Hey guys, I came across this cool little video yesterday while doing my daily rounds. It’s a World of Warcraft based comedy movie presented by Voig.com. It’s very well done and actually funny so go check it out.

http://mmovie.voig.com

Turbine has recently announced Volume II of Lord of the Rings Online, the first retail expansion called Mines of Moria, which is expected to be release sometime this fall. Some big changes are heading for LOTRO including a raise in the level cap to 60, two new classes, called the Warden and Rune-keeper and a new item advancement feature which will allow players to craft legendary items that will level up just like players. For instance Sting, Bilbo’s dagger that he gave to Frodo, would be a legendary item.

Aside from the two new classes, all classes will receive new traits, skills, virtues and class quests. There will also be 6 new books added to the epic storyline which will take the player through 3 new regions, Lorien, Moria and another that has not yet been named.

Lord of the Rings Online executive producer Jeffrey Steefel has stated that the Mines of Moria will be one single continuous underground world, not broken up into different regions or instances. Which is very cool, maybe you’ll be able to hear the banging on the drums as your walking through. Players will also get the chance to do battle with the Balrog that took our Gandalf in the first book of LOTR.

All of this sounds great, but nothing has been mentioned of the PvP region and if any changes are planned for it. I would hope that they continue to improve this aspect of the game as there are many PvP fans in LOTRO.

We also have some concept art provided by Turbine.

There are people in this world who absolutely love drama. I don’t know why but they are out there and they are evil. No, I’m not talking about your schools theatre department, or any of the local playwrights out and about in your town. Those people are cool… probably, whatever. No, the people I am talking about are the ones who absolutely love to stir the pot and make sure that whatever good mojo you had going gets completely clusterfucked. You know the kind of people I am talking about; they make a big deal out of nothing, demand something from somebody else, talk shit behind somebody’s back, etc. They are out there and chances are they hate you. So it comes as little surprise that our MMOs are no escape from these same people.

Guild drama is nothing new to MMORPGs. Hell, I remember playing a MUD back in 1997 on AOL and there being some sort of guild drama. I don’t remember the specifics, but it was annoying back then just as much as it is today.  Because of this, I have decided to offer my advice on this sensitive subject in the form of Do’s and Do Not’s. Following these helpful hints you can rest assured that your game will be all the more enjoyable:

Do Not attempt to reason with any of the involved parties who started the guild drama. Chances are there were at least two of them and if they get a chance they’ll try to drag you into it as well. They are guild destroyers, and they’ll have no remorse in taking you down with them.

Do try to diffuse the situation through other means. Often times if you do something so completely bizarre, or weird it will keep attention away from the drama. Drama thrives off of attention and if nobody cares then nothing will come of it.

Do Not take a side in the drama. This should really be a no-brainer but I still see it all the time. What good is going to come of taking a side in drama? It’s like throwing shit at a shit-monster. He likes it and your stuck with more shit. Having more people involved in guild drama only creates more tension and more conflict.

Do talk to the guild leadership. If you aren’t the guild leader, and you know that the guild leader isn’t actually involved in the drama make sure it comes to his/her attention. A quick boot to the drama starters is always the best remedy.

Do Not whine about the drama. First off, whining doesn’t solve anything. Second, nobody likes whiners. Take control of the situation if you have to, but do so with enough force and gusto that people believe you are in charge and in control. Anything less than that and your guildmates won’t take you serious.

Do leave the guild. If all of the above has failed then that means there is not much else for you to do. I suggest you pack up and take off from the guild before you get caught in the implosion that was once your friends.

These methods aren’t scientifically proven but they can help the situation. There is nothing worse than having to see your guild fall apart due to these people. On my WoW server, alone, I saw this happen about 6 times and each time I heard the stories of how it went down. So, not to sound all hokey or anything, but only YOU can prevent guild drama.

Thanks for reading.

Kudos to WoWDrama for the photo.

Today’s MMORPG worlds are vast and expansive. You need to look no farther than World of Warcraft to fully understand just how big some of these worlds can get. I once attempted to run from the southernmost point of Tanaris to Orgrimmar and bailed about half way through. Suffice it to say I was running for a while, and felt that I could be better using my MMO time. So onto my point, what is it about these hugely expansive worlds that draws you in?

When I first start a new MMORPG I take at least a few hours to fully explore the world. Doesn’t mater how many times I die in the process, I am very picky about my worlds and if I can’t be convinced that I am actually a part of it then I usually just stop playing the game right away. I absolutely can’t tolerate a stale or stagnate world. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was a perfect example of this. I initially started playing the game a few months after it was released (there was no way I was getting trapped in the beta-retail version). I began the game all cheery and figured the world would be awesome to explore and have fun with. Unfortunately, what I found was immaculate graphics attempting to cover up an otherwise boring world. Needless to say, I didn’t make it past my first month subscription. Of course, Vanguard isn’t the only culprit in this…

As more and more MMORPGs come out I am beginning to notice a trend in the way worlds are built. I don’t know what it is, but the World of Warcraft has character and, as such, I never thought the world was boring. For other games, like Tabula Rasa and Vanguard, the worlds almost feel methodical, like it was a randomly generated map. So what gives? How can an almost 4 year old game have a better, more lively world than games that have been released fairly recently? I honestly can’t tell you, but I bet it definitely helps to have a solid franshice to build off of. Just ask Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine.

Thoughts? Comments? Let’s hear em!

P.S. Sorry for the absence/random slowdowns. We changed servers and had to deal with that mucky-muck.

If you will take the time to remember, a few weeks ago I wrote a piece on a very ambitious MMO project dubbed Global Agenda. The developer, Hi-Rez Studios is claiming their game to be a spy-fi (spy/sci-fi, I know, I love it too), mission based MMORPG. Anyways, enough about that, if you have yet to read up on what exactly Global Agenda is you can check it all out HERE, or simply scroll down to read the official press release.

All caught up? Good, because now we get to the fun stuff, the screenshots. After contacting Hi-Rez Studios about the game I was able to nab some of the very first in-game screenshots, and now I am absolutely delighted that I can show them off to you guys. Check em out!

The game is being run off the Unreal 3 engine, so, much as the screenshots show, the game looks to have great graphics, as well as an engine that should be equally as great. We will be in continuing contact with Hi-Rez Studios over the development of the game so expect a lot more from us. Enjoy the screenshots, press release is below:

GLOBAL AGENDA is a fast-paced action MMO using Unreal® Engine 3 set in Earth’s near future, a spy-fi world of advanced technology and player-driven conflict. In the wake of severe global disaster, the political face of 22^nd century earth has changed.  Player created factions scheme against each other for power while simultaneously opposing a totalitarian world government bent on domination.  Traditional full-scale wars a thing of the past, factions must rely on covert agencies, teams of elite special operatives able to seize and defend key facilities.  The future of humanity is their battleground, where knowledge is power, technology is a race, and everyone has an agenda. The players are truly in control of Global Agenda, forging alliances with their peers and executing lightning strikes against their enemies.  They determine which factions to aid and which to oppose, while the only thing that stands in their way is other agencies. 

• Develop your agent – Create, extensively customize, and improve your agent character over the course of your career, complimenting your FPS skills with RPG-style progression and high-tech gear.

• Advance your agency – Join a player-created agency, compete in technology races for advanced equipment, and capture critical locations to increase your influence in the world.

• Compete in fast-paced PvP combat – Work with your allies to gather reconnaissance data, then raid or capture enemy controlled facilities during objective-based missions.  Equip yourself from a powerful array of weapons, armor, and strategic devices like triggered explosives, deployable turrets, stealth suits, holographic disguises, and remote control robots.

• Experience a dynamic, player-driven world – Agency leaders navigate through a global conflict of other player-run groups, striving to reach their goals first.  Territory, resources, technology, and influence are all valuable commodities, with agencies engaging in politics, intrigue, and outright deception to control them.

About Hi-Rez Studios
Hi-Rez Studios, Inc. was established in 2005 to create exceptional online interactive entertainment and is located just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.   For more information, visit www.hirezstudios.com.

Unreal is a registered trademark of Epic Games, Inc.

All games have learnings curves, the time it takes you when you first start playing to the time where you actually know what your doing.  World of Warcraft for example is very easy to pick up, only takes about 30 mins to an hr to get settled in and going. Other games however have a slight steeper learning curve. I saw this pic on Digg.com today and thought it was hilarious, so take a look, I’ll wait.

Funny, right? Although in the graph the person who made it used Eve: Second Genesis which is a card game not MMORPG, but I’m not sure if that was intentional or a mistake. Anyway the point is that Eve Online is a hell of a hard game to learn. I gave it a shot a while back with the free trial. Got about 6-7 hrs worth of game play and quit as I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I went through the tutorials and asked about a thousand questions in the player chat, but I just couldn’t get a grasp on it. Which brings me to my question for this article. How much time do you put into a game before you give up? What’s a reasonable amount of time?

No offense to Eve players but for me if I can’t get the hand of a game within 5 hrs I out. To me at that point there is obviously some interface and possible gameplay flaws that are just not making the game intuitive. No game should take 5 hrs to get comfortable with, I’m not saying you have to be good in 5 hrs, I’m just saying you should have a pretty good concept of what your doing. However I don’t want this turning into a Eve Online bashing article so I will say that whenever I read something about Eve, I wish that I had stuck with it cause it seems like the games right up my ally, harsh PvP action, I just wish it didn’t need to spend 2 weeks learning how to play it.

And when I say “pirates” I am talking about the newly released Pirates of the Burning Sea game. You see, I have recently raised my sails, hoisted my flag, and set out to sea in this new frontier in the MMORPG world. It’s a great game and I have having loads of fun; anybody who wishes to join me can find me playing on the Blackbeard server as a Frenchie! Anyways, I digress, as it has come to my attention that everytime I log on I find the game to be swimming(punny!) with gold spammers. Seriously, I can’t go 30 minutes without seeing a spammer broadcasting over my nation’s channel about the recent RMT for doubloons. So what’s the deal?

This practice doesn’t really take me away from the game all that much. In fact, despite these worrisome antics contributing to what is essentially a banned practice within a game I am paying $14.99/month for, I am still having a bunch of fun. Unfortunately, what this does do is worry me as to the management of the game. I mean, seriously, I have been playing for a month now and still everyday when I log on I am greeted by the same spammers. Does the developer even care? They say they do, and yet as far as I can see nothing has been done UPDATE: Apparently, patch 1.2 coming on Tuesday will have some new tools in order to help fight these pesky intruders. Good news for all players, and also something that deserves a retraction of my earlier statements. Hurrah!

Of course, management aside, when all is said and done Pirates of the Burning Sea is still unlike most other MMORPGs. The game literally thrives on it’s player-run economy. Sure, you can say that about other games such as LoTRO or WoW, but it’s doesn’t really hold a candle when you compare it to PotBS. While the practice of such activities may seem harmless now, how will it affect the economy when there is massive amounts of gold doubloons being poured in from unconventional sources? Nobody can tell for sure now, but if there is a bigger problem threatening PotBS right now I’d definitely like to know what it is before I waste anymore money on this game.

Thanks for reading.

In our MMO society today we basically have three groups of players. There is no denying it, really, almost every MMO uses these “archtypes” for their games (some exceptions apply). Of course, the archtypes I am speaking about are the tank, DPS, and healers. Using this model of gameplay most MMORPGs have basically become the same game, especially when you look at fantasy mmos. Lord of the Rings Online plays like World of Warcraft which plays a lot like Everquest 2, and, as such, plays very much like Everquest 1. Each has their own minor rules that play their part to make the games somewhat different but the major players are there: tanks need to take agro from the enemy and be a damage buff, DPS’s need to deal damage as fast as possible but without gaining the agro from the tank, and healers need to heal. A simple, yet very powerful, time-tested method, but now it’s time to throw it out. . .

For over ten years we have had MMORPGs come and go under this method. It is largely the most popular method and, as such, it has begun to stagnate. It’s a bit sad, for me anyways, to buy a new MMORPG and instantly know which class does what and what to expect from each. There is no more mystery involved with the gameplay and because of that I find myself avoiding games that would likely use this method. They just aren’t fun anymore, and I don’t want to be stonewalled into a very specific branch of the game. So how does this change?

I know some of you are sitting here reading this article thinking: there is no possible way to change this method. It has been here almost since the beginning and to change it would mean to change the very essence of the MMORPG. I know you guys are out there because I used to think the same thing. I mean, seriously, this method is basically synonymous with the MMO, but that doesn’t mean a new method can’t be implemented. Change is good, even in our fragile MMO worlds. Throughout gaming history we have gone from a simple game like pong to having a whole host of genres and sub genres to satiate our desires, so why can’t somebody think up some other method? If we can really go from having a game like Space Invaders to having a fully interactive, open ended world like World of Warcraft is it really out of the question to simply tweak the gameplay a bit? I should hope not. . .

Of course, I really don’t have any answers here for you. I’m not a game designer, and if I was I would certainly be designing right now and not writing. But not all hope is lost, there are a bunch of bold developers out there right now who seem to be trying to mix things up with this exact issue; I just wish they’d let us in on their secrets already. 38 Studios is cooking up something big, as well as BioWare. The Agency has some definitely neat concepts, and the combat in Age of Conan is supposed to be revolutionary. So change is coming, but will it be enough to get pulled away from the tank/DPS/healer model? I honestly can’t answer that question for you, but as soon as I hear something on this matter you guys will hear something.

Thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts and flames can be posted in the comments. Thanks!

Well it seems like just about everyone wants to make a MMO these days. A few days ago EGM did an interview with Rockstar founder, Sam Houser, who had this to day about a possible GTA MMO.

“is very, very doable and is a very, very compelling proposition.”

And a few days before that CEO Bobby Kotick of Activision stated this about Call of Duty,

“What would be the natural evolution of a property like Call of Duty into a massively-multiplayer environment and how do you monetize that?”

Although it’s just talk at this point in the game, I do think both of these games could be made into successful MMOs. Lets theorize at what these games might be like.

Call of Duty MMO

No doubt a Call of Duty MMO would be a FPSMMO. While many have tried, most notably Planetside, none have really created a widely successful FPSMMO.  Huxley is the next game to give the genre a go and while the graphics do look amazing, that does not mean the gameplay will match. Call of Duty already has a huge following and if the already popular multiplayer maps can be converted into one massive battle field I have no doubt that a Call of Duty FPSMMO would be a huge success.

GTA MMO

I think turning GTA into a MMO would be much harder, I mean you can’t have 1000 gangsters running around killing everyone including themselves, it would just be mayhem. Perhaps making cops playable characters would balance the game and turn it into more of a cops vs robbers scenario. I don’t know, that’s the first I could think of.

What do you guys think? Would would these games make good MMOs?

And by we I really mean me. I really don’t speak for Mike or the others that write here at MMOCrunch.com. Each writer here has their own opinion and mine is my own. Anyways onto the article!

I don’t want BioWare to make an MMORPG based off of the Star Wars franchise. Wait! Don’t crucify me yet. I have some explaining to do. Naturally, I would definitely not spit on a Star Wars MMO, let alone one developed and designed by BioWare. Those are some talented guys and I can only dream of what they are creating. And that is the exact same reason why I don’t want what they are creating for their first MMO to be a Star Wars game.

Now I began writing this article mainly because of the recent rumour that is being spread around. Apparently some guy got a sneak peek at some documented script from the game. I don’t know, and to be honest, I don’t really care. Should you want to read about it head on over here.

Now, back on topic, let’s think about what other franchises BioWare has created. Have they ever created something that wasn’t awesome? Let’s take a look:

1. Mass Effect, absolutely fantastic.
2. Jade Empire, loved every minute of it.
3. KoTOR, superb.
4. Neverwinter Nights, classic.
5. Baldur’s Gate, brought me into the PC RPG world.

So there you have it: four out of their five biggest games have not been associated with Star Wars. This leads me to my point, do we really want a developer such as this to spoil their creative interests on a world that is already so well developed that there can’t possibly be any real customization and expansion? Star Wars is great, but I’d rather these guys come up with their own kick ass world. Mass Effect was a brilliant universe, and I have no doubt that they could make a world for an MMORPG be equally as awesome.

Anyways, thats just my opinion. Take it for what you will, but there are plenty of MMO developers that can do the Star Wars MMO justice, let’s allow the poster child of the RPG industry the luxery of giving us something truly out of their own imagination, ok?

Thoughts? Comments? Flames? You know where to leave em!