Massively http://massively.joystiq.com Massively http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Massively http://massively.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[TERA podcast highlights convention news]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/09/02/tera-podcast-highlights-convention-news/http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/09/02/tera-podcast-highlights-convention-news/http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/09/02/tera-podcast-highlights-convention-news/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

TERA - castanic female
Episode five of the official TERA podcast is in the can, and it's also available for your listening pleasure on the TERA website. The show finds En Masse community manager Evan "Scapes" Berman talking with producer Chris Hager and COO Patrick Wyatt for approximately 20 minutes.

The subject?

Convention season, of course, and the gang talks about everything from the TERA Gamescom demo to the preparation necessary to convey a certain message to members of the gaming media. The trio also mentions the challenges inherent in answering difficult questions on stage at a major convention, and Wyatt even chats briefly about his experiences working on Blizzard's seminal StarCraft RTS.

MassivelyTERA podcast highlights convention news originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>arboreabehind-the-sceneschris-hageren-masseen-masse-entertainmentevan-bermanfantasygamescommmo-industryofficial-podcastpatrick-wyattpaxpax-primepax-prime-2011scapesteratera-onlineFri, 02 Sep 2011 12:30:00 EST<![CDATA[TERA implementing chronoscrolls to combat gold farming]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/08/29/tera-implementing-chronoscrolls-to-combat-gold-farming/http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/08/29/tera-implementing-chronoscrolls-to-combat-gold-farming/http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/08/29/tera-implementing-chronoscrolls-to-combat-gold-farming/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

TERA - boss fight
TERA isn't releasing in North America for several months yet, but the folks at En Masse are already taking steps to curb the inevitable tide of gold farmers sure to be washing up on Arborea's beaches in 2012.

A new dev blog released over the weekend outlines the introduction of chronoscrolls, and those of you who are familiar with EVE Online's PLEX system will probably see several parallels between the two mechanics. "If you've never purchased gold, and you're wondering why this new chronoscrolls system is a good addition to the game, consider this: Whether chronoscrolls exist or not, other players are buying gold from real-money traders. By creating the opportunity for players who already buy gold to purchase it legitimately, we help eliminate the incentive for real-money traders to target TERA," says producer Patrick Wyatt.

MassivelyTERA implementing chronoscrolls to combat gold farming originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>arboreachronoscrollsdev-blogdev-diaryeconomyen-masseen-masse-entertainmenteveeve-onlinefantasygold-farmersgold-farmingpatrick-wyattplay-for-freeplexreal-money-tradingrmtteratera-onlineMon, 29 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST<![CDATA[En Masse offers open house, hands-on with TERA at PAX Prime]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/08/17/en-masse-offers-open-house-hands-on-with-tera-at-pax-prime/http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/08/17/en-masse-offers-open-house-hands-on-with-tera-at-pax-prime/http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/08/17/en-masse-offers-open-house-hands-on-with-tera-at-pax-prime/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

TERA - Castanic sorcerer
En Masse Entertainment is throwing open its doors to the public during this year's Pax Prime, and if that doesn't excite you, maybe the chance to get your hands on TERA's latest build will. If you're going to be in the Seattle area on Saturday, August 27th from 6-10 p.m. EDT (3-7 p.m. PDT) and you'd like to attend, send an email to community@enmasse.com with your full name, TERA website user name, and birthdate.

Fans will have the chance to share feedback with the production team after the hands-on period as well as attend a Q&A session with En Masse COO Patrick Wyatt. Full details are available at the official TERA website.

MassivelyEn Masse offers open house, hands-on with TERA at PAX Prime originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>action-mmoarboreaen-masseen-masse-entertainmenten-masse-open-housefantasyfeedbackhands-onopen-housepatrick-wyattpaxpax-prime-2011real-world-eventsteraWed, 17 Aug 2011 10:30:00 EST<![CDATA[TERA's Patrick Wyatt talks lag, security, and an M-rating]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/08/31/teras-patrick-wyatt-talks-lag-security-and-an-m-rating/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/08/31/teras-patrick-wyatt-talks-lag-security-and-an-m-rating/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/08/31/teras-patrick-wyatt-talks-lag-security-and-an-m-rating/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,


TERA is shaping up to be a huge hit with international audiences, and nowhere is this more evident than in En Masse Entertainment's willingness to reach out to fan communities outside the U.S. The latest example comes courtesy of TERAHispano, as they recently sat down with En Masse COO Patrick Wyatt for a round of questions regarding everything from microtransactions, to account security, to lag.

Wyatt has lots to say in the lengthy interview, and among the more interesting nuggets is the fact that En Masse expects TERA to ship with an M-rating. He also touches on performance issues, pointing to the Focus Group Tests as evidence that lag won't be an issue for the game's action combat system. "When we built the first Western servers for TERA, we selected a QA datacenter just a few miles from our offices in Seattle, which meant that European players who joined our Focus Group Tests were playing on servers over 5000 miles away. Based on the forum posts, polls, and informal surveys from those events, we didn't see lag problems," Wyatt says.

Finally, he reiterates that TERA will not be a microtransaction-based title, and also discusses GameGuard and alternatives to the intrusive anti-cheat software.

MassivelyTERA's Patrick Wyatt talks lag, security, and an M-rating originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>en-masseen-masse-entertainmentfocus-group-testgameguardinterviewlaglatencym-ratingpatrick-wyattserversteratera-onlineterahispanoTue, 31 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST<![CDATA[En Masse publishes first TERA weekly newsletter]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/05/12/en-masse-publishes-first-tera-weekly-newsletter/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/05/12/en-masse-publishes-first-tera-weekly-newsletter/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/05/12/en-masse-publishes-first-tera-weekly-newsletter/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

En Masse Entertainment Senior Community Manager Scapes brings word of the first issue of The Velika Guardian, a weekly newsletter designed to keep readers abreast of all that's new and happening in the world of TERA. The newsletter, basically an ongoing forum thread that features a collection of relevant updates (as selected by the dev team) from the previous week, can be found on the game's official boards.

For the debut issue, Scapes highlights Patrick Wyatt's TERAHispano.com interview, the recently released Focus Group Test 2 Postmortem, and Sam Kim's interview with TERAGamers.de.

Check out Issue One of The Velika Guardian over at the official TERA website.

MassivelyEn Masse publishes first TERA weekly newsletter originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 12 May 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>en-masse-entertainmentnewsletterpatrick-wyattsam-kimscapesterathe-velika-guardianweekly-newsletterWed, 12 May 2010 20:00:00 EST<![CDATA[TERA's Patrick Wyatt talks security, RMT]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/05/03/teras-patrick-wyatt-talks-security-rmt/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/05/03/teras-patrick-wyatt-talks-security-rmt/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/05/03/teras-patrick-wyatt-talks-security-rmt/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

The guys over at TERAHispano have scored an interesting interview with En Masse Entertainment COO Patrick Wyatt. The former NCsoft executive talks at length about everything from possible RMT options, to account security, to private servers and potential in-game griefing in TERA. In light of the much-publicized problems with bots, gold-selling, and account theft in Aion, these issues are clearly on the minds of TERA fans as En Masse works to localize Bluehole Studio's open world fantasy MMORPG for the western markets.

"Ultimately, if users want to purchase gold, they'll find a way to do it. The U.S. "drug war" hasn't stopped people from buying drugs, it merely causes fluctuations in the price of those drugs and the amount of crime and violence that people are willing to commit to buy and sell drugs. If we only try to attack the problem of gold farming by detecting and blocking the gold farmers we will not be effective in stopping that behavior and all of the problems that go with it, like chat-spamming to advertise gold-buying sites, purchase fraud, phishing, and account theft," Wyatt says.

He goes on to list EVE Online's PLEX system and Everquest's Vox and Bazaar secondary market experiments as potential "interesting solutions."

Check out TERAHispano for the full interview as well a companion gameplay-centric interview with Producer Sam Kim.

MassivelyTERA's Patrick Wyatt talks security, RMT originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 May 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>en-masse-entertainmentgameplaygold-sellingpatrick-wyattrmtteraMon, 03 May 2010 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[ArenaNet's Design Director looks at past and future of Guild Wars]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/04/26/arenanets-design-director-looks-at-past-and-future-of-guild-war/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/04/26/arenanets-design-director-looks-at-past-and-future-of-guild-war/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/04/26/arenanets-design-director-looks-at-past-and-future-of-guild-war/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

As the citizens of Tyria celebrate the fifth anniversary of Guild Wars, we at Massively have been looking both at the future of Guild Wars as well as the past. The things in store for Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 are of great interest to fans, but what came before set the stage for this long-running game.

We had the opportunity to spend some time with ArenaNet's Design Director James Phinney and talk about how far Guild Wars has come in five years. Follow along after the jump to see what he had to say.

Continue reading ArenaNet's Design Director looks at past and future of Guild Wars

MassivelyArenaNet's Design Director looks at past and future of Guild Wars originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>arenanetfeaturedguild-warsguild-wars-2interviewInterviewsJames-Phinneyjeff-strainncsoftpatrick-wyattMon, 26 Apr 2010 15:00:00 EST<![CDATA[GDC10: En Masse's Patrick Wyatt talks MMO security]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/03/31/gdc10-en-masses-patrick-wyatt-talks-mmo-security/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/03/31/gdc10-en-masses-patrick-wyatt-talks-mmo-security/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/03/31/gdc10-en-masses-patrick-wyatt-talks-mmo-security/#commentsFiled under: ,

Security concerns in MMOs are nothing new. We all know the drill -- Don't share your account, avoid suspicious emails and sites, change your password regularly and so on. We go through all of that to keep our personal accounts safe, but what about the bigger picture?

Patrick Wyatt from En Masse looked over this very thing at GDC this year, explaining how issues like gold farming, account theft and even plain old griefing affects the MMO community at large. He began looking at the other side of the equation: the people causing these problems in the first place and what motivates them. Money is the main motivator, of course, but there is no shortage of attackers who are just doing it for kicks.

So as long as you protect your own account, it doesn't affect you, right? Wyatt addressed that false assumption as well, outlining the affect of each type of attack on the general gaming community and the game in question itself. Any event that affects the game and the community at large will of course affect every member of the community. So what's to be done? Game developers never stop working to stay ahead of "the enemy", and Wyatt illustrates quite a few possible solutions.

This slideshow certainly isn't only for those in the industry. It's very informative for any MMO player, so head over to playnoevil.com and take a look at the slideshow for yourself!

MassivelyGDC10: En Masse's Patrick Wyatt talks MMO security originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>account-securityen-masse-entertainmentgdc-2010gdc2010patrick-wyattplaynoevilWed, 31 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST<![CDATA[NCsoft 'very encouraged' by Guild Wars 2]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/09/24/ncsoft-very-encouraged-by-guild-wars-2/http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/09/24/ncsoft-very-encouraged-by-guild-wars-2/http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/09/24/ncsoft-very-encouraged-by-guild-wars-2/#commentsFiled under: , , ,


Massively recently got to talk to David Reid, the newly appointed President of Publishing for NC West, about several key NCsoft matters. We took the opportunity to ask David about ArenaNet and Guild Wars, and in particular, what was happening with Guild Wars 2.

Massively: Something we know the Guild Wars players are very interested in, is with Jeff Strain now moving into his new position within the company, what does that say for ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2, which is obviously a product that ArenaNet's been working on for some time? Guild Wars players are... well, they're dying for you to let them know what's going on with that game. Is this a good sign or a bad sign for the company, and what should this say to Guild Wars players who are looking forward to the sequel with more than bated breath?

David Reid: First thing: I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that we, too, have an enormous amount of enthusiasm for Guild Wars 2! And we're very encouraged by what we're seeing.

Continue reading NCsoft 'very encouraged' by Guild Wars 2

MassivelyNCsoft 'very encouraged' by Guild Wars 2 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>arenanetdavid-reidfeaturedguild-warsguild-wars-2jeff-strainmichael-obriennc-westncsoftpatrick-wyattWed, 24 Sep 2008 15:15:00 EST