News – Page 460 – MMO Fallout

RuneScape: 2014 Power To The Players

Jagex has declared 2014 to be the year of player-developer collaboration, not unlike every other year that the developer has promised to listen to its community better. How do you accomplish this? Through things. Foremost, Jagex plans on implementing an in-game poll system to allow better opportunity for players to vote on upcoming content.

In mid-January, we’re going to launch a new in-game poll system, which will give members at least one new content poll to vote on each week. In total, there will be up to seven guaranteed content polls each month, covering a range of topics including quests, minigames, combat updates, skills, bosses, reworks, core gameplay changes and much more besides.

How else? More polls! The announcement does detail plans to add in more quests, high level content, and a continued effort to remove RuneScape’s niggling problems. The first poll launches January 13th.

(Source: RuneScape)

TERA Receiving New Class In 2014

I feel bad for not noticing this sooner, but in my defense neither did any of the other major MMO news websites. On November 25th, Tera Today published an interview with Bluehole Studios on some upcoming updates in 2014 to the Korean service. Alongside a rookie server where players will be able to ease into the game as well as level up a bit faster, TERA will also be enjoying the release of a new class. The class is specific to the Elin race, a powerful mid-range damage dealer, although Bluehole is not saying that the class will never be available to othe races. According to the interview, developing new animations for each race takes approximately eight months.

You can check out the entire interview at the link below to read more about additional updates coming to KTera, and hopefully followed by other regions.

(Source: Tera Today)

Neverwinter Reflects On 2013

The end of the year is upon us, and what better time to look back at events that have transpired? Over at Perfect World Entertainment, Lead Producer Andy Velasquez took some time to talk about Neverwinter’s first year, or half year to be more specific. The note thanks players for providing extensive feedback regarding Shadowmantle, and notes the team charged with creating the game’s multiple events.

Shadowmantle has been our largest update thus far, and I am extremely proud of my team for being able to get it done so quickly while maintaining a high quality product. As always, there are things that we learned from this expansion that we will look to improve upon in our development process.

Velasquez also notes the release of a separate Russian shard, and how there are (naturally) more updates on the way. Neverwinter was, of course, not without mishaps its first year, including astral diamond dupes, auction house exploits, and the release of the banhammer on foundry exploits.

(Source: Neverwinter)

Ex-Warhammer Dev Asks For Singleplayer Client

Warhammer Online may be offline forever, but its world may not be lost to us forever. Andrew Meggs, tech guy at City State Entertainment and ex-engineer at Mythic Entertainment, took to his blog to explain that while players may not be able to enjoy Warhammer Online as it was, it is within Mythic’s capabilities to at least let them roam around the world. As it turns out, most MMOs have the capability of running in singleplayer mode. There are no quests, no NPCs, no other players, but the point is that players could see the world that Mythic put so much effort into creating.

This won’t compete with any current or future game, because it’s not a game anymore. But it’s a place for the die-hard fans to visit by themselves, to reminisce and remember the times they had there with others. It’s something the hundreds of developers who worked on it will still be able to run for their kids someday. It’s a piece of history for Professors of Game Studies in 2113 to better understand what MMORPGs looked like before the neural implants.

Would you like to see a Warhammer Online virtual museum?

(Source: Shinytoys)

Zynga Farms $1 Million For Charity

Holiday Lights is an expansion farm for FarmVille introduced a few weeks ago by Zynga. Unlike other expansion farms, Holiday Lights is unique in that 100% of the Zynga’s share on in-game items is directed straight to charity. In a post on the Zynga blog, the company congratulated its players for raising one million dollars collectively for Feeding America, enough to deliver nine million meals to those in need. According to the post, sixty percent of the FarmVille population donated in some capacity.

To date, Zynga has raised $17 million for charities including Toys for Tots, children’s hospital, building schools in Haiti, and more. Thanks a million. Seventeen million, that is.

(Source: Zynga)

Mark Kern Removed From Red 5 Studios

Hello, timing. Earlier today, Gamefront.com broke the news that CEO Mark Kern has been voted out by board members at Red 5 Studios. An internal email leaked detailing that Kern no longer had any authority within the company, and that further information would be given at a subsequent company meeting. Red 5 reached out to Gamefront, confirming that Kern was indeed no longer with the company.

As of Thursday, December 19th, Mark Kern is no longer the Chief Executive Officer of Red 5 Studios. Mark founded Red 5 Studios in 2006 to provide exceptional game entertainment along with a world-class team of developers working on the MMO Shooter, Firefall. Red 5 Vice President of Development, James Macauley, will be moving into the role of acting CEO. The team at Red 5 continues work on Firefall and looks forward to all that we have to offer in 2014.

The Escapist has reported contact from Red 5 employees detailing Kern as absent, visiting only to make arbitrary decisions, and disruptive to the company.

(Source: Gamefront)
(Source: Escapist)

Defiance Reveals Endless Free Trial

Trion Worlds has announced that Defiance will be moving over to an endless free trial, allowing players to get in on the action for as long as they like without buying the full game. Instead of the previous 72 hour time limit, players will now be capped at 500 EGO points until they upgrade to the full version. With Defiance going for cheaper than a meal at Burger King most days, upgrading to the full version won’t set players back that much. To the best of my knowledge, this beta extends only to PC players.

(Source: Trion Press Release)

TERA On Its Way To China

It’s hard to believe that TERA launched nearly two years ago in Korea, and even harder to believe that the game didn’t come to China before it came west. That hasn’t stopped publisher Kunlun Games from continuing with its efforts to bring the MMO to the northwest. According to a news article on MMO Culture, TERA is set to begin its first testing phase in China on January 9th, 2014. Players will be able to access content up to level 38, similar to the low content cap used in other regional betas, as well as an exclusive level 34 dungeon only available on the Chinese client.

(Source: TERA)

Perfect World Opens Console Division

Those of you who own a Playstation 4 or follow MMOs are likely already aware of the free to play MMOs that are either already available or are coming soon on the system. Perfect World Entertainment currently offers Blacklight Retribution on the console, and recently announced that it is opening a division of the company solely for the development of console titles. In a press release put out today by Perfect World Entertainment, the company did not detail which titles would be brought to current and next-gen systems, but described “current and future games.” Could we see Neverwinter on consoles? Perhaps.

Perfect World’s CEO Alan Chen had the following to say:

“Perfect World Entertainment has long been the leader in free-to-play PC titles. Bringing our titles to consoles is a natural progression for us, and we can’t wait to set a new standard for console MMORPGs and other genres.”

More information is set to come in 2014.

(Source: Perfect World Press Release)

Marvel Heroes Adding More Villains

Marvel Heroes continues expanding its roster of heroes, and now even villains. In a post on the official website, Gazillion announced that players can get their hands on an advance pack, including Dr Strange, Juggernaut, Magneto, Moon Knight, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Silver Surfer, Sue Storm, Star-lord, and Venom. The advance pack also offers two additional characters who have yet to be named, as well as other bonuses including fortune cards and alternate costumes. The pack will set you back, however, by a good hundred dollars.

Players will receive the heroes as they are released, which Gazillion expects to occur throughout 2014 and into 2015. If you aren’t so excited to throw down $120, you can always wait until the heroes are released and buy/acquire them individually.

(Source: Marvel Heroes)

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