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The Digital Continuum: Four days with Dungeons & Dragons Online part 2
Anyhow, I opted to keep away from Stormreach for today and do a few more remaining starter quests in Korthos, which is fine since it gave me the chance to talk about the Korthos experience as a whole. Players originally began in the harbor of Stormreach. In DDO, you're sent to save a man descended from a famous bloodline and he's the only person that can aid the town in some substantially dangerous -- but equally exciting -- stuff.
Dungeons & Dragons Online's new executive producer comments on Module 9
Dungeon's & Dragon's Online players are getting two new things as of late: the free Module 9 update and a new executive producer by the name of Fernando Paiz. The update isn't out just yet, but its preview notes are and they're pretty substantial. Players are getting level 20, which brings tons of new feats and powers, along with DX10 graphics support, combat, UI and many other improvements.If you're wondering who this new guy is, Fernando has actually been with Turbine for over three years and seems rather excited to be working with the team. We don't doubt that it's partially because he's now working with his wife, Kate.Mostly though, Fernando appears to be pretty excited about both Module 9 and what he calls, "an aggressive push to grow the game in 2009" We'll be curious to see exactly what that means. Will players be getting epic levels starting with 21? Seems like the thing to do at this point in the life-cycle of Dungeons and Dragons Online, but we suppose that we'll just have to wait for the official announcement.
The Eye of Judgment expands again, adds Trophies
Sony and Wizards of the Coast are ramping up yet another 100-card expansion to their genre-bending PS3 hybrid, The Eye of Judgment. The new set, titled Biolith Rebellion Set 3, will bring the game's total number of collectible cards to 310.As with the previous expansion, an additional PSN purchase will be required before any newly unwrapped cards can be used in game. However, this time around the download will add more than just new animations and rules, including Trophy support, background story and a "set of new abilities that encourage more tactical playing based on creature formation." The new cards are expected to arrive at retail outlets on October 16, provided the shipment doesn't meet with any unfortunate accidents along the way.
PAX 2008 hands-on: Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers
Wizards of the Coast has been very busy talking about the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, which came out this year, as well as its Star Wars and D&D miniatures and the online version of Magic: The Gathering. So, we were really caught off guard when we stopped by the Wizards booth at PAX and happened across this new version of Magic for the Xbox Live Arcade. We did a double take, tapped our mana, and found out more. Find out about the long-titled Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers after the break.%Gallery-30916%
Vivox's Monty Sharma talks about the coming months
Vivox has recently been picked up by SOE for use in EverQuest II, and in an interview with Ten Ton Hammer, one of the company's founders Monty Sharma discussed other deals that they have made and where we can expect to see their technology popping up next. Some of their bigger partners include Wizards of the Coast and NCsoft, and Sony will be using them for more of their games soon.The interview also covers the technology itself, and how features like voice-masking may evolve over the years. The possibility of customizing the voice "fonts" comes up, something that we think would be a double-edged sword -- there would be room for people to really get into character with their avatars, or, everyone could just run around talking like Tay Zonday from Chocolate Rain. Sharma encourages gamers to check out Vivox's official website to learn more about their progress in taking over the MMO world.
What MMOs can learn from D&D Fourth Edition
Gamasutra is running a great article right now in the wake of the Dungeons and Dragons Fourth release, looking at what videogames can learn from the newest iteration of the tabletop classic. In a way, the possibility of games being informed by 4E is just the latest in the back-and-forth theft that has gone on between pen and paper gaming and the digital form.The article waxes at length about some of the new mechanics in the game, including class powers, skill challenges, and the streamlined way that Wizards of the Coast has defined party roles. One of the most successful elements of Fourth Edition is the new way that encounters can be created -- something that should be kept in mind in every videogame as well, whether MMO or not: "Since most monsters are on-screen only long enough to take a few swings at the players and then die, that's what they should be designed to do. Unless it's the big boss, just give each monster two or three interesting attacks at most. Leave the non-combat design to the individual DM's world. Fourth edition really focuses on designing content to do what it needs to, and nothing else. Develop a clear vision for each piece of content, then cut away everything that doesn't serve that goal."
The Daily Grind: Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition?
Today's the day, long anticipated by tabletop gamers of the d20 variety; Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition releases today, coming to a Friendly Local Gaming Store near you. If you aren't familiar with the new edition of the game, Eurogamer has a great rundown on the system's ins and outs. For a more hands-on technical approach, you can't beat the official Wizards of the Coast site and their lengthy series of preview articles. You might have also noticed Penny Arcade's recent discussion of 4E. Though it requires a site login to reach, their hands-on playtime with PvP's Scott Kurtz is hilariously listenable.We ask, because we have to imagine some of you MMO fans out there also have occasion to 'roll the bones'. These games are ultimately all built on the foundation that the late, great Gary Gygax built, right? So, how about it: are you jumping to the newest edition?
Massively's chat with Jess Lebow of Carbine Studios
You may not be familiar with Carbine Studios, the new home of games industry veteran Jess Lebow. That's not too surprising as Carbine is still in stealth mode, working furiously on a project that we couldn't touch on at all in a recent discussion with the company's Lead Quest Designer. Mr. Lebow has had a storied past in the industry, just the same, and our discussion touched on a number of different issues.Join us as we quiz Jess Lebow on his work with Dungeons and Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast, reflect on his time sailing with Flying Lab, and look ahead to what the future of the industry might hold. Plus, for Guild Wars fans, a few insights into what the granddaddy of the setting thinks about how his offspring is doing nowadays.
Player vs. Everything: What if WoW sold its code base?
I could bore you all today by starting my article with a lengthy story about the pre-history of your beloved MMORPGs, but I'll cut to the important part: Once upon a time there was a little game called DikuMUD. Similar in nature to the popular Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, it quickly took off with the geek crowd and became something of a phenomenon. In 1991, the source code for the game was made public and it grew into the most popular code base out there for the creation of multi-user dungeons, largely attributed to the ease with which the code could be set up and run. This led to an explosion of rather similar games that eventually gave rise to the more modern virtual fantasy worlds like Ultima Online, EverQuest, and World of Warcraft (each of these have been compared to DikuMUDs at various times). What's the point of rehashing all of this? Simply this: While many people would probably disagree with me, the proliferation of a popular, established code base that was proven to attract players and was easy to set up "out of the box" allowed enormous innovation and creativity to flourish. At one point, there were so many MUDs available on the web that you could go to a website designed specifically to sort out what features you wanted in yours (and play it free of charge, most of the time). Given the wild popularity of World of Warcraft today, I can't help but wonder what would happen to the online gaming industry if Blizzard decided to start selling their source code to people interested in starting up their own game.
Multiverse partners with Vivox to bring voice to virtual world developers
Metaverse development company Multiverse has announced a partnership with Vivox, the voice service provider for virtual worlds and MMOs of many stripes. Being able to provide integrated voice chat, 3D positional audio, presence, speaking indicators, and management tools right out of the box will be a definite selling point for developers who are interested in using Multiverse's platform to create their virtual worlds.Vivox is keeping influential company -- other partners include Wizards of the Coast, IBM, metaverse developers Electric Sheep Company, and EVE Online's CCP Games. With strong strategic alliances like these, they're quickly rising to the top of voice provider solutions for the industry. Let's hope their grasp doesn't exceed their reach.[Via Business Wire]
Eye of Judgment expansion coming March 27, online purchase required
When word broke earlier this month of an expansion to Sony and Wizards of the Coast's fourth wall-breaking PlayStation 3 card game, Eye of Judgment, few details were offered save for a promise of more cards and a rather ambiguous spring release. Now Sony has nailed down a specific date, March 27, for the 100-card expansion's debut, as well as let loose a number of details surrounding just what players can expect from the new set once they get over that intoxicating 'new card smell.'While the additions are numerous, the most interesting bit concerns how exactly the new cards will be made available to players, as it turns out that Sony will double dip into the wallets of those who wish to try out the new cards first hand. According to the PlayStation.Blog, before being able to use any new cards purchased from the new set, the expansion will first require players to pay for a download from PlayStation Network, adding new artwork, animations, and rules for game's second set of cards. We still don't know exactly how much this download will run, though the set's boosters and theme decks will continue to carry the normal asking price of $3.99 and $14.99 respectively. If there is a silver lining to be taken from this news however, it's that even those players who choose not invest in the new expansion will be able to play against those that do, no doubt excellent news for players who decide to stand strong against the tides of capitalism alongside their army of Biolith ninjas.
DS Daily: The Non-Gathering
Given the Nintendo DS's popularity and portability, we don't understand why every company doesn't have something in the works for the handheld. Take Wizards of the Coast, for example -- yesterday, the publisher announced plans to release two new games based on the Magic: The Gathering license for PCs, Macs, and Xbox LIVE Arcade. Wouldn't it have been fantastic if it were on the DS, as well?We would love to carry around an online-enabled version of M:TG in our pockets, but perhaps that's just us and our high-school memories of the collectible card game. Would you buy a M:TG release for the DS? Or have newer card-based games made the 90s pastime seem passé?
Magic: The Gathering-based games coming to PC, Mac, Xbox Live
If a hit computer game can turn into a hit collectible card game, then why can't a hit CCG become a hit computer game? That seems to be the thinking behind today's announcement that Wizards of the Coast has licensed video game use of its Magic: The Gathering IP to Stainless Games (which will make Xbox Live and PC versions) and Mind Control Software (which will make a Mac edition).Today's bare-bones announcement includes absolutely no information about how the license will be used or what form the games will take, but it's probably safe to say they won't be direct conversions of the popular card game (WotC's Magic: The Gathering Online already fills that role quite well). More likely, the games will probably follow Acclaim and Atari's leads in using characters and locations from the card game for a new type of experience. We can only pray that these newest efforts will improve on those somewhat disastrous past efforts, because the Magic Universe definitely contains a lot of potential for a good video game.[Thanks Ross]
Eye of Judgment expansion coming this spring
We're happy to hear that Sony hasn't given up on their augmented reality collectible card game, Eye of Judgment. Co-publisher Wizards of the Coast is already printing the first expansion for the PS3-compatible card series, due this spring.PS3 Fanboy has an exclusive look at one of the new cards, with more cards and details over at Sony's official Playstation blog. There were distribution problems with the first set of EOJ boosters, with gamers having a hard time finding cards in their local shops, as well as rampant card copying making it easier to cheat in online matches. Let's hope Sony and Wizards have plugged up the piracy problems with set 2, as well as made the real things easier to find.Read - First card revealed from the upcoming Eye of Judgment expansion [PS3 Fanboy]Read - Hot Off THE EYE OF JUDGMENT Card Press: Set 2 [Playstation.Blog]
Dragonlance: A property ripe for the pillaging
I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet. In the Dragonlance series of novels, published by Wizards of the Coast (having bought it from TSR), the world of Ansalon is full to bursting with the standard Fantasy tropes: wizards, warriors, monsters, etc. In fact, the first series of books, beginning with Dragons of Autumn Twilight, could easily make a fine quest storyline, if you make allowances for picking up new characters along the way.There's a decent selection of races to play (humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, kender) and classes (barbarian, cleric, thief, fighter, mage), but I imagine the draw of such an MMO would be in getting to meet and even play alongside famous characters from the novels themselves, like Raistlin Majere, Tanis Half-Elven, and Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Now, I'm not saying we here at Massively have any inside knowledge of a Dragonlance MMO coming out in the future, but the series is so popular, a developer could certainly do worse than to work on this ... I'm just sayin'.
DS tapped for Magic: The Gathering card viewer
Before you get carried away with fantasies of playing Magic: The Gathering matches with your Nintendo DS, try to remind yourself that this is only a simple homebrew application for viewing the game's cards. As far as we know, Wizards of the Coast has no plans for turning the king of collectible card games into an online-supported release for the DS, further confirming our suspicion that life isn't really worth living. Even if you can't actually make a deck and play with the cards in this dressed-up GIF viewer, it's still a useful resource that allows you to look up artwork and information for over 1800 cards. Displaying everything book-style, the program fills the top screen with the selected card while icons on the touchscreen sort everything by color, type, set, and rarity. Developer Sylus101 promises to add more cards and features, but, at the moment, the card library is limited to sets from the Ravnica, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn blocks. Core sets and older sets have yet to be added, so you might not be able to find some of your favorite cards, including the best Magic: The Gathering creature of all time, Phelddagrif.[Via Dev-fr]
Wizards partners with Carmageddon devs for downloadable game
Crazy rich card game, role-playing, and now social networking company Wizards of the Coast has announced that it is venturing into the downloadable games space with a partnership with UK developer Stainless Games. Both parties remain tight lipped as to the nature of the project, though Stainless CEO Patrick Buckland teases us by calling the game "one of the most treasured IP's in the games field." While we wait for more information to come in early 2008, it's anyone's guess what will come of this digital love in, especially given Stainless Games' eclectic development history. The studio's recent efforts have been focused on recreating Atari classics for XBLA, though its roots are much less tame, having been responsible for the "racing game for the chemically imbalanced," Carmageddon, as well as its road stained sequel.
Benchmark Capital joins Vivox in 7.8 million USD deal
According to Wagner James Au at GigaOm, Benchmark Capital has joined the board of Vivox. We're not sure how much Benchmark Capital invested directly. The total was $7.8 million US dollars in Series B financing, some of which also came from Canaan Partners and GrandBanks Capital. The man behind the deal was Mitch Lasky, formerly with Eletronic Arts' mobile division, now general partner at Benchmark Capital.
D&D Tactics coming soon to PSP
If you're a PSP owner looking for a deeper roleplaying experience than the Untold Legends series provides, you might want to check out what GameSpot has to say about Atari's Dungeons & Dragons Tactics. While not quite Neverwinter Nights, D&D Tactics includes character customization similar to its PC-based big brother. Race, class, alignment, skill points, and even body style and portrait selections are all here, in addition to 40 quests that each require you to assemble a small party beforehand. The dungeon crawling takes place in a generic Dungeons & Dragons world (similar to the Xbox's D&D Heroes), although it would be nice if Atari had leveraged the unique appeal of one of the franchise's many realms. D&D Tactics ships in February and is being developed by Kuju Entertainment (Battalion Wars, Crash Twinsanity).See also: Metareview - The Lord of the Rings Tactics
Metareview - Neverwinter Nights 2 [Update 1]
Obsidian Entertainment and dungeon masters the world over can breathe a collective sigh of relief now that the scores for Neverwinter Nights 2 are in. The single player campaign has been well received by the gaming press, and the revamped toolset is expected to afford NWN2 a shelf life comparable to its predecessor. However, not all is well in the Forgotten Realms. The 1UP reviewer seems to have overlooked the fact that Oblivion and NWN represent different styles of roleplaying. Bethesda emphasizes aesthetic presentation and open-ended adventuring, while BioWare and Obsidian have focused on a tighter combat system (hence the rules) and an extendable architecture befitting of the classic Dungeons & Dragons experience. Keeping this in mind, both franchises excel at what they were designed for. GameDaily (100/100) cites several improvements over the original NWN: "There are plenty of things about NWN2 that are different from its precursor. Better graphics, a much more robust and option-filled character creation process, plus deeper plotlines, with more twists and better villains help add to an already stellar feature list. Neverwinter Nights 2 is truly one of the most epic adventures found on a PC, and it should be purchased without hesitation." GameSpot (86/100) considers NWN2 the most authentic D&D experience to date: "If you're willing to look past a few relatively minor technical issues, you'll have a great time exploring the world of NWN2. The excellent story, characters, and quests will appeal to your sense of adventure without getting overly convoluted. When you factor in the multiplayer and the editing tools, you'll find that NWN2 is a fantastic value and a thoroughly enjoyable game." 1UP (50/100) fired a 3d6 Melf's Acid Arrow right at the heart of the D&D community: "With all the added rule-shuffling, NWN2 seems like it's working twice as hard to accomplish half as much. Worse -- and blame this on games like Oblivion -- NWN2's levels feel pint-sized. As if the pencil and paper 'module' approach were a virtue that computers -- by now demonstrably capable of simulating entire worlds with considerably more depth -- should emulate." Update 1: 1UP has pulled their damning review of NWN2, so I guess there is justice in the world. Here are a few new scores: Yahoo! Games (90/100), IGN (85/100).
