Opinion

For the past two weeks, I've been sitting through panel after panel, keynote after keynote, and the constant message was about what the future of MMOs will look like. The big buzzwords from GDC Online and SOE Live were things like mobile gaming, user-generated content, emergent gameplay, and e-sports, but sometimes, it's the little things that make for a great MMO.

I'm still cutting my teeth on RIFT's Storm Legion, but there are several things that already get me excited about the expansion. We've heard a lot about the big things coming to the game, but in this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, I'd like to talk about a few of the little things that will make this a well-received expansion.

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Despite what many of us might feel, the world is not ending when City of Heroes shuts down. Just our world. But the sun will continue shining, other games will continue running, and most likely your interest in video games will not evaporate. So after an appropriate period of mourning, it's going to be time to think about getting together with another game.

The problem, of course, is that nothing else can ever be City of Heroes. Like Benjamin Franklin, nothing can serve as its replacement, merely as its successor. But it's worth examining some of the more reasonable and likely destinations for the community.

I'm sure there are more, but the four I've listed seem to be the games that either are or will be hoovering up a large number of the game's former players, games that are close enough to what CoH represents to serve as a reasonable successor. So let's look at our potential new homes and see what they have to offer, both good and bad.

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MMOs come and go. They get popular and sink to obscurity. Expansions can give a suffering MMO another chance, make an average MMO the popular kid on the block, or change the industry completely. No matter which MMOs come and go or what expansions push an MMO into the sunlight for a spell, many MMOs will keep on running with a larger community than there were votes on this poll. Not to mention people who aren't playing but want to see someone else play! Guild Wars 2 and Allods were initially close enough in the poll to leave a little doubt as to who might win, but GW2 swept ahead and held on to the end.

So before I let you vote on what you want me to do in Guild Wars 2, let me tell you a bit about my playstyle so you can make your decision. You'll find all of this week's polls at the end!

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Ah, Dragon Nest -- you are one of my favorite action MMOs. Truth be told, you're currently ranked above Vindictus in this household. I know, I know... but don't judge me until you have played through the new content that is being released today and until you watch my embedded video. It shows just how dramatic, well-scripted, and fun dungeons in Dragon Nest can be.

I was given a level 45 character, a Lunar Knight, one of the new classes coming with this patch, to try out on the test server. The saddest part is that I haven't reached anywhere near level 45 on my current Warrior, even though I have learned his abilities well and enjoyed the heck out of him during my 24-hour stream. Unfortunately I didn't utilize the powerset from the Lunar Knight in the video much, instead using my familiar Warrior abilities. I was also given a nice set of Sea Dragon Armor, a mount, and a killer sword -- after all, a naked level 45 character would be sad.

I loaded up and jumped in, and here's what I found.

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Yesterday, Gamespot broke a story about an executive producer for zombie MMO The War Z who took to his game's forums to rant about gankers in the beta test. The developer, Sergey Titov, used a homophobic slur to describe those beta testers, which caused some commenters to erupt in a fury. He later altered his comments and issued an "apology" for the rant, expressing astonishment that anyone would take his homophobic slur as a homophobic slur. "I don't know where they [are] coming from," he wrote, "but I used it as a curse."

The sad thing is Titov's probably right: Far too many gamers think nothing of careless insults based on gender, race, and sexual orientation. But to see it from a developer and then see it dismissed by the game's supporters as something trivial and all good in fun between bros is embarrassing for the community. I'm glad he (or more likely, the game's PR) rescinded the slur, but I also know that subconscious and conscious bias seeps into gaming at the design, culture, and corporate levels, and I'm far less likely to pony up for a game whose developers just don't seem to get that the MMO demographic stretches beyond the privileged straight white male 20-something stereotype.

So today I'm wondering how you hold devs accountable when they say something that exposes their prejudices or blind-spots or just poor business sense. Do you expect heads to roll? Do you vote with your wallet and pick games where customers aren't subjected to unprofessional tirades by devs, or are you resigned to the suspicion that most studios are saddled with this mentality?

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!

Remember what we talked about a while ago about divorcing any stigma a game carries from its music? Let's apply that to Vanguard, possibly one of the most stigmatized MMOs of all time. For all of its negative reputation, Vanguard's been slowly recognized as a gem in the rough, and its soundtrack is just second to none in the field.

I'm serious: This is a whopper of a score. This is music that makes you weep that you don't hear it in the MMOs you play. It's definitely not as well known because it's attached to Vanguard, but I love this music so much that I'm going to do an entire series on it (spread out over time, of course). Unfortunately, the only place that I could find it was packaged in with the collector's edition -- and good luck finding that!

The only composer I found credited for this score was Todd Masten, who writes on his website that he worked on the project over a period of two years. Masten took an interesting angle to the score: "The music for this game was designed and composed in a modular fashion for each distinct environment and was created to be interactive."

So let's dive in and take a look at the first six Vanguard tracks to catch my ear!

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Dark Vale's upcoming PvP-centric title, Forge, is an MMO like no other. The game has no PvE content to speak of, instead demanding that players earn their progress by killing one another in timed arena-style deathmatches or objective-based games. It's built in the Unreal Engine, features an over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, and depends heavily on strategy and reflexes as opposed to gear and level. There are no quests to complete, no mobs to grind, and no resources to gather. When Dark Vale says Forge is "Pure PvP," that's exactly what it means.

While some may be skeptical of the appeal of a PvP-only MMO, others will note that there is vast potential here to fill a niche for gamers craving MMO-style combat without all the extra muss and fuss of grinding, gearing, and socializing. The only question is whether Forge will strike a chord with that pocket of players or will be just another "also-ran" in a sea of experimental MMOs.

I took a peek at the Forge beta over the weekend, and what I found was an intense title with a lot of promise, but one that clearly has a lot of ground to cover before being ready for mass consumption.

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Last week, I discussed the reasons I still play a game that literally a million people have quit playing. I believe a huge part of that discussion stemmed from my expectations of the game. I truly believe that many people expected Star Wars: The Old Republic to be the answer to all MMO problems and Wookiees. Of course, no game could ever live up to that dream. I attempted to curb some of those expectations in a few of my articles, but some community desires were just beyond the scope of BioWare's plans for SWTOR. This led to disappointment and a lot of unreal prospects for the game.

On that note, I'd like to take a look at the free-to-play plans for our Star Wars MMO. Many players hope that F2P will finally launch SWTOR in the right direction. Others believe that if SWTOR had launched F2P, we wouldn't have seen the mass exodus that we saw in March. (Of course, there are also those who claim that F2P is just the next step toward fail and that the game will shut down in less than a year.)

Personally, I'm a fan, so I'm hopeful. However, I take that hope with the realization that this could definitely be the beginning of the end for SWTOR. Ultimately, the potential for success hinges on the disparity between what the players want and what BioWare delivers. Will F2P save SWTOR?

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I originally thought I would craft this Soapbox to discuss the differences between Western and Eastern gamers. But in my research, I ended up noticing the differences and the similarities between the two gaming cultures -- in fact, the similarities were more prominent. Yes, there are gamers who game in stereotypical ways; there are gamers from China, Korea, and Japan who are stereotypically "Asian."

But Westerners can behave as stereotypes as well. The good news is that we're all blending together.

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We all play at different intensity levels. It's human nature. Some of us sit down for a night of dungeons in World of Warcraft and we play primarily to have fun, with no more intensity than we would devote to playing Tetris until the screen fills. Other people sit down for a night of dungeons with an intensity level that rivals Olympic champions, screaming for people to keep moving and running through pulls with elegant efficiency.

We all vary a bit from day to day, either pushing harder or relaxing more as circumstances dictate, but we also have a level that we wind up defaulting to when we play our games of choice. So how intense are you when you sit down to your favorite game? Are you more laid-back? Serious while avoiding taskmaster status? Driven to succeed at all costs? Or does it depend a lot based on your nightly activities?

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!

HA! For the who-knows-how-many umpteenth time, my carefully considered words for the week (which were incredibly timely and sparkly, by the way!) have been usurped by yet another last-minute announcement by NCsoft. So we will all have to just exercise our patience muscles and explore those words of wisdom next time. Today, I am delving into the idea of making your mark in Aion!

As announced just today, players have the opportunity to design a unique weapon for the new Gunner class coming in Aion's big 4.0 expansion/patch. Think about it: A piece of your creativity could be in the hands of every gun-slinging Daeva in the wild Western market! Not only is this cool in itself, but the fact that the non-contest is happening at all is a positive sign that NCsoft actually listens to Aion's players. Now, you may be sitting there asking yourself, how did she come to that conclusion? Well, here's how.

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Finally, and somewhat surprisingly to many of us, Star Trek Online announced the beta of the STO Gateway, a new web-based application with some pretty awesome potential! So jump past the break as I go into more detail about the continuing wave of new information.

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We're less than a month from the release of RIFT's first official expansion, Storm Legion. The content add-on promises to dramatically expand on RIFT's existing universe, both in terms of mechanics and story and in terms of the raw size of the game world. With beta in full force and the NDA officially lifted, we hopped on the Storm Legion test server to catch a glimpse of what's on the way for dedicated RIFT fans.

What we discovered was a massive expansion packed with potential and more than enough new content to keep even the most hardcore of RIFT players busy for a while to come.

Here's what you need to know.

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Last week, I ventured forth from the subtropical paradise (read: sweltering wasteland) of the Florida panhandle to the frozen northern wastes of Maryland to visit the studios of ZeniMax Online to spend some time with the studio's premiere foray into the MMO space, The Elder Scrolls Online.

The Elder Scrolls Online has caused quite a clamor since it was first revealed back in May. Since then, everything has calmed down, everyone is discussing everything reasonably, and... I can't keep a straight face. In reality, MMO gamers are deeply divided about TESO, and some vocal potential players are most displeased to see the venerable sandbox world of Tamriel being reduced to yet another themepark MMO experience.

So after about four hours of hands-on time with the title, I'm here to answer some questions. Have the folks at ZeniMax run The Elder Scrolls off the rails, or have they just taken it in a bold, new direction? Join me after the cut and I'll tell you what I think.

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