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Dawntide launch delayed, new date undetermined
Sandbox fans hoping to explore the world of Dawntide on October 1st are going to have to wait a little bit longer. Working as Intended has announced its plan to delay the game's official release "to a later date." No time table is forthcoming as of yet, but we suspect the delay is likely for the best, given the consensus among the game's devoted community that the fantasy title was not ready for launch. There is a silver lining, though, as you can help test Dawntide and get a preview of the game for free by signing up for the ongoing open beta. WAI also released a new trailer for the game a few weeks back, and we've got it for you after the break in case you missed it. [Thanks to Bartillo for the tip.]
Some Assembly Required: Is the sandbox dead?
Let's face it, folks, 2011 has been a fairly bad year for sandbox MMORPGs. Whether we're talking about the premature (and, ahem, forced) demise of Star Wars Galaxies, EVE Online's public relations disasters and its capitulation to the cash-shop-in-a-sub-based game fad, or Earthrise's rough launch, there hasn't been a lot to celebrate for fans of non-linear MMO gameplay in quite a while. I've even had several friends ask me point blank: Is the sandbox dead? The short answer is not just no, but hell no. Join me after the cut for a few bright spots as we look to the future, take stock of the present, and try to forget about the past.
Dawntide releasing October 1st
While some games seem to be on us before we realize it, others are more of the slow-cooking rotisserie type. Dawntide is much like the latter, having been in open beta for almost a year now and marinating to sweet perfection before it announces dinnertime. Fortunately, Working as Intended's fantasy sandbox title is nearing the end of its beta period, as the studio announced that it will release Dawntide on October 1st. You'll be able to get the client for free at that point, but after a 10-day trial period, you'll need to subscribe to continue your way in this MMO. Dawntide's world encompasses over 500 square kilometers of ocean and land to explore and shape. The game is centered around several major systems: Crafting, World, Combat, Sorcery, Factions and Settling, and is rife with open PvP and skill-based leveling. We recently spoke with Working As Intended's CEO, Martin "Wiz" Anward, which you should most definitely check out, and there's a launch trailer for the title after the jump that's the cat's meow!
The Road to Mordor: Festivals and you -- a love story
It's a shame that Lord of the Rings Online's fourth anniversary will probably be remembered more for being a mismanaged festival event than for the achievement that reaching four years signifies. But things are as they are, and the "Grindaversary" has now gone down in LotRO's history of what not to do for an event. If you're only tangentially tuning in to the LotRO news these days, last week Turbine launched its first anniversary celebration in the game (previous anniversaries were marked only by gift tokens dropping in the world). The celebration was a lesser type of festival that borrowed elements from previous events, namely, the horse races and the beer brawl. Players were challenged to participate in both to gain tokens to acquire special rewards, such as a new horse mount, housing decorations, and cosmetic outfits. The problem was twofold: The tokens were gained so slowly that it took a long time to get enough for even one moderately priced reward, and the only endlessly repeatable activity (the beer brawl) could be failed if you were knocked out of the area by another player. As a result, players heavily protested what should've been a fun time and Turbine ended up with egg on its face. In participating myself, talking with friends, and reading through the many, many responses to the event, I got to thinking about how Turbine's approached festivals over the past year or so and how the studio can learn from this to avoid another stumble.
The Soapbox: Somebody should do something about all the problems!
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Bugs. They are the scourge of gaming, crawling and chittering their way through lines of code, turning what would have been a sure win into failure, making otherwise useful abilities worthless, crippling quests and destroying playtime. And so the clarion call goes out every time a new bug emerges that the developers should fix it -- a reasonable request, given that we are paying these people every month. (Or, on several occasions, we would be paying if the game weren't such a mess of bugs that they should be paying us.) Yet months roll by, and despite countless lovingly assembled bug reports, these issues do not get fixed. And it's not just bugs, either -- balance issues go untweaked, content goes unfinished, features get rolled back or sometimes removed altogether. What the heck are we paying for? Why in the world doesn't the development team just fix these problems?
Dawntide opens up Conquest design to player community
If you've ever wanted a say in the design of a sandbox MMORPG, the developers at Working as Intended have come to your rescue. The indie team behind Dawntide has opened up a forum post soliciting player submissions for a game system called Conquest. You're probably wondering: what is Conquest? Well, apparently it's up to you to help define. "Internally we have a pretty good idea of what we want Conquest to look like. However, I've been able to convince the powers [that] be that we should let the community get involved with the design/discussion before we write one piece of code. So here is the community's chance to sculpt how Conquest will work. There are no guarantees that the end product will contain all of the ideas, but we'll give it a chance," writes Ronin on the game's official forums. Check out the post, and be sure to pipe up with your ideas.
Massively exclusive interview: Dawntide's Martin "Wiz" Anward
The hype-machine for Working as Intended's incoming MMO, Dawntide, resumed at the end of May with the announcement of the start of open beta. Dawntide promises to be a skill-based, open-PvP sandbox a la Shadowbane or Darkfall, with territory to claim, castles to build, sieges to undertake, and boats to navigate waterways usually neglected in other games. And though the game isn't quite finished structurally, we have to agree that what's done is beautiful, and what's planned is ambitious. Might this be the ultra-realistic, survival-of-the-fittest sandbox you're looking for? We were fortunate to score an interview with Working as Intended's CEO, Martin Anward, who gave us an inside look at Dawntide's development and his team's plans for the future. Join us past the break as we ask him about boats, crafting, boats, death penalties, boats, ganking, boats, FOTM builds, boats, and boats!
Dawntide open beta week three updates
Dawntide's open beta phase continues to move forward, and the developers at Working as Intended have posted two updates on the official website this week to keep fans of the sandbox title apprised of the situation. First up is a general status report from Ronin that summarizes where the current beta build is and where it's likely to go. "The numbers continue to stay solid and the activity levels compared to closed beta are absolutely impressive. Internally we're moving back to our task management system which was a bit neglected in the haste to get to Open Beta so we should have a better idea of who is assigned what and where to apply pressure. That also means I can get more relevant information out in these updates," he writes. Additionally, WAI's Wiz checks in with the patch notes for 3.07, calling it "a small patch, mainly addressing an urgent crash bug. Another patch is planned for later in the week."
Dawntide devs focus on open beta tweaks
Dawntide's open beta period is in full swing, and Working as Intended has a lengthy list of bug fixes, updates, and general tweaks scheduled to go under the development microscope over the next few weeks. Ronin, internal systems engineer for WAI, has updated the official forums with a look at what the team plans to focus on next. Many of the changes are run-of-the-mill and about what you'd expect from a beta client, but some are fairly interesting and bear watching, including the creation of boat routes between continents, the addition of new mining areas and crafting yield tweaks, and changes regarding food and drink effects. You can check out the full post on the official Dawntide site, and while you're at it, you can view a trailer of open beta gameplay footage as well.
Dawntide open beta delayed
Fans of the forthcoming sandbox MMORPG known as Dawntide will have to wait a bit longer to get their open beta fix, as the game's developers recently announced a delay of a few days to iron out several pesky issues. Working as Intended's Wiz, posting on the game's official forums, left fans with a brief overview of the decision. "We're having a few remaining issues with physics and crashes that we need time to sort out before we can open up the beta. As a consequense, we will be delaying the Open Beta to later in the week. We apologize for the delay and the late announcement, but we think a more stable and playable beta is worth the wait. Further announcements on new opening time will be posted in the coming couple of days," he writes. Working as Intended, an independent studio based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has been developing a feature set that includes skill-based progression, a fully explorable and conquerable world, complex crafting, and player cities. You can learn more about the game at the official website. [Thanks to all the folks who alerted us to the beta news.]
Dawntide open beta coming on May 31st
These days, "sandbox" so often gets read as "constant PvP" that the two can almost be used interchangeably. But Working As Intended's sandbox game Dawntide is focused on the creation of societies, cities, and an entire world based solely on player input, the sort of thing that's quite attractive to a number of players. The game has been in closed beta testing for quite some time, but if the premise intrigues you, there's good news on the horizon -- on May 31st, the game is going into fully open beta testing. As the game approaches the deadline (which is very close indeed at this point), the development team is rolling out several improvements to the game. Those include a revamped and improved UI, a number of skills being implemented, and a stretch of islands available for players to claim as their own and build up as they see fit. If truly open-world gameplay appeals to you, the upcoming holiday weekend might be best capped off with a look at Dawntide's beta. [Thanks to Bartillo for the tip!]
Dawntide releases new screenshots and concept art
Danish developer Working As Intended is continuing work on their sandbox MMO Dawntide as the game progresses through closed beta. We've been keeping an eye on Dawntide since last July when the game caught our eye with its unusual approach -- Working As Intended sought to deviate from the usual hack-and-slash fantasy fare. The opportunity to create and rule over your own society, as well as the player driven economy and fresh combat ideas sounded like a nice package. Shortly thereafter we got a chance to spend some time with producer Christian Hummeluhr for a more extensive look at Dawntide. Since then, Dawntide has kept interest high with not only closed beta testing, but some great concept art and screenshots, released periodically. The newest batch came up yesterday, featuring some pretty beautiful landscape screenshots. Even better, we get concept art showing castle blueprints. They can all be viewed at the official site, so head over and take a look!
Dawntide reaches beta phase 2, re-opens testing applications
Did you miss the first round of Dawntide beta testing applications? Well fear not, as Working As Intended has re-opened their request for testers as they march Dawntide into its second phase of beta.Dawntide's beta testing has been quite unique so far, as it hasn't come with an NDA to keep testers quiet. The testers have been sharing their opinions on the game, as well as offering lots of feedback over on the Dawntide forums.While information on the game has been quite limited, the website has been updated with a wealth of information regarding general gameplay, combat, territory control, and plenty more. Plus, we here at Massively got to sit down with Dawntide's producer, Christian Hummeluhr, and talk with him about his vision for the game. So if you're interested, don't drag your feet, sign up for a beta testing spot!
Massively gets the low down on Dawntide
The last we spoke of Dawntide, the new sandbox MMO from Danish developer Working As Intended, we were covering the start of their closed beta application process. Information is still scarce on the title, or, should we say information was scarce!We got the chance to sit down with Christian Hummeluhr, Dawntide's producer, and drill him for info on the upcoming game. From races to world size and from combat to skills, we got a lot of useful information about the game that you're sure to be interested in. Especially if you're a fan of Ultima Online.So come on and follow us after the break, and learn more about what Working As Intended has in store!
Civilization building MMO Dawntide sets sights on closed beta
If you ever wanted the chance to create your own society and then rule over it with an iron fist, then you may want to check out Danish developer Working As Intended's first title, Dawntide.Dawntide is taking a more experimental approach to their MMO by attempting to capture all of the Bartle gamer types in one swing -- the explorer, socializer, killer, and achiever. To that end the game is offering meaningful combat, a player driven economy, territorial ownership, item "invention" mechanics, and options for players to create their own societies. Their goal in having players create societies is a hope that this type of play will offer options for everyone -- the socializer to create traction for their government, the explorer to find suitable areas of land, the achiever to push forwards with new ideas and items, and the killer to protect or upend these ideals.Dawntide has just opened up their applications for phase one of closed beta, and you can get into the ground floor by filling out the form on their main website.
