MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively

| NCsoft sued for making Lineage II too darned addicting Can a video game publisher be successfully sued for releasing a game that makes players want to play it compulsively? That's the question of the hour in the USA, as Lineage II player Craig Smallwood levied a $3 million negligence suit against NCsoft for making the game too addictive. Smallwood found himself playing the MMO for over 20,000 hours in the last five years, to the point where he is unable to function normally in real life -- and he claims it's NCsoft's fault for not warning him in advance. |
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| New WAR40K trailer introduces first playable race The Warhammer 40K crew has released a new trailer introducing the game's first playable race: The Imperium of Man. Head over to Massively to check out the trailer and a gallery of screenshots. |
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| Final Fantasy XIV open beta set to begin "in early September" If you're a Final Fantasy XIV fan and didn't score a closed beta key in the past weeks, you've likely been poring over all of the testing news -- both good and bad -- to keep up with the progression of closed beta. There's nothing quite like seeing and experiencing it all firsthand, however, and soon you'll have the chance to do just that. |
| BioWare reveals 10 new advanced classes for The Old Republic We've known for a while now that Star Wars: The Old Republic is planning to offer players two different specializations for each class, but up until now we've only heard of a couple of them. Recently at Gamescom, however, BioWare unloaded names and loose descriptions of 10 advanced classes. |
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| Warhammer Online's RvR pack announced Mention "Skaven" to your average Warhammer Online player and you'll be treated to an almost instant recitation of all the reasons why the race ought to be playable. It appears that players might be due to get that wish -- as well as a few more wishes -- with the announcement of the RvR pack for the game. Although we only have the broadest strokes of an outline for the pack, it promises to expand the game's core focus of PvP with an increase in the renown ranks to 100. |
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| First Impressions: City of Heroes Going Rogue To hear the team talk about it, Going Rogue isn't simply an expansion for City of Heroes but a full-on reboot of the game in general. It's hard to see how, on some level; outside of the new powersets and a new starting area, not much is visibly being added with the expansion. But sitting down and playing through the starting area and the game's opening suddenly feels like an entirely different experience. It's not a new game -- but it feels like a leap forward from where the game had been just a few days before. |
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| BioWare teases TOR space combat video Not to be outdone by all the hemming and hawing over the perceived merits of its space combat implementation in The Old Republic, BioWare has released a short video clip showing brief bits of the gameplay in action. Underscored by John Williams' seminal TIE Fighter Attack music track from A New Hope, the video features some stunningly rendered spacecraft as they fly and fight their way through asteroid belts and in high planetary orbits. |
Filed under: MMO Roundup






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jtrain Aug 24th 2010 9:16PM
Every time I see this column I get excited for Guild Wars 2 news. When it's not there (no fault of wow.com obviously) I can't help but feeling disappointed.
Thorie Aug 24th 2010 9:18PM
The Necromancer is going to be revealed tomorrow - Wednesday the 25th.
*sorry if I spoiled it for you*
Alex Ziebart Aug 24th 2010 9:19PM
You could always head over to Massively directly! You'll find all of their Guild Wars 2 news here: http://www.massively.com/category/guild-wars-2
Alternatively, if you're only interested in Guild Wars 2, you could add the RSS feed for that game to your RSS reader. http://www.massively.com/category/guild-wars-2/rss.xml
jtrain Aug 24th 2010 9:37PM
@Thorie
Cool, didn't know that. Not worried about that kind of spoiler, so it's all good.
@Alex
Nice, I'll add that feed under my wow.com feed. Thanks!
wutsconflag Aug 24th 2010 9:38PM
Every time I see news of a WH40k game, I get all excited. That preview looks great, but I'm worried the game won't live up to expectations.
Vodkamartini Aug 24th 2010 11:07PM
Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment -- as the Imperium's minds would say.
However, the news that you can play as one of the Adeptus Mechanicus in DM is good. I've always thought they've never gotten their due.
I will mark it as a must-buy if you can play as a commissar though.
Krz Aug 25th 2010 1:22AM
Vodkamartini, you just won the internet.
That screenshot looks very promising. I guess if you can have a party of five with all those different classes, and go around raiding evil temples of Chaos or what have you, it may play similar to WoW.
Callimaco Aug 25th 2010 2:47AM
OI! Wuz dis? Da pink an' squishy Oomies fink dey be 'ard on da komputer game instead of bein' propa boyz? You still be pink an' squishy, Green iz da best. I'll take your komisar boss 'at too, cause Orks neva lose!
theRaptor Aug 25th 2010 5:37AM
I am just worried that it is going to be hotkey based like WoW. Hotkey combat doesn't work for shooting IMO (lol Tabula Rasa) and having Hotkey based combat makes a joke of "next generation MMO".
I so badly want someone to re-make PlanetSide.
Vodkamartini Aug 25th 2010 7:21AM
Spoke elsewhere on this and joked about it. Commissars are just too cool for a Warhammer 40K MMO to pass on as a class. Plus the lore of the IG leans heavy on them. Of course, they raise their execution pistol at that lean and force it to march. The only thing is that commissars look and act like SS Officers in a space opera. (If you don't like picturing Nazis, try Neil Patrick Harris in Starship Troopers)
The other problem is what commissars offer as buffs: Fear, torture and executions to keep the soldiers in line. Even WoW warlocks don't go this far. If you played the RTS game Dawn of War with the Imperial Guard, commissars were a necessary evil in your forces - executing guardsmen left and right to keep up DPS and prevent troops from panicking in a firefight. The logic of an IG commissar is for the troops to be more afraid of him behind them than the hellspawn from Chaos or 100,000 Tyranids in front of them. You know this situation is going to go down in a raid and raise hell in forums:
Raid Leader Space Marine: Dudes, we need more DPS in this fight!
Space Marine Librarian: Did all the psyker buffs!
Adeptus Mechanicus player: Busted out all the machine spirit!
Space Marine Chaplain: And did all the invokings of the Emperor!
RLSM: So what's left?
Commissar Player: Allow me. (Looks at DPS in midfight, sees the lowest that isn't a tank or healer). Trooper Noobius!
Trooper Noobius: wat im killin boss
Commissar: Sorry man, it's for the good of the party.
(Commissar player invokes THE EMPEROR'S WILL REDOUBLES YOUR EFFORTS AURA, a two-minute-long intensity aura speeding casting/attack times, and unholsters the Bolter Pistol of 100,000 Executions, an Epic Gear Weapon and clicks on the Execution Buff).
Commissar toon announces: "FOR YOUR LACK OF EFFORT ON THE BATTLEFIELD, YOU WILL BE MADE AN EXAMPLE TO ALL!" (BLAM BLAM -- Trooper Noobius dies, rest of raid gets a major dps buff that lasts the entire fight). "FIGHT HARDER YOU DOGS!"
Trooper Noobius: wat
RLSM: Cool I think we can pull it off now. Sorry Noobius, you had to take it for the team.
Commissar: Do you want me to flog the healers to get their hps up?
RLSM: (heisitantly) I think ... we're good.
Healers on teamspeak: We're good.
MeanGreen Aug 25th 2010 7:33AM
The preview was okay. All I could think of was Zaeed Massani from ME2 though from the VO.
wutsconflag Aug 25th 2010 2:13PM
@vodkamartini:
You just won +2 Internets ... AGAIN!
WTB: Commissar class what can execute poor DPS for buffs.
Felix_NZ Aug 24th 2010 9:38PM
Ah Americans... why work, when you can play games for 5 years, and then sue the maker!
Rajah Aug 24th 2010 9:59PM
Smallwood has ZERO chance of winning his case!
Strike that - absolute impossibility might be too strong a statement to make. But I think his chances are about the same as my getting the Sea Turtle mount by making a single cast of my fishing line into a Northrend pool AND getting the Hyacinth Macaw pet by killing one Bloodsail pirate. What is that, something like 1 chance in 100 million? I'll be surprised if this actually goes to trial and shocked if NCsoft even attempts to settle.
RogueJedi86 Aug 24th 2010 10:09PM
If this guy wins his case, maybe we can get an alcoholic to sue a beer company for their addiction.
Scunosi Aug 24th 2010 10:17PM
It seems crazy yes, but I do recall an article I read months ago about how game companies started designing their games using elements that were found in rat tests to be specifically addicting. I'm not sure what Lineage II is...an mmo I guess since it's on the mmo roundup, not that I've heard of it, but you can bet that any subscription-based game will have a few "scientists" or something like that around to implement factors that'll keep the gamers coming back for more.
Of course, if we enjoy it, what's wrong with that? ^^
Tirrimas Aug 24th 2010 11:02PM
Yeah, the same country where an obese person sued McDonald's for making him fat.
No wonder the rest of the world points at us and laughs.
Mattimus Aug 25th 2010 12:06AM
@Tirrimas
Americans aren't the only ones that do incredibly stupid things. There are idiots everywhere.
Al Aug 25th 2010 1:48AM
We may laugh at times, but we love you for making us laugh.
Alaen Aug 25th 2010 4:14AM
If you're going to criticise our cousins across the pond, criticise them for brutalising the English language. "Addicting" is not an adjective, please don't use it as such. You want "addictive".