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The Firing Line: Aiming to misbehave

Jef Reahard — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Super-hero, Trailers, Video, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, Post-Apocalyptic, The Firing Line

Hello folks, and welcome to my Christmas list (well, the Massively portion of it, at any rate). For this week's edition of The Firing Line, I decided to take a look at a few of the more obscure titles coming down the development pike.

Now, when I say obscure, I don't necessarily mean shoe-string budget indie productions. The games I've got for you after the cut feature a cross-section of both big IPs and big-name development studios, but for whatever reason, they're still a bit under the radar when compared to the likes of PlanetSide 2, DUST 514, and Firefall. Turn the page to read about four online shooters you should be excited about. There might even be some video involved if you play your cards right.

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The Firing Line: Aiming to misbehave originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Game Archaeologist jacks into The Matrix Online: Jamming with Ben 'Rarebit' Chamberlain

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 17 May 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, The Matrix Online, The Game Archaeologist

When we started into The Matrix Online month last week on The Game Archaeologist, one of the comments caught my eye. Massively reader stealthrider wrote:

Please, please do a tribute to Rarebit. MxO was his baby, and no one took its death worse than he.

He did everything for that game, much of it single-handedly. Everything from playing the canon characters and co-writing the story to fixing hundreds of bugs and even creating a new zone from scratch. Not to mention developing and implementing the story missions, new items, the RP item vendors, and pretty much everything else in MxO's final couple of years. He even implemented and moderated a player-created minigame as part of the official story.

He retired from game development in the months before MxO's shutdown. He was that dedicated to this game that he couldn't work on anything else afterward.

He's a god among developers, and he is as sorely missed as the game itself.

I think this sums up how many Matrix Online vets feel about Ben "Rarebit" Chamberlain. So instead of a mere tribute, we drove the MassivelyMobile over to Chamberlain's house (read: send a polite email request), and he graciously said he'd be glad to reminisce with us. So hit that jump to find out the last word on MxO from the dev who held it together!

Continue reading The Game Archaeologist jacks into The Matrix Online: Jamming with Ben 'Rarebit' Chamberlain

The Game Archaeologist jacks into The Matrix Online: Jamming with Ben 'Rarebit' Chamberlain originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 17 May 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Game Archaeologist jacks into The Matrix Online: The highlights

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, The Matrix Online, The Game Archaeologist

It's not every year that a movie comes along that captures the pop culture zeitgeist so powerfully and so quickly as The Matrix did. I recall lugging a few college friends along to see this in 1999 -- having heard only a few sparse details about it beforehand -- and coming out of the theater feeling as if we we'd been electrified. The bold mix of science fiction, martial arts, philosophy, action, and leather ensembles became the smash hit of the year, and a franchise was born.

And while we had great hopes that this would be this generation's Star Wars, The Matrix ultimately proved to be a lightning-in-a-bottle phenomenon, impossible to recapture once unleashed. Sequels, animated shorts, video games, comic books -- none rose to the height of the original film, and eventually the franchise petered out.

During this period, an odd duck of an MMO was born: The Matrix Online. When you think about it, an online virtual world where people log in and fight against programs was a really short hop from the movie series. MxO, as it was abbreviated, was an audacious game with unique features, story-centric gameplay and a sci-fi bent in a field of fantasy competitors, and while it only lasted four years, it was enough to make a huge impression for its community.

So by popular demand, this month we're going to revisit the 1s and 0s of The Matrix Online to see just how deep the rabbit hole (and well-worn cliche) goes -- and what made this game stand out!

Continue reading The Game Archaeologist jacks into The Matrix Online: The highlights

The Game Archaeologist jacks into The Matrix Online: The highlights originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 May 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: What is Love?

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Puzzle, Guides, New titles, Tips and tricks, Opinion, Hands-on, Love, Anti-Aliased

So what is love? That's certainly the metaphysical question of the ages, isn't it? Is it simply an attraction to another gender, or is it a deep bond between two people that goes beyond mere friendship, and more into the realm of headbanging, suit and sunglasses wearing pride? Do I have the authority to take on questions such as this in my editorial column?

Heck no! That's why we're going to spend this week talking about Eskil Steenberg's indie-MMO, Love! We've been covering Love extensively this week, announcing that the alpha was available and showing off some really beautiful in-game footage. But, even with all of that, we never got into the meat of the game. What is Love about? What do you do in it? Why is it so special to us on the Massively staff?

Those questions and more will be answered in this week's edition. So come on in, the Love is great!

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Anti-Aliased: What is Love? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What you missed in The Matrix Online pt. 2

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Culture, Events, in-game, The Matrix Online, Opinion, Massively Event Coverage

Hiding in plain sight

After the vampires and lupines were quelled, a new issue of the Sentinel and a concurrent game update brought new images into the Matrix. Colorful billboards advertising bug spray began appearing all over the city, confusing some and intriguing others. The first visual puzzle of The Matrix had been covertly unleashed on players.

The solution wasn't hard, but far from obvious. The second page of the new in-game newspaper, The Sentinel, showed a colorful "terrorist alert level chart." While it was an obvious mockery of everyone's favorite homeland security poster, astute players saw that the same colors were being used on the in-game billboards. Each billboard contained a number somewhere in it's slogan, such as "Blue brand pesticide kills bugs four times faster than the competition!" These numbers, along with their corresponding colors and the terrorist alert level chart were the keys.

Players took the numbers and re-arranged the terrorist alert level in that order. If the blue billboard had the number four on it, then it went fourth in the order. If red had one, then it went first in the order and so forth. As the chart was re-arranged, the first letters of the "alert" status began to spell out a word. Definite, Elevated, Likely, Possible, Huge, Imminent -- DELPHI. The final part of the puzzle was a small poster that had appeared in certain clubs, advertising an extermination service that could be contacted by e-mailing an address at Monolith Entertainment, the game's current developer.

Players e-mailed the address, asking to consult The Oracle of Delphi. Wishes were soon granted as Seraph appeared in-game to not only fight players who solved the puzzle, but also wisk them away to meet with the Oracle herself. Other players got to consult the Oracle via their real life e-mail, creating an alternate reality game of sorts with The Matrix. Either way, the event made one thing clear: The Assassin was made entirely of blowflies and could be destroyed with specially designed killcodes -- bug spray.

And that was just the beginning...

This entire article has simply focused on two of the first events in The Matrix Online's storyline. Every bit of it was unrepeatable and lead to some amazingly memorable moments in the game. The type of moments that stay with you forever.

Very few, if any, games are able to accomplish this phenomenon. Who cares if you kill Yogg-Saron? Who cares if you defeat the Witch King of Angmar? Other players are going to eventually do that in droves because the content is repeatable.

But the Matrix was able to wrap everybody up into an evolving storyline, philosophy, and sense of community. Players worked together and fought one another on more levels than just PvP and PvE. They formed bonds with characters who didn't even exist while forming bonds with others around them that were willing to believe in the same things they did. They roleplayed willingly in order to keep the story going beyond what the developers had planned.

All of this was amazing, and I can only hope to see another game take the same ideas and drive them to a level beyond what that Matrix could offer. These were amazing ideas, but just too far ahead of their time.

What you missed in The Matrix Online pt. 2 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Faction populations largely balanced in Warhammer Online

James Egan — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, PvP, Warhammer Online, Races

When Warhammer Online launched, one of the pressing concerns players had was population imbalance between Order and Destruction. Some of the measures Mythic Entertainment has taken to remedy this -- like free server transfers -- seem to have worked, according to Mythic's Jess Folsom.

A recent dev blog by Folsom at the Warhammer Herald addresses the concerns WAR players continue to have about faction imbalances, and paints a decidedly bright picture of the current state of play.

Percentages shown for the average of all North American servers shows a near equal balance in active accounts per faction (49% Order vs. 51% Destruction), and an even 50/50 split between factions in terms of average experience and renown point gains.

Continue reading Faction populations largely balanced in Warhammer Online

Faction populations largely balanced in Warhammer Online originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Big Fish Games snags $83 million for expansion

Shawn Schuster — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Browser

In what is touted as the the largest investment of venture capital for a U.S. online gaming company, Big Fish Games has recently secured $83.3 million in funding from VC firms Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Salmon River Capital. This is all in addition to the $8.7 million they received in 2005, making this developer one of the most heavily-funded out there.

You may remember in November of last year when Big Fish acquired MMO developer Thinglefin which was founded by Jeremy Friesen and Ryan O'Rourke, formerly of Monolith and Sony Online Entertainment. These industry vets have previously worked on The Matrix Online and Asheron's Call. This new MMO from Thinglefin is described as a free-to-play, browser-based MMO, and is currently still in development.

Big Fish Games snags $83 million for expansion originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: There's other people there too, ya know.

Seraphina Brennan — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Anti-Aliased

I'll be blunt -- I hate grouping. Nothing pains me more than grouping up with four of the "internet's finest" and going into a dungeon to kill some monsters. 95% of the time, it seems I'm doomed to find 4chan (NSFW) rejects or screaming 10-year-old kids (NSFW). Of course, these are the parties that take an hour and a half to assemble and only last two rooms into the dungeon. Someone inevitably screws up and gets six mobs on them, and then they instantly turn around and blame the priest for "not being able to heal properly". Of course they don't actually say "not being able to heal properly"; it comes out more like "u suck n00b priest".

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: There's other people there too, ya know.

Anti-Aliased: There's other people there too, ya know. originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Matrix gets new weapons, story missions, enemies

Samuel Axon — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, The Matrix Online, News items

SOE deployed Update 60 on The Matrix Online's servers this week. The update doesn't just fix bugs. It also marks the beginning of Episode 10.2 of the story, introduces some new enemies in Datamine, and adds a reward for players who complete live critical missions.

If you're looking to earn the new reward items (a consumable of some sort), said missions are scheduled every Thursday up through the 12th of June; the first of those occurred yesterday, but a recap has been published. The update also introduces a whopping 342 new level 50 weapon variants, some of which will drop during the high level critical missions.

We're glad to see that MxO is still ticking despite the announced departure of Paul Chadwick, the esteemed comic book writer who had worked on the story until recently.

The Matrix gets new weapons, story missions, enemies originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 May 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: What are we doing?

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Humor, Anti-Aliased

Click. 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 1, 1, 3, 4, 1. /cheer

Sitting next to my friend in his room littered with Diet Mountain Dew cans, reports past due, and his girlfriend passed out on the bed, I slowly came to a very scary realization. Some of our best loved MMOs can be boiled down to not just pressing different buttons, but pressing the same button repeatedly.

What really drove this home was me and a bunch of his friends were in the other room adjacent to his room, yet he was neglecting to join our roleplaying session and hang out. He'd rather sit in his small, cluttered room and farm a raid he's done at least 20 times, somehow finding enjoyment from pressing the button "1" repeatedly.

So... what are we doing? Are we drinking the proverbial Windex because someone said it was a good idea?

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: What are we doing?

Anti-Aliased: What are we doing? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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