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TERA showcases screenshots of the week
Scapes, Senior Community Manager for En Masse Entertainment's forthcoming TERA fantasy action MMORPG, has been a busy bee this week. In addition to the The Velika Guardian newsletter announcement and publication of Issue One, he's also treated anxious fans to a new Screenshots of the Week featurette. The weekly unveiling, also found on the official TERA boards, will highlight specific areas of the map as well as showcase the many mobs and assorted creatures that look to dine on unwary adventurers. For this week's debut, we're treated to three shots from the Island of Dawn. Check them out on the official site and as part of the game's official Flickr photostream.
En Masse publishes first TERA weekly newsletter
En Masse Entertainment Senior Community Manager Scapes brings word of the first issue of The Velika Guardian, a weekly newsletter designed to keep readers abreast of all that's new and happening in the world of TERA. The newsletter, basically an ongoing forum thread that features a collection of relevant updates (as selected by the dev team) from the previous week, can be found on the game's official boards. For the debut issue, Scapes highlights Patrick Wyatt's TERAHispano.com interview, the recently released Focus Group Test 2 Postmortem, and Sam Kim's interview with TERAGamers.de. Check out Issue One of The Velika Guardian over at the official TERA website.
TERA FGT2 gameplay feedback detailed
TERA's official website has updated with the first in a series of 'postmortem' articles featuring player feedback and developer responses to the recently concluded second round of focus group testing. En Masse has collated a mountain of information from the 60-hour testing period and organized it into three broad categories (gameplay, Westernization, and technology), each of which will feature a postmortem article. The first article, focused on gameplay, expounds on everything from race/class combinations, to gear and itemization, to progression rewards. "Feedback regarding progression fell into four categories: equipment, items, skills, and gold acquisition. We asked testers whether they felt they received real and tangible rewards for their efforts, and feedback followed many of the same trends for each of the three categories. Gear was a hot topic: moving forward, TERA will feature more equipment items per level, new visuals for these items, and a wider assortment of item statistics. Gold seemed to be just about right, although testers noted that it was hard to tell for sure without a live, in-game economy," the article states. Check out the full write-up over at the official site.
TERA's Sam Kim talks PvP Battlefield, questing
German fansite TeraGamers.de features a new interview with TERA developer Sam Kim. While the majority of the web site is, naturally, auf Deutsch, the interview has been helpfully translated to English and is available on the site's forums. Kim discusses everything from quest innovation, to character customization improvements, to PvP options. "I'm sure you know that there will be PvP servers, with world PvP, and PvE servers with consensual PvP. One thing you might not know too much about yet is the Battlefield system. This system has been designed to be scalable -- everything from pickup skirmishes to guild-on-guild frays," Kim says. He also touches on the subject of item quality tiers, and acknowledges the fan demand for more armor and weapon variety. Check out the full interview over at TeraGamers.de.
TERA welcomes you to the northeast
There are a lot of things about TERA that have helped push it to the forefront of people's minds without having seen much of the game, but the lore is certainly a big part of it. Aside from being a fine way to wave away fantasy inconsistencies, there's something infinitely unique about a world being dreamed into existence. But life in Northern Shara (with Shara being the eastern continent) is anything but a peaceful dream, as it's the site where the unnatural Argon first burst into the world. A new lore entry on the official site goes into detail about just what is happening in the besieged environment. Argon forces are both the core threat of TERA and the biggest danger to the region, but they're not after simple conquest. They've imported vast machinery to help them terraform the world into a more fitting environment, crawling across the landscape and distorting it. Still, within the city of Kaiator, the Valkyon Federation (presumably including the player characters) works to stem the flow of invaders and disrupt their efforts. Take a look at the full description for a better picture of the world's first battlefield against what seems to be utter annihilation.
The Daily Grind: Twitch reflexes or slow strategy?
The earliest games were all about reflexes. Look back at any classic game you care to name -- in the days of the arcades, skill was determined first, foremost, and only by how well you could react to changes in a split second. Combat in an MMO, by and large, is a very different creature. Due to issues of network latency and changes in design overall, most MMOs feature a slower pace and a greater emphasis on carefully planning out attacks. Certain games have entire classes devoted to a strategic building approach, such as the Warden of Lord of the Rings Online. But reflexes haven't vanished from games by any stretch of the imagination. There are fights with very little chance for players to react, fights where the difference between the dead and the living is how fast one gets off a heal. Upcoming games such as TERA and All Points Bulletin promise to bring a more action-oriented approach to MMO combat, but is that something you want? While no game swings entirely to one side or the other, would you rather have combat leaning more on your reflexes or your ability to plan?
Bluehole CM addresses TERA player feedback
Bluehole Studio Community Manager Mr. Blue has responded to tester feedback regarding the Korean beta version of the upcoming TERA MMORPG. The question and answer session, translated by Meiellink and Locien of TeraFans, touches on a lengthy list of player concerns including a lack of character and skill differentiation, a reliance on repeatable quests, difficult solo play, and a lack of unique hunting zones. "A complete renewal of the hunting zones, including the ones in Arun continent which players have visited is already planned. This doesn't just encompass the variety of monsters, placement, paths, topography and buildings, but also things such as quest types, quest lines and the placement of solo and party quests. We're going to take these factors and others into account as we measure the level of completion of the renewed zones one at a time," Mr. Blue says. Check out the full article over at TeraFans.
TERA's Patrick Wyatt talks security, RMT
The guys over at TERAHispano have scored an interesting interview with En Masse Entertainment COO Patrick Wyatt. The former NCsoft executive talks at length about everything from possible RMT options, to account security, to private servers and potential in-game griefing in TERA. In light of the much-publicized problems with bots, gold-selling, and account theft in Aion, these issues are clearly on the minds of TERA fans as En Masse works to localize Bluehole Studio's open world fantasy MMORPG for the western markets. "Ultimately, if users want to purchase gold, they'll find a way to do it. The U.S. "drug war" hasn't stopped people from buying drugs, it merely causes fluctuations in the price of those drugs and the amount of crime and violence that people are willing to commit to buy and sell drugs. If we only try to attack the problem of gold farming by detecting and blocking the gold farmers we will not be effective in stopping that behavior and all of the problems that go with it, like chat-spamming to advertise gold-buying sites, purchase fraud, phishing, and account theft," Wyatt says. He goes on to list EVE Online's PLEX system and Everquest's Vox and Bazaar secondary market experiments as potential "interesting solutions." Check out TERAHispano for the full interview as well a companion gameplay-centric interview with Producer Sam Kim.
TERA FGT2 recap features new screens
TERA Fans does it again, this time with some nifty screen shots and a wee bit of commentary on the second Focus Group Test. Judging by the images, the action fantasy MMORPG from Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment is going to be one of the prettiest on the market. From shots of character creation and armor choices to vast panoramas and even a brief look at the Homunculus pet system interface, this update delivers the visual goods. "This weekend, many TERA fans got a chance to test our favorite game! From what was available for us to test, the TERA Fans staff is able to discuss a few exciting features. Over the next few weeks, we'll be featuring wiki articles and guides with some exclusive information on the topics found below! Keep a look out," writes Amira, TERA Fans administrator.
TERA dev talks political system, westernization
Amira over at Terafans.com points us toward a nifty developer interview with En Masse Entertainment's Jason 'BrotherMagneto' Mical, Community Director for the publisher's forthcoming TERA action MMORPG. The piece touches on everything from languages and localization to the political system, which remains shrouded in a bit of mystery. "We're still putting the finishing touches on the system, and we don't want to leak too much, too early. However, I can share that it will be heavily dependent on guilds and groups, so PvP players will probably find something very much to their liking in the system," said Mical. The interview also features a couple of noteworthy bits about developing TERA for the western market. The game is the brainchild of Korean MMO heavyweight Bluehole Studio, an outfit composed of Lineage II veterans. "The Western version of TERA will differ distinctly from the Korean version. There will be additional lore and quests, location and NPC names will differ, and there will be other cosmetic changes, too. We're still determining how much the two versions will differ in terms of game mechanics. Our input is helping to influence the game's development in Korea, and mechanics will likely be very similar, but not identical," Mical said.
Zur and Abernethy making TERA music
Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment continue to impress with their ability to put together a top notch roster of talent for TERA. The forthcoming fantasy MMORPG will feature a musical score by Inon Zur and Rod Abernethy as well as the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra. The soundtrack makes use of traditional acoustic guitar, various ethnic instrumentation and vocal performances. Zur is a prolific composer responsible for the Dragon Age, Fallout 3, and Prince of Persia scores, while Abernethy's extensive body of work includes music for The Hobbit, Alpha Protocol, and Dead Space. "The general direction for the music for TERA was to have an original score that sounded grand and to match the large-scale in-game world, mixed with some warm sounding music," said Mr. An Yong Jin, Bluehole's Audio Director. "Inon has created world-class quality, epic orchestral music, which is his best attribute; his sweeping symphonic music is outstanding. Rod's beautiful compositions for TERA span a wide scope of musical styles. His expertly crafted blend of acoustic guitar and orchestral compositions is incredible for enhancing the musical atmosphere and their popular music appeal." [Thanks Greg!]
TERA gets a website overhaul and new lore updates
With a unique control scheme and a great deal of industry talent moving behind it -- not to mention impressive and surreal graphics -- TERA has begun capturing people's attention. And when people first got peeks at the lore behind the game, that interest only increased. While the updates have been slow in coming, the official site has recently undergone a major overhaul, and aside from making the site as a whole far less Flash-reliant one of the major updates has been the addition of new lore on the world and each of the individual races. As we'd heard before, the world is the product of two sleeping titans that dreamed the entire world into existence. Each facet of the world came about as part of that dream, including the long-standing wars between dreamed-up gods and then the mortal races beneath them. But the mortal races have banded together in response to the Argons, a race from outside of the dream that has the potential to annihilate the very structure of the world. It's an interesting attempt at world-building, and between that and the addition of new music to listen to on the official site, TERA fans will get a much better sense with this update of how the world will feel.
Industry vets joining En Masse Entertainment ... in large numbers
While you're waiting anxiously for the eventual Western release of Korean MMO Tera, En Masse Entertainment is busy hiring up developers with high profile credentials by the handful. From Aaron LeMay (former resource manager and producer at Bungie and Volition), to David Noonan (worked on D&D 4th Edition), to ex-BioWare PR man Matt Atwood, it seems that En Masse is really, really interested in getting the attention of game industry vets. According to En Masse's announcement, the man credited with creating the Xbox Live Operations Center, Marcus Schweig, has also been hired on to head up network operations. "As we build toward the launch of Tera, we are adding veteran strength to all facets of the company to ensure a topnotch Action MMO experience for our customers," CEO Dr. Jae-Heon Yang says of the acquisitions. Hey guys, you know that Ron Gilbert's up for grabs these days, right? Your move.
TERA adds veteran industry talent
En Masse Entertainment isn't messing around, judging by today's announcement regarding several game industry heavyweights joining forces with the publisher of the forthcoming TERA MMORPG. "We want En Masse Entertainment to serve as a magnet for creative talent. As we build toward the launch of TERA, we are adding veteran strength to all facets of the company to ensure a topnotch action MMO experience for our customers," said CEO Dr. Jae-Heon Yang. New TERA team members include Aaron LeMay, a veteran of major action franchises including Halo and Saint's Row. Also signing on are Matt Atwood, former Global Public Relations Lead at BioWare and responsible for overseeing both Dragon Age and Mass Effect. David Noonan, a former Dungeons and Dragons game designer and Aion writer also joins the TERA crew, as does Microsoft Xbox Live Operations Center veteran Markus Schweig. Head on over to the official TERA forums for the full press release.
Bunny hop through our Easter holiday roundup
As Massively readers everywhere recover from the second-greatest candy holiday of the year, many MMOs have also enticed players with virtual sweetness. Easter may not be the most popular of in-game holidays, but there's something very MMO-ish with "collecting" eggs and hunting down giant, man-eating rabbits wherever they trod. Even future MMOs like TERA are eager to get their own virtual bunny event up and running. Take a gander through our Easter holiday roundup, and let us know what your favorite in-game event is! Final Fantasy XI: An Egg-hunter Is Hatched "Initial eggs" are eggs of avian persuasion that have been inscribed with a single letter of the alphabet. During the Egg Hunt, adventurers can receive a random initial egg from the festival moogles once every Vana'dielian day. Collecting and forming certain combinations of initial eggs will garner you event egg-sclusive prizes. World of Warcraft: Noblegarden 2010 Noblegarden will run this year from Sunday, April 4 (this Sunday) through Sunday, April 11. If you've never done Noblegarden before or only done its fairly low-key, pre-2009 version, it helps to know that Noble Gardener (the holiday's meta) is part of the year-long What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement that rewards the 310% speed Violet Proto-Drake.
Everything you ever wanted to know about TERA's testing but were afraid to ask
So your interest has been piqued in TERA. That's really understandable, considering the impression it left on us at the GDC and the jaw-dropping graphics it's put on display thus far. Based on that, it's quite possible that you signed up for the focus group testing when it was first offered. But simply signing up doesn't provide you with all of the answers to questions you need. Fear not, for if you were one of the many who signed up to test, an official sheet of information has now been posted. For those of us not taking part by choice or by poor luck, two of the most important pieces of meta-information are the fact that there will be an NDA in effect and there will not be enough spots for everyone who wanted in. One can also infer from the information about what's been added that the game is progressing nicely and still has a ways to go before launch -- yet it's still shaping up quite impressively. Those interested in finding out more can take a look at the full information sheet on the official TERA site, and keep your eyes open for more news here.
Massively exclusive: TERA lore dev blog
While we had a chance to get our hands on with the upcoming mmo TERA at GDC 2010, there was little we could glean about the overall lore of the world beyond the broadest of brush-strokes. That's why we were so glad when the folks at En Masse Entertainment offered to give us some exclusive insight on some of the history of this interesting new world. This developer blog, written by David Noonan, Lead Writer at En Masse Entertainment, turns an eye towards the history of the High Elves, but in a fascinating way. Written in the format of a research paper -- complete with editorial remarks from a wizened professor -- it gives us a closer look at the bloody, violent, and fascinating culture of one of the elder races in TERA. While TERA's warlike High Elves are cautiously accepted now in the ranks of the Valkyon Federation, they're still not entirely trusted by the other member-races. Only recently did they stop their bloody and bitter wars -- and the memory of the world's inhabitants have not yet faded in terms of what the "Children of Karas" once did. The High Elves, aware that their own survival is dependent upon cooperation with any other enemies of the Argon invaders, actively look past those previous differences; their cause is now that of saving all life on the planet. They act with strength, patience, and honor to achieve their goals of moving "forward, together and strong" -- a tenet that is just as important to the High Elf race as the benedictions spoken at meals in elven homes for well over 3,000 years. Curious about lore on the High Elves of TERA? Join us behind the break for the dev blog from David Noonan or check out the gallery below for a handful of exclusive new screenshots! %Gallery-86517%
TERA unleashes trailer on the masses
The upcoming action RPG fantasy MMO TERA from Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment definitely caught our eyes at GDC 2010. While our fearless leader Shawn got a chance for (several) hands-on sessions with this intriguing new title, the trailer from GDC has come out today for the rest of us who weren't so fortunate as to make it to the conference. What is most impressive about this trailer to us (beyond the fact that nobody seems to fall out of those skimpy metal bikinis) is that the footage was created using all in-game resources. If that's the case, the in-game graphics -- including facial emotes -- are quite impressive. Of course, considering how deep the game's various systems appear to go based on that hands-on at the convention, we're not surprised to find the graphics are equally as impressive. So if you haven't had a chance to see TERA in action, be sure to check out the trailer behind the break. Between all the details we keep hearing about and luscious visuals like this, we think this is definitely going to be a game to watch.
En Masse answers twenty TERA questions
Amira over at TERAfans.com has published a lengthy question and answer session with En Masse Entertainment's Brian Knox. En Masse, North American publishers for the forthcoming BlueHole Studios MMORPG, was formed by veterans of both Blizzard and NCSoft and their first project is localizing and distributing TERA to the western market. Knox drops a few interesting tidbits, including a brief mention of TERA's political system. "TERA's endgame will involve the full spectrum of things you expect from an MMO, including battling in dungeons with PvE instances, taking to the battlegrounds to fight for honor, working the economy with crafting, enchanting, and playing the market. In addition, players will be able to influence the history of each server by participating in the in-game political system," he said. Check out the full interview and stay with Massively for more TERA coverage in the coming weeks.
TERA looking for focus group participants
Bluehole Studios' upcoming TERA MMORPG is looking for a few good focus group members for their second round of closed testing. A notice appeared yesterday on the game's official site, encouraging interested parties to complete a quick application process. "Applicant selection will be based on community participation, activity, quality of feedback, and the above application information. This will occur in [the] coming weeks," the site says. TERA recently wowed us at the Game Developer's Conference, and judging by the number of replies in an 11-page (as of press time) forum thread discussing the announcement, we'd suggest getting your Focus Group Test #2 application done in a hurry.
