4th-anniversary
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Star Trek Online's Season 8.5 coming January 30th
Newly promoted Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo penned a dev blog today giving players a heads up regarding Season 8.5 and the fourth anniversary of Star Trek Online. D'Angelo said that 8.5 will be arriving on January 30th, which should kick off the game's anniversary event as well. When this happens, players will have an opportunity to earn one or more new "hybrid" starships that use Dyson technology, explore a brand-new featured episode with a Star Trek actor, and enjoy 12 revamped Federation episodes. Other changes coming include the elimination of the hourly event calendar, the ability to swap between starships and builds on the fly, more slots for ships, and an "easy equip" feature to outfit ships painlessly.
Runes of Magic celebrates its 4th Anniversary
Our favorite birthdays are the ones when the guests get gifts instead of giving them. Apparently Runes of Magic feels the same, as Gameforge is pulling out the stops to make the 4th anniversary of the game one for the history books. Runes of Magic's 4th anniversary page has the scoop on all of the gifts, contests, events, and bonuses to be enjoyed over the next week. Players will get a lot of goodies just for logging in and leveling up, although there are additional quests if you want to reap all of the rewards. Players will also enjoy buffs to XP, talent points, and drop rates through the 25th. Finally, Gameforge released a special video that shows the progress of Runes of Magic from beta to today, ending with several impressive statistics. If you don't watch it, you'll go mad always wondering what it might have been. We'd hate to see that.
Warhammer Online celebrates fourth anniversary with rewards and bonuses
Belch forth a mighty "WAAAGH!" today, for Warhammer Online is now officially four years old. EA Mythic's dark fantasy title came on the scene in 2008 with a strong emphasis on PvP combat. To celebrate the occasion, Mythic announced that all players will enjoy 10 days of bonus XP and RP starting today. Also as part of the festivities, fireworks can be looted from corpses during this time. Why are so many warriors carrying fireworks? Discount sale, of course. Finally, Mythic is rewarding the faithful who have stuck with WAR for all four years with a new portable mailbox at the end of the month. The devs used this opportunity to remind players that patch 1.4.7 is on course to go live later in September after the Wild Hunt event. The team's also working on a new random live event and an upcoming community patch.
The Daily Grind: It's our 4th birthday and our wish is to hear your stories!
Today marks the 4th birthday of this wonderful website that you love so much, and we want to celebrate it by letting you discuss your favorite memories of Massively in today's Daily Grind. Normally we'd tell our own tales, or feature an article about our own experiences, but this time we want to showcase you, the readers. What was your favorite news post on Massively over the last four years? Favorite feature? Favorite column? Favorite blogger? Favorite community event? Favorite Editor-in-Chief? Hey, whatever favorite you have, we want to hear about it in the comments below! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Road to Mordor: Festivals and you -- a love story
It's a shame that Lord of the Rings Online's fourth anniversary will probably be remembered more for being a mismanaged festival event than for the achievement that reaching four years signifies. But things are as they are, and the "Grindaversary" has now gone down in LotRO's history of what not to do for an event. If you're only tangentially tuning in to the LotRO news these days, last week Turbine launched its first anniversary celebration in the game (previous anniversaries were marked only by gift tokens dropping in the world). The celebration was a lesser type of festival that borrowed elements from previous events, namely, the horse races and the beer brawl. Players were challenged to participate in both to gain tokens to acquire special rewards, such as a new horse mount, housing decorations, and cosmetic outfits. The problem was twofold: The tokens were gained so slowly that it took a long time to get enough for even one moderately priced reward, and the only endlessly repeatable activity (the beer brawl) could be failed if you were knocked out of the area by another player. As a result, players heavily protested what should've been a fun time and Turbine ended up with egg on its face. In participating myself, talking with friends, and reading through the many, many responses to the event, I got to thinking about how Turbine's approached festivals over the past year or so and how the studio can learn from this to avoid another stumble.
The Road to Mordor: Four more years, four more years!
While four years is not a nice round number -- or even a halfway number like five -- it's a substantial milestone for any MMORPG. Debuting in early 2007, Lord of the Rings Online introduced something we'd never seen before: a fully realized 3-D virtual Middle-earth where we could not only enjoy a deep MMO but explore the lands and meet the people we'd only read about before. It might not be a universal truth that all LotRO players are big Tolkien fans, but I'm sure enough that it's a sizable chunk of the playerbase. There's something special about the IP that gives a weight and richness to the game, especially when a long-time reader of the books is given leave to actually go on adventures through Eriador, Moria and Mirkwood. It's a giant sight-seeing tour of lore, a thrill with every brush one has with the source material. It's heady to consider that four years ago we were but starting on this journey, feeling out the mechanics of combat, crafting and pie-running. Four years later, LotRO has emerged to be one of the most significant MMOs of the past decade, growing strong with no signs of slowing down. Hit the jump as we reminisce about the ups, the downs, and the off-the-beaten-path hikes of our beloved game as it celebrates its fourth anniversary.
Vanguard's fourth anniversary raises new questions
Vanguard is somewhat of a unique beast among other "AAA" MMOs; it's a forgotten child that still offers great adventure, open-world excitement, and hardcore raiding. While we all have heard of the botched launch and practically dead-in-the-water development cycle of the game, the fact of the matter is that players are still playing it. You can't force a player to enjoy himself, so why are the members of the Vanguard community still playing? Is it possible that they are having a good time? Or do social ties mean more than great adventure? Could it be that players simply have not found a game that they enjoy more than Vanguard, warts and all? We asked the players on the official forums and received a total of four responses. The thread was immediately pushed down by standard complaint posts. Could it be that the community has been the worst thing for the game, a game that needs, more than anything, positive word-of-mouth? Click past the cut and we'll look into it.
What's so great about being Hellbound in Lineage 2?
We've been following the development of the Lineage 2 Hellbound expansion, and it sounds like there's some interesting stuff in there for veteran players. A brand new pet upgrade system, new mounts to carry you into battle, and of course the perils of the Steel Citadel itself. Facing down Beleth sounds like a truly epic encounter. Today NCsoft has sent over a dev diary running down the numerous features we'll see in next week's release of the expansion and the 4th Anniversary edition of the game. Along with all the expansion goodies (a new level cap included), the 4th Anniversary edition has some nice toys, like half-mask, a piggie friend, and discounted veteran rewards. Fun fact: did you know that you can change your avatar's gender in Lineage 2 for the price of $10?Read on for the full details on Hellbound and the 4th Anniversary edition of the game (and pine with us that we in the states don't get anything as cool as the EU Collector's Edition.)%Gallery-19265%
Lineage II expansion announced: "Hellbound"
Our friends at NCsoft have informed us that the next Lineage II expansion, titled Hellbound, is on the way. This will be the final chapter of the First Throne, and will continue on from the last expansion The Kamael which was released a few months ago. Headlining the features for Hellbound is a raise of the level cap to 85, as well as new high-end content culminating in a raid boss, Beleth (pictured).%Gallery-19265%
