MMO Reporter

In this episode of the MMO Reporter podcast, Chris and Bill delve into the legal issues surrounding ARK, some lagging servers in DDO, and much more! With a guest appearance by none other than Harry Hol to discuss and review The Division, this episode is sure to entertain!  

In this episode of the MMO Reporter podcast, Chris and Bill delve into the legal issues surrounding ARK, some lagging servers in DDO, and much more! With a guest appearance by none other than Harry Hol to discuss and review The Division, this episode is sure to entertain!  

Chris and Bill tackle this week's news without the benefit of the wisdom of Harry Hal, but we manage to fill over an hour worth of air time with many, many words spoken by Top Men. Top. Men. This week's show has us talking about the cancellation of Everquest Next, layoffs at Carbine, and the launch of The Maze Engine in Neverwinter.  

Chris and Bill tackle this week's news without the benefit of the wisdom of Harry Hal, but we manage to fill over an hour worth of air time with many, many words spoken by Top Men. Top. Men. This week's show has us talking about the cancellation of Everquest Next, layoffs at Carbine, and the launch of The Maze Engine in Neverwinter.  

With a definite Space tint to this week's episode, Chris, Harry and Bill dive into the latest and greatest in MMO news from around the interwebs. With No Man's Sky's launch date, Elite: Dangerous' patch delay and some staffing news from Arenanet on the docket, it's a jam packed show ready for consumption!    

With a definite Space tint to this week's episode, Chris, Harry and Bill dive into the latest and greatest in MMO news from around the interwebs. With No Man's Sky's launch date, Elite: Dangerous' patch delay and some staffing news from Arenanet on the docket, it's a jam packed show ready for consumption!    

  It’s a full trio of hosts this week on MMO Reporter. With Elite: Dangerous, The Division, on the docket, we answer the question burning across the interwebs: Has Bill played Rocket League against real people yet? Audio Version:   What we did in game: Bill: GW2 Rocket League Civ 5 – couple HUNDRED turns Elite: Dangerous Harry: Star Citizen Elite Dangerous Bravely Second Far Cry Primal Mass Effect 3 Dragon Age Inquisition Chris: Destiny – Iron Banner The Division Beta Neverwinter LOTRO Blade and Soul Elite: Dangerous Star Citizen Star Wars: Battlefront   Patreon  shout out 31 Patrons   News: Elite Dangerous: Arena launches as a stand alone game https://www.frontierstore.net/usd/games/elite-dangerous-cat/elite-dangerous-arena.html CQC that was already available via Start menu for those who have the game Those who purchase arena will get a discount on the full game (exactly what they paid for Arena) $7.49 US ( £4.99) One magazine article quote: ‘Elite without the boring stuff’. Kill them with fire.   Former Funcom CEO charged with Insider Trading http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSO9N15J009 via MassivelyOP http://massivelyop.com/2016/02/17/former-funcom-ceo-charged-with-market-manipulation-and-insider-trading/ Trond Arne Has resigned from his CEO role at Funcom in 2012 on the very same day that The Secret World launched, after which he sold off a significant portion of his stocks, prompting the Norwegian authorities to investigate.   Sponsors: Audible Go to audiblepodcast.com/mmoreporter Go to audiblepodcast.com/mmoreporter Doghouse Use the coupon code mmoreporter for a free 120GB SSD with your purchase!   Mad Catz Pro X Review MSRP $199.99 Very Customizable, including thumb and pinky rest, scroll wheel and palm rest. Hot Swappable laser units for different sensitivity Swappable sliding surface (magnetic) Really cool mouse well. On an arm, and the whole arm can move left and right and is mappable Expensive, but this is an easy replacement for my very well used MMO 7 mouse that I’ve had for a few years. Comes with a nice carrying case   Neverwinter Correction: In Episode 248 – You can get Zen through in game means, but we still feel that the changes to the trade bar store were done in a way where the only appropriate response would be to roll back the changes to w

  It’s a full trio of hosts this week on MMO Reporter. With Elite: Dangerous, The Division, on the docket, we answer the question burning across the interwebs: Has Bill played Rocket League against real people yet? Audio Version:   What we did in game: Bill: GW2 Rocket League Civ 5 – couple HUNDRED turns Elite: Dangerous Harry: Star Citizen Elite Dangerous Bravely Second Far Cry Primal Mass Effect 3 Dragon Age Inquisition Chris: Destiny – Iron Banner The Division Beta Neverwinter LOTRO Blade and Soul Elite: Dangerous Star Citizen Star Wars: Battlefront   Patreon  shout out 31 Patrons   News: Elite Dangerous: Arena launches as a stand alone game https://www.frontierstore.net/usd/games/elite-dangerous-cat/elite-dangerous-arena.html CQC that was already available via Start menu for those who have the game Those who purchase arena will get a discount on the full game (exactly what they paid for Arena) $7.49 US ( £4.99) One magazine article quote: ‘Elite without the boring stuff’. Kill them with fire.   Former Funcom CEO charged with Insider Trading http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSO9N15J009 via MassivelyOP http://massivelyop.com/2016/02/17/former-funcom-ceo-charged-with-market-manipulation-and-insider-trading/ Trond Arne Has resigned from his CEO role at Funcom in 2012 on the very same day that The Secret World launched, after which he sold off a significant portion of his stocks, prompting the Norwegian authorities to investigate.   Sponsors: Audible Go to audiblepodcast.com/mmoreporter Go to audiblepodcast.com/mmoreporter Doghouse Use the coupon code mmoreporter for a free 120GB SSD with your purchase!   Mad Catz Pro X Review MSRP $199.99 Very Customizable, including thumb and pinky rest, scroll wheel and palm rest. Hot Swappable laser units for different sensitivity Swappable sliding surface (magnetic) Really cool mouse well. On an arm, and the whole arm can move left and right and is mappable Expensive, but this is an easy replacement for my very well used MMO 7 mouse that I’ve had for a few years. Comes with a nice carrying case   Neverwinter Correction: In Episode 248 – You can get Zen through in game means, but we still feel that the changes to the trade bar store were done in a way where the only appropriate response would be to roll back the changes to what was discussed in the Dev post until a future update.     Quick Mentions: Fintal Fantasy 14 making it easier to take in-game selfies http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/pr/blog/001362.html Characters and Pets will look at “Camera” Will center better on multiple characters on screen   Shroud of the Avatar preparing for full release http://massivelyop.com/2016/02/25/shroud-of-the-avatar-prepares-for-release-27/   IBM Investigat

  Chris sits down with Scott Shicoff, Lead Designer on Neverwinter, to discuss the upcoming module: The Maze Engine.    

  Chris sits down with Scott Shicoff, Lead Designer on Neverwinter, to discuss the upcoming module: The Maze Engine.    

This week’s show has Chris and Bill flying duo with Harry (star of stage and screen) on a world, well, country wide tour! They discuss Neverwinter’s in-game currency issues, Star Citizen’s game split, and earning reports from a few of the major MMO game developers.   What we did in game: Bill: King’s Quest GW2 – inching closer to legendary precursor   Chris: Guild Wars 2 Blade and Soul Neverwinter Witcher 3   Patreon  shout out 32 Patrons   News: Neverwinter pulls a bait-n-switch on players: https://www.reddit.com/r/Neverwinter/comments/44xrug/no_blood_ruby_or_coal_wards_in_the_xbox_tradebar/ Coalescent Wards (used for upgrading Enchantment and considered by many to a must for end game) were (according to dev post: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/9624953-developer-blog%3A-improved-trade-bar-store – WHICH HAS BEEN EDITED SINCE POSTING) going to drop in price from 200 Trade Bars to 75. Post was added to state that a difference between XBox One and PC has always been expected. Video from PAX 2015: https://youtu.be/3uOu0xJUlY8?t=4m56s Talk about concurrency between release dates, not content, so I don’t think there’s even been a big conspiracy to hide that XBox would be different. Players stockpiled Trade Bars (obtained by opening lockboxes – with Keys that you have to buy with Zen) Patch day comes and SURPRISE!!! Wards are only available in the Zen Store NOT an error according to devs, working as intended, just “not well communicated”. Looks like the CM may take the blame for this one. Just happened today so we’ll have to see. Official Responce: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1212047/update-on-the-trade-bar-store-xbox-one No love from twitter on the announcement. A large majority of the messages that we got back were negative.   Star Citizen Splits Squadron 42 from MMO Package – clarification from RSI https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15189-Package-Split-Information As of February 14th (love you too) you will be able to pledge a minimum of $45 USD for Squadron 42 OR Star Citizen MMO PREVIOUS PLEDGERS GET BOTH If you pledge by the 14th, you still get both If you pledge for one or the other after the 14th, you can “upgrade” to both for an additional $15 Pledging to either Star Citize

This week’s show has Chris and Bill flying duo with Harry (star of stage and screen) on a world, well, country wide tour! They discuss Neverwinter’s in-game currency issues, Star Citizen’s game split, and earning reports from a few of the major MMO game developers. Audio Version: What we did in game: Bill: King’s Quest GW2 – inching closer to legendary precursor   Chris: Guild Wars 2 Blade and Soul Neverwinter Witcher 3   Patreon  shout out 32 Patrons   News: Neverwinter pulls a bait-n-switch on players: https://www.reddit.com/r/Neverwinter/comments/44xrug/no_blood_ruby_or_coal_wards_in_the_xbox_tradebar/ Coalescent Wards (used for upgrading Enchantment and considered by many to a must for end game) were (according to dev post: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/9624953-developer-blog%3A-improved-trade-bar-store – WHICH HAS BEEN EDITED SINCE POSTING) going to drop in price from 200 Trade Bars to 75. Post was added to state that a difference between XBox One and PC has always been expected. Video from PAX 2015: https://youtu.be/3uOu0xJUlY8?t=4m56s Talk about concurrency between release dates, not content, so I don’t think there’s even been a big conspiracy to hide that XBox would be different. Players stockpiled Trade Bars (obtained by opening lockboxes – with Keys that you have to buy with Zen) Patch day comes and SURPRISE!!! Wards are only available in the Zen Store NOT an error according to devs, working as intended, just “not well communicated”. Looks like the CM may take the blame for this one. Just happened today so we’ll have to see. Official Responce: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1212047/update-on-the-trade-bar-store-xbox-one No love from twitter on the announcement. A large majority of the messages that we got back were negative.   Star Citizen Splits Squadron 42 from MMO Package – clarification from RSI https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15189-Package-Split-Information As of February 14th (love you too) you will be able to pledge a minimum of $45 USD for Squadron 42 OR Star Citizen MMO PREVIOUS PLEDGERS GET BOTH If you pledge by the 14th, you still get both If you pledge for one or the other after the 14th, you can “upgrade” to both for an additional $15 Pledging to either Star Citizen or Squadron 42 will get you access to Arena Commander Game client will be the same for both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen This is the closest thing to an explanation of what you get when you buy as I’ve ever seen :/   Sponsors: Audible Go to audiblepodcast.com/mmoreporter Doghouse Use the coupon code mmoreporter for a free 120GB SSD with your purchase!   NCSoft Earnings for Q4 2015: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/455vxo/ncsofts_earning_report_4q_2015_disillusioning/ GW2 HoT below projections Wildstar “disappointing” conversion to F2P Blade and Soul over 2 million pl

Chris, Bill and Harry take to the interwebs to discuss this week’s MMO news! Harry drags us deep into the Elite: Dangerous – Horizons rabbit hole, Chris tries to generate some excitement for Black Desert Online, and all three lament on Wildstar and all things Carbine.   What we did in game: Bill: Rocket League King’s Quest GW2 Blade and Soul Harry: Finished Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls expansion story Elite Dangerous Star Citizen Twofold Chris: Blade and Soul Elite: Dangerous GW2 Battlefront Neverwinter   Patreon  shout out 32 Patrons. Thank you!   News: First details about next phase of Horizons https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=230144   Mission system revamped More consequences and focus on personality Mission givers will change their behavior based on your standing and rank Horizons will now be ‘dlc’ From now on you buy the base game and horizons separately https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=230150 Also: https://mobile.twitter.com/achunt/status/695334790329839616 https://mobile.twitter.com/achunt/status/695334943774248960 Dun dun dunnnnn…   Black Desert Online Launches March 3 https://www.blackdesertonline.com/news/view/49 Closed Beta info Feb 18th Game Info Pre-Order https://www.blackdesertonline.com/preorder/ Traveler’s Package $30 Stuff Explorer’s Package $50 More stuff Conquerer’s Package $100 Even more stuff Head start with pre-order. 48hrs for the Traveler’s and Explorer’s, 96 for the Conquerer’s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac   High Fantasy game. First take seems very generic. Lots of buzz, so maybe there’s something there. Will report after the beta. Incredibly detailed character creator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIideJr_O2U Beauti

Chris, Bill and Harry take to the interwebs to discuss this week’s MMO news! Harry drags us deep into the Elite: Dangerous – Horizons rabbit hole, Chris tries to generate some excitement for Black Desert Online, and all three lament on Wildstar and all things Carbine. Audio Version: What we did in game: Bill: Rocket League King’s Quest GW2 Blade and Soul Harry: Finished Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls expansion story Elite Dangerous Star Citizen Twofold Chris: Blade and Soul Elite: Dangerous GW2 Battlefront Neverwinter   Patreon  shout out 32 Patrons. Thank you!   News: First details about next phase of Horizons https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=230144   Mission system revamped More consequences and focus on personality Mission givers will change their behavior based on your standing and rank Horizons will now be ‘dlc’ From now on you buy the base game and horizons separately https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=230150 Also: https://mobile.twitter.com/achunt/status/695334790329839616 https://mobile.twitter.com/achunt/status/695334943774248960 Dun dun dunnnnn…   Black Desert Online Launches March 3 https://www.blackdesertonline.com/news/view/49 Closed Beta info Feb 18th Game Info Pre-Order https://www.blackdesertonline.com/preorder/ Traveler’s Package $30 Stuff Explorer’s Package $50 More stuff Conquerer’s Package $100 Even more stuff Head start with pre-order. 48hrs for the Traveler’s and Explorer’s, 96 for the Conquerer’s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac   High Fantasy game. First take seems very generic. Lots of buzz, so maybe there’s something there. Will report after the beta. Incredibly detailed character creator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIideJr_O2U Beautiful game engine Developer post re: Cash Shop http://forum.blackdesertonline.com/index.php?/topic/8038-pm-diary-22-cash-shop-and-more/   Sponsors: Audible Go to audiblepodcast.com/mmoreporter Doghouse Use the coupon code mmoreporter for a free 120GB SSD with your purchase!   Wildstar updates and Steam http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/632/feature/10534/Heading-to-SteamBut-WAIT-Theres-More.html/page/1 Coming to steam in first half of 2016 Spring update coming in some upcoming season, but it’s not clear which New zone: Arcterra (icy wasteland) “Snowballing” zone-boss fights – new zone boss tech/process Progressive boss growth – starts with a series of 2-man bosses, which graduates to a 5

Chris, Bill, and Harry convene under the auspice of his noodly appendage to discuss the news that Funcom has announced a new Conan game, trouble for Trion with a stealth change to their referral program, and much more.   What we did in game: Bill: GW2 – did the Shatterer Rocket League King’s Quest Elite: Dangerous Harry: The Witness Elite Dangerous Star Citizen Chris: Blade and Soul Finished Last of Us. Cried Star Wars Battlefront   Patreon  shout out patreon.com/mmoreporter   News: Conan Exiles announced from Funcom See press release below Open-world survival game Multiplayer, but doesn’t seem to be massively multiplayer You can play on public or private servers Can also play single-player How does this jive with Age of Conan?   Multiplayer focused open-world vs. MMO?  Are they different enough games to justify each other? Will they compliment each other? Or is this just the end of AoC? Funcom is starting to do some genre-bending things with their IPs Why make only one game? E.g. Stand-alone Secret World adventure:  The Park 2 Conan games now Maybe new Anarchy Online products in the future?   ESO – Thieve Guild Preview http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2016/01/21/thieves-guild-first-look Join the iconic Thieves Guild for the first time in ESO Hew’s Bane, a new zone available to characters of all levels and home of Abah’s Landing, the Thieves Guild headquarters, located in the southern peninsula of Hammerfell Hours of exciting new story content and quests that will take you through all your favorite areas of Tamriel A challenging, new 12-player trial: Maw of Lorkhaj Formidable new group bosses and delves to conquer The addition of new criminal activities A new passive skill line exclusive to members of the Thieves Guild Unique costumes, motifs, and item sets inspired by the devious Thieves Guild   Sponsors: Audible Go to audiblepodcast.com/mmoreporter Because we talked about it during this story… http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Fiction – list of novels based in Elite: Dangerous universe Doghouse Use the coupon code mmoreporter for a free 120GB SSD with your purchase!   RIFT having F2P troubles