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Pirates of the Burning Sea: The third anniversary
Pirates of the Burning Sea just turned three years old, so we decided to take a look back at some of the history, controversy and changes that happened along the way. How do you sum up the history of an MMO, no matter how short? Do you simply make a timeline, establishing landmark events? What about the players -- how do they feel after sailing around the sea for all this time? Well, we decided to do a little bit of each. What we found was a game that is still rich in its content, still varied in its playerbase, and still moving forward. The game has had its issues like any other, so on this anniversary we decided to showcase how the game has affected people with a series of mini-interviews with the players themselves. Click past the cut to see what treasures we dug up!
Breakfast Topic: Who's the most unlikely WoW player you've met?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. I first started playing WoW during the open beta right before launch. It was my freshman year at college, and I had eagerly awaited its release since reading a magazine article almost two years before, as I had been playing since the first Warcraft RTS game. While I was excited like a 6-year-old bound for Disneyland, however, very few of the people I knew even knew of the game's existence. A few weeks after release, I came into my dorm room, which I shared with an international student from Malaysia. Although we were both computer science majors, the cultural and language barriers had yet to really be broken. Surprisingly, when I walked in, I noticed him at his computer, riding through Desolace on a human mage. While I was, am, and always will be a Hordie, WoW managed to break the ice for us. A few years later, I was working at a pizza shop full of non-gamers. One of the guys working there, a mohawk-sporting gearhead, just so happened to be another fellow WoW player (albeit another Alliance). Shortly after returning to the game late last year, I was working with a person who was on work release from prison. While I was giving him a ride back to the jail one day, he revealed that he couldn't wait to be finished with his sentence so he could try out ToC, which had just dropped at the time. Even more exciting, he was another Horde player. I've met some unlikely WoW players in real life, and it's made me some unexpected new friends. What about you? Tell us about some of the most unlikely WoW players you've met in your real life.
Breakfast Topic: Have your guildies inspired you in real life?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. We all have people in our guilds who are better at WoW than we are. They have amazing reaction times, are great leaders, or put up amazing numbers on the damage or healing meters. But often we know little about the person behind the keyboard. Since my guild is full of mostly adults, we talk a lot about real life in guild chat and on our guild forums. Some of the stuff is merely about TV shows we are watching or books we are reading; seriously, we have a 15-page forum about MMA from all the UFC fans in our guild. Occasionally, however, truly major life events are discussed, some of which are sad and some are inspiring. We have used the forums to say goodbye to a few members for reasons ranging from personal tragedy, to moving and changing jobs, to simply getting tired of the game. Some of the stories inspired me to make changes in my own life. One of our guild members talked about his diet and how through exercise and cutting out some fast food, he has lost nearly 60 pounds. This caused me to start watching how much I was snacking during raids and got me back to the gym. Another guild member went back to college for his master's degree, and this led me to look into what it would cost for me to go back and get my culinary degree. Two of our guild members got engaged, and this led me to realize I had better start thinking about ring shopping before my girlfriend gets fed up with me. Do you ever discuss important real-life events with members of your guild? Have any of their stories made you examine your own life? Have any of their advice or personal insights inspired you to make changes or tough choices in your life?
The Lawbringer: Consequences 2010
2010 has been a good year for consequences. Comeuppance. Karma. Crime and punishment. These three stories from this year all have one thing in common -- World of Warcraft. Sometimes we forget that our actions inside our MMO of choice can have real-life consequences that don't go over too well with the local, state and federal authorities. This week on The Lawbringer, we go all Cops on you, talking about some 2010 WoW criminals.
Uncharted Waters Online heads to open beta
Starting on October 1st, eager players will be able to jump into the open beta waters of Uncharted Waters Online. If you are a fan of Pirates of the Burning Sea, then you have an idea of what to expect with UWO. The game has a long history, stemming all the way back to a 1991 Nintendo title. This version is imported from Korea, where the game has enjoyed three years of hosting happy pirates. If you're an options player, then you'll more-than-likely enjoy UWO. While you can always fall back on combat or adventuring for your pirating needs, you can also explore and discover new areas and items, craft goods to sell, or become a trader. Of course, with job names like treasure hunter, master explorer, guerrilla or folklorist, you will have many other options to explore. The game also has a rich PvP system and weather that can actually hinder your adventuring. There will be a pre-load client available on September 29th for those of us who can't wait to get back to the stormy seas!
Rise and Shiny recap: Planet Calypso
Planet Calypso is another one of those titles that has a perplexing reputation. Granted, in the past I have actually slammed the game -- and I mean slammed it -- but for different reasons. Normally -- and I have seen this over the last week as I told people about the game -- people bring up that they have "heard" that the game is nothing but a gambler's paradise, filled with thieves, liars, and the addicted. Back then, I had an issue with the revamping of the game. I tried it on the day after release, bugs and all, and it was so unplayable that I couldn't move. Taking my own advice of looking back on games that we might have tossed aside, I can now say not only that the game has proved to be one of the most beautiful games I have played, but that the stereotype of the Planet Calypso player seems completely baseless. I looked, trust me, but all I found were nice people. Of course, I did only play it over six days or so.
Free for All: So, what does "MMORPG" mean?
As a reader of Massively, you should have a pretty good idea what MMORPG means. Not just what it stands for, but what it feels like, looks like, and behaves like. The problem is, despite common definitions, the games keep coming in different shapes and sizes -- and from all over the world. While I receive many comments about the Western coverage that Massively features, I would only be doing half my job if I reported on only the latest half a dozen games to break the multi-million-dollar budget mark in America. The world is a smaller place, especially now. And across the world there are MMORPGs that are being played and enjoyed in many different ways. There are PvP games, games that place players into instance after instance with only a handful of other players, all while offering the potential to hang out with thousands of other people. Is an instanced combat game still an MMO? How about a game like Mabinogi, which maintains a persistent world, but is broken into several invisible channels for players to skip in to and out of? This is impossible, but I think I will try to define exactly what MMO means -- now, in this current market.
The Daily Grind: New worlds to explore
Fantasy? Check. Science fiction? Not quite as many, but check. Historical? There are a few out there, maybe of dubious historical authenticity, but at least lacking orcs, magic, and ray guns (all of which are good enough for another check). If you haven't noticed, I'm making a checklist of MMORPG settings, and here is where I need your help. You see, after the aforementioned big three, I'm all out of ideas. Personally I don't think any of those noted above have been done exactly right, so I'm always up for new takes on any or all of them. That said, are there any settings or genres you feel would make a fantastic MMORPG (or at least, one that would feel semi-original)? Steampunk? Western? Real-life? What say you Massively readers?
EpicWin aims to turn your real-life tasks into a social game
Given the amount of iPhone and iPad apps coming out these days, I'm not all that interested in getting excited about an app before it comes out. There's already plenty of games and apps available now, so worrying about not-yet-released apps isn't all that important. That said, this app called EpicWin is gaining quite a bit of attention -- it's a very originally designed to-do list masquerading as a game that gives points for accomplishing things in real life. If this idea sounds familiar, it's because we've seen it before -- Booyah Society was supposed to be a game that rewarded you for real-life accomplishments, and there have been a few other apps like it poking around. Most of them haven't worked very well -- the issue has always been that there's no validation, no proof that you've done what you said you did in real-life. But EpicWin has some solid developers behind it (the folks that worked on Little Big Planet for the PS3, and MiniSquadron for the iPhone), and a very intriguing art style and tone, so maybe it'll be more intriguing than what we've seen along these lines in the past. EpicWin is "coming soon" to the App Store -- we'll keep an eye out for it, and let you know when it's out.
Free for All: A sit-down with WURM's Rolf
If there is one thing I have had to grow accustomed to over the last year or so, it's my ever-increasing independent game snobbery. While some people maintain a beer-snob lifestyle and spend their time recommending way-too-pricey ales that simply taste like dirt, I spend my time trolling around forums and fan blogs looking for the next tiny game to spend my time in. I want the game to be duct-taped together, I want it to have a long history of tests and reboots, and I want it to come out shining on the other end -- a testament to the good ole' nerd drive to make a world both large and virtual. WURM Online is my current indie poster-child, an example to flaunt in peoples' faces when they insist on boring me with discussions of the same old classes and mechanics that have been used since the dawn of, well, '99 or so. I love to puff my chest and tell people about my virtual survival stories, forcing them to pretend to be riveted by my tales of farming, sawing lumber and getting lost in the woods. WURM, and its creator Rolf, are my version of Elvis Costello and Donnie Darko: an independent badge to wear proudly on my pocket protector. Join me past the jump for a brief history of the game, and some words from Rolf himself.
'Avatar Days' short examines WoW characters and their players
"Avatar Days" is a new short by digital artist Cormac Kelly that examines the fascinating relationship between a World of Warcraft player and their in-game avatar. Not only is the animation great (and you can see how he's upscaled the five-year-old player character graphics of the popular MMO), but the premise is perfect, placing video game avatars of real-life players in everyday situations, and asking us the viewers to examine how they're connected together. Excellent stuff. Not the first time we've seen these characters invade the real world, but definitely the most poignant. Watch the whole four minute short embedded after the break. Update: Kelly emails to say that he only played a small part in the production -- the short was directed by Gavin Kelly and produced in just four days for Ireland's Darklight Film Festival. [via Citizen Game]
CCP Games conquers Mount Kilimanjaro, one step closer to world domination
CCP Games is a company with a singular lofty goal: World Domination. From their humble beginnings in a small office in Reykjavik, Iceland, they released an experimental sci-fi MMO into an untested market. Almost seven years down the line, EVE Online has been a consistent success and CCP as a company has expanded at an incredible rate. Now with additional offices in China, North America and the UK and two exciting new games on the way, they're well on their way to meeting that gargantuan goal. Last month, CCP took their plans to dominate the earth literally as they conquered Africa's highest peak. On March 1st 2010 at approximately 6:30AM, CCP developers "CCP Solomon", "CCP Diagoras" and "CCP Punkturis" from the company's Reykjavik office arrived at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Along with a fourth friend named Sveinn Sveinsson, they completed an impressive 6 day trek to the peak through harsh conditions. On arrival, they literally planted the CCP flag at Uhuru peak, an incredible 5895 metres above sea level. [Via MMORPG.com]
The Daily Grind: When have MMOs collided with real life?
This past weekend, the real world and virtual one collided at PAX East, as many bloggers, players and developers met in person, often for the first time. This can be a joyous experience akin to a family reunion with people you've never encountered face-to-face before, or a traumatic affair full of sobbing and shirt-rending as you realized the girl of your dreams was actually a ravenous velociraptor seeking only to feast on your tender flesh. So when have MMOs collided with your real life? Was it when you heard a couple busboys at a local restaurant talk about how they totally downed a world boss in game last night? Was it a guild meet-and-greet at Chili's that was full of familiar names and strange faces? A costume party where you dressed up as your in-game character? Or was it when you networked with a business associate during a raid?
Breakfast Topic: Fancy meeting you here
A random reader email we received this week sparked an interesting topic of conversation among the crew here at WoW.com -- the odd places and ways people happen to meet or bump into fellow World of Warcraft players. Some of us find fellow players through work, some of us meet them on the street or in the store, and there's no real way to identify them. Whether it's a hoodie, a sticker on a car, or someone making the familiar mouse and keyboard hand motions when mentioning they play video games, there's a peculiar thread that connects the millions of people that play WoW. It's identifying that thread that can sometimes be tricky. By the end of the conversation, it was pretty much decided that WoW players need some sort of signal to indicate they play, a secret hand gesture of some sort. As for myself, the most random of these moments was selling my television. I found a buyer who arrived with a friend to pick up the thing and noticed the friend was wearing a WoW hat. Upon asking him if he played, I discovered not only did he play, he had played on my server, and not only had he played on my server, he played a character that I'd randomly /licked in Dalaran out of sheer boredom one evening when turning in a cooking daily. Small world. With a game that has over 11 million players, running into someone that plays the game at some point in real life is almost a given. Where have you met your fellow players? What's the most random, unexpected moment you've run into someone that plays WoW?
All the World's a Stage: Anonymosity
All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles. Roleplaying is a journey of trust you take with strangers. You may now and then start out with a group of people you know in real life, but for the most part, the people you roleplay with have no idea who you really are, or why you are sitting here at the computer. You can tell them if you want to, but most people don't ask. Roleplayers tend to keep personal details private, and don't intrude on one another's space. Besides, other roleplayers don't necessarily care that much about who you "really are" either. They're there to get to know your character, not you as a person, unless your character first makes a very good impression and they decide that they actually want to be friends as real people. Even though you respect each other as people who share the same interest, there's still a distance between you which either (or both) of you may wish to maintain. And yet, the relationship you have is one of trust. It's not at all at the same level as a best friend of course, but you still have to trust one another in a very creative sense -- you rely on each other to create interesting things for your characters to share with one another. You're not just buying a shirt from a salesperson or holding the door for a passerby -- you're exchanging behavior and language in an unpredictable and totally interconnected way. Any little surprise a stranger brings to an interaction may completely alter the whole game session and stick in your mind as one of your most memorable gaming experiences. Roleplayers have to trust other roleplayers to help make those experiences positive, even without knowing anything at all about one another. Sometimes two characters can even become very close friends, even though the real people behind them do not.
Real World Heroes gives titles for charity in City of Heroes
It's trite and cliche, but also true -- the holidays are the optimal time to stop and remember that there are people less fortunate than you in the world. Charity drives step up in frequency and everyone looks for the spirit of the holiday, of giving gifts out of kindness and hope that others can share in your good fortune. That being said, it can help give an incentive for everyone if there's something more to be had than simply the warm fuzzy feeling. Real World Hero, a player-run charity drive, has teamed up with the community team in City of Heroes to provide a little extra incentive for players of the game to step up and do something super. Running between November 30th and December 24th, players who include their character information when they donate will be eligible for a limited-time special gold title for their character, marking them as a generous soul. The event is not being officially sponsored by the company, but the support is certainly added incentive to take part. With Operation Gratitude, Donate Games, and the ever-popular Child's Play as the designated recipients, it's a good time for City of Heroes players to be a bit more heroic in their day-to-day lives and be known for it in-game to boot.
MMOrigins: The only living boy in Vana'diel
When I was still young, I was out on a walk with my father in the woods next to my great-aunt's house. The woods were an offshoot of the Devil's Hopyard state park, which meant that they were old and vast. As the family often congregated around the house, there were a number of paths we knew that wove their way through the forest, but I remember where we always stopped, and I remember the day when I asked what was further along. My dad grinned, and we kept walking. It was about ten minutes from there to a beautiful, moss-covered waterfall that was right on the edge of the state park, with an alcove just large enough that I could squeeze underneath the falls. That sticks with me every time I start up a new game, because that was when I started to really wonder about where paths might lead. Everything leads somewhere. Finding things out is one of the things I love, probably what attracted me to video games in the first place.
Code of Everand browser MMO teaches kids about traffic safety
The United Kingdom's Department for Transport has launched a free browser MMO, Code of Everand, that teaches traffic safety to children. It does so through a fantasy theme with direct parallels to real world dangers -- streets are Spirit Channels, glowing energy streams populated with many dangerous beasts. The Spirit Channels crisscross the map of Everand and make travel perilous. That's where the players come in as Pathfinders, explorers trained in the techniques that allow for safe passage across the Spirit Channels. Pathfinders learn important safety lessons along the way in their journey to discover the secrets of Everand. Code of Everand was developed for the UK Department for Transport by NYC-based firm Area/Code over the course of two years, reports Game Set Watch. Area/Code has a long track record of creating cross-media games for advertising and media firms, television networks, and even major consumer brands. According to Area/Code's site, they've taken innovative approaches to games in the past -- "online games that respond to broadcast TV in real time, simulated characters and virtual worlds that occupy real-world geography" and "game events driven by real-world data". Interesting concepts. If you like the idea of games used as an effective educational tool, you can see the animated trailer for Code of Everand after the jump.
Take part in space exploration with NASA's coming MMO
How would you like to take a trip into space? No, not the stylized science fiction that Star Trek Online promises, or the fantasy-with-spaceships of Star Wars: the Old Republic. We've heard the announcement about NASA's coming space MMO, Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond, but the game hasn't been making the rounds in the usual gaming circuit. An in-depth article about the game's development and planned release is interesting for any fans of the rigors and challenges of spaceflight, not mention a look at a game that's moving far outside the usual realm of our genre. Much like America's Army, the goal of the game is to try and give players a taste of what it's like to actually work in the field being simulated. While the game is focusing on creating enjoyable gameplay first, players can expect to see landscapes and tasks grounded in solid scientific principles and based upon actual astronaut missions, complete with the real and tangible challenges of exploring inhospitable worlds. The article also discusses the MoonBase module, which is set to be launched as a free standalone component on Steam in January to serve as both a preview and a testbed for the game. Take a look at the full article for a closer examination of what the game could mean, and what it might be like to play a space game where you were less concerned about arming weapons and more concerned with understanding the world around you. (Or, if you have to, start imagining an expansion set in the 1980s adding the Soviet space program as a new faction. Which is only slightly less realistic.)
The Daily Grind: When has an MMO bolstered your spirits?
We've all had those days. You're sitting in traffic for hours on your way to work, you have a huge pile of things to do when you get there, you stub your toe and scrape up your arm. Even when you get home, the house is a mess and you're exhausted. Then you log in to your favorite game, and you agree to do something more or less out of a sense of boredom... and lo and behold, everything suddenly goes perfectly for you. Everything you want drops, you enjoy yourself, and you log off with a sense that the day wasn't all that bad after all. Right when you needed a shot of good luck, you get it. Many of us use MMOs as stress releases, but when has one actually helped turn what was a boring to bad day into a good one? When has playing the game made you feel happy, renewed, and inspired? Was it a series of lucky drops, or finally managing to finish a difficult quest, or even just getting sympathy from your fellow players when everything went wrong? What sticks out in your memory when you think of dark days a game has brightened?
