So you’ve spent the last few weeks grinding the same raid and finally got the epic item you’ve been dying to get.  Congratulations, too bad it sucks in PvP.

Over the last few years we’ve seen the separation between PvP and PvE grow, with developers creating gear specifically tailored for one type of combat, but much less effective in the other. It used to be that each class had that one item per slot that was ‘the best’ item possible for that character, period.  Whether it would be a sword, armor, or additional trinkets, once you got that item, you were done and could move on to obtaining the next item.

Today it seems more and more MMORPGs are having players create two complete character builds in terms of gear, one for PvP and one for PvE. While this isn’t necessarily new, even in MMORPGs where there isn’t a separation, players will still normally switch up certain items when going from PvP to PvE, or vise versa. However today theses items are specifically created for one style of combat in mind.

When looking at Guild Wars 2, this separation has taken another leap forward and one can pretty much make the argument that PvP and PvE are two separate games.

First lets take a look at PvP, which we have two types, PvP matches and World vs World PvP.  For matches, players select from pre-made, max-level characters and only have to disperse their skill points, making PvP matches entirely separate from the rest of GW2. This type of PvP match system can be completely removed from the game and not effect it in the slightest or if you want to go the other way, can be added to any current MMORPG without changing it as well.

The second is the World vs World PvP system where servers are matched up against each other in two week PvP battles. In this system the fighting doesn’t take place in the same areas that PvE does, instead it’s a custom map specifically made for PvP.

While players do enter World vs World with their skills and gear obtained from PvE, it is completely possible to level entirely within one of the systems. Now I’m not 100% sure if gear will be tailored towards PvE and PvP depending where you are, but I’m going to assume it will be since that seems to be the trend these days. So if you take a player that only participate in PvE or only in PvP, their gear will be tailored towards that combat. If they ever decided to dabble in or make the switch they’ll have to re-acquire a whole new set of gear.

One can argue that what GW2 has done is make two separate games, one for PvP and one for PvE, but allow players to use the same character in both, with PvP matches completely independent of both systems.

Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I’m very much into and excited for Guild Wars 2, but when I think of what a MMORPG is, I think of one world where everything is intertwined. What I think ArenaNet did was create two games and mashed them together.  On one side you have a PvE MMORPG and the other you have a massive multiplayer online battle arena (MMOBA). The only connection between the two would be that players use the same character.

Lord of the Rings Online has something similar to this, being a PvE centric MMORPG then having one map dedicated to PvP. Although in their system, there is no end time, no winner, so it turns into a merry-go-round where each side takes turns controlling keeps or areas. Perhaps credit should then be given to Turbine for creating the new MMOBA genre.

Being a more PvP centric player, I really don’t mind the separating that is taking place. In fact I think eventually we’ll see the emergence of a new MMOBA genre where developers eventually drop PvE all together in favor of what ArenaNet is doing with their World vs World system. Until then, I’ll be playing me some GW2.

Do you wish that you could continue listening to those great Blizzard hits even after you log out of your favorite Blizzard game? Well now you can! Whether it’s Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo or World of Warcraft, you can now own the complete soundtrack to your favorite Blizzard game.

No longer will you have to listen to that crap that they call “music” on the radio. Impress your friends with hits like Shadow of the Necropolis, Silvermoon City and everyone’s favorite The Kalu’ak. For only $9.99 you can own the soundtrack to your favorite Blizzard game or for just $0.99 you can pick and choose the tracks you want.

Head over to the new Blizzard Music page to see a complete list of albums and tracks. All purchases are made through iTunes.

The newest MOBA game on the block, Rise of Immortals, has officially launched today opening up new Immortal skins and releasing a spiffy new trailer which you can view after the jump.

Rise of Immortals is a free to play MOBA game that adds enhanced social features, along with persistent character progression. Players will be able to advance their Immortals through a diverse, persistent skill tree, customizing and upgrading the characters to unlock unique abilities that persist from match to match, instead of an account-based leveling system.

Check out the official Rise of Immortals launch trailer below.

Continued…

Class balance is a key aspect to any MMO game that expects to be successful whether it be in PvE or PvP combat, however should classes be limited for no other reason than for the sake of balance?

In a recent interview at RockPaperShotgun, Matt Higby the Creative Director for PlanetSide 2 said something that got me thinking about what the role of developers should be in terms of balancing classes. When talking about distinctive gameplay roles in PlanetSide 2, Higby stated the following,

Like a dude with a sniper rifle AND jump jets, who can now get to a place where no-one can take him out; that’s too strong.

My questions to Mr. Higby would then be, why not allow every class to use jump jets? What is the reason, other than the developers not allowing it, that other classes cannot use them? And not just jump jets, any weapon/utility combination. Set classes and weapons are fine for FPS where the action takes place on an instanced map that never changes, but for MMOFPSs that are trying to give gamers a more dynamic battlefield, why give them static classes?

Why not allow any class to use any weapon or skill combination and allow the players themselves to find a natural balance. Games like MW2 allow players to equip any weapons, skills and utility items they want to combine and create their own custom class and while MW2 is still simplistic when compared to some MMO games, I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be introduced into MMOFPS.

One can argue that even with complete freedom in class customization a natural balance will eventually form where players figure out the best combinations of weapons and skills to combine to create the best classes.  So the developers are removing that guess work and providing players with those best classes upfront. While I can see that point, I would much rather prefer the freedom to create my own class tailored to my specific play style than any premade class. What do you think? Should there be more class freedom in MMO games today?

Perfect World’s latest MMO game, Rusty Hearts, is slashing its way into the open beta testing phase today. Rusty Hearts is a free to play game, with hack-n-slash combat and an anime inspired graphical style.

For those interested in the open beta, head over to the Rusty Hearts official website to signup. Currently the website has not been updated yet, so it still says closed beta, however you can still download and install the game.

At the recent Citi Tech Conference which took place this past Wednesday, Electronic Arts CFO Eric Brown mentioned some information about the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic.  He states that while EA expects to launch the title before the end of 2011, EA’s ‘fiscal guidance’ may cause a delay into the first calendar year of 2012. The full quote via Gamasutra is below.

The company still expects the MMO to launch this calender year, but EA’s fiscal guidance takes into account a possible slip into first calendar quarter of 2012 (fiscal Q4) if needed, Brown said. “We have a date set internally [for calendar Q4], with a lot of assumptions around it,” he said.

“We’re not done until we’re done. … We’re not going to know with enough certainty to publicly announce a release date,” until later this month or sometime in October, said Brown of the MMO.

Not good news for fans who are awaiting the release of this highly anticipated MMORPG. This is the second indication of delay this week, with BioWare announcing on Thursday that beta weekends might be canceled for the rest of September while they prepare the next round of beta tests.

A new update was announced for the sandbox MMORPG, Mortal Online, in regards to their Territory Control system. The revamped system will allow players and guilds to lay claim to any land within the game by constructing a keep on it. The guild can then expand their territory by expanding outward and construction ‘Control Structures’ which can also be upgraded into archer towers and other defensive structures.

Guilds will be able flag individual players so they cannot enter their lands, control taxation and even the take-over of some towns within their area territories. A political mini-map will be available within the keeps so guilds can get a better view of their lands make strategic moves to attack or defend their lands. A second map will be available on the Mortal Online website that, in real-time, will display what territories are controlled and by whom so guilds can further decide who and where to attack.

This is an unbelievable idea, too bad the website map won’t be available in-game, which I don’t really see the purpose of not also including it within the keep. Anyway, great idea otherwise. Check out the Territory Control trailer after the jump.

Continued…

Since I began playing League of Legends a few weeks back when I reviewed it, I’ve noticed that a pretty high percentage of games end up where at least one person quits or goes AFK. This creates a one sided match that for the most part is unwinnable for the team who lost a player and is completely frustrating for the remaining players.

I understand from time to time players need to leave because something comes up or perhaps nature is calling, but for League of Legends I feel that players leaving or going AFK is way too common. Even in the short period of time that I’ve been playing it’s glaringly obvious that there’s a problem and if I had to guess I’d say around 1 in 4 or 5 of my matches fall victim to someone leaving or going AKF.  Being the type of gamer that I am, I fight tooth and nail until the very end, so this type of thing is beyond frustrating for me.

In the last 3 days, I’ve had two matches were both my teammates left during a very intense, evenly matched game. In one of those games, only player went AFK from the start, the second left in frustration about half way through. But since I was about 4 levels higher than anyone on the other team, I managed to hold them off for about 8-10 mins before losing. After the match all three of my opponents congratulated me for putting up a worthy fight and they’re all now on my friends list.

What’s more is that not only is LoL plagued by AFKers or players that flat out leave, many players constantly want to surrender the second a match isn’t going their way. I’ve been in a few matches where within the first 5 mins someone on my team is already putting up a surrender vote even though we haven’t lost a single turret. (I’ve been told the min timer is 20 mins to surrender, so it must of been a teammate in chat saying they wanted to surrender). The funny thing is a lot of the times we still win.

It’s also notable that depending on your champion, your build and the items you buy, your champion might not be very good at certain stages of the match. Some champions dominate early, in the middle or at the end, so if you’re using one that doesn’t hit it’s stride until the end levels and your team wants to quit in the middle of a match, that becomes another point of frustration.

Continued…

Han Solo fans rejoice, today Bioware released the progression video for the Smuggler class. Actually now that I said that, the guy in the video even looks a little like Han Solo.  Anyway, the video shows off the smuggler class and its two advanced classes, Scoundrel and Gunslinger, as we see him manage to get out of a few sticky situations, even taking out a Sith warrior with ease.

As the advanced Scoundrel class, we see the smuggler use a cloak ability to disappear and sneak up on the enemy. Towards the end of the video it gets comical as they recreate some classic Star Wars scenes featuring, you guessed it, Han Solo and a random Wookie.

Check out the Star Wars: The Old Republic Smuggle video by continuing below.

Continued…

I’m sure you’ve head that before, but this time it’s really going to happen. Darkfall players, who have been waiting for what seems like forever for the new siege system to be released, today finally heard what they’ve been waiting for, that the new Siege System will be going live next week.

Over the last year, focus has shifted from the current version of Darkfall to Darkfall 2.0 and since, updates to the current version have been few and far inbetween.  The last patch was back in April and the last major update all the way back in October 2010, so you can see why Darkfall players have been anxious for this update.

With the announcement, Aventurine also revealed a few more details to the new siege system, mainly protection shards and extension shards, which can help protect against sieges or allow the defending side to change the start time of a siege respectively.  Although there is some debate internally on whether or not extension shards should be implemented and will most likely not be included in the siege update. Check out the full details on the shards at the official Darkfall blog.