Filed under: Events, in-game

No candy hearts in Warhammer Online

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 9th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, Lore, Warhammer Online, News items

There will be no Ewok Love Festival in Warhammer Online, and not simply due to the lack of Ewoks. If you're feeling a little fed up with everyone taking this time of year to put down whatever sharp implements they're holding in the spirit of giving out gift baskets and looking bashful? That's what the Night of Murder is all about.

From February 9th to the 16th, the Night of Murder event will be taking place, wrapping the world in a haze of bloodlust and death, with the will of the elven god Kaela Mensha Khaine spurring on the fierce rage and love of battle on both sides of the conflict. Order and Chaos alike will be rewarded with the chance to mount the heads of their enemies on pikes, and certain players on both sides will periodically be marked for death as a part of the "festivities."

Warhammer Online has never shied away from the darker aspects of its setting, and this event seems to still walk in that direction. Whatever your opinion on recent news and developments regarding the game, this version of the holiday is certainly a nice change from futzing about to get a heart-shaped wand.

Fallen Earth's developers talk patch 1.3

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 9th 2010 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Events, in-game, Patches

Patch day is an exciting time to be playing an MMO, assuming you can look past the various instabilities, server crashes, and inevitable bugs that come with a major update. Even then, there's still the sense of doing something new and different in a familiar game, however touch-and-go the new content might be. Fallen Earth is not too far from their next major patch day, but if you can't wait for the patch to go live, there's a new developer diary and Q&A from Dev Team Lead Marie Croall and Live Team Lead Ian Lemke.

The patch's major focus was a thorough revamp of the area around the starter towns, and between those towns and the central cities. It might seem odd to add such a large patch to improve the first few levels of the game, but from the developer's point of view, it's those levels that really first get a player hooked on the game, so they wanted to make it as memorable as possible. There's also some information on Deadfall Point, a new encounter area in Sector Three, offering the higher-level players something new to experience. Be sure to take a look at both features to get a picture of what's coming in the near future for your clone in Fallen Earth.

Only two days left for SOE's ConnectDING event!

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 8th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Culture, Events, in-game, News items, Free-to-play, Free Realms

Two words for you: cushy pillows. Yes, that's right, you heard me.

There are two days left for the Sony Online Entertainment ConnectDING event -- a marketing event designed to get you and your friends looking at the Facebook fan pages and Twitter accounts of EverQuest, EverQuest II, and Free Realms. Each one of the games has its own special reward once it hits so many fans, so why turn down free rewards for doing nothing more than clicking a button?

And that, my friends, is where we get to cushy pillows. EverQuest II is close to their goal -- only 2,000 fans shy! However, the event ends on February 10th! Oh teh noes, right? If EQII can get 2,000 more fans, everyone in the game will get 500 station cash for the in-game marketplace and awesome "Community Pillows" to add to their homes. The pillows not only look stylish and reduce the rent status of your property, but they also let avatars have pillow fights when activated!

So please, reach out and become a fan of EverQuest II today. Follow them on Facebook, on Twitter, or on both! Give these poor, orphaned pillows a home. (Plus the cash isn't too bad either.)

Love is in the air in your favorite MMOs

by Robin Torres Feb 7th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Events, in-game

Love is in the air in World of Warcraft and the event has completely changed this year over previous years. WoW.com has the latest on this Valentine's Day-themed event.

Fool for Love Achievement: If you are into holiday achievements, the Overachiever guide has all of the details.
Love is in the air FAQ: Answers any event questions you may have.
New Boss Loot: The list of the loot from the three new bosses. Naughty, naughty loot.

But WoW is not the only MMO that has an event going on now or soon:

Spring Fling in City of Heroes
City of Heroes also has a Secret Admirer's contest
A chocolate related Valentine's event begins Tuesday in 4Story.
Valentione's Day in Final Fantasy XI
Lover's Jubilee in Lineage II
MapleStory has become a world of romance.
Double experience next weekend for Aion.
Valentine's Day UStream event for all SOE games on Friday, February 12th, which includes EverQuest, EverQuest II, Free Realms, Planetside, and Star Wars Galaxies.

Which MMO do you think does this romantic holiday best?

Guild Wars fans to raise money for Haiti

by Rubi Bayer Feb 6th 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Events, in-game, News items

Gaming World Events, a fan-created organization, will be holding their first ever Guild Wars in-game event tomorrow: Gamers Giving Back to Haiti.

The fans behind Gaming Gamers Giving Back to Haiti will happen in Lion's Arch International District 1, from 10AM - 4PM PST. The six hour event will offer quite a few in-game prizes of items and gold for participants.

The group has set a fundraising goal of (of course) $1,337.00, but a look at their Red Cross donation page shows that they are already approaching the $700.00 mark. Gamers are known to be a generous bunch, so maybe Gaming World Events can reach their goal twice: once before the event and once after. You can donate via the donation page, and read more about the event on their Facebook page or the forum announcement.

We at Massively join the community in thanking Gaming World Events for organizing the event, and all of the players for their support.

Dungeons and Dragons Online: a guide to the Risia Ice Games

by Rubi Bayer Feb 5th 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Events, in-game, Patches, Free-to-play

Dungeons and Dragons Online released Update 3 Tuesday, sending players in all directions to check out the new content once the servers went back up.

One of those directions was up, in the form of a ski jump in the suddenly frostbitten area of Stormreach Market. Welcome to the Risia Ice Games, a winter festival handily timed to coordinate with the 2010 Winter Games. While Update 3 hit some snags (which, for the most part, were quickly taken care of by Turbine) the Ice Games went off without a hitch.

Well, mostly. For the first few hours, cries of "What are these ice tokens?", "How do I get ice skates?", and "Why am I falling directly into the water at the end of the ski jump?" echoed across General Chat as players struggled to figure out what was going on. As with anything new, time and patience were the keywords in working it all out.

If you're still stumped and can't figure out where this half-pipe is that you keep hearing about, Dungeons and Dragons Online has provided a handy rundown to all of the events here. You'll find a list of where events and NPCs are, as well as different ways to acquire ice tokens, and what you can do with them once you have them.

Silkroad Online celebrates their new Arabic language service with two worldwide events

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 3rd 2010 at 9:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, Events, in-game, News items, Silkroad Online, Free-to-play

It's certainly not everyday we hear that a game has been launched in the Arabic language here at Massively, but we guess that today is one of those days! The free to play title Silkroad Online has gone the distance and has translated their game into Arabic.

To help celebrate the new translation, the entire international Silkroad community is getting two events with real world prizes. The first event, which is less of an event and more of a raffle, gives you between two and ten contest tickets each time you purchase cash for their item shop. If your contest ticket is pulled, you could win prizes including an 8 gig iPod Nano or a brand new laptop.

The second event, which is more of an event, is to level a character from one to 40 before March 2nd. If you successfully make it, you'll get entered into a separate raffle. Prizes here include 10,000 skill points for a character to spend on increasing your skills, Seal of Moon grade weaponry for your characters, or a brand new PSP.

For all of the information on these two events, check out the Silkroad main page.

PvP with the Champions Online Cryptic Corps

by Rubi Bayer Feb 3rd 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, PvP, News items, Champions Online

It stands to reason that the people who make their living creating MMOs love to play them, and the Champions Online team is ready to do just that by logging some PvP time in their game.

The Cryptic Corps will be taking a break to queue up for PvP this Friday from 3-5 PM PST. What they're planning on doing is still a mystery, but they'll announce it in game in plenty of time for you to get prepared. Break out your best level 40 characters and see if you can successfully take on the Cryptic Corps.

They're going to make it worth your while, too. If you beat Cryptic's team, of course you'll get bragging rights, but they'll award you a special forum title as well. No word yet on what the title is, so feel free to pass the time making guesses or suggestions. Good luck, and have fun!

The Spring Fling is on in City of Heroes

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 3rd 2010 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Culture, Events, in-game, News items

It's time for heroes and villains to put aside their differences once again in the name of love. Or the name of temporary powers and costume pieces, if you're the cynical sort. City of Heroes is going to host its Spring Fling once again, running from February 9th until March 2nd, and as usual it focuses on bringing opposites together under one roof. Because at the end of the day, aren't villains and heroes really two sides of the same coin? She fights crime, he robs banks, she defends the innocent, he sets fire to orphanages?

Well, all right, but whether you like it or not the event requires differences to be set aside in order to make the most of the holiday. Both villains and heroes get their own mission arcs, but each arc requires at least one person of the opposite faction to complete the chain. In addition, the temporary buff power Dimension Drops only provides its full benefit when used upon someone of the opposite faction, further encouraging everyone to work together. The official event preview page gives plenty of details on rewards and storylines, so head on over for an overview, and start thinking about which of your mortal enemies in City of Heroes is the most palatable partner.

Wizard101 hosting holiday Twitter contest

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 2nd 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Contests, Events, in-game, News items, Free-to-play, Kids, Wizard101

One of the more family-oriented MMOs currently on the market, Wizard101, celebrates Valentine's Day via its annual Friendship Festival, a concept that some of us can enthusiastically get behind. Its approach has been heralded by the return of the vendor NPC Valentia Heartsong, selling special holiday items in exchange for the game's microtransaction currency, Crowns. But in an effort to get players feeling just a little bit more friendly, the game's staff is running a special contest to give away some of the holiday items for free.

Every day until February 12th, the team will select one of their followers on Twitter at random, contact them via Twitter, and ask for their Wizard101 account name. That means that entering the contest is as simple as following the game @Wizard101. The prize is handed out at noon each day, which means there's still plenty of time for the game's players to get in on the fun and get a little something extra. And besides, following a game you enjoy on Twitter is good practice anyway. Fan of the holiday or not, it's hard not to like a friendly gesture such as this.

Reminder: The EverQuest II city festival is now in Gorowyn!

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 1st 2010 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Events, in-game, News items

Ah, the city festival, how we love your postage collections and new mailboxes when you come to a new city in Norrath. While the event isn't listed on the main page yet, the city festival is in progress and it has moved to the city of Gorowyn in the Timorous Deep. Sure, the city may be aligned with evil (allegedly) but those who bow to the false queen are welcome in its depths as well. In the words of Agent J: "Don't start nothing, won't be nothing."

You can find the festival at the lowest level of the city's core, out by the docks and near the city's main entrance to the main level. If you're looking for all of the rewards you can procure for the festival, than look no further than this wonderfully exhaustive list. Remember, some rewards are unique to Gorowyn! If you don't get them this time, you'll have to wait for the city festival to swing back 'round again!

The Flameseeker Chronicles: A guide to the Canthan New Year festival

by Rubi Bayer Feb 1st 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Events, in-game, Flameseeker Chronicles

Token farming, Rollerbeetle racing, and AFK-ing the rings. Hot on the heels of Wintersday Redux comes Canthan New Year 2010. Guild Wars players joke about the AFK-fest, and while it's a great opportunity to work on those lucky and unlucky titles, there is much more going on. ArenaNet puts together a great festival every year, with old favorite quests and NPCs returning to dole out Lunar tokens and Fortunes as well as a heap of other treats. There is a lot going on, and it can be a bit overwhelming if this is your first Canthan New Year, so let's take a peek at the festivities.

We have an agenda: Global Agenda launch day coverage and play with Massively event

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 1st 2010 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Launches, MMOFPS, MMORTS, Global Agenda

The cat's out of the bag! Or perhaps the spies are out of their hexes? Either way, Global Agenda has gone into official launch mode today! We here at Massively can't help to celebrate by looking back at our past coverage of Global Agenda, as we watched the game go from a little team-based TPS to the MMORTS that it is today. If you like commanding, or if you just like shooting people with hi-tech guns, then this might be the game for you!

In any case, we promised you an event to go along with the launch! Tonight, jump in to Global Agenda at 8 PM EST to meet up with Shawn Schuster (Agent Name: Ampersand, Medic) and Seraphina Brennan (Agent Name: Seraphina, Recon!). Both editors will be commanding their own PvP strike teams and will be launching into the queues head first. By the way, don't forget your headset -- it makes team building so much easier. If you don't have one, no worries, just be ready to play.

So, without any further delay, let's take a trip down memory lane and look back at the best of our Global Agenda coverage...

Spy with the best: Join Massively for Global Agenda's launch! [Updated]

by Seraphina Brennan Jan 29th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Launches, MMORTS, Global Agenda

Readers, we're contacting you through an encrypted channel right now to deliver some very important information. Agent Schuster and Agent Brennan will be on deck for the launch of Global Agenda, ready to fight the Commonwealth at your side.

Come Monday, log into Global Agenda and team up with Sera and Shawn to fight the good fight in both PvP and PvE strike teams. The dossier is still sealed on this mission, but keep an eye on this post and the encrypted T-Feed (@massively on Twitter) for the full information on how to link up with Apoc and Archangel on the day of the launch.

We'll announce our play times and character names come Monday by updating this post, so just place a bookmark here and get your game all patched up. Take advantage of the early start while you're at it and get your characters leveled up for launch. This way our enemies will never know what hit them.

Interview sheds more light on latest City of Heroes guest authors

by Eliot Lefebvre Jan 28th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Culture, Events, in-game, Interviews, Opinion

With the recent introduction of three new arcs in the guest author series, City of Heroes gets to enjoy a bit more time in the limelight thanks to the Mission Architect system. The arcs are currently available on the live servers, and while they won't provide weeks of enjoyment, they'll certainly pass a fair bit of time and be a fun ride in the process. Gamepro recently had the opportunity to talk to the newest guest authors about their experience working on the arcs and playing the game.

If there's one unifying strand to all of the author comments, it's that working on Mission Architect doesn't just help create content, it forces creators to train themselves to write better. With limitations on how much speech can appear and when, all three authors mention that it forces the story down to its essentials. But it's not a limiting factor in making things weaker -- rather, it forces you to craft something that's entertaining even without a lot of flowery dialogue.

The full interview also covers each author's experiences in balancing the arcs, as well as Ms. Lackey's discussion of her history as a player. Whether you've already experienced the new City of Heroes arcs or have yet to take them for a spin, it's clear that a great deal of thought and effort went into them.