fantasy
Latest
Smedley announces SOE is no more, becomes Daybreak Game Company
In a surprising move, CEO John Smedley just announced on Reddit that Sony Online Entertainment is leaving behind its Sony roots and becoming Daybreak Game Company after being acquired by the investment firm Columbus Nova. This change allows the company to publish online games on multiple gaming platforms, including the XBox. Smedley also assured players via Twitter that all of the games in the company's portfolio are staying and will continue to be a part of the new company. Here's the full announcement plastered on the official forums of each of the company's games: Dear Players, Partners and Friends, Today, we are pleased to announce that we have been acquired by Columbus Nova, an investment management firm well known for its success with its existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. This means that effective immediately SOE will operate as an independent game development studio where we will continue to focus on creating exceptional online games for players around the world, and now as a multi-platform gaming company. Yes, that means PlayStation and Xbox, mobile and more! As part of this transition, SOE will now become Daybreak Game Company. This name embodies who we are as an organization, and is a nod to the passion and dedication of our employees and players. It is also representative of our vision to approach each new day as an opportunity to move gaming forward. So what exactly does this mean for you? It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation. In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games as we can now fully embrace the multi-platform world we are living in. Our games and players are the heart and soul of our organization, and we are committed to maintaining our portfolio of online games and pushing the limits of where we can take online gaming together. Thank you for your continued support. See you in game! The Team at Daybreak
Neverwinter details the Oathbound Paladin
Paladins are sort of a thing in any setting you claim to name. The very name conjures images of a fiercely devout warrior with heavy armor, heavy weaponry, and boundless dedication to a cause. Neverwinter's next class, the Oathbound Paladin, is certainly meant to play off of that image. It's a class that can specialize in tanking or healing based on the Paragon path it chooses, and it mechanically centers around helping allies without thought for itself. The central mechanic of the Oathbound Paladin is Divine Call, an ability that gathers energy passively and through certain Paladin actions. When used, it can taunt foes or offer big area healing. The more regular abilities for the class allow it to aura-buff the party, place damage shields on fellow party members, and absorb damage only to unleash it upon enemies shortly thereafter. Find out more about the class with the official preview.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Alas, and so we go
Everyone heard the earth-shattering roar that shook Tyria this past weekend, right? No, it wasn't another Elder Dragon awakening; I'm talking about the fan response to ArenaNet's presentation at PAX South in which CEO Mike O'Brien and Lead Developer Colin Johanson revealed what Heart of Thorns means for Guild Wars 2. Yes, Virginia: It's an expansion pack. The irony is a little too much, to be honest. Heart of Thorns is the most exciting thing to happen to GW2 since launch, but I won't be able to cover it in this column. I'm going to get all maudlin if I dwell on that, so let's cap things off by talking about the game. And since I want to end my last FSC on a happy note, I'm going to talk about all of the things I'm tremendously excited for in HoT. Once more past the cut, dear friends!
Crowfall's Gordon Walton on how Trammel impacted classic Ultima Online
With Ultima Online's second expansion in 2000 (yes, 2000) came a copy of the world, a facet called Trammel where non-consensual PvP was forbidden. Ever since, the current and former UO community has debated whether this was a brilliant or terrible move. Now we have the word from former Executive Producer Gordon Walton, who discussed Trammel on the Crowfall forums. "I regret some (but not all) of the outcome," Walton began, going on to explain that the rampant PvP was driving away over 70% of new players to UO. The creation of Trammel doubled the playerbase, but he said that it disenfranchised the hardcore PvPers who now had to prey on each other instead of PvEers. "I also learned from my UO experience that it's really hard to change a brand," he wrote. "Inherent in the UO brand was the fact it was a gritty, hard core world of danger. We were not successful in bringing back the (literally) hundreds of thousands of players who had quit due to the unbridled PvP in the world (~5% of former customers came back to try the new UO, but very few of them stayed). We discovered that people didn't just quit UO, they divorced it in a very emotional way. But we did keep more of the new players that came in by a large margin, significantly more than than the PvP players we lost."
The Mog Log Extra: End of an era
By now you know. I wrote my first column of The Mog Log almost exactly five years ago. I've been writing it for the entirety of Final Fantasy XIV's run now. I've been talking about the online Final Fantasy games since before I was married, and it's been a wonderful experience. I had every intention of continuing to do so for another decade. As long as there was a place to talk about it here, I was going to make use of it. This isn't just a farewell for the column; it's a farewell for something that's made up a huge portion of my life and changed my life in huge ways. As the fall comes to Eorzea, it also comes to us, and I wanted -- insisted -- that I would at least get to have one final chance to say goodbye. So let's take one last look together before we say farewell.
EverQuest producer's letter looks to the year ahead
The luster on 2015 has come off at least a little bit by now, but that doesn't mean that it's too late for the EverQuest team to start looking to the year ahead, and it's going to be a big one for this classic MMO. The most recent producer's letter looks to the upcoming year, starting with Erollisi day to serve as a suspiciously similar substitute to Valentine's Day. You know how these things work. Moving along through the year, the development team is looking forward to celebrating the game's 16th anniversary, along with an improved looting system and a stream of steady updates to the game. There's a lot of life left in the original EQ, even with the next big installments of the series just around the corner. If you'd like to see what the next year will hold, read the full letter.
Pantheon removes its web store
If you were waiting to grab something from the website store for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, you are now officially too late. A forum post this week states that after internal developer discussion, the devs made the decision to remove the store in prep for a redesign of the interface and a re-evaluation of the various items up for sale. Any orders already placed via the store will still be honored, so you don't need to worry if you had purchased something just before the shutdown. The post also makes note that if the store is brought back, no items with any sort of statistics or concrete advantages will be sold there, although there are no hard and fast decisions about when or whether it will be brought back. Of course, it's probably a little early to be worrying about that anyhow, but points for thinking ahead.
Rumor: Leak suggests the next WoW expansion is nearly feature-complete
So, ready to jump on the rumor mill? Because it's churning out big stuff about Blizzard today. An anonymous source from inside the company has apparently claimed that World of Warcraft's next expansion has quadrupled its art outsourcing and is nearly feature-complete. The source also claimed that Hearthstone is doing banner business, with its next expansion set to release in April with a heavier PvE focus. Darker news was revealed for the other franchises under the company's banner. The next part of StarCraft II is done but with no release date. Overwatch is in the midst of debates over business model and payment plans, with the studio pushing for a 2015 release but most likely going for 2016. Meanwhile, Heroes of the Storm has low expectations among the upper management and the Diablo III team has been "completely gutted." It's up to you you believe the rumors, of course, although come April, they might look rather plausible.
A Samurai class is coming to Black Desert
Black Desert is getting a new Samurai class in its next Korean update, according to MMO Culture. Little is known of the archetype at this point, though the site speculates that we may see some "Samurai-type skills like Yasuo's [from] League of Legends."
Crowfall maps its universe, tells Forgemaster tales
Ready for a Crowfall update? Good, me too. ArtCraft has educated us about the Stoneborn Forgemaster archetype as well as provided some sample illustrations on how the game world's laid out. The Forgemaster is some sort of support class, and if you're into lore there's a bit of that on offer. There are also a couple of very interesting drawings that show the "architecture of the Crowfall universe, which should you a hint why being able to travel between worlds is so important," ArtCraft says.
Trove adds pirates and promotes pets
Yesterday was a fairly important update for the blocky world of Trove, as the new patch introduced genuine, bonafide pirates to the game. Players can now hunt down pirate ships to plunder them for goods while looking forward to future sea-themed updates. Also notable in the patch is that player pets have been promoted to allies. It's not just a name change, either; allies have "extra special powers" that can be used to help players in their journeys. Check out the patch notes for the full details.
Chaos Theory: These are a few of my favorite Secret World things
There's a lot about The Secret World to like. So much so, in fact, that you just can't name it all in once place! I've had to split talking about the best parts of this conspiracy-laden masterpiece into a number of different Chaos Theorys, from my favorite first moments to amazing NPCs to fabulous places to favorite missions. Even Massively's Justin Olivetti chimed in with his favorite characters. But not even that can cover it all. That means today I'll tackle another topic: my favorite things. TSW has a plethora of little gems scattered throughout the game that enhance the play experience and attest to the level of detail put into development. And I'll totally go all Julie Andrews and sing their praises, hilltop or not. I only have so much room, however, so these are my top choices; be sure to add your own in the comments below!
Sail to Tyrant's Throne with RIFT 3.1
RIFT's Patch 3.1: Storm at Sea came out yesterday, building upon the water-based madness that came with last fall's Nightmare Tide expansion. The biggest addition to the Plane of Water is the Tyrant's Throne zone (which is so very fun to say six times fast), which includes five new story quests that cover the tale of Crucia's horrible experiments. The patch also adds three zone events, more planar attunement levels, a new nightmare rift type, a new chronicle, and improvements to the minion, dimension, and crafting UI systems.
Skycastles coming to TERA on February 24
Have you recently come home to TERA? OK, maybe you never left. Either way, En Masse is betting you'll get excited about the Skycastle guild housing system that's heading your way on February 24th. The castles float above major cities and are available "to the top-ranking guilds on each server via two new ongoing four-week guild competitions that track guild points earned from dungeons, battlegrounds, and guild-vs.-guild battles," according to an En Masse press blurb. The patch will also include a new dungeon set aboard the Sky Cruiser Endeavor as well as a hard-mode version of Bathysmal Rise. [Source: En Masse press release]
Get your free League of Legends soundtrack now
You know what's awesome? Free stuff. Free stuff is awesome. And League of Legends is notable for giving away free goodies over the years, so we're not surprised to see that Riot's put the game's brand-new soundtrack album up on the site as a free download -- before it's going to be sold elsewhere. So if you want to get 15 generally excellent tracks (we know; we've listened to it), then head on over and snag it now!
New Das Tal vid explains combat, playstyles, and more
Das Tal's devs have released a new video and are currently adding player settlements, resource warfare, crafting, and progression to the PvP sandbox, according to a new press release. The video runs for nearly 10 minutes and explains a good bit about the game's combat abilities. It also summarizes possible playstyles based on weapon and armor choices, as well as a high-level look at the game's "MOBA meets MMO" combat system. Click past the cut to see for yourself! [Source: Fairytale Distillery press release]
I just reupped my sub so FFXIV is having a free weekend
Last night I re-upped my Final Fantasy XIV subscription. Naturally this made it an ideal time for Square to announce a free weekend for its fantasy MMORPG. I haven't been in the game since late 2013, and given my dissatisfaction with pretty much everything at the moment, I figured why not return to a fun title that treats crafting (and fishing!) as more than a half-assed sideline activity. So, yep. That's pretty much that. Free FFXIV weekend -- for inactive accounts -- from Friday, January 30th through Monday, February 2nd. Have fun! [Source: Square press release]
Jukebox Heroes: The quieter side of LotRO's soundtrack
Yes, I'm kind of nuts about the Lord of the Rings Online soundtrack. It could be because I've played this MMO more than most any other at this point, but I like to think that it's also due to a really well-done score that does more for world-building than most soundtracks. Even though I've talked about the soundtrack as a whole, interviewed Composer Chance Thomas, discussed my favorite housing themes, and reviewed both the Riders of Rohan and Helm's Deep scores, there's still more that I wanted to cover. Today, I want to share with you exactly why I love this soundtrack: for the quiet moments. There are a select few tracks that are nearly ambient but are also perfectly immersive. I can't help but get kicked in the feels every time one of these comes on, and I know that for years to come I'll have fond memories of LotRO whenever I play them. Let's get a little mellow and hear the whispers of Middle-earth today.
World of Warcraft adds selfie support
Were you afraid that with the addition of Twitter support in the next World of Warcraft patch you would be deprived of the joy that is taking selfies in-game? Worry no longer. The addition of the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera in patch 6.1 ensures that you can indeed log in, find a nice view, and then duckface at the camera before shooting off a character picture for all of your devoted followers. It's the best thing in the expansion so far. Grabbing the item requires nothing more than a rare follower mission with no significant bells or whistles, with another upgrade mission available to pick up a set of various filters for the camera. Our sister site has a guide to making use of the new device, along with the requisite speculation that it will tie more directly into the Twitter integration. That feature isn't currently enabled, but it can't be coincidence that the new camera arrived at the same time, can it?
Guild Wars 2 is replacing its trait unlock system
Do you like the current unlocking system for traits in Guild Wars 2? If you don't, you're in good company; very few people actually like it. The good news, at least, is that it doesn't appear that it's going to be a problem in the near future. Game director Colin Johanson spoke out recently on the game's forums stating that the pending release of Heart of Thorns gave the team more freedom for discussing future plans and core gameplay changes. With the inclusions of specializations and account-wide masteries, the existing trait system is going to be replaced by a simpler system to ensure that progress and advancement is where the development team wants it for all Guild Wars 2 characters. More updates on how the system will work are promised as the release draws closer, but if you don't like the existing system, you can at least take heart that it's going to be gone before too much longer.
