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Anarchy Online brings global market interface online
Anarchy Online's upgraded its nanos to version 18.5, and with it comes a brand-new global market interface. The new interface is designed to allow players more flexible control over buying, selling, and placing orders in the global economy. The interface can be accessed by both market terminals and portable market terminals. It's important to note that while all players can browse the market, only subscribers can partake in transactions. Version 18.5 has a lot more than just this new interface. The launcher for the game's been improved and now takes you to a visual character select screen. Other improvements include more staying power for pets, tweaks to specific buffs, and clarification for PvP encounters. There's plenty of line items to pour over in the patch notes, so check them out if you've got a summer vacation planned to Rubi-Ka.
The Game Archaeologist: The Anarchy Online bloggers
It's a simple fact of life: Newer MMOs get all the blog love. World of Warcraft and EVE Online, in particular, are lavished with so many dedicated blogs that it's almost embarrassing, while most of the games that we look at in this column are practically ignored. It could just be that blogging didn't really come into vogue when these games came out, but whatever the reason, it's kind of a shame that few if any folks are out there blogging about their in-game experiences in Ultima Online or Asheron's Call. That's why I was utterly surprised to see two brand-new bloggers hit the scene writing about Anarchy Online: Sephora's Closet and Donovan Drones. Both of these blogs came out of a community-wide effort to encourage new game writers in May, and I was so fascinated with their game du jour that I contacted each of them for an interview. What would drive someone to blog about Anarchy Online in 2012? What is there in the game worth writing? How many more words do I need to write until this paragraph doesn't look pathetically skimpy? Come with me and we'll find out!
The Perfect Ten: Worst MMO launches of all time
First things first: Whatever MMO release is currently ticking you off is the worst launch of all time. It would be folly of me to try to convince you otherwise. You've been roundly slapped in the face and you don't want me to convince you that the pain was in vain. I understand. Getting past that, however, would it be possible to examine the subsequent 10 worst launches in the MMO industry? If your trauma isn't too great, that is. It would be? Terrific! What constitutes a horrible game launch is varied, although each and every one of the following games made an unfortunate blunder that caused the title to stumble instead of sprint out of the gate. It's not the end of the story, of course, but it does make for a good tale to tell to youngsters camping in the open woods or a particularly seedy LAN center.
The Game Archaeologist: Are graphical updates worth the hassle?
"I'd play this game again if the graphics were updated." "If they re-released this game with modern graphics, it would be way more popular." "The Game Archaeologist is my hero, and I will name my progeny in his honor." How many times have we heard the above statements? From my perspective as someone who tries to keep tabs on classic MMOs, I see these claims quite a lot. Such sentiments pop up in nearly every other post Massively does about older games: "This title is rock-solid except for its aging visuals. Update those, and it would recapture its former glory and then some." This has gotten me thinking whether such logic would pan out or not. With Anarchy Online's much-hyped graphics overhaul on the way, this discussion seems to crop up more often. Is the power of a graphics conversion or overhaul strong enough to pull back in previous players and fresh blood? Or is it merely slathering on new paint over a rusting hulk?
Choose My Adventure: Ultimate road trip edition
Let's go for another spin! Just like Mikey of Life cereal fame, I ventured into the realm of Choose My Adventure once before, and I liked it! Grand adventures, camaraderie with readers, exploring the unknown... what more could I ask for? More time, obviously! It ended all too soon. I was totally revved up and ready to jump right back in, but unfortunately neither pleading nor bribery worked to continue my stint as your plucky puppet (and locking the other staff members in a dark closet didn't pan out either -- they escaped), so I had to park it and wait my turn. It took much too long, but finally my time has come again. *happy dance* Now the boss may have handed me the keys, but you will be the ones driving. The top is down, and I've got snacks and shades; all that is left to begin our adventure for the next six weeks is to pick which direction to head and floor it. Although a lot of good places have already been visited, there are plenty more to choose from. In the mood for fantasy? Capes? Nebulas? Heavy artillery? Cast your votes by Sunday, April 22nd, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. EDT for your chance to steer me to the world of your choice. Our possible destinations (in no particular order) are...
The Game Archaeologist: Bio break!
Man oh man, why couldn't I just take a month or so off of this column without getting sucked back into it? Why must classic MMOs be so compelling and newsworthy these days? I planned to take some time off of TGA while I went through Dark Age of Camelot in Choose My Adventure (which you're all reading, yes?), but there was so much to talk about regarding older MMOs that I couldn't sit back and stay mum. Ergo, I've dashed off this special "break" column devoted to commenting on recent news about classic games. Hopefully this will help tide you over until I get back into the full swing of things in April. On the docket for today's discussion is Vanguard's forthcoming F2P change, EverQuest's recent conversion, Anarchy Online's stunning graphic engine video, and more!
Anarchy Online's future is so bright, it's gotta wear shades
Game Director Fia "Lindelu" Tjernberg is absolutely pumped about Anarchy Online's future, and she's not shy about promoting it. In a massive March development update post, Tjernberg discusses many projects the team has in the works for the loyal citizens of Rubi-Ka. Probably the biggest change on the immediate horizon is a brand-new global market interface that will allow players to buy and sell goods to each other. The market will be accessed at special terminals in the main cities as well as portable terminals, and can trade across all dimensions. Free players can browse the market, but only subscribers can buy or sell in it. Work-in-progress screenshots of the market were also posted to the main site. She reports that while the team was happy to show off the upgraded graphics engine this past week, there's still a ways to go before it hits live. Other projects that occupy the devs' time are improving the new player experience, balancing professions, and a streamlined game launcher with a graphical character selection screen. [Thanks to David for the tip!]
The MMO Report: Horsesteak edition
In tonight's ultra-short MMO Report, Casey complains that Phantasy Star Online 2 will launch for mobile platforms ahead of PC, drools all over the integration of DUST 514 and EVE Online, maintains a weirdly neutral face while discussing Anarchy Online's graphical overhaul, and regales us with an explanation of The Secret World's class-less game mechanics. He ends on a high note with a peek into Uncle Casey's mailbag and some mockery of World of Warcraft players' forum campaign to undo the latest round of Warlock nerfs. No one's ever done that before. All this and some tips on Icelandic cuisine in the video beyond the cut!
Anarchy Online's Fia Tjernberg talks graphics engine update and the future of the game
Anarchy Online players have been anxiously awaiting the game's upcoming graphics engine upgrade for some time now, and new details are slowly but surely beginning to drip down the pipeline. The latest of these new bits of information is an interview with Game Director Fia Tjernberg that also includes a new preview video showing off "dynamic grass, shadow, water, and god-rays" in the new engine. The interview itself only touches very briefly on the subject of the new engine itself, however, and in fact focuses more on the history of Anarchy Online as well as the direction that the team plans to take the game in the future. Tjernberg reveals that the team is "working towards a massive overhaul of [the game's] systems mechanics and content interaction," as well as "releasing a new starting area – nay strike that – a completely new starting experience," which should give new players and veterans alike plenty to look forward to in the future. To check out the new graphics engine preview video, just skip on past the cut, then click over to MMORPG.com for the full interview.
Anarchy Online's new graphics engine wows Funcom
Anarchy Online looks to be in good hands, as Game Director Fia Tjernberg returns for her second comprehensive development update. The update, which discusses the projects that the team's been working on, covers the past month in detail while hinting at future goodies. Tjernberg stresses that the entire team works just on Anarchy Online and nothing else and has put a wrap on the first video showing off the new graphics engine. According to her, Funcom's marketers got so excited after seeing it that the studio decided to flex some additional muscle to promote it in the near future. "The artists are more confident working with the settings and materials," she writes, "and they learned what they can do to really make a difference in quality." Other areas that the letter covered include an AO-specific world-building tool that the team's constructed, work on the new beginner experience that will tie in with the upcoming engine, the re-evaluation of professions to emphasize roles, and the details behind the upcoming server transfers. All players will be moved onto a new server that will, according to her, "keep [Anarchy Online] running smoothly for another ten years." Tjernberg also teases the next game update by saying that preliminary patch notes could arrive by the end of March.
Anarchy Online's new game director details early 2012 plans
We haven't heard a whole lot from Funcom's old-school sci-fi MMO Anarchy Online since mid-December when the game's producer bowed out. Today, however, the new game director, Fia "Lindelu" Tjernberg, stopped by the game's official forums to give players a bit of an update on what they can expect from the first months of the new year. For starters, Tjernberg gives players a progress report on the game's upcoming shiny new graphics engine. She goes on to explain that "[Funcom's] artists have been preparing a couple of playfields to a standard that is very close to what we're aiming for," and adds that the first video of the new engine should hit sometime in February. Another large priority for the team for early 2012 is the new player experience, but perhaps most importantly of all is the "balancing act," as Tjernberg puts it, which (predictably) aims to bring the game's professions into balance "a little bit at a time." For the full details on Anarchy Online's plans for the next couple of months, just click on through the link below.
The Game Archaeologist's World of Warcraft confession
As you may well know by now, I wasn't an early adopter of the MMO scene apart from a brief exposure to BBSes in the '90s and Anarchy Online and Final Fantasy XI in the early 2000s. To be honest, I found that MMOs were as intimidating -- and fascinating -- to me as pen-and-paper RPGs. You see, in high school I started buying RPG manuals and devouring them cover-to-cover, but I could never find friends or like-minded people with whom to play. The genre was a spectator sport for me; I was looking in from the sidelines and imagining what would happen if I actually got to be part of a D&D session. Likewise, MMORPGs in their earlier forms appeared as user-friendly to me as that house on the block with overgrown shrubs, a rusty iron fence, and a mangy, ever-barking mutt in front of it. Maybe it was really cool inside, or maybe it was a death trap from whence there was no escape, but I never had the courage to find out. Let me put it this way: I purchased and read the entire Star Wars Galaxies Prima Guide three times over without once signing up for the game. I'm sharing this with you because I always want to remember that what we take for granted today -- that MMOs are friendly, fun, engaging, and a downright natural part of many of our gaming lives -- isn't always true for those curious lookey-loos who feel intimidated by the scope, busy UIs, subscription fees, or the often bizarre attitudes that long-term MMO players exhibit. For me, it took one game that tore those barriers down to extend a welcoming hand to me, guiding me into these awesome games. Of course, that was World of Warcraft. And even though my geek cred would be so much higher if it were something earlier or, well, not so mainstream, that wouldn't be the truth. So today I'm going to share my story of how I got into MMOs and why the early days of WoW were some of my most treasured gaming memories.
Anarchy Online's Colin Cragg steps down as producer and game director
Anarchy Online players know Colin "Means" Cragg quite well at this point, as Cragg has worked at Funcom since 2004 and handled the roles of both producer and game director in recent years. Sadly, Cragg announced that he will be leaving the company at the end of the month to "pursue another challenge" and be closer to his family in Sweden. "When I look at the passion this team and the community has for Anarchy Online it has always made me feel privileged just to get to be a part of it," Cragg wrote in his farewell letter. "It has been an incredible honor to get to spend the last eight years working with Anarchy Online and being a part of the Funcom family." Two Funcom employees will split his former duties. Dave "Ilaliya" Williams, who has worked on both Age of Conan and The Secret World, will take over as producer. Filling the game director shoes is Fia "Lindelu" Tjernberg, a long-time member of the Anarchy Online dev team.
The Daily Grind: Do you favor random quests?
One of Star Wars Galaxies' content quirks, borrowed heavily from Anarchy Online, is the random quest. If you tire of themepark questlines, you can trek over to a mission terminal and ask it to generate a random kill-10-rats quest for you. In SWG's prime, these quests were terribly annoying; no one really wants to spend all of his time leveling up by taking missions to destroy a gubbur lair over and over and over. Thank goodness for this new era of individual, scripted quests brought on by World of Warcraft, right? Well, not necessarily. More than once, I (and some our our forum-goers) have been irked at hand-written quests in WoW-esque games. They're usually trite and transparent, and the quest-givers rarely have good reason to entrust me with their tasks. We're still getting kill-10-rats quests -- we just have to click through a bunch of lame dialogue first. What do you think? Do you prefer pre-scripted, one-off, linear quests, or do you long for the simplicity and honesty of random quest generation? 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!
Anarchy Online gets its own convention in 2012: AO Con
Most MMO communities can only dream that their game would be as popular and supported as to get their own convention. A rare few see either studio- or fan-based efforts make this dream a reality. In 2012, Anarchy Online gamers will finally -- after 11 years -- join these revelers with their own convention: AO Con. GridStream Productions is putting on the first-ever Anarchy Online convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan on August 10th through 12th, 2012. The convention will take place at the Grand Rapids Airport Hilton, and is scheduled to have DJs, costume contests, panels, and meet-n-greets. Registration is affordable -- it's only $25 to attend the three-day convention, but you have to be 18 by August 2012 in order to go. GridStream Productions is an in-game organization that primarily focuses on putting out Anarchy Online broadcasts.
Google, Facebook, Twitter and others speak out against the Stop Online Piracy Act
Earlier today, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA) which, depending on who you ask, is either a means to stop piracy and copyright infringement on so-called "rogue" websites, or the most serious threat of internet censorship that we've seen in some time. In the latter camp are some of the biggest internet companies around, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, eBay, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Zynga and AOL (full disclosure: Engadget's parent company), who today made their stance clear by taking out a full-page ad in The New York Times. The ad itself is a letter sent by the nine companies to Congress, which states that while they support the stated goals of the bill and the related Protect IP Act, they believe that, as written, the bills "would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites." The companies further went on to say that they believe the measures also "pose a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our Nation's cybersecurity." While they didn't all sign onto the letter, those companies also also joined by a host of others who have spoken out against the legislation, including Foursquare and Tumblr. The sole witness against the proposed measures at today's hearing, however, was Google's copyright policy counsel, Katherine Oyama -- you can find her testimony on Google's Public Policy Blog linked below.
Funcom signs on for Extra Life charity event
Trion isn't the only MMO studio ponying up for charity on October 15th. Funcom is also partnering with Extra Life for a bleary-eyed 24-hour gaming marathon designed to raise money and awareness for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Here's how it works: You'll need to register with Extra Life and collect pledges from friends, family, co-workers, and anyone else you come across. Then you can join either the Age of Conan or Anarchy Online in-game event and try to stay awake. What's in it for you? Well, aside from doing the right thing to help a bunch of kids in need, you might win beta access to The Secret World. While you're at it, don't forget to follow Massively's own Beau Hindman (and donate as much as you're able) as he embarks on his own Extra Life marathon.
Slavery the Game isn't a real game, is a real website, is really uncool
Slavery the Game isn't a game -- at least, we really hope it's not -- but it is a wonderful example of just how warped the Internet's sense of humor and decency is. Slavery the Game's website is horrifyingly legit at first glance, boasting a trailer, contact information, share buttons, the insignia for Xbox 360, PS3, PC and an ESRB rating of AO (Adults Only). These are lined up at the bottom of the site, right next to the overwhelming sense of relief we felt when we realized neither 360 nor PS3 release AO titles. Further, the ESRB doesn't list a rating for anything called Slavery the Game and the proposed developer, Javelin Reds Gaming, doesn't exist. One YouTube version of the trailer credits The Creative Assembly with making Slavery the Game, but it isn't mentioned anywhere on The Creative Assembly's site. We've contacted The Creative Assembly for clarification. [Update: The Creative Assembly has clarified it has nothing to do with this project.] We do wonder, if Slavery the Game isn't a game (and it's not; notice the lack of italics here), does it have a larger goal, or is this it; a mysterious website with a gruesome reminder that society can be a more powerful force than individual morality? We thought we already had one of those.
Anarchy Online shows a glimpse of its future makeover
News of the much-anticipated Anarchy Online graphics revamp has been sparse, to say the least, so to see six brand-new screens of the updated engine is like a cold drink of water after an endless trek through IKEA. Seriously, it takes like two hours just to navigate through that store! Director/Producer Colin Cragg posted the six updated screenshots showing off the city of Tir on the Anarchy Online forums today. The screenies don't just have fans of the long-running MMO pumped, but the Anarchy Online team as well. "I have to keep shooing the rest of the team away from Parsed's desk...this is probably a good sign," Cragg writes. AO players have been waiting for the promised new graphic engine at least since 2009, so this is a good sign that Funcom is on track to update its oldest MMO with a 2011 veneer. You can check out all six screens in the gallery below. [Thanks to Kane Hart for the tip!] %Gallery-102015%
The Perfect Ten: MMO mascots
Everyone knows that a good mascot can make a difference between a video game's death and rabid popularity. Mario, Master Chief, Duke Nuke 'Em, Pac-Man, Samus Aran, Pyramid Head -- each one of these mascots isn't merely an aspect of the game, they are the virtual spokesperson (or spokesthing) which represents the game itself. Yet when you think about it, MMOs have had a tougher time producing mascots than other video game genres, partially because unlike other games, you don't play as the mascots, and partially because when you have a cast of thousands of NPCs, picking out one to elevate above the rest is a difficult job. Difficult, that is, but not impossible. Today we're going to look at ten MMO mascots (MMOscots?) that studios have tried to promote as the face of these games, to varying degrees of success.
