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Ask Massively: The dilemma of the free-to-play sandbox
Reader Sharvis recently emailed the Massively Speaking podcast with a question I felt deserved more than just a quick verbal reaction on the 'cast. That, and we just discovered that the ask@massively.com email address went dead approximately three weeks ago, and I've not been receiving your letters there (so send 'em again!). In the meantime: Sharvis. What makes a sandbox so susceptible to its business model in comparison to a themepark? I'm not experienced with sandbox titles, and I can only guess on some of the implications. For example, selling boosters in a themepark is fairly acceptable, but in a sandbox, as Jef pointed out [in his ArcheAge column earlier this summer], that'd be cutting into one of the main features of a sandbox. I'd guess it has to do with these sort of MMOs being more player-centric, and that's a very delicate system to be messing with. See? I told you this was a juicy one.
WRUP: Exciting new Pokémon features edition
So it looks as if I'm actually going to be picking up the new Pokémon game on launch, which will have already happened by the time you read this. What can I say? I'm kind of interested in the new features that are being added to the game, like the fact that you can actually customize your character (insofar as you can be "pale" or "slightly not so pale"). Beyond that, it's the first game in the series with 3-D renderings of these creatures as long as you ignore all of the other spin-offs that did the same thing. And not only do you start with one of the three ubiquitous new starter types, you can also pick up a second starter type later on so that you have two special critters sitting in your bank unused! What was I talking about? Oh right -- it's WRUP time again. You can check out our play plans past the break and let us know yours in the comments. (Seriously, I will be playing Pokémon.)
Looking for Guild: Even more FFXIV
If I was a betting man, I'd say that Final Fantasy XIV's relaunch is a success. Of course, I base this solely on the fact that so much positive feedback is coming out of players, which is certainly welcome after the game's initial launch. Here on LFG, we're also getting quite a few players looking to play with more people in the fantasy-based MMO. It's almost like some enterprising young guild leader could come by and swoop these folks up for a Massively reader guild of their own. Read on past the cut for this week's list (consisting entirely of FFXIV submissions) and don't forget to submit your own for next week!
WRUP: Wombats are the last acceptable topic edition
With the news of the past week or two, I had a lot of potential topics for WRUP this week. However, I was quickly handed a list of stipulations that I had to adhere to. No political jokes, but I expected that. No jokes about Warhammer Online, which is fair. No jokes about "that stupid giant robot film." No jokes about my wife's new haircut. Absolutely no jokes about traffic court. Point is, the list went on, and I was down to wombats. I don't know anything about wombats. Perhaps a zoologist or an Australian can enlighten me in the comments real quick-like. Oh, I do also have the usual WRUP entries past the break so that everyone can see what the Massively staffers are up to over the weekend. That's not really wombat-based. Tune in next week when I can joke about... wait, no, I can't preview that joke as it involves key lime pie. Oh well.
Looking for Guild: More FFXIV, DCUO
It was another successful week in the land of LFG as we saw connections between guildies and guild leaders for Final Fantasy XIV, Guild Wars 2, and The Secret World. It was also great to see so many positive comments in last week's article! I do plan to revisit any uncontacted submissions in future round-ups, most likely based on particular games as themes. So, for example, I may have a Lord of the Rings Online week where I repost all LFG entries that didn't find a guild yet in that game. Does this week's list have who you're looking for? Read on past the jump to see who's looking for a guild.
WRUP: Grand Theft Auto V does exist edition
So, Grand Theft Auto V. It's a thing. You can ride bikes and shoot at people, you can cause mayhem, there's criminal stuff going on. I guess that's a thing? I mean, the gameplay is more refined than ever, but I've been pulling people out of cars and then driving those cars on the sidewalk since back in 2001. People love it and I don't know how to muster much more than shrugging acknowledgement. Maybe Saints Row IV spoiled me on the promise of mayhem without a dubstep gun and superpowers, I don't know. Statistically speaking, you are probably playing Grand Theft Auto V right now, so you probably don't care what I have to say. That's fine; WRUP is about the entire staff of Massively and what we're playing for the weekend. Check it out past the break, and let us know what you'll be up to down in the comments.
Looking for Guild: Defiance, FFXIV, GW2, and more
Wow. When I first pitched the idea for this column, I figured we'd get a bit of interest, but I never imagined we'd get as swamped as we did. It seems that a lot of you out there are really in need of a good guild! For this first "real" week of the column, I'm going to go ahead and list every submission we received so far because I think everyone should get their info out there, and the sooner the better. If you're a guild leader and you find someone in this list who interests you, just send me an email showing that person's submission at shawn@massively.com with the subject line "LFM - (game name)" and I will pass along the contact info. And most importantly, if you find a guild or guildie through the column, let us know! And now, the list!
WRUP: Learn to cheese edition
All right, people, it's time for you to learn how to cheese. We're starting with the basics. That picture up there is brie, and it is delicious. It is a soft milky wonder of a cheese. That having been said, if you are eating it without the rind, you are not cheesing properly. The rind is half of the flavor. You need that rind, people. Also worth considering are gruyere and camembert. If you read that and wondered why I didn't mention ricotta, you've unfortunately confused "cheese" with "testament to the sins of Man." Ricotta is horrible. Learn to cheese. Now, let's talk about WRUP. That's all about what the Massively staff is up to this weekend. Very little cheese is involved. If your world has been rocked by the idea of cheese, it will be a breath of fresh air. But seriously, please, learn to cheese. This is important to me.
Why I Play: Final Fantasy XIV
I hate two kinds of MMO: themeparks and sandboxes. Much like "nerf," these are two terms that have been beaten into the ground until they no longer have any intrinsic meaning. The original "themepark" game was freaking EverQuest, which is not what anyone thinks of when he uses the term in a more modern sense. There's more concern given to whether or not a game fits into a given category than whether or not it's actually fun to play. And that is a bad thing. Sure, your sandbox features a great housing system, but so does The Sims 3, and the latter doesn't abandon me in a featureless wasteland that eschews actual content in favor of letting me choose my final destination (here's a hint: All those destinations are grinding). Yes, Mr. Themepark, I see you chuckling in the background, but your single leveling path followed by the exact same huge-group gear-grabbing jamboree is not better, just annoying in a different way. That's why I play Final Fantasy XIV. But I should probably elaborate a bit on that.
Looking for Guild: We want to help you find your next guild!
Do you ever find yourself standing alone in your favorite MMO, staring longingly at the group content that lies ahead? Has your guild abandoned you for the newest shiny MMO? Are you a guild leader looking to expand your ranks? Fret no more, fellow MMO fans, for we are starting up a brand-new column this week for those of you looking for a new guild or guildie. We'd like to think that Massively readers are a unique bunch and should all be playing these games together, so we're going to do what we can to help that along. While we've done similar community pushes in the past, we want to present this current column as a more personalized approach to finding a guild or guildie. Think of it as a personals ad for the guildless or under-guilded.
Ask Massively: The order of all the things
This week in Ask Massively, we're fielding two queries about how we position games in some of our weekly roundup columns. As an obsessive list-maker, I understand the need to make sense of list chaos, believe me. I actually have lists of my lists. I'm not kidding. Our first question is from Siphaed, who wondered about the entries in our Week in Review: I'm a bit confused why The Elder Scrolls Online and Star Citizen got above FFXIV. Don't get me wrong, I honestly don't like either game and still prefer the one above all three (Guild Wars 2). However, I see that FFXIV has four key articles dedicated to it this past week and the other two have only three each. I would think that it would get a slight priority in the pecking order based on that. If not, what are the credentials for one game getting priority over the others in the article listing? I love that you guys think we're sitting around steepling our fingers trying to decide which game should go on top and get the golden star sticker for the week, but unfortunately, it's nowhere near that much fun!
WRUP: The new Warchief isn't edition
So the big thing this week was talking about the identity of the new Warchief of the Horde in World of Warcraft, which is probably exactly who you expected if you've paid any attention to the game's lore over the past two years. Rather than spoil that reveal right here, I'm going to tell you what the new Warchief isn't. The new Warchief of the Horde is not a basic campfire. The new Warchief is not a piece of furniture, nor is the new Warchief a Sith. The new Warchief is not distributed via flyers to your home, does not go on icy to dull the pain, and should not be applied directly to the forehead. The new Warchief is neither your boyfriend nor your girlfriend. Most importantly, the new Warchief is not WRUP. This is WRUP. It's right here past the cut with some of our staff members discussing what we'll be doing over the weekend. And then let us know what you'll be doing, which hopefully includes just finding this out so we can stop pretending it's a spoiler.
WRUP: I still hate the warehouse map edition
I miss City of Heroes. This is the opposite of news; pretty much everyone who has followed my rantings over the past several years is well aware of how much I liked the game. But even though it's been gone for a while now, let me be completely clear -- I still harbor a great deal of hatred for the warehouse map. Yes, more than the cave cake map. At least that was meant to be interesting. No warehouse maps ever again. Please. Even if the game gets a revival. But that's not what I'm playing this weekend. What am I playing? What are all of the Massively staff members playing? Why don't you find out down in WRUP? And just like every week, you can let us know what you'll be up to in the comments. Or you can just whine about the warehouse map along with me, that's all right too.
Ask Massively: The best and worst of PAX Prime 2013
PAX Prime is the last major western gaming con of the year, and we'd like to believe it's given us all something to think about as we head into a winter full of special snowflake games. Alas, PAX Prime this year seems to have left us all bewildered at best and underwhelmed at worst, at least when it comes to pure MMORPGs. Now it's time to explain why. We're going to tell you about what was for us the most surprising reveal, the most disappointing offering, and of course, the best MMO in show. The ground rules for our discussion? They're basically the same as for E3: It had to be a game or topic we can justify covering on Massively. Every staff member was permitted to chime in (though not all did). We stuck to three big categories rather than create so many that every game could "win" something, not that these are really awards. Roll the dice!
WRUP: Bonus goat edition
Thank you for reading this week's installment of WRUP. To show our appreciation, we have given you a goat. It's right inside your home this moment, munching on your shower curtain. Go ahead -- peek in the bathroom. He's not a domestic goat, either, so you get to have an exotic pet! An exotic and wild pet with no respect for the rules of human beings and a history of being both aggressive and stubborn. We hope you enjoy your new goat. Now that goat-related matters are settled, please, settle back and enjoy WRUP, wherein the Massively staff shares its plans for the weekend. You can also let us know what you'll be up to over the weekend, but if your plans involve removing unwanted goats, we'll send you more. Look, we've got several thousand goats and a transportation device that works only on goats. We're doing what we can with the tools we've got.
WRUP: Finally home edition
I've been writing about Final Fantasy XIV since before it launched. I've been playing the game since it did launch. I've weathered the changes, figured things out, roleplayed, laughed, loved, and lost. And I've spent the past nine months waiting for my game to come back, looking to the future, trying to be patient, enjoying the test weekends as best I could while still wanting to have the game back for good. This morning, that wait ends. You can't go home again, but you can move to a new home. So absolutely no one needs to read what my WRUP entry this week looks like. For the rest of the Massively crew, there's more variation, so you can check past the break for all of those plans. Oh, and you can let us know what you'll be up to down in the comments, whether it's as transparent as my own weekend plans or not.
Ask Massively: Grand conspiracies
Earlier this week, Massively's Mike Foster penned a Soapbox editorial that argued against obsessing over the definition of MMO to the exclusion of debating good game design. If you liked it, awesome. If you hated it, then take heart; next week, Brendan Drain will be arguing the flip-side of Mike's article. That's what our Soapbox is all about: writers talking about game-related things they're interested in or passionate about. It's a soapbox mounted by a different author every week, not a notarized declaration of the site's purpose and intent. We've intentionally collected a team with diverse opinions, and we rarely all agree on every opinion published on the site, especially the Soapbox, and that's the whole point. If we all agreed, we'd be boring. Plus I'd never get to waste an afternoon debating video games with Eliot in chat, which is tremendous fun, incidentally, and I highly recommend it. This week in Ask Massively, I want to address the conspiracy theory proposed in the wake of that Soapbox as well as a few other bits and bobs from our comments.
WRUP: Lake taunting edition
Hey there, lake. Yeah, I'm talking to you. Don't act like you don't hear me. You thought you were pretty big, didn't you? Thought you could push me around just because you outmass me by several orders of magnitude? Let me tell you something, lake, you're nothing. You're a place for ducks to fart around. Everybody thinks you look gross and you're full of leeches. They're going to drain you and replace you with a skate park. Oh, are you going to cry now? Feel like crying? Just... tell me what that looks like, I don't know how a lake cries. Baby. As you probably guessed, it's WRUP time yet again, and that means that I get to put together some random nonsense leading into the Massively staff's plans for the weekend. Check that out after the break, and let us know what you're up to down in the comments.
WRUP: Mature science fiction edition
Harold and Dana went for a walk outside. While they were walking, Harold noticed a large number of leaves collected on stone steps which had not been replaced with robotic future ultra-steps, causing him to briefly reflect on the nature of the human experience while surrounded by advanced technology. Later, he would relate this experience to someone while he was in the process of dying to save a spaceship for poorly explained reasons, possibly while making an allusion to poetry from the 19th century. While I wait for my Hugo award, you all can read this week's installment of WRUP just past the break, in which Massively's writers share our plans for the weekend in terms of gaming. Oh, and you can let us know your plans for the weekend down in the comments, too. Please, no musings on the relative scale of individual human beings compared to the entire universe.
Ask Massively: The better to stalk you
Long-time reader and podcast-listener Avaera recently posed a question to the Massively staffers clearly designed to send our egos into the clouds: Is other any chance for Massively itself to somehow integrate the wonderfully reflective and personal blog entries that you and the other writers maintain separately from their paid work? Even a round-up style column of some of the best MMO blog posts of the past week, or on a particular theme, would be fascinating. My first thought was that most of us put most of our work on Massively because if we can get paid to write, we'd be fools not to do so! I didn't think there'd be enough writing material to even justify a roundup, and that's probably true; I update my own ranty blog only every other month, for example. But who's to say blogs are the only interesting thing we do? So I polled all of Massively's staffers about where they write their writings, video their videoings, and tweet their twitterings. If you have a serious urge to stalk us, you're in the right post!
