Massively^™

Ignorance is bliss.
-- Thomas Grey

Knowing is half the battle.
-- G.I. Joe

It goes by many names -- Rumor. Speculation. Innuendo. Suggestion. Suble hints. Vague allusions. Nudge nudge, wink wink. Slips of the keyboard. Loose lips sinking ships. Detective work. Snooping. Unearthing forbidden knowledge. Call it what you will, by whatever method you choose, but it's become an increasingly inescapable fact of life regarding the games we play, especially those in the shared iterations of persistent worlds.

We're referring, of course, to knowing about content before it's on our hot little hard drives.

[Note: Many of the links that follow do, in fact, go to information about pending updates and patches. If you're averse to reading this sort of information, please skip over link text that contains an asterisk. (*)]

The Lineage II team is hard at work on the next expansion, the first of three dealing with the dark land to the west of Aden, Gracia. This dire land, infected by the evil summoned forth to balance the calling of the Kamael by the goddess Eva, is wild, wide, and scarcely ever explored. Now, Gracia's evil is creeping beyond its shores, and the fate of the entire world is at stake.

In advance of the formal announcement of the expansion in August, NCsoft has let slip some of the lore behind Gracia, Part 1. You can read the entire thing, right here, after the break -- and check out the screen shots as well.

As we reported last April, popular teen hang-out site Gaia Online is making the leap from virtual world to full-blown MMO, further blurring the lines between the two genres. It will still have movies, malls and minigames ... just with a few more monsters. Gaia Online was a separated series of rooms, but now its filling in the lands between those rooms with impromptu games around fountains and battles with psychotic garden gnomes.

VentureBeat talks with CEO Craig Sherman and senior producer Dabid Georgeson about the new MMO world and the challenges of turning a fabulously successful social space with millions of users, into a succesful MMO. Is the world ready for another Runescape? Look for Gaia Online -- the MMO -- when it launches this summer to find out.

Snafzg over at the GREENskin blog followed up on Tobold's recent interview with Blizzard's J. Allen Brack. Blizzard has previously clarified their method of creating expansions for World of Warcraft, but his reiteration of the production process has prompted some thoughtful responses. Snaf notes that, as Mark Jacobs and the folks at EA Mythic have made a few of their thoughts on expansions for Warhammer Online clear, some useful comparisons can be made.

His most interesting point, this blogger feels, is analysis of the strength of the two IPs.He characterizes the Warcraft IP as weaker than Warhammer, due to the relative brevity of its content. We've got several ideas about what future Warhammer expansions might include, but (as Snaf notes) Blizzard "currently has no idea of what will be in the expansion after WotLK". Couldn't that possibly be a strength? Northrend was a given, an almost inevitability in Warcraft's future, but now the company has a thousand different plot threads to explore and no "required" content to cover.

Interesting to think about, either way.

EVE Online's latest expansion, Empyrean Age, went live yesterday, and with it came a new movie, which we've seen bits and pieces of in the teaser trailers we've been watching for the past several weeks. Enjoy!

The world's most popular stick-figure meat-trading MMO, Kingdom of Loathing, takes a bold step into history with the release of its new hardcore raid expansion, Hobopolis. Where before, your interactions with other people were limited to trading barbed quips in perfectly formed haiku, or robbing their camps when you felt pretty sure the owners might be away, now you can gather to explore the subterranean metropolis of Hobopolis, the City of Hobos.

Seal Clubbers, Disco Bandits, Accordion Thieves and all the other peoples of KoL are now able to come together to take on challenges that are too much for any one Pastamancer to meet. Such are the dangers when clan leaders decide unwisely to build basements in their clan hall, and then wonder what lies behind that door ... that smelly door.

Kingdom of Loathing is a free-to-play, browser-based MMO that doesn't require Flash or special clients or anything, really, but a sense of humor, a taste for puns, and a desire for some surprisingly deep gameplay.

EVE Online developer CCP Molock writes in his dev blog that CCP Games has big plans for PvE content in the game, especially for mission-runners. Eight devs are currently working full-time on mission and deadspace creation. In addition, there are a number of freelancers working on new mission text. The freelance opportunities were announced in EVE's EON magazine, so it seems they found the people they needed -- particularly in light of just how much PvE content is on the way.

Molock describes the process of getting everything in order for The Empyrean Age and Factional Warfare as 'dizzying', particularly in light of the 160 new Factional Warfare missions that were part of the expansion's launch. Molock states that more content is to come in subsequent Empyrean Age releases, and explains what we can expect from EVE's PvE experience in the future.

We have tackled the subject of mudflation tangentially a few times of late. It seems to have suddenly become the economic buzzword of MMOs. We have all experienced it. We have come to expect, if not accept, it as part of the games we love to play. And though Wikipedia, in its infinite wisdom, has dubbed it an in-game only phenomenon, I posit a different approach to looking at this occurrence.

Mudflation is an immediate devaluation of previously owned items due to the gain or release of newly available items. This is not unlike technological advance in that the release of the latest new toy makes all others somewhat obsolete. The differences here are the perceived need for the item, the amount of devaluation, and the time frame in which this occurs.

CCP Games announced a new series of factional warfare playtests for EVE Online's imminent Empyrean Age expansion, and are seeking help from all available pilots in New Eden. EVE dev CCP Tanis stated that the first release candidate for the Empyrean Age is being put on the Singularity test server, and that CCP is now focusing its attention on the gameplay mechanics of the long-anticipated factional warfare system.

The playtest will focus on the offense and defense of capture points and the conquering of solar systems. Players will be divided into either Caldari or Gallente factions; each faction will have an offensive and defensive team. The ultimate goal is to capture as many systems as possible while preventing the opposing faction from gaining any territorial control. CCP developers and ISD will be on hand to answer questions and guide players.

When: June 4 to 6 (Wed., Thurs., Fri.) from 11:00 to 14:00 EVE time (GMT).
Where: Singularity test server
Why: "We really cannot stress how important your feedback is to us."
Another Why: Each day the players on the winning side will be given a stock of officer modules !! ... *dramatic pause*... on the test server only. (Sorry.) Also the player who submits the best bug report will be given maxed out skills on the test server.
How: Join the in-game channel "Faction Testing" for instructions.

CCP Tanis also reminds players that the latest Singularity test server patch is required to participate in the playtest. The patch should ONLY be applied to a second copy of the EVE client, and NOT the main client used for everyday play on the Tranquility server. That is, unless you'd prefer to call the test server "home" from now on. Further details can be found in the official announcement; EVE Online account login is required to access this information.

With the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming Mines of Moria and the recent announcement that Rise of Kunark is the #1 highest selling EverQuest II expansion as yet, we've been thinking about expansions. Some people insist that all expansions are is catering to the endgame raiders, in creating more levels to run through before serving up new raid instances. Other expansions do bring in things for lower-end players, like Burning Crusade and Rise of Kunark introduced new races to play, and new areas for them to play in. Today we'd like to ask you what your favorite MMOG expansion has been to date and why? Which games desperately need an expansion to bring something new to the game?

Codemasters Online, publishers of popular free-to-play MMORPG, Archlord, announced that it has signed over half a million players. The rising popularity of the game has seen the addition of a new server to handle the expected load as they ramp up to the next free content update, Episode 3. In Archlord, you fight not only monsters, but other players, to become the Archlord -- the supreme power in the land. "Raise an army, rule the world" is their motto. Though with so many players, what would happen if they all got together and voted in a benevolent, peaceful democracy?

It must seem a little like deja vu to the Blizzard bigwigs back in Irvine. A fantasy-based MMORPG with some good buzz in beta, a smooth launch, and a sudden rush of players several times more than were expected, requiring dozens of new servers? Wasn't that us, four years ago? But four years is forever in Internet time, and in that time, Blizzard has enjoyed popularity entirely unseen in the MMO genre, anywhere in the world. Now, though, a young upstart is looking a lot like the fresh-faced game that swept us all away all those years ago. What's Blizzard going to do to reassure its stockholders that it still has an iron grip on its 10.7 million players? How will they keep the kids on the farm when they've seen the big city?

Kanthalos at MMOre Insight wonders if Age of Conan could ever have gotten enough breathing room to launch so well if Blizzard had just released more expansions, faster. Would so many people have flocked to AoC's world of Hyboria if they'd been busily carving up Northrend? Would they be rolling up Dark Templars if Blizzard had given them Death Knights by now? Tobold agrees, and wonders how many people AoC will retain once Warhammer Online and Wrath of the Lich King are released. Has World of Warcraft's slow release cycle had you looking for new games to try? Are you still excited about WotLK? If you did start playing another MMO, what would Blizzard have to do to win you back? Start talking about WoW 2? World of Diablo? A complete revamp of the low level game? Or should Blizzard just sit back and let things play out, confident that when the dust settles, they'll still be #1 and as strong as ever?

Keen-eyed SOE watcher Kendricke of Clockwork Gamer has been scouring the 'Net for hints of the nature of EverQuest 2's next expansion. And he may have found a clue on the French version of SOE's EQ2Players web site. The announcement reads, in part (translated from the French): "The Rodcet Nife event will go live with Update 45. Optional quests associated with this event will grow in intensity leading to large-scale invasions of Void creatures around the world for all levels."

We've written previously that the next EQ2 expansion, The Shadow of Odyssey, might have something to do with The Void. The Void is a realm of which we know little, aside from being the extra-planar home of the Shadowmen from which they are launching their secret invasion of Norrath. This latest news has us more and more convinced that come November, we may find ourselves exploring the eldritch towers and dead moonscapes of this shadowed realm.

What has the god of healing, Rodcet Nife (a flawed anagram of Fine Doctor), to do with the Void? We don't know yet, but somehow his return is mixed up with the Shadowman invasion in some way. We'll know in a couple of weeks when GU45 hits the live servers.

[Via Clockwork Gamer]

Should MMOs give us a more 'epic' feel to our experiences? In the past, when I've explained the time I spend in-game to friends and relatives, one of the common complaints or opinions that I hear a lot is that it never sounds very exciting.

While I know that I've been saving a future Warchief from slavery, or putting to rest the spirit of a lost fiancée, some people are always going to see it as me just killing some more anonymous monsters that will be back in five minutes' time.

"This is boring!" they cry, "How long does it take you to kill a boar!?" I have to explain to them, again and again, the genre staples – incremental gear upgrades, starting from pathetic, finally getting up to ridiculous pieces of gear that make other players weep with envy. When they turn round and say, "Okay, show me the cool gear then, go buy some and use it instead." I have to explain, once more, that that kind of gear is only rewarded after you've spent weeks, months even, in the game, working your way up to them. It's about this time that disgust and terminal boredom sets in, and they drift away to their own pursuits, convinced that I'm slightly mad.

In case you missed it already, we've already gone through Round One of our choices for possible Warhammer Online expansion races. In our ideal fantasy land (where, incidentally, the game was already so polished it didn't need to be delayed until Fall), the first races to hit the ground would be the plague-ridden Skaven and the noble and enigmatic Lizardmen. There are several reasons why we chose the races we did, not the least of which are their transplantability from the tabletop to an MMO as well as that always omnipresent "cool" factor.

But while Skaven and Lizardmen are kings in our mind's eye, that doesn't mean they're the only race that makes sense for an expansion. No, this time around we'll make the case that the secretive Wood Elves deserve their rightful place at the front of the expansion queue. They've got a bevy of distinct classes that really set themselves apart from the pack.

Click on the gallery link below to take a trip to the twisted world of Athel Loren.