Amanda Rivera

Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Impressions of the CoX Meet n' Greet

Friday night as promised Jonathan Northwood and I traveled over to the Milpitas Dave and Busters for the first City of Heroes/City of Villains Bay Area Player Meet n' Greet. Winter has finally come to the bay area, and so the first stop after the ID check at the door was the coat check. From there we were able to see a long line of gamer types snaking down the hallway and knew that we were among friends. The evening was even better than I expected to be. Normally I feel very uncomfortable at functions such as these, but last night, surrounded as I was by lovers of NCsoft games and an incredibly accessible dev team, I felt right at home. Each player that arrived got three raffle tickets along with their badge. The white one was good for a t-shirt at the end of the night, the blue for a chance at raffled off goodies. And then there was the red ticket: Every player that brought a picture of their character entered a raffle for the chance to have their character sketched by comic book savant David Nakayama. What I didn't realize when I heard about this prize, was that he would be drawing about 20 throughout the night. Indeed, David was still sketching when I stopped by to say hello at the end of the evening.

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Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Personalizing your profile on Massively

Have you been itching to add your own personal icon to your Massively comments but haven't had the time to create your own? Don't know even where to begin personalizing your icon? Well, you're in luck, because we here at Massively are all about making life easier for you, the reader. To that end we've put together a couple icons from today's top MMOs to get you started. To select a pre-made icon from the gallery below, simply download it to your desktop (right-click then save) and upload it to your profile.For those of you interested in making your own icons, it's a fairly simple process. Open up your favorite graphic editor (Photoshop et. al.) and create an image that is 64 pixels wide and 64 pixels tall. I recommend working with a larger image and scaling it down, since the format is a little small to work with. Be sure to save it somewhere easy to find -- those buggers are little, and blend in easily with the wildlife ensconced on your hard drive -- and voila, you've got a personalized piece of iconography of your very own.%Gallery-11142%

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Massively at the CoX Meet n' Greet

It's a busy day here at Massively. Not only are we bringing you the latest from the Independent Game Conference, we will also be your eyes and ears at tonight's City of Heroes/City of Villains Bay Area Player Meet n' Greet in Milpitas, CA. The evening proves to be an intimate affair where 200 lucky players will get the chance to talk with the NCsoft developers about all our favorite cape-related topics. But just because you can't be there physically doesn't mean you won't be able to experience the event. Massively's own Johnathan Northwood and I will make sure you don't miss a thing.On that note, are there any burning questions you have about Issue 11 or anything else about the game for that matter? We're representing you the readers tonight, so if you would like us to ask the developers anything, drop a question in the comments section. I myself have been dying for tidbits about their next expansion. What would you like to know as we meet and greet the CoX developers?

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News By Amanda Rivera

Vanguard may be against the death penalty

Ten Ton Hammer is reporting on a recent uproar on the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes forums surrounding many MMO players' least favorite subject: death. Few like to contemplate their own demise, and even those who do would agree that penalties for dying in an online game are annoying. The current controversy surrounds a certain Producer's Letter written by game producer Thom Terrazas wherein he mentioned the possibility of reducing the severity of the death penalties in Vanguard. Now Dalmarus makes a valid point about all of this. Removing the loss of experience mechanic from death means removing the excitement. Essentially, the developers would be eliminating that extra thrill you get from tackling dangers and taking on challenges that might be a bit much for you; the thrill you get knowing you survived and saved your precious experience points. I would agree that a death penalty gives players a consequence, albeit a small one, for reckless actions in-game, and removing that penalty means changing the game experience for better or worse. My feeling is that the Vanguard team might be looking at their competition, titles like WoW, and noticing that the loss of experience might deter the casual player from sticking with the game. But then again, it doesn't deter Dalmarus, so should they really be worried?

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Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Building a LEGO Universe logo

If you are like me, then you have fond memories of building tall towers made of brightly colored plastic blocks to protect your knight in shining armor as he battles a vividly green, if slightly angular, dragon. Now that NetDevil's LEGO Universe is starting its development cycle, those of us who built worlds with our hands will get a chance to build an entire universe online. Like much about this project, the development team is opening up the design of the game's logo for fan input. They are asking the question what would make a good LEGO Universe logo, and even accepting concepts from young and old alike. A logo is a tough project to undertake, especially for an MMO, because it must convey the spirit of the project at first glance. When asked about the type of logo they are looking to create, Phillip Atencio of NetDevil mentioned that it must be something that conveys the creativity and energy of LEGO Universe, Fiorella Lee of LEGO.com brought up the phrase "global identity," and Matthew, and 10-year-old focus group participant talked about "lots of colors that shows what is going to happen in the game." So color, energy, and global identity. Well, that should be simple enough. Just draw a LEGO planet orbited by a LEGO cheetah, and throw in my LEGO dragon for good measure. I expect my check in the mail.

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

How WoW works

Are you looking to pick up a new MMO but not sure which one to try? Or perhaps you're one of those people that simply doesn't get all the hullabaloo surrounding World of Warcraft. If you happen to be just this type of person, then Howstuffworks has the article for you. "How World of Warcraft Works" looks into the game from an outsider's perspective, and gives a brilliant overview of nearly every aspect of the game. From player base to the guts behind the game, the article goes over the parts of the WoW phenomenon, including several references to our beloved NickYee of the Daedalus Project and his demographic research on WoW players. Granted a lot of the information may be basic, but I found that even as an avid WoW fan I learned some things I didn't know, or had at least temporarily forgotten. And really, it's great to see so much information about the game condensed into its simplest form.

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

The leet CoV trailer

Have you ever wondered what our super heroes would sound like if they spoke more like we do in game? Well, Kill Ten Rats has reminded us about an oldy-but-goody remix of the City of Villains trailer, leet-speak style. I'm not sure how I missed this one, but I am sure those of you who play CoX will get a kick out of this. Heck, those of you who have ever grouped in an instance in an MMO will get a kick out of this. Enjoy.[via Kill Ten Rats]

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Darkmoon Faire dazzles London

The World of Warcraft TCG Darkmoon Faire has been touring Europe, and most recently stopped in London, England for a small tournament filled with fierce competition. Blizzard in partnership with Upper Deck Entertainment sponsored previous competitions in Frankfurt, Germany and Milan, Italy, and the two winners from those tournaments were on hand to battle it out in London. Victory smiled on the home favorites this time out, and both Frankfurt's champion Pierre Malherbaud and Erik van der Laan winner of the tournament in Milan lost to their UK challengers. In the end Paul Stuart, who had previously swept the UK tournaments, won the day, becoming the DMF London champion.Players got the chance during the event to raid against Blizzard CMs using the Molten Core deck. The CMs are a tough group to beat, seeing as how in their 19 1v1 matches, they only lost 5. Despite valiant efforts, the raids were defeated by Baron Geddon in all his fiery glory. As a TCG fan myself I find it an inspiration to see lovers of the game gather together. Pardon me as I break out my deck to slaughter the next unsuspecting challenger. Any takers?

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Zu Online showcases the Holy City

With the alpha closed and lips zipped on IGG's Zu Online, the developers have released some info on one of the major focal points in the game, the Holy City. I think it's important that game makers give the public information like this, teasers if you will, about what they can expect in the game. Without these tantalizing morsels, how can we build anticipation for their product?The Holy City is comprised of two main sections that seem to be divided geographically. Because the city is so massive, there are several Ride Guardians stationed throughout the city that will let you travel from place to place with speed and style. Judging from how pretty the map is, I can imagine this city will be breathtaking.

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Exclusive EQ 2 item for MOG readers

Massive Online Gamer is looking to reward (or bribe, depending on how you look at it) their subscribers who are also fans of EQ2. The first one thousand people to purchase a subscription will have access to an exclusive in game item. Now there isn't much info on what the item actually is, although it looks like a combination between a shield and wall art, so either might be a possibility. Either way, who doesn't like free stuff?A year subscription costs $16.99. It's really not that bad a price considering you get 6 issues of the magazine. Those interested can subscribe online.

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

What if EVE was a fantasy MMO?

West Karana recently posted an article that speculates on how you might translate EVE Online to the fantasy genre. As Tipa says, all the elements are already there in the game, you just have to find them. I particularly liked the analogy of a ship being akin to a hero's group of cohorts. While the hero's companions may die around him, he can still survive to fight other battles. In the same way, a ship in EVE is separate from its pilot and while the ship may be destroyed, the character itself may live on.When you consider the basic elements that go into any good story, I think this analogy holds up pretty well. There is so much in a fantasy MMO that protects the hero from actual battle, in the same way that in EVE you are protected by your ship. A knight never goes into battle without his steed, his weapons, his armor, and more likely than not, his army. What do you think? How well would EVE work in a fantasy setting?

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Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Zu Online end of alpha

Development is chugging along for Onwind Digital's newest MMO offering, Zu Online. They recently closed their alpha testing to make way for bigger and better things. The players, it seems, are having a ball playing the game, and let the developers know that they particularly enjoy the game's unique storylines and responsive controls. Now that they have concluded their end of alpha event, "A Happy Ending to Alpha," we will eagerly await news about what is next to come from this beautiful MMO.

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

CoX Splasher

Poking around on the CoX forums this morning I came across an amazing little tool brought to us by the blossoming development community surfacing in the player base of the game. This fabulous bit of coding is called Splasher, and it's a program that allows you to customize the login and character selection screens for your client. Beyond simply letting you put up a custom screenshot, the program includes a music function that will let you change the music played for you when the game loads. In this way you can create a custom anthem for your hero to serenade you while you select which character you would like to roam Paragon City with. In addition to the customizable music, there is also a randomizer function that will select a random custom login screen for you from a selection that you put into the program. I created a login screen that featured my favorite moments from Trick or Treating last month. You can download Splasher here, and soon you'll be on the road to a custom login of your very own.

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Cryptic talks PvP in Marvel Universe Online

It's awfully odd to be reporting about developers talking about game mechanics in Marvel Universe Online after we just let you know that there are rumors the game might never actually see the light of day. Personally, I take it as a sign of good faith that Geoff Tuffli of Cryptic Studios is discussing the challenges that arise when trying to create a PvP system in an MMO in his third article in a series of blogs about PvP considerations. Of course, at its core this is more of a philosophical discussion about MMOs in general than about the specific choices they are making with this particular project, but a girl can hope, right?The first section of the article deals with the debate between persistent PvP environments versus instanced ones. With instances, such as in World of Warcraft battlegrounds, preselected teams can form up to battle in a controlled environment that includes quests, faction rewards, and tokens. On the other hand, a PvP system more like Dark Age of Camelot or Anarchy Online where the combat takes place in a more persistent environment allows players to build the ever-so-enjoyable guild grudge and fight over territory within the game. From reading through his article it looks like the Marvel Universe Online PvP system will lean more toward the persistent than the instanced, which is fine by me. As long as they actually let me play the game.[via Warcry]

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PC Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Aion G-Star 07 trailer

Lovers of Lineage 2 rejoice. A new MMO has appeared on the horizon, swooping out of nowhere to amaze us with lovely graphics and angelic combat. They call it Aion, yet another offering from the MMO giant NCsoft. Just feast your eyes on the trailer released at this year's G-Star games conference in South Korea. This is the first real glimpse we've had of the game, and it's damn purdy. Not only does it seem to have some pretty slick aerial combat -- angels with bows and arrows, huzzah! -- the art style is superb. Check it out and see if you're as impressed as I am.

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News By Amanda Rivera

Slashing up CoX

AmazingMOO (not our amazing Moo, but another one) put up a very cool post on the CoX forums a while back. He listed off a slew of lesser known slash commands he found in the game. I spend at least some of my play time every time I log in reading the newspaper to catch up on the latest infoz. But did you know that these were also in the game? Yeah, I didn't either:/cmdlist: A list of all the /slash commands in the game/whereami: Let's you know what server and map you're currently logged into/copychat [tabname]: Copies the contents of a chat tab to the Windows keyboard/showfps: Lets you see your frame rate/whoall: Displays every player in the zone/cc #: Insert the number of the costume slot you want to switch to, and bam! Costume switched./unloadgfx: Having performance issues in Grandville? Try this command to clear things up.Have you encountered any slash commands you find useful in the game?

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Issue 11 adventures in beta

Omnitron of the Central Nexus spent some time the other day to give us his thoughts and experiences in the Issue 11 beta for CoX. He gives us some great insights into what we can expect when the update hits. First of all, he lets us know that Willpower is awesome. Every brawler and scrapper out there is going to want to pick up that power set. A note of interest I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is the 42-month veteran reward he found on the test server. Rather than simply getting the Fervent badge, players now receive the Assemble the Team power, which summons your entire team to you once every 30-minutes. If that isn't an incentive to keep your account active, I don't know what is. He lets us know that there's some potential weirdness down the line with the time travel Ouroboros missions. It seems that since you are deleveling down to say level 9 and are running around Paragon City weak as can be, turning in the mission could be challenging, since you have to get to a special island to do so. You might need to be sidekicked or something in order to complete your task. It sounds a little weird, and hopefully it will get ironed out before the Issue pushes through to the live servers. As Issue 11 nears, we'll keep an eye out on any further information and let you know.

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Gaming By Amanda Rivera

The making of an AoC pinup

Any gamer of discerning tastes will know that the December 2007 issue of Playboy magazine will feature video game heroines shucking their skivvies, and that includes the deadly Keaira, close ally to King Conan. This week's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Friday update talks all about creating a compelling character. Finally I get to learn why there's a girl on the cover of a game about Conan. First and foremost, Keaira is beautiful, and so the initial concepts of the character design are built on that premise. She went through many iterations until she finally became the lady you see before you. Click on through and read about all the work that went into the character that has become the face of AoC.

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News By Amanda Rivera

Flagship addresses the subscription issue, finally

Yesterday all hell broke loose in the billing department at Flagship Studios. Now they are responding to the subscription debacle with Hellgate: London and trying their best to calm everyone down. According to the Flagship, the issue arose with 3% of subscribers, and they are working around the clock to fix the problem. What exactly was said problem? Only the fact that those canceling their subscriptions to the game were losing all the content they paid for immediately, instead of at the end of the month.Yes, it's a top priority, getting this ironed out, but I am more concerned about the supposed response to the forum posts created about the problems yesterday. As some players were reporting the issue, their posts were being deleted without so much as an explanation. Now, it's hard for us to verify this, since the Hellgate: London forums are private, which is in and of itself sort of odd. But if the poop hits the fan again, will they start deleting before they start dealing? It all sounds a little suspicious to me.

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News By Amanda Rivera

City of Civilians and City of Aliens?

Ten Ton Hammer is reporting today on the rumor that NCsoft is adding a new "City of" title to the IP of their newly acquired CoX franchise. Well of course they are, they've been listening in on my conversations. I literally had this discussion with a friend of mine just a couple of days ago. The way I see it, you have heroes and villains duking it out in the city, but the citizens go along their humdrum lives without personality or purpose. So I am thinking, why not a Sims in Paragon City? The other idea I had as I was slicing up Rikti the other day was playing as the alien invading race. Sure they're trying to destroy mankind, but that's what makes good entertainment, no? I really think I have something here. With the civilians concept you could bring in a whole crowd of MMO lovers that want get a chance to build a virtual life within Paragon, and with the aliens you could start out on an invading vessel and port in to do damage and cause chaos. You heard it here first people. I so should be working for these guys.

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Science

Science By Amanda Rivera

Using games for rehabilitation

One of the few things I recall from my Psych 101 class back in college was the tale of Pavlov and his dogs. As it turns out you can teach yourself to associate sounds with actions. A new virtual reality therapy is doing just that, helping those with addictions connect things they hear in game with the will to resist temptation.The game, created at Duke University by Professor Zach Rosenthal, works with rehabilitation patients to try to control their cravings when they are not in therapy. Because the patient is immersed in an environment similar to that they would find in the outside world, the temptations are fairly convincing. Rosenthal explains that cravings are a learned mental behavior, and if you can associate something, say a particular tone (like Pavlov's bell) with resisting that craving, you create a new learned behavior, this time a positive one. I love it when I see positive uses for video games. It proves that we as a society can learn so much from the games we play.

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Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Looking back at a CoX Halloween

Halloween has come to an end in CoX, and many of us are looking back at the event with fond memories. Van Hemlock this week talked about the run in he had with Echoias, the massively tall pumpkin-headed monster that was terrorizing Paragon City. I didn't get a chance to track him down myself, but Van Hemlock got the Hallowed Spirit badge for his troubles, a nice memento of the holiday.My personal triumph this holiday was collecting some 30 odd costumes, so now I'm "Fashionable," or so says the badge. Yeah, I went a little crazy with the trick-or-treating thing, but it was an excellent way to level, and I got myself a system during the last days of the holiday. I figured out the doors were timed, so I would find one that had a group of baddies near it, and would cycle between slaughtering the Clockwork and knocking on doors. In the end, I got two sets of costume pieces, which allowed me to not only get an extra costume slot for my main, but also to give one to my friend. Not bad for what at its core was level grinding. And the costumes have stuck with me even after the holiday, so if I feel the need to hit the streets as a ninja or a PPD cop, I can. What was your favorite part of the holiday?

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Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Where all the MMOs at?

Potshot (and yes, I realize he spells his name with weird symbols, but I'm just not leet enough to find them on my keyboard) is talking about the MMO industry. He's worried that the definition of success in the MMO market is based solely off the "WoW-killer" goal, and according to him this is the reason why virtually every MMO out there has been pushed back or even canceled. We've only had two (maybe three if you count Tabula Rasa, which he doesn't) actual MMO releases this year, Vanguard and LotRO. Sure there are the popcorn games as he calls them, Mythos and Dungeon Runners being prime examples. But are developers shying away from creating a solid MMO world even if it doesn't knock the king from the mountain? Surely there's enough room in the player's hearts for more than one game. If there wasn't, why would we have this website?

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Gaming By Amanda Rivera

Weapons scaling in CoX Issue 11

Amongst all the other cool things we're seeing in Ish 11, Cryptic is adding weapons scaling to the customizable weapons toolkit. Weapons when you choose them will now scale according to how big and beefy or slim and tiny your character happens to be. Dave on Blog of Heroes says this will help a lot of characters, but says females still have the trouble of tiny, tiny hands.Scaling the weapons is great, and something that players have been clamoring for. But the female model's hands are so small that any amount of weapons scaling won't help. What we need, Dave suggests, is a slider for female hands, since male hands are already oversized for the scale of the models. I know I have a female tanker, and her hands look too dainty to do the amount of punching and bashing she is capable of. It ruins the feel of the character. So on this one I'll have to agree with Dave, but what do you think? Will the weapons scaling solve the problem of the infamously slender hands? Related Story

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First semi-final event for the CoX costume contest tonight

Guardian's Best Dressed Costume Contest has been running for a couple days now, and today is the last day to enter. If you consider yourself the master of character creation, then you'll want to hop on over to the Pocket D dance floor Tonight at 7pm EST for the judging. You know, I might do it myself just to see all the awesome costumes that will be out there.A few specifics about the contest. There are seven categories, and the prizes range from 1 to 10 million influence and a title for your winning character. The final event will be held on November 27th at 8pm EST in Pocket D. In order to qualify for the finals you have to win a semi finals round, which will be held on the 6th, the 11th, the 13th, the 20th and the 25th. Even the semi-finalists will receive influential gifts, or infamous gifts, depending on what side of the game you play on. Personally, I would love to get third prize, since that's an Invention Origin Costume Piece of Choice, and my controller really needs her a pair of fairy wings.

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