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Spiritual Guidance: Some shadowy notes from the Twitter dev chat
Once a long-upstanding follower of the light, Spiritual Guidance woke up this morning in Deathknell with a little bit less flesh than usual and a bizarre "maggot-ish" taste in its mouth. Since the creatures from the Nether didn't seem to want the column, Fox Van Allen took it in (like he does every Wednesday), put 58 of its talent points in shadow, and corrupted it in the most beautiful way possible. Let's get something straight: I'm really excited about Cataclysm. Last week's hyperbole aside, I'm not ready to storm the gates. I'm not going to hang up my shadow priestly robes in protest (to the dismay of certain folk). I'm can guarantee you that I'll be one of those people standing out in the cold midnight air on the release date. I'll even call in sick to work the following day with a severe case of Devouring Plague. As a nice little supplement to the class changes we learned about earlier in the month, Blizzard held a #Blizzchat on Twitter this past Friday. Not a whole heck of a lot of valuable questions were answered, but it did hold some actual promising news for shadow priests and a little bit more insight on what's coming for us in Cataclysm. Yes, I said promising news. This week, we're shelving the QQ.
Reminder: Twitter developer chat today
Just in case the news of a star pony has distracted everyone, there will be a Twitter developer chat this evening at 5:00 p.m. PDT / 7:00 p.m. CDT / 8:00 p.m. EDT. For those of you unfamiliar with these, a couple of developers start answering your tweets directed at @warcraft or just with the #BlizzChat hash tag. As usual, we will have a live transcript of the event up here on WoW.com as it happens. We're hoping to hear additional information as well as clarification on the recent class previews and expect that will take up most of the time. Previous chat transcripts: Feb. 26, 2010 Jan. 15, 2010 Oct. 22, 2009 Bornakk We will be holding our next developer chat on Twitter this Friday, April 16, at 5:00 p.m. PDT with two members of World of Warcraft's class design team. This chat session will focus on the recently released Cataclysm class previews that you can see here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24038460683&sid=1 Questions will be taken live through Twitter, so be sure to sign up for a Twitter account and follow @Warcraft (http://www.twitter.com/warcraft) in order to participate! To submit a question for the developer chat, please tweet using the #BlizzChat hashtag between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. PST on April 16. Due to the character limitation on responses within Twitter, all answers will be posted on the World of Warcraft forums in a dedicated thread. source
Talk with DC Universe Online's team this Sunday
If you're a fan of the upcoming DC Universe Online and wish there were ways to be more directly heard by the developers -- or to hear more directly from the developers -- your ship has just come in. This Sunday, the developers are holding a special live chat via Facebook, allowing fans the opportunity to talk with them and get updates on the status of the game straight from the source. Game director Chris Cao, senior producer Wes Yanagi, creative director Jens Andersen, and art director Mark Anderson will all be available for questions or speculation. The best part? All you have to do is become a fan on the official DC Universe Online fan page (again, on Facebook) to take part in the chat. Running from 6 PM to 9 PM EST (3 PM to 6 PM PST), it should be a great opportunity to chat with developers about the state of the game and how it's coming along. So mark the spot down on your calendars, and keep your eyes on the fan page for more details on connecting as the event arrives.
Breakfast Topic: If you could redo features in Wrath, what would they be?
With Cataclysm looming on the horizon, as Wrath of the Lich King winds down, it's a good time to reflect on the expansion and see how things could've gone better. In the recently concluded developer chat over Twitter, one person asked what features in Wrath Blizzard would redo or remove if they could turn back the clock. Their answer is something close to my heart, personally, and I agree wholeheartedly. "I would have really liked to see more Battlegrounds in Northrend," one of the tweets noted, "that is an area that I feel we fell short on." Another area that the developers felt lacked a little more polish was the emblem system, which they described as "clunky". Of course, they admit that in hindsight there happens to be quite a number of things that they'd like to redo, pointing out that they are their own worst critics. I'm sure we've got our own ideas about what could have gone better, so let's have at it. Personally, I'm quite happy about their plans to improve Battlegrounds play in Cataclysm, so I guess I'll kick it off with that. What about you guys? If you could ask a favor of Chromie and her Bronze Dragonflight cohorts, what things would you have done differently about Wrath?
Global Agenda to hold another developer chat
It's been about a month since Global Agenda launched, and overall player feedback is pretty positive. Hi-Rez wants to continue the open communication between the developer side and the player side, however, so they'll be holding another developer chat thanks to Vivox Voice chat for Facebook. The chat is scheduled for this Wednesday, March 3, at 9pm US Eastern, 6pm US Pacific (02:00 GMT on Thursday, March 4), and Hi-Rez has a few tips for fans to get the most out of the event. First of all, there are 100 seats available, so if you decide to wander in five minutes after it starts to see what's going on, it's probably not going to happen for you. This isn't an invitation to go all Black Friday and start camping the room right this minute, but you do want to get there a bit early. If the room does fill up and you can't get in, never fear. The session will be recorded and posted as a podcast. If you've got a question you want addressed, submit it in advance. To prevent general chaos and confusion, only the Global Agenda team will have access to the microphone during the event, so to speak. They'll only be answering questions submitted ahead of time. Check out all the details on the event here, and enjoy the chat!
Breakfast Topic: Who could be a new world boss in Cataclysm?
One thing that was missing from the Wrath expansion, conspicuously or not, was a world boss on par with those such as Kazzak and the Emerald Dragons. For better or for worse, Blizzard completely removed them from the game, reserving the massive figures towering over the landscape for instanced quests or dungeons. Blizzard touched a bit on why they've not used world bosses in Wrath in the recent Twitter developer chat. They observed that there are issues with the bosses that have prevented them from feeling comfortable making more world bosses, such as issues with groups racing to bosses, or the ability of people outside raid groups to deliberately mess up boss attempts. On the other side of the coin, though, they did imply that they like world bosses, and will probably implement more in Cataclysm if and when they can find a satisfactory work-around for the problems.
Dance Studio still "on the list," say developers
The dance studio is perhaps the most enduring piece of vapor ware in WoW to date. First hinted at in the original WotLK trailer and announced in the months leading up to release, it was conspicuously absent from the finished product, however, and now that we're on the final major patch of the expansion, it still hasn't made it in game. The closest we've gotten to any sort of official word on it, barring the dance battle April fool's joke, is from a Curse interview with the developers that suggests the dance studio won't be in Wrath at all.
How Blizzard can improve the next Twitter chat
Coming up tomorrow at 5 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. EST is the next Blizzard Twitter chat with J. Allen Brack and Greg Street. Both of these guys have done plenty of panels before and are veterans in community interaction. They can easily answer and dodge any question they like; and if Ghostcrawler sees fit I'm sure he's got a few quips to hand out to the attempted troll as well. But despite the two figureheads at the top answering questions in the Twitter chat, it's important that we look back at the last chat and make a few critical, yet fair, observations: Target Audience and New Information The people following Blizzard on Twitter and paying attention enough to participate in a developer chat are going to be well informed individuals. There might be details here and there that they don't yet fully understand -- but that's the nature of a game as huge as WoW. Nearly every questioned answered in the previous Twitter chat was also previously answered at BlizzCon in one way or another. All of that information is widely accessible on sites like WoW.com and through the forums. The targeted audience of the Twitter chat, by the very nature of its medium and community involvement therein, should have been people already aware of the basics of upcoming changes; not people who want to know if Goblins are going to come with a new dance.
Second Twitter developer chat on January 15th
Bornakk hit the forums this evening to announce the second Twitter Developer Chat. It will take place Friday, January 15th at 5:00 PM PST. Like last time, questions will be taken via Twitter and answered on the forums. Senior game producer J. Allen Brack and lead systems designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street will be the ones answering your questions. Instructions on how to submit questions and all of that sort of thing can be found over in the forum thread. The focus of this Q&A will be patch 3.3, Fall of the Lich King, so don't expect to hear any grand Cataclysm news in this chat. I'm actually very curious if we'll learn anything at all, considering the focus on current content rather than future content. It might be a good chance to get some insight into the development process, rather than trying to squeeze strategy tips out of the devs.
New developer chat transcript for Lord of the Rings Online
There's only a little time left until Lord of the Rings Online launches its next expansion, Siege of Mirkwood, but the players still have questions and the developers are thankfully quite happy to answer them. Not so long ago, WarCry had their first developer chat transcript up for fans of the game to digest. A fair bit of new information has come out since then, and so a new chat transcript is available with more information for the playerbase to mull over for the next week. Unfortunately, it's rather negative, since there are an awful lot of questions whose answers just so happen to be "no." In no particular order: there are no current plans for expanding the housing system, there are no plans to convert Lorien tokens to Mirkwood, no player-created content systems in the works, no way to send mail with more than one attachment. On the other hand, there's more discussion of the Skirmish mechanics and their comparison with Dungeons and Dragons Online's difficulty-tunable instances, talk about how levels and items will be affected, and the expansive amount of content promised within Mirkwood itself. The full transcript is going to be a bit of a read, but it should tide over anticipation for the fast-approaching launch date.
Lord of the Rings Online developer chat transcript available
There's a lot of interesting material coming with the Siege of Mirkwood expansion for Lord of the Rings Online, not to mention a large number of player questions and curiosity about where the game is headed. Luckily for the playerbase, WarCry was recently lucky enough to get a chance to chat with the developers, with a full transcript now available for all who missed the live chat. As is par for the course for developer chats, there's the occasional question that seems rather out-of-place or unnecessary, but on the whole it's full of tidbits that should excite the game's fans. The discussion ranges from the tangible issues with the upcoming expansion such as class upgrades (each class will get one new skill upgrade at level 62), meta-issues (there will be a Skirmish sneak peek coming soon to let players try the new format), and some wholly random bits (the developers will not add your farm on Facebook as a neighbor). It's a weighty and lengthy chat that can't be summarized easily, so it's best to take a look, digest, and start thinking about the first thing you want to do in Lord of the Rings Online when the expansion goes live.
Massively Exclusive: Fallen Earth dev event transcript (and another party!)
This weekend we had the chance to hang out with a bunch of rough-and-tumble types in the wastelands of Fallen Earth. No, we weren't just doing our typical weekend gaming! We were lucky enough to get to spend some time in-game, hanging out with Marie "Arosei" Croall, Content Team Lead for Fallen Earth. During the evening, we asked her some of the great player submitted questions we solicited last week. She also tossed out a couple of interesting asides to the huge crowd that amassed to take part in the event - and to get some of the free goodies we were handing out! For those of you who may not have been able to make it - or would just like to check it out without all the cross-chatter - we've transcribed the interview (and some interesting asides) behind the break. Also, remember that we have another Massively Fallen Earth event happening this Wednesday night at the Embry Satellite, starting at 9:00 PM Eastern. This time our very own Shawn Schuster will be dropping by to hold a Massively Reader Meet-up, with - you guessed it - more free stuff, and a special Halloween-themed show on Post Apoc Radio.
WoW Insider Show Episode 113: LFG with a vengeance
We had a fun show as always on our podcast last Saturday -- Gregg Reece joined Turpster and I to talk about the most popular stories of the last week. We talked at length about Hallow's End and how it's going for everybody, the new LFG system coming to patch 3.3 and what to expect in there, as well as last week's developer chat on Twitter and whether or not Blizzard should do it again. And of course we answered your emails, and actually went longer than I think we ever have before. Not three hours long -- we're only doing that if we can get 25,000 followers on Twitter (and hey, though we're not there yet, we're actually moving pretty steadily towards that). But it was a nice long show this past week, full of the usual information and fun. Hit it up to listen on any of the links below, and enjoy -- we'll be back next Saturday afternoon as usual. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
Upcoming Champions Online dev chat to focus on the Hero Games
We do a lot of talking on this site (readers included) about things that could be changed or improved in the games we play, and Champions Online has been the subject of these discussions perhaps more than any other title in recent times. While some of our collective feedback must get back to the Cryptic Studios developers, one of the best ways to get through to them is by participating in their dev chats. There is one coming up at 4PM PDT this Thursday, October 8th, and the topic du jour will be the "Hero Games" PvP arenas.The main way that the devs will be taking questions is through this forum thread. They plan to go through as many of the questions posted there as they can, but the audience will get a chance to ask some follow-ups or extra questions at the end too. The IRC channel is #championsonline at irc.coldfront.net, or if you don't want to use an IRC client, there is a Java chat client available as well. So, if you think the Hero Games in Champions Online could be improved somehow, get a few questions ready (remember, the questions thread on the forums gives the highest chance of them being answered) and let your voice be heard this Thursday.
Upcoming chat with the Fallen Earth devs
There's one thing you really can't deny - the MMO genre has sorely needed some shiny new post-apocalyptic titles for some time now. Thankfully it looks like Fallen Earth's development is proceeding at a solid pace. With any luck we'll be able to jump in and get our post-apocalyptic warfare on before too long. As a way of working with the community to ensure that Fallen Earth is as solid they can possibly make it, the developers from Icarus Studios have been scheduling play-dates with the beta testers, followed by an open chat on Stratics for everyone who is curious - tester and non-tester alike. This month's chat, going on tomorrow at 9:00 PM EDT, should prove to be highly interesting, as not only will there be several developers on hand, but there's been talk of some swag (and beta keys) to be handed out as well! You can get all the details over on the Fallen Earth forums if you're interested in checking out more on this upcoming MMO. [via WarCry]
The Daily Grind: Do you attend developer chats?
Developer chats. For some, it's a great way to reach out into the community and see what the pulse of things is at that given moment. For others, it's just a chance to spread the word on what's going on in their games - or with their upcoming game. The question is really, how far do they reach? Are they as broadly appealing as some feel they are? This morning, we thought we'd take a representative sampling of gamers by asking you - do you attend developer chats - either online or in person? Will you only attend them if, say, you're already attending a convention like BlizzCon? Are you a hardcore developer chat junkie, and can tell people what's coming up on Stratics well into the future? Are you kind of middle of the road - you'll catch them here and there, but only when it's your absolute favorite game, and again, only when it's at a convenient time for you? Or are you wondering what the heck we're going on about, what a 'dev chat' is, and would instead prefer that we get the hell off your lawn?
Join the Jumpgate Evolution developer chat this Tuesday, February 24th
If you happen to have some Jumpgate Evolution questions burning in your brain, then next Tuesday on February 24th we recommend that you join in a developer chat over on Stratics. The actual chat will be held via IRC, which you can find a handy-dandy guide to right here in case you're not overly familiar with the application. For everyone else, here's a list of equally handy, as well as dandy, servers to join: irc.glowfish.de EU - Germany 6667 6668 stratics.frws.com USA - Colorado 6667 6668 7000 stratics.afraidyet.net USA - Texas 6667 6668 irc.gamers-irc.org USA - Colorado 6667 6668 7000 We'll be following up on any transcipts that hit the net afterwords, so if for some reason you're unable to make it (or IRC boggles your mind) you can still partake in new Jumpgate Evolution information as you see fit.
Earthrise dev chat discusses beta and first in-game video dates
For anyone who missed it, the guys over at MMORPG.com have posted the transcript from last Saturday's Earthrise dev chat. The two big pieces of information to come out of the talks were beta start and in-game video dates -- both of which seem to be happening around GDC09 or sometime shortly after the end of March. Although other topics were discussed, such as weapon customization and the issue of having no friendly-fire in PvP combat.In fact, that last question came up twice during the chat, with players wondering how PvP zerg tactics were going to be dealt with by the developer. The general answer was that it will be looked into during the beta testing phase and dealt with then. If there's one thing we've learned from past experiences, it's that players will go to immense lengths to break a balanced system. To that end, we wish developer Masthead Studios the best of luck in balancing this particular issue, as they're probably going to need it.
Be heard this week with EQII and PotBS IRC chats
Stratics is going to play host to some more "House of Commons" IRC chats later in the week, for both EverQuest II and Pirates of the Burning Sea, giving fans a chance to pose some questions to the teams behind these two games. On Wednesday the 18th at 5PM PDT/8PM EDT, the PotBS chat will take place, and will feature producer Joe Ludwig, lead game designer Kevin Maginn, lead world designer Cory Herndon, community relations director Troy Hewitt and community specialist Tom Atkinson-Edwards. Full details on how to join in on this chat can be found here.The EQII chat will take place a day later, on Thursday the 19th at the same time slot of 5PM PDT/8PM EDT. Representing the game in the chat will be Josh Kriegshauser and Greg Spence from EQII Engineering; Kyle Vallee, designer of "Runneye: The Gathering"; Nathan McCall, designer of the Void Storm quest series; and Tiffany Spence and Aaron Bisnett from the community relations team. You can find out how to join this chat at this page, and don't forget that we here at Massively will be speaking to the EQII team this week as well, so you can also drop any questions you might have in today's Daily Grind for us to bring to them.
Transcript available from March LotRO EU dev chat
The latest Lord of the Rings Online European developer chat has concluded, and the chat log is now available for viewing. Before any questions were asked, it was established that nothing about Book 14 or the Mines of Moria expansion could be answered, so everything we found out is either general stuff or related to Book 13. However, this didn't stop the fans from coming up with quite a few interesting questions to pose.One of the things that the developers were able to confirm with certainty is that an upcoming Book will address issues with inventory space. We were told that bag space will not be increased, but other methods will be used to help improve the situation. Also, with the game's first anniversary coming up next month, the devs hinted that there will be some celebrations, and even competitions, to mark the occasion. Take a look at the transcript for more of the questions that the players managed to get through. The devs also reminded everyone that the Spring Festival will be ending on the 31st of this month, and if you haven't gotten involved yet, our guide to the event is a good place to start.
