vampire

TennoCon 2018: Warframe enhances sights and sounds with new skins, ‘Frames, pet skins, music, and more

33 comments
What does a great game look like to you? More and more it looks like Warframe to me. Looks and sounds like I should say. Have you seen those reveals from this year’s TennoCon? I found them pretty amazing. And part of that amazingness comes from the look and the sound of it all; the gameplay content wouldn’t have half the impact without the integral contributions of the art and sound departments.

At TennoCon Live 2018 I got to learn a bit more about these aspects of Warframe. Of course, no panel would be complete without a reveal or two, and we were treated to a few fun ones, from the two new ‘Frames and skins to the introduction of pet skins to the discovery of Creative Director Steve Sinclair’s hidden voice role in game.

Read more

Vampire MMO Shadow’s Kiss turns on its alpha servers

16 comments

Six months after raising over $80,000 in its Kickstarter campaign, Shadow’s Kiss is drawing players into its dark alpha test.

The alpha servers are now online for this horror-themed MMORPG, which the team describes as a “modern Game of Thrones for vampires,” whatever that means. If you don’t have alpha access yet, the most straight-forward way to obtaining a key is to purchase one of the game’s housing packages (which range from $40 to $99).

Creative Director Thomas Sitch gives players an idea of what they’ll find in the alpha: “At this point players can create a character, choose story motivation, go through a full tutorial (complete with voice talent), and then explore various quests in the fictional city of San Cipriano […] We’re excited to show our fans that Shadow’s Kiss is a reality, and getting better with each update.”

Read more

Neverwinter goes gothic with today’s Ravenloft module launch

2 comments
It’s a big release day for many MMOs across the industry, and Neverwinter wants to get in on that hot summer action with the launch of its Ravenloft module on PC (consoles, as usual, will come at a later date).

The game’s 14th content update brings players to the horror-themed land of Barovia where they will face off against a vampire, have their fortune read in the cards, explore a gothic adventure zone, ooh and ahh over a day/night cycle, and take on the Castle Ravenloft dungeon. Of course, there are plenty of attractive new rewards to reap while doing this!

“Strahd is an icon and his cursed land of Barovia made for some really interesting gameplay opportunities,” said Executive Producer Gordon Fong. “This module is a bit of a departure for the game: It’s the first time we’ve left the Forgotten Realms and it’s a much different tone than anything we’ve done before.”

Read more

Secret World Legends activates its anniversary event and refer-a-friend program tomorrow

6 comments
A year has gone by since Funcom rebooted The Secret World into Secret World Legends, and the studio is ready to celebrate that milestone with its fans. Tomorrow sees the debut of both the anniversary event and the new refer-a-friend program, both of which will have to tide players over a while while the next content update gestates in some unholy studio womb.

The full patch notes aren’t out yet, but we do know that the event has some fun gifts/rewards such as six new character poses, different sprint effects, and the fantastic BEE DOG. Who’s the most loyal honey-producing friend a superhero can have? You are! Yes, you are!

As for the refer-a-friend program, it will reward both recruiters and their buddies with goodies like anima shards, bonus AP/SP, distillates, cache keys, and a vampire glamour outfit.

Read more

Neverwinter’s art team builds Castle Ravenloft block by block (and using a few tricks)

4 comments
Now that you’ve seen (or maybe you haven’t) Dungeons and Dragons Online’s version of Castle Ravenloft, you can check out Neverwinter’s vision of this iconic vampire fortress that is coming in the next module.

The game’s artists penned a blog post to talk about how the visuals for the castle were drawn from the original D&D campaign and then modified to suit the game. It’s an interesting peek into the process of creating art for MMOs, especially if you’re doing so under a time restriction and with limited resources.

The team said that it had to pull out a few sly tricks to get all of the areas done: “Sometimes in the industry we don’t have the indulgence of existing concept or there may not be time for our concept artist to deliver an idea to us and that was the case for the interior of the castle. So with our limited time I re-purposed an older kit by updating the geo and materials, most noticeably the pillars.”

Source: Neverwinter

Comment

Neverwinter gets bitten by Ravenloft’s gothic horror

Leave a comment
Dungeons and Dragons Online isn’t the only MMO that’s vacationing in the moonlit lands of Barovia. Cryptic announced this week that it is bringing Neverwinter into the Ravenloft campaign with a special module that is coming next month.

The Ravenloft update, Neverwinter’s 14th module, will introduce that game’s playerbase to a gothic horror setting. It will include a new adventure zone, tarot card readings by Madame Eva, a day/night cycle, heroic encounters, and a challenging Castle Ravenloft dungeon.

“The mists of Barovia pull adventurers to the Domains of Dread and into the land of the mighty vampire — Strahd von Zarovich,” the press release said. “In the darkest corners of this foreign land, adventurers will find new stories from quests and instances; all-new repeatable adventures with newly designed monster hunts and heroic encounters, where the creatures of the mist must be destroyed; and expanded endgame progression with a new campaign culminating in a journey into Castle Ravenloft itself. Heroes of Neverwinter must work together to free this cursed land from Strahd’s control.”

You can check out the extremely brief teaser trailer after the break.

Read more

Perfect Ten: You got your MMORPG in my tabletop RPG

25 comments

Tabletop games and MMORPGs seem like they would go well together, but remarkably they often don’t. That’s true for several reasons, but one of the main reasons is that we have a lot more games adapting different source material separately. You can certainly run a Star Wars: The Old Republic-themed game with a Star Wars tabletop system, but neither one is based on the other. (Technically there was a supplement published for it, but that was covering the first two single-player games, which themselves were based on that tabletop system.)

But there have still been incursions from MMOs into the tabletop space, and MMOs which pluck that fertile ground for the seeds of inspiration. So let’s spend today looking at these games, when you can log off of your favorite MMO, gather around a table with your friends, and keep playing your favorite MMO. More or less.

Read more

Global Chat: Shroud of the Avatar confounds

12 comments

What to make of Shroud of the Avatar? The few MMO bloggers who have looked into this recently released but already long-running title have struggled to get a handle on Lord British’s latest RPG.

The Ancient Gaming Noob calls it “retroist hobbyism” and left him wondering. “What is this game that is by turns awkward, finicky, intricate, deep, slow, and clearly a work in progress?” he asks. “Where does it fit into the gaming world?”

Inventory Full found some merit in it but noted the extreme performance issues and other annoyances: “My willingness to struggle on was further undermined by the D&D style random encounters that dragged me into a private instance every time I tried to travel from one adventure area to another. Not to mention the fact that my weapon was broken and I couldn’t remember how the combat system worked anyway.”

Continue on with us in this edition of Global Chat, as we’ll read essays on altitis, EverQuest, City of Heroes, Elder Scrolls Online, and more!

Read more

Dogma: Eternal Night goes silent as its community manager resigns

9 comments

Dogma: Eternal Night has slipped into the shadows of silence — and some fans are concerned.

As was pointed out on Reddit, the studio hasn’t posted any updates or put out any tweets about the vampire title since last fall. That’s not exactly a good thing for an indie game that needs to raise awareness and funds to pull off a proper MMORPG.

While the title’s composer did put out an initial soundtrack this past February, the game’s community manager resigned in mid-March. Since he seemed to be the main link of contact between the studio and community, this has come as a blow to those who are following the game.

Dogma: Eternal Night has raised $27,366 from the community to date and has a test server that was online as of the time of this article.

Source: Reddit

Comment

Choose My Adventure: Frenzied slashing in Warframe

8 comments
So, for this week’s antics in Warframe, I bought a frame.

“Shenanigans!” you cry. “The poll went against your buying a frame!” And it’s true, the poll did go against that… the week that I put up that poll. But there was no poll last week, and thus I declared executive privilege and went with the frame that I’d been eyeing for some time as a perfect compliment to my playstyle. Which, despite what many people have suggested, was not one of the most stealthy frames.

My reasoning, ultimately, was that there was no real way for me to reliably farm up the materials to build an additional frame and actually start playing with something else in the time I had remaining. Thus, rather than continuing to tool around with just the Excalibur, I felt that it behooved me to give another frame a shot so that I could at least realistically say whether having a different option altered my opinion about the game as a whole.

Read more

Shadow’s Kiss shows pictures of sex clubs, cemeteries, and penthouses

12 comments

While we haven’t heard too much about Shadow’s Kiss following its small but successful Kickstarter campaign last year, the team has been teasing its followers by posting several screenshots (or mock ups) from the vampire MMO on its Twitter feed.

We’ve compiled all of the pictures for you below, including shots of Grand River Cemetery, a BDSM club called The Lash, a penthouse view (a patreon reward), an industrial graveyard, and the Slayer base. What do you think so far? Is this a game that you’re interested in trying out for its vampire angle or mature themes? Let us know in the comments!

Read more

Make My MMO: The biggest MMO crowdfunding news of 2017

11 comments

Welcome to a special edition of Make My MMO, Massively OP’s regular recap of what’s going on in crowdfunded MMOs, which we do specifically for those of you who are convinced Kickstarter is the absolute worst (it’s not) and that no crowdfunded MMOs ever launch (they do). Plus, somebody’s got to keep an eye on what your money’s up to! Tonight’s edition isn’t going to be our usual recap of the last couple of weeks, however; we’re going to look at the most important MMO crowdfunding news of the entire year. Lock up your wallets and let’s get to it.

Read more

Shadow’s Kiss ends Kickstarter with 300% funding and several stretch goals

21 comments

Expect some vampires to be popping bottles of the red bubbly today.

The team behind Shadow’s Kiss is celebrating the conclusion a modestly successful Kickstarter run, the funds from which will help to get this indie vampire MMORPG made. The game passed 300% of its target goal for funding, ending up at the $80,414 mark thanks to the efforts of 884 backers.

Fans and backers will be pleased to see that all of this overachieving has resulted in numerous stretch goals, including last-minute ones such as a “frenemy” system for seducing enemy groups and a demolitions expert who will train you in making things go ka-boom.

Congrats from the Massively OP team for a good run! It will be interesting to see what this small team can do with 80 grand in the future.

Read more

1 2 3 … 7