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Avoid society with this great Civilization IV + V bundle deal
Amazon has a pretty killer deal going on. For $20, you can nab downloads of Civilization 4: The Complete Edition, Civilization 5: Game of the Year Edition and The Stronghold Collection. It's perfect for the strategy gamer in your life who's been out of the loop for a decade.[Thanks, Patrick!]
MMO Blender: Larry's Firefly Effect
Many MMOs suffer from not actually having immersive worlds. As a player, I always find a separation between what I am doing and what the rest of the playerbase sees. My personal gameplay has little to no effect on anyone else. MMO communities need to have more interdependency -- positive and negative. I also believe that player choice also plays a major part in making a believable world, and I don't just mean just in some arbitrary dialogue choice, although that can be part of it. Actions in the world should play a part, too. Many MMOs have the pieces already in place to make wonderful, immersing worlds, but for some reason, no one has ever put all the pieces together. What does it take to make a believable, fun world for a player to not only live in but feel that he is a part of the greater universe?
Google Wave reaches zero amplitude
We knew it was coming, but alas, the loss of Google Wave hits us anew now that the execution date has finally come. To say we fully grokked this platform would be untrue, but as we dug through its history to gather our thoughts, we realized what a misunderstood creature Wave really was. Released in 2009 with great fanfare and no shortage of Firefly references, the program meant well with its collaboration-friendly interface, emphasis on multimedia sharing and raft of third-party extensions such as real-time Swedish Chef translation. But while its heart was in the right place, the service sacrificed accessibility for intrigue, a distinct online identity for an early adopter sensibility. Thus, after the invite-only mystique wore off and talk of a Wave app store began to sound downright foolish, the program's future looked anything but rosy. But even a product this short-lived can have a legacy: in Wave's case, it could be making Google Plus seem downright approachable by comparison. And though this may be little consolation to those hardcore wavers -- few and far between as they may be -- the project's spirit will live on in the equally perplexing Apache Wave. RIP, Google Wave, we really hardly knew you.
Rise and Shiny: Stronghold Kingdoms
There are certain designs in the MMORTS genre that have frankly started to burn me out. I was a bit worried that I had reached my tolerance point and would not be able to stomach another city-builder until I had put some time between me and my latest preview or first impressions. It's an amazing genre, and as I have argued before, it's more MMO than most MMOs. As in many genres, successful design is copied. The ironic thing is that all of these copies often dilute the market, making it worse on everyone. As much as I love the genre, I am a bit sick of running into the same design, stereotypical settings, and mechanics. Of course, we cannot take these copies and paint the whole genre with a terrible brush; if we did that, all of MMOdom would be in trouble. Still, I'm sick of it. Luckily Firefly Worlds, maker of Stronghold Kingdoms, has a very persistent "PR ninja" who made a point to poke at me on Twitter. Usually, we funnel all PR contact to our lead editors for organization purposes, but hey, I can't resist a nice voice and a lovely looking game... and I have a high tolerance for fun people.
The MMO Report: Cool balloon bro edition
This week on The MMO Report -- where everyone prefers "a blaster over hokey religions and ancient weapons" -- Casey tries to make the most of a slow MMO news week. He reports that the fallout over Fallout Online has settled, Multiverse (the Buffy/Firefly MMO platform) is dead in the water, CCP is launching EVE Online character avatars into orbit via balloon, and Star Wars: The Old Republic is boasting 350,000 concurrent users. There's no mailbag this week, he relates, because everyone's too busy playing lightsabers with their friends, which is probably true. He also thanks BioWare for teaching him how to /getdown... and I think you should tune in at the five-minute mark to see his moves for yourself. The video's tucked behind the break for your amusement!
Firefly MMO gets a possible second shot at the stars
While Multiverse, the development platform that was supposed to be the driving force for possible Buffy and Firefly MMOs, suffered a studio shutdown, the source code lives -- and has been snatched up by the newly formed Multiverse Foundation. Fortunately for those who were holding out hope for an online version of Joss Whedon's scifi western, it looks as though this new company wants to pick up where the previous team left off. Massively was contacted by Tristan Bacon, head of communications for Multiverse Foundation. He says that the company has acquired the source code and is "starting work full-time on the actual MMO creation platform." Bacon says that if there is still interest from fans, the team intends to use the platform to make a Firefly MMO. Don't get overexcited at the prospect of saddling up for the 'verse in your own ship, however, as this might be as long a shot as it ever was. There are substantial obstacles to overcome, including permission to use the IP. Bacon also says that the current team is just a small group of volunteers working on it in their spare time, and would appreciate more developers to sign on to the project.
Buffy and Firefly MMO dev studio closes
It was a foregone conclusion that we'd never play the announced Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMOs from developer Multiverse, but the closure of the studio makes that all but certain. The company actually ceased operations in early December, with a post on its website noting the studio closed due to a lack of funding after it was unable to achieve profitability with the Multiverse platform. The Multiverse platform was used as "proof of concept" for Facebook titles Battle, Team Battle and Battle: Realms at War. The platform was also used for McDonalds and Coca-Cola web games. Our condolences go out to Browncoats and followers of the Scooby Gang.
Multiverse shuts down: Firefly, Buffy MMOs officially dead
It may be 2012, but 2011 isn't finished claiming its victims just yet. As discovered by Ten Ton Hammer, the team behind the Multiverse development platform has officially pulled the plug due to lack of funding. If that name doesn't ring a bell, we're sure you've heard of the two IPs most closely associated with it. Multiverse was slated to be the engine powering both the Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMOs, but as of December 7, 2011, fans will have to look elsewhere for their Whedonverse fix. There is always Firefly Universe Online, but due to the unauthorized nature of the project and the lack of updates, we're not holding our breath.
One Shots: Aye aye, Cap'n Tightpants!
Today's One Shots takes us to Fallen Earth's wasteland, where visitors to Watchtower in Sector 1 will find a subtle nod to Firefly. Icarus Studios didn't go over the top when creating Captain Reynolds. He's not wearing a brown coat and chatting about spaceships, but the name alone is familiar enough that most fans will smile in recognition. We're celebrating pop culture in our MMOs this week. Developers sneak references in all over games, whether it be via NPCs, quests, or items, and we want to see your favorites. Grab a screenshot, tell us a bit about what it is, and send it to oneshots@massively.com. We'll be featuring the best of these all week. It's also time to start thinking about next week's One Shots theme, and we'll be revisiting an old favorite: environments. Snap a screenshot of your favorite MMO vista and send it in, and we'll feature it on One Shots next week! %Gallery-112285%
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: Your journeys, part 1
What a long, strange trip it's been back through the heyday of multi-user dungeons and the many, many spin-offs and variations thereof. We've looked at the history, talked with Richard Bartle, and promoted a few of the best titles out there -- but we're not done yet! The Game Archaeologist will not hang up his hat and call it a day well-lived until your stories are entered into the history books. Throughout this month, MUD and MU* players have deluged the inbox of the Game Archaeologist Institute for Text-Based Virtual Worlds, impressing us with hefty paragraphs of passionate experiences. These stories are so good, in fact, that we have little desire to choose between them, which is why we're going to annex the first week of May so that we can share all of them. May won't mind -- May's cool like that. So hit the jump and read the testimonies of the word warriors who were there on the front line of parser combat and grammatically correct roleplaying. These are their stories. This is your lunch break.
The Soapbox: Respecting the IP and why developers shouldn't
Here's how it is: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. If you've never heard of Firefly, you're either afraid of things that are awesome or you've had an unfortunate gap in your viewing history for the past nine years or so. If you have heard of it, however, you're more than aware that simply referencing the show is enough to send most gamers and fanboys into paroxysms of quotations and general gushing. To say that the universe remains well-loved is an understatement. And if you play MMOs, Firefly seems like a setting that's too perfect to be true. Who knows how many moons are out there in the black, how many crews are left to explore the 'verse and make a fortune? The game never went beyond an announcement, and it still topped our list of games that have gone MIA, after all. And the best part is all of that open nature plays right into the structure of an MMO, with no need to change the wonderful IP set forth in the slightest.
The sudden yet inevitable betrayal of gaming immersion
Warning: This post contains spoilers and Firefly references. There's this quest in Loch Modan. To make a long story short, the gnolls and murlocs seem to be making a peace treaty. In the very least, they're making some kind of deal to lay down some awfulness on the Alliance. They are the Axis of Awful, after all. When things get to this point, there's nothing else for an adventurer to do but dress up like a shrub, take a bottle of scent pheromones, and sneak out to sabotage the meeting. But that's not the exciting part. The exciting part is what the Mosshide gnoll screams when you lay the whammy on him. "AAAAAAGH!" the gnoll yells. "CURSE YOUR SUDDEN YET INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!" Rumors have it that in beta, the murloc responded, "Mine is an evil mrglglglglglglglglglg. Now DIE!" Of course, this is a reference to the old Firefly series, which has many devoted followers among all kinds of geeks and gamers. On one hand, I totally love the reference. My wife and I giggled and laughed and loved the shout-out to one of our favorite television series. On the other side of the coin, I can see the argument that pop culture references like this can take a player "out of the game." It disrupts immersion and adds silliness to an escapist hobby that some people take very, very seriously. What about you? Where do you fall in that argument?
Five MMOs that have gone MIA
Unlike Chuck Norris, who seems to hang on as an MMO meme with insane tenacity (perhaps it's that extra fist under his beard), there are a handful of MMOs that appear to have dropped off the radar in the last several months -- if not years. Admittedly, this was originally to be a top 10 list of missing MMOs, but in the last half of this year, several developers have seen fit to thwart our plans by actually releasing information about their games. Shock! Horror! Nevertheless, I've armed myself with an enormous cup of coffee and plundered the archives of Massively and general press releases for MMOGs that seem to have dropped off the radar. Are they still under development? Will we see some movement on them in 2011? Will it take a Chuck Norris-level feat-of-strength and all-around badassery to pull them back from the developmental abyss they appear to be in? Join me behind the break as I run down some of the MMOs we're still waiting for word on.
LotRO's radiance to be run over by a train and other future tidbits revealed
"We took Radiance outside, tied it up to some railroad tracks, and...well...I think you saw the end of this in Red Dead Redemption. Look for this in the future -‐ we will be removing Radiance from LotRO." Thus sayeth Turbine's Jen "Jalessa" Gordy, who confirmed that the controversial gear gating system is headed for a messy death. In the same WarCry developer chat, the team fielded a number of questions about where LotRO is headed after this week's mega-update. Some of the features in the works for Tolkien's digital offspring include a new raid, class changes for monster play, a barter item wallet, PvMP skirmishes, Isengard, additional minigames and -- yes -- vanity pets for all. The devs also admitted to slipping in a few pop culture mentions into the game, such as Firefly and Futurama references. And will there ever be any other hobbies than fishing in LotRO? Kate Paiz mused: "All of us devs really want to make golf next, but it's a tricky undertaking, so we don't have a timeline yet, but feel free to start practicing your backswings!" You can read the full transcript at A Casual Stroll to Mordor.
SouthPeak publishing Stronghold 3 in early 2011
Update: SouthPeak has confirmed that Stronghold 3 will be released simultaneously online and at retail. SouthPeak Games and Firefly Studios hope you're ready to build a third, really strong building for ... um ... holding stuff, as the two companies announced this week that they'll be bringing out Stronghold 3 in "the first quarter of 2011." The game is said to feature an "improved building system" and new "dramatic nighttime sieges." The physics engine has also been given a refresh, with castles that "crumble into ruin before your eyes" -- hopefully not yours, of course! Stronghold 3 will get an "initial" digital-only release in early 2011, which SouthPeak says could be bolstered by a retail SKU. "A retail release is definitely not out of the question," the publisher said. "We want to deliver according to demand from the fans." So, what SouthPeak's saying is it depends on whether the game's digital release takes a strong enough hold on consumers' hearts, if you will? Ba-zing! %Gallery-99288%
Data Robotics announces new Drobo FS
Data Robotics has just announced a new member of the Drobo family -- the Drobo FS. The new device is designed to serve as Network Attached Storage with all of the advantages of the Data Robotics BeyondRAID technology, with the added bonus of drop-dead simple setup. In a pre-release interview with Mark Fuccio of Data Robotics last week, he noted that setup on the device is as easy as installing the Drobo Dashboard software on a computer on the network, and then letting it handle all of the setup decisions for you. The device features a dual core processor, with one core running the embedded proprietary OS and the other core running Linux. The processor brings a lot of speed to the Drobo FS -- in testing, the device had about four times the speed of the former Drobo NAS solution, which was a Drobo plus the DroboShare device. Data Robotics noted that using Jumbo Frames, read speeds of up to 50-55MB/sec are possible. The Drobo FS has five storage bays, each of which can hold one standard 3.5" SATA hard drive. At the present time, the largest capacity of these drives is 2 TB, for a total of 9.1 TB of capacity or 5.44 TB with dual-disk redundancy (two drives can fail and the array can still operate flawlessly). As drive capacities grow in the future, the 2 TB drives can be replaced with larger drives, increasing the capacity of the array even more. The FS has a single Gigabit Ethernet port on the back for its connection to the world.
Breakfast Topic: Which NPCs cause a double take?
You have to hand it to Blizzard. They have a way with pop culture references and inside jokes. One of the methods that developers use to express their sense of humour is in their naming of the various NPCs in the game. For instance, the two Triumphant Armor vendors located outside Crusader's Coliseum. Champion Isimode (which I'm going to pronounce as "easy mode") is the vendor for the Alliance players, while Champion Faesrol (or "face roll") is the vendor for Horde players. Harrison Jones guided us through the introductory parts of Zul'Aman (or at least, tried to). Unlike the real Indiana Jones, Harrison didn't didn't last very long after your raid hit the gong. He'd end up resurfacing again in an escort quest in Grizzly Hills (aptly named Dun-da-Dun-tah!). Firefly loves might have missed this NPC over in Zangarmarsh. The engineering Grandmaster K. Lee Smallfry is a nod to Kaylee Frye who is the engineer on the television series. Last but not least, a few Goblin NPCs are named after a few prominent Star Trek characters. In Booty Bay, there's a goblin named Scooty (Scotty)! The first time I ran Gnomeregan as a Horde player, I came through here and did a double take on the name. You could imagine my pleasant surprise when I activated the transporter only to emerge on the other side to be greeted by Sprock (Spock). Which NPCs have you run across that have caused you to look twice?
Atom-based Inhand FireFly SBC promises netbook-level performance at a "fraction" of the power
SBCs (or single board computers) may not always be the most exciting components around, but it looks like InHand Electronics has managed to break out from the pack a bit with its new FireFly board, which the company claims is the world's "smallest and most power efficient full-function Atom-based SBC." That translates to a total power consumption of about 4.5 Watts in actual numbers (or 500mW in sleep state) and, just as notably, it apparently boasts some performance that's "comparable" to your average Atom-based Dell Mini netbook. What's more, unlike some other similar boards, the FireFly packs both on-board DDR2 and expansion capabilities, which not only broadens the potential product base for it, but could also mean that the eventual products will be smaller than your average handheld / UMPC / MID as well.
Castle simulation goes MMO with Stronghold Kingdoms
Being a king will soon be as easy as logging into a game and doing what needs to get done, as Firefly Studios has announced Stronghold Kingdoms, a 2010 dated castle and kingdom MMO. Although they don't currently have a publisher, the Stronghold series is well, for lack of a better term, strong -- we have no doubt it'll find a happy publishing deal in the coming months.The game itself will be very familiar to fans of Firefly's previous works, with lots of besieging, battling and pillaging -- after the proper bankrolling of course. We'll warn the faint of heart now: delve into the official website at your own risk, this is not a casual game of "Let's build castles and play armies!" that Firefly creates. On the contrary, this looks to be a game with enough depth to drown a giraffe twice over.
The OverAchiever: Glory of the Hero strikes back
HARROW: I know him. And I think he's a psychotic lowlife.MAL: And I think calling him that is an insult to the psychotic lowlife community. -- Firefly, "Shindig." Another OverAchiever, another Firefly quote. I wonder how much of the series we'll manage to get through here before we finish off Glory of the Hero, because this is one looooooong meta. Having gotten through Azjol Nerub and Culling of Stratholme two weeks ago with a few breaks for holiday achievements along the way, it's time to hit Drak'Tharon. Next week we'll be tackling Gun'Drak (which, as Amanda observed this morning, contains one of the more frustrating achievements). Live trolls, dead trolls, undead trolls, we got your trolls right here, pal.DRAK'THARON KEEPConsumption JunctionThis has a tendency to confuse players because most aren't aware that Consume even exists (and I was among them; my group got this achievement entirely by accident). Consume is a buff that Trollgore gains based on how many things -- NPC or player -- are within his line of sight when he casts it. The adds that run down the stairs toward him? Any of your groupmates within line of sight? They're all potential Consume charges. He attempts to re-cast the ability roughly every 15 seconds.
