Massively

Fan documents visual changes between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2

Justin Olivetti — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Guild Wars, Culture, Guild Wars 2

As many Guild Wars players know, Guild Wars 2 takes place in the same world and often in the same areas -- just 250 years after its predecessor. Because of this, ArenaNet elected not to wipe the slate clean and start over with 100% new environments but instead to incorporate old locales and landmarks into its upcoming game.

Guild Wars fan Claire became fascinated with this concept and has dedicated a new blog to documenting all of the visual changes in the world between the first and second game. It's called Project Tyria, and each post consists of several Guild Wars locales contrasted with screenshots of the same areas from the sequel.

Claire writes, "I've always loved the graphics of the Guild Wars games and have grown to love the world of Tyria. We were there in the before times, and now we arrive again in the after."

It's fascinating to see how ArenaNet has envisioned 250 years taking its toll on the monuments, cities, and vales of the original game; realizing the importance of keeping the world accurate for the hardcore fans seems to be a noted priority for the team. Head over to Project Tyria to see more on the comparison screenshots.

Fan documents visual changes between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wizard101 fansite owner hired to be Pirate101's community manager

Shawn Schuster — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, New titles, Massively Interviews, Wizard101, Family

Tom Purdue, admired owner and operator of The Friendly Necromancer blog and Wizard101 fansite, has announced today that he will be KingsIsle Entertainment's new community manager for the upcoming Pirate101 MMO.

As that transition from fan to employee is always a fascinating transformation, we recognize that it's not an easy decision. Massively itself has raised a handful of MMO community managers, so this news is particularly of interest to us. For that reason, we tracked Tom down and asked him some questions about his new role at KingsIsle. Follow along below for the complete interview.

Continue reading Wizard101 fansite owner hired to be Pirate101's community manager

Wizard101 fansite owner hired to be Pirate101's community manager originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 09 May 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Star Wars Galaxies fan site hacked, 23K passwords stolen

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, News items, Star Wars Galaxies, Legal, Miscellaneous

Talk about kicking a game's community when it's down.

VentureBeat reports that Star Wars Galaxies.net, a major SWG fan site, was hacked yesterday. Star Wars Galaxies.net is part of a LucasArts fan site network, and apparently was not being actively maintained, as the last update was in June of 2009. Still, over 21,000 email addresses and 23,000 passwords were stolen -- some of which could lead to identity theft, according to authorities.

The hack was perpetrated by ObSec, a small group in the vein of LulzSec. The hackers posted the email addresses and passwords online for all to see. Analysis of the passwords found that 71% were relatively weak and easy to crack anyway.

Some Star Wars Galaxies players may see this as an unfortunate echo of the much larger Sony hack that happened earlier this year. We at Massively urge any players who have used this fan site to make sure that they change their passwords elsewhere as well.

Star Wars Galaxies fan site hacked, 23K passwords stolen originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SWTOR's Rich Vogel shares the spotlight with Mos Eisley Radio in this week's update

Larry Everett — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, New titles, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dev Diaries

Star Wars: The Old Republic Fan Friday is usually packed with a Corellian freighter full of information. Today, we have two freighters full. On the community side, Mos Eisley Radio answers some questions about running a SWTOR fansite. On the game side, concept artist Diego Almazan discusses designing the feel for the Sith Temple, and Executive Producer Rich Vogel answers questions from fans.

Mos Eisley Radio has been mentioned quite a bit on this site as well as the official SWTOR website. This fansite's focus is a news-and-opinion podcast hosted by Brooks Guthrie and Zach Brown -- even this Massively reporter has appeared on the show. When asked what makes Mos Eisley Radio unique, the hosts replied, "We do our best to avoid bogging down in the tiny details of each update, and instead use the news coming from BioWare as a basis for larger discussions about The Old Republic." Check out the whole conversation on Fan Friday news page.

Also, Diego Almazan gives us a peek backstage. He explains the details and thought process behind creating a tomb that also serves as a temple. "I wanted to keep in mind that this temple is as much an ancient prison for the dead as it is a tomb or necropolis," Almazan said the in the Studio Insider. Is this a clue that there may be something trying to get out?

Lastly, Rich Vogel answers fan questions like, "Will Consulars be pigeonholed into one role?" Vogel was not shy when he answered, "Consulars, like our other classes, will have more than one viable role to play. One of our goals is to provide players multiple options within their classes." As if it was in question, Vogel also confirmed that we will indeed be able to jump in The Old Republic.

SWTOR's Rich Vogel shares the spotlight with Mos Eisley Radio in this week's update originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Star Trek Online and Champions Online both unveil a surfeit of new information

Eliot Lefebvre — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Super-hero, Business models, Patches, Previews, News items, Star Trek Online, Champions Online

Revealing the date for Champions Online's free-to-play conversion was apparently just the tip of the iceberg for the two MMOs run by Cryptic Studios. Champions Online has been graced with an updated FAQ regarding the business model transition, explaining in more detail exactly what options will be locked to non-paying players (all costume options are open, for example). The game has also unveiled a fansite kit for players looking to spread their love of the game to others, no doubt to help get more people interested in the free version.

Star Trek Online, on the other hand, doesn't have a change in model in the cards at the moment. What it does have is a newly updated list of feature episodes, giving players a look at the content that will be emerging on the live servers around the end of the month. The development team has also published a new Engineering Report, complete with the usual detailed breakdown of what's in the works, including a small look to the one-year anniversary of Star Trek Online.

Star Trek Online and Champions Online both unveil a surfeit of new information originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Enter at Your Own Rift: Community guide to RIFT

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, RIFT, Guides, Enter at Your Own Rift

BLOG POST OPENED!

Swiftly, readers rally together to fight the imminent threat to the internet as dark words stream down from the tear in cyberspace. Unholy pronouns and sentence fragments begin to march toward civilized forums, remolding the fabric of reality in their image. Fortunately, valiant defenders of all that is true and grammatically correct push back against the invasion, suffering heavy losses until...

BLOG POST SEALED!

If you couldn't tell, this is the maiden voyage of Massively's weekly column devoted to Trion World's upcoming MMO, RIFT. We've been excited about this game for a while now, and with the NDA drop, the announcement of the launch date, news of the collector's edition, and upcoming beta events, it's as good a time as any to start talking about this addictive fantasy experience. Karen Bryan and I will be trading off weeks to cover RIFT from our different vantage points, and we're pretty geeked at the prospect.

To kick off the very first Enter at Your Own Rift, we'll be following the Massively tradition of posting a community guide to all the hottest and most helpful links about this game after the jump.

Continue reading Enter at Your Own Rift: Community guide to RIFT

Enter at Your Own Rift: Community guide to RIFT originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More Black Prophecy UI details brought to light

Jef Reahard — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Black Prophecy

Black Prophecy fans are a patient lot, and in the case of the founder of the Prophecy Nation website, quite enterprising as well. Travis, otherwise known as "Nexiom," has helped fill the void of information about the long-in-development space shooter with an interesting breakdown of the game's interface. In the second installment of a two-part article making use of existing screenshots, he paints a picture of what the free-to-play title's UI probably functions like, all without breaking the beta NDA.

The article boasts a healthy complement of images and helpful annotations; it also delivers some interesting insights and speculation. Chief among these are the author's guesstimates as to the functionality of certain buttons (possibly target locking, communications, and trade). Check out the full piece at Prophecy Nation.

More Black Prophecy UI details brought to light originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More testing and fansite kits for Final Fantasy XIV's community

Eliot Lefebvre — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New titles, News items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV

The release draws ever closer for Final Fantasy XIV's release, especially for eager players who have pre-ordered the special edition. But there are plenty of people who can't wait even that long, as seen by the response to the recent slew of fansite contests to award beta keys. Those keys will be usable sooner than some might have expected -- the game's third phase of closed beta testing is slated to start this Wednesday, August 11th. No indication is given for how long this phase will last or if the server will remain up at all times, although the latter seems likely.

In the event that you're not in the beta but still want to spread the love for the game, Square-Enix has also released the official fansite kit for the game. FFXIVCore has previews of everything the kit contains, including several familiar images and decent-quality versions of several in-game icons. The kit can be downloaded from the official site, which should make Final Fantasy XIV's burgeoning fansite community quite happy.

More testing and fansite kits for Final Fantasy XIV's community originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Write Star Trek Online fic and win a free digital download

Rubi Bayer — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online

Hailing Frequency, a Star Trek Online fansite, has teamed up with Direct2Drive and has some pretty nice prizes up for grabs: three copies of Star Trek Online: the Digital Deluxe Edition.

So what do you have to do to score one of these prizes? Well, get ready to flex your creativity muscles, because it's a fiction competition. Hailing Frequency has provided a scenario to work with, in which your characters are about to enter a star system that long range scanners show was recently abandoned by the Borg. The given scenario ends fifteen seconds before your ship enters the area, and it's up to you to tell what happens next. The three most interesting entries win one of the digital downloads.

This is a short contest, ending this sunday at 11.59pm GMT with winners being announced shortly thereafter. Winners will be contacted immediately with a redemption code. Full details on how to enter can be found at Hailing Frequency. Good luck to all who enter!

Write Star Trek Online fic and win a free digital download originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Naming and shaming?

Krystalle Voecks — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Opinion, The Daily Grind

Yesterday, a bit of a kerfuffle broke out on the Fallen Earth forums. One of the largest fan sites, Globaltech Atlas, was asking the community about whether or not they should consider adding in a "Honorary Douche-bag of the Week" award, which would allow members of the community to "name and shame" enabling players to nominate other Fallen Earth players who were "cheaters, scammers, liars and thieves and [deserving of] the oh so important 'poor sportsmanship' awards." Now ultimately, they decided to drop the idea, instead opting to warn the community about any scams going around without naming people. However, two forum threads had already started, hotly debating the various pros and cons.

One side felt that by doing this on a single-shard game (much like EVE Online in this aspect) they could potentially stop people from being flaming jerks because the community would immediately be aware of what they were doing. Others pointed out that since there are members of the community who thrive on being jerks, there was a certain element that would likely step up their griefing just to get an award like this - considering it a mark of honor to actually get named. Some pointed out that screenshots and chat logs could be faked easily; others pointed out that anyone actually being a big enough jerk would be essentially blacklisted simply because enough people had it happen to them.

This morning we thought we'd put it to you - what do you think of "naming and shaming" people who are rude/scam/etc? Do you think that this is a good idea and can be a useful tool to dissuade players from being jerks? Or do you think this is a poorly-advised idea, offering little beyond a chance for drama llamas to compete for fame - or should we say infamy?

The Daily Grind: Naming and shaming? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Global Agenda announces new fansite kit and beta contest

Shawn Schuster — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Contests, Culture, Forums, MMO industry, New titles, Spy, Global Agenda

Are you eagerly awaiting Hi-Rez Studios' new spy-fi MMO Global Agenda? Are you so excited by the game that you'd create a fansite about it? Well, let Hi-Rez help you out a bit with a newly announced fansite kit and beta key contest. Simply download their fansite kit, promote it and enter their fansite contest for a chance to win tons of exciting prizes.

The top three sites will be chosen and announced on May 8th, 2009. These sites will win everything from exclusive Global Agenda artwork for their site, beta keys for the site's members, links to the fansite from the official GA site and credit towards the GA T-shirt and merchandise shop. This seems like a fantastic opportunity to give yourself and your fansite community a head start into this popular new MMO which is slated for release later this year.

Global Agenda announces new fansite kit and beta contest originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vote for your favorites at the MMO Top Fansite Awards

Shawn Schuster — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Contests, Forums

MMO fansites are an integral part of the community for online games and virtual worlds. This really is what sets them apart from normal single-player or offline games that may only have informational fansites without an organic community that can interact from within their favorite game. So what better way to celebrate the best of these fansites and their owners who work so hard for their community than to vote for your favorites?

MMOFury.com is now accepting submissions for their Top Fansite awards, where fansite owners can enter their site to compete against other fansites in the genre. The winners will be broken down into 3 main categories; the top fansites that feature 5 or less game titles, top multi-game (5 or more games) fansites, and top new fansite. From the 45 top traditional fansites listed, they select 5 as the Overall Top 5. The winners will be announced during the first week of November, so head on over to the site to read the complete rules, and nominate your favorite fansite today!

Vote for your favorites at the MMO Top Fansite Awards originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tabula Rasa RP bloggers wanted

Chris Chester — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Tabula Rasa, Roleplaying

Though there are some among us who espouse that roleplaying is dead, Destination Games apparently hasn't gotten the memo. As part of their on-going community-outreach efforts, which have been fairly awesome to date, they're looking for capable roleplayers to blog, in character, about their experiences fighting the Bane in Tabula Rasa.

All you have to do is head over to their fansite registration page, fill out a few forms, check a few boxes, and you could very well have your work shown as part of their on-going Soul of a Soldier feature. So far a lot of the content they have posted is from the perspective of humans just coming to terms with their place in a pitched-battle that encompasses nearly all of the known universe. Granted, Tabula Rasa is less than a month old, but I think there's a big niche that can be filled beyond this sort of "wow, I'm fighting aliens" material that is up there so far. So hop to it, Massively scribes, and smite those bane with your thesauruses!

Tabula Rasa RP bloggers wanted originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Lich King fansite kit released: it's purty

Chris Chester — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:04:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Screenshots, Expansions, Forums, Wallpapers

Blizzard has announced on their forum that the first Lich King fansite kit is officially available for public use. Among the goodies that they've included in the 32mb download are Lich King concept art pieces, sample HTML for WoW-esque page layouts, new logos, wallpapers, a fact sheet and FAQ, a sample Lich King article, and graphic source files.

Now, if you're at all like we are, you'll go download the fankit now and ogle all the shiny new material for Blizzard's upcoming expansion. A cursory glance through the screenshots shows how Blizzard has so far succeeded in striking the right balance between maintaining WoW's scale and detail while still evoking familiar feelings from The Frozen Throne.

New Lich King fansite kit released: it's purty originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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