Every once in a while we celebrate great – and sadly, not so great – achievements in the MMOG industry. Today, we congratulate Hi-Rez Studios’ Global Agenda for turning two-years old. As most of you may know, Global Agenda is Hi-Rez Studios’ award winning Sci-fi MMO Shooter that was launched on February 1st, 2010. Since then Global Agenda has had over 1,000,000 registered players, over 12,000,000 PvE missions, and over 1,400,000 PvP missions. It’s been a bumpy road, with the game seeing multiple transitions, often for the better of the title, the company and the associated communities. In 2011 alone, GA made the transition to becoming a free-to-play MMOG, became the first of such games to launch on Steam, and saw its first completely free expansion the “Recursive Colony.”

Not one to miss an opportunity to celebrate its community, Hi-Rez Studios is offering a special thanks for playing the game to new and old players alike. Securing the awards is simple, play in any instanced PvE or PvP matches this week, January 30th to February 6th, and you will receive a limited edition pet, a miniature edition of the boss Switchblade. The second gift takes a bit more to earn, as in you actually have to do something. Players that participate in the special player-managed PvP tournaments will receive a dragon-themed helmet in celebration of the Year of the Dragon. The winning team of the tournament will receive exclusive flair and even a cash prize! If that isn’t enough for you, Hi-Rez has even added appearance and flair item from the past to the ‘Burning Fashion’ vendor in Dome City, so get them at a discount while you still can!

Global Agenda has reached a grand milestone for any MMOG. If you haven’t tried Global Agenda there’s no better time than now to give it a whirl. It’s free, so what’s stopping you?!

Once again, Happy Birthday to you, Global Agenda, and congratulations on the achievement Hi-Rez. We hope the next two more years are even better. I would have sent you guys a cake, but I didn’t know what flavor you guys would have liked. So I just ate it.

/nomnomnom

It just wants to say "Hi." With its chain rocket launcher.

Hi-Rez Studios is in the final throes of sending Global Agenda, its science fiction third-person shooter, to v1.44. The latest patch add a few changes to every aspect of the game, from the social area of Dome City, the open-world environment of the Sonoran Desert to its various instances. Heck, there’s even new instances!

Dome City Changes:

• Carter’s Seasonal Accessories has closed up shop. It is being replaced by…
• Burning Fashion has arrived in Dome City and will be selling cosmetic flair where Carter’s used to be.
• The long-awaited Skyward Jetpacks has finally landed at the upper deck of Dome City and is open for business. In addition to selling jetpacks available elsewhere in the game, Skyward also sells high-end jetpack trail effects. You must be a boosted customer with a jetpack in Dome City in order to reach the upper deck of Dome City where Skyward resides.
• Adjusted the position of the guard at the South gate to the Sonoran Desert to be less confusing to players attempting to exit the dome.

Open Zone Changes:

• Uncommon quality Repair Kits can now be purchased from Yuma Imports at New Yuma Station.
• Fixed some issues with materials that appeared to flicker when using Direct X 10 on some clients.

Below the cut you’ll find the rest of v1.44’s additions, including gameplay tweaks, bug fixes and map changes. Continue Reading

I am very backlogged.

In fact, I quit World of Warcraft. Again. It’s the second time that Blizzard’s behemoth has fallen out of favor with me. To be honest, it took me by complete surprise. I was frothing at the mouth for the Cataclysm, the rebooting of the world. Despite the revamped world, new direction in story telling and new content, I felt the grasp slipping. Then my ferret passed, and as sappy as it sounds, WoW and said furball were inexplicably linked in my psyche. When I was playing, she would be skittering across my keyboard. With her gone, I couldn’t bring myself to login. For months.

Solidsamm and Solidsagart have been dark since. Their candles slowly burning to the nub. June 1, 2011 saw the fire succumb to the wax pool. The subscription expired.

Azeroth has been replaced by a cavalcade of titles from niches high and low. Everything from 3DS distractions to single-player RPGs have been devoured. FPS games have seen their return, League of Legends is back on top of the regular rotation and StarCraft II has me constantly lacking pylons. On the MMOG front, Global Agenda and World of Tanks have encroached on Rift’s time, with various F2P games seeing installs from time to time. There’s little chance of any of these titles garnering my undivided attention like WoW did. That is until TERA or Guild Wars 2 comes out.

Until then, it’s into the backlog of unopened games, unfinished projects, quirky Flash games and the new crop of browser-based titles.

Anyone that’s seen The Social Network knows that Zuckerberg’s greatest early scheme was to give a senseof exclusivity to Early Facebook. At one time, the website was only open to .edu addresses, meaning you had to be in or working for a college or university (or be lucky enough to still have access to that address). He extended the idea of the Cool Kids Table from high school to college, added the velvet rope from the “in club” to education. By doing so, he created a phenomenon.

Bo Todd Harris knows the power of exclusivity. Soon, players of the recently-transitioned F2P title Global Agenda will to. Hi-Rez Studios announced that patch v1.43, coming today, will allow boosted users, that’s anyone with a RMT Booster pack, to fly around Dome City, the social sector of the game. Despite the fact that there isn’t much to do in the city, it’s a feature that players have been asking for since the third-person shooter was released last year.

Expedited travel to vendors will be the only perk. Fine and dandy.

Then Todd added this little diddy: “Penthouse level content [will be added] in future updates.” Said content will only be accessible by jetpack. The cool kids table is bound to sell a few extra Booster packs. And allow people to literally feel high (and mighty). Holding their noses up while looking down upon others will be all too easy (and literal).

In all seriousness, I, for once, won’t decry a RMT move by a company as purely a cash grab. Booster packs have been offered since before GA went F2P. The item is just getting a small perk. One that happens to latch on to the human psyche’s incessant need to feel superior to their fellow human, no matter how ridiculous the premise.

Way to use psychology Hi-Rez!

Read the full patch notes here. The list is pretty short.