Puzzles Pirates is pretty deceiving when you first look at it. The decade-old game looks closer to what you might have expected from LEGO Universe than it does a strategic, puzzle-based combat game. But as you get more into the basics of the game, you realize that many of the tricks up Puzzle Pirate’s sleeve would be awesome if featured in other games. The puzzles are integrated into your experience flawlessly, and the grouping system is wonderful.

In fact, I couldn’t stop thinking about why other games don’t feature systems like those in Puzzle Pirates. Name me a game that does group combat, ship combat or even crafting based on puzzles! I think that the perceived silliness of puzzles, or the perceived juvenile nature of puzzles, keeps them out of popular developer’s minds. It’s not as though raiding or other group activities in other games are high art or much more than a very basic puzzle. Stand here, push that. Repeat. Now move. Push that, followed by this. Repeat.

So let’s look at how Puzzle Pirates plays, how the community members fare, and what issues I did have with this brilliant puzzler. Click past the cut!

You start out by making a basic pirate character and loading into a newbie area. You also start with your own house (well, a shack) and raggedy clothes. You can easily choose newbie missions and tutorials from an easy-to-follow screen, and within half an hour, you might find yourself aboard a ship, doing your part to bring down enemies. I am familiar with the game, having played it several times over the last decade or so, but I still think that a brand-new player with no prior experience would have an easy time figuring out what to do.

For example, multiplayer ship-to-ship combat is controlled by the captain and helped along by the crew members. Everything about Puzzle Pirates’ ship combat feels closer to real chain-of-command vessel-play than anything I have come across. Star Trek Online — based on the show that featured group-play in everything — does not even have multiplayer ship action. I will bet that there are no MMOs (Allods?) that feature multiplayer, real-time ship combat.

I joined an NPC ship at first and jumped right onto bilging. In bilging, you simply match up colored bubbles to keep the level of water inside the craft low. If your ship is damaged, or if the bilgers slack off, more water comes in and eventually causes issues. I also tried my hand at sailing, which gives boosts of speed for maneuvering; carpeting, which kept the ship in good condition; and a few other puzzles that are all essential to running your own craft. In a small window I could see the ship moving along, jockeying for a good spot to shoot from, with animations indicating whether we were about to be boarded or not.

U will be like to read these:

    tibia gold
    flyff penya
    such a judgment is not only insensitive but the opposite of the truth
    others by digging inescapable holes in starter areas to catch new players
    build a bridge over the cut & check out where our adventures led this week
    RIFT is a game based on the traditional every month subscription with no funds shop

Hey look, it’s another RIFT tidbit! We know it’s been several hours since the last one, and honestly, the void was making us all a bit weepy. Seriously, though, we do have some good news for our Russian comrades who’re itching to take a peek at the Telara the rest of the MMO world has been fawning over for the past month.

Trion has just announced a publishing deal with Belver to bring a localized version of the game to Russia as well as 14 Commonwealth of Independent States. Currently, there’s no firm release date, though Trion’s press blurb mentions a late 2011 window.

    silkroad gold
    maplestory mesos
    cheap WOW GOLD US

Captain’s Log: The future for fleets

On my way home from work today, Jason DeRulo’s Ridin’ Solo came up on my iPod’s playlist, and I thought to myself, how boring — who would want to ride solo? Most of us will agree that we have the most fun when we are teamed up with someone while playing. Whether it is for the social interaction or the companionship or just so that we don’t have to keep zerging, we play MMOs so that we can play with other people from around the world. Our games also allow us to take teaming one step further in the form of guilds. In Star Trek Online, joining a fleet is one of the most popular ways to play the game.

Since the early days of closed beta, thousands of fleets have formed inside Cryptic’s server, fleets that have brought players together from around the world. It truly does not matter whether you speak English or not — some of the larger fleets out there have members who represent dozens of countries, languages and ethnicities. Whether you are into PvP, roleplay, raiding, PvE, or accolade-hunting, there is a fleet for everyone — but it doesn’t stop there! As time warps on, developers of the game are going to be adding new options and creating new gameplay that will change the way you will interact with your fleet. So what are they?

Ensign, warp 10! Let’s talk about the future of fleets…

Last August, I had an amazing opportunity to meet up with 13 of my fleetmates at the annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. While we attended the daily events, and in between our adventures through Sin City, we often talked about some of ideas that we would love to see happen for fleets inside the STO universe. As we shared our experiences of being in guilds in other games, we came up with a list of ideas that we would like to see implemented in STO: fleet owned starbases, the ability to work as a fleet to complete guild missions, and a few others. As time went on, these dreams began to fade away as little dev spotlight was placed on further fleet development… until a week ago.

12th Fleet’s interview with STO’s Executive Producer

12th Fleet recently interviewed Dan Stahl about the future of fleets, asking him questions that fleet-members sent in. Read on for my summary!

Fleet starbases — One of the most commonly requested features by fleets is the ability to obtain their own private starbases. Dan reveals that the STO team is working closely with Champions Online programmers to create technology that will make this dream a reality. It has also been mentioned on numerous occasions that he would like the Foundry to play a part in this, meaning Fleet Admirals would be able to “build” the base through the UGC toolset. For the first time ever, Dan tells us he envisions that each player’s duty officers will populate it, as well. If I could have one wish granted by the STO genie, this would be it. I cannot wait to see this implemented, and I call dibs on the master suite!

U will be like to read these:

    Some people are particularly tired of the current quest model
    So why did I start to play RIFT
    Do you dream of becoming an Ambassador for the federation
    You can build a relationship on the most intimate things

Happy birthday, Runes of Magic! One years have gone by, and you are growing up so speedy. Anniversary celebrations are already underway in RoM. If your account has been lying dormant, you may need to wake it up, join the festivities, and get some free goodies while you are at it. For me, these one years flew by. It doesn’t appear all that long ago that I wrote a glance back at the first year of RoM.

If your additional ginger beer is not cutting it anymore and you are feeling fearless, move on up by grabbing a bottle of Blenhiem’s elderly #5 and join me for a glance back at the last year of RoM.

In one years, RoM has seen two major updates, as well as a fourth is around the corner. The first one chapters made it in to the first year, and although Chapter 4 didn’t make it in to this editorial, chapter 3 brought a whopping amount of content and features.

Chapter 3: The Elder Kingdoms was brought to us in a speedy succession of five chunks that brought the level-cap from 55 to 60 and surprised us with some great content. There was a fifth update included, but it wasn’t expected or announced as much as it was tacked on at the eleventh hour, although it did add the new world boss Amboriar in to the game.

Zones and instances

As for world-size, RoM gained two new zones filled with quests and five new instances. They were introduced to lots of new races including the rhinoceros-like Kalo, the sinful elven Jyr’na, the Angren, and more. One difficulty settings were instituted in the older Hall of Survivors and Heart of the Ocean instances, and two levels came with Raksha Temple in Chapter 3. For all you lore-lovers, Raksha Temple introduced a key character that will be a focus when Chapter 4 starts.

Guild castles

Memento system

Guild castles received a bounty of special treatment with minigames and new structural skins. Separate from leveling our guilds, they got the ability to upgrade the look of the main building and walls from a wooden to a stone facade. There were as well as a handful of guild minigames added, which award honor points and additional fun for guilds to experience. I must say they are a lot better than the whack-a-mole minigame. I am not a giant fan of that one.

You know all those Black Codex NPCs strewn about, offering tasty gear in exchange for a unusual funds? That is the souvenir system that was added in Chapter 3 as an alternative and additional way for players to be rewarded for killing bosses in select instances. I have had conversations about the addition of mementos as a reward in public events, and I personally feel that events need to be gated to prevent AFKers. Currently, the public events get overrun with players who join, go AFK, and still earn mementos, which lets them buy some nice gear but makes it hard for anyone who would actually need to participate with groups. I am not against offering mementos as a reward, but something needs to be completed about being able to AFK and still win in the events.

    Cabal alz
    tibia gold
    flyff penya

Features

RoM saw some robust features added or significantly upgraded in the kind of a pet system, housekeepers, monster compendium, new skill system, rune extraction, public events, two-player mounts, beginner tutor system, beginner pets, a used battlefield as well as a relationship system. Whew! That is lots of stuff, and those are not small features either.

The pet system alone is robust to be thought about a game of its own on which you could spend your whole game career. In fact, lots of the new features are like that. Monster cards became popular when the team added stat bonuses to them. Housekeepers provide buffs and can make potions and food. An array of different relationships can be forged — including marriage — that provide special bonuses you can level as the relationships grow stronger. The popular Tyrefen Mountain Range battlefield was added. Built-in Vivox voice was implemented. Elite skills got a revamp. Newer skills,e gained by finishing high-level sets, were added, and the tutor system rewards high-level players with bonus stats for helping lowbies.

Double, double, toil and trouble

The second year brought with it some growing pains for Runewaker and Frogster. The late hacker incident involving an anonymous villain who blackmailed Frogster is probably still fresh in the minds of veteran players.

Earlier still, Runewaker appeared to be on a never-ending quest to figure out and implement a used system to replace the popular diamond trade that they have not seen in the auction house for lots of months now. The preliminary system was  ideal, and it is a disgrace it is gone. I do not like the idea of static NPC traders (Runewaker’s current solution), but thankfully there is still the choice for players to trade through gifting of items. I would like to see the elderly system reinstituted. It was brilliantly simple to trade diamonds for gold on the auction house in the same manner they buy items now. Here’s hoping Runewaker finds a winning process to return to the elderly way all of us loved a lot while being able to crack down on gold-selling and fraud.

On the community front

In addition to the aforementioned memento issue, we have seen a flip from Mages being over-powered to Scouts taking the lead. Some player surveys on skills were taken on the European servers a short time back; they recommend we are in for some changes, but they don’t know when. The teaser we have seen of the new zone describes the first instance and area as being more Mage-friendly, but it will take over that to fix the issue.

The prospect of new mana calculations still looms over the playerbase like a thick fog. This past year’s try to change all mana consumption to percentage-based was met with a mana strike and was removed from the game about as speedy as it was implemented.

Players are also tentative about how lots of quests will be seen with the new areas. There is still some debate over the number of quests being small in the last-released zone, Limo Desert.

Follow best News:

    I have very 75 browser games bookmarked on my PC right now
    where the largest danger would be a wolf or spoiled food
    EVE Online developer CCP Games has a matchless way of helping players donate
    their ability to travel gigantic distances downwind

Anyone who has played EVE Online for any real period of time can appreciate why so many people feel internet spaceships are “serious business.” However, much like CCP’s own developers and their recent “chessboxing” video, many capsuleers also have a fun-loving side — despite the dangers in EVE Online. Today’s fun screenshot comes to us from Ryan V., who captured this while wandering through New Eden recently and writes in: “This was taken outside of a Space Monkeys Alliance station in the northern nullsec regions. The Space Monkeys are known for their love for bubbles, and this just exemplifies that.”

Found a fun interstellar anomaly while adventuring through your favorite space-based MMO? If so, send in a screenshot of it and share with the rest of us! It’s easy to do

Fiesta Online unveils the Trickster class with a sneaky in-game event

    maplestory mesos
    cabalonline alz
    atlantica gold

The Fiesta Online team has been hard at work on some special events to celebrate the release of the game’s new Trickster class — but we can’t tell you what they are.

As is befitting this hard-to-pin-down class, the events associated with it are a bit of a puzzle. There will be a special password-protected event page on the Fiesta Online site later tonight, and the password can only be found while playing the game.

We can give you a few hints, however. There will be jester caps available in game as part of the festivities, you can earn special in-game weapons, and the GM team — particularly GM Trixie — is feeling a little mischievous. Your job is to find that password once the event begins and use the event page to guide you to the special items and quests.

Check out the image above for a sneak peek. For the rest of the details, keep an eye on the Fiesta Online page tonight for all the details, and have fun!

Follow best News:

    The Stonehenge instance features quick respawns and fast action
    the game’s skill system to the venerable Magic
    The Secret World is an MMO
    there for the folks who are looking for a deeper experience

11:30 a.m. — I did not pick a good day to be driving down a two-lane highway with blind curves; fortunately, my windshield wipers were top-notch, because it was absolutely pouring with little to no visibility. Thankfully, I arrived safely to the studio, parked in the visitor parking spot and literally ran inside from the rain. Being from Southern California, I forgot to put an umbrella in the car; I am actually surprised I was not in shorts and flip-flops.

Walking through the front door was like stepping onto the bridge of the Enterprise, except I was actually in a reception area with a couch for the captain’s chair, a flat-screen playing demos of Cryptic’s various projects for the view screen, and the receptionist as my helmsmen.

After “checking in,” signing my Non-Disclosure Agreement and receiving my visitor badge (which I did not get to keep — boo), I was met by STO’s Online Community Representative, Stormshade. Stormy (as the community calls him) and I are no strangers, for he has been on my podcast a few times.

11:40 a.m. — To start off the day, Stormy took me on a tour of the studios. To be honest, I was expecting a giant office building, at least a few stories tall, with bustling activity in the hallways including people carrying clipboards and walking frantically on their way to the next meeting. Why did I have this vision? I really have no idea. I didn’t know what to expect, because I have never been in a game studio. In reality, the hallways were quiet, the lights were dimmed, and it did not seem like there was anyone else in the building; I was actually starting to think that Stormy ran the whole show on his own. But, to be fair, it was a rainy day and I heard a lot of people were out sick.

I don’t think many people realize how small Cryptic truly is. As the development team mentions all the time, Cryptic is an independent studio that happens to be owned by one of the world’s largest game studios: Atari. Without giving away exact numbers, we know there are only a few dozen people working on each project and a dozen or so working in areas like Marketing and Community.

While on the tour, I was able to see the area where the STO and Champions Online devs work. Network Operations is a dedicated team that watches the servers and monitors their performance; Quality Assurance passes the white glove over the game’s updates before they are released to the public; MarCom hosts the PR, marketing, creative services and community teams; and the “break area” is complete with lounge couches, Atari arcade games, computers, a tabletop RPG-like area, and other amenities to allow employees to unwind, relax, and have fun.

Hot News:

    runes of magic gold
    cheap wow gold for sale
    flyff penya
    Massively Daily Grind is always a good source of discussion
    Age of Conan always seems to come up short in the polls
    EVE Travel is a perfect example of what it means to explore
    Miss a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week

My playing MMOs is much the community’s fault. Earth & Beyond Portal was a fansite run by a few names (Albino_eatpod & Munky spring to mind), & to my mind at least, it was filled with fantastic people.

The other community memory that pops out was the Columbia catastrophe. There was a system in Beta Hydri sector, either Cooper or Glenn. Anyway, wherever it was, there were navigation points for various real-life & in-game astronomical history points. After the Columbia shuttle catastrophe, Westwood added in a new point to commemorate those who died, & there was a community gathering for a two-minute silence at the waypoint.

People in the community could engage with the devs. There were individuals who through whatever means made names for themselves in the community & were recognised. I was one time always jealous of Dr_Zoidberg’s Net7 shield. I understand such “favouritism” is not feasible in some games due to
giant communities & may still occur in smaller games where people can still reach the powers-that-be basically, but it always stuck with me.

What are some of your favourite memories from the game?

Without a doubt, the day I saved a beginner. Ships had different slots obtainable to them dependant on your class. As a Jenquai explorer, I could, at best with all unlocked, have three weapons — the fewest in the game, but still, I made the most of it. Also, as an explorer class, I could “jumpstart” disabled players.

The thanks of that man who, up until that point, had never seen someone fight so hard (I had to retreat one time & got disabled myself one time if I keep in mind right) to get him back on
track have always been my favourite MMO memory.

It was a standard trade run when I was one time passing out of the Saturn system & found a man who had gotten in over his head with V’rix ships. Giant, giant spawns of them. Still, they were much lower level than I was one time, so I thought I’d go for it.

Hot News:

    Cabal alz
    tibia gold
    lineage 2 adena
    EVE Travel is a perfect example of what it means to explore
    Age of Conan always seems to come up short in the polls
    Massively Daily Grind is always a good source of discussion
    meld the best of both RPGs and FPSs by introducing a skill tree system

Welcome to this week’s Global Chat! We love hearing what you need to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing a few of their favourite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat!

This week’s Global Chat is RIFT, RIFT, RIFT. The game is not set to launch for a few more days, but the head-start doors opened Thursday. Even if you are not following RIFT, the flurry of interest surrounding the event was the source of some great discussion about other MMOs and the game industry in general.

Follow along after the jump for a look!

Are other game studios taking countermeasures against RIFT? That was the query posed by Justin after patches and mysterious changes started popping up in other games simultaneously. AlienFanatic had this to say in the ensuing discussion:

    Cabal alz
    tibia gold
    eve isk

“I don’t think the MMO market is expanding. To expand, you need to bring in new types of players, not simply re-shuffle the existing playerbase. Right now, I don’t think the genre appeals much outside of itself, in that grandma or the sports jocks, or the FPS guys have tiny interest in MMOs.

When head-start began, “queue” was the word of the day. Scott Hartsman, Trion’s CCO, saw it coming as the clocked counted down, and RIFT responded throughout the day by bringing new servers online right and left. Meanwhile, our readers had lots to say on the issue. They shared their own queue tales, speculated on why things were set up the way they were, and offered ideas on how developers could avoid these issues in the future. Massively reader Scuffles had some thoughts on the matter:

“RIFT and virtually every MMO in recent memory is just a riff on the same type of fantasy-based RPG. I am thinking that the large, large majority of RIFT players will come from the ranks of ex-WoW, ex-EQ, ex-WAR, etc., communities. The only game that appears to be able to bringing in ‘new’ players is probably TOR. It’s a rare sci-fi game, which is a largely unexplored genre for MMOs. (You could say that STO and Star Wars Galaxies blazed the way, but SWG came out long before WoW blew the MMO market wide open, and STO suffered a lackluster launch). We’ll see, but I think that the MMO market is very, very stagnant atm.”

RIFT’s similarity to other MMOs is still a subject of discussion here and there, and it came up in Karen’s guide to your first day in RIFT. ExLupo doesn’t necessarily think that is a bad thing:

“Thats why I don’t understand why new MMOs don’t at least start off with a channel server setup. Even in the event that they don’t intend to support it in the long run. Then they can have say two to two servers each with a handful of channels and you scale channels accordingly. You kill two birds with one stone. You avoid queues because initially there is  room for everyone. You avoid giant zone overcrowding (there will still be some). You avoid the false stigma of failure in the coursework of your imminent server mergers after tourist season.”

“This game does suck if you are worn out of the WoW format. As do WAR, LotRO, D&D, EQ, etc. It’s stock-standard modern generic fantasy MMO. those calling it WoWHammer are dead on, but is that  something to avoid?

“Re: the automobile analogy, it’s very true. RIFT, as highlighted by its ultra-generic name, brings very tiny that is new. However, that is not a bad thing. What it rehashes, it does cleanly. The UI is solid as is the configuration device. The quest/PQ [public quest] functions are liquid and well-implemented. Turning WAR’s PQs in to a more-generic yet more-involving game part by way of the RIFT technique does make the world more engaging. It is not truly dynamic, but as we have seen in WoW and EQ, world-changing invasion events are fun.

“In my view, RIFT is a solid entry in the generic fantasy MMO genre. If you are worn out of your current GFM but not the genre in general, RIFT will give you something that is comfortably familiar while still changing the pace  to keep your interest. In case you need something truly different, there is always Rez. From MMOs to shooters, 1pv/3pv games all play to the same psychological identity trigger. It’s just the action/plot sliders and flavor text/graphics that are different.”

Good News:

Free-to-play fantasy giant Runes of Magic has had more than its fair share of problems lately. When a hacker named Cpt.Z3r0 posted the usernames and passwords of several thousand Runes of Magic accounts, publisher Frogster was placed in a difficult position. Rather than giving in to the hacker’s demands, Frogster has been working with law enforcement and attempting to improve internal security.

Showing that they can still find the humour in this terrible situation, Frogster has released a parody video of the original hacker’s video as a teaser trailer for their upcoming Chapter IV update. The teaser trailer comes at the same time as several new preview screenshots of the Chapter IV content, which the game’s developer Runewaker is currently working on. Chapter IV is scheduled for release in April of this year, so if you’re looking forward to the update, marvel at our gallery full of giant teddy bears, comfy seats and piles of gold, or skip past the cut to watch the short teaser trailer.

Further developments in MapleStory Europe’s hacking madness

Last week, we brought you the news that players abusing an exploit had brought MapleStory Europe’s in-game economy to its knees. Using a packet-forging exploit, players with the Meso Guard skill were able to trick the server into giving them 2.17 billion mesos. Hundreds of mule accounts were created to house the forged currency, and trillions was poured into the economy via    buy tibia gold,     cheap WOW GOLD US,     atlantica gold,     aion kinah buy,     sro gold, trades and market stalls. Nexon EU’s initial response was to trade-ban all characters with over a certain amount of currency, a move that was criticised for catching a great deal of legitimate players and also somehow missing many of the hackers’ mule accounts.

Despite concerns that the issue had gotten out of hand, Nexon EU stated that the company opted not to perform a server rollback. “The reason why we didn’t perform a rollback on our servers,” a Nexon EU representative told us, “was because we detected the exploit too late which may make the players lose even more of their gains if we were to turn everything back.” The company’s final plan for dealing with the massive influx of mesos has finally been announced, and it’s bad news for practically everyone involved. After determining that the damage to the economy had become irreversible, Nexon decided to try to bring balance back to the economy by deleting a large percentage of every single player’s mesos.

The forums have been in an uproar about the solution, with players complaining that it harms legitimate players more than the hackers. Legitimate players who have never cheated nor hacked will log in to find up to 90% of their hard-earned cash gone. Hackers will suffer the same percentage deduction, but with trillions stashed away in mule accounts they’ll still be a lot better off than they were before the incident. Nexon EU clarified the statement in a later announcement, stating that “the deduction of Mesos will only be applied to users who have logged into the game between January 5th, 2011 and February 9th, 2011 5:00 A.M. (GMT+1).” Accounts that were previously trade-banned will also be receiving 1,000 maple points and an incubator as compensation.

How did you celebrate your third celebration? they imagine that the Pirates of the Burning Sea developers celebrated it a lot like you might have: with pirates, speaking birds & the occasional PvP fight. Of course, you   certainly didn’t pick to participate in an interview with the best MMO net site in existence, mainly because it over likely didn’t exist back then.

Massively: As you come to your third anniversary, how do you think the game has aged?

Our trusty eyepatches in place, they waylaid Russell “Rusty” Williams (Flying Lab’s CEO) & Jason “Mr Nutty” Gettel (Lead Designer), who answered a quantity of our “burning” questions. So sit back, put your bib on, blow out your candles, & click past the cut to see what they had to say on this special anniversary!

Rusty Williams: they think PotBS has aged  well! First, we’ve added tremendously to the game since launch, with both enormous amounts of new content & entirely new games systems, to say nothing of the massive amounts of polish we’ve applied. Second, there’s still nothing  like it out there, & that uniqueness gives it an enduring quality. eventually, PotBS is basically attractive, & that’s more of a function of our art staff’s aesthetic sense than the underlying know-how. While they do continue to upgrade our tech, it’s the continued advancement of our artists that has made the new towns, coasts, characters, & weapons such a stunning improvement.

PotBS is often compared to EVE Online, so what’re a quantity of the key differences between the three games for players who might be on the fence?

We’ve heard a lot about new free-to-play players contributing to PvP battles, increasing their frequency & size. But is a new player even able to contribute to a battle that might be filled with veterans?

Jason Gettel: There are some obvious similarities; both games feature ships & ship combat, have complex economies, & have significant RvR systems. The implementation of these systems is  different, though. The obvious example is our ship combat. In PotBS, a player has to think about things like wind direction, enemy positioning, & land formation; all while steering their ship on a safe course & firing off cannon volleys. This makes for an intense tactical experience that is  matchless & wonderfully fun. So while it’s  simple to say things like, “ah, both games feature ship combat,” the words “ship combat” mean  different things in the three games.

Looking back at beta, did you ever think that PotBS would reach three years? What about free-to-play — was that anywhere near the ballpark back then?

Jason: Skill & experience will always give you an edge in any game, but in PotBS they see plenty of new players being recruited in to groups that feature a range of character ages. The nature of our combat method means that there are loads of roles people can fill. There are veterans & societies in every nation that want to educate new players & use the strengths that new players can bring to a fight.

Rusty: they absolutely expected to reach three years. If you didn’t expect your game to have some legs, you wouldn’t invest the kinds of resources that MMOs need. In terms of making the game free-to-play, they have always been aware that they would need to do it for Asia, but they weren’t initially thinking about it in the context of the US market. It wasn’t until the fall of 2009 that they were actively thinking about it & looking for a way to make it happen.

New, free players might add bodies, but do they add funds? In other words, although it’s thrilling to see more players, ought to a player take this as meaning that the game now has an extended life?

Rusty: They do add funds! Going free-to-play is a leap of faith if you’re currently in a subscription model, but we’re pleased with the response that we’ve seen, & we’re excited to see where it goes. It’s also particularly gratifying that in a difficult economic climate, free-to-play opens up the door to players who had to drop for financial reasons.

what’re a quantity of the lessons you’ve learned over the last three years? what have you learned about a PvP audience?

    buy tibia gold
    cheap WOW GOLD US
    atlantica gold
    eve isk
    aion kinah buy

New servers are seemingly a hot topic on the forums. What would it take to open a new one, or is that not in the cards?

Rusty: We’ve learned loads of lessons from the last three years, way  plenty of to cover here, but if you read our hundreds of pages of release notes, you’ll see loads of them reflected there. For me personally, the largest lesson is how they must alter how speedy they can bring a product to market. With PotBS, they built all sorts of new & innovative systems from the ground up. regrettably, the odds of building it right the first time are  low, so you need to be willing to learn what went wrong, tear it apart, & then build it again. All the while the marketplace is changing, & faster now than ever before, & the strategy you based your game on may not be valid when you’re eventually prepared to ship. As for the PvP audience, they haven’t had  plenty of surprises of what drives a PvP player, but knowing that doesn’t reduce how impressive it’s to watch them take your carefully thought-out rules & bend them to their advantage.

Jason: We’re definitely not ruling it out, but they don’t think now is the right time. A prospering population makes Pirates an  fun game; the more people there are playing together, the better their experience is. A new server is only a benefit when the population is overwhelming the game systems or server hardware. they have loads of people on the current servers, & the systems & hardware are doing  fine at the moment. In the future? We’ll see.

For those who might not know, it was decided last week that my Wizard101 character was to be a boy from the school of Death. On top of that, they was ordered to get around town by using a pair of stunning white wings. I heard a few comments in different places about how the wings would not look nice with a Death student or about how a horse mount or broom was better. I held fast and nabbed a pair of the white, fluttering back pieces. I had to obey orders!

But what else did I do over this last week besides wait for the vote to finish? Well, click past the cut and I’ll let you know.

one time I made my character and put the wings on, though, I looked  metal. For those more youthful players who might not comprehend what that means, Google “Dio” and watch a few videos. Avoid Slayer — your parents would not like that. (Note: If you come across a band called Queensryche, that’s not metal.) Anyway, my white wings only accentuated my dark intentions. It was a fantastic choice.

    best place to buy wow gold
    eve isk
    tibia gold buy

Waiting for the vote to finish was not very thrilling. certain, I wondered about what I used to be going to be, but I  desired to get in and play. For the record, I am very familiar with the game already. I’ve visited Kingsisle studios five times, interviewed some of the developers, and even hung out with them at an awards show! (They all appear to have gum all the time.) My spouse even hosts a podcast about the game, and i have watched her play it  passionately for a very long time.

I had similar experiences with all the games in the vote,  so we’re all clear. In fact, I used to be  certain that MapleStory would win, being that its community is so massive. The players of Wizard101 pulled it off, though, so here I am trying to explain that my past experiences will have no bearing on what I am going through now. First, I never got above level 10 or so on my elderly character. Second, I started in beta and have not  played much since then. But would putting Wizard101 up for a vote would only lead me down a familiar road?

The character creation — the first step in to the world — is a lot of fun. You meet the elderly master wizard Merle Ambrose right at the outset. they talks to you and may even take you through a quiz that will help you figure out which school of magic to pick. Since mine was already decided for me, I skipped the quiz and went with the Death school. I made a cool-looking man with blond hair, a pale suit with black trim, and a dark hat. I selected a random name and tweaked it a small bit: Boris Shadowbreaker. regrettably, players cannot pick their own names in the Spiral. I saw someone comment that it was daft to have such “restrictions,” but I’m certain that they was merely unaware of Kingsisle’s attempts to keep the game secure. Ironically, though, any other player can have my same name and can pose as me — a security breach if ever there was one.

Not so fast. Even  spending the time in the game over the last day (remember, the vote ended on Monday) showed me that a lot has changed. The funds shop is filled to the brim with tempting items, there’s tons and tons of new players, and even some mechanics appear to have changed. Also, I am paying much more attention to the details of the game than before, thanks mostly to this project.

Value News:

     it knowingly opens the PS3 to piracy
    a used Group Guide feature for high level characters
    his company needs to make a better iPhone game
    The Dragon Knight Saga is an epic role-playing game on computer & Xbox 360