global agenda
Latest
Global Agenda server coming down for 1.38 patch
Ready to get your frag on with Massively's Global Agenda Halloween event? First make sure you patch up to the latest client build (version 1.38) which hits the live server today. Scheduled downtime is currently listed as 11:30 am to 5:00 pm Eastern, and the patch will be introducing a fairly large number of changes to Hi-Rez Studios' third person shooter MMO. Chief among the tweaks are new weapon loot drops, new achievements and associated rewards, a challenge function, and an inventory overhaul that sees most items shared across your account rather than specific to certain characters. The challenge mechanic enables pre-made 4-man teams to /challenge one another, and can be used for everything from impromptu shootouts to player-run tourneys and brackets. Hi-Rez has made the full patch notes available for your perusal, so head over to the official website and check them out.
Reminder: Attend our Global Agenda Halloween event this Thursday at 7 PM
Did you forget about our Halloween event in Global Agenda? You forgot, didn't you? Tsk, tsk. Well, good thing this post is here to remind you! This Thursday, please take out your level 30 characters and join us in Global Agenda for a frightfully fun Halloween raid mission with the developers! All you need to do to participate is log on between the hours of 7:00 p.m. EST and 9:00 p.m. EST and queue a level 30 character up for a raid. Raids are starting when you see the red flashing lights in Dome City go off! The Global Agenda developers, Hi-Rez Studios, will be queuing up for raids as well, so you might just run into a few of them while you play! If you're still not high enough level but want to try out the raid, don't forget about the new microtransaction boosts. They could get you the experience you need! If you're not in a raid, then join the Massively.com editors in City Chat as we tease you all with Global Agenda trivia! Winners of the Global Agenda trivia contest will win the raid instance's Halloween swag -- so if you're a lower level player, you can always try to get some flair by answering some questions about the game! Either way, we invite you to come have a great night with us in Global Agenda, so don't miss out!
Community Detective Issue #11: Global Agenda
It's time to bring the pain, Community Detective style. What style is that exactly? Well, I don't rightly know, as the column just recently passed the ten issue mark and said style is still developing. Rookie jitters notwithstanding, this week's issue is all about pain -- my pain to be exact. The kind of pain that happens when I subject myself to things that I'm not really a fan of. In this case, F2P and PvP (at the same time, oh noes!!). Anyhow, strap on your jetpacks and blast past the cut where I'll give you the low-down on the community and customer service in Hi-Rez Studios' massively multiplayer third-person shooter known as Global Agenda. Surprisingly, my fortnight of probing the game's community brought about the completely unexpected realization that I actually enjoy the game, so there might be a few bits of commentary related to that as well. You just never can tell.
Massively Exclusive: Hi-Rez talks Tribes Universe
It's been a huge couple of days for Hi-Rez Studios, the Atlanta-based indie developer behind Global Agenda and now, the forthcoming Tribes Universe. Massively sat down with company CEO and lead designer Erez Goren for an exclusive world-first interview about the game. Follow along after the cut for more information about the new title's development direction and time frame, as well as how it may impact Global Agenda.
Hi-Rez Studios acquires Tribes franchise, turning it into an MMO
Haven't you always wondered about what kind of rich, storied cultures surrounded the vertically-centric gunfights of the Tribes series? Like, what's the historical significance of all those jet packs, you know? These pressing questions may soon find an answer -- developer Hi-Rez Studios has acquired the rights to the Tribes franchise, and is using those newfound rights to make a PvP-focused action-MMO titled Tribes Universe. A post on the forums for Hi-Rez' other flagship title, Global Agenda, revealed a few scarce details for the new project, the most intriguing of which being, "a significant rewrite to the Unreal Engine servers to allow for 100+ players to be fighting in the same map." An alpha testing phase for the game is currently set for early 2011, and players who have reached the Global Agenda level cap will be given priority for invitations. Here we'd hoped we'd have priority for invitations, because we own an actual jet pack. It's true! We made it ourselves.
Hi-Rez Studios announces development of Tribes Universe MMO
reddit_url = "http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/10/23/hi-rez-studios-announces-development-of-tribes-universe-mmo/"; reddit_target="gaming"; Tweet The developers of Global Agenda have been taking a long look at player feedback over the past months, particularly that regarding Warzones in the game, and they've come to a decision. It's certainly not one that players were expecting, though. Hi-Rez Studios CEO Erez Goren announced today that the company is the "proud new owner of the Tribes franchise." The company now has two teams in the studio, one devoted to Tribes Universe, which is expected to enter alpha testing at the beginning of 2011. While some of the community worries that this news means the end of Global Agenda, Erez is clear that Hi-Rez will continue to develop and support GA. You can read all the details on the Global Agenda forums. [Thanks to everyone who sent in this tip!]
The Friday Livestream: Global Agenda [Updated]
It's another Friday, and that means it's another edition of the Friday Livestream! Tonight we have an agenda... a Global Agenda, in fact! We're going to be going through the various play modes of Global Agenda, live! So come join us as we get thrashed in PvP, tour the new Sonoran Desert open zone, and maybe even give PvE missions a go. But, PvP action is where we'll be at for most of the night, so I hope you all enjoy watching me die over and over again! As always, click the picture above or hit the button below to get to the video. If you're feeling social, you can also join us in the Livestream chat located at http://www.livestream.com/massivelytv! [Update: The stream is over, but the video lives on! Check it out after the break!]
Massively Mob Halloween event: Global Agenda's Oasis Checkpoint... Of Doom!
Happy Halloween Mobsters! It's another Massively.com community event, and this time we're getting spooky! The team at Hi-Rez Studios has put together a brand new Halloween-themed raid, and you're invited to come along and raid with the developers! Next Thursday, October 28th, join us in Global Agenda from 7:00 p.m. EDT to 9:00 p.m. EDT to lay the smack down on some ghostly robots inside the game's level 30 raid queue. In celebration of Halloween, all of the level 30 raid queues will be converted over to run the brand new raid mission: "The Oasis Checkpoint... Of Doom!" During our two-hour-long event, the staff of Hi-Rez will be jumping into the raid queue to play as well, so you might get the chance to play with one of the Global Agenda developers! Not level 30? No worries! You have plenty of time to level up before Thursday, or you could use a Global Agenda boost to double your experience while you play. (Use boost to get through?) Plus, while you're waiting for the raid to pop, Massively.com editors will be in Dome City, holding a Global Agenda-themed trivia contest. Ten lucky contest winners will get Halloween head flair for their character, so you can celebrate Halloween all the time! So be sure to join us next Thursday, and keep an eye out for a post on Tuesday where we'll break down the entire schedule of events!
Trick or treat or high-velocity death: Global Agenda takes on Halloween
In the future, nobody can hear you scream -- but that's mostly because everybody's shooting noisy pulse rifles all willy-nilly. Even though Global Agenda skews more toward sci-fi than horror, it doesn't mean that the two can't form a temporary alliance. To celebrate the holiday, Global Agenda is rolling out a specially-themed defense raid from October 27th through the 31st. Defense raids are 10-man missions that require a team to defend a point from waves of invaders. This particular Halloween raid -- available for players level 30 and above -- is notable for its quirky loot: 13 new Halloween masks are available as drops through this mission only, and any team that downs the final boss will receive an additional mask as a bonus. Unfamiliar with defense raids? Hi-Rez Studios created a quick two-minute dev blog of these special missions, which you can watch after the jump.
Global Agenda offering friends with benefits
Itching to get your frag on with someone you love (or at least, lust after?) Hi-Rez Studios has a deal for you in the form of its Friends with Benefits discount promotion for Global Agenda. If you've purchased the massively multiplayer third-person shooter, you now have a set of coupon codes that can be gifted to a friend, granting him or her 30% off the initial client cost. Your benefits accrue in the form of an in-game referral achievement score, which in turn grants reward items at specific levels (including a mini-warlord pet that resembles an angry Laurence Fishburne bobblehead doll). Todd Harris, Global Agenda's executive producer, outlines the new program on the game's official forums. "Referral achievements and new prestige items will be introduced and visible before the end of October in the 1.38 update. But we invite you to start recruiting now -- you'll earn credit for all referrals going forward as well as any referrals done prior to this campaign launch," he writes.
Ask Massively: Transformative edition
Welcome back to another edition of Ask Massively, the column that certainly hasn't been on any sort of hiatus for a little while. No sir. Well, all right, maybe a small one after all. You might notice some small changes with the column, such as the fact that the dashingly handsome Shawn Schuster has handed the reins of questions-and-answers off to the much-less-dashing and notably less-handsome Eliot Lefebvre. But it's still the same high-quality information as ever. This week has been just a little bit lean, due to the fact that our unannounced hiatus left many readers scratching their heads. But go ahead and jump on past the cut for some pearls of wisdom regarding Global Agenda and Final Fantasy XIV. Next week we're hoping to have a few more questions, so feel free to mail yours along to ask@massively.com or leave them in the comments field!
Global Agenda version 1.37 hits live servers
Gentlemen, start your patchers (and ladies too, for that matter), as Hi-Rez Studios is about to drop the hammer on version 1.37 of Global Agenda. As of today, the sci-fi MMOFPS is rolling out its latest patch, bringing with it an achievement system, the ability to fast-switch between weapon, armor, and skill tree profiles, new vanity items, and auction house tweaks. The auction house overhaul is fairly major, with a new "stock market" buy/sell model allowing players to see all items of a particular type and price on a single line. Buyers will see the lowest five prices for an item, and can purchase items by providing the bid price they're willing to pay. The revamped auction house will then reconcile the transaction with the listing seller(s) on a first-come first-serve basis. The auction house UI has also been redone, and 1.37 also brings a new preview function for displaying items on your avatar prior to purchase. Be sure and read up on all the incoming changes via the patch notes on the official website.
Life after APB: Global Agenda woos displaced players with special offer
It's been a sad week for APB fans, that's for sure, but Hi-Rez Studios wants to help take some of the sting out of APB's cancellation with a special offer. Citing MMO shooter brotherhood, executive producer Todd Harris offered sympathy by saying, "We honor their effort and innovation, and greatly mourn the game's closing." While APB's future fate -- and any possible resurrection -- looks bleak, Hi-Rez has a word of advice for that game's players: come over and give Global Agenda a try. To facilitate this, the studio is providing a decent discount on the purchase of Global Agenda through September 24th. GA will cost just $20.99 during this time period, and that fee covers both the cost of the MMO and unlimited play. Not too shabby, eh? Prospective purchasers will need to buy through Global Agenda's online store and use the code "LongLiveShooterMMOs" to take advantage of this special. Whether you see Hi-Rez as being merely opportunistic or splendidly gracious (or, hey, both), this deal may be too good for MMO shooter fans to resist. You can read the full letter and offer over at Global Agenda's site.
Global Agenda looks back at its first six months
It's been a whirlwind six months for Hi-Rez Studios. In that time frame the studio released its MMOFPS Global Agenda, converted the game to a "buy it once and play it forever" model similar to Guild Wars, released a major expansion named Sandstorm, and finally released the game in boxed format. Now, the devs have taken a moment to breathe, reflect, and answer some questions for the folks over at IGN as to what they set out to do, what lessons they've learned, and what players can expect in the upcoming months. The interview focuses on discussing the shift of payment options, what it's like to create and continue running an MMOFPS hybrid, and whether or not others may be looking in that same general direction. While short, it offers an interesting peek into the minds behind the ever-evolving Global Agenda and offers some wide-ranging discussion on the games market in general.
Doubling season comes to Global Agenda
With Global Agenda's switch to a subscription-free format earlier this year, the game was put on track to begin launching content updates and small additions to replace the subscription fees. Up until now, the team at Hi-Rez Studios has been focused on the long-running Sandstorm series of updates, but the game has now begun selling boost packs as the first added service. And what do these packs do? They double your enjoyment -- assuming that you enjoy gaining experience and tokens. The packs -- available in 10-day, 30-day, and 90-day flavors -- double all experience and tokens earned for the duration for all characters on an account. Not coincidentally, the 30-day boost costs just under $15, the same price as a monthly subscription in most subscription-based games. Each boost runs for the specified length of time and is activated immediately upon purchase, which makes the benefits and drawbacks rather transparently obvious. Players of Global Agenda can purchase packs on the official site, with a small guide available for the new feature. [Thanks to Caleb Goh for the tip!]
Rise and Shiny recap: Global Agenda
PvP is a funny thing. Essentially, it is a glorified game of tag. There are variations on the theme, of course: freeze tag, Marco Polo, or Hide-and-Seek. Most of us have had the pleasure of spending a summer evening playing it with our friends. I know that when we played it, we added the dimension of The Woods (as they were known) and all that hiding in those woods on a dark summer evening implies. It was intense, I remember. Once, I hid under a pile of leaves for 40 minutes, scared out of my mind, while my buddy tried to find me. Good PvP can be like that, but bad PvP can ruin your evening. Bad PvP, like a rainstorm during a campout, usually ends with one or more participants taking the event way too seriously. But when you spend a few hours in good PvP, running around shooting at strangers, throwing mines at each other and getting shot down by automated turrets, your heart will race and you will realize that you have had a smile on your face most of the time. Global Agenda has that effect on me, like a good game of tag.
One Shots: Way more silliness to come, we're sure
What's got this Global Agenda player looking spooked? Well, perhaps it's the scheduled invasion of the Massively Mob tonight? It could be the knowledge that devs will be playing along with our readers -- and devs generally tend to have nifty weapons. Maybe it's that guy with the glowy, colorful gear in the background, who is clearly labeled as a threat. We can't be sure, but we do know one thing for certain -- that goofy bag mask is pretty funny to look at! This One Shots comes to us from reader Canucck, who writes in: "[Here's a picture of the] new 'diplomat flair' being given out to specific players by Hi-Rez for being helpful. 'Scared Bag is Scared' is the item's description in game." Have you gotten an interesting reward in your favorite game that you'd like to show off? One Shots is all about the player's-eye-view of MMOs, so whether it's a silly mask or new goodies gained from raiding, we welcome your images. All you have to do if you'd like to take part is to email your images to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to check out and give you the credit. %Gallery-85937%
Cross guns with Hi-Rez Studios in Global Agenda tonight, and here's how!
Tonight's the big night for all of you Global Agenda players in our readership! Twelve members of Hi-Rez Studios will be stepping into the game tonight, ready for some PvE and PvP action! As we promised you on Monday, we have the full instructions on how you can participate in this event! All you need is a copy or free trial of Global Agenda installed on your machine, and a copy of Steam. Once you've got that done, make sure to join the Massively Mob, our Steam Community group, and friend either Octal Black, ducttapedrummer or Netgoth. If you're chosen to participate in tonight's event, you will be IMed by either Beau Hindman (ducttapedrummer), myself (Octal Black), or Krystalle Voecks (Netgoth) via Steam Messenger. You can also keep up with what's going on in the event by joining our Steam Community chat room and keeping an eye out for GM messages in-game. From there you'll be paired up with a Hi-Rez Studios developer, and your party will venture off into the wonderful lands of the Sonoran Desert and Commonwealth Prime to lay waste to everything before you! Good luck, and we hope to see you tonight!
Play with the devs: Storm the dungeons and firefights of Global Agenda with Hi-Rez Studios
You asked for it, and we're doing it -- we're going back to Global Agenda! But this time we're not going into the game by ourselves. No, no, we're bringing out the big guns this time. We're bringing the creators, Hi-Rez Studios, along for the ride! So come join us this Wednesday, August 25th, at 7:00 p.m. EDT, to run some missions with some of the developers from Hi-Rez! All you need is a copy of Global Agenda (which can be grabbed from Steam) and a membership in our Steam Community, the Massively Mob (which is as cheap as free). Don't have a copy of the game, but still want to participate? Well lucky for you, as the game's free trial program just came back online! Why not give the game a whirl as you play alongside the creators? More information on our in-game meeting place and how we'll set things up will be available Wednesday morning here on Massively. Just keep an eye on our Steam Community, or Twitter page, or our front page for the full details!
Rise and Shiny recap: Alganon
We have all heard of the controversy surrounding Alganon. Essentially, it breaks down into a few basic points: it is a "WoW clone," and it is being run by Derek Smart, a say-it-like-you-mean-it development bad-boy. Many claim he looks for negative attention and enjoys arguing with players. To be blunt, I don't care what people think about Derek Smart. I have said it before: I actually believe that he reacts to negative attention the way other developers wish they could. I don't keep track of his battles, though; I keep track of what he has done in gaming. All I know is that before he was with Alganon, I did not enjoy the game. After he became involved, the game got better. Concerning the "WoW-clone" issue: If I had a gold piece for every time I've heard that, I could afford that incredible level 50 mount! (*snort*) If I took a moment to break down all games that have similarities to WoW, this article would be much, much longer than it needs to be. WoW was successful, and the industry takes cues from success. WoW took its own cues from other games before that. Still, does Alganon take more from WoW than, say, Lord of the Rings Online? Read on, and let's discuss it.
