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Frogster releases more information on Runes of Magic Chapter III
Frogster has been giving fans previews of the Runes of Magic Chapter III since GDC way back in March. Our latest view of the expansion comes to us courtesy of IncGamers, who looked at details and images from the Southern Janost Forest. The landscape itself is marshy and damp, making travel and any sort of farming difficult. You'll find more hunters and fishermen here than farmers, although a marsh-friendly plant called Malanga grows wild and forms the foundation of the citizens' diets. The architecture of the area is very attractive, all soaring spires and graceful design, but don't be entirely fooled by this book's pretty cover -- one of those buildings is Warnorken Castle, inhabited by Baron Reuen von Jura, the main villain in the zone. The strife doesn't begin and end with the Baron and his persecution of those living in the forest. The principality of Shador is home to some of the most skilled archers in the land. The citizens of Shador are ready and willing to defend their city from attackers, and there are even rumors of a mysterious alliance with those in the neighboring Milasso Forest -- they're not a people you want to make an enemy of. Take a look at the entire preview at IncGamers.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Roleplaying horizontally
I'm definitely not what you would term a hardcore player. I've been playing for a whole year and have just reached level 54/45 on my main. My gear is OK -- not great -- and that's only because an old guild mate loaned the pieces to me months before he quit playing. I haven't been able to run through any dungeon since Mystic Altar and I don't even try to pick fights with other players my level. So, how can I sit here and tell you that I love Runes of Magic enough to forfeit the majority of my young adult life to it? Two words: role and horizontal. Roleplaying is something that is understandably not for everyone, but I'm not talking about a strict actor or actress role. I'm talking about just crossing the line between viewing an MMO as a video game that owes you everything and accepting a little responsibility to use some imagination to increase how much fun you have. Horizontal gameplay is a term that's been thrown around a lot lately, referring to ever expanding content that doesn't rely entirely on leveling. Jump past the break to see why this is such a sweet combination in RoM.
Lost Pages of Taborea: A look into Chapter Three
It's been a fun week of questing and exploration for me in Runes of Magic. I've been digging deeper into the heart of the Savage Lands and learning more lore while discovering new visual treasures. When I first entered the level 53 and up zone, I thought it was some kind of tropical dinosaur utopia. Most of the areas I ventured into have that visual style, but there's also a mix of Elven villages, mountains guarded by apemen and tiki style huts to give the zone unique variety. Of course, I gave all that a break when the first part of Chapter III: The Elder Kingdoms came out. I was anxious to see the new content with its new systems and pretty graphics. After impatiently waiting for my client to update, I was able to journey to the new lands and see some pretty cool stuff. Now, I think it's about time I gave some of my impressions before all of Chapter 3 is released and I'm too busy playing to write about it.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Banhammer time
For a while now, Frogster has been fiddling with how a player can buy diamonds to later trade and sell in the auction house. Ever so slowly, they had to implement more and more restrictions because of credit fraud and gold sellers. Those restrictions came in the form of what you could no longer use to buy tradable diamonds, until there was almost no other way except to purchase game cards from select retailers. Now it seems the ongoing problem has come to a head with the announcement that Runes of Magic has temporarily turned off the trading of diamonds for gold completely. While it certainly doesn't paint RoM in a good light and may look like it has marred their great track record, gold selling issues are nothing exclusive to the game. Bots and gold spam are something that many MMOs eventually deal with and it's a positive sign that the developers are working on it. Maybe they're taking a queue from Aion's RMT videos or maybe they had it planned for a long time, but RoM has recently gone after the player-side of the problem by laying down the banhammer.
The Diamond trade gets destroyed in Runes of Magic
There's an understandable problem with selling game currency in subscription games, where it's generally considered verboten for good reason. While some subscription games will sell you things in addition to the monthly fee, there's a general sense that you should earn your advantages. But in free-to-play games that have a cash shop allowing players to purchase items directly... well, the very idea of gold selling seems kind of silly. But it can happen, and Runes of Magic has experienced a bit of a problem of late with the trade of Diamonds (their cash shop currency) for gold. The game has traditionally treated the currencies as interchangeable insofar as players with lots of Diamonds and not enough gold could sell their excess to other players. Unfortunately, the current spate of RMT activities have called for draconian measures: they've taken away the ability to trade Diamonds for gold. They've also temporarily removed the ability to send gold through the mail. The official announcement stresses that this is a temporary measure to combat unacceptable behavior. While less gold spam is a good thing, fewer features are a negative, so this new is a mixed bag for Runes of Magic players.
Lost Pages of Taborea: How is crafting holding up?
Runes of Magic's craft system currently lacks a huge fan base. I thinks it's a great system that's very flexible, but the current work vs. rewards as well as limited items doesn't make it terribly appealing. Crafting takes a lot of gathering to yield the most basic of items, which usually don't sell for much -- or at all -- on the auction house. This has raised the incentives for players to seek out better rewards through raiding or bartering highly upgraded drops. Even the crafted items aren't very desirable to upgrade, especially when compared to world and dungeon drops. That's not to say it's worthless. Through the most recent craft improvements, players can take the time to craft quality outfits to aid them on their journey to level cap -- before they start raiding for the better drops. I myself love to gather, raise my profession level, and make some decent gold by selling resources in the auction house. I don't see the system ever needing rebuilt to grow or expand, but just added to. If we take a look at the way it is now, and how it's built to allow for a lot of possibilities, I think you'll agree.
Runes of Magic touts Chapter 3 training program, bonus XP
Frogster, North American publishers for the hit free-to-play MMORPG Runes of Magic, has just announced a ten week training program designed to prepare players for the game's upcoming third chapter. The program, titled 'Expedition 60,' aims to assist denizens of Taborea to level up and gain access to high-level areas prior to The Elder Kingdoms expansion. "Recently Runes of Magic reached a significant milestone with the announcement of three million registered players in North America and Europe," said Andreas Weidenhaupt, Frogster CEO. "As the game community grows on a daily basis, Frogster is celebrating by creating a very special training program leading up to the launch of Chapter III – The Elder Kingdoms."
Guilds to face new challenges in Runes of Magic Chapter III
When it comes to learning how to work together as a guild, many MMOs have the same general method: read a strategy site, jump into a dungeon, and beat yourself against it until you figure it out. That's why we're intrigued to hear about the new guild additions coming to Runes of Magic in their upcoming Chapter III expansion. While hailed as mini-games, these new areas will challenge guilds to work together in new and interesting ways. Players who join these three new guild drilling grounds will be asked to choose one of three stances: a sword for melee players; a shield for those who will need defensive boosts and resists; or a staff for those pew-pew crazy casters. From there, you'll be taken through one of the three new drilling ground scenarios. %Gallery-88042%
Lost Pages of Taborea: A year of Runes of Magic
You may be hard pressed to find anyone saying Runes of Magic had a rough year. The Western-style MMORPG with its free-to-play business model garnered a lot of attention from all over the web while it was just in beta. Frogster had a smooth launch that saw a rapid increase in RoM's player base. Servers were popping up all over the world at breakneck speed. And just when some might think that was going to be it, a steady stream of updates grew the game over the year into a more content-rich experience than ever. Grab your Extra Ginger Beer, or whatever your fuel of choice is, and follow along after the break to see how RoM has progressed into the great game it is now.
Bounty Bay Online increases the scale of city wars
What good is a proper game in the age of the high seas without the option to take over cities? Fortunately for everyone who thinks along those lines, Bounty Bay Online not only has the option to take on cities, but an expanded list and more frequent times available for those who wish to take part in the conflicts. Merchant alliance cities Alexandria, Venice, Lisbon, Bordeaux and Amsterdam are all now in the lineup to be taken by fleets with strong enough ships and military might. But the addition of the cities isn't the only change that's being made. Previously, only two cities per day were available for guilds to attempt to conquer. The adjustment and merging of times will now force players into different tactical decisions, as there will be more ports to assault or defend and less opportunity for a single fleet to move from port to port. A detailed breakdown of the changes is available here, and the full system of attacking and taking cities can be found here. For players in Bounty Bay Online, things most likely have gotten a fair bit more interesting on the ocean.
Lost Pages of Taborea: A WoW player's guide to Runes of Magic
Are you praised for your quick wits and fast fingers when 10-manning ICC? Hailed for your uncanny knowledge of talent specs on every class? Then, reader, you'd be a formidable foe in World of Warcraft, but let's see how that helps you in Runes of Magic, eh? There are many more differences than the names of items and spells. While you may feel comfortable at first with the interface layout, new systems abound. An arcane whatsit? Where's my talent tree? No Shaman-type class? Let's ease you into a comfortable transition, to minimize annoyance and bruises. Even if you aren't a WoW player, you should find this to be a good getting started guide.
Runes of Magic releases Chapter 3 zone preview
Frogster, publisher of the free-to-play giant Runes of Magic, has posted some new information on their upcoming Chapter 3 release, The Elder Kingdoms, planned for May. This information was spotted on RoM's international website, but is sure to make its way to the US one soon. "Beginning in April our players will be able to set foot on the previously forgotten continent of Zandorya and explore its first zone. And today we will be showing the first detailed glimpses into the 'Thunderhoof Hills' area and the kingdom of 'Dalanis'!" This zone preview has some nice flavor text on the new area, some information on one of their soon to be released dungeons, and new screen shots to boot. This is just a small part of the list of features going in to Chapter 3 that players can look forward to. The Elder Kingdoms will be giving us even more new zones, difficulty settings on dungeons, new pets, a marriage system, and more. This zone preview is just a small taste of many things to come. Runes of Magic has been steadily churning out content, since their official release last March. After a big birthday bash, the announcement at GDC has kept us all waiting for more news. Recent news of RoM adding Vivox integrated chat has kept us excited, but we are really glad to see this sneak peek of actual new content.%Gallery-88042%
Lost Pages of Taborea: Community guide to Runes of Magic
Welcome to the new Runes of Magic column here at Massively. The Varanas Council has mandated that I bring you word from Taborea, every Monday. Upon failure to do so, I am ordered to take part in endless repeatable quests in the Ystra Highlands. This would be fine, if it were not for me being a charter member of the Society for the Preservation of the Ystra Ferret. You can see how I can't let that happen. So you, dear readers, reap the benefits of me staying timely and bringing you gobs of interesting and useful information, and saving a few cute fuzzy ferrets at the same time. With that, Let's dive right into our first post with a selection of sites and resources to get the would-be Taborean traveler started leveling and exploring.
Runes of Magic will be heading to Facebook with RoM: The Challenge
When it comes to Facebook games, some MMO players look at them as being a scourge; a strange offshoot of a genre they know and love. To others, it seems the next logical step in gaming. And nobody can doubt the revenues involved are sweet for companies who manage to hook casual gamers into their games. But now, we have a heads-up from the team at Frogster Interactive that they plan on trying to cross their successful Runes of Magic IP into the Facebook casual gaming market. Dubbed Runes of Magic: The Challenge, this new social media game (currently under development) will use the lore from Runes of Magic in a whole new casual game. The Facebook game is said to use networked gaming and viral communications and will give players "adventure, exploration, and strategy elements." Through playing the casual game, people will gain cards with key codes that work inside Runes of Magic -- thereby potentially drawing some new players off of Facebook and into the full MMO. Our team at GDC has an interview with the Frogster Interactive and Runewaker Entertainment teams coming up later today, where we're sure we'll hear far more about this interesting new gaming development. We'll bring you all the details as soon as we have them!
Runes of Magic to introduce siege wars in patch 2.1.7
We know that Runes of Magic's next patch will bring us the Masked Ball, but what happens if you prefer your gameplay more on the combat side than the party side? Never fear, because patch 2.17 will also bring siege wars to Runes of Magic this month. These 300-player battles will will place catapults and battering rams in the hands of players as they fight to bring down the castles of the opposing teams. It's not all about brute force though, although the siege engines are both formidable and awesome. Tactical ability, skill, and careful planning will win the day along with a few (okay, a lot) of well-aimed siege attacks. While the thrill of victory is surely more than enough for the winners, but Frogster is sweetening the pot anyway by offering up titles and many more tangible prizes as well. Check out the official site for a trailer, and before you even ask: no, you may not lay siege to the Masked Ball.
Runes of Magic celebrates one year
Happy birthday, Runes of Magic! Frogster is celebrating the first anniversary of its immensely popular free-to-play game all this week. The party started earlier today and will continue through next Monday, March 15th with a wide array of events both in and out of the game. For starters, all players will enjoy double XP for MOBs and quests, and double TP for MOBs during entire length of the celebration. The Runes of Magic Facebook page will be presenting daily contests and giveaways all week, beginning with today's strenuous task of liking the announcement post. A random winner will be selected from those who do so: click the button, win a prize! Don't forget to check out the Runes of Magic shop for special birthday deals as well. In-game is where the real action is happening. Zurhidon Rampage is the first event, kicking off the festivities today, with an impressive list of events and corresponding prizes promised for the rest of the week as well. Check out the forum post for more details on the in-game events, and enjoy the party!
Runes of Magic announces integrated voice chat
Runes of Magic's 2.8 million players will soon have something besides their favorite MMORPG to talk about: each other. Runewaker Entertainment just announced a partnership with Vivox to provide in-game voice chat for the hit free-to-play title. High definition voice chat will be available in public and private channels, and is already live on the game's Taiwanese servers. The service will debut on American and European servers very soon according to company representatives. "We have been looking forward to bringing voice chat to Runes of Magic for some time knowing the extraordinary benefits it brings to the community," said Runewaker Entertainment's Tony Tang. "Vivox is the only voice chat provider capable of delivering high definition voice to gamers."
Runes of Magic Chapter III to debut at GDC
Frogster unveiled their next expansion for Runes of Magic back in early February, announcing that Chapter III -- The Elder Kingdoms will be arriving in May. Now we have even better news: if you're planning to attend GDC next week you're going to get a first look at Chapter III. Frogster announced today that they are planning to give a peek at the first features of The Elder Kingdoms at Game Developers Conference. We know that the expansion will feature a fair amount of new content -- new dungeons, instances, PvP battlegrounds, and more, so it will be interesting to find out what area they choose to show off first. In addition to a look at the new features, Frogster is promising a surprise for GDC attendees as well: "a new product to expand the RoM universe into a new business field." That's certainly got our curiosity aroused -- stay tuned to Massively during GDC next week for the full scoop on what Runes of Magic has up their sleeve!
Runes of Magic planning a Masked Ball to welcome spring
While the cold may still be lingering in many places around the globe, in the online lands of Taborea, spring has come. To celebrate, the folks at Runewaker Entertainment and Frogster Interactive are planning a fancy dress Masked Ball for all Runes of Magic players, and you're all invited! The Masked Ball event is set to go live with the next content patch coming up in March. Players will be treated to lots of party-themed cake and fruit -- great for restoring health! There will also be the chance to get some special springtime goodies like ornamental masks and transformation potions through springtime daily quests and other party fun. If you're curious for a sneak peek into the upcoming Masked Ball celebration, be sure to check out the gallery below. Perhaps we'll see you in Runes of Magic for the fun! %Gallery-86514%
Bounty Bay Online celebrates three years of operation
It's been three years since Bounty Bay Online has set sail for the high seas, yet it doesn't feel like it, does it? Sure, Frogster Interactive's pirate MMO may not bring home the chests of gold like its big sister, Runes of Magic. But the game is still gliding along with a decently sized community who are more than willing to spend their rum money on it. So there's no better way to celebrate 3 years of operation than by running some promotions for the community! The promotions certainly aren't bad, as they already involve double experience going from today until the 24th, and double cash shop points (buy any amount of points, get that same amount of points again for free) until the 25th. The celebration will be continuing until March 31st, so be sure to log on and reap some of the rewards. Nothing like discounts and faster leveling to say thanks to the community!
