Photos of the sales box of the luxury MMO Destiny have leaked onto the internet. It reveals that Destiny will require 40 gigabytes of storage space.
For the Xbox One version, 40GB of free hard drive space must be available.
Destiny is already one of the biggest titles of all time, and fans were expecting a hefty amount of space that the title would claim on their hard drives. Photos of the sales box that have now appeared on imgur suggest that a nice game requires space. Up to 40 gigabytes, it is written on the Xbox One version’s box, should be kept free by players when they start the installation of the game. With the DLCs that are still expected, players should get used to clearing space on their consoles for Destiny.
Destiny will be released in a week for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. It is already shaping up to be one of the biggest launches of all time. Analysts predict a huge potential for the game exceeding 15 million and attest that the game has the quality to be a real bestseller. The high production costs are also drawing mass media attention.
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In Hearthstone, players were almost taken to Karazhan. The cult instance from “The Burning Crusade” could have been the setting for the first expansion, as is now clear from an interview.
Hearthstone is here to stay. Blizzard is definitely counting on ten years. This requires a lot of ideas for possible expansions. The first adventure took players to the horror necropolis Naxxramas. It could just as easily have gone to Karazhan, the 10-player raid from “The Burning Crusade”. This would have suited producer Yong Woo, as he mentioned in an interview with IGN.
Karazhan back in the idea pool for Hearthstone
He himself was part of the team that would have preferred Karazhan over Naxxramas as the setting for the first expansion. He loves the instance personally. Since content is needed for ten years anyway, that’s no problem. Karazhan as a possible location for an expansion has not been discarded but merely postponed. The idea has just returned to the pool and is waiting for its time. The pool is well-stocked. Given that we can look back at ten years in World of Warcraft, there is no lack of options.
The nice thing about a game like Hearthstone, Woo says, is that you don’t need boxes and aren’t limited to one expansion per year or every two years. For Hearthstone, the team plans to release 5 new contents at regular intervals. Fans should be patient for a while, and then they will see.
Mein MMO thinks: For the next expansion, one can probably assume that Blizzard will not orient itself towards a raid instance. These are probably more suited for adventures with bosses. For the next expansion, which is supposed to bring over 100 fresh cards in booster packs to Hearthstone, you don’t need bosses but a lot of story, mobs, and faces. Perhaps they will draw from the quest and story lines of Burning Crusade, leave out the raid instances, and maybe map a few 5-player instances instead?
As for the adventure expansions, Yong Woo is surely right: In ten years, many cult instances have accumulated. Whether Hearthstone players will go to Karazhan, Icecrown Citadel, Black Temple, or Ulduar in the next adventure remains to be seen.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The DDOS attacks on WildStar, Guild Wars 2, Hearthstone, EVE Online and other MMOs are likely attributed to a group that tweeted about these attacks on Twitter. According to their own statements, they have now disbanded.
What began with some DDOS attacks on servers of NCSoft, CCP, and Jagex, affecting especially players of Guild Wars 2, WildStar, Runescape, and Eve Online, reached a first bizarre peak when the “group” of American Airlines announced that they had heard one of their planes might have a bomb on board.
Popular President of Sony Online Entertainment Main Target
Unpleasant aftertaste: Since the incident, Smedley’s Twitter account has been inactive. It is suspected that Smedley has lost the desire for too much transparency after recent events.
The “group” took pleasure in being referred to by some media as a “threat to national security” during this incident.
Twitter account steadily grew, targets became larger
But not only MMOs or airplanes were affected by their actions: The group put Battle.net under DDOS pressure, interfered with the Playstation Network, attacked the servers of League of Legends, and entertained themselves with their constantly growing Twitter account. While they brought Twitch down, they encouraged users to write the name of the group on their foreheads, then they would let Twitch run again.
These actions were repeatedly accompanied by “joking” comments, pretending that the FBI was at their door, as if they were about to be arrested or acting on behalf of the terrorist organization ISIS.
Fact situation extremely unclear
The information about what is true and what is nonsense is extremely sparse. Other members from the so-called “hacker” scene on Twitter claim certain “successes” for themselves.
The fact is: The group has been silent in recent days. They tweeted that two of the group members had been arrested. They also referred to a homepage where they presented themselves as a sort of modern version of “Robin Hood and the Merry Men”. They are not terrorists, merely a gang of guys who have too much time. But now the stressful everyday life has caught up with them and they have to stop after two eventful weeks. They even made fun of a media site that had particularly inflated the threat posed by the group.
Mein MMO says: Whether the “Someone was arrested” tweets are true is unknown. They had tweeted this a few times before. And whether the group really disbanded permanently is also hard to say. We somewhat doubt whether it was really a “group” or just one single guy. After all, the Twitter account had regular 8-hour breaks. Quite conceivable that despite the announcement, things will continue in a few days: Typically, people find it difficult to step away from such a lot of attention. Or we might hear from them again when the FBI is not just knocking on their door in funny tweets, but seriously.
That the group, after initial media reticence, was mentioned by almost all news sites by name with links and direct quotes, that the number of their Twitter followers steadily increased, and how powerless those attacked were against their DDOS actions, should leave many with a bitter taste in their mouth.
Whether one should really label the group, as many media did, as “hackers” is questionable. As one user said in a tweet to the group: “The most intense thing you did was the bomb threat to American Airlines. And that requires no hacker skills, just a payphone.”
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The MMO shooter Destiny is so huge that it is no longer just gaming media reporting on it. Major mainstream media have also taken notice. And what are they reporting on? Well, about the size.
Similar to the SF film spectacle “Avatar” a few years ago, Destiny is making waves outside its own industry just with its gigantic size. The Guardian, one of the world’s most renowned newspapers, sends a journalist for a quick visit to Bungie.
Huge dimensions, huge attention – Destiny has the formula for success
The numbers are simply too big, the dimensions too immense, the effort too enormous, the world too foreign, to not be amazed. Similar to the film “Avatar” or a luxury cruise ship with 13 different restaurants on board, just the required logistics for Destiny grabs the viewer’s attention.
It wasn’t always like this: With five people, an employee recounts in a conversation with The Guardian, they started thinking about the basic principles of the game. Now, 500 people are working on Destiny. But how do you coordinate all of this? Space became tight. When a multiplex cinema near the office was for sale, they jumped at the chance, installed a cooling system on the roof of the building, and converted it. The walls between the cinema halls were torn down. Now, developers are working on Destiny across an area the size of two soccer fields.
How can Destiny remain creative with such dimensions?
With the size, a new hierarchy and new workflows became necessary to continue working efficiently and creatively. No one has an office at Destiny; the desks have wheels for mobility. Visibility is also important; nothing in the room should be taller than 1.80 meters. If a crowd of employees stands around a PC, it should attract the attention of others. Because something terrible or something genius is happening there. Both must be noticed.
A manager remarks, looking at all the developers in front of their monitors: “These guys must be incredibly clever and full of dedication. They never fall asleep at their work. Never.”
In MMOs, there is no “Too big to fail,” not even for Destiny.
Mein MMO says: The irony of the articles currently appearing in mainstream media about Destiny, which will certainly increase in the coming days, is that the game itself is not the topic, but merely the gigantic dimensions it has now assumed. In this regard, such a super-prestige object is valuable in its own right. Such attention from mass media is worth its weight in gold. Smaller titles without an IP would kill for such attention. Destiny receives it for free.
Attention is therefore present, now Destiny as a game must also convince and not just as a monumental Herculean task. And the game must convince in gameplay, not in size. Because the “Too big to fail” rule does not apply to video games.
Update Tuesday 20:00: A preview of how Bungie intends to maintain interest in Destiny can be found here. Apparently, they have teamed up with Google Maps for a very special form of city tour.
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This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
A new trailer for the sandbox MMO Black Desert, this time from the Russian publisher, gives viewers a look at the impressive world of the Korea MMO.
In May of this year, Black Desert found a distribution partner for the Russian market: GameNet will publish the game. An initial beta is expected to start by the end of the year, with a final beta phase beginning in early 2015. We in Europe and North America can only envy the Russians for such a timeline: Our first beta phase is expected to start in 2015, the publisher here seems to rely on an Asian beta model, with a release in the West likely not before early 2016.
The Russian Black Desert seems to be heading its own way anyway. According to mmosite, GameNet plans to offer both free-to-play and pay-to-play servers with different PvE and PvP settings. That seems to be getting interesting.
The trailer – accompanied by a very masculine Russian voice – provides a glimpse into the open world of Black Desert. Unlike Western MMOs, there are no dungeons or instances here, and bosses can also be found in the open world.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
AddOns are an important part of many MMOs, including Carbine’s SF-MMO WildStar. But what if an AddOn threatens to cause trouble?
Carbine was prepared for players to completely distort the interface
In an interview with mmorpg.com, Lead Client Engineer Jon Wiesman explained his view on AddOns. Under the former president Jeremy Gaffney, it was made clear early on that the community would be allowed to experiment massively with AddOns and completely change the look of their interface. WildStar aimed to go further than other MMOs. These usually place great value on maintaining their “framework” and allow fewer changes to the user interface.
Wiesman had already explained to the colleagues before the release that screenshots or videos from players who had completely remodeled their interface would likely come soon. Viewers would scream: “Oh my God, is this what WildStar looks like?” But that was okay with him. He wanted to enjoy this chaos and these craziness.
Klepto AddOn led to a shift in thinking at WildStar
In the beta, there was a particularly creative case of “weird AddOn.” A player named Scelestic designed an AddOn that allegedly allowed players to view other characters like in World of Warcraft.
However, what the AddOn actually did was: as soon as a player was near a mailbox, it emptied his pockets and sent everything to Scelestic. He didn’t do this with bad intentions, but out of pure curiosity. The developers also chuckled about this creative use of criminal energy. But of course, something like that should never go live. This klepto AddOn ultimately led to the introduction of some restrictions on AddOns.
Slowly filling bars, security checks, certain limits, or tool-tips that clearly state what something actually does – all of this is owed to WildStar players because of that one klepto AddOn.
Frost is to blame again
To blame again: Frost and his dev-speak videos.
The only thing Wiesman regrets at the moment is that he has not yet been able to write as many documentation, tutorials, and videos as he originally planned to help the community create and modify AddOns. That was all originally intended, but then Stephan Frost’s dev-speak videos became so popular that they opted to focus media resources on that instead.
Mein MMO says: Especially in WildStar, the “AddOn” friendliness of the MMO also leads to difficulties. For instance, one AddOn allows players to bypass “puzzle” mini-games, another indicates more clearly where the weapon that was thrown out of hand lies, and others are so strong that they have almost become mandatory for players who want to push their character to the limits and fear disadvantages without them. This forces players to use certain AddOns even if they would rather not.
Do you really want this guy to find out you’re a healer?
Currently, there is again trouble in WildStar because of an AddOn. In PvP, one is circulating that automatically marks healers on the head, so everyone can see from a kilometer away who should be the first to fall. The AddOn was once disabled and has started working again recently. An extreme case where the enjoyment of the game for the user comes at the expense of other players. While the puzzle AddOn only devalues certain titles that only puzzle experts with the reaction speed of a hummingbird on a Red Bull diet could achieve, this “I kill healers” AddOn is significantly more annoying.
There have been similar AddOns in other games that negatively affected the gaming experience of others. The one in WoW was aptly named “Healers have to die”.
Sony Online Entertainment has high expectations for the release of their MMO shooter Planetside 2 on the Playstation 4.
PC fans of Planetside 2 and Playstation 4 players will operate on separate servers, as SOE explained in an interview with massively at PAX Prime in Seattle. The same message was also shared regarding the zombie MMO H1Z1, both games run on the Forgelight engine.
SOE hopes to capture shooter fans on the Playstation 4
SOE has high expectations for Planetside 2 on the Playstation 4. Console players are seen as shooter fans; Planetside 2 could be one of the rare MMO titles to make an impact here. Therefore, they want to emphasize the shooter characteristics and make PS 2 as responsive and fast as possible, just the way shooter fans like their games on the PS 4. Voice chat is a must to ensure proper coordination.
SOE will strive to keep the Playstation 4 version on par with the PC version. However, they will not be able to release updates.
A port of the MMO shooter to the Playstation 3 is ruled out, as it simply cannot provide the game a proper home.
Developers Read Mean Tweets
By the way: A few days ago, a video from the Planetside 2 team was released, confronting them with… some disrespectful tweets from fans. The format is certainly borrowed from the US late-night show by Jimmy Kimmel, but still entertaining!
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Playing MMO games does not make one stupid, but improves English skills in students. This has been found by a Swedish study.
Swedish sixth graders were studied by the University of Gothenburg and Karlstad. The researchers focused on how the children use the English language in situations outside of classroom instruction. They found that the sixth graders who spent part of their free time playing English-speaking computer games were significantly better in this area than their peers.
Especially the students who participated in MMOs were even further ahead. The reason for this, according to a researcher, is very logical: “As a player, you simply have to understand what is being said around you, so you need to be able to write and read in English to communicate.”
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The Chinese publisher KongZhou remains in the black numbers, also thanks to Guild Wars 2, World of Tanks and World of Warplanes.
The Chinese publisher KongZhou recorded strong growth of 33% in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the same period last year. The main reason for this is the release of Guild Wars 2 in China. KongZhou distributes the game there. More than 1 million CD-Keys have been sold or activated since the Open Beta. A larger marketing campaign is planned for September. They also want to benefit from ArenaNet’s marketing for the new feature pack in September. Additionally, they aim to further develop the eSports/PvP area of the game.
World of Warplanes, the sister game of World of Tanks, also helps the publisher to remain in the positive range. Here, they benefit from strong synergy effects with World of Tanks. About 25-33% of current World of Warplanes players come from the tank MMO.
The quarter, shares CEO Leilei Wang, exceeded expectations. With these titles, along with World of Tanks and the War Saga series, they plan to establish themselves long-term as a provider of MMOs on the PC in China.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online, options for character customization after creation are still lacking.
In The Elder Scrolls Online, there is consideration for allowing players to change their character’s hairstyle, perhaps to undergo a makeover or even to give them a new voice. When this will happen is still unknown.
The Elder Scrolls Online had character creation issues at launch
Character creation can sometimes go wrong.
Character creation is a sensitive topic, especially in an MMO like The Elder Scrolls Online that heavily focuses on immersion. It was particularly unfortunate that during the server rush in the first days, not only chaos threatened to ruin character creation, but also a bug occurred that prevented zooming in on the firstborn character. Additionally, some players may simply get tired of their character over time and regret not choosing a different hairstyle or voice.
Will players perhaps become barbers themselves?
Especially in The Elder Scrolls Online, which strongly binds players to a character and allows them to spend much time with it, this is a sensitive issue. Zenimax is aware of this and has repeatedly expressed the possibility of introducing some form of “hairdresser” or “barber” into the game, as is already standard in other games. However, how far this service will go and whether it will also extend to the removal or addition of scars or tattoos, or whether other character parameters can even be changed, is still unknown.
Perhaps there will soon be a trusted “guild hairdresser”. Who wants to walk around with a ruined hairstyle?
In the past, Zenimax also considered not offering this through an NPC service in the game, but to introduce it as a type of “profession” or as skills within a profession, allowing players to style or alter each other.
A detailed schedule or a corresponding method is still unknown, according to current statements. The latest forum post simply reaffirms that something like this is supposed to come. However, no timeframe has been given yet.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The survival MMO H1Z1 is to be developed first for PC and later for PlayStation 4. Players on different platforms will end up on different servers.
In an interview with joystiq.com, H1Z1 designer Jimmy Whisenhunt explained the plans for the PC and PlayStation 4 versions of H1Z1. He admitted that H1Z1 is currently not playable on PlayStation 4. The development of the game for PlayStation 4 will only begin once the PC version is in a stable condition. The H1Z1 team also makes the release of the game in Early Access dependent on this stable condition.
Every PC hotfix should also come immediately for PlayStation 4
Whisenhunt considers it pretty unlikely that PlayStation players will meet PC players on cross-platform servers. This is partly due to the frequency of updates. If the team wants to quickly bring a fix for PC, they would also have to do it immediately for PlayStation 4. Two versions of the game could not run on the same server.
Perhaps the cross-platform method will come later, but for the start, they are developing H1Z1 separately with different servers in mind.
Would PC players have an advantage over PlayStation 4 players thanks to mouse and keyboard?
“Also, there’s the issue of keyboard/mouse versus controller,” Whisenhunt said.
This is a debate that always takes place with cross-platform ideas. It revolves around whether players with the combination of keyboard and mouse have advantages due to more precise control compared to their console competitors. Especially in a game like H1Z1, which heavily relies on PvP and confrontation, this is a sensitive topic. However, Whisenhunt does not mention which controls he sees as advantageous. Typically, the mouse/keyboard combo is considered preferred.
On the sidelines of SOE Live, it became known that the delayed port of H1Z1 to PlayStation 4 is also related to the fact that SOE is waiting for the Team behind Planetside 2 to resolve the technical issues of the port. Both Planetside 2 and H1Z1 use the Forgelight engine, and they would benefit from the “in-house” know-how. Planetside 2 is currently being ported to PlayStation 4 anyway.
Those interested in H1Z1 can find more about the survival MMO and DayZ competitor on our topic page.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The space MMO Elite: Dangerous is currently receiving a lot of praise and attention from the international press and gaming community. Together with Star Citizen, it could revive the long-thought-dead genre of space simulation – this time as a game that certainly makes use of the means of an MMO. It’s truly high time we paid a visit to the game.
For a first foray into the world of Elite, we managed to enlist the YouTuber Shumbok, who specializes in quieter strategy and indie titles and is already neck-deep in the beta of Elite: Dangerous:
Good morning Commander, today I want to introduce you to a very special space flight simulation.
Elite: Dangerous is the fourth part of the Elite series, which originated in 1984 and thus founded a new genre. For the first time, economic simulation and space flight simulation were combined, making it one of the first “open-world” games with thousands of planets. Due to its great popularity, two more installments followed: Frontier: Elite 2, arguably the most successful part of the series, and the somewhat less popular Elite 3: First Encounters. The special features of the Elite games are their tendency towards realistic physics, very free action, a focus on the “Han Solo” feeling, and the constant sensation of impending death at your back.
19 years after the release of the last version, David Braben, one of the creators and developers of the series, launched the fourth installment of Elite: Dangerous through a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Elite: Dangerous has now reached its first beta phase after spending about four months in a premium beta. The biggest modernization, besides the graphics, is probably the ability to experience Elite: Dangerous in an open or private multiplayer mode upon request, which seamlessly ties into the single-player game. In open mode, it behaves similarly to an MMO, where many players are thrown into different space instances with automated matchmaking, where they can pass the time trading, robbing, chatting, and completing missions together. But be careful! Here too, the police, pirates, and bounty hunters are on your tail.
Furthermore, we can already admire the first faction battles, the trading system, piracy, currently 6 controllable ships, and 55 of the planned 400 billion star systems. You can find more information about the current state of the beta in this little showcase about Elite: Dangerous.
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The interest in a port of Hearthstone to iPhone and Android remains high. Apparently, fans are longing more for an Android port than for a Hearthstone round on the iPhone.
As the site product-reviews.net claims to have found out, the interest of Hearthstone fans in a port to the Android operating system is about 4 times greater than that of iPhone fans. Product-reviews believes that this is due to the fact that Android is more suitable for Blizzard’s card game. Since Hearthstone already runs on the iPad, it is believed that it is not as attractive for iPhone users. After all, the iPad with its larger display is more suitable for the card game, although some users complained that their hands hurt after a longer session.
We at mein-MMO.de also looked at the current trends on Google and it indeed seems that Hearthstone for Android is about 3 to 5 times more in demand than a port for the iPhone. At least if one believes the trend barometer from Google: The keyword “Hearthstone Android” has been searched significantly more often worldwide in the last 90 days than “Hearthstone iPhone”.
Hearthstone ports for iPhone and Android are expected to take place by Blizzard in 2014. Whether one system will be ready before the other, or if both will be able to enjoy Hearthstone at the same time, is unknown. Perhaps there will be new information at the next Blizzcon, which will take place on November 7th and 8th in Anaheim.
As Hearthstone has already proven to be highly profitable in its short time and there is an expectation that Hearthstone on Android and iPhone will generate even more revenue, one can assume that Blizzard is feverishly working to resolve the issues that are still hindering the ports. In doing so, the developers at Blizzard primarily cite the small display size of the iPhone as the main difficulty.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The expansion “Nightmare Tides” for the Free2Play MMORPG Rift is set to be released on October 8.
At PAX Prime, it wasn’t just about ArcheAge: Trion Worlds also announced a release date for the expansion of its Free2Play game Rift. “Nightmare Tides” is set to be released on October 8. This is a substantial expansion. While it has relatively few new zones, they are quite large and feature multiple layers. Trion Worlds prefers to tell “less” stories but delve deeply into them, rather than fragmenting the narrative into small bites.
For the storyline, they seem to have drawn inspiration from Lovecraft and his C’thulhu mythos – anything related to the sea, horror, and madness naturally evokes the master of nebulous phrasing.
The MMO shooter Destiny will feature raids, and now there are the first details. What one hears sounds like classic MMOs.
Lockouts, a week to complete, loot, sets, boss mechanics, two difficulty levels – what sounds like a raid in a conventional MMO turns out to be the detailed description of Bungie’s MMO shooter Destiny. In a developer post, all possible questions about the raids in Destiny were answered.
Two difficulty levels for raids in Destiny: Normal and Hard
On the normal difficulty setting, one can best get to know the raids and the mechanics of the fights. Here, teamwork and communication can also be honed. Because once you set the slider to “hard”, there will be tough enemies that utilize their abilities in even quicker succession, leaving players less time to react.
Moreover, Bungie speaks of penalties when one dies. The raids are intended to come without any information on how to complete them. Bungie wants players in Destiny to find out information online or puzzle it out themselves. They absolutely expect that guides, videos, tutorials, and diagrams will be available on the internet within a very short time. And they are already looking forward to it.
Raids do not have to be completed in one evening or extended afternoon, but players have a week to do so. The game saves the raid progress. Every Tuesday there is a reset. This also sounds very much like a typical MMO.
Shooter players struggled with the MMO raid in the test
In a field test, 24 shooter players were put into four teams of six and confronted with a raid in Destiny. These players had no experience but a strong shooter background. None of the teams completed the raid entirely. Two of the four made it to the final boss. A third team of six also reached the final boss, but had to sneak past a previous encounter. And one team fell apart early and decided to abandon this MMO thing and continue playing shooters.
Loot, loot, and even more loot! – Destiny knows its genre
Like in a classic dungeon crawl, the opponents in the raids also have “shinies”. Each class has a set of equipment that drops in the raids and that players can work towards. Additionally, each of the nine weapon types has a “legendary” version, a Legendary – and this is true for each of the raids. There is more planned, but they are not revealing it.
These armors and weapons will have a unique skin, allowing everyone to see which bosses the Guardian standing in front of them has already defeated in Destiny. The loot will be “individual”, that is, “private”, so there will be no item disputes. Each boss can only be looted once per week by each player, farming will yield nothing.
In World of Warcraft, there is an understanding for spawn campers of ultra-rare mounts. In Warlords of Draenor, seven new open-world drop mounts are introduced, but their drop chance is increased to 100%, and the associated mobs can be tagged by more than one player.
In rarity lies the spice: Rare spawns in the World of Warcraft
Many World of Warcraft players have had their little traumatic experiences in the game. Some achievement that took forever because they were always unlucky. Or some mount that just wouldn’t drop even after the thousandth try. Some hunters still suffer from the aftereffects of post-traumatic stress syndrome when they hear the name Loque’nahak.
Not even our new top WoW screenshot model has a TLPD in its collection.
The “Time-Lost Proto-Drake,” better known by its alias TLPD, was such a devil’s spawn during the blissful “Wrath of the Lich King” times. It shared a spawn timer with other mobs, was sighted less frequently than the Yeti (so, the real one, because you see WoW Yetis all the time), and when you encountered the TLPD, you usually arrived just in time to witness someone else delivering the killing blow.
7 new TLPD mounts scattered across Draenor, none as nasty as the original
A type of particularly rare mob, that spawns at the most absurd times and then drops a very special mount, is also making its debut with Warlords of Draenor. They have apparently been nicknamed after their ancestor by Blizzard.
Mounts of the “TLPD” variety are set to make a comeback in World of Warcraft. They only drop from rare spawns. Seven of them are said to be spread across Draenor.
One of the senior game designers of World of Warcraft, Blizzard developer Jeremy “Muffinus” Feasel, gives precautionary reassurance via Twitter: While there will be 7 of these mounts, they are all “much nicer,” far more humanely obtainable than the TLPD. The mobs might have a spawn timer ranging from “not so long” to “pretty long,” but everyone participating in a fight against them will receive a 100% drop.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online, a new form of PvE gameplay content is introduced to Tamriel with the Dragonstone Arena. In a behind-the-scenes post, players are explained the thought process behind it.
“Transparency” is the magic word in today’s game development. Nowadays, everyone lets their mature fans look into the pots and shows how the sausage or the content is made. Zenimax has now recognized this as a strategy as well and explains the thought processes behind the new PvE challenge “Dragonstone Arena” in a blog post to the fans.
Two difficulty levels because even the testers were groaning
With the Dragonstone Arena, the intention was to give four players the feeling of facing the same challenges as 12 players in a raid. Therefore, a challenging difficulty level was chosen. It was known from the outset that the arena would have 10 levels, which would get progressively harder. In levels 9 and 10, they had even outdone themselves, and even the best testers sent into the arena were sweating profusely and barely made it out alive with a few scrapes.
As a result, the developers reconsidered and decided to offer the arena in two difficulty levels, “Normal” and “Veteran,” so that everyone can see the last two fights as well. Additionally, this way they have no bad conscience when they confront veterans with a “sadistically” high difficulty level.
Enemies are no cannon fodder in the new The Elder Scrolls Online Arena
For the arena itself, something special was devised to give players the true “arena” feel. The challenges change from round to round; the audience reacts with cheers and applause; among the enemies, there is no cannon fodder. Instead, they now have more and more abilities drawn from the players’ arsenal. This leads to amusing results.
“You should have seen the look on Creative Director Paul Sage’s face when an enemy destroyed his vampire with a silver bolt,” the developers joked in their post to the fans.
This feeling can be experienced by players of The Elder Scrolls Online right now: The arena is open on the test server, and the developers are asking for feedback. With Update 4 expected around mid/late September on the live mega server. Zenimax has yet to comment on this, but the regular schedule allows for content every 6 weeks.
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In the fantasy MMO Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO), fans and developers love the music system in the game. Turbine wants to give it even more attention with Update 15.
Fans of the fantasy MMO Lord of the Rings Online have been in love with the music system in the game for a long time. This allows for cover versions of rock songs or the recreation of epic hero music. The system is easy to use but hard to master: with little talent and poor timing, any budding bard can manage a “Stairway to Heaven,” earning them a swift ejection from the “Prancing Pony.” True bards, of course, reach other heights.
It is a system that is loved and maintained especially, but not only, by the strong roleplaying community that calls Middle-earth home. There are websites where the “LotRO” notations for just about every piece, whether fitting or not, are available. Singing groups with various instruments often perform concerts and serenades.
Lord of the Rings Online might get stage landscapes
This love of music and the charm that players bring to the world is now also acknowledged by Turbine. “It is a system with a positive influence on the game and the community. Therefore, it is high time that it also feels the love from the developers,” the team states. Therefore, with Update 15, they want to introduce two new instruments (the double bass and the serpent, a historical bass wind instrument). In addition, they will improve the options to alter the sound of the instruments through pitching or volume controls. And – roleplay fans will be particularly pleased – stages will be distributed across the land.
Well, if that isn’t a reason to celebrate: The band is getting back together.
However, there is a downside: the two additional instruments and the stages are only a “stretch goal.” This means Turbine makes no promises here, but it is something they are trying to achieve. And they already state: if the double bass and the serpent make their way into the game, they will only be available for the notation system and will not be bard items. For the future, after Update 15, Turbine intends to strengthen and maintain the music system. They ask fans for suggestions.
Blizzard’s free online card game Hearthstone hires one of the most distinguished players of its own game, professional gamer Ryan ‘Realz’ Masterson.
For Masterson, Hearthstone is not the first tango he dances professionally. He has already made a name for himself in the scene as a Magic: The Gathering player and is a popular streamer on Twitch. In his Twitter account, Masterson announced that he would be starting a new chapter and will be working as an Associate Game Designer on Hearthstone in the future.
He sees his role as ensuring that players have a representative behind the scenes. He particularly wants to pay attention to the needs of competitive players (Ladder Grinders, as he calls them).
Ryan ‘Realz’ Masterson, now Associate Game Designer at Hearthstone.
It is not unusual for companies to hire their fans. However, they usually start at the level of a Community Manager if they have, for example, run a successful fan site or have recommended themselves for the job in the official forum. Many who now work as a voice between the fans and the developers once led large guilds, ran fan sites, or made a name for themselves with excellent forum posts – like Ramon Domke in Guild Wars 2.
Only modders, whose design talent is apparent and whose mods become so large that they attract the interest of companies, usually rise from the ranks of the players to the “programming” level.
It is relatively rare for companies to seek brainpower and expertise from people who only play the game at a top level, but it could also mark a new trend. Jimmy Whisenhunt, a former top Counter-Strike player, is currently working as a Game Designer on H1Z1, primarily responsible for the combat system and the weapons.
As the gaming industry increasingly relies on Twitch and similar video formats, it becomes ever more important for companies to find charismatic front figures who can represent the game and “click” with the fans. Pro gamers with strong social channels and Twitch channels are perfectly suited for such a role. They have, so to speak, the stamp of approval.
One can be curious how Masterson’s influence will manifest itself in Hearthstone.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the Sandpark MMO ArcheAge, the data for the further process is set. Next week, on September 4th, the open beta will begin. The release is scheduled for September 16th.
On the night from Friday to Saturday, Trion Worlds held a press event in Seattle. They had invited to a hotel. Around 5 AM our time, the publisher of Trion Worlds revealed to fans and the press the schedule for the western version of ArcheAge from now until release. Surprise, it is even tighter than expected:
Tight Schedule – less than two weeks until the Founder Headstart
The Alpha and Omega servers will close this Sunday. There will be an event to say goodbye. Fans should keep an eye on the horizon and their mailboxes.
Next Thursday, on September 4th, the open beta will begin. It will last until September 8th, thereby matching the length of the previous closed beta dates.
After the end of the open beta, the beta characters will be wiped.
On September 12th, the headstart will begin for owners of a founder package. The servers will already be up, all systems hopefully running at full capacity, and those with headstart privileges will, as the name suggests, have an early start and go into the competition with a lead.
On September 16th, the launch will take place. The official release is approaching; the free-to-play MMO ArcheAge will be available for everyone to play.
Mein MMO says: Okay, this is a surprisingly tight schedule. The September 16th date had already been expected, as it was circulating on Steam. The fact that it really comes down to such a tight schedule is indeed surprising. We had anticipated a longer open beta and a bit more time between the phases. Fans will surely appreciate that it kicks off so early. Now players can start planning more accurately, and some guilds will choose a server in the next few days to attack and conquer it.
