Massively - Daily News About MMOs

WRUP: Hoopy frood edition

by Elizabeth Harper Jul 31st 2010 (14 minutes ago)

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the Massively team and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" (Otherwise known as: WRUP!) Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game -- and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Another weekend of gaming is upon us -- and this week in addition to the standard "what are you playing" question, we've asked the Massively team what the meaning is of life, the universe, and everything. Hey, it's a simple enough question -- read on for the answer(s).

Aion developers acting to correct server imbalances

by Rubi Bayer Jul 31st 2010 (1 hour ago)

NCsoft

Aion's July community address mentions the upcoming 2.0 patch, of course, but that's not what grabbed the attention of the fans.

The recent server merge created some predictable imbalances, and the Aion team has made a few decisions on how to begin rectifying them. NCsoft's Lance Stites, who penned this month's address, tells fans that server transfers have been temporarily disabled while the devs sort things out: "All the associated Aion teams are working on a solution to allow character transfers to resume with appropriate limits in place to prevent radically unbalanced servers."

Furthermore, race creation is "selectively" limited on each server, in the hopes that it will help balance things out. "For instance, if you're playing on a predominantly Elyos server, Asmodian creation will be the only race available for new characters," says Stites.

The situation is only temporary, and hopefully only a first step in sorting things out on the newly-consolidated Aion servers. Take a look at the Aion site for the full July community address.

The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the best crafting?

by Justin Olivetti Jul 31st 2010 (2 hours ago)

Crafting is a strange subset of MMO play, when you think about it. For some folks, it's incredibly important; for the rest, chances are they hardly think about it. It's typically lacking the sort of interaction and feedback we get from combat, is a huge money and time sink, and usually offers less reward for more effort than raiding or other forms of loot acquisition.

Still, crafting is beloved by many for various reasons. It can be a great way to make money (depending on what you make and the market demand), it involves creation instead of destruction, and a crafty crafter can use his or her talents to help friends and benefit guilds. While most MMOs include crafting, it's rare to see a title rise above the bare minimum to fashion an engaging, intricate and beneficial system.

For you crafters in the Massively audience, which MMO would you say has the best crafting -- and what makes it so special? Is it the number of recipes or the randomness of the results? Have you found a game that hits that sweet spot of crafting perfection that made you stand up and cheer to the embarrassment of everyone else in the room?

July letter available from Warhammer Online's executive producer

by Eliot Lefebvre Jul 30th 2010 (14 hours ago)

WAR

Mythic

Back when she was first placed in the position of Executive Producer for Warhammer Online, Carrie Gouskos promised to try for a letter every month. She's stayed true to that promise, and as the end of July approaches at breakneck speeds, there's a new letter for the fans. After a quick recap of the known news about the game (the testing of patch 1.3.6 and the European migration), there are several other updates, starting with the return of the Wild Hunt to the game with the coming patch.

The letter also contains the promise of a new 6v6 scenario for the Weekend Warfront rotation, citing the matchup as a popular format that needs more representation. We also get a hint of future plans to help encourage RvR whilst leveling, said plans involving new enemies with high XP values being added to the RvR lakes. There's also a promise of a rework to the mechanics of some of the ranged classes, a coda to the most recent letter which should have several points of interest for dedicated Warhammer Online fans.

Frogster releases Mythos cinematic

by Jef Reahard Jul 30th 2010 (15 hours ago)

Looking to get your Mythos fix prior to the game's 2011 release? Look no further than the just-released trailer courtesy of Frogster. The video, which runs a little over a minute and a half, serves as both a teaser and the upcoming free-to-play MMO's opening cinematic.

Mythos, a throw-back dungeon crawler, has somewhat of a checkered history, given that it was originally developed by now-defunct Flagship Studios before being shuttered and subsequently kick-started by HanbitSoft. The game is now being published by Redbana in North America and Frogster in Europe, and it features solo and group PvP, three distinct classes, and a unique visual style inspired by comic books.

Check out our interview with the Mythos dev team and don't forget to sample the trailer after the cut.

Soul of the Ultimate Nation sees the spreading Shadow

by Eliot Lefebvre Jul 30th 2010 (16 hours ago)

It might seem like everything is all fine and dandy in Soul of the Ultimate Nation, but there's a shadow on the horizon. More specifically, there's Shadow, the newest character added to the game. A combination of dark sorcery and assassin skills form Shadow's potent, solo-friendly skillset, something the game's development team had been hinting at since the beginning of the year. But that's hardly all that's new in the game, which has expanded the high-level content as well.

Player characters over level 100 have access to nearly two hundred added quests, as well as new high-level areas in Helron's Castle. Neville's Swamp and Bronze Moon City, as well as the area conquest for the aforementioned castle, are all open. To cap off the experience, players have access to the fourth village in Soul of the Ultimate Nation, giving high-end players a spot where they can congregate with one another. Rather than forcing you to just read the text, however, we have both a set of preview images in our gallery, and two trailers for the update embedded past the cut.

Gallery: S.U.N.: Shadows Fall

Party like a rock star in Final Fantasy XIV

by Eliot Lefebvre Jul 30th 2010 (17 hours ago)

There are players out there who might be dreading parties in Final Fantasy XIV. Well, not precisely; they might well be dreading that the mechanics will be similar to the parties from Final Fantasy XI, where some classes could seemingly wait for ages without a trace of a group. Mercifully, the fine bilingual team at FFXIVCore has continued its apparent tradition of translating information to coincide with the new beta testing, with the newest translation being a guide to getting a working group in the game.

Guildleves are the game's core leveling mechanics, but new ones can only be accepted every so often, and they can be hard to complete on higher settings alone. By grouping up, players gain access to more guildleves from other players and more support in tackling the game's bigger challenges. The full translation has information on everything from the interface to form a party to the game's battle regiments, the equivalent of Final Fantasy XI's skillchains. (We're guessing they meant regimens, but that's the challenge of translation.) Final Fantasy XIV fans are advised to take a look at the article to start gearing up for the game's release in two months.

Betawatch: July 23 - 30, 2010

by Rubi Bayer Jul 30th 2010 (18 hours ago)

Welcome to Betawatch, Massively's weekly report on the state of MMO betas. In each installment, we'll report everything from the latest open betas, closed betas and even alphas in one convenient place. Plus, we'll make sure to include as much info on each game's current status, including projected release dates (if known) and links to the sign-up forms to get yourself into that beta you've been seeking.

It's another relatively quiet week in Betawatch, but there are a few changes. The newest addition to our closed beta list is Ministry of War. We bid farewell to a member of the open beta list, as Need For Speed World has zoomed away (sorry) from the Betawatch list for a July 27th launch. Heroes of Three Kingdoms has moved to open beta, so if you've been wanting to check it out, visit the open beta page to sign up. We've also learned that LOCO will be entering open beta on August 3rd, in between Betawatch editions, so stay tuned for more on that one!

Follow along after the jump for the current Betawatch list.

Exploring Eberron: Six things to do on your first day in game

by Justin Olivetti Jul 30th 2010 (19 hours ago)

Turbine

So you've given into temptation, downloaded DDO onto your hard drive, and decided to see what all the hubbub was about with Turbine's quirky MMO-that-could. Good for you -- personally, I think you're in for a terrific time. Of course, there's a small but steep learning curve at the start of the game, which I envision claims the lives of many gamers who run all willy-nilly into said wall screaming, "Where is the auto-attack keyyyyy?" You want to avoid that. You want your DDO experience to be face-smashing-wall free.

Therefore, I have pulled myself out of a Fun Dip coma (soooo much sugar) to cobble together six vitally important tasks to perform on your first day in game in order to save the princess. Or make your life easier, I don't know. I'm assuming that you've already made your first character and are itching to test drive that bad boy or girl and see how quickly you can die.

Man, I bet you really wish Rubi were back already, huh? Wish harder, dude!

One Shots: Norrathian safari

by Krystalle Voecks Jul 30th 2010 (20 hours ago)

EQ2

SOE

You know why we love to get more than one game's screenshots from one person? Aside from the fact that it's fun to see what you're all up to, it tells us we're not the only ones with multiple-MMO ~~addictions~~ subscriptions! Indeed, that's part of what makes the readers of Massively so awesome -- you're just as crazy about these games as we are. Today, we have the second screenshot of the week from shanert, who sent us the Vanguard one a couple of days ago. This time, we catch up with his Ratonga, and have a look around the world of EverQuest II. He writes a rhymey line to explain:

"Running around the borderlands of Freeport with my little rat and see,
how beautifull a six year old game can be."

There are tons of interesting sights out there in MMO land, but we need you to make One Shots happen. So while you're out playing this weekend, why not grab a screenshot of something interesting for us! Then all you have to do is email it to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to enjoy, and give you the credit.

Gallery: One Shots: Gallery II

Massively Features

Events Calendar

Name	Date
GenCon Indy	Aug 5-8, 2010
SOE Fan Faire	Aug 5-8, 2010
Xsyon Prelude Launch	Aug 15, 2010
GamesCom Expo	Aug 18-22, 2010
Earthrise Launch	Q3 2010
Dragon*Con	Sep 3-6, 2010
PAX Prime	Sep 3-5, 2010
Final Fantasy XIV Launch	Sep 30, 2010
GDC Online	Oct 5-8, 2010
LEGO Universe Launch	Oct 26, 2010
DCUO Launch	Nov 2, 2010

Massively Staff

Name	Title
Shawn Schuster	Editor-in-Chief
Seraphina Brennan	Senior Editor
Brianna Royce	West Coast Editor
Dan O'Halloran	Features Coordinator
Brendan Drain	Contributing Editor
Eliot Lefebvre	Contributing Editor
Jef Reahard	Contributing Editor
Justin Olivetti	Contributing Editor
Krystalle Voecks	Contributing Editor
Rubi Bayer	Contributing Editor
Tateru Nino	Contributing Editor
Beau Hindman	Columnist
Edward Marshall	Columnist
Greg Waller	Columnist
Jeremy Stratton	Columnist
Larry Everett	Columnist
MJ Guthrie	Columnist
Patrick Mackey	Columnist
Ryan Greene	Columnist
Lisa Poisso	Columnist