For your account security, dynamic password protection system should be verified by yourself through your E-mail. So as soon as you receive notes from us or see the authentication letter, please contact us. Thanks for your cooperation and we will do our best for you.
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The MMOValue Team
You might want to strap in, for the road connecting the facts on this one is bumpy indeed — but intriguing as well. Via 1UP comes the word that search engine giant Google has hired Mark DeLoura to work on game development for the Android and Chrome OS. DeLoura brings with him a truckload of game consulting experience, and had a few interesting comments about the new job on his blog:
“Over the years I’ve seen Google ship products that seemed very useful for game developers, like Google SketchUp and 3D Warehouse. I always wondered why they didn’t dive into games further – or, perhaps they were, and they were doing it in secret! 
Google Lively was probably the closest thing to a game that they produced. When I started hearing about their work on O3D, I began to get very curious about what Google was planning. Clearly there are a number of initiatives going on at Google that can relate to games in some way. Those of you who attended GDC for example saw a massive push for games for Android, with Google giving away perhaps thousands of Android devices. Now seemed like the perfect time to join Google!”
So what does this have to do with the world of MMOs? Perhaps nothing, perhaps a great deal. If you’ll recall, Google experimented with an online avatar experience called Lively that was closed in early 2009. Even though Lively was not a roaring success, Google’s interest in the games market and their prior foray into online worlds could signal a possible future contender in our neck of the woods.
The Might and Magic franchise is coming to the MMORPG genre, courtesy of publishing giant Ubisoft and the Chinese development studio known as TQ Digital. The original Might and Magic series, considered by many to be a classic example of the early PC roleplaying game genre, was rebooted by Ubisoft in 2006 with Heroes of Might and Magic V, and later with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.
The new MMORPG, Heroes of Might and Magic Online, is slated for closed beta in May 2010. The game will marry elements from an early entry in the franchise, Heroes of Might and Magic III, to the visual upgrades established in the last two Ubisoft games, culminating in a 2.5D massively multiplayer experience featuring a turn-based persistent world. (Perhaps similar to the 3D but turn-based Atlantica Online.)
The game will feature eight factions, sixteen classes, and a variety of campaign missions. Additionally, TQ Digital will be hosting a variety of PvP events, including Team PK, Extreme PK, and various Guild combat events. You can register for the closed beta as well as visit the official website, and don’t forget to stay with Massively for more info on Heroes of Might and Magic Online as it becomes available.
If you’re a MAG player, you know that the Electronics skill tree is one of the more confusing in the game. The fine folks at MAG realized it can be a bit much to figure out, and recently posted some help on the game’s official blog.
It’s a long entry, but very well done, breaking the explanation down by item. Each individual item is further broken down by effect, stacking and activation information, and miscellaneous important points, so it’s fairly simple to navigate and figure out.
It’s a valuable resource for players, made even more so by the addition of a discussion thread linking back to the blog entry, giving the fans a chance to discuss the skills among themselves and ask more questions.
If you’re a MAG fan who has been a bit frustrated in the past by the Electronics skill tree, you’ll definitely want to check this out.
There are parts of the game that you look at it without a great deal of affection. They’re bland but functional, the sort of thing that doesn’t show up in pre-release screenshots for obvious reasons. Then there are the parts that you look at that could curdle milk based solely on the visuals. They bring you to a state of Lovecraftian horrible knowledge about the hideous true nature of the universe.
Maybe something has been modeled to be something particularly ugly, or perhaps it’s a combination of poor polygon counts and bad choices in terms of color. In creator-heavy games such as City of Heroes and Champions Online, you might wind up with a character whose calculated appearance is eye-searing. What’s universal is that they are so ugly that even if you’re used to playing games with unskinned conglomerates of polygons, they strike you as downright hideous.
What have you seen in your favorite game that made you just recoil in shock, horror, and possibly disgust? Was it a badly-designed model, or something that was meant to be horrific and succeeded far too well? Did you take screenshots to prove how nauseating it was, or did you just get away and never look back?
Star Vault’s Mortal Online seems to be progressing quite nicely as their second stage of closed beta is set to open next week. On August 3rd, 2,000 more players will be unleashed on the beta servers with even more to come in the following months. As previously mentioned, these blocks of beta players will be let in according to a schedule posted on their site. With 10k total slots available in the beta, players who pre-order the game are being allowed in every other week from July 20th to September 14th.
If you’re curious about this highly-anticipated MMO, check out their website or our recent coverage for more information on how to play and how to pre-order and secure your own spot in the beta.
One of the things many people love about Guild Wars is the tremendous imagination and feel of the artwork in the games. While we didn’t get a description to go with this interesting screenshot taken by Logen, it reminds me of a gorgeous piece of art from Guild Wars. The work in question won a prize at the Into The Pixel showing at E3 2008. Thankfully, the artwork is available on the Into The Pixel site for everyone to enjoy. Check out today’s great One Shots full size, and then look at the ITP gallery piece from artist Tyler West. We think you’ll see the connection too.
Are you one of the people who really love the artwork in Guild Wars? We’d love to show off more, but we need your screenshots to make that happen. Send your best screenshots (all MMOs welcome) to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, a description of the area, and the name of the game. We’ll post them out here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit.
See, this is what happens when we let Seccia write titles for us. Ughs… sorry about that readers. We don’t proclaim any victory, nor do we have any rage towards the citizens of Norrath or EverQuest II. We are, as always, unbiased in our viewpoints… unlike some new Dark Elven interns.
However, Seccia has noted that we’ve received a package today from a member of her elven bretheren, a certain community management elf by the name of Kiara. Enclosed were two pieces of a shattered tablet, one named “Victory” while the other was entitled “Rage.” We’re not sure what this whole thing will form once it’s put together, but we do know that other fansites have more pieces of the tablet. (Oh, Dark Elves and their puzzles.)
We’ve put the pictures of victory and rage after the break, so good luck with assembling the tablet and we can’t wait to see what it reveals!
If you’re a fan of The Chronicles of Spellborn, Beau Turkey at Spouse Aggro found something today that will make you very happy. There have been rumors floating around lately about a restructuring of the game, and those rumors were recently confirmed on the official forums by Howard Marks, the CEO of Acclaim Games: “The rumors are true! Spellborn Version Two is on the way.”
Marks went on to explain that the new version has already been released in Japan to great success. They’ve been fine tuning it, and plans for the English version are underway. If you are a current player of The Chronicles of Spellborn, be sure you have a valid email address on file with Acclaim, because everyone playing the current version will be invited to beta test the new version via email.
While details are minimal at this point, it’s great news for players to know that more is on the way. You can take a look at the forum announcement here, and Beau’s take from a fan point of view here.
We’re always on the lookout for more info about Earthrise, an upcoming sandbox MMO with a far future, post-apocalyptic setting. The latest interview updating on the game’s status is a Ten Ton Hammer Q&A with Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov. The studio head explains a bit about the combat system revamp, aimed at keeping Earthrise’s combat dynamic and fast-paced, with a more intuitive interface as well.
The interview also hits upon how they’re fine tuning the game’s economic systems as well as balancing rewards as players progress, plus Atanasov talks a bit about Earthrise’s “exploration mode” (which imparts faster movement but greater vulnerability to damage) and specialized crafting. Check out Ten Ton Hammer’s Q&A with Atanas Atanasov for an update on the state of Earthrise.
Patch 3.3.2, the next minor content patch, will include the much requested strength-based rings for melee DPS from the Ashen Verdict reputation. This should make warriors, paladins, and death knights quite happy. This afternoon Zarhym has released the stats for the different reputation levels (friendly, exalted, etc…), which we have for you after the break.
The minor content patch will also bring with it an influx of other small changes, as well as arena season 8. You can check out all the changes in the translated version of the patch notes that were discovered last night.
The rings after the break.
Read more…
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, a quick and dirty guide to raising one’s tree from a young sapling to a mighty oak, or other suitably impressive arboreal species.
Whenever other columnists here write really good columns, I sit at my computer and swear a blue streak, for I am a jealous god. Sacco, damn him, turned out a great article on the basics of elemental shamans, and for a while I’ve been kicking around bits and pieces of 101-esque columns for all four druid specs. This was the last shove I needed to get that done. While I expect our new balance blogger (a.k.a. Murmurs, the person I will be forcing to do all my number-crunching in the future with bribes or, when necessary, threats) will address moonkin, I’ll cover bears, cats, and today, trees.
Read more…
The Icecrown Citadel raid overview here on WoW.com has been updated with even more information on the bosses contained in the Plagueworks, which has opened this week. You’ll find summaries on the new bosses along with links to other resources like loot, videos and detailed strategy for Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide. If you’re just setting foot in the instance now, don’t worry as there are resources for the first bosses in the Lower Spire.
Enjoy and good luck!
The launch of Cryptic’s Star Trek Online is less than a month away, and player feelings are mixed. Whether you can’t wait for launch, or are apprehensive that Cryptic is rolling it out so quickly, it’s safe to say that people are very interested to see how it turns out.
To help alleviate the wait, Cryptic has released a brand new trailer entitled Exploration. It’s a great look at…well, exploration in Star Trek Online, both on the ground and in space. There are some great looking landscapes — both familiar and unfamiliar — and a look at several different races throughout the trailer. As a little bonus, we get a peek at some battle scenes and weaponry, which seems to consist heavily of various types of phaser fire exchange. No actual hand-to-hand is seen, but Cryptic has assured us it exists, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
NCsoft hasn’t been having an easy start to the year, at least not in the eyes of security-minded players. The entire Guild Wars security question recently came to a head with suspicions and accusations that the flaw was something wrong with NCsoft’s account management, a black eye if ever there was one. Of course, that raises questions about not just Guild Wars, but any game under the company’s aegis, which includes City of Heroes. So it should come as little surprise that a reminder about account security has recently been posted on the official site.
The reminder itself is fairly standard boilerplate, reminding everyone to avoid giving out their account information to any other players, only log in from secure locations, and so forth. It also addresses the issue at hand in a roundabout fashion, mentioning that they found no malicious workarounds after investigating “current claims.” However, the very next line mentions that they have added more robust logging and security procedures, which can lead to the obvious conspiracy theories. With fewer items to be traded than many other games, City of Heroes has a smidge more built-in security — but a little extra reminder and caution never hurts.