MMOs posts

Anti-Aliased: What it's like to sit in the staff chair

by Seraphina Brennan Jan 7th 2010 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Massively meta, Anti-Aliased

So I drove the Aion community up a wall again. I seem to do that a lot when I talk about the game. AionSource was a little miffed at the "disappointment" award the staff and readers gave them, and decided to rip into me. So, in an effort of good faith, I dropped by the flame thread and tried to lighten things up while explaining my position on the game and how it isn't all doom and gloom.

Well, after having 9 pages of people not reading what I was writing and electing to call me a nyerking nyerk, I bowed out with a new column topic on my mind: my job. If there was any common theme in all of the screaming, it was how I sucked at my job because I said Aion had a grind, I sucked at my job because I was only level 17 in Aion, everyone on that fansite could do a better job at my job than I could, and I was the reason mainstream reviews were going downhill. (Awesome.)

Amazingly enough, I too thought pretty much those exact same things before I got a job here. But writing here for two years has been one heck of an experience, and maybe today I can give you some insight to the things I see on the staff side of the fence.

Tags: aion, anti-aliased, award, editor, fun, game-journalism, gaming, job, massively-staff, mmos, ncsoft, opinion, opinion-column, review, staff, work, writing

GameX 2009: Victorian spaceships with Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 28th 2009 at 5:30PM

Filed under: Video, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of the infamous Zero Punctuation reviews on The Escapist is a bit tricky to track down, but we were able to get some time in with him at this year's GameX in Philadelphia.

We pitched the fast talking reviewer some questions to get his opinion on the MMO genre beyond his reviews of Tabula Rasa and EVE Online, and found out some interesting things -- like victorian steampunk spaceships are awesome. So what breaks the MMO genre for Yahtzee? Will more MMOs be smash... er... featured on Zero Punctuation? If you're wondering the answers to these questions, then wonder no more! Just click on through after the break to check out our video interview!

Tags: ben-croshaw, ben-yahtzee-croshaw, featured, gamex, gamex-2009, interview, mmos, opinion, the-escapist, video-interview, yahtzee, yahtzee-croshaw, zero-punctuation

Massively multiplayer online... boobs?

by Seraphina Brennan Aug 24th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: At a glance, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, News items

Did you know that MMOs and breasts have a long history with one another? It's true, you know. From the time MMOs came onto the scene, so too did scantily clad women with huge hooters. Also, yes, this is indeed one of "those" articles. The article where we talk about breasts seriously, I mean.

Sanya Weathers, no stranger to the MMO industry (or breasts, for that matter) just recently took a pretty funny tour of how breasts work into advertising, whether we like it or not. From box art to marketing departments, she looks at some of the good, the bad, and the downright horrible when it comes to putting hot women on boxes to sell games.

If you're up for a laugh, go check out her article over at MMORPG.com. It's funny, it's insightful, it's historical, and it's full of what men want most -- awesome games. (Get your head out of the gutter if you thought that last line was going to be another boob joke.)

Tags: blade-and-soul, boobs, breasts, hooters, knockers, marketing, mmorpg.com, mmos, ncsoft, sanya-weathers, silly, women

The Daily Grind: Games that should be MMOs?

by Lesley Smith Jun 12th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Game mechanics, MMO industry, The Daily Grind

We all have a list of favourite games which we think should be MMOs. My first real exposure to RPGs was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I absolutely love this game and it's top of my list of titles (or in this case a franchise) which needs to be turned into an MMO ASAP. Logically (and as a games journalist) I know it's not that simple. I've interviewed several folks at Bethesda over the years and I know that their vision of The Elder Scrolls wouldn't translate too well to a Massively Multiplayer Online game.

But that aside, I'm pretty sure most gamers are stoked that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is being reinvented as an MMO. I want to know, if graphics, dev wishes and game mechanics weren't an issue, what games would you like to see become an MMO and why?

Tags: bethesda, bethesda-softworks, mmo, mmos, star-wars, star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic, star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-mmo, star-wars-the-old-republic, the-elder-scrolls, the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion

Blizzard believes fans make their games successful

by Lesley Smith Jun 1st 2009 at 4:00PM

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

With E3 2009 officially underway, it's a great time for devs and CEOs to chat about their games and Blizzard's very own Mike Morhaime has been talking about the company's position in the MMO market with Develop. He believes that Blizzard is uniquely positioned within the industry and that it's all about the players:

"The story behind us is the passionate community that has grown up around our games," he explains during the interview. "Our commitment to quality has helped us grow a global audience that has grown with every release. While our competitors will be trying to overcome these challenges to grow their brands, we're already a major player there. None have achieved the same level of online growth as World of Warcraft. We're able to leverage huge investments in new content across the world's largest MMO subscriber base."

Tags: blizzard, blizzard-entertainment, develop, E3, e3-2009, fanbase, mike-morhaime, mmo, mmos

The Daily Grind: The MMO/life balance

by Lesley Smith May 27th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, The Daily Grind

Irony is a weird thing. Here's an example: since becoming a journalist some four years ago I've had less time to read manga, watch anime and play games (oddly all things I do as part of my job). Here's another one: since joining Massively and WoW.com, my time playing WoW has dropped to just a couple of hours a week. Weird huh? It's something I'm trying to change but enjoying a raid is a bit hard when a voice in my head is whispering about news and European maintenance posts.

So readers, you work, you play, you go to school, you study and you obviously also love MMOs (or you wouldn't be reading this post, right?). How do you balance your real life with your virtual one? Does your MMO of choice have to wait till your chores/homework/research is done? Would you rather get your fix before dinner or are you up at the crack of dawn before work to do those all-important dailies?

Tags: balance, mmo, mmos, real-life, the-daily-grind, tightrope

The Digital Continuum: Dealing with delay

by Kyle Horner May 25th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: News items, Opinion, The Digital Continuum

Back in 1999 when I was just a 14 teenager with way too much free time on his hands, I had finally got Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for my PlayStation. Saying the game saw delays would be quite an understatement and up until that time I had been pretty frustrated with the whole ordeal. Nobody likes it when games are delayed and back then I was no exception.

But thinking back to how wonderfully translated (and semi-ported from the Sega Saturn) the game was, it was quite worth the wait. Although I may not have realized it at the time, the delays were entirely the right choice. And as it turns out, they usually are, not that everyone can make that observation.

Tags: atari, call-of-duty, champions-online, cryptic, cryptic-studios, delay, delayed, featured, infinity-ward, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lunar-silver-star-story-complete, mmos, playstation, the-digital-continuum, turbine, working-designs

The Daily Grind: How do you choose your MMOs?

by Lesley Smith Apr 13th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Aion, EVE Online, Second Life, The Daily Grind

Being new on the Massively team, I've been getting to know the rest of the bloggers and learning about their MMO habits and they're certainly a varied bunch. I like to think I have a good knowledge of MMOs, even if I play World of Warcraft almost exclusively, but whilst chatting with the team, it became clear most of them are gripped either by WoW, Second Life or EVE Online. Personally I'm dying to play Aion.

I've dabbled in most MMOs and virtual worlds but I'd never played EVE Online. So, after ascertaining there was just one server and quietly thanking the MMO gods, I downloaded the file, created a sexy female Reborn and logged in. Boy did I get a shock! After hundreds of hours playing WoW, I was stuck in a ship and the cursor keys didn't appear to come into play either! Talk about out of my comfort zone. I confess, I gave it an hour and then went back to the sanctuary of Azeroth.

Anyway, I wanted to find out how you guys choose which of the numerous MMOs to play. I got into WoW because all my friends and colleagues were playing it and a friend sent me the box as a birthday present. Even then it took a good month for me to get hooked. Now MMOs are a dime a dozen and it seems physically impossible to play all of them, how do you pick which ones to play and which to let pass by?

Tags: choice, choices, choose, eve-online, fantasy, mmo, mmorpg, mmos, sci-fi, second-life, the-daily-grind, worldofwarcraft, wow

Five big failings of the MMO genre (and a rebuttal to same)

by Michael Zenke Jan 28th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry

Tom Chick is a well known and (generally) respected games journalist probably best known for his contentious reviews and championing of the New Games Journalism movement. He also isn't a big fan of the MMO genre. At least he isn't today, in a writeup on his Sci-Fi Channel co-branded site Fidget. The article is entitled Five Reasons MMOs Are Broken, and follows up that contentious beginning with a breakdown of the MMO genre. His primary issues seem to revolve around the established contrivances of the genre itself, such as the concept of aggro or respawning enemies. He's also very frustrated by the innumerable barriers put up between players, the levels/classes/dungeons/servers/gear restrictions that stop us from playing with our friends.

As blogger Scott Jennings points out, more than the genre he's specifically breaking down World of Warcraft. He's effectively using WoW as a synonym for MMO, and as a result Jennings (and us) can point out that some of his failings have already been addressed. Read into Scott's dissection of Chick's writing for more analysis and insight on this issue and the supposed failings of the genre. Then, let us know what you think below. Is the MMO genre really that flawed ... or is it just the standard Diku-style successor that's old hat?

Tags: game-design, genre, mmo-industry, mmos, scott-jennings, tom-chick

BioWare CEO is confident in the state of PC gaming

by Seraphina Brennan Jan 20th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, News items

BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka is standing behind PC games, directly opposing all of the naysayers that shout the doom of PC gaming from on high.

A recent article over at Computer And Video Games.com pointed to Muzyka's confident stance as well as his expression of changing the definition of PC gaming, such as counting in the large growth of MMOs, flash games, and other casual experiences that any PC user can easily access.

"MMOs are one way that's occurring... And there are more people playing flash-based games and casual games, even core games that are played in a casual way, so maybe [they have] a more core experience and you only play them for short bursts or for half an hour or something," Muzyka was quoted as saying.

One only needs to look at the success of games such as World of Warcraft or any other MMO, as well as the very healthy Steam distribution service to note that PC gaming is far from dead.

Tags: bioware, casual-games, ceo, computer-and-video-games, flash-games, mmos, pc-games, pc-gaming, ray-muzyka, steam

A big list of MMOs to watch in 2009

by Michael Zenke Jan 8th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Aion, Darkfall, Huxley, Jumpgate Evolution, MMO industry, New titles, Stargate Worlds, The Agency, Chronicles of Spellborn, Free Realms, Champions Online, LEGO Universe, FusionFall, DC Universe Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Over at The Vault, they've put up an exhaustive list of all the MMO titles you should have your eye on throughout the new year. While they sort of term it as thought it's a big list of games coming out this year, we think they know it's unlikely all of those games are going to be released in the next twelve months. With that in mind, if you aren't sure what games you should have on your radar (and you haven't clicked our handy "upcoming MMOs" widget above), this massive list will bring you up to date.

Here at Massively, of course, we've been doing our own level best to keep you updated on a lot of these titles, be they AAA superhero games like Champions Online or DC Universe Online. We've talked fervently about Star Wars: The Old Republic, and given you the skinny on under-the-radar titles like Aion, FreeRealms, and Jumpgate Evolution. We've even walked away from our precious fantasy to talk about games like APB or The Agency. The Vault's list is a great one to run down - check it out to see what game you should be obsessing over today!

Tags: aion, big-list, champions, darkfall, dcuo, freerealms, fusionfall, huxley, jumpgate-evolution, mmos, new-titles, stargate-worlds, the-agency, upcoming-games

The Daily Grind: Are sci-fi MMOs cursed?

by Seraphina Brennan Jan 2nd 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind

Or are they just waiting for a savior, a la World of Warcraft? Yesterday we covered a recent interview done by Ten Ton Hammer with representatives of Trion World Group, the developers behind the upcoming SCI-FI channel MMORPG, that covered the viability of science fiction MMOs. While they are quite for the idea and are enthusiastic about a science fiction genre MMO, we here at Massively wanted to solicit your opinion. What's up with science fiction?

The new year will be bringing us titles like Star Trek Online, Jumpgate Evolution, Stargate Worlds, and Star Wars: The Old Republic -- a veritable stream of life flowing into the genre that's being dominated by EVE Online. Are you looking forward to them? Will you quickly wrap your hands around them and boldly go where no man has gone before? Or will you hold on to the games you already have and sneer like Gollum? Give us the word readers, speak your mind in our galactic council comments.

Tags: bioware, ccp, ccp-games, cryptic, cryptic-studios, eve-online, jumpgate-evolution, mmorpg, mmos, sci-fi, sci-fi-wow, science-fiction, sgw, star-trek-online, star-wars-the-old-republic, stargate-worlds, sto, swtor, ten-ton-hammer, the-daily-grind, trion, trion-world-network

What the Nintendo DSi, PSP 3000, and iPhone mean for MMOs

by Michael Zenke Oct 2nd 2008 at 7:45AM

Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, Consoles

Last night, on the other side of the world, Nintendo announced its intention to step up the battle between Sony and Apple for the soul of the handheld gamer. We talk semi-regularly on Massively about the hardcore console battle, with games like Age of Conan and Champions Online heading for the 360 and SOE's stable of new titles (DCUO, The Agency, Free Realms) heading for the PlayStation 3. The handheld battle hardly ever gets discussed here on the site, though, and that's a shame. The modern ubiquity of handheld gaming is really the future of 'console' gaming, and with all three handheld platforms featuring built-in internet connectivity the age of "MMOs on the go" is inevitable.

Join us as we walk through each of the three handheld platforms, discussing what their potential is for playing MMOs and what we currently know about MMO plans for the platform. Even though they're pretty quiet, there are more than you think. Who knows, perhaps the WoW nation of today will be tapping out messages to each other on their DS handhelds five years from now?

Get prepped on Mobile MMOs >>

Gallery: What the Handheld War means for MMOs

The 'mini' Massively Multiplayer Online Game

Tags: apple-iphone, console-gaming, ds, dsi, featured, iphone, joystiqfeatures, mmos, mobile, mobile-gaming, nintendo-ds, nintendo-dsi, psp, psp-3000

Why user-generated content matters in MMOs

by Michael Zenke Jun 21st 2008 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Academic, Virtual worlds

The Social Gaming Summit, held in San Francisco last Friday, has been explored here on the site by our own Akela Talamasca. Today the Worlds in Motion blog has a great writeup of a panel on user-generated content, with an emphasis on how that concept applies to online gaming. Industry luminaries including Three Rings' Daniel James touched base with attendees on what makes user content so compelling, why users create, and what game makers can do to incorporate player creations.

Most interesting was their observation that virtual spaces were more important than virtual worlds per se. Jeremy Monroe, Director of Business Development for the makers of Habbo Hotel, offered this: "You have to make sure that you're bringing content that is suitable to all players in the world. So when we bring a piece of content that skews to one demographic we have to make sure that we bring more content that skews to the other demographics. Some games try to create different servers, such as a PvP vs. PvP situation. You have to give everybody equal opportunity and an equal number of tools to express themselves."

Tags: daniel-james, mmos, social-gaming, social-gaming-summit, user-created-content, virtual-spaces, virtual-worlds

The Daily Grind: Keep fishing or cut bait?

by Brenda Holloway May 9th 2008 at 8:00AM

Filed under: New titles, Opinion, The Daily Grind

A new MMO comes out. You've read the reviews, Watched the promo videos. Changed your desktop to show the buxom model on their cover art. Subscribed to the newsletter. Read all the developer interviews. Attended the chats! Participated in the lively banter between the lead designer and the people of a well known community forum! You've made your own guild before you even got to play the game! You pre-ordered the special collector's edition, and the game's theme music is on continual repeat on your iPod!

The fateful day comes, you install the game and ... well, it's a decent enough game, but it just isn't what you expected. You play it for a few days, and then start wishing you hadn't given away all your gold and sharded your epics in your old game. And maybe you suddenly regret telling the raid leader just exactly, precisely what you thought of him. So do you stick with the new game? Or return to the old? How long do you give a new game to grab you before you erase it from your hard drive, put the disks on the shelf, and call it a decent effort but just not the game you wanted to play? Just the free month? Until you reach the max level? Or just fifteen minutes perhaps?

Tags: beta, buyers-remorse, featured, free-month, free-trial, mmos, new-games, new-shiny, shark, tdg, the-daily-grind