Advertisement

MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively

alex ziebart
Owner
Updated ·2 min read

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around: past, present and future.

The Old Republic adopts Mass Effect's conversation system
BioWare lead designer and storywriter Daniel Erickson drops a few interesting nuggets about Star Wars: The Old Republic's well-publicized voice system. In an interview with CVG, he gives credit to Mass Effect, BioWare's celebrated single-player RPG, for inspiring a complete change in The Old Republic's voiceover content.

China's Ministry of Culture to introduce stricter gaming regulations
The Chinese Ministry of Culture is tightening gaming restrictions in what they say is an effort to protect minors from undesirable content in gaming. "Unwholesome" and "inappropriate" were the words used, and games targeting minors will be required to avoid such content beginning August 1st.

A brief history of Second Life
Second Life has just seen its seventh anniversary (called its seventh birthday, only it technically isn't -- the original birthday is in March, but the anniversary is in June. There's history there). It's also traditionally a time when Linden Lab and Second Life users most often treat each other as enemies and obstacles; and it is a time for retrospectives and for considering the future.

Free Realms celebrates 12 million registered players
Free Realms, the family-themed virtual world from Sony Online Entertainment, has just announced its 12 millionth registered user in a press release. Yes, we know that's not 12 million players, and your guess is as good as ours as to the actual number of individuals logging in. Regardless, a lot of people have tried the free-to-play title.

Anti-Aliased: Don't worry, it gets better in time
Anti-Aliased, Massively's weekly dose of strong opinions from Sera Brennan, tackles the "it gets better with time" defense of bad games. If a game doesn't get good until endgame, can you call it good at all?

All Points Bulletin's voice chat feature will contain advertisements
While looking through the payment options in his account management page early this morning, one APB forum poster spied a strange button that set off a few warning bells in his head. Marked "VOIP Premium," the option removes adverts from APB's in-game voice chat for 30, 90 or 180 days in exchange for payment. This set off warning bells for players (who wants constant ads in their MMO?) but an APB community manager calmed many of those fears.