Posts with tag last-week-on-massively

This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post.

After a shockingly long content drought and disappointing expansion previews, World of Warcraft proved that no one cares about content droughts and disappointing expansion previews by resecuring over 10,000,000 subscriptions, just in time for its 10th anniversary celebration. To compensate for the trainwreck launch of Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard granted the entire playerbase five extra days of gametime.

Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories.

This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post.

This week, Trion Worlds revealed ArcheAge's glider mechanics, hinted at a June closed beta, and oh yeah, announced that early access for the hybrid free-to-play sandbox is not going to come cheaply. Founder packs run from $49.99 to $149.99 and include perks ranging from gametime to credits to armor. If you can't wait for launch and don't want to fight through Russian servers, that high-end pack is your guaranteed in.

Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories.

This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post.

Early this week, CCP announced it had canceled World of Darkness, a hardcore Vampire: The Masquerade sandbox that had been languishing in development since 2008. A pre-production video was shown at 2013's EVE Fanfest, but layoffs slammed the studio last December.

Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories.

This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post.

WildStar's been busy this week, opening up pre-orders along with a brand-new website and yet another weekend beta test. Massively celebrated with a look at character creation tricks, a hands-on with the game's PvP matches, and a list of reasons to look forward to the game's launch in June.

Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories.

This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post.

WildStar announced a June 3rd launch date this week, promising that preorders for its sci-fantasy themepark goodness will open up this coming Wednesday. Massively published two in-depth articles on the game to coincide with the announcement: an exploration of its endgame raids and dungeons and an examination of its PvP systems.

Read on for the rest of this week's top MMO stories.

Sometimes, you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future.

	Blizzard's Pardo: Single-player games are an endangered species Blizzard big cheese Rob Pardo recently revealed his doubts about the future of single-player games in a wide-ranging interview with GamesIndustry.biz. The interview delves into the pervasive social connectivity inherent in many current-gen games, and it also touches on everything from cloud gaming to monetization and business models. Pardo says he's a fan of game designers dictating the monetization models rather than leaving it up to a producer or an executive.
	Ten things to do in City of Heroes before it's gone NCsoft is pulling the plug on City of Heroes come the end of November, and the genre is faced with the loss of yet another pioneering and ostensibly profitable MMO long before its time. Before the game is gone forever, it's worth experiencing the MMO that many have loved since before the launch of World of Warcraft.
	League of Legends cheating controversy puts $2,000,000 on the line The competitive e-sports scene has exploded in the past two years, with top MOBA teams competing for prizes of up to an incredible $1,000,000 US from a single tournament. The crowd attending last week's event in Los Angeles got front row seats to see the game's best teams battle it out over a total of $2,000,000 US in prize money, and with so much money on the line, it's no surprise that accusations of cheating have already surfaced.
	Funcom hints at Halloween tricks and treats in The Secret World In a blog post prefaced with a spoiler alert, Senior Designer Tanya Short delved into The Secret World's upcoming Halloween event that was initially mentioned when The Cat God went live. Players already know that Halloween plays prominently in the game, as holiday decorations abound throughout Solomon Island, and Ragnar Tornquist himself likened it to Christmas in terms of holiday importance for TSW.
	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.

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around: past, present and future.

	Space combat confirmed for The Old Republic Those eagerly awaiting the upcoming Star Wars MMO from BioWare were given yet another reason to be excited recently. At Comic-Con, it was revealed that The Old Republic would feature space combat, drawing in even more potential players who had been on the fence about the game thus far.
	Study claims that women spend double what men do on virtual goods PlaySpan and VGMarket surveyed just over 2,200 people between the ages of 13 and 64 regarding their purchases of virtual goods and currency. Women are the big spenders here, particularly when it comes to in-game money. They spend an average of $50 per year, as opposed to the $25 a year that men spend.
	SOE and Blur release DC Universe Online story trailer Sony Online Entertainment has recently released a lengthy story trailer for its forthcoming DC Universe Online superhero MMORPG. Debuting early Saturday morning on GameTrailers, the massive video clocks in at over six minutes in length and features nearly all of the DC Comics notables, including Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Wonder Woman, the Joker and others.

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around: past, present and future.

	Star Wars: The Old Republic drops a surprise video documentary BioWare broke its usual SW:TOR update schedule this past Friday. We were surprised by the tease that the game would be posting an update via its social media sites on Twitter and Facebook. Lo and behold, a new developer video on one of the most central activities in the game: combat.
	Ensidia's Muqq talks progression, fun As far as 'I quit' posts go, we've all seen worse than this one from Ensidia's Muqq. The blog entry, which takes a calm, reasoned approach when laying out his decision to quit World of Warcraft, also compares Blizzard's MMORPG behemoth to smaller titles like Final Fantasy XI in an attempt to illustrate why the author feels that the fun has left Azeroth.
	Confirmed exploit allows EVE players to sneak up on unsuspecting victims A nasty exploit has raised its ugly head in EVE Online this week, allowing players to prevent themselves from showing up in the local chat channel. Unless you're in a wormhole system, this channel is meant to show a list of every pilot in the system and must update instantly when a player jumps in. In the deep nullsec regions, the local channel is the primary way a player will know if he's safe or not. Now? You're never safe.

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around: past, present and future.

	Shut up people, come buy my horse Anti-Aliased, Sera Brennan's weekly column about just about anything, tackles Blizzard's explosive (and controversial) Celesetial Pony sales. How does this compare to microtransactions from other games? How does this look from the point of view of someone who plays MMOs other than WoW?
	Intimate apparel among Final Fantasy XIV equipment When character creation previews started emerging for Final Fantasy XIV, one of the oft-heard bits of speculation was that there would be some way to customize your character's undergarments. Of course, the idea is on its face rather ridiculous. We shudder at the thought of farming a boss for underwear.
	Turbine responds to community with removal of Offer Wall A few days ago, Turbine announced a new way of earning Turbine Points. We'd heard hints of this new method back at PAX East, and several of us at Massively were curious to see how it would work out. Well, we have our answer. The launch of the DDO Offer Wall was met with a pretty heated response -- a large portion of the Dungeons and Dragons Online fanbase was extremely displeased, to say the least.

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around: past, present and future.

	Star Wars: The Old Republic reveals Voss The looks we've gotten inside the planets of Star Wars: The Old Republic paint a number of different pictures, but for most of them the conflict is fairly cut and dry. There are objectives for Imperial Sith forces or the Republic, but there haven't been things that are external to both forces. But Voss, the latest world revealed, is a bit different. There is already an intelligent species living there, and they face utter annihilation even as both the Empire and the Republic try to curry their favor.
	Massively Speaking Episode 95: A chat with Perfect World Entertainment Massively Speaking, Massively's MMO podcast, returns this week with Sera, Rubi Bayer and special guests Jason Varden and Jonathan Belliss of Perfect World Entertainment. Discussions include the upcoming Battle of the Immortals and the general state of free-to-play games.
	Alganon founder David Allen strikes back Derek Smart is famous for having the subtlety of an Imperial Walker, so it's only fair that we give the target of one of his laser-focused rants the chance to respond. In a press release over at PRWeb.com, Quest Online founder David Allen addresses his role in the development of the troubled MMORPG known as Alganon, as well as the fallout from the hiring of Smart and the events that led to Allen's departure.

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around: past, present and future.

	April Fools'! A roundup of the best pranks in the MMO world today Blizzard isn't the only MMO developer that likes to participate in April Fools' day. Check out what other developers contributed to the holiday! Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Fallen Earth and so many other games joined in on the fun.
	Another look at Champions Online, six months later One thing that can be said about Champions Online in the period following its launch is that it has gone through some severe growing pains. Champions Online was in a bad spot. The community was revolting, the product was unpolished, and despite Cryptic's best attempts to make things out to be okay, it was obvious that the game was at a breaking point. Six months after launch, are things still looking grim?
	FFXIV gameplay footage explores cities, chocobos and emotes A lot of news has been coming out for Final Fantasy XIV lately, and we're quite happy to see it. This time Massively has the first episode of what's sure to be recurring series of in-game footage of players exploring one of Eorzea's cities on the game's official Japanese YouTube channel. If nothing else, watch it for the Tarutaru.

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around, past, present and future.

	SWTOR testing portal discovered, confirmed by BioWare Few communities are as enthusiastic about their upcoming MMO as the one surrounding Star Wars: The Old Republic. Recently, they found what appeared to be a testing portal for the game and the discovery created a fervor of speculation and discussion on the official forums -- mostly surrounding whether or not beta was near.
	Funcom teases new Secret World trailer We here at Massively aren't ashamed to admit that we're looking forward to The Secret World. Between our sit-down with Ragnar Tornquist at GDC10 and the juicy bits of into slowly making their way out of the game's unofficial web sites, we're, to put it mildly, stoked. The new trailer features a healthy dose of story-based voiceover, glimpses of combat gameplay, and oh yeah, player characters shooting fire from their hands and hacking away with samurai swords.
	ArenaNet releases fourth Guild Wars 2 concept art video Guild Wars concept art has always been known for being the best in the business, and this latest video chock full of Guild Wars 2 art is no exception. It's worth a view, even if you're not much of a Guild Wars fan yourself.

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around, past, present and future.

	How online gaming can change the world Jane McGonigal (a 10-year game designer of projects such as the I Love Bees ARG for Halo 2) has a self-professed "crazy idea" -- that gamers have the potential to change the world for the better by doing what they're already doing. At her speech, people chuckle when she first says this, but twenty minutes later they're giving her a standing ovation.
	Video footage of CCP's realistic cloth simulation We've known for some time that CCP planned to use physics simulation to make the clothes in EVE Online's Incarna expansion and their upcoming World of Darkness MMO more realistic. They even gave a talk on using NVidia's APEX cloth simulation at the 2010 Game Developer's Conference. Until now, all we've seen are technical details and the occasional screenshot, which makes it hard to work out how the end product will look. Now? Now we have video.
	BioWare and EA expect at least 2 million subscriptions for SW:TOR As if the idea of 100% voiced dialogue trees wasn't ambitious enough in an MMO property, word has now come out that EA and BioWare are expecting to have two million subscriptions for Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a genre where only one game has ever exceeded two million subscribers at $15 per month, that's a very high standard to put yourself up against.

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around, past, present and future.

The last week's headlines are dominated by news from GDC10, including a hands-on with Star Wars: The Old Republic, an interview with R. A. Salvatore, and a hands-on with Fallen Earth's upcoming iPhone app.

	Hands-on with Star Wars: The Old Republic Massively's big cheese, Shawn Schuster, had an opportunity to sit down with Star Wars: The Old Republic and get a hands on feel for the game. Does the single most anticipated upcoming MMO live up to the hype?
	An in-depth look at Battlestar Galactica Online During GDC, Bigpoint announced their upcoming Battlestar Galactica MMO. The initial announcement was met with a bit of apprehension from fans -- they love the IP but aren't sure how well it will translate into an MMO, particularly a browser-based MMO. Check out this closer look at how the game might play out.
	New playable faction and more coming to Star Trek Online We spent some time talking with Cryptic's Craig Zinkievich at GDC today, and got some fun new information on Star Trek Online. The most exciting thing was news of a new playable faction in Star Trek Online. We can expect that sometime "within the year," and we as players get to help decide. Borg, Romulan, it's up to you guys.
	Hands-on with Fallen Earth's iPhone app Blizzard has been working on some pretty cool apps for the World of Warcraft, but so far they pale in comparison to Fallen Earth's upcoming iPhone app. Check out your gear, do your crafting, work the auction house, examine maps, talk to your guild/clan, and much more, all in one app.

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around, past, present and future. Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world, including previews of Aion's patch 1.9 (as well as their 2.0 update), 10 reasons why you should be playing Lord of the Rings Online, the story of the EVE playing Olympic medalist, and much more.

	10 reasons why LotRO is worth picking up over newer MMOs With all of the more recent MMOs around, why should you try Lord of the Rings Online? Or how can you convince your friends to try a three year old MMO? Check out these ten reasons why the game is worth playing.
	Will farmers finally be the death of WoW? Activision-Blizzard's annual 10k report, filed on March 1, is chock full of worrisome anecdotes about the future of their massively multiplayer behemoth as well as some interesting tidbits regarding payment models. Mobile games like iPhone apps and social networking games such as Farmville are cited as a potential risk for the company.
	Massively Speaking episode 91 Massively Speaking, Massively's MMO podcast, is back this week with episode 91 as Shawn Schuster and Rubi Bayer discuss the week's MMO news. Topics include Dungeons and Dragons Online's success with their new business model, LotRO's Vol III Book 1 update, the latest Guild Wars skill balance uproar and much more.
	EVE player wins silver medal at the Winter Olympics It's not every day you run across an Olympic Medalist in your favourite MMO, much less gank them and take their stuff. For some EVE Online players, that opportunity may be closer than they think. With the conclusion of the recent Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, it came to light that one of the medal winners is not just an EVE player but also an avid PvP junkie. Casting off the stereotype of MMO gamers as unfit and demotivated, Kjetil Jansrud is a professional alpine skier at the peak of physical fitness.