Filed under: Ask Massively

Ask Massively: Overwhelming changes edition

by Eliot Lefebvre May 17th 2012 at 7:30PM

Filed under: Culture, New titles, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

This would actually have been pretty useful in DS9.

I have to be honest, the Caitian Carrier for Star Trek Online kind of makes me want to give the game a shot again. I liked it when I played it before, but I just had no time to play it on top of everything else. But then I think about all the work I'd need to do just to get caught up to normal, and... yeah, that's about the point when my gumption evaporates. Still, though. Carrier.

In other and far more relevant news, it's time for this week's installment of Ask Massively, which talks about the cycle of game announcement and subsequent disappointment. (Apropos of the recent beta weekends for The Secret World, naturally.) If you've got a question you would like to see answered in a future installment of the column, send it to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Ask Massively: Always on the wrong weekends edition

by Eliot Lefebvre May 10th 2012 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Game mechanics, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

Hopefully I'll get some time to play, but I'm not expecting any miracles.

So for those of you wondering, the move went quite well. The expected problems occurred at times of minimal inconvenience, and we almost completely finished unpacking at the new place in one weekend. But we still have to finish up at the old apartment, so of course the first beta for The Secret World is scheduled to be this weekend when we're slotted to head down there. Just like how Guild Wars 2 scheduled a beta weekend for our last pre-move weekend. So that's awesome.

This week's Ask Massively does not discuss this particular state of awesome. Instead, it discusses the deferred awesomeness of switching combat styles on the fly and what games feature something similar. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, leave it in the comments below or send it to ask@massively.com. Questions may be edited slightly for brevity and/or clarity.

Ask Massively: Moving shop edition

by Eliot Lefebvre May 3rd 2012 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Culture, Events, in-game, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

My new home is in a trackless expanse of desert with a stew pot.

As you read this, I'm making my final preparations to move from my home for the past three years into a new and much nicer home. Of course, this brings with it certain concerns. Will the utility companies reconnect everything correctly? Will the movers drop something I can't easily replace? Will I forget something in the old apartment and have to go back?

So, if my posts next week seem a bit off, assume that the move resulted in fiery death all around and I've been replaced by a crude AI pasted in Visual Basic.

This week's Ask Massively, sadly, does not include anything about AI or my new apartment. Instead, it's about player-run events and why we cover some of them but not all. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, send it to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Ask Massively: This hat has ruined everything edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Apr 26th 2012 at 3:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, Humor, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

I was having trouble coming up with a topic for this week's header, so I tried writing down a bunch of different topics on pieces of paper and sticking them in a hat. Then I put the hat on. Now I still don't know what to write for this week's header, and I have an ugly hat on my head. Plus, little bits of paper are jammed against my head, and it's itchy. I knew this would be a problem starting with the bowler hat.

This week's Ask Massively will go on despite my itchy scalp and ugly hat. And in this edition, I'm talking about potential Eastern games for a player looking for new games and beta invitations. If you'd like to have a question answered in a future installment of the column, send it to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Ask Massively: I approve of more staves edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Apr 19th 2012 at 9:00PM

Filed under: Opinion, Free-to-play, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

There's no better way to beat up enemies and try out for the school's color team at once.

You know what we need more of? Staves used as melee weapons instead of a caster's Set of Stats in a Stick. Usually, what we get is closer to a cane than an actual staff, so it makes sense that a curvy stick with a lawn ornament on one end isn't much for actual combat. But come on, folks. You can do some serious damage with a metal pole and a few witless mooks. City of Heroes is ahead of the curve here.

This week's installment of Ask Massively has nothing to do with staves, however. It has to do with a few more lingering questions about the comment system and some wide-ranging "best of" topics. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, you can leave it in the comments or mail it to ask@massively.com. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Ask Massively: These are not Firefall beta impressions edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Apr 12th 2012 at 8:00PM

Filed under: News items, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

I do actually like my character in Firefall, though. Aside from the random mangled Spanish.

So near as I can tell from my limited time in the beta thus far, Firefall is a game in which you play a character with remarkably poor conceptions about the function of armor, especially if your character is a girl. I log in, jump around with a pair of rocket boots, and shoot things, and then my computer crashes for some reason after about 20 straight minutes of playing, so I haven't formed many other opinions. The parts I've played have been pretty satisfying, though.

But as this week's headline for Ask Massively explains, these are not actually beta impressions. Instead, this is a column covering a couple of the weird issues with our new comment system, something that I have absolutely no doubt will come up again later. If you'd like to have a question answered in a future installment of the column, send it along to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Ask Massively: The diversity of New England edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Apr 5th 2012 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

Admittedly, it all looks pretty much the same in Google Maps 8-Bit.

Every year, when I head up to PAX East, some well-intentioned soul will point out that it must be nice to have a convention so close to home. Except it's really not. I live in Connecticut, and PAX East is in Boston. Despite what years of media exposure may have led you to believe, New England is not a uniform sea of snow, lobsters, and wizened old men spouting curmudgeonly wisdom. The lobsters are pretty much all Maine, for instance, and Rhode Island has the mafia instead of wizened old men. Also, no one in Connecticut says "cah." We say "car."

But you didn't click on through for me waxing poetic about my home region, I imagine. No, you came here for this week's installment of Ask Massively, which is all about how we schedule articles and why it seems like time occasionally passes us by. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, leave it down in the comments or mail it along to ask@massively.com. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Ask Massively: A confluence of awesome edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Mar 29th 2012 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Game mechanics, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous, Crafting

If you'd like to complain about the ending, please avoid spoilers, be polite, and don't. Just don't.

Every so often, awesome things happen. Apparently, for reasons I cannot begin to explain, I can now dress my characters in Final Fantasy XIII-2 in N7 armor from Mass Effect 3. This makes me happy in countless ways. I'd like to have full-on armor customization for the suits, but then, I'd also like the game to be a totally separate storyline as opposed to providing a wholly unnecessary epilogue to Final Fantasy XIII. So I'm focusing on combining an awesome game system with a visual element of an awesome game.

This week's Ask Massively has nothing to do with combining one thing with another thing. Or maybe it sort of does, seeing as how it's all about crafting and gathering instead of killing stuff. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment, send it to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Ask Massively: Misunderstandings about our robot overlords edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Mar 22nd 2012 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

Unfortunately, afterwards there will still be a lot of novelty robots out of a job.

As I personally have no real reservations about the impending destruction of human society by perfect killer robots, I thought I'd take the opportunity to dispel certain misunderstandings about living under the thumb of mechanical overseers. Specifically, I'd like to dispel the idea that we'll be living. Robots wouldn't be sending us to work in mines; they can build machines to do that faster than our frail organic bodies. Not to mention that those machines would whine a lot less. So don't worry! You won't be toiling for a monolithic AI for years; you'll just be obliterated or used as organic building material. Doesn't that make things better?

In unrelated news, it's time for this week's installment of Ask Massively, which focuses on the question of raw, unfettered action. If you've got a question you'd like to see in a future installment of the column, mail it along to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Ask Massively: A world without boats edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Mar 15th 2012 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

As you probably have already ignored, the big news of the day is that the world's boats have all been lost due to mysterious boat-related circumstances. Unfortunately, as human beings are extremely stupid and easily thwarted, no one can remember how to build a boat, nor did anyone take any notes on how one might build a boat. There aren't even pieces of information about how boats work. Long story short, Australia is now completely on its own.

In less boat-related news, it's time for this week's installment of Ask Massively. Written while not on a boat, it's fielding questions about the ubiquity of social networking and Collector's Editions that cost nearly as much as a boat. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, mail it to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Ask Massively: A week to sleep edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Mar 8th 2012 at 12:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

Last week, if you've forgotten, we had a big multi-person answer. This week, Mass Effect 3 released. Between those two factors, this week's column is aiming less at huge overarching answers to profound questions and more at producing some lower-key answers to some lower-key questions. I'm sure next week we'll have bigger answers and I'll go back to stretching out "maybe" over 200 words. For this week, maybe we can take a nap?

What? Animals do it all the time, and they seem pretty happy. Especially the orange killing machines in the picture.

Anyhow, this week's Ask Massively is briefer than the last installment, but it still covers some Massively meta-issues as well as the looming prospect of ArcheAge's hopeful release stateside. If you have a question for a future installment of the feature, send it along to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for brevity and/or clarity.

Ask Massively: Format changes for big questions

by Eliot Lefebvre Mar 1st 2012 at 7:30PM

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

VHS just isn't going to cut it for Ask Massively any longer, so it's back to Beta.

Potaco asked a great question two weeks ago for Ask Massively, one that I'm going to just post right here:

"As a contributor to a gaming site that involves keeping up with many, many, many MMOs, do you find it harder to commit to a single game than before being forced to be exposed to so many?"

Naturally, I could have answered the question simply for myself. But we're a diverse bunch here at Massively, with different tastes and opinions and experiences. Any answer I gave wouldn't reveal the whole picture, so I turned to the rest of the team and posed the same question. The resulting column was so big that I had to steal an entirely different feature's format just to make everything easy to read. (Hopefully the guy who does it won't mind.)

As always, if you've got a question you'd like to see in a future installment, mail it along to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited for brevity and/or clarity.

Ask Massively: Big questions deserve big answers edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 23rd 2012 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Opinion, Humor, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

Assume the fish is a question, not just an enormous sunfish. Public domain photos are odd.

Some questions are just too good to leave to my sole discretion. I like to think that I can provide a reasonable response to a number of questions, but I also think there are some questions that merit more opinions. Case in point: a question last week from potaco about whether or not it's harder to focus on a single game instead of several games as a Massively employee. So I'm consolidating responses from the whole team right now, and we'll have an answer to that question this week.

This week's Ask Massively is still packed, however, with questions about getting a new computer for World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic as well as whether or not Guild Wars 2 will provide credible competition for other games when it launches. If you've got a question you would like to see answered in a future installment of the column, mail it along to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for brevity and/or clarity.

Ask Massively: Continuing dental nightmare edition

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 16th 2012 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

Given the option, I would have my teeth replaced with mechanical versions capable of shooting lasers.

Back in December, I went in with a toothache and was informed that I had two options: Either the tooth could be yanked, or it could be saved via a root canal. I picked the latter option, which has provided me with a variety of new and interesting experiences, among them getting red-hot filler shoved into my jaw, having a nerve directly squirted with numbing agent, and getting a tooth shaved down to a nub while a sharp suction device jabbed at my gums. The whole process is almost over at long last, and I am relatively certain the last step will involve throwing a rabid weasel at me.

In other news, it's time for this week's installment of Ask Massively, covering our column procedure and the continuing saga of World of Warcraft's subscriber losses. As always, questions for future installments may be submitted via mail to ask@massively.com or left in the comments. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

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

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 9th 2012 at 7:30PM

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

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.

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