MMO Roundup: RIFT world event, The Old Republic polish, and more
by Alex Ziebart 
Apr 19th 2011 at 3:00PM
 |
RIFT world event fizzles, Trion reevaluates approach Much like World of Warcraft's early attempts at world events, RIFT's first major world event ... didn't go so well. Server queues and intermittent server outages plagued the event, but Trion Worlds has already issued a statement indicating that it is aware of the issues and will use the lessons it learned to forge future events. |
 |
Battlestar Galactica Online passes 1 million player milestone Bigpoint's browser-based Battlestar Galactica Online is a certifiable hit, according to a new press release touting the fact that the title recently surpassed 1 million registered players. The milestone comes a scant six weeks after the launch of BSGO's open beta period and dovetails nicely with the news that the game is getting an engine upgrade as well as new ship content. |
 |
BioWare tackles The Old Republic environment polish, class questions Ever wondered what "polish" entails when it comes to an MMORPG? The word is tossed about on forums often enough, and just as often, newly released titles are lambasted by gamers who feel that polish is severely lacking in some form or fashion. The latest Star Wars: The Old Republic update goes behind the scenes at the Jedi dream factory to give readers an inside scoop on how the developers at BioWare define polish. |
 |
Guild Wars 2's Johanson: MMO class trinity is "tired" ArenaNet is a company with one game to its credit, yet the firm still has the courage to openly challenge Blizzard as well as the rest of the crowded MMO market. In a recent interview, lead content designer Colin Johanson says ANet's success and confidence largely stem from a culture of creative fearlessness. |
 |
LFM: Massively is hiring! Are you passionate about every single MMO you can get your hands on? Do you have a particular skill with the written word? We're looking to expand our ranks with a fresh MMO-loving writer, so if you answered yes to both of those questions, Massively wants to hear from you. |
 |
Massively's week in review 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 1)
threesixteen Apr 19th 2011 3:40PM
the old polish republic? ah yes, we'll always have Gdansk!!!
Henrah Apr 19th 2011 6:04PM
I actually read it as exactly that.
Strange how most words that are the same you can tell the difference between in context, but some aren't so obvious at first glance.
WaterRouge Apr 19th 2011 4:21PM
Wow Insider you're killing me with this weekly article. I NEED SWTOR TO BE OUT!
-sigh-
RogueJedi86 Apr 19th 2011 4:28PM
You and me both. I'm already waiting for WoW Insider to be replaced with TOR Insider once TOR kills WoW(or gives it a serious run for its money).
*dies from the downvoting that will ensue for talking about WoW being killed, and the replies that mention all the previous failed killers*
razion Apr 19th 2011 6:50PM
The thing is, though, that Star Wars has a big enough following to actually, potentially make that happen--which certainly most of the MMOs that have come along before this did not have going for them (or not going *as well* for them) when they started out.
Star Wars is also a familiar brand, which means a lot of people who, while necessarily may not be followers of the franchise, might be more willing to try it out (for whatever reason). And whether if Star Wars is "successful" or not, the result on how it will affect WoW's longevity and subscription-base will indeed be very interesting to follow.
Jason Ralph Apr 19th 2011 7:08PM
I'll commit on "WoW's demise" by SWTOR and that there's more SW fans than WoW fans. Question is how many will pay to play in the universe? How about all? Question really is if the game will live up to half the hype will determine how it competes with WoW really.
jfofla Apr 19th 2011 7:09PM
TOR kills WOW?
Did you actually say that?
TOR is just another Warhammer, AION, RIFT, doomed to mediocrity before it is released. It really looks bad.
Ostentaneous Apr 19th 2011 8:21PM
/coughgalaxiescough
Drakkenfyre Apr 19th 2011 10:30PM
razion, there is already a Star Wars MMO. It's basically being held up by the few hardcore fans.
You think we get patches now that nerf stuff?
They had a patch one time that took the, like 32 classes, and cut them down to 17. They literally removed whole classes, and a shitload of stuff. That's when they lost alot of subscribers.
So it's not like this will be the first Star Wars MMO.
Scott.robinson209 Apr 20th 2011 1:00AM
Count me in as 1 person willing to flop over the money for swtor. Cataclysm ruined my holy priest after almost 6 years. I can vouch for several others who are either quitting wow for TOR or who have not even tried Cata based on what they hear and are again waiting for TOR.
Im running around in circles trying to find a place to land right now with gaming. Wow sent me a free 7 days gameplay, needless to say I just deleted the email. Come on TOR hurry!
RogueJedi86 Apr 20th 2011 1:12AM
Drakkenfyre, don't forget about Clone Wars Adventures. TOR isn't even the second SW MMO counting CWA, though many don't count CWA since it relies heavily on lore-breaking microtransactions(like AT-AT non-combat minipets) and mostly a series of minigames joined by lobbies and not a true MMO.
And SWG really ain't so bad now. They've had 6 1/2 years to stamp out the NGE bugs so it works fine. The crafting and space combat and roleplaying and massive worlds(and the player housing/city system to fill those worlds), all the real selling points of SWG even pre-NGE, are still around and going strong.
Rob Apr 19th 2011 9:01PM
TOR looks pretty similar to WoW from what i can tell. Surprisingly, GW2 may be the new hotness. With their couragous break from the trinity, this may be the model we need to keep the genre moving in a fresh direction. I know i'm really tired of heal/dps/tank paradigm. It never occured in paper and pencil RPGs, and was just an artifact of trying to create computer generated monsters.
sherekhan88 Apr 19th 2011 9:36PM
If the jack-of-all-trades idea is equally spread throughout all classes, the break would probably work, but in the end I think, we're still see progression guilds picking the best overall class that is specialized in one of the trinity to push through. That's assuming of course, traditional MMO design.
If all classes would be self-sufficient, even if specializing in certain areas (i.e. I don't expect a cloth class to be able to mitigate physical damage as well as plate, but they might be better at it with magical damage), I think that would be pretty cool. I'm just curious how it would play in a team event like a raid or such.
For me though, the major appeal is the idea of actual physics involved. Imagine that strategic choice of having a literally BIGGER tank over a small one because he can BLOCK more things :D