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New ARGO Online trailer shows off Naihill content
burda:ic has released the newest trailer for ARGO Online, the steampunk-fantasy MMO currently going through its open beta phase. The clip features footage from the newly discovered continent of Naihill, which has expanded ARGO's post-apocalyptic world and its content. In addition to new lands (and dungeons) to explore, Naihill offers new PvP battles, new mounts, and new pets and is currently available for open beta participants to experience. The video clip clocks in at just under two and a half minutes and is composed of equal parts fly-through footage, PvE combat, and PvP action. See for yourself after the cut.
Community Detective Issue #20: Xsyon [Updated]
Welcome back, intrepid readers. After a bit of a hiatus, Community Detective is back on the case (that case being the chronicling of various MMORPG communities and customer service experiences). When I left off a few weeks ago, I'd just completed a whirlwind tour of DC Universe Online -- the PC and console versions -- and this week's issue couldn't be more different. We're talking polar opposites here, as Notorious Games' Xsyon sandbox is everything that DCUO is not (although the two titles do share half-baked chat functionality). I'll be honest here: I tend to cut sandboxes an inordinate amount of slack because a) I love them, and b) they've been relegated to second-class citizen status on account of the casual MMORPG explosion. Join me after the cut as I attempt to maintain some semblance of objectivity while recounting a couple weeks' worth of Xsyon community and customer service adventures.
EVE Online CSM explains its power and the limits thereof
EVE Online boasts a wide variety of players, many of whom happily go their own way in the vastness of New Eden with nary a thought as to the power struggles, machinations, and celebrated conflicts that garner headlines for CCP's space-based MMORPG on a regular basis. So when hardcore EVE players debate the pros and cons of the newly elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM), newer or more casual denizens of EVE could be forgiven if they were to say, in effect, the pros and cons of whom? A new letter from the CSM aims to demystify its purpose (and the limits of its power). CCP Diagoras recently posted the letter on the official EVE website, and the piece shares the collective opinion of all nine council members on everything from time dilation and lag issues to developer communication and two "ugly truths" about the council. First up is the fact that "CCP is under no obligation to interact with the CSM outside of the strict confines of the CCP/CSM summits." Also noteworthy is the council's take on its power relative to actual game implementations. "There is no explicit power behind any player-initiated legislation approved by the CSM." Why assemble the group at all, then? Read the rest of the dev blog to find out.
EVE Online Alliance Tournament IX experiments with new format, banning mechanic
June is just around the corner, and if you're an EVE Online fan, you probably know that the annual Alliance Tournament isn't far behind. This year's event looks to be bigger and badder than ever before, and it has a couple of new wrinkles to boot. As Mindstar writes on the newest EVE dev blog, CCP used "a highly secret blend of player feedback, meeting room shenanigans, and just a dash of beer [to] come up with some new stuff that will spice things up a bit." The newness includes a format tweak that owes a bit of inspiration to FIFA World Cup (i.e., a 32-team group competition), and there's also a new banning mechanic that is sure to cause a few chuckles. Prior to the start of each match, captains will have the option to disqualify a single pilot from the opposing group, and you can almost hear the evil cackling resounding in the CCP offices as Mindstar explains the details. Check them out on the official EVE website.
New Star Wars: The Old Republic dev blog dishes on advanced classes
Ready for another Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday feature? Whom are we kidding, of course you are! BioWare's Georg Zoeller is happy to oblige via his new dev blog that focuses on TOR's advanced classes. His previous entry laid the groundwork, whereas today's exercise is all about the details. Players will choose their advanced class at level 10, and each base class offers two advanced class choices (i.e., the Smuggler will need to select either the Gunslinger or Scoundrel as her advanced class). Each advanced class provides two exclusive skill trees and shares a third tree with the other (non-selected) advanced class. This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, since Zoeller goes into quite a bit of detail in terms of the various skills, skill trees, and even decision-making and testing metrics (and of course, it's all sprinkled with a liberal dose of pretty pictures). Devour all the details on the official TOR website.
Star Trek Online Ask Cryptic talks starbases, ground combat, and more
How would you feel about a cover system and/or first-person-shooter elements in your daily Star Trek Online diet? Producer Dan Stahl tackles the feasibility of both of those features -- and a host of others -- in the latest Ask Cryptic. The STO version of the community Q&A feature went live last night on the game's official website and boasts a large number of subscriber-generated queries ranging from integrated voice chat to a time table on the ground combat revamp to the addition of starbase functionality to the Foundry. "We anticipate the next major feature to the Foundry being the ability for fleets to design and run their own starbases. This is a monumental addition to the Foundry, so don't expect it right away, but it is the next big thing for that feature," Stahl says. Check out the full list of questions on the official STO website.
CCP releases EVE Online planetary interaction video tutorial
EVE Online's learning curve is somewhat notorious (if not downright legendary) and may even be part of the reason the game's hardcore fans are so hardcore. There is truly nothing like it in the MMO space (and not much in gaming period aside from Elite and the X series). Getting into the ebb and flow of New Eden is challenging even for seasoned video game vets, and that was before CCP added a new wrinkle in the form of planetary interaction. Luckily, the Icelandic development firm is also producing some spiffy video tutorials to help capsuleers wrap their brains around everything from scanning to harvesting resources from planets. A new planetary interaction video covers the basics including required modules, skills, and the successful manipulation of the new interface additions, all of it presented with in-game footage and voiceover narration. Check it after the cut or via CCP's YouTube portal.
CCP releases EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter
It's time for another in-depth look at New Eden's thriving economy, and as you'd expect in a game built around interminable conflict, business is booming. CCP's resident economist, Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, is back with the latest EVE Online Quarterly Economic Newsletter (QEN), and while it's a bit on the old news side for those lucky enough to attend last month's Fanfest where it was initially presented, the trends, observations, and raw data are still relevant for the rest of us. In a nutshell, keep killing your friends and neighbors, as the constant bloodletting is integral to New Eden's economic well-being. "Warfare and the EVE Online economy thrive on each other. Without warfare there is very little consumption in EVE Online and without a strong economy (and lots of personal wealth) wars can't be won," Guðmundsson explains.
Generosity scandal rocks sci-fi sandbox
Players of [hardcore MMO] reeled today over the the latest scandal to hit the game. According to our sources, a character by the name of [player #1] of [guild name] flew his [spaceship name] above a neglected outpost on [game location], dumping over [huge number] [game currency] on the players below. The money has an approximate value of [huge number] USD. "[Player #1] is a travesty," one angry citizen declared. "This game is about scamming and swindling idiots out of their money, not giving it away like some namby-pamby carebear in [themepark MMO]." "I could have been killed!" insisted [player #2], who spends his game time [tradeskill ending in -ing] in the town. "All that [game currency] was really heavy. What if it had landed on my [body part]?" [Player #3], who is not an economist, suggested that donations of this magnitude ruin the economy. "We can't just go around throwing free [game currency] out of spaceships. It causes inflation and hurts [insulting term for newbie players]." [Game company] could not be reached for comment. Games Journalism sure is hard work, so we've decided to take a break today and let you write your own news! Too many stories about RIFT on Massively lately? Not enough about the game of your choice? No problem! Much in the style of Mad Libs, today is your day to create the news you want to read, all day on the :30s. Simply fill in the blanks and it's yours. Have fun!
New Global Agenda video teases Dome Defense
As far as cryptic trailers go, both gaming companies and Hollywood have produced their fair share over the years. Today, Hi-Rez Studios offers up its own take on the time-honored tradition of teasing your audience with a new video designed to amp up the excitement for Global Agenda's forthcoming 1.4 release. The clip is subtitled Dome Defense, and hints at something big and nasty blowing the doors off the agent refuge known as Dome City in the game's far-future setting. The video doesn't actually show any gameplay, instead opting for atmospheric shots of familiar (and bombed-out) locales from around the game's central hub before concluding with a bit of a sensory rush. We expect that 1.4 will bring us the long-awaited Dome Defense mission, which features an attack by Recursive Colony bots and the opportunity to fight alongside the legendary Dalton Bancroft. Check out all the destruction, terror, and mayhem after the cut.
Masthead releases two-month Earthrise roadmap
It's been nearly two months since the launch of Earthrise, and Masthead Studios is moving forward with long-term development plans for the sci-fi sandbox MMORPG. In a press release this morning, the Bulgaria-based dev team laid out a list of new features planned for integration in April and May. Citizens of Enterra will be getting some direction in the form of minimap quest hint indicators, alleviating the confusion that often results when searching for various objectives. Earthrise crafters will be able to produce paint that can be used on armor, weapons, and vehicles, and guild diplomacy mechanics will give leaders the ability to both declare war and cultivate allies. As a result of the February Choose Your Game Feature voting, resurrection mechanics will be coming to Earthrise, and player parties will also be able to share battle points and karma from defeated enemies. Finally, various technical and performance-related tweaks are in the offing, including customizable chat windows, a friends/ignore list, AI improvements, and shadow enhancements.
Perpetuum dev blog outlines upcoming tweaks
There's a new dev blog floating around the Perpetuum website, and it's got quite a bit of interesting info to share with players of Avatar Creations' mech-based sandbox MMORPG. Avatar's Dev Zoom writes that while most of the team is hard at work on growing the world of Nia, there's also room for "a few small but rather important changes, which we intend to implement in smaller patches before and around the world expansion patch." Chief among these updates is a global storage listing. Zoom says that this new asset list functionality will allow players to browse their items in both local and remote terminals. Avatar is also removing NPC buy orders for kernels, leaving the kernel market totally in the hands of players and dependent on player research needs. Also scheduled for a revamp are geoscanner folders, the market rates graph, and the game's event notification system, which the dev blog labels as an "age-old fossil." And that's just the tip of the iceberg, as Avatar has several more items on its to-do list. We've only got so much space though, so you'll have to head to the official Perpetuum dev blog to read the rest.
EVE Fanfest 2011: CCP working on mobile New Eden functionality
Hopelessly addicted to life in New Eden, maybe to the point of wishing you could take EVE Online with you on the go? Well, that day may be closer than you think if one of CCP's EVE Fanfest 2011 demos is any indication. The Icelandic development firm showed off a new project designed to run a streamlined version of EVE on Nvidia-based Tegra 2 mobile hardware (that excludes iOS devices, for the non-technical Apple consumers in the audience). The demo was basically a render of EVE's ship fitting interface, shown running on a tablet and a phone, with the future intent being to provide limited functionality sans a PC (think market transactions and skill queue management). According to Gamasutra, CCP has yet to announce a release date for the project.
The Daily Grind: What is your favorite internet spaceship?
When we talk about intergalactic transportation, there is no end to the variety of shapes and sizes of starships. Even within specific genres of science fiction, the starships are consistently inconsistent. In Star Wars, the Imperial ships are very angular, whereas the Mon Calamari ships are kind of puffy. If you look at Star Trek, you see a multitude of cultural differences between the spacecraft. Federation ships are very pristine, clean, and diplomatic. On the other had, Klingon ships carry the mark of the aggressive species that created them. Many MMOs have introduced us to ships we can pilot in a virtual world. Star Wars Galaxies and Star Trek Online were mentioned above, but there is also EVE Online and Taikodom -- not to mention games still in development like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Jumpgate Evolution. So in the spirit of EVE fanfest, we are asking today: What is your favorite internet spaceship? 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!
EVE Online's sixth CSM election results are in
The elections for EVE Online's sixth Council of Stellar Management have come to a close, and earlier today the results were revealed to both excited Fanfest attendees in Iceland and players at home. In previous years, the CSM's role was to collect issues players had with the game and bring them to the attention of developers. This role has morphed over time into a more advisory form, with CCP running ideas by the council and using them to help prioritise the development backlog. This year's elections were heavily influenced by political voting from EVE's nullsec alliances. Organised voting secured spots on the council for several big players in territorial warfare, and a few old faces returned for a further term. Political voting isn't necessarily a bad thing for the CSM, as players who are heavily involved in EVE are still the types of people we want to see on the council. CCP employees can't also be power players in the game, so they miss out on the perspective that alliance leaders and other heavily involved players will have. Participation was huge this year, with a total of 49,069 votes being cast in a two-week period. This represents 14.25% of the total accounts eligible to vote, an increase over last year's 12.67%. Read on for a full rundown of the elected members of EVE's sixth Council of Stellar Management.
BioWare releases Jedi armor progression video
Due to what could be considered a lack of hard info on everyone's favorite Star Wars archetype, BioWare has had many fans crying out in terror. Today, said fans were suddenly silenced, though not because something terrible has happened. On the contrary, the traditional Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday update brings us a breathless look at glowstick-powered combat footage courtesy of the new Jedi Knight armor progression trailer. The clip runs a smidge over two minutes and features ample opportunity to feast our eyes on various animations, attacks, and of course armor sets and outfits. There's no voiceover, and those of us who haven't played the game at the various cons may not know exactly what we're looking at, but it nonetheless looks (and sounds) pretty cool. Don't take our word for it, though, see for yourself after the cut.
Captain's Log: The future for fleets
Captain's Log, Stardate 64731.1... Hello, computer (and players)! On my way home from work today, Jason DeRulo's Ridin' Solo came up on my iPod's playlist, and I thought to myself, how boring -- who would want to ride solo? Most of us will agree that we have the most fun when we are teamed up with someone while playing. Whether it is for the social interaction or the companionship or just so that we don't have to keep zerging, we play MMOs so that we can play with other people from around the world. Our games also allow us to take teaming one step further in the form of guilds. In Star Trek Online, joining a fleet is one of the most popular ways to play the game. Since the early days of closed beta, thousands of fleets have formed inside Cryptic's server, fleets that have brought players together from around the world. It truly does not matter whether you speak English or not -- some of the larger fleets out there have members who represent dozens of countries, languages and ethnicities. Whether you are into PvP, roleplay, raiding, PvE, or accolade-hunting, there is a fleet for everyone -- but it doesn't stop there! As time warps on, developers of the game are going to be adding new options and creating new gameplay that will change the way you will interact with your fleet. So what are they? Ensign, warp 10! Let's talk about the future of fleets...
ARGO Online kicks off third closed beta phase
Yesterday marked the successful completion of ARGO Online's second closed beta phase. Today, the sci-fi, steampunk, and fantasy-flavored free-to-play MMO kicks off phase three, which is slated to run through March 30th. If you've participated in any of the earlier phases, you're already registered and will be able to access the new beta using your pre-existing account credentials. Phase three adds a guild system and an auction house to ARGO's post-apocalyptic world, and players will be able to continue testing all of the previously implemented systems. burda:ic has also released a few statistics from phase two of the beta, including the most popular Noblian class (the Explorer), the most popular Floresslah class (the Druid), and the distribution of Noblian vs. Floresslah players (51 percent to 49 percent). Check out the official ARGO Online website for more information or to sign up for beta.
Star Wars Galaxies rolls out the Entertainer update
Despite an explosion of titles across the MMOsphere in recent years, Sony Online Entertainment's Star Wars Galaxies is still one of the very few to feature much in the way of non-combat game mechanics. We aren't just talking about one-button crafting, an optional music system, or developer-sanctioned mount racing here, but rather an entire class dedicated to brightening someone else's day. Today's 19.12 hotfix is billed as the Entertainer update, and it's rather aptly named given the lengthy list of tweaks coming to dancers and musicians across the galaxy far, far away. The Entertainer class is receiving a complete expertise tree revamp (and a complimentary reset), new combat buffs, new hairstyles for image design abilities, new dance moves, a new flourish, and several new commands (including a new perform tab). That's a lot of new, but it's not all of it, and you can read the complete list of changes and additions on the official SWG forums.
Black Prophecy North American closed beta begins
It's only been a couple of days since the official European launch of Reakktor's Black Prophecy, but North American fans of the free-to-play sci-fi title have been feeling left out in the cold due to a general lack of availability. Happily, gamigo and Reakktor have posted a news blurb on the game's website officially announcing the start of the North American closed beta. Reakktor also states that the first thousand invites have been sent, with more coming very soon, in addition to beta key giveaways with various gaming press outlets. While there's no word on an official American launch date as of yet, we can tell you that Massively has a few beta keys up our sleeves, so stay tuned for further details. Black Prophecy boasts real-time combat, modular ship design, and a deep crafting component, all married to a state-of-the-art graphics engine and wrapped in an enthralling sci-fi backstory.
