ALL THE POSTS
Guild Wars 2 dev discusses the game’s community, evolution, and future updates
ArenaNet Content Design Lead Andrew Gray recently took a few moments to answer some questions about the past, present, and future of Guild Wars 2 on fansite TheGG.net. In the interview, Gray lauded the game's community and ArenaNet's "player-friendly" approach to content and releases, as well as remarked about reaction to the Icebrood Saga releases to this point.
Some...
Gamigo confirms ArcheAge’s free-to-play version will receive Garden of the Gods for free
It's been a wild few days for Gamigo and ArcheAge, which at the tail end of last week admitted that it was planning to charge for ArcheAge Unchained's future content, including Garden of the Gods, which it began styling as DLC after initially announcing it as an expansion with no mention of a fee. This is a sharp...
Star Citizen’s free fly event extends due to consistent technical issues
This past weekend was meant to be a big moment for Star Citizen, with the start of its Invictus Launch Week free fly event that opened up a new area with several ships to try for free. What's happened, however, has been a weekend of server issues and game crashes that have beleaguered the entire event.
The game's
The Daily Grind: How do you feel about offline play in MMORPGs?
I spend a... lot of time in Star Wars Galaxies on the SWG Legends rogue server. I poke fun at myself for this, but I love it and enjoy it and now that I have it back there's no way I'm letting it go. But for every hour I spend logged in, there are dozens more I...
MMO Week in Review: At least ArcheAge is consistent?
Here's the thing about bad news: MMO players are used to it by now. The best way to deliver news like "the game isn't making enough money because we screwed up the launch real bad, so we need to change our monetization plan" is to be honest and upfront about it with the community. The worst way to deliver...
Battle Bards Episode 169: Wild Things
Do you ever walk on the wild side in MMOs? Do you have a penchant for beastly races that aren’t merely reskinned humans? Then you might find something to like in today’s offerings from the Battle Bards. It’s a show full of tracks that pay homage to the animalistic races in MMORPGs, but the most savage thing of them...
The MOP Up: And the new name for Life Beyond’s planet is…
The upcoming Life Beyond recently renamed its planet to Saren: "Introducing Seren, a new name for the planet. It ties beautifully into our origin story. We also feel it is a stronger starting point for the game’s universe (no, not cinematic universe! Not yet)."
The sandbox MMO also introduced its construction system, which is another retooling of an older...
XLGAMES and Gamigo say paid DLC will make up for ‘deficiencies’ in ArcheAge Unchained’s launch
It would seem that XLGAMES and Gamigo are going with the "set off an explosion" approach to dousing community fires. As we reported last week, ArcheAge Unchained's Western publisher decided to stealth-slap a price tag on the upcoming Garden of the Gods expansion when the prevailing assumption - fueled by the game's own PR and interviews and...
Jukebox Heroes: The best of Neo Steam’s soundtrack
While there always seems to be much love for steampunk among geeks and gamers, the setting never seems to be the catalyst to instant success for MMOs. As such, 2009's Neo Steam should probably feel in good company with other forgotten titles like City of Steam. Maybe some day in the future a studio will crack the code to...
Former BioWare head checks in with updates on his team’s SpatialOS online RPG
Back in March of last year, Improbable, the company behind persistent online world engine SpatialOS, announced the opening of a couple of new studios and the start of several projects. One of those studios is being headed by Aaryn Flynn, former head of the BioWare studio responsible for games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Star Wars:...
One Shot: Wedding bells
The other day I showed my kids our wedding video, and while we watched it I was reminded how much sheer work it took to get all of the elements in place for one day. Looking fabulous takes effort, money, and mountains of flowers, y'all.
Bereman? Bereman makes a good FFXIV wedding look easy peasy -- and this particular...
The Daily Grind: What MMO titles bother you more than they probably should?
There's no good reason to call Guild Wars 2... well, that. The title of the original Guild Wars already didn't make a whole lot of sense because the actual game wasn't about the eponymous Guild Wars; those were over and done with. But Guild Wars 2 features no additional guild wars! It actually features less warring of guilds than the original...
Make My MMO: Elite’s beta blowout, Crowfall’s latest alpha
It's been a big couple of weeks in MMO crowdfunding, at least if you're watching the development of crowdfunded games: Star Citizen is running a promo event, Elite Dangerous has a Beta Blowout through the holiday, Valiance Online teased internal updates, Project Gorgon talked up pet breeding, Camelot Unchained moved on to its next...
Destiny 2 outlines Season 11 changes to perks, weapon archetypes, and the world loot pool
This week's TWAB is once again loaded with information about more changes due for Season 11 of Destiny 2. This time around, we're getting deep dives into the world loot pool, tweaks to weapon perks, and some changes to weapon archetypes.
The world loot pool will promise to be "curated both for relevance and overall size" in order...
SuperData April 2020: Games spending shatters more records thanks to the pandemic
This will probably come off as "water is wet" news, but for those who like to keep a finger on the pulse of these things, SuperData has released its April 2020 report, which once again sees another jump in games spending as a result of quarantines and shelter-in-place orders due to the novel coronavirus.
Overall, spending rose to $10.5B...
The Stream Team: Moon middle madness in Astroneer
By request, Massively OP's MJ is spending this survival sandbox Saturday in Astroneer. But it's not as if folks had to twist her arm: She loves this space game where there's lots to build and explore. And the latest event is still going! However, she should get back to finishing unlocking Novus, so she's blasting back to that moon...
The Game Archaeologist: McDonalds’ McWorld MMO is a thing that existed
If you thought that it was strange for MTV to create its own virtual world, then you probably are forgetting how desperate companies always are to jump on the latest trends. With social media and virtual worlds becoming blazing hot in the 2000s, it wasn't the worst idea to try to create a platform to draw consumers in,...
WRUP: Tips for being less boring edition
All right, this week's What Are You Playing is ready to go! Serious life advice about how to be less boring, let's do this, let's fill up the preview so that no one not clicking on the story can get it ahead of time! Yeah! Party time, awesome! Let's go!
Wait, why are you still here? You skip these...
The Daily Grind: Should MMOs do more to provide a backstory for your character?
Maybe I'm in the vast minority here, but it's always bugged me that MMORPGs just plop your fully grown, fully proficient adult character into a game world with no explanation whatsoever of who you are or where you've come from. Very few games (Guild Wars 2 and Villagers and Heroes being among those) make an effort to outline your...
Betawatch: Ship of Heroes likes Unreal Engine 5, but it doesn’t expect to use it soon
Sometimes, the biggest beta news can be admiring a new feature and then finding out why you're not getting it. Such is the lot for Ship of Heroes this week as the game put together a nice big post explaining how cool the Unreal Engine 5 reveal looks... while also making it clear that it's going to be a...
