Massively^™

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and in Runes of Magic (AKA Radiant Arcana), Runewaker Entertainment has taken all they loved about Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, combined that with elements from EverQuest, EverQuest II and Final Fantasy XI Online to make a free-to-play MMORPG combining all the elements of both Western and Eastern games. It's like a highly-concentrated booster shot of high fantasy goodness -- and it's free!

Runes of Magic will include a dual class system, where you will choose a primary and a secondary class, armor dying, player housing, crafting, an auction house, unique mounts, a fully customizable user interface and either click-to-move or WASD controls.

The starter zone of Taborea has a deep and rich lore, a colony struggling to stave off the darkness, with your help. You'll need a PDF reader to read that, but we have some of the highlights in our gallery. Can a free-to-play homage to some of the Western world's greatest MMOs succeed on in North America? Distributor Frogster is looking for a US publisher to take that chance.

The game play video from the Chinese open beta (you can find that after the break) shows clearly the developers at Runewaker loved World of Warcraft perhaps more than is really healthy. Still, a free-to-play WoW clone may be exactly what players want, and Runes of Magic may just be different enough to make it interesting.

About two weeks ago we asked you to pass on some questions we could give to the EverQuest 2 team. Our own team of bloggers and columnists pitched in a few questions as well, and we brought the best of those to the attention of EQ2's Senior Producer Bruce Ferguson. He answered several of our questions in-depth, though some of his answers may not be exactly what you were hoping to hear.

Read on below the cut to see your questions answered! Mr. Ferguson chats about the purpose of the Living Legacy program, future plans for developing PvP in the game, and even tackles that burning question about solo vs. group play. Also, about the possibility of flying mounts in Norrath ...

As part of the Living Legacy promotion that is taking place in EverQuest II right now, SOE has announced a brand new campaign that is kicking off today. Called "Fight with Legends", this initiative is aimed at bringing even more people to EQII by getting players to recruit their friends, and rewarding them for it.

For each account invitee that converts to a paying subscriber within 30 days of their trial conclusion, the inviting player will receive 1 month of EQII game time (added to the end of their current subscription). The number of friends you can do this with is limited to 20, which would mean a whopping 20 months of free game time; but even 1 month is a pretty nice bonus, so if you've got some bored friends, perhaps it's time to introduce them to Norrath.

EverQuest and EverQuest II are getting the lion's share of the attention in SOE's Living Legacy promotion. But they are reserving something special for their massively collectible card game, Legends of Norrath. Win the Living Legacy Photo Contest, and not only will you get your picture painted, in character by artist Kieran Yanner for use on a Legends of Norrath card, but you'll be flown to the SOE Fan Faire this August. If you're an EverQuest player, your image will be made into a statue and placed into the guild halls of every guild in Norrath. If you are an EverQuest II player, your card will be made into a painting that can be hung in a place of honor in your apartment. All you need to do is to send them a picture that shows your passion for EverQuest. Find the complete rules on the Legends of Norrath web site. And good luck!

The EverQuest franchise is approaching its 10th anniversary, and to help mark the occasion, a special collector's book is going to be produced. However, it's still up in the air as to who will create the original artwork for the book, and SOE is hoping the fans will make this call for them. It's unlikely that this blogger will be winning any votes with submissions like what you see here, but thankfully, it's already been narrowed down to two talented individuals: Donato Giancola and Boris Vallejo.

Visit each of their sites to get a feel for their style, and then hop along to the EQ forums to cast your vote. At the time of writing, it's a fairly close race. Which of the two do you think should be called upon to help with the collector's book?

You know how epic you are. You know that you're the best dragon-slayer there is, you've saved the most maidens, and have shiny gear that blinds mere mortals as you ride past. It's time to show the world what a hero you are -- and get rewarded for it. As part of EverQuest II's Living Legacy promotion, SOE is running a contest called "Become a Legend", asking entrants to snap a shot of their characters in their best digs, in an interesting location, and include a short history of their character's legendary adventures.

The winning entries will be treated to a digital copy of the next EQII expansion, and Living Legacy merchandise. As well as this, the winning pictures will be displayed at the Station website, and probably at the EQII sites. As always, there are some terms and conditions for this competition. You must be 18 years or older and live in the U.S. to take part -- visit the EQ2Players website to get the full contest details, including picture sizes and word limits.

Vivox has recently been picked up by SOE for use in EverQuest II, and in an interview with Ten Ton Hammer, one of the company's founders Monty Sharma discussed other deals that they have made and where we can expect to see their technology popping up next. Some of their bigger partners include Wizards of the Coast and NCsoft, and Sony will be using them for more of their games soon.

The interview also covers the technology itself, and how features like voice-masking may evolve over the years. The possibility of customizing the voice "fonts" comes up, something that we think would be a double-edged sword -- there would be room for people to really get into character with their avatars, or, everyone could just run around talking like Tay Zonday from Chocolate Rain. Sharma encourages gamers to check out Vivox's official website to learn more about their progress in taking over the MMO world.

Gnobrin has dropped into the official EverQuest 2 forums to announce a unique event this weekend. Players just returned for the Living Legacy event, or lone wolves looking to come in from the cold, will be happy to hear there's a guild recruitment fair set for June 28th and June 29th. Where you are going to be headed for the fair depends on what kind of server you're on, because of the dangers of open-world PvP. Folks on the hardcore servers will have to brave city lag, with goodies heading to the Claymore monument and evil-folk aiming for Execution Square in West Freeport. On PvE servers, you'll have an easier time. The Claymore in Antonica is the site of the fair for goodly players, while Evil players will want to head to the Crossroads in the Commonlands.

If you're looking for a guild right now, why not check out their guide to the guild search functionality? Gnobby also offers up a few previews for EQuinox #2, the official EQ magazine. This next issue is going to have a bunch of guild-related information; if you're interested there is a pdf preview available online. He also links to a massive image of the 'Guild Bill of Rights' from the magaizine. It's funny and smarmy; just like a gnome.

As we noted just a few days ago, Vivox integration will be coming to EverQuest 2 in the upcoming Game Update 47. Greg Spence, a designer on the EQ2 team, states on his personal blog that voice chat is already rolling out to the test servers. They don't expect GU 47 to hit the live side for almost a month, but they want to make sure this particular patch is tested as heavily as possible.

Greg goes into some interesting commentary about what people are experiencing as they use voice in EverQuest 2. For example, SOE's engineers assumed people would know that the 'push button to talk' feature was remappable. Instead, users would continue to click with their mouse - a problem a simple tooltip hopefully fixes. The designer concludes with a Q&A between himself and a fictitious player, attempting to clarify any questions you might have about the patch. It's well worth looking into.

One of the most depressing situations in any MMO is coming to terms with the fact that you feel isolated and alone, even in the midst of your massively multiplayer world. According to Eric Heimburg of Elder Game, this phenomena happens not because of any specific reason like a bad patch or lack of new instanced content, but because a server population has dipped below the critical mass it takes to keep a game functioning as intended, and players start fleeing in droves. Everquest II, he suggests, is in need of some server mergers if they hope to keep their population numbers above that important number.

One wonders what is supposed to be done with a game like Tabula Rasa when servers drift into dangerously low territory. With only four servers to its name, it might actually be more harmful to the size of the player base to simply concede that a merger is necessary. Players have never been terribly resistant to bad news, at least if forums are any indication, so might a server merger act as another negative point in a cascading failure? At what point do you leave an MMO?

Sony Online Entertainment reportedly bought a "three-page advertising spread" for EverQuest in this month's issue of PC Gamer magazine. The massive ad promotes the Living Legacy campaign -- an initiative that allows former EQ and EverQuest II subscribers to play for free until the end of July.

In two interviews, reps from SOE told us that the Living Legacy initiative is intended to show lapsed and potential EQ and EQ2 players that both games have evolved over the years, and that they deserve a fresh look. A print ad is a bold statement, although new marketing pushes for old games are not unprecedented. Near Death Studios bought ad space for Meridian 59 on the Vault Network when the game relaunched in 2001 after a two year absence. Electronic Arts plastered the web with Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn ads in the wake its 3D graphics engine upgrade.

But will it work? Should more old MMOs do it? Are advertizing blitzes and a couple of free months of play what MMOs of yore need, or does this industry move too fast for that to be sufficient? Commence pondering.

You don't have to be crazy to read EverQuest II's Game Update 46's patch notes, but it helps. It also helps if you're Ten Ton Hammer's Coyote and RadarX, but I guess that's redundant? Read on for tales of brave shadow knights and their pink pool noodles, armor that loves you so much it hurts, and surprise colonoscopies via your faithful rhino mount.

[Ten Ton Hammer]

EverQuest II developer Noel Walling (also known as "Ilucide") has given some of his time to let the fans find out more about him. His move into the gaming industry was born from a near-obsession with the original EverQuest, something that a number of readers may be able to relate to. After being a GM with EQ for a while, he moved to work on EQII before its launch, and has remained there since.

Ilucide seems to have a hand in everything when it comes to EQII, performing many different roles some days, but enjoys designing group instances the most. He has a level 74 character in the game, and perhaps the reason he's not 80 is due to the amount of other games he is playing on and off: a lengthy list -- and a great list, at that -- ranging from other MMOs to console games. Have a read of the rest of the interview to learn about Walling's interest outside of games, including the ever-important question: "Regular or Decaf?".

Were you a EverQuest or EverQuest II player who has returned because of this summer's Living Legacy promotion? You're not alone. From all we've heard, and all we've seen in game, people are coming back in droves. If you've come back, how are you liking it? The EverQuest II forums are full of stories of people who returned (and lots who are offering help as well). Having looked around EverQuest again, are you planning on staying for awhile?

SOE is getting sneaky. Along with their recent EverQuest II game update 46, SOE added (without telling anyone) red shinies to the game. In EQ2, you might see little harvest-able white sparks here and there while you are walking around. These shinies can be collected and turned in to collectors for experience and items. The Echoes of Faydwer expansion introduced "blue" shinies, that can only be seen when wearing special goggles that are themselves the reward from a collection quest. And now, GU46 brings us "red" shinies.

Red shinies may only be seen by level 80+ crafters that have obtained and are wearing the crafting epic, the Earring of the Solstice. Stargrace of MMO Quests has an excellent article showing off some of the many house items you can get from red shiny collections. So head down to the Barren Sky, Loping Plains, Steamfont or the Fans of NASCAR (er, Fens of Nathsar) and get digging!