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Eliotropes land in Dofus and Wakfu
The Eliotropes are coming! Wait, sorry, that's not quite right; the Eliotropes are here if you're playing Wakfu. They're also here if you're playing Dofus. Yes, both of the games based on the same lore are getting the same class on the same day. The class also promises to be a tricky one, as it's centered around making use of martial arts attacks projected over long distances through a series of portals. Eliotropes can serve as healers and positioners in the game's combat system, launching powerful assaults through portals and slipping through those same portals to evade damage. But enemies can also use these portals for transport, making the class a bit more tricky to play well. Check out the videos on the new class just past the break because this new option is already here. And there. Lots of places, really. [Source: Ankama press release]
Ankama teaser melds Dofus, Wakfu
Did you catch that cryptic teaser vid Ankama put out earlier this month? If not, and if you're a fan of quirky sandbox games with goofy names, click past the cut to have a look. The clip hints at some sort of joining between Ankama titles Dofus and Wakfu.
Wakfu lands on Steam, nixes subs
The unique tactical MMO Wakfu is getting sort of a re-launch today with a debut on Steam. This "new and revamped" version of the game will feature a new beginner experience and completely eliminate subscriptions. The studio is selling booster packs as one of the ways to make ends meet. Ankama COO Olivier Comte celebrated the release: "We are proud to bring Wakfu on Steam and give the opportunity to more and more players to discover this universe. We are starting with English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Thai players, but more will follow soon." [Source: Ankama press release]
Wakfu heads to Steam on September 18th
If you've lamented the fact that Steam currently has a distinct lack of isometric tactical-ish MMORPGs available at the moment, you'll be happy to know that Wakfu is heading to the platform on September 18th. The game is currently in closed testing until September 16th, with no character wipes planned between now and the launch. Closed beta players will receive a special reward in the form of an item inspired by Valve's properties. A thread has been created for the developers to share places where keys are available, for those who want to get in on the Steam testing before it's too late. If you'd rather just wait a little bit until the launch on the 18th, that works too. [Source: Ankama press release]
Wakfu relaunch moves into open beta
Wakfu's continuing with its "relaunch" strategy by fine-tuning its free-to-play offerings and now announcing the start of its open beta program. As of today, anyone can jump into the game to see how the MMO's improved with its new format. Ankama Managing Director and COO Olivier Comte makes the pitch that Wakfu is definitely worth checking out: "As we open the updated world of Wakfu to an even broader set of fans, we will continue to focus on the core and essence of our gameplay –- the players. In addition to a broad range of classes to suit varying tastes, colorful environments and our well-known sense of humor, Wakfu gives players a chance to impact the entire game world through their strategic and even political decisions." [Source: Ankama press release]
Wakfu details boost benefits for free-to-play model [Updated]
Wakfu has always had a free option for players, but the game is saying goodbye to subscriptions altogether with its relaunch, giving all players access to every part of the game from start to finish. Of course, there has to be some way to balance that, since the company running the game will still need to make money. That incentive will take the form of boosts, allowing players to gain bonus experience on their first and subsequent characters. Boosts will be available in several different durations, with the longest duration corresponding to the greatest overall bonus. Players will have improved drop rates, health regeneration, and battle rewards as well. Prices have not yet been announced, but the goal is for the boost days to be affordable. Players with subscriptions will also see their remaining subscription days converted into boost days, allowing everyone currently playing to reap the benefits early. [Update: The team has just posted another chart with all of the veteran rewards that will be distributed to current subbers on July 9th.] [Thanks to Avaera for the tip!]
The DOFUS movie aims to release in 2016
World of Warcraft isn't the only online game that's working on a movie adaptation. DOFUS has an animated feature that will be coming out in French theaters on February 3rd, 2016. The feature is called DOFUS -- Book I: Julith and will be fully animated. The project has cleared the pre-production phase and is going forward to meet the 2016 release date. The studio released a screenshot (above) from the film, illustrating its art style. Ankama said that it doesn't know when or whether the film would be made available outside of France: "At this time, we can't announce any plans for the international communities, but if that changes, we will inform you as quickly as possible."
Wakfu getting crafting and class revamps, spy stuff
What's new for Wakfu in 2014? Quite a lot according to the game's latest website update. Ankama is prepping class revamps, a crafting revamp featuring the ability to "become a real entrepreneur," and some sort of shadowy spy mechanic that involves "having a secret life" and using it to "fight the nations from within." Finally, if you'll be anywhere near Lille, France, on May 2nd, you'll want to stop by the Ankama Convention since admission is free. [Thanks Avaera!]
Wakfu announces plans for crafting revamp
Ankama Games' quirky, cel-shaded, turn-based title Wakfu is tearing down its old crafting system and rebuilding it into something totally new. While the dev blog on the topic makes it clear that the final version of the crafting revamp is still subject to many changes, the basic idea behind it is to recreate crafting as a time-based system in which players assign crafting tasks to their (NPC) workers, with each task taking a variable amount of time to complete. Players can continue their adventures as usual while their workers complete a task, so there's no need to park your character and go make a sandwich while he crafts. Each crafting task occupies a craft slot, with each character beginning their crafting career with a single slot. Players can unlock additional task slots (allowing more crafting tasks to be completed simultaneously) by completing crafting achievements, up to a maximum of nine slots. In addition to this new crafting system, the revamp will also introduce a contract system that will allow buyers to place orders with their crafters of choice, complete with the tools for price negotiation and the ability for buyers to supply the required materials to the crafters. When a contract is completed, the item is delivered directly to the buyer's inventory upon its completion, making for a hassle-free shopping experience. All the finer details on Wakfu's proposed crafting revamp can be found in the full dev blog on the game's official site. [Thanks to Avaera for the tip!]
Rise and Shiny revisit: Wakfu
One of the great benefits of this job comes from revisiting worlds that have gone unchecked for a while. These are games that I already know I enjoy but want to check back on in an "official" manner, every year at least. Honestly I visit many of them several times a year, but not in the same way I would if I were working. Wakfu is on the same list as Ryzom, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Champions Online and many, many others. This time around I wanted to get out more and explore the surrounding areas, and I found that Ankama has made many improvements to the game that help make exploration possible. Granted, the changes that I noticed were not significant but notable, and overall the game appeared to be just as smooth, interesting, and original as before. The only problem is that many of the same issues I had with the game are still there, and I doubt they'll disappear any time soon.
WAKFU's Haven Worlds update postponed
WAKFU is pushing back its Haven Worlds update a week to June 25th as the team cites testing concerns. "Our forums and internal discussions, as well as the internal playtest, raised concerns on some of the main aspects of the Haven Worlds," Ankama posted. "Since our intention is to offer quality content that matches your expectations, we decided to take one more week to improve a few gameplay details." The team decided not to implement tollbooths in the patch but created a more "malleable" system to fill the role. Several other small changes, including those to taxes and GvG features, are detailed in the delay post. To fill the void between now and the 25th, Ankama has put up a new dev diary to show off Haven Worlds and all the goodness that is to come. Check it out after the break!
Free for All: Wakfu's bizarre first year
Wakfu is not what many would consider a standard MMORPG. Its developer, Ankama, has never pushed out normal products. After all, this is a French company we're talking about. That's right, as in France, the same place that brought us amazing (but unusual) creations like Ryzom's plant-planet and the incredible art of Moebius. There's something going on over there, something that is refreshingly different from the typical game or art design. When I attended GDC Online 2011, I was floored by a session featuring Ankama's David Calvo called Chaos in Motion: Transmedia as a Living Community Experience. The panel implored developers to take a chance on development, to give players something unique to experience and world to have an impact on. That was a while ago, however. The game launched a year ago, but the studio had an imperfect year. Let's follow the timeline from then to now.
WAKFU welcomes the Masqueraider
First of all, the Masqueraider may be either the absolute best or worst class name ever devised depending on your tolerance for puns. Second of all, it's WAKFU's 15th class. Third of all, it's here, so go check it out. The Masqueraider switches between roles using a clever mask system. While the first couple of skills in any line are available no matter what mask is worn, all of the other skills are mask-dependent. The masks range from coward (which relies on heals, escapes, and ranged DPS) to classic (which allows for excellent melee combat and helpful auras). There's even a Psychopath mask, which gives you a shortcut to the game's forums so that you can quickly write rants. Just kidding -- it's all about fire DPS. The Masqueraider was part of WAKFU's February 26th update, which also included AP set rebalancing and profession bags.
DOFUS takes a pounding from DDOS attacks
The cutsie DOFUS is sweating big anime sweat drops today as the game and its forums have come under multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. The team reported the first attack this morning on Twitter, saying that the devs were working on beefing up the title's security. However, come this afternoon all hell started to break loose. "We may be under a second DDOS attack, forums and game are inaccessible at the moment," the DOFUS Twitter account said. We'll keep on top of this story as it develops.
One Shots: To those left behind
Good games may get cancelled, but as long as we have screenshots, they're never truly forgotten! Reader John sent us in this blast from the not-too-distant past that some of you may recognize. "While going through some old screenshots, I came across a few from Tabula Rasa," John shared. "It was taken in November of 2007 as Veracious Pearl was ready to do some fighting." Sadly, that soldier never made it out of the war. That doesn't mean we've given up fighting, however! Knock down a few mobs in the name of Veracious Pearl today, and when you're done, you should check out the rest of today's One Shots troops.
Square Enix confirms layoff rumors, denies any impact on MMO operation
It's an unfortunate reality that layoffs are somewhat common in the gaming industry, and more often than not that means that games get cancelled or shut down. This weekend, Massively has been inundated with rumors that Square Enix has become the latest studio to suffer that reality. Tipsters suggested the company had laid off several people from its office in LA, people whose termination might impact the game's online offerings such as Wakfu and the upcoming relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV. Only part of these rumors appears to be true. Senior Director of Public Relations Riley Brennan has told Massively that the layoffs did occur for restructuring purposes but that the workforce reduction will have no impact on the company's online titles, though we don't still don't know which titles or departments were affected. In order to ensure it is operating effectively, the Square Enix Los Angeles office has reduced its workforce. This was a difficult decision and we wish the best for those affected by these changes. The decision will not have any impact on the operations of MMO titles. Customers can expect those services to continue, including the upcoming launch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. While we're certainly happy to hear that our games will continue to operate without incident, our best wishes go out to those affected by this round of layoffs. [Thanks as always to our anonymous tipsters!]
Free for All: Justifying the subscriptions I maintain
Subscriptions are a funny thing. For as long as I can remember, they've represented a level of quality to many gamers. To those players, only those funny Eastern MMOs didn't have a sub. Granted, I loved a lot of those funny Eastern games and didn't care how a game monetized itself. Watching Western players spin on a dime about subscriptions has been a pretty weird experience. The Western developers have changed as well, providing tiered services and other models that would have been seen as suspicious only years ago. I've been known as a free-to-play guy for a while. Heck, I was originally hired here at Massively to cover free-to-play games. Now that there are more free games than not, this column has spread out a bit, covering multiple topics. Payment models do still come up, as they did this week. I thought it'd be cool to examine the subs I do maintain and why -- not press accounts or accounts from long before I began working at Massively, but accounts that I choose to pay for with my own money.
Wakfu rolls out the Foggernaut
We can always count on Wakfu to come up with classes that are far beyond the tired norm of Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Priest. Case in point, Square-Enix has just revealed the game's 14th playable class, the Foggernaut. The Foggernaut is a mechanical man who can unleash a number of gadgets and gizmos to save the day. It specializes in fire, earth, and statsis attacks, and can fight from both short- and long-range. This new class is now available for play, and all interested parties can check out the Foggernaut video reveal after the jump.
Choose My Adventure: The indie edition
It might be your time up there, but it's my time -- my time -- down here! For this latest edition of Choose My Adventure, I get to hand out a selection of odd little games for you to vote on, and then for the next month and change, I will stumble my way through the title. At your direction and with your help, of course. The trouble is that I have already played darn near everything. I've downloaded and tried so many games that I simply can't remember them all. So, what to do? Well, I decided to give a mix of games a chance at several weeks coverage here on Massively. I picked out an assortment of browser games, independent titles, and lesser-known client-based MMOs. Hopefully you will steer me the right way, and if I am lucky, I won't even have a horrible time. I chose games that I know have a robust community in the hopes that plenty of voters will turn out. The key is to get the word out there, so if you have a favorite, go tell your community! But first, click past the cut and vote on the game you would like to see me tackle for the next several weeks. Just don't expect to see triple-A games on the list!
Wakfu releases Monk Island, new teaser
Ankama is updating Wakfu today with a content drop called Monk Island. There's a dev diary on the game's official website that provides a bit of detail, including information about religious fanatics, a new dungeon, and all of the mystery you would expect from a secluded island. Here's the scoop for those not familiar with Wakfu: It's a fantasy sandbox title that makes up the MMORPG portion of a global cross-media IP. It's based in the same universe as Ankama's Dofus MMO, and it features many of the same classes and professions. Ankama has released a brief Monk Island teaser trailer that shows the Messaround Monastery as well as a bit of combat action. You'll find it after the cut.
