MMO Roundup: PAX East in review, RIFT account security, and more
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 22nd 2011 at 1:00PM
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PAX East 2011: One Massive(ly) roundup PAX East has already begun fading into memory, but there was a lot to see and do over the three days of the convention. Even if you disregard the numerous fan gatherings and community events taking place, there were an awful lot of games on the floor, with showings from MMOs that dwarfed last year's offerings. Head over to Massively to check out all of their coverage of the event. |
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NCsoft makes multi-million-dollar Japanese relief donation NCsoft is throwing a considerable contribution into the relief drive for victims of the recent disaster in Japan in the form of 500 million Yen (or 4.5 million Euros/6.3 million USD, for those of you counting along at home). NCsoft's Sung Joon Park explained that the sum equals a month's worth of sales. |
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Trion responds to RIFT account hacks Trion World's Scott Hartsman responded to the hacker attempts, reassuring fans curious about what steps were being taken to secure their accounts. Citing "constant attacks" since the launch of RIFT that have impacted 1% of accounts, Hartsman said that the team is blocking hackers and botnets as quickly as they are identified but that this will also be an ongoing process. |
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World of Warcraft bloggers fight back against RIFT While RIFT is certainly a four-letter word, it's becoming that kind of four-letter word for certain bloggers in the World of Warcraft community. Reala of Click the Lightwell went so far as to whip up a graphical badge certifying WoW blogs as RIFT-free zones in response to the amount of virtual ink devoted to Trion's title on Azeroth-centric websites. |
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Massively Speaking Episode 141: PAX East wrap-up Massively Speaking is back this week with a special PAX East wrap-up episode. Eliot Lefebvre, Larry Everett, and Karen Bryan join Shawn to talk about their experiences at the event, including panels, interviews, and an exciting hands-on demo of SWTOR. |
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Massively's Week in Review: New promise for an Old Republic Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup. |
Filed under: MMO Roundup
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Randy Mar 22nd 2011 1:11PM
"We aren't in Azeroth anymore.....ignore the fact that this ad cinematic looks like a total ripoff of the casting animation and spell animation of a mage's Blizzard."
Wonk Mar 22nd 2011 2:08PM
Keep attacking and companies will think twice before developing games that You enjoy... can you imagine if Quake players had shown such hostility toward Half-Life? How many shooters do you think would have been considered?
Wakeup and stop acting like Blizzard owns the MMORPG genre... cause someday you Will want to move on from WoW... and where ya going to go?! Keep trying to act like Your world is the Only world and you Might get your wish... Then you can QQ that no one makes Your type of game and act all surprised and stuff.
It's amazing how some people lose all sense when they get crazy over something like this and start spouting nonsense.
nikdaheratik Mar 22nd 2011 2:42PM
Clearly the decision to create an an MMO that, if it gets enough subscribers, could make $100M+ over its lifetime is solely based upon how many critical comments they receive on message boards. It's a good thing you're here to remind us of that otherwise these companies will never consider making video games at all and will instead go back to writing MS Word plugins or something.
And I think this was more a comment on the BS coming out of the marketing department than anything else. Did Half Life 2 get advertised as being the "anti-Quake" or was it advertised as "an awesome kill aliens/zombies and blow things up game" because clearly the 2nd seems smarter to me.
Also, if WoW ends up being the best MMO ever made, then when it's over, maybe I'll just go back to RTS games or one of the dozens of non-MMO role players. I don't need to endure a sub-par game just to be playing an MMO, when there's lots of great games out there.
Noyou Mar 22nd 2011 6:15PM
@ RIFT LOL. It's the mmo flavor of the month. When they get to 5-6million subscribers maybe I will give them some props. Until then they are a wannabe. Not saying a wannabe WoW. [insert] your mmo of choice. Let's see where they are in a year from now. Hell most good console RPGs go bankrupt after making a good product. So yeah I am not going to bash them or support them until they show me some longevity. And yes I don't get all the raging on either side of the coin.
Randy Mar 22nd 2011 6:23PM
I wasn't raging and I have no opinion to the gameplay/lore/story of RIFT as I have not played it. My point as has been noted was toward the marketing. I have read a lot from players of Rift about game events, specs, etc that are way different than WoW, that is not a bad thing at all. However, the short video clips I see in online advertisements aren't highlighting this. They are highlighting that isn't WoW with their slogan....they are showing off better graphics sure....but most of what I see looks very similar to WoW. If your slogan is gonna be "We're not in Azeroth anymore" than you might thing twice when your immediate closing video sequence is something I see in Azeroth every single day.
Thats all I'm saying. I've never played their game so I won't comment on how good the game is. The marketing leaves room to be desired.
thinkuknowme Mar 22nd 2011 2:02PM
Security was one of the main reasons I left Rift. (And the rift events themselves got tedious.)
jfofla Mar 22nd 2011 2:07PM
After March 31st RIFT subscriptions should level out at around 200,000 worldwide.
Quite The WOW Killer.
alzeer Mar 22nd 2011 3:41PM
and you got this info from...?
jfofla Mar 22nd 2011 4:01PM
Read the RIFT Forums, it is like watching a train wreck.
Rialle Mar 22nd 2011 6:25PM
If I'm to believe the WoW forums, it has been dying since November 2004.
Kylenne Mar 22nd 2011 2:19PM
I wish the comments here had that badge. It's starting to get as obnoxious as Jehovah's Witnesses pounding on your door.
(cutaia) Mar 22nd 2011 3:05PM
I don't care if people talk about Rift in ways that relate to the topics at hand.
The two things that annoy me are:
1) The couple people who insist on returning occasionally to do nothing but talk about how much better Rift is than WoW. Uh, ok...I'm glad you're enjoying it, but I'm not sure why you feel the need to evangelize it here. I'm guessing these are the one's you're talking about. It's just plain weird to feel that invested in a game that you'd go to a "rival" game's fansites just to neener-neener at people.
2) On the other end of the spectrum...the people who flip out at any tiny little Rift mention. That seems to go to the opposite extreme. Once again, these are just games. We don't need to feel threatened or offended if someone says the word Rift.
Kylenne Mar 22nd 2011 5:01PM
That's pretty much how I feel about it at this point. I'm just tired of people constantly wanking about it on both sides. The floor's getting awfully sticky around here.
I'm starting to think this is karma biting me in the ass for being a smug Mac evangelist for most of my life (age has calmed me down quite a bit, thankfully).
Noyou Mar 22nd 2011 6:23PM
The only thing I can think of is it as an easy troll topic. Sex drugs politics religion and Rift. Like I said before it's the mmo flavor of the month. Next month it will be something else. I can equate it to the Bears quarterback struggle. During the time Brett Favre was in Green bay the Bears started something like 25-27 different starters. As a Bears fan I cringed every time they put the graphic up on the screen. It would be interesting to see how many MMO's have come and gone since WoW has been running the last 6 years.
Randy Mar 22nd 2011 3:10PM
My point was the marketing.....you tell me I'm not in azeroth show me that....dont show me something that looks like azeroth....i hear nothing about these game events from the company that makes the game....why not...that's different from wow....show me that
Wonk Mar 22nd 2011 4:28PM
When was the last time you saw a Rift open in WoW? yeah, thought so.
When was the last time you spec'd a toon with four specs and useful talents for all three branches in each spec?
When was the last time you climbed a mountain and found a cool puzzle that after 30 mins of tinkering you were awarded with a cool epic?
I could go on... but what you and others Really mean is that it's an MMORPG, yeah.. it is.
Your not in Azeroth anymore Always showed a Rift... or did you miss that?
Look, I'm Not here to defend Rift, I pointed out earlier that attacking companies that create games in the genre you enjoy is foolish, you cut off your nose to spite your face.
As for my comparison of Quake and Half-Life... the point is you don't encourage programmers or companies to enter a market full of an angry crowd that rants when another title comes out... it isn't just Rift, you guys ripped Every MMORPG here until it died, much to your delight... like I said, be careful what you wish for.. it might be bad in the end.
MusedMoose Mar 22nd 2011 7:43PM
"When was the last time you saw a Rift open in WoW?"
The elemental invasion event. ^_^
Drakkenfyre Mar 22nd 2011 8:59PM
"When was the last time you saw a Rift open in WoW? yeah, thought so."
5 months ago.
In the middle of SW. And Elywnn Forest. And the Barrens. And Ashenvale. And just about every other zone in the game.
Oh, hey, there's even an Achievement for it.
http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=4887
Tim Mar 22nd 2011 3:24PM
well WoW Insider wont qualify for the badge the bloggers themselves break that rule 3 or 4 times a week
jfofla Mar 22nd 2011 3:32PM
"I'm glad you're enjoying it, but I'm not sure why you feel the need to evangelize it here."
Because it is part of Trion's viral marketing plan, and that offends me.