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The Daily Grind: Does a studio's home country impact your faith in an MMO?
I've been cautiously excited about the development of Skyforge, although something's really been holding me back from gushing too strongly about it: the fact that its dev team (well, one of them at least) is located in Russia. Maybe it's silly and even a bit nationalist, but I am somewhat less trusting of MMOs that hail from other regions than my own. Maybe it's a fear of making payments to studios in countries across the world. Maybe it's a fear that the studio won't have my own best interests in mind in operating that product. Maybe I've been let down by too many titles that were developed overseas but never made the transition to my home shores. Does a studio's home country or region impact your faith in an MMO? A reminder: Let's keep the discussion free of nation-bashing, please! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Repopulation publishes nation, city, and combat gameplay details
Above & Beyond Technologies has updated its website for The Repopulation this week. The forthcoming sci-fi sandbox MMO has some interesting systems on offer, none moreso than its nations mechanic. Nations are basically an extended form of traditional MMO guilds. They function as social structures and encourage cooperation in terms of raiding, crafting, sieging, and the like. Where they differ from genre norms is in their ability to control land and cities throughout the game world. Cities are a big deal too, and much of the nation gameplay is seemingly focused around city management. Combat in The Repopulation also departs from MMO convention, and while we've written about it on occasion before, this is the first time that all of the nuts and bolts have been collected in a single easy-to-reference article. Head to the game's official website for all the details. [Thanks to J.C. for the tip!]
Space Shuttle Discovery salutes Washington on historic final flight
As historic flights go, this has to be right up there with the best of 'em. Space Shuttle Discovery performed a final fly-by over the capital, and created a trail of excited spotters as it did so. Perched atop a Boeing 747, the iconic craft was flying at a relatively low 1,500 feet according to NASA. Pictures of the voyage have been popping up on social media and image sharing sites as it headed in from the west, before coming to its final resting place at a special off-shoot of the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport. Have you spotted Discovery? Be sure to add links in the comments if you do. [Image credit: NASA]
Space Shuttle Discovery to make final in-air appearance in 1,500-foot DC flyover
Folks lucky enough to be in the nation's capital next week will have one final opportunity to gawk at Space Shuttle Discovery as the decommissioned spacecraft makes its way to its final resting place in Washington D.C. The shuttle is scheduled for a 1,500-foot flyover between 10 and 11 next Tuesday morning, passing over the National Mall and Reagan National Airport atop NASA's modified 747-100. The craft will then land at Dulles Airport before making a land-based journey to the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Center, where it will replace the Enterprise shuttle, which is destined for the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan. That prototype shuttle is scheduled to land in New York City a few days later on April 23rd, where it will touch down at JFK mounted to what's likely to be the same Shuttle Carrier Aircraft scheduled to make the Discover delivery in D.C., though there's sadly no word of a similar photo op in NYC.
Massively Exclusive: Make your nation proud with Wakfu's newest dev diary
Now that Ankama Games' tactical MMORPG Wakfu is live and operational, it's probably about time for players to start getting familiar with the World of Twelve. Thankfully, the fine folks over at Ankama have provided us with a brand-new dev diary to help players to wrap their heads around the nations and territories of Wakfu. For the uninitiated, the World of Twelve is the shared universe of Wakfu and its predecessor, Dofus. Lots has happened in the World of Twelve since the time of Dofus, however. Most importantly, a daft ogre by the name of Ogrest (presumably the older brother of Ogre and Ogrer) gathered the six primordial Dofus and used their overwhelming power to devastate the world, drowning all but seven major island nations beneath the sea. It's up to players to run these remaining nations and restore the World of Twelve to its former power. Of course, it can't all be sunshine and butterflies between the seven nations; we need a reason to kill each other! Aside from the seven main islands, there are also a number of smaller islands that contain valuable -- and sometimes exclusive -- resources. The seven nations, of course, all want to claim these precious goods for their own. Players will have to represent their nations in the battle for these minor, resource-rich islands in order to bring prosperity and bragging rights to their respective homelands. So there you have it, Wakfuians (that's totally a word, we promise). Now click past the cut for the full dev diary video, then get out there and make your countries proud!
WoW Moviewatch: If You Gank Me Again
If You Gank Me Again is a cover of Timbaland's If We Ever Meet Again. Since the original featured Katy Perry, I'm actually a little familiar with the original song. (I like Katy Perry; sue me.) This parody is performed by Nation and Jennisfar, with the machinima created by JoshuaIRL. The video for If You Gank Me Again is pretty spot-on for the material and keeps pace with the music fairly well. The voices feel a little muddled to me, but I think that's just the style. (Timbaland's voice was autotuned in If We Ever Meet Again, so in that sense, the cover singers were staying true to the original.) I like seeing Nation and Jennisfar collaborate, though, and I'm pretty sure that some of the video's rough spots are probably just from a new group collaborating for the first time. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.
Aika previews two more class evolutions
With the June 17th date now firmly set, Aika fans can look forward to the full experience of the game's first expansion in less than a week. But there's still more to preview, and while we heard some of the details in our recent interview with the team, they've still got more up their sleeve. The most recent preview on the official site details the new evolutions for the Arcanist and Saint classes, which are receiving notable upgrades along with their fellow classes under the expanded level cap. The Arcanist will be receiving Calamity, a damage-over-time spell that has a long range and a movement-slowing effect to help snare and finish targets in both PvP and PvE. With a five-minute cooldown, however, the spell needs to be used carefully for maximum effectiveness.. The Saint, on the other hand, will be giving massive benefits to allies via Aika's Grace, restoring a large amount of HP and MP while making the target temporarily invulnerable. Read all about the new evolutions, as well as a recap on the nation balance mechanics discussed in yesterday's interview, on the official site.
WoW Moviewatch: Cool Story Breh
This new piece by Asiko, Gigi, and Nation is a response to the bajillion ... anti-fans of their work. (What's the word for someone diametrically opposed to a fan? I don't want to say detractor or troll or such, since those words have much different connotations. Anti-fan it is, I guess.) A lot of this video boils down to the message that "you might hate us, but we're successful anyway." Unto the anti-fans they say, Cool Story Breh. One of the interesting things about belf rap, though, is that it is successful. While there's something about the genre that drives many people insane, traffic and subscriptions to those folks' YouTube channels, videos, and webpages tend to be pretty high. For all that commenters and reviewers often dislike belf rap, they get pagehits and a very large audience. And I know from observation and personal experience that very few people bust their hump as hard as Gigi to work with new folks, bring new artists into the light, and try and get traffic to struggling machinimators. And while rap (or belf rap) certainly isn't my bag of tea, I definitely respect her attributes in that regard. Edit: Due to oversight on my part, I wanted to make sure I pointed out that WoPairs is the machinimator behind this piece. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
WoW Moviewatch: Achievement Wh0re
Achievement Wh0re is a new song by Gigi and Nation. (Nation was once Abandonation, but I'm not sure if the label change is purposeful, or just a hip contraction.) The video was created by WoPairs, who shows an excellent eye for character portraiture in this piece. The song is dedicated to those who seek out achievements to the cost of all else. I'm not much of an achievement guy, so I found the send-up of it to be pretty amusing. I guess I see how some folks are really into them, but achievements feel like one really long grind to me. Notably, this piece is an entirely original song. And while I always feel out of my depth evaluating rap, I definitely salute Gigi and Nation for expanding in that direction. It's fantastic to see the pair growing as artists, and creating new art in the musical belf-o-sphere. I'm interested in seeing what they might do next, if this video's success encourages them to keep creating new stuff. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Tweet for your nation, win real life rings
Readers of Massively, ask not what your Final Fantasy XI nation can do for you, but how you can best tweet for your nation! Oh, and did we mention that there's fabulous prizes?FFXIclopedia and Square-Enix have teamed up for a fun Twitter oriented contest, giving away three real life replicas of the nation rings in Final Fantasy XI. These nation rings aren't just cheap replicas either, as each ring is made of silver and retails for 115 bucks!All you have to do is simply follow @ffxiclopedia and tweet why you support #windurst, #bastok, or #san d'oria in the form of a sentence. The contest will run until July 4th, and winners will be chosen on July 5th. The three winners, one from each nation's supporters, will win a replica of their nation's ring -- so choose your support wisely!
Atlantica developer journal explains dungeon options
Kim Tae Gon has written another developer journal for MMORPG.com about his game, Atlantica Online. This bi-weekly journal delves into Atlantica's many dungeon types and how they reach over and affect the social state of gameplay in groups.Where most games have only instances and raids, Atlantica offers many different types of dungeons. Some of their dungeons, the individual dungeons, are targeted towards one player where other dungeons, such as the nation dungeons, are targeted towards 500 players at once (50 players from 10 guilds). This makes Atlantica into a very expansive game that caters to almost all tastes and playstyles, and has the bonus side effect of bolstering the community to formulate plans with one another.Kim's full developer journal can be found at MMORPG.com, where he gets into the specifics of his goals in creating all of these types of dungeons and how to access them.
Virtually Overlooked: Zombie Nation
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative. Zombie Nation is easily the best game ever created about a flying, disembodied samurai head. Don't try to argue with us on this one. We feel pretty confident that we're right about this. Oh, and it's a shmup, as well. Boring spaceships have nothing on a giant head.
Real ID gets shot down by Maine legislature
Although it has been a tick since we've heard anything substantial on the proposed Real ID card set to take the place of individual state drivers' licenses, it seems like Maine legislature has had their wheels turning (and fists curled) for a good bit. While a majority of lawmakers have simply given a whimsical thumbs-up to the potentially voyeuristic plan, the folks in Maine seem to think the invasion of privacy (not to mention the $185 million in implementation cost for the state) is downright lame. Shenna Bellows of the Maine Civil Liberties Union derided the presumably RFID-based Real IDs as "a one-stop shop for identity thieves," and it was noted that several other states (like New Hampshire, Georgia, and Montana) just might bust out their true feelings on the matter now that Maine has broken the collective silence. Of course, Maine hasn't completely gone loopy and opted out of the process just yet, as the current protest is simply filed as a "resolution," but backers seem fairly serious in their attempts to "protect the people of Maine from just this sort of dangerous federal mandate." So, what about that iris database you guys are building, hmm?[Via Wired]
Top 10 upcoming games in 2006
The PSP Nation recently sat down to think of what their top ten most wanted games were that are currently set for release by the end of this year. Seeing as how the first year of the PSP has been very pleasant, we all want to see improvements in the coming year, and from a software side of the platform, things are looking like they will greatly improve. So, PSP Nation's list? It reads as follows: Tomb Raider (June 20) NCAA Football (July 18) Def Jam Fight for NY (July 24) Tekken Ressurection (July 28) Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (August 1) Loco Roco (September 5) Lego Star Wars 2 (September 12) Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception (September 19) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (October) Socom Fireteam Bravo 2 (November) Well, what about you fine readers? What do your top 10 lists look like?
