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MMO Mechanics: MOBAs vs. MMO battlegrounds
It may feel as if MMOs have always existed as a core part of our gaming repertoire, but the genre made its indelible mark on the industry just over a decade ago. MMO titans like World of Warcraft, EVE Online, and City of Heroes shaped the mechanics we now use as markers and basic standards for the quickly growing genre, and those mechanics have been reiterated and reforged by the countless additions to the MMO clan that we know and love today. This new MMO Mechanics column aims to navigate the mechanical minefield that is the modern MMO through in-depth opinion pieces, comparative analysis, and a little bit of Irish wit, starting with a peek at what distinguishes MMO PvP battlegrounds from Massively Online Battle Arenas. If women are from Venus and men are from Mars, MMOs and MOBAs must be from different galaxies altogether. Despite the similarities between MMO PvP arenas and MOBA matches, the two take very different approaches to progression, persistence, and matchmaking. This leads to two very separate yet equally engaging ways to test the mettle of your character against the might of a human opponent.
The Soapbox: League of Legends is the new World of Warcraft
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Every now and then, a game comes out of nowhere with such incredible financial success that it causes the games industry to completely lose perspective. All it takes is one game to start raking in the millions for developers, publishers and investors to stumble around with dollar signs in their eyes for years to come. Innovation grinds to a halt and everyone starts blindly copying whichever game just hit the jackpot. It's like some huge industry-wide superstition takes over and convinces people that if they do the same dance the same way, it'll rain again. World of Warcraft has consistently had this effect since shortly after its launch in 2004. To this day, several studios per year excitedly announce yet another fantasy MMO that lifts its entire feature set and every gameplay mechanic wholesale from World of Warcraft as if it were a model for automatic success. The same thing is happening again in online gaming today, not from MMOs but from MOBAs, a new genre based on the competitive gaming classic DotA. Developers are still chasing the massive money made by yet another hugely successful game, and this time it's League of Legends.
Win free Steam games with Spiral Knights and Rusty Hearts
If you've been checking out this year's Christmas Steam sales, you'll undoubtedly have seen the Great Gift Pile giveaway. By completing various game achievements and objectives, Steam users unlock prizes that can be anything from a lump of coal to discount vouchers or even a full copy of any game on Steam. There are reports of people winning massive prizes like Skyrim or the Valve complete pack, and even if you just get a lump of coal, it's still a valuable prize; seven lumps can be exchanged for a new random prize, and those left over at the end of the holiday event will count as tickets in a lottery to win a copy of every single game on Steam. While many of the achievements require the purchase of cheap indie titles, there are several ways to get your hands on a gift from the great pile absolutely free. Checking your Steam inventory page and trading any item with another user will get you two free gifts, and joining the 2011 Holiday Group will net you a third. Two more prizes can be collected by completing the Son of a Nutcracker! achievement in Spiral Knights and the All I Want for Christmas is Sewers achievement in Rusty Hearts, both of which are free-to-play MMOs available through Steam. Skip past the cut for details on how to beat the Steam gift achievements for Spiral Knights and Rusty Hearts, including full walkthrough videos.
Lord of the Rings Online releases first post-Isengard patch notes
Turbine has released the first round of patch notes since Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard launched last month, and boy-howdy, they read like a novel. Quest experience for higher-level quests has been adjusted, Scholar nodes in Dunland have been reduced, and a great number of other general fixes have been made. Almost every class -- on both the Freep and Creep sides -- has received some sort of adjustment as well. The full patch notes are available for your perusal at the Lord of the Rings Online official site.
Turbine celebrates Rise of Isengard's launch with monsters and movies
"The more we pretend that Middle-earth is safe, the blacker the enemy's shadow grows," an ominous voice proclaims at the start of the Rise of Isengard launch trailer. While Lord of the Rings Online's third expansion was officially slated to be released today, Turbine jumped the gun and got it out yesterday afternoon -- complete with patch notes. We'll be digging deep into Rise of Isengard this week on Massively, including broadcasting it on Massively TV and analysing the first few days of play in the next Road to Mordor column. To celebrate Rise of Isengard's arrival, Turbine is treating its fans to an inspirational launch trailer and several new screenshots demonstrating the fearsome might of Saruman's forces. You know the drill: screenshots below, trailer after the jump! %Gallery-9579%
The Road to Mordor: Power to the levelers
With Rise of Isengard creeping up on us, I've seen an increasing number of people begin to freak out about it, not because they're upset it's coming but because they're not prepared to partake in the expansion on day one. Now, this might not be important to you, but I assure you it's quite important to many -- lots of people like to be in on the excitement from the very beginning, and it's a special kind of torture to contemplate having to sit there and listen to your friends oohing and ahhing over the new zones and content while you're still poking your way through Moria. So because of this, some players really, really want to get a character up to level 65, prepared to do a dive roll right into Dunland when September 27th hits. It's understandable. Even I, a normally laid-back type of guy, am pushing hard to finish up Enedwaith with my Lore-master so that I'll have one character good to go on I-Day (that's Isengard Day). But what about those who don't have a level 65 in their pockets? Is it too late to get your act in gear and get up there before it's too late? Of course it isn't. I'm pretty convinced that you could even roll a fresh toon today and get him or her up to the endgame by I-Day, depending on how much time you can dedicate to it. Today we're going to look at a few leveling tips I've picked up over the years to aid those of you who want to kick in the afterburners of the leveling process so that you can make sure you're where you want to be. It's not even that hard!
New LotRO dev diary outlines future itemization improvements
Some days we feel like Paul Revere, riding our 120% mounts through towns and shouting announcements like "Rise of Isengard is coming! Rise of Isengard is coming!" It's OK, people probably prefer to get their news shouted at them by cyber equestrian newsies than any other method, right? And in the case of Lord of the Rings Online's latest expansion, it's good we do so, because a whole host of itemization improvements is coming to the game. In a new dev diary, the LotRO systems team lays out the path for itemization improvements, including where we've been in the game and where we're going with gear. Two of the biggest concerns that the team identified to fix were minute increments between gear upgrades and the inability to predict what combination of equipment players would use to hit the stat caps. Therefore, the caps will be removed and players should see more substantial gear upgrades with the expansion. The diary goes on to share how different segments of the player community will be able to access top-of-the-line gear in the future, including solo players, crafters, casual groupers, and raiders. Other interesting tidbits include desirable yellow gear, gear dropping in instance chests, and the addition of a non-gating stat called Finesse.
New Dota challenger Rise of Immortals goes into open beta
Petroglyph Games' Rise of Immortals has entered into an open beta, meaning that you can now try out this new entry into the growing Defense of the Ancients-based (sometimes called Moba) genre for yourself. Register an account on the official site, download the game client and you're good to play. Winning, on the other hand, will probably take longer than that, as these games aren't known for their smooth learning curves, especially if you're not familiar with the premise. We got to see this one back at GDC, and played it during the closed beta period. The game does bring some innovations to the genre, including a player-level progression system and a map that's designed specifically for a three-person PvE experience. Unfortunately, the polish just isn't there yet, especially when compared to more established titles in the genre like the very popular League of Legends. But then again, that's what a beta's for, right? No word on how long the beta will last, but given that it was supposed to start even earlier this spring, you can guess it'll probably be around as long as it needs to be.
