The team from Icarus Studios' Fallen Earth has put together this new series of developer journals highlighting some of the "hidden content" in their post-apocalyptic MMO. This week, they discuss some creatures you may not even know existed.

Sounds major, right? They are! And you won't find them just anywhere. These massive, powered-up creatures roam the wasteland unbeknownst to many players. And if you are a lone player out in the desolate land, you probably won't want to stumble upon one of these creatures solo. World Bosses aren't just your random wandering creature, they're super-charged mutants on a mission, and they don't like to be bothered!

So what makes these creatures "World Bosses?" Well, if their massive size isn't enough to convince players of their World-Boss-worthiness, perhaps their colossal strength will do the trick. That's right, it will take more than a single player, or in some cases a single group, to take out one of these creatures.

Read Hidden Content 2: Concealed Creatures.

MMORPG.com's Jon Wood uses this week's list to explore five ways that a player can tell whether or not they're really "into" their current MMO, encouraging players who just aren't that into it anymore to find greener pastures elsewhere.

Sometimes when you're in a relationship, it's hard to let go. It's comfortable, it's safe and whenever you think of letting go all you can think about are all of the good times that you've had together. This is perfectly understandable and it's only human nature, but while it may seem like the right thing to do at the time, the most common mistake that people make is to try and hang on, not because it's good for them, or because they're still having fun, but because it's all they really know.

The bond between gamer and MMO can be a strong one, and it can be difficult to know when enough is enough and it's time to throw in the towel. Stay too long and you risk pain and frustration that could keep you from enjoying another MMO that comes after it. We here at MMORPG.com have been there before, and we offer the following five pieces of advice to help you know when you're just not that into it anymore:

Read Five Ways to Know You're Just Not That Into It.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with Tim Adams from the upcoming item mall based MMO, Turf Battles.

MMORPG.com:

How has the development of Turf Battles been going? Can you talk about the state of the game currently?

Tim Adams:

Turf Battles has been through a multitude of changes over the last year. Originally the game was very sparse in terms of content, and was not received well. So we shut it down, and began rethinking our strategy. This included adding tons of content based on our player suggestions, such as the Islands PVP system, and PVP channels. Over the last few weeks we have had this content implemented onto our test server, so everything is slowly coming together. We are now very close to launching into beta, again.

Read An Introduction to Turf Battles.

MMORPG.com Correspndent Joseph Lavender takes a quick look at what might happen with Final Fantasy XI when its quasi-sequel Final Fantasy XIV is finally released. Will the game live or die?

"What is going to Happen to Final Fantasy XI?"

With the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV out in the open many Final Fantasy XI veterans are asking themselves this very question.

Unfortunately, it's not a question that can be totally answered yet. We don't really have enough information from Square Enix regarding FFXIV to be able to tell exactly what kind of game its going to be. A lot of FFXI old timers are hoping that the game will hold true to its FFXI roots, while others are hoping that the new Square Enix game is a completely different beast. Still others hope it might be a mixture of the old and the new.

Read Is FFXI Doomed?

MMORPG.com columnist Victor Wachter writes this look at failed games in our industry, why it happens and whether or not games can return from the brink of disaster.

Recent layoffs at Funcom and Mythic should tell us that MMOs aren't in a healthy place right now. Compared to five or six years ago, there are relatively few new games in development claiming to be the next big thing. That's mainly because the big thing happened (we're talking about WoW here, naturally), and who's going to try and claim they can kill it? Leading up to WoW's release and ever since, the MMO landscape has been littered with failed releases and half-successes.

If you were a fan of Asheron's Call 2, The Sims Online, Dungeon Runners, The Matrix Online, Tabula Rasa, then you know the pain of seeing your game shut down. Even if your game is still in operation, if it failed to hit the critical mass that a publisher requires to call it a success, it will probably have a direct impact on your play experience in the form of minimal live development and customer service. Successful games are few and far between, with people choosing aging but reliable games over newer offerings.

Read The Failed Game.

MMORPG.com columnist Richard Aihoshi writes this article asking how useful MMORPG previews really are when it comes to specific player tastes.

The last time I wrote a preview of an MMOG was at least a few years ago, long enough that I don't even remember the time frame or the title. What's more, it wouldn't bother me if I never do another. Indeed, if I had to guess, I'd venture to say I won't.

To put the above into its proper frame of reference, I'm using my own definition of "preview" and referring to what I usually call a "full" one. This means I'm talking about an article that describes enough of a game so I, as a reader, can get an accurate sense as to the key things I want to know without having to know anything beforehand or to go look for further information.

Read How Helpful Are MMOG Previews?

The team from Global Agenda has updated their official MMORPG.com blog with "The Utopian," a new lore piece for the game.

The Utopian

Steven made a conscious effort to awaken several minutes before his alarm sounded every morning, creeping out of bed as quietly as he could to peer out the window at the street a few stories below. The immaculately cleaned road had never suffered an automobile on its surface, as most of the traffic in Commonwealth Prime was airborne, clogging the skies above the incredible city in a perpetual jam of personal vehicles, public transportation, and security patrols. Ground level was reserved for pedestrians, with narrow walkways punctuated by neatly trimmed gardens and every imaginable shape of abstract sculpture. Thick nationalist banners hung from so high up on each towering skyscraper that the morning haze would obstruct their origins, making it appear that they hung from the clouds themselves, unfurling to broadcast their message of loyalty and pride. Steven wasn’t interested in any of that, not the cleanliness and beauty of the metropolis, or the eerie complacency and ruthless efficiency of each passersby. All he cared to see was the single hovering garbage collection drone that would visit the intersection just below his window every morning, a few minutes before his assigned duties began.

Read The Utopian.

MMORPG.com Istaria expert Erin McManaway writes this look at Dralnok's Doom after receiving a tour of the upcoming high level content update from the folks at Virtrium.

A new darkness has taken root deep beneath the settlement of Delgarath and has brought the Dwarven King, Dralnok, to his untimely end...

Earlier this year, Virtrium (VI) launched a free, high-level content release for Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted entitled Dralnok's Doom. I was given the opportunity to take an exclusive, in-depth look at this massive update -- so please join me for a journey into the deep!

Read Dralnok’s Doom: New High Level Content Tour.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with Martin Tan, the General Manager of ChangYou.com (US) about their upcoming item shop based MMORPG, Dragon Oath.

MMORPG.com:

Give us the status of Dragon Oath right now, how is the game moving along?

Martin Tan:

Dragon Oath entered Open Beta on Nov. 5th. We have met all of our internal goals for Closed Beta and this good trend is continuing. We are still seeing a steady rise in new players. Our team is now preparing for three things, (i) A Thanksgiving update that will encompass 2 weeks of holiday events, (ii) the launch of Dragon Oath's Item Mall and (iii) the launch of Dragon Oath's first expansion pack in Early February.

Read the Interview With Martin Tan.

The team from Turbine has provided us with these three new screenshots from the upcoming LotRO expansion, Siege of Mirkwood.

Check out the new screenshots, here.

MMORPG.com World of Warcraft correspondent Sam Guss kicks off this series of articles designed to help prepare players for the eventual launch of Blizzard's next expansion, Cataclysm.

Welcome to "Preparing for a Cataclysm," a new series of articles between now and World of Warcraft's next expansion, aptly titled, Cataclysm. This series will focus on all things to do with and to prepare for this new expansion as well as express opinions and known updates about it. Currently the release date is speculated to probably be Q2, 3 or 4 of 2010. Blizzard has confirmed they are shooting for a 2010 release and Game Stop has a release date holder for November 2010. Chances are high that it will be released sometime between May and November of 2010. That's a large window to work with for now, but at best, I figure we have six months before the start of that window to prepare.

Read more here.

MMORPG.com Jade Dynasty Correspondent Segun Adewumi continues to chronicle his adventures in this F2P MMO.

Jade Dynasty still has the ability to surprise me, and I love it for that. I’ve said before that Jade is a lot like Final Fantasy XI, in that everything possible is not always obvious. In Jade, the easiest and perhaps the quickest way to make money is to sell the provisions you get as drops. Every fifteen levels you get a new set of four provisions, and they sell for decent money especially the higher level grade provisions. But you can also turn in provisions and get honor. Honor or reputation works rather similarly to World of Warcraft in that the more reputation you have, the more it opens up to more loot. I started playing Ettarre again and got a new esper. Because each esper can be upgraded by getting an Esper Tome and an Esper Accessory to make it even more powerful during invigorate. Searching through the forums it became apparent to me that the best way to get both of these was through quests I could get if my honor reputation was high enough. But for as long as I’ve known about it I couldn’t seem to turn in the provisions for rep, I’d get a log full notice and that would be that. Finally I read a post that says I can only have eight quests as a maximum. Jade lets you have twenty or so in your log so I’ve always had fifteen to twenty or so in quest log, so that explained why I kept getting an error.

Read A Day in the Life.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with Masthead Studios' Atanas Atanasov about the progress of the upcoming sci-fi sandbox MMORPG Earthrise.

MMORPG.com:

The game follows a sandbox approach. MMOs like EVE and Ultima have built their success on this format where other games have failed. Why does the sandbox approach add so much to the longevity of a game?

Atanas Atanasov:

So far MMORPGs have figured two proven paths of keeping players interested in the game long term: constant addition of solo-able content or raid challenges that players must overcome and then wait patiently for more, and the sandbox approach where players have to find their own niche and approach to the environment and their challenges are set not by the game designers but by the combined actions of all other players. The latter approach's main strength is the cooperative notion that the game is indeed shaped by the players. To many players, the ability to change content to their personal or collective will is much more important than the chance to experience more and more content. The sense of involvement and power to create and change can invigorate and keep players glued to the game for years to come. Games like EVE and Ultima have both succeeded to achieve a stable and exciting environment for sandbox gaming and have been some of the inspirational sources for Earthrise as well.

Read the Update Interview.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with CCP's Noah Ward about the upcoming EVE Online expansion, Dominion. In the interview, among other issues, Ward addresses a CCP decision regarding changes to Motherships.

MMORPG.com:

Talk about the recent changes to the Massive Super Carrier. Many players are calling it a nerf. Can you set the record straight?

Noah Ward:

Unlike most other MMORPGs, with EVE we try to give every class of ship a clear role. It's not a simple game of bigger is better. It's more like a complex and nuanced game of Rock/Paper/Scissors. Unfortunately the poor Supercarrier (previously known as Mothership) never had a clear role much like the lion in Wizard of Oz didn't have a heart. They occupy a space between the massive Titans and the more ubiquitous Carrier class of ship without really standing out on their own. We wanted to improve this situation, find their true role and make them something pilots would be proud to fly; enter Fighter Bombers. Fighter Bombers are anti-capital weapons that launch big dumb warheads that do a lot of damage but have trouble hitting the broad side of a battleship. We like the direction things are heading and the models look damn cool but we're still not 100% sure the changes are achieving what we want to achieve. This is why the changes to Motherships/Supercarriers are being deferred and won't go out in Dominion 1.0. We're going to continue to play test both internally and on our public test servers. We're going to continue to talk to players. We're going to follow the yellow brick road and we're going to find the unique role these ships fill which will hopefully make the largest number of people happy.

Read the Dominion Interview.

MMORPG.com's Jaime Skelton uses a brief stint without her internet service to take a look this week at internet service providers and a possible crackdown that could be coming on bandwidth that could affect MMO gamers.

This weekend, I had to deal with one of the greatest frustrations an online gamer can deal with: internet connection problems. I spent half of my raid time disconnecting and reconnecting, which was terribly fun. Then Monday, the internet went out entirely, and stayed off for 24 hours. Besides giving me a lot of free time to take care of things I haven't been able to recently, it also gave me time to reflect on how much the internet has become part of my daily life as a gamer.

There's no doubt that many of us, myself included, often take our internet access for granted. At times, it feels like a utility, even though it feeds off them. I couldn't even begin to explain to my provider that I needed the internet up as soon as possible so I could work, and that my work, at least partially, consists of playing games online. There's little respect for online gamers at ISPs, even though many of their employees are part of our growing group. The attitude is that the internet is a luxury, and we should be happy with the speed and service we get. It reminds me of all the times that my dad would tell me to be grateful for the dinner on my plate, and I better eat it because there were starving children in Ethiopia.

Read Have You Hugged Your Internet Lately?.

MMORPG.com's Dana Massey recently traveled to the LucasArts compound for a demo of Bioware's upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. While there, he got a look at the recently announced Imperial Agent.

The recently revealed Imperial Agent class in Star Wars: The Old Republic provides the Empire with a hefty dose of subtlety and intrigue. While many classes, like say the Sith Warrior, barge through levels with their lightsabers blazing, the Imperial Agent uses stealth and tactics to quietly creep up on her enemies.

LucasArts and Bioware put on a press demonstration last week in San Francisco to give us the first chance to see these guys in action. While it was quite clearly very early - we were told to imagine the "stealth" effect as the character snuck around on a massive theatre screen in the LucasArts compound - this class adds something to the Star Wars world that has never really been the focus before: subtlety.

Read Impressions of the Imperial Agent.

Originally posted by FikusOfAhazi

Originally posted by Papadam

So Jon supports a big company nickel and diming their players (Blizzard)

But is against a small company giving back to their players?

 

 

That's kind of the impression I get as well.

I'm not against it. I'm simply saying that it could be percieved as a little bit desperate. I didn't even say *I* saw it that way. I simply said that to me, it seems a bit weird. I also mention that Aventurine is known for flying in the face of conventional PR wisdom, and I actually give them kudos for doing something out of the ordinary. It's a gutsy move.

I don't think it's entirely necessary to twist my words to make them overly negative. Do I think it's a good idea? Personally, no. But like is said, I can see why the game's players would like it. 

This week, MMORPG.com's Jon Wood uses his column to comment on three news stories this week. First, Cryptic's addition of bridges to Star Trek Online, then on to a possible Call of Duty MMO and Aventurine's Community Publishing Program.

This week, there were a few topics that I wanted to cover, so rather than presenting a single, coherent thought in this week’s column, I thought I’d break it up into smaller, bite-sized chunks for your reading pleasure. Welcome to the ramblings of my mind. Don’t pay any attention to the upside down clown weeping in the corner:

Star Trek Online Bridges

Last week, I came down pretty hard on the folks at Cryptic for their cross promotion of Star Trek Online with their Champions Online lifetime subscriptions. This week though, I’m happy to be able to actually applaud the STO dev team for their recent decision to include interior bridges in the launch version of the game.

Read Wood: Bridges, Cash for Players and CoDO.

MMORPG.com contributor Shannon P. Drake writes this informative and sometimes humorous look at five different developer jobs that, while important to the MMO development process, often get left without the glory.

Follow MMORPGs too long and you begin to forget it's not just a world of rock star designers making amusing youtube videos during breaks from single-handedly shaping the destiny of their perfect, ultimate online world. The face of the modern MMO tends to be a single person, or a handful of people, who are well-spoken or amusing enough to go out and promote their title, while not giving away too much in the way of specifics, hopefully, though sometimes they are prone to overpromising based on the vague idea in their heads, much to the chagrin of PR handlers and fanboys everywhere. They become the loved and/or loathed figureheads of a title or studio, the guys blamed and/or praised when everything goes right/wrong.

Read Five Unappreciated Developer Positions.

The team from Quest Online, the folks developing the upcoming MMORPG, Alganon, have provided us with these four new screenshots.

Check out all four new screenshots, here.