Posts Tagged "online"

• Order and Chaos Online developer discusses server-linking and more

  Hots Games
  

  Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, News items, Mobile, Community Q&A

  In honor of the game’s paper anniversary, Order & Chaos: Online producer Arnaud Bonnard took the time to do some Q&A with user-submitted questions about what is one of the biggest mobile MMOs available.

  Arnaud shared some of the toughest parts of development, which were the pressure of creating a world vast enough to entertain players for months (and now years) and ensuring that everything was as stable and functional as possible from a technical point. He followed up by reliving the joy of a successful launch and the success that the game met with over time. He talked a bit about updates and DLC, which come out every one or two months and are generally still drawn from the original design document for Order & Chaos: Online, given that the world design was much bigger than could possibly fit into the game originally.

  Bonnard also addressed the server separation between Android, iOS, and Mac devices: Not only would it be time-consuming to link all the operating systems, but such a system would mean that patches could only be deployed once every device was supported, which would be tricky and cause too many extra delays. As far as Order and Chaos’ future is concerned, he’s optimistic. There are new graphic features coming down the pipe as well as “lots of ideas for the game” as the company looks forward to another fantastic year thanks to fan support.

  Catch all the intricacies of Bonnard’s answers for yourself over at Gameloft.

  Order and Chaos Online developer discusses server-linking and more originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 19 May 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Betawatch: May 12 – 18, 2012

  Hots Games
  

  Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, Betawatch, Miscellaneous

  This week on Betawatch, we say farewell to Diablo III, which (at least nominally) moved on from beta to official launch on Tuesday. Bizarrely enchanting new MOBA SmashMuck Champions takes its place, joining our list with a closed beta planned within the month. We’ve also added MechWarrior Online to the alpha list, as reader mblakeman2001 rightly pointed out the game is in a friends-and-family beta!

  CCP has begun sending out DUST 514 beta keys and opened registration, and we’ve also learned that Blade & Soul will leave beta and launch in July… but only in Korea. Sadface.

  Finally, The Secret World’s second beta weekend kicked off earlier today, but if you’re not in it, you can content yourself with our hands-on with the game’s combat and mission system.

  Enjoy the entirety of our Betawatch roundup post-cut!

  Continue reading Betawatch: May 12 – 18, 2012

  Betawatch: May 12 – 18, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 18 May 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• DC Universe Online shows off the new Shield weapon

  Hots Games
  

  Filed under: Super-hero, Patches, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Consoles, DC Universe Online

  Shields generally aren’t thought of as a weapon; they’re usually seen as the exact opposite of a weapon. But in the superheroic milieu, all that changes. A shield is something to be used offensively, and in DC Universe Online‘s next major update, players will get to start wielding the shield for their own superheroic (or villainous) capers. A recent interview with creative director Jens Andersen discusses the intended role of the shield in combat.

  Andersen explains that while the new weapon comes along in a very PvP-centered update, it’s not meant to be used specifically for PvP — the team just wants to have something new for players to enjoy no matter what. In play, shields are similar to a staff weapon, but unlike most other weapons the shield can continue to build a combo after a heavy strike by moving back to light strikes. That should make the shield a very aggressive option — perhaps odd for something that’s not generally thought of as a weapon.

  DC Universe Online shows off the new Shield weapon originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 17 May 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• The Soapbox: Translating Elder Scrolls Online dev speak

  Hots Games
  

  Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Opinion, The Soapbox, Sandbox, The Elder Scrolls Online

  Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week’s writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you’re afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

  Language is a pretty fascinating thing, and studying a second one is something I’ve long intended to do. Aside from entertaining thoughts of learning Korean to play ArcheAge, though (seriously, I looked into it), I haven’t gotten around to much beyond college-level Deutsch.

  But as I watched last week’s interview with The Elder Scrolls Online creative director Paul Sage, I realized that I already have some pretty good second-language skills. I’m fluent in both English and MMO dev-speak, so as a public service, I’m going to translate some of what Sage said into the former.

  Continue reading The Soapbox: Translating Elder Scrolls Online dev speak

  The Soapbox: Translating Elder Scrolls Online dev speak originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 15 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• The Top 10 Russian internet entrepreneurs you need to know about

  Hots News
  

  Russia is now the largest internet market in Europe, with more than 55 million online users. Russian internet market leaders, Yandex and London-listed Mail.ru Group, both reported a year-over-year revenue growth of 50 percent for the first quarter of 2012.

  The Russian market is growing at a supersonic rate and provides excellent exit opportunites for investors in Russian online ventures to create a brand-new breed of Russian internet entrepreneur.

  So who are the trailblazers to watch in this new web frontier? Yankov Sadchikov, Russian startup blogger at Quintura.com, talks us through the hottest Russian entrepreneurs to watch right now…

  Oskar Hartmann, founder and CEO, KupiVIP.ru

  After launching online shopping club KupiVIP.ru in fall 2008, the Russian-German Oskar Hartmann added an e-commerce platform for Russian retailers and launched online fashion store ShopTime.

  In Russian online shopping, KupiVIP is growing bigger than established brand OZON.ru by racking $200 million revenues last year. In 2010, Hartmann partnered with the French businessman Pascal Clément to set up a Moscow-based internet business incubator, Fast Lane Ventures, which has already started eighteen internet businesses to date, of which two were already exited.

  Marina Kolesnik, founder and CEO, Oktogo.ru

  Following a consulting career at McKinsey and management role at DataArt, where she headed complex software development projects, Marina Kolesnik has leveraged her Harvard MBA to launch her own online venture Oktogo.ru two years ago. Since then, Marina raised $15 million in venture capital from European and Russian investors to make Oktogo.ru into Russia’s leading online hotel booking and travel site or “Booking.com of Russia”.

  Pavel Cherkashin, co-founder, Krible and Kuznech

  Having been Russian manager for Adobe and Siebel as well as Microsoft Russia’s general manager of consumer and online businesses, Pavel Cherkashin made a number of angel investments in online businesses in Russia. He now works for his investee companies: online customer support service Krible and image search Kuznech as well as helping other investees: online video site Tvigle.ru and mobile advertising network AdWired.

  Alisa Chumachenko, founder and CEO, Game Insight

  In online gaming, marketing is key. The former head of marketing at Astrum Online, which was merged into Mail.ru Group in 2008, Chumachenko started her own  social game publisher and developer Game Insight in late 2009. In 2011, she moved into mobile gaming to make Game Insight one of the leading gaming companies on Android.

  Albert Popkov, founder, Sravni.ru

  Popkov capitalised on the social networking boom in Russia. Back in 2006, he launched the social network company Odnoklassniki.ru. He then raised funding from DST and sold his startup to it later. Odnoklassniki, which is part of Mail.ru Group, has some 25 million monthly users. In 2009, Albert launched consumer banking comparison site Sravni.ru, which is now the leader in its category.

  Yulia Mitrovich, Entrepreneur in Residence, Svyaznoy Group

  A graduate of the University of British Columbia, Mitrovich was a McKinsey consultant before going to Web Media Group in Moscow to head its online video site Zoomby.ru.

  In 2012 Mitrovich joined Svyaznoy Group, the leading mobile phone retailer in Russia, as Entrepreneur in Residence. No surprise, Svyaznoy founder Maxim Nogotkov was named Russia’s Entrepreneur of The Year 2010 by Ernst & Young.

  Igor Matsanyuk, founder, IMI.VC

  If the internet incubators are the new black, then mobile-focused business accelerators are the new, new black. Entrepreneur-turned-VC Matsanyuk has made a fortune by cashing out shares in Mail.ru Group during its IPO in late 2010.

  One year before, he merged his online gaming company Astrum Online Entertainment into Mail.ru. Igor currently seeds mobile startups viaFarminers business incubator and own investment company IMI.VC.

  Elena Masolova, co-founder and CEO, Pixonic

  The Higher School of Economics graduate, Masolova co-founded the AddVenture seed-stage fund in Moscow in 2008 and was a founding member of coupon site Darberry, which became Groupon Russia. She currently heads social gaming company Pixonic, a portfolio company of AddVenture. She also eager to make angel investments in online startups and lead them later.

  Anna Znamenskaya, founder, Workingmama

  Following a ten-year executive career including CEO of Digital Access (online video portal ivi.ru), Rambler‘s commercial director and B2B Media CEO, Znamenskaya has ventured into entrepreneurship with her own online project for mothers, Workingmama.ru in late 2011. She is also receiving Master in Digital Marketing from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid this year.

  Olga Steidl, partner, dots’n‘spaces

  The St. Petersburg State University graduate Steidl has headed marketing at mobile software maker SPB Software before it was acquired by Yandex last November. After a short stint withYandex, she has settled in Zurich to help mobile startups via dots’n’spaces and organize mobile industry events. Steidl is also startup CEO herself and mentor at Seedcamp where Yandex recently invested.

  FURTHER READING

  The Top 10 Russian Internet Startups Exclusive interview with Marina Kolesnik

  This article originally appeared on Venture Village, one of VentureBeat’s editorial partners.

  Filed under: Entrepreneur, VentureBeat

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• Cryptic developer: Star Trek Online PvP is ‘fail’

  Hots Games
  

  Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, PvP, News items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play

  How many times have you read a forum post that says insert-random-MMO’s PvP sucks? Well, in Star Trek Online PvP actually does suck, and that’s straight from the mouth of a developer. It’s so bad, in fact, that Dan “Gozer” Griffis makes no bones about the fact that it could even be removed from Cryptic’s sci-fi MMO.

  “Right now because PVP is in such bad shape we (the developers) have to decide if we think we can turn this problem around. Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way.”

  Griffis goes on to say that he is the only developer currently working on PvP, and as such he has to make some hard choices. He has a plan, and though he hasn’t shared specifics on it yet, he says there are huge changes in store over the next year.

  [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

  Cryptic developer: Star Trek Online PvP is ‘fail’ originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Betawatch: May 5 – 11, 2012

  Hots Games
  

  Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, Betawatch, Miscellaneous

  The Spirit Tales open beta launched this week, bumping that game up a tier on our beta list. In fact, the game proved so popular that an additional beta server was added to accommodate the avalanche of fans of all things cute.

  City of Steam has announced an alpha test for July, while Storybricks is accepting alpha signups for its alpha demo right now. Compounding the season’s MMO drama is Phantasy Star Online 2, which is aiming to open up its beta early this summer.

  The Secret World, with its 1,000,000 beta signups, is is kicking off its first beta weekend starting today. Meanwhile, Glitch’s epic beta housing patch is finally upon us, World of Warcraft has unveiled cross-server grouping in the Mists of Pandaria beta, and Guild Wars 2 announced a surprise stress test for pre-purchasers this coming Monday.

  Finally, if you’re bored this weekend, why not check out Diablo III-rival Path of Exile? Tipsters Don and James report it’s holding a public stress test starting right as this post is published at 8 p.m. EDT tonight.

  The full Betawatch roundup lies in wait behind the break.

  Continue reading Betawatch: May 5 – 11, 2012

  Betawatch: May 5 – 11, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 11 May 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Your mom is so social, she’s on Facebook and Pinterest right now

  Hots News
  

  With Mother’s Day coming up this Sunday, research firm Nielsen has released a few stats on the online habits of American moms.

  Facebook ranks number one for U.S. moms, something that comes as no shock to the thousands of kids embarrassed by their parent’s status updates. In March 2012, three out of four moms visited the social network, which translates to 27.9 million moms.

  Fifty percent of moms are using social networks through their mobile phones, compared to only 37 percent of women in general. Perhaps they are trying to keep up with their kids’ antics at all time.

  Moms also make up a substantial percentage of bloggers. One in three bloggers are mothers and 52 percent have children under the age of 18.

  Pinterest is another hot website, with 4.9 million moms flocking to the site in March. Mothers are also 64 percent more likely to visit Pinterest than the average American. Considering the site is overflowing with pictures of home decor, recipes, and fashion, it makes perfect sense that millions of mothers are behind all those pins.

  Check out the infographic below for more details and don’t forget to wish your mom, or the awesome person who raised you, a Happy Mother’s Day.

  Mom and kid with laptops image via Shutterstock

  Filed under: social

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• Hey you guys, MasterCard has a digital strategy too: PayPass Wallet Services

  Hots News
  

  With almost every payments-related company with digital wallets of their own, it’s about time that MasterCard showed off its digital plans.

  The credit card company unveiled PayPass Wallet Services today at the CTIA conference in New Orleans. Just like the Verifone Sail mobile payments platform announced earlier today, MasterCard’s digital wallet feels very familiar to PayPal’s Wallet, Google Wallet, and a plethora of similar solutions.

  It consists of the PayPass Acceptance Network, which includes PayPass Online and the company’s existing contactless payments service; PayPass Wallet, a secure digital location to store credit cards, bank cards, and the like; and PayPass API, which lets MasterCard’s partners connect to the PayPass network.

  The whole point of PayPass Wallet, as well as all of its competitors, is to give you a single location to store your payment information. If you’re looking to buy something online, or in-store, you’ll ideally tap into your digital wallet instead of opening up your actual wallet. If you’ve ever opted to pay for something via PayPal on a new shopping site, instead of filling out your shipping and billing info by hand, you can understand just how convenient a robust digital wallet can be.

  Eventually, PayPass Wallet will offer features like seeing information about a product before purchase, setting up spending alerts and controls, and receiving coupons and targeted offers. MasterCard acknowledges that there won’t be just one digital wallet winner, which means it may be able eke out some market share amid the many competitors.

  The company says it will make PayPass Wallet Services available to its partners in the third quarter of this year. It will first launch int he U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K.

  Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat

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• The Daily Grind: Do you use mobile authenticators?

  Hots Games
  

  Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Promotions, Miscellaneous

  A recent listener of the Massively Speaking podcast sparked a lively debate about the mobile authenticators that MMO companies are so fond of asking us to use as an extra layer of security for our accounts. He suggested that companies that encourage authenticators are doing so less for our security than for their own financial interests or responsibility — after all, if I’m using an authenticator, they can save money on support and security staff. Our listener also pointed out that authenticators are annoying to the point that MMO studios sometimes have to bribe us with minipets and other goodies to get us to enroll, which suggests that maybe more people than we’d think avoid that extra tier of security.

  What about you — do you use mobile authenticators when they are available, and if not, how do you and the games you play safeguard your accounts?

  Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today’s Daily Grind!

  The Daily Grind: Do you use mobile authenticators? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 May 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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