Monthly Archives: November 2008

DOMO: major new update

Gametribe.com, the premier destination for Free-to-Play games is happy to release a major update for DOMO fans this week.

First huge info, the pet riding system is now live on Eversun!
This mount system is a major addition for the community, accelerating the travels and allowing players to attack while mounted.

Players can now make their pets grow to the third step of evolution (Evolution 3) by using the brand new Advanced Evolution Stone, get a saddle and ride their own boar, cat, bear and sea serpent (pet must be level 60 minimum).

All the info you need about the mount system is available on the official DOMO website.

Here are the items to take profit of the mount system:
– Advanced Evolution Stone: This can be used to make your Pet evolve to the next level (mount)
– Pet Saddle (basic saddle): This can be used to ride your Pet and increase its walking speed
– Crimson Rabbit Saddle (advanced saddle) to ride your Pet, increase its walking speed and Max HP/Max MP
– Mount Pet Goodie Bag: if you have no lvl 60 pet ready to evolve, you still have a chance with this goodie bag to get a special pet, dedicated to travels (but it won’t get XP, please refer to official website)

As usual, the weekly update brings more new contents:
A new Main Quest: Confusion Moves Chapter 3 is offering epic adventures. Rumors about powerful stones grow quickly in the taverns of Eversun

New items and costumes:
– 3rd Edition Pets will be reintroduced to the game for a limited time. These pets will be available for only one week
– Bunny Costume and Headgear
– Large American Army Uniform
– Rare Goodie Bags available until December 3rd :
– Knight for males can contain permanent Knight helmet, costume or sword or the new permanent Set Box containing the helmet and the armor costume together
– Princess for females can contain permanent Tiara, costume or Little Angel’s Wings or the new permanent Set Box containing the tiara and the costume together
– Backpack (inventory) Security Lock: This is to protect your backpack. You can insert a pin code, which will be used to lock and unlock your backpack.
– Ornamental Pet Name Tag
– Public Address System: to broadcast a message to other players over the entire server

The new update will be available to players after the weekly Wednesday maintenance window.

Phoenix Dynasty Online: New Server “Fire” Opens now

Enjoymm.com is proud to announce that a new server named “Fire” will be launched on 0:01 am PDT Nov. 22, 2008. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our players who have contributed to the improvement and growth of Phoenix Dynasty Online as well as to welcome all the new players who will start their adventure in this game!

We will be holding a lot of new exciting events after the new server opens such as: 4x Experience, 3x Drop Rate, 3x Magic Points and many other interesting events, including “GM online lotteries”, “Prizes for the First 5 Guilds”, “Leveling up Contests”. This is a real active world; you will see GMs in the game every week as well as being helped by the most friendly game community.

If you have heard about this game and never tried; if you have just watched a movie called the Mummy Returns and want to experience the oriental myth; if you are a returning warrior of the game, we welcome you to join the new Fire server and light your passion for friendship and fun again! We will provide the best service for you!

Secret of the Solstice: new Thanksgiving content released

To Celebrate the upcoming holiday Secret of the Solstice has released new Thanksgiving content in the latest patch!

Every year at this time, the people of Xen celebrate and thank the gods for the yearly harvest. Kayla, the owner of the Safe Bar prepares a large feast for everybody. Unfortunately Mogras has been sneaking into the food storeroom to steal the food! Help save the feast by getting rid of the Mogras infestation! Players will be able to participate in the new Saving the Great Feast Event.

The event will consist of a mini-game where users can help save the feast!

Dofus Gameplay Video

This video about gameplay in Dofus, free MMORPG, shows the richness in characters and classes, leveling options, and an example of crafts. You are shown how monsters attack and strategic ways to battle against them! All the while Dofus looks cute and has funny graphics for your character.

Dofus Teaser Video

This Dofus teaser video presents different characters and classes, team options and many designs for areas that can be explored! If you are looking for a good free MMORPG, in Asian animation style, Dofus gives you what you are searching!

MMO Grinding

by Joshua Temblett, Onrpg writer

Grinding is the chore that you hate doing, it’s the cleaning the toilet of all house work. It’s horrible. Yet despite this, why do game designers decide to constantly add this “feature” into their games. Do developers really think that we just want to constantly fight the same monsters to level up? Do they really think that we (sometimes) want to pay $15 dollars a month for doing the same repetitive task over and over again? Simple answer, no. Yet we still pay monthly for this chore and still get sucked into the marketing rubbish that this game will be different from the rest.
Before I continue this mother of all rants I just wish to clarify that I personally do not mind “grinding”, a bit of killing monsters on your own (or of course a party) here and there is fine with me, as long as I have a goal to work for. In fact, levelling up for a quest can be fun as long as you know you’re going to get a shiny new reward. What gets me is constant grinding with no (or little) reward. I hate it also when developers and the PR tell you that there is something around the corner, something new, something special. Of course these “rewards” are hours out of reach, meaning it’s going to take you a very long time to get to that one feature which is the reason why you’re playing.

A lot of games choose to follow grinding as it’s an incredibly easy way to keep players hooked and remain in the game. For pay to play games this is the normal case, as the longer you keep them playing and waiting to get to the cool features, the longer they pay monthly, the more money the company get and the richer they become. Grinding and levelling up also make the player think they’re having fun by then addicting him/her as the player will always want to keep playing to achieve that level just above to look that slight bit “cooler” and gain that new piece of gear.

Grinding is of course easy to program compared to making real, good content that the gamer will enjoy as all that needs to be done with grinding is to make a load of load monsters inhabit an area, put a level cap on the next major event (or area) and hey presto you have just made a MMORPG. But it does not matter if it is bad, as it is cheap, keeps you playing and brings the money home for the company.
So you have got the grind, all you need now is a very low item drop rate, expensive items, armour and weapons and some awesome “new feature”. There, now your game is set to be distributed to the masses. Slap pay to play on that and you have an instant income.
So how can we stop the grind and rid it from the world for good? Well I would like to say don’t buy or play games that have a lot of grinding in. However I know that this will never happen due to some of these games having good end game features, or features that appear midway through which of course inspire people to play and the fact that there will always be idiots in the world who pay for rubbish like that. The thing is for as long as MMORPGs retain the point and click style of play, there will always be the much hated grind. In order to be rid of such an evil the genre itself needs to break out of it’s tried and tested conventions and create a new way to play and new experiences. But of course this will not ever happen as this method of playing is what made the genre so great and well loved. We need developers to focus on creating more dynamic content and much fun orientated scenarios from which the player can level up in.
Guild Wars has started this trend of team bonding mission gameplay that creates a nice environment from which the player can level up in a successful way. Guild Wars has started the trend, and now we have to wait and see what other games have to offer. The genre has always surprised us, its loyal fans, so no doubt we will be surprised very soon.

Runes of Magic: Dragonfang Ridge unveiled

Just in time for the upcoming season, Frogster publishes details about the seventh region of Runes of Magic. Dragonfang Ridge is covered mostly with ice and was the location of numerous conflicts over the years. For many decades, Humans, Ice Dwarfs, Gnolls and Cyclops were fighting for dominance in this area. Their armed conflicts are still leaving a lasting mark on the game world of Taborea.

Despite resource shortages and biting winds, Humans have created settlements in different locations of Dragonfang Ridge, only to lose them just a little later to the Ice Dwarfs and Cyclops. Eventually, even Bors Ironwall’s military finesse couldn’t oppose the threat and the few remaining Human outposts are far-scattered and mostly isolated. Because of that, they are losing more and more of their importance. Numerous ruins in Dragonfang Ridge are evidence of the fact that the conflicts in the region are lasting for eons already. The most prominent ruins in Dragonfang Ridge are the mysterious Rune Throne and the large mountain gate, but today nobody knows anymore what they were once used for.

5 Street Marriage System

Now in 5 Street you can enjoy the great new marriage system. Your characters can marry in the game and dance romantically together! Take a look at the special dance moves and combinations you can make with your loved one in 5 Street!