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One Shots: This old house
It'd be easy for me to sit back and say that games without housing are just lazy, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. Well, that and feature a few awesome reader screenshots of games with housing in today's One Shots! Contributor Mayrin earns the top slot this week with this image of her home in Wurm Online, a much-beloved sandbox around these parts. She writes: This is a screenshot of my house, originally taken last September. It's a stone house built back before Wurm Online had inner walls, so it's U-shaped to suggest different rooms inside. The left side is our kitchen area (the wisp of smoke over the house is from our oven), and the right side has our beds, while the center area is used mostly for storage. The gold shape near the oak tree on the left is an altar to Vynora (one of Wurm's deities); the silver one peeking out from behind the right tree is a Fo altar. Right off the path is a "spirit castle," which is used to send mail to other players. It's located where the village of Allure once stood on the Independence server. Mayrin's entry is tucked behind the break alongside a few other residential beauties!
MMO Blender: Jeremy's unholy MMO concoction
Have you ever wished MMO developers could put away their checkbooks, pluck out the best bits of their respective MMOs, and weld them together to construct the megalopolis of MMOs? We do too! So today, we're launching a brand-new opinion column, MMO Blender, in which the Massively writers will mix and match their favorite features from existing MMOs for your amusement. But do our choices create a perfectly honed machine or a lumbering, speechless frankenstein of an MMO that deserves to be put out of its misery? First up: Livestreamer extraordinaire and Contributing Editor Jeremy Stratton with a potent, sandboxy blend of Fallen Earth, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and more. Wet your whistle after the break and look for more MMO Blenders from the rest of our staff in the coming weeks!
Wurm Online rewards loyal players with more new land
When Wurm Online's website and wiki was hacked earlier this month, many players thought it meant the game itself was hacked and potentially posed a threat to their own computers. Since the game client is entirely Java-based, that worry was not entirely unfounded, but Wurm creator Rolf Jansson eases our concerns with a new announcement today. Not only is the website back online and safer than ever, according to Rolf, but players are also being rewarded for their patience with a brand-new Freedom (PvE) server named Celebration. In the world of Wurm Online, servers are basically islands of virgin land, ready for exploration. Some server islands have various rules (such as open PvP), but they're all connected to each other through waterways or portals, which expands the persistent world even farther. Celebration will open its doors at 9 a.m. EDT tomorrow morning and will be accessible from the southern border of the Exodus server.
Wurm Online website down after SQL attack
Wurm Online's familiar greenish-brown website has been replaced by a stark reminder of the oft-unsavory nature of the internet. The game itself is in perfect working order, but the forums, blog, wiki, and main website were all compromised by an SQL injection attack discovered yesterday by Wurm's three-man dev team. All of the affected pages have since been removed, and the Wurm team is currently deciding on a PHP-free solution for its web presence going forward. The news blurb on the temporary front page says that the decision will likely come next week. In the meantime, fans can keep up with developer happenings via Tumblr and the MMORPG.com forums. Wurm is an open-world sandbox MMO that was developed in Java. It originally launched in 2006. [Thanks to Bob for the tip!]
Free for All: Becoming a mediocre trader in several free titles
I often find myself achieving little things in many different games while other gamer buddies of mine are busily conquering actual gods or dragons within one or two particular titles. Sure, I would love to join a group of battleworn adventurers as they took down one of the final bosses in almost any game, but I rarely find the time to work a character into the ranks of the ascended. OK, so I have time, but not if I wanted to do what I do here. That is to say, I am not dedicated to one game because it is my job to tell you readers about several games. About every game. About as many games as possible. I can't do that while maintaining a high DPS score. It's a give and take, but I love to explore, fortunately. Let me tell you about how I love to trade or craft in some of my favorite titles and why it's important to me.
Why I Play: Wurm Online
The thing about MMOs is that most of them are terrible. There, I said it. Here at Massively, we're exposed to more MMOs than we could ever possibly play to the point of complete enjoyment. We play some for First Impressions articles, we play some for livestreaming, and we play some to see what all the hype is about, but these are often very different games than the ones we sit down to enjoy at the end of the day. That's why I wanted to start this series of articles called Why I Play. Just like The Soapbox articles, Why I Play will be a weekly column penned by various members of the Massively staff. We'll talk about which games we enjoy the most and what it is about these MMOs that keep us hooked so passionately. These aren't reviews; they're not guides or lists of features; and they're not based on any kind of launch-day deadline. We're not selling you anything, and we don't expect you to agree with us. These articles will simply be a personal ode to our favorite MMOs. So follow along as I kick things off with what has been my favorite MMO for probably the last 18 months: Wurm Online.
MV Guide: February 6-12, 2012
MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During our streamed events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule!
Wurm Online client update brings proximity voice chat, UI update, and more
The latest client update to Code Club AB's construction-oriented sandbox title Wurm Online brings a cornucopia of new features to the game, but perhaps none so interesting as the addition of proximity voice chat. That's right, players will now be able to vocally communicate with any players in the immediate vicinity without the use of third-party applications like Ventrilo or Mumble. Have you ever wanted to gather up your village group, sit around a fire, and tell stories or just enjoy a bit of idle banter? Maybe typing "oh god help there's a rabid pachyderm devouring my face" just isn't expedient enough when there's a rabid pachyderm devouring your face. Either way, players now have access to proximity voice chat, an updated UI, and much more. For the full details on the latest client update, just click on through the link below to Wurm Online's official site.
Free for All: Looking for experiences, not challenges
When I was around 20, I used to watch my girlfriend's younger brother play Nintendo games. It was a pretty intense scenario. He would become so angry when a boss fight took away one of his lives or when a leap at a moving platform would fail that he often chucked that poor controller at the wall. It happened again years later after we'd graduated to the internet and PC gaming. The strangest thing is that he would return to the challenge over and over until it either broke his will or his device or he finally conquered the challenge. I never quite got it. Surely such frustration sucked any enjoyment out of the entire process? I tend to be more lazy when it comes to my digital adventure. I hate to repeat content, and I would rather leave the raiding and boss fights to those with more patience or to those who simply have a desire to win that matches their tolerance for frustrating situations. I would rather become a trader, crafter, roleplayer, explorer, or even adventurer in certain titles. Just spare me the overwhelming challenges while I game.
Wurm Online's studio changes its moniker
It may be a new name, but it's the same old team. The makers of Wurm Online have changed their studio name from Onetoofree to the more alliterative Code Club. According to the website, the name Onetoofree was always intended to be a temporary one and was too annoying to relay to people vocally (as you'd always have to spell it out). The old title also gave no strong impression as to what the studio was like or did. Code Club fits the team's visions and is aiming to be identified as an "exotic-style" company. After all, according to its site the company serves "hot coffee and cold drinks in our spacious jungle lounge." Because the name change hurts the company's Google rankings, the studio asked that everyone in the world -- or at least dedicated fans -- start Googling "Code Club" instead.
