Bye Massively, And SOE... General MMO Stuff

I'll miss you massively....

Farewell Joystick

Sad news for Massively and WoW Insider fans as the joystick network is being closed this week. I've been a follower since it was massively.com without the joystick part in there, and it always bothered me that AOL had somehow gotten their hooks in there. What good are they for if they don't mail you coasters anymore? My 18 year old son asked me who AOL was... LOL! Priceless. I have always been a fan of WoW Insider and Massively so it is very sad to hear that they will cease to exist.

Massively isn't always perfect and sometimes the articles are rather slack or biased -but- the delivery of news for the industry is a huge boon to the community. And some of the articles are great. You can't get that anywhere else currently. I'm sorry but there isn't another general MMO website of the same caliber that really delivers. Plus, I also love to read opinions and sometimes you even find little tidbits of information in the comments. 

I wish the very best to all the writers. I will very much miss Massively, it made me feel saddened to hear the news. My feed reader is going to be a lot quieter. Most gaming companies don't put news on the websites, much more goes on Reddit or social networks, where my feeds get so spammed and I miss the news completely. YOU WILL BE MISSED MASSIVELY, MASSIVELY!!! I will also miss WoW Insider a great deal, even when I don't play I always keep up with the news. 

SOE IS NO MORE... 

In other news, SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) is now Daybreak Studios. 

From Kotaku (as I can't be sure Massively will still have linkage):

SOE announced their independence in a press release this afternoon, saying they had been purchased by a New York-based management firm called Columbus Nova and that they will now be an independent developer.

I am not sure on what to think about this situation. I don't get an especially good feeling from the whole deal. I wonder how this will impact the games that are involved. Good, bad? SOE and good in the same sentence when it comes to media... yeah. Let's hope for the best and expect for the worst? I do wish the games involved the best- As I do play many of them still. Confusing and just all around weird. Also SOE Live is cancelled this year. 

Brasse‏@Brasse

SOE Live will take a hiatus as we focus on our exciting transition and the future of Daybreak Game Company.

Via social media (Twitter). I think I actually found that tweet via Massively comments section. Nice to see all this posted on the main websites. OH IT ISN'T IS IT?! Ha! Ha! Ha! Shame on me for expecting news to be on an offical website. Which is still plastered with SOE logos. Was this something rushed? Seems like a rushed transition to me. TWEET IT ALL, it's all good! I think SOE..Err.. Daybreak fails to realize a lot of their customers are 'older' players which many do not follow social media for news. I see this CONSTANTLY on the forums, asking for an in-game welcome screen or the website giving information on a regular basis, not social media. 

Bella has real passion for the industry and the genera. 

Forgive me for my sarcasm. My hope for the industry and communication and community building is at an all time low these days. Some days I find it hard to be interesting and inspiring in my posts, where I still love games, the industry infuriates me. The direction. The logic. The driving force. I see so many things done wrong these days. I think my dog could do a better job.  

Other stuff you may have missed...

Lots of things I wanted to comment on but have been too busy (slack) to do so until this week. Since I am so lazy, I may want to refer to it at another point in time, I may as well share it for the 'masses'.

Trove- New Wings and pets hit the game. Which means I need to log in and get to playing so I can get mine. The wings are a very cool feature as well as new stats for different pets. From what I understand, wings will enable you to glide with the new island (floating?) biomes which are to be added with the next patch, also a new class inc (ranged bow user). I'm sure the bow wielding (cupid?) class will be released this month, you know, Valentines and all. Bows... arrows... wings... Love?

GW2 Expansion- You probably had to be under a rock not to hear about this one. It looks very interesting, a new class which sounds great, anything new sounds great really. I think the most exciting things, besides a new class, is the ability to use new weapons with existing classes. This will give each class more flavor and open up new play styles. I am a bit excited about this. Guildhalls are interesting but I haven't found a guild which I really do a lot with so... Not that exciting for me but I am sure there are those out there who must be very happy to hear this news. Kind of sounds like an oversight that was hugely missed in a game with the word GUILD in the title, and also considering the previous Guild Wars game....

Allods Online- My game of choice these days. Not enough coverage! The EN (English) servers had a merge with the Brazilian servers recently. More added to the population, but the F2P server has been very steady and populated anyhow. I dug around on the forums and read they will also be adding in (on the Russian Servers) a boost to level 60, much like WoW has. You will start with green gear for the level as well as a set of level five runes. No telling if or when this will make it to our servers but it most likely will in due time. 

TESO- is going B2P with the option of a subscription. More along the lines of TSW. I'm glad. I don't see a lot for me to focus on the game in the long run but it should be nice to play on the side until they change the direction of Endgame, if they ever do. Maybe that is the reason they are going Buy To Play... Hrmmm? Anyhow, the bonus for subbing is 10% to currency and other things... Read up about it here. Gorgeous game, fun to play, dismal end game to look forward to. What's to lose? I think you also get a bonus for having a sub before the game transitions... Or perhaps for having one at one point? I'm sure it is there somewhere. 

That about wraps it up for today. Maybe the blog-verse will open up more and become a bigger place for info or maybe someone will revive Massively with a 2.0. Anyhow, I do hope to find something steady, perhaps some type of feed... For MMO news all lumped into one place. Maybe I can put on together and force it to spam my posts for all to read. Meh. 

Have a great week!