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Behind the Mask: Angels and Devils
Last week on Behind the Mask, we talked about the basic dimensional structure of the Champions universe and its parallels with the Kabballah. This week, we take you a bit deeper into the mythos of Champions Online. We'll take a look at the Astral Plane, or Yetzirah, and the key places that exist there. I'll be focusing heavily on the Quaternion -- a series of four planar zones within the Lower Astral Plane that embody most fantasy elements critical to the Champions Universe. If you have ever wondered about demons and angels, this is a must-read. The Vibora Bay story arc paints a very unusual picture about the nature of these planes, and we'll be covering just what Heaven and Hell are in respect to that story. We'll also be covering faeries, elves, dwarves, and other popular fantasy elements. If you're planning on creating a roleplaying character who fits into a fantasy subtype, travels through dimensions, or just uses magic, this information will be critical to you!
The Road to Mordor: Baggins of Bag End
It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years to the month since The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring came out in movie theaters. It's even harder to process that Peter Jackson will be bringing us back to Middle-earth with the two Hobbit films starting a year from now. The Jackson trilogy, while beloved by many (including, I assume, gamers), hasn't gotten a lot of space in this column to date. The general consensus from the community is that the films and the MMO are separate interpretations of the same source material, and never the twain shall meet -- nevermind all the other LotR games, like War in the North. While that may be true, they do meet in the hearts of those who simply love this franchise. I adore the movies, am a huge fan of the game, and like (yes, just "like") the books. But I think that it's worthwhile to go to the films for LotRO players because they do give a different perspective and perhaps clarify a few plot points that shoot over our heads in-game. If nothing else, if the movies can revitalize our excitement about exploring the lands of Lord of the Rings Online, then they've done well by us. I mention all this because this past week saw the release of the first Hobbit trailer, which I must have watched a good dozen times, and it got me pumped up once more for this game world. In today's column, I want to use this trailer to springboard a discussion of how LotRO and the films share a common bond and how the Hobbit movies use many elements that Turbine's been working on for years now. Plus, a bonus Hobbit Tribute Tour!
The Road to Mordor: Seven things to do in Ered Luin before you die
As I moved on to my second starter zone in Lord of the Rings Online on my mission to complete every quest in every area of the game, I was in for a rude, if expected, awakening. In comparison to the Shire, LotRO's Ered Luin is lacking across the board. It's hard to imagine that the game's most eastern zone, which houses not one but two racial starting areas, could turn out to be a snoozefest, but I'll let the title of this article do the talking for me. I wanted to have 10 highlights of each zone for this series and could barely get to seven. The problem here is multifold. In trying to cram both the Elves and Dwarves into a relatively small (if tall) zone, Turbine didn't allow for the space to develop either race's culture before throwing them together in the middle for an awkward social dance. The races aren't allowed to really establish their personalities, either, leaving the Elves to start shining in Rivendell and the Dwarves in Moria. Finally, many of the quests are so dull and forgettable as to prompt players to race through the area to escape to more interesting locales. It's not all a loss, of course. Some of the areas are quite scenic, and I do actually approve of the concept of setting up the conflict between Dwarves and Elves. If anything, the taste of ideas here almost begs for the area to be significantly expanded so that these concepts could be played out and the respective Elf and Dwarf habitations could be given more life. In the end, I recommend that visiting travelers, adventurers, and treasure-hunters pack a light lunch and plan to get the following seven activities done in a half-day's span.
XL Games details three ArcheAge races
XL Games has added to the trickle of ArcheAge information making its way to the West with a new race-related reveal this morning. The fantasy sandpark will feature eight distinct races, and though we've known their names for some time now, the new info drop is the first opportunity we've had to look at the Hariharans, Dwarves, and Warborn. Dwarves are -- as you might guess -- short, stubborn, and fond of metal. Hariharans aren't quite as exotic as the name suggests, given that they're one of two human races in the world of ArcheAge. In terms of lore, there's no love lost between Hariharans and their Nuian counterparts, and the former tend towards light weapons and armor while the latter favor heavy weapons and heavier mail. Finally, XL also revealed the Warborn, and ArcheAge Online describes them as "neither demons nor humans, but a gigantic race who excel at killing things."
The Daily Grind: Are tiny races persecuted?
We've seen it across the MMO spectrum: Gnomes, Hobbits, Halflings, Dwarves, Asura, Sprites, Danny DeVito -- they're all ridiculed, mocked, and often targeted by other players driven to an inexplicable rage at the mere sight of them. Small races may be fiercely loved by a segment of the playerbase, but their presence serves to infuriate even more. So what is it about short races that drives good men and women to near-madness? Is it their tenacity at overcoming odds? Their propensity for kicking shins? Or their "ooh lookit the cute widdle fella!" adorability? It's hard to say, although this writer personally loves them. So chew on that, tallies! But that's not today's question; today's question is whether or not you think short races in MMOs have become persecuted, to an extent. Are they unfairly targeted just because of what they are, and if so, does that mean we've traded real-world prejudices for virtual ones? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Road to Mordor: Double dragons
Last week Turbine released the concept art for one of its major bosses from the upcoming Rise of Isengard expansion: Draigoch. With it came a number of appropriate "oohs" and "ahhs," and no doubt raiders began thinking up uses for a giant dragon skull in their homes. But there was also a crowd that popped out to cry foul about lore molestation -- that this was a blatant example of Turbine pandering to MMO players by including the expected dragons even when the lore shouldn't support it. A couple examples of quotes, first. "Yet whatever way you cut this idea, how can you integrate another dragon into the story? Smaug was the last one of his kind," Contains Moderate Peril complains. A commenter on our article sniped, "So Turbine's decided to entirely drop the pretense of sticking to the lore, then?" Ouch. As much as I am totally not attached to MMO lore in general, I feel like this might be a good time to both address this particular argument and also the larger one of Turbine's approach to Tolkien's world. Are giant dragons lore-breaking? Does Turbine simply not care about remaining faithful to source material? Do you have my decaf light mocha with cinnamon sprinkles?
The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: Climax's Warhammer Online
Let's begin with a little personal history. Back in 2008, I decided to get into the blogging scene by jumping on board the latest MMO hotness -- in this case, Warhammer Online. As I was growing increasingly tired of World of Warcraft, WAR seemed to offer a refreshing alternative: a darker world full of brutal PvP and awesome new ideas. So I joined the elite ranks of bloggers (hey, stop laughing so hard) and spent the better part of two years jawing about Mythic's latest fantasy project. And while Warhammer Online was, in my opinion, a solid product, it certainly failed to live up to the extremely high expectations held by both the development team and the players. No matter how it turned out, I really enjoyed talking about WAR, especially in the days leading up to its launch. One of the first articles I ever wrote for my blog WAAAGH! dealt with the first attempt to bring Warhammer Online into the MMO genre (as a fun aside, it was one of the first times I got my name on Massively!). It's a "what if?" tale that's tantalizing to consider -- an entirely different studio, Climax Online, creating a much darker version of Warhammer than we've ever seen online. The tale of the game's rise and fall (and subsequent rise and fall again) captivated me, and I wanted to expand my old article as part of our recent series into exploring MMOs canceled before their launch. So what if Climax had brought Warhammer Online to bear? Would it have eclipsed Mythic's vision or been its own animal? Hit the jump and let's dive into the pages of ancient history!
Spiritual Guidance: What Alliance race is the best for shadow priests?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On Wednesdays, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen regularly insults normal people, so you should never take his writing seriously. Fox encourages you to follow him on Twitter. Rejoice, brethren! Since the Cataclysm, the shadow priesthood is more accepted than ever before. A full 11 of the 12 races can now be priests. (Orcs are the holdout, which is a shame -- they have a terrific plus-spellpower racial.) We have a wealth of options when starting a new shadow priest or when dropping some coin on a faction or race change. I was thinking about starting this particular column with some kind of bold statement such as "Fox Van Allen is a racist," but that could hurt my future political career. (Van Allen for Vice President! Call me, Mitt.) Still, there's no escaping the fact that in WoW, some races are just plain better than others. And some -- gnomes -- are clearly inferior. Eventually, our analysis will take a look at all the Horde and Alliance races. For now, though, we'll focus on Team Blue. Which Alliance race is best? Which gnome recipe is the tastiest? Can I manufacture a reason to reuse that picture of Taylor Lautner staring with lust at John McCain? All questions will be answered ... after the jump.
E3 2011: Hands on with RIFT's 1.3 update
With patch 1.2 fading in the rearview mirror, RIFT players have turned their attention to the incoming patch 1.3 due on June 22nd. Titled Waves of Madness, the update will kick off a new world event and add an additional tier of endgame content in the form of an additional raid. We got the opportunity to dive into 1.3 early at E3, all while a petite seven-foot-tall dev perched on our shoulder and gave us running commentary. Patch 1.3's crown jewel is a 20-person raid in the ancient fortress of Hammerknell, which was built by folks who thought it'd be a smashing idea to cram evil spirits into runes and then use that as the foundation. Sounds to us a lot like building a summer camp on top of a desecrated native burial ground, but we're sure these architects had good intentions. Surprise, surprise, the spirits started to ooze out into Hammerknell and tore up the place. To make matters worse, Hammerknell is the prison of a water dragon -- and the water plane started to come to its rescue. So the Dwarves decided to treat it like an illegal toxic dump by sealing up the fortress, whistling innocently, and conveniently forgetting it until another raid area was needed. But it's not as simple as just unlocking the front door and marching in to claim some loot! Hit the jump as we walk you through the process of down-and-dirty archaeology!
Runes of Magic's Lands of Despair opens its borders on June 16th
In less than a month, Runes of Magic adventurers will turn the page and begin a whole new chapter in the game's history. Frogster has announced that Chapter IV: Lands of Despair, the latest content update for Runes of Magic, will go live on June 16th. If the name sounds foreboding, it's for a good reason: A horrible plague is spreading through the land, zombies are making a comeback, and Mad Lords are becoming all the rage. The update also includes a whopping four new zones, two additional dungeons, and an odd rivalry between the Dwarves and Rhinos. It's not too late to catch up on all of the details of this exciting update. Check out our writeup of the lore behind Chapter IV, a preview video of two of the upcoming zones, our thoughts on the new starting zone, and our detailed analysis on all of the changes.
The Road to Mordor: A look back at Volume 2
Last year, I spent a column giving my reflections, thoughts, and observations on the entirety of Volume 1 of Lord of the Rings Online's epic storyline, and today I'd like to do the same for Volume 2. Since these stories are at the center of LotRO's player experience, it's important to see how they function and hold up in today's increasingly story-centric MMO environment. I've gone through Volume 2 twice, once before the "solofication" of the recent update and once after. The second journey was, by far, much more enjoyable since I didn't have to sit there for weeks hoping to find enough players on the same part of the Fellowship portions to continue the tale. Being able to go through it at my own pace was vastly more enjoyable, especially when I could dedicate huge chunks of time to knock out several chapters in one go. And this is a good thing, as this volume of the epic story not only gives you one of your legendary traits but greatly helps you build reputation toward a faction that will give you another one (the Iron Garrison Guards). As such, Volume 2 will continue to be an important part of any character's journey. So let's dig into this puppy (not... a literal puppy, you understand) and see what Volume 2 has to offer. If you haven't yet gone through this part of the epic story, beware: Here be spoilers!
Breakfast Topic: What happens next?
The leader short stories Fire and Iron and The Judgment were great pieces of Cataclysm lore and recent history that shed some light on the motivations of Outland hero Kurdran Wildhammer and embattled troll leader Vol'jin of the Darkspear tribe. Each of the Cataclysm leaders is getting the short story treatment as time goes on. We don't know many of the stories left to tell in Cataclysm. The future of the blood elves lies in the unpublished prose of Lor'themar Theron's short story. Sylvanas' potential madness and craziness can have explanations hidden in those words. While the Firelands will continue the story of the rejuvenation of Hyjal, we still have much to learn about Malfurion and Tyrande and the night elves in general. So what comes next? Will these stories shed light on these leaders and their peoples' futures? Can we expect timely lore reveals through these stories that will do part of the story advancement? Personally, I'm really excited for the next story.
Runes of Magic hints at more Chapter IV updates
Testing for Runes of Magic's Chapter IV: Lands of Despair update continues on the game's closed beta servers, at least for two more days. According to a news blurb on the free-to-play fantasy title's website, the patch is nearing the public consumption stage, at which point the masses will thrill to a new instance, new bosses, and various other opportunities for us to use the word new. New hidden battlefields are also in the works, as well as "two previously unknown races with a fierce and ancient rivalry." Dwarves vs. Rhinos might not have the same appeal as pirates vs. ninjas, Yankees vs. Red Sox, or Democrats vs. Republicans, but nonetheless Frogster and Runewaker have some story shenanigans up their respective sleeves for Runes of Magic lore fans. Check out the rather cryptic details at the official RoM website.
The Road to Mordor: Re-evaluating Moria
When I first left Lord of the Rings Online, it was early in 2008 and we were constrained to Eriador and Eriador alone. Angmar was the most dangerous spot on the map, level 50 was the cap, and getting your legendary traits was an almost inhuman feat. When I returned in 2010, I discovered I had missed out on the release of not one but two expansions and a huge amount of new content in the world. As a previous player, I felt as though everything I had known was completely different, and there was nothing as unknown or intriguing as the Mines of Moria. Expansions have a funny way of making or breaking MMOs, you see. They can exemplify some of the best qualities of the genre: they represent the persistent growing world; they give our characters new challenges to overcome; and they can introduce new features that significantly change how the game is played. Of course, they can damage the game's reputation by creating a worse endgame than before, by screwing up the good aspects of the game, or simply by being unpopular. So how does Mines of Moria fare two-plus years after its release? Today, I want to take a look back at what will probably be the single largest expansion that LotRO will ever see and examine how its purpose has changed from 2008 to 2011. Also, we'll probably make fun of Dwarves.
Blues explain nature of archaeology cooldowns
Several players and Community Manager Lylirra shared some discussion today on the official World of Warcraft forums about the cooldowns of novelty items crafted through the archaeology profession. In the thread, the original poster suggested that the cooldowns of certain novelty items were too long in comparison to others and that Blizzard should consider fixing the discrepancies. The poster used Pendant of the Scarab Storm and Bones of Transformation as an example, noting that both items have a vanity effect that lasts 20 seconds but a cooldown difference of 90 minutes. Lylirra responded, explaining that the cooldowns, though seemingly random, were chosen with specific issues in mind. She explains that with the Pendant of the Scarab Storm specifically, developers were concerned that the item's effect might strain certain players' computers. Archaeology Items' Cooldowns The current cooldown was chosen deliberately, but I can see why you might think otherwise (100 minutes is kind of strange for a cooldown time). Anyway, summoning a harem of scarabs can be pretty taxing on some systems, so there were some initial concerns about putting the pendant on a short cooldown. Based on the feedback we've received, though, we're looking into reducing it. We agree that the effect is pretty cool and would be nice to use it more frequently. source Personally, a little lore logic behind the items might be nice as well. How is it that my character can summon a god every 3 minutes, but it takes 10 minutes to round up some sassy dwarven ladies?
The home stretch: Trion posts RIFT's beta 7 patch notes
Today marks the beginning of the end: the final beta event for RIFT, which also happens to be the first open beta as well. To kick off this six-day event, Trion Worlds posted another set of lengthy patch notes as the team feverishly works to refine the product before its February 24th head start. From new emotes to UI improvements, there's a little something for everyone here. Probably the largest change overall is with the souls; a good deal of the game's 32 PvE souls received tune-ups and adjustments. Guild features were given a few passes as the team added a few new perks and replaced a number of guild banners. Trion also implemented in-game Twitter functionality, allowing players to tweet their in-game statuses and screenshots to the world. And for the always-vain Dwarves, well, it looks as though RIFT finally got that latest shipment of Botox: "Male Dwarves no longer look so... weathered. Current male Dwarf characters will probably appear to have lost a few years off their face somewhere." You can read the full patch notes on the official forums.
The Perfect Ten: Best non-traditional MMO fantasy races
Elves. Dwarves. Humans. Halflings. Gnomes. Hobbits. Dark elves. High elves. Half-elves. Wood elves. Keebler elves. Elvish impersonators. Are you as tired as I am of the endless regurgitation of stock fantasy races in our MMOs? It seems inconceivable (I do not think that means what you think it means) for a new fantasy title to come out without most of the above races infesting the character creation screen with moldy unoriginality, putrescent stank, and dusty boredom. That's why today I'm standing up to praise 10 MMOs that dare to go above and beyond the stale by offering mostly unique and different races than the rest of the market. Hopefully future games will learn from their example and throw off the yokes of generic oppression to give us something bold and refreshing!
Gardening gone bad: RIFT's Runic Descent revealed
As RIFT beta testers are sharpening their knives and stringing their bows in anticipation of this weekend's PvP beta event, Trion Worlds continues to reveal the true scope of Telara. The team is proud to present the latest RIFT dungeon: Runic Descent. Runic Descent challenges teams of five players to band together and cull the bad weeds of a twisted garden that sits beside the ancient Dwarven city of Hammerknell. In so doing, the players will aid the Dwarves' attempt to reclaim their heritage while uprooting world-corrupting magic. And if there's madcap looting in the process? Nobody will complain. As it has with all of RIFT's other dungeon and zone reveals, Trion isn't skimping on the backstory either. Hit the jump for the tale of Runic Descent, as well as a few brand-new screenshots of the instance.
Politics and religion: RuneScape starts the new year in style
All may seem quiet on the MMO front, but if you turn your eyes to RuneScape, you'll see a bustling explosion of activity with the advent of January. Three new pieces of content are available in the game, including a new high-level boss and a Nordic-themed wolf. If politics are your thing -- Dwarven politics, to be precise -- then you'll want to check out a brand-new quest that tasks players with discovering just who is the rightful king of the Dwarves in Keldagrim. It won't be a bloodless affair, but Jagex promises to make it worth the player's effort. Maybe you want to test your mettle against a god? Then jump into the God Wars dungeon to face off against Nex, a powerful boss that boasts 15 unique combat moves. If you find yourself triumphant -- doubtful, really, but it is technically possible -- then you'll enjoy an array of coveted level 80 gear for your character. Or perhaps you're in the mood for a hunt, in which case RuneScape will send you on the trail of the Hati Wolf, a seasonal boss that drops special XP-boosting gloves. Check out all of the details behind RuneScape's January content over at the official site!
Cataclysm Zone Review: Loch Modan
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Editor's Note: This post contains spoilers for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. Read at your own risk! Anybody seen my Stonewrought Dam? It was just here a minute ago. Oddly enough, most citizens of the zone of Loch Modan seem unaffected by much of the mighty dam going away and taking most of the lake with it. But there are still things to do, such as uncover one of the weirdest conspiracies ever and mend the relationship between a father and son.
