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Issue 9 of The Secret World is live
Tokyo has been squatting like a gargoyle on the horizon of The Secret World since its launch nearly two years ago. Now, it's time for players to get into it. Issue 9 has just gone live, bringing with it the addition of the Tokyo playfield along with new missions, new monsters, and new revelations for the overarching story. But really, would you expect any less from the source of the Filth infestation? Players will explore Tokyo starting at the same subway junction that set off the game's story, moving from there into the city proper. Once in the city, they'll be dealing with Orochi, Filth zombies, an oni infestation, and plenty of ghosts clustering about. If you want to know a little more about the content before you jump in, you can check out our tour of Tokyo from yesterday.
Chaos Theory: Touring Tokyo with TSW's Joel Bylos
It's Tokyo time! That's right, an end to the wait is finally upon us. Come Wednesday, everyone who buys Issue #9 The Black Signal for The Secret World and has acquired The Council's Seal will be able to cross the threshold into Tokyo. Like you, I've been dying to get in and check out this new zone, the first new area introduced to the horror game since launch. Thanks to a special tour with Game Director Joel Bylos and Communications Manager Tor Egil Andersen, I was able to preview the first of the three Tokyo zones so I could share that experience with you. We not only explored the city itself, but we completed one of the new -- and might I add, really spooky -- missions and utilized the new AEGIS system. So, how is it? Let me just say, it's worth the wait! And not just for the creepy homages to the Illuminati handler, Kirsten Geary.
Funcom planning to launch TSW's Tokyo this Wednesday
Grab your passports! The Secret World fans will finally get to step into Tokyo this week. Creative Director Joel Bylos has told Massively that barring any hiccups, plans are to release Issue #9 The Black Signal on Wednesday, June 4th, 2014. Even with hiccups, the expansion is expected this week. Tokyo, the first new zone to be introduced to TSW, is so large that it will be spread out over three issues, breaking the city into two parts (Issues #9 and #10) and the Orochi Headquarters building (Issue #11). There are plenty of new mobs, new NPCs, new cut scenes, and new missions throughout the zone. Want to hear more? Keep your eyes peeled for Massively's full hands-on experience in Tokyo.
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite thing about your favorite MMO?
I'm dabbling in a bunch of MMOs right now. Actually, I'm pretty much doing that all the time. Anyway, I'm dabbling the most in Elder Scrolls Online, and while it's not a perfect game by any stretch, I can't get enough of its production design and general aesthetics. In fact, I'd say that's my favorite thing about the game at the moment, aside from the IP. What about you, Massively readers? What's your favorite thing about your favorite MMO? 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!
Bethesda's Hines on ESO console delay
Bethesda VP of PR Pete Hines spoke to CVG recently, and while the thrust of the interview focused on the company's interests outside of MMORPGs, there were some tidbits relating to The Elder Scrolls Online's console delay. It's a closed system. It's not just an ESO thing -- they have rules and regulations that govern all games, if you're going to do something it has to work a certain way. It doesn't matter the way that we want to do it -- it has to fit their requirements. I'll give you an easy example; payments. When we do stuff on PC, we manage it ourselves, it goes through our store, we manage the whole thing. When it goes through somebody else, that someone is doing all of that; taking your money, charging your PayPal, and then transferring that information to us. This is just inherently a different process than the one that we have, where it's our store and we just have to make sure our system works. It's the same thing on PSN -- you have to just make sure that all of that stuff communicates. When you start adding up the pile of things and everything that we learned from launch, it was clear that we needed to take the time to do this right, because it has massive ramifications if it doesn't work right for the consumer experience.
ESO spotlights player-made Thunder Thief build
The folks at Zenimax and Bethesda are spotlighting particularly powerful builds created by Elder Scrolls Online players, and this week, a player named Ramon Paulino de Castro sent in a detailed build of his Sorcerer he calls the Thunder Thief. This build uses dual blades and medium armor, along with a focus on high damage in short bursts. Primary skills include Whirlwind for multiple foes, Surge for its lightning power, Mage's Fury to cause bleeding and recharge magicka, Flurry for a single enemy, and Lightning Form (with Thundering Presence) to resist damage. Take a look at the entire build in today's Battlemaster's Corner, and submit your own builds to community@elderscrollsonline.com.
ESO's Sage talks justice system and new guilds, 'no firm plans' for housing [Updated]
Now that Elder Scrolls Online's Craglorn is here, ZeniMax is turning its attention to the game's delayed console release as well as future content updates. Creative director Paul Sage told IGN that players will likely see ESO's justice system prior to the introduction of the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, though there is no date for either set of features just yet. As for player housing, it's on the back burner. "I will tell you that when we get to player housing, and I think it's one of those things that when you have a game that's been running a long time it's one of those things you want to get to, it has to be something that's done differently and done well," Sage said. "That's about all I can tell you. We have no firm plans for anything on housing at this time." [Update]: Here are today's Craglorn patch notes!
The Daily Grind: Are you wary of patch days?
The Craglorn patch is coming to Elder Scrolls Online today, and guess what else is coming with it? No, really, go ahead and guess. Because I don't know, you don't know, and basically no one outside of the dev team knows what sorts of stealthy nerfs, buffs, tweaks, and other assorted changes will be slipped into the game's first major content offering. Personally I'm nearing 50 on my Nightblade and greatly enjoying it, so I'd not like to see much of anything happen to the class from a PvE perspective. What about you, Massively readers? Do you dread patch days for the tweaks they often introduce, or do you roll with the bit of wisdom that says changes aren't permanent but change is? 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!
Elder Scrolls Online's Craglorn update is coming tomorrow
ZeniMax creative director Paul Sage told IGN that Elder Scrolls Online's endgame-focused Craglorn update is coming this week. "I think we're still at the tail-end of six weeks[.] I could be wrong there[;] it's all a blur," Sage said. "But we're either in the sixth week or the seventh with this update[,] and I believe our next update is fairly on schedule," he said. After it launches Craglorn, ZeniMax plans to unveil the Crypt of Hearts veteran dungeon. IGN also says that it talked to Sage about player housing, the Thieves Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood, but that information won't be available until later in the week. [Update: ZeniMax has just posted that in fact the Craglorn update will arrive tomorrow: "We are very happy to announce that Update 1, including Craglorn, will hit the live servers starting tomorrow, when we'll be bringing the servers offline to begin deploying Update 1. [...] Offline maintenance will begin on Thursday, May 22 (tomorrow!) at 8 AM EDT for the North American megaserver and at 10 PM EDT for the European Megaserver. Craglorn and the rest of Update 1 will be available to players after the end of the maintenance period."]
The Daily Grind: Do you mob grind?
This weekend I was at a loss for something to do in Elder Scrolls Online. I was level 42, the last quest in my journal was bugged, and I was a bit low to be attempting the level 45 Harborage mission. I didn't feel like rolling an alt and I didn't feel like PvPing, so instead I did something that I never do. I threw on a TV show, loaded up on Diet Mountain Dew, and proceeded to mob grind my way through Bangkorai until I reached level 44. It's not that mob grinding in MMOs is unusual, since many players do it every time they log in. I usually avoid it, though, and for whatever reason it scratched my particular ESO itch on this particular day. What about you, Massively readers? Do you mob grind in your MMO of choice? 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!
ZeniMax invites you to watch other people play The Elder Scrolls Online
ZeniMax has just announced a streamed Elder Scrolls Online competition in which selected guilds will rush through one of the brand-new trials launching with the Craglorn patch... and you can tune in to watch them succeed or fail live on Twitch this coming Saturday. Trials are intended as 12-player raids with hardcore mechanics like limited resurrections and complex encounters. "When it's all over," says the studio, "the guild with the best Aetherian Archive completion time (if [it] can finish!) will be declared the winner." Here's the complete schedule of start times on Saturday and Twitch channels for each guild: 2:00 p.m. EDT (8:00 p.m. CEST): German Allstars, Reddithium 3:00 p.m. EDT (9:00 p.m. CEST): BIG Nation, Resurrection 4:00 p.m. EDT (10:00 p.m. CEST): Entropy Rising, Fate 5:00 p.m. EDT (11:00 p.m. CEST): The Noore
Chaos Theory: The Secret World's Whispering Tide and Tokyo
Let's hear it for the encore! If you missed any step of the The Secret World's first long-term (and by long, I mean like The Great Wall of China long) event, you've been granted a second chance. Before The Whispering Tide rolls out for good and Tokyo finally arrives, all phases of the event will be temporarily available for players to experience. Starting last week with the gathering phases and moving to the instanced phases this week, players have the opportunity to snag missing lore and check off achievements, ultimately earning the crowning piece of the bee suit: the helm. This was definitely a smart move on Funcom's part. With this latest act, the studio shows more consideration for TSW's players and fosters an increase in goodwill, something the company certainly needs after such a long wait for Issue #9 and the more recent April Fools' Day mankini debacle. Sadly, a few easily preventable missteps marred what could have been a purely positive move.
Elder Scrolls Online gets another third-party auction house
TESO Elite Marketplace isn't the only attempt out there to fill in the hole of a missing Elder Scrolls Online auction house. ZAM announced today the start up of ESO Outpost to meet the needs of buyers and sellers. The service uses "a web-based interface and companion add-on" to buy and sell gold and items. The addon includes a customizable description field, optional screenshots, comments section, tracking, and post-trade feedback.
ESO and other MMOs still behind Microsoft's console paywall
Microsoft announced yesterday that its Xbox Live Gold subscription will no longer be required in order to use Netflix, HBO Go, and other entertainment apps. The company's new-found generosity doesn't apply to free-to-play games and MMOs including The Elder Scrolls Online, though. Microsoft's Phil Spencer told Joystiq that "engineering constraints, policy constraints, and partner constraints" are to blame, though Bethesda has previously expressed its dissatisfaction with the arrangement. ZeniMax recently announced that ESO's console release has been delayed by six months.
WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney praises ESO's marketing
In a recent thread on Reddit's Elder Scrolls Online subreddit, a user by the name of Nuclayer posted that he was curious about the approach ZeniMax and Bethesda are taking for the paid promotion of the newly launched fantasy MMO. "Maybe I just missed all the stuff about it," the user says, "but from my personal perspective [it] feels like they really didn't put that much into letting us know about this game." Because WildStar was mentioned in the post as a game that's doing marketing right, Carbine's Jeremy Gaffney jumped into the thread to offer his own opinion. "Elder Scrolls is redonculously huge as a franchise," the WildStar Exec Producer offers. "Skyrim sold, what, 16 million copies? So everyone knows about it in advance - check out the Facebook, TESO has literally 10x the likes. So Zen can be much more broad in their marketing." Gaffney goes on to explain quite candidly the marketing strategy for WildStar and how his studio is probably spending way less than ZeniMax did on ESO. He makes sure to give plenty of kudos to ZeniMax for what it's done so far with ESO. Check out the whole thread for more from the fans of both games. Spoiler alert: It's actually a friendly Reddit thread.
Elder Scrolls Online invites you to learn how to group
Trying to make sense of Elder Scrolls Online's grouping tools? Need a hand in hooking up with other players to plunder dungeons? ZeniMax has you covered. The studio posted a new video today that takes you through ESO's group mechanics and grouping tools, step by step. It also contains helpful tidbits such as the fact that groups get 10% extra XP. You can check out the seven-minute grouping tutorial video after the break.
Elder Scrolls devs: Low-percentage drops on AH would harm 'gear chase'
ZeniMax has released an Elder Scrolls Online Ask Us Anything variety pack that covers everything from taunts and maintaining aggro to server maintenance times. The devs also field a question about guild stores and why they're for guild members only. "Our goal is to make the economy more player-based, but not to have a system that allows you to find anything at any time because there are so many players involved on a megaserver," ZeniMax says. "With extremely large communities, low-percentage drops can become highly available in auction houses. It ends up harming the 'gear chase' portion of the game."
Meet The Secret World's Tokyo cast
Tokyo is coming -- no, really! -- to The Secret World later this month, and Funcom is fueling fans' anticipation by introducing to them several of the primary NPCs who will be in the new zone. These characters include Sarah, a Council of Venice occult investigator; Gozen, a samurai leader who protects Japanese leadership from demons; Inbeda, an Oni demon mercenary; Daimon Kiyota, a leader of the Yakuza occult branch; and Kurt 'Buster' Kuszczak, an Orochi tank commander who is having a very bad day. Interestingly enough, players have already met Sarah. She was the character through whom players explored the tutorial; we saw the aftermath of the Tokyo disaster through her eyes. [Thanks to Cotic for the tip!]
Elder Scrolls Online's Craglorn zone 'harkens back to old school games'
The folks over at ZeniMax have started a new series on the official Elder Scrolls Online website called the Loremaster's Archive, with the very first issue dedicated to the not-smelly-at-all-why-do-you-ask topic of the undead. The post differentiates between the four varieties of undead -- Reanimated, Returned, Accursed, and Abominable Miscegenations -- and provides a some backstory as to why people would pursue necromancy as a hobby. Meanwhile, on the fansite Tamriel Foundry, there's an interview with Lead Content Designer Rich Lambert about the development of the upcoming Craglorn zone. Citing his history of extensive raiding in MMOs, Lambert said that he was excited about developing this high-level group PvE area: "It harkens back to some of the old school games, (ugh I said 'old school') where grouping was really important for survival and stuff was hard." Lambert goes on to explain the various mechanics and specifics of how group adventures will proceed in the area, so check it out if you've hit level cap already and are ready for the next big challenge.
Elder Scrolls Online console releases delayed six months [Updated]
The Elder Scrolls Online was originally scheduled to release on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in June. According to a now-removed FAQ entry on ZeniMax's website, the console versions will be delayed by "about six months." "While it has become clear that our planned June release of the console versions isn't going to be possible, we have made great progress, we have concluded that we'll need about six more months to ensure we deliver the experience our fans expect and deserve," the blurb explained. A Reddit user captured a screenshot of the FAQ entry before it was removed, and Joystiq has done a bit of sleuthing to verify via Google search that the text was legitimate. Massively has contacted ZeniMax for an official statement. [Update]: ZeniMax has posted an update that confirms the six-month delay. The company is also offering transfers of developed characters from the PC platform to either of the console versions.
