Archive for the ‘MMO Gaming’ Category

If things go the way they did in 2008, we could be playing Cataclysm before the end of the year.

Blizzard announced Wednesday that it has begun beta testing the third expansion to World of Warcraft. Cataclysm will bring the requisite new lands, playable races, and high-level content to its wildly successful online game. But the forthcoming expansion is particularly interesting for the way it dramatically alters the virtual world that has been so familiar to gamers since the MMO’s 2004 debut.

The timing behind the opening of this beta test is meaningful. In 2008, the beta test for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion also began in July. Come November, the expansion was on store shelves.

Image courtesy Blizzard

See Also:

• Hands On: World of Warcraft Official Magazine
• Cataclysm Expansion Will Rock World of Warcraft, Blizzard Says

LOS ANGELES — Final Fantasy XI, Square Enix’s first foray into massively multiplayer online gaming, wasn’t exactly known for being accessible. But that’s all going to change with Final Fantasy XIV.

“We would like to have more flexibility,” Final Fantasy XIV producer Hiromichi Tanaka told me before my hands-on time with the game Wednesday at E3.

To help the upcoming online game loosen up, Tanaka’s development team introduced myriad new streamlining tweaks. Swapping armor allows players to easily take on new party roles; new items called Guild Leaves simplify the way players hook up to tackle quests.

Continue Reading “Hands On: Final Fantasy XIV’s Combat Evolves” »

Budget-minded gamers might want to consider emigrating from Azeroth to Middle Earth this year.

Warner Bros. said Friday that Lord of the Rings Online will move to a freemium model this fall, with free basic gameplay supported by a la carte transactions and VIP accounts.

Lord of the Rings Online is an MMORPG set in the iconic fantasy setting created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The game, developed by Turbine, launched in 2007 and has enjoyed several major expansions.

The new update, due out this fall in North America and Europe, will allow players to download and play the game up to level 50 without spending a nickel. Players will be able to purchase expansions, quest packs, items and other account services individually.

Continue Reading “Lord of the Rings Online Goes Free-to-Play This Fall” »

Science fiction writer Cory Doctorow gave listeners of his podcast a sneak preview of his new book For the Win, a young-adult novel about gold farmers, on Monday.

The audio excerpt paints a dreary picture of a Chinese sweatshop where young boys play MMOs for a living. For the Win will explore what happens when the kids attempt to organize and form a union. Doctorow calls the new book a spiritual successor to his short story Anda’s Game.

Cory Doctorow is the author of several successful science fiction novels including Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and Eastern Standard Tribe. He’s one of the founding members of the influential blog Boing Boing. For the Win comes out on May 11.

See Also:

• Read Cory Doctorow's Makers For Free
• Cory Doctorow's Little Brother is a Manual for our Kids to Save …

Dan Connors, the co-founder of Telltale Games, believes that episodic games are the future. But he doesn’t think gamers want to pay for episodes one chunk at a time.

“Most people have migrated to our subscription model in our PC business,” the veteran game designer told Wired.com in a phone interview Thursday, the day that The Devil’s Playhouse, the new season of episodic title Sam & Max, debuted for the PlayStation 3, PC and Mac. “After our first season, maybe 10 percent of people bought individual episodes.”

Sam & Max is the longest-running episodic series owned by Telltale, the company founded in 2004 by LucasArts refugees that has pioneered the notions of downloadable content and episodic gaming. Telltale has also, thanks to Sam & Max and Monkey Island, spearheaded an adventure-game revival.

Continue Reading “Telltale Boss: Most Customers Pay Upfront for Episodic Games” »

Blizzard Entertainment, creator of World of Warcraft, announced Thursday that its BlizzCon convention would be held in Anaheim, California, on Oct. 22 and 23.

BlizzCon is videogame convention that focuses solely on games made by Blizzard Entertainment, namely the Warcraft series, Starcraft and Diablo. BlizzCon attendees get early hands-on access to forthcoming Blizzard games and expansions as well as keys that allow them access to future beta tests. Because Blizzard is so generous with swag and access, Blizzcon tickets sell out very, very fast.

Additionally, fans enjoy live music, tournaments, costume contests and a wild array of panels that give serious players the chance to grill Blizzard game designers. Last year Ozzy Osbourne played to the BlizzCon crowd. The inaugural show took place in 2005. BlizzCon took a year off in 2006 and has been held annually ever since.

Tickets for BlizzCon 2010 are not yet on sale. We’ll let you know when they become available.

Image courtesy Blizzard Entertainment

See Also:

• Ozzy Osbourne Rumored To Appear at BlizzCon (Update)
• Cataclysm Expansion Will Rock World of Warcraft, Blizzard Says
• Blizzcon Ticket Sales Collapse Blizzard Store
• Blizzard Offering 3,000 More Blizzcon 2008 Tickets

AUSTIN, Texas — Big players in the massively multiplayer online games space say they don’t need a World of Warcraft killer, as long as they can keep expanding the audience for MMOs.

On Monday at South By Southwest, a panel composed of top executives from Zynga, BioWare, Nexon and Funcom tackled several questions about the MMO genre, which now encompasses games from the free-to-play Facebook timewaster Mafia Wars all the way to BioWare’s lavish Star Wars: The Old Republic. Much of the discussion centered around incorporating the features of social games like FarmVille into the rest of the genre.

SXSW has posted high-quality audio of the panel.

“I don’t think the market necessarily requires someone to fail in order for another group to succeed,” said BioWare cofounder Ray Muzyka in response to Wired.com’s question toward the end. “When you bring in a new license, like we did with Star Wars… we know there’s millions and millions of potential players that we can bring into the fold just because of that,” he said.

“I don’t mean to be perhaps out of line, but I think I know what Ray’s team needs to do to be successful,” offered Zynga’s Erik Bethke. “I think mastering the viral channels and the social graphs… I think they need to get to the point that 250,000 or 500,000 people a day are downloading (Old Republic) on their own, just coming in from friends, and get there through science-based metrics… you have all the data in the world about why you are currently failing, and you can correct it in real-time.”

SXSW: The Great MMO Hope [direct .mp3 link, right-click and save]

Photo credit: Min Kim, Ray Muzyka, Nicolai Nickelsen and Erik Bethke share a joke during their SXSW panel (James Merithew/Wired.com)

Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of World of Warcraft, donated $1.1 million to The Make-A-Wish Foundation on Tuesday.

In a press release Wednesday, the charity dedicated to bringing joy to the lives of children with life-threatening medical conditions applauded the gamemaker for its large contribution.

The dough didn’t come straight out of Blizzard’s pocket. Players of the popular MMO pitched in by buying the Pandaren Monk in-game pet (pictured above left). Blizzard promised to donate $5 every time a player made a $10 microtransaction to gain the pet during the months of November and December.

“This donation also reflects the spirit and generosity of our players,” said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. “Their enthusiasm for World of Warcraft and for supporting a good cause made this possible.”

Sales of a second pet that popped up at the same time, the evil Lil’ K.T. (pictured above right), did not benefit charity. To stick to the theme, we suggest that Blizzard uses half the funds from the naughty vanity pet to install additional traffic-enforcement cameras on Orange County roadways.

Image courtesy Blizzard Entertainment.

See Also:

• Art of Blizzard Show To Aid Child's Play Charity Drive
• Uh-Oh: World of Warcraft Introduces Microtransactions
• 'Call of Duty Endowment' Aids Unemployed Vets
• Chime Sales 'Tremendous,' More Charity Games Coming
• Penny Arcade Recognized for Charity Work

After two years of downtime, Cyan Worlds relaunched its star-crossed MMO Myst Online this week. Originally released in 2003, the game has a long, storied history of setbacks.

Originally scheduled to ship as the online component of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst from Ubisoft in 2003, Uru Live ended up being canceled. In 2007, it was revived and relaunched by GameTap as Myst Online: Uru Live, finally allowing players to collaborate, solve puzzles and engage in an ongoing story together. Despite enthusiasm from the game’s dedicated followers, the service was shut down in February 2008.

Cyan Worlds retained the rights to the game, and says on its official web site that its plans are to make it an open-source project. For now, it’s taken the game live again. Those interested can begin the process of creating a Myst Online: Uru Live account.

In other Myst-related news, Cyan Worlds says that Riven, the 1997 sequel to Myst, will be released for the iPhone early this summer. The original Myst hit iPhone last year.

Image courtesy Cyan Worlds

See Also:

• New Myst iPhone Screens Surface
• Exploring Myst's Brave New World
• Sept. 24, 1993: Beautiful 'Myst' Ushers In Era of CD-ROM Gaming
• Wired 7.10: Mystery Man
• GameTap Celebrates Release of Uru
• GameTap Ending Myst Online

Members of the guild Blood Legion have killed Arthas, the primary villain of World of Warcraft and the final end-game goal of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

The ten players who downed World of Warcraft’s current final boss have earned the title “Kingslayer” and the “world-first” achievement for being the first crew to accomplish the feat. Close behind were the guild Ensidia from the Tarren Mill server, who killed Arthas six hours later.

This accomplishment marks the beginning of the end for Wrath of the Lich King content. Blizzard won’t let its game go fallow in the many months before the Cataclysm expansion comes out, but nothing they add will feel quite as momentous as the death of Arthas, a character that fans have followed since Warcraft III.

Kohler says: “Camcorder the Kingslayer” has a nice ring to it.

Image courtesy Blood Legion

See Also:

• Free Preview of World of Warcraft Magazine
• Cataclysm Expansion Will Rock World of Warcraft, Blizzard Says …
• World of Warcraft Quests Remain Compelling, 5 Years On
• Hands On: World of Warcraft Official Magazine
• Gamer Earns Every World of Warcraft Achievement