Monthly Archives: June 2013

Neverwinter Launch Date Announced

Neverwinter Logo

Though Neverwinter has been in what we call a Soft Launch since they pushed into the Open Beta phase on April 30th Cryptic Studios and Perfect World have announced the official launch date. Neverwinter will go live on June 20th. There will be no character wipe and for those already playing the game will be down for just a short maintenance that day. The launch day will also bring the introduction of Gauntlgrym which will add more end game content.

NeverwinterGG

But that isn’t all. Module 1, which was teased last month has been revealed. The first content expansion called Fury of the Feywild! Due this summer the Fury of the Feywild focuses on an attempt by Fomorian Giants to seize the Elven city of Sharandar. More details are due to be released soon.

AlphaBeta Soup 6/6

Things are a bit slow in the soup pot this week as most everything is either already going or waiting to make an announcement at E3. OnRPG will be giving updates live from E3 throughout so be on the lookout there for anything new. We have special packs for City of Steam in celebration of them launching a second server. Company of Heroes 2 is in a short open beta event right now. This weekend if you’re lucky enough to have a key you can play Firefall for the last time until open beta starts next month. And finally, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has given dates for closed beta. You can find all that and much more below.

We’ve highlighted the newest in orange to make them easier to see.

 

OnRPG Giveaways
These are all the beta giveaways currently running on OnRPG. There’s no guarantee that we won’t run out so grab them quick.

City of Steam Second Server Launch Pack Giveaway
Everlight Open Beta Privilege Pack Giveaway
Fishing Hero Closed Beta Key Giveaway
Prime World Weekend Beta Test Key Giveaway
Seven Seas Saga Open Beta Starter Pack

Dates Announced:
Below are the MMOs who have announced upcoming beta events that haven’t started yet or are currently in progress for a limited time.

Company of Heroes 2 Open Beta June 4-18
Firefall Closed Beta June 7-9
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Closed Beta June 14 Includes PS3
Soldier Front 2 Applications Open, Closed Beta Begins “Soon”
Ballistic Closed Beta Spring 2013
Firefall Open Beta July 9
Age of Wulin EU Closed Beta 2013

 

Alpha:
These games are currently in Alpha. Signups are available via the link.

Gloria Victis Pre-Alpha
Lunaria Story
Onigiri Alpha (Japanese) Between Phases
The Repopulation
Xulu

 

Closed Beta:
MMOs which are in closed beta require application and often require approval before access can be gained.

Age of Wulin(EU, Asia) EU in Early 2013
Arcane Saga (Formerly known as Prius Online)
Ascension: Arenas of War Current Status Unknown
Black Prophecy Tactics: Nexus Conflict Current Status Unknown, Website No Longer Exsists
Born To Fire
Bounty Hounds Online Beta Testing Complete. No Launch Date Announced
ChronoBlade
Dice Venture
Dragon’s Prophet
Eldevin
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Infinite Crisis
JollyGrim
Kartuga
Loadout
MechWarrior Tactics
March of War
Marvel Heroes
Patterns
Prime World
Strategoria
Transformers Universe Now accepting applications.
Warface
World of Warplanes

 

Open Beta:
Games in open beta require an application but often it is little more than signing up for an account.

Anno Online
City of Steam
DK Online Servers Closed Temporarily
Dominatron
Dragona Online Russian
Dragon Pals
Dragon’s Prophet
and Titans
Ecol Tactics
End of Nations Open Beta delayed until further notice, refunds have been issued.
Everlight
Firefall
FoxLi Rush
Gunswords(English and Russian)
HeroDex
Heroes & Generals
Legend of Edda Vengeance
Neptune’s Pride 2
Neverwinter
Origins of Malu
Oversoul
Path of Exile
Raceroom Racing
Real World Racing
Samurai Taisen
Scarlet Blade
SmashMuck Champions
Tales of Laputa
Tata Blitz
The Aurora World
The Lost Titans
UFO Online
Universal Monsters Online
Warface South Korea
War Thunder
WorldAlpha
Yitien

OnRPG and Gaming Evolved Host Livestream with City of Steam Devs

Join OnRPG Writers Leliah and Sephorus as they team up with Chaotix from Gaming Evolved for a live broadcast in City of Steam at 6pm PST tonight! They’ll be joined by developers Gab, Frank, and Andrew who will be on hand to take questions and chat with the community. We will also be giving away special City of Steam themed items to viewers throughout the stream so tune in and win!!

For more information check out http://www.onrpg.com/boards/threads/217127-OnRPG’s-Weekly-Wednesday-Livestream or tune in to Gaming Evolved’s livestream here.

Gamer Time – How Gamers’ Perception of Time Doesn’t Match Reality

By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF), OnRPG Journalist

Gamer Time VS Reality

I am sure that anyone who has ever played a game, even something as casual as Angry Birds, has noticed that their perception of time has become skewed. An hour flashes by in what you can’t but help assume has only been ten minutes. You log on to your favorite game on the weekend in the morning, then alt-tab out for a quick break only to find that it’s almost time for dinner. Or maybe you were waiting for someone and started playing a mobile game on your phone, and the next time you look up you find them waiting for you.

Time perception differs from person to person. In fact, things such as education and genetics can have an effect on your perception of time. Before we get too deep, we should discuss what exactly time perception is. To be brief, it is your ability to “sense” time. In reality, however, you cannot directly sense time, so what we see as time is really a reconstruction done by the brain. This means that the way your brain tells you how time is flowing may be different than the person sitting next to you.

An example of this was when I was playing Star Wars Galaxies. Whenever I played, time would soar by, and this would often cause me trouble. At the time, I was in High School and I cannot deny that my grades suffered because I wanted to play “just a bit longer”, which was really several hours. On the other hand, I had a friend who also tried it with me but could not stand to play longer than an hour or so because “everything took too long”.

Star Wars Galaxies Shuttle Waiting

I could never relate to his sense of time, except on rare occasions. Such as waiting for a shuttle in a Star Port when there was no one around. Thinking back on stuff like this tells me that a gamer’s perception of time is directly related to how enticed they are by the game. Doing something boring like waiting fifteen minutes for a space shuttle to get on with your adventures seems long and drawn out. While exploring the deserts of Tatooine was exciting and countless hours went by in the blink of an eye.

Turtles In Time

While everyone loses track of time, I have no doubt that gamers do it the most. Why? Simply because we do it the best. Honestly, we constantly immerse ourselves in enjoyable activities. Whenever we have a free moment, we are in another world doing amazing feats that others would have only read about in fictional books. You know you’re a true gamer when you are surprised when someone tells you today is Saturday and you realize that you forgot to sleep.

The type of game you are playing can cause your ability to judge time to be stretched in different ways. For example, when playing a game in League of Legends, that forty minute game filled with close calls will impact you as if you’ve been in a two hour intense battle. But then again, if you’re playing against a lot of easy foes, it could feel like only fifteen minutes has passed. As I mentioned there are a lot of factors that go in to determining your sense of time.

Gamer Time Vs Escher Cat

There are so many weird things in play when it comes to a gamer’s perception of time. I mentioned how gamers can’t tell how much time has passed, but at the same time they can be extremely sharp. Have you ever been playing a game only to be interrupted by someone wanting your attention? You tell them, “Just give me ten more minutes!” and they agree. Five minutes later they come back and bother you again and it immediately clicks, “no way that was ten minutes.” But then again it could be the exact opposite. Maybe you had a bad day and you want to lose yourself in this game and instead of coming back five minutes later, they come back after fifteen minutes to tell you that you’ve been on five minutes longer than you agreed. It didn’t seem like you had gotten in an extra five minutes at all.

Link Time Travel

The other and often scarier occurrence though is when we start discussing long-term impacts of gamer time. This can occur in the form of gamers missing an important exam date because they don’t realize it’s week 10 of a college course yet. It’s most noticeable if you’re a regular member of an online gaming organization and take a 4+ day break without logging in. Upon your return, the hardcore members of the group will literally act like they’ve seen a ghost, expressing the feeling that you seemingly haven’t been around for a month.

Time Soldiers Gamer Time

It all makes you think, though. Perhaps the game developers are designing their games with the idea of manipulating our perception of time. Perhaps all the incredible graphics and intense gameplay is all just a ploy to skew our sense of time so that we’ll crave it more and more and time will fly. Or perhaps that MMO developer makes you do all those boring and repetitive quests with that wonderful carrot just before your nose so that you’ll continue dishing out money to reach your goal. In fact, as sad as it is, I would say that the latter is more likely than the former. Ending Credits

It all comes down to who you are and what your past and current circumstances are. Maybe you just can’t “get in the zone” because you no longer enjoy the game anymore and everything seems to take forever. Or perhaps you are super hyped about a game and you just spent twelve hours playing non-stop. It’s so different for each and every gamer that there is no real way to define it. As gamers, our experiences with time differ wildly and there is no way to truly measure Gamer Time.

Zezenia Online

Zezenia Online is a 2d MMORPG.  The game is completely open-ended, allowing you to choose how to play your character.  The world itself is quite large, and you will be able to interact with players from across the globe as you battle fierce monsters and complete a variety of quests.

Features

Open-Ended Gameplay:  Develop your character however you choose.  Your imagination is your only limit.

Large World Map:  Explore a vast world, discovering a variety of different locations along your travels.

Variety:  Zezenia Online offers a wide variety of quests to complete, items to discover, and monsters to slay.

Constant Content:  The game is constantly evolving and changing, giving you plenty to do and see over time!

Webzen to end Service on SUN: Soul of the Ultimate Nation

Shortly after the announcement of branding changes to Gala-Net, Webzen has revealed that the final month of SUN: Soul of the Ultimate Nation begins now. The cash shop was closed earlier today and full service will be terminated on July 4th.

SUN Closure

Players that have spent money on cash shop items within the last 3 months will be compensated accordingly and can choose to transfer the value of their purchases to either Webzen, gpotato.com or gpotato.eu. More detailed information will be provided on June 19th but feel free to voice your thoughts on one of Webzen’s first titles in our forum thread.

Wakfu Introduces Guild Housing June 18th

Ankama is no stranger to the concept of housing in Wakfu. From launch they’ve included a portal housing system, the Haven-bag, that’s been one of the most convenient and cool systems in the MMO industry. But come June 18th they will be expanding this concept to the guild level to up the player rivalries in-game. The top tier factions will soon be able to battle it out for the limited rights to create, develop, and manage the first miniature Haven-Worlds.

 Wakfu Haven-World Update

“We’ve tried to give players the possibility to develop and cultivate virgin territory using all of the game’s elements, according to their desires. This was a big task because we had to anticipate problems of environmental balance that could rise. As these worlds are under the control of players themselves, they go further than existing housing systems and will impact the rest of the game”, explains Jérôme Echalard, WAKFU Lead game Designer. “Haven-Worlds are spaces entirely created by players for players. We’ve listened to the players’ advice carefully and used them in order to make this feature”.

 

Once a Haven-World is obtained through a bid system, a quite sizeable zone will be provided to guild members, which they’ll be able to kit out as they like by constructing numerous buildings. They’ll have the possibility to develop their crafting, farming, or even commerce activities; to organize events; host PvP battles; use it as a storage area…

 

It will be possible to personalize the buildings. Some will be blank and their interior can be customized in accordance with the purpose the guilds wish to give them (game room, book store…). Choices in the use of the territory will have very important consequences over the rest of the game since the buildings will give bonuses to players.

 

Each Haven-World, like each region, will have a Prims that can be attacked by other guilds starting in July. If the guild loses control of its Haven-World’s Prims, their Haven-World will only receive half of the bonuses. Therefore, guilds will try everything in their power to defend their Haven-World.

 

“We’ve tried to make it so that all players will have an interest in visiting these Haven-Worlds, even those who don’t have one”, adds Jérôme Echalard.