News from Acclaim is that The Chronicles of Spellborn has launched with a special promotion. Sign up for a new account (free) before May 7th & get a free 2-week "premium subscription" to try out the full game. Essentially, without paying for premium 'scrip, you're capped at level 7 and can only play in the designated "free play" zones. So, hopefully you can get past level 7 in a single play session so you can get on to checking out the premium game to see what it's about!

[update: A bug in the site had the games & their thumbnails not displaying! Ack! So yeah, if you visited before, you couldn't play any games unless you had an account... sheesh. Sorry 'bout that! You can play now, though, so get to it!!]

In case you're wondering why I haven't been updating MassMOG.com lately (this time), I thought I'd show you why. I've been working on my network of sites -- getting them updated and converted and pumped-upified -- and I finally have something to show for it!

Granted, this is nothing pretty to see right now as a whole, so I don't need any flames about that. I've got some help on the way to work on the purty bits. Even so, the main point is that I've added over 6,600 free Flash games for folks to play on another site of mine, Online Game Hounds. Woot!

I know the site's not pretty.. didn't we just go over that?? I think that we did.

Well, I know that's not really technically "massively multiplayer" news... however, I'd argue that the collection of games is "massive" and there will be "multiple players" playing it, often at the same time -- that means the site as a whole is "massively multiplayer", eh?? That too much of a stretch for ya? Eh?

Go have some fun, would you? I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,
Hoza

Eurogamer posted an interview with Age of Conan's game director Craig Morrisson, confirming the continued (though limited) development of the 360 version of AoC.

"We still plan on having a 360 version of the game at some stage but I'm afraid I can't go into specifics beyond that at the moment," Morrison said.

He talks about the difficult nature of porting an MMO like Conan over to a console... uh, yeah! I know many players I talked to thought it might be fun to try out on that platform, with the combat system being rather interesting to think of mashing buttons with.

However, from the sounds of it, there's not much of a reason to hold your breath on the AoC Xbox version. When a daunting task is set upon a small group of developers... well, just don't lose too much sleep waiting for it.

My guess would be you'd see the expansion for Age of Conan long before a 360 version. But that's based on nothing but the fleeting thought in my brain... and now it's gone.

In my opinion, Tabula Rasa is a really fun game... overall. I know I wasn't personally willing to pay $15/month for it, but I'm not completely sure why, in retrospect. I don't know if it was competition for my self-allotted $15-30/month for these dang MMO beasts, or something else. However, I was one of the apparently-many who didn't subscribe.

To me, this game was much better than many that came out and are still running, which baffles me a bit. The world is beautiful and rich with excellent (and compelling) backstory, and the mechanics of gameplay are interesting. I really enjoyed the frantic nature of defending a base from waves of attackers as more players streamed in to help out.

The main feeling of the whole world really being in the middle of a war was very intriguing and there haven't been many games that have pulled off that sense of global tension like TR, I think.

...well, none of that matters now, I guess. The game's going down at the end of February (2009, in case you're reading this late.)

However, you can play it free now through closing. Get your asses in there and at least put this game into your memories as one of the "ones that got away." We all do the (oft-annoying) "Game Z did this really cool thing where such-and-such happened. Man, I loved that!", and I think TR has plenty of those features in it. There are plenty of flaws too, but since it's free and it's all going away soon, do yourself a favor and at least give it a spin, eh?

Tabula Rasa: Now with more free play! will get you the info you need to get in there. If you previously had an account, you can just re-activate it.

...bummer to see this one go, but of course I'm part of the reason it's done, since I didn't pay my bill. I've thought many times about whether I would have played it with a lower fee or maybe even a free-play level of 'scrip with the option to pay for something extra... I don't know. I don't really think I'm a good gauge of this stuff, since I'm not playing anything much at all these days. (And no, I'm not playing WoW at the moment, either.)

Well... quit reading this crap and get your account created/reactivated in RGTR, eh?

This is pretty much fluff and useless info, but I figured since I read the whole thing, maybe I wasn't totally bored by it... MTV Multiplayer posted a batch of interview answers that collectively has become their post: MMO Developers Share Their New Year’s Resolutions

I honestly don't think it's of much use to read, but it did get me thinking about some of the games that it is about time for me to try out again.

For instance, I'm way overdue for a run through Hyboria again! I really wanted to love Age of Conan, but when it launched, I didn't have time to play it much. I love the dirt and grit to that game world and of course the lore is just freakin' awesome. There's a lot of potential in AoC to get some dark play time into my MMO rotation.

...I think I need to fire up my AoC account and see how it's changed.

(And yes, I will be looking at some of the others again too. I'm just more jazzed about Conan at the moment, so please refrain from your flame email about how I should play Game Y instead... well, maybe your suggestions will get me stoked, so go ahead and send them, I guess. :P )

Just to be brief about this -- partly because I'm really tired, but partly because I'm embarrassingly out-of-the-know about Star Trek Online -- there is a new "Ask Cryptic on the Cryptic Studios' Dev Blog.

"What's the new Ask Cryptic about?", you ask? Well, first I'm wondering why you're asking me about what was asked of Cryptic, but here's a quick summary anyway. Now, I didn't write this summary because, as I told you, I am woefully inadequate in the Star Trek Online infoz. I also have no idea what any of this means. Does that make me a jerk among MMO news editors? Yes, yes it does.

-- Today we’re answering community questions about powers, the Nemesis system, leveling, weapons, archetypes, and more!

-- "The current plan is for players to be able to choose emanation points, hues, and alternate effects for some powers. For example, if a player chooses a force beam, they can elect to have it originate from their character’s eyes or as a chest beam instead of coming from the hands. The color, or more specifically the hue, of the force beam can also be set by the player. For powers that don’t have such obvious effects, such as Martial Arts, the sweep of color that trails behind the move is what would change."

Um... huh? Damn, I need to go read up on that game. Also, does anyone know why in Poo's name I'm telling all you about my ineptitude??!? This is just flat dumb of me.

Anyway, here's something I don't need to know much about to enjoy... Star Trek Online SCREENSHOTS!! Nice. There are a precious two new ones for those of you who are pissed off because I don't already know about "teh greatest game evar!!1!" yet.

I sort of promise that I'll be clued-in about the game next time we talk about the subject. You're welcome.

Oh, by the way... if you're a fan of Captain Christopher Pike, you really should get your butt over there and vote in the poll for your favorite captain! The poor bloke is trailing massively in the contest.

NCsoft has announced the availability of the City of Heroes: Mac Special Edition. The Mac Special Edition is a download-only client that includes the usual 30 days of play time and "a set of exclusive in-game items."

Hurray for Mac folks, eh? Mac players will play alongside PC players, by the way -- in case that doesn't fall more in the "well they sure as poop should be able to!!" category on its own.

"Hurray!", I'm sure you're saying. Yet another adjustment to the site theme has just occurred. Many of you watched it happen in front of your eyes, but since I'm not inclined to do things the "pro" way, I didn't bother to take the site down while tweaking. This is all live, baby!

(ugh.. I did indeed say "baby".. shame and all that ensues.)

So, I still think the text is way too big (as of this moment) and it's pretty stark, but I like where this might be heading compared to the last one. I would really rather go with a completely different theme, but hey, I'm not a theme designer and I don't have time to mess with this too much. The older green one was just bugging me. I need to round off some of these sharp edges or this one will start to bug me too.

Anyway, thanks for the visit! I'll get on to posting some news soon.

Cheers,
Hoza

I'm a slouch and I know it. I've been busy with work and my wife birthed our baby, so that's been nuts, to say the least. I know I haven't posted here in a long while, but that's got to change or you'll all start throwing foul things in my general direction.

... I don't want that.

However, I'm still short on time in general. I'll do my best to throw down some posts more regularly. Yes, I know I've said that before. "Whatevah, whatevah! I'll do what I want!" (No, that quote is not relevant, but it's in my head anyway.)

Thanks for visiting. I'll go drum up some stuff for you to read.

Cheers,
Hoza

Um, is this a Good Thing? World of Warcraft is rolling in "player achievements" with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

...*sigh*

I'm slightly intrigued, but a bit more revolted by what feels like a strange addition to the game. Here's where I found a take on it that can I relate to. Although I'm on the "they pull me back in" phase of my journey with WoW, I've most certainly begun to find an end in sight with some of the end-game goofiness. Here's the thing... I've never been in the WoW end-game world before pretty recently.

I played the game since late-ish beta and loved it for a year.5, but fell out of things before ever getting to 60 with any avatars... yeah, I played the game for well over a year and never hit 60. I was always soloing or playing with a single friend while my guild went through the raid progressions of the time. I was never quite high enough level as I wasn't playing nearly as much as others in the guild. Playing catch-up for over a year finally wore on me and I let the 'scrip go.

Then, after Burning Crusade came out, I got back in to see how things were. I finally leveled to 60 and had only two people to rejoice with -- everyone else laughed and pointed. ...onward to 70! Yay. Now I've been in the world of 70's for a while and I'm of course massively undergeared, even with most peoples' 2nd or 3rd alts. Yay!

So I've found a home of sorts in the world of PvP and here's where I realize this game is testing my limits of determination for MassMOGs in the long run. I would really love to do some of the raiding since I missed out on almost all of the instances -- no exaggeration -- but I don't have time to run through any of this stuff unless that Lotto check comes in.

Running battlegrounds persistently has scored me copious amounts of honor and more AV marks than I can possibly spend (maybe I should buy another Stormpike Battle Charger, just in case my other one gets tired??). Now my gear isn't totally crap (for PvP, anyway) but I still have a LONG way to go in that world... how much more can I take of running BG's repeatedly just to get the currency to buy gear so I can run BG's more effectively??!? Oh, and by the way, Season 4 just came out, so now I'm getting rapidly outgeared -- if my outgeared gear wasn't outgeared enough already.

My nephew and a good friend of mine want to start an arena team, so that's why I'm currently motivated to gear up. We'll see how that goes, but damn, it's been months of playing just to get geared enough to feel like we can do anything worthwhile in PvP! All that gearing to prep us for more gearing! Whooo!!

Anyway, I told you all that to tell you this: Achievements??!?

Maybe I don't get it, but I'm not about to embark on the journey of re-exploring the world so I can have a new tabard to mark my achievements. Now, I might find some satisfaction in getting this achievement!

...maybe I'm missing something.

...maybe I'm just rambling about nothing worth reading. Well, you can stop now. :-P