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Get organized with The Elder Scrolls Online's collections system
So you have a whole lot of stuff in The Elder Scrolls Online. That's great. How are you going to organize it all? With a house? Don't be ridiculous; what you need is the new Collections feature going live in the game's next major update. A new development blog explains how the system will allow players to organize mounts, pets, and costumes through a few tabs and a handful of blood sacrifices. (Mostly the tabs.) Items that belong in Collections will automatically be moved over when Update 6 goes live, removing any need to worry about inventory space when you need to summon a mount or don a costume. Any new items will also be tossed right in your Collections if they fit the criteria. The Collections also allow you to see vanity pets that you haven't yet obtained, thus giving you all the more reason to hunt down those elusive little critters for your collection-related purposes.
It's time to pilfer Elder Scrolls NPCs' pockets on the PTS
Ready to kill and steal your way through Elder Scrolls Online's NPC population? You can thanks to Update 6's recent appearance on the public test server. The justice system is a big part of the patch, but so is the champion system which tweaks endgame progression. Read all about it on the official ESO site!
Here's how to steal from NPCs in Elder Scrolls Online
"Justice is coming to Tamriel," according to ZeniMax's latest website notice. It's probably more accurate to say that criminality is coming to Tamriel, though. More specifically, Elder Scrolls Online's upcoming Update 6 features the justice system which will enable your avatar to participate in a variety of underhanded activities including murder and thievery. The latter involves relieving hapless NPCs of their valuables while avoiding those pesky town guards, and the former involves assaulting and even killing AI citizens. At some point you'll end up with a bounty on your head, which in turns affects how guards react to your presence. Click through the links below to read the rest of the details.
The Elder Scrolls Online answers player questions on its buy-to-play model
Even if you were among the many players predicting a business model shift for The Elder Scrolls Online, a change in business models can be kind of disturbing. Suddenly the game doesn't behave according to all of the same rules you've been familiar with since launch. To help alleviate that confusion, the ESO dev team hosted a quick question-and-answer session with players over the weekend to help answer some of the major questions about the change, the next major patch, and balance issues moving forward in the game. To start with, if you've still got time cards for the game on your desk, fret not; you can still use them after the model transition to add the equivalent amount of subscription time to your account. You might want to use them ahead of time, though, since there are plans to add in a special veteran reward for players who stayed subscribed during the game's entire subscription lifespan. DLC prices are not finalized, but they are intended to be around the normal DLC price points for other games. Take a look through the whole of the answers for more details on balancing and issues like controller support.
The Think Tank: Analyzing Elder Scrolls Online's B2P model
Yesterday's reveal that The Elder Scrolls Online will go buy-to-play in March has prompted much speculation about the nature of the cash shop, the ethics of the switchover, the continued viability of the game, and the quality, cost, and frequency of the promised DLC. In today's Think Tank, the Massively staff will discuss the decision. Is B2P the right call for ESO? Was the exceedingly long delay of the console launch a huge mistake? What do we expect from the DLC? And is "Tamriel Unlimited" in fact the worst rebrand ever?
Here's a 23-minute Elder Scrolls Online 'supercut' CG trailer
ZeniMax has released a 23-minute "supercut" of its Elder Scrolls Online trailer series. The firm says that the CG production was "over a year in the making," and the final bit -- dubbed The Confrontation -- brings the battle for Imperial City to an end and reveals "a new and horrific threat to Tamriel." Click past the cut to have a look.
Leaderboard: Is time or money more of a hindrance to your MMO habits?
Elder Scrolls Online's forthcoming buy-to-play conversion is a hot topic at the moment, but sadly it doesn't do much for me on a personal level. Even if I hadn't already played and enjoyed ESO for a significant chunk of 2014, I don't have the time for another grindpark, however well made it may be and however well it scratches my IP-related itches. But hey, maybe I'll have time at some point in 2015. I hope so! What about you, Massively readers? Is time or money more of a hindrance when it comes to your personal MMO habits? Vote after the cut! Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
Elder Scrolls Online to nuke subs ahead of June 9th console launch
ZeniMax has this morning formally announced what the internet has been suspecting for months: The Elder Scrolls is going buy-to-play and dropping its required monthly subscription on March 17th for PC players, the same deal that will go live on June 9th for console players when it launches on PS4 and Xbox One. Rebranded as The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, ESO will still have an optional premium subscription membership called ESO Plus, which will provide "exclusive in-game bonuses, a monthly allotment of crowns to use in the store and access to all DLC game packs." The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited includes all the great gameplay from the original PC/Mac game, plus all the updates and content additions, including the exciting new Justice and Champion systems. All existing PC/Mac game accounts, open or closed, will be updated to the Tamriel Unlimited edition in March and former players will be invited back to the game at that time to experience all that is new in the world. New players will make a one-time purchase of the game and play, without restrictions, for as long as they like – without game subscription fees. Tamriel Unlimited will be supported with special, optional downloadable content available for purchase and an in-game Crown Store for convenience and customization items. Regular updates and new gameplay will be offered to all players to enjoy free of additional charges. The studio will host a livestream at noon EST today to further explain the announcement, but for now, you'll have to be contented with The Confrontation cinematic trailer -- that, and your smug satisfaction if this announcement validated your own hunch.
Infestation producer: The War Z was a 'terrible choice of a name'
Infestation Survivor Stories (previously known as The War Z) Executive Producer Sergey Titov has penned a post-mortem on Gamasutra about the game's launch in 2012, noting how inviting the comparison to DayZ worked against the project. "That said, The War Z was a terrible choice of name, as it naturally invited comparisons between our game and DayZ," Titov admitted. "We made a big mistake in not listening to the vocal minority of our community who thought the name was terrible [...] Beyond not listening to the community, we were also very arrogant in our public communications. We should have taken more care to communicate how and why this was not a DayZ clone, citing specific differences in both design and conception. Instead of saying to ourselves 'Oh well, haters gonna hate!' we should have tried to understand where the hate was coming from and address it." Another key mistake that Titov and his team made was engaging in an "arms race" to get The War Z to Steam before DayZ, which resulted in its being yanked from that platform due to misrepresentation of the existing game features. Even with these missteps, Titov said that Infestation sold 2.8 million copies, and of those, over half logged at least 50 hours of playing time apiece. You can read Massively's hands-on impressions of this title from 2013.
Rumor: The Elder Scrolls Online console version may be close
Let's just start with the disclaimers, for those who have forgotten: Online retailers do not necessarily know the date of releases any more than you do. They just enter a future date for preorders and go. Amazon's release date for the console launch of The Elder Scrolls Online is still December 31st, 2015, which isn't a prediction so much as a way of keeping it in the system for this year. But Microsoft's listing of the game for Xbox One on February 24th, 2015, does merit at least a little attention. Sure, it could just be a placeholder date, but it's awfully soon for a placeholder when the store could easily list December. It would also make a certain amount of sense, since the console version was originally slated for last month after its initial delay. So what do you think, readers? Is The Elder Scrolls Online just around the corner for console owners? Or is it just another placeholder date? While you're munching on that rumor, you can also speculate about the fact that Australian EB Games stores are recalling all boxed copies of the game and all time cards, supposedly as part of a normal post-holiday stock recall. Or as a prelude to free-to-play. You decide. [Thanks to squidgod2000 for the tip!]
Work on Asheron's Call's player-run servers continues
Earlier this summer, Asheron's Call 1 and 2 went buy-to-play with no sub and technically went into maintenance mode, with no more content updates planned for the pair of games. But it wasn't to be game over; Turbine vowed to keep the servers up for its loyal players because it was, as Turbine's Rob "Severlin" Ciccolini put it, "the right thing to do." Critically, the studio also promised to release tools, though not the source code itself, to help players run their own servers, create their own live events, and someday implement their own locations. Just before the holidays, Ciccolini quietly released an update about the "community-foused initiative" on the official forums. I finished documenting and preparing the files players will need for all the SQL set up. We are working on getting documentation for setting up the patch server and and gls servers. I am also checking to see how a player can configure a local one person server with a simplified set up so they can play solo or in a LAN environment but I don't know yet if it will be possible to do without the full login process. We are moving to get things up in a place where they can be downloaded. Severlin explained that documentation and testing continues, and there's a chance, though not a guarantee, that a "simplified server set up for solo or LAN players" might be workable.
Braben: We 'would be stupid not to' look at Elite on consoles
Frontier is considering console versions of Elite: Dangerous, according to Eurogamer. "I don't want to do something that constitutes an announcement," studio boss David Braben said, "but we would be stupid not to support other platforms, including console." Frontier has experience making both Sony and Microsoft first-party games, and Elite uses the same engine as Xbox One launch title Zoo Tycoon. A possible Elite console port will take a while, though, as Frontier is currently laser-focused on the PC release. "We will then do the game on Mac and during that time we will be looking at other platforms as well," Braben said.
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite Secret World deck outfit?
Before I get to the traditional question that powers the Daily Grind, I'd like to give a pre-emptive heads-up to any Massively newbs in the audience. Yes, it was a slow news day when this piece was published (8:00 a.m. EDT). Yes, this is pure fluff meant for fun and perhaps discussion over a cup of coffee. With that out of the way, let's talk The Secret World. More specifically, let's talk about the game's spiffy deck-based outfits. I just finished collecting all of them on my Templar. Some of them are truly butt-ugly, but a handful of them make my character look even more badass than he actually is (which is pretty badass, don't get me wrong). Anyway, which deck outfit is your favorite? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Make My MMO: July 6 - July 12, 2014
This week in MMO crowdfunding news, Frontier explained its relatively high buy-in prices for Elite: Dangerous alpha and beta testing, while Star Citizen gave fans and onlookers another meaty glimpse behind the development curtain. Finally, Forged Chaos unveiled a seven-minute video showing off the progress on Trials of Ascension's technical demo and combat.
Vote for your Guild Wars 2 International All-Stars tourney reps
ArenaNet and Twitch are joining forces to bring you the "first-ever truly global" Guild Wars 2 competition. It's going down at Gamescom 2014 and it's called the Guild Wars 2 International All-Stars Tournament since it matches players from North America, Europe, and China. Fans can choose their regional representatives via a voting drive that starts today, and the winners will receive all-expenses paid trips to Germany to compete.
Guild Wars 2 selling well in China [Updated]
Chinese MMO players love Guild Wars 2, according to an NCsoft census that was translated on Reddit. The two-year old fantasy MMO has eclipsed 3.8 million Chinese users, which indicates far faster growth than the game has exhibited in the rest of the world. The title launched in August of 2012 and topped the 3.5 million sales mark a year later. China's 3.8 million sales happened in just two months. GamesIndustry.biz posits that GW2's Chinese success is an indication of a lucrative and untapped market for Western developers as well as evidence that buy-to-play business models can succeed in an area dominated by F2P. [Thanks 7BitBrian!] [Update: ArenaNet has disavowed these numbers as of July 11th. "We'd like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it's inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters," the studio said via Twitter. Thanks to Martin for the tip.]
Asheron's Call is now buy-to-play
As announced back in May, Asheron's Call (and by extension, Asheron's Call 2) has shifted from a subscription to a buy-to-play model this week. Turbine wrote in May that the last sub payments would be processed on June 30th and that the game would become buy-to-play thereafter. Massively can confirm that logging into the Turbine account site and attempting to resume an old account currently allows players to select a "Lifetime AC Plan" for $9.99, which matches the buy-to-play price for all gamers who wish to play for the first time. Players who were subbed at the transition should be grandfathered in and will no longer be billed every month. While both games will continue in maintenance mode, Turbine still plans to facilitate player-run servers this year. [With thanks to Arpeggio.]
Here's part three of that Guns of Icarus post-mortem
Did you miss part one of Muse CEO Howard Tsao's ongoing post-mortem for Guns of Icarus? How about part two? All caught up now? Good, because Gamasutra has published part three. In the latest installment, Tsao shares lessons learned from two successful Kickstarters. "We realized that Kickstarter was amazing, and it would fundamentally change the relationship between developers and fans/players, but we couldn't have predicted how soon and how spectacularly," he writes.
Infestation: Survivor Stories claims 2.5 million players to date
A new state of the game post is up today for Infestation: Survivor Stories (formerly The War Z), and the team claims that the title has seen 2.5 million players pass through its doors, with "over 100,000 people" playing the game daily. The team apologized for not getting its promised updates out on time and said that it's made "sweeping changes" to improve communications and be more accurate with releases. Part of these efforts included hiring CMs and pledging to an internal model of "complete transparency whenever possible." The state of the game post went on to list some of the game's recent additions, including vehicles, Super Zombies, balance tweaks, and an overhaul of the Colorado map. The team also said that it has committed itself to work on Infestation without external funding.
DayZ destroys Hall's early sales expectations
DayZ's standalone client continues its surprisingly successful run, topping 800,000 sales in three short weeks. Creator Dean Hall says he and Bohemia Interactive "had very ambitious plans for 2014, already, however this amount of sales was completely unexpected." Hall goes on to explain that he would've considered 250,000 sales in the first quarter to be a success, "so to move nearly 800,000 in under a month is crazy." Finally, Hall recommends that gamers do their homework before shelling out $29.99 for the zombie survival sandbox's early access client. "I would recommend a very careful and critical review of whether purchasing now is such a good idea," he wrote on Reddit. "There are many problems which can ruin your gameplay experience. These are being actively fixed, but if you delayed your purchase by a month you would pay the same price but it would be a better experience."
