gdc-2010 posts

Battlestar Galactica Online E3 trailer divides players... literally

by Justin Olivetti Jun 12th 2010 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Trailers, Video, Previews, Browser, Battlestar Galactica Online

"Human or Cylon... Man or Machine... who will you choose?" asks the maddeningly vague Battlestar Galactica Online trailer. More of a teaser than anything, this trailer will make the rounds at this month's E3, trying to tempt MMO gamers and Battlestar Galactica fans alike with intergalactic conflict.

Based on the hit SyFy series, Battlestar Galactica Online pits the remnants of humanity against their created "children" -- robot and cyborg Cylons. The browser based game is set during the second season of the show and should be coming out early this fall on SyFy Games' portal. We took a look at this title back at GDC10, and hopefully we'll learn more about the details of BGO from Bigpoint developers at E3. In the meanwhile, hit the jump, check out the trailer and see if it doesn't get your blood pumping for outer space fighter combat!

Tags: battlestar-edward-pwns-twilight-edward, battlestar-galactica, battlestar-galactica-online, bso, cylon, e3, e3-2010, gdc-2010, syfy, syfy-games

TERA class trailer available on YouTube

by Jef Reahard May 25th 2010 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, New titles, News items, TERA

We here at Massively are unabashedly looking forward to TERA, the forthcoming fantasy action MMORPG from Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment. For those of you who were unable to attend this year's GDC10, En Masse has helpfully released the teaser trailer (that originally debuted at the conference way back in March) on YouTube.

The two-minute video focuses on the game's eight classes, and was created using in-game footage. Taking center stage are the Slayer, the Archer, the Lancer, the Warrior, the Sorcerer, the Berserker, the Priest and the Mystic, each featuring a few moments of gameplay footage interspersed with some brief concept art shots. Check out the trailer embedded after the cut or over on YouTube.

Tags: BlueHole, bluehole-studio, class-trailer, classes, en-masse, en-masse-entertainment, gdc-2010, tera, tera-online, trailer, video, youtube

Austin's GDC opens 2010 registration under new name

by Rubi Bayer May 25th 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry

Registration has begun for Austin's Game Developers Conference 2010, but you won't find it under the "GDC Austin" banner this year. The conference is now known as GDC Online to reflect the focus on online gaming. GDC "has always chiefly been themed around online games, reflecting the local importance of MMOs and online games, thanks to pioneering Austin-based developers like Origin (Ultima Online), and current studios like BioWare Austin (Star Wars: The Old Republic) and Sony Online Entertainment (DC Universe Online)," and the new name is more accurate in light of that.

Ticket prices are at a 40% early registration discount until September 1st, with a 55% alumni discount for those who attended last year. Five different pass options and prices are available on the GDC site.

Tags: GDC, gdc-2010, gdc-austin, gdc-online-2010, gdc-registration

"Icelandic Model" is ideal for small MMO start-ups, says Alexander Gianturco

by Justin Olivetti May 20th 2010 at 9:00AM

When Iceland isn't belching volcanic ash that brings sky travel to its knees, it's kicking butt in the MMO world. EVE Online is widely seen as one of the greatest MMO success stories -- a small yet incredibly complex title from a small-fry studio (CCP) that's seen steady growth over the years instead of the typical rise, crest and fall of most other titles.

In a recent chat with Gamasutra, Alexander "The Mittani" Gianturco followed up his talk at GDC 2010 by outlining just why CCP's business model may be the Rosetta Stone for future games to follow. According to Gianturco, the crash-and-burn of many MMOs is due to the insistence that their games stick to the "Big Content" model (à la World of Warcraft), which requires a huge amount of resources and time before launch. He says that this is "near suicidal" for most studios to pursue.

Tags: a-tale-in-the-desert, alexander-gianturco, big-content, ccp, ccp-find-out-what-you-mean-to-me, eve, eve-online, gamasutra, gdc-2010, iceland, icelandic-model, reinvest-profits, the-mittani, volcano, world-of-warcraft

GDC10: En Masse's Patrick Wyatt talks MMO security

by Rubi Bayer Mar 31st 2010 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Culture, News items

Security concerns in MMOs are nothing new. We all know the drill -- Don't share your account, avoid suspicious emails and sites, change your password regularly and so on. We go through all of that to keep our personal accounts safe, but what about the bigger picture?

Patrick Wyatt from En Masse looked over this very thing at GDC this year, explaining how issues like gold farming, account theft and even plain old griefing affects the MMO community at large. He began looking at the other side of the equation: the people causing these problems in the first place and what motivates them. Money is the main motivator, of course, but there is no shortage of attackers who are just doing it for kicks.

So as long as you protect your own account, it doesn't affect you, right? Wyatt addressed that false assumption as well, outlining the affect of each type of attack on the general gaming community and the game in question itself. Any event that affects the game and the community at large will of course affect every member of the community. So what's to be done? Game developers never stop working to stay ahead of "the enemy", and Wyatt illustrates quite a few possible solutions.

This slideshow certainly isn't only for those in the industry. It's very informative for any MMO player, so head over to playnoevil.com and take a look at the slideshow for yourself!

Tags: account-security, en-masse-entertainment, gdc-2010, gdc2010, patrick-wyatt, playnoevil

Guild Wars wants to know: will you obey or dismantle?

by Rubi Bayer Mar 23rd 2010 at 1:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, News items, Guild Wars 2

Daniel Dociu's panel and interview weren't the only things keeping Guild Wars fans interested at GDC recently. A few days ago, fans began posting here and there that they'd received some intriguing flyers at both GDC and Emerald City ComicCon. The flyers read "OBEY" (in support of the White Mantle) or "DISMANTLE" (backing the Shining Blade), depending on which you received. Each carried an image indicating support of the White Mantle or the Shining Blade and a QR code, which at the moment leads only to an image of the flyers on the official Guild Wars site.

Given that the Guild Wars 2 site began with a simple image, it's probably a very good idea to keep a close eye on these two pages. Guild Wars will celebrate its fifth birthday in just over a month and this may well be our first hint at new content. In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt to start choosing a side. Just don't forget: the Shining Blade has Livia. The White Mantle has this.

[Via Kill Ten Rats]

Tags: arenanet, dismantle, gdc-2010, guild-wars, guild-wars-2, ncsoft, obey, shining-blade, white-mantle

GDC10: A first glimpse at The Secret World

by Shawn Schuster Mar 23rd 2010 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Puzzle, Galleries, Screenshots, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, Interviews, New titles, Opinion, The Secret World, Crime, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

I bet you thought we were done with news from GDC 2010, right? Well, not exactly. The embargo on our demo of The Secret World lifts today and we're oh-so eager to tell you all about what we saw.

While Creative Director Ragnar Tørnquist's team at Funcom has been doing an excellent job of teasing us with just enough information to keep us excited (although they'll deny the websites are from them), there are still many aspects of the game we have yet to discover. This GDC demo doesn't even scratch the surface on what we can expect from the released game, but it gives us quite a bit more to chew on until that time comes.

Follow along after the jump for our impressions of what we saw in the game's combat, in-game cinematics, storyline and a brief Q&A with Ragnar himself. Plus, be sure to check out the screenshot and concept art galleries below for some gorgeous eye candy.

Gallery: The Secret World

Gallery: The Secret World Art

Tags: demo, event-coverage, funcom, GDC, gdc-2010, gdc10, opinion, Ragnar-Tornquist, the-secret-world, tsw

Flameseeker Chronicles: A look at the concept art of Guild Wars 2

by Rubi Bayer Mar 22nd 2010 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Video, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Flameseeker Chronicles

The Guild Wars community, as always, is anxious for any and all news of Guild Wars 2, and the information coming from ArenaNet is increasing on a regular basis. (Hopefully this means we won't have to resort to anything drastic to get news.) GDC was the most recent source of new information thanks to our chat with artist Daniel Dociu, and his panel discussion showed off enough concept art both old and new to keep the community buzzing for weeks. Even better -- or worse, depending on how impatient you are -- they're releasing it to the general public via Youtube in a four-part slideshow to make it last longer.

As we mentioned the other day, it's important to keep in mind that concept art is just that: concept art. It's an idea of how the artists see the world of Guild Wars 2, a way to get a feel for things rather than something concrete saying "you will definitely be able to get 'x' item in 'x' town, and here is exactly what it will look like." We can learn a lot from ideas and sketches though, so follow along after the jump for a closer look at some of the concept art.

Tags: daniel-dociu, daniel-dociu-gdc, featured, gdc-2010, guild-wars, Guild-Wars-2

BioWare talks Warhammer Online's forthcoming expansions

by Kyle Horner Mar 19th 2010 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Expansions, Warhammer Online, News items

In a recent GDC 2010 interview with UGO, BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka said of Warhammer Online, "Right now it's [a] really profitable business unit within my group." Muzyka went on to say they've actually seen more people come into the game since enacting the free-to-play model on the game's earlier levels, and that he personally felt they were working.

In fact, by the sounds of it, Warhammer Online is due for some interesting announcements in the future. Another of Muzyka's comments on the title was, "We have new content planned and all kinds of cool expansions for it." We don't know how much more clear cut a message can be than that. And hey, it's good news! We're looking forward to our playable Skaven and Lizardmen, Mythic and BioWare.

Tags: bioware, ea-games, ea-mythic, ea-warhammer, ea-warhammer-online, electronic-arts, gdc, gdc-2010, gdc10, greg-zeschuk, mythic, mythic-ea, mythic-entertainment, ray-muzyka, tracey-john, ugo, war, war-ea, warhammer, warhammer-ea, warhammer-online, warhammer-online-ea

GDC10: A look into Age of Conan's Rise of the Godslayer expansion

by Jef Reahard Mar 18th 2010 at 12:01AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Age of Conan, Events, real-world, Expansions, MMO industry, Previews, News items

We here at Massively are unabashed fans of Robert E. Howard's Conan mythos, so naturally we jumped at the chance to sit down and talk with Funcom's Craig Morrison at this year's Game Developer's Conference. Morrison, executive producer and game director for the Norwegian game maker's Age of Conan MMORPG, gave a presentation on the forthcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion and then took a few of our questions about the additions in store for the sword and sorcery title.

First things first: the eye-catching title refers to the expansion's place in Howard lore, and the game makes use of the events in The Tower of the Elephant, one of the most highly regarded Howard short stories. In a nutshell, twenty years prior to the setting of original game, a young thief named Conan managed to slay the god Yag-Kosha. Unaware of the god's role as a protector of the lands of Khitai, the barbarian unwittingly loosed a tide of dark forces on the eastern lands which have coalesced into a threat to the modern day Aquilonian kingdom, which of course is now ruled by King Conan.

Players will be swept up in the story of Khitai as they travel to the far east and attempt to deal with the dangers presented by the evil that has been corrupting the lands for the last two decades.

Follow along after the cut for our expansion impressions, highlights from our Q&A with Craig Morrison, and the teaser trailer. Finally, don't forget to check out the gallery below

Gallery: GDC10: Rise of the Godslayer

Page 2 of 3 >>

Tags: age-of-conan, events, expansion, fantasy, featured, funcom, gdc-2010, previews, pvp, rise-of-the-godslayer

GDC10: The expo in pictures

by Seraphina Brennan Mar 17th 2010 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Galleries, Events, real-world, Massively Event Coverage

We have a saying around the Massively offices -- "When we go to a show, our readers go to the show." We hope you guys have really enjoyed our crazy coverage of GDC10 as much as we enjoyed running around the show like crazy people grabbing all of that information.

But, while we were running around, we got some great photos from the show for you! Now you too can live the experience of running from booth to booth, passing legions upon legions of companies explaining their newest technologies and how they can improve your gaming experience.

So come along with us for a whirlwind trip through GDC! Trust us, it's exciting.

Gallery: GDC10: Pictures from the floor

Crafting from your iPhone: The Fallen Earth app

Tags: aion, ar-drone, career-pavillion, cryengine-3, crytek, expo, frogster, gamebreakr, gdc-2010, intel, moscone-center, moscone-center-photos, ncsoft, neurosky, nintendo, nvidia, photos, playstation-move, sony, tamat

GDC10: Massively's picks for the best of GDC

by Shawn Schuster Mar 17th 2010 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, Opinion, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, Massively Event Coverage

GDC 2010 has come and gone and as we recover from the insanity a bit, we thought it would be the perfect time to reflect on our favorites from last week. Although the Game Developer's Conference isn't usually made to be as flashy as E3 or PAX, it is mostly catered towards students looking to break into the industry, panels and summits interesting to only other developers and a few demos.

This in mind, we compiled a short list of what made the biggest impact on us, pertaining to MMOs. Although there were plenty of other exciting demos, booths and panels, we're keeping these awards strictly to MMO-related topics. Follow along after the jump for our complete list.

Tags: best-of, ddo, fernando-paiz, gdc, gdc-2010, gdc10, star-wars-the-old-republic, tera, the-secret-world, vindictus, vivox

GDC10: ArenaNet's Daniel Dociu discusses the art of Guild Wars 2

by Rubi Bayer Mar 16th 2010 at 11:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, News items, Guild Wars 2

Daniel Dociu, Senior Art Director for Guild Wars 2, was one of the panelists at last week's GDC, and Massively was fortunate enough to sit down and chat with him about the art coming up in Guild Wars 2. The information on this highly-anticipated game is starting to increase bit by bit, and Daniel had some interesting things to say about designing art for Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. As a bonus feature, we've got a video slideshow of some of the gorgeous concept art featured at his panel at GDC. Keep your eyes peeled -- you might just see something you've not seen before. (Check Youtube for the HD version as well.) Follow along after the jump, and enjoy!

Tags: arenanet, concept-art, daniel-dociu, daniel-dociu-gdc, gdc-2010, guild-wars, Guild-Wars-2, guild-wars-2-art

GDC10: Erebus hands-on impressions

by Jef Reahard Mar 16th 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, Hands-on

This year's Game Developer's Conference featured a ton of free-to-play titles, and one of the most intriguing was Erebus: Travia Reborn, a classically inspired dungeon crawler with retro graphics and a distinctive Diablo-esque feel. We sat down for a hands-on demo with the developers from Outspark and came away enthused about trying the full version of the game when it releases later this year.

This free-to-play MMORPG, as its subtitle suggests, is inspired by the Korean game known as Travia, but has been heavily modified for western audiences. "We've updated the graphics, changed game play, added in faction warfare, new classes and skills, and rebalanced the game, making a ton of changes. Erebus is a really unique dungeon crawler for North American and European audiences," said the Outspark team.

Hit the jump for our impressions as well as the teaser trailer.

Tags: dungeon-crawler, erebus, f2p, free-to-play, gdc-2010, impressions, outspark, pvp

The Digital Continuum: Catching that All Points Bulletin fever

by Kyle Horner Mar 16th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Opinion, The Digital Continuum, All Points Bulletin, Crime

I knew it would happen. GDC 2010 came and went, leaving behind a brand new trial of All Points Bulletin information that's making me want to play it more than ever before. I've written about the game a few times before, each instance knowing a little bit more about the title. This year's GDC brought us hands-on reports, interviews, the news of a North American beta and even a nine minute video presentation via shakeycam.

Now my knowledge feels mostly complete and aside from actually playing the game I've got a pretty good idea of why it's potentially going to be something no videogame fan -- let alone MMO fan -- will want to miss. So, let me share a few of them with you.

Tags: all-points-bulletin, all-points-bulletin-game, apb-ea, apb-game, ea-all-points-bulletin, ea-apb, ea-games, electronic-arts, electronic-arts-all-points-bulletin, featured, gdc-2010, gdc10, opinion, the-digital-continuum

Massively Features

Events Calendar

Name	Date
GenCon Indy	Aug 5-8, 2010
SOE Fan Faire	Aug 5-8, 2010
Xsyon Prelude Launch	Aug 15, 2010
GamesCom Expo	Aug 18-22, 2010
Earthrise Launch	Q3 2010
Dragon*Con	Sep 3-6, 2010
PAX Prime	Sep 3-5, 2010
Final Fantasy XIV Launch	Sep 30, 2010
GDC Online	Oct 5-8, 2010
LEGO Universe Launch	Oct 26, 2010
DCUO Launch	Nov 2, 2010

Massively Staff

Name	Title
Shawn Schuster	Editor-in-Chief
Seraphina Brennan	Senior Editor
Brianna Royce	West Coast Editor
Dan O'Halloran	Features Coordinator
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Eliot Lefebvre	Contributing Editor
Jef Reahard	Contributing Editor
Justin Olivetti	Contributing Editor
Krystalle Voecks	Contributing Editor
Rubi Bayer	Contributing Editor
Tateru Nino	Contributing Editor
Beau Hindman	Columnist
Edward Marshall	Columnist
Greg Waller	Columnist
Jeremy Stratton	Columnist
Larry Everett	Columnist
MJ Guthrie	Columnist
Patrick Mackey	Columnist
Ryan Greene	Columnist
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