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Join iTZKooPA, Amatera, and Juggynaut as they discuss the latest news in the MMOG world. Topics for the week include:
Jagex, the creator of RuneScape, announced Stellar Dawn, a browser-based sci-fi MMOG. Closed beta apps now accepted. 2011 release date, no details announced.
Discussion (inspired by KIASA): When in beta or alpha, do you believe the developers actually heed many community concerns? What about after the game goes live?
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Join iTZKooPA, Amatera, and Juggynaut for this week’s MMOcast. Topics for this week include:
News:
The Mummy Online announced. Finally, a game based on a Brendan Fraser movie! It’s going to be F2P, so everyone must try it.
Mega Man Online finally official; to be a 3D side-scrolling action RPG.
Heroes of Might & Magic Online heads to open beta on June 11.
Discussion: There’s be a lot of news on upcoming MMOG these last few weeks (Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: TOR, FFXIV, etc), but when do you actually start caring? Do particular announcements draw you in, do you follow everything, or wait until just before launch to care?
That’s right folks. The amazing transformation of Dungeon & Dragons Online to the free-to-play model is going to be replicated. Turbine (and its pair) is going to attempt to pull off the feat for a second time. The developer will be launching a huge update to Lord of the Rings Online “this fall” that will complete the metamorphosis. Interested parties will be able to partake in a beta program starting on June 16 (the second day of E3). Head over to the official site for details.
The upcoming LotRO Store appears to be a clone of the DDO Store:
LOTRO will introduce Turbine’s innovative new pricing model that allows players to download the game and play for free, purchase expansions, quest packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new LOTRO Store, or join the VIP program to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content for one low price.
Considering the DDO Store saved DDO, even dramatically increasing its subscriber base, the new LotRO Store is a no brainer. The transformation will be global.
No word on a name change.
And I have to ask, how pissed are the lifetime subscribers going to be?
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Join iTZKooPA, Amatera, and Juggynaut for this episode of the MMOcast. Topics up for discussion include:
Star Wars: The Old Republic players heading to Hoth in some capacity.
How important is the graphics of the game you’re playing? Could a game like Rift: Planes of Telara draw you in with graphics, then hope to hook with gameplay?
Turbine, previously the largest independant MMO company, has been acquired by Warner Brothers Incorporated. They’ve been huge investors in the company for years, but this latest exchange is expected to value Turbine at about $160 million.
Turbine currently produces and maintains several MMOs, including Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and Asheron’s Call. This isn’t the first time Warner Brothers has purchased a major video game company; they bought Midway Studios, developers of the Mortal Kombat series, as well as TT Games, developers of the Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman games. This gives them a huge monopoly on LOTR games, as Warner Brothers already owns the license for all non-online Lord of the Rings games, and Turbine had an exclusive license for all online LOTR games.
All of the intellectual property that Turbine developers now has access to might be even more exciting. The combination of Warner Brothers properties and Turbine developers has fantastic potential. Could we see DC Comics franchise characters in future MMOs?
Turbine’s done it, friends. They’ve found a solution! The elusive “third pillar” of content that exists somewhere between raiding and PvP, and you’ve got to wonder why nobody tried it (or took the concept seriously enough) before now. Skirmish is a new type of PvE gameplay being added to Lord of the Rings Onlinein the near future, and is comprised of a series of instances where heated conflicts are taking places between the good guys and the forces of Sauron.
Instead of working your way through a linear dungeon, semi-randomized groups of enemies will come at you in waves. Defeat them all, and you get to go toe-to-toe with the enemy General. The good news is that these instances are pretty much infinitely farmable, and since you might be running into different sets of baddies each time, the gameplay remains fresh over an extended period of time. It’s also meant to be accessible to everyone. You can go in by yourself (with the help of a few NPC allies) or alongside ten of your closest friends, with the level of strategy and reward scaling appropriately. The loot you receive includes the usual gear and special tokens that can be traded in for character upgrades such as cosmetic enhancements and improvement to AI partners that can be used in the Skirmishes themselves.
In the video below, iTZKooPA and one of the game’s developers walk us through one particular Skmirish dungeon focused around an assault on the Ford of Bruinen. Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for a special twist ending.
There is one MMO that no matter how many times I unsub, I always end up returning to it a few months/years later. It’s not World of Warcraft, or Everquest; I have absolutely no desire to ever return to either of those games. The game I am talking about is Planetside. Time and again I have returned to the game to find new vehicles and features awaiting me and even now, as I just resubbed, I have found even more fun to be had. So when is the sequel coming out?
Unfortunately, probably never. As much as I hate to admit it, Planetside was never really a success story for Sony. Despite holding adequate subscription numbers for a decent amount of time the game just failed to generate any real profits, as can be seen in the poor early mismanagement of the game (updates we very few and far between, bad expac), but this doesn’t mean that Planetside doesn’t deserve a sequel. Despite having some gameplay quirks and questionable goal orientation it was actually a lot of fun and a sequel would be able to fix/build on to those gameplay elements.
Today, the FPS genre is more popular than it has ever been before. Last year Halo 3 sold more than 9 million copies world wide, and Call of Duty 4 sold over 7 million. With this re-invigorated market I don’t see it completely unjustifiable that a PS2 would be considered. After all, everybody likes being part of a huge battle, and certainly Planetside achieved that. Now if only there was an updated website that continually added new fix and gameplay suggestions for the game to help focus the commuity in an effort to improve the game so said developers would know where to start with their new Planetside…
There is one MMO that no matter how many times I unsub, I always end up returning to it a few months/years later. It’s not 
