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The Game Archaeologist: Reactions to a free Vanguard
Vanguard's just had its biggest month since its troubled release in 2007, I wager. Its turn to free-to-play makes it the second-to-last SOE title to make the jump, and it's getting a "do-over" of sorts. Personally, I'm glad to see it happen. Without going into depth on Vanguard's past problems, I'll say that this was a highly hyped game that fell about as hard as any MMO could without being outright canceled. For years, it has been subsiding on a meager population and extremely rare updates (I recall a tiny bug update for Vanguard being laughably big news last summer). Now? Now it's received a new lease on life and attention from players and the media. If you've been following the news, you'll know that Vanguard soft launched a week early, talked with Massively about the conversion, officially launched thereafter, and is now part of the PSS.1 deal. But the most important word is that of the player on the street, the ground-pounders in Telon who are checking out F2P (and perhaps the game) for the first time. I've gathered several of these perspectives together for your amusement and edification.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Waiting for Guild Wars 2
There are two weeks left until the official launch of Guild Wars 2. That's a little nutso because a significant portion of my (and a great deal many other folks') energy in last few years has been dedicated to anticipating the game. Seeing it live will be something of an adjustment. I keep wanting to talk about memories of development and standing in lines at PAX and meeting devs and other fans as a way of describing my involvement with this game up 'til this point. I sometimes feel that that's odd, saying that the most exciting part of following Guild Wars 2's development has been the people I've met rather than the game that we're all congregating around. ArenaNet seems to agree with my take on things, though, if global brand manager Chris Lye can be trusted. He says of ArenaNet, "We're not a video game company; we're a community building company. We just happen to have one of the coolest ways to build a community, which is through a video game." Be it trite or not, I find that that kind of statement aligns nicely with the reason I, someone who plays MMOs largely for the sense of shared experience, have enjoyed Guild Wars 2 and its community so much.
Fallen Earth previews its next big update
The past month has been a quiet one for Fallen Earth on the update front. As the latest development blog entry explains, this was largely due to the team working on clearing out some persistent bugs and improving the overall quality of life for players. But there are new updates in the works, and the blog entry explains that the game's next major update is right around the corner, complete with powerful new weapons for players to assemble. Of course, you can't expect for these new weapons to just drop into your lap. So it probably comes as no real surprise that the components needed for the powerful G.O.R.E. weapons can be found in an old GlobalTech dump site that now hosts a creeper den guarded by the massive Crabbahoak. Or that the Cult of the Dead has sprung up again to use the G.O.R.E. technology to further its own ends. In other words, it's going to be quite a struggle to get these new weapons -- and that's the way that most Fallen Earth players would prefer it to be.
EA sues Zynga for copyright infrigement, cites Tiny Tower
EA has dropped a lawsuit on Zynga's doorstep, claiming that one of Zynga's latest Facebook games, called The Ville, is essentially an infringing copy of EA's popular The Sims. You can read through the entire complaint at Scribd. What's most interesting about this whole case -- other than two companies fussing over whose millions are whose -- is that EA is casting itself as the defender of innovation for casual and social gaming. Forty-seven points into the complaint, EA brings up the Tiny Tower/Dream Tower debacle, in which Zynga released a game very similar to Nimblebit's popular Tiny Tower called Dream Tower. In EA's post about the lawsuit, the general manager of EA's Maxis Studio (creators of The Sims Social) says that "Maxis isn't the first studio to claim that Zynga copied its creative product. But we are the studio that has the financial and corporate resources to stand up and do something about it. Infringing a developer's copyright is not an acceptable practice in game development. By calling Zynga out on this illegal practice, we hope to have a secondary effect of protecting the rights of other creative studios who don't have the resources to protect themselves." Now, whether any other studios allegedly copied by Zynga have the resources to "stand up and do something about it" might still be in question. But reading through the complaint, it's more than apparent that EA isn't going after Zynga just for themselves -- they're trying to establish a repeated pattern of Zynga's infringement. And given Zynga's stock troubles lately, a big lawsuit like this is probably the last thing the company needs. It'll be very interesting to see how this litigation moves forward. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Office Next blog is here to answer all your burning questions about the future of spreadsheets
Microsoft has this really great habit of publicly tracking the development of all its products. Windows 8 has been thoroughly documented over at the Building Windows 8 blog, and now Office will have its time to shine over at Office Next. The site will give the engineers and developers toiling away in Redmond an outlet to provide updates, discuss design decisions and offer peeks at the new features being baked in. It won't be just a place full of bullet lists either, PJ Hough, the VP of program management for the Office Division, promised in his inaugural post that the data and feedback that informs their choices will also be shared -- telling you not just what, but why. Is there anything new to share right now? Sadly no, but it probably won't be long before the pages of Engadget are filled with the minutia of Office 15's development.
Google closes down Mac-specific company blog
For more than five years, Google's Mac blog has provided a company-endorsed outlet for announcements and insight into the search giant's offerings for Apple's computer line. Going forward, however, you'll have to track the Mac on Google's other official blogs -- the Mac-only Blogger page is going quiet. This transition isn't exactly a huge surprise; the low-frequency Google Mac page last saw an update in October of 2011, with a brief memorial post for Steve Jobs. It's nice to know the Mac is mainstream enough to fit in with the rest of the class, although developers who relied on Google's Mac-specific frameworks may have to hunt around a bit more to get the news they need. [via The Loop]
Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: You always want what you can't have
Each week, Blog Azeroth hosts a Shared Topic for bloggers to answer on their blogs and then link to in the forum. This week, dragonray from Azerothian Life asks: What is in game that you want, but you can't have? Is there an animal you want to tame, a critter you want to collect, a tabard that has the perfect design for a transmog set etc etc. What is it you want, but know you can't get your hands on and have to stare at longingly whenever you log in? I wish I had the original World of Warcraft Collector's Edition companion pets: Mini Diablo, the Zergling, and the Panda Cub. I don't have to stare at them longingly whenever I log in, because people rarely have them out. But I do have to look at the Collector's Edition box on a daily basis.
EVE Online posts financial data for the past several months
When you think about the economy, is your primary concern whether or not the latest updates to combat have impacted mining operations and mineral prices? If so, you're probably an EVE Online player, and you'll be happy to know that CCP Games has released a full blog post detailing the economic trends for the game over the past several months. The good news is that the heavy inflation that's been at work for several months is starting to subside; the bad news is that the market is having issues with mineral prices. In short, following the announcement of loot drop changes, several players stockpiled minerals for resale after the change. This wound up dovetailing with the player-run Hulkageddon event, which resulted in several mineral stockpiles and a dearth of ongoing mining operations. The overall outlook is still positive, but mining operations are still recovering from these effects, meaning that movement will likely be tepid for a while.
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!
EVE Evolved: Setting the record straight
On Monday the story broke that EVE Online's new CSM 7 chairman The Mittani said something extremely controversial during the Fanfest alliance panel. The story rapidly spread across the major games industry blogs, and in true telephone-game-style, it got progressively more bizarre with each version. The most disheartening part of it all was the absolute deluge of comments suggesting that the EVE community is made entirely of sociopaths and griefers. If you think that EVE has a poor community, start a trial and ask random people to help you out. You'll be surprised by what I think is the friendliest and most tightly knit MMO community on the planet. Jester's Trek wrote an article attributing part of the whole Fanfest debacle to the various different personas that The Mittani embodies. Jester described how The Mittani wears three hats: EVE spymaster and ruthless Goon leader The Mittani, CSM chairman Mittens, and the real-life person Alex. Jester asserts that these three personas clash terribly and may be incompatible and that the alliance panel talk slip-up was made from the perspective of The Mittani and not his CSM persona. In this week's EVE Evolved opinion piece, I drill down into some of the details of the recent drama, from the proliferation of media coverage to exactly what line was crossed.
ArenaNet focuses on community in latest dev blog
If you're reading Massively, we assume you're a player or fan of MMORPGs, but everyone has different reasons for playing. Some play for hardcore raiding progression, some play for role-playing, and some play just to wind down and relax, but there's one thread that ties all of these things together: community. After all, what's an MMORPG without the MMO? ArenaNet is well aware of this, and the studio has just released a new blog outlining its approach toward community-building with Guild Wars 2. Some may be surprised to hear that ArenaNet will be offering official forums for GW2. Some may be even more surprised to hear that the studio will not be offering "traditional fansite support." But don't panic! This isn't the death of community, it's the evolution thereof. ArenaNet realizes that "gaming and community management have evolved over the last six years," so the studio plans to change right along with it. When you consider the fact that the GW2 community spans multiple separate communities, such as fansites, forums, social networking sites, and outlandishly fabulous sites such as Massively itself, it should come as no surprise that the studio is aiming to bring these players together. The final goal, according to the blog, "is to create an environment that is respectful, welcoming, inclusive, and friendly." We're sure more details on the studio's community plan will be unearthed as the game approaches launch, but until then, ArenaNet is asking the community to be proactive by bringing community projects to its attention so that the studio can "[highlight] them for the broader community." So get to work, Guild Wars fans, and help to build a community that makes ANet proud.
Ghostcrawler discusses Mists of Pandaria buff and debuff design
Ghostcrawler has continued his series explaining some of the system changes coming to World of Warcraft in Mists of Pandaria. The newest blog post discusses which buffs players will be bringing to groups as well as which debuffs certain classes can inflict on enemies. Blizzard is giving a variety of classes each category of buff and debuff in order to make setting up 10- or 25-man raids a breeze. First, Ghostcrawler outlined the main design goals of the new buff and debuff categories, saying that making the player feel more powerful in a group as well as making group-building easier were two of the biggest reasons for the changes. DPS classes should be excited to know that buffs and debuffs will vary per role rather than spec, so a DPS warrior will bring the same utility whether he is arms or fury. After discussing the design goals, Ghostcrawler gave some notes with regards to the new categories of buffs and debuffs, with the new categories as the big finish. Check out all of the categories in Ghostcrawler's post after the jump.
Ghostcrawler talks game systems in final Cataclysm post-mortem
Blizzard's Cataclysm post-mortem blog series has seen Dave "Fargo" Kosak discuss quest design and Scott "Daelo" Mercer discuss dungeons and raids; today, Blizzard wraps up the series with a look at Cataclysm's game systems. As with Fargo and Daelo, Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, WoW's lead systems designer, talks about what worked (the 1-to-60 revamp, choosing a spec at level 10) and what didn't (a long list of other things). GC is surprisingly candid in this particular blog entry, and it's definitely worth a read to get a bead on what Blizzard learned from World of Warcraft's third expansion. The full interview is after the break.
Pathfinder Online will let players run the kingdom
If you've played the Pathfinder tabletop game that Pathfinder Online is based upon, you know that you need to have grouping. After all, the former is all about bands of adventurers exploring the wilds. So it's fitting that the most recent developer blog is all about the game's methods of managing groups and playing in different numbers. And this isn't just a matter of parties or solo play -- at the high end, players can be running entire kingdoms as a social unit. Solo play is meant to be somewhat discouraged, as the blog notes it will be a much more difficult road for a dedicated lone wolf. Parties will be the next step up, holding an undetermined number of players (the working target has about 24 players at the high end). Above those are chartered companies, settlements, and as mentioned, entire new player-run kingdoms. It's going to produce some interesting dynamics to have player organizations in such abundance, but the developers seem to have some confidence in their initial designs.
Federal domain seizure raises new concerns over online censorship
It's been a little more than a year since the US government began seizing domains of music blogs, torrent meta-trackers and sports streaming sites. The copyright infringement investigation, led by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities, quickly raised eyebrows among many free speech and civil rights advocates, fueling a handful of legal challenges. Few are more compelling, or frightening than a case involving Dajaz1.com. As TechDirt reports, the popular hip-hop blog has been at the epicenter of a sinuous and seemingly dystopian dispute with the feds -- one that underscores the heightening controversy surrounding federal web regulation, and blurs the constitutional divide between free speech and intellectual property protection. Dajaz1 was initially seized under the 2008 Pro IP Act, on the strength of an affidavit that cited several published songs as evidence of copyright infringement. As it turns out, ,any of these songs were actually provided by their copyright holders themselves, but that didn't stop the government from seizing the URL anyway, and plastering a warning all over its homepage. Typically, this kind of action would be the first phase of a two-step process. Once a property is seized, US law dictates that the government has 60 days to notify its owner, who can then choose to file a request for its return. If the suspect chooses to file this request within a 35-day window, the feds must then undertake a so-called forfeiture process within 90 days. Failure to do so would require the government to return the property to its rightful owner. But that's not exactly how things played out in the case of Dajaz1. For more details on the saga, head past the break.
The Game Archaeologist's excellent EverQuest Online Adventures: The blogger
To tell you all the truth, the comments from last week's initial foray into EverQuest Online Adventures bowled me over -- I truly was not expecting so many players to be so passionate about the game! How cool is that? I hope that some of you send me in your EQOA stories to justin@massively.com so we can include them in next week's column. Today I want to welcome Rick "Stoney" Stonebrook to our neck of the Massively woods. I remember finding Stoney's EQOA blog over a year ago and being so impressed that there was someone out there regularly updating a blog about this low-profile MMO. Stoney agreed to an interview about the game from a player's and blogger's perspective, so here goes! The Game Archaeologist: Please introduce yourself and your blog! Why did you start blogging about EQOA? Stoney: Well, I'm 24 and have lived in a lot of places in the past few years. I adopted the name Stoney when I started the blog, eqoa.wordpress.com, in October 2010. The purpose for the blog was simple: compile as much information about the game as I could find using various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and YouTube. I hadn't played since 2005 and wasn't familiar with any new content. I had always wanted to return to the game. Thus the blog's goal evolved from a collection of memories to an effort to get people to return.
Star Trek Online outlines the next several veteran rewards for players
There's still no definite date on the conversion to free-to-play for Star Trek Online, but the game is quickly approaching its 700th day of operation -- which is important. The game's veteran awards are provided for players in 100-day increments, meaning that the point is fast approaching when the players will be owed a new reward. So it makes sense that the latest Path to F2P blog discusses the next four veteran rewards and explains another upgrade to the reward for 600 days. The 600-day reward will change to a free token at level 51 (Vice Admiral) allowing players to pick a free ship, something that is currently the case but is being changed with the upcoming patch. This veteran reward means long-time players will still be eligible for a free ship, a benefit that should help assuage at least some of the issues seen with the payment model shift. The subsequent rewards range from new Android bridge officers to free respec tokens, all of which should make long-time players rather pleased.
EVE dev video shows work on engine trails, custom ship skins and more
If you're a fan of EVE Online, I apologise in advance for the funny looks you get when you jump out of your seat yelling "HELL YES!" while watching the latest In Development video. In this second part of CCP Games' new video devblog series, CCP Guard takes a live hand grenade into EVE Online's art department to show us just what's going on behind the scenes. We've already seen the impressive nebula effects and new Raven model due for release in the winter expansion, and today CCP showed off some massive shadow improvements, but those upcoming additions pale in comparison to what's planned for after the winter period. The latest In Development video shows that CCP is currently working on engine trails, custom ship skins, a new cyno effect, a new warp tunnel, and graphical upgrades for every single ship in the game. It's a tall order, one that's unlikely to be fulfilled in the winter expansion despite developers' recent laser focus on delivering new features. The video gives a sneak peek at the models for the Amarr and Caldari tier 3 battlecruisers, which were selected from fan-submitted entries to last year's design contest in a similar manner to the already revealed Minmatar Tornado and Gallente Talos. Read on to find out why custom ship skins are more work to implement than most of us realise and to watch the new video in HD.
Captain's Log: Testing out the future
Captain's Log, Stardate 65264.3... Hello, computer (and players)! As you have must have seen by now, open beta testing of Star Trek Online's new F2P model is well underway; the developers have been posting dev diaries about the impending changes for the last couple of days. Because testers on the Tribble test server were required to start new characters, and because character transfers will not be an option for at least a few weeks, many players have begun a mad dash to level up their test characters in order to test out some of the retooled endgame content. Since testing, especially in this manner, can be confusing, I have decided to dedicate this week's Captain's Log to those who are willing to take on the challenge. Past the jump, you will find a checklist of sorts that you can use while testing (or, ultimately, playing) the new content and updates. I suggest reading each section and then checking it out in-game. While some recommendations may seem less interesting than others, I suggest you give each a fair shot so you can provide feedback on what can make the game better. Ensign, warp 10! Let's give our dedicated Tribbleites some structure to their testing time...
Newest Star Trek Online blog entry outlines the Duty Officer system
One of the issues that Star Trek Online has always faced when emulating its source material is the simple issue of size. Players take the role of a captain overseeing an entire ship, crewed with numerous people, a ship that in the television series would be filled with actors and recurring faces. But in gameplay, that sense has always been a bit more difficult to convey... and it's an element being addressed with the new Duty Officer system. In the latest entry in the Path to F2P blog, Geoff Tuffli outlines the goals and overall thrust of the Duty Officer system. Players will receive Duty Officers as rewards in a variety of ways, including spending time in the academy for each respective faction. The officers can be placed in departments, sent on assignments, or otherwise managed by players in order to receive the greatest amount of benefit from the support staff. It's a feature that's long been promised by the development team, and as the game moves toward a hybrid business model, it looks to finally be moving to release.
