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Frogster releases more information on Runes of Magic Chapter III
Frogster has been giving fans previews of the Runes of Magic Chapter III since GDC way back in March. Our latest view of the expansion comes to us courtesy of IncGamers, who looked at details and images from the Southern Janost Forest. The landscape itself is marshy and damp, making travel and any sort of farming difficult. You'll find more hunters and fishermen here than farmers, although a marsh-friendly plant called Malanga grows wild and forms the foundation of the citizens' diets. The architecture of the area is very attractive, all soaring spires and graceful design, but don't be entirely fooled by this book's pretty cover -- one of those buildings is Warnorken Castle, inhabited by Baron Reuen von Jura, the main villain in the zone. The strife doesn't begin and end with the Baron and his persecution of those living in the forest. The principality of Shador is home to some of the most skilled archers in the land. The citizens of Shador are ready and willing to defend their city from attackers, and there are even rumors of a mysterious alliance with those in the neighboring Milasso Forest -- they're not a people you want to make an enemy of. Take a look at the entire preview at IncGamers.
BioWare's Ray Muzyka on how to make single-player gaming more social
The good folks at IncGamers had a chat with one of BioWare's founding medical doctors, Ray Muzyka, about the company's history of classic single-player gaming and its upcoming foray into the world of massively multiplayer with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Muzyka says that the line between solo and collective experiences is blurring: even traditionally single-player games are dipping into the vast realms of multiplayer co-op and competition through online social tools and downloadable content. Speaking specifically, he says that Dragon Age: Origins is a good example, with online social features for what is definitely a single-player experience. And Mass Effect 2, he says, will explore these ideas through its own DLC. In fact, he outright guarantees us that BioWare is "planning more [DLC] than in Mass Effect 1." As players who couldn't get enough of the two packs on offer for the original game, that's Muzyka to our ears.
Free to play an option for Age of Conan
It would appear that for Funcom, going the way of free-to-play with Age of Conan isn't entirely off the table. At least so says Erling Ellingson in a recent interview with IncGamers. There's certainly a precedent with Anarchy Online having gone that route long ago and its director -- at that time -- was also Craig Morrison. So really, all bets are off on this one.Still, for the time being subscription remains the primary method of play. Our guess? Funcom is probably waiting for the first expansion or two before opening the original game for free to play access, much like they did with Anarchy Online. So if anything, this probably won't be happening for a couple more years. That is, unless things rapidly go south for the Norwegian games developer. But with The Secret World looking quite interesting. they've got a good chance at making a comeback.[via MMORPG]
Analyzing Mortal Online: Is it for you?
Mortal Online is a game that has piqued the interest of many bored or jaded MMO gamers lately, as it has a few features that promise to be different. What's that? You've heard it all before, dozens of times? Yes, but this time it's different! Seriously though, don't take our word for it (because none of us have actually played the game...), but as we get closer to the game's launch, we're still getting a lot of info on the game to possibly even excite us. Yes, even the jaded among us.In a recent feature article at IncGamers, they take an in-depth look at what the game has to offer, thanks to a recent presentation by Star Vault, Mortal Online's developer. "We would like you to please forget your preconceptions of MMORPGs." Star Vault begins the presentation by saying. "Mortal Online deviates from most modern fantasy MMO's, and although it contains a lot of elements from let's say World of Warcraft or Age of Conan, the playing experience is very, very different from those games." Check out the complete 3-page article to learn more about what Mortal Online has to offer. You might find it's just the game for you, if released with everything they claim.
The possibility of a Terminator MMO
Let's start this post off with a bit of a warning: a Terminator MMO has not been announced, and this has nothing to do with the Terminator iPhone "MMO" announced last year. This is merely playing off of some speculation over at Ten Ton Hammer regarding a story at IncGamers. Apparently, when IncGamers interviewed Halcyon Games production executive Mic Rogers, the Terminator MMO topic came up. "You know what, it's something we've looked at," Rogers said, in regards to any MMO plans using the franchise, "and it's an interesting space for sure."The Halcyon Company recently purchased the rights to the Terminator IP, and are working on a game to coincide with the release of Terminator Salvation. While he confirmed that an MMO version has been considered, he said that there are no concrete plans.
SWTOR lead designer discusses combat and world design
In the the second part of their two-part interview with Star Wars: The Old Republic lead designer James Ohlen, IncGamers extracted a little more information about combat and world design. While Ohlen remains cheekily ambiguous about how the combat system works, he does mention that he thinks it's not entirely comparable to anything else out there. We're interested to see if that remains to be true once BioWare has revealed the system in the future.As for world design, one of the big aspects of the Star Wars universe is that it has tons of planets covered by one geological feature -- you've got desert planets, water planets, city planets and so on. Ohlen wouldn't provide an answer on whether or not BioWare was going to break this tradition, but he did say to expect a mix of old and new, which isn't exactly a no or a yes. In the end it probably doesn't matter, as places like Tatooine or Coruscant can be turned into a singlular zone. BioWare has finally unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, their new MMO! Massively's got you covered on all the details -- from liveblogging the announcement to screenshot galleries and more. Join us in the Galaxy far, far away!
Star Wars: The Old Republic interview reveals shiny new information bits
IncGamers had the opportunity to ask Star Wars: The Old Republic's lead designer James Ohlen some questions regarding the newly announced title. The most interesting of responses from Ohlen have him making very strong hints that while 300 years have passed since the first two titles, everyone's favorite assassin droid will make a return -- among other possibly alien species. We also learn that even though certain characters obviously won't have lived that long, quest will make plenty of allusions and references to legacies of past characters.Another interesting reveal is that more than 100 people are currently working on Star Wars: The Old Republic. That's a fairly reasonable number for an MMO, but it gives us a good idea for how much effort is being put into a game that's apparently in a pre-alpha stage. BioWare has finally unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, their new MMO! Massively's got you covered on all the details -- from liveblogging the announcement to screenshot galleries and more. Join us in the Galaxy far, far away!
Bartle calls Blizzard out on torture quest in Wrath of the Lich King
Richard Bartle, co-creator of the first multi-user dungeon MUD, has expressed his displeasure with Blizzard over a Wrath of the Lich King quest -- titled, "The Art of Persuasion" -- that involves the torture of a character for information. "I'm not at all happy with this. I was expecting for there to be some way to tell the guy who gave you the quest that no, actually I don't want to torture a prisoner, but there didn't seem to be any way to do that." said Bartle on his feelings about the quest. He also said that a player must complete this quest in order to proceed into an instance called Nexus, but those we've spoken to have told us the quest is merely part of a chain that can be completed in the instance.We mostly feel disappointed in Blizzard, because they've missed an opportunity to make something thought provoking. Players are simply given one option with no real consequence instead of pointing out the cruelty of torture or letting a player decide whether or not to do it and find another way to complete the quest. Beyond even that, this quest does kind of break the lore aspect of being a good guy (Alliance) or a misunderstood good guy (Horde) when you're doing exceptionally evil things.[via IncGamers] One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
Addon Spotlight: WhoDrop
Lots of us have encountered those wide-eyed and eager WoW players who walk up to anyone with epic gear and say, "WoW! Where'd you get that? That's uber-cool lol!" We may even be that sort of player from time to time, if we see a piece of gear we think looks really wonderful or seems particularly useful. WhoDrop answers that question for you before you even ask. Whenever you inspect another player (I'm using Examiner for that in the screenshot above), WhoDrop will insert a line at the bottom of the tooltip for each item you examine, telling you where exactly that item can be found. It'll tell you which boss drops it, whether it's crafted or not, or even how many Honor or Arena points it'll cost you to buy. Another addon which has a similar function is called Mendeleev, but I found that it overloaded me with too much information, so I went with WhoDrop instead. (Incidentally, the other two tooltip-info addons prominent in this screenshot are RatingBuster, with the stats, and Auctioneer, with the price information.)Additionally, if you're approaching a certain boss fight, grinding a certain reputation, or PvPing for certain rewards, WhoDrop also features an expandable list of the items you can get from these various sources. It was also recently updated to include the Arena Season 3 gear, so you can now drool over that any time you wish. If you want a prettier interface just for looking at boss drops and such, you might consider AtlasLoot, which has most the same information and is easier to browse through (but it has no tooltip info -- you'll still need WhoDrop for that). AtlasLoot is a plugin for Atlas maps, which can help if you ever get lost in instances.You can get WhoDrop at IncGamers, but I prefer to get mine direct from wowace.com, and keep it up-to-date with the WoW Ace Updater for the Mac.
