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The Summoner's Guidebook: Wealth and power in League of Legends

Opinion, Free-to-Play, Guides, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook

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The Summoner's Guidebook Wealth and power in League of Legends
Although it's nothing unusual to see commenters complain about something I wrote in the Summoner's Guidebook, last week I noticed a trend. A lot of people explained things like "Karthus is good with a Tear," which led me to believe that there were some bad assumptions that were held by some of you.

Sometimes we take certain things we know for granted. It's why people say League of Legends is an easy game when it's actually very difficult and complex. In the same way, I mostly assumed that people understood the basic idea of using wealth to get you ahead in the game.

However, it seems like for the most part people do not. Everyone understands the idea that getting gold gets you items and items make you stronger. However, it doesn't seem to be widely understood that because you can turn wealth into power, you want to turn it into as much power as you can right now and leverage it to put you ahead. Power now is always better than power later.

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The Guild Counsel: How to share power (and live to talk about it)

Guilds, Opinion, The Guild Counsel, Miscellaneous

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The Guild Counsel  How to share power and live to talk about it
Many guilds rely on a set structure of leadership, with a chain of command composed of officers and a guild leader at the top. But it's no easy task for one person to handle all of the responsibilities of management, and sometimes, a guild will instead use a system of co-leadership to make things work.

It's a delicate balance, but having more than one person as a leader can be an effective way of running a successful guild. Let's look at what enables this unorthodox leadership structure to work well in this week's Guild Counsel.

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Owner of eSports team charged with participation in massive hacking operation

Culture, MMO Industry, News Items

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It's probably a coincidence, right?
What do League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counterstrike have in common? If you answered "all three games were played by eSports team Moscow 5," you are remarkably well-informed and also correct. And if you're that well-informed, you also probably know that the team owner, Dmitry Smilianets, was arrested a year ago as part of an investigation by the FBI. What you might not be aware of is that Smilianets has now been officially charged with taking part in a massive hacking network along with five other Russian and Ukranian nationals.

According to a statement by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, this represents the largest such case tried in the US, as Smilianets and his accomplices are charged with stealing at least 160 million debit and credit card numbers. Smilianets is in custody, as he was arrested while sightseeing in the United States, and is expected to be in federal court next week.

Aeria to publish F.E.A.R. Online

Betas, Horror, Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play

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Aeria publishing FEAR Online
Quick, which F2P company do you think is publishing an online version of the much-loved psychological horror-thriller-first-person-shooter F.E.A.R. franchise? If you said Aeria, the firm that brought us Eden Eternal and Lime Odyssey, well, you get a gold star.

Anyway, yes, Aeria is publishing F.E.A.R. Online, which appears to be a continuation of the story of Alma Wade who has served as the series' primary mystery and antagonist since the original 2005 Monolith title. Aeria's press release mentions a co-op mode and several competitive team modes, with the new title's story supposedly running parallel to that of 2009's F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.

Though Aeria is publishing the game in the west, it is actually being developed in Korea by Inplay Interactive. You can sign up for a beta slot on the title's official website.

[Source: Aeria press release]

TERA introduces tasty new weapon skins

Fantasy, News Items, Free-to-Play, TERA

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Fear the power of the salmon!
TERA fans, have you ever been squaring off against a big-ass monster and found yourself thinking, "Man, it sure would be great if I could beat the stuffing out of this guy with a plate of salmon nigiri?" If so, you're either crazy hungry or just plain crazy, but that's fine because the folks at En Masse Entertainment have you covered.

That's right, the latest addition to TERA's cash shop is a new set of weapon skins themed around a variety of delightful epicurean treats. The weapon skins range from the barely logical, such as a swordfish that replaces the Slayer's greatsword, to the completely absurd, like the Archer's new bow which has been haphazardly constructed with some bananas and a slice of watermelon. If you wanna check out all the ridiculous new offerings for yourself, just head on over to the game's official site. But take our advice and don't do it on an empty stomach.

You'll want to watch the new ArcheAge intro video

Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, ArcheAge, Sandbox

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ArcheAge fishing, yes FISHING!
Hey ArcheAge fans and the mildly curious, you're going to want to watch the latest XLGAMES trailer!

According to Steparu, this is the new login movie for the Korean version of the game. It's also quite a nifty marketing tool and may even sway a few of you fence-sitters since it shows off just about everything that sets ArcheAge apart from other MMORPGs.

Whether you're into sieging, player weddings, car races, underwater exploration, hang-gliding, bikinis, sailing ships, or dragons, there's plenty of that and more contained in the clip's three-a-half-minute running time. See for yourself after the cut.

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Guild Wars celebrates Wintersday in July

Fantasy, Guild Wars, Events (In-Game), Buy-to-Play

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Guild Wars celebrates Wintersday in July
What is this? A winter celebration in the middle of summer? Guild Wars, you're so crazy! We love you, though.

The classic Guild Wars is taking a break from reminding us that it still exists and is quite fun too by throwing an encore of its Wintersday celebration. Wintersday in July began yesterday and will continue until July 31st.

There are plenty of activities to enjoy, including the snowball arena. The game will also drop plenty of cool rewards like fruitcake. OK, the game will also drop plenty of cool rewards except for fruitcake, which is nasty and evil to its sticky core. So egg nog it up with your fellow Tyrians for the next week because the hot weather is coming back!

RuneFest rents out London's Tobacco Dock

Fantasy, Culture, Events (Real-World), RuneScape, Free-to-Play

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RuneFest details emerge
Get ready to party with the best of RuneScape's fans at RuneFest this fall! Jagex has announced that the fan convention will take place on November 2nd at the Tobacco Dock in London with a RuneScape gods theme. The team chose the Tobacco Dock for its unique look and central location.

RuneFest is a one-day convention where fans will get to meet each other and the developers. Jagex has yet to announce the ticket price and schedule, although the studio said it is planning "some extra-special surprises" for the event. The official RuneFest page is back up and running.

PAX Australia 2013: Psykopig remix edition

Video, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, Events (Massively's Coverage)

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PAX Australia 2013 - Psykopig remix edition
Massively's David "Psykopig" Desi has just returned from PAX Australia 2013. There was a lot of excitement and even more people at the con, and to give you an idea of what it was like, we've put together a series of videos detailing Piggy's adventures.

The first of three clips can be found past the break. It's filled with plenty of Pig dancing and plenty of cosplay, some of it awkward and some of it amazing. Stick around to the end to see a special appearance from one of Star Wars' most infamous characters!

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Firefall's open beta trailer highlights dynamic events

Sci-Fi, Trailers, Video, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, Patches, PvP, News Items, Free-to-Play, Firefall

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Firefall's open beta trailer highlights dynamic events
If you happen to be in Cologne, Germany next month, you can stop by Firefall's booth at Gamescom to check out the inbound improvements and new content because Red 5 Studios announced that it is returning to the convention this year. James Macauley, Vice President of Development, invited players to drop in: "There are plenty more upcoming additions and features to talk about at Gamescom, so come and visit us on the show floor!" The studio will discuss the dynamic events, three new melding pockets, the upcoming Gamescom milestone, and more.

Firefall fans, however, don't have to wait until Gamescom to see some of the new content coming to the PvP game. A newly released official open beta trailer, shown after the break, showcases these dynamic events, combat rewards, unlocking the world, and more. To join open beta, sign up on the site.

[Source: Red 5 Studios press release]

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RIFT's Ffinch on monetization and playing incognito

Fantasy, Business Models, Interviews, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, RIFT

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RIFT's Ffinch on monetization and playing incognito
RIFT senior design director Simon Ffinch spoke to PCGamesN about the fantasy title's free-to-play conversion recently. Ffinch said the switch has "been amazing," and he also offers a few quotables with regard to both F2P discourse and the perils of playing a game you've developed.

"I just hate that word 'monetize,' Ffinch said. "'Let's monetize our players!' They're people and they're playing a game because they want to have fun, they're not a frickin' ATM machine. I don't like that attitude at all, and in the business world you can't help but hear it."

He also drops a few interesting tidbits about his in-game experiences. "I'm in a guild and they don't even know I'm a dev," Ffinch says, before adding that he avoids voice chat but tries to "gently probe" his fellow players for useful feedback. "Some of the responses just make me glow inside," Ffinch explains," but then there's also the other side of it, when they respond with 'I don't know what those devs were doing, they're frickin retarded!'"

Raptr hosts Neverwinter dev Q&A, prizes offered

Fantasy, Contests, Events (Real-World), Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, Community Q&A;, Promotions, Neverwinter

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Raptr hosts Neverwinter Q&A, prizes offered
Raptr, a gaming community that touts it rewards people for playing, is turning its rewarding eye toward Neverwinter players. The site is hosting a Q&A session with Lead Designer Zeke Sparkes, Foundry Producer Rob Overmeyer, and Community Manager Som Pourfarzaneh tomorrow, July 26th, from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m. EDT. Fans wishing to lob questions at these devs about the upcoming Fury of the Feywild module or the Foundry can leave their queries in the Q&A thread starting now. The community can also "like" others' questions, and the ones with the most likes will be answered first.

But wait, what about the reward mentioned? That would be three Feywild starter packs, one for each of the top three questions submitted; these top questions, however, will be determined by the Raptr staff, not the likes.

[Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]

Vanguard producer's letter talks Pankor Zhi, bug fixes, and a new network layer

Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, Vanguard, Free-to-Play

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Vanguard producer's letter talks Pankor Zhi, bug fixes, and a new network layer
Well, what do we have here? Is... is that a Vanguard producer's letter? It is a Vanguard producer's letter!

SOE's Harvey "Rahtiz" Burgess does the honors, and he says that those of you who've been away from Telon for a while will notice some changes starting with a new network layer. "While this won't solve all of the issues that we have had since the launch of Vanguard," Burgess explains, "what it will do is help us track down problematic areas of latency where we will be able to examine and resolve. Before this, we didn't really have an adequate way of troubleshooting these issues."

The Vanguard team has also squashed over 50 long-standing bugs and is also still working on Pankor Zhi, though Burgess notes that it "is definitely going to be a long-term project for us." There's more to the letter, of course, so head to the official Vanguard site to read it all.

GoblinWorks 'solidly on track' to hit Pathfinder's early enrollment goal

Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Sandbox, Pathfinder Online

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GoblinWorks 'solidly on track' to hit Pathfinder's early enrollment goal
GoblinWorks is breaking up Pathfinder Online's development process into quarterly chunks. These chunks are known as milestones, and the latest dev blog for the fantasy sandbox title says milestone one was completed on April 15th while milestone two wrapped on July 15th.

The first quarter goal involved getting the game's tools and pipeline firmly in place, as well as "switching to the Unity middleware engine." The second milestone involved core game systems as well as the integration of a procedural terrain sculpting tool called Grome, the escalation system for PvE content, and plenty of art and programming work.

So what about milestone three? That's covered in the lengthy dev blog as well, and GoblinWorks' Ryan Dancey says that it boils down to "polish polish polish." He also mentions that the team is "solidly on track to hit our early enrollment goal." You can read the full entry at the GoblinWorks website.

[Thanks Chrysillis!]

The Daily Grind: Do you try to recruit your friends to play MMOs?

MMO Industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind

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These aren't my friends but rather some random Age of Wushu NPCs
Try as I might, I can't get many of my meatspace friends interested in MMOs. I've corrupted a couple, mind you, but most simply don't get it. Well, let me rephrase. They get what MMOs are, who doesn't, really, but they don't get the appeal.

To be fair, there are days when I don't either, but I still enjoy the genre more often than not, and therefore I'm prone to try impromptu recruiting pitches to random family members, friends, and acquaintances. What about you, Massively readers? Do you try to recruit your friends to play MMOs? How successful have you been?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

MMO Family: The many ways video games teach children

Kids, MMO Family, Family, Miscellaneous

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MMO Family  The many ways video games teach children
Video games get a bad rap these days, but we've looked at several ways that they do redeem themselves. One area in particular is games-based learning, and there are some great games that are helping bring about a revolution in how we look at education.

But there are some more subtle ways that video games are teaching our children, too, and Forbes Contributing Editor Jordan Shapiro has put together a list of five types of learning through video games, regardless of whether a child is playing a serious game or is just putzing around. Let's look at the "other" side of learning through gaming, and see how it's perfectly tailored towards kid-friendly MMO experiences.

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Choose My Adventure: Revisiting Middle-earth

Fantasy, Polls, Lord of the Rings Online, Classes, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Choose My Adventure

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Choose my Adventure Revisiting Middleearth
The people have spoken, and the people want me to play Lord of the Rings Online! With 449 votes (26.6% of the total vote), LotRO edged out APB: Reloaded to be the game that I'll be playing for the next six weeks in this edition of Choose My Adventure.

But the question is: How will I play the game? LotRO is one of those classic MMOs with so much content that we won't be hurting for choices. I bought the lifetime option when the game launched, making me a current VIP, so this should open up some additional options.

For this first week, you'll be choosing how I begin. Should I use an existing character or start fresh? Check out the polls after the jump below while I try to remember my account name and password.

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PAX Australia 2013: Aussies on cosplay, World of Tanks, and more

Video, Culture, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, Events (Massively's Coverage)

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PAX Australia 2013 Aussies on World of Tanks and more
The PAX Australia 2013 coverage continues as Massively's David "Psykopig" Desi gets down and dirty with the people of PAX. Follow along after the break to catch what some Australians thought of World of Tanks as well as their general impressions of the event as it unfolded!

And while we're talking WoT, don't forget to check out our interview with Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi.

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Creating the DDO: Shadowfell Conspiracy character of your dreams

Betas, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Classes, Expansions, Previews, Free-to-Play

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Creating the DDO Shadowfell Conspiracy character of your dreams
Last week, we sat down with Turbine to look at Dungeons and Dragons Online: Shadowfell Conspiracy's new adventure hub of Wheloon. But running through these special missions and dungeons are only part of the expansion, as your character's growth and build are always at the core of DDO. So for our second sit-down session covering the upcoming expansion, Turbine chose to focus on the three new iconic classes coming to the game and the overhaul to the enhancement system that should make building the character of your dreams a lot easier.

Prior to adding new enhancements, reincarnations, or epic destinies, DDO had only a meager 250,000,000,000,000 possible builds to choose from. No, we didn't fall asleep pressing the "0" key. But now the choices are even greater, which is why it's of increasing importance that players understand what their characters are capable of doing and how to best build a functional toon. After all, even Turbine admits that many of the 250 trillion builds "are not really great to play with."

So what will be fun to play? And why should players be interested in rolling one of the new iconic classes instead of sticking with their tried-and-true Bards?

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City of Heroes spiritual successor plans Kickstarter for Sept. 8th

Betas, Super-hero, Interviews, Miscellaneous, Crowdfunding

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City of Heroes spiritual successor plans Kickstarter for Sept 8th
One of the candidates vying to be the spiritual successor to City of Heroes will be moving into its fundraising stage come this September. Missing Worlds Media's The Phoenix Project, is preparing a Kickstarter campaign for September 8th. The team says that if all goes well (read: the project gets the moolah it needs), the title could be launched by the end of 2015, although it's hoping to get an avatar creator in our hands by next summer.

In an interview with Polygon, Technical Director Nate Downes said that the project is 25% to 33% done, although the game is being made completely by 136 volunteers who have other jobs or are full-time students. The Phoenix Project is being built using the Unreal Engine, as Epic has licensed the engine to Missing Worlds with no money down until the team gets funded.

Downes hopes that fans will continue to rally to the cause: "This project has grown out of the community that was left behind when City of Heroes closed, so it's really just a lot of passionate people getting together to rebuild that home for themselves."

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Release Dates

Core Games List | Games in Testing
AoW: Legends of Mt. Hua August 8
FFXIV: ARR Launch August 27
SMITE Launch Summer 2013
Transformers Universe Launch Fall 2013
WildStar Launch 2013
Elder Scrolls Online Launch Spring 2014
Destiny Launch 2014

 

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