dynamic-events
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Epic new Rift video precedes tomorrow's beta test opening
If there's one MMO on the horizon that has everyone excited, it's Rift. Created by Trion Worlds, Rift promises to be the next big AAA launch title and has been drawing its share of attention from players. The game's closed beta begins tomorrow, and Trion has been giving out beta keys in preparation. Some Rift fans were able to grab limited beta keys that give access to several beta events, while others were lucky enough to secure an access-all-areas VIP beta key. Here at Massively, our 500 VIP keys disappeared in record time. For those of you who missed the chance to get in on the Rift beta, you can still sign up at the Rift website for a chance to get in. Rift is being marketed as a fully complete, next-gen MMO. But those are just marketing buzzwords, right? Guess again! In this new video (after the cut below), the Trion team has taken the bold step of defining what exactly those terms mean in a very practical context. Rift is promised to be a highly polished MMO right from launch, with none of those rough edges we've come to expect from new titles. Rather than follow the standard MMO formula wherein monsters are forever bound to respawn and walk around within a small area, Rift aims to create a truly dynamic game world. The demonic rifts that open randomly in the world will radically alter not just the look of the land but also the gameplay of nearby areas. Leave a rift unchecked for too long and you'll soon find they've set up camp and organised an invasion of the local area. If this new video doesn't make you excited for Rift and the future potential of the MMO genre, I don't know what will. Skip past the cut to watch the new Rift beta video in full HD.
Darkfall dev blog hints at dynamic quests and events
Think Darkfall is all about crushing your enemies, driving them before you, and hearing the lamentation of their women? Well you're partially right, but Aventurine is also taking pains to highlight the game's inherent sandboxiness. While you can spend your entire Darkfall career ganking and being ganked, the game does offer a fair bit of PvE fun, moreso now after the release of the Hellfreeze expansion. In the latest Aventurine devblog, community liasion Laenih outlines plans to bring the game's lore to the forefront. Dynamic quests and events are hinted at, and it seems that knowledge of Agon's lore may help players solve tasks in the near future. At the very least, the updates will add a bit of context and flavor to the proceedings. Laenih uses a member of the Vargashi race as an example, and if you're wondering who or what the Vargashi are, the devblog also features conceptual artwork highlighting the new NPCs. Check it out on the official site, and also have a look at Darkfall's lore entries while you're at it.
Trion's Hal Hanlin: Rift will be "sitting very comfortably in 2012 and beyond"
In a recent interview, Trion Worlds' Hal Hanlin told Eurogamer that Rift: Planes of Telara has three major factors in its favor: world-class talent, world-class technology and world-class money. Because of these factors, the team is gearing up to eat at the big boy's table come Rift's 2011 launch. Hanlin, Rift's design producer, considers his job to fashion an immersive, exciting and engaging playscape: "I obsess over the details of design and making sure that everyone has what they need to make a game you want to bring your 20 closest friends to play." The interview covers many of the features which Hanlin considers to be Rift's selling points, such as the dynamic invasions. Currently, the title is boasting over 100 events, but the team still has the option to include additional ones. However, quantity for the sake of quantity is not worth it. "More is not better," Hanlin said. "Better is better." As a result, one of the chief mandates of the company is to create "multiple paths" for players to choose from a variety of activities instead of a linear leveling path. How does Hanlin see the game doing post-release? "Our longevity is going to be better than a lot of MMOs introduced to the market, because there's always something to see that's changed... I think we're going to be sitting very comfortably in 2012 and beyond."
ArenaNet releases images from Guild Wars 2 Designing Dynamic Events panel
New races, new lands, and talk of familiar places with a new look. The Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Events panel at PAX stirred up quite a bit of conversation and even more curiosity. What are these regions? What events are there? What is a krait obelisk for? What does The Great Oouo look like? Guild Wars 2 fans watched all the video taken by hand held cameras at the panel and viewed snapshots of the screen, trying to get a better look. If you've been dying for an up-close view of the Regrown Flame, orrian undead, and yes, even The Great Oouo, you're in luck. ArenaNet has generously provided Massively with the images used in the panel, so check out the gallery below for the newest look at Tyria of the future! %Gallery-102231%
Quaggan sad: A look back at the Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Events panel
At the top of my to-do list for Saturday morning at PAX was Designing Dynamic Events, a Guild Wars 2 panel with designers Eric Flannum and Colin Johanson. Talk and video of the panel have been everywhere this week, and I wanted to take a little bit of time to give my thoughts on what they did and how it was received. The panel was billed as a discussion about "how Guild Wars 2 designers create events in the dynamic, living game world and the many factors to consider when designing any kind of MMO content." It sounded interesting, but it was a ticketed event with limited attendance, which seemed strange to me. I managed to get a ticket and was even more confused when I walked into the relatively tiny room. Why such a small place for something that would certainly have drawn a huge crowd? It all became clear very soon, so follow along after the cut to hear more about my take on the new things we learned in Designing Dynamic Events.
PAX 2010: Hands on with Rift: Planes of Telara
The dungeon portal loomed ahead as a developer pushed a headset into my hands. "You heal," he said to me then moved on to the other four players standing next to me. "You tank. You three DPS. Don't worry too much; you're all a little over-leveled for this dungeon. Let us know when you're ready." I hardly heard him as I frantically tried to memorize the full array of skills in front of me, rearranging my hotbar to put my heals up front and center. "Ohh, you're a druid," another Trion Worlds developer said over my shoulder. "They're fun -- they get a faerie pet that heals your team as well." I followed his pointing finger and clicked on the skill to summon what appeared to be a cross-breed between Tinkerbell and a Troll doll. Fun times. The developer who pulled me into the live demonstration at PAX Prime took up his microphone and directed everyone around the booth to look up at the big screen and watch a team of total strangers jump into a mid-level dungeon. Welcome to Rift, I thought nervously. There's nothing like diving in head-first with your potential humiliation on public display.
PAX 2010: Guild Wars 2 hands-on
I finally found time to check out Guild Wars 2 firsthand this morning, and the experience will easily be counted as the highlight of PAX so far in my book. The demo booth was my first stop this morning, and I was excited to go through the character creation process and save Shaemoor. I've seen a dozen videos of just that, but there's nothing like playing through it firsthand. As I was playing, several ArenaNet staffers passed by, said hello, and chatted a bit. I spent much of my demo time exploring all the character options, learning the controls, and looking around Shaemoor, growing a little anxious all the while. The clock was ticking and I hadn't seen nearly everything I wanted to. With about 10 minutes left, a few ArenaNet devs surprised me by stepping in and offering to show off some more content -- particularly legacy sites, something that was at the top of my wish list for the demo. While there are no earth-shattering new revelations (sorry, no class reveal), it was exciting to check out some features in more detail. Follow along after the jump for screenshots, pictures, descriptions and video recorded in genuine shakycam!%Gallery-101397%
James Phinney discusses Guild Wars 2 classes, events, and combat at Comic-Con
Comic-Con may be over, but the news keeps rolling in. The newest video over at GameTrailers is of a chat with ArenaNet's Design Director James Phinney. James gave a brief rundown of what we know about Guild Wars 2 so far, explaining the combat roles of the classes we know: elementalist, warrior, and ranger. He also covered the dynamic event system that we've heard so much about, as well as the reasoning behind it. Finally, he addressed the burning question of "When?" Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to wait for that coveted date a bit longer: "When it's ready." For now, you can look after the jump to see the video for yourself.
The Daily Grind: Straight pointers or vague hints?
Quests do a lot of good for the MMO genre as a whole, but they do occasionally have the downside of turning the game into a series of flashing arrows from one destination to the next. World of Warcraft shows nearby quests on your map, just on the off chance you might miss them. Patch notes frequently involve telling players where to start the most recent new content. Guild Wars has been taking the opposite approach with its recent War in Kryta content, however -- there are no pointers, just small bursts of content that players can stumble across. Content without clearly defined start-to-finish markers certainly helps make the game more entertaining and immersive, and gives a stronger feeling of a world instead of a collection of fetch missions. On the other hand, it also runs the very real risk of players flying straight past the additions and never experiencing what's meant to help rope them in. Which do you prefer from a player perspective? Would you rather keep the feel of spontaneous discovery with the risk of missing something, or do you prefer a straightforward experience instead?
Massively's interview with the Guild Wars 2 design team
There has been so much new information about Guild Wars 2 lately that it can be a little hard to keep up. While things have mostly focused around dynamic events and personal story, the scope of those two concepts is so large that every new piece of news seemed to trigger another list of questions. We at Massively have been following the developments closely, so we are as curious as anyone else. We asked the Guild Wars 2 team about several various points -- everything from crafting to the creation timeline. Lead Designer Eric Flannum, Lore and Continuity Designer Ree Soesbee, and Game Designer John Hargrove were kind enough to satisfy our curiosity on some of these points. Follow along after the jump and see what they had to say.
Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer answers more questions about dynamic events
"Loot will never be directly given as a reward for an event. [...] All events reward you with experience, gold, and karma, which you can spend at merchants and vendors in the game to purchase rewards." There you have it: the answer to the question asked over and over since the Guild Wars 2 dynamic event system was announced a little over a week ago. Guild Wars players have always enjoyed loot distribution that's different from the need vs. greed or free loot systems that are standard in so many MMOs. Pre-assigned items and equally divided gold skirted the entire issue of arguing over who gets what. Players have been very concerned about the distribution of loot, gold, and XP in Guild Wars 2, but the only hint we received was from Lead Designer Eric Flannum: "[...] each event has its own criteria for determining participation that gauges who actually made a decent effort at participating. It's designed to give no credit or lower credit to players who were AFK during an event or just did a fly-by, using only a few skills and moved on. [...] The intention of the system is to encourage players to participate in fights. We don't define participation as either idling and doing nothing, or using one skill and simply tagging a monster." That was definitely reassuring, but as with most of the Guild Wars 2 news it raises even more questions. Colin Johanson addressed them briefly yesterday when he introduced the concept of karma as a way of acquiring the things you need, promising that Eric Flannum would explain further tomorrow. Tomorrow is here and Eric does tell us more about karma, but he's got much more to say. Follow along after the jump for the next round of questions about dynamic events!
Guild Wars 2 Lead Content Designer expands on dynamic events system
"The game is lying to you!" Colin Johanson, the Lead Content Designer for Guild Wars 2, made a very good point when he introduced us to the dynamic events system planned for Guild Wars 2. This is a common theme in almost every MMO -- it's just the way it's always been done. While Guild Wars occasionally falls prey to this just like so many other MMOs out there, ArenaNet do have the advantage of an instanced world in which you can make things a bit more dynamic. In Defense of the Eye is a great example of this. Artificer Mullenix tells you that Centaurs are attacking the Eye of the North: "As we speak their numbers march upon us." He asks you to help defend the Eye, and when you run outside to Ice Cliff Chasms, sure enough: hordes of Centaurs are attacking. If they take you out, you have failed. Taking that sort of reality a step forward is the central goal of the event system in Guild Wars 2. An NPC who stands there calmly and presents a little black box with white text telling you that something earth-shattering is about to happen doesn't do much for immersion. Hence the introduction of dynamic events: allowing players to truly interact with and change the world of Tyria. Colin introduced the system last week to great interest from the community, and followed up by clarifying quite a few points -- an interview that sparked even more discussion among the community. Still want to know more? ArenaNet spent some time browsing through forums to see what fans were most anxious to hear about, and called upon Colin again. Follow along after the jump to see what more he has to say about dynamic events.
