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The Daily Grind: Do you wish test realm characters could be transfered to live realms?
I regularly play on testing realms (it is in my job description after all) but my biggest gripe is that I can never get that enthusiastic about it because I know I will lose my characters. Last week we told you about the open beta for Atlus Online's MMO Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent and the interesting news that characters created could be kept and resurrected on live realms. Now this is pretty revelatory stuff. Any one who has played an MMO on a test realm knows that you can usually copy your toons over in order to rest higher level content but there's no way to re-transfer them home after your done. They just get deleted along with the server.My problem with this is I am less likely to do quests on a test realm because I don't want to slog through them again later. At the same time it's nice to get the chance to use a premade from a different class to see how they play. However I do think that if more companies were to follow Atlus' example (however implausible it might be for the bigger MMOs) that people would be more inclined to hang around after the beta ended. What do you think, constant readers? Would you play (insert upcoming MMO title here) for longer than the beta if you got to keep your carefully crafted toon?
The Daily Grind: Do you prefer a structured or sandbox beta?
Betas are fun. There's that awesome feeling of specialness, you (and a few others) have been chosen to join an elite group to try out the next biggest MMO of the year. Then there's that feeling of adventure, the chance to look at a new vibrant world, immerse yourself in lore and craft a unique character. Sometimes, you even get a chance to offer feedback and actively help shape a new virtual world. Most betas are sandboxes and involve lengthy periods where you can play to your heart's content. You get a specific number of zones to play in and you can wander where you will, choose professions and do quests. But some, like Aion, are structured and designed to test a specific faction or zone, they are usually shorter, deployed in stages and much more focused. I want to know whether you prefer being left to your own devices over a period of weeks or months. Alternatively do you prefer having a shorter but more intense period of play when you are given the option of playing a specific faction? Do you prefer to choose your class or just explore and see what the world has to offer? Drop your thoughts in the comment box below.
Aion beta keys now in the wild, US beta confirmed
The Aion beta is fast approaching but you all knew that, right? Well confirmation came last night via the official NA Community Twitter page that keys for this weekend's event are now being distributed to thousands of lucky testers who took part in numerous giveaways. But that's not all. A couple of hours later aion_liv updated with a link to yet another beta giveaway, this time at MMORPG.com confirming there will also be a US beta this weekend. However every one of the 5000 keys they were offering had gone in a matter of hours.US players will be able to take part in their own beta test which follows the same lines as the EU: the chance to roll an angelic Elyos and level from 1 to 20 while exploring the zone of Eltnen. The US beta will begin at 12 noon PST on Friday, June 5, 2009 and conclude at 12 midnight on Sunday, June 7, 2009. More information about entering the US beta and respective giveaways can be found on the game's NA official site.If you use Twitter and don't yet have a key to either beta, don't fret as both the Liv in the US and Ayase in the EU are tweeting about any beta giveaways so you might want to add them to your follower list, along with the game's producer Brian Knox and, for those in the EU, German Community manager Martin Rabl. If you have already entered a giveaway for a key - such as the one we held earlier in the week - you might also want to keep one eye on your inbox and keep checking you spam folder just in case.
City of Heroes Issue 15: Anniversary open beta begins
NCsoft has announced that City of Heroes Issue 15: Anniversary has entered open beta. They write, "We are pleased to announce that City of Heroes content Update Issue 15: Anniversary has gone straight into Open Beta phase. Now is your change to celebrate the return of The 5th Column by playing and giving feedback on the new Task Force and Strike Force."But what will Issue 15: Anniversary introduce to City of Heroes? They've put together an overview of the update that gives more info on the Villain Strikeforce and the Hero Taskforce (both Levels 45-50), new costumes and costume change emotes (colorful transitions between costumes on a given character), as well as greater character customization options. If you're interested in checking out the Issue 15: Anniversary open beta, they've got a forum thread that will walk you through getting set up to play on the Training Room test server.%Gallery-64392%
Steampunk MMO Gatheryn opens closed beta registration
The developers at Mindfuse have been hard at work on Gatheryn, a steampunk MMO that Massively got a preview of at GDC 2009. The HeroEngine-powered Gatheryn will incorporate casual and minigame elements in addition to standard MMO game mechanics. Now gamers will have a chance to see what the title has to offer in the Gatheryn closed beta, for which Mindfuse has announced they're taking registrations. Closed beta applicants accepted in this first wave of invites will get the first glimpses of Gatheryn offered to the gaming community, but getting your info submitted early puts you in the pool Mindfuse will draw from with future beta invitations. If you're interested in checking out the steampunk MMO, you can sign up on the Gatheryn beta registration page.%Gallery-48546%
Evolve your 3D avatar
Evolver (currently in alpha) is an interesting service. It allows you to build a 3D avatar either from scratch and components or from a photograph of yourself, and export that avatar as an image, a functional 3D model in a couple of different formats (presently Maya [MA] or Kaydara 3D Data Exchange Format [FDX]), or a ready-made avatar for a number of 3D virtual environments. They've got more planned it seems, like the ability to potentially embed a little animated 3D avatar in places where you might today be using a 2D image. Think Gravatars only in 3D.
Second Life racks up 1 billion voice minutes last month. Linden Lab announces new services
Linden Lab has announced that it is currently averaging one billion voice-minutes per month. That's time actively engaged in a voice session, not just time spent with voice support enabled. That's quite a statistic. That puts Second Life's voice service right up there among the top VoIP providers, and around 12% of Skype. That's very impressive. In the 18 months since voice was introduced, roughly 15 billion voice-minutes have been served, through Vivox's voice services for Second Life. Additionally there are new products/services. Some available from today, and some scheduled for later this year.
CrimeCraft enters closed beta
Massively has been looking at the upcoming shooter/MMO hybrids that are on the way, namely Global Agenda, Huxley: The Dystopia, and Fallen Earth. But there will soon be another 'MMOFPS' option for gamers with the first such title to release for the urban crime genre: CrimeCraft, in development at Vogster Entertainment. CrimeCraft entered closed beta this week and Vogster is, of course, very serious about the NDA. 'What happens in CrimeCraft stays in CrimeCraft'; they've said they'll unceremoniously revoke beta access for players who spill details of the game. But those lucky people who were accepted have a closed beta forum available to them as of today, where they can talk about the game to their heart's content without getting themselves banhammered from the streets of CrimeCraft. We were fortunate enough to speak with Vogster Entertainment about the game recently at GDC 2009, but we're hoping there will be more news about the title in the coming months. We'll be sure to keep our readers informed when we hear more about this game. Are you excited about urban crime titles like CrimeCraft and All Points Bulletin making their way into the MMO space?
Huxley: The Dystopia beta signups begin
Huxley: The Dystopia is the re-monikered MMOFPS from Webzen that will be published in the West by NHN USA and ijji. Huxley clearly puts more emphasis on FPS than MMO although elements of the latter are certainly there, and Massively had a chance to see a bit of what the game can offer at GDC 2009. Shortly afterwards, they launched a teaser site counting down to... something. We admit, we must've looked away from that countdown for too long because the teaser site changed today, adding video footage, forums, screenshots, character descriptions and backstory info. The main thing we'd like to mention to our readers is that Huxley: The Dystopia is currently taking closed beta signups. The signup period is May 6 - May 20, and the first round of closed beta testing will last from June 3 - June 14. If you've been looking forward to fragging in Huxley, head on over to the Beta Test Registration page at ijji, and check out all the new info about the game they've added to the site.%Gallery-48874%
Warrior Epic enters closed beta today
Warrior Epic is a free-to-play fantasy MMO in development at the Austin-based studio Possibility Space. It seems that Possibility Space went back to the drawing board on some aspects of the game, hence another iteration of closed beta, but the influx of capital through their new publisher, True Games, has allowed them to add new classes and areas to the game that would not have been seen in earlier beta testing. We do have a sense of déjà vu in making this announcement but to the best of our knowledge, Warrior Epic's closed beta will go live today at 5:00PM PDT.
The Daily Grind: Are betas really more fun?
We've all been in Free Realms recently, which is still currently in beta - and we've been having a ball. As such, when we saw Syncaine's recent posting about why games are more fun in beta - and if people would pay more for a similar experience, we thought it was a pretty good topic. The idea is that there is generally one shard; the community is smaller; many are using the forums; dev interaction is high; there's no real reason to race to endgame since the servers will likely be nuked and reset; and finally - it's free. With all that said, however, there are some negatives that weren't mentioned. Betas mean more bugs, long - often unannounced - downtime, no real addons, no item database sites, generally no quest helper sites or very weak ones, and while the game may be free, if it's crappy, people will abandon it in droves - even in beta. Personally, I feel that in betas, players have access to almost no information - no wikis, item databases, etc. - and are thus forced to simply explore the world blind, taking the good with the bad as opposed to zooming from carefully-mapped quest hub to quest hub, guide in hand. This morning we thought we'd ask - with the above points, what do you think? Are games really more fun in beta due to the points raised by Syncaine? Or is it simply that due to the lack of extraneous helpers like item databases, mods, etc. we're forced to slow down and just explore, playing the game as just a game and not a string of interconnected places we race to in order to get the best experience and drops? Would segmenting players to a separate server with smaller population for a higher cost as Syncaine suggests truly make MMOs more fun? Or is it just a question of us starting to look at our enjoyment in games as a return on time invested versus a free-form experience with ups and downs? Are there other things you think are at play more than these points?
Martial arts and robots MMO Titan Online goes open beta this month
Korean MMO developer EYA Interactive has announced that their game Titan Online will enter open beta for its international version on April 28th. Massively had a look at Titan Online at GDC 2009, a game that EYA Interactive explains as "an epic title based on traditional Asian culture... a fusion MMORPG that boasts a unique combination of martial arts and robots that takes place in a spectacular fantasy world." Gamers interested in getting in on the open beta can sign up at the Titan Global Site. EYA Interactive has also stated they will allow players to keep their existing open beta characters once the game goes live, with no account wipes from open beta onwards.[Via Worlds in Motion]%Gallery-48434%
Virtually leading the blind
Virtual environments are an extraordinarily useful piece of technology, being that they possess most of the qualities of the atomic world (obviously barring physical substance and fine granularity) at an infinitesimal fraction of the cost of the real thing. As a primarily visual medium, however, what do you do if you're blind or significantly visually impaired yet still want to use Second Life? Well, one option is TextSL, but then there's Max. Max is a virtual guide-dog to allow the visually impaired to interact more readily in what is primarily a visual environment.
City of Heroes Issue 14 open beta has begun
City of Heroes has announced the open beta phase for Issue 14: Architect, which allows players to customize their own missions, at long last bringing player-created content to the superhero (and supervillain) MMO. The NCsoft announcement reads: "Now is your chance to play and give feedback on one of the most in-depth player created mission systems in an MMO to date! Your story/mission masterpieces will be available in-game for all your fellow gamers to play and rate - and the higher the rating, the more YOU benefit!" They also announced that they'll be handpicking the best player-created content as 'Developer's Choice' stories. Those missions will be identified by a unique icon and the creator will receive a Dev's Choice badge. The devs aren't the only ones who get to rate the best missions. There will be a Hall of Fame where the highest peer-rated stories can be recognized for being a cut above the rest. As with the Developer's Choice missions, these stories receive a Hall of Fame icon and badge, but these rankings established during open beta won't carry over once Issue 14 goes live.%Gallery-45908%
The Daily Grind: What beta are you dying to get into?
With all the games in beta right now, there's a huge list going here at the Massively offices of what betas everyone wants in on. There's Jumpgate Evolution, Champions Online, Darkfall, Fallen Earth, and more coming into beta all the time - almost all of which have our interest right now. The coin-tosses in the virtual massively offices to see who lands which invites will be fast and furious, but to bring us to our question today... With so many interesting titles coming up, we know we can't be the only ones excited about all the new games coming. What beta - or betas - are you really hoping to get in to?
Valentine's Day event in Hello Kitty Online open to everyone
The day will eventually come when the world burns itself out and society as we know it collapses. In the final days, tin foil hat theorists will suggest many reasons for humanity's demise, ranging from Skynet to MMO addiction and everything in between. Regardless of how or why it happens, once we're gone, the cockroaches will evolve into a global hivemind and inherit the earth as nature always intended. All they will know of their simian Mountain Dew-guzzling predecessors of the ancient world is one thing: they apparently worshipped a cute little animal with an off-kilter pink bow, the cat-goddess Hello Kitty. The day they encounter her is the day they will know their new master, and labor to rebuild the world in her image.It's true -- well, not the apocalypse bit -- Hello Kitty will remain an enduring aspect of our times, if the past 35 years of her reign as a cultural symbol is any indicator. The world's ultimate iconic character from Sanrio has adorned 'all our stuff' since 1974. Perhaps more than ever, kids (and quite a few adults) are absolutely in love with Hello Kitty. The estimated USD 1 billion per year she's worth confirms she's hardwired into our pop culture consciousness, a fact which isn't lost on the game industry. We've already seen a legacy of Hello Kitty games spanning multiple iterations of consoles and handhelds, as well as PC releases. Hello Kitty's involvement with gaming is about to enter a whole new era though, with her introduction to the world of massively multiplayer online games through Hello Kitty Online.
BattleForge deals first hand on March 24
In all the rush to green our planet, perhaps not enough credit is given to games like BattleForge. Shouldn't being able to play a card-based game without the senseless murder of dozens of trees for actual cards be able to usurp at least Vampire Rain or M.C. Kids on Al Gore's Top 5 Games list?Regardless, as of March 24, you'll be able to build a jetpack out of aerosol cans or perform whatever other eco-terrorism you like, because BattleForge will be doing enough environment saving for all of us. It's got that ish locked down. That said, if you really want to be an EnergyStar, you can hop into the beta right here.
Darkfall unleashes first wave of invites
The latest news surrounding Darkfall should have some gamers whipped up into a frenzy -- the first wave of invites for clans and for individual testers has been sent out. Those for whom the pearly gates open will be able to download the Darkfall installer and patch their way in to the game. The announcement from Darkfall's creators, Aventurine, states that they're spacing out the invites to better accommodate the number of people they'd like to bring to test Darkfall. So if you haven't been invited yet, there's still hope that you may be; they'll be sending out more invites each day until they've hit their capacity. The NDA will remain in effect throughout this first phase of testing, however. The final bit of info Aventurine put out there deals with their website issues: the site and forums have been coping with denial of service attacks, which Aventurine is working to resolve... it looks like the PvP has begun before the game's even launched. [Via MMORPG.com]
Earthrise beta signups begin late December
Players of massively multiplayer online games who are starting to feel the fantasy genre might be a little stale will have some interesting things to look forward to in the coming years, with the surge of science fiction and post-apocalyptic MMOs coming to market. One such title is Earthrise, set in the final refuge of humanity following the rest of the planet's annihilation. Although the game is still in a pre-beta stage of development, the Earthrise developers, Masthead Studios, have been providing status updates to its growing community through monthly newsletters. Issue VII of the Earthrise newsletter is up, and Masthead Studios has some good news for all of the beta hopefuls out there. There will be several stages of beta invites, and they'll begin accepting beta applications at the end of December. First up is a 'friends and family' stage, which will be followed by the first round of closed beta. The message stressed in the announcement is that Masthead Studios is really looking to the community to help them work out bugs and gameplay issues to make Earthrise into a solid title.
Home open beta tomorrow, December 11
Sony's virtual world Home for the Playstation 3 will become available tomorrow, December 11. While it's labeled as an Open Beta, users can play around with the basic features and services in Home, free of charge. And of course, Home is a free download as well. While most of us were sound asleep, our friends over at the Joystiq mothership got the full story on Home opening its doors to PS3 users worldwide, early this morning. What can we expect from Home? Well, Snow Crash it's not, but there will be a fair amount of branded content and activities to start with from the likes of Diesel, Ligne Roset, and Red Bull, to name just a few companies already establishing a presence in Home. Throw game and film companies into the mix, which Sony states is happening, and Home could prove to be interesting. In fact, in the words of Sony Europe's Director of Home, Daniel Hill, "Home will live or die on the strength of its content." Hill was speaking at a media event in London, which Joystiq also covered this morning along with their hands-on with Home.
