Massively

SWTOR's official website receives a facelift

Larry Everett — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

At approximately 2 a.m. EDT, the Star Wars: The Old Republic website dropped offline for 11 hours to receive a much-needed facelift. The previous site had used the same look for nearly four years, focusing on a pre-launch presentation. But at noon EDT, a fresh new site was revealed to the world.

According to the SWTOR community team post, this new site, which was rebuilt from the ground up, will provide "the latest game updates in an easy to navigate way." The team expounds on what we should expect from the new site later in the article, "In addition to all of the latest news and information that is released, we're also going to give you much more information about in-game content." The first example of this is the breakdown of each of the 17 flashpoints.

Although the new site falls back on a more traditional look, the community team assures us that this will help to increase the site's overall functionality and allow for additional features such as guild support, skill trees, character profiles, and more.

SWTOR's official website receives a facelift originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online jazzes up website, opens CSM application process

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events, real-world

If EVE Online's website were a teenage girl in a movie -- and we're not for a moment suggesting that it's not -- today is the day she'd go through one of those peppy makeover montages and ultimately reveal the beauty that was there all along (just in hiding -- stupid glasses). The new design is up for the world to see, sporting a sleek sexiness along with an interesting ticker relating the latest and greatest from the game. CCP is hoping that the redesign will come off as more "user friendly" for newbies.

In other EVE news, CCP will begin accepting applications tonight for the Council of Stellar Management (CSM). The process is quite involved: Players will apply until the 22nd, after which nominations will be pulled from the list and then community voting will commence. If you're interested in becoming a major voice of the community by advising CCP in EVE's development, then you'd do well to check out the list of candidacy qualifications and get your app in on time!

[Thanks to Xilmar for the tip!]

EVE Online jazzes up website, opens CSM application process originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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City of Heroes art lead contemplates the Hamidon redesign

Larry Everett — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Previews, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries

City of Heroes Freedom brings not only changes to the payment model of the premiere superhero MMO but also to the art design for some of the existing creatures. In a developer diary posted on PC Gamer, Art Lead Gilbert Martinez explains the process behind creating a new threatening version of the Hamidon.

One of our goals for the new Praetorian incarnations of Hamidon was to raise their threat level while keeping them tied visually to the original blob-like mass players are familiar with. We felt that it was important to design these creatures in a way that emphasized their power and scale and made it clear that they are worthy of going toe-to-toe with the all-powerful Tyrant.

Martinez does not explain if this new incarnation of the monster will take 50+ heroes to defeat like its predecessor, but we are looking at a completely different creature than the former giant congealed mass.

PC gamer hosts the whole diary on its website, which includes new screenshots of the Hamidon and a gigantic monster called the Shivan from the redesigned tutorial. And next week, City of Heroes hosts two panels at PAX. Massively will have reporters on the scene giving you the latest news for Paragon City!

City of Heroes art lead contemplates the Hamidon redesign originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GamersFirst gearing up for more APB testing invites, looking toward open beta

Jef Reahard — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, All Points Bulletin, Crime, Dev Diaries

Open beta time is approaching for APB Reloaded, and GamersFirst's Bjorn Book-Larsson is back with his weekly blog post to give us all the juicy details. It seems that GamersFirst devs are working overtime to squash a number of pesky bugs in the 1.5.0 version of the game. As soon as they're finished, 1.5.0 will be made available to the game's 25,000 closed beta testers, followed by subsequent releases for the EU servers, a mass invite for another 25,000 closed beta testers, and then an invite for the remainder of closed beta applicants.

If all of this goes off without a hitch, testers will be granted a temporary premium account to poke and prod at its associated functionality, after which GamersFirst will enable monetized content. After that, "if there are still no major issues, then we will open up the floodgates and formally go into open beta," Book-Larsson explains.

While that's a lot of "ifs," the takeaway is that APB Reloaded's official release is drawing steadily closer. Book-Larsson notes that the team expects to "be in monetized open beta until August" and will be iterating on quite a bit of new content throughout the process.

GamersFirst gearing up for more APB testing invites, looking toward open beta originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Update to the Massively makeover

Brianna Royce — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Bugs, Events, real-world, Massively Meta, Miscellaneous

Hello, readers! It's been a few weeks since our massive Massively site overhaul landed, and our web gurus have been scurrying in the background fixing bugs and responding to your reports. Not all of the bugs have been vaporized just yet, but we'd like to update you on the status of some of the problems that most affect you.

RSS -- Our most-reported problem over the last few weeks revolved around our RSS feeds. Many users reported a doubling-up of posts as the site spewed out two copies of every post. Others reported an inability to subscribe to specific categories and bloggers, and still others were finding that every RSS feed was producing copies of the podcast (great news for podcast fans, I guess!). Our techs currently report that all of our RSS feeds should be functioning now, but they note that many RSS readers do not well tolerate the kind of switcheroo we had to do. If you're still having problems, unsubscribe again from all of your Massively feeds and try resubbing one more time. I can tell you that I am using Google Reader and stopped having problems a few days ago. If you need to resub to specific feeds, this will help: for the writers, visit the individual pages on our team portal; for columns and features, hop over to our columns list; and for specific games, click on your chosen game in the games list for a category with a feed button.

There's more behind the cut... follow along!

Continue reading Update to the Massively makeover

Update to the Massively makeover originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don't panic -- Massively's getting a makeover! [Update #5]

Brianna Royce — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: Bugs, Events, real-world, Launches, Massively Meta, Miscellaneous

Blizzard isn't the only team around preparing for a cataclysm. The perceptive among you might have noticed a few subtle changes around Massively today and wondered what was going on. Is it the end times?!

Nope! In fact, we have exciting news! Tonight (Monday, November 22nd) and continuing through the week, we'll be rolling out our brand-new site. That's right, folks: Massively's getting a much-deserved facelift meant to bring the site in line with our community's needs and position us a bit more prominently alongside our sister site, Joystiq. We'll not only be easier on the eyes but easier to navigate, and best of all, we'll have a new and improved login and comment system. Rejoice! We'll get a new URL too -- massively.joystiq.com -- although www.massively.com will continue to redirect just fine to all the content you love, old and new.

Over the next week, Massively might be a little bit weird as our Gnomish Engineers scramble to get a site of this size into its new outfit, so please bear with us while we tinker. Just to quell any remaining fears -- we're not closing down, we've not been bought out, and we're not selling out to corporate overlords. We've always been part of the Joystiq network; it's just going to be a bit more obvious now. The same bloggers will still be bringing you the same MMO posts and features as before. We're just going to look a whole lot more stylish doing it. We'll keep you posted as the rollout continues!

[Ongoing updates are behind the cut! Last update was at 11:05 a.m. EST on Wednesday, November 24th. -Bree]

Continue reading Don't panic -- Massively's getting a makeover! [Update #5]

Don't panic -- Massively's getting a makeover! [Update #5] originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 22 Nov 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Public testing for Warhammer Online's city sieges

Eliot Lefebvre — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, Warhammer Online

The major gameplay push for Warhammer Online of late has been the imminent patch 1.3.5, bringing with it the fully RvR-focused city sieges. Developer diaries have explained its creation at length, and it's been getting closed testing for some time, but now it's time for it to face up to the watchful eye of the public. Starting on Tuesday, May 11th, both Altdorf and the Inevitable City will be getting tested in their new incarnations, and as always players are invited to take part in the mayhem.

Altdorf will be the first up for assault on Tuesday at 8:00 PM EST (5 PM PST), with the Inevitable City beginning its siege on Thursday the 13th at the same hour. After the testing has taken place, the development team will be available for an informal question and answer session on the official Mythic Ventrilo server, as if players needed an extra incentive. The official announcement includes information about copying one's character to the test server, so all Warhammer Online players are encouraged to participate.

Public testing for Warhammer Online's city sieges originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 10 May 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another batch of armor skins for WAR

Brooke Pilley — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Warhammer Online, News items

Mythic Entertainment just released eight new armor set designs for Warhammer Online. This part, two of three, features redesigns and comparisons for the Marauder, Shaman, Chosen, Witch Elf, Archmage, White Lion, Witch Hunter, and Knight of the Blazing Sun. They are seeking feedback from players, which can be shared in this forum thread.

The studio drew a bit of criticism for their first batch of redesigns because they seemed to be comparing low resolution versions of the older sets versus high resolution renders of the new sets. It seems as though they've avoided that this time around.

One thing we've always loved about the gear in WAR (even the old skins) is that it has such visual depth, dimension and personality. Rather than looking as if it was simply added as a distortion map on your character (that bends and stretches with his body), each piece appears individual, nicely interlocking with the others on top of your character. The higher end gear looks quite dark and Gothic, as if it was meant for pain and battle and the new designs show a much more obvious progression than the previous sets, that's for sure (most obvious in the Chosen and Knight).

Another batch of armor skins for WAR originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official Aion website gets a make-over (redux)

Brooke Pilley — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, New titles, News items

We bring you this breaking news from the cluttered desks at Massively headquarters: Aion has launched! Oh wait, you already knew that? Darn. Well, maybe you haven't noticed Aion's official website make-over featuring all kinds of never-before-seen goodies like official forums, character and legion (guild) search, server status/statistics, Abyss control, and player rankings.

The new look is clean, bright, and lightweight. NCsoft have updated their Powerwiki to include a number of player guides and lore articles (still no crafting info though). The official forums showcase the latest discussion on news, community, servers, classes, and technical support. Players can even show off a 3D model of their character including their latest gear/stats. The server statistics page is quite cool too, breaking down individual servers by race, class, level range, and the number of legions. Asmodians hold a slight advantage across most servers, but not by much. It seems NCsoft's strict balance policy is working decently so far.

Official Aion website gets a make-over (redux) originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New armor set skins are coming to WAR

Brooke Pilley — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Warhammer Online, News items

It seems Mythic is ignoring any and all naysayers as it's steadily ploughing ahead with improvements to Warhammer Online. Patch 1.3.1 just introduced a bunch of tweaks to the endgame and Jeff Skalski's producer's letter mentions a number of cool features coming ahead in 1.3.2. A new post on the WAR Herald is now telling us that the Art team has been busy redesigning all the tier 4 armor set skins.

Part one of this reskinning series shows off new concepts for six different classes, including the Blackguard, Squig Herder, and Zealot for Destruction and the Bright Wizard, Engineer, and Swordmaster for Order. The new armor sets are looking pretty amazing if we do say so ourselves, however, there's one minor sticking point. In terms of comparison, some players don't feel that the old sets are being fairly represented. Each of the old sets are shown in-game at what appear to be extremely low screenshot resolutions, while the new sets are richly detailed and colored 3D renders or screenshots from a game client with maxed graphics. Nonetheless, Mythic is looking for your feedback on the new designs, so make sure you give it to them on the official forums.

[Thanks to JP]

New armor set skins are coming to WAR originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Major keep redesigns in Warhammer Online

Brooke Pilley — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Warhammer Online, News items

One of the biggest complaints Warhammer Online players have about RvR is the static nature of keep siege. Usually, attackers zerg the front door and once inside, zerg the main stairway leading up to the keep lord. This provides a slightly (read: very) annoying chokepoint and little room for strategy. To be fair, Mythic's reasoning for the initial design was that keeps are designed as defensive fortifications. Why wouldn't defenders want to funnel attackers into a single chokepoint? Unfortunately, it isn't very fun from a gameplay perspective.

All that is about to change with the new keep designs coming to WAR in patch 1.3.1. The most significant change is that all keeps are getting a bigger footprint and will feature a second set of stairs leading up to the keep lord. They are also making a number of structural tweaks (e.g., more space near the oil pad). Interestingly, it sounds like some of the keep will have their locations moved within the RvR lakes too. Pairing these new changes with the keep upgrade systems and guild claiming bonuses introduced back in April should make sieging a lot more fun and strategic than when the game first launched.

Major keep redesigns in Warhammer Online originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to the newly redesigned Massively!

Shawn Schuster — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: Massively Meta

Don't panic! If things here at Massively look a bit different, it's because we've recently implemented a complete site redesign. We're very excited about this updated look, to follow along with the recent redesigns of our sister sites Joystiq and WoW Insider.

So what does this mean for you, the reader? Well, we're hoping it means some improvements to your Massively reading experience. Posts and post images will be wider (as we eventually work our way into the newer posts), categorization is more defined and the posts themselves feature a cleaner layout. So we hope you enjoy the updated look and please be patient as we finish polishing up the edges, as some weirdness may occur during the transition.

Welcome to the newly redesigned Massively! originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO-Europe website gets a facelift

Shawn Schuster — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Forums, MMO industry

Not that there was ever anything wrong with Lord of the Rings Online Europe's website to begin with, but they've recently decided to completely revamp their site to better accommodate the new expansion and future content.

Codemaster Online's new website now features a separate branch for Shadows of Angmar and one for Mines of Moria, as well as the obligatory CGI trailer, free trial info, competitions and a link to their e-shop. Separating the two volumes like this allows the company to present news, features and contests that are specific to a certain expansion, which will become more valuable as the list of expansions grows in the coming years. They also promise that the community section will benefit from the creativity of their designers soon, and will be brought in line with this new layout.

LotRO-Europe website gets a facelift originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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