Skip to Content

BioWare kicks off Star Wars: The Old Republic Q&A Fridays

by Eliot Lefebvre (7 hours ago)

Sci-fi, Patches, Previews, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Community Q&A

26
Perhaps Jedi can finally get this armor. And the chance to put hoods down.
When BioWare first announced the addition of a regular community Q&A feature for Star Wars: The Old Republic, the team stated that each session would answer about 10 questions. However, the first installment has gone up with a grand total of 15 and answers more questions about the Legacy system. Patch 1.2 will bring in the first set of rewards, allowing players to combine races and classes in new ways, but the company promises there will be more enhancements and expansions for future patches.

In fact, the next major patch is will bring several requested features. A new same-faction Warzone, the Hue to Chest feature, Medium and Heavy social armor, and guild banks are all on the table for the update. For players more concerned with the immediate state of the game, there are also answers about the best ways to submit feedback and how the team prioritizes which bugs to fix. It's certainly a good place to kick off the series, and community members should find something to be pleased with in the answers.

Storyboard: Over, done, finished, finito

by Eliot Lefebvre (8 hours ago)

Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous

2
Yes, I know, there's no Mass Effect MMO. Not yet.
The best stories have an ending. And if you want to tell a decent story in a roleplaying format, you're going to need some sort of an ending eventually. The problem is that most endings have a pretty strict sense of finality to them, and really ending your roleplaying kind of implies that your character is riding off into the sunset and possibly sipping martinis. (Depending on the game, they may be space martinis. Lots of things are possible.)

So you want to end the story without ending your character's story on a whole. That's a good approach and one that can be handled. But it's also one that's a bit easier said than done, hence my devoting an entire column to it. So let's talk about creating a satisfying ending that manages to wrap up a story without subsequently wrapping up every aspect of your character.

Continue Reading

Diablo III will see you in hell... mode

by Brianna Royce (9 hours ago)

World of Warcraft, Betas, Fantasy, Video, News items, PvE, Dungeons

32
If you were among the players put out because Diablo III seems too pretty to be hardcore, you'll be happy to know that Blizzard hopes to re-earn your love, not with art but with gameplay. The company has released a video in which key DIII devs talk up the game's nightmare, hell, and inferno difficulty modes. They promise a veritable ass-kicking complete with hours of wiping and mounting repair costs. Quoth the devs:
"Normal mode was pretty casual. It's very fun -- you're one-clicking and you're having laughs. Once you get into Nightmare mode, it starts turning into all business. [...] The game really starts [...] at Nightmare. [...] The way the game is tuned right now, people have no idea what they're getting themselves into."
Perhaps not coincidentally, the Battle.net World of Warcraft blog is now daring gamers to join a community-driven Iron Man WoW Challenge. Participants eschew luxuries like buffs, talents, and grouping and charge into the world to see just how high they can level. Death, of course, means game over for the hardest of the hardcore.

The Diablo III vid is embedded just behind the break!

Continue Reading

Betawatch: February 4 - 10, 2012

by Brianna Royce (9 hours ago)

Betas, MMO industry, Betawatch, Miscellaneous

0
Betawatch (RODE pic)
Mmgame USA's Rise of Dragonian Era joins our closed beta list this week. The F2P sandpark title is aiming for a March launch, but prizes (including cash and video cards) await those who give the beta a spin this weekend.

Massively also secured codes for Seven Souls Online's beta, which begins on February 15th.

Finally, we're keeping an eye on the ongoing TERA sneak-peeks and beta events. If you preordered, you should be able to participate starting today.

Read on for the complete Betawatch roundup!

Continue Reading

Fallen Earth's Global Territory Control creates a singular faction to rule them all

by Justin Olivetti (10 hours ago)

Horror, Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Previews, PvP, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox

2
Fallen Earth
The GamersFirst crew is back with a closer look at one of the exciting PvP features that's being created for Fallen Earth: Global Territory Control. The idea behind GTC is that the devs wanted a comprehensive system that would track faction dominance in PvP across the entire game world.

Global Territory Control takes in data from Conflict Towns, Faction Control Points, and open PvP areas, crunches the stats, and spits out a single point rating that shows how well (or forehead-slappingly bad) each of the game's six factions is doing. The new system will go into place for the entire game except for Sector 1, and you'll have to be level-appropriate for the zone to contribute to your faction's GTC score.

If a faction earns enough points, then an insanely nice buff is handed out as a reward -- but only one faction can have it at any time. The buff increases the speed of crafting and harvesting and also improves the gain of random AP, Death Toll, faction points, and XP.

This system is still being prepped for a future update.

Final Fantasy XIV previews its revamp to food and medicine

by Eliot Lefebvre (11 hours ago)

Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV

11
Kicking it up approximately 14% of a notch.
Final Fantasy XIV's foods and medicines have always been a major part of the game -- after all, both Culinarians and Alchemists focus on producing precisely those items. Unfortunately, the items have been awkward to make, unwieldy to use, and frequently unclear in their effects. That's why the game's next major patch is bringing along a major overhaul to the system, giving the two categories of item clear roles and more transparent effects.

While the full list of item changes is not unveiled in the preview, the general philosophy is laid out in detail. Food items provide long-term buffs (including a small experience gain) with lesser overall values and a very short cooldown between uses. Medicines, on the other hand, provide a short-term buff with a long cooldown, but the buff is significantly larger. These changes will also tie into a revamp of several recipes to account for ingredient locations and overall synthesis difficulty. It's something to look forward to in the game's next major patch, and it promises to make your character's eating habits much easier to manage.

Darkfall specializes magic schools, replaces death with limbo system

by Justin Olivetti (13 hours ago)

Fantasy, Darkfall, Game mechanics, PvP, Dev Diaries

16
Darkfall
Aventurine continues its trek toward Darkfall's game revamp, aka Darkfall 2.0, and in a new producer letter, Tasos Flambouras drops a few interesting info nuggets to tide loyal players over until the job is done.

He states that the team is retuning each of the game's eight schools of magic so that each one feels more unique and focused. For example, air magic will be specialized to do more damage in close quarters against fewer targets, while fire magic will excel at long-distance AoE attacks.

The team also thinks it has figured out this pesky "death" problem by coming up with a more interesting limbo system. The way it works is that when players are taken down, they have a choice between either respawning back at a bind stone or waiting for a timer to count down to zero and initiate a respawn on the spot. If players opt to endure the limbo period, they can re-equip their characters from their bank boxes.

Aventurine continues to hire on new team members for the project, including a designer who will facilitate communication between devs and the community.

LotRO's buried treasure resurfaces in a new dev diary

by Justin Olivetti (14 hours ago)

Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events, in-game, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries

9
LotRO
Deep under the soil of Middle-earth are riches galore, and only the Dwarves know where to dig. Fortunately for players, the Dwarves are totally fine with interlopers coming along to try their luck at finding a bit of buried treasure -- and they've even made an event out of it.

While we previously saw a test run of the Buried Treasure event in Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine's put forth a dev diary that indicates we should be seeing more of it fairly soon. The event challenges players to flock to a treasure field, grab some picks, and get diggin' for booty. There's a strategy behind it that utilizes trained animals and dowsing sticks to find the best goods, although treasure hunters can just start digging randomly as well.

The treasure will vary in size and quality, ranging from special mounts and cosmetic gear to more picks and barter tokens. While players can earn picks in-game through a repeatable quest, Turbine will also be selling them through the LotRO store for those who want to speed up their winnings.

The dev diary posted several pictures of the nifty rewards that can be mined and states that the event is "seasonally agnostic," coming and going at various times during the year.

Full SWTOR-themed hip hop album released

by Elisabeth Cardy (15 hours ago)

Sci-fi, Culture, Fan art, Star Wars: The Old Republic

11
If the one thing missing from your life has been music to show the world how much you love Star Wars: The Old Republic, rejoice! Your wait has come to an end. Richie Branson, who put out his first SWTOR-themed song late last year, has released Cold Republic Episode I: The Empire Likes Rap, which has the peculiar honor of being the world's first SWTOR mixtape. Are you a Hutt Ball phenomenon? Are you hot like a pot on the stove that's boilin'? Does it take more than seven men to kill you 'cause you're a tank -- and can you, in point of fact, take that to the bank? This might be just the thing for you!

It's worth noting that the characters represented in the album also tip holo dancers hundred thousand credit bills and stick their missiles in all the ladies' exhaust ports. Your mileage will definitely vary.

The Firing Line: Controller wars edition

by Jef Reahard (16 hours ago)

Betas, Sci-fi, Trailers, Video, PlanetSide, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Opinion, Free-to-play, Consoles, MMOFPS, DUST 514, PlanetSide 2, Sandbox

8
The Firing Line - DUST 514 merc banner
Welcome back to The Firing Line, shooter fans. Some interesting stuff went down this week, much of it related to DUST 514. Even if you're not partial to what some have dubbed "the controller wars," there's still plenty of online shooter news for you to peruse after the cut.

Join me on the other side for a glimpse of Hawken, Firefall, and my PlanetSide character!

Continue Reading

MMObility: Let's make a mobile game, part two

by Beau Hindman (17 hours ago)

Betas, Fantasy, Real life, Business models, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile, Casual, Humor, Miscellaneous, MMObility

11
My MMO screenshot
Last week I started working with Dave Toulouse, indie developer of Golemizer and Star Corsairs, to build our very own mobile MMO. For the sake of completing the project within the month of February, we kept our game designs simple and easy for anyone to play. The idea was not to create a state-of-the-art video game but instead to build a working framework that illustrated some of the basics of MMO design.

Ironically, my first column on the subject was received rather coolly when I consider my normal column response, but last week's responses taught me a valuable lesson about design: Players often want to talk about what is not possible rather than what is. Dave told me how his players often told him what they wished his games would achieve, without ever considering just how difficult it is to make a game.

Still, there were several great ideas in the comments section. I'm going to use those ideas to break down this week's update.

Continue Reading

Celebrate Valentine's Day with Perfect World Entertainment

by Jef Reahard (18 hours ago)

Fantasy, Perfect World International, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play

5
Jade Dynasty - bride and groom
If you haven't made any MMO-centric plans for Valentine's Day, consider the offerings from free-to-play giant Perfect World Entertainment. The company is playing cupid in several of its online titles, and players can acquire "wedding fashions, romantic items, spectacular mounts, mystery boxes, and more."

Jade Dynasty features a wedding event and items for marriage-minded avatars, while Perfect World International GMs will be interacting with players and giving out a rare mount. Rusty Hearts is putting on an art contest, and the prize is Roselle Vegerius (the game's latest premium character).

Forsaken World players will receive a Valentine's Day card and random items, while War of the Immortals fans can collect chocolate and trade it for additional XP. Finally, Ether Saga Odyssey players can enter a screenshot contest to win XP and bonus items, as well as bid for rare pets and send custom broadcast messages.

[Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release]

Diablo III sort of confirmed for Q2 2012

by Jef Reahard (19 hours ago)

Fantasy, MMO industry, New titles, News items

30
Diablo III - blasted landscape
Looking for a definitive release date for Diablo III? So are we, and unfortunately Blizzard isn't cooperating. The best the company can come up with is Q2 2012, according to Rock, Paper Shotgun.

The site reports on Blizzard's recent investors call, during which Mike Morhaime stated the obvious before alluding to the launch window. "Given the popularity of the action RPG genre, and the keen interest in Diablo III, we expect this launch to be a big opportunity for Blizzard. We can also confirm that we are targeting a Q2 launch for Diablo III. We expect to announce more details about the release schedule in the coming weeks," he said.

But hey, at least he didn't say "when it's ready."

[Source: Activision investor call]

Some Assembly Required: Salem dev talks permadeath, griefing, and skill-based gameplay

by Jef Reahard (20 hours ago)

Fantasy, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Free-to-play, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox, Crafting

13
Some Assembly Required - architecture banner
Hello, sandbox faithful, and welcome to a special interview edition of Some Assembly Required. We recently had a chance to pitch some questions to the team behind Seatribe's upcoming Salem title, and creative director Björn Johannessen was kind enough to answer them.

Salem is being advertised by publisher Paradox as "the crafting MMO," but it's also rife with throw-back mechanics including a huge amount of player freedom and a permadeath/punishment system similar to the one in Johannessen's Haven & Hearth.

Continue Reading

The Daily Grind: Where does gaming fall on your priority list?

by Shawn Schuster (21 hours ago)

Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

44
Priorities Shmiorities
Back before I had a family, it wasn't unusual for me to play a video game for eight-hour stretches at a time every day. But now that I'm a father of three, I don't even want to think about playing a game unless I'm playing with my family or it's after their bedtime. On the other side of that coin, there are plenty of people who put gaming before just about everything else in their lives. When you're "too busy" to work or spend time with your family, but not too busy to raid every night, that's a problem in my opinion.

This might sound odd coming from a guy who has made gaming his career, but I respect balance and moderation. I could go on and on about how so many people are losing their perspective on having fun by being "hardcore," but I'll save that for a Soapbox article one day. In the meantime, I want to know how you feel about gaming on your priority list. Is it numero uno, towards the end, or somewhere in between?

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!

This Week in MMO: CCP has gone crazy edition

by Eliot Lefebvre (1 day ago)

Video, Culture, News items, Opinion, Miscellaneous

20
Crazy. Crazy for feeling so lonely. I'm crazy for crying, crazy for trying, crazy for loving you.
It's time for This Week in MMO once more, and this time around, the show kicks off with the rather daring statement that CCP Games has completely gone off the deep end. Well, maybe not that far, but the show does start off focusing on recent comments from the company about how DUST 514 could be one of the biggest shooters of the year... a statement that strikes the hosts as being just a wee bit pompous.

Aside from that, there's talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic's subscriber numbers and what those numbers mean in the long run as well as the latest trailer for TERA. If you'd like to get some roundtable discussion about the past week's biggest MMO stories, you don't need to go far. Just skip on past the break to watch the newest installment of This Week in MMO, which is quite possibly the best roundtable discussion about MMO news with a six-letter nickname in existence.

Continue Reading

The MMO Report: Elvis invented rock 'n' roll edition

by Brianna Royce (1 day ago)

Video, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Humor, The MMO Report, Miscellaneous

15
The MMO Report
This week on The MMO Report, Casey insists that he's a "wise-cracking superhero with a heart of gold," not a noob who doesn't know his MMO history. "For the record," he says, "I do realize that EverQuest wasn't the first MMO. I was just saying it was the game that brought MMOs mainstream attention... like how Elvis invented rock 'n' roll."

Casey reports on Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online's financial woes, RIFT's new infinite trial, Star Wars: The Old Republic's impressive sales numbers, and TERA's beta plans. Then he dips into Uncle Casey's Mailbag to discuss -- what else -- hot dorf-on-dorf action.

All this and more in the HD MMO Report tucked behind the cut!

Continue Reading

The Guild Counsel: Why is it so hard to say congratulations?

by Karen Bryan (1 day ago)

Guilds, Opinion, The Guild Counsel, Miscellaneous

23
Miracle on ice handshake
When was the last time you said congratulations to someone in game? And no, I don't mean the spammy "congrats" when someone in guild gains a level, an AA, a skill up, a crafting combine, or any of the dozen other milestones that pop up every day in chat. Those are the easy congratulations because the accomplishment has no direct effect on you. I'm talking about the congratulations when someone beats you in game. You might be in a duel or battleground, and the other guy ends up taking you out. You might be racing for a named mob, and the other guy gets there first. Or you might be in that guild that always seems to fall just a bit short and winds up the bridesmaid when it comes to guild progression.

There is plenty of competition in MMOs, but you rarely see much sportsmanship from players. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at why it's so hard to say "congrats" and why that has an effect on guilds as well as on the communities overall.

Continue Reading

Ask Massively: We do not play games for a living edition

by Eliot Lefebvre (1 day ago)

City of Heroes, City of Villains, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

14
Total paycheck for this bit of roleplaying: $0.00.
One of the most persistent misconceptions about what we do here at Massively is this idea that we play games for a living. Allow me to be perfectly clear in this: What you're seeing right now? This article? The one I wrote? Writing this is what I do for a living. I write about games, and I enjoy games, but if I decided to not write any of my columns for a month and just play Star Wars: The Old Republic, I would be fired. That is not my job.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, it's time for another installment of Ask Massively, this time featuring questions about gambling and the latest City of Heroes cash shop offering. If you've got a question you'd like to see in a future installment of the column, mail it to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited for brevity and/or clarity.

Continue Reading

TERA brings more pre-order customers into the beta process

by Eliot Lefebvre (1 day ago)

Betas, Fantasy, New titles, News items, TERA

20
Test how swordproof that thing is!
TERA has hit a few snags of late, including some woes with the whole system of getting pre-order beta access for appropriately pre-ordered customers. Luckily for some fans of the game, it looks like things are moving forward for players hoping to get into beta testing this weekend. An official announcement on the forums earlier today confirmed that GameStop has received valid beta codes and should be distributing said codes to customers via receipt or via phone.

Any players who preordered from Amazon or Best Buy and still haven't received a code are asked to send in a letter to the customer service staff before 9:00 a.m. PST on February 10th. Players are all warned that the game's download is currently clocking in at 17 GB, which means that you'll need plenty of time to get the client installed on your computer. A lengthy download is preferable to ambiguity as to whether or not you'll even get your beta access, though.

Massively Features

Events Calendar

Name Date
Cataclysm Launch
 Dec 7, 2010
DCUO Launch
 Early 2011

Massively Staff

Name Title
Shawn Schuster
 Editor-in-Chief
Brianna Royce
 Senior Editor
Rubi Bayer Community Manager
Brendan Drain Contributing Editor
Eliot Lefebvre Contributing Editor
Jef Reahard Contributing Editor
Justin Olivetti Contributing Editor
Krystalle Voecks Contributing Editor
Larry Everett Contributing Editor
Beau Hindman Columnist
Edward Marshall Columnist
Greg Waller Columnist
Jeremy Stratton Columnist
Karen Bryan Columnist
MJ Guthrie Columnist
Patrick Mackey Columnist
Ryan Greene Columnist
Lisa Poisso Columnist
More about the Massively staff

Massively Podcast

New episodes every Tuesday. Now playing:
Episode 123, for Wednesday, November 10th, 2010.



Archive | RSS | iTunes | Zune

Featured Galleries

One Shots
APB Reloaded new SWAT gear
APB Reloaded: Fight Club map The Beacon
APB Reloaded: Fight Club map Baylan Shipping
SAR: SWG housing extravaganza
The Monstrous SWTOR Gallery
EverQuest II Age of Discovery Screenshots
Darkfall main gallery
SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online

 

Most Commented On (7 days)