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The Think Tank: Do government spies scare you away from your favorite MMO?
The NSA is listening to our MMO chat logs, and I feel fine. Monday's news has sparked outrage among some gamers, while others yawn and carry on, knowing that they have nothing to fear. So I polled the Massively staff members to gather everyone's thoughts on the topic. Would any of us stop playing our MMOs of choice, knowing that there are government spies all around watching our every move? Or does that just mean more noobs to bash in PvP?
The Think Tank: Which MMOs are you looking forward to the most in 2014?
Can you believe it's already December? This is the time of year when we reflect back on what we've played over the last 12 months and try to remember what's coming out in the next 12. We have some great titles to look forward to in 2014, including The Elder Scrolls Online, EQN Landmark, WildStar, and more. Since we've got a diverse team of MMO fans here on staff, I was curious about each writer's anticipated picks for the new year. Check out the answers just after the cut! And don't forget we'll do our official most-anticipated vote later on this month.
The Thank Tank: What are you most thankful for in the MMO genre?
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the USA. so it's only natural that we ask a thanks-related question for this week's Think Tank. As much as we, as a fanbase, like to be critical of our favorite genre, it's important to take some time to be thankful for what it is to us. So I asked the Massively team members what they're thankful for in MMOs. Grab a turkey leg dipped in cranberry sauce and stuffing (go ahead and double-dip; Uncle Leon won't mind) and follow along after the cut for our thoughts.
The Think Tank: Are non-combat sandbox tools a necessity in your MMO?
The RPG ingredient in our MMORPG sandwich has seemed to be dwindling away, but a few upcoming games -- and additions to existing ones -- are letting us know that RPG is back. One major element of the RPG is open control over how our story plays out. In true tabletop RPG style, sandbox tools let us play these games as we want to play them, but not all of us want that much freedom in our MMOs. So I asked the Massively team members for their thoughts on sandbox tools in their favorite MMOs. Are they welcome, or should we focus more on leaderboards and combat-based achievements? And how much exactly do they hate this question?
The Think Tank: What do you predict for this year's BlizzCon?
BlizzCon is back this year after a brief vacation in 2012, and Blizzard fans are bursting at the seams to find out what the studio has in store for the future. We have a handful of Blizzard fans on the Massively staff, so I thought I'd poke around and see what types of predictions we can get for the con. Will World of Warcraft announce a new expansion? Is the studio plotting a new game entirely? Or will cosplay be the only interesting aspect of the whole event?
The Think Tank: How are we celebrating Halloween this year?
Halloween is an iconic holiday in most MMOs. Costumes and things-that-go-bump-in-the-night are both staples of our favorite gaming hobby anyway, so a holiday is an added bonus. So how do the Massively writers celebrate Halloween in MMO-land? Do they grind for special promotional items or just enjoy the spooky new quests? Read on past the jump to find out more!
EverQuest Next may allow you to join multiple guilds
EverQuest Next's unique character structure is pushing SOE in the direction of allowing player characters to join more than one guild at a time. The community was nearly evenly split on the topic during the recent roundtable, with half loving the idea of one-guild-per-character, and the other half desiring a more... flexible arrangement. However, the studio saw a lot of discussion concerning creative ideas for connecting players with social groups. SOE is leaning toward allowing for multiple guild memberships because it anticipates that EverQuest Next's one-class-can-do-it-all flexibility will encourage players to reach out to several social circles. The following video posits situations like how a character may want to be in a social guild during the week but join a mass project guild for weekend work. Give it a watch and let us know what you think!
The Think Tank: Would you participate in an in-game protest?
In-game protests are nothing new, but the recent Dungeons and Dragons Online sit-in is the most recent proof that players can effectively organize in large numbers against policies they believe to be unfair. Like real-life protests, these demonstrations can work or be largely ignored by the powers-that-be. Have any Massively staffers participated in an in-game protest? How many feel that these types of demonstrations can actually be effective? These are the questions I posed to the team members this week.
EverQuest Next Landmark to focus on public building with possible private mode
EverQuest Next Landmark's building projects will mostly take place in public although there might be a "black box" mode for private endeavors, SOE discussed in a new roundtable discussion. The developers explained that this issue wasn't something that's ever come up in other games, since Landmark is so different. Thirty-seven percent of players polled said they would like to build their creations in public, which the team found encouraging. There was concern about griefing, which the devs said shouldn't be an issue. When you stake a claim in the world, you're the only person who can build on it unless you give friends or the entire public permission to change that area. The playerbase also expressed concern about how to keep their player studio projects a secret so that other players can't rip off their ideas. SOE will look into giving such players a way to develop in private, although Landmark will remain focused on public building. However, there will be no offline mode for building because SOE believes that it defeats the social aspect of the game. Landmark's beta will begin this winter, with dates to be announced "in the next month or so," according to Dave Georgeson. You can watch the full discussion after the break.
The Think Tank: Do you believe in MMO reincarnation?
As living worlds, MMOs lend themselves to much more than just a simple shelf life. When they succeed, they can thrive; when they lose, they can lose it all. But some MMOs are returning from the dead lately, whether through a new publisher, as with APB: Reloaded, or through a complete redesign, as with Final Fantasy XIV. Further still, some games are enjoying renewed interest levels from players as game-changing expansions are being announced. So what does the Massively staff think of MMO reincarnation? Follow along after the jump to see!
EverQuest Next debates which small race will make the cut for launch
The EverQuest Next team is tackling the issue of smaller races and is using a round table poll as a way to assist the devs in deciding which iconic shorties should make it to launch. While Dwarves are a given for a launch race, several other short races are up in the air as to whether they'll make it in the initial cut of the game or be held back until later. Fae and Gnomes ended up at the top of the poll, while Ratongas and Froglocks tied for last place. The devs were surprised by how popular the Fae ended up being in the poll, which in turn caused them to take a closer look at their potential as a launch race. One of the issues that the team is grappling with is the difficulty in giving shorter races the new "heroic movement" that will take place in EQN. Watch the debate after the cut!
The Think Tank: How long does it take you to judge an MMO?
About 3 years ago, I did a Soapbox article called "You have an hour to grab my attention." It was basically a little something for me to express how frustrated I was with the way MMOs were designed to push you through to the end and how players were falling for that whole "the fun starts at level 50" rigmarole. I still stand by that, and I believe a game should offer something enticing right away to keep potential customers going. Jef also wrote a Daily Grind about this topic last month where we got to hear your opinions on the matter, and I thought that it would be interesting to hear what the rest of the team thinks. It might be especially interesting considering the fact that we usually devote a bit more time to games as potential news or opinion articles rather than simply for gaming pleasure. Read on past the cut for our thoughts on time limits for MMO interest.
The Think Tank: Let's play armchair developers
Sometimes it's fun to imagine what we might do if given the chance to take over an MMO's development or community management teams for a month. Sure, a month might not be long in the scope of a game's development, but it might be long enough to get the ball rolling on some new and innovative ideas -- especially with a limitless budget. Hey, we're dreaming here, folks! So I asked the Massively team what they would do to their favorite MMO(s) if given the keys for a month.
Second Wind: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, part two
Welcome back to Second Wind, one and all. You may remember that a couple of weeks back, I published part one of my impressions on the recently released Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. If you didn't read it, either because you didn't care (but for some reason care about part two) or because it was too long (sorry), you missed out on most of my feelings about Disciple of War and Magic progression in FFXIV, but not quite all of them. So here in part two, I'll be summarizing my seemingly endless thoughts on that subject as well as my thoughts on gathering and crafting, which should wind all this up and let me stop analyzing the game and start playing it. Maybe. At any rate, if you'd care to know more about high-level adventuring progression (which I've found to be markedly different from the low- and mid-levels) or the time-honored crafts of the Disciples of the Land and Hand, click past the cut and I'll do my best to satisfy your wonder.
The Think Tank: How do you feel about quick-leveling promotions?
With TERA's new level-58 boost for brand new characters, Guild Wars 2's automatic level 20 for new characters last month, and EverQuest II's upcoming free level-85 heroic characters, it seems that studios are finding new ways to push players through the early content and into the end game. Games like World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online have streamlined the starting zones, but these new promotional events are much more straightforward and obvious. So how does the Massively crew feel about this? Should this type of advancement be available only during special events? Should level boosters be rewards for veteran loyalty only? Do you consider double- and triple-XP weekends the same thing? Or is it all nonsense as we should all play these games as originally intended?
EverQuest Next devs decide against class/race restrictions
Should EverQuest Next have class/race combo restrictions? This controversial question was at the forefront of the latest developer roundtable discussion following a player poll that showed 40% of fans were in favor of the game limiting combinations based on lore. Interestingly enough, the developers have decided against the plurality of the playerbase on this issue. The devs said that they never wanted to put players in the position where they'd make decisions they'd later regret. With over 40 classes, multi-classing, and all of the items in the world, the team felt that players would not be able to be informed enough to pick a race in the beginning if it would be restricted, class-wise, down the road. Another issue is if the team added new races and classes in the future, they'd be forced to arbitrarily restrict some people from playing them due to information the players didn't have up front. You can watch the full explanation from the team after the jump!
The Think Tank: How do you feel about community involvement with an MMO's development process?
A game's community has become more important to the development of modern MMOs as studios are paying more and more attention to what the players actually want versus what publishers want. This is evident in games like EVE Online with its player council, and Kickstarter has opened up a whole new avenue for the players to influence that dev process. But sometimes, that player influence isn't always for the best. In the famous words of poet John Lydgate, "You can't please all of the people all of the time." Yet many developers still try. So I threw the question out to the Massively staff to get some fresh opinions. Should we all be able to play the part of an armchair developer, or should we leave the design up to the paid designers?
Second Wind: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, part one
The time is finally upon us, everyone: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is live. It has been for a few weeks now, actually. And over those few weeks, I've spent just about every spare moment of my time in the fantastical world of Eorzea, running my remarkably adorable Miqo'te tail all over creation to save the world from rampaging primals and the nefarious Garlean Empire -- and occasionally sewing some rather fetching clothes. There's no denying that Square Enix has taken titanic strides in revamping its much-maligned MMO. Whole game systems have been torn apart and rewoven into something barely recognizable, and I'm not even going to entertain whether or not the changes were for the better. They absolutely were. The real question here is whether it will be enough to change the game's course. And as it happens, that's just the question I plan to answer in this multi-part edition of Second Wind.
The Think Tank: How do you define 'massive'?
I was passing out Massively t-shirts at a fan event a few year back when an arguably large man told the crowd that he probably shouldn't be wearing a shirt with the word "massive" on it. We all got a chuckle, but I don't think I would have defined him as massive before he made that comment. We asked for your opinions on the definition of the word "massive" as it pertains to massively multiplayer games, and the answers were both interesting and varied. So I thought it'd be a good idea to see what the Massively staff thinks of that debatable word. Follow along after the jump to see what we call massive.
The Think Tank: What motivates your MMO advancement?
We all have our motivations in life, whether they be ways to get better grades in school, make more money at our job, or finally catch up on last season's Breaking Bad on Netflix. Our favorite MMOs are no different, as motivation is a big part of succeeding, depending on your playstyle. So do you go for a higher spot on the leaderboards? Do you go for a higher achievement score than your friend? Will you keep killing that boss until he drops his pants for you? Er, leg armor drop, that is. What motivates the Massively team members to reach their MMO goals? Let's find out!
