Massively: Final Fantasy XI’s character reactivation service lets you bring deleted characters back to life
Do you miss the home you use to call Vana’diel? Do you wish you never punched that “delete” key when you were signing off of PlayOnline for the last time? And, lastly, are you too impatient to wait for another “Return Home to Vana’diel” campaign to begin?
Good news for you then! The guys and gals over at Square-Enix have finally decided to drop their timed campaign and bring in a new permanent solution for those of you who have deleted your characters from the system but would like to get them back — character reactivation.
The new service allows people who have canceled and deleted their Content IDs, people who have deleted characters and canceled their accounts, or people who have canceled their accounts and let the account sit for too long to go back in and restore old data to the account. This means when you now /ragequit Final Fantasy XI and press that delete key too hastily, you can now undo that mistake you made.
Sadly, this method won’t offer anniversary rings like the “Return Home” campaign did, but hey, you can get your character back anytime you want now! What’s not to love?
Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Business models, Game mechanics, News items, Consoles
Final Fantasy XI’s character reactivation service lets you bring deleted characters back to life
Massively: Neo Steam editor Jason Ruper on bringing steampunk to MMOs
One of the upcoming free-to-play titles that Massively had a chance to see this month is Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent from Atlus. Our hands-on gallery feature is a good introduction to the look and feel of the game world, but now that Neo Steam is in open beta, we’re expecting more info about the game to be forthcoming.
We came across a ZAM interview with Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent lead editor Jason Ruper, conducted by Andrew “Tamat” Beegle. Ruper gives some background on the game’s setting and lore, saying, “The game has a lush, fantasy-steampunk setting, and everything — from the machine wasteyards and polluted rivers to the rickety vehicles and the ancient ruins from before the shattering — contributes to this setting and reminds you that your nation is in a state of reconstruction as well as in the middle of a cold war.”
Continue reading Neo Steam editor Jason Ruper on bringing steampunk to MMOs
Filed under: Classes, Interviews, Free-to-play, Neo Steam
Massively: Hello Kitty Online paints Beijing in pink and white as game’s newest city
The team at SanrioDigital and Typhoon Games has lovingly re-created the city of Beijing as you’ve never seen it before — through the pink-lensed glasses of Hello Kitty, heavy on the star motif. Well, more stars than the real Beijing, in any case. They’ve even put some of Beijing’s landmarks into Hello Kitty Online and have posted screenshots of the HKO version of the city, with a brief introduction.
They write on the Sanriotown blog: “To start things off, we’d like to showcase the new, never-before-seen city that’s been added to the game: Beijing! In it you’ll see some narrow streets, red lanterns, unique buildings, and walls surrounding the heart of the city.” Some of the places they’ve included are the Bubble Dome and the Forbidden Museum. Sanriotown also adds that Hello Kitty Online will have ‘14 new adventure maps, 8 of which make up Beijing’s surroundings.’ You can check out the screenshots in the Sanriotown blog announcement.
Filed under: News items, Hello Kitty Online, Kids
Hello Kitty Online paints Beijing in pink and white as game’s newest city
Massively: World of Warcraft and Mountain Dew contest prizes include BlizzCon trips and laptops
Are you desperate for a BlizzCon 2009 ticket? Desperate enough to jump through marketing hoops to get one? Well read on. Massively took a lighthearted jab at the World of Warcraft and Mountain Dew partnership with “WoW in Liquid Form“, all in good fun. But the “Choose Your Side” contest they’re running this summer has prizes some of our readers may be interested in, given how quickly BlizzCon tickets tend to sell out: all-expense-paid trips to BlizzCon 2009, each valued at $3000. They’re giving away one per week through June 19th. It’s a trip for two with round trip air and accommodation plus some spending cash thrown in.
If you’re despondent over being #7585 in line for a BlizzCon 2009 ticket, head on over to the Game Fuel site where you can register and start racking up tokens which are essentially contest entries. Additional prizes they’re giving away daily include Razer gaming gear (7 each day, not including the speakers), but there are also Alienware laptops (1 each day) waiting to be snagged. More info can be found in the official rules.
 |
One of Azeroth’s millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs! |
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Contests, Events, real-world
World of Warcraft and Mountain Dew contest prizes include BlizzCon trips and laptops
Red Mobile on 2G and 3G Handsets
There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the SMART Communications powered Red Mobile brand. They’ve been advertising heavily, especially on Radio (I keep hearing them over at 89.9FM). What’s good about these guys is that they have the cheapest/lowest call rates that is actually better than unlimited offers from other service providers. The only thing holding Red Mobile back was that a lot of people got turned off that you needed 3G-enabled phones for it to work. Well now they’ve addressed that concern by making sure that their service is compatible with various 3G and 2G phones. I have a feeling that this will be one of the leading mobile brands give or take a few more months. All they need now is to really get the word out about their product.
Here are some of the phone models that are compatible with the services being offered by Red Mobile: Samsung J200, Motorola VE 538, Verzio Duplii, Mokia 3120 C, Red Mobile SPARK and Red Mobile FLAME.
Note that they came up with their own mobile phone units - the Red Mobile SPARK and the Red Mobile FLAME. Kinda innovative don’t you think? Hehe. Here’s a model unit picture of the Red Mobile phone:
I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t say anything about the actual user interface. But hey, it looks sleek, sexy, and dynamic.
Anyway, that’s it for now. If you’re on Red Mobile, let me know how their service is by leaving a comment on this post.
Tags: Red, Mobile,, Free, Text, Philippines
Related Posts:
Britain’s Got Talent 2009 Winner - Diversity (Not Susan Boyle)
In what could possibly be another shocking upset, the dance group Diversity beats Susan Boyle in the recently concluded Britain’s Got Talent 2009. Susan sang her audition piece, but man I have to say she sang it 20x better. She had more confidence, power, and you can just relate with her as she delivers the song beautifully. Diversity, on the other hand, came up with a completely new performance. I’d have to say that these guys are insanely good. Don’t take my word for it though… watch both performances after the break. Enjoy!
BGT 2009 DIVERSITY FINALS PERFORMANCE
BGT 2009 SUSAN BOYLE FINALS PERFORMANCE
BGT 2009 Winner Diversity
So what do you think? Did Diversity really beat Susan Boyle?
Related Posts:
Massively: Masthead Studios CEO explains reputation system in Earthrise
One of the upcoming sci-fi and post-apocalyptic MMOs that Massively is keeping an eye on is Earthrise, the first title from Masthead Studios.They’ve been very good with communicating with the media about the directions they’re taking the game, with interviews each month painting a clearer picture of the upcoming title. The latest such interview we’ve come across is a brief one at German fan site Earthrise HQ, which spoke with Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov about a few aspects of the game. If you’ve been reading up on Earthrise, the interview hits some of the topics you’d expect — the basic concepts of the game, for instance — but also but heads into some new areas. Atanasov mentions faction capital cities that are expanded upon over time, “using meaningful events that progress not only their visual representation but their story and functionality as well.”
The interview also hits on the fact that Earthrise will have two reputation systems: Contribution and Reputation. Contribution, Atanasov says, is “the policy of Continoma to discern friend from foe by measuring each citizen’s contribution to their system. The second system is Reputation. Numerous smaller organizations exist in Earthrise, each with its own agenda and plans. Players can do tasks for these organizations and grow in Reputation towards them. Organizations provide players with rare resources, monopolized designs that create new, different item combinations, as well as other rewards.”
For more from the Masthead Studios CEO on Earthrise, head on over to his interview with Earthrise HQ.
Gallery: Earthrise gallery
Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, Earthrise
Masthead Studios CEO explains reputation system in Earthrise
Massively: GTA MMO would be a profitable venture, analyst suggests
In a recent set of statements to Gamasutra, Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners, brought up the profitability of an MMO set within the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
While Hickey notes that success would only be possible if Take-Two partnered up with another company who had a well designed infrastructure and MMO experience, the whole paragraph is certainly a nod in the direction of online crime games at large — a genre relatively untapped in the MMO landscape.
Certainly a Grand Theft Auto MMO would be the new gorilla of the online space, one can’t easily forget about the stylized and anticipated offering from Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds, All Points Bulletin. A GTA MMO would certainly be nice, but APB will certainly be setting the bar for all upcoming crime MMOs, regardless of a GTA entry into the scene.
Filed under: At a glance, News items, Opinion, Crime, Rumors
Massively: Captain Placeholder reminds you: Get your BlizzCon tickets tomorrow!
In case you somehow forgot in the crush of excitement coming into E3, there are other conventions going on out there later this year. There again, if you’re a die-hard World of Warcraft player, we suspect you probably remember BlizzCon - potentially before E3 even springs into your mind. Well, if you’re one of the teeming masses who are just dying to get your hands on some BlizzCon tickets, we felt it was best to remind you that the second (and final) round of tickets will go on sale tomorrow morning for $125 each.
If you’re after one of those coveted tickets, remember, you need to make sure you have a Battle.net account ready for tomorrow’s insane crush of humanity on the ordering servers. The last round was sold out insanely fast, so you may also want to consider getting to bed early and making sure you have all the proper mats gathered to buff yourself up for the BlizzCon raid tomorrow. It’s going to be an epic battle to get them, we’re sure.
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Events, real-world, News items
Captain Placeholder reminds you: Get your BlizzCon tickets tomorrow!
Bleach Manga 359 - Soifon Bankai
Millions of Bleach fans were eagerly waiting for Bleach Manga 359. In 358, we were all victim of a cruel (lol) cliffhanger with Toshiro declaring that he will use one of his strongest and never-before seen attacks against Tres Espada Halibel. Well, Bleach Manga 359 lived up to everyone’s expectations and more! Not only did we see Toshiro’s new kick ass technique, we finally see Stark do something and Soifon actually decides to use her Bankai. Details after the break.
Bleach Manga 359 Synopsis and Review
The issue starts out with Shinigami Captain Kyoraku sparring with Uno Espada Stark. Eventually Stark becomes annoyed that Kyoraku has been avoiding his attacks effortlessly and he uses his Cero. OMG - this is the first time we see Stark actually do something. LOL! Well, that’s the only thing we’re shown because the fight scene is cut. Stark stops attacking when he sees the entire afternoon sky darken. This is an effect of Toshiro’s deadly technique.
Toshiro explains that his powers have not yet fully matured and this technique that he’s using can kill everyone around him. The skies part and snow flakes storm down against Halibel which encases her in a “frozen obelisk”. Not bad… but I was kinda expecting something more flashy. Haha. You know, like a giant frozen dragon merging with Toshiro. Anyway, it’s all good. I’m sure Halibel isn’t done in yet and she’ll break out and do something more awesome that will scare the crap out of all the Shinigami.
The story then shifts and focuses on Omaeda, Soifon, and Barragan. Omaeda is still pissing his pants and desperately trying to run away from Barragan. To his credit, Omaeda is able to avoid most of Barragan’s attacks. The episode ends with Soifon finishing her preparations for what looks like to be a weird strategy (well check the pic out in the Manga you’ll know what I mean). The last panel is Soifon uttering “Bankai”.
Another CLIFFHANGER! ARGHHH!!! Can’t frigging wait for Bleach 360. Man, I’m so excited I want to look for spoilers. Haha.
Tags: Uno, Espada, Stark,, Bleach, Manga, 359,, Soifon, Bankai,, Bleach, Manga, 360, Spoilers,, Halibel, Toshiro
