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Firefall players can have (and kill) in-game pets
The developers of the upcoming free-to-play FPS MMO Firefall have announced a new feature that's sure to make a couple of you squee: There will be in-game pets. Red 5 stopped by Shacknews last week to reveal that players will be able to summon little creatures that follow their avatars around in-game, and they'll also be able to kill the pets of enemies. How that will work isn't quite laid out yet, but CEO Mark Kern suggests that players will be able to buy special ammo that lets them fire on their enemies' little friends. The shooter types among you may laugh, but part of the appeal of big MMOs like World of Warcraft is the cute little bits of customization that come along with building a big, colorful persistent avatar. And while pet combat doesn't sound like anything more than a little extra fun, we won't ever turn down a little extra fun. Pile it on, please.
Massively's guide to PAX 2011
What can be said about PAX Prime in Seattle, Washington that hasn't been said already? Everyone knows that it is the largest public gaming event in North America. Attendance totaled 67,600 last year, not including press and exhibitors. And this year, even more gamers will descend on the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The latest and greatest games -- released and unreleased -- will be available for public consumption. Developers will mill around the showroom floor, answering your questions. Not to mention that no one will look at you funny because you play video games! This year, MMORPGs really stand out in the crowd. Seattle native NCsoft has a huge presence at the convention, borrowing a theater just to showcase its games. BioWare comes armed with its heavy-hitter, Star Wars: The Old Republic. And free-to-play titles like Firefall, Lord of the Rings Online, and Wakfu promise to strut their stuff at this year's PAX. Punch past the break as Massively outlines the must-see booths for MMO fans. And don't forget the panels, including a couple of MMO spotlights for PAX Dev, the gathering of fans and developers at Sheraton Seattle Hotel on the 24th and 25th.
Firefall blows up bugs in the new gameplay trailer
Gamers have asked for an FPS that they can play with friends in a persistent world, and Red 5 Studios is delivering. Firefall, the free-to-play brainchild of Mark Kern, showcases a world with hundreds of players contesting for resources in the virtual space of Fortaleza, Brazil 222 years in the future. IGN granted us a glimpse into this world of kill-or-be-killed with the Firefall gameplay trailer. The two minutes of pure action starts with dynamic squad missions, continues past player gear and abilities, and then launches you into epic world events. Blast past the break to experience the trailer for yourself, and don't forget to sign up for the beta on the official FireFall website. [Thanks, Dylan, for the tip]
Firefall's Mark Kern changes the perception of free-to-play
The third-person shooter Firefall has questioned nearly everything about what it means to be an MMO. In fact, CEO Mark Kern has mentioned to us at PAX East 2011 that the term MMO is not in the development vocabulary of his game: "If people want to call us an MMO, that's great. We aren't going to call ourselves an MMO, because we want you to think fresh thoughts along with us." These "fresh thoughts" extend not only to the game design, but they also extend to the game's subscription model. As a former team lead from Blizzard, one would think that Kern would totally support the monthly subscription model shared by Blizzard's flagship MMO, World of Warcraft. In the beginning, Kern admits that he was. He tells to the Escapist, "We felt that with a AAA quality game, a subscription was still the way to go. I was pretty skeptical of free-to-play five years ago." However, with the change in US economy and watching the success of F2P MMOs in other countries like China, the CEO changed his tune. "What I found surprised me; free-to-play wasn't just a successful model, it was an incredibly profitable one," Kern explains in the Escapist article. As the perception of F2P is changing in western culture, perhaps we will see more and more triple-A games beginning their life as free-to-play. The full interview with Firefall's Mark Kern can be found on the Escapist website. Let us know what you think of F2P for triple-A games in the comments below.
