end-of-the-year
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The Daily Grind: What are you looking forward to in 2011?
Farewell, 2010 -- hello 2011! As many of us prepare to ring in the new year tonight, our thoughts turn to the future as they typically do at the end of the year. What will 2011 bring for you? Will it be a banner year of excellence, or a year that would best be experienced on fast-forward? I have a better idea: Let's talk about what we're looking forward to in 2011 -- in MMOs, I mean. It's promising to be an exciting year as major projects such as Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Rift come to a head, and that's only the surface of 2011's potential. So what, if anything, has you jazzed about next year? What do you wish were already here -- a new game, an expansion, a special event -- so that you could enjoy it? 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 Perfect Ten: The movers and shakers of 2010
Even though MMOs are the products of great teams of talented workers -- from sound artists to writers -- it's inevitable that a few of the people behind the curtain step out into the limelight. It's a smart move, really; it provides a personal face for people to associate with the game, it keeps messages consistent, and it draws any potential hate onto one person instead of the team at large. It stands to reason that these public figures end up being some of the major movers and shakers in the industry because of their high-profile positions. From CEOs to community managers, these are the people with power to make decisions, the voice to change opinions, and the personalities to inspire millions. Oh, that last sentence is pure poetry. Let's re-read it again, shall we? So in our last Perfect Ten of the year, I've asked the Massively team to compile a list of the 10 biggest MMO movers and shakers of this year. All of these people now owe us cupcakes of gratitude. (Legal Disclaimer: This does not signify a binding cupcake-blogger contract.)
Community Detective Issue #15: 2010's best (and worst) case files
Hi kids, it's your friendly neighborhood Community Detective and I'm back with the final issue of 2010. Next year looks to be an exciting and somewhat scary time for MMORPG communities and customer service. Not only are we staring down the barrel of four new hugely anticipated AAA titles (RIFT, TERA, Guild Wars 2, and The Old Republic), but there are also quite a few existing games that I've yet to visit in an official capacity, as well as a couple that have undergone drastic changes and merit another review (the F2P conversion in Lord of the Rings Online and sweeping server merges in Aion and EverQuest II, for example). Prior to moving forward, however, it's always fun to take a look back (particularly at this time of year). Join me after the cut for a year-end recap of 2010's most memorable case studies.
The Anvil of Crom: Greatest Hits Vol. 2010
Oh no! It's the end of a calendar year! It's that arbitrary point in space and time at which bloggers, journalists, and basically anyone who makes a living via the written word foists off a bunch of top 10 (or five, or other random number) lists on his loyal readers. Sadly folks, I'm no different, and though I'll gladly poke fun at the tradition, I'll also engage in it this week here at The Anvil of Crom. Looking back, it's been quite an eventful year, both for Age of Conan and for Massively's coverage of the game. From the Rise of the Godslayer expansion to the various nerfs, buffs, rants, and interviews, 2010 has been one for the Hyborian history books. Turn the page for eight reasons why.
NCsoft hypes Aion double crafting XP and holiday events
Happy Solorius Festival, Daevas! Yes, the Atreian equivalent of Christmas is back, and you can join the ongoing Aion celebration through January 5th. You'll find new quests in both Sanctum and Pandaemonium, as well as rewards that include decorative hats, gift bundles, and buff consumables. Mid-winter and New Year's marks the Year of the Ribbit celebration, and festivities include even more quests and rewards (including new ribbit outfit pieces). The party starts December 22nd and lasts through January 12th. Finally, NCsoft is turning on the double XP spigot again, this time in honor of Atreia's crafters. Friday, December 17th through Monday, December 20th is a prime time for catching up on any artisan activities you may have been neglecting, as double XP for crafting, essence-tapping, and aether-tapping will be in full effect.
Massively Reader's and Staff Choice Awards results for 2009
Not only are the results in for our 2009 Reader's Choice Awards, but we've also compiled our own list of winners according to what we at Massively think should win in each category. This year's vote turned into something quite interesting, we must admit. Instead of being a direct "reader's choice", it seems to be much more of a popularity contest among the fans of the largest games. This made many of you quite angry when Runes of Magic dominated every category literally overnight. Some studios created contests to get their players to vote in the poll, most added a link to the awards on Twitter or Facebook, but the Runes of Magic team did everything from front page placement of the awards link to regular in-game announcements prompting fans to vote. Now that's how you win a vote. Especially when you have millions of players. Hand-in-hand with this, there have been reports of exploits on the polls involving a simple cookie clearing (although the site designers promise that an exploit through clearing cookies alone is not possible). Even if we assume that the exploit is true, this whole thing shows who has the fans that are most dedicated to supporting their favorite game. There's nothing wrong with that. So we're still going to show you the results as voted by the fans, and the results of our own staff poll. Follow along after the jump for the complete run-down.
Massively's top 5 news stories of 2009
It's that time again! Time when we look backwards and try to identify the top 5 big news stories that we covered here at Massively. 2009 was a pretty turbulent year when it comes to the MMO industry, as we were involved in lawsuits, game closures, multiple major releases, a rising set of indie studios, and more news than you could handle. So are you excited to look at the year's stories in review? Well, I certainly am! So excited that we're going to do this story in gallery-vision. That's right, for every story you get to have an awesome picture accompanying it. It's brilliant, if you ask us. So if you're ready to start the tour-de-force, click on the link below or simply start at the first image of the gallery below that. Don't try to skip ahead either, we have poison arrow codes loaded into these pages so if you skip ahead, then your monitor will shoot a poisoned arrow at your neck. Gotta just love HTML 5 -- it does everything! Massively's top news stories of 2009>> %Gallery-81205%
Massively's End-of-the-Year Reader's Choice Awards
The end of 2009 is almost upon us, and Arthur C. Clarke's dreams are all about to come true in less than a month. It's been an interesting year for MMOs, including everything from Tabula Rasa's official closure to the launch of LotRO's second paid expansion. While it's inevitable that the Massively staff all have their own favorite games in several different categories, we figured it would be best to get the readers involved this year. So we've compiled a series of polls (found after the jump) in which you can vote for your favorite games of 2009 in 10 different categories. The poll choices consist of some aspect of games or expansions that launched this year, so don't expect to see older games on these lists. With almost 50 online games launching in 2009, we chose to only include a maximum of 10 for each category. At the end of the month, we'll compile the results into one post, letting everyone know what the Massively readers think is the best of the best (or worst). So you have plenty of time, but the deadline for votes is December 31st at 11:59pm EST!
