FFXIV gameplay footage explores cities, chocobos and emotes

A lot of news has been coming out for Final Fantasy XIV lately, and we're quite happy to see it. Today we've got what appears to be (the first episode of what's sure to be recurring) in-game footage of players exploring one of Eorzea's cities on the game's official Japanese YouTube channel. There's a moment in the clip where the Japanese players speaking throughout are amazed to find a Chocobo and well, it's pretty entertaining to watch -- especially when the video gets to the part where it reveals that old Tarutaru emotes are fully intact. Panic! We're also getting another tiny peek at the user interface for Final Fantasy XIV in the video. From what we can see here, Square Enix is keeping the memorable "Send/Receive" graphic, which blinks with a strange hypnotic rhythm. The mini-map and health/mana bars both look quite useful yet unobtrusive, too. Overall, everything about this game screams, "Final Fantasy XI, but newer and hopefully improved." We hope that proves to be wholly true in the coming months.

A Massively interview with Cryptic's Bill Roper and Jack Emmert page 2

Jack Emmert: I think just happenstance, really. When we started working on two projects (CoH and City of Villains), I became the creative director and managed the two leads on each project. I still advise on design issues, though I'm now figuring out what that means.

A Massively interview with Cryptic's Bill Roper and Jack Emmert

As promised after yesterday's Cryptic Studios news, today we have an interview with the developer's new Chief Operations Officer Jack Emmert and Chief Creative Officer Bill Roper. If you're wondering exactly what these new titles mean and what Jack and Bill have planned for the future of both Champions Online and Star Trek Online, you'll definitely want to check this one out. Massively: When did the move to Chief Creative Officer occur and what's your overall job like now compared to your previous position as Executive Producer? Bill Roper: When Jack took on more COO responsibilities, he wanted someone who could spend more specialized, day-to-day time with the teams. For the past month I've been working with the Executive Producers and various leads within those teams to provide design, support, and guidance as requested. I'm also a liaison between the teams and the executives supporting and helping represent their individual game visions. I assist in coordinating systems and content concepts and technologies between the teams while being involved in their top-level design. Shifting from the very focused day-to-day duties on Champions Online to a broader role is a rejuvenating new challenge, and the teams have really welcomed me on. I'm not coming in with "the word from above" that must be followed. I'm here to support the vision keepers and creators of each game – to be a sounding board for ideas and a source of creative energy they can tap into.

An interview with Champions' new Executive Producer, Shannon Posniewski

With Champions Online getting a brand new Executive Producer, you knew we had to sit down and conduct an interview. Shannon "Poz" Posniewski was gracious enough to give us some of his time, which is most certainly something he's got very little of now that he's in charge of a superhero MMO. We discussed what exactly Poz's role as Executive Producer is, as well as what the change means for Champions Online players. Most importantly, we asked which aspects of the game needed the most love going forward. Find all his answers below the cut.

WonderKing hosting Spring Break events

Sure, while some people's real life Spring Breaks have since passed, that doesn't mean you can't celebrate elsewhere. At least, that's the stance Ndoors Interactive's WonderKing is taking, as the game is holding several in-game Spring Break events now through April 7th. If you're a WonderKing player, the big three events to check out are an Easter Day party, the chance to win fashion items and a big Spring Break-style party. Granted, we expect any of you going in will probably just party most of the time. At least, that's what we'd do... Check out the full, official list of events after the break.

Bill Roper made Cryptic's CCO, Jack Emmert switches to COO

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Bill_Roper_made_Cryptic_s_CCO_Jack_Emmert_switches_to_COO'; We here at Massively have recently discovered that Cryptic Studios' -- the developer behind Champions Online and Star Trek Online -- new Chief Creative Officer (CCO) moving forward will be Bill Roper, who was previously Executive Producer on Champions Online, a position now held by Shannon Posniewski. As for the previous CCO Jack Emmert, Cryptic informed us that he's moved into a new position as Chief Operations Officer for the developer. What all this means and what you can expect in the future from Cryptic will hopefully be answered in our forthcoming interview with the two men. You should expect to see that interview in the next day or two, right here on Massively.

The Digital Continuum: The trouble with sticking to MMOs

I get to these points where not a single MMO will stick with me any longer than roughly one month -- sometimes less. That wasn't always the case, though. There was a time when I could play a single MMO nearly every day for three or four months before getting tired of it. And a lot of my friends are in the same boat, trying to regularly play an MMO but mostly faltering. This isn't new to me. In fact, I've been here before and I know how to get out of the viciously boring cycle. This week's The Digital Continuum is all about renewing the luster to your MMO experience, and maybe a little more.

The Digital Continuum: The trouble with sticking to MMOs page 2

Nothing makes a game feel less like an MMO than having to run around its world for two or three hours and seeing almost nobody else playing alongside you. This topic is nearly a column all on its own (and is a long-standing discussion amongst the MMO community) because nothing is better than playing with good friends but being on your own is nice, too. You can get bored of both, and so pursuing solo and group play is worthwhile.

The Daily Grind: Does beta ruin your launch day glee?

The common view of a beta is that it's a wonderful way for someone to experience a game's "work-in-development" state of flux. It's a magical time when you feel like you're being treated to a special preview of the game before thousands of other people in the world. That's at least one point of view, but in truth lots of people don't want to get into beta. Why? They want to experience the game in all its unknown luster on launch day, throughout launch week and well into those first few months. There's definitely something to be said for jumping into a fresh digital world, so we pose this question to you, our dear readers: What's better: getting into beta and avoiding the first few months of launch or skipping beta and experiencing everything with everyone else in those first few hours, days and weeks?

Is The Agency launching on December 31st? Nope

Normally we've got no problem speculating on rumors here at Massively. It's a fun way to pass the days until a beta really does begin or a release date actually is announced. Except, sometimes, it gets taken too far. Rumors of SOE's The Agency receiving a December 31st release date have been floating into our inbox lately. Of course, that doesn't make any sense, because six days after Christmas (and one day before New Year's Day) is a horrible time to launch any game, especially one that requires all-hands-on-deck like an MMO. Additionally, any time a retailer lists a game at a default price on the first or last day of the month? That's a big shot in the dark. The fact of the matter is nobody knows the release date for The Agency, even though everyone wishes they did. We're fairly sure that even the development team doesn't have a clear picture of that right now. Most videogames have a moving "release window" and this one is no different from the rest. When we do have a solid information expect to hear all about it right here on Massively.

SWTOR testing portal discovered, confirmed by BioWare

No other community is perhaps more enthusiastic about their upcoming MMO than the one surrounding Star Wars: The Old Republic. Recently, they found what appeared to be a testing portal for the game and coupled with the countdown clocks on every other BioWare site (except for Star Wars: The Old Republic's site) the discovery created a fervor of speculation and discussion on the official forums -- mostly surrounding whether or not beta was near. Shortly after these events, SWTOR community manager Sean Dahlberg confirmed that yes, this page is in fact a "Game Testing Portal". While we don't have even the slightest clue as to what this means, it may be a good time to update your hardware scan for the game's beta application. As for us? We'll be keeping our eyes locked on the game and perhaps we'll even stalk BioWare staff at PAX East like an Imperial Agent ready to strike.

Faction armor is about choice in Rise of the Godslayer

Today's an exciting day for Age of Conan players, because this month's Letter from the Game Director is out and the theme is faction armors coming in the Rise of the Godslayer expansion. Craig Morrison explains that each class is essentially getting five new armor sets with this expansion, each of which serves a specific purpose. One set will offer a general DPS boost, one a general health boost and three are designed to enhance a different aspect of each class. The example given by Craig uses the Ranger class. Rangers get DPS and health armor sets and also receives three specialization sets: Critical damage, evades and hit rating. Protections and immunities. Traps and regeneration. These sets can also be mixed and matched, meaning that players are going to have a lot of meaningful choices when it comes to equipment selection in Rise of the Godslayer and that's certainly a good thing. Considering the alternate advancement feature being added with this expansion and (according to Craig in this very letter) next week's upcoming PvP-focused Shrines of Borai update, it's an exciting time to be an Age of Conan player. And once we know a solid release date -- beyond Craig's mention of it being "just around the corner" -- things should get pretty heady for the AoC community.

Atlantica Online adds voice chat functionality

Vivox has brought voice communication to yet another MMORPG with today's news that Ndoors Interactive's Atlantica Online now offers the feature to its players. Interestingly, the voice-over-IP service has been made available through the game's official website, as opposed to within the game itself. While there's nothing stopping players from accessing voice chat while in-game, it's still an odd choice. The only thing that really matters is whether or not it works, and given Vivox's fairly extensive experience via games like EVE Online, EverQuest II and Global Agenda there shouldn't be any unacceptable issues for Atlantica Online players. The feature should be available to players now, so long as you're logged into your account when trying to access voice chat.

Star Trek Online launches massive Season One patch

Cryptic has announced via press release that the major Season One content patch is launching for Star Trek Online today. This patch brings all kinds of new free content to the game, causing much of the community to count the days until it finally landed in the game proper. The list of updates is impressively long and several of them address player griefs with areas like Klingon ship customization and mission variety. This is also the first patch bringing some PvE missions for Klingon players, which was a sticking point with many at launch. But Season One also brings captain respecs as well for players unhappy with their skill load-out -- an essential feature that's been sorely missed by many. Find the whole lowdown on this laundry list of new content after the break.%Gallery-86596%

New screens for DDO Unlimited Update 4

Ever since the recent DDO Unlimited "State of the Game" last week the fourth update really can't come soon enough. Lucky for us, Turbine has released some more screens that showcase some new content, which includes lots of fantasy sword swinging and some particularly nasty looking baddies to fight, as well. Now that we think on it, perhaps the images aren't as lucky as we thought, because now we just want patch day to be today. Well, at least April -- the scheduled month for Update 4 -- is just around the corner. And if that's not good enough for you, we'll be demoing the update this Friday during PAX East. So expect to find heaps of new images and information in short order. Until then, please enjoy the new DDO Unlimited update 4 gallery.%Gallery-88911%

DDO Unlimited Update 4

Tales of Fantasy introduces the Fusion system

Equipment has been a central part of the MMO experience for years now, so it's no surprise that Tales of Fantasy has a system built around the idea of saving equipment on your character. It's called the Fusion system and works in a fairly straightforward manner that almost sounds like a combination of crafting and character advancement. Basically, if you've got a piece of equipment it can be fused onto your character, permanently adding its stats to your character and opening up that equip slot for a new equipment item. It's a simple idea, but one that effectively doubles the amount of gear you can wear. Higher level fusions require more Soul Containers, which are the sole item used for a fusion and can be acquired through story quests or instances. We're curious to hear what other design ideas are floating around in Tales of Fantasy, because if they're all this interesting it's going to be a game we spend some time with.

SWTOR's lead writer shares more insight on the Sith

Yesterday's story about Star Wars: The Old Republic writer Daniel Erickson's explanation of how someone writes for the Sith Empire sparked a Rancor-sized amount of discussion. There was so much discussion in fact, that Daniel Erickson took to the official forums to further explain his reasoning and thought process behind writing from the Empire's point of view. Of the conversation occurring across the official forums, Erickson had to say, "An interesting thread. I always like to see what responses the philosophical discussions provoke. Hopefully people noticed that there were no quotes from me saying the Sith were good -- even the interviewer ended on it being an excuse to unleash ones hate." After that intro, Erickson goes on to deftly explain the complexities behind writing for ostensibly the "evil side" in a manner that makes them more than dastardly villains with cape and cane. It's a short, but very good read and we highly recommend it for anyone with even a passing interest in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The Digital Continuum: Lost in worlds divided part 2

One mistake I see a lot is when a developer fails to understand that certain basic functions go into the world map first and foremost. This seems like such a simple request -- even one that could be described as a minor issue -- yet it makes all the difference in a game where persistence is the axis which everything spins around.

The Digital Continuum: Lost in worlds divided

In the many MMOs I've played, the ratio between games that got world design right and those that got it wrong is surprisingly skewed towards the latter. Nothing kills the thrill of discovering a new online world faster than feeling like you're being kicked around seemingly unconnected environments without possessing any real understanding or control. This week's The Digital Continuum is aimed at discussing practical ways to address this problem. Obviously this is -- as per usual -- my personal opinion taken mostly from my brain and the experience gathering within it.