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The MMO Report: 2011 bloopers edition
What do science jazz bands and motorized feminine hygiene products have in common? They're both mentioned on this week's MMO Report, for starters (yes, really). Moving right along, host Casey Schreiner takes a break from his industry news roundup routine to regale us with a 10-minute blooper reel featuring the best (worst?) outtakes of 2011. While there isn't much in the way of MMO news on this week's episode, there are plenty of shots of Casey shuffling his papers, zany cameraman hijinks, and a few choice monologue missteps and associated bleep bombs. We've got the full show embedded for you after the break.
This Week in MMO: Fable edition
What new this week in MMOs? You'll have to watch This Week in MMO to find out. Funny how that works, huh? Host Gary Gannon is joined by Mike Schaffnit and Jasmine Hruschak for the traditional news roundtable, and boy is there a lot to talk about. Topics include Star Wars: The Old Republic's launch and post-launch reactions, Cryptic's SWTOR ripoffs homages, and TERA's endgame political system. The heretofore single-player Fable franchise gets a mention as well, due to Microsoft's curious job posting that seeks an experienced MMO programmer. Join the trio for all this and more at the Gamebreaker website.
MMO Roundup: SWTOR launch date, Guild Wars 2 gameplay, and more
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. BioWare announces launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic At the 2011 Eurogamer Expo keynote address, BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will officially launch on Dec. 20, 2011, for North America and Dec. 22, 2011, for Europe. Head over to Massively to find out how much you'll be paying. Guild Wars 2 Necromancer, Thief gameplay videos captured at Eurogamer Expo If you're a Guild Wars 2 fan who couldn't make the trip to London for this weekend's Eurogamer Expo, Cynical Brit's TotalBiscuit has the next best thing. A series of gameplay videos shot live at the event, and all told, the three clips clock in at just under an hour of footage. The videos feature both Norn Thief PVP and high-level Sylvari Necromancer shenanigans. Informal RMT study looks at microtransaction effects across multiple titles Wondering whether microtransactions in western games are as harmless as publishers would have you believe? BitGamer was as well, and as such, the website has conducted an informal study of RMT and its effects across seven different titles. Ultimately the piece reaches the familiar conclusion that RMT is here to stay and that it's OK as long as the implementation avoids the dreaded pay-to-win stigma. League of Legends: Dominion launches The big day has arrived for League of Legends fans, as League of Legends: Dominion officially launched yesterday following a short beta period. Developers promised a 2011 release for the new game mode, but it's doubtful anyone expected release before the end of September. Dominion turns standard MOBA gameplay on its head by introducing capture points, super-powerful creeps and buff-giving relics. Massively Speaking Episode 166 Massively Speaking, Massively's MMO podcast, returns this week as Shawn and Rubi discuss the week's MMO news. Topics include Dan Stahl's exit from Star Trek Online, Asura week wrapup, World of Darkness info, an exclusive interview with John Smedley about DCUO's move to free-to-play, and much more! Massively's week in review Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.
MMO Roundup: Titan will be for casuals
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. Blizzard's Titan a "casual" MMO Arvind Bhatia is quoted on the game industry website Gamasutra as saying that Blizzard's product pipeline includes "expansion packs for StarCraft and World of Warcraft, a new Diablo game, [and] a new casual MMO." That casual MMO is of course Titan, the secretive WoW followup that has reportedly gobbled up Blizzard's most experienced designers. EA quotes "200 hours of gameplay per class" in SWTOR For most single-player video games, eight to 20 hours of gameplay is currently considered "sufficient." For Star Wars: The Old Republic, those numbers are merely a prologue to the main event. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Electronic Arts' Frank Gibeau said that players should expect around 200 hours of core gameplay per class, not including side activities like PVP and raiding. CCP responds to EVE Online's monoclegate This has been a difficult week for EVE Online developer CCP Games, with massive controversy hitting the media surrounding what should have been a momentous expansion release. Unfortunately, simple complaints over some very overpriced microtransactions soon escalated into outright panic and even in-game riots with the release of an internal company newsletter and subsequent internal email casting doubt on the game's vanity-only microtransaction policy and its development direction in general. Not So Massively If you're looking for a different sort of multiplayer gameplay than what MMOs provide, Massively's Not So Massively has you covered. Check it out for all of the latest MOBA and other multiplayer news. Massively Speaking Episode 154 Massively Speaking, Massively's MMO podcast, returns this week with Shawn and Rubi catching up on the week of MMO news insanity. Topics include World of Warcraft's new extended free trial, Guild Wars 2's underwater combat and dungeons, EVE Online's macrotransaction explosion, and the upcoming shutdown of Star Wars Galaxies. Massively's week in review Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer, in their own weekly roundup.
MMO Roundup: Farewell, Star Wars Galaxies
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. The sunsetting of Star Wars Galaxies Star Wars Galaxies players recently received the notice that no MMO player wants to see: Their game was shutting down. At the end of 2011, Star Wars Galaxies will be closing permanently. Massively recently sat down with SOE President John Smedley to discuss the closure of the game and SOE's future. Controversy brewing over EVE Online microtransactions EVE Online sparked a veritable media frenzy late last week with the launch of its Incarna expansion and an in-game item shop. An event being dubbed "monoclegate" began when players discovered the lofty price of a cosmetic monocle -- and the flames only grew from there. Leaked document shows CCP's microtransaction plans And here's where it gets worse. An internal CCP document that outlined the potential directions the company could take with microtransactions was leaked to the public. Here's a phrase you never want to hear: "Greed is good." Mike "Gabe" Krahulik speaks his mind about SWTOR Sometimes being a celebrity in the gaming world has its perks. Take Mike Krahulik from Penny Arcade, for example. People instantly recognize him, they want his opinion on everything, and he can get in on any beta he wants. All right, that last bit was a stretch, but he did get into game testing for Star Wars: The Old Republic. And after much begging, the marketing team at BioWare gave "Gabe" the chance to publicly sound off about TOR. Guess what? He loved it. Guild Wars 2 takes us down into the dungeons Although Guild Wars 2 is taking steps to advance the MMO scene, there's one standby that isn't going anywhere, and that's dungeons. Author and developer Jeff Grubb recently discussed the details of a few of Guild Wars 2's dungeons. Check it out! Massively's week in review Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.
MMO Roundup: RIFT's free character transfers, Sony's fiscal losses, and more
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. RIFT offering free character transfers with patch 1.3 Trion Worlds has announced that with the advent of patch 1.3, RIFT will allow players to move to select servers once per week -- for free. These free character transfers include a wholesale move of all of the character's items, achievements and titles. Also, Trion has stated that initially, there will be no limit to the number of times your character can hop to a different server. Sony loses $3.2B, spends $170M in response to hacker attacks Sony's bad year is getting a smidge worse. The company, which had previously predicted a healthy profit for the past fiscal year, is now expecting a loss of $3.2 billion for the period of April 2010 through March 2011. The reverse in fortunes is mostly due to writing off a $4.4 billion tax credit, although the company has been struggling with both the recent earthquake and hacker attack that disrupted operations of both its physical operations and online services. Funcom prepping new Age of Conan adventure pack inspired by film reboot Recent rumors of new film-related content for Age of Conan proved to be accurate. According to a new press release, the pack "includes but is not limited to" content from the forthcoming Conan the Barbarian film reboot and will see players traveling to the lands of Turan some 20 years after the events of the movie. Guild Wars 2's explosive seventh class: The engineer ArenaNet has announced the seventh Guild Wars 2 profession: the engineer. Rifles, dual pistols, pistols with shields, explosives, flamethrowers, and automated turrets -- come on, do I really need to say any more than that? Massively Speaking episode 148 Massively Speaking, Massively's MMO podcast, is back this week as Shawn and Rubi discuss the latest MMO news, including some more details on ArcheAge and Guild Wars 2, a better explanation of the DCUO MegaServers (formerly Super Servers), and the return of SOE! Massively's week in review Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.
MMO Roundup: Blizzard on RIFT, SOE outage compensation, and more
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. Activision Blizzard: RIFT players will come back to WoW During Activision Blizzard's recent investor conference call, the question of how RIFT's launch in early March had affected WoW's playerbase inevitably came up. Morhaime was quick to point out that while a percentage of players have historically left WoW to try out each new game released in the MMO market, a healthy proportion of them tend to return. Blizzard expects the same to occur with RIFT. SOE reveals compensation plan for outage After the long silence during SOE's recent downtime, Sony has finally revealed its compensation plan of action. All current SOE players will receive 30 days of game time added to their accounts plus one day for every day the system's been down. Depending on the game to which players are subscribed, SOE has a list of specific in-game items, currency, Station Cash, events and bonuses ready as well. The Game Archaeologist jacks into The Matrix Online The Matrix Online (otherwise known as MxO) may have been shut down a few years ago, but it still holds many fond memories for its former players. The Matrix had the potential to be this generation's Star Wars, but the franchise ultimately petered out, eventually taking MxO with it. Gaming with Game of Thrones Sorry to disappoint -- this isn't a Game of Thrones MMO announcement. However, if you enjoy Game of Thrones, there are a number of free-to-play MMOs that may offer you some of the same things you like from the novels or television series. Political intrigue in an MMO? It's true! Massively Speaking episode 147 Massively Speaking, Massively's MMO podcast, is back this week as Shawn is joined by Leala and Dana from the Game Dames blog and podcast. Topics include more on Sony's downtime, The Old Republic's confirmed launch window, the power of a possible Mass Effect MMO, the revenue growth of Nexon and Activision Blizzard, and the fact that World of Warcraft is dying! Wait, what? No. Massively's week in review Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.
MMO Roundup: Virtual crossing guards, DCUO's launch, and more
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. Top 10 best non-traditional MMO fantasy races Elves. Dwarves. Humans. Gnomes. Just about every fantasy MMO has the exact same stable of stock fantasy races. In this Top 10 list, Massively honors the races that break the mold and bring some originality back into the genre. Did any of World of Warcraft's races make the list? Find out! UK government spends £2.8 million on road safety browser MMO Children are generally far more interested in video games than in mundane things like crossing the road safety. You can almost understand why the UK's Department of Transport would have something like Code of Everand developed -- it's a browser-based game that's meant to help teach children proper road safety procedure. DC Universe Online launch day coverage Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's the launch of DC Universe Online! If you're interested in trying this game out, Massively has everything you need to know. Item-swap controversy hits MapleStory Europe Adding more fuel to the virtual goods vs. physical goods fire is this story from MapleStory Europe. During a sale on double experience cards, players noticed that Nexon had listed the 24-hour double experience card with an expiration time of 90 days instead of of 24 hours. Players flocked to the item shop in droves to take advantage of this amazing deal, and they weren't pleased with Nexon's inevitable response. Massively Speaking episode 130: Talking RIFT with Scott Hartsman Massively Speaking episode 130 brings you the week's latest MMO news with Shawn Schuster and Rubi Bayer, as well as an interview with Scott Hartsman and Cindy "Abigale" Bowens from Trion Worlds. New RIFT columnists Karen Bryan and Justin Olivetti join in on the questioning for what turns out to be a fun conversation. Week in Review: Caped crusaders Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.
This week on the MMO Report
We can't always get the warm security of the familiar, and this week the MMO Report drives that home with a special guest host. Yes, Casey Schreiner is off for the week, which leaves Blair Herter to fill in on a summary of the week's important MMO news. And going into a weekend with two major conventions that promises to be filled with news, it's probably for the best that you have a roundup of what you should be angry about before it happens. This week's edition covers the newest information to come out of The Secret World, the massive brouhaha that Final Fantasy XIV stirred up with the open beta and fatigue system, and ongoing woes of Realtime Worlds. There's also the Guild Wars 2 necromancer reveal, the announcement of The Bible Online, and the usual dip inside of the mailbag. If you can steel yourself against separation anxiety, you can find the newest episode with its guest host past the cut. As always, stay tuned for a new installment each week from G4tv and Massively.com.
Massively's top 5 news stories of 2009
It's that time again! Time when we look backwards and try to identify the top 5 big news stories that we covered here at Massively. 2009 was a pretty turbulent year when it comes to the MMO industry, as we were involved in lawsuits, game closures, multiple major releases, a rising set of indie studios, and more news than you could handle. So are you excited to look at the year's stories in review? Well, I certainly am! So excited that we're going to do this story in gallery-vision. That's right, for every story you get to have an awesome picture accompanying it. It's brilliant, if you ask us. So if you're ready to start the tour-de-force, click on the link below or simply start at the first image of the gallery below that. Don't try to skip ahead either, we have poison arrow codes loaded into these pages so if you skip ahead, then your monitor will shoot a poisoned arrow at your neck. Gotta just love HTML 5 -- it does everything! Massively's top news stories of 2009>> %Gallery-81205%
Windstorm Studios announces partnership with 226 Productions for an upcoming MMO
While Windstorm Studios has been very tight lipped regarding what they're currently working on, they certainly have been offering up a few glimpses into what looks to be a retro-future themed MMO they have in production.The art of the game has recently been entrusted to 226 Productions, a Russian based art company that has done work on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow, NBA '07, and TimeShift. 226 is no stranger to the IP that Windstorm has been brewing -- some of the pre-production artwork was completed by them.As to what exactly Windstorm will bring to the MMO table remains to be seen, but if these pictures are any indication, it looks to be something fresh, exciting, and filled with laser shooting scooters.
Last Week on Massively: WoW related stories
It's Sunday and that means round up time for World of Warcraft posts on our sister site Massively that may be of interest to you loyal WoW readers. Let's dive right in:AFK Gamer reviews post-2.3 Alterac ValleyThe popular gaming blog takes a look at the latest changes to AV.The Digital Continuum: Activision Blizzard vs Electronic Arts, battle of the MMO titansKyle Horner looks at the merger and explores how the industry is shaping up to be a battle between the two giants.Behind the Curtain: Moral & Ethical choicesCarl Whithers steers his weekly column into the murky waters of the consequences of our online actions.Building a better MMOusetrap: Why we fight!Dave Moss tells us why he indulges in a battle-driven game.MMO subscriptions report -- who is beating whom?The latest guesses are out on MMO subscription numbers. We all know WoW is the king, but who's nipping at his heels?Gamer Interrupted: Playing together with different playstylesPicking up on her topic from last week, Robin Torres continues to explore gaming as a couple, this time dealing with in-game goals that are at odds with each other.Herndandez vs IGE - IGE withdraws motion to stay/dismissThe latest in the lawsuit against gold sellers.Scott Jennings on how to make PvP not suckThe Broken Toys blogger gives his 13 rules of PvP and why current MMOs aren't living up to them.MMOGology: World of why botherMarc Knottke talks about sharding your purples for greens.
Last Week on Massively: Warcraft related stories
Once again, it's time for the weekly round up of WoW-related stories posted in the last seven days on our sister site Massively. If you can't wait for the round up post, you can always check out all posts tagged WoW on the site or subscribe to the RSS feed.On with the show!First official confirmation of new Blizzard MMOCM Drysc confirmed that Blizzard is working on a "Next Gen MMO", but which one? Is "World of Starcraft" on the horizon?Cinemassively: Machiniplex to hold Q & A for "Among Fables and Men"Warcraft Movies' 1st place Drama winner in their recent Fabled Few contest was the awesome Among Fables and Men. Machiniplex is holding an online screening with remastered audio and an interview with the director over Skype.The most influential MMOG moments WoW's Toyota commercial made the list for showing that MMO's have gone mainstream. Check out the other watershed moments, but I don't know if any of them equal four wheels of FURY!!Analyst talks World of Warcraft's churn rateA Gamasutra article analyzes WoW's revenue gain in the last year as well as its ability to retain customers.As the Worlds Turn: Neverending StoriesAdam Schumacher continues to explore the intersection of lore and MMOs, this time looking at how Warcraft's backstory affects gameplay.Behind the Curtain: Making your own lore with Fan FictionCraig Whithers continues his weekly column, this time talking about using Fan Fiction to engage in roleplaying of the WoW universe (and others.)WoW 3v3 tournament ended, videos from the finalsTeam Pandemic won the $45,000 grandprize in the 3v3 tournament at Dreamhack in Sweden. Check out the details.Building a Better MMOusetrap: Buildings, barrens and beyond (Part 4)Dave Moss completes his 4 part series on MMO environments. Having covered architecture, cities and landscapes, he jumps into dungeons in his latest column.Gamer Interrupted: Duos are good for relationshipsRobin Torres talks about those who play together, stay together. But it isn't as easy as it looks.Social currency and giving in MMOsIs giving a gift in-game the same as giving it to a person in RL?
