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Choose My Adventure: Beginning my Wizard101 adventure
Well, it was an epic battle. Little did I know that, in an effort to promote a random assortment of high-quality free-to-play and indie games, I would come up with the formula for the destruction of the entire universe. Over the last few days, readers cast their votes (and their nasty comments) in the hopes that I would take a look at their favorite game for well over a month. After all, it would expose everything that is good (and bad!) about their game and might draw in many more new players. Not to brag, but a lot of eyes are drawn to our lovely little site here. Each game I chose was nestled alongside a mortal enemy. Wizard101 had MapleStory to tackle. Puzzle Pirates had Zentia. My planning only lead to mass chaos as the giant of the bunch, MapleStory, barely opened an eyelid. Then, out of nowhere, Anarchy Online swooped in and punched everyone in the eye. It looked like the 10-year-old masterpiece of sandboxy goodness would win for the oldies in the bunch! (The AO community's passion for the game inspired me to cover it in my other column, Rise and Shiny, for the week of January 16th.) Where was Shadowtale? At the time of this writing, the game boasted literally thousands of players on at one time. Yet they barely pulled in a handful of votes. Pirates of the Burning Sea seemed to give up early, as evidenced by forum posts. (I was following all the games' forums.) In the end, Wizard101 pulled it off. While I knew the game had the numbers, I wasn't sure that it could herd all of the cats together in time. It did teach me one thing, though: Don't mess with the tweens. Join me past the cut for the next vote and for some information about Wizard101.
The Perfect Ten: The sadistic shopper's list for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
With the holiday shopping season upon us, gamers are hot for great deals and cheap entertainment. As my wife's logic goes, if something is 80% off, you buy it, even if you didn't really want it in the first place. It's the principle of the thing, an automatic 80% dose of smug satisfaction at being a savvy shopper! Not every deal should be pursued, however. Although most video games are playable for years and decades after release, not so with MMOs that have had their service shuttered. It's recently come to my attention that even though these games are completely unplayable -- rendered nothing more than a few cents' worth of a DVD and cardboard packaging -- online retailers haven't kept up with the times and keep these products on the virtual shelves long past their expiration dates. That's not to say you should avoid these products at all cost, because studies show that a large percentage of Massively readers have a sick and twisted sense of humor. What would make a better gift this Christmas than a multi-million-dollar-budget MMO that died a horrible death years before? So don't be the typical gifter who settles for a Blu-ray player or an iPod -- give a package of misery, disillusionment and broken dreams! Hit the jump for 10 items that absolutely belong in your shopping cart if you wish to be feared!
Class abilities come to light in Faxion Online announcement
It looks like players of the highly anticipated PvP-centric free-to-play MMORPG Faxion Online will use a wide variety of abilities and powers to experience the core of the game. While someone will raise those levels and sharpen those skills the old fashioned way, she can also improve on those abilities using queued, offline skill training similar to EVE Online's. Abilities include Shockwave, a wave of force that will knock back enemies and deal damage; Legion, an ability that only Hell players will get (because Hell is the cooler side) that releases spirits into the bodies of its victims (hopefully while Raining Blood plays in the background;) and Tribunal, which allows players to flourish a weapon, causing all sorts of bodily damage to nearby enemies. That's not all: there are 50 abilities per class available at launch, allowing multi-class cleverness or single-specialization accuracy. All of the abilities grow normally with time, but their advancement can be sped up using microtransactions. Some abilities will be level-limited, however, to ensure that no one player has such an advantage. We visited UTV True Games during GDC Online, so check out that tour here. The game seems to be in great hands -- its developers harken from the lands of Ultima Online, Shadowbane, and many other popular titles. Keep an eye out because the game is expected to hit beta stages later this year. That means you still have time to download some Dio. Or, if you're on the Heaven side, here's something more your speed. %Gallery-113832%
UTV True Games readies Faxion Online
Ready to do your part in the eternal struggle between the forces of heaven and hell? No, we're not talking about the Bible Online or, God forbid (please), another Left Behind game, but rather UTV True Games' Faxion Online. The free-to-play fantasy title features endless battles for territorial control over Limbo, the war-torn nether realm that exists between paradise and eternal damnation. While the idea of banishing PvPers to the depths of hell might appeal to some, Faxion is aiming to attract both PvE and PvP players, and encourages factional struggles to control the fate of the seven deadly sins (which make up the title's contested zones). If it sounds a bit unusual, it is, but it's also being produced by a team that includes veterans of both Ultima Online and Shadowbane, so we'll be watching this one with a fair bit of interest.
The Daily Grind: The Dead Pool
Now it's widely known that MMORPG players are a cheerful, optimistic bunch [citation needed]. It also goes without saying that no Massively reader would ever be caught wishing the downfall of a particular MMO or company [citation needed]. After all, the more titles that survive and thrive, the more the genre as a whole grows. With games like EverQuest, Ultima Online and Asheron's Call pushing well over a decade of run-time at this point, MMOs have proven that -- given a chance and enough initial steam -- they can go the distance. However, realism is a nasty mistress, and we can't ignore the fact that sooner or later MMOs will shut down. We've seen some flare up and burn out quickly (Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault), some struggle for years before capitulating (The Matrix Online, Asheron's Call 2), and some quietly put to pasture after all attempts at prolonging life failed (Shadowbane). The dark truth is that even the games we currently play have a finite lifespan, and one day will see their light extinguished. Cheery, right? So today, let's engage in a bit of macabre speculation and wager on a MMO dead pool. Without using this as a platform to rail against a MMO you hate and were personally wronged by on one midsummer's eve, what MMO do you think will be the next to close its doors? Will it be one of the newer titles, or one published by a company that has the tendency to shutter struggling games, or an aging beauty? Enter into today's dead pool, and earn the right to say "I told you so!" when the sad day happens. Because that will totally make you look tactful, don't you know.
PAX East 2010: Community manager panel
Community managers are the very definition of a paradox. They're some of the most public faces of the game, yet their role is often least understood. They serve many masters -- developers, players, marketing, press -- and are beholden to all of them at once. They're often on the blunt end of unrestrained love and unfathomable anger. No matter what they are, one thing is for sure: their job rocks. At least, according to a CM panel at PAX East entitled "Community Managers: More than Forum Monkeys." In it, five CMs from various studios shared just what goes on with their job, what limits they deal with, and what are the highs and lows of working in the public limelight 24/7. Meghan Rodberg (Turbine), Aaron Trites (Harmonix), Morgan Romine (Frag Dolls), Jess Folsom (Bioware Austin) and Linda Carlson (Sony Online Entertainment) spent a candid hour with an audience pulling back some of the mystique and misconceptions of their positions as supposed monkey tamers. Hit the jump to read about the inner workings of these fabulous five community managers.
The dangers of PvP-focused games
The trouble with PvP is... well, there are several problems with PvP. The problems of balance are always there, of course, as they are in every aspect of the game. There are the problems of making PvP both accessible to new players and rewarding for veterans, their are issues with keeping people engaged in the game without being gimmicky, there are issues with even such little things as how players get equipment. But as Scott Jennings notes in his most recent column, a lot of the problems with PvP-centric games center around perceptions -- both those of the players, and those of the developers. Developers who make PvP-centric games frequently are players of games themselves, of course, and so when they strike off to make a game with "PvP done right" they can sometimes fall victim to tunnel vision regarding their game. (Jennings cites Shadowbane, Darkfall, and Fury as examples here.) But there's also a problem of perception from the player end, as whether or not a class is overpowered often pales in comparison to whether or not the players believe it's overpowered. From Guild Wars to EVE Online, every PvP game has had to contend with these issues, so it would be well-advised to take a look at the full column if you're at all interested in the design of games.
The Daily Grind: What MMO would you like to see be brought back to life?
Today is a day where we should honor our fallen. Motor City Online. Tabula Rasa. Auto Assault. Asheron's Call 2. Earth and Beyond. Underlight. Shadowbane. Castle Infinity. The Matrix Online. The Sims Online. Seed. All of these games, and more, are MMOs that have launched, played, and then died.Each of these games has a reason for why it was cancelled, but the outcome remains the same -- they aren't online today and their clients are nothing more than wasted code sitting on a disk. Some of these games were our introduction to the genre. Others were our favorite games -- the ones that could trump even the largest names in the MMO business.So Massively readers, which dead MMO would you like to see be resurrected? Tell us some stories as to why you pick your game of choice, and drop them all in the comment box below. Mourn with others, we encourage it!
Redefining MMOs: Pesky Persistence
Here in Redefining MMOs we've been over terminology, working with lore, the place of soloing in our online games, players acting as developers, and attempting to get away from the carbon copy feel of the genre. With all of that in mind, where could we possibly head to next? Well, how about dealing with persistence?One persistent world holding thousands of players simultaneously, a world that continues even when you log off. That was the dream, wasn't it? Having an insane number of players all occupying the same game space? Having you and 100 of your closest friends (or perhaps enemies) battling it out over loot, bosses, pvp, and anything else the game had to offer? Persistence has long been one of the central aspects of the MMO genre, where "one continuous world" rules over all. So is persistence what defines an MMO or is it not that clear cut? Perhaps persistence is nothing more than a pesky piece of unpleasant pie and maybe we shouldn't define our genre by it as we do now.In this issue of Redefining MMOs, I'm going to tackle the thorny issue of persistence, from its definition down to what we perceive the word to mean. I'm also going to include a discussion on two very different games -- 1 vs. 100 and Chromehounds -- and put both to the MMO persistence test. Then, as the article all comes together, I'm going to tackle the biggest question of them all: "Does persistence matter?" If you have an opinion on this week's subject, feel free to leave a comment on page 3 or even write your own "Redefining MMOs" blog post and leave a comment with the URL.
Funcom and Stray Bullet license Allegorithmic's Substance Air platform for their MMOs
Two developers have simultaneously turned to a brand new texturing solution for their future MMOs, according to Gamasutra. Both Funcom and Stray Bullet have licensed Allegorithmic's "Substance Air" middleware package, a new set of programs that lets developers keep high resolution textures as extremely small files and even let users modify textures for in-game customization options.Funcom is almost a given for which game this would apply to, as The Secret World is the only game currently on their radar. Stray Bullet, best known as the creators of Shadowbane, is a bit trickier when it comes to saying how it will impact on their new MMO offering.Simply known as the "future fantasy MMO," Stray Bullet has also licensed Simutronics's HeroEngine, the same engine that's currently powering Star Wars: The Old Republic. What they're up to is anyone's guess, but the presence of the extremely versatile HeroEngine and the addition of Substance Air could be pointing to a nice level of user-customization and/or "on-the-fly" developing coming with their latest unannounced fantasy offering.
Shadowbane closure date extended to July, possible new lease on life
We thought we'd seen the end of Shadowbane in April, but we're happy to report that we were wrong. The game's servers were scheduled to go dark yesterday, May 1st. Ubisoft said this was the case and the developers said their goodbyes. However, overwhelming response from the playerbase is now keeping the game alive a bit longer for a proper farewell, and this stay of execution could possibly allow the devs to seek other options. Shadowbane developer Xanther writes, "Following our recent news, the support and enthusiasm the community has shown for Shadowbane has led to an extension of the closure date to July 1, 2009. This should allow the community enough time to play out its final days appropriately. We are looking into various options to make these final days as fun as possible!" It seems they're also looking into options beyond closure events for the players. Thanks to a tip from Massively reader NT_we see that Aeria Games has mentioned on Twitter that they're interested in picking up the game and are in discussion with Ubisoft. Also, Aeria Games is seeking input from Shadowbane players to help determine how viable running this title would be. You can let them know via Twitter at @aeriagames. While the situation still remains grim, that Shadowbane has roughly two months of time left, we're happy to see there's potential for a new lease on life for the game if publishers are willing to keep it running. If Massively learns that Shadowbane gets picked up by a new publisher, we'll be sure to let you know.[Thanks, NT_]
KingsIsle's Todd Coleman on Wizard101: Finding the middle ground
How do you go from the hardcore hacking and slashing impact-PvP of Shadowbane to a turn-based card combat MMO featuring cow samurais named Sam-moorai? How does one create an experience that is more grown up than Club Penguin but more kid-friendly than Barrens chat? What do you get when you take Harry Potter, Yu-Gi-Oh, and early Final Fantasy and then mix them in a blender?The MMO Gamer asks these questions and more in an interview with Wizard101 Director, J. Todd Coleman; the man who conceptualized the original idea for the game on a note pad. The interview sheds light on how Wizard101 came to be, the free-to-play model, and potential directions the game may take in the future (e.g., player housing).Todd also tells us that reports of the game surpassing 1,000,000 players are outdated and that KingsIsle will be making an announcement soon to highlight their exponential growth since releasing six months ago. He claims that Wizard101 wouldn't have had nearly this much success if it was a $50 retail purchase and $15 per month subscription. About subscription-based MMOs he says, "...you're fighting a war of attrition the entire time. FTP is not like that, at least it hasn't been for us."
MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all MMOs, including WoW! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world. Face-capturing tech to be "in-game soon" for Age of ConanLopping off heads in Age of Conan might soon be taken very personally, as ShackNews has reported that some fancy face-importing technology is being prepared for use in-game -- you're bound to be just a tad more put out when you see your actual face rolling away on a decapitated noggin. The technology itself comes from a company called Big Stage Entertainment, and you can already get a feel for how it works at their website by registering an account and creating your own 3D "@ctor". SOE storms the internet with Free Realms beta promotionsThis weekend saw one of the largest beta key giveaways in MMO history with tens of thousands of special codes being handed out at once by several different outlets. Aside from the normal MMO news and fan sites, the Free Realms Twitter account has been giving away a thousand keys at a time. A rocky start for Warhammer's 1.21 patchPatch day in an MMO is always hit or miss, but according to a number of sources, Mythic's 1.21 patch for Warhammer Online broke many core components of the game that still haven't been fixed several days later. A public acknowledgment appeared on the WAR Herald this past weekend, but some players are still furious.
As the moon wanes, Shadowbane is no more
The developers of Shadowbane will shut down its servers for the last time on May 1st, 2009. The closure comes only weeks after its 6th year anniversary and a year after the historic "Shadowbane Reboot," which relaunched the game to take advantage of better stability and performance architecture.Shadowbane launched in March 2003 and was a pioneer for open-PvP, political intrigue, and dynamic world content, where the player could actually have an affect on the game's environment. Unfortunately, the title was plagued by stability issues at release, which prevented it from ever becoming much more than a cult classic. The game saw two expansions in its lifetime: Rise of Chaos (Dec 2003) and Throne of Oblivion (Dec 2004).Ownership of the MMO changed hands several times over its lifespan and while it originated as a subscription-based game, it eventually went free-to-play in March 2006 and finally ad-driven in March 2007. We're always sad to report the demise of an MMORPG, so let us leave you with the fond memories of one of Shadowbane's developers.Thanks for being a sometimes inspiration and sometimes whipping-boy for the MMORPG genre, Shadowbane. May your soul be eternally bound to the Tree of Life.
Don't expect World of Warcraft on the PS3 or Xbox 360 ever
Blizzard Entertainment's Rob Pardo is a bona fide Rockstar in the gaming industry. In his recent keynote speech at the Game Developer's Conference at the Paris GDC he continued to indirectly extinguish rumors that suggested World of Warcraft is coming to a Console, rumors that stretch back years. While not specifically talking about World of Warcraft, when Pardo was asked what kept MMOs from Consoles he responded: "Lack of hard drive space, and difficulty in certifying patches. Basically just that.... another problem is that they want a piece of the subscriptions (laughs)." That's a simplistic answer coming from the Executive VP of Design at Blizzard Entertainment, but there it is laid out in plain sight, a truth even if shared in a humorous fashion. Giving Microsoft or Sony residuals, most likely a big chunk is one thing keeping World of Warcraft off Consoles. Is that a bad thing? No, but Blizzard could be missing something here, and just maybe Rob Pardo is plain wrong about what's keeping MMOs away from Consoles. It's simple really...
Speculation: Shadowbane devs making Wii MMO
Stray Bullet Games – the Austin-based developer formed from the ashes of Wolfpack Studios, the crew behind MMO Shadowbane – is looking for a few good coders. Specifically, they've got two positions that need filling: one for Gameplay Programmer on their as-yet-unnamed "MMO Project" and another for Sr. Programmer on a similarly as-yet-unnamed "Wii Project." Now, before you go crossing your eyes and reading that as an MMO for Wii, the two are clearly presented as separate projects; however, what's not so clear is the company's "In Development" page which reports that it's "in development of a new massively multiplayer online (MMO) game based on an original intellectual property conceived in-house." Not a new massively multiplayer game and a new Wii title or any other variations that would indicate more than one title under active development. We'll refrain from rampantly speculating on the potential existence of an MMO for Wii until we hear back from Stray Bullet (we've asked them to comment), so instead we'll share the above graphic from our enthusiastic comrades at Massively. [Via Massively]
Shadowbane dev studio to create MMO for the Wii
Here's a weird Venn diagram for you: those of you who remember Shadowbane with fondness and also love the Nintendo Wii will be totally excited about this piece of news. Stray Bullet, the Austin, Texas MMO developer, have announced that they're working on a new MMO. At the same time, they've posted a few openings on Gamasutra's JobSeeker board, one for a Senior Programmer for an un-named Wii project, and the other for a Gameplay Programmer for an MMO project. Neither posting mentions the other, but chances are, they're for the same project. Really, there's no bad time for wild speculation, so let's get the ball rolling! We're envisioning, obviously enough, actual hack and slash combat with the nunchuk and wiimote. Maybe crafting might take on a whole new dimension with the use of the motion-sensing abilities of the Wii. Maybe it'll be a massively Mii experience! Whatever's coming down the pike, we'll keep our ears to the ground for more info. With this on the way, can the Animal Crossing MMO be far behind? Hey ... what're the odds that this is the Animal Crossing MMO?
Darkfall producer talks about beta, testing and setting release dates
There's a PvP-oriented game with real-time, aimed combat, a wide variety of races and tactical gameplay, but it's name doesn't have Conan or Warhammer anywhere in it. Darkfall aims to be the best free-for-all, PvP oriented game ever made. "Too good to be true" is an accusation they hear often; and yet one they aim to live up to, says Associate Producer Tasos Flambouras in Darkfall dev journal #25. Though Darkfall is feature complete, they have not yet opened their doors to regular players. The devs have hired a team of professional beta testers to check through the game first. When they do open the doors, the game will be as close to a finished product as possible, and they can focus on tuning the game for various hardware configurations and stress-testing the server without having to worry about fundamental game issues at the same time.Darkfall NPCs go about their lives and level up as they age. Because the NPC AI is so sophisticated and seems exactly like a player to the servers, the NPCs themselves are doing a fair amount of game testing just by running around and exploring. Perhaps when the game goes live, the NPCs will eventually set up camps and build cities around popular player re-spawn points, the better to knock them on the noggins as they groan back to life. Darkfall's aim is to give players a world and let them do in it whatever they like. There won't be quests that tell you what to do, where to do it and what to do after that. It's well to the left of the sandbox-game MMO divide. Perhaps Darkfall will succeed where Shadowbane failed, to make a wide-open world where nobody is safe and anything can happen.
Using permadeath as a character reset
Damion over at Zen of Design combined (or saw his readers combine) two things that are rarely done in MMOs, and draw a lot of attention when they are done. Recently, permadeath has been brought up a few times (and implemented a few as well), and other games (most notably Shadowbane) have reset all character information in the game. And Damion asked if the two ideas complemented each other-- could permadeath make sure that, as with a character reset, everyone who gets too powerful is brought back to zero?It would only work, however, if lower characters could somehow stop someone who was too powerful, and as Damion notes, permadeath usually lets people accumulate power, not lose it. If one character is able to gain enough power to break the game and you combine that with a permadeath system, then any deaths he or she causes bring everybody else back to zero. And the balance to keep the lower characters powerful enough to stop the higher character and yet not overpowered is so precarious that, as Damion says, it usually ruins the game.But we are falling yet again into Damion's stages-- permadeath, it seems, just doesn't work unless you build your game around it, and then it can't necessarily be called permadeath anymore. The very fact of gaming means that, in a social game, to build a character worth playing, death, it seems, cannot stand in your way.
Shadowbane resets with Patch 22, on test servers today
I'm not sure if anyone's still playing Shadowbane since its release five years ago, but its developers are about to do the most radical thing you can do to a virtual world: they're hitting the reset switch.As of Patch 22, showing up soon on the test server for the game, the team has decided that "it would be best for the longetivity of the game" to completely reset all server and character data. They also say that there are certain items in game that make it unbalanceable, and so they're just starting over from scratch. There are a few other big fixes coming in the patch, but as they say, this will definitely be the "most talked about" change.And players are taking it surprisingly well. Over on the forums, most players seem happy that developers are taking major steps to fix the game. The servers will apparently use the Vorringia mapset, and lots of players are happy about that, as it's a popular choice. A few players are unhappy that they're losing everything, but the general consensus seems to be that making the game balanced is more important than keeping individual player data.Interesting. It's hard to imagine a more major game flipping a reset switch like this and surviving, but maybe Shadowbane will prove it's possible to reboot and keep a core audience that loves the game more than their own assets.[Via Wired]
