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One Shots: Drawing down
Due to its recent release, RIFT is definitely the overwhelming focus of screenshots in our One Shots mailbox of late. The nice thing about receiving so many images from a new game is the chance to see how the developers have handled different racial character models, such as the Dwarven girl in today's RIFT screenshot, which was sent into us by Melinda. So much for the "all Dwarves have beards and the ladies look the same as the men" concept! Melinda writes in: "I took this shot of my little Dwarf Rogue, Natia, in the Guardian beginning zone, to show some friends how great RIFT's Dwarf girls are. Nevermind the doom, gloom, and destruction of poor Mathosia hanging around in the background -- her sheer awesomeness will take care of all that. Well, that plus her giant boar, who kindly tanked a random Defiant construct so that I could take this action shot." From the newest titles to the oldest of old school, we love to see screenshots of all different MMO games. If you have some screenshots you've been saving, why not show them off? Just email them in to us here at oneshots@massively.com aong with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post those screenshots out here and give you the credit for sending them in. %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: The calm before the storm
Today marks the official lauch of RIFT for those who didn't pre-order and get in on the head-start action. As such, it only seemed natural to feature a RIFT screenshot from the pre-launch so those who are just now joining up get a glimpse into how things were in-game just a few scant days ago. This image comes to us from chadwich, who writes in to tell us more: "Sanctum was packed and bustling as RIFT opened its doors to the world. This is Bartlebe the Dwarven Mage sitting atop his first mount on his way out of the bustling city. I snapped this shot, and I felt like it really captured the finer side of the city." One Shots is all about great reader screenshots. If you've taken a dazzling screenshot recently, then why not send it in to us? It's easy to do. Email it to oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing in the picture. You never know -- your image could be the next one we feature here on Massively! %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: Hey Ladies
The fun part of playing an MMO for many of us is the ability to meet lots of different people and make new friends in all walks of life. Of course, you want to make sure the people you're talking to are actually controlled by other players! With that said, NPCs can be handy for adding detail to picturesque screenshots such as today's RIFT screenshot from Rob, who writes in: "I've played multiple characters since the first closed beta of RIFT. This is a screenshot of my Dwarf Mage hanging out at Quicksilver college. I thought I'd plop down next to these students. They don't seem impressed by me." Have you captured a screenshot of a silly moment from your recent MMO adventures? If so, why not share it with us? It's easy to do. Email it in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing in the picture. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: While you're waiting
With so many players stuck in queues to get onto the server or stuck at work waiting to get back to their new shiny, we thought today was a great time for a public service One Shots. Indeed! When you get frustrated that you can't get online and romp through the RIFT head-start, you can just pop back here and zen out on this placid screenshot taken by Embolism. He writes in: "I woke up to a massive blanket of snow outside and a text message from work telling me to stay home. The RIFT open beta was ending, so I decided to jump on for the last few hours. Poodoo, my cat, and I finally found a good spot to stop and relax in the sun when a rift decided to ruin the view. It's just one of those days I guess." One Shots is always on the lookout for great screenshots. If you'd like to contribute, then email your image to us here at oneshots@massively.com. Be sure to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. Yours could be the next one we post on Massively! %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: Joining the fray
While we often hear about partners of MMO gamers who don't like MMO gaming, it's nice to hear every so often from someone who has tried a game out and decided it's actually tons of fun. Today's One Shots comes to us from a new MMO player who has found her game of choice in Trion's upcoming fantasy world, RIFT. Heidi has even decided to share her experience here on Massively with the rest of us! She writes in: "This is a picture of Zataliya, a Defiant Eth Cleric Sentinel. I heal people mostly. I've never played an MMO before, but I decided to try it when my husband got an extra invite key for RIFT, and now I have to buy the game. I mean, look how badass she is! "This is outside of the main city, Meridian. We were just running around killing wolves and stuff, and then this group of purple skeleton guys charged us, and we started fighting them. All of a sudden there were hundreds of people everywhere, shooting spells and swinging swords, and we were right in the middle of it! We finally killed this huge zombie king, which took a while. Anyway, I took this picture after the smoke cleared. It was intense. It was 3:30 a.m." Welcome to MMOs, Heidi! Whether you're a veteran MMOer or someone new to the pastime, we're always glad to hear about players' gaming experiences. If you'd like to share, snap a great screenshot of your favorite game and email it in to us here at oneshots@massively.com. Be sure to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing in the image. You never know -- your screenshot could be the next one we feature here! %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: Antici...pation
With the RIFT preorder head-start beginning this Thursday, some people opted to back off from the beta and instead let anticipation build. There again, we've also heard of some other people who are using their time to knock out work and chores early so they can enjoy a slacktastic weekend of guilt-free gaming! Today's gorgeous One Shots comes to us from our friendly neighborhood Mr. Angry, who has also opted to step back and wait for the pre-launch. He writes in: "Mr Angry here. I figured I'd send you a screenshot from RIFT Beta 7. I made a Cleric and am having so much fun with the soul system. It is liberating to not be confined to just one role. This was the last screenshot I took before I decided to log out prior to head start. I am looking forward to playing an Elf in release as well. Trion has done a great job realizing the world so beautifully and creating a new high-water mark for game performance, artistic design, and dynamism in what would otherwise be a fairly linear MMO! High hopes for RIFT!" Would you like to share some images of your recent adventures? We're always on the hunt for more screenshots of the many different MMOs out there -- but we need your help. Email your screenshots in to us 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 and give you the credit for sending it in! %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: When good fae go bad
Sure, anyone who has read anything about RIFT is aware that one of the big bad guys in the game is (surprise) the invasion force of monsters that like to pop out of rifts wherever the rifts touch down. Along the way you also get to destroy lots of other bad guys, such as the ones who reside in the hazy, overgrown forest area seen in today's One Shots. This image was sent in to us by ThorHal, who gives us a bit more background: "While traveling around Telara, you sometimes get to places where you just have to pause and enjoy what Trion accomplished: a beautiful rich world, as seen in my shot. This image shows an area of the game where fae are doing their evil things -- yes, evil fae, how great is that? While this place has the look and feel of being corrupted, it still holds some beauty." Are you in a game with an open beta? Would you like to show off your adventures in that soon-to-be released world? So long as the NDA is down, we're glad to post beta screenshots. Just email those in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing in the image. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in. Please make sure your image is at least 1024px wide or larger and has as no visible UI elements. Yours could be next! %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: Finding the way
The RIFT development team is hard at work in the final days before the game is set to launch. Meanwhile, players have been sending in droves of RIFT One Shots, indicating that there are some major fans of all the luscious graphics in the game. With a great checklist to follow, courtesy of our very own Justin, players are making their plans for what they'll be doing when they first step foot in Telara. For those who can't wait to get in on the game, we have today's interesting screenshot from Erin H., who writes in: "I was invited along to do my first dungeon run the other day with my level 23 Cleric. The exploration into the Stonefield Mines went well except for our getting pawned quite a few times by the bosses in the area. Needless to say, my resurrect skill got used many times. Of course, I got some amazing loot -- but it was the scenery I found truly amazing." Would you like to show off screenshots of your recent adventures? It's easy to do. Email them in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. You never know -- yours could be the next one featured here on Massively! %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: Home sweet home
The new shininess of RIFT is pulling all manner of new players into the beta tests. With the ability to invite a huge bunch of people on one friend key, gamers have been taking chunks of their guilds with them and forming up in the lands of Telara to battle together against the invading evils. Today's picturesque RIFT screenshot comes to us from Tzvalka, who is part of the Seraphim guild on the Faeblight beta server and who writes in: "Just a majestic shot of the Guardian city of Sanctum taken upon my first arrival to the city." Have you captured a picturesque image on your recent travels? If so, we'd love to see it. Email yours in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. Please make sure your image is at least 1024 pixels wide and has no visible UI elements. Also, please make sure the image is attached properly, as we're getting a large number of emails with no images at all, or images that have been force-resized by mail clients due to being embedded and not attached. Thanks! %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: Adventure is out there
With another weekend of the RIFT beta whizzing along and lots of people taking some time to run around, we thought it would be nice to feature one of the many RIFT screenshots we've gotten in our One Shots email box recently. This one comes to us from Jeromai, who not only caught an interesting image we hadn't seen yet but offers a challenge to other explorers in the beta. As his note is very long, we've tucked the second half of it behind the break for you to check out. Also, remember you can email your images to us here at oneshots@massively.com along if you'd like to get in on the fun. For now, on with Jeromai's note: "This one goes out to all those who think RIFT is too much on rails. "I was just messing around in Freemarch when I noticed two small islands on the northeast part of the map. No quests pointed that way, but I decided to make the long swim out there regardless, with the vague intent on testing the exact zone boundaries and expecting to find lifeless barren rock." %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: Trouble comes in threes
When it comes to hotly anticipated games for 2011, RIFT is one of the top games readers seem to be interested in. With inky black skies opening up overhead and the threat of doom headed for the lands of Telara, many players are eating this fantasy title up. One such person is today's One Shots contributor, Steven L., who sent in this screenshot from a recent RIFT beta and writes: "Coming over a bridge during a zone event in Scarlet Gorge, I managed to catch the screenshot of three death rifts in close proximity to one another. The game continues to impress me even though we're only in beta five!" If you're in a beta with an open NDA, we'd be glad to show off your screenshots. All you have to do to participate is snap a picture, write a quick note about it, and email it to us here at oneshots@massively.com. Be sure to include your name and the name of the game as well. It could be one of the next ones we feature out here on Massively. %Gallery-112285%
Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content
Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend Trion Worlds' Gamer's Day in San Francisco to get some hands-on time with a couple of the company's upcoming titles, including Rift: Planes of Telara. If Rift seems to have come out of nowhere, that might be due both to the acquisition of EverQuest II veteran Scott Hartsman to head the project as executive producer, and to a clever name change meant to reflect the team's shift in development focus. In fact, that shift in development focus is precisely what I was at Trion's studio to test -- I got to check out the Rifts themselves in all their glory, in the context of the greater dynamic content system that the developers are so excited about. Massively's writers have been able to play and report on character creation and the starting areas of Rift several times over the last year or so, including earlier this summer at E3. But until today's embargo lift (coinciding with the reveal at Gamescom), no one had quite seen the fabled planar invasions and takeovers in action. Now we have.
Exclusive video diary of the souls of Rift: Planes of Telara
You could be forgiven for not catching it immediately from our E3 hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara, but there are some unique things going on with the game's class system. It's hardly the first game to allow you to change classes, but the game also goes into combining them, shifting aspects, interplay between multiple class types... it's a maze of inter-relationships. Luckily, we have an exclusive video developer diary from the staff at Trion Worlds that discusses the whole setup at length, giving future players a much clearer overview of how the system works. When players start, they choose one of four Callings -- Warrior, Rogue, Mage, or Cleric -- which determines the player's core playstyle. As they level, they gradually acquire Souls, and it's there that the bulk of a character's abilities come from. It's a fusion of the talent tree system popularized via World of Warcraft with something much more interesting, and the possibilities for mixing the different Souls together can give rise to all sorts of interesting theories. But don't take our word for it -- watch the exclusive developer diary just past the cut.
Massively's hands-on look at Rift: Planes of Telara
While Trion was happy to announce the name change for Heroes of Telara to Rift: Planes of Telara, we were stoked to be able to get our hands on the game for the first time and really see it in motion. We've heard all this talk about delivering dynamic content, high quality "HD content," a deep back story, and an evolving world. But, could Trion deliver all of the hype they were promising? Well, if the titular rifts are any indication of how the rest of the game will progress, then this game seems to be in good hands. Join us as we pilot a cleric through the dangers of Telara, take on a rift from the Plane of Life, and learn just what makes Telara tick. %Gallery-101448%
Trion Worlds 'Syfy Action MMO' likely coming to consoles; publisher shows off two additional MMOs
Four years and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment capital later, Trion World Network finally has a couple of "connected" games to show ... and a new name, to boot. Now known as Trion Worlds, the company held an event in San Francisco last week to take the wraps off of the Petroglyph-developed "MMORTS" End of Nations and its home-grown MMORPG Rift: Planes of Telara (formerly known as Heroes of Telara). End of Nations is the latest game from the developer of Mytheon, Star Wars: Empire at War and Universe at War, which hopes to break new ground in the RTS genre by introducing elements such as a persistent game world and player-vs-environment battles that support more than 50 players simultaneously. It's set in a near future where resistance fighters battle a totalitarian one world government that possesses superior technology, including battleship-sized tanks called Panzer Hulks. (Check out our End of Nations image gallery for a closer look at the title.) Shown at E3 last year, Rift: Planes of Telara has undergone more than a name change. The game's visuals have improved substantially and its new hook -- "rifts" that appear randomly and spawn creatures from other dimensions -- is something Trion Worlds is focusing heavily on, calling it "dynamic content" that only its server platform can deliver. (Peep the Rift: Planes of Telara image gallery here.) Both games are due out in 2011 and are expected to be playable at E3 in June. The company is also working with Syfy on a hybrid action MMO / TV series believed to be called One Earth. The project is not being shown just yet, but it was revealed that factions and players from the game will be written into the show -- should they emerge victorious in tie-in challenges. We were also told by a Trion World rep that the game, while currently announced only for PC, will likely be released for console platforms. Check out the first concept art from the game in the gallery below. %Gallery-91785%
Trion names upcoming MMORTS, renames Heroes of Telara
If you've been waiting for information on... well, pretty much anything from Trion Worlds, it's your lucky day. Trion has come forth with information about three projects that have gotten a fair amount of attention in the past, but left fans wanting to know much more. To begin with, Heroes of Telara is no longer Heroes of Telara. The game has been renamed Rift: Planes of Telara, a new title that reflects one of the most important mechanics of the game. Trion also revealed a little more information about the mysterious SyFy MMO that they're working on. No elaborate details are forthcoming quite yet, but we now know that it will be an "MMO action game" set on Earth between 50-100 years in the future. Finally, Trion unveiled End of Nations, which they say will be "the world's first premium massively multiplayer real-time strategy game." The fact that the game was an MMORTS has never been a secret, given that Trion actually named the game MMORTS for a while, but we've got a fair amount of new information with the unveiling. The game is aimed at existing fans of the genre rather than looking for converts, so players will be able to jump right into what they enjoy. Check out the full story on End of Nations and Trion's other projects over at Gamasutra.
Russ Brown talks on Heroes of Telara
Information is scarce on Heroes of Telara, one of Trion World Network's upcoming MMO titles, but Trion's Russ Brown is helping to fill in the gaps by sitting down for an interview and talking about what the game will have to offer.Russ's interview with the MMO Gamer (all the way back from E3, according to Trion's Stephen Reid) is a great read for anyone exciting about the game's "emergent world" possibilities, as Russ talks frankly on how the team can get into the game and hijack the monster AI to control them, or how they can even do little things like have merchants who have limited time sales.Russ also talks about the game's class switching system and subclass system, where you can pair classes with your main class to emphasize or change their traits. If you want more of a fighting paladin than a healing paladin, for example, you could pair the paladin class with the fighter subclass.If you want all of the gritty details though, head on over to the MMO Gamer and check out the full interview. As we said earlier, it's worth the read.[Via MMORPG.com]
Trion World Network hiring PS3 programmers for SyFy Network MMO?
What's this? Well, it looks like the developer behind the new SyFy Network MMO and Heroes of Telara is looking to branch out from the PC world. In a swath of new job openings, the new developer is also seeking to hire those with PlayStation 3 experience.More specifically, Trion is seeking a PS3 graphics programmer, senior programmer, and interface designer. Three very important things if you're looking to perhaps move a game across platforms. All of the job listings are specifically mentioning the SyFy Network project, so it looks like we might be seeing some sort of downloadable MMO that will be appearing on the system.The SyFy Network MMO will be tied into a television show, and it will be an action RPG, so it only figures that they want to take a more television/console oriented approach with the game. Watch the TV show, then boot up your PS3 and play the game. Sounds like a perfect match, if you ask us.
Emergent behavior to be produced in Trion's Heroes of Telara
Trion World Network is trying a very different approach with their fantasy based MMO, Heroes of Telara, by pushing into an area currently untouched by most MMOs -- emergence.Emergence is one of the aspects that many MMOs aspired to, only to drop in favor of static storytelling. The problem with emergence is that simple decisions would have a compounding impact on the world. Heroes would solve problems, only to perhaps create further problems with their implemented solutions. Most game architecture can't handle decision making of that nature, as it would need developers to constantly code in the new events that would occur.However, Heroes of Telara seems to be aspiring to that using server-side gaming. Their proposed method, as it appears in an interview between Trion's CEO, Lars Buttler, and GamesIndustry.biz, is to run the game entirely server side, letting developers change and alter the game on the fly. As Buttler puts it, "There are small events, there are big events, there is even emergent behaviour in the game that changes the game world. A lot of it is not even known to us, it's like the ghost in the machine. The game is almost alive, and that allows you to create heroes."
E3 2009: A complete roundup of Massively's coverage
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 proved to be a significant event for the gaming industry once again, with a fair amount of news and announcements related to MMOs. Massively was there on the ground for E3 this year and we've been putting up breaking announcements, interviews, and hands-on previews throughout. Given how much info came out of E3 on Massively, here's a roundup of our coverage, day-by-day. Be sure to check out the rest after the jump as there's plenty more content, plus you'll find E3 galleries for these games as you click through. To cap it all off, we've also put together an E3 2009 wrapup video for you at the end of this post. Read on to see where the MMO industry is headed in the next year and beyond! Day One Star Wars: The Old Republic world's first fully-voiced MMO Final Fantasy XIV announced Jumpgate Evolution releases E3 trailer EA to publish All Points Bulletin in 2010 PlayStation Home hits 6.5 million accounts Trion World Network unveils Heroes of Telara Massively's day 1 video from the E3 floor
