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The Daily Grind: How many times can a game launch?
We've given Neverwinter a lot of guff for its soft launch followed by an actual launch, but the fact is it's not the only culprit. MechWarrior Online has theoretically been in open beta for some time, but now it has a launch date. Firefall's closed beta at times felt like it was just an open beta in waiting. Some free-to-play games don't even bother officially launching; they just slowly stop calling the game a title in beta while the cash shop quietly opens. And then you have relaunches like Final Fantasy XIV... You'd think that the criteria for a launch would be pretty straightforward, but increasingly we've seen titles that can rack up multiple launch dates with the same amount of fanfare, and that's without considering staggered early access. So today we ask you, dear readers: How many times can a game launch? Do soft launches and full launches count? Relaunches? Business model launches? Major patch launches? What should and shouldn't count? 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!
Troy Online announces open beta
We may be smack dab in the middle of the dog days of summer, but there's plenty of cool stuff to do inside if you're into MMORPGs. The latest diversion takes the form of Troy Online's open beta. While there's a conspicuous absence of Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom, there are three traditional fantasy classes, 49 levels, and plenty of excuses to engage in free-to-play PvE and PvP. ALT1 Games is kicking off Troy's open beta phase on August 12th, and the testing period will be used primarily to finalize features, balance, and latency issues. The open beta will also see all quests and quest arcs, the maximum level cap, and all available zones introduced to the live game in order to get ready for the impending commercial release. You can read more about Troy, as well as register for an account and a beta slot, at the game's official website.
CardMon Hero offers up colorful new trailer
While CardMon Hero went into open beta last week, the teams at Hanbitsoft, T3fun, and Redbana have just put out a new video offering up some gameplay from the game for you to check out. Why did they wait so long? Well, perhaps they hoped to lure you in to all the card-building dueling action, or maybe they just wanted to film some fun fights featuring players running around the world. Whatever the companies' reason, if you are curious for a look at this fast-paced free-to-play MMO, and haven't had a chance to check it out, we've tucked the newest video behind the break. With complex card strategies, crafting, and some pretty wicked-looking henchmen to collect, it's a brightly-colored MMO-offering for those who remember playing insane amounts of TCGs in their youth. Also, we've added our gallery full of concept art, screenshots, and more from CardMon Hero for you to enjoy. If you're ready to get into the action, head over to the CardMon Hero site and get signed up! %Gallery-107151%
Final Fantasy XIV fansite mines out guildleves and hidden models
Final Fantasy XIV is a game that's provoked no shortage of strong opinions, ranging from adoration to venomous loathing. If you're knee-deep in playing it, however, you could certainly use a full rundown of the guildleves available in the game. FFXIVCore, which has been quite active over the course of the beta, has provided a full rundown of the leves in the game, sortable by various criteria and listing all relevant data about each given levequest. Should that not be quite enough to tickle your fancy, some astute glancing through the data files for the game has revealed the ship models and several other currently unused files within the game. Although the models are untextured, there are some that should provide no end of fan speculation, such as the model very clearly resembling the ubiquitous Ifrit. Final Fantasy XIV hopefuls whose expectations have sunk will probably not care, but current players should be happy for the new resource.
Dawntide open beta coming on May 31st
These days, "sandbox" so often gets read as "constant PvP" that the two can almost be used interchangeably. But Working As Intended's sandbox game Dawntide is focused on the creation of societies, cities, and an entire world based solely on player input, the sort of thing that's quite attractive to a number of players. The game has been in closed beta testing for quite some time, but if the premise intrigues you, there's good news on the horizon -- on May 31st, the game is going into fully open beta testing. As the game approaches the deadline (which is very close indeed at this point), the development team is rolling out several improvements to the game. Those include a revamped and improved UI, a number of skills being implemented, and a stretch of islands available for players to claim as their own and build up as they see fit. If truly open-world gameplay appeals to you, the upcoming holiday weekend might be best capped off with a look at Dawntide's beta. [Thanks to Bartillo for the tip!]
