clan
Latest
New Xbox Live features include clan support and friend-finding options
Microsoft is making it a good deal easier to find friends when you want to play a game online this fall. A new "clubs" feature is basically a system-wide clan feature that lets you group together all your friends you play with frequently. Another new feature, "looking for group," will let you put out an alert to your friends when you're trying to get a big Destiny game going. The last feature, "Arena," is aimed at competitive play and lets you find competitions going on around your favorite games.
Diablo III works on new community tools
Getting together with a buddy to slay the forces of Hell should be a lot easier when Diablo III: Reaper of Souls comes out, as Blizzard is adding in a couple of new social tools for the expansion. The first tool is the addition of clans, Diablo III's version of guilds. Anyone can form a clan, although a player may be part of only one clan at a time. Clans are limited to 120 members and will be searchable with a clan finder feature. Then there will be communities, which are larger and more casual social circles within the game for like-minded players. Unlike clans, communities can support unlimited members, and players can be part of more than one at a time. Communities and clans will be supported by a new interface in the game that includes messages of the day and achievement notices.
How social slaying works in Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls will serve social slayers by giving them formal and more casual options to band together and go a-lootin' in Blizzard's popular role-playing game. Clans, which are invite-only, have a 120-person maximum and were designed for smaller, more tight-knit groups of players to coordinate schedules and gameplay goals. Anyone can create or request to join a clan, but players may only be enrolled in one clan at a time. Communities, on the other hand, are a more casual means to essentially the same end. They can be open or closed, and players can be members of multiple communities at the same time. There are also no player caps on communities, so they can be as small or as large as players see fit. Both features are live in the ongoing Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls closed beta and will be unlocked in the full game prior to the expansion's launch next month, on March 25. Custom tabs in the user interface of Diablo 3 will keep clan and community members up to date by displaying news, recent Legendary Item drops found by members (which you can ogle from within the menu) and a dedicated chat channel for direct lines of communication. Good hunting! [Image: Activision-Blizzard]
Darkfall Unholy Wars dev diary addresses changes to the clan system
Another Darkfall Unholy Wars dev blog hit the interwebs today, this one focusing on the many changes to the clan system that will be coming with the game's reboot. One of the largest tweaks to the system is in the way that clan ranks will operate. Previously, a player's clan rank (and corresponding clan privileges) was determined by the number of enemy clan members killed. This will no longer be the case in Unholy Wars, which will instead allow clan leaders to set the ranks and privileges of each member, therefore allowing more control over who has the ability to invite new members, access the clan vault, and so on. The old clan rank system will still exist but will be known as military rank and will have no bearing on a player's privileges. In addition, the founder and leader of the clan are no longer tied together, so the clan's creator can easily transfer leadership to another member. Aventurine also wants to "give clans a greater sense of ownership over the world," so the studio is implementing a system that will "link villages to nearby clan holdings." By improving the rewards for village ownership, the team hopes that clans will consolidate their power thus creating more border conflicts as clans attempt to extend their reach. Aventurine realizes that villages "have always been hot-spots for PvP activities," however, so a resource-stealing mechanic is also being added. This will allow any player to steal resource rewards from a clan-controlled village, which means that clans will have to keep close watch over their domain to ensure that they receive all of their rightfully earned resources. For further details, check out the video below.
Swordsman Online video demonstrates combat variety
Perfect World's upcoming Swordsman Online is all about combat, combat, and more combat, which means that combat needs to be divine. Today we've been treated to a video demonstrating six of the game's 10 "clans," the fighting styles that players can adopt in their war against high health bars. Within each of those clans are three paths that may be chosen by players at will. While the video doesn't clearly state which clan is on display, it still provides a useful look at Swordsman Online's fights. There is everything from hand-to-hand melee to whirling chains to giant cannons. Because in a game called Swordsman Online, it'd be silly not to have giant cannons firing quarter-ton balls, yes? Check out the video after the break and let us know which style suits you the best!
The Soapbox: RuneScape is a proper MMO
Most of us will remember RuneScape from its first incarnation: a tiny and blocky world with simplistic gameplay, no sound, and only a handful of quests. The product of two brothers operating out of their parents' house in Nottingham, the original version launched in 2001 and slowly carved out its niche as a game for kids that could be played in a web-browser. RuneScape has a special significance for me as the first MMO I ever played, and it's responsible for starting my life-long love affair with online gaming. A whole generation of gamers grew up with that primitive, blocky world and eventually left for more polished games. But RuneScape has grown up too -- and boy did it have a growth spurt! Today's RuneScape bears little resemblance to the classic version many of us played as kids. The graphics are now considerably better, the world map is about five times the size, and it has features most people dream of getting in their favourite MMOs. RuneScape now has player housing, guild halls on huge floating islands, a full player-designed battleground system, procedurally generated dungeons, regular content updates, and 186 quests packed full of British humour. People sometimes say that RuneScape isn't a proper MMO like World of Warcraft, but I'd argue that it's actually more worthy of its "massively multiplayer" title than most of the MMOs released in the past decade. In this editorial, I look at just how far RuneScape has come and argue that RuneScape may be more worthy of being called a proper MMO than some triple-A releases.
Enjin offers guild recruitment system
Guild hosting service Enjin has added a new tool to its ever-increasing arsenal: guild recruitment. The site's new global game recruitment system allows organized groups to post their "players wanted" ads for searching souls to discover. The recruitment list is sortable by category and includes an MMO-dedicated section. Using the system, guilds can post a lengthy introduction letter to convey its purpose and history, where it's located, how many games it's a part of, and what voice communication (if any) it uses. At the time of this writing, Guild Wars 2 has the most recruitment ads, followed by World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic. [Source: Enjin press release]
Darkfall update brings new clan permissions system
The folks at Aventurine are still working hard on a number of improvements for Darkfall such as new weapons styles, performance optimization, and UI modifications, but in the meantime they've decided to roll out a new feature that should be a great boon to clan leaders and officers. Currently, clan leaders are only allowed to grant clan-related permissions to their members based on clan rank. With the new system, clan leaders will be able to assign permissions to individual players, regardless of their ranks within the clan. In addition, each clan permission will have an associated title that any member with that permission can choose to display if they so desire. For instance, a clan member with permission to recruit members can choose to show the "recruiter" title. Military ranks will remain in the game, but they are now governed by PvP performance and each new military rank is granted automatically upon the completion of specific goals. These ranks have no bearing on clan permissions. The full details on the new system are available for perusal over at the Darkfall official site. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
RuneScape: Seventh anniversary retrospective
Although RuneScape officially launched in 2001, today marks the seventh anniversary of the end of the RuneScape 2 beta. This was a complete gameplay and graphics overhaul that signaled the rebirth of the game, and it's a date well worth celebrating. The past year has been filled with massive content updates that added clan support, upgradeable clan citadels, a new website, and countless new quests. Player-made battlefields put game design in the hands of players, who have used the system to produce ton of content. Understandably, most people will likely remember this year for one thing: This was the year that RuneScape beat the bots. Following the momentous Bot Nuking Day, players logged in to find a distinctly emptier world but one filled with real people. RuneFest 2011 was a success, with presentations from the game's developers and a special focus on breaking the bots. This year also saw the interesting story that the Dutch Supreme Court ruling that stealing RuneScape items is the same as theft of real life goods. In this anniversary retrospective, I look back at some of RuneScape's top news stories and game additions of the year.
Call of Duty Elite mobile apps for iOS out today
Activision has announced that its Call of Duty Elite mobile apps are arriving on iOS today -- they should be available for download from the App Store before long. The apps do require you to be registered to the Elite service (which works in conjunction to track all of your stats from the extremely popular Xbox 360, PS3 and PC games), but once you're all set up with that, you'll be able to log in, and check out the service's various "Connect, Compare and Compete" functions like browsing your own stats, looking at clan information, and even checking out official Activision contests and standings. I got to play with the app back at Call of Duty XP last year (on the Android OS, at least, which is getting its versions next week), and I can tell you that it's actually very impressive. Of course, if you don't play Call of Duty or use Elite -- note that you don't need a full subscription to use the apps, though there is a subscription available for some more premium features -- then the apps are pretty useless. But they do simply and clearly lay out all of your stats in a nicely designed interface. The CoD Elite system had some rough days when it first debuted with the release of Modern Warfare 3, but these days it runs pretty well, and the demo I saw had things syncing from the console game to the mobile app almost instantaneously. Plus, the apps will be free, so if you're on Elite, there's really no reason not to go ahead and grab them. These apps are probably the smartest thing Activision has done with iOS so far, so if they're as popular as the Call of Duty game, we might see more "meta"-game apps in the future.
Massively interviews Jagex on RuneScape's clan citadels
In July of this year, browser MMO RuneScape celebrated the launch of its latest blockbuster expansion, Clan Citadels. RuneScape has been home to clans for most of its current 10-year run, but until recently they've always been unofficial groups organised using external websites and mutual friend lists. In the absence of game mechanics to support competitive gameplay, clan leaders even organised wars and other competitive games with other clans. The Clan Citadels update changed all that by introducing the infrastructure clans need to support their in-game endeavours. Clans can now build huge floating cities to be used as a place to meet, throw parties and discuss organisation. The expansion was sweetened by the addition of a completely new free-form battlefield creator, allowing players to develop custom minigames with hand-designed maps. Clans can even invite other players to their battlefields or challenge other clans to a match on their own terms. Massively recently caught up with two of the developers behind the Clan Citadels expansion to find out how it has been received by players and what we can expect in the future. In this in-depth interview, Senior Content Developer Ashleigh Bridges delves into RuneScape's innovative battlefield creator and Senior Game Designer Chihiro Yamada gives us the lowdown on the future of clan content.
RuneScape's Clan Citadels puts game design in the hands of players
Last week, we brought you the news that browser-based fantasy MMO RuneScape would be introducing clan citadels in its next expansion. We heard that these customisable castles in the sky would feature a tier-based progression system, but until now we didn't know what the actual castles would look like or if any kind of new gameplay would come with them. Jagex has just revealed that the expansion's gameplay element is potentially as huge and revolutionary as their massive Dungeons of Daemonheim update. The new floating castles act as meeting places for clans, and will contain exclusive skill-training areas for woodcutting, mining and other skills. Working on the clan's skill plots will add resources to upgrade the castle and pay for its upkeep, but may provide slightly less experience gain than traditional skill-training areas. Customisable clan battlefields provide a sandbox map editor tool, letting clans design and build their own battlegrounds and minigames. Players will be able to design their own arenas and gameplay for the first time in RuneScape's ten year history, creating anything from capture the flag style matches and monster hunts to basic clan versus clan PvP battles. Perhaps the most exciting part of the feature is the ability for clan members to invite other players to try their games and challenge rival clans to competitive battleground matches. The expansion launches on 26th July. Skip past the cut to watch the official clan citadel trailer and get a sneak peek at the castle's in-game visuals.
RuneScape patch triggers clan bonanza
Yesterday's news regarding RuneScape's new clan functionality apparently struck a chord with some of you. Actually, based on a followup post on the game's official website, it seems a whole lot of you are forming up with friends to avail yourselves of the new mechanics. Jagex reports that RuneScape currently features over 33,000 clans to choose from, and some 250,000 players have already pledged themselves to a clan (which equals approximately 10,000 people per hour joining a clan). RuneScape players can register their organization by visiting the clan camp south of Falador, and Jagex recommends reserving your clan name as soon as possible due to the overwhelming demand. More info on the patch, as well as today's press release, can be found on the game's official website.
The Game Archaeologist goes PlanetSide: Your journeys
While war itself is a hellish, nasty activity that we'd be better off without, there's always been something compelling about playing war as both kids and adults. When you strip war of death and suffering, the play version can become downright compelling as we get engrossed in tales of heroics, deep strategies, risky gambits, and clear-cut victories. It's why we invest so much time in simulating war throughout our lives -- in snowball fights, toy soldiers, laser tag, and MMOs. For the soldiers of PlanetSide, the war has been raging for over eight years now with no end in sight, and that's just fine with everyone involved. The game was designed to be a perpetual struggle between military forces -- not due to politics or prejudice but simply for the love of the fight. In the year or so I've been writing this column, I've never seen so many people come forward when asked to share their experiences with an MMO as have done for PlanetSide. There's definitely something compelling and unique about this MMOFPS that's become a dear part of many gamers' memories, and I'm pleased to be sharing those stories with you today. Hit the jump for the glory, trooper!
Square Enix reveals all of Final Fantasy XIV's races and clans
Square Enix has revealed detailed information about the five new "clans" found within the races of Eorzea, the realm in which upcoming MMO Final Fantasy XIV will take place. Clans offer up two slightly different character options within the five overall race choices -- for example, if you want to play as a burly Roegadyn, you can go with the paler and more subdued "Sea Wolf" fisherman clan, or heat things up with the rock-and-fire influenced "Hellsguard" clan. Information on all of the races and clans is now available on Square Enix's website. Unfortunately for Final Fantasy fans, we looked through the whole list of clans, and not a single one of the races lets you become a Sith Warrior. Sure, the Miqo'te Seekers of the Sun look cute and all, but is their one stated goal to kill Jedi? No? Pass, then, sorry. [via Massively] %Gallery-89790%
GDC10: Hands-on with the Fallen Earth iPhone app
Ever since hearing last November that Icarus Studios was working on an iPhone app for Fallen Earth, we've been starving for details. Count it as a road warrior's dream fulfilled, then, as Massively sat down with Associate Project Manager Dave Haydysch at GDC for a hands-on demo of this beefy application. "My goal was to make this mirror the experience in Fallen Earth as closely as possible without moving around in the game," Haydysch said. "Whatever is going on in the game right now, is going on in the background [of this app]." Designed to keep players connected with the MMO no matter where they may be, the app has an astounding array of functionality for Fallen Earth's players. After logging in through 3G or WiFi, the familiar Fallen Earth UI offers you several options to check out your character, crafting, maps, social, auction house, inventory and help. Hit the jump and we'll give you the skinny on each of these functions!
The Daze of Darkfall epilogue: The Siege of Andruk
So I thought I was done with my whole "month long investigation of Darkfall." Best way to end out the series was to include some PvP being lead by Wardragon Drow (*gasp*, a last name, and I'll get to that in a second) and then close it off there.Well, sadly, Darkfall had one more surprise left for me. Or, should I say, the Blackrock Clan had one more surprise for me. A siege.A complete accident lead me to logging on during the first contestation of our city, the orc themed Andruk. A siege stone had finally been dropped, sides were quickly formed, and our first war was on. No more drills, no more pathetic defense attempts -- this one was for real. We liked our city and we were not interested in losing it.But with the siege came a conundrum. If I report the siege, it will be pretty obvious who I've joined up with. It doesn't take a genius to look at all of the sieges and come up with, "Which one was at an orc city?" So, as this is truly the last article in the Daze of Darkfall series -- the one where I get to participate in what many say is the capstone of the Darkfall experience -- I think it's time to drop the worries and be specific. This is my view of the Battle of Andruk that took place between the Blackrock Clan and the Brotherhood of the Spider.
The Daze of Darkfall epilogue: The Siege of Andruk pt. 2
The keep, the keep! "Fall back to the keep! Fall back to the keep!" called General Zodd Drow over Ventrilo. The outer walls were abandoned as everyone began rushing back to the keep to make a stand. While this would normally sound like suicide, as we'd leave our citystone undefended, we had placed the keep perfectly next to the stone. From there, people on the roof of the keep could easily fire downwards and destroy anyone who would come close to the stone, while the stairs inside served as the world's best choke point. Think 300, only with less spartans, more lolz, and inside of a keep. From there our most armored men began to hold the steps while I stayed up top, picking off people's mounts and keeping casters at bay with my bow. We had an impressive grouping of archers and spellcasters, all doing their part to keep people below at bay or injured as they entered the keep. Meanwhile, in the keep, the enemy losses accelerated while our losses dropped. Fighting was packed into close quarters with shields and one-handed weaponry becoming the focus. I peeked my head down to see what was going on and only found chaos. Attempting to shoot a bow in all of that was more dangerous than good, so I found myself back up top firing downwards. Then, oddly, people began spilling out. Enemies began to retreat, firing one last wave of spells as they left. Our forces ran out after them, chasing for the moment as they left our city. Everyone relaxed on Ventrilo, happy over our win for the time being. The second assault -- not as interesting as the first Sinister relayed a message to us -- "We don't like to retreat." I'd feel that way too if I had just gotten halted inside of a keep and I was paid lots of money by a clan to make sure they won the battle. Plus then there's that whole reputation thing... eh... yeah, I'd be angry. Half an hour later, they came again. There was one hour left in the battle as they came up the hill, and we were better prepared for what they had to offer this time. We also had a plan -- do the same thing we did before, but now in complete unison instead of panic. They rounded the walls and started in on the wall towers, but we held faster this time around than last time. The force seemed smaller to me, but I couldn't truly tell with all of the insanity going on. When the walls looked too overrun, we moved back inside the keep again, doing what we did before. It worked a second time, and perhaps even better than the first. The attackers backed out of the keep, fearing a repeat, and began to stick to the towers. That was, until, our forces rushed the towers. It was a bit silly to watch from my archery perch above. Three of our people ran in, then 10 of theirs would all rush out the other side. I filed it under, "things that made me laugh and shake my head." Soon enough, they were driven back for the second time. It was at this point that our generals got word from Sinister that they wished to thank us for the challenge and the fun battle. The other clans stayed silent, for the time being. There was still 45 minutes left in the challenge, and we still remained prepared. Finally, the clock slowly rode down. Our guards began to loosen up and joke -- more talking over Ventrilo and silly conversation. Then, as the clock hit zero and the game displayed "DRAW" in huge letters on our screens, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. Air guitars were played (you can type /air_guitar to make your avatar play the electric guitar, yay anachronism) and congratulations were swapped over Ventrilo. The siege was done. One final look back I sat atop the keep for a while more as everyone disappeared, talking with some of the others about writing this up as a final feature for Massively on my time in Darkfall. I was trying to get a handle on the whole moment, as it came so unexpectedly, and I was still trying to decide if I liked it or not. The siege felt like a giant game of deathmatch, not really a siege. It felt uneven at times, as when I got caught in a fire AoE I almost died via that one spell. It felt fun, of course, as everyone dodged around and was being assaulted on all sides. There wasn't any lag or hangups, save for a few spikes here and there. The game performed to expectations regarding performance, but I'm just not sure how I felt. I didn't stand up and cheer, I didn't feel awe struck. I felt successful, but I didn't feel like a winner. It's hard to explain, so I don't think I will attempt it. I will simply leave the question, "Is it fun?" to you, the readers, as I have in the last column. It's not my place to tell you what you enjoy, and I don't think I'm about to start now. As for me... I owe Kend Drow some warbanding, so if you see Seraphina Azureveil, have the decency to wave before shooting an arrow through my heart.Update: Apparently, Scarce Xrul has uploaded parts of the siege in his YouTube video, convincing his friends to join Darkfall. You want to watch exactly what happened? Well, now you can, and in HD!
Fallen Earth hosting Texas invasion in-game event
Come Saturday, July 25th, we hope those of you in the Fallen Earth beta (or looking to get in by then) have some spare time. The Fallen Earth team is planning to host an atypical stress test in the shape of an in-game event -- Texas Invasion: A Clan Challenge. Here's the hook: Players have been asked to help fortify the Grand Canyon Province and raise up arms against invading Texans. This can be done by seeking out Texan encampments, where players can scavenge for valuables, kill invaders or craft to earn points.Doing any and all of these things earn players points, and the player with the most points will earn the title Defender of the Province. Aside from sounding cool, this title also comes with a prize pack consisting of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 videocard, a Fallen Earth messenger bag and a Fallen Earth t-shirt. The prizes aren't solely individual, however, as clans will be tallying up points during the event. Clan points come from individual players and the most successful clan gets to claim in-game notoriety via a commemorative -- and we're assuming in-game -- monument, complete with the name and date of the event.Oh, and apparently this winning clan will also earn a week-long takeover of the Fallen Earth website. Talk about an ego boost! Check out the official announcement for further details -- such as the scheduled hours for the event and how clans not already in the beta can join up now and compete as well.
Anti-Aliased: The Daze of Darkfall
I'm still not exactly sure what I've done. I remember pressing a few buttons on the Darkfall website, a really long download, and then a very large splash screen appearing on my desktop with the Darkfall logo emblazoned across it.I think I downloaded and installed Darkfall. The North American version, in fact. I thought it was just going to be a one night stand between the two of us, but I guess I was wrong. Looks like I'm back in with the game and I'm going in-depth. This time around though, I'm going to do some things differently. There's going to be no reviewing and less critiquing. It's just going to be a straight up re-telling of my experience in the "PvP experience of a lifetime" with a little snark added in, of course. You guys be the judges of Darkfall this time.This week's events include jumping in with a brand new clan, getting the newbie experience all over again, and the capturing of a city. Exciting stuff, right? Come with me, I'll tell ya all about it.
