anarchy-online
Latest
Anarchy Online update adds raid interface, turns zones into instances
Anarchy Online's version 17.1 update went live last week. It added a complete raid interface to the game, allowing players to combine up to six teams into a raid group with its own chat channel and loot rules. The interface will allow raid leaders to move players between teams, and every player in the raid group will be able to monitor the vitals of other raid group members.Additionally, a handful of AO's existing playfields -- Sectors 13, 28 and 35 to start with -- have become raid instances. That means that raid groups can take these encounters on at their own pace and without competition. Funcom plans to do this to more playfields in the future.The update also features your standard assortment of bug fixes and gameplay and balance tweaks. Read the patch notes at the AO website for details.
Massively goes to Dragon*Con: Funcom Q&A
Funcom was on-hand at this year's Dragon*Con, where they held a Q&A session regarding all things Age of Conan. What follows is as much of the event as could be transcribed from the audio we brought back with us. This writeup was completed based on audio with some garbled sections. Some details may be glossed over as a result. Without further ado:Q: Any plans to merge the servers?A: No. What we have looked at is ways of letting people play across servers, but we haven't made any plans to merge servers.Working with the tradeskill guys a lot lately and the resource team and we're designing new quests and areas for resource gathering and building and things like that. Tower objectives and so forth, they're the next step with the battlekeep system, so I work with the action dynamic team, who are the guys who do the massive PvP and Siegeing. Our first priority at the moment is to get 48v48 sieges running perfectly for everybody. Second priority is to get the next step out, which is Towers, so the guys are working on it.
Ask Massively: Second chances in MMO's
I'm feeling a bit cranky these days, so for this week's Ask Massively, I thought that I'd give you all my unvarnished opinion instead of kissing your collective backside in order to generate a few more page hits. Get your claws out for this one, folks. This nugget of truth is going to hurt a little.Why do MMO's only have 1 shot when they change so *drastically* over time?Games such as EQ2, DDO, Vanguard, Tabula Rasa, perhaps AoC...6 months to a year later when the game is good and bursting with content etc. Why do players always chime the mantra "Too little too late" and perfer to just wait for the "next big thing" instead of re-visting these other games?I understand feeling burnt for not getting everything at launch, but who cares? if the game has everything you wanted *now* who cares about the past when it *didnt*?I just dont get it. -Ding Dong Dang
Funcom announces its Dragon*Con plans
American readers: are you going to Dragon*Con this Labor Day weekend? Funcom (developer of Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, and The Secret World) is! Its specific plans have been laid out at the Age of Conan website.The company will have its own booth, of course, which will be open from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Friday through Sunday, and from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Monday. More interestingly, though, Funcom will be hosting what it calls the "FunCon Event" in the Sheraton Capital Ballroom on Friday at 10:00 PM. The party will feature music by DJ Tarryk and visitors from the teams of all three Funcom projects.The following day, Funcom will present its two currently-released games -- Anarchy Online at 10:00 AM and Age of Conan at 7:00 PM. Somewhere amidst all these proceedings, fans will have the opportunity to win posters, inflatable swords, t-shirts, lanyards, custom PC cases, and "one special customized Anarchy Online PC." That's cool. It's probably not cool enough to go out of your way to go to Dragon*Con for, but if you're already gonna be there you might as well stop by. Check out Massively's complete Dragon*Con schedule for other events and booths to hit up, too.
Anti-Aliased: Pourin' out one for all my guildies
The Twilight Empire of World of Warcraft's Ravenholdt (PvPRP) server is a very diverse guild. They're active roleplayers, dabbling in raids and gearing for 70, frequently aid their members in running instances, and meet often to both roleplay different storylines and just be together. Their leader, Empress Aerana, has high hopes and aspirations for the guild she's built from the ground up at level 20 and has continued to run until this day; almost a year of keeping the guild active on Ravenholdt.If you're looking at the above picture, you might recognize the paladin standing in the middle of the photo -- that's me, feeling kinda short at the moment. If it wasn't for Twilight Empire, I wouldn't be standing there in that room. The kindness of Aerana and the other guild members persuaded me to pick up my World of Warcraft disc and get back into the game -- something I've never done before for any other guild. With the frequent events, active membership and relaxed nature of the guild, I've felt right at home since I've jumped back in to the game. If it wasn't for the guild, the game wouldn't be half as fun. That's why this edition of Anti-Aliased is devoted to the concept of guilds and how critical they are to online gaming.
Ask Massively: Be careful what you ask for...
Most of the time, when writing Ask Massively, it is fairly simple to keep my personal and professional life separated from my life as an MMO gamer and columnist. Today, I'm going to break down that barrier for just a little while. Today's question actually comes from Age of Conan's in-game chat. While the sane among you may marvel at the fact that my brain cells did not immediately shrivel and die upon coming into contact with your average chat channel ranter, I'll describe the discussion using enough creative editing to shield you, our loyal readers, from some of the more mind-numbing motes of mental malfeasance on display that night. "This game sucks, they only designed one class to be a main tank!" "No game should ever be released with bugs. Look at how Blizzard did with WoW!" "My class sucks. They should make it more powerful and nerf everyone else. There is no balance in this game." I think you get the idea. To the valiant souls who tried to answer these criticisms intelligently and thoughtfully, I salute you. When faced with intelligent responses to their rants, one of our misguided miscreants fired back with a very good question.What do you know about designing an MMO? If you know so much, how come you don't write games?As a former game developer myself, and as someone with several years of experience in the commercial software development industry, allow me a chance to use my bully pulpit in order to answer their points.
Anarchy Online turns seven; free stuff for everyone!
Funcom's other MMO, Anarchy Online, has just had its seventh birthday. A number of the people that worked on the game got together to make a video that looks at AO since its beginnings, including Morten Byom, Craig Morrison, Ragnar Tørnquist, Colin Cragg, and indeed, Age of Conan's game director Gaute Godager.To make sure that everyone is digging the anniversary vibe, there are various freebies up for grabs, most in keeping with the theme of "seven". All current subscribers will receive 700 paid points and 7 buddy keys. Those on free accounts have the chance to upgrade to the full game for $7/€, and will get 7 days free play time included . On top of this, a party planner NPC is giving away all sorts of items in-game. Last, but not least, there is an AO-themed gaming PC from GameRigs.com to be won -- check out the details at their website.
Win an Anarchy Online-themed desktop from Funcom and GameRigs
It seems to be the year of the Science Fiction MMO-themed desktop PC. A couple months back, CCP and Commodore joined forces to sell us EVE Online enthusiast desktops. This time, GameRigs and Funcom put together the above-pictured Anarchy Online computer, and are giving it away in a sweepstakes.It looks sexy and all, but we were disappointed to see that the provided system specs are rather vague. It has an "Intel Core 2 processor" and an "NVIDIA GeForce graphics card." Well, that could be anything, but hey, it's free, ain't it? And do you really need a GeForce GTX 280 to run 2001's Anarchy Online? Not so much!It looks like you don't have to do anything but fill out a form to enter the sweepstakes. You don't even have to be an Anarchy Online subscriber. You do have to be a legal resident of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec; now that's not fair!), though.
AO designer says adieu, moves on to The Secret World
Anarchy Online content designer Nina "Aythem" Sund has been writing developer journal entries over at Ten Ton Hammer for several months, sharing game design wisdom and insider anecdotes with players. Her latest entry had a different tone, though. She used the medium to bid farewell to AO players as she moves on to work on Funcom's next MMO, The Secret World.As a parting gift, she spent the rest of her entry telling fans how they too can become game designers. Hers is good advice if that's an aspiration for you. Unfortunately, she didn't slip out any news or information on The Secret World, which as so far been very, well ... secret. Ten Ton Hammer attached two bits of concept art, though, so savor that!We hope Funcom will continue to support AO even though it now has Age of Conan and The Secret World to worry about, too. Sund was a popular quest designer at AO; we're glad she'll be adding her touch to TSW, but poor AO!
Player vs. Everything: Game-hopping like a madman
Chances are good that if you read Massively, you either currently play or have played multiple MMOGs in your life. Whatever your reasons are, you're one of those players for whom "MMO" is a genre instead of a game. Not all players are like this. A lot of players get their start somewhere and then stick to that game for years, denouncing all other games as being incapable of being better than their chosen virtual playground. I used to be like that with EverQuest (can you tell?). For four years I played it pretty much exclusively, not even trying other games. But eventually, I got bored. Thus started my lengthy and storied history of game-hopping. Traveling from world to world like some sort of virtual nomad, fueled by my love of the online massively multiplayer game, I sampled much of what the genre had to offer. While I eventually found a new home and anchor in World of Warcraft, it only served as a nice place to return to every few months. I still ventured out into each new and exciting world that various companies served up to me. They all had things I liked and didn't like about them, and I honestly have yet to play a game that I couldn't find something good to say about. Every online game has its own cool quirks that are pretty neat from a design standpoint. This is why it's tough to identify an objectively "best" game -- they're all so different! I thought today I'd talk a little bit about what I've played over the years and how I ended up with the many and varied opinions on the MMOG genre that I have.
Anti-Aliased: How to pick the MMO for you
Let's be honest for a moment - there are a ton of MMOs out there. We have everything from fantasy, to dystopian future, to fantasy, to horror, to fantasy, to pirates, to fantasy, to sci-fi, and even all the way down to fantasy. While this is great for people who love choice, this is a complete nightmare (or should I say Bloodymare, ha ha, gaming puns) for anyone who's new to the genre or wants to start off with a fresh game that's different from what they're playing.How do you separate the good from the bad? How do you know if you'll stick to a game? You don't want to gamble with an expensive game only to find out that you totally hate it and wish it would burn in the deepest depths of hell. (I'm looking at you, Risk Your Life.) So, do you rely on what your friends tell you or what reviewers tell you?In my opinion, no one knows you except you. So when you sit down and want to pick the right game the first time, here's a few pointers and suggestions to get you started.
Funcom fields tough quarter in anticipation of AoC launch
We all know that MMOs don't come cheap. While we still chuckle a bit at the suggestion that it takes an investment of over $1 billion to make a truly blockbuster MMO, it does cost quite a bit to keep a team of highly skills programmers and artists housed and clothed for the daunting 2 year+ development cycle that they're subject to these days.So when Funcom announced an earnings loss of $3.13 million during the first quarter of this year ending March 31, we can't say we were terribly surprised. They continue to subsist on revenues from Anarchy Online, which they've described as steady, while they gear up for the Age of Conan launch. While AoC is still less than a sure thing, they're confident that they'll have a strong launch, based on the million plus beta applications they've received and generally positive reports they've been getting from the experts.
The Gaming Iconoclast: Jumping Ship
In the spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.-- Alfred, Lord TennysonNo matter where you go, there you are.-- Buckaroo BanzaiRecently, in The Daily Grind, Brenda brought up the subject of taking up a new game in addition to, or instead of, one you currently play, and there were some very insightful responses in the comments. We here at TGI have been mulling over the same issue lately as well. There's apparently something in the air or water these days that leads to such ruminations. Not necessarily outright dalliances, per se, but as a gedankenexperiment into the merits of leaving our current realm or realms and striking out for greener fields. There seems to be a generalized atmosphere swirling around this notion of changing games lately, but why? For some players, it's idle speculation; for others, serious contemplation. For developers, it's either cause for concern or Miller Time. Is it merely widespread anticipation of Warhammer Online and Age of Conan? Is it boredom with the current crop of MMO titles?Or is everybody out there just playing Grand Theft Auto IV?
The Gaming Iconoclast: Taking Sides
"Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?""Oh, I'm not any kind of witch at all!"-- The Wizard of OzWhat about you? Bastion of righteousness or purveyor of deceit? Some folks, to be certain, put a lot of thought into this, balancing role-play, game and class mechanics, racial traits, and a whole constellation of other factors. Some merely find one race or other more interesting or entertaining to look at. Others go where their friends in the game already happen to be. But, initially, when a game is launched, those first adopters will break a certain way demographically. Nick Yee's excellent research on the subject at The Daedalus Project has been touched on here before, and using that as a starting point, we here at TGI have done some statistics-infused navel gazing. One of my long-time gaming buddies and I caught up a couple of weeks ago, and he was astonished that I still play World of Warcraft. I'm the impatient hot-head of the group, usually the first one to unload the choicest four-letter words or suggest that the drinks, service, and (ahem) "prospects" at another bar might be superior to our current location. Anarchy Online got stale for all of us at about the same time, and I was the one musing loudly where we ought to go next. But, here I was, two years after my buddies had retired for one reason or another, still playing as enthusiastically as ever. Heck, maybe more enthusiastically than I did back then. We'd all created Alliance characters, but thinking back to those days, I began to wonder at the mindset and mentality that goes into choosing sides when we're given the option. I'm with the Horde now for the simple reason that almost all my gaming friends were there, and it was "change sides or miss everybody."
Anarchy Online: Patch 17.9 extended preview
Anarchy Online's highly-anticipated Patch 17.9 brings about some new changes to an old favorite, as well as introducing us to two new quests. First off, there's the changes to Steps of Madness, the first dungeon in the game, born way back in 2001. The area has been rebalanced to make it more approachable to the next generation of players. I think we all know that "rebalanced" these days means "easier".The first of the two new quests is called The Escaped Prisoners, where you serve as a bounty hunter, out to catch the ones that got away. These escaped prisoners are a series of Rubi-Ka bosses, each with their own specialties and loot rewards. The second of these quests is an exciting close to the mystery of the Dust Brigade line of quests we've encountered from way back in 17.7. Head on over to MMOFury for more information on this AO exclusive.
Player vs. Everything: Coolest classes ever
For most fantasy MMOGs, the basic classes you can expect to be playing aren't too hard to predict. Whether you're a stalwart warrior with shield in hand, a crafty mage raining fiery bolts of destruction, a sneaky rogue with poison on his knife, or a benevolent cleric healing the wounds of his allies, you make up part of what's known as the holy trinity of MMOs: Tank-DPS-Healer. You need someone to get your foe's attention, someone to whack them over the head until they die, and someone to keep everyone alive until that happens. Everything else is just icing on the cake. We can debate the merits of that particular combat system as long as you like, but what I really wanted to point out is how boring those three specialized roles are. The four archetypes I mentioned are a staple in almost every single fantasy MMOG on the market, but they're far from the most interesting ones. While it's true that you can't get by without them, they've become so vanilla-flavored at this point that they're practically passé. Whenever I log into a new game and look at their class list, I wince a little. "Oh, a chance to be a brave warrior... again. Hmm. Mage? Rogue? Meh." I've always been a big fan of classes that went against the grain, played outside the box, and did something a little different from the "core" classes. Not everyone needs to fit nicely into those three archetypal slots. The classes that don't often turn out to be the most rewarding and fun to play, in my experience. That said, I thought I'd take a look at some of the more interesting class designs in the games I've played and discuss what made them so cool.
.jpg.cf.jpg)
Funcom promises ale and wenches on launch day
Salty wenches, axe-wielding berserkers, and players stuck right in the middle of it all with a frosty ale in hand. Virtual life is so beautiful. Funcom promises to deliver this adult oriented gaming adventure through the upcoming MMO, Age of Conan. If you want the gory details on what AoC has to deliver, game designer Jason Stone sat down and took a few moments to pour some barbaric ale and tell his tale.Jason explained to the folks over at Zergwatch that the AoC team was not about to compromise their devotion to the mature content that is part of the Conan world. There has been some criticism concerning the violence and other, more mature, content, but they are holding their ground. He was then asked about the approaching launch. Will we find ourselves at launch day with our blades blunt and our armor rusted? Hell no! Jason assures us that the team at Funcom has learned from the launch of Anarchy Online and that we can sharpen our blades and get right down to business starting on day one.
Welcome to Anarchy Online's Patch 17.9
Anarchy Online has a long and embattled history, but thanks to its proponents being outspoken veterans, it's survived, and Funcom isn't done with it -- not by a long shot. To prove this, they've brought news of Patch 17.9, to be released at an unannounced date in the future.Along with the typical bug fixes and gameplay improvements, there are 2 new quest lines to tackle, and big changes to the Steps of Madness, the first dungeon created in AO, which should take some of you back and provide some nice nostalgia as you're enjoying its visual and content upgrade. Good on you, Funcom, for keeping the faith.
Anarchy Online updates PvP system in new patch
While excitement continues to build for the in-development Age of Conan, Funcom's first Massively Multiplayer game is still going strong. This week Anarchy Online released patch 17.8, a major update that adds a whole new layer to the Player vs. Player system in the game. Each profession now has ten levels of rankings for individual successes, and there are separate 'team rankings' for grouped PvP as well.The content update adds a number of other new elements as well: a new 'Dust Brigade' quest instance, a change to the Perks system, and tweaks to nanos and NPCs throughout the world. The game is free to play with a tiered payment system this year, and there's a really good-looking graphics update coming soon. What's not to like?
Anarchy Online dev makes every NPC feel special
Content Designer/Writer for Anarchy Online -- Nina "Aythem" Sund -- has a new developer journal post up, covering NPCs within the world of Rubi-Ka. We really like that NPCs have personalized names taken mostly from the people working on AO, but also from other interesting places. One recent NPC was named "Heath Bridges" after Heath Ledger in light of his untimely death. It definitely gives players a good idea bout how much effort people put into the games they enjoy.Of course there are always times when it isnt as easy to create names for her NPCs. Such as the case of Andre Bottle, given the first name of a coder and the last name of, well, a bottle. They can't all be winners, but then again Andre Bottle sure sounds like a nice guy to us. Our favorite name is Scott Free, which is of course a play on words in the form of a name. Yeah -- that kind of humor works on us here at Massively, but only because we're incredibly humorful in nature.
