5 October 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Bethesda Game Studios is known for its unmistakably open world single-player campaigns, but the parent company, ZeniMax, has been branching out in multiple directions. It’s no shock that the company is looking to leverage the world of Mundus to the MMOG genre, as divisive as that decision has been.
Days ago the company announced the formation of Battlecry Studios, a new studio based in Austin run by former MMOG guru and recent BioWare lead Rich Vogel. Vogel’s pedigree of projects and initial Battlecry position have lead many to assume that the development studio will be ZeniMax’s second to focus on the massive multiplayer online market. The latest job posting gives further insight into the aspirations of the newly-formed studio, a F2P title.
Digging deeper, Eurogamer found two positions that scream free-to-play, a “monetization designer” and a lead position that requires candidates to have experience in “design and implementation of microtransaction systems and services.” If those two positions don’t scream F2P then I don’t know what does.
It’s interesting that the company continues to list console experience as criteria. There’s been few enough MMOGs released on consoles as it is. Let alone one of the F2P ilk. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops.
5 October 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
This review of the World of Warcraft: Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War novel by Christie Golden is of the spoiler-free variety.
No novel has been more appropriately aligned with in-game events than Tides of War. Released just weeks ahead of Mists of Pandaria, Christie Golden was given the task of developing a story arc to kickoff the war between the Horde under Warchief Garrosh and the Alliance. With both sides still reeling from the final events of Cataclysm nearly all expected a lull in factional fighting, perhaps even a renewed chance at peace. Despite her best efforts, Jaine Proudmoore, ever the diplomat and focus of the novel, is unable to reach warmongering Garrosh before violence begins.
Golden is pure Golden in Tides of War. Her characters are spot on, from dialog to emotions, showcasing her in-depth understanding of the universe. Golden isn’t just articulating characters she’s worked with before. That’d be too easy. She’s reaching, grabbing and utilizing now-major players created by others, like Kalecgos and Rhonin, and humanizing smaller players such as General Marcus Jonathan.
Readers beware, like the players of World of Warcraft, the material in this book has grown up compared to other novelizations. There’s the obvious battle and dwarven alcohol references, but the descriptions of certain events and the impact they have on the major characters raise the bar. Characters on both sides of the struggle are so enraged, distraught and disgusted by actions taken by Garrosh that alcohol is openly discussed as an escape mechanism, rather than a comical subtle reference. Furthermore, an honest to god swear is uttered. Continue Reading
4 October 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Happy as a pig in slop.
Blizzard has settled the battle between Lazard Capital Markets and Brean Murray, Carrett & Company. As nearly all players of MMOG expected, Blizzard pushed a large amount of Mists of Pandaria units through its digital distribution platform, enabling MoP to approach but not surpass the success of Cataclysm. Mist of Pandaria sold a healthy 2.7 million copies in its first week of availability.
The title launched in many regions on September 25, but not one of the most important, China. That launch happened a week later, on October 2. The number clearly backs Brean Murray, Carrett & Company’s expectations that MoP is doing just fine. In fact, Blizzard stated that subscriber numbers passed 10 million players, again, another expectation of Brean Murray. Neither of these numbers factor in China’s release.
Bottom line, doomsday is far off. Everything is fine. Move along. Nothing to see here. Well, except the egg on the collective faces of Lazard Capital Markets.
4 October 2012 | |
Randy Denosha
Under construction.
Hi-Rez Studios has quietly announced that the company has begun development on a sequel to Global Agenda. Currently title Global Agenda 2, the revelation came in a candid and honest post from the CEO and Janitorial Services of Hi-Rez Studios, Erez Goren.
In this announcement Goren discusses the problems that Global Agenda had/has and what the company has learned from its development. Knowledge that was successfully applied to Tribes: Ascend, although with its high skill ceiling it has become a niche game.
After sending out surveys and receiving overwhelming responses from players on what they want to see improved and how they would want to see it released, Hi-Rez decided to make Global Agenda 2 more PvP orientated. They are going to use a lot of the assets from Global Agenda while adding new maps, game modes and class weapons.
Hi-Rez expects Global Agenda 2, or whatever it may be called, to head to beta somewhere in the middle of 2013.
Full announcement after the cut. Continue Reading
4 October 2012 | |
Randy Denosha
Stephen Reid, the Community Director for Gazillion Entertainment, has posted the first part of the ‘Developer Blog’ on Marvel Heroes’ site. And what a first post! The introduction opens up the registrations for the closed beta of this upcoming MMO Action RPG. Stephen calls upon you, the Marvel fans, to sign up and help them out with constructive criticism and testing of the game.
Unlike many of today’s ‘closed betas,’ he made sure that everyone knew that this meant testing and not playing a demo or playing the game early. A fact many players (and companies) seem to forget. They have three steps to go by, step one is to register an account on their site. The second step has them sending out surveys which you have to answer to become eligible for closed beta testing. The last stage has them selecting the people that are going to be in the closed beta.
Good luck to those that apply!
The three steps are in detail after the cut. Continue Reading
3 October 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Editor’s Note: Originally titled ‘Trion Worlds Lifts End of Nations NDA, Closed Beta 4 Planned,’ this post has been reclaimed to offer details on tomorrow’s final Closed Beta for the MMORTS End of Nations.
Asked in our lastest interview about the status of End of Nations heading to open beta, Chris Lena responded that it would make the move when the company felt that a closed beta phase went nearly perfect. Today’s announcement of Closed Beta 4 means the senior producer wasn’t kidding about the commitment to the beta process. However, the dropping of the non-disclosure agreement means the game is that much closer to open beta.
But you’re not reading this for a bit of anecdotal evidence leading to wild accusations of the game heading to open beta in the immediate future. You want the skinny on Phase 4 of the closed beta process. CB4 will begin bright and early at 8:00 AM PST on Thursday, October 4. That’s roughly 15 days away. It will culminate at 9:00 PM PST on Sunday, October 9.
Hit the jump for the latest features and maps to test and a special perk to those that come out for CB4. Continue Reading
3 October 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
The sad news of the closing of City of Heroes came down just over a month ago. Since the announcement on August 31 the CoH community has been nothing but creative. They’ve held in-game protests, created a dedicated website, devised homemade viral videos, started petitions, supported the soon-to-be-unemployed developers and even got a little jerky. All in the name of saving the game they love. It’s been nothing short of inspirational.
Sadly, NCSoft doesn’t care.
The company finally responded to all of the press and calls for saving yesterday, and it wasn’t anything short of soul crushing. NCSoft responded with a short let down:
We appreciate the overwhelmingly constructive and positive messages in the emails, notes, and packages you’ve sent in support of the game. It has not been an easy decision for us to close Paragon Studios and prepare to shut down City of Heroes. We’ve exhausted all options including the selling of the studio and the rights to the City of Heroes intellectual property, but in the end, efforts to do so were not successful.
It appears that the only positive thing CoH players have left to look forward to are the upcoming closing events. City of Heroes will wrap up more than eight years of service on November 30, 2012.
3 October 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
PlanetSide 2 is one of many games about to be made available that offers a multitude of options for players to support the developer. Everything from not paying a cent to full subscription. The shooter has been in beta for sometime, which has allowed Sony Online Entertainment to collect enormous amounts of feedback on all aspects of the game, including how players were reacting to the early membership benefits.
Apparently, the playerbase wasn’t ecstatic with the benefits, which has caused SOE to modify them. Earlier this week, SOE posted revised and final membership benefits.
For $14.99 a month, subscribers will receive:
- 25-50% increased resource gain.
- 25-50% increased XP gain.
- 25-50% increased passive cert point gain.
- Note: Each of the above start at 25% and increase by 5% per month of sustained membership up to a total bonus of 50% each at 6+ months membership.
- Priority login queue
- Early Access to new cosmetic items on the store
- 500 StationCash each month (a $5.00 value)
Notable changes include the removal of “increased resource pool caps,” removing a controversial pay-for-power benefit. The range in benefits are a result of membership lengths. To gain the full 50% increase players must purchase a six-month membership. Currently, the monthly option is the only membership package available.
