gpotato
Latest
Age of Wushu launch day roundup [Updated]
Don't let the delicate beauty of Age of Wushu's looks fool you: This is one savage MMO. We've been tracking the progress of Snail Games' localization and tweaks for Western audiences for months now (as well as voting the game our most anticipated of last year's E3 awards), and the day of its launch is finally here. Age of Wushu is a free-to-play martial arts sandbox that's set in a semi-historical China. On top of several schools of fighting styles, the MMO includes unconventional features such as kidnapping, offline professions, crafting battles, and weddings. Check out Massively's extensive coverage of Age of Wushu after the jump and stay tuned for Patrick's impressions of the launch! [Update]: Snail has released an Age of Wushu launch trailer, viewable after the break.
Age of Wushu shows off guild warfare
Do you think that your guild is the best group of people anywhere? Age of Wushu encourages that line of thinking, because you're going to need to stand together if you want to defend yourself from all of the other guilds thinking the exact same thing. The latest development blog on the game explains how guilds can control territories as well as how they can lose those lands if they fail to defend against their enemies. Guild territories are attached to existing zones seamlessly without a loading screen, although you have to speak to an NPC to teleport there. Structures on controlled territories can be upgraded for various benefits, but those upgrades can be lost if a rival guild assaults the territory. Check out a video of guild warfare in action just past the break, and get ready for the game's official launch this Wednesday by getting ready to pick your enemies and burn all they own to the ground.
Age of Wushu China introduces factions, dating, and weather
A content update is blowing in for Age of Wushu players on the Chinese server, one that adds a few new features to the sandbox game including factions, dating (yes, really), and an active weather system. Players who never settled on a school will soon have even more options to choose from; instead of joining a school, they can join a faction. However, players who're already members of a school can also join a faction either by school betrayal, requesting permission to wander, or facial surgery. Each method affects school skills to varying degrees. The two known factions are Rootless Clan and Palace of Moving Flowers, both of which feature very stringent admission requirements (castrated males and pretty females, respectively). Players can also participate in online dating, Age of Wushu-style. Dating allows players to choose an offline player with whom to build a relationship through various quests. On top of these changes, players will also enjoy a more robust and active environmental system that includes a day/night cycle, seasons, and weather -- even eclipses! Although this content update is currently slated for the games Chinese servers, you can still enjoy a look at the weather systems in the following trailer.
GDC 2013: The MMO impact of the Webzen and Gala-Net merge
Acquisition. Though it sounds pretty benign on its own, when used in reference to one developer taking over another, the word can inspire fear in the hearts of gamers. Questions quickly arise about the future of titles that fall on the acquired side of the equation. How will the games and players be affected by the change? Will there even still be a game? I sat down with Claas Wolter (European PR Manager) and Deanna Peter (Marketing/PR Associate) to discuss just this topic regarding the recent purchase of Gala-Net (the parent company of gPotato) by Webzen and how that acquisition will affect Allods Online, Age of Wulin, Terras Militaris, and the company's other MMORPGs.
Jet Li: There's 'no good reason to debunk virtual gaming as a sport'
Jet Li may be known for his martial arts prowess, but he's also an avid gamer according to an interview translation at MMO Culture. Li recently attended an Age of Wushu PvP tournament and had some interesting things to say about e-sports and the validity of video gaming as a sport in general. "If poker card games and chess both have the players sitting down and are considered sports, why not virtual gaming as well," Li explained. "There are two kinds of sports: one physical and one mental. There is no good reason to debunk virtual gaming as a sport, and I believe the participants of such virtual PvP events have the same mentality as physical athletes."
Age of Wushu global PvP tourney welcomes Jet Li
Martial arts superstar Jet Li put in an appearance at Age of Wushu's first global PvP tournament last week. The competition drew virtual fighters from North America, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Malaysia, according to MMO Culture. The tourney winner took home 1,000,000 CNY (approximately $161,000). Li has been involved in various aspects of Age of Wushu's pre-release marketing campaign, including a brief teaser that you can view after the break. The fantasy wuxia MMO officially launches in North America on April 10th.
Buy a box for Age of Wushu and gain exclusive adventures
Who doesn't like buying a boxed edition of a free-to-play game? The folks at Snail Games certainly hope you want to do precisely that, since the studio has just announced a special boxed retail copy of Age of Wushu. Available at some point after the game's release on April 10th, the boxed copy will retail at $19.99, but supposedly contains more some $80 worth of bonuses for purchasers. Aside from two months of free VIP status, a 30-day mount, and 500 pieces of silver, the boxed edition contains an exclusive quest. Players who purchase this version will gain access to a solo adventure with Jet Li, fighting to save a village from destruction. If you already purchased one of the big content packages for the game, don't worry -- everyone who purchased the Elite Edition prior to the first beta event will receive all of the boxed edition goodies for free. Otherwise, you might need to grab yourself a box when it comes out.
Rise and Shiny: Allods Online's Pearl Ring, selling power, and the Astral
Allods Online has long been a game that immediately conjures up some form of controversy any time it is mentioned. Whether it's because of cash-shop policies, changes to game mechanics, or the alleged mishandling of player issues, the game just can't seem to catch a break. Since the very beginning, I knew that the players who were complaining the loudest also loved the game the most -- a standard for the industry -- and that, meanwhile, thousands of players have enjoyed the game since being introduced. I have always loved it, but from the point of view of someone who is a constant newb and explorer. I have never understood the raider mentality or at least never wanted to; if I wanted to work at a game, I would get a job playing games. Oh, wait. This week I sat down to go through the newest bit of content, The Pearl Ring, to see just how fun the game could be on a character fitted with good gear and attached to a super-friendly yet hardcore raiding guild. I also wanted to explore the more general gameplay and pay another visit to the shining light of the Allods universe: the Astral. What I found surprised me and made me remember just how incredible this game is. %Gallery-183634%
Openly mock gravity with Age of Wushu's flying skills
The wuxia films that inspire many of Age of Wushu's mechanics have a fairly uniform attitude toward vertical mobility: screw gravity. Needless to say, the game takes that lesson to heart. A new article and video detailing the game's Flying skills makes it clear that players will not simply be encouraged to defy gravity but to go all-out and actively mock the idea that anything more than boredom keeps both feet planted on the ground. Flying skills are treated like normal skills in the sense that players must locate skill tomes to unlock new abilities, but once unlocked these skills are only limited by the character's Stamina. As long as your character has Stamina you can feel free to run straight up walls, jump off with a series of spinning backflips, and then land from a great height without so much as a bruise. If you do run out, though... well, gravity responds poorly to mockery. Check out the video just past the cut to see what it looks like to spit in the face of downward velocity.
Age of Wushu's free-to-play model detailed
Age of Wushu is launching for keeps on April 10th, so get your wallets ready! Or, well, don't. Age of Wushu will remain free-to-play at launch, with no box price or subscription fee. You'll have full access to combat, locations, stories, trading, guilds, and all other experiences without paying a single cent. That doesn't mean that you can't spend money on the game if you really want to. Age of Wushu's "mall" will sell vanity costumes that do not enhance stats or abilities. Skills "may be sold in the mall at future dates," but will be low-level skills that need to be cultivated and would not outweigh school or quest skills in PvP.
Gpotato's Sevencore meets an early demise
Despite recently seeing the first of what players hoped would be a string of new content, gPotato's new title Sevencore announced today that it will be closing its doors. A forum post says that the game "has proved to be less attractive to players than anticipated and thus [it's] become unprofitable for the developer to be continued as a game." The developers hope to transition active players by undertaking the following: Reimbursing all gPotatoes spent between the 1st of February and today as well as between 30% and 75% of purchases prior to this date, Closing the in-game shop with immediate effect while considering making all shop items available for free, Keeping the game open until the end of April, Boosting experience gain and running events during the final period of the game, and Encouraging players to migrate to other gPotato games with special enticement packages. This bad news comes on the heels of the news that Webzen recently purchased gPotato and Gala-Net. Perhaps the purchase will breath new life into the developer after it showed a dip in quarterly sales when compared to the last year.
Age of Wushu introduces Battlefield Arenas
Age of Wushu is launching out of closed beta on April 10th, and with that launch comes another newly announced feature: Battlefield Arenas. These arenas allow players to test out their PvP skills in a closed and controlled environment before hitting the mean streets. The arenas will introduce two distinct modes: Power Competition and Death Mode. Power Competition scores teams for the kills made, while Death Mode is faster and more intense with no respawn timers and no time limit. You can read more about these Battlefield Arenas at the official Age of Wushu site and be sure to watch the arena modes in action during the video embedded just after the jump.
Rise and Shiny: Warstory: Europe in Flames
Warstory: Europe in Flames is one of those deceptively simple MMOs that makes me feel a bit lost for most of the week that I look at it for this column. It seems as though I stumbled into a game that features not only a time-limited server but one that is about to restart once the capital city of Berlin is taken by either the Russians (my side) or one of the other Allies. The goal is to race through content until Berlin is finally nabbed. I was even able to roll a new commander on a new server, but that game was far enough along to convince me that I really need to play in a brand-new game to see what happens from the very beginning. I am getting ahead of myself, though. How about we talk about the gameplay and how it all feels? Then I'll allow myself to scheme about my possible glory.
Put your Age of Wushu avatar to work while you're offline
When you log off from your favorite MMO, does your avatar dream? Maybe, but when you log off from Age of Wushu, your character continues to be an active participant in the wuxia-drenched fantasy world. Many of the NPCs that you see milling about the game's cities and towns are in fact offline player characters going about their business. Your offline avatar can be a fire-breathing street performer, a cafe owner, a blacksmith, or one of several other professions depending on where you log out. There are both risks and rewards inherent in the the game's offline systems. The former include the ability to be kidnapped (and to subsequently log in to an unfamiliar location) while the latter allows you to collect money and items earned from various tasks. Read all about it at the official Age of Wushu website.
Age of Wushu sharpens up informations on edged weapons
Many of the combat forms in Age of Wushu are fully capable of inflicting grievous bodily harm without a weapon, but that doesn't mean you can't hack at people with sharp bits of metal. And there are a lot of variants on the core principle of "sharp bit of metal," as displayed in the latest development blog examining three linked types of weapon. While swords, blades, and daggers all have the same core design and function, they're very different just the same. Blades are the largest and most savage of these one-handed weapons; they are tools, meant to end lives as quickly as possible without any concern for elegance. Swords, meanwhile, are weapons and statements both, associated with grace and elegance in movement. Or you could opt for the short and concealable dagger, favored by duplicitous fighters everywhere. Even within a fairly narrow range of weapon types, variety abounds if you know the details.
Allods Online dev blog details the Dominion Wars
For some time now, gPotato has been detailing the features of Allods Online's upcoming content update, Lords of Destiny. Today, the final Lords of Destiny devblog discusses one last major feature: the Dominion Wars. The Dominion Wars are described as "battles that will allow guilds to become true leaders of the Astral and gain precious resources, and from them players can gain glyphs that will enhance their equipment even further. In order to join in the battle, players must be level 55 and have the necessary keys for access to the Dominion Wars. Each skirmish in the Dominion Wars consists of two rounds, each lasting 10 minutes. In the first round, one team will play on defense and the other on offense with the roles being reversed in the second round. Attacking players will be tasked with capturing enemy checkpoints, and each checkpoint captured will increase the time of the round by two minutes (though the second round can be no longer than the first). At the end of both rounds, whichever team captured the most checkpoints is declared the victor. For the full details on this complex new system, check out the entire post at the Allods official site.
Age of Wushu introduces the Meridian system
What do needles and MMOs have to do with each other? Hopefully, normally, thankfully nothing. However, Age of Wushu has drawn inspiration from the Chinese technique and philosophy of acupuncture to draw up its character-building Meridian system. Meridians are sort of like talent trees that can be charged up with "chi," a resource that's accumulated through battles. Each of the nine meridians offers ways to boost abilities, lower skill cooldowns, and change skills. All but one meridian are tied to one of the game's combat schools. Snail Games says that it is possible with a lot of hard work for players to master all nine meridians on a single character.
Embrace your maniacal side with Age of Wushu's Jianghu system
How do you know where you stand in relation to your fellow players? You may call some of them your friends, but words are wind. Thanks to Age of Wushu's Jianghu system, however, you'll soon be able to neatly track your relationship with others. You can partake in several relationship types, such as being Close Friends, Acquaintances, or Blood Enemies. Friendship is measured by Intimacy, which can be earned by teaming up and giving gifts and decreased by killing or kidnapping. Players can choose to add others to their Enemy List after being killed or kidnapped, and things just go downhill from there. But wait, there's more! Along with defining your relationship status, you will also be able to act in such a way as to earn the tag of Heroic, Maniacal, Evil, or Sinister. Players with a higher Chivalry than Guild rating will be named Heroic, while players with a higher Guilt than Chivalry rating will fall to the dark side.
Massively Interview: Re-launching Prius Online as Arcane Saga
Prius Online, a free-to-play, fantasy MMO published by gPotato, launched in North America in 2011. Roughly a year later, the MMO was shut down. Now, another year later, the game's original developer is re-branding, re-visiting and re-launching Prius Online under a new moniker: Arcane Saga. Curious about how, when, and why a company would choose to re-open a shuttered game, we sat down with Netmarble's Jon-Enée Merriex to ask. Merriex walked us through what it takes to restart a game, why good MMOs sometimes go by the wayside, and how his company plans to iterate and improve on the Prius Online experience that the title's original players enjoyed.
Allods Online upgrades gear with glyphs
Allods Online's Lords of Destiny expansion is already shaping up to be one of the bigger additions to the game. Now the team has announced a major new system called glyphs that will be included as well. Glyphs are a new type of loot that can upgrade gear to add more stats and special properties. The gear in question has to be level 51 or higher and match the type of stats that the glyph is offering. Each piece of gear can be expanded to include three types of glyph: offensive, defensive, and special. Glyphs themselves can be improved with a component that drops only in the new Dominion battleground. There looks to be several different ways to get your grubby mitts on glyphs. They can drop, you can do a quest to buy a glyph box, you can buy them from an NPC if your reputation is high enough, and some crafters are able to make them.
