Filed under: PvP

Don't you love it when you began a brand new game and emerge fresh from character creation, only to get one-shotted by a high level player? No? The creators of Darkfall agree that it might not be the best introduction and have plans to help out with that very soon.

Darkfall will introduce New Player Protection very soon, an optional process that allows players to get their bearings in the game without fear of being used for target practice by any random Joe that happens by. It will be a short period of protection, lasting only a few hours, and is completely optional. (It's on by default when you begin the game, and can be turned off.) During that time, you can't harm or be harmed by other players -- you can only attack monsters.

This feature could be introduced as early as the next patch. Until then, you can read up on it here.

If you were one of the people lucky enough to get into one of our two Aika beta key giveaways, you've probably been enjoying the chance to see what the most recently announced title from gPotato has to offer. The promise of large-scale PvP always gets people excited, after all, and it doesn't hurt that the game has a very polished and stylish look to it. But the real question is how the PvP will play out... which is why it should come as no surprise that the developers are taking the opportunity during the closed beta to host a domination tournament for the players. Four guilds from each nation will be set against their fellows in a winner-take all elimination match.

The process is simple -- players should send a private message to the GM Lingo with their guild name and the number of members. The four largest guilds will be notified and set to begin the tournament on Monday, February 8th at 5:00 PM PST (8:00 PM EST). Each guild will pick out six of its finest members to be sent out as champions, and the tournament will last through both Monday and Tuesday evening. If you're in Aika's closed beta, there's still time to enter, so get your guild together and get ready for the event!

With the speed at which our beta keys vanished in last week's giveaway, the good people at Aika Online were happy to give us 5,000 more keys for the Massively readers to get their hands on. As we mentioned last week, Aika is a large-scale PvP-centric MMO where nations fight against each other with castle sieges and customized battlegrounds. All of this while supporting 2,000 players in the same battle.

If you didn't get your chance to grab a key last week, head on over to our giveaway page for a shiny new code. From there, you can register at aika.gpotato.com and download the client straight from the website. At the rate this game is gaining popularity, you can bet we'll be checking this one out ourselves, with our first impressions coming soon.

In the sandbox of New Eden, rival alliances vie for control of vast swathes of star systems. The lawless nullsec regions of the EVE Online universe are home to violent alliances of all sizes and fleets with hundreds of ships clash on a daily basis. The political machinations of nullsec have produced many stories of wars fought over territory, stations conquered and fleets dismantled by force. Over the years, each story has become part of the game's living history. Recently, a new chapter in that history began as the nullsec sovereignty system governing territorial warfare received a complete overhaul in the Dominion expansion. The transition period has been rough on some alliances as a new sovereignty system requires new ways of thinking. Some alliances are falling, new ones are being forged to fill the power vacuum and the race is on for people to adapt to the new sovereignty system.

As we've been watching the EVE galaxy performing its Darwinian reshuffle, it came to our surprise that GoonSwarm, the game's biggest territorial alliance, had been disbanded. In the early hours of Wednesday 3rd February 2010, GoonSwarm CEO "karttoon" kicked almost every corp from the alliance, effectively disbanding it. There's more to this story than meets the eye and in this investigative piece, I delve into the thick of it to discover just what's going on with this troubled alliance.

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!

Oh you evil, evil readers. Voting for us to PvP like that. You should be ashamed. Although I have to admit, it was really quite fun.

That's right, this week the Choose my Adventure clan in Fallen Earth tried their hands at PvP and I'm very excited to bring back news from the front lines. In addition to the regular in-character journal format this week, I'm also going to explain a good bit about the clan's impressions of this first jump into PvP, how Fallen Earth handles it and how you can make that first leap yourself. Follow along, won't you?

A test server patch isn't quite as good as live, but it means that the patch is only a couple of weeks away, barring unusual circumstances. We recently heard a bit about the upcoming 1.3.4 patch for Warhammer Online, and true to forecasting, the patch is scheduled to hit the test realm right about... well, now. That means that we're that much closer to live weapons obtainable via RvR, a welcome change for the people who came for PvP to begin with.

Of course, patches on the test server invariably mean a set of patch notes, which helps to give more detail on what's en route for the game. As promised for buying weapons, there are new currencies awarded -- Emblems, which go in ascending ranks from Recruit to Officer. These can be traded for a variety of items and are rewarded for Scenario participation, which goes hand-in-hand with the extensive scenario restructuring also present.

The emblems can also convert up and down, so characters taking part in low-level content can hold on to their rewards if they so desire. Mixed with extensive balance tweaks and bug fixes, this looks to be a good patch for Warhammer Online players, so head on over to Warpstone and get in on the testing.

Global Agenda launched yesterday, to the delight of many fans -- including our very own Shawn and Sera. However, that was just the beginning of the launch week festivities.

Conquest mode launches today, offering all players free access until March 3rd of this year. This is a great opportunity to explore this massively multiplayer feature, take part in some Agency vs. Agency battles, and see if it's for you or not. The first zones opened today at 12pm US Eastern time, with two open zones (Obelisk and Echelon) in the UK and three (Sovereign, Citadel and Warlord) in the United States.

Because the workings of Conquest can feel a bit intimidating and overwhelming to new players, particularly with so much else to learn, Global Agenda is helping players make the most of their free time by offering the developer video diary we showed you earlier in the week with an overview of Conquest. Take a look at it to gain some helpful tips before you dive in, and be sure to check out the new exclusive AvA screenshots in our gallery!

Massively has been following the development of the sci-fi MMO Black Prophecy very closely, and was pleased that the title's developer Reakktor Media wanted to do a series of focused Q&As with us on several aspects of the game. Our last such Q&A started at the beginning with character creation, but in our second installment of the Black Prophecy interview series we discussed the game's mission design. To that end, we posed some questions to Lorenz Dames, the Lead Game Designer on Black Prophecy.

Lorenz explained a great deal about how Reakktor is approaching solo content vs. group-oriented gameplay. He also told us how Reakktor Media is merging the completion of mission objectives with dogfighting your fellow players through PvP missions, where other players will try to counter your efforts to complete goals. Our interview should provide Black Prophecy fans with a solid overview of the game's mission design, which will be an essential aspect of the sci-fi MMO's gameplay.

MAG's official launch was only a few days ago, but developer Zipper Interactive is already explaining some of the benefits to having a high level character in the MMOFPS. Players who hit the level cap of 60 can enable "Veteran Mode", which Zipper Interactive has mentioned in the past. Now, they've clarified what exactly the advantages to doing so are in a blog post -- essentially it's an incentive to reroll once you've maxed out your character, and experience more of the game.

If you're looking to try something new, you'll be able to keep your past accomplishments (medals, ribbons, and related stats) when you reset your character to level 1. Even though your experience counter resets to zero, your lifetime experience will show everything you've ever earned -- a permanent record viewable on the stats page of your barracks. Players after trophies for hitting max level in all private military companies (PMCs) in MAG will want to take advantage of Veteran Mode and the experience boost it imparts. Veteran Mode gives players a permanent 10% bonus added to the experience total for each match, provided that players sticks through the entire round. Other players can easily recognize a Veteran by the gold insignia displayed beneath that character's rank. While we suspect it'll be a while before most players hit that level cap, Zipper Interactive detailed MAG's Veteran Mode on the game's official blog.

Hi-Rez Studios released a new Global Agenda video developer diary today, and Senior Game Designer Scott Zier promises that it's the first in a series all about Conquest.

This first video serves as an introduction to the concept of Conquest and Agency vs. Agency battles. Zier narrates the video, giving an overview of how things work all the way from the basics of zone open hours to simple battle strategy. He continues by giving a play-by-play of sorts of a battle between two neighboring Agencies in order to demonstrate how it all comes together. While the series will presumably become more detailed and cover specific topics as things progress, this serves as a great first look at how Conquest works in the world of Global Agenda.

We've included the video after the cut, so follow along and take a look for yourself. Thanks to Scott and the rest of the Global Agenda team, and we look forward to the next one!

Today we're happy to present a brand new closed beta key giveaway for the upcoming fantasy MMO Aika Online. Developed by the makers of Neo Steam and published by Gala-Net, Inc., Aika Online is described as a PvP-centric, large-scale MMO where nations fight against each other with castle sieges and customized battlegrounds. The game engine has been developed to support 2,000 simultaneous players (1,000 vs. 1,000) in a single, real-time battlefield, which Gala-Net describes as a remarkable technical achievement.

If Aika Online sounds like something you'd like to check out, head on over to our giveaway page to grab yourself one of our 5,000 closed beta keys we have available. From there, you can register at aika.gpotato.com and download the client later today from the website. Keep in mind that this North American closed beta doesn't begin until February 3rd, when you'll be able to enjoy five nations, all six classes and levels 1 through 30.

Perfect World Entertainment has spent a fair amount of time talking up their upcoming PvP-focused game, Battle of the Immortals. The game certainly looks gorgeous, but we've only heard bits and pieces about how it will actually play. The most recent update, however, certainly provides a fair bit more information on how the game, as it details the game's classes -- Berzerker, Heretic, Magus, Slayer, and Champion. Each class is given a brief writeup of their strengths, weaknesses, and preferred opponents.

In no particular order, Slayers deal a mix of physical and magical damage at close range but have next to no defensive abilities. Heretics are a combination of priests with more sinister magics, dealing damage and healing as well as inviting a few obious comparisons. Magi (or maguses, if you prefer) are... well, okay, they're kind of obvious. Berzerkers have an errant "z" in their name and focus on dealing out physical damage at the cost of some defense, and Champions wield a weapon and shield to be all but indestructible. The classes seem set to provide a fair mix of the usual "holy trinity" mechanics and PvP skills, so take a look at the official preview to get a clearer picture of what you might want to play once the game goes live.

The setting of EVE Online is a vast galactic sandbox called New Eden, with thousands of charted solar systems and thousands more hidden in uncharted space. The title's developer CCP Games provides the expansive setting and PvE content, but beyond this it's up to the players to define what the game can really be. Although there are plenty of opportunities to take risks in the game with commensurate rewards, a large percentage of the game's playerbase are content to remain in high security space where there are less dangers. Many of these players spend their time mining in asteroid belts and ice fields, which most would admit can be a semi-AFK playstyle. After all, the process of mining is rote: lock asteroids, fire up your mining lasers, and some cycles later you've harvested ore that can be sold outright or used in manufacturing.

That zen-like calm punctuated by the gentle hum of mining lasers was shaken up for many high sec dwellers earlier this month though, when the player-run event Hulkageddon II tore through the mining ship hulls of over 1000 players. The core idea of Hulkageddon II, as with the original event, was to destroy as many mining vessels as possible over the course of a week... a goal that many players pursued with reckless abandon. Indeed, there were numerous prizes awarded and 'achievements' that players racked up over the course of Hulkageddon II. Ultimately, the event injected some much-needed risk into the game -- whether some players wanted it or not -- in places where miners once felt they were untouchable by EVE's criminal population. Of course, a player-run event that pitted players eager to rack up kills against those who would prefer to avoid conflict has proven controversial.

The man behind Hulkageddon II is Helicity Boson, a pirate who flies with The Python Cartel, though he was helped in large part by fellow player Garmon (aka El'Tar) and generous donations from other players. Massively caught up with Helicity to discuss his motivations behind running Hulkageddon II, his views on the game in general, and why some EVE players might be wound up just a bit too tightly.