Tag Archive

Blizzard’s Next MMO: Not WoW 2

Written by Alec Meer on October 20, 2008.

I can’t find the source for this on Wired’s own site, so presumably it’s only in the print mag for now. Original source found (thanks, Zuffox). Mike Morhaime dropped the following uber-hint whilst chatting to the US tech mag:

“Let’s just say it’s going to be different and it’s not going to be a sequel to World of Warcraft. It will be different. We’re not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We’re trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released.”

Hmm. I’m still banking on it being something Eve-y or Planetside-y, possibly in the Starcraft universe. It seems hugely unlikely Blizz will move to a new IP - but it would be nice. Do spill your own theory-o-thoughts below.

Rush To The Tanks: New Warhammer Online Patch

Written by John Walker on October 17, 2008.

Mythic have announcified two new careers for Warhammer Online, due to appear this Winter. And they’re beefcake. The Empire’s Knight of the Blazing Sun, and the Dark Elf Black Guard will be available to the game’s current 750,000 players, as part of the first major patch, 1.1. Discussed by Mark Jacobs in his first State Of The Game address, we’ve cobbled together the highlights of the rest of the included updates below.

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Tourism & Insect Cruelty: Virtual Forbidden City

Written by Alec Meer on October 13, 2008.

Here’s a wonderful concept. Yeah, the execution’s pretty rock-bottom, but it doesn’t stop it from being a great idea. It’s The Forbidden City in China, presented as a free MMO, of sorts. No grinding the Terracotta army or hiding dragons here though - it’s strictly a tourism/educational toy. An Oriental Second Life with tour guides and no unicorn-humping, in a way.
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RF Offline

Written by Alec Meer on October 3, 2008.

Yes, the MMO with the perfect concept - giant robots twatting elves - but the tragically ultra-grindy execution, has had its last respawn. RF Online is now offline in Europe and the US, though its Korean servers (where the game began) are still going great guns. Apparently Western publisher Codemasters couldn’t persuade a license renewal out of Korean devs CCR, so as of 8th November, that’s it. The game’s been free to play for a while now, which we’d presumed was a sign of its susbcriber base being a bit widdly, but Codies are nonetheless calling its three years of operation a success.

RIP RF, then. Anyone played it lately? Did it blossom into something better over the years?

That KOTOR MMO: Big Reveal Soon?

Written by Alec Meer on October 3, 2008.

Oddly, the story we ran four months back about EA letting slip that Bioware were working on a Star Wars: Knight of the old Republic MMORPG is one that continues to pick up sporadic comments even now. Seems there’s a lot of very, very strong feelings about KOTOR, with a lot of people concerned that it moving online means they’ll never see another single-player outing or have the various dangling plot-threads resolved. Even without any details whatsoever, there was a lot of spitting, expletive-filled fury about the game’s mere existence, much of which we removed in the name of peace, harmony and not having this site be the number one Google hit for “F*CK YOU EA!!!!!!!”

Sounds like we’ll soon find out whether folks’ fears are justified, as ‘orrible UK tabloid The Daily Star has blared that it’s off to see the game in San Francisco. Details and screens soon then, hopefully. Will it be Galaxies 2, WoW in space or will a rejuvenated Bioware - going on what we’ve seen of Dragon Age so far - come up with something new and distinct? Via CVG.

Blade & Soul: Not Mount & Blade

Written by Alec Meer on September 25, 2008.

It’s not always entirely clear what ncSoft’s Eastern arm is up to, but they’ve at least a couple of promising MMOs in the pipeline. There’s the Cryengine-powered Aion, which we’ll hopefully have more about in the not too distant, and there’s also Project [M] - which was revealed back in August to be Blade & Soul. It’s Korean, it’s Eastern-themed high-fantasy, and it’s headed up by one of the main Lineage dudes. But wait! Clearly, that sounds like a triple-whammy of ohgodsoullessgrinding, but there are signs this might be something a whole lot more interesting than simply Lineage with prettier pretties.
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Tabula Rasa Cleans Its Slate

Written by Alec Meer on September 24, 2008.

(And isn’t that joke getting annoying now? I aim to displease…)

With WAR, WOW and LOTRO managing a high-fantasy chokehold on the MMO market at the moment, one might forget that Tabula Rasa’s still out there offering something a little different. There’ve been various reports that the Richard Garriott-figureheaded sci-fi onliner isn’t doing so well of late, but perhaps an apparent renewed offensive could lure back those who prefer their MMOs to have pistols rather than poleaxes.
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Street Gears

Written by Jim Rossignol on September 8, 2008.

You know, what we could all probably do with about now is a hug. But instead I’m going to provide you with the news that a Chinese Korean roller-skating MMO, named Street Gears, is now open for closed-beta sign ups. No, really: a roller-skating MMO. This will be no consolation to those of you trying to get into quite another beta, especially as the Street Gears is in French and German only. I hope we anglophones get a version of it too, it actually looks kind of fun, and also kind of free to play. Grainy, fuzzy video of cell-shaded skate antics after the hop.

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A Dirty Word

Written by Alec Meer on September 6, 2008.

If you’ve been following the 200+ comments in the thread below our recent discussion of our experiences in the Warhammer Online closed beta, you’ll have spotted that a vocal minority of the WAR community, having made their way here thanks to a link on the warhammeronline.com frontpage, are absolutely furious with us. All those that were simply critical remain, but there were at least another 50 abuse-filled tirades we deleted, consisting of the usual expletives, judgements about our intelligence and sexuality, and a surprising amount of racism towards the British. It’s true: we do drink a lot of tea.

Whether expressed politely or furiously, there were three or four central complaints about what we said - but one stands above them all.
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Stargate Worlds - A Gated Community

Written by John Walker on August 28, 2008.

The best bit about the Stargate movie (no, seriously, there is a best bit) is when all the soldiers are running around the pillars under some Egyptianesque building. Every time they get to a pillar they press their backs against it and “cha-chunk” their big rifles. Next pillar, “cha-chunk”. Pillar after that, “cha-chunk”. The amount of live ammunition lying all over the floor in that room must have been a hazard. And that is definitely the best bit in that film. Apart from trying to guess if that baddy is a boy or a girl. Fortunately this is unlikely to have an influence on the MMO Stargate Worlds, for which there is a trailer below.

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