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Stationary bike MMO lets you race the world without leaving home
Indoor cycling normally isn't as fun as the outdoor variety, and it certainly isn't as social. Where's the thrill of blowing past a rival? That's what Zwift's upcoming massively multiplayer cycling game promises to solve. So long as you have a training bike with at least speed and cadence sensors, you can race people around the world in virtual environments -- think of it as an online role-playing game that builds up your real abilities. You can chat up other riders if you have a mic, and virtual reality support (through Oculus Rift headsets) might help you forget that you're still at home.
Blizzard cancels its next-gen online game despite seven years of work
Have you been anticipating Titan, Blizzard's first online role-playing game since World of Warcraft? Unfortunately, you're going to have to pin your hopes on some other title. The studio tells Polygon that it has cancelled Titan despite pouring seven years of effort into the project, which was never officially announced. As Blizzard's Mike Morhaime explains, Blizzard just "didn't find the fun" during a reevaluation -- the game was extremely ambitious, but it "didn't come together" as a cohesive work that you'd want to play. The developers were also nervous about defining themselves as an online RPG company. They want to build "great games every time," even if that means switching genres.
Robin Williams gets the World of Warcraft tribute gamers asked for
Blizzard promised gamers a tribute to the late, great Robin Williams in one of his favorite titles, World of Warcraft, and it looks like the studio has been quick to act on its word. Just days after Wowhead found hidden character code paying homage to the actor, that persona is live in the game. If you're in the Warlords of Draenor expansion's beta, you can visit an island with a familiar-looking lamp; rub it and a genie pops out flaunting his "infinite cosmic power," directly referencing Williams' beloved role in Aladdin.
Ask Massively: Destiny is not the boss of me
Bungie's Destiny launches next week, and since it is by most appearances an MMO (or possibly a fragrance), we've been covering it, albeit lightly since our primary audience is not a console-only audience. But hasn't Bungie said that Destiny isn't an MMO? That was Massively reader icnoevil's primary objection to our coverage: So if the devs themselves have said the game is not an MMO, why does it keep showing up on this site? There's a little thing I repeat to myself every once in a while when studio reps are being pushy about our coverage: I don't work for them. I work for Joystiq.
Study suggests MMOs boost English skills
Researchers from Sweden's Karlstad University and University of Gothenburg have found that MMOs might just improve your language skills. The scientists subjected a group of Swedish students aged 10 and 11 to English language tests to examine the relationship of digital games and English ability, gender, and learning motivation. They found that regularly playing online games and MMOs in particular correlates with having a stronger English vocabulary. Yay us! They also found differences between the genders, though the paper's abstract attributes that to its male subjects' heavier gaming schedules vs. its female subjects' preference for social media activities. I can't be alone in having MMO guildies whose first language isn't English, and having seen their language skills improve dramatically over the years the more they type and interact with native speakers, I bet I'm not alone in not being surprised, either.
Destiny beta: 88.3 million games played
Last week, Bungie revealed that 4.6 million players participated in Destiny's beta phase, a program that pushed the game's servers ahead of its September 9 launch. The developer has since offered more numbers behind the beta in large infographic form, found after the break. Destiny's beta program saw 88,384,720 games played as well as the creation of 6.5 million guardians. The community's kill-to-death ratio in the cooperative story, strike and exploration missions was 22.53, thanks to a grand total of 3.7 billion kills during those quests. What's more, Bungie's Saturday field trip to the moon resulted in 853,235 concurrent players. Relive the Destiny beta through our archived discussions and livestreams, in which we determined we would appreciate an apartment in the game's tower, but still enjoyed kicking back in the social sections. [Image: Activision]
Give me a deluxe apartment in Destiny's sky
There are plenty of mechanical details that need to be tweaked before Destiny is ready for its full public debut, as this weekend's past stress test showed. There are balance issues and a few bugs, and the smart thing for Bungie to do is to really nail down the questing and shooting and matchmaking until they're all pretty much perfect. That's your core gameplay right there, and if that's not satisfying, nobody will really care all that much if you can dye your armor red. After all that's taken care of, however, what I want most next - before more content, even, is a house. Well, more like an apartment. The game says that the Tower is "where the Guardians live," so fine, let me live there.
Feedback Loop: Yosemite beta, Kindle Unlimited and more!
Ready for a fresh edition of Feedback Loop? This week featured discussions about Apple's OS X Yosemite beta, Kindle Unlimited, Nokia's naming conventions, MMO mice and iWatch speculation. Head past the break to talk about all this and more with your fellow Engadget readers.
Postcards from WildStar: See you, space cowboy
Welcome to Postcards from WildStar, a look at Carbine's new MMO. This is our final set of impressions, so be sure to check up on our previous postcards, and we hope you enjoyed the series! Well, here we are, friends. End of the Postcards from WildStar line. You've met my purple-haired, green-eyed defender of the forest, and tagged along as she fought her way through Dominion foes and savage beasts. You've been welcomed into her home and watched in horror as she died – often – in WildStar's PvP. Though to be fair, the "horror" part might just have been me. (I'm not very good at PvP!) MMOs are monstrous beasts and massive undertakings. They require a significant time commitment and sometimes month-to-month monetary compensation. The goal with these postcards has been not to give a finalized review, but to offer thoughts and impressions on the many aspects of Carbine's entry in the genre. Having poked and probed around for nearly two months now, I'm ready to wrap things up and give a summary conclusion. Read on to see where I place WildStar in the annals of MMO history.
Take a break in Destiny's beta
There are some who may want a break from all the gunfire in Destiny, Bungie's latest FPS that entered its beta phase on PS4 last week and will arrive on Xbox One tomorrow. We compiled a list of things to do in Destiny's beta in this gallery to keep you busy when it returns.
Valve scrapped an MMORPG at the dawn of the genre
Did you know that Valve was once hard at work on a third-person MMORPG called Prospero? Alas, the studio scrapped the project around 1997 in favor of a little tiny game called Half-Life, which "absorbed" the developers working on the MMO. Website Valve Time has dipped into the mysterious history of the game, said to be a "moody, literary" science-fantasy epic influenced by Myst with its focus on story and exploration. Though Prospero was canceled, some of its groundbreaking social and map features were eventually realized in Steam and Portal. The video also includes some wonderfully dated screenshots and quotes from developers who worked on the title.
Postcards from WildStar: Come at me, bro
Welcome to Postcards from WildStar, a look at Carbine's new MMO. Catch up on our previous postcards, and stay tuned for our final postcard next week. Another week, another Postcard from WildStar. But I've got to confess, friends: The hiking boots are starting to wear thin, and we've covered my impressions of most of the game's many systems. First, I introduced you to my Aurin Esper Settler – or in layman's terms, my furry, psychic, summer camp counselor. Next, we talked about the game's stat system, revealing an intricate, sometimes confusing, set of rules that govern how characters are strengthened. I also gave my impressions of WildStar's combat, saying that I found myself excited as enemies showed off new and more complex attacks via the game's telegraph system. After taking a break from the grind of quests and combat, I kicked up my feet and relaxed a bit with my home and floating crystal gardens. So what's left? You are. This postcard, we go head-to-head as I check out WildStar's PvP. En garde!
Firefall officially heats things up on July 29
Long ago, in the ancient times of 2013, Red 5 Studios MMO Firefall was looking like it would live up to its name, and not in a good way. All PvP had been suspended, and even before things got to that point, the game's Jetball PvP mode was attracting less than three percent of its playerbase. That changes July 29 though, when Firefall exits open beta and experiences its official launch, bringing with it a ton of new content. First, those interested in blasting their fellow humans in the face should know that PvP will return in the form of an open world tug-of-war featuring resource collection and base captures. The launch update will also open up new areas to explore, which will "quadruple" the size of the environment, according to Red 5 CEO James Macauley. "The update we are releasing for launch will be the largest update we have ever had," Macauley is quoted in a related press release. Firefall will be free to play upon launch, but if you're desperate to see these new changes sooner, you can purchase an early access pack for $30 or $100, each of which come with a bevvy of in-game goodies. [Image: Red 5 Studios]
Nosgoth founders program incentives get cheaper July 22
The founders program for Nosgoth is undergoing a few changes, Square Enix announced today. The program, which arrived when the game entered its closed beta phase in late February, includes founders packs that give players bonus in-game items and boosts. Those packs will see adjustments come July 22 in terms of their price and contents. The Veteran-level pack, previously a $20 pack that included 4,000 "rune stones," will now include 1,500 in-game gold and a 30-day "Major All Booster" that ups players' XP and gold production by 50 percent, all for $5 (while still including a Veteran badge and early access to the game). Three of the other founders packs have received similar adjustments, with the Warlord pack dropping from $35 to $13, the Warband pack from $50 to $20 and the most expensive one, the Immortal pack, moving from $150 to $50. The Nosgoth site provides a clear look at the changes between the former founders packs and the new, cheaper ones.
Postcards from WildStar: I'm a level 50 interior designer
Welcome to Postcards from WildStar, a look at Carbine's new MMO. Catch up on our previous postcards, and stay tuned for more in the coming weeks. Welcome again space adventurers, to another installment of Postcards from WildStar, where I dissect Carbine Studios' new MMO and discuss all the gooey bits I find inside. In our first postcard, you met Shas, the purple-haired bunnygirl and telekinetic warrior I chose to represent me on the colorful planet Nexus. In our second postcard, I talked about how she fights off the land's dangerous flora, fauna and Dominion faction foes. Today, you'll see where she lives and find out how she's earning a living out on the frontier fringes of space. Wipe your feet on the welcome mat and make yourselves at home, because in today's postcard, we're talking housing.
Postcards from WildStar: There's a reason I failed stats class
Welcome to Postcards from WildStar, a look at Carbine's new MMO. Catch up on our previous postcards, and stay tuned for more in the coming weeks. Hello my spacefaring comrades, and greetings once more from the planet Nexus. Welcome to the second installment of Postcards from WildStar, a short series that explores several aspects and impressions of Carbine's new MMO. Last week, we talked about character creation, classes and Paths. This week, we descend to the planet's surface to get a feel for gameplay and dissect what makes WildStar different. Shall we?
Postcards from WildStar: character creation checklist
Welcome to Postcards from WildStar, a look at Carbine's new MMO. Stay tuned for more entries in the coming weeks. Like my fellow postcard-sender and Joystiq contributor Sinan Kubba, I've been an MMO player for many moons. I lost myself to Star Wars Galaxies in high school, and to this day, I consider it – well, the state it existed in before the Combat Upgrade and New Game Enhancement patches drastically altered it – my favorite game of all time. It did things differently, and I'm a fan of different. Thus, it was with keen interest that I watched the development of WildStar, an MMO from Carbine Studios and NCsoft that professed it wouldn't be the same old, same old. The game has been out since June 3, and I've been tinkering around inside this colorful blend of sci-fi and fantasy since. Now that E3 is over and I've had more time to play, it's time I share some impressions.
Elder Scrolls Online, free-to-play games still require Xbox Live Gold
One of Microsoft's big announcements today was the restructuring of Xbox Live Gold; the company will now allow Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners to use entertainment apps like Netflix and HBO Go without requiring a paid Xbox Live subscription. As Microsoft's Phil Spencer clarified to Joystiq today, the latest in a series of "Xbox One-80s" doesn't apply to free-to-play and subscription-based online games. "Right now we haven't changed the policy on MMOs and free-to-play games," Spencer said. While not getting into specifics, he noted that with some games there are "engineering constraints, policy constraints and partner constraints in each one of these scenarios," so the decision to keep games behind the Xbox Live paywall reportedly doesn't rest solely in Microsoft's hands. Bethesda's latest MMORPG, The Elder Scrolls Online, will still require a Gold subscription on top of the developer's own monthly fees. For the time being, at least; Microsoft has "about six months" to consider changing its policies, as the game was recently delayed for consoles. The developer was in talks with Microsoft back in August to cut the extra fees for The Elder Scrolls Online, which won't be enforced by Sony via PlayStation Plus for PS4.
Oculus CEO envisions billion-person MMO
Adding a handful of zeroes to your bank account overnight can inspire lofty goals, such as Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe's plot to create a virtual world populated by over a billion real people. "This is going to be an MMO where we want to put a billion people in VR," Iribe told an audience at the recent TechCrunch Disrupt conference. Iribe admits that this project is a long ways off (and may not be a single world, so much as a number of disparate, connected worlds forming a virtual metaverse), but claims that Facebook's substantial monetary resources grants Oculus VR the freedom to tackle big ideas. Iribe believes Oculus wouldn't have the same opportunities if it has joined forces with a gaming developer or even one of the major console manufacturers. "Do you want to build a platform that has a billion users on it, or only 10, 20, or 50 million?" Iribe added, underlining the massive reach of Facebook. While Iribe's dream of a billion-person MMO is a ways off, Oculus is taking the first steps toward that goal by improving virtual conversations. Perfectly photorealistic faces are still a ways off, but Iribe remains confident in his team's ability to escape the uncanny valley. "[I]f you let go, you can have a real conversation with a person," Iribe said. "That's the holy grail we're trying to get to." [Image: Facebook]
'Stiq Tips: A Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn starter guide
Any MMO can be daunting if you go in blind. Although Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn isn't nearly as hardcore as FFXI, it still has a few snags that newcomers can hit if you aren't careful. Since many of you will be jumping in for the first time with the PlayStation 4, I've compiled some tips to help you ease into the process. First, understand that when creating a character, your race doesn't matter all that much. Yes, you can definitely do your research if you want to min-max and get that extra half a percentage of efficiency for your favorite class, but as a general rule the game is designed around the class system, so don't freak out when you're making your first step into the creation process. Having said that, the game is also designed to accommodate one character -- no alternates (alts) needed. What I mean by that is one character can simply switch classes, start from level one, and go all the way up to the maximum of 50 at any time (once you've unlocked the ability in the main story). Say you're a Lancer; all you need to do to become an axe-wielding Marauder is visit the Marauder's guild in its major city, talk to the guildmaster, get your first axe, and equip it. Boom -- you've switched classes. This encourages you to play the entire Realm Reborn experience with one main, in addition to full access to freely explore other classes and earn some select "cross-class" abilities to bring back to your other jobs. The other neat thing is that the game keeps the level of your highest class in mind, and gives you an experience bonus proportional to what level you are with your new class -- so experiment away!
