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Daniel Dociu, Senior Art Director for Guild Wars 2, was one of the panelists at last week's GDC, and Massively was fortunate enough to sit down and chat with him about the art coming up in Guild Wars 2. The information on this highly-anticipated game is starting to increase bit by bit, and Daniel had some interesting things to say about designing art for Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. As a bonus feature, we've got a video slideshow of some of the gorgeous concept art featured at his panel at GDC. Keep your eyes peeled -- you might just see something you've not seen before. (Check Youtube for the HD version as well.) Follow along after the jump, and enjoy!

Continue reading GDC10: ArenaNet's Daniel Dociu discusses the art of Guild Wars 2

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, News items, Guild Wars 2

GDC10: ArenaNet's Daniel Dociu discusses the art of Guild Wars 2 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most of the news coming out of Cryptic Studios of late has centered around Star Trek Online, which has garnered quite a following and looks to expand with the upcoming Season 1 patch. But Champions Online hasn't gone anywhere, and the game is gearing up for its mini-expansion and for the future. A state of the game letter has just been released, announcing both what's coming for the game as well as some management shakeups. The latter comes last in the letter but is worth noting early -- Shannon Posniewski, known as Poz on the forums, will be assuming the Executive Producer role for the game, taking over from Bill Roper.

In terms of actual in-game changes, the letter reiterates many things we heard at the GDC: the team knows there are level bands that are a bit thinner in terms of content than the players (or the developers) would like. While they're not prepared to reveal details, they are looking to expand those areas with more content and more to do. There's also the promise of new Adventure Packs, which sound similar in concept to the packs of Dungeons and Dragons Online. The full letter also mentioned updates to powersets and melee damage that should be welcome news for all Champions Online players, a clear sign the game is moving forward and not forgotten.

Filed under: Super-hero, Patches, News items, Champions Online

Bill Roper no longer executive producer of Champions Online, game improvements promised originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ndoors Interactive has taken the wraps off their Mercenary Madness contest, which invites players to submit designs for a new Atlantica Online character. The contest winner will not only nab the thrill of seeing their design brought to life inside the strategic turn-based MMORPG, but also a nifty chunk of real world loot including artwork of their design autographed by Atlantica developers and as yet unnamed game merchandise.

"Our community has always played an important part in shaping Atlantica Online," said Ndoors CEO Peter Kang. "We want to further their involvement with the game and show our appreciation for their feedback by literally letting them become part of the design process."

Players have until March 22, 2010 to submit designs, which should include the following:

• Type of mercenary (existing classes only)
• Name of each mercenary upgrade (Initial Name, level 20, 50, and 80 Upgrade Names, and Hero Name)
• Back story of mercenary character
• Description of mercenary's appearance (images are encouraged)
• Mercenary skill names and descriptions

All entries should be submitted to event at ndoorsinc dot com. Full event rules can be found here and you can download a submission template here.

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Atlantica Online

Atlantica's Mercenary Madness contest originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Billed as an "MMO action RPG" Erebus: Travia Reborn is the newest game to join the Outspark stable. Set to head in to closed beta tomorrow (Wednesday, March 17th) and offering 3-d Isometric gaming that reminds us of old-school dungeon-crawling, we suspect that Erebus: Travia Reborn will likely draw some old-school eyes.

Based on an already existing Korean game called Travia, we got a chance to play with it a bit at GDC 2010, and our impression was of a fun free-to-play title that returns us to some of our earlier days of gaming. The simplistic stat system combined with a heavy leaning towards action-packed game-play looks to be a good mix for folks new to the genre as much as for those who love nothing more than to spend hours leveling their characters.

If you haven't picked up a closed beta key as yet, there may still be some available around the web, or you can apply for the closed beta on the Erebus main site. While characters will be wiped (it's still closed beta after all) there's still something to be said for getting in early and having fun before the crowds show up! Players who manage to hit level 10 in the closed beta will also get a special surprise (we have no idea what it is either) when open beta starts too.

Filed under: Betas, New titles, News items, Free-to-play

Erebus: Travia Reborn goes into closed beta soon originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Age of Conan game director Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison dropped a lengthy post on the official forums today detailing some good news for fans of Funcom's Robert E. Howard-inspired MMORPG. In short, the new and much-discussed PvP update Shrines of Bori will debut prior to the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion.

Morrison confirms that the changes will be pushed to the test server in the next few days, and will roll out to the live servers as part of the 1.07 patch. "It is important to stress that this has been the result of some great extra effort put in by the team and will not effect the schedule of the expansion. When we saw the tremendous support for this feature, and the many very constructive and rational arguments from you, our players...we decided that we would find a way to achieve this," Morrison said.

He goes on to state that the 1.07 patch will feature some additional "mini-event type quests" which will lead into the Godslayer expansion launch, making today a great day to be an Age of Conan fan.

Look for Massively's impressions of Funcom's Rise of the Godslayer presentation from GDC 2010 later this week, and check out our previous Shrines of Bori coverage.

[Thanks Ayonyx!]

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, PvP, News items

Age of Conan pushing Shrines of Bori towards quick release originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Book publisher Galaxy Press is offering free downloads of eBooks and audio books of pulp fiction stories from its collection Stories from the Golden Age by author L. Ron Hubbard, including genres such as science fiction, adventure, mystery, fantasy, western, and romance, at its newly updated site, www.goldenagestories.com (PRWeb Mar 16, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Free_Ebook_download/audio_book/prweb3738844.htm

In our interview with Fernando Paiz last week, he mentioned that a state of the game address was coming for Dungeons and Dragons Online. The address was posted today, bringing news of exciting new updates coming to DDO. Guild housing, another update, a new race, bug fixes and more: DDO players have a lot to look forward to.

Update 4 is scheduled for release in April, and is currently available on Lammania for preview. "Sentinels," the adventure pack coming with this update, will take players back out to Searing Heights as well as into House Deneith. You'll encounter undead and pirates. While this pack starts at level 7, Epic mode will be unlocked right out of the gate for high level players, so everyone will be able to enjoy it.

The new adventure pack is exciting -- we all love new content -- but this time it's not the only big news by a long shot. There are new items coming to the game, guild housing (which is being implemented as a reward for guilds to work for), and even a new race. If you've ever wanted to play a half-orc, it's your lucky day. The list of additions to the game is extensive and promises to keep players busy for quite a while.

Check out the state of the game address for the full story.

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Patches, News items, Free-to-play

DDO State of the Game released originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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11 years ago, when Bill Clinton was still the U.S. President, The Matrix wowed moviegoers with bullet-time, dial-up Internet was the norm, and 3D online gaming was just in its infancy, bouncing baby EverQuest stepped into the world. It's amazing to see that this game is not only still around, but expanding constantly -- a fact that should encourage fans of this or any MMORPG. In honor of one of the longest-running 3D MMOs, SOE has announced 11 days of special in-game events for EverQuest.

Players are challenged to find a special gift for a wizard master, to rescue poor Miggles Mistflinger from a sad fate, party with the Community Team on St. Patty's Day, and take on mechanical nasties in a special raid. For Marketplace shoppers, SOE is offering a 25-50% discount on 11 items. Finally, they've invited everyone to join the EverQuest team for an exclusive USTREAM event on March 17, 2010 at 1:00pm PST.

Oh, and did we mention you can pick the game up on Steam for $2.50, and that it includes all 15 expansion packs? Even those who aren't EQ players have a chance to help celebrate.

Fans of EverQuest can also mosey over to the Facebook fan page for the game, where SOE has posted a large gallery of screenshots to celebrate 11 years of fantasy gaming.

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, Events, in-game

11 days of in-game events for EverQuest's 11th birthday originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good news for Champions Online lifetime subscription owners today, as Cryptic is giving them some additional free perks simply for supporting the game. According to the developer, some of the upcoming lifetime-only features include an exclusive in-game chat channel, front-of-queue support any time a server is queued, a unique in-game title, an in-game VIP lounge for lifetime subscribers only and a special costume piece.

Curiously, the official forum post by StormShade says, "Here's some of what we're working on, exclusive to Lifetime Subscribers." which to us sounds like there could be something else for lifetime subscribers in the future. But even if there isn't any mysterious new feature, these new perks are a nice little surprise that came out of the blue -- which is always the best kind of surprise.

[Update: It appears that this offer stands for Star Trek Online lifetime players, also.]

Filed under: Super-hero, News items, Champions Online

Champions lifetime subscribers given extra thanks, perks originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a sense, script memory limitations aren't coming to Second Life; they already exist.

What's going on is the process of Linden Lab making those limits predictable, and setting things up in such a way that script memory usage doesn't cause simulator processes to thrash madly (from paging memory to and from disk).

There's some interesting side-effects emerging from the overall prototype implementation, however. Mono (and, eventually C# when or if it becomes implemented as a scripting language) look like the losers.

Continue reading Second Life script limitations to prejudice against Mono?

Filed under: Economy, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Second Life script limitations to prejudice against Mono? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This year's Game Developer's Conference featured a ton of free-to-play titles, and one of the most intriguing was Erebus: Travia Reborn, a classically inspired dungeon crawler with retro graphics and a distinctive Diablo-esque feel. We sat down for a hands-on demo with the developers from Outspark and came away enthused about trying the full version of the game when it releases later this year.

This free-to-play MMORPG, as its subtitle suggests, is inspired by the Korean game known as Travia, but has been heavily modified for western audiences. "We've updated the graphics, changed game play, added in faction warfare, new classes and skills, and rebalanced the game, making a ton of changes. Erebus is a really unique dungeon crawler for North American and European audiences," said the Outspark team.

Hit the jump for our impressions as well as the teaser trailer.

Continue reading GDC10: Erebus hands-on impressions

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, Hands-on

GDC10: Erebus hands-on impressions originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EnGenius Technologies Inc introduces the ERB9250 wireless repeater, the first consumer wireless range expander to use the most advanced 802.11n wireless technology. When this WiFi repeater is installed half-way between the current wireless router and dead-spot, the ERB9250 WiFi signal booster repeats the wireless N signal allowing the problem area to have full wireless coverage. (PRWeb Mar 16, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/wireless/repeater/prweb3731504.htm

It seems like no matter where players fly in Star Trek Online, there are meteors all over the place. We're not entirely sure what left so much intergalactic litter all over the place -- perhaps one too many space fights? Regardless, it does make for some pretty Star Trek Online One Shots, such as this one sent in to us today by Forrest, who writes: "I was exploring a newly discovered planet when I caught this glimpse of my old-as-dirt Connie, truly a nostalgic and geektastic sight."

Have you found a gorgeous view on your travels? Why not share that moment of coolness with the world! Just email it in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. We'll post it out here and give you the credit.

Filed under: Sci-fi, Screenshots, Star Trek Online, One Shots

One Shots: Meteors galore originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Need for Speed World is the upcoming MMO from EA games, and while things on that front have been fairly quiet, we have a feeling that's about to change. This morning EA released a new game trailer, a handful of screenshots, and box art, and so far we like what we see.

The trailer is full of pretty graphics, fast cars, and destruction of public property -- what's not to love? (We particularly enjoyed the fleet of cars blowing past a 45 MPH sign at considerably more than 45 MPH.) You can work with or against other players, racing as a team or singly, and the game also promises "epic online pursuits," depicting a car chase with police cars that are presumably NPCs.

Of course, a game is much more than looks -- in the end, it all comes down to how well it's is done. Follow along after the jump for a peek at the trailer. Then, if you're interested in a firsthand look, Need for Speed World is accepting beta applications now, so head over to the official site to try it out for yourself.

Continue reading Need for Speed World releases new art and trailer

Filed under: Betas, Screenshots, Trailers, New titles, News items, Need for Speed World

Need for Speed World releases new art and trailer originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I knew it would happen. GDC 2010 came and went, leaving behind a brand new trial of All Points Bulletin information that's making me want to play it more than ever before. I've written about the game a few times before, each instance knowing a little bit more about the title. This year's GDC brought us hands-on reports, interviews, the news of a North American beta and even a nine minute video presentation via shakeycam.

Now my knowledge feels mostly complete and aside from actually playing the game I've got a pretty good idea of why it's potentially going to be something no videogame fan -- let alone MMO fan -- will want to miss. So, let me share a few of them with you.

Continue reading The Digital Continuum: Catching that All Points Bulletin fever

Filed under: New titles, Opinion, The Digital Continuum, All Points Bulletin, Crime

The Digital Continuum: Catching that All Points Bulletin fever originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We caught up with Echo Bazaars's Alexis Kennedy to ask him about the wildly successful Facebook style game. It's hard to describe, easy to pick up and addictive to play. Picture an underground city populated by murderers, spies and all types of shady characters, add in a unique story and Twitter functionality and you wind up with this little gem.

"It's more of a single player experience than I'd like." said Alexis, who is the Chief Narrative Officer for the game. "We are always looking at ways to make it more social, we want to give more direct ways to interact with other people. I want to get as much variety in there as possible. But it's finding the right balance of making somebody's experience unique to them without going crazy trying to cater at every possible stage." But how to combat a player feeling as though his or her experience is devalued by seeing the same thing come up in their friend's streams? "The way to deal with that, really, is just to write more content."

Continue reading GDC10: Our chat with Echo Bazaar's Alexis Kennedy

Filed under: Interviews, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual

GDC10: Our chat with Echo Bazaar's Alexis Kennedy originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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