massively-meta
Latest
Ask Massively: The one where we talk about our 2013 awards
Let's talk about our 2013 awards (not the 2012 awards, though this image demonstrates why we avoid easily manipulable community polls). Some of you agreed with our picks. Some of you didn't. That's OK. Not everyone on the Massively staff agreed with all of them either. A lot of sites just let the Important People reach a consensus on nominations or even the final vote, but we let every staffer vote on the entire pool of everything. Everything, as one columnist put it, was a write-in. Goodness, even TUG scored a vote in there. Of course, TUG is adorable. A bunch of people wrote something to the effect of, "How dare you say subs are the year's biggest mistake? Massively hates subs! You're so biased for F2P!" Specifically, we said that subs were a huge blunder for The Elder Scrolls Online and WildStar. "Massively" is not a hivemind entity, and "Massively" does not hate subs. Quite a lot of us like or even prefer subs. Most of us grew up when subs were the norm. I'm subbed to two games right this very second, even though what I personally prefer was classic Guild Wars' buy-to-play campaign set-up. We also voted for a sub game as our game of the year! But let's be perfectly clear when we're fighting this F2P-vs.-sub war: The sub model we remember so fondly is not the sub model games are deploying now.
The Soapbox: The horror of embargoes
We're right on the cusp of one big holiday or another. Festivus, I think? I don't really pay attention to the calendar. So we're going to take this opportunity to talk about something near and dear to our hearts that a lot of you don't even know exists because you aren't working here. It's the magical miracle known as the press embargo. Embargoes work something like this. Let's say that Bungie is hard at work developing My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Online, and the company wants to reveal a new piece of information on August 9th. The company sends a lot of different press outlets a release with all of the information on August 2nd, mentioning exactly when the embargo lifts. So on August 9th, everyone can cover it at the same time! It sounds like a great way to ensure that the press knows things in advance and that every big revelation is nicely coordinated across all media. In practice, though, it's something less than beneficial due to failures to communicate and the very nature of the beast. Giving more time between the information and release just means more space for things to go wrong.
WRUP: Festivus is almost here edition
Tomorrow, my wife and I will be heading to a Festivus party. I've spent my whole year storing up smoldering resentment for the Airing of Grievances and working out in preparation for the Feats of Strength, so I have high hopes for this to be the best Festivus ever. Shortly thereafter, we will spend the remainder of the holidays with family. Why Festivus? Well, we have two cats. An unadorned aluminum pole is the one form of holiday decoration that will stand unmolested for the duration of the season. It's time for this week's installment of WRUP, which discusses Festivus precisely no times outside of this header. (The actual date is the 23rd.) Click on past the break to see what we're up to for the weekend, and let us know what you're planning on doing for the pre-holiday weekend down in the comments!
Looking for Guild: FFXIV
Final Fantasy XIV's successful relaunch was certainly one of the big stories of 2013, taking many of us on the team by surprise. It gave us hope that game companies can recover from failed launches if they play their cards exactly right. We see that love for the reborn fantasy MMO here in the LFG column, especially, as more and more Massively readers are reaching out to find like-minded guilds to join. This week is no exception as we have an archer looking for a free company to call home in today's listing.
WRUP: Happy happy happy happy edition
Happy happy happy happy happy happy happy. Happy happy happy happy, happy happy happy happy; happy happy happy happy happy. Happy? Happy happy, happy happy happy, happy happy happy. Happy happy happy happy! Happy happy, happy happy happy happy, happy happy happy happy happy... happy happy happy. Happy happy happy happy happy, happy happy happy happy happy. Happy happy happy happy happy, happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy. Happy happy happy happy happy, happy happy? Happy happy happy, happy happy happy happy. Happy happy happy happy happy happy happy. Happy happy happy, happy happy happy happy happy happy! (Happy happy happy happy; happy happy happy happy happy happy happy.) Happy happy happy happy. WRUP. Comments. Happy.
Ask Massively: New hires, HEX, and the problem with rogues
The Massively staff is not made up of Rogues. It turns out that a curiously high percentage of us play Shamans, but that's neither here nor there. The point is today we have questions about Rogue classes in MMOs and the shiny new hires soon to be added to our roster, and there's no good way to smush these topics into a coherent introduction. I maintain that this is entirely your fault. Soldack asked, Do you cover the HEX TCG that is going to also have a full fledged MMO? And do you have any interest in hiring a writer/streamer to cover it? Yep, we do cover it as a sort of pseudo-MMO. We got our grubby paws all over it at this past E3 and after the Kickstarter was announced, and we keep track of it in our crowdfunding column as it continues to develop. But we have no plans to hire a new journalist to focus on it or other MMOTCGs/MMOCCGs (like Hearthstone) exclusively right now, nope. If that changes, rest assured that we'll be putting up a hiring notice!
WRUP: Happy non-panicked-shopping weekend edition
It's time for the most important holiday weekend of the year: that comfortable point when you can drive out and take part in a frenzied circus of consumerism while everyone is still treating one another like human beings. No one will attack you with a screwdriver in the middle of Target for trying to take home the last Tickle Me Optimus Prime or whatever kids want this year. It's great. Think fondly on this later when you search for the last gift you must buy in a shredded wasteland, with songs praising sharing and togetherness amidst a mass of screaming people fighting over commodities. Anyway, it's WRUP time, so that means you want to hear about what we'll be doing for the weekend (which may or may not include shopping). Check out our plans past the break, and let us know what you'll be up to down in the comments!
WRUP: Happy mostly out of turkey day edition
Today is Saturday, which in the grand American tradition means that you have nearly exhausted your Thanksgiving leftovers. Yesterday's meals mostly consisted of reheating the same food you ate on Thursday, possibly expressing once again how much you love turkey and falling asleep on the couch. But today you're nearly out of turkey, and you have to resume cooking for yourself (or as is more likely, pretending to cook for three minutes before ordering a pizza). Most of Massively's staff was too full of turkey to really talk about what we were planning for the weekend, but some of us still managed to take part in this week's WRUP. So click on past the break to find out what we have planned for the weekend, and let us know what you're going to be up to down in the comments. Well, what you're going to be doing game-wise. Dealing with the new dearth of turkey is your own problem.
WRUP: Perpetual gaming initiative edition
If there's one thing I know people hate, it's spiders hidden inside of all of their clothes. The second thing would be people writing for game sites without ever actually playing games. So I went ahead and did the opposite! The editing staff said there was no need whatsoever for me to hook myself up to a complicated system of IVs providing nutrition and stimulants so that I could be playing games all day every day, but I did it anyway. It's been five days, and I've learned a great lesson: This is completely miserable. Someone, please unhook me. If you aren't coming to unhook me, well, you can still enjoy this week's WRUP. Probably. If you can live with yourself for ignoring me while I'm sitting here, trapped in a video game-related torment that is more or less of my own devising. No, no, by all means, find out what the staff is up to this weekend and let us know in the comments. I'll wait. I can't do anything else.
Looking For Guild: These guilds need you!
Ordinarily, we like to help Massively readers find their next guild in this column, but this week we're doing things a bit differently by reversing the roles. That's right, this week we're allowing guilds to get their info out there for all to see. The response to our call-out was excellent and I'm happy to say that many of you might just be finding the guild of your dreams today. For the next edition, we'll be going back to normal, but I'd also like you to submit a personal story if you've been helped through this column. I'll include a few testimonials in future columns down the line. But now, on to this week's list of guilds just after the cut!
WRUP: All DPS players are sharks edition
It's time to reveal a truth that many MMO players don't yet realize: All DPS players are sharks. If you're wondering why so many DPS seem to be addicted to the mantra of the holy "GOGOGO," it's because slowing down for just a minute means these players will die. They have to keep swimming and killing. This is what MMOs are doing to the sharks of the world. Don't ask how a shark is able to type or play the game; just realize that the rogue who will not wait for the tank or the healer or even the other DPS can't avoid doing what he does. He's a shark. One of the Massively staff members might be a shark, but I can neither confirm nor deny it. Perhaps he or she reveals his or her status as a shark in this week's WRUP, or perhaps it's just our usual roundup of our weekend plans as always. You won't know until you read onward, although you should tell us what you're doing down in the comments either way.
Ask Massively: Why WoW's 1.3% matters
Welcome back to Ask Massively! Let's play with numbers and WoW. I like numbers and WoW. "I'm no WoW fan, but a change in population of 1.3% either way is nothing worth writing about," wrote a Massively commenter last week on the pre-BlizzCon news that World of Warcraft dropped another 100,000 subscribers over the last quarter. Sure it's worth writing about! Ever hear the phrase "no news is good news"?
WRUP: Richie called it edition
Let's just own this, all right? Amidst all the other talk about World of Warcraft over the next couple of days, I feel it's important to note that Richie Procopio totally called one of the major features. He was one hundred percent correct. Housing is coming to the game, long after everyone (including me) had more or less given the very concept up for dead in Azeroth. So Richie is apparently psychic. I'm not saying he knows what's going to happen next, but I am saying that you should probably listen to him if he says to stay home next week. What's that? Oh, yes, it's WRUP all over again, I almost forgot. You know how that goes, we let you know what we're going to be up to over the weekend, then you let us know what you'll be doing down in the comments. This is exactly when you'd expect this to come around.
Looking for Guild: WoW and FFXIV
Things have been going well for the connections made through this column behind the scenes. It seems that we're connecting someone just about every week, although mostly in Final Fantasy XIV! But this week we have someone looking for friendlies in World of Warcraft (OK, and also FFXIV). For next week, I want to do something a little different and switch things around to be all about guilds looking for members. You can certainly still send in your requests for guilds as normal, but in two weeks, it will be all about guild advertising, then we'll go back to normal. So read on past the cut to see how you can get your guild on the next installment of this column, and check out those looking for a guild of their own in this week's list.
WRUP: Six years of Massively was just a fad edition
Well, guys, it's been a fun six years, but as a stunningly large number of other gaming news sites seem to believe, online games have really just been a fad. We all knew that to begin with, let's be honest. Frankly the whole idea of the Internet was really just a way to keep ourselves occupied between Pokémon games. So let's all move on to the next big thing while the Second Life band plays us a farewell round of Daft Punk remixes. Oh, the next thing? We were thinking writing the word "fart" in the margins of library books. Yeah, we've got Monday's features lined up. For tradition's sake, we've still included our plans for the weekend past the cut, because WRUP. Also we shared our favorite memories of the past year here at Massively, because it's what we do. Let us know what you're up to and what your favorite memories were down in the comments!
Ask Massively: Nick Burns edition
Today's Ask Massively letters come from David and Abionie, both of whom wrote us over the summer with comments about, well, our comments. This first one's from David: I'm probably not the only one who is generally displeased with the state of trolls on the internet today. You know them: doomsayers, hatespreaders, the "HAHA company X is failing, finally!" types, the kind of people for whom the hatred of a video game or company has become more addictive than playing the game that company made. Unfortunately, the internet gives soapboxes to people who probably don't have much of a relationship with soap. I would like to see more moderation towards keeping an articles comments on the topic of the article. It's becoming tiring to open up an article talking about something I am interested in, only to fear scrolling down too far and inadvertently opening up the comments to see "FAIL GAME IS FAIL COPYING X GAME IS LAZY" and the many hundreds of comments like that. We hear you, David, and not just about the soap. But also that.
LFM: Massively seeks a new columnist and freelancers
Yes folks, it's that time again: the time when Massively hops into the hiring channel and says, "Looking for more!" We're looking to hire fresh meat a new staff member and a set of freelancers for the site: a new multipurpose columnist and West Coast freelancers. Here's the skinny on us: Massively is Joystiq's geeky MMO cousin. We're owned by AOL; we're all paid, remote contractors; and we uphold a strict set of ethical standards you won't find among our rivals. We focus on high-quality writing with fair sourcing and a mix of news and features. We employ actual copyediting and editorial oversight, so you won't see trainwreck English in every headline. In short, we are the MMO site the other sites use as an RSS feed. These positions would be an awesome chance to break into paid gaming journalism if you happen to have just the right blend of availability, excellent writing skills, and passion for the MMO genre. If that describes you, then read on and apply!
WRUP: Situations in which we may in fact be royals edition
I think it's a little presumptuous to say that we'll never be royals. For starters, have you seen the succession lists for the British throne? Those are crazy long. All you really need to do is be on the list right where it would otherwise stop, also known as the King Ralph effect. Assuming that doesn't come to pass, there are still more possibilities. For instance, you could come across a royal in the woods with a thorn in his or her foot, as I assume royalty works much like lions in fables and requires the aid of random strangers in the woods for thorn removal. Plus, you might happen to meet a member of the royal family and marry him. That's worked well for a few people. Speaking of horrible segues, it's time for this week's installment of WRUP, in which the Massively staff shares our plans for the weekend. Let us know what you'll be up to in the comments!
Looking for Guild: FFXIV and Fallen Earth
Did you miss us last week? Now that the submissions have slowed down quite a bit, we're switching to a biweekly schedule for the Looking for Guild column. So if you're on the fence about jumping in and joining up with a Massively player guild (or creating your own), now's the time! This week we have three Final Fantasy XIV players looking to join up with other like-minded adventurers and one from Fallen Earth who's tired of soloing the wasteland. You can catch the entire list after the jump.
WRUP: Five seven five edition
Haiku as a form of poetry is taught to students as five syllables, followed by seven syllables, followed by another five syllables. The problem is that this isn't quite accurate. The Japanese poem does use a five-seven-five structure, but what we count as syllables are not analogous to the Japanese context. Despite this, the five-seven-five structure remains widely accepted, partly due to custom and partly because it's a reasonable approximation of the overall cadence. Why do I bring this up? Because I told the entire Massively team to write their WRUP entries in Haiku this week, and for some reason the majority of the team actually complied with that request. Despite this oddity, the article past the break still contains a good shot of what the team will be up to this weekend. Let us know what you're going to be doing down in the comments, and if you can do so in haiku, so much the better.
