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Second Wind: Final Fantasy XI
Here's a fun fact about me: Final Fantasy XI was one of the first MMOs I ever played. I had dabbled in Ultima Online and EverQuest before it, but at the time those games came out, I was but a wee lad of nine or so, and I truly had no idea what I was doing in either of them. What I did know was that I was in love with the idea of sharing a massive, persistent world with thousands of friends (and enemies) waiting to be made. So when Final Fantasy XI came out stateside in late 2003 (it launched in Japan in 2002), I was firmly in the grip of some kind of JRPG mania thanks to Final Fantasy IX, Legend of Dragoon, and others of that ilk. Naturally I took to the notion of a massively multiplayer Final Fantasy game like a Black Mage to a comically oversized hat. I was a devout player of FFXI for a couple of years after that, before all of my FFXI-playing friends decided to jump ship to some uppity little newcomer called World of Warcraft, and I've had an on-again, off-again (mostly the latter) relationship with FFXI ever since.
Second Wind: The Old Republic at the 15-month mark
A long time ago, I previewed Star Wars: The Old Republic. It was a beta build, and a limited press preview to boot, so it's fair to say that I didn't have the full measure of BioWare's latest Star Wars opus. Even so, it exceeded my expectations in some respects, and despite the reams of hate fan mail I received for being Massively's leering, anti-SWTOR Sith villain, the truth of the matter is that I love Star Wars and video games to such a degree that it's impossible to stay away from any product that marries them. I own Super Bombad Racing, for funk's sake.
Second Wind Roundtable: Torchlight II
Welcome to the first ever installment of this "roundtable" edition of Second Wind, where the best and brightest (or barring that, whoever's available) here at Massively get together for an evening to act stupid in video games and then talk about it. For our first trip down the rabbit hole, Bree, Eliot, Lis, and I decided to give our mouse-clickin'-fingers a workout by way of Runic Games' Torchlight II. Our intrepid party of fearless adventurers was made up of Viase the Engineer (played by Eliot), ZERKIN the Berserker (played by Bree, and yes the caps are necessary), and a pair of Embermages played by Lis and me because it was the only class neither of us had played yet. We spent a few hours hacking and slashing our way through the first couple of zones of TL2's campaign, and much hilarity ensued. Click on past the cut for our full, insanity-fueled conversation on the ups and downs of our joint Torchlight II experience.
Second Wind: World of Warcraft
When I originally started playing World of Warcraft, things were different. Priests were still waiting on their first big class patch. Regular mounts required level 40; most players couldn't afford the 100ish gold fee without a loan from their guild. Epic mounts were so prohibitively expensive as to be considered rare. Raids required the dedication and skill of 40 players, and only a couple of guilds per realm actually even bothered to run high-end content. WoW was, as they say, srs bsns. But that was eight years ago. Since then, World of Warcraft has seen four enormous expansions (Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria) and countless minor content updates. Edges have been softened, skills refined, classes reinvented. Subs have ballooned to a peak of over 12 million, waffled up and down for a few years, then fallen most recently to 9.6 million. Some would argue that the World of Warcraft of 2013 bears only a passing resemblance to the one we played in 2005. Others would claim it's still the same excellent/terrible game, just gussied up with fresh paint. As a longtime WoW lover but recently lapsed subscriber, I ventured into Mists of Pandaria to sort it out for myself.
Second Wind: RIFT's Storm Legion
Trion Worlds' RIFT is still a relative newcomer to the MMO space, released a mere two years ago in March 2011, but in that time it's made quite a name for itself as one of the premier AAA titles on the market today. Since the game's release, Trion has built a reputation for putting out frequent, quality updates, and in the time since launch, RIFT has continued to grow with the addition of new features and content. Last November, Trion released Storm Legion, the game's first expansion pack, which bumped the level cap up to 60, tripled the size of the in-game world, and brought player housing to the masses in the form of dimensions. For my part, I used to be an avid RIFT player, but despite the game's unique soul system, there just wasn't enough to differentiate itself from the myriad other similar MMOs on the market, and I never managed to make it to max-level before I let my subscription lapse out of boredom. So for this edition of Second Wind, I picked myself up a copy of Storm Legion and jumped back into the world of Telara once again to see just how far it has come.
Second Wind: Taking another look at TERA
I am beautiful. Seriously, I'm the best-looking game character that has ever pretended to live. Not only am I gorgeous, I'm lethal. With my massive lance, heavy shield, and ridiculously tight dress, I can make short work of pretty much any foe with the stones to come at me. I am as dangerous as I am attractive, and that is saying quite a bit. This is TERA. Launched in the west by En Masse Entertainment back in May, the fantasy MMO promised gorgeous graphics, fast-paced action combat and a different way to experience a now-familiar formula. Lured in by pretty trailers and compelling class descriptions, I picked up the collector's edition of the game just before release. I played for a few weeks, streamed it a couple of times, and promptly forgot it existed. When my initial 30 days expired, I never subscribed for more. But now TERA is going free-to-play. And since En Masse was kind enough to give me (and everyone else) a couple of free weeks of playtime before the F2P transition, I figured now was as good a time as any to revisit the title and see if removing my wallet from the equation would be enough to keep me engaged. The answer? Perhaps.%Gallery-152724%
Second Wind: Vanguard
Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and small, furry creatures from Alpha Centauri to the premiere edition of Second Wind, where we'll be taking you through the annals of time to revisit some of the past's greatest (and not-so-greatest) MMOs to see how they hold up today. In this installment, we'll be checking in on Sony Online Entertainment's Vanguard. Here's a quick backstory for you: Vanguard originally launched in January of 2007 when Massively was still months away from its inception, and it was a mess. Bugs as far as the eye could see! Believe me -- I know because I was there. I played Vanguard at launch and lasted about a month before I grew tired of the never-ending parade of bugs and glitches and left. In the six years since Vanguard's launch, it's been sort of the red-headed stepchild of SOE's stable of MMOs. Content updates have been few and far between, and most patches the game has received have been (sorely needed) bug fixes. And of course, the game ended up going free-to-play back in August of last year. Now, six years after my first foray into Telon, I decided to jump back into Vanguard to give the game a fresh look. Did I find a diamond in the rough or just a big lump of neglected coal? There's only one way to find out: Follow me past the cut!
The Daily Grind: Do you find post-launch games intimidating to start playing?
When a game launches, it's usually fairly small in scope. That doesn't mean it's simple, but it does mean that there's a fairly limited amount of stuff from level 1 on upward. But when a game has been out for a couple of years, odds are good that the game has undergone several major patches, with more sidequests and options added to the game from start to finish. On the one hand, this is great; a player starting in RIFT or Star Trek Online or EverQuest now has many more options than he or she did back when the game first launched. But it also means that instead of absorbing a few new features at a time, you need to absorb huge new chunks of the game at once. Do you find it intimidating to start playing a game that's been out for a while? Or do you look forward to exploring the nature of a more mature and refined game? 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!
Star Wars: The Old Republic's hype train barrels onward
December 20th is finally here, and Star Wars: The Old Republic is as live as it's going to get. The title's official launch has sent ripples through the interwebs, and MSNBC, Gamasutra, and Kotaku all have new features highlighting various facets of the new title. Gamasutra has a few words with BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk and creative director James Ohlen regarding the game's post-launch strategy. Zeschuk claims that the team is "really busy working on future SWTOR content as well as continuing to improve the service. This will never end." Never is quite a long time, we think, but we'll see how that goes. Meanwhile, MSNBC sits down with SWTOR's Lead Writer, Daniel Erickson, about BioWare's much-touted story pillar. He claims that the game's 20 writers worked together for a total of over 60 man-years of labor on the game's story and writing. And lastly, Kotaku has another few words with Zeschuk. When asked if SWTOR could potentially make a move to F2P like, say, DC Universe Online, Zeschuk replied, "Free-to-play works best when a game is built that way from the ground up... We're not saying never ever, but we certainly have no plans like that in the foreseeable future." For the full features, click on through the links below.
GDC Online 2011: RIFT's Scott Hartsman on surviving and thriving in today's MMO climate
Recently, we took time to look back on the past six months of RIFT's milestones, and this year at GDC Online, Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman sat down for a question-and-answer session to do the same thing. While we've seen the results of Trion's post-launch efforts, Hartsman gave a candid glimpse at what was going on behind the scenes as the team finished up beta and moved toward launch day. He took questions from N'Gai Croal, as well as from the audience, and highlights from the interview follow after the break.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is keeping a close eye on World of Warcraft
From the interface to the design, many people have commented that there's a certain degree of similarity between Star Wars: The Old Republic and World of Warcraft. So it probably comes as no real surprise to learn that Electronic Arts is studying WoW when it comes to SWtOR's upcoming launch -- but not in the way you might think. The company isn't concerned as much with the mechanical side of the equation, but with the question of what happens post-launch and how to increase player retention. This might not seem like terribly relevant information, but a lot of attention is being paid to the game's content release schedule, the speed at which experienced players will go through new content, and the game's post-launch foci. It also extends to an emphasis on smooth networking code to ensure that players can log in and experience the game quickly rather than having to fight off latency. It's no secret that WoW is influencing other games, but SWtOR seems to be designed with an eye toward more than just gameplay.
Hyperspace Beacon: Post-launch
Readers of this column have a lot of questions for me, and I do my best to answer all of them. However, the most frequent question I get is "what class are you playing?" followed by "which guild are you going to join?" Thankfully, I work from an office at home, and my time can be very dedicated to playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. Many of the websites and podcasts fall off after a game is launched because, hey, the producers of these bits of entertainment have a game to play now. Fortunately for you, I really want to give my readers something to look forward to once TOR actually launches. Unlike others who lack either the time or dedication to their fans, I am going to be stepping up my game after launch -- literally. I have teased my post-launch plans a few times before, but I figured I should put it all down in writing. This way I have something to reference when the time comes, and I'm sure the readers here will hold me to my word. Most of all, Star Wars: The Old Republic will be an extraordinary experience for anyone who follows me. Hop past the break for the full details.
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite post-launch feature?
Single-player games can occasionally get major DLC or expansions to change the face of the game, but for the most part MMOs are the field where a game can change between two patches. Champions Online recently made a major change with the addition of hideouts, adding in a form of housing to the game that hadn't existed at all when the game launched. It's a recent example, but it's hardly the only time that a game or a expansion has gone live and later had a major addition to its features list. Sometimes features are added in shortly after launch as promised features not quite ready at the time the game went gold, but far more frequently an entirely new feature is developed and added. So what's your favorite feature that was introduced after the game's launch? A player-generated content system a la City of Heroes or Star Trek Online? The addition of instanced PvP such as World of Warcraft's Battlegrounds? Let us know! 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!
Checking up on Fallen Earth: One month later
It's been a little over a month since Fallen Earth launched, and we think it's safe to say that quite a bit has changed since then -- but what, exactly? For those who may have found themselves unhappy with the game's state at launch, this article is for you. For those of you who may have tried the game during a beta stage or stress test event, and come across some technical issues that made the game completely unplayable, this article is for you, too. We want to continue our tradition of revisiting games after launch, and this time it's Fallen Earth's turn. So we're going to spend the first half of the article discussing the facts, and what the community has to say about the last month's changes to the game, and the second half will be spent giving my own impressions of what I've experienced in the first month. Follow along, won't you?
Massively's post-launch interview with Free Realms
Free Realms has launched, the floodgates have been opened and the servers have multiplied like little fluffy bunnies. Despite a slight delay, the launch's feedback has been predominantly positive. Not only is this rare for an MMO launch these days, considering the factors, but it's also a testament to the team involved.We took this opportunity, not even 2 days after launch, to sit down with the game's Creative Director, Laralyn McWilliams, to discuss the big event and how players have reacted so far. Plus, we talk a bit about the future of the game and what types of features we can expect to see coming soon. Follow along after the cut below for our complete interview with Free Realms!
