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Hear the Glitch soundtrack in concert
How many of you like to talk about Glitch? Wow, that many? That's great, but please quiet down for right now; there's time to talk in the comments. It's not a question you need to answer out loud. Besides, if you're super enthusiastic about the memory of the game, you have an opportunity to experience a slice of it for yourself in concert. To celebrate the release of Glitch's soundtrack, a concert is being held on January 24th, 2015, in Toronto. Tickets are $20, and all proceeds go directly to the musicians taking part in the concert. As of this writing, the planned attendance isn't high, but we're pretty sure that will change as more people get wind of the concert. Can't make it to Canada in the middle of January? The Glitch website still offers free downloads for many of its music tracks.
Massively Interview: How Eleven is fighting to bring Glitch back
The Massively staffers were delighted to hear that one of our favorite quirky browser MMOs might be coming back from the dead. Fan projects such as Eleven and Children of Ur, the latter of which is in a playable pre-alpha, are often at an extreme disadvantage with such resurrection projects, as they can lack legality, resources, and access to the original code. However, in this particular case, it looks as though Glitch might be a go for a return, as Tiny Speck has blessed player efforts and released the source code and art assets to help out. Of course, this doesn't mean that there isn't a huge mountain of obstacles to surmount, but if anyone's to do it it, it might very well be the Eleven team. We reached out to Project Lead Jim Condren and several members of his team to get a better feel for where the project is at and when we might be playing Glitch once more.
Eleven to revive Glitch with Tiny Speck's help
Glitch. Now, if you have tears streaming down your face because you still find yourself crying every time you are reminded of the late, great crafting MMO, then prepare to go from sobs to smiles. A fan project called Eleven is making waves as a genuine attempt to revive Glitch with former developer Tiny Speck's blessing and assistance. According to the FAQ, Eleven "is a project to get the publicly released Glitch code back up and running; a strictly volunteer effort by 'Glitchen' who want to see the revival of Glitch. We don't have any rights to the name Glitch as a brand, hence our name Eleven (after our eleven giants)." Tiny Speck has also gifted the volunteer team a new product called Slack to help in coordinating the project. The team is working with the released source code from Tiny Speck to create new code to connect the client and server. The project is chugging along nicely, with a testable version of the wardrobe and vanity system available on the website. There's also a housing demo video that you can watch after the break. Getting the Glitch feels yet? You should!
An analysis of the Glitch auction house
Glitch is gone, but it lives on in our hearts, and it makes for a fascinating case study. The game arrived, enraptured, and departed so quickly that a great deal can be extrapolated about the game. A new analysis over on Gamasutra focuses on looking at the game's economy over time, seeing how it kicked off and where it wound up, and uses that to draw conclusions about handling player-run economies in other games as well. The article outlines how Glitch handled currency and items, then notes the market trends and how players interacted with both one another and the economy. It concludes that in addition to monitoring the economy, designers need to keep an eye on the small number of players who serve as major economic drivers and watch them closely. The behaviors of players will also vary over time, meaning that past data have to be checked against more recent data to be relevant. If this is your sort of analysis, by all means, read the article in its entirety.
One Shots: Find the chicken
Will there ever be a game as visually distinctive and memorable as Glitch? Considering that I'm still getting screenshots in from a game that was canned almost a year ago, I doubt it. Reader Phinneas gave me this maddening puzzle that has consumed my days as I pore over it looking for the chicken. Where? Where? Where could it be? Under that tentacle-plant-thing? Under the next? Lurking beyond the frame? Oh, what trickery is this? "This picture is of my favorites of the game's last few days," Phinneas said with an implied taunt in his voice. "I still hold out hope that it will be resurrected someday." As I continue to look for the chicken, you can move on to the rest of our week's submissions!
The Perfect Ten: Final moments of MMOs, part 2
LAST TIME ON THE PERFECT TEN: Games were shut down, tears were shed, memories were dragged unwillingly from long-term storage, and videos were shown. Also, Marty totally suckered Biff into driving into a truck full of manure and then got his parents to kiss at a dance so that he wouldn't be erased from the space-time continuum. AND NOW FOR THE EXCITING CONCLUSION! Is it completely morbid to want to revisit (or see for the first time) the final moments of MMOs? Yes, but also no. Really, it's just interesting to me, and I have no great agenda at play here. Sometimes seeing how a game goes out can tell you a lot about its community and dev team. So join us now as we hit the second half of 10 videos showing the last few minutes of these online RPGs.
One Shots: Soggy beginnings
Dungeons and Dragons Online newcomers and veterans alike are quite familiar with the waterlogged Sahuagin and all of their wacky antics. Basically think "level 1 mermaids from hell" and you're right with the rest of us. It's a good thing that the game doesn't have smell-o-vision because the tutorial would be reeking of a fishery, that's all I'm saying. Reader Sharvis photographed his initial journey through the game and delivered this familiar image of an odd cellar. "Oh great, the Wavecrest Tavern's basement has flooded," he writes. "And who let the Sahuagin in? They're making everything look tacky again!" We'll get the sump pump working while you check out the rest of today's player-submitted screenshots!
The Perfect Ten: Cutest creatures
I vividly remember a conversation I had with my then-girlfriend's parents back in 1996 about the potential of this growing "internet" phenomenon. With my limited understanding, I made it sound downright noble, a Library of Congress available at the fingertips of the average Joe or Jane. What I really should have said that it would be a tool for the distribution of pornography, nerd rage, and cute animal pictures. I have no idea how big the cute animal picture industry is, but there have got to be millions of aspiring photographers daily who prod little baby critters with encouragement sticks in the hopes of eliciting a few "awws" out of strangers. Even when the serious business of MMOs came a-calling, cuteness infested fantasy lands near and far. Whenever I see something absurdly cute in an MMO, I always smile because I know that somewhere, some uber-elite, way-too-serious player is developing facial tics from being in the same game world as it. So twitch away, as here are 10 of the cutest critters as seen in-game!
One Shots: Back in the day...
A few weeks ago I asked everyone to send me in screenshots of pre-2004 MMOs... and only Brad delivered. Seriously, people, you've been shown up by Brad. Brad gets the gold star. Brad gets the golden ticket and can come on a once-in-a-lifetime visit to see the fabled Massively word factory. Brad is my hero. Brad (if you didn't catch his name) sent us in this shot of Ultima Online: "So much fun with vendors! This is a shot of Angelica's on the Chesapeake Server -- a popular shopping spot in Felucca to grab gear on the go. It was one of the few player-owned vendor spots in a protected zone near Lord British's Castle. This would have been taken around 2002. Notice the detail of the fish tank made from stacked cloth and the flowers made with an onion and two cooked eggs!" Yes. Notice Brad's eggs, people. In them you can see the reflection of your failure. Aw, just kidding!
One Shots: Bring out your dead
Ah, nothing like a pile of rotting stiffs to start your day off right, I always say! So nice of considerate readers to send me such pictures in my email. Maybe it's a somber commentary on the fragility of life and the tragedies that go unnoticed around us daily. Maybe it's somebody trying to gross me out. I'm good either way. Reader Volska clues us in: "Talk about morbid. Here's a screenshot of some piles of corpses from the Guardian starter area in RIFT. No happy welcoming party here." With a start like that, what other pictures will we have to share? It's a wild and wooly One Shots, and it all starts after the jump!
One Shots: Slumbering death
Reader John's going to get me to actually say something nice about TERA. Are you ready for it? Because this doesn't happen often. Here's my compliment: It's a beautiful-looking game. Really. I can't deny that there's a special level of polish and eye when it comes to its visuals. Anyway, John sent us in this captivating picture of a place that might look pretty in the daylight, but you probably don't want to be loitering after nightfall. "I just started playing TERA upon hearing about the F2P conversion. This is my Amani Berserker traveling through the low-level Valley of Titans and stopping behind a pair of rock giants. These rock giants are all over the place here -- I wonder what will happen if they ever wake up?" Dance party? That's my guess. See John's full-color photo in all its glory after the break in addition to other terrifying vistas.
Glitch preserves game memories via encyclopedia
It's slightly unusual to get a "post-game update" from a closed MMO, but then again, Glitch always was unusual. Tiny Speck wrote a post to thank players for the support and encouragement received following last month's sunset and also to let everyone know that the team is preserving Glitch's art assets and memories through the website's encyclopedia under a Creative Commons license. "When we shut off the servers on December 9th, players left thousands of notes scattered throughout the world. They were wonderful -- sometimes sad, sometimes funny, occasionally weird, and always heartfelt," the team wrote. To honor the players, the staff has included these notes in Glitch's encyclopedia on the location pages. Tiny Speck says that the encyclopedia and other assets will remain up and running even as the rest of the website spins down in upcoming months.
One Shots: Worlds within worlds
When it comes to winter holidays, I'm always disappointed that they come so darn early in the season. We could really use all that cheer, celebrating, and lighting come, say, February after we've been wallowing in the cold and dark for months. No matter; what's done is done, and we have a giant snow globe as proof. Reader Trevor sent in the following picture from Guild Wars 2's Wintersday, as he took a photo of a world within the larger world and wrote, "Happened upon this giant snow globe amongst the flurry of gifts, giant flying colorful snowflakes, and Wintersday cheer. If you listen closely, you can hear my computer screaming in pain." Oh, we'll make more than your computer scream in pain before this column is done!
One Shots: Laser light shows
Ancient civilizations always seem to have the flair for the dramatic, especially if they were sitting on suspiciously advanced technology. We begin our trip through One Shots today with a look at Star Wars: The Old Republic's newest PvP warzone and its so-called "ancient" artifacts. Reader John was captivated by the look of this machine: "It would be fair to say that much of SWTOR looks like either the traditional fantasy MMOs we've all played before or a series of corridors. With Ancient Hypergates, however, BioWare has delivered an incredible-looking area that feels perhaps like a cross between Mass Effect and Halo, though of course the lightsaber battles that take place across this arena add the necessary 'Star Wars' touch." Carry on, my wayward sons and daughters, and join us as we dive further into the visuals of MMOs than any who have come before.
One Shots: The hills have eyes
Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched? It's because you are, fool. Everything has its eyes on you, even the mountains themselves. Case in point: this screenshot from reader Chris, who found himself amazed at the artistry of Guild Wars 2 and the slight creepiness of mountains with facial features. "In a quest during Guild Wars 2 around level 60," Chris writes, "you are asked to go up a big hill into the face of the mountain (literally) and shutdown the machine. I took the screenshot at the start of the quest because the world is so beautiful." If our games are going to look at us, we might as well return the favor! Hit the jump for more excellent screenshot submissions.
One Shots: Dearly departed
Today's One Shots will be a more somber one, as we strive to honor two MMOs that are passing into history. First up is the dearly departed City of Heroes, which Reader Michelle apparently loved quite a bit. She sent us in several screenshots, including one of her supergroup, Part Time Heroes. "Here's a group of my friends during the Mortimer Kal Strike Force," Michelle writes. "My character is Astral Black, a Warshade who should be my last level 50. She's the one in the purple and black crop top." Head onward for more personal dedications, but be warned: You may be misty-eyed by the end.
Glitch's creator on the game's failure: 'Too foreign of a concept'
If you're looking for just one reason why Glitch is sunsetting, you're out of luck. If you're looking for many, many reasons why Glitch failed, then all you have to do is pull up a chair in front of Tiny Speck's Stewart Butterfield and listen to him talk. Butterfield spoke with Gamasutra about the myriad of reasons why Glitch didn't take and ultimately had to be shuttered. "Ultimately if I have to identify one thing as the problem -- I don't think there is just one -- but if I had to choose just one," Butterfield said, "I think the game was too foreign of a concept for most people." He pointed out that while there was a devoted fan base who "got it," marketing the title presented severe problems throughout most of the game's lifespan: "There haven't ever been other non-combat MMOs that are based on absurdity, humor, and whimsy. I'm not sure anyone has the specific expertise in making this thing work." Other failures that Butterfield identified was a lack of fun gameplay until recently, the decision to do the game in Flash instead of for mobile platforms, large expenditures of money, and Tiny Speck's big team drawing salaries.
One Shots: This is the end, my friend
What do you imagine the end of the world looking like? I'm willing to bet it's nothing like the following technicolor nightmare ripped straight from the finale of the first version of Final Fantasy XIV. Reader Focant delivers this haunting image with a description of the videopocalypse: "The Garlean forces held nothing back in their battle against us, and attacked with their most destructive weaponry. The most powerful enemy we saw on the battlefield that night was the level 100 (the player cap is 50) Imperial Juggernaut, an enemy that is only seen one other time in game. I made sure to include a player character in the shot as well for size comparison. These things are massive!" And with that we're off to another wild and wooly edition of One Shots! Please put your tray tables in their full upright and locked position.
MMObility: Why the closing of Glitch matters
When it was announced that Glitch was closing, I felt a blend of shock and sadness. Glitch is one of my favorite MMOs, but it's special for a number of reasons. The game achieved a lot in a crowded market that is filled with the same gameplay, same lore, and same stock characters that we have seen for years, and it achieved all of this within a Flash-based browser environment. The official announcement gave us a lot of clues as to what happened, but it looks like the money was just not enough to keep the game afloat. It's also very possible that the money was enough, but just barely. Running a business is hard, and running an MMO that is so unique and unusual can be the same as living paycheck to paycheck. It's stressful and scary when the future is never certain... sometimes it's easier to call it quits.
The Daily Grind: Do sunsetted games owe us refunds?
When Tiny Speck announced last week that Glitch would be shutting down come December 9th, the studio simultaneously did something that few closed MMOs do: It offered complete refunds for past subs. Sure, some companies have offered free game time or bonus cash-shop currency for their other games, but that's usually small consolation. NCsoft grudgingly provided refunds for unused timecards and long-term recurring subs when it set City of Heroes' closure date, but virtually no one provides a complete refund of all the subscription money you ever paid for the game. On Black Friday, it seems as if half the world is out shopping, looking for a good deal and with money on the brain, so today's an appropriate day to ask: Do sunsetted games owe us refunds? And if you were offered one, would you take it? 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!
