Filed under: Massively meta, Meet the Team

Once a week our writers will give you a glimpse into their lives, to let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more Meet the Team.What do you do for Massively.com?Currently, I’m a staff writer, which means I do a bit of this and a bit of that. Additionally, I do One Shots daily and have just picked up the mantle of First Impressions, which we’ll be restarting soon. Originally, I helped found the site as a co-lead, but I stepped down last month to dedicate more time towards my degree and certifications. That adult responsibility thing gets in the…

Continue reading Meet the Team: Krystalle Voecks

Meet the Team: Krystalle Voecks originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events, in-game, Expansions, Launches, Server downtime, News items

If you just got home from work, planning on digging into a bit of LotRO’s Mines of Moria goodness before dinner, you may be pretty peeved to find out that an emergency hotfix has brought the servers down from 5:30pm - 7:30pm Eastern.But don’t fret! That gives you plenty of time to read through our launch day coverage, which includes an interview with Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel, a Know Your LotRO Lore article featuring The Watcher in the Water, an unboxing of the Collector’s Edition and more! Plus, don’t forget our previous coverage that could be just as helpful today, especially our…

All LotRO servers down for a hotfix originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, MMO industry, News items

When you think of a rapidly developing Asian nation, fast becoming a global superpower and now harnessing the potential of supercomputing, what’s the first purpose for this supercomputer that comes to mind? Hint: think video games, not war games. Regardless of your first thought, we’re betting you wouldn’t have guessed “World of Warcraft”… but it’s true. China’s World of Warcraft servers are run by The9, who own Blizzard’s distribution rights in the country. “Earlier this year, The9 boasted of hosting more than one million World of Warcraft players online at the same time.To support the…

Continue reading Shall we play a game?

Shall we play a game? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Humor

Most EVE Online players didn’t have the opportunity to attend EVE Fanfest 2008 in Reykjavik earlier this month, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have to miss out on what was revealed. CCP Games and EVE TV have made good on their promise to release video footage of Fanfest presentations and panel discussions. While they did make live audio of some of this available in-game over EVE Voice, it was difficult to follow without the visuals to tie it all together. Now, they’ve put up a new video page dedicated to EVE Fanfest 2008, with both low res and high res downloads. They culled roughly 30…

Continue reading CCP Games releases EVE Fanfest 2008 videos

CCP Games releases EVE Fanfest 2008 videos originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Launches, New titles, News items, Chronicles of Spellborn

So we heard a couple months ago that The Chronicles of Spellborn would be released in North America and the United Kingdom on November 27th, coinciding with the continental European launch. Turns out it’s been pushed back — kinda. The European launch will still commence on the 27th, but the North American closed beta will begin on that day, with the actual, final launch occurring sometime in January.Sure, we’re a bit disappointed, but chances are we’ll still get to play the game soon. Acclaim, the game’s publisher in the region, went out of its way in the press release it sent us to stress…

Spellborn’s American launch pushed back, closed beta starts the 27th originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, EverQuest II, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Launches, New titles, The Daily Grind

Over the last week or so we’ve been asking you how you’ve managed to decide between the big releases hitting the MMO genre these days. Last week’s Lich King launch, followed by this week’s launches of EverQuest 2: The Shadow Odyssey and Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria seem like challenging decisions for the fan of the MMO genre. We’re not going to ask you how you picked, though, because we think we know how you decided which game to play. Like Codex and Zaboo up there, you hang out online where your friends are. At least, we think you do.So our question this morning is, first, do you…

The Daily Grind: How important are friends to MMO gaming? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Forums, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, News items

The Quantum Rise expansion for EVE Online, while only recently deployed, has drawn a substantial amount of forum rage for sweeping changes to how the game is played, namely for the nerfs of speed and missiles. This follows in the wake of unrest created by the CCP Games decision to phase out ghost training. The latest change, announced Tuesday, targets the in-game email system (”EVE Mail” to be precise).CCP Wrangler says: “To address performance issues in EVE we are making some changes to the EVE Mail system in Quantum Rise 1.0.1. You will now be able to fetch up to 1000 undeleted EVE Mails,…

Continue reading EVE Mail changes in latest Quantum Rise patch

EVE Mail changes in latest Quantum Rise patch originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Economy, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds

October metrics for Linden Lab’s virtual environment, Second Life are not yet formally available, but Lab CFO John Zdanowski wound up giving out a link to the information in advance, so we have the figures to work with. September was not a good month by these metrics, and we were interested to see how October panned out.
Your key takeaways for October are a continuing plunge in premium accounts, and a reduction in overall economic activity. User hours, however were up. A more detailed summary follows after the jump….

Continue reading Second Life October metrics: More falls

Second Life October metrics: More falls originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Darkfall, New titles

Aventurine’s Darkfall has been in development pretty much since the dawn of time (alright, since 2001, but that’s not far from the dawn of time for the MMORPG genre), and we have on more than one occassion wondered whether or not those promises of an eventual beta test would be fulfilled. Turns out that for some, they have been.The developers have posted a large collection of quotes from beta players’ feedback. They claim it’s representative, and it’s mostly (but not all) positive. Sounds like players are impressed with the hugeness of the world and a solid crafting system, but a bit turned…

Darkfall beta is actually happening, tester feedback proves it originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Interviews, MMO industry, News items

In an interview with videogaming247, Turbine bigwig Jeffrey Steefel said that he expects The Lord of the Rings Online to become the second viably successful western MMO in Asia (after World of Warcraft), should his team get the Chinese launch right. The two MMO-playing communities have historically had very different tastes, but Steefel believes western devs are finally figuring out how to break into the east. “That’s where a big part of the global gaming market is and it’s been that way for a long time,” he said, “but we’re only just now figuring how western games can begin to tap into that…

Jeffrey Steefel: LotRO will be the second western MMO to succeed in Asia originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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