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Massively's Aion and Fallen Earth launch day schedule
As we mentioned on Friday, we are excited to join you in-game for the launches of both Aion and Fallen Earth tomorrow. We'll have staff in both games, ready to group up and play with any readers who want to experience the beginning areas with other readers. In addition to this, we'll have contests, giveaways and prizes to those who attend or meet-up with us. Follow along after the break for complete details on where we'll be, who will be there and what we'll be doing.
Free Realms hosts Pirate Party and doubles the dubloons, mateys
Yarr, mateys! If ye be not knowin' what tomorrow is, then ye obviously must be a bunch o' scalawags. Fer, ye see, tomorrow is Talk Like a Pirate Day, don'chaknow? In order to celebrate th' day o' piracy properly in Free Realms, ye need to be haulin' yer keel to the Pirate Invasion Party this evenin' in the cove just south of th' Seaside warpstone. Th' pirate booty-shakin' fun will begin today (Friday, Sept. 18) at 4PM Pacific, with th' timber-shiverin' goin' on until 6pm Pacific. There be dancin', trivia, an' other merriment planned at th' party, too, for those brave souls willing to wander near Davey Jones' locker!As if that weren`t enough for ye, this weekend be also th' time when Sony Online Entertainment be offerin' double th' value fer any Station Cash cards ye redeem. So that means if ye pop by an' pick up one o' th' 1000 Station Cash cards fer $10 (which will also net ye a pretty nifty red buccanneer dog hat in th' mix) ye`ll land $20 worth o' Station Cash fer use in Free Realms, EverQuest, or EverQuest II. Pirate fun and double yer dubloons in the Station store? Now that's enough to make any freebootin' privateer dance a jig - without a noose 'round their necks, even.
Gnomestock this weekend, Gutrot throwing a party next weekend
Two cool in-game events we've heard about recently: First up, our friend Gutrot, the naked Troll Warrior, is finally hitting 80, and he's throwing another party over on EU Aerie Peak to celebrate. He had another party about two years ago at this time, and it went pretty well, so expect this one to be fun, too: he'll have some drinking and merriment (Brewfest will be going on, so that will be fun), lots of naked dueling, we're sure, and probably an Alliance capital raid as well. That all starts on EU Aerie Peak a week from Saturday, September 26, at 9:30pm UK time. If you're on the EU servers, roll a Troll and go say hi. If you're more of the Gnomish persuasion, there's a party for you, too: Slice and Dice is throwing a Gnomestock party this Saturday, the 19th, and it sounds like a good time, too. There'll be Gnaked Gnome Racing, two mini-games going in Ironforge, a zonewide game of hide and seek, and since Saturday is Pirates' Day and the sponsoring guild is called Bucklers of Swash, there'll probably be some piratin' going on as well. That's this Saturday, 9/19, at 7pm Eastern (which is also 6pm server) on the US realm of Mug'thol. As usual, if you go to either event, please do take pictures and send them along -- always fun to see big player-run events like these.
Wizard 101 celebrates their first birthday with a month of events
Most online games just do a single event for their birthday and then let it pass by. You might get an in-game item or two, but that's about it. But this isn't how Wizard 101 and Kingsisle Entertainment run things. No sir, they're doing a month full of events, and they want everyone to participate!This September is Wizard 101's first birthday and new events will be made available throughout the month. Right now, it seems that only two events (join their Facebook group for a in-game pet and a screenshot contest where you can win a poster signed by the development team and 10,000 in-game crowns) have been made available. Yet, there's still 2/3rds of a month left and 4 more events to unveil, so stay tuned to the Wizard 101 site for all of the information!And happy birthday Wizard 101!
Revealed: Champions Online's first update, Blood Moon
Champions Online's Blood Moon update has finally been revealed, and wow does it sound pretty cool. Beginning in October, the update will add the Celestial powerset, which sounds like a versatile arrangement of powers allowing you to heal allies or harm enemies.The actual in-game event itself looks to be exciting, as it involves fighting off a dark sorcerer known as Takofanes. We're decidedly excited about the 'Zombie Apocalypse' rising in Canada. Zombies in PVP? Yes please. And when a player falls in combat, they'll return as one of the undead, bound to fight in Takofanes' name. There will also be werewolves to fight, although what their dark bite does to a player isn't as clear just yet.We really love is how the lore is being tied into the event. Millennium City was built on the smoldering crater where Detroit once stood. For the Blood Moon event, players will have the chance to fight against heroes who fought in the Battle of Detroit and free their souls from Takofanes' evil necromancy. It all ends in a big throw down with Takofanes himself. We'll hear more about the details in the coming weeks. Maybe we'll even get some additional info from Cryptic at PAX this weekend!
Champions Online launch day round-up
Today is the official launch day for Champions Online and judging by the positive responses we've received from Twitter, we know many of you are excited to at least try out this new superhero MMO. Below is a round-up of helpful posts for your first days in Millenium City, courtesy of our sister site, Massively. If you're feeling a bit lost in the new surroundings, they have you covered with a special in-game meet-up event happening all day. Glean info in this video walkthrough of Champions Online's tutorialIf you've been wondering what the starting area for Champions Online was like in moving pictures, you'll be happy to know that a two-part video has surfaced online for your viewing pleasure. The video is new gameplay footage blended a little bit with older trailers. Overall, if you're looking to see what the game actually looks like while being played, this video is a decent place to start. Ten things to know when starting Champions OnlineEvery time a new MMO launches, there's always a good list of things that wouldn't hurt for a new player to know, and Champions Online is no different. We're all about making your first steps into an unknown game as grief free as possible, so check out Syp's list if you're interested in such a proposal. He's got a very good rundown on things you need to know when entering the tutorial zone. Travel powers trailer for Champions OnlineYeah, we know the Champions Online open beta is out and many of you have probably been messing around with all these travel powers already, but it's always nice to get a preview of all your options in one nicely packaged trailer. Plus, trailers are a great way to kill a minute or five, depending on the game in question. The Digital Continuum: Five reasons to play Champions OnlineIt's been a long wait since the announcement of Cryptic's next project, so long that some of us began to run around our houses wearing towels around our necks. Thankfully, September 1st is now less than a month away. Open beta? That's even sooner. Before we know it the game will be sitting on our desks and shelves.
Join us at Champions Online's launch
How would you like to play Champions Online with the Massively team on launch day? As we mentioned on Friday, we're going to have an in-game event to celebrate the launch of Champions Online. A few of our writers will be in-game to run through some quests, and we want you to join us! This will take place all day tomorrow, at various times throughout the day. Instead of meeting up in the initial tutorial though, we've decided it would be best to meet people at each crisis zone, which is just after the initial tutorial. This basically means around level 5, which is not hard to reach. Simply send an in-game message to the following account names for a group invite:Shawn Schuster - @MassiveShawn (in the Desert crisis zone)Kyle Horner - @General-Kraken (in the Desert crisis zone)Colin Brennan - @Octal_Black (in the Canada crisis zone)Since Champions is set up in instanced shards, we'll get groups together as we can in each crisis zone. As a general rule, we'll try to meet up in instance #5 of each zone. Later this week, we'll put up a small gallery of images from the event and hopefully do this more often for new game launches. Hope to see you all there!
Play Champions Online with the Massively crew on launch day
Here at Massively, we're working on several different ideas to get our team more involved with our readers. This sense of community is very important to us, as is evident in our recent forays through the Choose my Adventure series. But now we're ready to do it Champions Online style.This Tuesday, September 1st, you can meet up with a few members of the Massively staff in Champions Online. We'll run through the initial tutorial together, save Champions HQ and storm either Canada or the Desert, depending on what the group decides. It should be a fun way to celebrate the launch of Champions Online, and an especially fun way to get the Massively reader community together. Look for more details to come on Monday and we hope to see you there!
What does Blizzard have planned for a Cataclysm in-game launch event?
So Cataclysm is coming and Kisirani is already working on an in-game launch event. It's gotta mean something right? Now don't get me wrong, even with my self-confessed zombiephobia, I loved last November's zombie invasion (though, at times, it got really frustrating). So now Kisirani is officially hard at work planning a new event to herald the beginning of an Azerothian cataclysm, I can't help but wonder what she has up her sleeves for us.Is anyone else excited? I certainly am and it gives us something to focus on during the inevitable wait. To be fair, at least Cataclysm's not scheduled for 2012! We don't have that long to wait, we could be rolling Worgen and Goblins in just under/over a year's time. That just about makes it bearable. But it also leaves us with time to think about what Blizzard will do to introduce players to this brave new world.Hit the jump to find out what we think could well happen prior to the launch of Cataclysm.
The second golden age now occuring in Planet Calypso
CryEngine 2 is pretty. Really pretty. So pretty, in fact, that we added a rainbow to the above picture, just to amplify the already intense pretty with more pretty. Ronnie James Dio would be proud of us today.But, if you haven't guessed, Planet Calypso is back online and is proudly sporting their new graphics engine with glee. Did you know that this is the first time the night ever passed over Calypso, as they never had a day/night cycle before? Now you know.Also, as promised, today marks the opening of The Second Golden Age of Calypso event along with the upload of version 10.5. During this event, special rare items will be dropped throughout the world. These items will only be available for this event, so if you're an avid player of Planet Calypso or were looking to give the free-to-play game a try, now would be a pretty good time to do it.However, you don't have to rush if you don't want to. The Second Golden Age will continue all the way until Christmas, so that gives you a good four months of event time to rack up all of those special goodies.[Thanks, Dargon!]
Reminder: The destroids are invading!
Citizens of Millenium City, take up your arms! Dr. Destroyer is attacking the city once more, but this time he has sent in legions upon legions of robots, including new Mega-Destroid! The robots are all over the city, but the Champions have been dispatched to fix the crisis, along with countless other heroes!If you want to get in on some Dr. Destroyer smashing action, then you have to act today! It's the last day of the Champions Online beta test, and they're going out with their usual bang. All you have to do is log in, visit Millenium City (available from the Canadian or Desert helipads) and then speak with the cop on the helipad who's waving his arms about in the air. Once you do that, you'll be leveled up to 40, given all the powers you ever wanted, and you'll have a shot at taking down some Mega-Destroid. Destroids will be attacking until 3 AM ET, 12 AM PT this evening, when Cryptic switches off the lights.Those who take down the Mega-Destroid will be given a special perk for their accomplishments (although the perk is kinda borked right now) and a special Mini-Destroid action figure for the live game! Kinda cool, and cute, in a destructive kind of way.
What you missed in The Matrix Online
Yes, The Matrix Online sucked. Its gameplay was an abhorrent pile of repetitive garbage that offered no real direction other than doing storyline-less missions until you hit 50, in which there was no endgame. The combat was interesting, as it offered scripted camera shots for insane kung-fu flips and hits, but it wasn't enough to "save" the game. I hear you.But if you think the above paragraph is all The Matrix Online had to offer, then you are sadly mistaken. You missed out on storyline events, PvPvE, amazing roleplayers, writers, and graphic artists. You missed out on philosophy, politics, memorable characters, and puzzles. You actually missed out on the bulk of what The Matrix Online had to offer, all of which makes the game's passing more painful.MxO wasn't World of Warcraft, and it certainly had enough dark spots in the game design. But the game and its developers brought a very different style of play to the MMO scene -- one that should be commemorated with a few looks back on some of the best events the game had to offer.
What you missed in The Matrix Online pt. 2
Hiding in plain sight After the vampires and lupines were quelled, a new issue of the Sentinel and a concurrent game update brought new images into the Matrix. Colorful billboards advertising bug spray began appearing all over the city, confusing some and intriguing others. The first visual puzzle of The Matrix had been covertly unleashed on players. The solution wasn't hard, but far from obvious. The second page of the new in-game newspaper, The Sentinel, showed a colorful "terrorist alert level chart." While it was an obvious mockery of everyone's favorite homeland security poster, astute players saw that the same colors were being used on the in-game billboards. Each billboard contained a number somewhere in it's slogan, such as "Blue brand pesticide kills bugs four times faster than the competition!" These numbers, along with their corresponding colors and the terrorist alert level chart were the keys. Players took the numbers and re-arranged the terrorist alert level in that order. If the blue billboard had the number four on it, then it went fourth in the order. If red had one, then it went first in the order and so forth. As the chart was re-arranged, the first letters of the "alert" status began to spell out a word. Definite, Elevated, Likely, Possible, Huge, Imminent -- DELPHI. The final part of the puzzle was a small poster that had appeared in certain clubs, advertising an extermination service that could be contacted by e-mailing an address at Monolith Entertainment, the game's current developer. Players e-mailed the address, asking to consult The Oracle of Delphi. Wishes were soon granted as Seraph appeared in-game to not only fight players who solved the puzzle, but also wisk them away to meet with the Oracle herself. Other players got to consult the Oracle via their real life e-mail, creating an alternate reality game of sorts with The Matrix. Either way, the event made one thing clear: The Assassin was made entirely of blowflies and could be destroyed with specially designed killcodes -- bug spray. And that was just the beginning... This entire article has simply focused on two of the first events in The Matrix Online's storyline. Every bit of it was unrepeatable and lead to some amazingly memorable moments in the game. The type of moments that stay with you forever. Very few, if any, games are able to accomplish this phenomenon. Who cares if you kill Yogg-Saron? Who cares if you defeat the Witch King of Angmar? Other players are going to eventually do that in droves because the content is repeatable. But the Matrix was able to wrap everybody up into an evolving storyline, philosophy, and sense of community. Players worked together and fought one another on more levels than just PvP and PvE. They formed bonds with characters who didn't even exist while forming bonds with others around them that were willing to believe in the same things they did. They roleplayed willingly in order to keep the story going beyond what the developers had planned. All of this was amazing, and I can only hope to see another game take the same ideas and drive them to a level beyond what that Matrix could offer. These were amazing ideas, but just too far ahead of their time.
Fallen Earth hosting Texas invasion in-game event
Come Saturday, July 25th, we hope those of you in the Fallen Earth beta (or looking to get in by then) have some spare time. The Fallen Earth team is planning to host an atypical stress test in the shape of an in-game event -- Texas Invasion: A Clan Challenge. Here's the hook: Players have been asked to help fortify the Grand Canyon Province and raise up arms against invading Texans. This can be done by seeking out Texan encampments, where players can scavenge for valuables, kill invaders or craft to earn points.Doing any and all of these things earn players points, and the player with the most points will earn the title Defender of the Province. Aside from sounding cool, this title also comes with a prize pack consisting of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 videocard, a Fallen Earth messenger bag and a Fallen Earth t-shirt. The prizes aren't solely individual, however, as clans will be tallying up points during the event. Clan points come from individual players and the most successful clan gets to claim in-game notoriety via a commemorative -- and we're assuming in-game -- monument, complete with the name and date of the event.Oh, and apparently this winning clan will also earn a week-long takeover of the Fallen Earth website. Talk about an ego boost! Check out the official announcement for further details -- such as the scheduled hours for the event and how clans not already in the beta can join up now and compete as well.
The Daily Grind: Celebrating real holidays virtually
My American sources tell me this is a long weekend for you folks across the pond. Something about independence from Blighty a few hundred years ago. Essentially an excuse to let off fireworks, have BBQs, enjoy the fine weather and skive off work. Good on you. It seems like lots of MMOs are using it as an excuse to take the real celebrations in-game. For example, World of Warcraft has the Midsummer Fire Festival which concludes tomorrow with a bunch of snoozing goblin guards and a whopping fireworks display. Likewise, Lord of the Rings Online has one festival with four different names.Given the fact the games are created by humans, it's no surprise the in-game festivals of all our favourite MMOs share a little in common with actual celebrations in real life. However they can also be handy for people too far away to meet up this 4th of July, most often troops on active duty or family members and friends separated by thousands of miles or even continents. So are any of you out there planning to eschew real celebrations in favour of meeting up with your guildies in-game? Are you going to travel around to see the fireworks or, if you play, WoW raid an enemy city. Do you prefer celebrating such events in-game? Do you mark them on your calendar and anticipate them as much as their real world counterparts? Do you wish the developers would expand world festivals to take account of more important holidays?
Second Runes of Magic in-game giveaway a bigger success!
Last night, Colin and I held an in-game event in Runes of Magic to give away key codes for our Jade Warrior gloves. Not only was this event much more populated than our last RoM in-game event, but we had even more fun meeting players and Massively readers!As promised, we returned to (or in this case, stayed later at) the server with the most people, and had some great fun just hanging out and chatting with readers of this site, as well as people who have never heard of us before. I know! We were shocked that they exist too! But in total, we gave out 129 codes across the 4 servers. Keep reading below to find out how the numbers broke down per server, and see some great screenshots of the event.
Massively's Runes of Magic in-game event a success!
If you weren't able to make it out for our Runes of Magic in-game event last night, it was really a lot of fun! It was great to 'meet' so many Runes of Magic players, and readers of the website. I started off the evening on the Artemis server, where it took me a bit of trial and error to get the whole speed-cut-paste-between-windows thing down before the chat window scrolled the names away. Two hours later, I finished up on the PvP server Grimdal having met some interesting readers. I have to say, never have I encountered a group of more polite people. I must've heard more pleases and thank-yous than I've heard in a long time, both in-game and out. Even on the PvP server!
Arabic Rappelz to hold International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking event
Every year on the 26th of June, the world recognizes the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, a campaign begun by the United Nations and first held in 1988. The publishers of the Arabic version of Rappelz, Game Power 7, have issued a press release signifying their involvement in this year's campaign; there will be a one-week "education and awareness" event held in-game that mirrors the UN's sentiments for the day itself.As displayed in the picture above, the international campaign slogans "Do drugs control your life?" and "Your life. Your community. No place for drugs" will be featured in Rappelz for the event. Virtual gifts will also be given away, presumably educational in some form. Game Power 7 stated that using their virtual world to promote good values in the community is part of the company's strategy, so future events of this kind might find their way into the game. To find out more about the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the best place to start is the UN's official page, which also features links to some nation-specific pages.
Meet us in game for some Runes of Magic item codes
In our continuous goal to make this Runes of Magic in-game item giveaway more fun than just a simple button-click, we at Massively are thinking up more personal ways to get you your item codes. With so many to give away, it's great to try out new methods throughout the week.So for tomorrow, we're going to try something in-game. That's right, we're throwing ourselves into the world to personally hand over as many codes as we possibly can! Simply meet up with "Massiveshawn" at the designated times and places listed below, shoot us a PM and we'll respond with an item code. It's that simple! All of these will take place Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at the city of Logar. They will also be in Channel 1 of each server. Here's where you'll find us: Artemis: 6:00pm - 6:30pm EST Osha: 6:30pm - 7:00 EST Govinda: 7:00pm - 7:30pm EST Grimdal: 7:30pm - 8:00pm EST Is this something we'll do again throughout the week? Possibly, if all goes well. We'll also do these at varying times. You'll still see codes given away on Facebook and Twitter, but we thought we'd try something new for this one. See ya then!
Ryzom's patch 1.5 also brings a brand new roleplaying website
Roleplaying is on most MMORPGs, but it can be hard to find. Sometimes the greater roleplaying community all flocks to one server, leaving you in the dust if you happen to make a character on another server without knowing it. Sometimes they're spread across all servers, only holding events at times you can't make because of your schedule. And still other times there are just very few roleplayers in a game, and that's how it is.Well if you were looking for roleplay, look no further than Ryzom. Accompanying patch 1.5 is a brand new area of Ryzom's website -- a whole site dedicated to the roleplaying community. Roleplaying is pretty big business in Ryzom, so it serves the company well to create a whole series of tools aimed directly at roleplayers.The big part of this announcement is the integration of the animation team with the roleplaying website. The community will be able to work hand in hand with the animators to aid their events and create things that the roleplaying community desires.To celebrate the launch of the site, an event will be held to gather the community tomorrow, June 12th, at 7 PM GMT (2 PM EST.)[Thanks, Petter!]
