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Flyff releases V17 sneak peek
If you've played MMOs for any length of time, you're no doubt aware that the ability to soar through our favorite virtual worlds isn't exactly widespread. While flying mounts have appeared in AAA games including World of Warcraft, Vanguard, and soon, EverQuest II, few games let you soar with abandon like Flyff (which stands for Fly For Fun). The free-to-play title has been giving players the gift of flight since 2005 due to the fact that it's main form of post-20 transportation is via some sort of airborne apparatus. Flyff's newest expansion, V17, looks to continue this trend and is also adding a new Colosseum System designed to allow players to battle bosses for loot rewards. A Cooperation System is also in the cards, as are a boatload of new quests, a new dungeon, and a entirely new zone. Check out Flyff's official website for more info on the V17 expansion as well as the game's 20+ character classes, and be sure to view the V17 trailer after the jump.
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.
Free for All: You know what they say about magnets...
Have you ever been trying to get to sleep, only to have a neighbor honk his horn or bang on the wall? At first, it's the startling volume or unusual nature of the sound that keeps you from sleeping. He quiets down, however, and you begin to doze off again. The next time the noise you hear is much, much quieter -- but he's still making noise. From then on, every noise you hear will keep you from getting to sleep, despite the fact that the volume of your fan or the crickets' chirping is much louder. Claims of access to information set me off the same way. When I hear someone say that "free-to-play gamers spend more than the average subscription player," I am at first confused by the layers of non-information in the sentence, then angry that someone else might read that and take it as fact, then a little saddened as I realize that some people literally do take things they read on the internet as fact. Anyway, this will make sense in the end, I hope. Want to read the rest? I won't tell you how -- it's the first conversational hurdle for you to jump over.
Free for All: Thirteen spooky free-to-play Halloween events
Ah, Halloween. The dark Xmas. Around our house, Halloween is king. Despite the fact that we have no kids to dress up and parade around the neighborhood, we will still hand out tons of candy to all the trick-or-treaters. Until that spooky night, however, we love to spend the time exploring different Halloween events in our favorite MMORPGs. MMOs are perfect for such events -- they have the players to fill them out, the ability to host whatever kind of event they want, and a lot of optional blood and gore. Some of the events fit perfectly in their game-world, and some stick out like a stock broker on D&D night. Either way, there is always a lot of fun to be had, and sometimes very cool loot to snag! (Like that sweet ride pictured above -- got it on my first try.) Read on for some of my favorite events -- none of them costing a dime.
GDCO 2010: gPotato's Tara Einis on Iris Online and Allods' cash shop
When I heard that I had landed an interview with Tara Einis of gPotato (publisher of Allods Online, the upcoming Iris Online, and many others), I immediately began daydreaming about poring over hours and hours of audio and transcribing hard-hitting interviews filled with fiery give-and-takes. Instead, I found myself calmly wanting to know about gPotato's general cash-shop practices, long history in free-to-play, and reaction to Allods' perceived "debacle." I also found evidence for my theory that the company is, yes, still publishing games and still excited for the future. It should be no surprise, though -- gPotato has maintained a hefty presence in the world of free-to-play for longer than most. So, what are we going to see next? What did gPotato have planned for the future? Turns out quite a lot.
Free for All: Remembering my first F2P experiences
I sit here, racking my brain, trying to think of the very first free-to-play game that I experienced. It's been quite a long time, at least seven years. As a quick history, I started in MMORPGs in '99, by bringing home a box of Ultima Online for my wife to look at. She laughed at me at first, but soon I would return home from work to find her in the middle of a marathon gaming session. We then switched to EverQuest and then to City of Heroes. In between those major choices, I spent a lot of time exploring the internet for new games. I want to say that one of the first free-to-play games I found was FLYFF, or possibly ROSE Online. It's hard to remember exactly. I searched old emails and found a few references to some games, but I can only verify start dates like February of 2004 for games like There or Second Life. On a side-note, my EVE account started on July 30th, 2004. Regardless, I can remember my first experiences with free-to-play games. I recall the grindy-yet-beautiful worlds I visited, marveling at high-level players who must have played for six months solidly in order to achieve their greatness.
Flyff adds a new expansion, wings, and a reason to grind your life away
It's a Flyffy day today as the free-to-play game's newest expansion, "The Lost Continent" arrives on the servers and brings a whole new continent to the world.Centering around a darker atmosphere than the upbeat game usually provides, the new continent of Shaduwar adds in some dark dungeons and dangerous new enemies to the game. But, that's not all. Finally, for the game being centered around flying characters since its inception, they're adding wings to the game. It only took them, what, four years to add wings to the game about flying? Better late than never, if you ask us.Plus, Flyff users will now have incentive to log on and play in the form of a 35 day marathon "Play for Rewards" contest. All players have to do is simply log onto Flyff each day for one hour, and the game will tally up the days you do this. Every five days, the game will provide you with a rewards pack, and on the 35th day of playing you'll be entered in to win a 50" HDTV. The team is giving 4 of those bad boys away, making this quest certainly worth the hour per day grind.
Flyff expansion "Act V" to hit European servers
European Flyff followers of the German and French variety, you have fun to look forward to! Flyff's next expansion, Act V, is going to be adding two new dungeons and an entire new continent for you to explore! Not a bad addition at all for the low low price of free.Flyff's new continent, the lands of Harmonin, is a land of beauty at first sight. The jungles are lush, the lands are beautiful, and the monsters are... deadly? The island, in truth, is a corrupted land that conceals a curse. High level monsters lurk in the wilds, waiting to feast on tender MMO adventurer flesh.
gPotato to unveil new project at GamesCom
The gPotato games portal, hosted by Gala Networks Europe in Dublin, Ireland, will be on hand in force for the upcoming GamesCom convention in Cologne where they will announce and unveil a new MMO project for the portal.The new project, which will be demoed at the convention, comes with a tentative release date of early 2010. The genre or nature of the new project has not been released either, so it's anybody's guess as to what the new title will be.gPotato currently hosts some of the more popular free-to-play MMOs, including Dragonica, Rappelz, Flyff, and Allods Online. Those four games will be on hand at the convention as well for demonstration, so it's sure to be a game filled good time over at the gPotato booth!
New race and a housing system are unveiled for the next expansion of Fly for Fun
Fly For Fun, of Flyff as it's also known, is a manga styled game which bills itself as "the first free-to-play MMORPG to offer players the opportunity to fly around the world of Madrigal using magic brooms, bikes or skateboards" and has a new expansion arriving soon called "Act IV: New Shores". gPotato have unveiled two of the new features in this expansion, the Rainbow Race and the housing system.The Rainbow Race will allow players to, once a week, sign up to the race and show off their flying skills while competing in various mini-games at each checkpoint in order to complete the race. Rewards from this race range from temporary buffs, gPotato cash shop items or precious Orichalques and Lunar Stones. Also being added is player housing, which will allow players to create a customized environment in which to socialize. Player housing will be available to all players of all levels for free.
Massively webcomic: Grinders - The Nyangnyang Dilemma
Grinders is a weekly cartoon here at Massively devoted to chronicling your adventures in your favorite MMOs! If you have a funny story or just a funny character, submit your tale complete with a screenshot to lemuel.pew@weblogsinc.com. The best will be etched in stone and displayed in the town square for all to see. Or just put in the comic.%Gallery-63060%Lemuel Pew is a webcomic artist and MMO player with the attention span of a guppy. Between sketching gamers in cartoon form and making too many alts in City of Heroes, he draws an online comic called Blank It. Feel free to watch his Twitter at your own risk.
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First Impressions returns!
At last check we had identified and indexed well over 250 MMOs of just about every shape, size and color available for gamers from 8 to 80 - and up! Unfortunately, there just aren't enough hours in the day to cover every single game out there as in-depth as we'd like. That said, we are pretty insanely dedicated to MMOs and love to play them... So what's a blog to do? After kicking the idea around, we've decided to bring back First Impressions for those readers who want to know about more games than just the mainstream. For now, we'll give you a brief look back at some of the staff's favorite past Impressions, as a taste of the fun to come. Be sure to come back next Wednesday and join me as we start a new journey through strange and fantastic worlds of First Impressions! First Impressions: Dungeon RunnersDungeon Runners is a game by NCsoft that trades off of the popularity of Blizzard titles WoW and Diablo II, but does it with a sense of humor. More properly, we should really say it does it with a healthy dose of snark and silliness. That's okay, we like it that way. First Impressions: Jumpgate EvolutionSometimes we get a ridiculously early look at a game in development. Wondering what Jumpgate Evolution was like in earlier beta days, or perhaps still waiting on your invite? Take a peek behind the scenes with Jennie.
News from the Wider MMO World: September 2, 2008
The MMO genre is more than World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online. Here's what's going on in the rest of the world.Dreamlords the Reawakening makes deal to move to RussiaLockpick Entertainment has signed an agreement with Akella Games, Russian distributors of Planetside, Everquest 2, and Pirates of the Burning Sea, to localize and distribute Dreamlords the Reawakening. "Our goal is to reach out to new audiences and the Russian market is fast growing and with Akella's expertise we're able to do just that," said David Rosén, CEO of Lockpick Entertainment. "We hope that collaboration between our two companies will benefit both parties and that such an interesting genre will draw gamer's attention" said Alexander Trifonov, Managing Director of Akella Online. Closed beta testing is expected to begin in early September. Pet Evolution Manuals debut on Grand ChaseThree different Pet Evolution Manuals are available at the shop in Grand Chase, allowing knights to evolve their pets at levels 0, 20, and 40. There will also be prizes for each knight that evolves and raises their pet to level 10. Prizes for winning pets include nutrient shots, pet food, gacha coins, and pet skills. Additionally, players who log on between the hours of 4 and 8 PM every day will receive double xp and double gp, in the Afterschool Adventure Hour.
Get your grind on a different way with Street Gears
Gala Networks Europe, holders of Flyff and Rappelz, have announced their third and newest MMO, Street Gears. SG is based around inline skating, with an anime aesthetic and extreme gameplay that combines racing with track skating. It's being developed by NFlavor, who created Rappelz, and who have given it a cel-shaded look that's sure to appeal.As with the other two titles in their stable, Street Gears will be free-to-play, and will become available in June on the gPotato portal. GameTrailers has the trailer up, so check it out!
Rappelz reaches 50,000 European users in under a month
Warcry brings us the news that Rappelz, made by the fine folks at Gala Networks (who also made Flyff), has attracted over 50,000 active users in the less-than-one month since the game has debuted French and German versions. Two new servers have opened to accommodate the influx of new accounts: the French Kentauros, and the German Bastet, both named after in-game creatures.To further celebrate the success of the launch, Gala has increased the experience gain to 1.5 until March 18th. Rappelz's gameplay features a system by which you may capture and tame creatures to fight alongside you in combat. Hmm. Do we also gotta catch 'em all? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I choose you!
O Death, where is thy sting?
What does your choice of playing a warrior say about you as a person? Probably not a lot, considering that you're likely to try many different classes during the course of your stay in any given MMO. Or, to turn it around: what can you tell about the person driving that warrior you just saw run by? Taken like that, the intent behind this question becomes more obvious. We've gotten the 'roleplaying' part down solid. You choose to play a particular role -- which in this case we might re-term 'function' -- and that gets some emotional response. We drive our avatars around with varying degrees of personal investiture in them, but sometimes it feels to me as though we're merely cogs in a great machine, bent toward the purpose of simply furthering gameplay, rather than participating in a greater story with far-reaching consequences. And if it isn't Guild Wars, it's Flyff. If it isn't City of Heroes, it's Anarchy Online. The mechanisms are the same, the quests are similar. Visuals aside, where is the uniqueness? What's the point? Where is the purpose?What is it that makes watching a good movie so engaging, and why is that not inherent in MMO gameplay? Why is there so much more of an emotional investment in a good book than in your game of choice? No matter how much you may enjoy playing your character, there is an inherent element that's lacking. Is it the uniqueness of personality?
Wall o' thumbs: new galleries this week
Submitted for your approval: here's a collation of all our new eye candy this week. Galleries Dofus Gallery Exteel Gallery First Impressions: Flyff EverQuest: Secrets of Faydwer EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark EverQuest II: Sarnak starter guide Gallery
First Impressions: Flyff
Flyff is a play-for-free 3D MMO with that anime style that today's youth hungers for. In my quest to devour all MMOs in existence, I took it upon myself to give Flyff a shot. Akela: He plays weird stuff so you don't have to.Here's the immediate take-away: Even though their tagline is 'Fly for fun', it's not immediately clear how the flying will occur. A lot of their advertising features great-looking airships, people soaring through the air on their own, fabulous critters wafting along, etc. In my initial hour, though, Flyff gameplay followed the standard, whacking things with a sword until they dropped loot like so many naughty piñatas.%Gallery-10430%
