Filed under: Fantasy

One Shots: A toast to your doom

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 7th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Guild Wars, One Shots

Every year in Guild Wars, the Mad King Thorn invades, demanding that the residents there laugh -- or die. But for all that this may sound incredibly ominous, you can't help but appreciate just how utterly cool the ArenaNet team has made their game look. Today's spooky yet gorgeous screenshot comes to us from Thorband, who captured this image during the recent Guild Wars Halloween events. Add in those especially awesome wings, the grinning moon, and a ghoulish visage, and that's a hard Halloween image to beat!

Have you seen something really, really cool but unquestionably evil? We'd be thrilled if you'd share with the rest of us. Just email it to oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll post it out here and give you the credit. (Meanwhile, we'll be turning it into our desktop image for the day!)

Gallery: One Shots

Aion grips top ten digital sales charts a month past release

by Kyle Horner Nov 7th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, News items

You'd be forgiven for thinking Aion would've fallen off the Steam and DIrect2Drive top ten sales charts, what with the fire hose blast of new PC releases. Fortunately for NCsoft, that isn't the case as the game is still clinging to said charts in the face of games like Dragon Age: Origins, Borderlands, Torchlight and Left 4 Dead 2. Boldness!

Actually, the game is pretty darn good -- if you don't mind your peanut butter with extra grind -- so that's not a huge surprise all things considered. It's always a good sign when an MMO can stay on the top ten after its launch, moreso when it does so against high profile, high pedigree releases. So, rejoice Aion players, you've likely got a strong community! (We could've just told you that, but now numbers vindicate said observation.)

Warhammer Online's endless trial now available

by Kyle Horner Nov 6th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Warhammer Online, News items

The endless trial has arrived in the land of Warhammer Online, and it's quite the offer. Of course, we've reported on the actual trial before but as of today (post-maintenance) it's officially enacted within the game. So if you've been waiting to go back and check things out but didn't feel like re-subbing or somehow missed out on all the excitement of the game's launch last year, then now is the perfect time to get in and take a look. If you're not sure what the heck this whole "endless trial" thing is all about, here's a handy official FAQ to peruse.

We think it's a good if not bold concept, especially considering players only have to download 1gig of data before the game will dynamically stream the rest as they play. Hopefully it works out for Mythic, who've been putting much blood, sweat and tears in trying to improve perception since its heady launch days.

Asheron's Call lead designer talks 10-Year anniversary, the MMO market, more

by Tracey John Nov 6th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Asheron's Call, Interviews, MMO industry, The Matrix Online, Casual

Not many MMOs last a decade, and this week marks 10 years since the launch of Asheron's Call, the fantasy MMORPG by Turbine Entertainment. Releasing several months after EverQuest, the game held its own and found its way to becoming one of the top MMOs of its time, providing fond memories for many players.

"I'm very proud of Asheron's Call, even today," said former AC lead designer Toby Ragaini in an e-mail to Massively. "It really broke a lot of new ground and I still have people come up to me saying what a great time they had playing. That's a pretty wonderful compliment after 10 years."

Ragaini, who has since worked on Sony Online Entertainment's The Matrix Online and is now working on a casual web-based MMO called Faunasphere, reminisced about working on Asheron's Call and spoke about what it's like working in the MMO market after 14 years of being in the biz.

Runes of Magic introduces Lair of the Demon Dragon

by Rubi Bayer Nov 6th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, News items, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic

The Naga have settled around Aotulia Volcano, and they have a fancy new weapon at their disposal. They've captured Gestaro, a renegade Flame Dragon possessed by demons. Flame dragons are the most powerful of the five ancient dragon races, and the Naga plan to use this one to help suppress the free people.

That's the story in the brand new 12 player raid dungeon from Runes of Magic -- Lair of the Demon Dragon. Your job is to set Gestaro free, by venturing into the Autulia Volcano territory and fighting your way through elite Naga who aren't too keen on losing their new pet. If you can make it through the waves of Naga and break the magical dragon seal, as well as the general that the Naga send in as a last resort, Gestaro will appear and finish off the Naga for you.

This is an elite dungeon, and Runes of Magic warns that "Only the bravest Taborean heroes should choose this encounter," so visit the official for more of the story, and good luck!

One Shots: A strange summoning

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 6th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Dungeons and Dragons Online, One Shots

As we visited the lands of Lord of the Rings Online yesterday for a bit of spooky fun, today we thought we'd take a peek in at Dungeons and Dragons Online. While this isn't specifically a Halloween shot, we thought the spooky summons was a nice counterpoint. This image comes to us from Tanek, who writes in to explain: [this] shot was taken during a show in the beta this past summer. I think the show was in the Marketplace, but I'm not sure. I'm also not sure I want to know exactly what is being summoned. Whatever it is, it does not seem happy.

If you're playing a game we only see on occasion -- or have never seen -- we want to hear from you! Show us your favorite areas, tell us a bit about the lore, or maybe just tell us why you like it. Email them to oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and the name of the game. We'll post them up and give them a chance to shine.

Gallery: One Shots

Lord of the Rings Online dev diary tells of creating Mirkwood

by Rubi Bayer Nov 6th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, News items

We've been enjoying the gorgeous screenshots and trailers from Turbine in the weeks leading up to the release of Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood, and the latest LotRO developer diary gives a behind the scenes look at creating the regions in Mirkwood.

Jesse "Vastin" Kings writes about the fun the team had getting to play with new areas, monsters, and quests, and the challenge of balancing those plans with the available resources. Working with the original Lord of the Rings story line posed another challenge sometimes when it came to filling in the game and still remaining true to Tolkien.

Of course, not everything was on the showy, fun, creative side: "...it might interest you to know that the single largest share of all the time I've spent working on Mirkwood was in trying to figure out and implement ways to keep our servers from being reduced to piles of smoking slag within hours of Siege of Mirkwood going live and all of you hurling yourselves at it at once."

The full entry can be read here.

Details on Final Fantasy XI's new Synergy system

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 6th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Patches, Crafting, Professions, Grouping

We've been seeing a great deal of news and information coming out from Final Fantasy XI -- which probably means the end times are coming, but be that as it may. Just the other day we found out about the upcoming Evolith system, with its cryptic mentions of the integrated "synergy" system and a promise of more details shortly. Sure enough, we already have an idea of what synergy will look like when it drops alongside the rest of the filled-to-bursting November version update. And it promises to be quite a deviation from the status quo for crafting right away -- it's an art practiced not by one person, but by a full six-person party.

In keeping with the extant nature of Final Fantasy XI's crafting, synergy doesn't promise to be simple. A number of reagents and elemental energies are dumped into the pictured "synergy furnace," at which point the entire part must begin carefully modulating and controlling the flow of elements therein. Crystals can be used to help alter the elemental composition, but will not be absolutely necessary from the sound of things. A failed synthesis can cause the whole mess to blow up in your face -- literally -- while success yields both slotted items and "cinders" that can be turned in for equipment to help boost your skill at the craft. There's a lot to digest here, so take a look and get ready for the most mold-breaking crafting yet seen in FFXI.

New screenshots for Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood

by Rubi Bayer Nov 5th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions

The Lord of the Rings Online expansion Siege of Mirkwood is set for release at the beginning of December, and Turbine takes us farther into the forest of Mirkwood today with brand new screenshots of the Ashenslades region. It's a bit farther in -- you can see Dol Guldur looming in the background -- and looks more dark and foreboding than our look at the somewhat-sunnier Scuttledells region.

The Ashenslades name fits what the screenshots show -- take a look at the forest in flames in one picture, and what appear to be burned and blackened trees in the background of another one.

This is the fourth region that Turbine has shown us in our tour of Mirkwood, giving us glimpses of Dol Guldur, Gathburz, and the Scuttledells regions in previous weeks. Monday's release of a trailer gave us a bit more of a look into Dol Guldur as well. We have just over three weeks until the release of Siege of Mirkwood, and hopefully Turbine will continue their previews to make the wait go by a little faster.

Gallery: Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood Ashenslades region

Warhammer Online interim city siege fixes

by Brooke Pilley Nov 5th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Warhammer Online, News items

Mythic has been pulling out all stops lately in an effort to improve Warhammer Online. One of their latest changes was to remove fortresses from the RvR campaign equation because many players found them to be a laggy and boring hurdle to be overcome. Doing so, however, had a predictable result: Cities were sieged much more often. While Mythic was acutely aware this would happen, they didn't have measures in place to handle an "all city siege all the time" situation. Today, Andy Belford announced a suite of interim city fixes.

Check out the official forums for the complete run-down. A few notables include: The durations of stage 1 and 2 city siege have been cut in half, many parts of the city are no longer tied to city rank, city rank recovers much more quickly, and the Reikland Factory and Twisting Tower scenarios are making a comeback to provide those not engaged in city siege with something to do.

Many players and bloggers have pointed out that these fixes only address the symptoms and not the core issues related to WAR's RvR campaign. Andy was quick to mention that these are only initial changes and more will be coming (e.g., the Underdog system). Testing of these changes should begin next week so keep your eyes on the Herald.

Lord of the Rings Online explains skirmish rewards

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 5th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Game mechanics

"Let's be honest, people play new content for the rewards." Perhaps not the most uplifting or metaphorical way to start off a developer diary, but if nothing else you need to give Lord of the Rings Online credit for being so direct about it. But with the most recent developer diary regarding the Skirmish system coming in the Siege of Mirkwood expansion, they really deserve still more credit than that. One of the larger new features of the upcoming expansion, the Skirmish system has had a number of diaries devoted to it, but this one is focused on exactly what the opening would suggest: the meaty rewards from taking part.

Some of the specifics might seem a bit arcane to people unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings Online, but the short version is that the various bosses and so forth will be devoid of any loot except for what's referred to as skirmish marks. Accumulating them as well as special tokens depending on group size and skirmish difficulty will allow purchases from a wide variety of powerful items. However, the system is balanced so that even consistently solo players can still work toward the highest tier of rewards, although the road will be quite a bit longer. There's only so much we can get across in a quick overview -- it's better to take a look at the actual diary and get ready for one of the more dynamic systems coming with Siege of Mirkwood.

One Shots: Who ya gonna call?

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 5th 2009 at 2:01PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, One Shots

While we didn't get in a bunch of Halloween shots, we did get a handful in, which I'll be sharing with you as we move into another great weekend full of gaming fun. Today's not-so-spooky image comes to us from the Lord of the Rings Online Landroval server, which seems to be a great place to be if you're into getting lots of RP out of your MMORPG! Harper Hendee sent back this annotated postcard from their events and explains it for us.

I know you don't usually take annotated screenshots but this is from a huge RP/storytelling/PvMP/musical event on Landroval called The Oathbreaker Captains. It culminates on October 31st with an army of Captains and their Oathbreaker pets fighting an army of spiders in the PvMP area of the Ettenmoors. This shot was snapped as they were geting a sendoff from the locals in Bree. They were happy to have the departed spirits fighting for them and to have those spirits... out of Bree. Lonely Mountain Band provided sendoff music as the spirits manifested in the Haunted Alley and made their way to the Prancing Pony.

We love to hear about role-playing events in MMOs! If you and your group are doing something fun, grab a great screenshot of it and send it our way. Pop it into an email to oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what's going on. We'll feature it here, and who knows - you might draw some more RPers to your next event who saw it here!

Gallery: One Shots

Massively's Allods Online closed beta key giveaway

by Shawn Schuster Nov 5th 2009 at 1:30PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New titles, News items, Massively meta, Giveaways, Allods Online

North American Closed Beta Test 1 is beginning on November 10th for Allods Online, and we're happy to throw a few keys out to our loyal readers. We have 500 to give out, thanks to our friends at gPotato, so they may go quickly. Simply head on over to our giveaway page and follow the directions there.

You can download the game from this link, but it won't be available until 2pm EDT today. You can also take a look at their main website to find out some interesting tidbits about the expansiveness of the game and its award-winning development team.

[Update: Make sure to only enter the numbers after the comma in the beta code you receive. Thanks!]

Evolith system coming to Final Fantasy XI

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 5th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Game mechanics, Patches, Crafting

The November version update for Final Fantasy XI is going to contain a number of new and improved features -- for many of the game's players, just the changes being made to several jobs will alter the game significantly. However, the just-revealed Evolith system is going to add even more wrinkles to the gameplay, allowing players to insert powerful stones with a variety of properties into equipment. Not only is the system based around a new form of synthesis -- in essence an entirely new form of crafting -- but it promises to allow further customization and equipment improvement.

In order to obtain the Evolith stones themselves, players will need to hunt down notorious monsters as part of a new set of "hunt regimes" (which seem as if they'll likely be similar in nature to the Fields of Valor training regimes and enhancements). Equipment can both have new slots added to it via synergy, and then have the Evolith attached to the slots based on elemental properties. Original? Not precisely. But it's a new way for players to improve their abilities and their equipment, and it's a pretty large change for a regular patch. Take a look at the full article for more details and for a sneak peek at what some of the stones will offer.

Runes of Magic announces screenshot contest winners

by Rubi Bayer Nov 4th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, Events, in-game, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic

Runes of Magic went all out this Halloween with lots of special items, games, decorations, and even some contests. The screenshot decoration contest asked players to decorate their houses, their guild halls, and even themselves in their best Runes of Magic Halloween style to compete for in-game prizes. Players had a great time with the contest, deploying armies of ghosts, witches, pumpkins and candles in their houses and guild halls. They decorated themselves just as thoroughly, with a combination of whimsical and scary Halloween costume pieces.

Runes of Magic announced the winners today, with first, second, and third place winners in the house and costume categories, and a single winner in the guild hall category. Each winner will receive their choice of a costume package for their character, with a number of choices for both male and female characters.

Congratulations from us to all of the winners, and enjoy your costumes!