All Posts by Stradden

For those who may not be aware, the newest addition to Dungeons and Dragons Online, Module 7: The Way of the Monk will launch tomorrow, June 3rd.

Monks are a distinct new character class that you will be able to choose when Module 7: The Way of the Monk goes live on June 3rd.

A Monk's role is that of high speed, control, and discipline. Your senses and wisdom of the elements will be challenged. Becoming a Monk will be unlike anything you've experienced in Eberron. You'll need to learn to become ready for any situation. You'll need to learn The Way of The Monk.

More on DDO here.

Due to a new promotion, dubbed "The Living Legacy", former players (in good standing) of EQ and EQII will be able to play the games for free until the end of July.

SAN DIEGO, CA – June 2, 2008 – The EverQuest ® franchise, the groundbreaking, award-winning fantasy series that redefined massively multiplayer online (MMO) video games for a generation of gamers around the globe, is bringing a near decade of success back to millions of fans with a new Living Legacy program from Sony Online Entertainment LLC, which will feature in-game events, promotions, game updates and more.

Living Legacy, announced today, is a brand-new initiative aimed at the millions of players who have experienced the vast, engaging online worlds of EverQuest ® (EQ) and EverQuest® II (EQII) since the original EQ game was launched in 1999. The celebration starts today and continues through the end of September. As part of the promotion, both EQ and EQII subscribers with inactive accounts who left in good standing will be able to log back in to the games and play for free until the end of July.

“The EverQuest franchise has touched so many lives since the launch of EverQuest in 1999, and with the 10th anniversary of EverQuest just around the corner, we felt it was the best time to give back to all the players who made it the cultural phenomenon it is today,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “We are grateful for the continued support from our legions of fans and are extremely excited about the groundswell of interest surrounding Living Legacy.”

While the Living Legacy program is aimed at former EQ and EQII players, the program also offers a perfect way for new players to experience the world of Norrath. Nostalgic NPCs and group PvE encounters, as well as brand new raid content, will commemorate EQ’s hardcore heritage. The program features bonus XP weekends, several live events, new content updates and the introduction of new zones all taking place in EQII. Returning EQII players will also be able to experience Rise of Kunark, EQII’s fourth expansion, which just became the game’s best-selling expansion of all time.

Key features of the Living Legacy program include:

All qualified returning EQ players will receive the EverQuest Secrets of Faydwer all-in-one compilation and bonus in-game items at no additional cost.

All qualified returning EQII players will receive the EverQuest II Rise of Kunark all-in-one compilation and bonus in-game items at no additional cost.

All software provided during the promotional period will be credited to any EQ or EQII account that is converted to a valid, paying monthly subscription.

Current EQII players who recruit a friend to play the game who converts to a valid subscription will receive free gameplay-time added upon conclusion of their then-current subscription .

In the spirit of honoring the players, the Living Legacy program is supported by an online and print advertising campaign that features real EQ and EQII players.

More on the promotion here.

The folks from NetDevil have provided us with this exclusive Jumpgate Evolution screenshot that shows us a Conflux Probe Ship.

Check out the full size image here.

Yesterday folks in EQII kicked off The Festival of Unity, a player-run event taking place on the Antonis Bayle server that will run until June 7th.

The Festival of Unity, A Celebration of Life, Love and Friendship kicks off this weekend in EverQuest II!

Players on the Antonia Bayle server can participate in the Festival of Unity! The week long massive event starts June 1st and runs through the 7th on the Antonia Bayle server in Antonica! This event is FULLY player designed and run, with a little support from local guides and community reps.

Each day players will see more than 20 events full of fun and games such as a Mage Tourney, Scavenger Hunt and the always interesting Feyiron Chef!

Here’s a video of last year’s festivities: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3317789586889505029&hl=en

A complete schedule of events can be found here.

The makers of the upcoming MMORPG Rohan: Blood Feud have announced a great turn-out for their open beta which began on May 28th.

MMORPG.com is currently working to get Rohan listed on our Game List.

Orange County, Calif. – May 30, 2008 – Online PC game publisher YNK Interactive experienced an overwhelming amount of players as they began Open Beta testing of their massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Rohan: Blood Feud. “The initial turnout of Rohan: Blood Feud is an unexpected but great surprise,” said Jay Suh, COO of YNK Interactive. “We have more than doubled our servers since then, and our team has been working around the clock in order to give our players the experience they expect and deserve.”

Players from around the world participated in Rohan: Blood Feud’s open beta that began on May28th. Within the first few minutes, the game servers reached maximum capacity, leading the company to add another server within the first hour. Over the course of the following 36 hours, two more servers were added due to the continuing increase in demand. YNK Interactive reports that they will continue to add game servers during this testing period until there are enough tocomfortably and stably house the large population that has gathered to support the game. To be part of its growing community, register at www.playrohan.com.

Find more info here.

Huxley now has a North American publisher as the company announced today that it would partner with NHN USA.

IRVINE, CALIF. – June 2, 2008 –It’s official. NHN USA, a subsidiary of NHN (KOSDAQ:035420), the largest Korean Internet company, announced today that it has secured the rights to publish the long-awaited Huxley in North America and Western Europe. Bringing online gamers everywhere closer to the chance to exercise their fragging skills against thousands of other players in the first twitch-action massively multiplayer online first-person shooting (FPS) game Huxley, the online shooter is slated to arrive on the PC via ijji.com in late 2008.

“Huxley is one of the most anticipated online games currently in development, and we are very excited to bring the triple-A title to Western audiences,” said Whon Namkoong, CEO, NHN USA, Inc. “Huxley provides gamers with a unique and compelling experience that gamers everywhere are sure to enjoy. The revolutionary online shooter is a welcome addition to ijji.com, the site where millions of fans can play it later this year.”

Huxley is the first massively multiplayer online (MMO) game to combine the twitch-based fast-action game play of a first person shooter (FPS) with the cerebral character development of an MMO to deliver an intense and exciting online entertainment experience of a complete MMOFPS. Players will be drawn into the genre-bending game play, riveting cinematic graphics and intricate setting of Huxley, where they will choose between two races, Sapiens or Alternatives and struggle to obtain a powerful energy source while fighting endless battles against the Hybrids, a mysterious third group born of the two races.

Developed by Webzen, Huxley will be released by NHN USA for the PC and be available to play on the publisher’s renowned gaming portal ijji.com in late 2008. More information will be available shortly at www.ijji.com.

Read more on Webzen here.

Recently, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to send eight questions over to Jorgen Tharaldsen at Funcom. In those questions, Tharaldsen addresses instances, CS and more.

Some members are complaining that dealing with customer support has been frustrating, and help comes late and sometimes not at all. Can you speak to this?

Jorgen Tharaldsen

We have been known to give some of the best customer services in the MMO industry for years, and while we are striving to meet the same standards for Age of Conan as soon as possible we are not there yet. The reason for this is naturally the sheer amount of people who is playing the game right now, and while we staffed up significantly for the Conan launch it wasn't enough for what we are now facing. We are actively staffing up as fast as we can in order to reduce the waiting times, and get back to our standard of being among the best, which is always our goal.

Check out the whole Q&A here.

The folks from CCP joined us on Sunday for a developer chat. Here are the complete logs of that chat for your reading pleasure.

MMORPG_Taera: Greetings and welcome to MMORPG.com's Live Chat on irc.coldfront.net! I'm your host, MMORPG.com's community manager Laura Taera Genender. Joining us today is the EVE Online dev team!

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MMORPG_Taera: Our guests will do their best to answer as many questions as possible, but due to limited time and a high volume of inquiries, they may not be able to answer every single one. Users are limited to one question at a time,and you will be notified if your question is rejected or discarded.

MMORPG_Taera: To submit your question, please /msg MMORPGBot yourquestionhere. If your question was deleted, it's probably because someone else asked the same thing first :)

MMORPG_Taera: This room will be moderated during the chat; if you want to talk during the chat, feel free to visit #eve-online

MMORPG_Taera: Now it's time for introductions! Feel free to start sending your questions to MMORPGBot while our guests introduce themselves!

Greyscale: Hi, I'm Greyscale and I'm a Game Designer on EVE Online. I also dabble in storyline stuff, and I've been heading up the Factional Warfare project for the last few months

Ginger: Hello, im CCP Ginger. Head of the Ginger Breeding Program. Im the current Volunteer manager but I also work alot in Storyline with TonyG and I used to be a game designer for Factional Warfare so I also help out Greyscale with that. Im basically the Ginger sidekick :)

t0nyG: Heyo, I'm t0nyG, Lead Writer for EVE Online. I basically do what the redheads here tell me to do, and get myself into trouble with the game design department from time to time.

Wrangler: Hi, I'm Wrangler and I'm the Community Manager for EVE Online, I manage.. the community.. mainly..

MMORPG_Taera: allseeingI asks, Will Assault Ships be rebalanced in a near future, and if yes - in what way?

Greyscale: Yes, definitely. I know they're high up on the balance team's list of issues, but they're not happy currently with the range of options they have available on that front

Greyscale: When we have the ability to properly differentiate them from other ship classes and give them a viable and unique role they'll definitely get revised, but I don't have any info on exactly when that'll be

MMORPG_Taera: bombishman asks, What changes have been made to FW based on player feedback from the test on SISI?

Read it all here.

MMORPG.com's Adele Caelia recently submitted some questions from EverQuest II players to the game's developers. Today, we present three of the company's answers. Remember to check back next week for more.

Dear Devs,

I would like to know if there is any hope for graphical revamps for EQII. Specifically in regards to adding support for features like dual core, as well as upgrades to the graphics themselves. Unfortunately, it's been over three years now, some of the environment textures are not looking so hot and the sky could definitely use a revamp. [I] would just like to know if this is possible or not.

Read the whole thing here.

Recently, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to sit down for a tour of Module 7 for Dungeons and Dragons Online. In part one of this feature, Wood talks about the addition of the Monk class to the game.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down for a guided tour of the newest module for Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach. Known as Module 7, this new addition not only adds new content and areas, but also sees the introduction of a new class, the Monk.

For those who may not be familiar with the history of Dungeons and Dragons, Monk is a character class that arrived in an early edition of the pen and paper giant, but then faded to a kind of obscurity until the launch of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition where it was re-introduced into the consciousness of the game.

Read the full article here.

The folks from Disney Online have sent along these four new screenshots from their MMORPG, Pirates of the Caribbean Online.

Check out all four here.

The folks from Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online have sent us six new screenshots from the upcoming Module 7. These shots give a particular focus to the newly re-designed "Three Barrell Cove" area of the game.

Check out all eight here.

MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh submits this Entropia Universe interview from the ION conference, talking to developer and player alike, Koh tried to get to the bottom of the question: "What is it about Entropia Universe anyway?"

One of the topics of a panel discussion as well as keynote and lecture at the 2008 ION Game Conference was that of the blurring of lines between Virtual Worlds, Online Spaces and traditional MMOGs; how they were integrated and how to integrate them. John Bates of MindArk who develops and publishes Entropia Universe brought up the topic in our interview.

“Entropia is not about quests and missions,” he said, “but an ongoing storyline and events that take place during this storyline.”

Entropia has a single world and it’s not just a virtual world, but also an exploring, tradeskill and adventure game as well. Parts of it are akin to Second Life, but players can also explore and adventure in this world, then come back to the cities and enjoy the social aspect of the game. Like Second Life, Entropia has a monetary system which has its in-game currency pegged at 10 PEDs (Project Entropia Dollars) to 1 US dollar.

Read the whole article here.

Steve Williams of Firesky, the company creating the MMORPG Stargate Worlds, writes this dev log on the game's official page which highlights mini-games in the upcoming MMO.

My name is Steve Williams, and I am a MMO gamer and also a casual gamer. Give me an MMO, and I’ll play it. Give me a simple Flash game and I’ll play it. Wouldn’t it be fun if someone could mix the two flavors together and make a peanut butter cup of gameplay that would satisfy both MMO fun and casual fun?

So let’s talk about what mini-games are doing in a self-respecting MMO like Stargate Worlds - let’s talk about putting the peanut butter into the chocolate and making something tasty.

Since time immemorial, or at least the past few years, MMOs have focused upon two things: Killing stuff (and getting their loot) and making stuff for people to go kill stuff (and get their loot). As building games goes, that’s a pretty good spread of features, and it’s not too hard to make that work.

Read it all here.

Tom Potter, the new Lead Designer for NCsoft's Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, sits down with MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood to talk about his thoughts on the game and where it's heading.

MMORPG.com:

Can you give us an idea of your own personal game design experience?

Tom Potter

If you had told me when I was eight years old, "hey kid, you're gonna be making games someday", I think my head would have exploded.

Whether it was making my own rules for Axis and Allies, or actually sending Nintendo proposals in the mail (which were all kindly rejected), I always knew I wanted to be a game designer. But back then it really didn't seem like a viable career path. So I took a long detour through some other fields before realizing that is was in fact possible to make games and make it a career. I was a chemist for a while, but it just wasn't really fulfilling personally. So I made the decision to switch careers, and through a lot of blood, sweat and tears I finally got a chance to join the industry. Prior to joining NCsoft I worked at Iron Lore Entertainment as Lead Content Designer. While there I worked on Titan Quest, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, and a little bit of Dawn of War: Soulstorm. I joined NCsoft initially as a Senior World Designer and was responsible for making maps and instances. I just recently transitioned to the Lead Designer role which is really a whole new set of challenges. But the team is really fantastic and we're making strides towards making TR better and better with every update.

Read the whole interview here.

Recently, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to sit down to talk with Funcom Product Manager Jorgen Tharaldsen and talk about the XBox360 implementation for AoC.

Recently, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to sit down to talk with Funcom Product Manager Jorgen Tharaldsen and talk about the XBox360 implementation for AoC.

Check out the whole video here.

Didn't forget. There's a lag in our system between when the link goes live and when the feature does. :) you responded in that window.

Here, Game Director Gaute Godager gives us a look at a player's first meeting with King Conan in Funcom's new MMO, Age of Conan. Remember, this is a spoiler, so if you don't want to know, don't watch it!

Here, Game Director Gaute Godager gives us a look at a player's first meeting with King Conan in Funcom's new MMO, Age of Conan. Remember, this is a spoiler, so if you don't want to know, don't watch it!

Check it out here.

Recently, MMORPG.com's own Carolyn Koh had the opportunity to sit down and speak with the team from NetDevil about their work on the upcoming MMORPG Jumpgate Evolution.

Jumpgate Evolution is not a massive update to Jumpgate. It is a completely different game. “Basically, this is a response to focus testing and user feedback,” said Scott Brown, President of Netdevil. “We can’t have Netdevil just do another game. It has to be a great game.”

Once Jumpgate Evolution launches, it will run side by side with Jumpgate until which time, Jumpgate ceases to be viable, if ever. “We still have a lot of players that love the game and we’ll continue supporting it,” said Scott, “Jumpgate Evolution will essentially be like Asherons Call 2 and EverQuest 2. Set in a similar, yet different world. A world of the future.”

At the Connect event in the UK, Netdevil partnered with their UK publisher Codemasters to bring the game to players there. They were able to have the public play test a vertical slice of the game on 50 PCs. “They played the new user experience, and it was the first proof of concept that the new user experience in Jumpgate Evolution works.” Netdevil has treated Jumpgate Evolution as a “Live” project from the get go, with internal testing and developers playing the game. The story takes part in a later time and different part of space, but current players of Jumpgate will absolutely find it familiar.

Read it all here.