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Guild Wars 2 Megaserver Is Complete

Arenanet has announced that the Megaserver technology has been fully implemented in all PvE maps and Heart of the Mists.

Although we’re excited that you have more players than ever to explore the open world of Guild Wars 2 with, our work is not yet complete. Our megaserver team will continue to monitor the performance of the technology on live and evaluate your feedback. We will continue to tweak and update the way the system works until it is providing even better megaservice!

(Source: Guild Wars 2)

Star Vault Lays Down Road to Steam

With its big show on Steam just over the horizon, Star Vault has laid out how the hardcore sandbox MMO will make its way to gamers worldwide. Before Mortal Online is allowed to release, however, Star Vault is implementing a number of updates and fixes. In the latest press release, Star Vault has laid down just how the Steam rollout will happen.

Each block, according to the release, has a lead time of about one month, noting that multiple blocks may run in parallel.

? Block 0 – Unreal Engine update
? Block 1 – Territory Control
? Block 2 – Territory Control Testing and release
? Block 3 – Continent Support
? Block 4 – Continent support testing and release
? Block 5 – STEAM API release on STEAM

Henrik Nystrom, Star Vault’s CEO, made the following comment (translated):

We continue our focus on working towards STEAM, it looks we all look forward to the team, but I also believe that our current players see the value in this. We will increase communication about the development work currently involves about 40 resources in our global development team. For transparency to our shareholders, we have teamed up with Axier, specialists in communication to the stock market. They have produced an analysis of Star Vault. I hope you find it interesting

(Source: Star Vault Press Release)

H1Z1 CS Items Lootable, In A Sense

With all of the hubbub about H1Z1 and the prospects of free to play and pay to win, John Smedley took to the game’s official subreddit to explain just how the game’s cash shop will work. Players will be able to buy wearables which can be looted by others upon death, in a manner of speaking.

We’ve also come up with a pretty awesome idea to let players who kill other players loot stuff. So if a player has a black ski mask and gets killed by another player, that player can wear the ski mask for a few deaths (we have durability in the game. Station Cash wearables won’t degrade at all but when you loot something.. it will degrade. Please note the original player always keeps their SC purchased wearables.

Smedley also confirmed that the shop will not sell guns, ammo, food, water, “etc,” nor will they sell boosts. Emote packs will be available for sale as well as character slots and crates ala Valve’s monetization system.

(Source: Reddit)

Carbine Studios Donates To Child's Play

This year at PAX East, Carbine Studios has announced a special donation to Child’s Play. In addition to a comically sized check for ten thousand dollars, Carbine Studios has partnered with LEGO artist Mariann Asanuma to recreate the Wildstar rocket house in all of its blocky glory. The structure stands three feet high and four feet long and is the result of fifty thousand LEGO blocks.

The rocket ship will be auctioned off later this year at the annual Child’s Play Dinner and Auction. Mona Hamilton, Vice President of Brands at Carbine Studios, weighed in on the contribution.

Child’s Play is a wonderful charity doing really great things with the gaming industry and we’re looking forward to seeing the result of the auction later this year. It was also important for us to say thanks by giving back to the Boston community; they’ve been great to us over the years at PAX East.

Child’s Play’s goal is to improve the lives of children in hospitals and welfare facilities through the positive impact of video games.

(Source: Carbine Studios Press Release)

Zenimax Realtime Bans

It looks like Zenimax is ramping up their efforts against gold farmers in The Elder Scrolls Online. Intrepid explorer Necropsie over at the MMORPG.com forums snapped a screenshot in-game of a game master announcing to the area to step away from the boss or be slain. Presumably those slain by the GM would have their accounts flagged for review, if not banned outright.

This isn’t the first time an MMO has employed lethal force against bot. Back in the day, Aion GM’s could be seen executing accounts used to spam gold selling websites.

City of Titans Sets Sights Past Pre-Production

Missing Worlds Media took to the news to announce that their flagship title, City of Titans, is nearing the end of pre-production. The short letter talks about crafting respawn systems, battling the new Unreal engine, as well as importing Learner’s Cove, the game’s planned tutorial area.

Named after noted pirate Captain James Edward Learner, Learner’s Cove sheltered him after his growing body count had his commission as a privateer stripped and all friendly ports, including the bustling new shipping hub of Clarkestown closed to him. There persist rumors of buried treasure hidden away in the network of caves on the island, but most chalk those up to tall tales and ghost stories.

Check out the entire announcement at the link below.

(Source: Missing Worlds Media)

Awards and Success Are Not Interchangeable

There is some discussion going around the internet about how ArcheAge has performed and whether or not the game has “failed,” which is most assuredly has by one person’s standards or another. While I don’t know for sure how Archeage is performing following the game’s launch in Japan and Russia, I can tell you that last September we learned that XLGames was laying off staff. We also know that the layoffs and transition to free to play was due to the game’s poor performance as a subscription title and subsequent quickly declining revenue.

A few people are under the impression, and I am paraphrasing here, that ArcheAge can’t possibly be doing poorly. After all, according to their logic, a game that has won so many awards has to be raking in the money. The fact that ArcheAge won a number of awards at last year’s Korea Game Awards means nothing in terms of how many people are playing and, furthermore, investing money. Warhammer Online won nearly twenty awards in 2008, including several “best of 2008,” none of which mattered much when both the servers and staff were gutted shortly thereafter.

The best way to gauge an MMO’s success is to follow its ability to retain players.

MMOrning Shots: Where No Screenshot Has Gone Before

Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Star Trek Online, which is celebrating the launch of Season 9. Fight against the Undine, obtain new rewards, and more.

Engage with a new MMOrning Shot every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

MMOrning Shots: And My Name Is Not Rick

Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from The Elder Scrolls Online, where the game thinks that I am in werewolf form and will not let me fish as a result. For the record, my character is not a werewolf.

You can check out MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, even while in werewolf form.

Early Access: Shadowrun Online

Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, I finally had the chance to sit down with the early access version of Shadowrun Online. If you missed the campaign or didn’t want to get involved for one reason or another, you can grab early access at Steam for $30 at the following link. Make no mistake, this is a very early work in progress. There are two pre-made characters to use and a very short four mission campaign that will take less than an hour to complete, assuming you don’t die and have to restart any levels.

There are two versions of Shadowrun Online that will eventually be available, a campaign mode and free to play mode. The former, available now in early access, grants everything that the game has to offer with no cash shop or the related bits and bobs of free to play. What you do pay for are optional expansions that Cliffhanger Productions plans on releasing multiple times per year, granted they have the time and resources. The free to play version is just that, no client price but with the added cash shop featuring accelerators and various other items.

At this juncture, Shadowrun Online is basically an endurance run through four levels. The lack of inventory and healing powers makes it impossible to recover health, although one of the characters has a power that grants shields to his allies and himself, but it requires a three turn cooldown. The mechanics of the game, right now, are pretty simple and should be immediately familiar if you’ve played any similar titles. You move, get in cover, and choose from a small list of abilities to hurl at your opponents.

There isn’t much to say about Shadowrun Online at the moment. I like the graphics, the game runs pretty smoothly, and what is present so far is a great indicator of where the game is headed. I can’t wait to see what else the developers have in store, and look forward to more Early Access articles on this game.

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