Massively^™

There seems to be an increased awareness of educational gaming lately, and the positive effect virtual worlds can have on children. For example, we've heard about how gaming can actually improve a child's "mental performance for both verbal and scientific tasks." This is certainly an about-face from what most of us were taught as youngsters playing our Nintendos and Segas.

In the latest issue of Science magazine, educators suggest something that we gamers have known for a while: using virtual worlds to stimulate real-world situations in the classroom will actually help students develop useful skills that may aid them later in life or even a future technology-based career. This issue cites many education-based virtual worlds created solely to aid students, such as River City, Alien Contact!, Food Force, Whyville and more. If you have a school-aged child and would like to get them into one of these educational programs, check out this article at Scientific American, or the latest issue of Science magazine for more info.

Back in 2005, I became obsessed with the art of tanking in EVE Online. Before writing the definitive tanking guide for EON issue 2 (for which the EVE community dubbed me "the tanking guy"), I spent a lot of time working out the mathematics behind the art. At a time when people preferred a trial and error approach to combat, I went as far as to create a spreadsheet to automate calculations on the strength of your tank. Over the years, more advanced tools like EFT (EVE Fitting Tool) have been released which have this functionality and more. In this short series of articles, I aim to cover tanking from start to finish in a concise and informative manner. In this first part, I begin with an introduction to tanking and follow up with a brief guide on how to select which type of tank to use and a complete overview of armour tanking.

What is tanking?:
Any MMO player will know the role of the "Tank" but the word's usage in EVE Online is a little different. Broadly speaking, a tank is whatever you use to keep yourself alive and it's something every ship can do. The MMO holy trinity of tank, healer and damage-dealer are combined into every ship in EVE. Because of this ability to self-heal, the word "tank" in EVE generally refers to the combination of both resisting damage and healing it. Fitting your ship then becomes a matter of balancing between tank and damage.

Read on to find out how to select what type of tank to use and learn all about armour tanking.

Sure, the news of Star Wars: The Old Republic was kept a secret (kinda) for a few years, and during that time we really heard nothing of the game itself. Yet here we are now getting a steady stream of useful information on a game that is not even predicted to launch this year. This week we have two examples of this from the team at BioWare: a look at the art style of the game, and an entertaining blog entry from Principal Lead Animator Mark How.

In the blog entry, How explains a bit about how enthusiastic the animation team is for getting every lightsaber battle exactly right. He reflects on how powerful the toys were to him as a child and how the work they will do with TOR can be 10,000 times better than anything we could imagine back then.

2008 has been a great year for Lord of the Rings Online. Not only for the exploding playerbase, but also for the amazing amount of content that has been added to the game since it launched. This includes everything from new classes, housing, hobbies, trophies, weapons, armor, and of course, new areas to explore.

As a testament to this, the wonderful fan site Visions of the Ring has compiled a "before" and "after" set of maps showing the areas we had available a year ago versus the areas we have to explore now. You'll notice the addition of Forochel, Eregion, the Mines, Lothlorien and more. These maps are taken and compiled from the overhead radar map, so the detail is all there. While you're at the site, be sure to check out the Interactive Horse Routes Flash Map, the Homesteads Flash Maps and the Speculated Expansions Flash Map, which is said to be updated for the new year's expanded areas very soon.

Welcome to Know Your LotRO Lore, a new weekly column here at Massively showcasing the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien's world as it intersects with Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online.

For some, the holidays are already over, but for many they've just begun. Throughout Middle-earth, none are known better for their love of celebrating those holidays than the Hobbits. We've talked about the Hobbits here before on Know Your LotRO Lore, but with the winter festivities in full swing, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to explain more specifically about just why those Hobbits are so infamous for their partying.

Just before Warhammer Online launched, we were treated to a gorgeous new cinematic to give us just a taste of what to expect in the game. This teaser launched right about the same time as World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King trailer, making for several heated forum debates on which video was more amazing. No matter which side of that fence you're on, the fact is that Mythic gave Blizzard a run for their money in the cinematic department, there's no doubt.

Now the actual creators of that cinematic, Blur Studio, have compiled a two-hour video depicting the making of that Warhammer teaser. It's broken down into four parts, so you can pace yourself, but it's certainly worth a watch if you're into the whole CGI scene. You'll learn about the concept stages, how Blur took liberties with actually creating new content before it was designed for the game, how the Orcs were made as an army and much more. Check out Blur's website for their impressive CGI portfolio which includes the Tabula Rasa cinematic as well.

As we get more involved in what makes an MMO player tick, development studios are trying their hardest to keep up with the trends. Ten years ago, we were happy to have any environment in which to socialize and experience a gaming world with our friends, or meet other gamers with the same interests. Now though, if a lightsaber looks "too big", there will be riots in the streets... or at least the forums.

Over at Gamasutra, our own Michael Zenke takes a look at the hottest MMO trends in 2008, and what we should watch in regards to how they'll evolve into 2009. Some of these include microtransactions in the West, user-created content and the fact that the Triple A fantasy genre has been solved. Check out the entire article, and whether you agree or disagree, let us know what you think in the comments below.

Welcome to Know Your LotRO Lore, a new weekly column here at Massively showcasing the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien's world as it intersects with Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online.

In this week's installment of Know Your LotRO Lore, we're going to cover one of the most popular non-Fellowship characters throughout all of Tolkien's works: Gollum. Known for his certain unhealthy obsession with the "precious" One Ring, the true origins of Gollum are often unknown to all but the most studied of lore buffs.

Follow along as we discover the very beginnings of the Gollum creature: how he began and what he became. As always, we'll also cover his role in Lord of the Rings Online, and we've included an extra special extension of that where we speculate on his progression throughout the future of the game.

Have you ever wondered how some current game studios were first created? Who started them? What was their initial aim? Many of these most successful companies were founded on the success of console games in the 90s. Take Blizzard, for instance. They started out in 1991 by three guys who had just received their bachelor's degrees from UCLA the year before. Ironically, they also created one of the early Lord of the Rings ports, as well.

With Turbine, the story is very similar. Jon Monsarrat, as the founder, CEO and officially Turbine's first employee, writes his narrative on the founding of the company back in 1995. Initially funded by some insurance money Jon got from a car accident, Turbine eventually evolved from the creator of Asheron's Call four years later, to the behemoth that it is today. This website is quite dated, and is listed in Turbine's official wikipedia entry, but the story is filled with some great tidbits that can only be told by the man who experienced it all, and it's certainly worth a read if you're a fan of any of Turbine's projects.

[Thanks Bam!]

Atlantica Online sure is making news lately with the ways they're incorporating so many different features in their game to make it truly unique. We know about the turn-based combat from a previous developer diary, but in this latest article, we're treated to an explanation of the Mercenary system.

Originally, Mercenaries were going to simply be like items that a character can collect, but the devs at NDOORS found themselves discovering new ways to use the Mercenaries. They created backgrounds for them and actually developed a sense of affection for them, so their importance is much greater now. Each Mercenary can eventually evolve into personages of historical significance. For instance, the archer would become Robin Hood, the inventor would become Leonardo da Vinci, and so on. Not only will this add some concrete understanding of these high-level Mercs, but it will hopefully force players to research these names if they were sleeping in History class again.

If you've ever wondered what there is to NCsoft's upcoming Aion: The Tower of Eternity MMO besides wings, you might be interested in their recent installments of lore for the game.

Each faction, the Elyos and the Asmodian, has their own set of historical folklore that pertains to a certain cataclysmic event in their past. This event separated the two once-friendly groups, but the blame is told differently for each side. At this point, we have an introduction and four chapters for each faction, giving us plenty to read as we prepare for this game's launch. If you're a lore buff, or you simply want to soak up any and all info on Aion, check out these chapters of lore and let us know what you think so far.

Welcome to Know Your LotRO Lore, a new weekly column here at Massively showcasing the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien's world as it intersects with Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online.

Known as essentially the main characters of Tolkien's books, Hobbits are an interesting bunch that have been admired and copied in stories for generations. They are a race of small home-bodies that prefer a good meal, good ale and a nap to most other activities. In some circles variations are known as Halflings, Bobbits or Kender, but despite being a "branch" of the race of Man, these peaceful hole-dwellers have very distinctive features that set them apart from most others in Middle-earth.

If you're curious about the origins and lore of the Hobbits both in the books and the game, follow along on our journey through the link below. We'll cover their migration to the Shire, their peculiar lifestyle, their interpretation in LotRO and even if Hobbits are real.

In a recent interview with GameSpy, BioWare's co-founders (affectionately referred to as The Doctors) explain a bit more about the origins of the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO and what went into its creation process so far.

This interview is full of useful info to any fan of BioWare or their Knights of the Old Republic games, yet one question grabbed our attention more than the others. Considering the fact that the game has been so heavily advertised as big on story, GameSpy asked about the decision to make the game 300 years after KotOR. "Setting the game three centuries after KotOR arose from sitting down and writing out a timeline of events that took place after the fall of Darth Malak, during and after the events of KotOR 2. We had always alluded to a great darkness in Deep Space which Revan had sought to confront after KotOR, and we decided that great darkness would be a massive Sith Empire in exile, biding its time and waiting to come back for vengeance against the Jedi and the Republic."

Check out the full interview for more on the strong player-driven storyline, combat and what MMO BioWare considered making before SWTOR came along.

---

	BioWare has finally unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, their new MMO! Massively's got you covered on all the details. Check out our comprehensive guide on everything we know so far about the game, or just peruse our screenshot/concept art galleries. Join us in the Galaxy far, far away!

This Monday, gamerDNA will be unveiling their newest feature entitled the Discovery Engine, specifically created for members of their social networking site. This new engine aims to show gamers what types of games they would be interested in playing based on more factors than simply what they've purchased previously or what game they might be playing right now. It is created to refine gaming interests based on the "hows" and the "whys", more than simply the "whats".

We caught up with gamerDNA's founder Jon Radoff for a comprehensive tour of this new feature and an explanation of how it works to benefit the current generation of gamers immersed in a world of overwhelming choices. Follow along just after the cut below for our impressions and more information on the Discovery Engine.

We've learned about many areas of Lord of the Rings Online: Moria of Moria throughout Turbine's Hero's Guide series, yet none could be as structurally important (literally) as the Foundations of Stone. Being the bottom-most level of the mines, this area is actually the foundation of Khazad-dûm. In fact, the murky lake in the center of this level holds a remnant from the Bridge of Khazad-dûm which had fallen from Nud-melek above.

Being in such a remote and subterranean locale, the Foundations of Stone is home to a great infestation of fungus that deforms the creatures who dwell near it. You'll see Orcs, Trolls and other creatures plagued by the mysterious fungi, hoping to spread a bit your way.

However, amid this grotesque infestation is a true work of art: The Endless Stair. This structure stretches from the bottom of the Foundations of Stone to the highest peak above Nud-melek. You can bet that falling from this would do much more than simply break your legs. Check out Turbine's entire Hero's guide series for more on navigating your way through the Mines of Moria.