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Final Fantasy XI's July version update lands on the servers
Kupo, fellow adventurers! The July version update is here, and it has brought many tasty treats with it including the brand new add-on pack, "A Moogle Kupo d'Etat!"We here at Massively have kept you up with all of the developments in the July version update including the new job abilities for ninja, the new additions coming to the Fields of Valor quest system and the new blue mage spells, and the brand new item augmentations for characters over level 50. Even with all of that coverage, however, we still didn't get everything that's been added in this new update!More campaign missions, more mazes for Moblin Maze Mongers, new campaign areas, and the brand new addition of the "union" party system to the Campaign lets more players play together to save past Vana'diel from the destruction of the beastmen and win wonderful brand new items!For all of the changes and additions, check out the patch notes page available on the Final Fantasy XI main site, and enjoy all of the new content!
MMO racism: the No Elves! movement picks up steam
To some it is unadulterated racial hatred; to others, pure marketing genius. Ok, perhaps I'm sensationalizing just a bit, but since its release, the No Elves! trailer for Global Agenda has generated quite a buzz. A recent newsletter announcement by Hi-Rez Studios details how they plan to capitalize on it.Those willing to show their support for the No Elves! movement can now buy a few different t-shirts from the Hi-Rez store, join a Facebook group, and download a media kit full of high quality videos and images. After launching the campaign initially, it appears Hi-Rez wants the community to take it over and spread the word. I believe the term is "viral marketing?"According to one of the developers, Hi-Rez first used the "No Elves" tagline on a staff recruitment banner 3 or 4 years ago. Another forum-goer pointed out a "No More Elves" promotion developed by Reakktor for Neocron 2 in 2005. It seems there is an abundance of pointy-eared hate because a number of MMO bloggers formed a No Elf Club recently as well. Come on folks, "can we all get along?"
July version update scheduled for Final Fantasy XI
Yes, yes, you're all clamoring about Final Fantasy XIV, but let's get real here people and get to the present. Final Fantasy XI isn't dead yet and it's getting itself a nice version update.The upcoming version update will bring a new slew of Wings of the Goddess missions as usual, but players will also be able to look forward to seeing brand new areas of past Vana'diel being made available, more job adjustments like what was done with the White Mage, more additions to campaign and Moblin Maze Mongers, and even more that's still being kept secret.The update is currently being scheduled for late July, but more information about the update will be released in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for more new things coming to FFXI!
Impressions of Halo 3: ODST campaign -- Life in a sandbox
Call us foolish, but walking into the Bungie demonstration of Halo 3: ODST at E3 last week, we had no idea that the main campaign mode consisted of, more or less, a sandbox environment. Truth be told, we knew of stealth bits and that, as per the title of the game, there was something to do with Orbital Drop Shock Troopers in the story, but not much else. Bungie's Lars Bakken commandeered "the rookie" -- the character you'll basically use as a vehicle through New Mombasa's variety of flashback missions -- introducing us to the character in an opening cutscene rather reminiscent of previous Halo games from a style perspective. We are introduced to "Dutch" early on, the subject of our one guided flashback mission of the walkthrough, who's a bit of a fast-talking hardass, as ODSTs are wont to be. %Gallery-64703%
Games Day '09: Managing realm vs. realm combat with Jeff Skalski pt. 2
On top of that, we are aggressively looking at city sieges. On the RvR team, that's where the big focus is. The last big improvement in the open RvR arena was adding a second ramp to the keeps, but now our focus is on the city. We want to make sure that players know what's going on, like with the stages of the city. It's really three stages -- contested when you enter in, then the attackers can push it to pillaged so the warlord PQs open up, then it goes to captured and you unlock the king's instance for a set amount of time. "Our goal is to make the city siege RvR, not RvE." Our goal is to make the city siege RvR, not RvE. We want to put more focus on killing players, capturing and holding objectives, and we want that to be the front from beginning to end so there's always RvR in the game. So that's what we're looking at right now, working with those concepts and fleshing out those ideas. Any previews or details on that yet?It's really too early to say. We just started meeting with our core testers and explaining to them the ideas we have, and we're throwing things out there while finalizing what we want to do. I can say that for the players out there who are saying, "Oh, make it more epic, make it more epic," well that's what we're focusing on. We're trying to bring the quality of epic up, but at the same time we have many other things going on too. There's always bug fixing and things to work on, so we have to be careful. We want to react quickly and get it done now rather work on it for 10 months and fix it next year.What would you say to a player who holds the opinion that something like Warcraft's PvP is superior to Warhammer's RvR?This is my opinion, but I find when I talk to players who have that opinion that it's about convenience as to why they prefer the WoW model of PvP over the WAR model. We're really seeing a change. So, for you and I, we've been playing MMOs for a while. But there are people out there who have never touched any other MMO except for WoW. That game is all they know. They don't know what EQ was like, they don't know what UO was like, they don't know what MUDs are, so they don't have this broad concept. They just want stuff now and they want to get out quickly. They want instant gratification and they want to be constantly patted on the back with an enthusiastic, "Good job, good job!" "Then we added in the token system because we understand that at the end of the day you just may not get that loot roll." So when WAR was launched, we didn't have anything like the token system. We just took the approach of, "Well, you're just going to have to work for it. I'm sorry, but you have to go out, fight enemies, get through their keeps, and go for it." What ended up happening was the players began taking the path of least resistance. Players even went to lengths to avoid one another, and that really confused us. We thought they had bought our game to RvR, but they're avoiding enemies! Then we had things like keep trading and round robin keeps going on, so that's why we went to zone domination. It's why we took the rewards off of flipping a keep and put it on flipping the zone. That way you're not just hopping from pairing to pairing and going around, and around, and around. Now they want to capture and fight for that zone.Then we added in the token system because we understand that at the end of the day you just may not get that loot roll. I, honestly, have horrible luck. I rarely, if ever, get the gold bag. Now for participating you get this token. Sure, you need a lot of them, but you know you're getting somewhere.We're learning a lot about the player base. We hear all of the feedback from the players and hear what they're complaining about. When I come into work in the morning I have, from multiple sources, the top five issues of the game. And that helps me and the other producers determine exactly what we need to put our teams on. What needs to be hotfixed before the weekend, what needs to be put into the next patch, or whatever.So they game is getting better. The game is better today than it was at launch in terms of stability, performance, and how the systems are working. We have teams dedicated to it and we just keep pushing it. The sands of the Tomb Kings are coming as the final release in the Call to Arms live expansion, the Land of the Dead approaches! Massively has your back with coverage from Mythic Entertainment at Games Day '09, so get your WAAGGGHHH ready for RvR mayhem as Massively re-arms for WAR!
Massively's hands-on with Final Fantasy XI's April version update pt. 2
The Crystal War Missions of Campaign The new missions in the Campaign area of the game offer some tough challenges and nice rewards for players looking to further the storyline of Wings of the Goddess. Of special note are the cutscenes, which were very emotional and also very beautiful. Compared to some of the original cutscenes that the game shipped with, these new scenes are very active and dramatic. Funny characters, camaderie, and full blown combat were abound in the seven minute cutscene I watched -- all which included my character fighting back to back with some of Windurst's most talented military heroes. The boss battle I got to participate in was tied directly into the events of the prior cutscene, as players need to use clues from the cutscenes to locate where to go and what to do. In our battle, one of the Mithras was injured as she fended off hordes of beastmen with a slew of grenades, forcing our party to find her and help defend her. Unfortunately, once we located her door, we were attacked by a group of beastmen that included a very powerful boss. Even with five well geared level 75 players, including me as the white mage with my brand new white mage abilities, the boss took a considerable amount of time (and a little cheating) to defeat. As to the fate of the injured Mithra... let me just say that I was a little heartbroken by the end of the cutscene, and I only knew the character for ten minutes. Our overall impressions of the version update and mini-expansion are... For a game that's close to seven years old to feature challenging, engaging content, well-written story, and beautiful graphics is in itself amazing. The version update even seems to be slowly upending the former hardcore playstyle of FFXI, creating a more welcoming game for newbies and veteran players alike. If you have Final Fantasy XI and have let your account lapse, my suggestion is to certainly come back and give the new version update a try -- especially regarding additions like the Fields of Valor. FFXI has evolved from a game of ruthless intentions into a challenging, but rewarding experience for those who are willing to stick with it. Additions like being able to add your own stats to items via item enhancement only make the game more approachable for today's World of Warcraft audiences. The version update brings much to the game and makes for a thumbs up. A Crystalline Prophecy, however, is a little shaky. While the content starts at level 30, it cannot be finished until the player is level 75. The storyline looks to be decent and the end reward seems to be worth 10 dollar price tag, but the level 75 requirement pushes this one into the territory of "buy it if you can finish it." This isn't an expansion I would recommend for players just starting with the game, but it certainly is a purchase for those who are already FFXI veterans. But, newbies, if you can afford the 10 dollar price tag and have a character at or over level 30, go ahead and grab it. It's a nice addition to the game, especially for a price of 10 bucks.
Final Fantasy XI's April version update to include a mog house full of new features
The version update is a special time for all Final Fantasy XI players. A time where people gather around Tetra Master while they wait for the servers to come back up, a time when people cry nerf when Square-Enix changed how their class worked, but especially a time to drool over all of the coming new features.We already heard that Square-Enix would be expanding the Fields of Valor and Moblin Maze Mongers systems, but now we get to see that there's much more in store for April's update. Things like brand new nation missions, more areas in game that support treasure casket drops, notorious (elite) monsters appearing in the campaign system, and the huge announcement of "item augmentation," a type of enchanting system for pieces of equipment.For a game over six years old, FFXI keeps proving to its community that it can keep up with the features of newer MMOs, as well as deploy features that aid the playability of the game. As more information comes in regarding all of these new changes, we'll keep you updated with all of the juicy details.
French WoW ads starring Alexandre Astier
Here's the last (or at least we think it's the last, it's all that's mentioned on Blizzard's official page) round of television ads for World of Warcraft in 2008. The ads come from France this time, and they both feature Alexandre Astier, star and creator of an Arthurian comedy show called Kaamelott, as a Human Paladin. While the German ads seemed to focus on PvP, these are very PvE based -- in one, he and his group run from a rampaging Frost Wyrm, and in the second (after the break, and apparently it's a "web exclusive," maybe because you can't show a virtual pile of corpses on television), he shows off his rezzing powers, and, err -- their limits.WorldofWar has translations for both of the ads. Is it me, or aren't these as funny as the others? I think Ozzy comes out the best in all of them -- not only is his ad hilarious (better than the Mr. T ad, my previous favorite), but he gets to co-star with the Lich King, and you can't really compete with that. But kudos to Blizzard's teams for putting all of these together. Maybe next year we'll actually get a female WoW player, or, you know, a whole new campaign.
Studios, CE firms bankroll $25 million Tru Blu ad campaign
The stakes are high for Blu-ray this holiday season. As we've stated before, it's the first such season where it's not competing directly with HD DVD, and coincidentally enough, also the first in which it is competing (at least to a small degree) with HD streaming. To that end, a number of studios and consumer electronics outfits have agreed to fund a $25 million marketing campaign dubbed Tru Blu, which involves airing persuasive commercials on channels that "attract heavily male audiences." With Blu-ray deck prices expected to reach the $150 area come Black Friday, we'd say BD still has a good chance of being successful this winter, but it's going to need every ounce of gusto it can muster.
ABC's World News Tonight and Nightline enter high definition tonight
ABC's push for HD evening news comes to a head tonight, when World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline both hit your screen in 720p from the Democratic National Convention. Besides covering both conventions in HD -- and there'll be plenty of that in the '08 campaign -- when they return to the studio in September the HD love continues. 20/20, Primetime and World News on the weekend will all be HDTV-ready shortly after. B & C reveals ABC News is deploying the same Sony XDCAMs -- full HD newsgathering is on hold 'til 2009 -- used to bring home high definition Survivor this fall, add in a tropical location and it would likely be hard to tell which one we're watching.
McCain campaign ad features Medal of Honor music, composer 'dismayed'
A recent ad for John McCain's presidential campaign features music from Medal of Honor: European Assault, which GamePolitics believes may be the first time video game music has been used as such. The awkward thing here is that the composer of the piece, Christopher Lennertz, is a passionate Barack Obama supporter who is "dismayed" by the use of his composition in the ad.Lennertz doesn't own the rights to the piece, but he did release a statement saying that he wishes he'd been consulted before his music was used to promote a campaign that he does not agree with. He says he respects McCain, but has "never supported his candidacy nor his agenda for this country." Lennertz concludes, "As an artist, business owner, and patriot, I proudly support Senator Barack Obama for the Presidency of the United States of America..." We've placed the campaign ad after the break.
CT State Representative nominee is a WoW player
If you're in Connecticut's 101st District, and you're a strictly single-issue voter (as in, you want a candidate that plays World of Warcraft) then the choice is clear: Jeanne Stevens. Yes, the Republican nominee for State Representative, as reported by the Shore Line Times, is not only a mother of four, a former Assistant District Attorney, and a mean cupcake maker -- she's also apparently a WoW player.To be completely objective here, we should say that we don't really know who your candidate of choice is -- unfortunately, we have no idea if Stevens' incumbent opponent, Deborah Heinrich, is a WoW player or not. For all we know maybe she, too, has wandered Azeroth with the rest of us. If that's indeed the case, you Connecticutians will have to make your choice based on something else. Politics, we guess. Not really our thing.But we do know this: the local press up there should be asking the tough questions. Does Heinrich, in fact, play WoW? And if so, what class and level are the candidates? And the most important question for both: Horde or Alliance? If the Shore Line Times can't find out, maybe we'll have to put our own 15 Minutes of Fame feature on the trail. If these potential State Representatives can't bring down Hogger, then why would we want them running a whole state?[Via WorldofWar]
Previews of the June Final Fantasy XI update
We've previously mentioned the June update coming for Final Fantasy XI. In the last week or so numerous small preview pieces have trickled out on the official site, bringing us further into the loop on what sounds like a pretty big series of tweaks. There are numerous small quality of life improvements, quest refinements, and what sounds like couple of big changes to the campaign system. Here's the FFXI June patch highlight reel: High Quality item synthesis will see a few new items added onto the rolls, to make the experience more lucrative. Some furnishings will see extra storage space added, and some armor sets that weren't previously placeable on mannequins can now be displayed in that fashion. The burgs of Selbina and Mhaura will now have their very own nomad Moogles and delivery NPCs. An automatic item sort is being added into the game, which will stack items as they're gained by players. NPC Fellows can now be summoned in parts of Vana'diel's past, are receiving a few new personalities, and will soon be eligible to level up to 70. The Campaign system will see the most concerted changes, with new healer NPCs being deployed to both sides of the skirmish and brand-new medals for distinguished service. Players will now also be able to exchange their points with successful soldiers behind opposing national lines. In this way, players will be able to obtain items offered by nations other than their own. The official site also notes that the 2008 Vana'diel Collection is now available for lapsed players looking to come back with some of the newer expansions. Kupo!
HTC reveals US marketing push
Marketing its wares straight to consumers is old hat for HTC in the Old World, but stateside? Not so much. That's not to say the HTC name is a total unknown in North America; there's been the odd Advantage here and Shift there, but by and large, we yanks know the Taiwanese firm better for its relatively anonymous efforts in the likes of the AT&T Tilt, Verizon XV6900, Sprint Touch, and countless other carrier-branded devices. That's about to change, though, with a full-court press of TV, print, outdoor, and online advertising targeted squarely at the US market launching this week. The company's first ad in the campaign is posted to YouTube -- no new products here, sadly, but it's an encouraging sign to see that one of the world's most prolific ODMs and smartphone manufacturers now thinks that the American market is mature enough to be dealt with directly. The announcement of the US-spec Touch Dual was a good start, and now, we look forward to seeing a whole heck of a lot more where that came from. Check the first commercial after the break.
Election '08 coverage to include more HD
Even though this week's Democratic debate was unfortunately-SD on ABC, we can expect more reasons to pay attention to the potential candidates in the days to come. CNN's Election Express has already deployed an HD news truck to cover the campaign trail, but CBS is close behind. The Eye plans to hit the conventions in HD, but it will take a while to move the newscast beyond upconverted standard definition video. NBC and ABC will also have the conventions in HD, but while NBC says its field equipment is HD ready, ABC doesn't plan to move beyond 4x3 newsgathering until the end of the year. Check out the rest of the details on TV Technology, we can't tell you who to vote for, but we wouldn't make a decision based on anything said in 480i.
Hitachi takes skinny HDTVs on the road, your LCD wants to purge
Flat panel manufacturer's disgusting obsession with being thin is coming to a high-end location near you, thanks to Hitachi's "Thin is in Motion" campaign. Focused on its 1.5-inch thick ultra-thin family of LCDs, the company is sending four trucks around the country equipped with 32- and 37-inch display models on rotating pedestals (because who doesn't watch their HDTV from the back or side angle?) to show off how thin they are. We wouldn't advise showing these to impressionable "fat" panels, for fear of psychological damage.
Presidential candidates talk video game violence
Health care? Taxes? Immigration? Why do presidential candidates insist on wasting our time talking about such trivial issues? When will they address the questions we really care about -- the ones about video games? Well, actually, right now.Non-partisan, not-for-profit advocacy group Common Sense Media has quizzed some of the leading presidential candidates on a variety of media issues, video game violence legislation among them. Here's a quick summary of their views on proposed federal legislation limiting children's access to violent games: Senator John Edwards (D - NC): The ESRB and retailers are doing a pretty good job, but the FTC found that 42 percent of children under 17 can still purchase M-rated games, and that's too high. Publishers need to tone down the marketing of violent games to kids. If the industry isn't careful, the government "will need to consider further steps" to keep these games away from children Senator Barack Obama (D - IL): Video games should use technology to let parents restrict content [Note to Obama: they already do.] The rating system should be improved to make content information "easier to find and easier to understand. ... but if the industry fails to act, then my administration would." In any case, the government should spend money to study the problem. Governor Bill Richardson (D - NM): "I would consider this legislation," but it's really up to the parents. I'll give federal employees paid time off to spend with their kids. Fmr. Governor Mitt Romney (R - Mass.): I would enforce current obscenity laws to protect children from "a societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sex, and perversion." I would "go after" retailers that sell violent games. While the responses are interesting, the lack of participation from front-runners like Hillary Clinton, Rudy Guliani and Mike Huckabee makes the information a little less than complete just weeks away from the Iowa caucuses. Still, the full questionnaire has illuminated the candidates' thoughts on other game-related issues such as childhood obesity, screen time, media literacy and the media's impact on the candidates' own kids. Be an informed voter and give it a read.
Gamecock says: Colbert for president
Unless you live under a rock, or a little place we like to call "not the US," you probably know that Stephen Colbert had a brief, but joyous, presidential campaign. Despite rising in the polls, Colbert was kicked off the ballot in South Carolina, effectively ending his bid for the White House.The folks over at Gamecock, though, will not accept Colbert's "South Carolina setback," and continue to show him support. Gamecock, which is the publisher behind Dementium: The Ward and other DS-bound games, believes that Colbert has the best interest of gamers at heart, and that he is one of the few politicians that doesn't demonize gaming. Gamecock's CEO Mike Wilson added, "Stephen Colbert had Will Wright on his show and he pummeled Nancy Pelosi's Mii in Wii Boxing. These decisive actions have earned our vote." As if we really needed another reason to love Gamecock, or Colbert for that matter.[Via press release]
Toshiba amps up marketing of HDTV, HD DVD in Australia
The marketing campaigns that numerous companies are now embarking on will have an additional member, as Toshiba is reportedly buckling down and getting the message out about its HDTVs and HD DVD players, particularly Down Under. Reportedly, the company is aiming to sneak into the "top five of the flat-panel TV market," and it also began to increase its promotion efforts of HD DVD in Australia. Regardless of the recent Blu-ray "victories," Tosh apparently still feels confident that HD DVD will survive, and noted that it would "increase the number of HD DVD players from one to three models by Christmas" in select local markets, all while while hoping to ship bundles of HD DVD-equipped Qosimo laptops. Granted, Mark Whittard -- general manager of Toshiba's Information Systems Division -- wasn't oblivious to the market trends going on around him, and duly noted that Toshiba "had its work cut out" to achieve such numbers.
Mitt Romney cleaning up dirty video game water
Former one-term governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney is starting his campaign off on the great motivator of fear. Using the ocean as a metaphor based off something Columbine related, he speaks of how "deeply troubled" he is by the culture our children grow up in today. Romney says, "I'd like to see us clean up the water in which our kids are swimming. I'd like to keep pornography from coming up on their computers. I'd like to keep drugs off the street. I'd like to see less violence and sex on TV and in video games and in movies. If we get serious about this we can actually do a great deal to clean up the water in which our kids and grandkids are swimming." Senator Brownback of Kansas says Romney is just a little late to the culture wars.Brownback, who's already busy with his own battle on video games, says that Romney is a hypocrite because while he was on the board of Marriott International (hotel chain) he was paid $100,000 a year by a company that makes millions of dollars a year from in-room pornography rental. Raise your hand if you like yummy gooey irony. As we move into high gear on what will be the longest US presidential election campaign cycle ever, it'll be interesting to watch how many times video games come up as talking points when, well, it's pretty clear there are bigger issues going on. But darn it, video games make for much easier talking points.
