Michael Zenke
Articles by Michael Zenke
Lord of the Rings Online down for first post-Moria patch
Turbine's games are all down for maintenance today, with Lord of the Rings Online getting the full treatment during its downtime. The first post Mines of Moria patch to drop onto the live service hits today, with an impressively lengthy list of changes. We discussed these patch notes initially last week when the official notes showed up on the boards, both because of their length and the humor shown in their writing. Most interesting to this blogger are the improvements to Guardian threat, making them competitive in the new world of Wardens and their shouty-taunts. Today all those new tweaks are actually going live, with the game servers slated to come back online at 2pm EST. That's no time at all to wait, and working through the patch notes might take you just about that long. So, go check em' out or read back through our Know Your LotRO Lore columns to pass the time. See you in game!
NCsoft clarifies its rationale for closing Tabula Rasa
Last week we spoke very briefly with NCsoft's Director of Public Relations David Swofford about the company's decision to close Tabula Rasa. He reiterated the basic statement we heard from several sources surrounding the call: this was all about the bottom line.David Swofford: We had to weigh Tabula Rasa against everything else that was out there. From our standpoint it was strictly a call ... it wasn't as successful as we needed it to be. We had to take this position.From our perspective, from the readers of Massively we just feel like there is a little bit of confusion. We spoke with Mr. Reid just two months ago, and the headline we used was 'Tabula Rasa is Triple-A and here to stay'. It just seems like it has been a quick turnaround in two months from 'we have every confidence in this game going forward' to 'we have to shut the game down.' Has something happened in the last two months that prompted this?Mr. Swofford: My reaction is that definitely at the time we thought we had something good going on ... we had the Operation Immortality promotion going, things were looking good, the team was working on the product. As David said, we considered it a Triple-A level product for the company. Things do change. I think he also said, and I'll reiterate, that we're constantly looking at projects. It's not like you have them out there and you let them go for a while, we're constantly monitoring them and weighing them against the success that they're having against the current market. I think things changed quite a bit since when you did that interview.Thank you for clarifying that – it's good to be able to get that explained, there was definitely a sense of confusion on the site.Mr. Swofford: No, no, we understand. This was not a popular thing and certainly not a pleasant thing to do on our end. When you look at it from a business sense it was really what we needed to do.
Comparing the expansion launches for WoW, EQ2, and LotRO
World of Warcraft's second expansion did pretty well. Like, 2.8 million units in the first 24 hours well. This, we all know. The important question is, what sort of impact did Lich King have on the WoW playerbase? What kind of impact did the expansions for EverQuest 2 (The Shadow Odyssey) and Lord of the Rings Online (Mines of Moria) have on those communities? Thankfully, GamerDNA is doing its level best to answer these sort of weighty questions by datamining the heck out of their userbase. We have some hard-and-fast metrics, as a result, exploring these exact issues.Lich King's launch, purely from a 'size of the graph bars' perspective, was an unmitigated success. As Sanya puts it, "what we're seeing is the triumph of advertising combined with critical mass. Lich King was promoted harder, louder, and in more places than the other two expansions." Which is not to say that TSO and MoM were failures. In fact, both expansions resulted in some serious bumps for both games. The graphs make it apparent that their success was somewhat mitigated by the almost-simultaneous launch of Lich King, with EQ2 feeling the burn more than LotRO. What will be fascinating to see is how this story pans out months from now, when dedicated players of these other two games have full-force returned after 'completing' the content from WoW's newest expansion. We'll keep you posted.
Dungeons and Dragons Online offers another Hireling weekend for the Holiday
After the success of the first Dungeons and Dragons Online hireling preview, the folks at Turbine have opened the doors on their newest game mechanic for yet another trial. The second hireling preview began on Wednesday of this week, and will be going all throughout the weekend into Monday morning. The announcement of the program at the official forums includes a number of changes to the system as they hope to roll it out on live servers. This preview weekend still features limited functionality, and the newest changes aren't available over the course of this sneak peek. Changes to the hireling concept surround the NPC's "usage". Hireling contracts are now one-use items that can be purchased from the appropriate vendors; because of this change, the contracts are now far less-expensive than the original 'timed' versions of the hireling contracts. A new 'defensive' mode has also been added to the creatures' AI, and hireling clerics have reprioritized the act of healing both themselves and their comrades. Full notes on the changes to the hireling system will be available in the patch notes once the feature is fully added to the game.
First expansion to the Star Wars Galaxies TCG: Squadrons Over Corellia
Earlier this week SOE announced a brand-new expansion to the Star Wars Galaxies TCG, Champions of the Force. That trading card game, released back in August of this year, puts players of the contentious Star Wars MMO into their favorite setting in a wholly different way. From what we've heard, it's been fairly well received by the players - well received enough to warrant an entirely new expansion to to the game. Squadrons Over Corellia will offer the usual level of quality we've come to expect from SOE Denver expansions - some 250 new cards, incredible artwork, and a heaping helping of all-new loot cards to boot.Players will be able to create Rodian and Wookie avatar cards for the first time, make use of powerful iconic characters like the Emperor and Han Solo in their deck builds, and engage in space-based gameplay new to the Champions of the Force card game. You can see all the details on the official website, or get a big taste of the expansion's potential in the official annoucnement below the cut.%Gallery-27761%
Catch great MMO Black Friday deals at Amazon.com
If you're like the bloggers at Massively, you're wisely staying away from the doorbuster crowds at the major US retailers. That said, even MMO players have to buy Christmas gifts, right? Do what we're doing, then, and shop from home. Joystiq's fantastic Black Friday guides cover the length and breadth of gaming deals today, but you know where we're interested. That's right, the online stuff. Amazon.com not only allows us that great 'avoiding the crowds' feeling, they're also the only retailer to offer bigtime MMO deals! Check them out: Guild Wars - $9.95 (Reg. $29.99) Guild Wars: Eye Of The North - Expansion Pack - $9.95 (Reg. $29.99) Warhammer Online 60 Day Prepaid Game Time Card - $19.95 (Reg. $29.99) Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning - $19.95 (Reg. $49.99) World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack - $25.95 (Reg. $39.99) If you have to go deal with the humans, we suggest you brush up on the full Joystiq Black Friday guide before you do. There are deals to be had at most of the big box stores, perfect for making your games-buying a little more tolerable this holiday.
The week in Massively features
Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria launches!Today the expansion finally goes live! The official patch notes are up on the forums, and the servers went live at midnight with all the new content! We've collected up all of our best pieces of news and information on Turbine's latest ... check it out! EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey Launches!Massively has been following the expansion's lifecycle since it was announced at this year's SOE Fan Faire, and today we've put together the best of all our content touching on this brand-new chapter in the EQ2 saga. Read on for all the details! Massively checks in on The Agency with Lead Designer Hal MiltonJoin us as we talk over the current state of The Agency's development with the animated and always-interesting lead designer Hal Milton. Hal shares with us a bit of insight into what they're currently working on, give us a few fun facts to chew on, and makes us actually look forward to next year's summer con season. Behind the Curtain: Why we play World of WarcraftThere's never a bad time to take a look behind you and examine your past. This is as true for MMOs as it is for anything else in life. With Wrath of the Lich King now up and running, we at Massively were wondering about some of the reason people have stuck with the game thus far. The Digital Continuum: Why must MMOs die?Sitting on my desk are copies of Earth and Beyond and Auto Assault. In fact, I've even got a CE box for Auto Assault (that thing cost me 80 bucks). Unfortunately, these games are just dust collectors now. I keep them to remind me of the possibility of sunset and how much it can suck. Even if you didn't play Tabula Rasa, there were thousands of people who did, and that's all that really matters.
Log into World of Warcraft tomorrow for free achievement and pet!
We've got a hot tip directly from WoW Insider for you this morning. If you've got a currently active World of Warcraft account, and there's any way at all you can spare the time tomorrow to log in, do it! Tomorrow is WoW's fourth birthday, and Blizzard is handing out some presents for all the players logging in on this auspicious occasion! Simply logging your character into World of Warcraft tomorrow will net you an achievement and an in-game pet. The pet is the cutie-patootie shown above, a "Baby Blizzard Bear".The achievement is a one-of-a-kind can't-get-it-any-other-way feat of strength achievement. Other achievements handed out for this include other date-based events, things players will never be able to get again. So, if you want to add another one of these once-in-a-lifetime notches to your belt, make sure to log in tomorrow! Oh, and Happy Birthday World of Warcraft!
Charting crafting changes in EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey
Alongside the new dungeons and deep EQ lore that the developers have pushed out to EverQuest II with their latest expansion, there have been a load of new changes and updates to the game's crafting metagame. We touched briefly on those changes in our full on tour of The Shadow Odyssey, but Emily "Domino" Taylor dropped by the official forums to give more details. There she outlines her logic behind improving the overall crafting experience for non-combat players rather than focusing on a ton of new recipes or craftable items.EQ2Traders bears the responsibility of hosting several in-depth looks into the new crafterly content in the expansion. The site looks deep into the Far Seas Supply Division Headquarters, the numerous changes to the Isle of Mara, and the new instanced-based crafting content. The site also features a quick reference guide for players wanting to jump right into the expansion-y, crafter-y goodness. Click on through to these great resources for the full skinny on this sword-less way to pass the time in Norrath.
The Daily Grind: Is $15 a good fee for your MMO subscription?
Most of the AAA MMOs we play right now charge about the same price: $14.99 a month. Some titles offer discounts for multiple months purchased in advance, and Turbine offers a unique offering in their lifetime subscription to Lord of the Rings Online. Most MMO gamers, though, are paying that $15 fee every month for the game or games of their choice. Our question this morning is simple: is that a good value for your game?Now, obviously nobody would turn down something for free. The microtransactional business model has made big inroads into the US by allowing players the opportunity to hop online with their friends without an up-front cost. Blizzard recently announced they have no intention of changing their pricing any time soon, and seems to think that they offer a great deal for the cost. Most AAA developers don't look like they'll be moving away from monthly fees any time soon. Do you agree that's a fair value? Or, alternatively, do you wish that every game offered a free-to-pay model? Let us know.
The Star Wars Galaxies devs on how Hoth was made
Just a bit ago we noted the launch of the Hoth heroic encounter in Star Wars Galaxies. Chapter 11, as it is also known, has been a long time coming. It's a project the developers have put a lot of work into, and they were eager to share with us some of the background on the mega-patch's development process. The folks at SOE Austin were kind enough to send over a document detailing just that, written up by the game's former Lead Designer Thomas "Blixtev" Blair and its current Lead Designer, Jesse Benjamin.Join the two developers as they walk through the challenges of fully exploring the Empire Strikes Back movie, the thorny issue of one side being guaranteed to lose, and the critical need for detail and finesse in this difficult development challenge. %Gallery-37499%
How Hoth was made pt. 2
Making It RealJesse: Shadowbrak worked closely with CancelAutoRun to bring a sense of speed and firepower that mirrored the movie snowspeeders into the game. I think they did an amazing job. I really feel like I am flying around in a snowspeeder just like in the movies. Flying a snowspeeder elicits a real strong feeling of excitement - especially when gunning down all those Imperials. Setting up a pass on the AT-AT's while trying to avoid taking heavy damage from the AT-ST and snowtrooper escorts is very addictive and fun. Meanwhile, the rest of the team worked on the other game-play elements. Michael "Fiasco" Farone was recruited to start working on our Wampa Valley area of the encounter. I remember sitting in my office brainstorming all the fun things we could have our wampas do. We came up with some really exciting attacks that bring a lot of fun and personality into the Hoth encounter. When we had our first play test in Wampa Valley we could tell immediately that the fun factor was already there. There were bugs to address, and tuning to implement, but everybody came out of that play test smiling. Following the first game-play test Fiasco came up with a list of more things to add to the encounter. I don't want to spoil the surprises, especially since you have to figure out how to enter the valley to begin with, but there are a lot of cool aspects waiting to be discovered in that area.
Hoth goes live in Star Wars Galaxies!
The SOE Austin team may not be working on an expansion for Star Wars Galaxies, but today it sure feels like the players have gotten one. The enormous content drop, Chapter 11 in the SWG saga, hit the live servers early today like the main blaster on an AT-AT walker. The Hoth heroic encounter is now live on the servers for all players to enjoy. The complete patch notes for The Battle of Echo Base are available in the official forums, and there's an informational press release included below the cut.Highlights from the patch include: The expansive battle itself, which pits Rebel and Imperial heroes against NPC opponents in a timed experience. The Imperials seek to destroy as much of the ragtag fighting force as they can, while the Rebels aim to flee the battle with as many resources as they can. This is easily the most ambitious offering in SWG history, and we explored it thoroughly in a feature from Fan Faire 2008. A new holo-pet system, which will allow players to add fun holographic creatures to their homes. New collections and other side-elements were added to the game to suppor the addition of Hoth. Several classes recieved slight gameplay tweaks and balancing fixes. The character transfer service recieved a big upgrade in advance of next year's free transfer initiative. The Aurilia Guildhall, which serves as the hub for heroic encounter play, has a new memorial to former SWG developer Jeff Freeman. It's great to see a much-anticipated chunk of content go live in a game like this. Check out the developer insight SOE passed on to us as a developer diary, and read on below for the official release for the patch.%Gallery-37499%
Massively checks in on The Agency with Lead Designer Hal Milton
As we noted yesterday, The Agency isn't canceled. Despite that mixup from Gamefly's automated notification system, the FPS/spy title from the SOE Seattle studio is still going strong. Joystiq spoke with the SOE subsidiary briefly yesterday, and we had the chance to do so as well. Being the MMO nerds that we are, we just had to go a bit outside the scope of this latest mixup - mechanics are far more interesting than drama!Join us as we talk over the current state of The Agency's development with the animated and always-interesting lead designer Hal Milton. Hal shares with us a bit of insight into what they're currently working on, give us a few fun facts to chew on, and makes us actually look forward to next year's summer con season. We didn't think anything could do that. Spy social engineering at work!Read on below the cut for our full discussion.%Gallery-12934%
The Daily Grind: How important are friends to MMO gaming?
Over the last week or so we've been asking you how you've managed to decide between the big releases hitting the MMO genre these days. Last week's Lich King launch, followed by this week's launches of EverQuest 2: The Shadow Odyssey and Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria seem like challenging decisions for the fan of the MMO genre. We're not going to ask you how you picked, though, because we think we know how you decided which game to play. Like Codex and Zaboo up there, you hang out online where your friends are. At least, we think you do.So our question this morning is, first, do you decide which MMO to play based on where your friends are? Second, how important are other people to your continued MMO gaming? If your friends weren't playing the game they are, would you be? How much does the directly social nature of massively multiplayer games affect your gameplay? Let us know, and good luck making those hard choices!
Massively's pre-Moria interview pt. 2
There are some players who aren't going to be getting the expansion for whatever reason, but they are still getting a lot of free content in the Book 15 patch. What can those players expect in that even without the paid expansion? Jeffrey: The first thing they get is, essentially, an entire new area called Eregion where book 15 takes place. That's even before you get into Moria, and it is available to everyone in the game regardless of whether you have the expansion or not. I think there is only one area out of ten new ones that is inaccessible without the expansion. That, of course, is the part of Eregion that leads you into Moria. We added some functionality to the game, too, with things like tradesets and other things. All of the polishing/tweaking/balancing we've done to the game, whether it is class balance or smoothing out animations, all of those are available to anyone playing the game period. Getting into Moria itself, the new classes, the new levels, and the legendary items are what people are really buying the expansion for.
Your quick-start guide to EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey
The EverQuest II team hopes to continue its string of upward-momentum expansions with today's launch of The Shadow Odyssey. After the landmark success of Echoes of Faydwer and the mixed reaction to Rise of Kunark, this new dungeon-heavy expansion hopes to recapture player excitement for the original EQ while polishing the design advances already in the game. We've already talked quite a bit about the game's big picture, so let's bring it down to some specifics.Kendricke has posted up the full patch notes for the expansion, with everything from class balancing to new content laid out in the timeless bullet-pointy format. MMORPG Info has a handy quick-start guide, pointing out where you need to go to jump on the low level quests and the brand-new dungeons. EQ2 Wire, meanwhile, has difficulty ratings for the new dungeons, while the official site runs down the heritage quests added in the expansion. A ton of stuff to go through, and very texty. For a quick respite, head below the cut for a fantastic launch trailer! Happy dungeon-crawling!%Gallery-35619%
This is your Mines of Moria launch trailer!
When you think about Lord of the Rings it's easy to think of it as somewhat out of touch with modern fantasy. Tired, language-obsessed, cliche'd even. Today's launch of the Mines of Moria expansion for Lord of the Rings Online is accompanied by a trailer that should blow those preconceptions out of the water. Showing the vivid visual imagery associated with the game, it's an all-new look for a place most of us think we already know. The things the dwarves woke when they delved too deeply are many, varied, angry, and awe-inspiring. Combine that with a look at what high-level players can do in combat, and you've got the makings of a two-minute long high fantasy adventure! Check it out below the cut, and explore all the rest of the Moria content we have on offer today.%Gallery-18340%
EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey Launches!
It's not often that an expansion to an MMO launches, and it's even rarer that two do so in the same day! But that's the case, with EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey hitting the live servers today at noon PST. Massively has been following the expansion's lifecycle since it was announced at this year's SOE Fan Faire, and today we've put together the best of all our content touching on this brand-new chapter in the EQ2 saga. Read on for all the details! Massively's grand tour of EverQuest 2: The Shadow OdysseyJoin us for a tour of Befallen, Lower Guk, the dangerous catacombs of Mistmoore and (most impressively) the Anchor of Bazzul, a part of the treacherous Void! Vampire dragons, floating Void priests, undead frogs and slave-owning trolls all await you below, in our exhaustive exploration of this brand-new expansion. What you need to know about The Shadow OdysseyThe Shadow Odyssey, EverQuest II's fifth expansion, is not just the usual bump to the level cap, a couple of new raids, and a reset for all the armor you already got. It's none of those things. What SOE has done with this expansion is go through the level 50 to level 80 portion of the game and say, let's make an expansion that has something for pretty much everyone. Exploring The Shadow Odyssey with EQII Senior Producer Bruce FergusonSOE just announced the newest expansion to their EverQuest II title, and we've got plenty of answers for your burning questions. We had the chance to sit down with the game's Senior Producer, Bruce Ferguson, to talk about what makes this such an important product for Sony Online. Join us as we talk through some of the fantastic new content coming to the game. EQII: The Shadow Odyssey teaser trailer releasedWe have some fantastic new video footage to present as well. This footage shows some exciting new content such as a few new goal-based dungeons, as well as some old favorites like Ruins of Guk and Befallen, plus new creatures and much more. Check out the complete video after the cut and let us know what you think! A walking tour of EverQuest 2's new Veksar dungeonAs we've done in the past with new updates to EverQuest II, we recently had the chance to go on a walking tour of the brand new Veksar Invasion dungeon. Just as with our looks at the Shard of Hate, GU 47, and GU 45, we were able to go deep inside the new content to get a sense of what's new and interesting about the game.
Blizzard has no plans to change World of Warcraft's subscription rate
In another chat with MTV's Tracey John, this time held in an NYC Best Buy during the Wrath of the Lich King launch, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime had some interesting things to say about the economics behind World of Warcraft. Despite the game's towering success, 11 million players and a thriving community, the Blizzard folk have no plans to change the way they charge US customers. John ties this in with the recent announcement of plans for a subscription-based Guitar Hero series, something Morhaime says Blizzard had nothing to do with.He goes on to note something MMO players have long used as a talking point for their hobby: the extremely low rate of cost for content. "If you look at other choices that you can make - like going to a movie with a date - you've already over 15 dollars for two hours. I think that players really see that in terms of value for their entertainment, that this the best value that they can find right now." The CEO states that so far the company hasn't been affected by the country's economic downturn, and they have hopes they won't see any problems moving into the winter months. Click through to read the full interview, which touches on the company's enthusiasm for their new expansion and their plans for future content expansions to WoW.