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Eliotropes land in Dofus and Wakfu
The Eliotropes are coming! Wait, sorry, that's not quite right; the Eliotropes are here if you're playing Wakfu. They're also here if you're playing Dofus. Yes, both of the games based on the same lore are getting the same class on the same day. The class also promises to be a tricky one, as it's centered around making use of martial arts attacks projected over long distances through a series of portals. Eliotropes can serve as healers and positioners in the game's combat system, launching powerful assaults through portals and slipping through those same portals to evade damage. But enemies can also use these portals for transport, making the class a bit more tricky to play well. Check out the videos on the new class just past the break because this new option is already here. And there. Lots of places, really. [Source: Ankama press release]
Ankama teaser melds Dofus, Wakfu
Did you catch that cryptic teaser vid Ankama put out earlier this month? If not, and if you're a fan of quirky sandbox games with goofy names, click past the cut to have a look. The clip hints at some sort of joining between Ankama titles Dofus and Wakfu.
Perfect Ten: Terrible, terrible MMO names
A catchy, vivid title is essential to getting your game noticed and establishing a strong brand. Yes, we as gamers will get used to pretty much any dumb name (unless it's Daikatana), but a great one allows us to mention it in polite society without getting spat on or rejected for dates. The best MMO names in my opinion are single words that sound cool or conjure up a strong association. I'm less fond of ALL CAPS ACRONYMS and any game that can't be more inventive with its title than to put "Online" after it. For the most part, MMOs play it safe and boring with titles, with only a few outliers in the awesome or terrible fringes. Today, we're going to examine the latter. I want to make a couple of quick qualifiers here. I'm not judging these games by their names; an MMO can be good or bad independent of how silly its name is. And while I know that some of these names make more sense in context, I generally feel that if I have to have it explained to me, then it's a fail.
The Game Archaeologist: Ironman modes and elective permadeath
One facet of video games that's been around almost since the very beginning is the difficulty level. This has allowed the player to choose how hard or easy a game would be from the onset, influencing factors such as the number of enemies, hardiness of bad guys, fragility of the player character, and available loot (or lack of it). I used to love how some of those '90s shareware titles would mock me for picking easy, sometimes portraying my character wearing a baby bonnet and sucking its thumb. Real gamers, the devs implied, go tough or go home. With a few exceptions, MMOs operate on a fixed level of difficulty for all of their players. Instead of assigning blanket difficulty client-side, the game world portions difficulty into areas, usually according to level or activity. Some games have instances with adjustable difficulty levels, but past that what you get is also what I get. This might be changing. A very fringe but dedicated group of players have championed such ideas as elective ironman and permadeath modes for their MMOs, and at least one studio is responding positively to that desire. Would you choose to make your MMO experience harder than everyone else in exchange for nothing more than a bigger challenge and a more "realistic" experience?
The DOFUS movie aims to release in 2016
World of Warcraft isn't the only online game that's working on a movie adaptation. DOFUS has an animated feature that will be coming out in French theaters on February 3rd, 2016. The feature is called DOFUS -- Book I: Julith and will be fully animated. The project has cleared the pre-production phase and is going forward to meet the 2016 release date. The studio released a screenshot (above) from the film, illustrating its art style. Ankama said that it doesn't know when or whether the film would be made available outside of France: "At this time, we can't announce any plans for the international communities, but if that changes, we will inform you as quickly as possible."
Some Assembly Required: Virtual world roundup for 2014 and beyond
Just over two years ago there was a great disturbance, as if millions (or so) of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Yes, something terrible had happened: a beloved virtual world was destroyed. And that left a number of sandbox refugees looking for a new place to call home. At that time, Some Assembly Required offered a roundup of the then available virtual worlds that could possibly offer accommodation, depending on what qualities players most desired in their games. But as things are wont to, they changed; a lot can happen in the MMOverse in 24 months, from additional features in existing games to new games to the loss of more worlds. So it's time to update this list of virtual worlds to reflect 2014 and beyond. Take a look and see what titles or titles-to-be have the sandbox features that best make a game a home for you.
DOFUS takes a pounding from DDOS attacks
The cutsie DOFUS is sweating big anime sweat drops today as the game and its forums have come under multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. The team reported the first attack this morning on Twitter, saying that the devs were working on beefing up the title's security. However, come this afternoon all hell started to break loose. "We may be under a second DDOS attack, forums and game are inaccessible at the moment," the DOFUS Twitter account said. We'll keep on top of this story as it develops.
Iran blocks Guild Wars, World of Warcraft
Reports are coming in that Iran is moving to block access to several MMOs, including World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. This comes following a conference by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance earlier this month. At the conference, the Islamic Revolution Game Designers Community was formed and decided to ban games that promote superstition, mythology, violence, and revealing clothing. Following the decision, the government started cracking down on various services and MMOs, such as Battle.net's library and ArenaNet's Guild Wars series. Other games targeted include RuneScape, Second Life, Dofus, Evony, and Entropia Universe. It's unclear to what extent the government is attempting to enforce these bans, and Iranian players are looking into workaround solutions to access their MMOs. It's interesting to note that Blizzard does not authorize downloads of its products or services in Iran.
Rise and Shiny recap: Wakfu
In June, I drove down to Austin, Texas, to once again participate in GDC Online. I do it every year if I can, and I love it. It's a smaller event when compared to the larger E3s and other conventions, but it is more personal and up-close. My favorite speaker at this last event had to be David Calvo from Ankama Games. When he first came out barefoot, I was honestly worried that the chat would be all about goofy, "deep" design techniques that had no real use in practice. In the end, his talk was deep but was really just asking developers to have fun and try new things. Yes, I know: new things. Crazy, huh? If Wakfu is any proof, those design theories are put to practice every day at Ankama. Wakfu, for me, is a breath of fresh air in so many ways. Even though I am somewhat used to the design and art style, thanks in large part to playing the previous title Dofus, I still find myself loving how simply complex much of Wakfu is. There are issues that come with complexity, however.
MMObility: The rise of the browser
Over the last week I have been obsessing over Glitch, the new browser-based MMORPG brought to us by Tiny Speck. I will go into details of why in my Rise and Shiny column, but for now, let's just say that I think it is one of the greatest things I have come across in a long time. For the record, I was talking about Glitch before it was popular (that hipster cred should get my a free pair of glasses in Glitch!) and was excited about starting this column because of games like Glitch. In short, I knew that the browser market was huge, and I knew it was only going to grow bigger. Yes, I know what you're thinking, and yes I am claiming that we are starting to see the end of the heavy-duty client and demand for expensive hardware and upgrades. It's a big prediction, but click past the cut and let me explain.
The Perfect Ten: Non-vanilla server rulesets
I've always thought that rulesets are a golden opportunity for MMO developers to get creative with their products and try something fresh and exciting. Unfortunately, most every MMO these days, new and old, adheres to the four "vanilla" rulesets that have been in place since Pong. You have your default PvE, your same-as-PvE-except-we-have-a-naming-policy PvE-RP, and the two player vs. player variants: PvP and PvP-RP. Those are all well and good, but... y'know... couldn't rulesets be used to create fascinating variations on these games? It turns out that yes, yes they can. While the vanilla rulesets are the vast majority, there does exist a group of fringe rulesets that dared to walk the different patch, er, path and made versions of MMOs that are a bold and refreshing flavor. Like blue! Sometimes these new rulesets were whipped up to inject new life into an aging title, giving players a valid reason to come back and see the game from a different perspective. In this week's Perfect Ten, we're going to check out just how wild 'n' wacky server rulesets can get!
Ankama releases new Vulkania zone for DOFUS
DOFUS, the free-to-play fantasy MMO from Ankama, is embarking on a somewhat novel approach to new zone content. The game's newest map area is an archipelago called Vulkania, and it's only available to players during the months of July and August. The isle features varying terrain including white sand beaches, tropical jungles, craters, and various caverns, not to mention strange wildlife. Among the new monster species are the sauroshell family and a pet/mount called a madreggon. According to an Ankama press release, "Vulkania is also home to Grozilla and Grasmera, two terrors who are back to shake the World of Twelve once more!" The release also provides a concise summary of what we can expect from Vulkania aside from its monsters, and amenities include 40 new quests, 13 new equipment items, and 3 new titles. Check out the official DOFUS website for more.
MMObility: Fifty games for the mobile lifestyle
I like lists. Lists help keep my candy-coated brain functioning. I see so many games, devices, and developers that I need to write things down periodically or become lost. Not so long ago I made a list of 25 games for your shiny new laptop, but I wanted to update it with other devices as well. I'd like to clarify the devices I have, though, especially since it was brought to my attention that a lot of players use laptops as their primary gaming machines. When I refer to a laptop, it is far from a gaming machine and could not run games like EverQuest II or Age of Conan. So here are some stats: I have an HTC Inspire, an iPhone 3GS, an iPad, a Phenom Triple-core PC desktop with an Nvidia 9800 card, six gigs of ram and onboard sound. My laptop is an HP G62 with an AMD Athlon II P340 dual core processor, three gigs of ram and an AMD graphics chip built in. I also have a more powerful gaming PC, but that is often referred to as "the wife's machine" around here, and it is so packed with her items that I rarely touch it. So most of these games can be run on their native devices, and if they are meant for PC, probably on netbooks as well. When I'm playing on netbooks, resolution is often the major issue. Some games just will not fit on the tiny screens without some slight modding. Anyway, click past the cut to see the list. The first 11 are my favorites, the ones that I play often, if not every day. The rest are in no particular order, so keep that in mind as well. Remember that this year is going to be an incredible one for mobile, thanks to the new games I found at E3. So this list will change!
DOFUS: Battles available in the App Store
What's more fun than using the word DOFUS in a sentence? Using the words DOFUS: Battles, of course. Happily, the devs at Ankama have given us ample reason to do both thanks to the newly released iOS title called, you guessed it, DOFUS: Battles. The strategy game is available in the App Store today for both iPhones and iPads and is an interesting blend of RPG, RTS, and tower defense mechanics, all tied to the game world of the wildly successful DOFUS MMORPG. Players will manage an army consisting of 12 heroes and a dragon, and the new game borrows 12 classes from its parent MMO and spices things up with 28 levels, three minigames, and more than 170 unique equipment items. DOFUS: Battles currently comes in four flavors: a free version with battle and class limitations, the full version, and two corresponding HD versions for higher screen resolutions. You can learn more at the game's official site.
DOFUS introduces Rogue and Masqueraider classes
Class-based fantasy games aren't unusual these days; in fact, they're the standard. It's rare that such a title has more than a handful of classes, though. Then there's DOFUS. The six-year-old free-to-play title recently added Masqueraiders and Rogues, bringing the game's class total to a whopping 14. Rogues function a bit differently than the rascally backstabbers you may be used to from other games. Rogues effectively dictate actions on the battlefield through the use of bombs and walls, which direct enemy movements and function as a form of crowd control. Masqueraiders take their power from a variety of wearable masks, which allow the player to adopt several fighting styles. Three masks types are available: the cowardly mask (ranged damage), the psychopath mask (close combat damage), and the classic mask (crowd control). Finally, Masqueraiders can also avail themselves of several buff-type spells including plastron, tororuga, and trance. Head to the official DOFUS website for all the details.
The Perfect Ten: Death penalties
Death penalties belong in that tier of MMO discussion topics that is reserved for the most controversial subjects, along with skimpy armor and the New Game Enhancements. Death, as we know well, comes for us all with big, nasty, pointy teeth. But for some reason, we are not fans of it, neither in real life nor in online games. One of the reasons death penalties continue to be a divisive subject is that they used to be brutal beyond belief in MMOs back in the olden days of yore. As the MMO genre progressed, the penalties were lightened and experimented with in an effort to avoid driving players barking mad because of them. So we've ended up with two camps: one group of gamers who campaign for harsh death penalties to make the world seem exciting and dangerous, and another group that campaigns for lenient penalties in the interests of sanity. So today we're going to go through 10 of the most-used types of death penalties in MMOs, starting with the most brutal and ending with the most lenient. Stay for the after-column party as well, as you'll get a taste for this debate in the comments section!
Wakfu open beta starts April 27th
If you haven't managed to snag a closed beta key to Square-Enix and Ankama's new Wakfu free-to-play opus, don't sweat it. The companies have just announced that open beta is coming in late April (the 27th to be precise), which, given the fact that it's already almost mid-March, will be here before you know it. Wakfu, which many are referring to as Dofus 2.0, is a turn-based tactical MMO that boasts 14 character classes and three nations that can either work together or go to war, depending on how players choose to proceed. Wakfu also features an in-depth political system complete with a player-occupied governor position as well as the ability to set laws and taxes. Check out some spiffy new beta screenshots in our gallery below, and head to the official website for more info. %Gallery-116491%
Wakfu celebrates President's Day by detailing its political system
Unless you're a school kid or a federal employee, you might not have known that today is a U.S. national holiday. Yep, it's President's Day, and aside from being a spectacularly silly reason for taking a day off from work, it also marks an opportunity for the developers of Wakfu to hype the game's political system. The upcoming MMO from the makers of DOFUS allows for players to run for the governorship of their nation, accessing privileged information on zone status, weather forecasts, and the number of mobs roaming the wilds. All of this info comes via interaction with Clan Member NPCs, and these select members of Wakfu's elite ruling class have been "granted special powers by the ancient gods," according to a new press release. Potential player governors will need to declare their candidacy and gather votes, and if they're lucky enough to secure a victory, they will then have two weeks with which to "regulate laws and sales taxes." There's no word on whether Wakfu politicians can indulge in fiscal irresponsibility or illicit affairs, but player governors can declare war and attempt to conquer the territories of neighboring nations. Head to the official website for more info, and check out four new screens of the political system in action courtesy of our Wakfu gallery. %Gallery-116491%
Rise and Shiny recap: Shadowtale
Shadowtale is pretty close to genius in a lot of ways. It can be played in pretty much any browser, it can run on almost any machine, and it still offers pretty in-depth gameplay, especially considering its limitations. While the controls are not necessarily the easiest to remember at first, they become very simple to manage after a short while. It would seem that the developers have a good grasp on how to make a solid, fun game for many different age groups. I spent most of my time running around, exploring and killing monsters along the way. Attacking enemies is one of the most fun parts of the game. You simply hit a keyboard or mouse button and your character will swing his sword. You have another button for block, and the number keys can fire off special abilities. I was so surprised when the combat responded as it did, allowing me to actually block and dodge incoming enemies. It was fluid and almost like a "2-D Vindictus-lite." But I'm not just going to go on about the controls all day. Click past the cut to see what I thought about the rest of the game.
Massively's first impressions of Wakfu
If you are a fan of Dofus, you might be familiar with my current mania. I was asked to take an early look at Wakfu, the game that could be called "Dofus 2.0," and I was given permission to talk about it. That's right, if it were a horrible menace to my free time, I would be able to tell you. If it didn't run, or if it were nothing but a mess of bugs, I could tell you that as well. Of course, I wasn't forbidden from telling you how much I might have liked it or how confident I was that the game truly felt like a "2.0," so I might just do some of that. Remember, this is a closed beta I am about to talk about. Let's keep that in mind. OK, OK, I just have to say that -- sort of like an article disclaimer to do away with any responsibility I might have for my opinion. Now, I don't want to give you any spoilers, and I want you to promise to read to the end of the article, but let's just say that, closed beta or not, this game is really tight. But let's go ahead and click past the cut, mkay? I want to tell you more. %Gallery-116491%
