Massively

World of Darkness creative director talks design and the MMO mainstream

Jef Reahard — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items, World of Darkness, Sandbox

A new interview at Gamasutra posits that CCP is gunning for mainstream success with its upcoming World of Darkness MMO. The EVE Online developer has cornered what's left of the hardcore sandbox market, so now it's looking to marry EVE's emergent gameplay with more familiar MMO staples. "The way to drag people in will be traditional themepark-style PvE play. Once players get into the setting, they'll see the appeal of the sandbox play," says WoD creative director Reynir Hardarson.

Despite the concessions to mainstream accessibility, EVE's influence on World of Darkness will be more than superficial. "The live-action roleplayers of the Vampire the Masquerade tabletop game play this way," Hardarson explains. "It's really about politics and power plays."

Why don't more MMO developers try their hand at sandbox mechanics? Hardarson says designing for emergent play is difficult because you can't test it. It's worth it, though, because MMOs that hand-hold and limit players to a linear path miss the point. "I'm not a five-year-old. If I want to go in the cave and I want to die, that's my problem," Hardarson says.

World of Darkness creative director talks design and the MMO mainstream originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The MMO Report: Shut up about Mass Effect edition

Brianna Royce — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Video, MMO industry, Humor, The MMO Report, Miscellaneous

This week on The MMO Report, Casey tells everyone to stop whining about Mass Effect 3's ending, laments the loss of the "online" part of Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online, touches on the World of Darkness keynote, and outlines The Secret World's preorder plans. He also reveals the identity of one of TERA's key voice actors: Michael Hogan (of Battlestar Galactica fame), who will play Samael in the final game. Finally, he pulls one measly letter from the mailbag and debates which class he represents in TERA.

Enjoy the full MMO Report after the cut!

Continue reading The MMO Report: Shut up about Mass Effect edition

The MMO Report: Shut up about Mass Effect edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively Speaking Episode 194: Bookah bookah!

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Podcasts, Star Trek Online, Vanguard, Guild Wars 2, Massively Meta, Humor, World of Darkness, Massively Speaking, Runes of Magic, Miscellaneous

Massively Speaking Episode 194 welcomes aboard resident Star Trek Online expert Terilynn Shull to talk about Tribbles and bits and why Star Trek doesn't have more "The Fly" incidents involving the transporter and local flora or fauna. Captain Archer would have been vastly improved by beaming him into a badger.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:

Read below the cut for the full show notes.

Continue reading Massively Speaking Episode 194: Bookah bookah!

Massively Speaking Episode 194: Bookah bookah! originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

World of Darkness presented at EVE Fanfest 2012

Brendan Drain — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: EVE Online, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, Lore, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, World of Darkness, Sandbox

Ever since CCP Games merged with White Wolf, it has been developing the World of Darkness MMO. The game is nowhere near complete, and fans worried that last year's heavy layoffs at the Atlanta office had slowed the game's production. We haven't heard much about World of Darkness since then, but today at the EVE Online Fanfest, a few new details were revealed. Attendees were shown some early in-game footage of a city and given a mix of information we already knew and snippets of new information.

CCP wants to draw in the largely female World of Darkness fanbase. The game will have a focus on fashion, and CCP will control the theme of that fashion rather than letting players design their own clothes. The game will be based in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe, with an initial focus on vampires before the introduction of the other factions. Vampires will use human blood as a currency; it will be the resource they'll compete over, making human cities the central locations they will inhabit. When mages and other character types are released, they will compete for different resources.

The game will have a single-shard world, with sandbox territorial warfare for control of cities mirroring EVE Online's nullsec warfare. Developers investigated using real cities for the game but found that "real cities were generally boring." Presenters told fans that the team will "be using stylised versions, but they will be named after real cities." Each city will be lorded over by a player prince, who will under rare circumstances be potentially subjected to permadeath. The world's original vampire clans will be available on release, and CCP confirmed that it won't be using vampire generations as a form of leveling system but instead will be doing something different with it.

World of Darkness presented at EVE Fanfest 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Interview confirms World of Darkness dev team, predicts DUST 514 sales

Brendan Drain — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: EVE Online, Interviews, MMO industry, News items, World of Darkness, DUST 514

When CCP Games laid off 20% of its worldwide staff back in October of last year, the World of Darkness dev team bore the brunt of the cuts while DUST 514 continued on course for its launch later this year. In an interview over at TenTonHammer today, CCP's new Chief Marketing Officer, David Reid, joined CEO Hilmar Petursson to discuss the development of both games. Hilmar reveals that a team of 60 developers are currently working on WoD, and that DUST 514 will be playable at this year's EVE Online fanfest event in March.

Despite acknowledging that the entire PlayStation Network comprises a total of 60 million users, Reid asserts that DUST will bring "tens of millions of people that play shooters on PSN into the New Eden universe," going on to make the bold statement that "EVE could be the biggest game in the world at the end of 2012" as a result. Reid also claims that "EVE Online is the only game in the West that has shown consecutive growth year after year," a statement that's sure to upset RuneScape developer Jagex and others. The statement also comes with a slightly bitter note as this year EVE may have lost its record of continual subscription growth during the summer drama.

Interview confirms World of Darkness dev team, predicts DUST 514 sales originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Moonlight Online reveals concept art for its starting cities

Brendan Drain — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Horror, Galleries, Lore, New titles, Free-to-play, Moonlight Online

Earlier this year, IGG announced they had begun work on an MMO based in the Moonlight universe. Moonlight Online takes place in a dark world where werewolves and vampires war for supremacy. Since the announcement, IGG has been regularly pumping out concept art to give people a feel for the style the game is aiming for. We've been shown some werewolf and vampire characters, a dark armoured horse and a few buildings inspired by medieval and gothic architecture. New art has now been released showing the game's three starting cities: Castle Williams, Fort Traster and Wolfsburg Bastion.

Castle Williams is a dark, gothic castle where all vampires first begin their journey. Home to the humans, Fort Traster is a municipality with a strong focus on teaching magic. As expected, werewolves start their adventures in Wolfsburg Bastion, a wild and untamed stronghold. IGG continue to release concept art on the upcoming title regularly, and updates can be found on the official Moonlight Online forum.

Gallery: Moonlight Online

Moonlight Online reveals concept art for its starting cities originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Video shows CCP's incredible cloth and hair simulation

Brendan Drain — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, MMO industry, Previews, World of Darkness

We've known for some time that CCP planned to use physics simulation to make the clothes in EVE Online's Incarna expansion and their upcoming World of Darkness MMO more realistic. They even gave a talk on using NVidia's APEX cloth simulation at the 2010 Game Developer's Conference. Until now, all we've seen are technical details and the occasional screenshot, which makes it hard to work out how the end product will look.

NVidia have released a new video this week of CCP's cloth simulation in action, giving those of us that are interested a sneak peak at the incredibly impressive results. Although APEX cloth simulation will be introduced to EVE when Incarna is released, the video looks much more like something out of World of Darkness. As an added bonus, the system seems to simulate realistic hair and not just clothes. Hair in most MMOs has always been limited to shorter styles which would look alright without animation. The ability to simulate complex clothes and long hair styles make character customisation in World of Darkness and EVE's Incarna expansion look very promising.

Skip past the cut to watch the video in HD.
[Thanks for the tip, Patrick!]

Continue reading Video shows CCP's incredible cloth and hair simulation

Video shows CCP's incredible cloth and hair simulation originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Dusktreaders MMO is not put on hold afterall

Shawn Schuster — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Historical, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles

Yesterday, we reported on an interview with Dusktreaders lead developer Erik Hyrkas and the VirginWorlds MMO news site regarding the upcoming MMO being put on hold for a "lighter" version on the iPhone. After being contacted by Mr. Hyrkas, we've learned that there may have been some misunderstandings, and the Dusktreaders MMO is actually alive and kicking.

"The main Dusktreaders MMO is not on hold, and in terms of art generation, it's actually at full steam." Hyrkas said in a follow-up email. "Most of the art for the mobile edition either existed and was just slimmed down or if it was created, it was created at a level of quality that was useful for the MMO and then stripped down for the mobile edition. It is probably fair to say that the coding aspects of the MMO have slowed down, since I'm one of the principle developers -- however, much of the code is already in place and we've just been world building recently. The development side isn't the bottleneck for the moment on the MMO -- though it could be before we're done and has been a few times in the past."

We thank Mr. Hyrkas for the clarification and look forward to more news on the game in the future.

Dusktreaders MMO is not put on hold afterall originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Digital Continuum: Fantasy's upcoming vacation

Kyle Horner — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Super-hero, Opinion, The Digital Continuum

Is the MMO fantasy genre finally ready to relax and take its long overdue vacation? It does seem to be the case, as nearly all of the highly anticipated titles in the coming years are exceptionally not high fantasy or even really general fantasy. So while the sun is setting on the age of fantasy, a new dawn appears to be rising elsewhere. With it comes a tidal wave of new genres into the industry, some new and others a bit more familiar. Don't believe or agree with me? Keep reading and maybe you'll change your mind.

Continue reading The Digital Continuum: Fantasy's upcoming vacation

The Digital Continuum: Fantasy's upcoming vacation originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

GDC08 Highlights: Age of Conan, Requiem: Bloodymare and All Points Bulletin

Dan O'Halloran — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:59:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Horror, Galleries, Podcasts, Screenshots, Age of Conan, Business models, Events, real-world, Interviews, New titles, Previews, PvP, News items, Hands-on, Massively highlights, All Points Bulletin, Crime, Requiem: Bloodymare

Age of Conan

Conan gets mounted

One of the hottest tickets for MMO enthusiasts at GDC08 was the Funcom session showing off new features in their upcoming Age of Conan. Mounted combat was the eye candy of the day. Game Director Gaute Godager walked our team through the basics of head to head battles astride War Horses, War Mammoths and War Rhinos. For the reading-averse, you can also listen to an audio recording of the presentation.

Gallery: GDC 08: Age of Conan Preview

Continue reading GDC08 Highlights: Age of Conan, Requiem: Bloodymare and All Points Bulletin

GDC08 Highlights: Age of Conan, Requiem: Bloodymare and All Points Bulletin originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

New class for Warrior Epic unveiled

Akela Talamasca — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Classes, New titles, Previews, Warrior Epic

Warrior Epic, covered here and here, is something I'm looking forward to. The art style is positively quasi-Baroque, something that's a nice change from the Gothic overtones we're so used to in most MMOs. The character designs are varied and colorful, and don't shrink from detail. This is seen very clearly in the newly-released shots of the character class called the Zambrano.

The class appears on the website to be restricted to women, though that might be premature to conclude. If it is, though, not since Paine from Final Fantasy X-2 have we seen a gunslinger with such intricate attire. The site has more information on this intriguing character class, with screenshots, so go check her out!

[Thanks, Brice!]

New class for Warrior Epic unveiled originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments