Filed under: Free-to-play

Atlantica Online speeds up download with new Lite client

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 7th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Launches, News items, Free-to-play, Atlantica Online

Atlantica Online just celebrated its first year in the US, but the free-to-play game apparently had another trick up its sleeve -- namely, allowing players interested in the game a chance to get in and start playing even faster. After all, it can be obnoxious to download a client and wait for it to patch through updates when you just want to dive in and get to playing. Ndoors Interactive has just launched the game's lite client, a way for a smaller initial download to let you start playing the game as fast as possible.

The new client's trick is to only frontload the first twenty levels of play while downloading the rest via background processes. This allows new players to log in and start playing their character faster, but it can cause issues for existing players who might be at a higher level (and the press release specifically suggests avoiding the lite client if that's the case). For everyone who hasn't started the game, it's an interesting way to make the startup more accessible and significantly faster. Consider taking a look over the weekend, and possibly getting in on some of the one year celebration goodies Atlantica Online has to offer.

Atlantica Online celebrates its one year US anniversary

by Kyle Horner Nov 6th 2009 at 4:30PM

Filed under: Events, in-game, News items, Free-to-play, Atlantica Online

It's been one whole successful year for Atlantica Online in the US, and Ndoors Interactive is ready to celebrate with special bonuses and in-game events throughout this November. The first of many celebratory specials offers players a 200% experience boost, something sure to make everybody pretty happy. Then, there's the weekend in-game events, followed by new in-game items, a special Thanksgiving event, a fan art contest and we're guessing a lot more.

So, to recap: oodles of extra experience and rare new items, along with fun holiday and anniversary distractions. Oh, right and even a fan art contest for the creatively inclined types. Yep, seems like a particularly awesome month for Atlantica Online players.

In fact, for more deets from Ndoors themselves, check out the official word on all the in-game events and such after the break.

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!

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!

Aika announces closed beta

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 4th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Betas, PvP, News items, Free-to-play

If you're looking for some more RvR action outside of Warhammer Online, then you might want to take a look at Gala-Net's newest addition to their MMO lineup, Aika.

Aika is a new free-to-play MMO with the same type of nation versus nation bent that Warhammer and World of Warcraft provide to their players. Players get to defend territory during castle sieges, can steal artifacts from the enemy side, a la Dark Age of Camelot, and participate in the standard PvP battlegrounds.

The game has just gone into a closed beta testing phase for America, but getting in couldn't be simpler. Simply go visit the Aika website, fill out a survey and you'll be entered for a chance to participate in the closed beta.

Choose my Adventure: The Marketplace

by Shawn Schuster Nov 4th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Culture, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Roleplaying, Choose my Adventure

Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game!

This week, we've made our way through the rest of the Waterworks quests in Dungeons and Dragons Online and into the Marketplace and the Cerulean Hills. Despite our limited time together, the Critical Mass bunch are really making headway through these quests.

We've finally brought back the polls for this week, as you'll have a chance to not only vote on where we go from here, but also enjoy a revisit to the use of Turbine Points earned so far. Follow along after the jump for Fahryn's in-character journal, my impressions and the return of the polls!

Dungeons and Dragons Online opening new server

by Rubi Bayer Nov 4th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Game mechanics, News items, Free-to-play

We told you recently about the massive population growth that Dungeons and Dragons Online has experienced since going free-to-play last summer, and Turbine is keeping pace with that growth nicely. Players enjoy a solid, extensive game at the free level, as well as a seemingly endless supply of additional content at either a microtransaction or subscription level -- including the first major content update since the free-to-play model launched in June.

Today they're adding something less on the gameplay side and more on the foundation side: a new server to keep up with the increased player base. Turbine announced the addition of new server world Orien (after the Dragonmarked noble house in Eberron) yesterday. It's only open to new characters -- character transfers are unfortunately not available at the time -- but it will certainly help to spread the server load out a bit as more players head in to see what all the fuss is about.

The new server world opens today.

Zodiac Online enters closed beta

by Rubi Bayer Nov 3rd 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Free-to-play, Zodiac Online

Zodiac Online, the free-to-play MMO with a Chinese zodiac theme, entered closed beta on Sunday. They've made quite a few changes since alpha: "we've corrected many bugs and added a lot of new content, now Zodiac Online Closed-Beta test is coming back in a very different appearance!" If you took a look at the game in alpha, the new content -- including the addition of PVP -- may warrant a second trip to try the beta.

The Zodiac Online storyline centers around the twelve Chinese zodiac signs - the dragon, tiger, ox, etc. -- and their battle against a force of demons heralding doomsday. Your job is to help the zodiac envoy defeat the demons.

Beta keys are available through several outlets, including the Zodiac Online Facebook group, prearranged giveaways, and the "Good Wishes" program in which you register on the ZO site, leave good wishes in a forum thread, and receive your key. (Zodiac Online obviously isn't too shy about handing out beta keys.)

Closed beta is expected to last "several weeks depending on test results," and beta key information is available on the official site.

Free Realms to introduce new job, pets, player housing and more

by Shawn Schuster Nov 3rd 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Galleries, Screenshots, MMO industry, Player Housing, Free-to-play, Casual, Free Realms, Massively Interviews, Kids

The world of Free Realms is about to get a bit bigger this holiday season as even more content is being added and improved for the game. According to Sony Online Entertainment's Creative Director for Free Realms, Laralyn McWilliams, the game is about to see a new job, new job structure, new pets, player housing and more added by mid-December.

We caught up with Laralyn to get a few more details on the upcoming improvements before the first stage of these updates goes live this week. Follow along after the jump for the complete interview, and in our gallery below for some exclusive screenshots of the new content.

Gallery: Free Realms

The Digital Continuum: Torchlight my fire

by Kyle Horner Nov 2nd 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Opinion, Free-to-play, The Digital Continuum

For the past week I've been delving deep into the dungeons of Runic Games' Torchlight and found the experience to be nothing short of joyous. Granted, like many other people I also wish some kind of co-op shipped with the game (even over LAN) but thankfully the developer's next project will be an MMO built upon the foundation laid down by last week's release.

My joy for this game most definitely bleeds into its MMO incarnation, which has led to far too much thinking on additions I'd like to see made. So this week, I'm going to get them all off my chest in the hopes that I'll stop obsessing over them. Of course, there's never a guarantee with these things.

The Digital Continuum: Torchlight my fire, page 2

by Kyle Horner Nov 2nd 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Opinion, Free-to-play, The Digital Continuum

Guild Wars announces art contest winners

by Rubi Bayer Nov 2nd 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Contests, Free-to-play

At the beginning of October, Guild Wars announced that their annual Halloween art contest was open for entries. After sorting through hundreds of submissions, they announced the winners on Friday. As always, fan creativity shone in the form of costumes, lawn decorations, drawings, carved pumpkins, and even a ceramic siege turtle that fires pumpkins instead of jade.

ArenaNet seemed very happy with this year's entries: "We were so impressed by both the Halloween spirit and the quality of artistic talent in our community that it was hard to choose only ten winners and ten honorable mentions."

Twenty winners were chosen from the submissions for some great prizes. The top three winners scored a signed copy of The Art of Guild Wars 2, the top ten received a signed Guild Wars art print, and all twenty winners won an exclusive Mad King's Guard minipet. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Guild Wars PvP henchmen have arrived

by Rubi Bayer Oct 30th 2009 at 1:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Patches, PvP, Free-to-play

Back at the beginning of the month, ArenaNet announced the winners of the Guild Wars henchman skill bar contest, promising that the AI would be tweaked to make the winning bars work well. Since then we've been anxiously awaiting the new henchmen to see how well they work and more importantly, what they look like.

They arrived with last night's update, along with a bug fix for Devona, who really wanted to keep "Charge!" on her bar. While it will take some time to get a feel for them in battle, the Live Team clearly had a great time putting them together. The models look great -- a nice variety of looks and styles, and talking to them gives a brief dialogue that says a bit about their personality. In a fun little touch, many of their idle emotes fit their personalities as well. Talking to them will also reveal their skill bars, allowing you to make your selections without resorting to memory or the wiki.

Heroes have been removed for the time being, but don't worry just yet if you want them back. Community manager Regina Buenaobra says, "After yesterday's update our programmer is looking into enabling Heroes in the Guild Hall. He is optimistic that it's possible."

The new henchmen are available in Heroes' Ascent and in guild halls, and while it's a bit disappointing that we didn't actually get henchmen named Hi Captain Obvious or Noodle Legs, we are optimistic that they'll live up to expectations on the battlefield.

Runes of Magic patches in 'Storming of the Acropolis'

by Kyle Horner Oct 28th 2009 at 7:00PM

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

Today brings patch 2.1.2 to Runes of Magic, which is also being called Storming of the Acropolis. The biggest addition is of course a new dungeon in the form of the Naga Acropolis, which is crawling with elite henchmen. This is a particularly hard challenge meant for grouped players who'll eventually earn the chance to defeat King Sharleedah -- we've no doubt the king drops phat loots. Also coming with this patch are the Halloween Pumpkin Festival, some elite skills for the Elf classes, minor UI tweaks, a land expansion for the Aotulia Volcano zone and some bug fixing.

You couldn't ask for much more in a free content patch. We're sure the Runes of Magic community is already enjoying themselves with all the shiny new content. It's also good to see the Elves being fleshed out some more mechanically, as any new race added to an MMO often times needs some tuning before it falls in line with the previous races.

Massively's DDO developer tour for Update 1

by Rubi Bayer Oct 28th 2009 at 3:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Patches, News items, Free-to-play

Dungeons and Dragons Online has been enjoying a huge surge in popularity since their free-to-play model launched last June. Today marks the introduction of their first major content update since the launch, something everyone has been looking forward to for quite a while. We told you Sunday about the letter to the players from Executive Producer Fernando Paiz, and Monday we had the opportunity to get together with some of the guys from Turbine for a look at what's coming today. Between the gorgeous world Turbine has created and the numerous adventure packs for additional play, new DDO players have no shortage of content to explore and enjoy. Now long time players are getting some love with Update 1.

Follow along after the jump for a look at what to expect from today's content patch.