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The Think Tank: Remembering our first MMOs
This week, my very first MMO, Ultima Online, turns 17 years old in what can only be an intentional effort to make classic MMO gamers feel very, very old indeed. I've been thinking a lot about the game and returned to it recently to scope it out, so for today's Think Tank, I polled the Massively writers about their own "first MMOs," their first memories of the genre, and whether their firsts have survived the test of time.
The Think Tank: Surveiling ArcheAge's launch
Some of the Massively staff have been playing ArcheAge during its head start and launch week, and some haven't, but all of us have been watching to see how the first major sandbox launch in recent memory fares. For today's Think Tank, I polled the Massively writers about their impressions of the game whether they are playing it personally or examining the launch from an industry perspective.
The Think Tank: Consoles and the future of MMOs
Destiny might not be a pure MMO, but its huge launch on the fringes of the MMO space this week has prompted us to ponder whether the future of core MMOs lies in the console market. In this week's Think Tank, I polled the Massively writers about just that.
The Think Tank: The best of PAX Prime 2014
This year's PAX Prime has drawn to a close, as has our coverage, but how did it fare, on the whole, for MMO players? I polled the Massively writers for their favorite announcements and showings from the con. Here's what we think was the best and most interesting MMO news to come out of PAX Prime.
The Think Tank: The desirability of world-changing game events
World-changing events can have a huge impact on MMORPGs, both positive and negative. Guild Wars 2's living story, which laid waste to Lion's Arch and face-lifted several other areas in the game, is well-known for its permanent plot-based world changes, but EverQuest II, World of Warcraft, and many older games have also dabbled with brazen alterations to the landscape... and players aren't always happy about it. For today's Think Tank, I asked the Massively writers what they think about such content: Are we fans of permanent, comfortable, unchanging worlds, or do we prefer game worlds to change over time and in our absence, even if that means virtual places we once loved can no longer be visited?
The Think Tank: Predicting the launch of Warlords of Draenor
We teased Blizzard on Monday for announcing an announcement date for the release date for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, but the truth is, even MMO players who don't play WoW are a little curious about when the expansion will release and how it might impact other MMOs we all play. That release date is what the Massively team is talking about today; we're issuing our predictions for launch date. Join us in the comments!
WRUP: Guardians of the Twisting Nether
Guardians of the Galaxy is out this weekend, a thrilling tale of a motley crew of unexpected allies who somehow manage to come together and save the galaxy from certain destruction. I saw it on Thursday night and thought it was hysterically awesome. It's the combination of unlikely characters that makes the film, really -- so when I was putting together this week's WRUP, I thought I'd throw out an unlikely bonus question: If you were going to assemble an unlikely crew from Azeroth's finest to save the world, who would you stick together? I'm pretty sure Cro Threadstrong would have to be on my team, as well as Asric and Jadaar, Thisalee Crow, and Myra Tyrngaarde. Yes, the bread vendor from Ironforge. You just know she's hiding the secret ability to go ballistic. They'd totally defeat the Burning Legion. ... or at least they'd provide enough of a startling distraction for the other heroes to come in and take care of business. And of course we ask, as we always do, what are you playing?
The Think Tank: Building an MMO without levels
Welcome back to another Think Tank! This week, I charged the Massively team with a single task: Elevator-pitch an MMO without levels. What should an MMO without levels look like? Can it even be done in this modern MMO era? Here's what we came up with -- we'd love to hear your take too.
WRUP: Someone should make a Warcraft movie MMO
So there's this Warcraft movie that's getting made? And they showed off the logo and some props from it this week, and there's apparently going to be a big panel at SDCC where Legendary Pictures may or may not reveal some details about the movie. And so now I'm thinking about it, and I think we totally should make an MMO based on this Warcraft property, if the movie does well enough. So this week, in addition to asking about what our friends are playing, I asked what they thought about this Warcraft movie and if it would make a good MMO.
The Think Tank: Saying farewell to Vanguard
Vanguard is being retired forever next week, and this time there won't be a studio waiting in the wings to rescue it from doom. Today, Massively's staff hopes to give it a fond farewell. Join us in sharing our thoughts about the world of Telon.
WRUP: And now, our feature presentation
This week saw a release date announcement for Curse of Naxxramas, the first adventure pack for Hearthstone. Release dates are fine and all that, but in more relevant WoW news, this week also saw the launch of a brand new beta build that opened up four new levels to obtain, two new PvE zones worth of quests, two model revamps, one PvP island, a mysterious portal, and a whole mess of new places to explore. Sure, we already have a list of things to expect from Warlords, and a list of features we'll be seeing in the new expansion. But this week, in addition to asking everyone what they are playing this weekend, we decided to ask what one feature they'd like to see added to Warlords. How about you guys -- and what are you playing? Alex Ziebart (@AlexZiebart) This weekend I'm taking it easy for the most part and spending time outside. When I am playing something, I'll be on the Warlords beta checking out Talador. As for new features? Real player housing is still something I really want after seeing it in action in Wildstar -- the amount of creativity some players pour into their lots is incredible. Though I'd accept a Karabor comeback as an alternative.
The Think Tank: Star Citizen and armchair speculation
This week, Star Citizen announced it's now raised a total of $48 million in crowdfunding and revealed its $50 million stretch goal, which is an absurd amount of money (but still not as absurd as how much some other AAA MMOs reportedly spent). "As a professional gamer and armchair developer with several failed armchair projects under my belt," wrote Massively commenter computerhelfer with his tongue firmly in cheek, "I can safely say this project has acquired too much money. This project makes my armchair feel uncomfortable." Apparently, large sums of money and large-scale projects make a lot of people uncomfortable, at least judging by the huge and sometimes nonsensical debates that sprawl across our Star Citizen posts. In today's Think Tank, I've asked some of the Massively writers to speculate on the future of the game, its impact on the genre, and how much higher that crowdfund number might go before all of the core pieces of the game have launched.
WRUP: A lonely time of playing
This week was a complex mix of big news and no news. Weeks like this are weird. Your intrepid WoW Insider staff assembles itself, ready to lay down the big news smackdown... and then nothing else comes to light. It's a weird mix of hurry-up-and-wait and "Oh, please, let something happen." But the reality is that WoD approaches closer with every day. While there's obviously no release date yet, we're getting lots of information from the beta. So when we asked the WoW Insider staff what they're playing this weekend, we also asked them to opine on the state of the beta. Are we looking forward to the expansion as a whole new playground, or are we feeling like the not-time-travel expansion is perhaps a bit lackluster?
The Think Tank: Happy birthday, Star Wars Galaxies
Today marks the 11th anniversary of the launch of Star Wars Galaxies, an MMO whose untimely sunset at the end of 2011 continues to make sandbox fans sigh mournfully. This week, in honor of the anniversary, I asked the Massively writers whether they think we'll ever see another new Star Wars MMORPG (other than those we still have, of course), let alone another epic Star Wars sandbox. It's time to speculate!
The Think Tank: The best of E3 2014's MMO offerings
E3 has come and gone, and we, the members of the Massively crew, have taken some time to reflect on the MMO shenanigans we saw and read about and experienced vicariously through the folks we conned into going to LA our dear and intrepid field reporters. Here's what our writers thought about E3's offerings for MMO players.
The Think Tank: Catching up on WildStar's launch
WildStar's launch has come and gone, and I missed it while I was away on a raid IRL (my loot? A legendary baby drop!). This might just be one of the few major MMORPGs whose launch metas I've missed out on in my entire span of playing MMOs since Ultima Online, so I asked the Massively staffers who've been playing either a lot or a little to catch me up on the state of the launch. How did it go from the perspective of the people on the ground (as opposed to the people in the peanut gallery)? I'd love to hear from our readers, too!
The Think Tank: The best MMORPG character naming systems
My first MMO was Ultima Online, where character naming rules were so unrestricted that it wasn't uncommon for people to copy names from others to pass themselves off as other players, usually for espionage and infiltration purposes. My guild even lost a guild base that way once to a particularly savvy spy with the same name as one of our officers! Subsequent MMOs, all the way into the present day, usually curtail such exploits with harsh naming conventions, including WildStar, which made recently headlines with a botched reservation system for its unique names (in fact, the registration ends tomorrow!). But players don't seem any happier with unique names than with copycat names. I polled the Massively writers about their opinions on the best naming systems in MMOs and how they'd like to see naming systems improved in general.
The Think Tank: Listen to the music
When I logged into ultra-indie sandbox Villagers & Heroes a few weeks ago to explore its latest patch and arrival on Steam, the first thing that slammed into me was Jupiter. No, really: Holst's Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity, one of the iconic movements of The Planets suite that's been inspiring composers for a hundred years. I just wasn't expecting to hear it verbatim during character creation. It's... well, it's jolly and strangely annoying in a game context, even for someone who appreciates a good Holst-inspired game soundtrack. For this week's Think Tank, I polled the Massively writers about their in-game music preferences. Do they turn it off? Do they listen faithfully? Are they raiding to Bieber? I bet they are.
The Think Tank: Non-combat roles in MMORPGs
Two recent topics have collided to create this week's Think Tank topic: Massively's Justin wrote about pacifist characters in MMOs, and Camelot Unchained reminded me that while there's no PvE, it'll be possible to play as a pure crafter to contribute to PvP. These shouldn't strike us as novel concepts. The genre has seen several MMOs (A Tale in the Desert, Glitch) that shed combat entirely, and many sandboxes (Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online, to name just a few), allowed players to roll pure crafters who raised neither blaster nor kryss to attack a foe. Yet many modern gamers still think of pacifist play as an anomaly, having been bred to believe combat is the end-all, be-all of an MMORPG experience. I polled the Massively team members for their thoughts on pacifist play and non-combat roles in MMOs. Have or would they play such characters and games?
The Think Tank: Founder packs, exploitation, and choices
Free-to-play MMOs have learned at least one key lesson from crowdfunding: Some people will shell out huge amounts of money for pixels, far more than we've traditionally paid for industry-standard preorders and collectors editions. Most recently, Landmark, ArcheAge, Trove, and Transformers Universe have come under fire for offering pricey "founder packs" that provide a range of early access benefits, some of them significant, for what are otherwise F2P games. I polled the Massively writers for their take on this trend. Is it exploitative or just the reality of modern MMO funding?
