Amanda Rivera
Articles by Amanda Rivera
San Diego wildfires affect EQ II customer support
To anyone living in Southern California, fire has become a season of sorts. I know when I lived there, just about every year we would be plagued with horrible raging blazes, and this year is no exception. There are several fires burning through the region at the moment, and one in particular is located in San Diego, is burning dangerously close to the Sony Online Entertainment offices in that city. For that reason, the company issued this statement regarding their customer service: In-Game support is in limited operation due to wildfires in the San Diego area, but response time may be delayed. Account and Technical Support is unavailable. We will keep you updated with any changes in the situation and appreciate your understanding. I can't imagine gamers playing EverQuest II will really make a fuss over having to deal with a little delay in getting through to someone. After all, it is just a game, right? And people's lives are in jeopardy here. Let's hope the fires are put out soon, for the sake of the staff, and the sake of the players of the game.
Machinima.com Beowulf trailer and mash-up contests
Are you over the age of 18 and live in the United States or Canada? Do you love to make movies using your favorite games? Fascinated with 8th century Old English epic poetry? Then you're in luck. Robert Zemeckis has a new movie coming out -- you'll never guess the title -- and he wants you to create the trailer for it. The movie itself is coming out on November 16th, so you have between now and November 4th to create your movie and submit it for judging. What I like about this particular contest sponsored on Machinima.com is the fact that included in the suggested methods for producing the movie is the use of footage from Lair. Now, I am not sure if this is just a ploy to sell more copies of a failed game, but I do know it's a cool idea. Beowulf itself looks to be made up of some sweet animation, so perhaps the use of footage from Lair isn't so far off from the look of the film. To be technical, there are two contests running here, one for a trailer and one for a mash-up. First prize for the mash-up is a $500 Best Buy gift certificate, while winner of the trailer contest will receive a $1000 Best Buy gift certificate. Pretty nice rewards, I must say. I would enter, but, well, I only watch movies, I don't know the first thing about making them.I realize that this isn't MMO news per-se, but it is news about machinima makers, and many of those play MMOs and may very well use their MMOs in creation of their Beowulf trailer. If you enter the contest, be sure to let Massively know so we can highlight your work.
RF Online is now free
It sounds like I am repeating myself, but honestly I'm not. No sooner did we post about the Fileplanet promotion connected to RF Online and their free game keys then the game went and changed its mind. I guess they realized that people like free games, particularly ones this pretty, and decided to give everyone a chance to experience their game, not just those with Fileplanet accounts. Armed with this knowledge, I proceeded to spend more time that I should have this weekend playing the game for the first time. I rolled a spiritualist since all my friends wanted to play DPS (I guess it happens in every game) or tanks. Interestingly enough I seemed to be the only one who rolled a spiritualist of the dozens of recent players on Sunday, so I guess I can make an assumption that people find it more fun to slash things with an incredibly huge sword than to heal others slashing things with incredibly huge swords. So far I like the game, apart from the slaughter of the Flems, an incredibly adorable race of telepathic bunny creatures that beg for you to stop hurting them. Exactly how much harm can they be doing to the area, really? I haven't seen much in the way of storyline, but like I said I was only in the game during this past weekend. One tip though, when you create your character, do yourself a favor and skip the tutorial. This tutorial assumes you do not know how to open an options menu, and will teach you how to walk in every direction, and you and I both know this is something you already know.
CoX halloween event starts today
Today Halloween has come to Paragon City. The holiday event we've been waiting for is finally here, and will be with us until November 4th. There are plenty of activities during these few weeks that you'll want to take part in. First off, there are classic costumes available to collect. Wish you could trick-or-treat as a Coralax Minion or Paragon Protector? Wish granted. There is also a Halloween costume contest, which you can participate in if you happen to be in New York and going to the ComicsOnline.com event.Baddies from years past are also back to join in the fun, err fight. The Unseelie Court is sending their minions to Paragon City, and that means that just about every nightmarish monster will be roaming the streets needing to receive some swift justice: werewolves, witches, vampires and more. I personally cannot wait to log in and see it all for myself. I have been away from the game for several years and haven't had the joy of knowing what a holiday event like this does to CoX.
Tabula Rasa end of beta event
As the game nears it's launch date, Tabula Rasa is planning an all-out war to end their beta. The dev team will be playing this Friday, October 26, 2007 between 10 PM and midnight central time, and players will get the chance to frag away at those that designed the game. I can't imagine it will be easy to do, but even Richard Garriott (they're calling him General British on the TR dev floor now) will be there fighting along with his troops.If you have not gotten a chance to try the game yet, beta keys are no longer available, I'm sorry to say. But cheer up. The game itself will soon be out, and you only have to wait until November 2nd for soon to become now.
DAoC's birthday gift
While most news surrounding Mythic these days has the words "Warhammer Online" somewhere in the title, today we spend a little time to celebrate their other great fantasy MMO: Dark Age of Camelot. DAoC has recently hit the six year mark, as was recently acclaimed by the game's producer Chris Rabideau in a letter to the readers. The game still has quite a following after all this time, and it is for that reason that he also took the time to talk about a few changes coming into the game in the coming months. Think of it as a DAoC birthday gift from the devs to the players, rather than the other way around. The devs are adding in an experimental test environment to their server structure. While this isn't the most medieval item to bring to a birthday party, it will enable the dev team to test some more robust technical elements that their current test server isn't capable of working with. I was hoping for some party favors and perhaps a hat or two, but I guess a new test server will do, at least for now. But where's the party, Mythic? Where's the party?
Stargate Worlds release date announced
Ten Ton Hammer has released a small tidbit from their cash of news after talking with Kevin Ballentine, the marketing director for Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. So far, the only piece of info they are letting slip through is the fact that Stargate Worlds finally has a release date:We've got a playable version of the game inside of our building. I'm not prepared to release our beta schedule yet, but I can say that we're going to be releasing the game in the fourth quarter of next year. You can do the math and figure out when our beta program will be.So my guess is we will be seeing a beta in the near future, but really anything goes in the beta business. I am wondering exactly how they are going to pull such a massive concept off. I mean, exactly how many Stargates are there in the universe? Yeah, I thought so. This is going to be one huge world.
Selling AO up the virtual river
It's a sad day for those living in Rubi-Ka. Funcom has decided that Anarchy Online isn't nearly messed up enough, and so have announced that players can now spend money for points that can used in-game to buy items. That's right friends, the economy was just flushed down the tubes by guys who make the game. How exactly is this a good thing? Sure, Entropia Universe uses actual currency in a virtual environment, but we're talking about a game that has been running for years under the system that you actually have to work to earn your money, and now they are just letting you buy it outside the came with cold hard cash. I guess the currency sales within the game by farmers was so massive that they figured "hey, if you can beat them, join them." This very morning I was mulling over the idea of starting up my account again and seeing how the game works with my updated graphics card, but I think I will pass. Can they please change the name of the company to something other than "Funcom?" It's misleading the players to believe that they are a publisher interested in the fun of the players, when this is so obviously not the case.
Hallow's End is here
To anyone who plays World of Warcraft the mention the month of October brings up images of trick-or-treating and bats circling above. That's right, the annual Hallow's End event has begun, and this year it is proving to not only be the best Hallow's End since they started the holiday, it's also the best holiday event of all. I'm not implying that saving Metzen the Reindeer from the pirates in Tanaris wasn't a blast, but there is just something about having both the Wickernan burning and the Headless Horseman riding through the villages of Azeroth that just screams "fun."As I mentioned, the newest incarnation of WoW's Hallow's End holiday event includes a 5-man encounter featuring the Headless Horseman. The fight is fairly challenging, and you can only tackle it once a day, but the items dropped from this fight are pretty amazing. My current favorite is the Sinister Squashling pet, although the paladin tank in our guild is oh so happy to have his Horseman's helm, and cackles madly whenever he gets the chance. The shiny loots dropped in the encounter have raised some bad blood on the part of certain raiders, but I personally hope that we have more bosses in holiday encounters in the future. Anything that brings out sense of humor already so evident in the game is a plus in my book. I just wonder, who will we be fighting in November, an angry pilgrim with an axe to grind?
Next stop Wonderland
So I admit it. When I first heard of an MMO called Wonderland Online, I rather expected to be running around an American McGee's Alice sort of world, full of Escher-like puzzles and creepy caterpillars. Boy was I off. Wonderland is a teeth-rottingly cute MMO, and the most recent game to be added to the IGG roster. You play as one adorable character from a pre-created selection (perhaps like a chibi Soul Caliber), and romp around fighting dancing pudding and mushrooms.If cute is your thing, you will definitely love this. No announcement has yet been made on a release date, but you can bet your fairy wings we'll be on top of it to let you know as soon as more information is available.
Bioware and the KotOR MMO
Primo has just confirmed some juicy news about the Bioware Star Wars MMO project we have been hearing rumors about. Well, if you've perhaps been living under a rock, let me summarize: people have been talking about the possibility of Bioware working in conjunction with Lucas Arts to build an MMO set in the Star Wars universe that isn't, you know Star Wars Galaxies. I'm here to tell you that we now know this game will be based on the incredibly popular Knights of the Old Republic.Now, despite my firm belief that George Lucas is a hack of a writer, he has some brilliance when it comes to world building and the marketing of those created worlds. To that end, I admit that this non-Star Wars fan is kinda excited about this news. It remains to be seen if the new Star Wars MMO will suck less than the current iteration of SWG. But then again, it is Bioware we are talking about, and that bodes all kind of well for this project.
Which supervillain are you?
In keeping with my fascinating with my mastermind in City of Villains of late and her growing ninja horde, I thought I would share with you a cute little quiz linked from Adventures in Azeroth. Normally this is the sort of thing people would post on their Myspace, but seeing as how mine is woefully neglected and I just plain like you guys better, I thought I would share it with you?Who am I most like? Mystique, which makes me all kinds of happy. She actually one of my favorite comic book characters anyway, and now I realize exactly why: we're connected, she and I, we share the same qualities, the same mysterious past, the same blue skin...well not that, but you get the idea. And I even collect the comic book about her (okay, so I'm that kind of geek, I'll admit it.) Take the quiz and tell us which supervillain you are most like.
Tabula Rasa wallpaper contest
The folks over at Tabula Rasa are super busy building their MMO, and so they need your help, all you artists out there. To that end they have announced a wallpaper contest -- the desktop kind, not the stuff that covers your dining room walls -- and the prizes are pretty swank. If you are overflowing with artistic talent and have just as much passion for the game, this is just the thing to combine your two loves and get something out of it. Should you need some more inspiration, they have graciously provided images and graphics for use in the contest (and in any fan sites you might want to create about the game) which you can download here.Now onto the good stuff. The first prize for the best wallpaper artwork submitted is a prize package that includes TR swag and other goodies from Ideazon totalling over $550.00. Runners up will also receive Zboard items and TR gear. In other words, you can get really yummy goodies for doing something you probably would have done anyway. The contest runs between October 15th and November 5th, so you have some time, but make sure you read the official rules before you start.
Game with the power of your mind
I have been waiting since I was a little girl for the day to come when science fiction would no longer be fiction. Sure we carry around computers the size of a phone, but where's the really juicy stuff? Evidently at Keio University. I know, I didn't think to check there either.If anyone is unfamiliar with the concept of biofeedback, then you need to watch more movies on the Sci-fi Channel. In 2005 a biofeedback project was started in Second Life, where heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs were measured and used within the game. Keio University's Biomedical Engineering Laboratory seems to have gone a step further. They say that a player wearing a special headpiece can think about moving their avatar, and the avatar actually moves. That's right my friends. No more clumsy mousing or fatfingering your keyboard. We can now game with our minds. Your brain can now be counted as a peripheral. The future is now, oh yes, the future is now. Related Story
Conan chats up the ladies
Age of Conan spent today's Friday update dealing with the women of Hyboria. Honestly, the first time I saw the proposed cover art for the game, I was a little surprised it didn't include, well Conan. Placing a female on their game is just one step toward proving that there is a place for women in this society (and not just a lusty tramps either, although they are in there as well.)Female characters will have the same amount of strength as male ones. Although this deviates from the original concept of women in the works of Robert E. Howard, but I think you'll agree that the portrayal of women as weak, fainting pansies wouldn't nearly be as fun to play as say, my hero Red Sonja. But the developers have gone to great lengths to make sure that women have their own identity in AoC, and to that end have created over 2500 unique female animations. Each piece of armor is specifically designed for the female form rather than being a copy of the male armor, as you can see in the screenshot above. It looks to be that the trend these days is to create women with equal strengths and abilities to men. While I am all for that, I also would like to point out the obvious: that a woman is not a man. In the original D&D female characters had a modifier -1 strength +1 charisma. Yes, I agree that women are as strong as men, but their strengths lie in different areas. Of course, the strengths of a woman are definitely harder to quantify, so I can see leveling the playing field for simplicity's sake. I suppose I am simply left with the question does a woman fight and/or deal with conflict differently than a man? Will there ever be a game that can capture this?Whatever the answer may be to those questions, I am suddenly very jazzed to play this game.
Game Update 3 for Vanguard
The dev team at Vanguard: Saga of Heroes have released notes on what is coming in Update 3. Although the list is small, it is certainly significant. This is just phase one, of course, so I am sure there is more to come. First up are the additions to Ksarvi Gulch, an area for adventurers in the low to high teens, where players will have access to three new quest lines which will add 20 solo quests into the game. Group quests are added to, but they aren't nearly as exciting as the news that players will get to fight astride black wyverns. Expect new rewards to go with your new quests, of course. What is epic questage without epic loot?Next up is the news that guild and player housing are getting some love. Guild trophies are now available for placement in your housing. Player housing will now be located close to a crafting center, with vendors and trainers galore. I think it's important to note that the items for said crafting will also be easier to obtain. As a lover of crafting in any game, anything that streamlines the trade skill process is a good thing.Last but not least is the addition of a spam filter into Vanguard. This comes after the constant, and sometimes overly exhuberent requests of the players that they be shielded from the barrage of messages they were receiving. If you are familiar with other SOE games, the spam filter is supposed to be pretty much identical, with a flagging feature that alerts Customer Service of the issue while the game happily removes spam messages before you even get them.Read the rest of Update 3 phase 1.
Guild Wars State of the Game: Splits chapter 4
I like this concept, I do. Guild Wars has asked a player to sit down and give their impressions of the game. It's truly a player's perspective on what they like, and sometimes what they don't like about the game. Seeing the competitive gameplay and atmosphere of the world through the player's eyes is something you don't normally get unless you live on gaming blogs (but then again, you're on Massively reading about the games you love, so perhaps you do live on gaming blogs -- I know I do.) This project is endorsed by the development team, which I see as a different take on the blog. The content is certainly different.The most current State of the Game series for Guild Wars deals with split tactics, those maneuvers that divide your opponents attention on the map between two or more points. Divided resources means you receive half the firepower from the enemy at any given point, making domination of the map that much easier. Now rather than spoil the read for you, I will let you know that chapter four deals with splits on Frozen Isle, Isle of Jade, Isle of the Dead, and Nomad's Isle. Because each map is different, the split tactics will vary depending on which you end up in. I knew there was a lot of strategy in PvP, but this is ridiculous. Related Story
SOE allies with Intergi
Sony Online Entertainment has partnered with Intergi, an online advertising company with a long list of happy gaming industry customers. Just who is on this list, you might ask? Well, how about Vivendi, Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Activision, Eidos, and Blizzard for starters? Sony has themselves an armada of websites, about 30 to date, so this is big business on both sides. SOE wants to make bank with the sites they already own and Intergi wants to let them. Seems like a match made in heaven to me. Related Story
Warhammer maps on Ten Ton Hammer
Seriously, there are so many puns for this one I will just steer clear of them all. Ten Ton Hammer has outdone themselves, publishing a Cartographer's Corner with all the lovely mapage from Warhammer Online that you could ask for, and even some you didn't. The maps themselves seem to be drawn by characters within the game, and give us more than just a sense of the vastness of this landscape. We're shown that this game will definitely have a sense of humor (just check out the sample above to see "wut" I'm talking about.)All told the current number of maps in the corner totals 19, and it looks like they are still expecting a few to fill out their collection. Are they MMO players or what! If you are at all interested in what this world looks like, pop on over to Ten Ton, and tell them Amanda sent you.
Forum Watch: Why remove the pipe wrench?
There are plenty of custom weapons going into Issue 11 of City of Heroes/City of Villains. One that didn't make the cut was the pipe wrench. Forum poster Cosma is as unhappy as I am that my hero won't get the chance to swing a big tube of metal at a thug's head. Well, at least not yet. Those that have a mace-wielding tanker will have to wait a little longer to get access to the pipe wrench, as BackAlleyBrawler explains: The wrenches are currently un-textured. Weren't supposed to go in in the first place. We'll re-add them as soon as someone gets a texture done for them.Possibly Issue 14...Until then you will have to find other heavy objects to do damage with. Might I suggest the kitchen sink, or perhaps a dishwasher?