MMO Roundup: SOE's downtime, SWTOR subscribers, and RIFT's latest
by Alex Ziebart 
Apr 26th 2011 at 1:30PM
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Ethnologist researches the development of social skills in World of Warcraft A lot of players probably think that World of Warcraft breeds social skills, to the extent that contempt for one's fellow human beings can be considered a social skill. But according to Peter Stenberg of Umea University in Sweden, there are some actual developments taking place when you play. |
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SOE acknowledges "external intrusion" responsible for downtime Sony Online Entertainment has acknowledged an issue that has caused its MMORPGs and game-related websites to be sporadically unavailable since Thursday, April 21. SOE's Linda "Brasse" Carlson posted on the EverQuest II forums, attributing the trouble to "an external intrusion." |
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Massively's Easter event roundup World of Warcraft isn't the only game celebrating Easter this week. Noblegarden is fine and dandy, but check out what the other MMOs have to offer, from EverQuest to Runescape and Vindictus. Everybody is celebrating! |
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Analyst says 1 million subscribers attainable for SWTOR Gaming business website Gamasutra quoted Hickey as saying that Janco "suspect[s] a willingness from investors to believe [500,000] to 1 million Star Wars MMO subscribers is an attainable target." Hickey has been focused on games and the gaming industry for some time now, specifically on EA, so the rise and fall of EA-published Warhammer Online cannot be off his radar when he makes his predictions about SWTOR. |
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An exclusive look at RIFT's Update 1.2 and beyond With almost two months on the post-launch clock at Trion Worlds, RIFT appears to be holding its own in the wild and woolly field of MMORPGs. With a major update and the first world event under its belt, RIFT is sailing into the future with the wind at its back and a hull full of subscribers below. |
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Top 10 MMO forum terms beaten to death We're all familiar with the MMO forum culture. Everybody has favorite complaints, buzzwords, and acronyms. This week, Massively takes a look at the top 10 forum terms that really should be sent to retirement. |
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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 2)
WaterRouge Apr 26th 2011 1:42PM
Ugh...if SWTOR is a subscription game I will be displeased. I can see it based on how much development went into the game but uh..
Was really hoping for a 1-time buy.
Drakkenfyre Apr 26th 2011 1:57PM
Wait, you thought it wouldn't be?
I don't think anyone assumed it would be free, because since day one it was going to be a subscription-based game.
AudreyR Apr 26th 2011 1:44PM
You know, I wonder what kind of insight the ethnologist's thesis o....*distracted by bunny*
lidstrom Apr 26th 2011 1:49PM
cutest. bunny. EVER.
Elicor Apr 26th 2011 1:58PM
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! *squee*
Quorniya Apr 26th 2011 2:29PM
OMG BUNNY!
Luci Apr 26th 2011 2:07PM
dawww.
burntpizza Apr 26th 2011 2:12PM
TL;DR
Ice Apr 28th 2011 7:49AM
Ok:
Stuff happened.
Rubitard Apr 26th 2011 2:16PM
Social skills in World of Warcraft.
I just needed to type that out and see how it felt.
Amaxe Apr 26th 2011 2:33PM
It will be interesting to see whether SWTOR is going to sustain interest or whether it will be like WAR... lots of pregame hype, then a quick collapse.
I admit interest in the game, but I wonder if it will be sustained as I can only really afford one subscription right now.
Tirrimas Apr 26th 2011 2:56PM
I'm in the same, er, boat with you. I have friends who have already suspended their WoW subs in anticipation of ToR, and it makes me a sad, lonely Hunter.
Oh wait. I was that before they quit...
Anyway. Yeah. THIS.
BB Crisp Apr 26th 2011 3:27PM
I have a number of friends who are interested in SWTOR and have been following its development. I don't have any real interest in the game, as I was never particularly interested in the Star Wars universe, but based on what I've seen, I believe that it will become the biggest competitor to WoW. I still remember being blown away by the videos they showed at E3 last year. Not actual gameplay, mind you, but the quality of the videos really showed you that they weren't messing around with promotion.
My belief is that any competition is good for the genre as a whole. I hope for their success, so long as they don't kill my guild or dry up the player base of my low-pop server.
Miri Apr 26th 2011 4:08PM
I'm in the same boat as BB. Pretty much all of my friends are holding out hope that SWTOR will be the game to pull them away from WoW for good. They send links to the videos, talk about the beta, stuff like that. I'm not a big Star Wars fan--I'll watch the movies, but I no nothing about the universe or it's characters beyond what I've seen in the movies.
I'd love to see some competition in the genre. I'm hoping the more selection will help to restore some sense of community that seems to be missing from WoW right now.
Shiro_Shishi Apr 26th 2011 6:12PM
It's Star Wars made by Bioware.
I'll only be surprised if it DOESN'T succeed.
Lannden Apr 26th 2011 11:54PM
Personally I am looking more towards guild wars 2 but a large number of friends and guild mates are planning on playing ToR.
Orkchop Apr 26th 2011 2:39PM
I didn't realize the PSN outage took out their MMOs, too. Holy cow!
P.S. Super cute bunneh!
Djinn Apr 26th 2011 3:43PM
Dear wow fans Don't waste a trip to Telara to play rift. I couldn't do anything but be annoyed when I played it. Mini patches every stinking day, random maintenance that would without fail kick me off 15 minutes after I logged on and the frankly underwhelming linear leveling process just left me thinking that it was a wow clone with some potential but i felt it was really rushed to the market and they should have had many more zones/quests to make replayability better.
btbrianjturner Apr 26th 2011 5:44PM
I disagree regarding Rift; while the leveling process is pretty linear the end game is much more refreshing casual friendly then Cata's end game turned out being. Rift also has a unique public class system that pulls the community together during Rift Invasions. Yes there are patches every day but you are only talking about 30 minutes at a time once a day in the mornings. thats 3.3 hours per week which is half the down time that WoW has. There is a hell of a lot more variety for builds then WoW does. Some times I miss Wrath of the Lich King; but when Cata came out I needed to find the closest game I could to give me that smooth gaming experience I felt when raiding in Wrath; I have found that in Rift. Some day if Blizzard decides to bring WoW back down to the difficulty level of the Ulduar days I may consider coming back.
RogueJedi86 Apr 26th 2011 5:52PM
There was plenty of competition when WoW came out. EQ was king of the MMO hill before WoW came along, and Star Wars Galaxies at the time of mid-2004 was going strong(the infamous NGE didn't happen until a year into WoW's lifespan). Plus Anarchy Online was popular at the time, and maybe a few others. But most of those pulled in MMO fans, and not casuals like WoW did. SWG did too, but its lukewarm reception among the larger media meant a lot of people didn't join, so word of mouth had to bring in casuals who heard good things about its housing and crafting. I myself spent years in SWG. Long story short is that WoW didn't release in a vacuum, there was competition.