The most popular servers in World of Warcraft are suffering under the influx of fans for Warlords of Draenor. Now Blizzard is opening the emergency valve and offering free server transfers.
On the most popular servers, Warlords of Draenor is causing significant issues. Server outages, eternally long queues, unstable zones (especially Frostfire Ridge), frustrated players. The player distribution is indeed highly uneven among the World of Warcraft servers and a disproportionately high share of players is on the large servers: The 25 smallest servers fit into Blackhand, the largest.
Time to move away from Blackrock, Blackhand, or Thrall?
Therefore, Blizzard has opened the emergency valve for such occasions and is offering free server transfers for players to the following realms:
Blackmoore
(PvP) -> Nazjatar, Nefarian
Antonidas
(PvE) -> Arygos, Netherstorm
Blackhand
(PvE) -> Arygos, Netherstorm
Thrall
(PvE) -> Arygos, Netherstorm
Aegwynn
(PvP) -> Nazjatar, Nefarian
Eredar
(PvP) -> Arthas, Nazjatar
Blackrock
(PvP) -> Arthas, Nazjatar
The server transfers (or character migrations or character transfers) now apply to both factions and not just the “dominant” one as before.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The fantasy MMO Guild Wars 2 has earned significantly less in the last quarter compared to the previous year. The publisher NCSoft announces very softly that they may soon say something about a possible expansion.
Currently, quarterly figures are coming in from various companies, including the Korean publisher NCSoft, which is mainly associated in the West with Guild Wars 2 and WildStar. For Guild Wars 2, a 19.6% decrease in revenue compared to the previous year and 8.5% less than in the second quarter of 2014 is reported. This means Guild Wars 2 has recorded the lowest revenue to date in the last quarter. Nevertheless, NCSoft is satisfied with the developments in the West, although they expected more from the expansion to China.
In the future, they plan to advertise more aggressively and initiate some marketing campaigns to attract new players to GW2.
A sensitive topic among fans is an expansion. They desire a lot. Here, NCSoft has only a weak statement: “The game is now two years old. Therefore, we think that in the not-too-distant future, an opportunity may arise to present our plans for expansion packages.”
Overall, NCSoft is doing well, mainly due to the strong presence of the corporation in the Asian market. Here, older and rather unknown games in the West like Aion, Lineage 1, and Lineage 2 continue to generate revenue.
For hardcore fans of the numbers, here are our two articles on NCSoft’s first and second quarter reports this year:
In the MMO shooter Destiny the new expansion, the DLC “The Darkness Awaits” is set to arrive in December, and players have already been given a glimpse of what to expect through concept art. YouTubers, however, have already made excursions to these places a month ago, which were still considered “secret” at that time.
Long before the first bits and bytes come into play, artists and designers sit down and create a vision of the characters, items, and places that players will see on their screens years later. These designs are known as “concept art.” This can refer to character sketches, images of weapons and armor, or locations, dungeons, abandoned ruins, and mysterious structures that give a moody game that sense of space, time, and atmosphere that is so important.
The next expansion, the DLC, for Destiny, “The Darkness Awaits,” will not bring new planets or Saturn or Jupiter, but will open new parts of the world. Bungie has now provided a look at the concept art for it.
Four Concept Art Pieces for “The Darkness Awaits” in Destiny
Deep beneath the abandoned structure of the Cosmodrome lies the “Seraphim Vault.” An ancient crypt of power and knowledge lies in wait for the seasoned adventurer.
With “The Darkness Awaits,” the “Jovian Complex” in the Cosmodrome also opens, promising exciting action. The Hive has taken over the building – and you can see that.
Under the sands of Mars, the Hypogeum awaits the Guardians, created by the Vex ages ago, where a powerful and watchful Guardian lurks.
And in the deepest inner part of the Moon, the Guardians gain access to the “Chamber of Night.” Terrible rituals of the Hive are said to take place here.
From “The Jovian Complex,” it is already known that it will be the next official strike for all Guardians – another one remains exclusive to players on PlayStation. In the Complex, a monstrous adversary named Omnigul awaits the Guardians. The “Chamber of Night” will likely be another story mission dealing with the Hive and will then lead into the raid “Crota’s End”. The other two locations could also play a role in the course of the new story missions.
Due to glitches, the locations in Destiny are already visible
Most of these locations are already accessible in the game, but only through “glitches,” through exploiting. They are currently still empty. There isn’t much to see yet. These are the places that drove everyone crazy a few weeks ago with “Oh my God, here’s a secret area!”, “Oh my God, here’s another one!” Back then, everyone thought they were for strikes; today we know: Most are probably intended for story missions. We’ll show you a few videos – but be warned: There isn’t much to see.
This will probably be the new strike “Jovian Complex”:
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The sand park MMO ArcheAge has drawn the ire of numerous fans due to a change in the cash shop. Now, Trion Worlds states that it didn’t go as planned.
If there was still something like a house blessing between players and the publisher Trion Worlds, it has not only been askew since the weekend, but even more so. A new limited-time chest was introduced in the cash shop. The content: seedlings for special trees (Rumbling Archeum Trees), from which there was a 10% chance to become a “Thunderstruck Tree”.
That had been one of the most valuable resources in the game, fetching prices of 400 gold (depending on the server). “Successful” players had previously made great efforts to acquire these “Thunderstruck Trees”, created massive forests that were farmed, saved up every coin, prayed to the Karma gods, trusted their luck, robbed and plundered. It was also a valuable speculative commodity. Now prices have plummeted. They could be found – with a bit of luck and effort – directly for some euros from the chests.
Some cheered: Finally, the trees had become affordable and the “Farm Cart”, with which one could more easily complete trade runs and become rich faster, was within reach. Others were visibly upset, as their efforts turned to ashes overnight. And why did this change come out of nowhere? Was it an attempt to make a quick buck with ArcheAge? Did they want to snatch away the retroactively accumulated 10% bonus from patrons?
A dangerous trend was observed, many said: Trion Worlds intervened from the outside, through the cash shop, in the economic cycle of the sandbox ArcheAge, which should actually be determined by the players. The excitement was great. Pay2Win accusations circulated. The discussion went back and forth, tempers were heated.
The blame for the tree fiasco in ArcheAge was a misunderstanding in the communication with Korea
Now Trion Worlds has commented on the issues: It didn’t go as planned.
The fault was once again the apparently difficult communication with the Korean developers XLGames and Trion Worlds’ own difficulties in explaining clearly and timely what they were doing to the fans. XLGames proposed changes to the cash shop and intended to introduce the new chests to ensure that more players received their “Farm Cart”.
At Trion Worlds, they agreed to the request but did not know how high the chance of the trees actually would be to become a “Thunderstruck Tree”. They did not realize that the changes to the shop would bring so many new trees into the game. They thought they would be significantly rarer and harder to obtain. Here, a misunderstanding in communication occurred. In the future, they want to pay more attention to ensure that this does not happen again.
They want to test changes to the cash shop more thoroughly and broadly, also regarding their long-term effects, and tell players exactly what they are planning.
Currently, it happens that they meet with XLGames twice a month, talk, make suggestions, and agree on what they want to change in the cash shop, then the Koreans program that and it gets inserted into the game. It is the sole responsibility of Trion Worlds to explain this to the players correctly and in a timely manner. That went wrong here.
They will now first remove the chest from the game, as they had already planned with XLGames, and then consider how to reintroduce it into ArcheAge. Since the chest was introduced, they have noticed an increased volume of trade and more activity in the game. They find that good.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the free online collectible card game Hearthstone , three new cards from the expansion “Goblins vs Gnomes” have been revealed. One of them continues the trend of attacking too strong decks in the game with new cards.
The Clockwork Giant, an 8/8 creature for 12 mana, already targeted the currently popular “Handlock” deck with its ability to become cheaper the more cards the opponent has in hand. In this deck, a Warlock plays few of their own cards in the early rounds, draws cards to hand faster with their hero power, and then destroys the opponent with cards like the Mountain Giant or the Twilight Drake, which benefit when the player has a full hand. Of course, Blizzard is aware of this but does not simply want to nerf the Handlock and other similar decks but rather “balance” them in the game with new cards.
One of the new expansion cards, a 2/3 creature for 3 mana (above), is supposed to counter this. Its damage increases by four points if the opponent holds more than 6 cards. A 6/3 creature for 3 mana is quite nasty. The second new minion (right) that has been revealed will please rogues. It is their class card and a 2-mana drop with solid 3/2 stats, granting +1 to the weapon.
In the near future, Blizzard plans to reveal more Hearthstone cards from the expansion, allowing players to vote on which one it will be. To start, they’ve shown this gnome (left), which gives the hero 4 health points per turn as long as they have a secret active. “Secrets” is also an exciting topic: they have become significantly stronger with Naxxramas, especially some Hunter and Mage variants rely on them. Here, Blizzard hints that there might be a new “Gnomes vs Goblins” card in Hearthstone that makes it a bit harder for secrets. However, they do not provide specifics.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The SF-MMO WildStar reduces the price for full versions of WildStar on its homepage by up to 33%.
Carbine has lowered the prices for full versions of the SF-MMO WildStar. They are now available at a cheaper price on the homepage. The digital standard edition is available for 29.99€, and the digital collector’s edition for 44.99€.
Now that the new content drop is finally live after a long delay and the mega-servers are making the worlds feel more populated, they are reducing the price by up to 33%, likely to attract more players to the world of Nexus.
On the trial front, it is still quiet, but it is also expected that trial actions will start again soon. Signals for this were given some time ago in the Nexus Report (may it rest in peace). With such trials, players could at least get a taste of the world of WildStar for free.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In World of Warcraft, the NPC Khadgar has remarkably multiplied. You need to speak to him to enter the new expansion Warlords of Draenor.
How do I get to Draenor? Now many Khadgars lead there
The poor archmage Khadgar was incredibly popular last night in World of Warcraft. The crowds gathered around him, he was the center of attention. Because everyone had to talk to the NPC in front of the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands to go through that very Dark Portal and reach Draenor. That’s where the new expansion “Warlords of Draenor” takes place.
The rush was too great, everything concentrated on one zone, it felt a bit like the blissful “The Gates of Ahn’Qiraj” days. Zones were overloaded, players frustrated, crashes occurred.
Blizzard is countering this by simply deploying four more Khadgars per server. One in Orgrimmar right at the mission board in the Valley of Strength, one in Stormwind in the Trade District also at the mission board, which normally sends players to their level-appropriate area. And then two more Khadgars in Mists of Pandaria. One in the Shrine of Seven Stars for the Alliance and one in the Shrine of Two Moons for the Horde.
And how do you explain that lore-wise? Well … he is an archmage! Mirror image of course!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Shortly before the launch of the new expansion for World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard releases one last hint: You do not need to relog. Also: How do I get to Draenor? And when does Warlords of Draenor (WoD) actually start?
In just 90 minutes it begins. At midnight, the Dark Portal will open. There are now three questions on everyone’s mind. And Blizzard wants you to know the answers, so they are issuing one last blue post.
When exactly does it start? At midnight.
Do I need to relog to see anything? No.
And how do I get to Draenor? Speak to the NPC Khadgar in the Blasted Lands, he is just outside the Dark Portal.
Attention: It is NOT necessary to log out of the game to activate the #WoD content at midnight: http://t.co/dIKLOvSNzz
Mini-ticker for the launch of Warlords of Draenor on the night from Thursday to Friday
Update 0:20: As almost expected, Blizzard is having difficulties guaranteeing a consistent service. Players are having issues logging in – there is indeed a large crowd. Blizzard is aware of the problem and is working on a solution. Well, it’s somewhat impressive that 10 years after the start, there is still such a huge turnout at midnight on a weekday.
[EU #WoW] We are aware of the connection issues & our technicians are on the case. Updates to follow when we have more info to share. — BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) November 12, 2014
Update 0:55: The problem is that thousands of people want to click on the poor Khadgar at the same time, they seem to have now temporarily erected a sort of invisible barrier around him to prevent the clicking hordes from standing on the NPC. Nevertheless, the good Khadgar is proving to be a bottleneck … Update 2:20: … – just like some quests later on in Frostfire Ridge. Meanwhile, the first players are said to have reached level 100 through relatively complicated exploits with ghost pets in Jade Forest – or by turning in turtle meat. 2:30: A player who reportedly reached level 99 and 40% by turning in turtle meat at a repeatable quest was reset by Blizzard to level 90, and his account is apparently suspended for now. Ouch. Here’s the rather monotonous stream about it – at 25 minutes in, he gets wrecked (for the very clever ones: they probably also disabled the quests).
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
It’s Wednesday again, and of course, everything today has to revolve around a topic related to the past BlizzCon. While Blizzard’s in-house fair generally excited me, there was a clear criticism that I could raise about the new shooter “Overwatch“.
They have decided to outsource the story and only tell it outside of the actual game – for example, in the form of forum posts and short films.
Overwatch – Lots of Fun, Little Story?
Is the background story conveyed through this location?
The team shooter already looks outstanding, and there is no doubt in my mind that this game will likely be my time sink in 2016 – especially if I manage to recruit five more people from my friend circle.
The only real downer came from the statement that the background story is practically nonexistent in the game and is only told through the locations and small dialogue snippets. Surely, it is difficult to incorporate story into a pure team shooter – but to virtually banish it entirely, that simply can’t be the right approach.
Back to the Past
If Blizzard has always been able to do one thing well, it’s telling stories within their game worlds. You don’t have to look long for examples, whether it’s the campaigns of the Warcraft and Starcraft games or the more complex quest lines in WoW, Blizzard has always staged epic stories incredibly well within their game worlds. I can already hear the objections like: “But Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm don’t have a great story!” While that is superficially true, it is fundamentally incorrect. It is true that these games do not have a great individual story, but they are based on the incredibly rich backgrounds of long-established worlds.
Yes, looks cool, but why do you exist and what do others think of you?
“Overwatch,” on the other hand, is completely new and loses a lot of its appeal for me with the statement that the story is only available externally. While I look forward to devouring the (surely forthcoming) books and immersing myself into the world, I would have liked to learn something in the game itself – a game without a story simply isn’t complete. The story is the absolute heart of what excites me and makes me develop a passion for a game world. Above all, it is incredibly important in discussions with friends when I want to get them hooked.
If I can only respond to a “What’s it about?” with “Oh, it’s a shooter in the future… the rest can be read on the website,” then the likelihood of getting my environment to also dive into the addiction drastically decreases. The times are gone when I played games solely based on their mechanics – the background story has simply become an obligatory aspect for me, especially when set in fantasy universes.
So, dear Mr. Blizzard, please at least incorporate the background story of the characters into the game – it greatly disrupts the immersion when I first have to go to a website for that. And while you’re at it, please invite me to the “Family & Friends Alpha”… I’ve heard rumors.
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The Honest Game Trailer for World of Warcraft takes a look at the WoW phenomenon. What really lies behind the world’s most successful MMORPG?
Smosh Games runs a series on YouTube called “Honest Trailer.” In this satire series, they show their own version of bloated Hollywood trailers or the hype-inducing teasers dripping with PR-speak of popular games. And in the biting original creations with footage of the respective target of ridicule, they explain what really lies behind the game.
On the occasion of the current WoW expansion, the voice-over artist with a distinctive voice takes on “World of Warcraft” and goes where it really hurts.
For raids, you need more nerds than for a space program, it is said. Blizzard is the company that hasn’t found a game it hasn’t postponed. And World of Warcraft has revolutionized the way we think about Everquest. And that terrible moment when you check your /played…
The amusing, perhaps a bit malicious trailer awaits you here – a warning… true hardcore fanboys and girls might want to skip this. Humor is needed for this, a very specific kind might even be better.
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There has been a lot of negative reporting about the SF-MMO WildStar lately. Now, two of the responsible parties are speaking out.
In a conversation with eurogamer.net, two of the heads of Carbine Studios, Chad “Pappy” Moore and Mike Donatelli, discuss the negative headlines that WildStar has accumulated lately: The departure of prominent figures, complaints about bugs, allegedly declining player numbers, negative reports from former employees, and most recently, the layoff of 60 employees by the publisher NCSoft.
A lot of sales at launch, but then likely a significant decline
It all started so well. The launch of WildStar went excellently. They had no clear idea before the release of how often they would sell the game. Donatelli never thought, “Sure, we’ll hit a quarter of a million players.” Then they actually reached that number and exceeded it by far. But after that, the conversation about WildStar, the hype surrounding the game, faded and disappeared.
Neither of the two wanted to comment on the current numbers of how many players WildStar still has. In a conversation a few weeks ago, they spoke vaguely about “several hundred thousand players,” so at least 200,000. NCSoft did not want to specify this number when asked by the US magazine massively.
271 employees before release – now 60 have been laid off
Recently, Mike Donatelli sat down and talked with the publisher of NCSoft. They are experts and specialize in MMOs. They believe in a future for the game and want to continue supporting WildStar. Carbine wants to hold the Korean publisher to that word, as stated in the conversation with eurogamer.
The layoffs at Carbine by NCSoft were confirmed by Donatelli. No official numbers were known before. According to a source from the US site Polygon, 60 employees of Carbine have been laid off. The number seems correct according to Donatelli: “So in that range, yes.” Before the launch of WildStar, they had significantly increased the team, at its peak employing 271 people. Even now, hundreds are still working on WildStar. Layoffs are tough, but they are part of the business.
Negative employee reviews were the result of frustration over layoffs
The negative reports from former employees on the “Employees rate their company and management” site Glassdoor are, according to Chad Moore, also the result of these layoffs. They have nonetheless addressed each individual criticism, taken it seriously, and learned a lot from it. Overall, they have become a different, better studio since the launch of the game.
With the current update, they have primarily addressed the numerous bugs. Fixing them was a priority. Looking to the future and with the next content drop, they have set the goal of continuing to work on the game and, above all, offering more to solo players and smaller groups in the endgame. This is currently seen as the biggest challenge. Players should also be rewarded richer in WildStar.
On our WildStar topic page you can find a lot of information about the MMO, although – lately – often rather bad news. These have been dominant in recent months, as can be seen from the course of this conversation. Hopefully, happier times will come again soon.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The launch trailer for the World of Warcraft add-on “Warlords of Draenor” has been released: In the Age of Iron, the conflict between Azeroth and the Iron Horde of Draenor begins.
Blizzard is making a big splash a few hours before the release – it is supposed to start at midnight in Azeroth. In the launch trailer “Age of Iron,” the characters of the upcoming expansion once again have time to mark their territory. You see the Warlords in action, there are strong quotes, and the Draenei also get their appearance, although their Slavic accents in the German voice-over can still be a bit confusing.
The farming of upgrade materials in Destiny such as Helium Filaments, Relic Iron, Ghost Flower, and Spinmetal is supposed to change, likely becoming more action-oriented.
It must have been a bit like shouting your frustration about the world into the forest, and then someone answers: “You’re right, I’ll take care of it.” In the Destiny subreddit, a user explained their issues with the game: they can no longer see any chests. That would be the only thing that could still advance them in the game.
User complains on Reddit about the monotonous farming of materials in Destiny
Every day, PolygonMan wrote on Reddit, they log in less frequently. They have weapons, they also have the ascendant materials, they have XP, they have everything that they can usually achieve in the game through shooting: “The only thing I need now can only be obtained by running in circles for hours and opening chests.”
Investing hours into the same monotonous task is not fundamentally a problem. They have nothing against grinding, but the chest farming is so mind-numbingly boring that they can’t bring themselves to do it anymore. And all of this just for these materials? Who even thought of this! Running in circles forever in a shooter without shooting. For such a sacrilege, heads should roll.
The community on Reddit shared their frustration. It’s also not really clear what the purpose of farming the materials is. In every other part of Destiny, the gunplay, the shooting, comes to life; during material farming, though, there’s just endless running. Farming planetary materials (Spinmetal, Helium Filaments, Ghost Flower, and Relic Iron) remains a necessary evil, if you want to upgrade your items and progress further in the endgame.
More hunting, less gathering – will the boxes soon face the axe?
Well, that wouldn’t be anything special. Everywhere on the internet, there are long discussions and reasonable complaints about weaknesses in the game mechanics. But then came the surprise. The complaints from the community were heard. Bungie’s community manager DeeJ floated into the thread and said: “We will have you hunt more than gather in the future.” They listened to the thread starter and people who think like him and heard their complaints.
Apparently, Bungie realized that the pacifistic farming of upgrade materials in Destiny was somehow the wrong idea and is now steering against it. One can only guess what Destiny is planning exactly; perhaps we can soon say goodbye to the chests, and then the upgrade materials will drop – like everything else – from enemies. That upgrading is supposed to become “more interesting” was already stated in the last Weekly Update.
By the way, there’s a bunch of videos on the best “farm runs” to the chests, we’ve compiled a few:
Helium Filaments on the Moon
http://youtu.be/PCpa0IcShF0
Spinmetal on Earth: http://youtu.be/zEdiV7gRRF8
Ghost Flowers can be found on Venus: http://youtu.be/O2KF2-zjMlQ
And the Relic Iron then from Mars: http://youtu.be/YGOL6TNLVhY
The Collector’s Edition of Warlords of Draenor is in the hands of a YouTuber. She is working on the expansion of World of Warcraft in an unboxing video.
Unboxing videos are somewhat like watching other people eat. Still, or probably because of that, they are surprisingly popular. We have dug up an unboxing video of the Collector’s Edition for Warlords of Draenor – so of the box, digital would be quite silly. By the way, our favorite unboxing is the last five minutes of “Seven.”
The lady in the video is Michele Morrow, who according to massively was also a co-host of Blizzcon. Have fun watching her unpack (not what you think). If you want to read about what’s included in the Collector’s Edition of Warlords of Draenor, click here. At midnight, WoD will seamlessly transition to the live servers.
http://youtu.be/O63hFmWz37A
And here’s another little picture:
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The long-awaited Western port of the Korea MMO Blade and Soul (Blade&Soul) is slowly taking shape. Now they are looking for key staff for the West.
There has been trouble surrounding NCSoft’s Korea MMO Blade and Soul for some time. The port to the West has been delayed. Recently, there was a sign of life, when an employee from NCSoft dropped some hints at Gamescom in Cologne. After that, there was another “ping” on the EKG, when it was said at an Nvidia event, they really want to release it (unfortunately, they had incorrectly translated the Korean original in the video subtitles, an announced release still in 2014 turned out to be a serious mistranslation).
So far, fans have not really trusted the situation, having been disappointed too often in the past.
However, another sign has now emerged that NCSoft is serious about it, even though things haven’t been going so well in the West lately. NCSoft is advertising two important positions for the office in California: They are looking for a Brand Manager for Blade and Soul and also a Publishing Producer.
These seem to be exactly the people needed to create hype for Blade and Soul in the West. A port and a soon-to-be release seem to be secure.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The Korean MMO Black Desert is a feast for the eyes. This is once again shown by screenshots of one of the classes, the female Ranger.
The Korean MMO Black Desert has released new screenshots of the Hunter class “the Ranger” or better said “the female Ranger” – the Korea MMO is known to have a gender lock. The screenshots look fantastic once again.
The MMO has such impressive graphics that a video about character creation was enough to make MMO players worldwide gasp in awe. Black Desert has completed the third Closed Beta phase in Korea and is expected to release there soon. Here in the West, at least that’s the plan, the beta begins in early 2015, and the game is supposed to be released in 2016.
If you want to have something to look at, but also want to learn about the gameplay, we recommend our preview of Black Desert.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
With World of Warcraft, the new expansion Warlords of Draenor, WoD, starts on Thursday. But when?
“When does Warlords of Draenor begin? Is it at midnight, or when?” These are the questions you read in the trade channels of this world. Now you have an answer: Yes, exactly at midnight. On the night of Wednesday, November 12, to Thursday, November 13, at 0:00 German time, we are going to Draenor. This is the official release time.
The transition is supposed to happen smoothly. You don’t even have to log out. Of course, there may be problems when Horde and Alliance stream to Draenor, but well … who cares about the saying that toothless old men murmur by the campfire: “Never play on a Patch Day”, when they can stay ahead of the unwashed masses and be the first to plunge their sword into a virgin mob, with the cheerful certainty: Exactly that mob hasn’t been killed by anyone before me.
That aside, it is clear: With the launch of Warlords of Draenor, things are heating up again in World of Warcraft.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The god MMO Skyforge is stylish enough to present itself to the public, and is now looking for YouTubers. The hype around the triple-A title has so far been absent in the West.
Skyforge is certainly the game among the promising MMOs that are set to launch soon, which is the least on the radar here in the West. Everquest Next has a large fanbase from the older titles, while fans of the Asia-MMOs Black Desert, Blade and Soul and Bless Online know what they are getting, even Camelot Unchained, a small Kickstarter project, has found its audience with DAOC and Warhammer Online veterans.
But Skyforge, a Russian MMO being developed by Team Allods together with Fallout creators Obsidian, somehow hasn’t gained much traction in the West. So far, there has been a lot to tell and relatively little to see. That is supposed to change this weekend, as a technical beta weekend will start. The catch: Only a few are invited. However, the relatively low awareness of the game could now become an advantage for YouTubers. Anyone with an active YouTube channel with over 5000 subscribers can get in touch with my.com and secure an invitation to the beta. Condition: They need to create a few videos.
Mein MMO says:It is perplexing how little hype there still is around Skyforge. Although we already know relatively much about the game and the beta is approaching, Skyforge is only on a few radars, even though it strongly resembles a triple-A production. Perhaps the Russian game is struggling because it is neither fish nor flesh. While Asia-MMOs have their fans and Western MMOs do as well, Skyforge sits between worlds, unable to be precisely categorized. For the MMO, we hope that more players will soon become aware of it.
We live in a gaming world where every major offline franchise is now relying on MMO elements and pushing into the market. Therefore, a fresh MMO title that has no existing fanbase can easily sink into obscurity. Unfortunately, there have been examples of this this year. Perhaps Skyforge, like World of Tanks or War Thunder, is focusing more on the domestic market and will be a hit in the states of the former Eastern Bloc. The collaboration with Obsidian Entertainment should ensure that the title also reaches the West. During public appearances in English, which the Russian developers visibly struggle with, the veterans from Obsidian take over speaking. They should also ensure that Skyforge reaches our market.
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The MMO shooter Destiny will be unreachable on Thursday evening our time from 5 PM to approximately 9 PM on all platforms. The servers will be taken offline for maintenance.
Thursday, November 13th, will be a black Thursday for Destiny fans. Whether on Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360 or Xbox One – the screen will remain black, the servers are down for maintenance, Destiny is offline. A patch or so is not to be deployed, no fix for exotic weapons or the raid. In the medium term, the announced updates are to be prepared, which are planned for the upcoming weeks.
The maintenance should start at 5 PM and last until approximately 9 PM, but it may be delayed if problems arise. Thus, the maintenance falls right into primetime. On the West Coast of the USA, it takes place in the morning from 8 AM until about noon. Australians have it best: For them, this all happens at night from 3 AM to 7 AM. One can skip a round of Crucible or a visit to the raid.
At least there is a 36-hour advance warning, so there is enough space to adjust your evening plans for Thursday accordingly.
Mein MMO says: This is the downside of a global server where everyone plays together. The maintenance times are quite favorable for the USA, but for us Europeans, they are in the middle of prime time. Luckily, such maintenance occurs relatively rarely in Destiny.
In MMORPGs with regular maintenance like The Elder Scrolls Online, such breaks during European prime time led to protests, Zenimax responded and scheduled maintenance in Europe for the early morning. With Destiny, that is probably not to be expected.
Update 16:30:Bungie tweeted:
We’ll be taking Destiny offline shortly for planned maintenance. Destiny will come back online once our work is done. http://t.co/G4zgKX0Zpy
With a tweet, the developers of Destiny, Bungie, congratulated the gaming studio 343 Industries on the new “Halo: The Master Chief Collection”.
It must be a strange feeling for Bungie to see someone else bringing out a Halo now. After all, Bungie grew up with this franchise, becoming a global phenomenon, practically exploding – and some say that Destiny is basically a kind of “Halo” with slightly different names for the characters. The gunplay and the 30-second rule can be recognized again. You can’t quite separate from what made you great after all.
Today it happened again: A new Halo was released worldwide – or rather: not really a “new” Halo. With “Halo: The Master Chief Collection,” 343 Industries exclusively released a collection of remastered and graphically enhanced versions of those classic Halo games in which the Master Chief played a pivotal role.
Bungie congratulated with a tweet. It’s nice to see the Chief back in action.
Congratulations, 343. It’s great to see the Chief back in action.
As expected, the tweet sparked a huge discussion among fans, including some Halo veterans who are now playing Destiny. Some believe that since Bungie is no longer involved, Halo is going downhill, wishing Destiny a quick death and hoping Bungie returns to the Halo franchise. Others say that travelers should not be stopped, and that the franchise has flourished under studio 343.
Bungie had separated from Microsoft amid great attention from the industry and gamers and teamed up with Activision, to build a 10-year franchise, namely Destiny. They secured a stronger position in the partnership with Activision.
One of the reasons for this move, it was said later, was that with Activision they could also develop for PlayStation and not just exclusively for Xbox as under Microsoft. This way, they could also connect with players outside of North America, where Xbox is particularly strong. Additionally, they likely wanted to be their own boss again. And well – as already mentioned – Destiny is not that far from Halo, as this somewhat biting video shows:
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