MMO Clerks

Any hero worth their cape can tell you that Atlas Park is generally considered to be one of, if not the, biggest hangout on many City of Heroes servers. Normally the statue near Ms. Liberty is a fairly laid-back spot for heroes to hang out and hold costume contests, but it truly gets to be fun when event monsters spawn there unexpectedly! Today’s One Shots was captured by Ryan F. who was hanging out on Atlas’ knee during the recent anniversary events and managed to capture this image of heroes poised and ready to deal with the next wave of nasties.
Sunday is a popular day for people to log in and get some MMO time. So while you’re out adventuring, why not take a snap of your favorite game? We’d love to see what you’re up to. Just email your screenshots to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT [...]

Original post by Krystalle Voecks

Mission running in EVE Online is one of the more lucrative activities players can spend their time doing, at least while in the safety of high security space. The cumulative rewards from NPC bounties, loyalty points, salvage, and loot — in addition to the mission rewards from NPC agents — make Level 4 missions a decent ISK/hour income for many of EVE Online’s pilots. Level 4 missions are the most popular, due to their relative ease and multiple battleship (high bounty) NPC spawns which yield better loot drops and more salvage components, as well as optimal loyalty point gain. However, the grouping of agents that give the best missions leads to ‘mission hubs’ where hundreds of players operate in the same solar systems.
The latest dev blog by EVE’s lead content creator CCP Molock is simply titled “New Level 4 Agents”, and deals with dispersing the crowds (and clutter) from [...]

Original post by James Egan

While we’ve known of a new Square-Enix MMO that has been in the works for some time now, we’ve recently received information that Square might be showing off this unannounced title during a special press conference on Wednesday at E3.
The conference doesn’t have specific details as to what’s going to be presented, but fellow press site Gameplayer has made the claim that it will be this unannounced project, codenamed Rapture. Rapture will be a PC and PS3 only title, with Sony announcing the game during their own press conference, scheduled for Tuesday.
Currently only Gameplayer has announced these details, putting this story firmly in the category of rumor. However, Massively.com’s Shawn Schuster, Elizabeth Harper, and Krystalle Voecks will be on site to follow up on the story and deliver the latest announcements as they occur during our coverage of E3. If this is a taste of what Square-Enix [...]

Original post by Colin Brennan

Many gaming companies are beginning to become interested in the online arena, especially when it comes to MMOs. World of Warcraft turned many heads when it came out and proved that a video game can work extremely well as a service, to the tune of millions of subscriptions per month in constant revenue. We’ve just seen Bioware enter the fray, offering up Star Wars: The Old Republic up as their first MMO title.
What we want to know is what game company would you like to see step up to the plate? Who do you think could enter the MMO genre and provide us with another killer app?
You’ve got an opinion and we would love to hear it. Drop your thoughts into the white comment box after the break, and share what you have to say with the rest of the Massively loyal.
Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, [...]

Original post by Colin Brennan

Here is some new screens from the upcoming action spy RPG by Obsidian Entertainment, Alpha Protocol. You get to check out more of the games graphics and I have to say, even though some things don’t have as much detail as other western RPGS, it still looks solid.
Graphics don’t make a game good, so I hope it plays awesome. I’m actually really looking forward to this title. What do you guys think about the screens so far?

The game is set to invade on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC this upcoming October.
[Thanks: Aki-at]
[Source: IGN]

Original post by George

A new game in the Mario series will be released for Wii this year, says the Nikkei Shimbun.
Japan’s top economic newspaper said Saturday that Nintendo will release the new Mario game in Japan in the latter half of 2009, as part of its attempt to boost the flagging Japanese sales of its home console. The report gave no further details on the game.
Nikkei’s story also confirmed that a new Wii Fit game will be released in the fall. The paper says the game will contain online features, allowing you to compete in weight-loss challenges against distant friends. It will also feature enhanced motion sensitivity.
First the PSP Go, and now this? Seems like everyone’s biggest E3 rumors are getting blown days before the show starts.
Nintendo Aims to Release New Wii Fit This Fall [Nikkei]

Original post by Chris Kohler

The team at SanrioDigital and Typhoon Games has lovingly re-created the city of Beijing as you’ve never seen it before — through the pink-lensed glasses of Hello Kitty, heavy on the star motif. Well, more stars than the real Beijing, in any case. They’ve even put some of Beijing’s landmarks into Hello Kitty Online and have posted screenshots of the HKO version of the city, with a brief introduction.
They write on the Sanriotown blog: “To start things off, we’d like to showcase the new, never-before-seen city that’s been added to the game: Beijing! In it you’ll see some narrow streets, red lanterns, unique buildings, and walls surrounding the heart of the city.” Some of the places they’ve included are the Bubble Dome and the Forbidden Museum. Sanriotown also adds that Hello Kitty Online will have ‘14 new adventure maps, 8 of which make up Beijing’s surroundings.’ You can check [...]

Original post by James Egan

Are you desperate for a BlizzCon 2009 ticket? Desperate enough to jump through marketing hoops to get one? Well read on. Massively took a lighthearted jab at the World of Warcraft and Mountain Dew partnership with “WoW in Liquid Form“, all in good fun. But the “Choose Your Side” contest they’re running this summer has prizes some of our readers may be interested in, given how quickly BlizzCon tickets tend to sell out: all-expense-paid trips to BlizzCon 2009, each valued at $3000. They’re giving away one per week through June 19th. It’s a trip for two with round trip air and accommodation plus some spending cash thrown in.
If you’re despondent over being #7585 in line for a BlizzCon 2009 ticket, head on over to the Game Fuel site where you can register and start racking up tokens which are essentially contest entries. Additional prizes they’re giving away daily include [...]

Original post by James Egan

Do you miss the home you use to call Vana’diel? Do you wish you never punched that “delete” key when you were signing off of PlayOnline for the last time? And, lastly, are you too impatient to wait for another “Return Home to Vana’diel” campaign to begin?
Good news for you then! The guys and gals over at Square-Enix have finally decided to drop their timed campaign and bring in a new permanent solution for those of you who have deleted your characters from the system but would like to get them back — character reactivation.
The new service allows people who have canceled and deleted their Content IDs, people who have deleted characters and canceled their accounts, or people who have canceled their accounts and let the account sit for too long to go back in and restore old data to the account. This means when you now /ragequit Final Fantasy [...]

Original post by Colin Brennan

One of the upcoming free-to-play titles that Massively had a chance to see this month is Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent from Atlus. Our hands-on gallery feature is a good introduction to the look and feel of the game world, but now that Neo Steam is in open beta, we’re expecting more info about the game to be forthcoming.
We came across a ZAM interview with Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent lead editor Jason Ruper, conducted by Andrew “Tamat” Beegle. Ruper gives some background on the game’s setting and lore, saying, “The game has a lush, fantasy-steampunk setting, and everything — from the machine wasteyards and polluted rivers to the rickety vehicles and the ancient ruins from before the shattering — contributes to this setting and reminds you that your nation is in a state of reconstruction as well as in the middle of a cold war.”
Continue reading Neo [...]

Original post by James Egan