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Neverwinter to penalize PvP cowards, launches in Brazil
Neverwinter's upcoming PvP patch is shaping up to be significant, as Cryptic Studios has said that it will add in a matchmaking system and penalize players who leave early. The matchmaking system will lump players together for domination matches based on their skill ratings. What's a skill rating? It's a fancy number that rises and lowers based on your wins and losses in comparison to others' rating. You better stick it out when you do queue up, however, because the game will block you from queuing up for any group content for a set amount of time. In other Neverwinter news, the game has launched in Brazil, fully localized for Portuguese. Perfect World has partnered with UOL BoaCompra to handle the local support, payment, and marketing for the title.
MMO Mechanics: Three old mechanics I want back
My column has typically heralded modern MMOs as superior advancements of the genre we all adore, but in this week's MMO Mechanics I want to share a small list of some old mechanics I still mourn today. Many older MMOs featured gameplay that could simultaneously exasperate and impress players, especially when the mechanics in question supported a real sense of immersion or realism in otherwise virtual worlds. Recent titles have aimed to open up the in-game world by making it more accessible and much less infuriating, but this has put some of my favourite mechanics and little touches on the development chopping block. I'm particularly fond of game mechanics that make real-world sense. Real life would not reward you for falling off cliffs, running headlong into a crowded room of enemies, or stumbling off the well-beaten track into the untamed wilderness. Consequences in real life can feel rather scary, so I really enjoyed the fear factor of some older MMOs because this allowed for a much more thrilling -- and ultimately rewarding -- gaming experience. I am going to talk about just three older mechanics I particularly enjoy that have fallen out of fashion, but feel free to lengthen my list by adding your favourites in the comments below.
The Daily Grind: Do login incentives work on you?
MMOs really, really want you to log in and play them every day, mostly because if you do, there's an increased chance of you spending money on them. So above and beyond hopefully providing an engaging game experience, the studios often outright bribe players with login gifts. I've seen these gifts in RIFT, Trove, and Lord of the Rings Online, as well as a particularly insidious gift system in Neverwinter that doles out rewards every hour. Soon we'll be hiring employees to just sit at our desks to keep our characters logged in while we sleep; mark my words. So do these login incentives work on you? Do you make a round between MMOs that have these, even if you're not playing them as much? 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!
Neverwinter prepares population for PvP patch
Cryptic has a host of changes in store for Neverwinter's PvP game, including a brand-new stat and shiny gear. The team posted a developer blog to briefly discuss the upcoming patch. The biggest change is the addition of a Tenacity stat to PvP equipment. This stat will increase resistance to crowd control spells, stuns, critical hits, and (of course) damage. Cryptic sees Tenacity as being essential to those who want to mount a strong defense in PvP. Neverwinter will also be tweaking the prone effect so that it will be shorter and affected by control resist. The team also teased new PvP gear, although it said that details about the gear will have to wait for another day.
Why I Play: Neverwinter
I have to say that for all of my yapping about needing to play MMOs that allow me to freely roam and to explore a virtual world and live a virtual life, I sure am a fan of linear themeparks. Who isn't? In fact, show me someone who now claims to be the enemy of all things themed, and I'll show you someone who at some point enjoyed the benefits of a good themepark, most likely World of Warcraft. I'm not sure why there's any shame in admitting that one enjoys a good romp through a virtual storybook, but I sure do. In fact, I often depend on it in order to get me over lazy sandbox slumps. Neverwinter is one of my favorite themeparks out there. There are quite a few reasons it works so well, many of them obvious. I'd like also to point out some of the reasons Neverwinter might work so well for certain types of players.
Perfect Ten: Lessons from three months in Neverwinter
Recently I decided to end a good run in Neverwinter, my second time back to the game that went well over three months. It was a strange period, no doubt, mostly because of the conversations I'd get into people about it. "You're playing Neverwinter? Are you, like, trying to be ironic?" they'd ask, with internet eyebrows all quizzical. "I know! I don't understand it either!" I'd invariably respond. "But... it's fun. It is!" That last bit always dribbled off my lips. Then our friendship would be terminated and I'd have to rely on my fallback companion, a pen pal from Austria who sends me notes in an archaic form of German. I guess Neverwinter isn't a super-serious MMO for super-serious players, but there's something very Pringles about it: Once you start playing, you can't stop. Well, at least not for three months. So since my time in it is through (for now), I thought I'd share with you 10 lessons I picked up in three months.
Field Journal: Neverwinter gonna let you down
My original plan to talk about some of the better quests in Neverwinter's Foundry has been replaced with the burning need to rant about some of the common pitfalls in the less stellar entries. I'm not going to mention anything by name because I'm not here to shame anyone. I just need to explore some of the stupid design decisions that keep cropping up. I make no claim to great skill with the Foundry myself. I still haven't gotten around to much map decorating in my first adventure, though I did pull the trigger on publishing. (You can find it with the ID: NW-DNGJU57ID.) What I can claim is a critical eye and an understanding of what makes a good story with the tools Neverwinter gives you to tell them. There are plenty of good stories, so picking something from the featured pile will usually work out great, but when you go digging in the new and unrated adventures for hidden gems, you'll find far more rough than diamonds.
Captain's Log Supplemental: STO's Stephen D'Angelo speaks
Last week we reported on the announcement that Star Trek Online has a new Executive Producer. Daniel Stahl, who held the position for the past several years, has moved on to another "secret" project at Cryptic Studios. The game's new (and returning) EP, Stephen D'Angelo, has taken the chair once again and has already posted his first blog outlining a few of his desires for the future of Star Trek Online. We had the opportunity to interview D'Angelo and ask him a few more questions about the game and what direction he sees the ship heading. Massively: Congratulations on your new position as Executive Producer of Star Trek Online! Of course, this isn't your first time in the command chair. What's the first challenge you were faced with when you finally took the seat, and how is it different from the challenges you faced the last time you were at the helm? Stephen D'Angelo: Any time there is a change in leadership, there's a period of learning how the team operates. This time it was a pretty smooth transition, with no significant challenges. I've got a great working relationship with the team, and because there was nothing eminently shipping, I was able to ramp up at a reasonable pace. The last time was much more challenging. I was given the team without warning, and it was only weeks before converting the game to free-to-play. That was a pretty mad scramble.
The Daily Grind: To what lengths will you go for 'free' limited-time goodies?
I like to think of myself as a person who covets his time and won't spend it frivolously grinding, but once in a while I fall for it. "It" in this case being a limited-time event in an MMO where a particularly tantalizing reward is dangled in front of me. Common sense will flee and I'll find myself neck-deep in an obsessive grind to get this free goodie. Neverwinter was the most recent that trapped me. I couldn't help it, you see. There was the promise of a cute little healing fawn companion if I'd only go fishing during the winter event. That sounded pretty doable, that is until I hit hour five of non-stop carp capture and realized that I was in for a real grind marathon to pull this off. Very long story short, I got the fawn but really wish I hadn't wasted so many hours doing it. That's my story. What's yours? 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!
Some Assembly Required: Virtual world roundup for 2014 and beyond
Just over two years ago there was a great disturbance, as if millions (or so) of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Yes, something terrible had happened: a beloved virtual world was destroyed. And that left a number of sandbox refugees looking for a new place to call home. At that time, Some Assembly Required offered a roundup of the then available virtual worlds that could possibly offer accommodation, depending on what qualities players most desired in their games. But as things are wont to, they changed; a lot can happen in the MMOverse in 24 months, from additional features in existing games to new games to the loss of more worlds. So it's time to update this list of virtual worlds to reflect 2014 and beyond. Take a look and see what titles or titles-to-be have the sandbox features that best make a game a home for you.
Field Journal: Floundering in Neverwinter's Foundry
Given that I'm a roleplayer, you might think that I find Neverwinter's Foundry an amazing expressive tool that I relish wholeheartedly. To that I respond with a resounding sort of! I love that it exists and seeing all the neat, even mind-blowing creations of others. Actually using it to make something of my own, though? That's pretty daunting, and I'm not talking about the interface. I am a very creative person, but there are many kinds of creativity. I've long since given up trying to be the game master in tabletop games given how painful it is for me to prepare and how I bring so much more to the table as a player. I'm the expressive sort, coming up with great ideas on the fly that make things more fun for everyone, drawing everyone's characters, that sort of thing. I'm not the constructive sort, so I have a hard time building worlds compared to inhabiting them. That might be why I had to stick a cameo from my own Trickster Rogue in the quest I designed.
MMO publisher Perfect World Entertainment bringing 'current and future' projects to console
Perfect World Entertainment, publisher of free-to-play games like Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter and Star Trek Online, has announced the creation of a new company division that plans to bring "current and future" games to both current and next-gen consoles. Perfect World Entertainment CEO Alan Chen said in a press release that the studio's move to consoles was a "natural progression," but no details were given on how the company's mostly keyboard-and-mouse-centric games will be translated to the controller-oriented consoles. The press release did, however, tease that more details will be coming sometime next year.
Captain's Log: A Star Trek Online 2014 wish list
We're coming up on 2014 and staring Star Trek Online's fourth anniversary right in the face. It's an anniversary that many naysayers said would never come. Next week I plan on taking a look back at the past year in Star Trek Online, so this week I thought it would be fun to prognosticate on what we might see in the year to come. A few days ago, STO Community Manager Brandon Felczer wrote a blog post on the game's site, and buried within that post was the announcement that Cryptic and Perfect World Entertainment have slated another expansion for the game in 2014. The news was actually a bit surprising, and although there were no additional facts about what the expansion might entail, there has been a lot of speculation by the players. I am no exception to the speculation frenzy, so here's my own personal wish list for what I'd like to see in the upcoming expansion and other releases in 2014.
Neverwinter state of the game talks player feedback and future expansions
Neverwinter fans may want to pop over to the game's official site and read lead producer Andy Velasquez's state of the game post, which outlines challenges faced by the dev team, successes it has seen this year, and hopes it has for the future of the game. Velasquez noted the Shadowmantle expansion as a high point for the game, praising his team for being able to "get it done so quickly while maintaining a high-quality product." Velasquez also explained that it is Cryptic's goal to get future expansions live on the test server earlier in the development process, thus allowing for deeper testing and the collection of more player feedback. According to Velasquez, player feedback is invaluable in helping the Neverwinter team understand which changes to implement. Other small successes were celebrated; Neverwinter has launched a Russian shard and the team is hard at work on the next content update.
Massively's winter holidays MMO roundup
The holidays are here! That means the hustle and bustle of the season is in full swing, with gifts to get, treats to taste, deals to nab, and plenty of festivities to partake in -- and that's just in the MMOverse! Yes folks, there's a plethora of holiday celebrations out there -- so many, in fact, that it can be hard to keep track of them all, let alone participate to them! If you're trying to catch everything in your favorite games, we're here to help. We've got a round up of the various winter celebrations across the gaming sphere all bundled together right here for you. If something catches your eye, hop in and join in the festivities!
Perfect World putting new resources toward console development
Perfect World Entertainment, the mega-publisher behind games like Neverwinter, Torchlight II, RaiderZ, and Star Trek Online, has just announced that it is launching a new in-house division dedicated to console development. According to general manager of publishing Andrew Brown, investing in console development offers Perfect World a way to "better connect with players." The console division will be dedicated to bringing new and existing PWE titles to consoles. Brown seemed optimistic about expanding into the console world, explaining, "You can expect Perfect World to be a major player in the console marketplace." No specific games were named for release. [Thanks to Paul for the tip!]
Neverwinter's Winter Festival is on deck for December 19th
Neverwinter is preparing its first Winter Festival for the game, beginning on December 19th and continuing until January 9th. The festivities will commence at the village of Twilight Tor, where players can engage in several activities for the fun of it -- and, oh yeah, to get some cool presents. Twilight Tor will feature slalom races, fights against monsters on a frozen lake, ice fishing, star gazing, and a new profession called Lightcrafting. Players can take currency from these activities and purchase one of several rewards, including a sled mount, a Frost Mimic companion, a Fawn of Shialla companion, and winter-themed weapons.
First impressions of Heroes of the Obelisk
Heroes of the Obelisk might look familiar, probably because its developers are the same folks who brought us Luna Online and Legend of Edda. I really enjoy its art style, one that puts us in control of Chibi-style, juvenile characters. The backgrounds are pretty, and there are some nice modern bells and whistles like distance blur and glow effects. As is normally the case with an Anime-based game that comes to us from the East, the game looks like a carbon copy of other titles, at least at first glance. The details make all of the difference, however, and there are a few things in this title that manage to just barely keep it out of "clone" territory. I do take issue with the fact that the developers refer to it as a hack-and-slash title, though. Heroes of the Obelisk is not what you think of when you think of action combat. Games like Vindictus, Neverwinter, and Dungeons and Dragons Online are action-based gaming. Heroes of the Obelisk is standard, class-based, hotbar-mashing combat.
Test drive Neverwinter's Hunter Ranger with an interactive trailer
Neverwinter's Shadowmantle expansion is currently live, and with its release comes (among other things) the addition of the game's newest class. The Hunter Ranger is a ranged/melee damage dealer capable of shifting attack abilities on the fly depending on how close the player feels like getting to the target. For those of you who haven't yet had a chance to create a Hunter Ranger or are curious about what playing as one might be like, Perfect World has released an interactive trailer designed to walk you through the basics. In the trailer you are able to select certain Hunter Ranger spells to see how they play out in the game world. Check out the trailer after the break. [Source: Perfect World press release]
Neverwinter's Shadowmantle launches with new class, zone, and more
Neverwinter's latest content hit today as the Shadowmantle module launched, giving players a variety of new things to occupy their time, from places to go to people to be. Players can now embark on their adventures as a brand-new class, the Hunter Ranger, which is a mix of both ranged and melee abilities. For the level-60 crowd, there is also a new dungeon to dive into (Valindra's Tower), a new skirmish to participate in (Dread Legion), and a whole new region to explore (the Dread Ring). The over-level-21 crowd can get its hands on new artifacts thanks to new quests. Other updates included in this module are a collections system, active companion bonuses, more Paragon Path choices, a voting system to kick out party members, and more. A full-run down of all the changes, balances, and additions are available in the patch notes.
