at Your Own Rift: A case for player housing

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 25 May 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Opinion, RIFT, Enter at Your Own Rift

Earlier this week we were treated to the news that Trion Worlds is going to offer free character transfers between "select servers" once Update 1.3 hits. Now, how useful this will be is anyone's guess -- as some have noted, this may just be a clever ploy to redistribute the population from high-pop servers to low-pop ones -- but generally it's been met with applause from the community. I remain impressed as a consumer with how fast and aggressive Trion is pumping out content, and the fact that this is a free transfer once per week is really cool considering how most other subscription MMOs charge for a similar "premium" service.

Whatever Trion's motive and however it'll play out, I do know this: The company needs to continue to bring the heat to the competition. It's vital that RIFT distinguishes itself from the rest of the pack in some way, whether it be polish, originality, speed, customer service, or innovation.

Today I'd like to make a case for what I think should be high up on Trion's development schedule: player housing. We know it's something the devs have discussed, with some very much for and some very much against, but I'm hoping it's gone past the brainstorming phase. Why should we care about what might seem like fluff? How could housing work in RIFT? Tune in after the jump, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel to find out!

Continue reading Enter at Your Own Rift: A case for player housing

Enter at Your Own Rift: A case for player housing originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 25 May 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Fallen Earth dev talks progress town layouts and destructible buildings

Jef Reahard — Wed, 11 May 2011 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, News items, Post-Apocalyptic

Progress towns have been on the minds of Fallen Earth fans -- and developers -- for quite a while now. The unique mechanics, which offer a newfangled approach to long-standing player city designs, are currently on the game's public test server, where three separate towns exist for players to capture and rebuild.

In a new interview at MMORPG Center, Icarus Studios' lead scripter Doug Goodall talks a bit about the mechanics of Fallen Earth's entry into the dynamic content wars, including interesting blurbs on destructible buildings and pre-defined layouts. "There are no pre-defined positions. The layout of the town is entirely up to the players," Goodall explains.

While rebuilt progress town structures cannot be destroyed by enemy players, the buildings and defenses can be razed by NPC enemies bent on attacking the settlement. If this happens, Goodall says that crafters will not be reimbursed for the materials expended in the construction process. What if you mess up during the placement phase? "A refund [...] may be added to let players recover from placement errors," Goodall notes.

Fallen Earth dev talks progress town layouts and destructible buildings originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 May 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Enter at Your Own Rift: Looking for groups

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Opinion, RIFT, Enter at Your Own Rift

Like some of you, I feel that RIFT's Update 1.2 can't get here soon enough. A good content update, in my opinion, has a little something for everyone, and in talking with Trion Worlds last week, I definitely got that feeling from this patch. The team is catering to endgame players with Slivers, build-enthusiasts with a fifth role, rift-runners with new types of dynamic events, and people who aren't content to merely spam my Twitter feed with accomplishments but must now do so from inside Facebook as well.

I'd be lying if I said I'm not planning on spending huge amounts of time assembling dashing and fashionable outfits for my characters once the wardrobe is in the game, too. I'm all about outfits in Lord of the Rings Online, so it's great to see RIFT bring this type of system into the game (unlike some other stubborn studios, which shall remain nameless). Players like to feel powerful while looking incredible, and this outfit system will hopefully allay some of the complaints of similar-looking toons.

Above all this in Update 1.2 towers one of the biggest changes to the game yet: the Looking for Group (LFG) tool. Designed to assemble teams of players to tackle dungeons and group quests, the LFG tool will certainly change how we play RIFT. Will it be a good change or bad? That's the $1,000,000 question, which I will tackle after these brief messages, by which I mean, "after the jump."

Continue reading Enter at Your Own Rift: Looking for groups

Enter at Your Own Rift: Looking for groups originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Guild Wars 2's Johanson: MMO class trinity is "tired"

Jef Reahard — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Guild Wars 2

Have you ever wondered where all the hype comes from regarding Guild Wars 2? Sure, the original game was a financial success, and the sequel has NCsoft's considerable financial muscle behind it. When you get right down to it, though, ArenaNet is a company with one game to its credit, yet the firm still has the courage to openly challenge Blizzard as well as the rest of the crowded MMO market. In a new interview at Eurogamer, lead content designer Colin Johanson says ANet's success and confidence largely stem from a culture of creative fearlessness.

How does this attitude translate into a next-gen MMO? Johanson says the best example is the dev team's willingness to scrap one of the themepark MMO genre's sacred cows: the holy trinity. "We're basically saying, listen, this as a core game mechanic is tired, we can do something better, we can do something more interesting than this," Johanson explains.

The interview also touches on ArenaNet's release-it-when-it's-done mantra, and Johanson elaborates on why Guild Wars 2 has been so long in the making. "We're going to do all of this, we're going to make this the game that offers something for everybody, and we're going to get that right, and if it takes us a little longer to do that, the trade-off is totally worthwhile," he said. Head to Eurogamer for the full report.

Guild Wars 2's Johanson: MMO class trinity is "tired" originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ultima Online revisits dynamic content with Magincia reconstruction

Jef Reahard — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, News items, Ultima Online

Long before RIFT barreled on to the MMO scene and made a buzz-phrase out of "dynamic content," Ultima Online developers were busily pumping out some dynamic content of their own. In the fall of 2007, the influential fantasy sandbox title saw a horde of nasty demons descend upon the hapless town of Magincia and raze it to the ground despite (or in some cases, because of) the efforts of players on each of the game's shards. The invasion was part of a larger story cycle called Warriors of Destiny, and a new event is now brewing that will bring players back to the site of the ruined town.

As part of the New Magincia rebuilding process, the provisional government of Britannia is holding a lottery for 22 land plots atop the city ruins. Said plots may be used for residences or shops at the winning player's discretion. The city is also playing host to a new public gardening mechanic, and you can find all the details at the official Ultima Online website.

Ultima Online revisits dynamic content with Magincia reconstruction originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Is dynamic content the wave of the future?

Justin Olivetti — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

With the recent launch of RIFT fresh in our minds, one of the key aspects of the game -- the dynamic rifts and invasions -- has a lot of people talking. For some, it's a breath of fresh air to encounter a virtual world that challenges the status (static?) quo by changing the landscape as mobs erupt onto the scene, fight common enemies, and charge into the local towns with the intent of conquering it all.

Guild Wars 2 is also holding high the torch of dynamic content with its shifting "events" that will change the game world depending on players' actions or inactions. Players seem intrigued by content that responds to their decisions rather than standing in place and expecting imaginations to fill in the gap.

So do you think that dynamic content is the wave of the future for MMOs? Should we expect to see more games develop systems that mold, manipulate and morph the game world around us, or is this just an experiment that will ultimately fall apart?

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: Is dynamic content the wave of the future? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Scott Hartsman answers RIFT player questions

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Interviews, Endgame, News items, RIFT

RIFT's launch is getting ever closer, and that means more and more questions for players to start wondering about. Scott Hartsman recently took part in an interview responding to several player questions, ranging from guilds and dungeon grouping to the disruption the eponymous rifts can wreak upon a questing environment. As Hartsman puts it, the large-scale changes that can happen as a result of the dynamic spawns can shut down questing, but that's part of the goal, and it's tuned so that an empty zone will never be subjected to a cascading series of unbeatable enemy invasions.

While the game isn't set to have any sort of group-finding system in place on launch, Hartsman is of the mind that it's better to wait and launch an excellent tool than to simply put in a half-hearted attempt. He also expands on the varied high-end content available to players beyond simply raids as well as what players can expect for content releases down the line. While RIFT still has about half a month until release, the information already available is painting a fairly cohesive picture.

Scott Hartsman answers RIFT player questions originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Scott Hartsman wraps up the sixth beta event for RIFT

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, PvP, News items, RIFT

With the open beta less than a week away, now is the time for Trion Worlds to step up and address the lingering issues RIFT has before it starts being available for general consumption. Fortunately for the development team, it's a task it's proven quite accomplished at, and the newest wrap-up for the sixth event proves that there's still a lot going on behind the scenes. Scott Hartsman takes the opportunity in the last pre-open beta wrap-up to discuss PvP in the open world, damage tuning, and the difference in raid sizes for endgame content.

As Hartsman puts it, some of the anti-PvP measures put into place will be removed on PvP servers, meaning weaker guards around hubs and destroyable wardstones. Damage levels seem to be in a fairly good place across the board from the development perspective, but they're something that will be watched closely during the open event. Hartsman also touches more on the late-game rift content and what it will mean for the game's balance and the availability of content. RIFT players should take a gander at the full rundown and get ready for the open beta starting on Tuesday next week.

Scott Hartsman wraps up the sixth beta event for RIFT originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

RIFT challenges unwritten rules of the genre in a new dev diary

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, RIFT, Dev Diaries

"There are countless unwritten rules for creating an MMO world that successful designs in past games have impressed upon the entire industry. No monsters on the roads; never stop the player from questing or doing what he plans to do; group content should always be separate from solo content. While I will acknowledge that these sorts of rules of thumb are the guidelines that we designers live by, challenging them is where we have found a lot of success in RIFT."

Thus sayeth Will Cook, Trion Worlds' content designer for RIFT. In a new developer diary over at ZAM, Cook explains how challenging stale MMO conventions opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the dynamic content in the game. By allowing enemy invasions to use roads, bosses to conquer quest giver outposts and rifts to pop up unexpectedly, the team was able to make an "anything goes" atmosphere over top the traditional PvE treadmill.

One of Trion Worlds' biggest goals, Cook says, is to create "emergent experiences" that are never quite the same twice. Even though such content can be and often is disruptive to players running quests and working on other solo projects, it's proven to be exciting and interesting enough to draw these players in without complaint.

Cook thinks that if you give it a chance, you'll get hooked: "You can't help but get carried away in the fun of a living world where you can see the effect of action and inaction."

RIFT challenges unwritten rules of the genre in a new dev diary originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content

Brianna Royce — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Trailers, Video, Classes, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, RIFT

Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend Trion Worlds' Gamer's Day in San Francisco to get some hands-on time with a couple of the company's upcoming titles, including Rift: Planes of Telara. If Rift seems to have come out of nowhere, that might be due both to the acquisition of EverQuest II veteran Scott Hartsman to head the project as executive producer, and to a clever name change meant to reflect the team's shift in development focus.

In fact, that shift in development focus is precisely what I was at Trion's studio to test -- I got to check out the Rifts themselves in all their glory, in the context of the greater dynamic content system that the developers are so excited about. Massively's writers have been able to play and report on character creation and the starting areas of Rift several times over the last year or so, including earlier this summer at E3. But until today's embargo lift (coinciding with the reveal at Gamescom), no one had quite seen the fabled planar invasions and takeovers in action.

Now we have.

Continue reading Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content

Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer reveals new information about questing and content

Rubi Bayer — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:45:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, News items, Guild Wars 2

Today brings us more Guild Wars 2 news, this time from Lead Content Designer Colin Johanson who has a few things to say about content and traditional quest systems.

In Guild Wars, we're all familiar with the quest system and the giant green exclamation point. In such an immersive and beautiful world, it's admittedly a bit jarring when an NPC has that strange floaty thing that sticks out like a sore thumb -- or like a giant lime-green exclamation point. Filling your field of vision with a big black rectangle with a few paragraphs of text and a "check yes or no" acceptance option didn't exactly alleviate the problem.

Once you accepted the quest and completed it, the overall world was still unchanged. You were the hero of Tyria but overall, you didn't seem to be making a difference in the world around you. As Johanson points out, if a villager is asking you to kill 10 ogres who are about to ravage his village, they shouldn't be standing around picking daisies. They should actually ravage his village if you don't help.

The Guild Wars 2 team is working to remedy the questing problems of the past, offering some exciting ideas for a "living, breathing world" that changes as its citizens interact with one another and their surroundings. Take a look at what Johanson had to say about how the world of Tyria is going to change, and check out the gallery for the latest Guild Wars 2 screenshots.

Gallery: Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer reveals new information about questing and content originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 12 May 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Anti-Aliased: Socially awkward

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Face of Mankind, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, Anti-Aliased

So, ok, we've been talking about Champions Online recently here in the column. Been talking about it a lot, as a matter of fact. I don't feel like risking having this column turn into a Champions love fest (as much fun as I'm having with the game), so we're going to change gears significantly this time and get onto a completely new train of thought.

This week's topic: social gameplay. No, I don't mean those games you play obsessively/compulsively on Facebook or your social network of choice. I'm talking about how some aspects of gameplay completely rely on human interaction, for better or for worse. It's present in all of our games, but are we really taking advantage of it? We're going to take a look at some games that do take advantage of human-powered conflict, and why, perhaps, it might be a wave of the future for online games.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: Socially awkward

Anti-Aliased: Socially awkward originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Anti-Aliased: It will all be fine in ten minutes

Seraphina Brennan — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Asheron's Call, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Endgame, Opinion, Anti-Aliased

Back in the day when a 500 Mhz processor was fast, we were lulled into these weird online universes with multitudes of golden tongued promises. "Play online with thousands of others!", "Make a hero and save detailed and vast worlds!", and, my favorite, "Live in an persistent universe where your actions will have long lasting effects!"

Certainly, two of those promises have come true. Our worlds are traveled by thousands upon thousands of users daily, and the characters we have created are truly the stuff of legends who have saved these vast worlds countless times. But the one thing that has still eluded us all this time... persistence.

The funny thing is, it's not because we can't program or realize persistence in our games. We have the technology and expertise to do that just fine. We don't have persistence because persistence isn't profitable.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: It will all be fine in ten minutes

Anti-Aliased: It will all be fine in ten minutes originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Eli Shayotovich — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion

Geldon Yetichsky, of the blog Digitally Staving off Boredom, wrote an interesting piece about why he canceled his City of Heroes account. He contends that CoH is lacking one important thing: Nothing really changes. Aside from a few pieces of dynamic content like Recluse's Victory, Safeguard Missions, and the Rikti invasions, nothing ever permanently changes the game world.

CoH is (almost 4 years later) still one of my favorite games, and the MMO that brought me around to actually liking the genre. As much as I hate to admit it... he has a point. No matter how many times you lay the smack down on the bad guys, or rescue a damsel in distress... none of it has a lasting impact. The bad guys continually respawn and the same seemingly hapless citizens always need to be rescued.

What he wants to see is a game world so full of life that it actually disrupts and inconveniences players. A game world that is more like real life, where actions have real consequences and where change is an everyday occurrence. As Geldon says: change and consequence may be inconvenient, but without, there can be no real meaning of player's actions in a virtual world. I couldn't agree more. He offers EVE Online and 10Six as exceptions, but there is another.

Tabula Rasa has ongoing, contested battlefield control points, and the Bane unceasingly fight to take control of them. These dynamic, world-altering areas are at times completely inaccessible. They're important because they not only house teleporters, hospitals, supply depots, but also mission NPCs. Additionally, you can earn tokens for defending and taking back these CPs. Participating in these skirmishes really gets the blood pumping and what you do has a direct impact on the game world. All in all... it's something we need to see more of within the genre.

The more things change, the more they stay the same originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments