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Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu

MJ Guthrie — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, Game mechanics, Guilds, Interviews, New titles, PvP, PvE, Massively Interviews, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox, Crafting

Many moons ago when the air just started to cool from summer's heat (aka, last September), Some Assembly Required had the opportunity to talk shop with a new outfit that is developing a promising new sandbox MMORPG, Origins of Malu. And you know me: Sandbox is the magic word! As skeptical as I knew I should be, I still came away from that interview with renewed hope that a game with some of the features for player-generated content could exist again.

Back then, Burning Dog Media made the bold statement that it would absolutely release its flagship game in 2012, with a target of early 2012 to boot. But as the first quarter of the year quickly drew to a close with scant information available, it became pretty clear the game is still a ways off. In the realm of games, no news is not necessarily good news... and we definitely hit a drought in news.

Now that drought has ended. In our second exclusive interview, we spoke with Michael Dunham, Producer, Jason Mitchell, Senior Developer, and Dave Cruikshank, Art Director, to learn what's been going on behind the scenes and get the scoop on more details about those very features that have sandbox lovers salivating.

Continue reading Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu

Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Are heirloom items bad for MMOs?

Brianna Royce — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Economy, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

In its Wrath of the Lich King expansion, World of Warcraft introduced a new class of items: the heirloom. Heirlooms can be transferred between all of the characters on your account, even your alts belonging to "enemy" factions. While a cloth-bedecked caster can't exactly wear the heavy platemail of his older Paladin brother, the hand-me-downs are pretty useful for twinking if you plan it out a bit.

The trouble is that heirlooms effectively level up with the player, so an alt who has a truckload of heirlooms has no need to take part in the player market. Why would he need to buy a crafted staff from a Weaponsmith? He's got one that he can use for 80 (85, now) levels. And in that case, why bother crafting as a lowbie Weaponsmith at all?

What do you think -- do the conveniences of heirloom items outweigh their negative impact on MMO economies?

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: Are heirloom items bad for MMOs? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Goblinworks CEO: 'There's a whole new way to make MMOs affordably'

Jef Reahard — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Miscellaneous, Dungeons, Crafting

Pull up a chair, sandpark fans, and while you're at it you might want to grab a large cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage. Goblinworks has published the first in a series of dev blogs designed to give starving sandbox fans a peek into the world of Pathfinder Online, and it's quite a lengthy read.

Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey introduces key members of the Pathfinder team (including industry veterans who have worked on titles including City of Heroes and World of Darkness) before moving on to a high-level view of Pathfinder's business plan. Three main strategies emerge from the wall o' text, and Dancey cites the use of field-tested middleware, sandbox design elements, and most interestingly, a hard cap on the number of new players allowed into the game each month as the factors that will make Pathfinder stand apart from the gaggle of themepark clones currently blotting out the sun.

"Making a game that starts with 4,500 players and grows to 16,500 players [after seven months] is much, much easier and vastly less expensive than making a game designed to accommodate a million players on day one," Dancey explains. He goes on to say that Pathfinder aims to emulate EVE Online's model of starting small and gradually building a larger playerbase over time while avoiding "a huge themepark mortgage" in terms of development and infrastructure costs.

Goblinworks CEO: 'There's a whole new way to make MMOs affordably' originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some Assembly Required: Happy birthday Perpetuum!

Jef Reahard — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Expansions, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Perpetuum, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox

Welcome back to Some Assembly Required, dear readers. This week marks something of a milestone for Perpetuum, the sci-fi sandbox set in the distant future on a far-flung planet known as Nia. Yes, the mech-based MMORPG has survived its first year (without a free-to-play conversion crutch!), and more than that, it's even grown a little bit. That's no small feat for an indie title in today's overcrowded MMO marketplace, never mind a niche sandbox that's been called a ground-based EVE Online.

Join me after the break for a recap of Perpetuum's first 12 months.

Continue reading Some Assembly Required: Happy birthday Perpetuum!

Some Assembly Required: Happy birthday Perpetuum! originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Anvil of Crom: Recessions, appearance tabs, and PvP for the returning player

Jef Reahard — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Economy, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Anvil of Crom

Welcome to the Anvil of Crom, Conan fans. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks, and all of the announcements, new content, business model changes, and general gameplay shenanigans are only going to generate more Age of Conan discussion as the summer wears on.

This week I'd like to take a brief time out to highlight some worthwhile (and ongoing) community discussions. Every so often it's good to take a bit of a break from my rantings and ravings and hand the microphone to you guys, and what better way to do that than by examining a few of the more interesting forum discussions to be found on both the U.S. and EU boards.

Without further ado, join me after the cut and add your two copper to the comment section.

Continue reading The Anvil of Crom: Recessions, appearance tabs, and PvP for the returning player

The Anvil of Crom: Recessions, appearance tabs, and PvP for the returning player originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively Exclusive: The sweet and sour of ArcheAge's third closed beta

Jef Reahard — Tue, 31 May 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Opinion, Hands-on, ArcheAge

Forgive me for getting this out of the way up front: I frickin' hate betas. Loathe them. Avoid them like the plague, usually. Why then, did I find myself foregoing sleep for the better part of last week to log into XL Games' third closed beta test for ArcheAge?

Curiosity, for sure, and maybe just a hint of desperation. As the MMORPG genre moves farther and farther away from the types of ~~games~~ worlds that drew me in a decade ago, the chance to get a preview of what some fans are hoping is the next great AAA sandbox was enough to overwhelm my betaphobia.

It's been quite some time since I've glanced out my window to see the sun rise while playing an MMORPG through the night, and ArcheAge definitely has its claws in me at this point. Is it the next great sandbox, though? Is it even a sandbox at all? Can XL successfully meld two design philosophies (sandbox and themepark) that are, in many ways, polar opposites? Those questions are difficult to answer, but join me after the cut and I'll give it a shot.

Continue reading Massively Exclusive: The sweet and sour of ArcheAge's third closed beta

Massively Exclusive: The sweet and sour of ArcheAge's third closed beta originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 31 May 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ArcheAge's Jake Song says balance doesn't mean equality

Jef Reahard — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Interviews, New titles, News items, ArcheAge

ArcheAge lead developer Jake Song has answered a round of fan-generated questions at OutpostGamez. The interview starts out with some interesting nuggets on world size and fast travel before moving on to a variety of topics including player content, crafting and the economy, and class balance.

"Those balance issues concern us as well. We will test and balance classes constantly. However, we don't think that all the combinations should be equivalent. There will be a class that is far more difficult than others," Song says.

ArcheAge is also setting the hearts of sandbox fans aflame courtesy of its deep non-combat gameplay, which purportedly includes an extensive crafting and economic system. Song cautions that while XL Games intends for the player economy to take precedence, the devs are not omitting loot drops and their associated mechanics altogether. Instead, XL is limiting the usefulness of mob drops in relation to their player-made counterparts. "Crafted items will be allowed continuous enhancements and improvements whereas such obtainable items wouldn't," Song explains.

ArcheAge's Jake Song says balance doesn't mean equality originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earthrise's Atanas Atanasov strikes back

Jef Reahard — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, New titles, PvP, News items

Masthead's Atanas Atanasov returns with another interview about the studio's upcoming Earthrise MMORPG. This time around, the focus is fairly general, with topics ranging from the economy, to PvP, to the type of player that will enjoy Earthrise. "While casual players can enjoy the game without going too in-depth, the interwoven player-run economy and complex social competition for influence and resources provide addictive mechanics for hardcore players to fine-tune their characters," he says.

With over 800 crafting technologies and a skill-based combat engine, the game aims to provide plenty of sandbox for players looking for something outside the mainstream of the holy trinity quest grinder. Earthrise also looks to depart from the norm by encouraging player interaction, to the point that Atanasov says it will be hard to progress on your own. "There are no rats that can drop you a high-tier rifle; no bosses with epic loot that out-stats every other item in the game; no quest will supply you with good gear - you have to rely on crafting or larceny to earn your bread," he says.

Earthrise's Atanas Atanasov strikes back originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earthrise reveals complex crafting screenshot

Jef Reahard — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Galleries, Screenshots, New titles, News items, Earthrise

While the information flow from the Earthrise beta is a bit slower than we'd like, the team at Masthead is occasionally letting tidbits slip out into the wilds of the internet. In addition to last month's interview with studio head Atanas Atanasov and lead writer Momchil Dilov, Masthead has posted a beta screenshot showing off the sci-fi MMORPG's robust crafting interface.

As ever, details are sketchy, but a thorough look at the shot reveals what seems to be a fairly complicated crafting system, with information on three separate processes (disassembling, recycling, and manufacturing) and a fourth, engineering, barely viewable at the bottom left of the main window. The screenshot also shows four variants of the item being crafted, in this case a Fasetech Rifle Chassis.

While we don't yet have many details as to how the system works, we can say that the shot whets our appetite for the kind of in-depth crafting system that seems to have deserted the MMO scene in recent years, and we'll be keeping a close eye on the Earthrise beta.

Gallery: Earthrise

Earthrise reveals complex crafting screenshot originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E308: Operatives and the in-game economy in The Agency

Krystalle Voecks — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Economy, Game mechanics, Interviews, New titles, The Agency, Spy, MMOFPS, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

As part of our long talk with Matt Wilson from SOE Seattle at E3, we got more information on operatives and the plans for the player-based economy coming in The Agency. As you may recall, there was a lot of confusion on just what type of a role operatives would play, based on the talk of RMT. As such, we were glad to get a chance to get some further information on just what the plans were for the in-game economy as well as a bit more on operatives.

Will there be some type of a player-based economy?

Yes. The economy is money and items, and alternately operatives. The way all these MMOs evolve it's the rare currency, whatever that rare currency is -- like 30 iron keys in Asheron's Call -- that ends up being the thing that players find important. Money ends up usually not being the factor when it comes to in-game economies. And so operatives are what is going to drive the economy in The Agency, because that is the rare system of collection. Once I have the Black Mamba card, and you want the Black Mamba card, then that's where the value in it is for a player. It's all about getting the fun and unique items that will help you play the game better.

Continue reading E308: Operatives and the in-game economy in The Agency

E308: Operatives and the in-game economy in The Agency originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Making/Money: The Wisdom of MMO Banking

Alexis Kassan — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Economy, Player Housing, Making/Money

Does it seem strange to save up to buy a house in a game? We are in an era where the real world economies of some nations are paralyzed by debts incurred from home purchases. Yet in games where there is player housing there is a surprising lack of player debt. MMOGs offer a simplified financial system seemingly impervious to the ills of modern society. What could we as a gaming society learn about real-world finance and money management from the way we act in game?

Continue reading Making/Money: The Wisdom of MMO Banking

Making/Money: The Wisdom of MMO Banking originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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