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Blizzard to attend PAX East
Blizzard Entertainment sort of does its own thing these days. The company has the clout to ignore most gatherings outside of the obvious BlizzCon when you consider the sheer size of World of Warcraft and other properties. But it looks as if this year things will be just a little bit different. Blizzard has stated that representatives will be attending this year's PAX East to show something off. And to compound the bafflement, it's not what you'd expect. Whatever the company is showing off isn't a sequel, expansion, or the obliquely referenced Titan. So what in the world could it be? The Diablo III console port? Something entirely new? A mobile game in which you follow along behind World of Warcraft NPCs and nod enthusiastically? Snakes? Whatever it is, we'll find out at the end of March when the company rolls into Boston with the rest of the PAX East crew. (We're betting on snakes.)
The death of Fallen Frontier and Moonshot's mobile resurrection
Downloadable console games were all the rage in 2009, the year that Damián Isla, Rob Stokes and Michel Bastien left Bungie and founded Moonshot Games. Stepping away from the AAA development halo, the trio envisioned a digital game for XBLA and PSN, and in 2010 they received two publishing deals for Fallen Frontier, a co-op platforming shooter with a wicked split-screen mechanic.By 2011, both of these publishing deals were dead."Here's the problem with that situation: When your game gets funded, you start spending a lot of time doing stuff that helps you make the game – lots of infrastructural stuff on the engineering side, lots of tool-building, lots of deep story and design work on the design side – but doesn't necessarily do a lot to help you sell the game," Isla told Joystiq. "So each time a development deal fell apart, it was a whole lot of time lost."Moonshot took Fallen Frontier to PAX East 2011 without a publisher, and players were "really receptive," Isla said. The money, however, had moved on."I would say that our main mistake was one of timing," Isla said. "We arrived at the XBLA/PSN space a year or two too late. If we had been showing the game at PAX 2009 rather than 2011, we would be telling a different story right now. But by 2011 the publishers' appetite for development funding in the console downloadable space had evaporated – probably for pretty good reason – and the only deals we were hearing them sign were distribution deals."
TESO food truck hits the road in March for US tour
If The Elder Scrolls Online were to serve snacks to players, what would be on the menu? Now you can find out! On March 10th, the TESO food truck will start a cross-country jaunt across the US to bring tasty treats and swag giveaways to fans. Starting at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, the truck will make 11 stops over the year at various conventions -- including PAX and PAX East, E3, and Comic-Con -- as well as a number of universities. Joining the kick-off festivities in Austin will be composer and singer Malukah. For more details on other tour dates, check out the official announcement.
PAX East Indie Showcase to include Spaceteam, Saturday Morning RPG
The indie games featured in this year's PAX East Indie Showcase have been revealed. Seven games will be showcased at the event this year, which highlights excellence in mobile games we've never heard of.The full list includes Sleeping Beast Games' iOS party game Spaceteam, Little Chomp by ClutchPlay Games, PagodaWest's Major Magnet, Trinket Studios' puzzler Orion's Forge, Saturday Morning RPG from Mighty Rabbit Studios, Time Surfer by Kumobious and Third Eye Crime by Moonshot Games.
PAX East Saturday passes are 'low,' stop procrastinating and get some
PAX East has a habit of selling out pretty quickly, as we keep telling you, and passes for Saturday are now "low." Saturday is the final day still available, so if you haven't purchased tickets yet, this might be your last chance.The official PAX East Twitter says Saturday passes "probably will be sold out before the end of the night," so get your booties in motion.
PAX East 2013 three-day passes 'low'
Three-day badges for PAX East 2013 are now "low" on the show's official site. We warned yesterday that PAX tickets have a nasty habit of selling out quick, so consider this the final warning if you want a three-day pass. Tickets for the expo started going on sale yesterday."They are very low. They will probably sell out in the next day," Penny Arcade Inc. president Robert Khoo tells us.PAX East is planned for March 22-24, 2013. Hotel deals are also available now through the PAX site. Although, those are starting to sell out too. Time to make decisions if you're on the fence.
PAX East 2013 tickets, hotel registration now available
Tickets for PAX East 2013 are available for purchase right now. That wasn't a statement of fact as much as a warning to do so before the choice tickets are sold out. It can happen very quickly, so we stress grabbing them now if you're planning on attending.PAX East, which will take place in Boston until 2023, is set for March 22-24, 2013. Hotel deals are also available now through the PAX site.
Penny Arcade 3 shaves pennies for PAX, down to $3
In celebration of PAX, which is taking place this weekend, the price of Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 has been knocked down to $3 this week, two bucks off the usual price. You can grab it now on Steam.In other Rain-Slick news, the mobile version will be shown at PAX in space S4 of the South Lobby. The mobile version is headed to both iOS and Android this October. The Mac version is slated for October as well.
Trion to stream RIFT, Defiance, and End of Nations live from PAX
If you're a RIFT fan who can't make it to PAX next weekend, we've got some good news. Trion is going to be streaming live from the show floor beginning on Friday, August 31st. The RIFT website says that "the latest in Storm Legion with interviews, playtests, and more" will be available for viewing via Trion's Twitch TV channel. Trion devs will also be accepting questions via the Twitch page, and the company will be showing its Defiance MMOFPS and its End of Nations MMORTS throughout the show.
Storyboard: The RIFT project
The biggest problem with roleplaying in an MMO is that there's a certain amount of enforced stasis. No matter how determined you are to bring about long-term change in your group, there's the simple fact that you generally need to have characters working together and staying alive. Game considerations force you to refrain from anything that would rock the boat too severely. So most main characters have plot armor, most relationships need to stay at a functional professional level, and most villains have to be guest stars. It's a compromise we make so that the game itself remains playable. But what if you didn't have to make that compromise? This isn't a story about RIFT, and it isn't a story about PAX East, but both of those elements come into play because that's how the idea came to me. What would it look like if you had a month during which there were no restrictions on roleplaying? How would things play out if you could feel confident about a month of play that's completely self-contained, with no need to preserve characters any longer than the story required? Would it make roleplaying more interesting, or would nothing change?
Neverwinter releasing Q4 2012, opens French and German websites
Neverwinter was the unexpected surprise of PAX East for us, which is why we're psyched that it should be in all our hot little hands by the end of the year. Perfect World announced that its upcoming Dungeons and Dragons MMO will launch globally in the fourth quarter of 2012. As part of the global efforts, Perfect World has opened up French and German websites to cater to the diverse European playerbase. Each localized website is just as informative and media-packed as its English counterpart. Cryptic Lead Producer Andy Velasquez is quite excited to be working on the project and anticipates players' delight when the game finally arrives: "As a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, it's a rewarding experience to develop Neverwinter and contribute to the lore of the franchise. We're taking calculated steps to ensure Neverwinter will captivate players with its immersive storylines and beautiful artwork while being a fast and fluid action game." [Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release]
'War of the Roses' and 'Chivalry' wage war without all the nonsense
Of all the games I played this year at PAX East, two unlikely contenders stood out. They weren't indie darlings or supported by the donations of Kickstarter enthusiasts. And they weren't first-person shooters, nor character action games set against historic backdrops. Both games – Fatshark's War of the Roses and Torn Banner's Chivalry: Medieval Warfare – are about as far from my usual radar as games go. That was until I played them, of course.Both Chivalry and WotR are set in (you guessed it) medieval times, though neither employs its setting much beyond a backdrop. The games are multiplayer-focused affairs; neither has any sort of single-player campaign. Given the backdrop, you might assume multiplayer to be of the Mount & Blade variety. You'd be wrong.Both games are vicious, fast, and, most importantly, accessible. These are not the sim medieval combat affairs of many Paradox Interactive-published games. These are arcade-style medieval combat games, presented in first- and third-person perspectives, and they're like nothing else I've played in the past few years.
Irrational's Levine, BioWare's Gaider, and Obsidian's Avellone on why story matters in games
I grew up reading and loving fiction. As I've aged and taken up a profession in journalism, I've erred on the side of nonfiction. And these days, most of my storytelling experiences come from film, television, and video games. But I'd be lying if I said that many of those story experiences – especially in the gaming medium – left the same impression on me as the works of Marquez or Vonnegut.In late summer 2007, I played BioShock, and my tune began to change. Six months later, I played Mass Effect, and my stance on games as storytelling devices was altered even further. Somewhere along the line, between Jill sandwiches and lost princesses, game devs started implementing stories that I actually cared about.Fast-forward to 2011, and the concept of games as storytelling devices is more accepted than ever. But games haven't changed – they're still mechanically driven constructs, and they still allow player agency to run all over what the game dev set out for you to experience. I found myself having conversations with Kotaku's Jason Schreier over the course of the past year about this seeming duality within games. We felt it was time for a proper discussion.Enter: "Plot vs. Play: The Duality of Modern Game Design," the panel Schreier and I hosted at PAX East. Our idea was to gather several game developers who've tackled this duality head on, and have them discuss their individual approaches to navigating that issue. Irrational Games creative director Ken Levine, Obsidian Entertainment creative director Chris Avellone, and BioWare lead writer David Gaider were our first team of game devs to take up the challenge – something we hope to continue at future PAXes – and they did a great job.In our rush to prepare for both the panel and that weekend's coverage plans at our respective outlets, neither Jason nor myself thought to set up a video camera to catch the event on tape. Thankfully, Mash Those Buttons captured the whole hour and put it up on YouTube, which I've dropped above.Let us know what you think, and please suggest any devs you'd like to see play a part in future versions of "Plot vs Play." We're open to ideas!
PAX East(er) largest show to date, no more PAX attendance figures
"Did...did we ever find out what the PAX East attendance was over the Easter weekend?""No, did they even release those?"Turns out, PAX East organizers didn't."Yeah, we no longer do the full attendance count anymore - trying to track down all the numbers with exhibitors, media, speakers etc. was just a pain," Penny Arcade business guru Robert Khoo told Joystiq. "We know it was the largest PAX ever, even with the holiday weekend, so we're super happy with how everything turned out."Last year's PAX Prime hit 70,000 attendees. We think Khoo and company are just trying to prevent further one-upmanship between the sibling shows.
WRUP: Get there early and save!
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too! I don't care if it's slated to be 72 degrees and sunny tomorrow here in Boston -- this weekend is going to be terrible. Why, you ask? Because this weekend isn't a PAX East weekend. Mat McCurley isn't crashing on my couch, eating pizza and doing nerd stuff. And the staff of WoW Insider isn't entertaining a crowd of people during a live show. That's the real downer. Mat worked feverishly to entertain the hell out of an estimated 300 PAX convention-goers last Saturday. Thankfully, he had the foresight to video record the whole thing. You can only watch 10 minutes of it, but they're the only visually important minutes anyway. You should watch it, even if only for the fact that the stunningly handsome Fox Van Allen is in the mix. (Check out the full audio podcast.) Anyway, though this weekend is sure to be less interesting than the last, we still need to WRUP. Today's bonus question: What's your favorite independent video game?
The Firing Line: Firefall, Defiance, John Romero, and more
Dude, there was a ton of big shooter news this week! I mean, this isn't terribly unusual, particularly since the genre is expanding at a rapid rate, but when I've got to cut interesting items out of this column for length reasons, you know it's been an eventful few days. Join me after the break for a recap on everything from Firefall to Defiance to John Romero and beyond.
TERA recaps PAX East and a week of reveals with new video
If you're looking forward to TERA but sad about missing En Masse's demo of the fantasy MMO at last weekend's PAX East, cheer up! The firm has just released a recap video that's almost as good as being there. It was a big week overall for TERA, and the reveals included an A-list voice cast, snippets about the launch head-start period, dungeon finder and economic tweaks, and the lush Twilight Valley region showcased at PAX. TERA's PAX demo pitted players against wave after wave of argons and big-ass monsters, not to mention a nasty cuss called Subject 5005. Players who were able to whittle the boss's health down were then given a further challenge when 5005 transformed into an Argonomorph (yeah, we're not sure what that is either, but you can see it via the video after the cut). [Source: En Masse Entertainment press release]
PAX East 2012: Exploring the dark corners of The Secret World
As anyone around the Massively offices can tell you, I am eagerly-bordering-on-obsessively awaiting the release of Funcom's latest entry into the MMO market, The Secret World. I'm all about the supernatural, occult, and paranormal, and The Secret World's "all the myths are true" philosophy is right up my alley, so when I heard that there would be a playable demo at PAX East 2012, it was all I could do not to squeal like a 12-year-old girl (and I may have done so anyway). Of course, many people are hesitant about the title. Between The Secret World's subscription-cum-microtransactions business model and Funcom's track record of poor launches and bug-laden games, some gamers are finding themselves hesitant to get hyped up for the game's June 19th launch. Of course, I'd be lying if I said I weren't at least a bit cautious myself, regardless of my enthusiasm for the game. So how is the game shaping up? Well, sit down, grab yourself a drink, and let me tell you what I think.
Video: Joystiq vs. PAX East 2012
With PAX East all wrapped up, it's time for the Joystiq crew to take a few moments to relax before E3 (it's only seven weeks away!). We'll be squeezing out the remainder of our PAX East coverage over the next couple of days. In the meantime, relive the adventure (or experience it vicariously for the first time) with the video above. [Music: Trash80 - "Missing You"]
PAX East 2012: Hands-on with Perfect World's RaiderZ
TERA isn't the only upcoming MMO to feature big-ass monsters and action combat. Perfect World Entertainment showed us a demo of RaiderZ at last weekend's PAX East, and producer Mark Hill was pretty enthusiastic about the game's level of polish. He also made a point of highlighting the amount of free gameplay the company will be making available to fans later this year. "We really want to blow people away with how much free content they're getting out of a really top-notch game," he said. Join us after the cut to see what RaiderZ has to offer.
