Filed under: World of Warcraft

Anti-Aliased: We put the no in innovation

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 12th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, Anti-Aliased, Alganon

So, yesterday I was browsing our site, and I was happy to see that our community interview with David Allen had gone up, as I didn't get the chance to read it. We had lots of great questions sent in, and I think the ones that Shawn chose were really some hard, direct questions, that I felt someone really had to ask.

Reading David's answers left me thinking, however. David is a person who I certainly admire, as he was the brain behind Istaria, and he really presented some very innovative gameplay mechanics in that game. Alganon, however, is not innovative nor is it cutting edge. It is, quite frankly, another World of Warcraft. Something that, in my opinion, this genre does not need another of.

David's rationale as to why Alganon looks and plays like Warcraft is the part of the interview where I was left in thought. While I understand he wanted to make a game that players could easily adapt to... did it have to resonate of Warcraft so strongly? Furthermore, are we, as a genre, stuck in a rut?

Editor's Note: (As always, if you wish to comment on this edition of Anti-Aliased, please do so on page two of the column. Thank you!)

One Shots: My little pony

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 11th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Screenshots, One Shots

You ever have one of those days when you're out working hard for The Man, and you get smacked down? Well, normally in MMOs, one would think you'd avoid this, but apparently Arthas had a bad-side-of-the-bed morning and decided to take it out on Jayden Beresford as she writes in: For the people who don't play this game a fairly large part of World of Warcraft lore was the attack on the people's of Azeroth by the Scourge. Many brave lives were lost in this fight, the warriors of the magnificent Horde and the pesky Alliance defeated by the legions of undead under the command of Arthas, the Lich king. My poor Troll warrior met her fate this way, her body forgotten on the battlefields until claimed and resurrected by the Scourge and turned into one of their own, a death knight who's purpose is to fight against the races she once defended. With only her master's voice in her head my reborn Deathknight supervises ranks of undead archers seeking to bring an end to life. Pity her Master saw fit to play a joke on her and assign a pony from Darkmoon Faire as her trusted war steed.

One Shots is in need of more screenshots, so if you've got some time while out adventuring, why not gather some up for us and send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com? Add your name, the game it's from, and a description -- guild and server welcome too -- and you're set!

Gallery: One Shots

Electric Playground sits down with Blizzard to talk Cataclysm

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 10th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Expansions, Interviews, MMO industry

The gang over at Electric Playground just recently wrapped up their "Week of WoW" segment with a fitting conclusion -- a look into Cataclysm with Frank Pearce, Blizzard's Executive Vice President of Product Development, and J. Allan Brack, the production director on Cataclysm.

While the interview doesn't cover new information, it does give insight as to why Blizzard has chosen to go back and recreate the mainland of Azeroth. Thanks to lessons learned in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard wants to take their new knowledge and apply it to their old zones, hence the diversity and changing of quests that Cataclysm is bringing to the table.

But don't take our word for it! Check out Electric Playground's interview for the full story.

Microsoft warns users of worm that targets MMO players

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 4th 2009 at 12:30PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, News items

Remember how we always tell you to remain vigilant against malicious programs that can compromise your MMO account's security? Well, it seems we now have more reason to remain vigilant.

Microsoft's latest security intelligence report covers the resurgence of worm type viruses and specifically mentions one that targets MMO players -- Taterf. As a worm, Taterf attempts to divine the user's account name and password through keystroke logging, reading the active memory, and even injecting itself into the game client. Either way, by the end of it, you end up naked and goldless. Hrm, we wonder if Taterf has been masquerading itself as our last girlfriend.

Breaking: Chinese government rejects World of Warcraft, again

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 2nd 2009 at 6:15PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, News items

In a crackdown against online gaming, China has put World of Warcraft under review again today, asking Chinese operator NetEase to stop collecting fees and suspend new account registration as the game is in violation of regulation agreements.

A regulator from the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) said today in an online statement that the game was in "gross violation" of Chinese regulations and they have returned the company's application to operate "The Burning Crusade" (Yep, that's right, they said The Burning Crusade and not Wrath of the Lich King) in China. NetEase has responded that they have not received official word from the governing body of their intent. As of this posting, Battle.net China is still accepting registrations for World of Warcraft.

One Shots: It's a bird! It's a plane!

by Krystalle Voecks Oct 29th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Screenshots, One Shots

Sure, the peace between the Alliance and the Horde in World of Warcraft is supposed to be present, but it doesn't stop them from trying to take each other out whenever they can. Take for example today's One Shots sent in to us from Minifig of the Darkness Beyond Twilight guild. While this is obviously a Horde base on the Isle of Conquest, it doesn't stop Minifig from flying straight into it, in what appears to be a crazy attempt to ram straight into their zeppelin. Crazy or brave? You make the call!

With millions of World of Warcraft players, we actually don't get too many screens from that game. If you'd like to send one in from WoW or any other MMO, we'd be glad to post it. Drop it into an email addressed to oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll show it off to all our readers and give you the nod.

Gallery: One Shots

One Shots: Outland skies

by Krystalle Voecks Oct 20th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Screenshots, One Shots

With Patch 3.3 bringing in lots of goodies, the holiday event coming up, and Cataclysm looming on the horizon, Outland may not be the place a lot of people are spending time these days. Nonetheless, the skies over this strange other-world remain a beautiful place to stop and enjoy a moment of quiet. This great World of Warcraft One Shots comes to us from Tristalus of the Crimson Alliance - a guild that he says has been together for 12 years this December! He writes in: Many of us have moved on from Outlands for some time now. One day while I was flying through gathering some materials, I looked up. Everything came together in the sky for a beautiful screenshot! You can almost picture flying through that can't you?

When your server goes down for maintenance, why not take a little time and dig through that screenshot folder. That way if you find something tasty from your travels, you can email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. Any other info you'd like to share about your guild, group, character, etc, is welcome as well. We'll post it out here and give you the thanks for contributing to One Shots!

Gallery: One Shots

GDC China 09: Netease speaks on combating botters

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 12th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play

GDC China 2009 is currently in high gear until tomorrow, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about some of the panels today! One of the highlights for the MMO industry was certainly the talk given by Yunfeng Lin, the design director at NetEase, on keeping up with botters and bot programs.

NetEase, the operator of the three Westward Journey games, Flyff (and here's the American version of Flyff), and the 100 pound gorilla that is World of Warcraft, is in a very unique position to speak on the troubles botters present to online communities. Westward Journey and World of Warcraft both draw huge numbers of people in China, but that also means they draw a huge number of botters.

One Shots: Sounds fishy to us

by Krystalle Voecks Oct 12th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Screenshots, One Shots

While the time has come and gone for "Talk Like a Pirate Day" we figure just about any day is a good one for pirates and silly fish tales about the big ones you've caught. Today we have a piratey shot from Liam B. who sent this in after being turned into a pirate in World of Warcraft on September 19th. He writes: Hey, I captured this after finding out that you could become a pirate for the day in World of Warcraft. This is at Stormwind Harbor and the one thing that keeps on running through my head is - "Yarrgh, caught her I did. Had t' use a deckhand as bait, and she was this big!"

Calling all MMO players! We need your screenshots for One Shots. If you've seen anything fun (holiday events are awesome) imposing, interesting, or silly, we want to hear from you. If you haven't, gather up your group of friends and go have some fun, then send some screens of that in. All MMOs from large-budget to tiny indie games; from East to West are welcome. Send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name/server/game and a quick description of what we're seeing. Reader submissions keep One Shots running, so send some in today!

One Shots: How do you steer that thing?

by Krystalle Voecks Oct 2nd 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Screenshots, One Shots

Recently, we asked for players to show off their funky mounts, but we hadn't really considered this one. Apparently there's a flaming harpoon somewhere out there in the World of Warcraft that players are surfing around the landscape on. Here's Bodbrother to explain today's One Shots for those of us who don't play: You wanted pictures showing us flying something off the beaten path. There's a nice quest in one of the entry zones in the newest World of Warcraft expansion that has you ride on a flaming harpoon back to your base camp. Enjoy. We just wonder how you steer that thing without burning your toes off, really.

If you've caught sight of something you never noticed before, from the smallest detail to a huge new raiding area you hadn't experienced until now, we want to see your screenshots! Bundle them up into an email along with your name/guild/server/etc. and a quick description and send them to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com. We'll post them out here and share your experience for all our readers to see. Yours could be next!

A WoW player's guide to Fallen Earth

by Shawn Schuster Sep 21st 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Game mechanics, Guides, New titles

At Massively, we like to focus on making more MMOs accessible to more people. That accessibility to other MMOs is initially started by the 800 lb gorilla: World of Warcraft. Without WoW, a large percentage of MMO players would not be enjoying their current game today, even if they haven't stuck by WoW this whole time.

So using the fact that so many people know WoW, we're continuing our WoW Player's Guide series with this one for Fallen Earth. I'm just going to get this out of the way right now: Fallen Earth is nothing like World of Warcraft. There. That's done, so now we can move on. However, the purpose of this guide is not to grade comparable features, but to show the average WoW player what they may seek in a game like Fallen Earth. That transition can be quite a scary leap, so we're here to offer a helping hand. Follow along after the jump for our WoW Player's guide to Fallen Earth, and hopefully you may find something that interests you enough to try out this brand new post-apocalyptic MMO.

One Shots: Drunken revelry

by Krystalle Voecks Sep 20th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Screenshots, Events, in-game, One Shots

Sure enough, it's that time of year. Brewfest has opened up in World of Warcraft, offering lots of drunken fun for those who opt to take part. Normally we don't get pictures quite this fast, but Mittzi from the Moon Guard role-playing server was nice enough to send this one in just as the party was getting started. She writes in: I thought you might like [this] exclusive shot from the opening of this year's Brewfest Festival right outside Ironforge. Keep in mind, this was *less than an hour* after the festivities began! I'd hate to be the one to clean up after this is all over... Yeah, that doesn't sound like a World of Warcraft quest we'd want either.

There are lots of events going on this month up until the end of the year in different MMOs. If you'd like to be our "eyes on the ground" reporters for One Shots, feel free to send in your image and tell us about the festivities! Email 'em in to oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and the name of the game. We'll post them out here and give you the nod.

Gallery: One Shots

Activision Blizzard's CEO is a funpire

by Kyle Horner Sep 17th 2009 at 9:30AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, MMO industry, News items

Bobby Kotick isn't just the CEO of Activision Blizzard. He's also the CEO of Activision Blizzard who recently said, "You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly," Then again, as Ars Technica has pointed out, his incentive program that, "rewards profit and nothing else." may have something to do with that.

That's not all Bobby Kotick recently said, however. He's also known for this uplifting little diddy, "We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games." Now that quote may be out of context, but what kind of context can make that look... well, good or even mildly acceptable?

Something smacks of bad omens here. Sure, things are going good right now for the company that puts out Blizzard games and Call of Duty, but when a company's Chief Executive Officer is saying things like, "We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression," it may be time to double-check your neck for bite marks and then get the hell out of Irvine.

Anti-Aliased: Hax0red

by Seraphina Brennan Sep 16th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, Opinion, Anti-Aliased

Today was a beautiful morning. It was a morning filled with sunshine, chirping birds, and a good night's rest. I was up writing late last night, so it was nice to sleep in a little before getting a start on the day. Yet, all cozy naps must come to an end, as I had to get up to man my computer, check my e-mail, and get a start on today's work.

As I booted up Mozilla Thunderbird and looked over the e-mails that were floating in my inbox (yesterday's MAG comments, Star Wars Galaxies comments, and some new screenshots for D&D Online) I saw one that kinda stuck out. It was from Blizzard Entertainment Support, and it was a password change notification from Battle.net. At first I chuckled, thinking it was some type of spammer who was trying to get me to give up my password, but on looking through the letter, I noticed it was authentic Blizzard material.

That's when my phone rang. It was one of my guildmate's numbers flashing on the screen. Those birds stopped chirping after that booming string of profanities escaped my mouth.

Sony, Turbine, Jagex, Blizzard, and NCsoft named in patent infringement lawsuit

by Seraphina Brennan Sep 16th 2009 at 4:30PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Business models, News items, Runescape, Legal, Virtual worlds

It seems to be a World of Lawsuits (TM) recently in our industry. Bloggers are being sued for libel, NCsoft is being sued for patent infringement, Linden Labs is being sued for trademark violations, Turbine is suing Atari, and now five companies are all being sued over a patent dispute.

The Boston Globe has reported that Paltalk Holdings Inc. has filed a complaint in Texas against Sony Corp., Activision Blizzard Inc., Turbine Inc., NCsoft Corp., and Jagex Ltd. all for games that violate their patent on computers sharing data so that all users can see the same virtual environment. The games in question are EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars, and RuneScape (in order of the companies as named above.)

What makes this lawsuit different from the standard patent shakedowns that we've been reporting on is that the patent has already been successfully used in court. Paltalk has already sued, and won against, Microsoft.