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The Daily Grind: What character creation option do you wish MMOs would include?
I'm one of those players who takes forever and a day just to make it through the character creation process (forever and two days if it's a superhero title). It takes so long because I just agonize over every little aspect of how my character looks, even though I'll be spending the rest of my game time with them looking at his or her back. Because of this, it does frustrate me when games skimp out on character creation options. MMOs that have only three hairstyles, or identical faces, or nothing but an absurd standard of beauty have me gnashing my teeth. I don't need sliders all the time, but some interesting options to allow me some degree of personalization would be dandy. So what character creation option do you wish MMOs would include? Are there beards, hair styles, scars, or accessories that you never see but wish you did? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Hyperspace Beacon: We hope this never comes out of SWTOR, but knowing our luck, it probably will
When I started the Hyperspace Beacon, I didn't want every article to be a stoic look into the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sometimes we need to kick back and have a little fun with the product that we love. We kind of earned it, right? Within the first couple months of articles, I examined the worst parts of the Star Wars games and movies and what is it that we hope to never see in TOR. That is when I wrote We hope this never makes it into SWTOR, but knowing our luck, it probably will. I speculated on not just what we didn't want to see in the game but how it would implemented. This week, I visit WHTNMIISWTORBKOLIPW again and ask about merchandising. There have been some horrific ideas that came out of the Star Wars franchise, and I don't just mean the changes in the Blue-Ray release. I shared a couple of these on Google+ this weekend. The Princess Leia Pizza Pringles has to be the worst. I didn't believe it myself until I saw the photographic evidence. We know that if SWTOR is hugely successful, Lucasfilm will certainly use that as an opportunity to capitalize on the game. Follow after the break for my leap into the world of TOR-vertizing. (OK, not everything works with TOR dropped in front of it.)
EVE Online Fanfest 2011 roundup: Day 2
It's day two of CCP's enormous party at the top of the world, and Massively is right here to find out what the future holds for EVE Online. In yesterday's day 1 roundup, we covered a fantastic presentation on Incursion by CCP Soundwave, an enlightening question-and-answer session with EVE's Council of Stellar Management, and the hilarious (but absolutely not work-safe) alliance leader panel. Today has been similarly packed with activity. We've seen some great presentations on what's to come in the summer expansion, and the keynote speech discussed some very exciting developments due to hit EVE in the near future. Highlights of today included a video of Incarna's "captain's quarters" that we'll be getting as part of the summer expansion, details of massive server upgrades heading to Tranquility, and details of some awesome quality-of-life changes coming soon thanks to Team Best Friends Forever. There was so much awesome information to share that we unfortunately had to miss the chessboxing match to get it out in a timely manner. We missed Icelandic game developers punching each other in the face to write this up, so I hope you find it interesting! Read on for a roundup of what happened today at the EVE Fanfest, along with detailed explanations of a few personal highlights from today's festivities and what we can expect to come later.
LotRO Outfit System and Barbershop details revealed
Lord of the Rings Online's next content patch, Book 12, is shaping up to be full of great additions to the game despite its lack of a new adventure area. Today the Turbine devs posted a new Dev Diary to explain more fully how they're going to implement two long-requested cosmetic features: the Outfit System and the Barbershop.At level 20, the Outfit system allows players to equip a second (and third!) set of gear. This gear doesn't provide any stat boosts or buffs, but will change the outward appearance of your avatar's equipment. This system will be disabled in PvMP to prevent players from tanks disguising their heavy plate with light cloth. New dresses, satchels and other non-combat equipment will also appear in the game with this patch.This is a great feature for a game where lore and roleplaying have such a large fanbase. Though not the first to do it (EverQuest II also has this feature), it's a welcome addition to the world of Middle-earth. If only Blizzard would get a clue and implement the same idea for those of us without armor sets. Looking like a clown at a kid's party with mismatched and garishly colored armor does not make one feel heroic.The Barbershop acts like the character creation screen. Want a new hairstyle? Regret coloring your toon's hair white? Need to add a scar to reflect winning a recent raid? Players will be able to do all this, plus a number of new hairstyles will be added.We're still am not convinced about the importance of facial features in game where you stare at the back of your character's head the whole time, but at least you can turn off helm/hood graphics so hair style and coloring choices still have impact.Book 12 just hit Roheryn, the Test server. We'll have a write up covering the notes shortly.
