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MMO Blender: Beyond Shawn's Thunderdome
If there's one thing I've noticed about these MMO Blender articles, it's that the Massively staff members seem to really like their sandboxes. Maybe it's not even so much a staff preference as it is a statement about where we all are as MMO players. Themeparks have been done and have been perfected, but many of us want to stretch the limitations of a truly persistent and open online world. At least that's what I'd like to think. It's an ideal situation I can dream about, but do we all really want a truly open world with limitless possibilities? What would we do with so few rules? My perfect MMO has what I'd consider to be the best of all worlds. The trick is, of course, getting it all to work in one game.
EA given best workplace title for LGBT employees
If there's one thing reading Massively's comments has taught me, it's that major big-budget game companies are evil and probably kill kittens. But a recent rating by the Human Rights Campaign might work towards changing your mind about EA a bit. The Human Rights Campaign has given the company a 100 percent rating which has earned it the title of "Best Place to Work for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Equality" for 2013. In addition to providing what they call a welcoming work environment for everyone, EA has also made changes to its medical benefits, involved itself in LGBT community events, and publicly denounced the Defense of Marriage Act. EA currently publishes some of the most popular console and PC games out there, including the MMOs Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Warhammer Online, and more.
Everything you need to know about Star Wars: The Old Republic's free-to-play update
Listen up, pilots: The devs have made a critical update, and the time for our return has come. Star Wars: The Old Republic is releasing both Update 1.5 and its free-to-play transition today, which means that the doors are open for both new and returning players to join BioWare's flock. That's right: sheep with lightsabers. You can Google Image search that later. To help get you caught up to speed, we've rounded up all of our pertinent posts about Update 1.5 and SWTOR's F2P in this handy holorecording. For those of you not thinking about black sheep turning to the dark side of the Force and baaa'ing out lightning, you can check out our coverage after the jump.
Rumor: Origin hacked, EA denies intrusion [Updated]
If you have created an EA Origin account for any reason, such as for Star Wars: The Old Republic or Ultima Online, we advise you to change your password posthaste. Numerous sites are reporting that hackers have breached Origin's security and are potentially modifying account information and stealing it. Allegedly affected players claim that the hackers are changing the log-in emails associated with their accounts and that the new email addresses have a Russian suffix. In response to a question about whether any accounts were compromised by hacking, an EA spokesperson made the following statement: "At this point, we have no reason to believe there has been any intrusion into our Origin database." EA has updated us with its full security statement: Anytime a player has a question about the security of his or her account or personal data, we take it very seriously and take all possible steps to help. For any customer who cannot access their Origin account for any reason, we ask them to please contact Origin Help or EA's customer experience group at help.ea.com. The robust security measures in place to protect Origin users accounts are constantly being expanded and upgraded, and we also strongly recommend customers take the protective steps of using strong passwords and changing passwords often.
The Daily Grind: Will you be playing SWTOR for free?
So Star Wars: The Old Republic's free-to-play conversion is almost upon us. The title throws open its doors on November 15th, and whether you're a Star Wars fan or just curious to see what all the fuss is about, it's a prime opportunity to sample BioWare's MMO story opus on the cheap. While the company has taken some lumps for its monetization model (paying for hotbars, really?), we're betting that the obligatory eleventy-billion-registered-players press release is already being prepped in anticipation of a successful F2P launch. What about you, Massively readers? Will you be playing SWTOR for free? 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!
MMO Blender: Larry's anti-power-creep MMO
On Tuesday, I suggested ways to get rid of power creep in MMOs. You know power creep: the constant treadmill of stats that keep getting better and strong but ultimately start to feel like more of a grind? It's very annoying to long-term players, and I'd imagine that it's frustrating to game designers because it's time and talent wasted when game content is no longer useful to anyone. In my quest to find the ultimate MMO, I have searched for game elements that reduce the amount of power creep but still come together to support a themepark game. Let's be honest: Sandbox games might suffer power creep, but because most sandboxes are skill-based, that power creep is not as prevalent or can easily be mitigated by tweaking classes. But themeparks are linear by design, and to remain fun, they have to retain part of that linear quality. Progression and continually racking up numbers and achievements is enjoyable to a large number of MMO players, otherwise it would be games like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies dominating the market, not World of Warcraft. Believe it or not, there are online games that have done a tremendous job of trying to defeat power creep, but unfortunately, they do not exist as one game... until now in my Anti-Power-Creep MMO!
The Daily Grind: What's the worst thing a cash shop can try to sell you?
MMO gamers, including our commenters and even some of our own writers, are in an uproar over the terms of Star Wars: The Old Republic's upcoming free-to-play transition. The game's F2P matrix seems to be hitting all the industry low points: lottery tickets, combat-affecting items, travel buffs, content caps, storage. Perhaps the worst of all is the quickbar unlocks. That's right -- if you want to play sublessly, you'll even have to pay to unlock extra hotkey bars. I've certainly played free-to-play MMOs that didn't try to milk me dry or annoy me into a subscription, so I know it's possible to design a hybrid pay model that doesn't generate the community's ire. Still, most every cash shop features at least one thing that gets under my skin. So today we're wondering, what's that one thing for you -- what's the worst thing a cash shop can try to sell you? 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!
Cryptic, Riot, and more weigh in on free-to-play growing pains
Anyone adamantly wanting a return to gaming where a handful of publishers and platforms run the show might need to acquire a time-machine to do so. In a recent article, various development studios -- including Cryptic Studios, Riot Games, and EA -- discussed the growth of free-to-play and how the model is affecting the games industry as a whole. According to these publishers, there's no argument that F2P will become a major force in the industry. Cryptic Studios COO Craig Zinkievich remarked that although F2P is stigmatized as evil in the social market, the recent influx of titles has gotten the core gaming audience more excited about the model. More consumer excitement, of course, leads to higher-quality games. Sean Decker, VP of EA's Play4Free label, noted, "The good thing about so many companies moving into the free-to-play space is that it's great for the players: the quality of graphics are going up, the quality of the gameplay is going up." However, in the rush to capitalize on F2P, some are going to crash and burn. Zinkievich said, "I think there will definitely be failures within the next 12 to 24 months. Many who are entering the market right now are doing it as almost a money-grab." He added, "But subscription is dead. [Star Wars:] The Old Republic was the biggest possible swing for the fences. There is no longer any argument over whether that can be done. Free-to-play is the way of the future. It is the new world." Does that include console gaming? According to these folks, yes.
The Perfect Ten: Character creation options nobody uses
There are two types of people in the world: those who can't get through the character creation menu fast enough to start playing "LordBladezz" and those who spend hours crafting the perfect face that will be seen by the player only 0.03% of the time. I've heard rumors of a species of middle-ground player, but I've yet to see one. I think there could be a doctoral thesis for someone willing to investigate which visual character creation options most of us use and which ones we ignore. My hunch is that most of us are looking to recreate an impeccable standard of beauty or handsomeness, resulting in game worlds exploding with Abercrombie & Fitch models. Because exploring the "most-used character creation options" isn't as much fun, today we're going to examine the 10 options that pretty much nobody uses. And yes, you'll feel compelled to comment that you do indeed use one of these and prove me wrong, so let me give you a gold star in advance for doing so. You're awesome.
Star Wars: The Old Republic dev blog outlines upcoming F2P transition
BioWare will be rolling out Star Wars: The Old Republic's official transition to a free-to-play business model very soon, so today the game's lead designer, Damion Schubert, has put out a new developer update apprising players of the status of SWTOR's F2P incarnation. In this new missive, Schubert lays out two of the core rules held by the development team behind the free-to-play revamp. First off, the team wants to ensure that all players can reach level 50 without paying a single dime if they so desire. Of course, subscribers will have some advantages over F2P players (such as an increased rate of XP gain, extra hotbars, and so forth), but the team is adamant about ensuring that all players can experience the entirety of BioWare's intricately crafted story without digging into their wallets. Secondly, the team aims to ensure that subscribers will not see any degradation in the quality of their gameplay experience, which includes making sure that subscribers don't feel obligated to make Cartel Market purchases in order to remain competitive. Schubert confidently asserts that the team "not only met these goals... but exceeded expectations." We'll find out for sure soon enough, but for now, head on over to the official post to find out what to expect when SWTOR goes free-to-play later this month.
SWTOR developers talk about update 1.5
Star Wars: The Old Republic's game update 1.5, HK-51 Activated, is looming ever-closer. To stir up some interest, the dev team has released information about the new HK-51 companion and the patch's graphical updates. Now it's time for a look at the big picture. A new developer dispatch gives the down-low on what players can expect the update to bring to PvE. A big feature of HK-51 Activated will be Section X on Belsavis, the site of the Republic's first attempt at a prison colony. Now the area will play home to new Dread Master antics. The area is meant to be "darker" and "edgier" than other content players have encountered and is being touted as the "coolest-looking area" in the game. Players will also find the wreck of the Fatality, which sets them off on a very special venture. (Hint: You're going to track down a legion of HK-51 assassin droids, and this whole thing is called HK-51 Activated, and you know that at some point you get an HK-51 companion.) Players will be introduced to multiplayer quests during which they have to work together to move through an area without setting off traps or activating alarms. A new world boss, Dreadtooth, will be introduced. When Dreadtooth is killed, he respawns with a stack of Dreadful Resurgence, which makes him harder to kill every time he respawns with players in the area. Those stacks will dwindle if players leave, or they can be deliberately increased to make encounters more interesting. If interesting is what you like, you'll also find nightmare mode available for Operation: Explosive Conflict. Skip below the cut to hear the developers talk about the patch!
Leaderboard: One character or many?
Final Fantasy XIV does not encourage players to have multiple characters. Even disregarding the game's somewhat strange pricing structure, you're expected to have one character because that one character can level every class and clear every quest. All that having another character does is slow your overall progress -- you'd only be doing things twice. By contrast, Star Wars: The Old Republic all but insists that you make alts. The game's Legacy feature encourages you to level several different characters, and the fact that chunks of the game's story differ depending on your choices means that a single character doesn't see the whole game. Having another character enhances both characters to the point that filling your character slots is almost expected. Most players fall somewhere away from either extreme on the sliding scale of alts. But let's assume you have a game that gives you only the two options -- have one character or have all the characters. Which would you prefer: a lone character who can do everything or an army of characters that collectively do everything?
SWTOR uploads new companion HK-51's backstory
Coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic in Update 1.5 is the game's first additional post-launch companion: HK-51. BioWare's crafted an encyclopedia entry designed to get us familiar with the substance and style of this new character. Based off of Knights of the Old Republic's HK-47 (who is also in SWTOR), HK-51 is a more advanced droid assassin model that prizes "efficiency over brutality." While remarkably effective at killing, the HK-51s were all but destroyed. Only a single crashed ship carrying the remainder of their kind is reported missing on Belsavis. BioWare also mentions another starship that may have design blueprints for the droid, but it too is lost. The droid assassin will be obtainable in a new area on Belsavis that also comes with the update, although free players will need to purchase this content to gain access to the companion.
EA's Moore on SWTOR: 'Price was always the issue'
Wired has a new interview with Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore that touches on just about every facet of the games industry. The former Microsoft exec talks at length about his Xbox days, Zynga, mobile gaming, digital vs. retail, the PC renaissance and how it may affect both consoles and hand-held devices, and of course the impending free-to-play conversion for Star Wars: The Old Republic. "Price was always the issue," Moore says. Former customers often said "I just didn't want to pay $15 a month. I felt kind of locked in. I love the game, but I'm locked in, and for a lot of people 15 bucks a month is a lot of money."
Hyperspace Beacon: Roleplaying conflict in SWTOR
Like many of you, I'm eagerly awaiting the launch of Update 1.5 for Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will hopefully happen next week. Although I have been on the test server and tried out the new content, I don't want to give my impressions until it's officially launched. So this week, I've decided to address an issue I've seen crop up more and more in the roleplay community that has nothing to do with the pending game update. In any good story, there is conflict -- physical, interpersonal, or otherwise. In MMO roleplay, a good chunk of conflict turns physical. After all, most of our characters are highly skilled warriors and other combat specialists, and physical conflict is the natural course. That means that roleplayers then have to be highly skilled at PvP if their characters are to be highly skilled, too, right? Don't get me wrong, I love PvP, but this supposition always rubbed me the wrong way, especially in a game like TOR where there is a large disparity between PvE skills and PvP. So what kinds of physical conflict resolutions are there if it's not straight-up PvP? And doesn't the dueling system in TOR limit itself to one-on-one dueling? How do you resolve that issue? Excellent questions. I'm glad you asked. Let's dive in.
Take a peek at graphical updates for SWTOR update 1.5
It's time to start getting excited for Star Wars: The Old Republic's upcoming 1.5 update. In order to whet your appetite for change, Senior Technical Artist Ben Cloward has graced fans with a glimpse of one of the big graphical changes that'll be coming in with the patch. Foliage is going to be a lot more beautiful and realistic. Instead of looking solid and therefore unnaturally dark when viewed against the sun, players with their Shader Complexity set to High will notice that leaves and grass will be moderately translucent, allowing sunlight to filter through them. While this may be but one small step for graphics, it's joined by "some even better improvements in the pipe," according to Cloward. Head on over to the official post to preview the change.
SWTOR lead dev addresses free-to-play concerns
Star Wars: The Old Republic players are checking out the game's potential free-to-play changes on the test server, and serious concerns about some of the restrictions have prompted a response from BioWare. Lead Designer Damion Schubert wrote a lengthy forum post to state that the team's been observing the test server and has decided to make a few changes to the F2P restrictions. In particular, free players will now get two quickbars instead of one, can experience five PvP warzones a week instead of three, and will find the temporary lock timer for items bought in the cash shop reduced. Schubert said that a more detailed post is incoming; it will spell out details for preferred status players, who include any former subscribers to the game. He also addressed the controversy over the store selling endgame mod crystals to low- and mid-level characters by explaining that it will not unbalance the game: "We're still philosophically avoiding putting any stat advantage at this level that subscribers cannot earn through reasonable normal play."
Star Wars: The Old Republic launches the Cartel Market on the PTS
Since the free-to-play announcement, Star Wars: The Old Republic fans have been asking what exactly will be offered in SWTOR's microtransaction cash shop. Fans on the public test server now have the chance to find out. This morning, BioWare shut down the PTS for a few hours and brought it back online with a fully installed Cartel Market. To test out its new market, BioWare set all PTS players to F2P status so the team can fully assess the F2P options. But does that mean that players have to spend real money to test out F2P? No; according the patch notes, "all PTS testers will be periodically granted a small amount of Cartel Coins for the purpose of testing the Cartel Market." Earlier today, the Hyperspace Beacon talked about the impact of F2P on SWTOR. Log on to the PTS, test out the Cartel Market, then let us know what you think in the comments. How does it stack up to other cash shops? Is this enough to change the course of the game?
BioWare details SWTOR's Kira Carsen companion
So, companions. Apparently they're a thing in Star Wars: The Old Republic. They're also a thing in Firefly, but we won't go into that right now. In SWTOR they're a thing that has spawned a web series called Companions 101, which features screenshots, biographical info, customization details, and various and sundry gameplay tips designed to maximize your relationship potential. The latest entry focuses on one Kira Carsen, whom BioWare describes as anything but your typical Jedi. "Kira disregards authority on multiple occasions. She respects the Jedi Order, but when you are choosing your conversation options remember that she doesn't mind breaking the rules from time to time," BioWare advises. Check out the full entry and related media on the official SWTOR website.
One Shots: Don't go chasing waterfalls
The wisdom of TLC flows down through the ages in many forms, but perhaps the group's greatest lesson was this: Don't go chasing waterfalls; please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to. In other words, if you go exploring in MMOs, you're only inviting destruction to rain down on your head, so just stay home. Wait a minute, that's not a good lesson at all. Forget it. Right now. Welcome back to One Shots, the column that you brought back and is now extremely lonely because only faithful reader Eric sent us in something from this past week! Admire Eric's pursuit of Guild Wars 2 waterfalls after the break, and be more like Eric by sending us in your favorite MMO screenshots with descriptions.
