Posts by William Dobson at Massively

William Dobson

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Will blogs from the Land Down Under, and when he's not writing about games, or playing them, he works for a bank and gets closer to finishing his college education. Apart from MMOs, he is also an avid console gamer.

Nexon America's financials continue to impress in Q3

by William Dobson Oct 16th 2009 (21 days ago)

We reported back in August that Nexon America had begun the third Quarter of 2009 with a very solid July; their revenue for the month grew 35% over the numbers for July 2008. Now that Q3 is over, they are happily touting some additional (and still impressive) figures. August 2009 beat out last year's August revenues by 32%, and September hit a lofty 44% growth in revenues compared to the same time in 2008. Overall, Nexon America's third quarter revenue grew 36% compared to Q3 2008.

Nexon America's CEO David Kim pointed out that this success comes without the bump that releasing a new game often brings: "Increasing our revenues without having added any new games to the company's portfolio for more than a year tells me that we are on the right track. Dungeon Fighter Online is just ramping up, so no revenues generated by that game are reflected in the outstanding third quarter we've had.

Dungeon Fighter Online is still in open beta, but an item mall has just been launched for the game. We can only imagine that Nexon's growth will continue when these revenues begin to show up on future financial reports.

EverQuest's third Road to Underfoot event shakes Norrath

by William Dobson Oct 16th 2009 (22 days ago)

SOE

The ground in Norrath has literally begun to tremble with the introduction of the third and final "Road to Underfoot" event in EverQuest. "Breaking the Seal" completes the series of events, and participating in all three will allow players to gain access to the Underfoot expansion ahead of its official release date. This time the event involves the Cliknar -- from our Underfoot zone previews, we know that the Cliknar inhabit (or rather infest) many regions in the expansion. Now they've raised a significant army and are causing trouble on Norrath's surface.

The Road to Underfoot mini-site has been updated with a section on Breaking the Seal, as well as a short video showing the enemy in action. The epicenter of the shaking seems to be coming from Odus, so those willing to fight should gather there. Remember that apart from the early access, there is also a beta for Underfoot that SOE is still taking applications for, so there's another way to see the expansion ahead of time too.

Meet EverQuest's mountain-makers in Underfoot zone "The Foundation"

by William Dobson Oct 15th 2009 (23 days ago)

SOE

It's time for another EverQuest: Underfoot zone preview, as the EverQuest Players community site is featuring a look at "The Foundation". Like many of the other areas in the Plane of Underfoot, The Foundation is used by Brell's servants to create things that will end up in the world -- however, we haven't previously seen any creations quite as massive as what is made here. If you've ever admired a scenic mountain located somewhere in Norrath, then you have the inhabitants of The Foundation to thank. The enormous Genari stone giants push up mountains from underground, and then tirelessly hold their positions to keep the mountains standing.

Their job gets even worse. Sometimes a god might decide to raise a new mountain themselves, without thinking about the Genari underneath. When that happens, the Genari will most likely be crushed under the new weight. Don't fret though, because the Genari's broken form is often enough to keep the mountain up, and Brell can simply make another giant later on. Now that's cold.

Screenshots for The Foundation have been added to our Underfoot gallery, and we're very pleased to have another handful of exclusive pictures to share. Check them out below, and learn more about The Foundation's lore at EQ Players.

Gallery: EverQuest: Underfoot

EverQuest patch switches up hot zones, nerfs some Ancient Heroes rewards

by William Dobson Oct 8th 2009 (29 days ago)

SOE

EverQuest has just been updated, and it's time to say goodbye to the ironically freezing set of hot zones that have provided icy experience bonuses for the past few months. This isn't a bad thing, as the new list of hot zones includes a number of popular areas for people to do their leveling in -- the full list can be found after the break, along with the rest of the patch notes. One of the hot zones, Howling Stones (also known as Charasis) has been altered to be more inviting for potential visitors:

Apparently while performing some end-of-the-summer cleaning, the doors within Howling Stones were left unlocked. It may be some time before a maintenance crew can be sent there again to lock the doors up tight. Use this knowledge as you will. In addition, the spells protecting the entrance to Howling Stones have weakened, and adventurers of lesser skill and strength may find its halls now accessible.

The other big change with this patch involves some tweaking of the Ancient Heroes missions from the previous update. The rewards from these missions have been the subject of much controversy ever since their introduction, and this patch has made many of them worthless (though they can still be refunded by handing them to the quest-giver). Having said that, some of the group-level rewards were actually improved. Hit the jump to see the patch notes in their entirety.

Latest LotRO dev diary details legendary weapon changes

by William Dobson Oct 7th 2009 (1 month ago)

LotRO

Turbine

From the last "Ask the Dev Team" session with the Lord of the Rings Online developers, we knew that some changes were coming to the game's Legendary Weapon system. The latest Developer Diary entry is devoted entirely to filling in some of the details on these changes, which should come into effect when the Siege of Mirkwood expansion launches in December. First and foremost (and definitely one of the best tweaks) is that you'll be able to tell if a legendary weapon will ever turn into something good before you pour time and money into improving it.

There will also be a brand new item type, a series of "legendary item advancement scrolls". They will provide an alternative method of improving or altering legendary weapons, and will be found both as loot from enemies and from the deconstruction process. In addition, crafters are getting a significant nod with the introduction of a fourth relic slot that can only be filled by player-crafted relics. It gets better: every crafting profession can make a different kind of relic, providing a range of improvement options, and ensuring that no crafter is left out of the fun.

To read up on all the details of the upcoming legendary item changes (including specifics on how experience will be altered) see the full dev diary at the official site.

Upcoming Champions Online dev chat to focus on the Hero Games

by William Dobson Oct 6th 2009 (1 month ago)

Champions Online

Cryptic

We do a lot of talking on this site (readers included) about things that could be changed or improved in the games we play, and Champions Online has been the subject of these discussions perhaps more than any other title in recent times. While some of our collective feedback must get back to the Cryptic Studios developers, one of the best ways to get through to them is by participating in their dev chats. There is one coming up at 4PM PDT this Thursday, October 8th, and the topic du jour will be the "Hero Games" PvP arenas.

The main way that the devs will be taking questions is through this forum thread. They plan to go through as many of the questions posted there as they can, but the audience will get a chance to ask some follow-ups or extra questions at the end too. The IRC channel is #championsonline at irc.coldfront.net, or if you don't want to use an IRC client, there is a Java chat client available as well.

So, if you think the Hero Games in Champions Online could be improved somehow, get a few questions ready (remember, the questions thread on the forums gives the highest chance of them being answered) and let your voice be heard this Thursday.

EQ's producer discusses new Legends of Norrath-gated instance after player concerns

by William Dobson Oct 6th 2009 (1 month ago)

SOE

Although the Legends of Norrath digital trading card game can be played completely separately from EverQuest, the two games have a lot of ties to each other beyond just lore. The former can be launched from within the latter game. There are also "loot cards" which not only function in LoN but can be redeemed in EverQuest for certain bonus items. Some people that play EQ but not LoN may have been upset in the past at missing out on a few of these loot card items, but it's doubtful that anything has caused as much of an outcry as is currently occurring over an upcoming loot card. The card in question is the Dragon Brood Crypt Key Card, and the resulting EQ reward will be the only way to access a brand new dungeon instance.

Bounty Bay Online's upcoming expansion to introduce PvP tournaments

by William Dobson Sep 30th 2009 (1 month ago)

Beyond the Horizon, the free expansion to Bounty Bay Online, has been confirmed by Frogster as on track for its intended Q4 2009 launch. Along with this good news, they also updated their expansion teaser site with details that are sure to please PvPers. Beyond the Horizon will introduce a new weekly PvP tournament system, offering 1v1, 2v2 and 5v5 battles, with both prizes and a highly detailed ranking system.

But since Bounty Bay Online features sea and land combat, the question must be asked: which of these locations will the tournaments be held at? The answer is "both". Two new arenas will be added to the game, one for land and the other for sea combat. The player will get to choose which type of battle they want to register for, which is kind of too bad, from a comedy perspective -- imagine turning up for a sea battle without a boat.

See the mines of EQ: Underfoot zone "The Underquarry"

by William Dobson Sep 30th 2009 (1 month ago)

SOE

The next EverQuest: Underfoot zone preview is up at the EverQuest Players community site, this time giving us a sneak peek at an area called "The Underquarry". The Underquarry's main feature is two large sinkholes that were made by some intense waterflow. When the water stopped coming, the area's inhabitants (more servants of Brell) found that there was good mining to be had in the caverns. Similar to the creatures of Pellucid Grotto, the miners take the results of their work and seed them into Norrath, rather than hoarding them down in the Plane of Underfoot.

As is expected from these expansion zones, there is some emerging conflict in the Underquarry to look into. Part of the problem is a group of stubborn Burynai (shown above) that are refusing to share parts of the mines, and there are also Cliknars that constantly invade and cause trouble. Our Underfoot gallery is now updated with screenshots from the Underquarry, including a few more Massively exclusive pics -- check it out below.

Gallery: EverQuest: Underfoot

The Daily Grind: Your longest MMO bender

by William Dobson Sep 30th 2009 (1 month ago)

We're not going to advocate spending a ridiculous amount of time playing an MMO non-stop, particularly due to some highly publicized unfortunate incidents. However, we can't turn our back on the fact that certain MMOs seem to inspire those extended play-sessions, and we bet there are a lot of you with a sizeable "high score" that you feel a healthy mixture of pride and shame about.

Today, we're all about the pride! Unless your stint ended in a similar fashion to poor keyboard-face pictured here. Perhaps it was the launch of a new MMO that caused you to break your personal play-session record, or maybe you had some time off work and wanted nothing more than to log some serious hours into your favorite game. In the comments section, we want to hear about your most impressive MMO sessions, including the name of the game and what particular event sparked the bender.