Well, here it is. Not surprising anyone really, since the secret got outed when Blizzard registered the domain name, but Mists of Pandaria is the next World of Warcraft expansion. It raises - among many things – the level cap to 90, introduces the Pandaran as a new playable race (both sides), a new Monk class and a pet combat system.
The full FAQ is after the break, it will have everything you need (except the expansion itself, you addict you).
BioWare’s years in development MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic is poised to be a big deal. EA has thrown millions of dollars at the project and it’s hoped that people will be playing the game for well over a decade.
The game went up for pre-order a few weeks ago, but now there’s a release date to go along with it. Hoping to cash-in on the Christmas present frenzy, EA has announced that the game will launch on 20 December in North America and 22 December in European locations.
Insofar as subscription fees go, Star Wars: TOR will adopt that traditional monthly fee that seems to be going the way of the dodo for most online games. Each copy of the game will ship with a 30 days subscription but once that’s over you’ll need to pay in order to continue.
Break out your spandex underpants people, Sony Online Entertainment’s DC Universe Online is about to punch subscription fees in the nuts and become Free-to-Play from October 2011. If you have a PC or a PlayStation 3, then you’ll be able to download a copy of the game with all of its content for free. You’ll also get two character slots, but any future expansion packs will need to be purchased.
According to a SOE representative, this decision to go Free-to-Play is not a response to declining subscriptions, but was always intended from the start of development: “This is the right business model. If I can be honest, the game ended up costing a lot more than we thought it would, and this was our preferred business model from day one.”
So because the game cost them more to make than they anticipated, they charged early adopters for buying the game so as to recoup some of the financial loss. That’s mean! That’s business, I guess. It’s not all bad news though, as everyone who has ever spent money on DC Universe Online will get a bunch of extra features that those tight-fisted, Free-to-Play leeches don’t.
You know your game is a big deal when update patches get treated like full-on expansion packs. Patch 4.3 for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be heading to the Public Test Realm server “within a couple of weeks” according to lead game designer Tom Chilton. The PTR server is where Blizzard uses WOW players like guinea pigs before patches are released to everyone else.
Patch 4.3 will add a whole bunch of new content, much of which was revealed at Gamescom 2011. Included will be Void Storage for your excess loot, Transmogrification and a Raid Finder. You’ll also be able to take on Deathwing in a final showdown at The Maelstrom. Defeating him will net you a mount reward, Chilton confirmed.
The PTR server is open for anyone with an active account. You must have had an account prior to the PTR for Patch 4.3 going live, however. All you need to do is copy a character to the server; there will be a list of requirements you’ll need to fulfil before you’re given access though, and all progress on the PTR server is obviously non-permanent. Keep an eye out as Blizzard will reveal the requirements closer to the time. Once the PTR goes live you can expect the final Patch 4.3 to be release in about a month.
Source: Eurogamer
I’m not sure whether this is awesome or completely insane, but North Korea’s loopy dictator, Kim Jong-il, has a group of hackers made up of agents in North and South Korea as well as China. Their job is to farm gold in Asian MMOs and then sell that gold online for real money. Their MMO of choice is Lineage.
The Chinese operatives have since been arrested, but not before the team was able to generate about $6 million (just over R40 million). Roughly 55% of that was kept by the hackers, and the remaining portion went to Kim Jong-il.
Just what does Kim Jong-il spend his private mountain of money on, which supposedly amount to billions of dollars according to the Americans? For one he uses his private cash reserve to fund North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Thanks for nothing MMORPGs.
Source: Joystiq
Fun fact: I had no idea there were pandas Pandarens in World of Warcraft. If Jack Black does the voiceovers for any of them, then I might start playing World of Warcraft. No, that’s a lie; I don’t think I’ll ever start playing WoW. I tried once, but the incessant fetch quests killed any interest I had within the first few hours. Why would an orc warrior be tasked with collecting apples to make a pie? Seriously.
Anyway, according to website MMO Champion, Blizzard trademarked the name “Mists of Pandaria” on 28 July. As Joystiq offshoot Massively points out, this is exactly how Blizzard normally goes about snatching up expansion titles.
This would mark the fourth expansion to hit the ludicrously successful MMORPG. There’s no doubt it’ll sell like hotcakes, judging by previous sales figures; the game’s third expansion, Cataclysm, sold 3.3 million copies in twenty-four hours. Whether adding martial arts pandas from a hidden kingdom will better that sales figure is up for debate.
Source: Massively
Humanity will also, in all likelihood, be extinct by then, but EA has invested millions and millions of dollars in BioWare’s Star Wars MMO, so they’re praying you’ll play it well into the inevitable Apocalypse and subsequent collapse of human existence.
The Old Republic is coming out this year. When, exactly, is still anyone’s guess but EA has promised that the game will come out and has already started taking pre-orders. MMO and Star Wars fans have been itching to get their hands on the game, which will ship with 19 major worlds, according to the senior creative director James Ohlen.
Speaking at this year’s Comic Con, Ohlen said that EA and BioWare intend the MMO to last “for decades” and that as the years while away, they will be adding more and more worlds to that initial line-up of 19. Hit the jump for more time-based insanity and the game’s latest hype-inducing trailer.
Lucasarts and Sony Online Entertainment’s floundering Star Wars Galaxies is getting shut down on 15 December 2011. The eight year old MMO has been haemorrhaging subscribers faster than Solo’s Kessel Run. The demise of Star Wars Galaxies does, however, make way for EA and BioWare’s Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic.
As with many MMOs, there is an impassioned collective who refuses to let the game die. A group of Galaxies players has been petitioning Sony Online Entertainment to make the MMO free-to-play and to leave the servers open. They’re asking for micro-transactions to become the turnover generator in order to keep the servers running.
Sony responded to these various petitions and forum posts by locking threads and clamping down on dissention amongst users. In doing so, the Emperor Sony has made a critical error and the time for the group’s attack has come. They’re about to file a class action lawsuit against SOE.
In what is essentially a reworking of their existing trial system, Blizzard has removed the 14-day limit and moved it to the level 20 marker. On a trial account (free to create along with a Battle.net account), you can now make as many characters as you want (10 per realm) and play them up to level 20 each. If you decide to pay for a subscription, you’ll lose the ability to “play for free”. Meaning, people who have cancelled their subscription or let them expire, won’t be able to make “free” characters on their accounts, only on new seperate trial accounts (you can have multiple WoW accounts on a single Battle.net account however).
The trial account limits are still in place, mainly: you can only have 10 gold; tradeskills are capped at 100; you can’t use the mailbox; auction house or trading; you can’t join or create a guild; you can’t invite anyone to a party; no voice chat; longer login queues; no RealID features. So in other words, you can make a character, muck about by yourself for a while to see if you like it, try other classes, etc.
While this doesn’t really change much, it does represent the first time Blizzard has reworked its “demo” version of the game. Removing the 14 day limit does give people more time to experience Azeroth and see if they like what it has to say; you’re not pressured into getting as far as you can in the time provided. You can also try out Burning Crusade races, Blood Elf and Dranei, without having to purchase Burning Crusade.
You can create a Starter Edition account on the official site.
Funcom has announced that their boob-laden MMORPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, will soon join the growing legion of MMOs that exist in that awkward, but seemingly lucrative space between being free-to-play and subscription-driven. Age of Conan will be relaunched later this year using this hybrid business model, simultaneously rebranding itself as Age of Conan: Unrated.
The freemium model lets anyone looking to get in on a bit of gory, gritty, Robert E. Howard-inspired online adventuring do so for free, but limits their access to certain of the game’s features – unless they choose to spend a bit of real-world cash buying Funcom Points, which are in turn exchanged for access to those features. Still, there’s a decent chunk of free content available should you decide you’d rather not part with your cash. The original game’s three main outdoor play areas (Aquilonia, Stygia and Cimmeria) can all be accessed. You’ll get two character slots (premium subscribers get eight), the choice to select from four of the game’s character classes (there are twelve in total) and access to certain non-premium dungeons.
Premium subscribers naturally have access to a ton of exclusive stuff (like alternate advancement points, veteran points and offline levels, as well as the majority of the extra goodies found in the game’s Rise of the Godslayer expansion), but that obviously carries a monthly subscription fee. There’s more info about the differences between free and premium content here. There’s also this FAQ for you to read.
