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Elder Scrolls Online's Craglorn update is coming tomorrow
ZeniMax creative director Paul Sage told IGN that Elder Scrolls Online's endgame-focused Craglorn update is coming this week. "I think we're still at the tail-end of six weeks[.] I could be wrong there[;] it's all a blur," Sage said. "But we're either in the sixth week or the seventh with this update[,] and I believe our next update is fairly on schedule," he said. After it launches Craglorn, ZeniMax plans to unveil the Crypt of Hearts veteran dungeon. IGN also says that it talked to Sage about player housing, the Thieves Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood, but that information won't be available until later in the week. [Update: ZeniMax has just posted that in fact the Craglorn update will arrive tomorrow: "We are very happy to announce that Update 1, including Craglorn, will hit the live servers starting tomorrow, when we'll be bringing the servers offline to begin deploying Update 1. [...] Offline maintenance will begin on Thursday, May 22 (tomorrow!) at 8 AM EDT for the North American megaserver and at 10 PM EDT for the European Megaserver. Craglorn and the rest of Update 1 will be available to players after the end of the maintenance period."]
Albion introduces player-driven cities
Albion's latest press release talks up the fantasy sandbox's new player-driven cities. Initially said cities will be empty and will provide players with the opportunity to both claim them and "create whole new societies from the ground up." "These new cities will be strewn throughout the world, including deep inside PvP territory; these cities will be places where all players, regardless of their guild affiliations, can build houses and storage for themselves, utilize crafting stations and trade at an auction house, access their vaults, and otherwise prepare themselves for venturing back out into danger," explains lead game designer Robin Henkys. Cities will be owned by a single controlling guild, which will reap various benefits including market and property taxes. Click past the cut for more details. [Source: Sandbox Interactive press release]
Fallen Earth posts its update on development in May
If you're a Fallen Earth player eagerly awaiting the release of the Outpost (the player-built town originally meant for live implementation this month) you're going to have to wait a little longer. But you're not being forgotten, either. The latest development update states that while it's taken a while to even bring the new feature to the test server, the team is still hard at work testing all of the ways it interacts with other systems in the game, and it's still on its way. Additionally, this update reveals that another developer has joined the team. The Scapegoat is a systems developer who will be responsible for tweaking the game's skills and mutations, with a build and patch notes due to arrive on the test server very shortly. While it's still largely quiet for the post-apocalyptic game, players should be happy that there are still signs of life.
Star Wars: The Old Republic Insider previews future updates
Do you want to know what the future of Star Wars: The Old Republic looks like? The latest installment of Star Wars: The Old Republic Insider hosted by community manager Eric Musco is all about that, covering the upcoming Galactic Strongholds expansion as well as what players can expect in terms of PvP and community events. If you've been avidly following every bit of news about the game, you've quite possibly seen some of what the game has to offer, but if you've been a bit out of the loop it's a great chance to check out the new features of strongholds and the refinements made to PvP. Check out the full video just past the break.
Massively's first look at sandbox Shards Online
How many games have you played only to find yourself uttering the phrase, "If only I could run my own server"? Chances are, there at least one or two titles you''d love to make into a private playground for select friends using your own personal ruleset. Lucky for you, in Shards Online, you'll be able to do precisely that! Announced last month, this upcoming sandbox by former Mythic Entertainment devs is built on the premise that players will run the majority of the virtual worlds how they want to. Do you want a fantasy world where you can boot those who ruin immersion? You got it! What about the ability to take over mobs and fight the players while spouting personalized comments? Yup, that too. What if you want a hardcore world where survival is for the fittest? Mm-hmm, starving to death is an option, as is permadeath. And how about a world where gameplay unfolds around players as they explore rather than offers questing on rails? That's the theory behind the game. But how do these ideas hold up in practice? Last week I sat down with Citadel Studios co-founder Derek Brinkmann to witness a demonstration of Shards Online and talk all about the plans for the game. And what I saw certainly looks promising! So if this idea tantalizes your gaming taste buds, keep reading to get the scoop. I've even added a teaser video.
PAX East 2014: Can World of Warcraft's garrisons live up to the hype?
Like many players, I have very mixed feelings about the garrisons being added to World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Warlords of Draenor. At this year's PAX East, I sat down with Blizzard Entertainment to discuss the feature, and the studio reps explained garrisons as a way for Blizzard to bring a bit of Warcraft into the WoW universe. As a fan of WarCraft 3, I left the interview feeling hopeful and excited. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to worry that garrisons will boil down to one of three things: an expanded version of Mists of Pandaria's farms, a new daily quest hub, or just another time-sink that will keep players isolated from one another.
RIFT opens up player PvP dimensions
Do you like instanced PvP but hate being subject to the PvP maps that the game's designers have put together? Maybe you have an idea for an even better map in RIFT, one that would really give even veteran players a run for their money. Good news, then: Now you can go ahead and make that map a reality with the addition of player PvP dimensions to the game's cash shop. PvP dimensions are available as part of two-team or three-team Starter Packs, or they can be purchased individually. These maps also give you access to another personal dimension, but their real purpose is letting you build custom maps with the use of scoreboards, damage areas, invisible tiles, and plenty of other tricks to create a truly memorable experience. If you've ever wanted to design an MMO battleground like an old DOOM deathmatch arena, you can go ahead and get started crafting your ideal arena now.
World of Warcraft garrisons won't cost you gold
You know that World of Warcraft's next expansion is going to feature housing. Not just housing, in fact, since Garrisons are sprawling complexes under your direct control. So you know you need to figure out how you can afford it. You've been farming diligently, even resorting to shaking down repair vendors for gold, although that one hasn't worked out so well. But as it turns out, you don't need to worry. According to a tweet by Senior Game Designer Jeremy Feasel, Garrisons won't cost you gold. Feasel specifies in the tweet that Garrisons will use their own resource, stating that more information about what that resource is and how it can be gathered will be available soon. So you can rest easy knowing that your hard-won gold won't be needed to build your fortress. Or you can rest despondent that all of your gold won't buy you a nicer place. Either one, really.
SWTOR's Galactic Strongholds expansion coming in August
Ready for Star Wars: The Old Republic's next expansion? Ready or not, it's called Galactic Strongholds, and it's coming some time in August of 2014. If you're a subscriber you'll get early access beginning on June 24th, and you'll also get a handful of exclusives including a Nar Shaddaa Sky Palace Stronghold. Expansion features include customizable player housing known as strongholds, the ability to live on multiple planets, and guild flagships. BioWare says that housing decor will be available in a number of ways. "Many decorations will be available on existing vendors throughout the game as new rewards for Reputations, PvP, Crew Skills, and more," according to the SWTOR website. "While some of these decorations will be available for credits and other currencies, many will require components created by crafters. Decorations can also be obtained as loot drops from Flashpoints and Operations. Finally, a variety of unique decorations can be purchased with Cartel Coins on the Cartel Market. " Click past the cut for the trailer!
Shroud of the Avatar celebrates one-year Kickstarter anniversary with giveaways and events
Shroud of the Avatar is bearing down on its one-year anniversary since the title was successfully funded on Kickstarter, and Portalarium has several giveaways and events planned for the occasion. The events planned include several hour-long developer hangouts, an all-day hangout telethon on April 7th, and access to Release 4 for backers on the 7th as well. The studio will be giving away an Alienware gaming laptop, a trip to Austin to visit with the team, Founder adventure pledges, and weekend passes for Release 5. Portalarium also announced that it's creating a fourth housing lot size to fit castles for Lords of the Manor. It's a four-fold increase in size over city lots and even comes with a moat -- because why have player housing if you're not able to drown your visiting friends?
The Think Tank: Housing or bust! Right?
With Star Wars: The Old Republic's new player apartment system apparently on the way and several other major MMOs set to launch with or receive housing this year, what better time than now to debate whether housing belongs in MMOs? Sandbox fans are probably choking on the idea that it might not, raised as they were on the idea that housing is such an obvious hub for social interaction and creativity, but a lot of gamers can take it or leave it, figuring that they don't really need another resource-intensive place to stash loot in between raids or PvP matches. I polled the Massively team members to see whether they consider player housing a vital component of MMORPGs. Feel free to chime in!
Fallen Earth gives a sneak peek at its player-built town
The Fallen Earth team is hard at work on the next major update of the game, which will include a player-built town called the Outpost. In a new state of the game post, the devs show off a few of the structures in this town. "Since the plot for the area revolves around the Outsiders and GlobalTech, we wanted to take advantage of those groups' love of technology and give the buildings some high tech pieces as well as keeping the aged pre-fall feel," the devs wrote. The Outpost will be bigger and "more robust" than Citadel and should be hitting the live servers some time in May.
Breaking down Star Wars: The Old Republic's housing reveal
Are you still reeling from the revelation that Star Wars: The Old Republic will have player housing? So is Massively's Larry Everett, who took the time to break down the short video reveal on Hyperspace Beacon in order to extract as many details as possible for the game's faithful. Larry notes a few of the possibilities for player apartments, including an appearance designer kiosk, a cargo hold, a mailbox, a faction banner, a repair droid, a mission terminal, and a moonroof. Give the video a watch after the break and sound off: What features and decorations would you want in your SWTOR apartment?
Moving day: Settling in to your WildStar house
Player housing is more than fluff, as detractors claim; it is settlement, personal expression, and ownership in a way that we don't always get in an MMO. I've been in MMOs without housing and been distressed to be an eternal nomad. I've been in MMOs that have had sub-standard housing and felt the pain of "what could have been." And I've seen MMOs that have incredibly robust housing that becomes one of the most talked-about features in those titles. I'm sincerely hoping that WildStar will prove itself to be the latter, especially given how much Carbine has been talking up the system. WildStar's focus on customization options for players is readily apparent when you finally arrive at your personal floating island in the sky early on in your adventures. Once you hit level 14, you'll get a quest to go to your capital city and travel by transporter to claim your land. Why we need floating houses instead of a carved-out chunk of the massive untamed wilderness on Nexus was never explained to me, but I didn't mind. I was a homeowner!
Flameseeker Chronicles: I'd like to build a Guild Wars 2 home
Happy 2014, everybody! For the first time in a long while, Guild Wars 2 has gone without updates for a few weeks while the ArenaNet team took a well-deserved break. The next content release will drop on January 21st and will reportedly herald the beginning of the end of the Scarlet Briar story arc. I've been spending my free time reading through the latest collaborative development initiative thread on the official forums. A few weeks ago I wrote about horizontal and vertical progression in GW2 and the CDI thread related to it; at this time the discussion on the forums has narrowed specifically to horizontal progression and what players would like to see from it. After posting our top three priorities for horizontal progression, we were asked to further narrow it down to one, in order to develop a proposal. Since it's been such a popular suggestion in the thread, I think it's a good time to talk about a subject near to my shriveled, cold Necromantic heart: player housing.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's horse year
As I steadily collect another set of holiday hats for little reason other than an inexplicable need to collect these things (and I'd really like to be able to store my Usagi Kabuto while I'm at it, thanks), it's a fair time to look at the next year for Final Fantasy XIV's development. The game launched well, has made some missteps, and the next year is really going to determine how well it can manage over the long term. I'm not pretending that I have a picture-perfect roadmap for the game over the next year, but I do think there are some pretty obvious things to be addressed. There are gaps to be filled in, systems that could stand to be improved, and more systems that would have a positive effect on retention and play. So let's look at what the next year will hopefully bring other than equine headpieces.
Storyboard: What housing does for roleplaying
Those of you who read the other meanderings that I post on the site already know that I am very, very unhappy about the mess that Final Fantasy XIV has made out of housing. You don't need to hear about it again, though. What's far more relevant is addressing a question that at once seems screamingly straightforward and yet barely gets answered: Why does housing matter so much for roleplaying? Pretty much no one argues with the basic premise that housing is a boon for roleplaying, but that discussion usually stops there. It's assumed that the reasons it's helpful is self-evident in much the same way that having a game that does not set fire to your face is desirable. But it's useful to examine why at least affordable entry-level housing in a game is important for roleplaying and how it can lead to benefits for the community as a whole.
Square Enix tweaks Final Fantasy XIV housing prices
Thanks to what Square-Enix has called a "prodigious amount of gil in circulation" on certain Final Fantasy XIV worlds, it appears as though new players and those returning from a break are priced completely out of the housing market. In the interest of getting the system under control, Square announced yesterday that it will be dramatically reducing the price of land across numerous servers. According to the announcement, land pricing for legacy worlds will be adjusted to match land pricing of non-legacy worlds. This will result in land values on certain worlds being reduced by 2.5 to 5 times their current value over the course of several weeks. Additionally, Square plans to "re-evaluate" the final price of land across all worlds sometime in late January. Check out the full post to see which worlds have which pricing and how values are about to change. [Thanks to Zengarzombolt for the tip!]
The Mog Log: A week of Final Fantasy XIV's patch 2.1
All right, I admit that the headline is a dirty lie. It hasn't been a full week however you slice it; the patch dropped on Tuesday, and I've only been able to play it for two days before writing this. To make up for that fact, I've devoured Final Fantasy XIV's patch with a zeal I usually reserve for hamburgers, although I still haven't seen everything there is to see. Though if I had seen all of it in two days, that would kind of be a problem anyway... The point is that 2.1 is pretty dang huge, even if it includes one feature that's a massive blemish. So let's take a look at what the patch has to offer, how the various new features hold up, and where the patch falls down -- other than with housing, which is already a great big "fall down" that will be addressed all by itself.
The Mog Log Extra: Final Fantasy XIV's great housing fiasco
This past Saturday morning, Final Fantasy XIV announced free company housing prices in its patch notes for 2.1. These prices did not explicitly include an upturned middle finger and looping sounds of laughter, but they may as well have. This was not a positive move by Square-Enix. With the patch scheduled for release on Tuesday, players had an enormous part of their enjoyment kneecapped immediately and almost arbitrarily. One of the major features of this patch that has been announced and discussed repeatedly is housing, and nearly every free company I spoke with said that this announcement more or less killed any dream of having housing accessible to the players on my server. And they're not the only ones. To say that this has been disheartening is an understatement. Final Fantasy XIV has had an immensely strong relaunch, and this debacle -- and the complete lack of communication from the community team on the issue -- is absolutely astounding. These are not launch woes that almost every game suffers from; this is a result of failing to consider so many basic elements of playstyles and the playerbase.
