MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively
by Shawn Schuster 
Oct 20th 2009 at 11:00AM
 |
All Points Bulletin closed beta has begun Urban crime (game) enthusiasts, rejoice! The All Points Bulletin closed beta has begun, according to reports at both Eurogamer and Kotaku. It was rumored that the beta would begin this month and it seems there are presently three windows of gameplay a week in the All Points Bulletin CBT -- Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings, says Eurogamer's Oli Welsh. Those interested in ripping up the streets as either a Criminal or an Enforcer can still apply to become an All Points Bulletin beta tester at the game's official site. |
 |
Fallen Earth fan: "Don't play Fallen Earth" You should most definitely not be playing Fallen Earth. How can you tell? Why, because Bio Break recently posted a long article explaining exactly why you shouldn't be playing it. And this isn't coming from a fan who's just disgruntled about a certain update or class rebalancing (though the latter would be pretty funny) -- it's from one of the game's most adamant fans who has no shortage of good things to say about the game. So why would he tell you not to play the game? |
 |
We're missing something in our MMOs Game design has certainly come a long way from Ultima Online, the first real example of what we now think of as the MMO genre. We've gone from games with no restrictions on behaviors to games where it's almost impossible to be truly horrid to other people, from ones without any real structure to a clean path of progression, from obtuse game mechanics to transparent and clear information. |
 |
Stargate Worlds site returns, but funding still tight Over the weekend the Stargate Worlds site had planned a bit of maintenance which took their site offline on the 9th. From what we know now, the plan was that they would be migrating servers since they've been experiencing problems with their hosting. Many expected the site to be back up within a day or so - a normal time-frame for a DNS change and many cases of forum maintenance. |
 |
DDO cracks open The Necropolis and offers deals Dungeons and Dragons Online has been gaining more and more players since opening themselves up to a F2P model. With some very interesting and varied mechanics, we couldn't be happier to see people embracing it. As is usual, the team at Turbine are running a series of special offers including 25% off on Favored Souls and Monks, 25% off of runes and more. But what's really exciting to us are these new screenshots from The Necropolis adventure pack. |
 |
Gazillion layoffs hit Romeros Slipgate Ironworks Whatever Gazillion Entertainment's secret mastermind plot is, their next step has been to create an unfortunate situation for a suspected 50 now ex-employees at Slipgate Ironworks. The reasoning? According to Gazillion, "As part of our focus on reaching the widest possible audiences with breakthrough MMO entertainment, we decided to change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim," So, whatever unannounced MMO the team was working on is now canned, it would seem. |
 |
Klingons make their first Star Trek Online video appearance Just when you thought you'd seen enough Star Trek Online space combat videos to keep you satisfied for a day or two, Cryptic Studios whips out a Klingon focused trailer that's sure to get your Pepto Bismol colored blood beating through those hardened, warrior-like veins. |
 |
Switch to free-to-play working very well for DDO Turbine's MMO Dungeons and Dragons Online has been around since 2006, but recently enjoyed a sudden huge spike in players. Thousands more people are playing, including our own Shawn at our readers behest. This skyrocketing popularity probably isn't a mystery or a surprise to you -- Dungeons and Dragons Online announced back in June that they were going free-to-play, and the response seemed to be overwhelmingly positive. |
 |
Anti-Aliased: The mailbag edition Well hello there intrepid Massively readers! This week, instead of my usual selection of complaints crammed into the tight space of a single column, I've decided to do something different. This Monday, I opened up a call for questions on anything MMO related on the Massively Facebook fan page, the Massively Twitter, and my own personal Twitter. You guys didn't disappoint, and you certainly sent me more than a few intriguing e-mails. |
 |
Codemasters gives planned EU launch date for Siege of Mirkwood European Lord of the Rings Online fans are anxious to get their hands on Siege of Mirkwood, especially after Codemasters told them about the great pre-order deals being offered. Players who purchase the expansion will receive the Harbinger's Cloak, and players purchasing the expansion and the Adventurer's Pack add-on will receive the cloak and an extra mount. So they've heard the story of Mirkwood, seen the screenshots, watched the trailer, been offered some extra items with their purchase and are just left with the big question: when? |
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Features
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
snowleopard233 Oct 20th 2009 11:14AM
Man, Stargate Worlds has had a bumpy ride to say the least. I hope after all these financial woes they at least come out with a good game that can find its audience.
Wilder Oct 20th 2009 11:51AM
Completely agree, I'm glad they have the site back up and I hope we can see some more progress before the end of this year.
catharsis80 Oct 20th 2009 11:56AM
Is it just me, or are other people tired of seeing movies/TV shows/novels being thrown into a marketing machine and being spit out as an MMO designed to make a large profit?
snowleopard233 Oct 20th 2009 12:26PM
I kind of agree. Some IP’s are to me, based around the originality and interaction of their characters rather than the universe itself. It’s not necessarily what the world is like as much as what the characters are doing within it. Every setting isn’t also filled with twenty-four seven action, either. There aren’t always oodles of monsters and villains to pummel away at.
Star Trek is one that has me concerned. One on hand, it s a very flexible universe that has shown it can be home to any number of stories and characters. On the other hand, violence is hardly the sole solution to success in the setting and most conflict is settled through the witty dialogue and thoughtful introspection that has made the franchise so popular over the decades. To reduce an IP that asked such profound questions about artificial intelligence, religion, culture, and our concept of time itself to a “kill ten klingons” experience unsettles me to say the least.
Drob10 Oct 20th 2009 12:19PM
Are any of you out there playing Aion? Just curious if I should give it a try since it's been up for a few weeks.
Beatphreek Oct 20th 2009 1:47PM
I've played it to 27 so far... It's been.. new. I don't know if I'll stick around for endgame as its all Large Scale PVP for progression and only a couple of 6 man dungeons right now. The replay factor is fairly limited too as there is a pretty linear quest path and you'll be doing the exact same quests/zones for each alt. It's been mostly fun though although since I've only ever played WoW it takes some getting used to as there is some grinding and the professions system took a very large ammount of time. There are some issues that need to be worked out, like the high-end pc's people have are crashing frequently due to a memory issue with the graphics engine. That makes the large pvp battles unplayable for people with fast computers. THere's also curently a LOT of bots int he starter zones as they put a cap on general and LFG channels to limit the ammount of lvl1 gold spammers... as a result there were a ton of level 5 gold spammers. Its a realy good looking game that has been fairly entertaining, although at this point I don't think I'd buy it again and I'm still considering whether I'll stay with it to 50 or go back and play WoW casually.