EVE’s Alliance PVP Tournament returns
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, MMO industry, PvP
EVE Online players have been noting the conspicuous absence of the Alliance PvP Tournament, which was brought up at a dev panel at EVE Fanfest 2008. The news imparted at that time did not bode well for the future of the alliance tournaments, given the expense and level of involvement on the part of the CCP Games staff to run it. But EVE developer CCP Mindstar has given word that the alliance tournament is on for 2009, and listed the relevant dates as they presently stand: Tournament Signups — Dec 19th - Jan 9thQualifying Round 1 — Jan 24th, Jan 25thQualifying Round 2 — Jan 31st, Feb…
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EVE’s Alliance PVP Tournament returns originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The slow demise of virtual tax havens
Filed under: Economy, MMO industry, Opinion, Virtual worlds
Is taxation of commerce in the virtual space inevitable? We’ve been hearing more and more about this coming out of China, South Korea, and Sweden, but a recent piece on BBC News — “Slapping a tax on playtime” — hits a bit closer to home for many of us. Flora Graham, a technology reporter for BBC News, spoke with Professor Edward Castronova of Indiana University, well-known for his research and commentary on virtual economies over the years, and game researcher Dr. Richard Bartle about the impact of taxation on games and virtual worlds. Castronova points out the idea of taxation of virtual…
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The slow demise of virtual tax havens originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Daily Grind: Tank, DPS, Healer, or other?
Filed under: Classes, Opinion, The Daily Grind
The small group gameplay in many of today’s MMORPGs is about the interplay of several archetypes that each offer something different to the dynamic — tanks absorb damage so weaker classes don’t have to, DPS classes dish out massive damage in short amounts of time, healers reverse or prevent damage done to party members altogether, and then there are a myriad of other classes that fill various other roles like crowd control.Seems a lot of folks fall comfortably into one role or another — some even stick to just one through multiple games, always playing healers, for example. Do you have a…
The Daily Grind: Tank, DPS, Healer, or other? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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New Star Trek Online screens look better than ever
Filed under: Screenshots, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online
Three new screens for Star Trek Online have surfaced and they look quite amazing, especially the dry dock shot above, which you can click on to see a bigger version. The first thing that jumped out at us when looking at these shots are that the graphics engine for the game has already come along a ways. We can’t quite put our finger on it, but things are starting to look decidedly more Star Trek and less, well, Champions Online.If it’s one thing we’ve continually learned about MMOs in-development, it’s that they always look better and better the closer to get to launch. And with Cryptic’s…
New Star Trek Online screens look better than ever originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Confessions of an EVE Online macro’er
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Exploits, Game mechanics, MMO industry, PvE, Opinion, Legal
You’ve encountered them before. Those guys. Them. Next to the ISK spammers, they’re a plague within EVE Online.They have gibberish names and sit in ice belts all day in exhumers, macro controlling large mining operations. At the first sign of trouble they gang warp out to safety. Or they’re automating courier missions in an endless procession of macro’ed industrials, day in and day out. Or they’re part of the infinite army of 0.0 ratting Ravens that automatically warp to a safespot and cloak once someone enters the system. They’re all in China, right? The macros are all used by large ISK…
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Confessions of an EVE Online macro’er originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One Shots: Twas a dark and stormy night
Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Warhammer Online, One Shots
A dark and stormy night, just perfect for causing chaos and destruction in Warhammer Online! Today’s One Shots shows off this sinister vista sent in to us from Massively regular ScytheNoire, who snapped this picture while playing Warhammer Online. Sadly, we have no description that was sent along to go along with this one, so we’ll simply allow the picture to speak for itself and let you figure out a good story to set against this eerie backdrop.One Shots needs more screenshots from our readers, so if you’re playing an MMO, gather up some screens and send those to us here at oneshots AT…
One Shots: Twas a dark and stormy night originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Expanding choices in social gaming and Flash MMOs
Filed under: Second Life, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, Home, Whirled
There seems be an endless tide of online games and virtual worlds being made available to us, with more always on the way. Some of them are well-known and need little introduction, such as Second Life, Playstation Home, and Facebook games, to name just a few. But there’s plenty more out there, some of which falls into the standard ‘MMO’ category, although it’s a label that we find is steadily blurring as time goes on. Darren Gladstone, Senior Writer at PC World, has put together “The Social Gaming Guide” for his Casual Friday column. In it he explores some of the mainstays of social gaming…
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Expanding choices in social gaming and Flash MMOs originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Raph’s Website: Compulsive gamers ‘not addicts’
Ninety per cent of the young people who seek treatment for compulsive computer gaming are not addicted.
So says Keith Bakker the founder and head of Europe’s first and only clinic to treat gaming addicts.
Via TerraNova, where there is further discussion.
A ding world: Sea breeze or tree hug
In an early mission in the Guild Wars Factions campaign, our guiding NPC Master Togo discovers a mark on the ground after defeating the enemy (paraphrased):
Togo: “It is the mark of Shiro Tagachi”
My character: “He who turned the forest to stone and the sea to jade?”
Togo: “The very same”
This dialog stuck with me, since I wondered what fairy tale or story about Shiro this was, or if it was just meant as an expression. It was not until later in the campaign when I got to visit the Kurzicks and the Luxons that I realized that it was not empty phrase.
The Kurzicks are a mixture of Tolkienesque elves and vampires, being pale aristocratic type living in palace/castle type habitats in the big trees in the forest. Part of that most certainly is stone. The Luxons seems more like a somewhat nomadic tribe of sailors/fishermen, who actually live by a sea made of jade.
In particular the last one was something I found fascinating, seeing an entire sea area where all the activity of the water with waves and boast floating seemingly was just frozen in time. And now everyone, both humans and the critters living there are walking on its surface of jade. Even quarries have been made, to mine the jade I assume.
During the play of the campaign I choose the Luxon path, partly because I was more fascinated by the sea than the forest - big tree forests with inhabitants has been done before, thanks to Tolkien. But also since the guild had choosen the Luxon side, so I thought I might just as well stick with that in following the story.
It was only after beating Shiro that I decided to pursue the Kurzick/forest path, so that I could complete all the Factions missions. Plus also, I noticed that many of the bosses that had elite skills for my ritualist was hanging around in those forests. So it also became a good opportunity to pay them a visit.
I found the forest areas of the Kurzick quite nice as well, although it did not quite make the same impact on me as the Jade Sea. But that is Tolkien’s “fault” I guess, although I do like the twist combining Elven setting with pale aristocrats a la Transylvania. But I think the designers did a great job here and I do recommend visting these areas.
Raph’s Website: Takin’ the midnight train to GA
Or the early morning flight, at any rate. Am off to Living Game Worlds IV — which is still taking walk-in registrations. (And yes, I just got back home a day ago).
Sorry for the low blog rate this past week. It was nice to be mostly offline, though. 
