Michael Zenke
Articles by Michael Zenke
Eurogamer pits Vanguard vs. EQII in first head-to-head MMO battle
Eurogamer has begun a novel way of 'reviewing' MMOs, a hilarious head-to-head competition premise for this notoriously finicky genre of games. The series is called the "Ten Levels Test", and it couldn't be easier to understand. The writers are going to install each of the games involved in the test, and then play through the first ten levels of the content. Whichever game is more fun will stay in the running, while the other will be uninstalled. There are going to be several rounds of gaming goodness, each pitting 'similar' games to each other in a trial of the second tier of massively multiplayer titles. Full details on the competition are available on the Eurogamer editor blog.The first competiion was between EverQuest 2 and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes ... and the result is not what you might have expected. Despite being welcomed into an EQ2 guild early in his career, writer Oli Welsh found that Vanguard was ultimately the more engaging world. A different twist on the typical fantasy, interactive combat, and a very fresh approach to storytelling grabbed the author, and gave the troubled title the clear win. Welsh points out that the starting experience in Vanguard was just recently added, and so its clear quality may be disarming or short-lived. Still, the purpose of this series is only to explore the first ten levels. Vanguard was the clear
Test server patch notes for Warhammer's "Bitter Rivals" event released
Patch days are like mini-holidays for MMO players. They're worth a beer, a cheer, and a heck of a lot of investigating. The upcoming Warhammer Online Patch 1.2 is worth a lot of cheering, as it ushers in the first of the proper Call to Arms expansion live events. What's more, at 55 pages, you'd cheer your throat raw before the improvements ran out. The biggest news, of course, is the addition of two brand-new character classes for the Greenskins and Stunties. The Choppa and Slayer will inject some much-needed enthusiasm into the game's playerbase. Here are some of the other highlights the devs have chosen to single out: A brand-new Tier 4 Scenario called the Twisting Tower. Much like the Reikland Factory during the Heavy Metal event, this is a limited-term engagement. Make sure you check it out while the event is up and running. All-new systems are being put into place for Open RvR! A "Rallying Cry" will draw players to conflicts in the first two tiers, while a new Zone Control Domination system will give players incentives to truly conquer those zones. Itemization has been revamped across the board, with dungeons, fortresses, and PQs all recieving tweaks and reconsideration. "Easy-mode" Public Quests are being added throughout the 2-4 tiers, allowing solo players and small groups to get that sweet PvE loot without having to grind Stage 1. Crafting is being given a significant overhaul. All the 'gathering' skills are now extraordinarily streamlined, and the 'creation' skills are now definitively associated with two gathering skills. Beyond the above there are numerous changes to classes, user interface improvements, brand new mounts, and an army's worth of bug fixes. The scope of this patch is daunting to contemplate, let alone read through, but if you want to give it a try the full and unadulterated list is available at the Warhammer Herald. Put on your helmed horn and go check it out.%Gallery-21882% Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
The Daily Grind: Would you craft more if it didn't bore you?
The announcement of streamlining and clarification of crafting coming to Warhammer Online has us thinking: what do you think of crafting in MMOs? Most AAA games offer some sort of non-combat opportunities, but generally they're far less engaging than the combat component of the gameworld. There are exceptions, of course, such as the minigame offerings of Puzzle Pirates or the elaborate tiers of pre-NGE Star Wars Galaxies. EverQuest 2 has made enormous improvements on its simple design by adding vibrant rewards and unique non-combat instances into the mix.The popularity of World of Warcraft has made their simple one-click crafting schema the 'defacto' standard, and a lot of players seem to enjoy that. What about you, though? If crafting was offered in a radically different way or was a central component to an MMO, would you be more inclined to participate? If it wasn't as simple as grinding through simple point-and-click recipes, would you join the noble ranks of the crafting elite?
Examining a new threat for the Old Republic
Over the weekend it was announced that The Old Republic would be arriving much sooner than expected. In comic book format, at least. The Threat of Peace will be an ongoing webcomic series written by one of BioWare's finest and produced by the same folks that handle the Dark Horse title Knights of the Old Republic. We had the chance to learn more about this undertaking thanks to an interview with the comic's writer over at IGN. Their discussion with Mr. Rob Chestney unveils a number of different infobits, including who will be doing art on the project (Alex Sanchez). According to Chestney the writers on the comic have a very specific length in mind, but they're open to more spin-off stories if the series does well. Readers will have the chance to familiarize themselves with characters they'll see in-game; as the comic will act as a sort of prequel to the Old Republic MMO, we should all have a greater appreciation for those characters when we meet them on quests. They'll apparently be posting three pages a week starting on the 27th, and that publishing rate should increase as they closer to the game's launch. Check out the interview for full details, and we'll be sure to give you a heads up when the first comics drop.
Preview of the revamp to the EverQuest 2 Lavastorm zone
The next big content drop for EverQuest 2 is coming in Game Update 51. As we discussed at the end of last year the developers are doing an 'EverFrost redux' on the Lavastorm zone, and now there's a preview of the new content up on the official EQ2 site. They'll be streamlining and refining the content that's already in place, making it easier to traverse the zone and enjoy the ongoing battle with the Sootfoot Goblins. In addition to this existing content two new dungeons, dozens of new quests, and a brand-new crafting zone for tradeskilling players. One of these dungeons will be an "x2", while the other will be an "x4", varying sizes of raid dungeons. The high level adventuring content sounds particularly interesting, as the Sootfoots turn from their dark magics to seek help against even greater evils. They'll be available as a faction that can be developed, without a doubt eventually leading to factional benefits and rewards. Full details on the Sootfoots, The Ward of Elements, and The Order of Flame are available on the official EverQuest 2 Players site.
BioWare and Dark Horse team up for The Old Republic webcomic
The official Old Republic website has a great announcement up today, undoubtedly the surprise that Sean Dahlberg mentioned in yesterday's Friday design post. In collaboration with Dark Horse Comics, BioWare writer Rob Chestney is going to be penning a comic book entirely within the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. What's even better: the comic will be entirely web-based and free to read. Here's the precis: "War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire has gripped the galaxy for generations, but the sacking of Coruscant and a subsequent peace treaty are changing everything. As the Republic scrambles to re-establish order, the Sith Empire moves quickly to consolidate power within its new dominion. Behind closed doors, however, individual Sith Lords engage in a quiet but deadly power struggle, and discord breaks out among the Jedi as they wrestle with the moral implications of the new galactic balance. During these chaotic days, the stories of several critical characters interweave as they pursue their passions, stand up for their convictions and ultimately lead the galaxy back to the brink of a catastrophic conflict."Read the announcement over at the official site, or dig into the full press release below the cut.%Gallery-35034%
Defining the design process for Star Wars: The Old Republic
Every Friday like clockwork the fine folks at BioWare Austin offer up a new tidbit to sink our teeth into. Last week was kind of a blowout, with the enormous video of Tython and how it was made. If you haven't had a chance to check out the best look we've had to date at Star Wars: The Old Republic, you owe it to yourself to do so. This week's offering was quite a bit more focused, delving into the design process used by the team to create a piece of the gameworld. Dallas Dickinson, Senior Content Designer for the game, walks us through the numerous steps required to get even one planet prepped for play.Beginning with the all-important research phase, the designers and developers iterate endlessly on the dialogue, writing, area layout, and art of a planet. What's striking is the sheer amount of interdependency and coordination required for something of this scale. Get a sense of that scale by reading through Dickinson's entry and mulling through the enormous amount of content the developers released last week to accompany the Tython video.Plus! Sean Dahlberg drops in near the end of the comments on the post to let us know something is coming. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for a special announcement!
Love is in the air as the Night of Murder goes live in Warhammer
Last week we brought you the news that the Night of Murder would be the precursor event to the ambitious Call to Arms live expansion to Warhammer Online. As February 14th inches ever closer (remember, your leveling partner might like a gift or two), the developers have pushed the first of these in-game events live to the servers. To accompany the new event, the Herald has a brand-new Grab Bag of bountiful information for you to sink your teeth into. Some highlights: All tasks for the event are unlocked from the get-go. No need to wait to get into the thick of it. Roughly 2 out of every 10 players will be marked, so there should be plenty of death to go around. Additionally, all keep lords are marked. Credit for marked kills goes to the group that killed the marked player; keep lords slain during the event bestow credit to everyone involved in taking out the keep. Rewards for the event include: a special title, a unique Night of Murder trophy, and at the top tier a unique trinket that will give you +5% renown when you're participating in RvR. That last item has a level 35 item restriction placed on it. For the full story, make sure to check out our interview with Jeff Hickman about the event, the official event page on the WAR site, and the full Grab Bag about the Night of Murder. Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Vanguard celebrates its second anniversary, game update
We were just recently talking about how much Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has improved over the years. Make that, as of this week, two years exactly as the MMO celebrates its anniversary with an in-game event. The actual birthday was on the 30th of January, but we're not going to quibble. While you missed the first night of festivities last night, tomorrow night there's a whole 'nother round for weekend warriors. They're giving out cake and fireworks for free, along with the chance to meet some of the well-known CMs and developers in-game. This week also saw the release of a brand-new update to the game. Unlike the massive Game Updates that have given Vanguard players so much in the way of new content, this is just a bug-fixing backend sort of thing. Highlights include a handful of new quests, some fixes to the appearace slot and general appearance systems, a few class tweaks, and some general housekeeping. Our favorite patch note: "The waters around the towers of BOD are now shark infested. Beware those who like to skinny dipping."
Rumors abound of a massive layoff at Mythic Entertainment
Joystiq is reporting today that Mythic Entertainment has been hit by another round of layoffs, this one much more substantial than the first. Using information corroborated by Massively.com sources, they're reporting that anywhere between 60 and 130 people have been let go from the company. Unlike the last round of layoffs, which primarily affected infrastructure positions, these have cut deeply into the design and development departments. Including, it is rumored, cutting into the ranks of the senior designers. This comes less than a week after the announcement of the Call to Arms expansion to Warhammer Online. The ambitious live event expansion is to introduce two new character classes and an entirely new zone's worth of content to the title, which just launched last year. Both Massively and Joystiq have extended invitations for comment to EA and Mythic, and we hope to have more information on this news soon. Update: Mark Jacobs, in a post to the Warhammer Herald, attempts to assuage possible player anxiety over today's layoffs. He describes the layoffs as a part of moving from the pre-launch to post-launch footing, alongside layoffs in line with EA's general cost-cutting measures.
Warhammer Online patch 1.1.1 drops onto the live servers today
Just a week after the announcement of the ambitious Call to Arms expansion for Warhammer Online, the first in a series of live events drops onto the game servers. Today sees the release of the 1.1.1 patch to WAR, bringing with it the sinister Night of Murder Valentine's Day event. This macabre outing (traditionally associated with the Witch Elf class) will give a poisonous new meaning to this traditionally saccharine-sweet holiday. Check out a snippet from our interview with Mythic's Jeff Hickman to get a sense of what you'll be doing for the next week.Other features of the 1.1.1 patch include the addition of new flight points throughout the game world, brand new quests from Keep Lords, and the launch of Warhammer Online in Russia. The Open RvR changes in particular are outstanding, continuing to build on the influence system the company put in with the last few patches. Full patch details are available on the Warhammer Herald site. Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
What WAR could learn from WoW about hybrid classes
Wizards and Wenches, a member of the ever-growing legion of Warhammer Online bloggers, put up an interesting post this week discussing the differences between hybrid classes in Mythic's flagship and World of Warcraft. He specifically takes WAR to task for the hard choices the designers require from players of healing classes. All healers in Warhammer are hybrids to some degree, and as a result their gear is split to support the different roles they can take on. In many ways this split resembles the first few years of hybrid gearing in World of Warcraft ... a gear structure the WoW desingers have since fundamentally changed to reflect player interests.Gear in Blizzard's behemoth now supports multiple specs with a single piece of loot, allowing players the luxury of choosing what role to play without having to maintain several different 'loot sets' to support their choice. They merged statistics to allow different specs and classes to get a bigger bang for their buck, and developed a series of interlocking token-based loot mechanisms to allow players a wide variety of choices. In the view of one blogger's mind, it's a huge frustration that the Warhammer developers haven't followed in WoW's footsteps on this issue. What say you? Should WAR hybrids stay differentiated, or would it be more fun to have flexibility?
Analysts praise free-to-play MMOs, casually insult MMO players
A thoughtful Reuters piece explores a concept that MMO players have themselves been talking about since the economy began to take a downturn. Free to play MMOs, which have been gaining in popularity in the US for years, may be one of the biggest winners of this depressed financial situation. The article explores the benefits and increasingly high quality of online titles that don't require a subscription fee. While South Korea and other Asian countries have long enjoyed a strong connection with inexpensive social online gaming, that message is only just reaching saturation here in the states.What's troubling to this blogger is that amid this very common-sense analysis, one of the most well-known commentators on videogaming sees fit to take a cheap swipe at a cross-section of gamers. Said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan: "I don't think (online multiplayer games) get impacted at all, because people who play them are addicts ... Losing their jobs makes them more likely to play because they have more time to play." It's frustrating that one of the few business analysts out there in the business world that understands gaming could be so dismissive of the online gaming genre. We'd like to suggest he do a bit more research in the future on this subject before making snappy statements like that.
Meet the Team: Michael Zenke
Once a week our writers will give you a glimpse into their lives, to let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more Meet the Team. What do you do for Massively.com? I'm the Managing Editor for the site. That means that in addition to doing regular news blogging and the occasional feature, I help the contributing editors focus their coverage and writing. I try my best to connect the site with development houses and publishers, and generally work towards getting new and better content on the site every day. For the past year plus the site's been my life and fulltime work, and I'm really very fond of it. That probably sounds weird, but that's the way it is.%Gallery-33889%
The Daily Grind: What is the expansion of your dreams?
Last week's announcement of Warhammer Online: Call to Arms has a lot of folks re-examining their views on Mythic's baby. Some are frustrated that Mythic is taking their eyes off of bug fixes, while others can't wait to roll their first slayer. Regardless of personal opinion, Call to Arms has definitely gotten the playerbase talking. Which, of course, is what we always want to provoke from you in these morning discussion threads. Today we're wondering what expansion you want to see coming down the pipe for your favorite game.Whatever your game, what's the big chunk of content you want to hear them announcing? Do you want a return to Luclin in EverQuest 2? News of the Emerald Dream coming to World of Warcraft? Does the word "Rohan" hold any meaning for you Lord of the Rings Online players? Think big and dream big! New classes, new zones, maybe a whole new style of play? What would be the perfect compliment to the way you already play your MMO of choice? What would make it perfect?
World of Warcraft makes up half of Activision/Blizzard's earnings
According to the analyst firm Stern Agee, the games megacorporation Activision-Blizzard makes a lot of money. No surprise there, with franchises like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero backing their finances. What really makes their bottom-line work, though, is apparently the mightiest MMO on the planet. According to an analyst at the firm, World of Warcraft is backing a full half of the company's stock price. That is, above and beyond the actual revenue the game pulls down the game is responsible for $400 million of the company's share price.Despite a few reservations and a belief that the company is currently over-valued, the analysis firm believes the house that WoW built is one of the soundest games industry investments in these troubled times. The full post at Edge Online has details, if you're thinking about combining your love of the Lunar Festival event with online trading.
The Daily Grind: Choppa or Slayer?
Oi you gits! We'z been choppin' stunties for months witout you! We chopped and chopped till their bloody heads was all over the floor. But where was you? Off with the Bigguns and the Squigies and summat. Leavin' us to do all the Choppin witout help. We likes dat fine, don't you mistake, but more choppin's always better than less choppin, I always say. So what do you say, you going to start choppin' with us? I think that's a mistake, lads and lassies. Don't listen to that befanged mongrel over there. He'd as soon gut ye as look at ye. Now, my life has been wasted. My honor has been ruined and the goal of me father's blood oath is forever beyond my reach. My life is at an end ... I just haven't died yet. If you want to eat wee babies and gut cats, go with him. But if you want to find an honorable end among the orange, you want to go to WAR with me. Are ye in, or out?
Mythic's official website highlights the new Call to Arms expansion
All through the mid-day we've been talking about the newly-announced Call to Arms expansion coming for Warhammer Online. It's impressive stuff, with brand-new classes, an enormous new mega-zone, and a brand-new holiday event slated all for the next few months. That ambitious schedule and the great information we've had on the site today is great to read through.For more details, head on over to the official Mythic website for their take on the events. Their preview of the expansion itself gives a great timetable on the events: Call to Arms: Bitter Rivals Live Event (March): The Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer answer the Call to Arms and join WAR! (March) Call to Arms: Beyond the Sands Live Event (April) Call to Arms: Rise of the Tomb Kings Live Event (May) Land of the Dead Opens (June) They also have more information on the Bitter Rivals event (including some hints about the tasks we'll be taking on). And as for the Night of Murder, well, they have a bunch of information about how we'll be marked for death come Valentine's Day (as in the picture above). Head over to the Herald for more of those great WAR-related details. Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Valentine's Day in Warhammer Online announced as the Night of Murder
Alongside the announcement of the Call to Arms expansion, the Bitter Rivals event introducing the Choppa and Slayer, and the Lands of the Dead mega-zone, Jeff Hickman revealed to us earlier this week that Valentine's Day will be a scream in Warhammer Online. Tying into the recent 'bloody valentines' sent to bloggers, Jeff walks us through the Night of Murder.Warhammer Executive Producer Jeff Hickman: We have a new event coming out soon, it's our Valentine's Day event. Starting in Mid-February it begins before call to arms, but we've been planning this event for some time. It really highlights some of the things we're trying to do with live events that are different and unique. It's an event that happens in the IP called "The Night of Murder." We felt that was appropriate for Valentine's Day.The Night of Murder is this great week-long event, very RvR-centered. As a player I can go get a murder quest, where I will be asked to go assassinate five marked targets. We've put some interesting tech in that causes enemy players to be marked. They're literally marked on the battlefield, a big skull hovers over their heads. The players don't know that they're marked, though, so you get to the battlefield and you see your opponents arrayed against you ... and they don't know who you'll be going for. Unbeknownst to you, you might be targeted as well. So it will be pretty exciting.Some of these marked targets, when you loot them, they'll drop a skull. One of the tasks for the Night of Murder is to play a game of skull tossing; literally on the battlefield there will be people tossing their dead enemy's skulls back and forth to each other. You'll see skulls flying around, all over the place. And in some rare cases when I kill a marked enemy target I'll be able to loot his head. When I loot that, it will give me the ability to send my enemy a special Valentine's Day surprise. A Night of Murder message about the trophy I got at his expense.It's clever, it's comical, but there are just a ton of cool new things we're doing with that event. Things we haven't done before. Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Mega-dungeon called the Lands of the Dead coming to Warhammer Online
Darkness Falls. Those two little words conjure up amazing vistas to players that delved deeply into Dark Age of Camelot. The release of that content in that game - an enormous dungeon fraught with danger and loot, and disputed by vicious PvP skirmishes - is arguably the finest hour of Mythic's development. Hearing Warhammer Online's Jeff Hickman talk about new content that harkens back to that style of gameplay may mean a return to truely rare form for the still-struggling title.In the same discussion with Mr. Hickman where we unveiled the new classes coming to WAR and the Valentine's Day event, he walked us through the capstone of the Call to Arms expansion. The Land of the Dead, a massive egyptian-themed zone, will be unleashed on the armies of Order and Destruction sometime around May. We have full details on the expansion's crown jewel below the cut, including why they went in this direction and what you're likely to see the first time you set foot in the zone. Check it out below!%Gallery-43282%