For the free-to-play science fiction MMO Star Trek Online, STO, the official trailer for the expansion Delta Rising has been released.
The Delta Quadrant, as every fan of the Voyager series knows, is not exactly an ideal vacation spot. Borgs are hanging around, the Kazon are causing trouble, and that strange killer species with the numbers in their name, which looks like a mix between Alien and Predator, keeps appearing. It’s no wonder that the trailer for the upcoming expansion of Star Trek Online is quite martial. Perhaps it shouldn’t be called “On Screen”, but rather “Load the Photon Torpedoes!”
The Class 6 ships will also be highlighted in Star Trek Online
Along with the trailer, a new blog post from the creators at Cryptic Studios was also released, intended to introduce the new ship Class 6. Cryptic is keeping the biggest secrets to themselves – nomen est omen. While it is revealed that there will be a new ship type and also a new kind of bridge officer, the guys are withholding details after making the reader curious. These will be revealed later.
New ships can also level up in Star Trek Online
It is known that the ships of the new Class 6 will scale their damage output with the rank of the captain. The ships can also level up in their own “level”. A ship starts at level “0” and later reaches level “5”, the mastery. Since such a ship can hardly develop new muscles, it is likely simulated that the crew becomes more familiar with the ship and the processes become smoother.
Our new YouTuber TheCadien will now support us alongside Darion with interesting gaming news in the form of videos.
In the first edition of Mein MMO News, he introduces you to the new flight school in the online version of GTA 5 . After the news about the cult game Grand Theft Auto, we move directly to the new expansion Star Wars: The Old Republic. Galactic Strongholds has been live on the servers since last week and is initially available only to subscribers. TheCadien also reveals more about GTA 5 and the new housing features in SWTOR in the video.
Last but not least, we can look forward to a new format: Playing Bad. What could that possibly mean? We will find out soon.
http://youtu.be/WaavScGC5L4
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
To bridge the long wait until the next patch in Guild Wars 2, lead game designer Isaiah Cartwright has spoken up and reveals a bit about the planned changes to ArenaNet’s MMORPG that are coming in September. He begins with changes intended to improve the player experience in general.
Instances will no longer be tied to an “owner” starting in September – previously, one player in the group was effectively granted ownership rights, and if this player left the group early, everyone had to start over. In the future, an instance will only become inaccessible when all players have really left, making for a more pleasant gaming experience on some frustrating evenings.
The crafting interface will be revamped, and in the future, you will be able to filter for specific items – but even better: If the desired item requires components that you also have to craft first, you can easily click through to that recipe. This means the endless scrolling back and forth will be a thing of the past, allowing crafters to reach their goals much faster – and with fewer gray hairs.
But big promises are also made regarding the game’s presentation: Both the servers and the game client are said to work more resource-efficiently with the update, which should be particularly noticeable in large mass battles, such as fights against world bosses or in well-populated world versus world matches.
Cartwright promises to keep us fed with more information in the coming days; you can also view this promise together with the original announcement here. There you will also find the other improvements from the feature update that will be deployed to the servers on September 9.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The MMO shooter Destiny currently has one confirmed raid in the game, leading ambitious gamers to Venus. A fan has now discovered hints about where the second raid could take place.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – if what a fan has now found out is true, this could soon be heard in the team speaks of the world. Because the second raid in Bungie’s luxurious MMO Destiny could lead to the moon.
Raids are endgame instances for six players in Destiny who have optimized their gear and want to test their limits. They must find each other through their friends list, as matchmaking is not supported. In the raids, they face some tough challenges.
The first raid, as we know, will take place on Venus – in Destiny, Venus is somewhat like a tropical jungle. The only confirmed raid so far is named “Vault of Glass” and has already sparked excitement among fans.
There is a hint on Destiny’s homepage
Notable: What do the symbols on the right edge of the screen mean? Source: www.bungie.net
Has Bungie now revealed with a screenshot where a second raid could be heading? It looks like it. Because on the Companion page on Bungie’s homepage, there is a screenshot visible right in the upper right corner of the image. And when you enlarge it, a series of symbols appears, including “Raid – on the moon.”
With a popular title like Destiny, every tiny hint that could be anywhere on the page is found. At the moment, Bungie has not commented on this find. However, they have never said that Destiny would launch with only one raid. It was assumed that they would design and create new raids for later DLCs as well. After all, Bungie has its own department solely devoted to designing these raids. Luke Smith, who handled the design of the Reach investment system in Halo, leads this team. Destiny will be released on September 9 for Playstation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. A PC version has not yet been confirmed, but is considered likely.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The free dark fantasy MMO Rift experiments with the idea of supporting the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift.
As massively reported, the free-to-play MMO Rift plans a test run with its namesake Oculus. However, this VR test run is highly experimental and may be terminated at any time without notice.
To imagine it better: This is approximately how Rift looks with the Oculus 3D glasses…
The UI support is still rough at the moment and may negatively affect the overall game quality. So it is only for true pioneers. However, the test servers now support this technology. Players are invited to try it out and provide their feedback to the developers, of course provided they have both Rifts.
For more details on Rift’s foray into virtual reality, you can find this developer forum post.
Is there a release date for the Rift expansion Nightmare Tides in Seattle?
By the way, Trion Worlds, the developer behind Rift, is planning a special announcement at Pax Prime in Seattle at the end of the week. This could very well be about the release date for the wet and wild Rift expansion “Nightmare Tides“. More details will be known by the end of the week.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the Free2Play action MMO TERA Rising, a charm offensive has now been launched, calling players to hunt monsters.
In a quirky and funny video, Chris Lee, the head of En Masse Entertainment, the US publisher of TERA, explains the problems that have arisen lately. The spawn rate of Big Ass Monsters (BAM) has multiplied. And because it seems that a comment from a Korean employee was misunderstood, they have been made so powerful that the BAMs are now leaking from the servers into the real world.
Players at max level currently have a mandatory task in WildStar if they want to be as efficient as possible: Every week, 140 additional level-ups must be earned to obtain the valuable Ancestor Gems.
These gems can be used, among other things, to purchase additional VIP and ability points, which have a significant impact on PvP. Characters that have been at level 50 for weeks have significantly more talent points than fresh level 50s. Theoretically, these extra points can also be found in the game world, for example, as loot from enemies; practically, however, they are almost non-existent – and that is exactly what is about to change.
The additional enhancement points can be obtained from many more sources in the game starting with an upcoming patch. Each endgame reputation faction will sell an additional VIP point, while the reputation vendor in the Rotting Sanctuary will sell an ability point. If a veteran dungeon is completed in Gold, the group is guaranteed to receive a VIP or ability point (which will then be rolled for) – this will bring “Goldruns” back into focus. These rewards will also be integrated into the path system; at path rank 15, there is a VIP point and at 30 an ability point. Lastly, the original sources of these items will be changed: One should occasionally be able to obtain both types at level 50, for example, when completing daily quests and from the PvP reward chests, an upgrade will now occasionally find its way into your inventory.
In summary, this means that Ancestor Gems no longer have to be forcibly spent on these two improvements, but can also be used for gear or housing items – moreover, fresh level 50s can catch up faster and are just as useful as the veterans – at least in terms of raw talent point count.
There is currently no release date for the patch, but it is expected to arrive “soon” – presumably before the next content update.
You can view the complete developer post in English below the article at the source link.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The fantasy MMO Final Fantasy XIV continues to grow. At the moment, 2.3 million players have purchased the MMO, which is 500,000 since the port to PlayStation 4. In China, the game has also launched, which should further increase the numbers.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a success story in the MMO market. At E3, there were talks of 2 million players, and now, as proudly announced at the end of a trailer, it has reached 2.3 million players. Although they are only referred to as “Adventurers,” according to dualshockers, this does not mean active accounts, but merely purchasers of the game.
In any case, the number of players will soon increase significantly, as the MMO has just successfully launched in China. There, they opened additional servers at launch and have already restricted character creation on some, reports mmoculture.
Final Fantasy XIV is launching in China with the “hourly” model that is customary there and is also used by World of Warcraft. Players do not subscribe but pay approximately 7 cents per hour in our currency. If one plays continuously for an entire month, being online 24/7, they will not only have a serious problem but will also need to pay about 53 euros. Someone playing 6 hours a day pays around 13 euros, reaching approximately the value they would have to pay here as well – viewed across all currency borders. The first month in Final Fantasy XIV is also free in China.
We present the trailer for the fight against Titan – which is quite unusual for us Western eyes and ears – below.
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The fantasy MMO World of Warcraft still has enough creative material left to fill ten years. The next expansion Warlords of Draenor is due in November, and work is already underway on the expansion after that, with a theme to be chosen soon.
Work is already underway on the expansion after the next one for World of Warcraft
Tom Chilton, the lead designer of World of Warcraft, has recently been quoted with rather calm statements about his game. There are difficulties in attracting new players to WoW. He also does not believe in significant growth any longer. However, that does not mean that Warlords of Draenor could be the last expansion. Not at all. There are still years of content ahead, and the pool of ideas seems inexhaustible.
In an interview with Wow Insider, Chilton mentioned that they are already working on the expansion that will follow Warlords of Draenor. They are currently working on the zones for it.
In the next six months, it will be decided what will be included in the expansion after the next WoW AddOn
Perhaps the devs are currently role-playing here and actively discussing the upcoming expansions…
And even beyond that expansion, there have long been plans. In the next six months, a decision will be made on what will come after this expansion, which is still far off. Six to seven ideas are available for selection, all of which could serve as themes for an expansion. They have the freedom to say, “Okay, we’ll take this one for this expansion and that one for the next expansion.”
The next expansion Warlords of Draenor is scheduled for November 13. At Blizzard, they have been talking for years about wanting to release a new expansion every year and not just every two years as before.
My MMO thinks: The fandom has been discussing over three ideas for expansions for years: It could go to the South Seas, or instead of the Emerald Dream, there might be a visit; surely Blizzard will once again confront the heroes against the Burning Legion in an Add-On that many consider the last. What do you think? What ideas are still hidden behind the six or seven expansions that Chilton mentions?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The Sandpark MMO ArcheAge is currently alarming some users with charges of 150 dollars or 135 euros, which they did not authorize. Does ArcheAge have a hacker problem?
As the site ign.com cites a forum post in the official forum, numerous users complained that their accounts were charged 150$ or 135€. This corresponds to the price of one of the starter packages. The users state that they did not give their consent for this. Some even say they have never heard of ArcheAge and that their account information was previously held by Trion Worlds because of other games like Defiance or Rift.
Already in the ArcheAge Alpha, Trion Worlds permanently banned 16,000 botters. They allegedly paid for their founder’s packages with stolen credit cards, it was reported. Whether this is the case here again or if there is another reason behind it is currently unknown.
Ign.com advises all users whose credit card or PayPal data is with Trion Worlds to withdraw them. There has been no official statement from Trion Worlds yet.
Update 23:00: Trion Worlds has now spoken out through Community Manager Dave Berman. According to his statements, security at Trion Worlds has not been compromised. It is merely the case that hackers and bots have cracked pages somewhere in the world. This unfortunately happens every day.
There lies information from users, which is then tested on numerous sites in hopes that a user has reused the same passwords and email addresses or slight variations of them. Among other things, this information is now being tested at Trion Worlds as there has been such a hype around ArcheAge lately. Hundreds of millions of such attempts have occurred in recent weeks, of which only a fraction has been successful today.
The team is currently working on refunding the amounts. This will happen automatically in the next hours. Trion Worlds urges players to change their passwords. A new authentication method will be introduced via the client Glyph on Thursday. Here is the link to Berman’s statement.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The winner of the Hearthstone tournament at DreamHack, Rdu, is still grappling with the cheating allegations surrounding his victory against the crowd favorite Amaz. Rdu is now trying to use this criticism as motivation.
When Hearthstone fairy tales end quite banal, it has strange repercussions
At DreamHack in Sweden, there was really only one big story. The crowd favorite Amaz, revered by the Hearthstone subreddit and his YouTube fans, chose a Priest deck, usually the weakest class in the game, as one of his three tournament decks. With that, he defeated Miracle Rogue after Miracle Rogue, super deck after super deck. He achieved the most absurd combinations, always having a “huge draw,” exciting the fans and delighting the commentators.
Meanwhile, in his shadow, the Romanian Rdu also played a strong tournament with a Frost Mage deck. When Rdu faced Amaz in the finals, he quickly took a 2-0 lead and was able to decisively win the final 3-0, even though Amaz’s fans believed in a Hollywood twist and a comeback victory.
However, during the second match, he received tips and comments via the Hearthstone chat function from people on his friend list. He won the match afterward. The incident was investigated and deemed void: The experts ruled that the match had already been decided at that point, and Rdu bore no responsibility for the misbehavior of some fans.
This decision sparked a conspiracy theory. Many on the subreddit demanded a rematch or a victory for Amaz. As a result, the media reported little about the actual tournament, focusing instead on the overshadowing cheating allegations. The 17-year-old Dima Rada, known as RDU, had achieved his dream, and the entire Hearthstone world was talking about him—in an extremely negative context.
As is now clear in an interview with gamersgosu, Rdu is still haunted by the incidents that took place over two months ago.
Rdu Wants to Prove His Critics Wrong, Aiming to Win Everything
In hindsight, Rdu wished, he says, that the organizers had simply repeated the second match. He was quite sure that he could have defeated everything Amaz could throw at him with his Miracle Rogue deck. He had only wanted to start with the Freeze Mage because it had been the weakest of his decks against Amaz. Winning all three matches with that deck surprised even Rdu.
After the final, Rdu struggled with many insults. People doubted his ability to play at all. Therefore, he worked even harder to prove his doubters wrong and worked hard to restore his reputation. He has not completely succeeded in the Hearthstone scene yet:
[pull_quote_center]I just try to ignore the haters and prove them wrong by winning everything there is to win.[/pull_quote_center]
In the aftermath of DreamHack, there have been numerous confrontations and provocations. For example, Rdu was challenged to a 1-on-1 for the trophy by pro gamer “Reynad.” For Rdu, it was merely an attempt by Reynald to profit from the situation and increase his own popularity.
However, Rdu has no problems with Amaz. He sees him as a kindred spirit who, whether winning or losing, does not attribute everything to chance but tries to keep the random factor in Hearthstone as low as possible.
You can find the complete interview in English in the sources.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The MMO shooter Destiny breaks all dimensions. At the Halo maker Bungie, 500 developers are working on the game. In an interview, environment designer Jason Sussman talks about details in the design. Surprisingly, despite the hopeless situation humanity finds itself in Destiny, “hope” is said to be one of the most important design principles.
In Destiny, there are traces of humanity throughout the universe
Hope and inspiration, Sussman names in a conversation with gamasutra as central pillars in the design of the world of Destiny. The foundation for the story is a human civilization that has ventured to the stars and scattered in all directions. Throughout the universe, there are now traces of this civilization.
With Destiny, one wants to reconnect with science fiction times that were colorful and vibrant and shimmered with hope: “The downfall of humanity could have easily turned dark, but we absolutely wanted to take a hopeful direction in the design.”
Worlds will be shown that have fallen apart and are nearly erased, and yet life finds a new way there. Something grows and thrives: “We want to show how life can still be alive, even when humanity is lost.”
In Destiny, there should always be something to discover, and the world should always be worth a second look
From world to world, players should find remnants of another culture that once flourished and faded there. Variety is important to the designers. The zones have been intentionally designed so that players discover new things the second time and enthusiastically tell their friends in chat about what they found here.
Sussman has witnessed the growth of Bungie and the Destiny team from the front lines. When he started there, 80 to 100 people worked at Bungie. Today, there are 500 contributing to Destiny. And thus, the lead developer’s question is often: “How much bigger can you make it?”
The full interview with Sussman in English can be found in the sources. Destiny is set to be released on September 9 for Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. A PC version has not yet been confirmed.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Greg Street, the former lead system designer of World of Warcraft, is now at League of Legends and is mocking a bit about the casualization of World of Warcraft.
Greg Street, known in forums and social media as “Ghostcrawler,” served for a long time as a sort of spokesperson for Blizzard to the community. In his position, he was primarily responsible for class balancing and was thus always in a controversial position. However, during his time at World of Warcraft, he also became one of the most well-known figures of WoW. His departure in November 2013 received some attention.
World of Warcraft is designed so that even grandmothers can successfully play it
Now Street is in a leadership position at Riot and is working on League of Legends. Last week, he spoke about his time at World of Warcraft and Blizzard. He talked a lot about balancing; the decisions he and his team made, and the differences between working on League of Legends and on World of Warcraft. While most of his statements were moderate and showed a lot of respect for Blizzard’s work and the people there, he did let slip a sentence that was more sharply formulated. The crucial sentence, over which some fans were puzzled, concerned the pesky topic of the “casualization” of World of Warcraft. Some players accuse WoW of becoming easier and catering to as many players as possible, thereby alienating veterans and core gamers.
In this context, Street said: “Different games require different approaches. Let me just say: After 16 years at Age of Empires and World of Warcraft, I find it really refreshing to work on a game where I don’t have to worry about whether someone’s grandmother can play it or not.”
Later, Street qualified this statement, explaining that he didn’t mean “grandma” disrespectfully, but as a representation of players who are not “traditional” gamers.
Would World of Warcraft be better off if some specs were simply left unused?
Even today, he still thinks quite often about World of Warcraft and his decisions there, Street said. Balancing fell under his responsibility. The fact that each class has three specs always posed a challenge to the team. Sometimes it was the case that one spec clearly dominated PvE, another was superior in PvP, and the last one was simply dead. Time and again, they strived to make all three specializations playable. This meant they had to balance World of Warcraft for 30 classes and not just for 10. “Maybe,” Street said, “it would have been better to leave some specs unused.”
Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street is currently working at Riot as the lead game designer for the MOBA League of Legends. LoL is known for its steep learning curve and huge amounts of information, making it not particularly “casual-friendly.”
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
What is the state of the major MMO titles WildStar, The Elder Scrolls Online, and Guild Wars 2 by the end of August?
Last time we wrote the “State of Play” column about these three titles at the end of April. We thought it would be interesting to revisit these three MMOs. They are three of the titles we cover most closely on mein-mmo.de. All three have experienced ups and downs in the past four months. So we find them in a very different state than before.
At the end of April, The Elder Scrolls Online had just launched and had encountered severe problems; Guild Wars 2 was in a Sleeping Beauty slumber interrupted by the outcry over the megaservers; and WildStar was still the hopeful star on the horizon, having done everything right until then and standing on the verge of release. How do the three games look today? Are they ready to take on the giant World of Warcraft when it awakens on November 12?
The Elder Scrolls Online: When will it finally be tomorrow again?
The Elder Scrolls Online is in a much better state than it was at the end of April. Back then, we predicted great potential for the game, but an uncertain present. At that time, there were so many exploits, little problems, and issues that one was startled just by seeing the game’s name anywhere.
Curse of the Prophet or what was the cause of the launch mishaps?
Is this esteemed gentleman responsible for the launch curse?
Whenever it seemed to calm down, the next attack on the game came from some corner. This continued almost throughout the summer. Someone at Zenimax seems to have some really bad karma. Maybe a curse or something.
At the moment, it is relatively calm for The Elder Scrolls Online. Considering the last few months, this is a good sign. They were certainly not idle: At Zenimax, they have kept an eye on almost all the game’s problems and are prepared with solutions. However, those will take time. The first smaller things – such as a dye system – have already been reintroduced. The mega-server is finally in Frankfurt. Otherwise, they are regularly releasing fresh instances and fixing the many small bugs that plagued The Elder Scrolls Online at the beginning.
The future of the game could look rosy if (and this is a big if) TESO develops into the game that the developers’ future visions describe. Patience will be required. To implement all the current plans, they will likely need time well into 2015. Then the game could approach the Elder Scrolls game many wished for back in April, with the Imperial City, the Champion system, spell weaving, the Justice system, a better combat system, functioning groups, and improved NPC expressions.
Perspective: Bright with a view on Playstation
The Elder Scrolls Online has theoretically found answers to the questions that puzzled fans in April. Now it’s about putting these answers into practice. Everything is geared towards The Elder Scrolls Online being in the best possible shape when it goes to consoles. When that will be, in our view, is not stated on the TESO homepage (which says end of 2014), but in the stars.
Guild Wars 2: Living Story is good, but something is lacking otherwise
Guild Wars 2 is in a much better state than it was at the end of April. The long-awaited new story of the Living World has launched, received much praise; with the unfortunate introduction of the megaservers, European players have also been able to adjust to (or: have to) and a new feature pack is supposed to come in September. Is everything such that even the grumpiest Charr rolls on the ground and purrs contentedly? No, it is not. Somehow, there is currently something wrong with Guild Wars 2. But let’s start with the positive.
The Living World can be seen
Many say the first season of the Living World was somehow “all over the place,” a real mess. One week this, the next week that. They rushed from event to event, the story was not focused, more like a comic book that changes protagonists every two weeks, sometimes from Daredevil, sometimes from Batman, and sometimes featuring the Smurfs. This is different now. The second season is oriented in the narrative technique to modern US series, tells episodically and tightly with well-developed characters and an exciting plot.
Of course: From a hardcore MMO perspective, they are still just bite-sized pieces of content that cannot replace an entire expansion. But not much bad can be said about the Living World and the new chronicle feature. Lore fans and players who simply enjoy good stories are well accommodated here. For casual players, there are also achievements, though that may not be to everyone’s taste.
Things are going well in China, not so with eSports
A big plus for Guild Wars 2 in recent months has been the expansion into China, which has filled the war chests, although it has not doubled the player count as initially reported incorrectly.
On the other hand, there is eSports. ArenaNet seems determined to establish this as a pillar. It doesn’t really seem to be catching on. At Gamescom in Cologne, they invited top players from around the world, but the viewer numbers on Twitch and media coverage were disheartening. When watching the matches, you can see why: It’s confusing, seems random to the untrained eye, and is fixed on cooldowns. It’s a bit like watching table tennis: professionals may recognize the spin of the ball and how well the tactic works; a layperson cannot grasp that. ArenaNet continues to try to establish eSports as a third pillar, offers high prize money, and wants to promote it – the road ahead may be arduous.
Communication problems: I want to tell you that I have nothing to say to you
One of the problems with Guild Wars 2, at least from the perspective of the vocal forum community: ArenaNet focuses too much on PvP and the Living World; they neglect other aspects of the game. At Gamescom, developers were questioned on numerous topics: When will the first-person perspective come, are there new dungeons, when will the Super Adventure Box return, what happens here, what there?
The developers responded evasively and only briefly to these questions. When it was stated regarding the “Super Adventure Box,” a quirky and cult event, that they did not want to bring that back within the Living World, emotions ran high on Reddit. The responding developer didn’t say much, but it was interpreted as “ArenaNet has no interest in this, it’s not important enough for them; they are working contrary to our wishes.”
ArenaNet’s corporate policy is to refrain from speculating about “future developments” to avoid raising expectations that later may be disappointed. This often leads to frustration in daily life, for example, when new dungeons are asked about, and a developer replies that they have nothing to announce.
Perspective: Well … quite good; an expansion would not be bad
As soon as ArenaNet announces an expansion, Asuras will raise their hands in the air.
Some speculate that the time has come for the big expansion. They’ve heard suspiciously little from many high-profile developers in ArenaNet’s service: Something must be up!
At the moment, the game is well positioned: The China deal has done Guild Wars 2 good, and the Buy2Play model can repeatedly ensure that ex-players find their way back to Tyria. Much speaks for the idea that an expansion could provide a boost in 2015. Or they continue with the Living World and bring feature packs at regular intervals.
Guild Wars 2 could greatly benefit, albeit a delicate issue, if it decides what it actually wants to be. Like few other MMOs, Guild Wars 2 runs the risk of investing a lot of work in areas that large parts of its player base do not find interesting, as they play GW 2 for a completely different reason. An expansion that offers something for everyone “across the board” is thus attractive. Also because most players connect their best memories of Guild Wars 2 with leveling and exploring in the early days.
WildStar was still in the distant future in April. The developers had not made any noteworthy errors until then. That continued: The release went smoothly, the reviews were excellent; however, in recent weeks, a kind of funeral atmosphere has emerged around the game, and some comments read like a farewell.
The sales figures are sobering, the player count seems to be shrinking, the servers that were initially opened additionally now seem empty. And it gets even worse: It is assumed that WildStar players will be the most affected by the pull of the Warlords of Draenor release. What the hell is going on with WildStar? Why hasn’t it become the hit that was expected?
Where is the target audience?
In a way, you could say WildStar has managed to deliver exactly what the target audience wanted, but it seems that audience was smaller than expected. Hardcore raiding like in Vanilla WoW was promised. Tough dungeons that were fair and hard were promised. Exciting elite PvP content in which players could blow up bases against each other in 40 vs. 40 matches was promised. All of that was delivered at launch. Raiders are thrilled with the Gen archives and speak of the best “start content” of an MMO ever.
However, there had to be a retreat on Warplots, the elite PvP content, and they had to reduce to 30 vs. 30. Reason: A lack of players. Little has been heard from the arena scene, except that win trading was used so that PvE raiders could exchange weapons with each other. And the dungeons are indeed very tough and must be executed almost perfectly, which led to players in random groups attacking each other until it became more attractive to finish the dungeon somehow instead of perfectly.
What are the problems?
WildStar is currently a puzzle. Opinions are strongly divided. One can agree on the fact that it has “fallen short of expectations” – and even that is not universally accepted at this point.
When one looks into the causes of WildStar’s issues, one quickly becomes an MMO grave digger and a bird flight interpreter:
Problem 1: The transitions from 1 to 5 to 20 to 40
WildStar forces the player to transition in behavior, and some may get lost along the way. Until level 50, one can play solo, after which 5 players are needed to continue, then 20 for the first raid, and 40 for the second. These jumps require compromises from every player and a willingness to team up. Furthermore, in WildStar, you are dependent on your social contacts and their maintenance.
Problem 2: WildStar eats its children: Cannibalization of guilds
WildStar has somehow managed to amplify the difficulties that every MMO has with raids. Raid guilds run out of players, they poach players from other guilds, causing drama and guilds to break apart. In a guild, there is a performance gap, some want to raid, while others are still on the attunement quest, which creates drama, leading to guilds falling apart. With every guild collapse, in such a fresh game, the left-behind or disappointed players frustratedly leave the game. Now, this is not a problem unique to WildStar, but why does it impact WildStar so drastically?
Because the servers feel so small and empty, the guilds “below” cannot recruit anymore. Since the attunement quest poses a tremendous hurdle on the way into raids, it’s harder to find raid-capable personnel than in other games.
Problem 3: Were the guest passes a mistake at the beginning?
And why are the servers so empty? Because there are too many. And why are there too many? Because WildStar started with guest passes to lure players in to try the game for free. They all needed a place, so new servers were opened. Many of them have since left the game, and their spots remain empty. And now you understand why no other game does this and why guest passes and trial actions usually only occur after the first wave of players has already left the MMO.
Problem 4-800: Something else
Many players also have specific complaints: The world is too flashy, too silly, too colorful. There’s a dead phase in the mid-level. The spark just doesn’t jump over. The challenges create a strange hecticness and pressure. After eight hours of work, there’s no desire to exhaust oneself in the game. Or the balancing in PvP is terrible after a patch.
Perspective: Was it a botched launch or what?
It would be unreasonable to call WildStar a botched launch, as a botched launch doesn’t receive great reviews and achieves such popularity among hardcore fans as WildStar has now. It seems to be the case that the target audience for WildStar is significantly smaller than initially thought.
Perhaps many fans believed they were still hardcore, but due to changed life situations, they are no longer. Maybe the mix of “We want WoW veterans” and “we’re making a rather colorful setting” was poorly chosen. Maybe Carbine underestimated summer as a “factor.” After all, WildStar demands commitment. Or the game is somehow missing a kick or some vaguely defined element that would make it a blockbuster.
Even WildStar has recognized the signs of the times and is beginning to adjust: The access quest will be weakened, the perfection pressure from instances will be alleviated, the warplots will require fewer players, and they will also address the issue of poorly populated servers. However, that will require more time and a different pace. The promise of bringing new content every month has been retracted.
How loyal the players are to the game, whether WildStar will succeed in retaining more players, increasing the numbers… and how WildStar, Guild Wars 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online will perform in November when the giant World of Warcraft awakens from its more than a year-long slumber, will be exciting questions for our next State of Play column.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
A fan of the somewhat outdated Free2Play MMO Lord of the Rings Online has given the characters a makeover.
Left old, right new. More from Norael can be found at reddit
World of Warcraft, even older than Lord of the Rings Online, has shown how to do it with great effort; now a fan follows suit in Lord of the Rings Online: The characters are getting a new look.
Of course, the reddit poster “Norael” does not have the resources of Blizzard, but with a bit of tweaking, pulling, cleaning, and smoothing, one can still make significant progress. At least that’s what some fans on reddit and US MMO magazines reported.
For those rejoicing at the pictures: There is no way to implement these “new and improved” textures into the game. But perhaps something will change in the future.
Recently, a fan single-handedly completed an outstanding trailer for the game for Guild Wars 2; in Lord of the Rings Online, a dedicated fan is also doing impressive work. Maybe this will become a new trend.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Guild Wars 2, the major September patch is supposed to solve some of the difficulties that Europeans in particular have been struggling with since April. With global guilds, better algorithms, and new features, they aim to eliminate the stomach aches caused by the mega-servers.
When the last major feature patch for Guild Wars 2 was released in April, there were complaints in the weeks and months that followed. While the new features were nice, the patch also brought mega-servers to Tyria – and they were not well received. What caused little trouble in China or the USA created issues in Europe with the various national languages. Additionally, players complained about overcrowded maps, a loss of identification with “their” server, and difficulties arranging activities with guild mates. We have extensively reported on the chaos and frustration caused by the mega-servers.
Global Guilds as a Solution: Influence, Vault, Unlocks
In the weeks and months that followed, ArenaNet stated that they continued to work on the algorithms that determined which player was placed in which instance of a zone and with whom they were sent there. In the September patch, ArenaNet addresses this area again.
With “global guilds” that are already running in China, it will be ensured that regardless of which server one is on, they can still contribute to their home guild.
The patch also introduces a solution for the guild vault: Here, the one with the most tabs will count going forward. The items in smaller vaults on other servers are said not to be lost, as they will remain in extra slots.
For guild missions, a temporary solution for small and medium-sized guilds seems to have been found, where reservations and preferences of guild mates for the specific instance of a map where the guild mission starts will be worked on. For larger guilds, a solution is still being worked on.
Compensation for Map Switchers
If too many copies of a map are created, and too many instances of an area are open, a map closes in Guild Wars 2. More and more players disappear from it and move to other instances. This mechanism is now intended to be changed by warning players that they are about to switch instances. Those who immediately shout, “Here, take me! I’m switching right away!” will receive a small EXP and Karma bonus, as well as a speed boost for 10 minutes.
Furthermore, they want to continue to refine the algorithms, especially those that ensure that players are sent to maps where they feel comfortable and can communicate. They do not want to completely separate the different language groups in Europe, but they would like to take more consideration of them.
The major feature patch is set to be released on September 9.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the MMO shooter Destiny, there will be no trading between players. Every item must be earned with sweat and tears, the developers write.
In the Q&A from the last blog post, the designers from Bungie also spoke about a possible trading system. After all, Destiny is an MMO, and for many fans, a functioning trading system is part of it.
But Bungie has different views: “The only trading that will be possible is with enemies. There, you exchange your ammunition for their equipment.”
Trading is possible within a Destiny account
Every little gem in a player’s possession is supposed to be connected with memories and stories, paid for with blood and sweat. Not traded for mere money. Only the Guardians under the banner of an account can trade items amongst themselves. No piece of equipment leaves a player’s possession in Destiny. They are meant to be earned, not traded.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The SF-MMO WildStar is likely to address one of the most pressing issues: servers with too low population.
Especially in an MMO that relies heavily on group and raid content like WildStar, well-populated servers are important. This has not always been guaranteed in recent weeks and months. Particularly on those servers that were additionally provided during the rush at the release, there was little activity. Now, it seems they are clearly looking to tackle the problem.
Stephan Frost, the Game Design Producer and something like the face of WildStar, addressed the complaints of a fan suffering from acute loneliness on his server in a tweet last night. He tweeted that they would take care of it and are still working on the technical side of a solution. You will hear about it soon.
What this could mean is still completely open. A “small solution” could be to allow transfers from PvE to PvP servers, which many request. A medium or larger solution would be X-Realm features or even a kind of mega-server.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The Korean MMO Black Desert is coming to North America and Europe. The publisher Daum is currently setting up its offices in the West and discussing the release date.
In an interview with the developers of Pearl Abyss at Chinajoy, the beginning of 2015 was already mentioned as a possible date for the start of the closed beta in North America and Europe. Those who thought this might mean that it would start soon will now be disappointed. The Korean publisher Daum, which releases Black Desert in Korea and will distribute it in the West, is likely to stick to the Asian beta method.
Betas in Asia are different for MMOs than for us
Here in the West, MMO games are developed for a long time in secrecy, until they invite a small group of testers. The later, larger beta phases often take place just before release and have more of a PR character – with short beta weekends that are only a few days apart, like in The Elder Scrolls Online, WildStar, or now at ArcheAge.
In contrast, in Asia, the public is allowed access to a game earlier, then it is locked again for a few months and reopened later for a certain time.
Due to this cultural difference, we in the West often feel that a game has either been in beta forever and will never be released, or we think it has already been published for years, while it is still in development.
Daum seems to be choosing the Asian beta model for Black Desert
Daum will likely also apply the Asian model to Black Desert. Although the first beta, according to Pearl Abyss, could come as early as the beginning of 2015, Daum’s publishers expect a release date only at the beginning of 2016. They acknowledge that the end of 2015 would be desirable.
At the moment, Daum is setting up its offices and business spaces in the West. The actual focus for Black Desert is currently likely on the Korean third closed beta, which will start in November. The CBT 3 is supposed to bring or refine some key systems in the MMO – such as guild quests or castle sieges.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Blizzard’s free online card game Hearthstone swept the main prizes at Unite in Seattle. Here, the developers and users of the “Unity” engine honor the best games developed with this engine each year.
The game engine Unity is one of the most widely used game engines in the world. Blizzard’s Hearthstone was also developed on it. Since 2008, the developers of “Unity” have regularly awarded prizes to the best games that run on their engine. One of the biggest advantages of “Unity” is that it allows developers to create games that can easily be ported to various platforms. Thus, a port for Android and iPhone is also planned for Hearthstone. Previous winners of a “Golden Cube”, the main prize of the event, include “Total War Battles: Shogun” and last year’s winner “Endless Space”.
Hearthstone is likely the largest and most commercially successful game taking home the prize. And David Helgason, the CEO of Unity Technologies, honors this special occasion: In the past, they recognized the developers who created the best games with the Unity engine. Today, they are honoring some of the best games overall. In addition to the Golden Cube, Hearthstone also won the award for best gameplay.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
