post-apoc
Latest
Choose My Adventure: You decide the MMO and how I play it
It's finally time for my second round of Choose My Adventure. The last time I helmed CMA, Lineage II was top pick, and I had a lot of fun with it. I took tons of screenshots and video to keep you in the loop as to my progress, and you can expect the same, whichever game is chosen this time. MJ's turn with The Secret World was a lot of fun to read and follow. She even livestreamed some of her shenanigans... I mean, adventures. You can bet I'll be playing with one finger over the PrtScn button and livestreaming some of my adventures as well. I hope to make this a multimedia extravaganza of epic proportions. Take a look through your choices and vote, vote, vote. And make sure to get those votes in by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday the 21st!
One Shots: Wings
Resident Massively Aion columnist MJ Guthrie could sum up the best reason to play her favorite MMO in just one word: wings! That's something reader Leandra plainly echoes in today's featured One Shots submission. She sent us this image of her character soaring through Aion along with this note: I've been toying around with Aion a bit and took my baby Chanter, Elanyne, for her first flight through the Abyss. I kept an eye out for Elyos, but thankfully (though somewhat disappointingly), I was able to quest in peace. I guess I'll have to level up more and then go looking to pick some fights! You red, you dead -- that's what I always say! Leandra's flight and a few other reader screenies are tucked beyond the break.
The Game Archaeologist: Happy birthday, Warhammer Online and Fallen Earth!
September is a special month for me because it was around this time that two MMOs personally meaningful to me launched. Four years ago, Warhammer Online came into being amid a flurry of hype, insane expectations, and fan frenzy. It's the game that excited me enough to start my journey as a blogger, eventually landing me a spot here on Massively. And three years ago, Fallen Earth opened my eyes to how much fun an MMO about the end of the world and crafting could be. Despite the fact that neither of these titles qualifies for the title of "success" these days, I still bear a soft spot in my heart for them. I spent well over a year in each game, racking up several memories and useful lessons that I'd carry with me going forward. And I don't regret a single day playing them. Since this month is the fourth anniversary of WAR and the third of Fallen Earth, I wanted to offer a hearty "congrats!" and take a minute to see what's been moving and shaking in these games during this past year.
Xsyon creature migration system unveiled
As part of making a dynamic, living world, Notorious Games unveiled Xsyon's unique new creature migration system. Unlike worlds where mobs are static, this sandbox will ensure that animals don't just hang around one place. Instead, as animals breed and the populations expand, they will move from regions with higher populations to areas with lower ones. Different species will also exhibit different tendencies when migrating. Smaller, tamer critters will congregate toward the shores of Lake Tahoe and civilization, whereas the more dangerous creatures will migrate toward the mountains away from people. The wild animals that venture too close or into the toxic mist will mutate and return to wreak havoc upon the denizens of the land. [Source: Notorious Games press release]
The Perfect Ten: Ways MMOs explain infinite resurrection
Why? Why do we die in MMOs and receive an infinite number of resurrections? Are we in a type of hell defined by endless combat and suffering, doomed to never escape the cycle? Is this a cruel experiment being performed by supreme alien beings from afar? Does that make us the living undead, immortal Highlanders, or something even more significant? If you're looking at me with that look you have in your eye right now, I'd like to remind you that asking these questions is more in line with the core of RPGs than just mashing the 1-2-3 buttons. The rules that make up and dictate our virtual lives should have both meaning and sense, yet so many of these games expect us to just blithely accept that we can come back from the dead over and over without nary an explanation. Well, I like explanations. Even if it's just polite nonsense, a thought-out reason as to why our characters are death-proof tells me that the devs treat their game with a higher degree of integrity than others. So here are 10 MMOs in which the endless cycle of death and resurrection gets at least a backhanded explanation instead of "shut up, just accept it."
Fallen Earth unveils new weapons and bosses in time for its third anniversary [Updated]
Anniversary gifts require careful thought, but Fallen Earth seems to know just what its players want. So patch 2.5 adds three powerful new weapons for players to use across the wastelands as well as three new bosses that carry required components for those weapons. It's not really the traditional gift for a three-year anniversary, but some traditions are going to go out the window when the entire world is a ravaged wasteland dominated by crazed survivalists. The three G.O.R.E weapons each have three tiers and can be upgraded, although the process is greatly enhanced by players who find G.O.R.E. enhancements. Not coincidentally, these can be found on the three new bosses added with the patch. The full patch notes also include a few art fixes and minor quality-of-life improvements, the sort of things that go very nicely with your new anniversary guns. [Update: The team has updated the patch notes to clarify that not all of the new weapon components can be purchased through the cash shop. Specifically, "all components that are required to build the weapons are earned in-game using resource harvesters, killing boss mobs, and from high-level merchants (for in-game currency only)." Players may purchase optional G.O.R.E. enhancements and new boss baits through the cash shop, although both of these drop from monsters as well.] %Gallery-48606%
The Daily Grind: Do you like in-game gambling?
Putting aside the thorny issue of lockboxes, let's turn our attention today on the subject of in-game gambling. I've noticed that more and more games are including some form of gambling, usually as minigames. From Fallen Earth's electronic blackjack to Star Trek Online's Dabo wheel, there seems to be no shortage of ways for players to waste double their currency. In-game gambling actually has a long association with computer and video game RPGs. I've never seen it as a legitimate money-maker so much as a pleasant distraction from combat and a tool for immersion. Plus, if the developers actually managed to create a good poker minigame out of it all, then it's like getting two games for the price of one! It might be hard to developers these days to keep microtransactions out of in-game gambling systems, but fortunately that's not a universal problem as of yet. Whether or not real money comes into the equation, do you enjoy gambling in your MMOs? 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!
Fallen Earth previews its next big update
The past month has been a quiet one for Fallen Earth on the update front. As the latest development blog entry explains, this was largely due to the team working on clearing out some persistent bugs and improving the overall quality of life for players. But there are new updates in the works, and the blog entry explains that the game's next major update is right around the corner, complete with powerful new weapons for players to assemble. Of course, you can't expect for these new weapons to just drop into your lap. So it probably comes as no real surprise that the components needed for the powerful G.O.R.E. weapons can be found in an old GlobalTech dump site that now hosts a creeper den guarded by the massive Crabbahoak. Or that the Cult of the Dead has sprung up again to use the G.O.R.E. technology to further its own ends. In other words, it's going to be quite a struggle to get these new weapons -- and that's the way that most Fallen Earth players would prefer it to be.
The Daily Grind: Have you ever been scared in an MMO?
With the release of The Secret World, the topic of horror in MMOs has taken a sharp uptick in player conversations. For some, the title is creepy and spooky as all get out; for others, it's hard to get frightened with all these other people around and a solid shotgun in your hands. But The Secret World doesn't have a monopoly on scares in MMOs, as even the most benign titles may produce a moment or two that gives you the willies. It could be a monster that pops out of nowhere, a creature design that sincerely unnerves you, or a situation in which you feel utter dread and despair. I always felt that Fallen Earth delivered more than a few locations and moments that deeply unsettled me, and I'll admit to even jumping in fright once when I saw a giant wolf come out of the shadows in a darkened boiler room. So what about you? Have you ever been scared in an MMO, and if so, what happened? 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!
Inactive players give rise to Xsyon zombies
Normally, the worst things that happen to inactive players are that guilds kick them out. But in the world of Xsyon, the consequences are more dire, not just for the player but for everyone around. With the game's latest update, inactive tribal totems will begin to give rise to intelligent and malicious undead revenants. And these creatures are far more intelligent thatn your average monsters, hunting other players and looting them for better equipment as they capture new territory. Fortunately for the players, there's also new armor to be looted off the revenants themselves and plenty of opportunities for players to beat back the invasion. The update also brings along a widespread upgrade to monster AI, making all foes a bit more clever and deadly aside from just the revenants. If you've been out of the game for a while, you might want to jump back in, especially to prevent your former home from turning into an undead nest. [Source: Notorious Games press release]
APB's Reloaded Games merges with parent company
Reloaded Games, the operator of the revived APB Reloaded, has merged with parent company K2 Network. The new company retained the Reloaded Games moniker and intends it to signify a move to running more cross-platform MMOs. This is a change from K2's old practice of merely importing Korean games. The new Reloaded Games covers both the GamersFirst platform (which includes, among other games, Fallen Earth) and Reloaded Productions studio. The studio will continue to be a subsidiary of the company. Reloaded Games CEO Bjorn Book-Larsson says that this is just the first sign of a bold new initiative by the company: "We have already signed contracts with independent developers to use our platform and portal for their free-to-play game distribution. We will announce those agreements in the next couple of weeks."
One Shots: This old house
It'd be easy for me to sit back and say that games without housing are just lazy, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. Well, that and feature a few awesome reader screenshots of games with housing in today's One Shots! Contributor Mayrin earns the top slot this week with this image of her home in Wurm Online, a much-beloved sandbox around these parts. She writes: This is a screenshot of my house, originally taken last September. It's a stone house built back before Wurm Online had inner walls, so it's U-shaped to suggest different rooms inside. The left side is our kitchen area (the wisp of smoke over the house is from our oven), and the right side has our beds, while the center area is used mostly for storage. The gold shape near the oak tree on the left is an altar to Vynora (one of Wurm's deities); the silver one peeking out from behind the right tree is a Fo altar. Right off the path is a "spirit castle," which is used to send mail to other players. It's located where the village of Allure once stood on the Independence server. Mayrin's entry is tucked behind the break alongside a few other residential beauties!
MMO Blender: Jeremy's unholy MMO concoction
Have you ever wished MMO developers could put away their checkbooks, pluck out the best bits of their respective MMOs, and weld them together to construct the megalopolis of MMOs? We do too! So today, we're launching a brand-new opinion column, MMO Blender, in which the Massively writers will mix and match their favorite features from existing MMOs for your amusement. But do our choices create a perfectly honed machine or a lumbering, speechless frankenstein of an MMO that deserves to be put out of its misery? First up: Livestreamer extraordinaire and Contributing Editor Jeremy Stratton with a potent, sandboxy blend of Fallen Earth, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and more. Wet your whistle after the break and look for more MMO Blenders from the rest of our staff in the coming weeks!
Xsyon totem abandonment phase for MIA tribes starts June 25th
Deserted structures in neglected lands, abandoned goods sitting unusable in baskets; in Xsyon, as in any game where players can own property, there comes a time when owners move on leaving valuable in-game resources tied up and inaccessible to those who remain. To combat this, Notorious Games is implementing decay for all inactive totems starting June 25th. Abandonment, the culling of inactive tribes from land ownership, is a four-phase process. Any tribe without at least one active member will move into the first stage, neglected. The second is the deserted phase; all bins on the land will become accessible and the area will no longer be a safe zone. Revenants (aggressive creatures who can loot players and equip their gear) will haunt tribes in this stage and increase in number during the next stage -- abandoned. In the removal stage, buildings can be demolished and the land reclaimed by active citizens. All Xsyon players -- past or present -- have the chance to log in and claim their totems from Friday, June 22nd until Monday, June 25th before Abandonment begins. All active accounts prior to June 25th will also receive two weeks of free play time. [Source: Xsyon press release]
Fallen Earth receives a State of the Game update
For Fallen Earth players, May was all about the Global Territory Control update. But now it's June, and the game's developers have been rather quiet since then. The team is rectifying that in the newest State of the Game letter, letting fans know that it's just been a quiet month of balancing and addressing bugs from the patch. Now that those issues are addressed, the team can look toward the future again. Among the promised future additions are farms, meant to be the PvE equivalent of harvesters. The team wants to ensure that harvesters are providing enough of a reward for player effort to be worthwhile, so some more balancing is necessary, but the core idea is that the higher-risk actions of harvesters yield greater rewards than farms. There's also a promise of the development team trying to be more active with responses to players, something that should be a welcome start after a fairly quiet month.
Ex-Fallen Earth designer compares in-game locations to real life
Fallen Earth fans probably know that the post-apocalyptic MMO is one of the few massive titles to feature a real-world location. Despite its bombed-out futuristic stylings, the game takes place in the American southwest, or more specifically, the Grand Canyon and surrounding territories. According to former Icarus Studios designer Joshua Peery, Fallen Earth's Grand Canyon isn't too far removed from the real thing. For starters, the devs used USGS satellite imaging as their world-building blueprint. Peery's latest personal blog entry says that driving through the real-world location leads to further appreciation for the work done by the game's artists and builders. "Driving through the 'real' Sector Three's Kaibab Forest was like deja vu, with the only difference being I was in my SUV rather than in an interceptor, dirt-bike, horse, etc.," Peery writes. Peery's game tourism odyssey was part of a cross-country trek to a new job at Carbine Studios, for which Massively offers a hearty congrats.
Fallen Earth team dwindles further, but the game still lives
Earlier tonight we got word of a rumor regarding Fallen Earth's development team dwindling down to three remaining content designers: a scripter, an artist and a game designer. Concerned over what has turned out to be a horrible week of layoffs, we shot an email to GamersFirst, which quickly responded: "We had a large contractor crew on FE and we are focusing on creating our own employee pool to manage the game. We did decide to not renew some of our contractors. As you probably know that we are going to focus on our own home grown IPs like APB Reloaded, Fallen Earth, Hailan Rising and Taikodom. We have already stopped servicing Knight Online and we will be stopping service of War Rock from June 1. As a result we will using our own pool of experienced staff to manage the complete operations of Fallen Earth. Key game design folks like Marie still continue to be at the helm in North Carolina. Fallen Earth has also been licensed in South America and we will close to licensing it in Russia, Turkey and Asia. We are absolutely committed to making it grow across the globe." While it appears that the game itself is not in trouble, we'll be sure to keep our eye on the situation for further developments.
One Shots: Lone wolf
Long-time Massively follower but first-time One Shots contributor Ilix sent along today's highlighted screenshot of Fallen Earth, which we think is quite timely, given the PvP revamp soon headed to everyone's favorite post-apocalyptic sandbox. He writes in, Fallen Earth is my top hard-RP MMO. Ilix, after three decades of isolation, attempted to fit in with a player-run town. But he was too rough-edged, too guarded, and still isolated in his mind, and he could not find joy among others. After several days trying to force himself back into what remains of humanity in the blasted terrain of the apocalypse, he admitted to himself that he could never return because he was too quick to anger, and he wandered off back into the desert. Irradiated scorpions haunt the land he wandered into, so he finds rest on the blade of a ruined helicopter's rotor, just out of reach of stingers. This shot defines the dual beauty and harshness of the life he resigns himself to. Ilix's gorgeous sunset is tucked behind the break along with two other One Shots shots!
Previously on MV TV: The week of May 12th
What a week of livestreaming! We've got quite the variety and tons of hours of video to watch. What's that? You had to work and missed half of the cool streams we showed? Don't worry! I gather all of the best streams from the week's collection and list them for you right here. Still, you need to bookmark our livestream page so you can see which videos are going to be shown during the week, but if you miss any, you can check out the recap here. That's why we do it. This week we had a lot to offer. First we had good old Mike jumping into EVE Online for some space action, then into TERA for some scantily clad combat! He then explores some of the great browser-based game Drakensang Online. MJ brought a ton of goodies to the streaming table, goodies like a run-through in EverQuest II, some base-jumping in City of Heroes, a bit of hardcore survival in Xsyon, and a flight around the beautiful lands of Aion. I rounded out the end by streaming some BatMUD, a cool MUD that has been around since many of you have been in diapers! Click past the cut and grab some popcorn. Keep the butter light but add some salt. Thanks.
Exclusive Interview: Going global with Fallen Earth's PvP
Two of the biggest cornerstones of Fallen Earth have always been crafting and PvP, and its these cornerstones that GamersFirst is enriching come patch 2.4. The patch, called Global Territory Control, is taking these elements and firing them up in ways that any PvPer or crafter should find exciting. We hopped on the phone with Associate Producer Asa Reed, Director of Operations Joe Willmon, and Senior Game Designer Marie Croall to talk about why 2.4 will be the patch that will change the wasteland forever -- and why you should anticipate it, whether you're a crafter or a player-killer.%Gallery-155670%
