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The Daily Grind: How do you feel about zoomorphs?
A recent ArcheAge video and our subsequent coverage of it brought to light a curious phenomenon. Many viewers of XL Games' latest teaser were struck by the potential awesomeness of the company's new sandpark title, but just as many took the time to express their displeasure with the game's feline bipeds. Zoomorphic characters are nothing new in the MMO space, of course, as cat- and dog-like humanoids show up in everything from Aion (above) to EverQuest II to Final Fantasy XIV and many other titles. Furry-fandom extends beyond gaming, too, and Know Your Meme traces the phenomenon at least as far back as Aesop's Fables. For this edition of The Daily Grind, we'd like to get your take on zoomorphic characters and the people who feel strongly about them one way or the other. Do you like playing animal-themed characters? Why or why not? 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!
Flyff's Rise of the Muran expansion now live, complete with catgirls, achievements and more
When it comes to the free-to-play business model, US-based early-adopter Gala-Net has certainly raised a few eyebrows with its light-hearted fantasy MMO Flyff. Also known as Fly For Fun, Flyff has now had its doors open for several years and is showing no signs of slowing down. The game's latest expansion, Rise of the Muran has just gone live, bringing players a whole array of new content and gameplay just in time for Christmas. The expansion raises the game's level cap to 139 and includes a new third job evolution system, introducing eight new classes to the game. Players can now take on the roles of Templar, Slayer, Harlequin, Crackshooter, Force Master, Seraph, Mentalist, and Arcanist. Also included for players is a new guild housing system, in which high-level guilds can bid on huge shared buildings. As if that wasn't enough, Rise of the Muran opens a new area of the game for exploration -- the lost region of Kaillun. It's here in the safe city of Eillun that a new race of friendly cat-like creatures known as the Muran live. With all the new content to explore, new classes to try out and a brand new achievement system coming in, there's sure to be a lot for Flyff fans to do while wrapped up warmly in their houses this winter.
Cats invade Star Wars: The Old Republic in this week's Fan Friday
The community of Star Wars: The Old Republic did not quite make the Twitter and Facebook goals, so the developers decided to punish us by announcing another species that we will not be able to play. (Just kidding, it wasn't punishment.) In addition to spotlighting fan art and video, this week's Fan Friday column mentions Cathar as being another species players of SWTOR will bump into on their travels across the galaxy. The feline species from the planet bearing the same name was first mentioned by name in Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith, but gamers are probably more familiar with it from the other BioWare game, Knights of the Old Republic. Although the devs did not say where or how the players will run into this highly anticipated species, fans are hoping for a Cathar companion character. As mentioned above, the social media goal was not reached. Even so, the community team did give the fans some gifts. The Fan Site Kit has been updated with more digital goodies. New avatars, screenshots, and biographical images can now grace your SWTOR fan site. Not to mention, the team has included six new desktop wallpaper images straight from the exciting "Hope" trailer. Be sure to check out all of this and the amazing new fan art on the official SWTOR site.
Behind the Mask: The exploiter's dilemma
It's tough being an exploiter, especially in a game like Champions Online. It carries a certain social stigma, somewhere above catgirls but below most other castes of players. I feel like the exploiters have a bad rep, because other players misunderstand and misrepresent us. Exploiters are the players who find bugs and ultimately discover FOTMs or gimmick builds and strategies. Because most people consider bugs and "flavors of the month" to be bad, the people who work to discover these things tend to be treated badly. This is unfortunate, because exploiters are basically explorers. One might think that they are achievers or killers (as the end result of finding exploits is granting unfair advantages), but exploiters are explorers at heart. While other explorers journey through lands that have been charted by other players (except in the case where the game or feature is new), exploiters explore the landscape searching for things that other players haven't discovered and might never look for. The thrill of learning something new drives the exploiter, rather than the material reward of an imbalanced build. After the jump, we'll talk about some previous exploits in Champions Online and the ways they impacted the playerbase.
Behind the Mask: Ten things I hate about RP
As luck would have it, the Serpent Lantern patch went to Test on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I had already written large parts of this article by then. Also, I need more than a day to adequately cover everything, like the new teaming mechanics and the energy building changes. So next week, we'll look at Serpent Lantern (which will likely have had a patch by then). In online roleplaying, there are always things that drive people crazy. Sometimes these things are irrational, like most people's hatred of catgirls. Others are outright rude behaviors that most people get furious over. Whichever the case may be, here's ten of my least favorite things present in Champions Online's roleplaying playerbase. Most likely, you hate them too. And hey, if you don't, you can always make fun of me for being an elitist roleplaying jerk.
