2-year-anniversary
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SWTOR on its second anniversary: Winning an uphill battle
At the beginning of the year, Star Wars: The Old Republic was struggling to find its place in the MMO world. As you are likely aware, 2012 was a rough year for SWTOR, but because of the free-to-play launch in November, the tide began to turn, at least financially. Players began flooding back to the game because BioWare tore down the paywall, but that was really the beginning of battle. If SWTOR really wanted to see success, it was going to have to keep those players around. Thus began the uphill battle of making the game successful in 2013. The game began the year with a few flops, and although not everyone was completely satisfied with all the decisions this year, SWTOR certainly upped its game. The game we saw at the end of 2012 morphed into something different and more satisfying by the end of this year. It started with the reopening of the western shelf on Ilum, continued to the launch of the game's first expansion, and ended with a second expansion.
Need for Speed World celebrates its second anniversary
It seems like only a scant few months have passed since we covered the launch of Need for Speed World, EA's street racing MMO. But NFSW celebrates its second anniversary today, kicking it off with a double XP boost for everyone as well as a free Chevy Camaro ZL1 for all registered players. In honor of the occasion, the dev team invited us to a group interview session culminating in a race-off during which we got to show just how hot (or not) our racing skills were. Lead Producer Marc de Vellis and Lead Designer Melvin Teo were on hand to answer our questions and talk about how the game has grown over the past two years. They enthusiastically discussed the ways they've developed NFSW as a result of community feedback, both in terms of game features and in terms of community interaction. Read on for a look at what changes they've made to keep their virtual drivers coming back for another lap.
Fallen Earth state of the game talks 1.9.2, economics, and more
Curious -- and perhaps a tad impatient -- regarding the status of Fallen Earth's free-to-play transition? We were, and fortunately for everyone, producer Marie Croall just penned a dev blog that's given us a bit more insight into the goings-on around the wasteland as of late. The good news is that "the heavy lifting is over" in terms of the account and services migration to GamersFirst. Croall says that the Fallen Earth team is a smidge over halfway through the entire transition process, so for now it'll still cost you a few bucks to log in and get your post-apocalyptic sandpark fix. Croall spends some virtual ink talking about this month's fast travel/1.9.2 patch, and she also goes into a bit more detail on the combat changes that came with it. Finally, she touches on the game's second anniversary (yeah, it's been two years already!), which happens next month and will also herald some economic changes designed to make the game's well-regarded crafting system pack a little more punch. There's more too, but much of it is farther down the development pipeline, and we highly recommend heading to the official Fallen Earth dev blog to check it out.
Terrible twos? A look at Darkfall on its second anniversary
It's hard to believe that two years have passed in the lands of Agon, but passed they have, and Darkfall is celebrating its second anniversary this week. Aventurine's FFA PvP sandbox title has turned out to be one of the more resilient MMORPGs in recent memory, surviving a disastrous launch and a lingering (and undeserved) reputation as a haven for parolees, sociopaths, and griefers. It's also managed to grow its dev team, release three expansions, and carve out a respectable niche for itself in an increasingly competitive massive industry. What's the secret to the game's success? Can Aventurine become the next CCP and ride the coattails of a non-linear MMORPG to indie greatness? Is Darkfall, purportedly the hardest of the hardcore PvP games, really a fantastic PvE sandbox in disguise? Join us after the cut for some thoughts on these topics as well as a peek at the highlights from Darkfall's first two years.
Vanguard's past, present, and future with producer Thom Terrazas
It's been two years since the world of Telon opened its doors to a rocky launch and unstable future. The team of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes had much to overcome after launch with a whole plague of technical hurdles, incomplete content, and a dwindling player base.Yet, two years later, Vanguard managed to stay on its feet thanks to an aggressive development team and a steady schedule of tackling performance issues and bugs until they could open the doors for new content -- one of the few games to make it through with such a rough launch and begin to see a new growth years after opening.Massively was able to sit down with Vanguard producer Thom Terrazas and talk to him about where Vanguard's been, where it is now, and what the future looks like for the expanding fantasy title.
