Some more news has spilled all over the internet yesterday detailing specializations. It seems the real goal for the developers is to completely change not only how players progress their characters, but how they play them as well.
General: The Weekend Hardware Roundup
Gamers have a vested interest in keeping tabs on the latest innovations in hardware. This weekend, we have several news items that may pique that interest.
World of Tanks: Wargaming.net’s Grand Finals Starts in Warsaw, Poland
Today marked the opening of the Wargaming.net League World of Tanks Grand Finals, and boy was it grand. It began with pounding techno music, flashing lights, and super-macho trailer showing competitive tough guys ready to tank it out, and a huge digital display that counted down the seconds until show time.
General: Is Instancing Bad for MMOs?
Welcome back to another edition of Player Versus Player, the bi-weekly debate column that pits two MMO writers in a battle over the issues you care about. Like you, we at the MMORPG offices have been paying a lot of attention to Skyforge lately. Even though there is an awful lot players are excited about, the amount of instancing has players divided.
Shroud of the Avatar: Latest Update Details First Player-Owned Town
The Shroud of the Avatar update letter has arrived and it’s packed with tons of interesting tidbits about the game. Of particular note is the arrival of the game’s first player-controlled town. Called PaxLair, the town is serving as a ‘sandbox’ for developers to work out the specifics and mechanics of the system overall.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn: Heavensward Benchmark Trailer
Square Enix has published a new benchmark trailer that actually gives quite a bit of information about the forthcoming expansion including new skills, monsters and individual limit breaks. The benchmark will be available for players to try out on Monday, April 27th.
General: 2015: An Eventful Year for Zynga
Those of you who follow me back at my home, MMO Fallout, will be aware that I’ve been paying special attention to recent happenings over at Zynga. To put the news as short as I can: Zynga is replacing their unpopular CEO with an unpopular ex-CEO, and their investors are not happy.
The Secret World: Been Waiting for Issue 11? Not Much Longer!
The Secret World players will be happy to hear that Issue 11, the conclusion of the Tokyo story line, is headed to live service on May 6th. The announcement was made on Lead Designer Romain Amiel’s Twitter.
EverQuest II: Daybreak Community Members Create Issue Tracker
EverQuest II community members have created a new tool to assist the development team in tracking down annoying and persistent bugs in the game. Called the "Issue Tracker", players can use the tool to submit a bug report that will join a queue the team can assess to see which bugs are the most-reported and then work to fix them.
World of Tanks: Update 9.7 Launches in North America
Wargaming has announced that v9.7 has officially launched in North America with other regions set to update later this month. 9.7 brings new French tanks into the game, as well as a new Team Battles Feature, the "Overlord" map and changes to the Random Battle matchmaking to give the newest players a chance to battle with others of the same skill level.