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Age of Conan's August letter previews the Great Hyborian Race
How do you implement open world PvP in an aging game? Age of Conan is going to do precisely that by running a race. Director Joel Bylos discusses the upcoming Great Hyborian Race in his director's letter for August, an event designed to promote PvP as well as give everyone a chance to see the game through new eyes. New players and old will have a chance for glory, fame, and fantastic prizes. How will it work? After the server merge (which has been delayed slightly by moving the game's offices), a new Blood and Glory ruleset server will be started specifically for the race. Players will have sharply limited use of XP potions, no use of offline levels, and a simple goal of reaching level 80 as fast as possible. Prizes will be given to players who reach the top first and who gain the most PvP experience. The letter also discusses upcoming unchained dungeons and upcoming unchained PvP, so even if you don't want to race you'll have something to explore.
Know Your Lore: 3 developmental changes needed for storytelling in Mists
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. One of the major things that vanilla World of Warcraft struggled with was a compelling story. Yes, we had a particularly epic tale spun with the release of Ahn'Qiraj and an even greater tale with Naxxramas. But while Onyxia, Molten Core and Blackwing Lair had stories that were interesting enough, it was difficult for players to pick up on those stories and follow them in a coherent fashion. Ragnaros in particular had a story that was entrenched in several different leveling zones as well as a few instances. Meanwhile, the zones that you encountered from level 1 to 60 by and large didn't have a coherent story to tell. Each zone had little tidbits of story here and there, but nothing seemed really dire or important beyond a few epic, sweeping quests. As for faction leaders -- well, they did very little beyond sit in their capital cities and occasionally send players on errands. This is something that has continually changed and improved with every expansion that has been released. The story in WoW has never been as accessible as it is now. But Mists of Pandaria has the potential to completely blow everything before it away.
Aeria opens new server for Call of Gods MMORTS
Call of Gods may not be a household name when it comes to MMORTS titles, but the free-to-play offering from Aeria Games must be doing something right. The company has just announced the addition of a fifth server, as well as a list of server-wide events designed to bring fame and fortune to some of its players. Events include a ranked player competition, group boss fights, alliance quests and upgrades, special hero and gear customizations, and "mystical rewards" for the top five alliances. Call of Gods is a browser-based MMORTS, and you can learn more about it at its official website. [Source: Aeria press release]
Player-run event in RIFT kicks off an eight-month war
One of the core conflicts underpinning RIFT is the righteous and absolute morality of the Guardians versus the technology and self-determinism of the Defiants. If you've been playing the game, you've been forced to pick a side, but sometimes that might not feel like such a big distinction in the midst of the PvE gameplay. A player-run public event is aiming at changing that by marching the Guardians across Telara to reclaim lost lands and take out the leaders of the Defiants -- and players of both factions are invited. Run by the Gaiscioch Family group of players, the event is taking place on the Faeblight server. It's a roleplaying-friendly gathering of players for both PvP and PvE clearing during the march to the home of the Defiant faction. Players who arrive are promised equipment, instruction on the game's mechanics, and plenty of support in the overarching quest to cleanse the land of the opposing faction. Take a look at the full rundown for more information -- RIFT players will have plenty of time to take part, as the events are running until August.
The Rikti return to City of Heroes
If you've played City of Heroes, you know who the Rikti are -- the dangerous race from beyond our dimension who invaded and nearly destroyed Paragon City. Over time they've slowly become less of a threat, but they've never truly left, and amidst all the talk of Praetorian invasion they've decided to remind heroes and villains alike who they're dealing with. That's right, it's time to get ready for another brawl for the fate of humanity as the full-scale Rikti Invasion returns to the live servers. Paragon Studios has announced that the invasion will commence at 9:00 a.m. PDT on November 4th and last until midnight PDT on November 7th, giving players ample time to take part in the battle against the invaders. While lesser invasions have happened from time to time, the full-scale invasion has been on hiatus for a while, but it remains one of the more popular server events. And if you're a new player to City of Heroes, it's your chance to see one of the biggest enemy groups in the game face-to-face. Fair warning, however -- despite what the header might suggest, most of the Rikti do not simply wish to dance at the tailor.
One Shots: A world-tour postcard
Here's someone we haven't seen screenshots from in a while -- our Lord of the Rings Online regular (and a seemingly resident rock star) Lockwood! Apparently he's been busy with The Shades, a very popular Lord of the Rings Online band that is part of the kinship he's in; The Shadows on the Laurelin server. Lockwood sent us the above screenshot postcard along with the scoop on their event:Over a hundred people showed up, no less than 80 at any one time, and one of the admins showed herself. Well, she made an appearance, she didn't show herself. I've got lot's of pics but it would take me a long time to sift through them for the best so you'll have to make do with this one. Hurray The Shadows! Hurray The Shades!Do you have any screenshots from fantastic in-game events that you've seen or experienced? Perhaps you're currently taking in the Fire Festival in WoW and have a great screenshot to show off? Maybe you're headed to the 5th SL anniversary party? Whatever the event, we'd love to see screens and hear stories from your point of view. Just send them to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com. Yours could be the next one featured!%Gallery-9798%
The Daily Grind: Guild-driven events
Recently, one of my World of Warcraft guild-mates issued a challenge to the rest of us. You see, he'd been messing around in Dire Maul North, just having fun, and thinking about how we used to speed-run Tribute as a guild time-killer. So, the other day he issued the challenge for the fastest solo run in DM North, killing all the bosses along the way. Several of us have taken up the challenge, and we've yet to see who the winner is, but we've all been having a blast with it in the meantime.For today's Daily Grind, we'd like to ask you what kinds of fun things your guild/fellowship/group does that you really enjoy? Is your guild a heavy RP guild, where you write epic story-lines for your guild to get involved in? Do you like to throw game-wide events like our sister-site WoW Insider did for the Stampede to Stormwind event? Or does your guild prefer to do smaller things behind closed doors like our group is doing in setting up silly challenges for in-game prizes?
