According to the press release, NCSoft has acquired 100% of the rights to the CoX franchise from Cryptic. According to Ex Libris, one of the CoH forum moderators, the CoX dev team are now working as NCSoft employees. There are several more press releases linked off of that one, including one that mention soon-to-be-announced expansions and sequels.
Author Archive for BitterCupOJoePage 2 of 3
According to Destructoid, members of the UO dev team as well as some developers at Mythic have been laid off and the rest of team has been moved from the Redwood Shores, CA studio to Mythic’s Fairfax, VA. UO, Dark Age Of Camelot and Warhammer Online will continue but more layoffs are expected throughout these and other Electronic Arts studios.
The 2.3.0 patch notes have gone up for the test realm and there’s some doozies in there. Of particular note:
- Many new quests have been added to the zone.
- The Steamwheedle Cartel have just completed building the new town of Mudsprocket in south west Dustwallow Marsh.
It looks like they’re gearing up to make it easier for folks to get to the 60+ content in time for them to grind to level 70 for the beginning of the new expansion, and also answering people’s complaints about alt leveling. So, how long until the first, “I made 60 when it meant something” elitism posts start?
As noted several places on the web, Gods & Heroes has been indefinitely delayed, i.e. cancelled in favor of the other project that Perpetual is working on, Star Trek Online. According to F13.net, some of the folks on G&H have been shuffled over to STO, while others have been let go.
“Tankmages ruin games.” “If people can make a tankmage, that’s all they’ll make.” “Tankmages are too difficult to balance.” Why are developers so worried about people making characters they actually want to play?
Achievers. Explorers. Socializers. Killers. Everyone gets something different out of the game, and yet we are all rewarded in the same ways. Why?
Last time, I talked about what MMOs do well. This time, I’ll talk about what they do poorly.
Continue reading ‘Analyzing the MMO: Second in a series of a few’
I plan to write several articles in the coming weeks over MMOs as a genre, with an eye towards seeing what can be done in terms of improving the genre. During the analysis, I’ll be comparing MMOs with several other types of games, along with other forms of media and some types of social constructs, such as football leagues and fraternal orders. At some point in here, you’ll also get to hear me blather on about my “ideal” MMO. For the kickoff of Analyzing the MMO, we’re going to take a look at what MMOs do well. Some of this is blindingly obvious stuff for some of the readers here, I’m sure, but it’s important to lay down a baseline, so I beg your indulgence for the first few articles
Continue reading ‘Analyzing the MMO: First in a series of… some’