Livelock is a top-down science fiction shooter where players choose one of three cybernetic warriors and fight to rid the world of war.
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Publisher: Arc Games Playerbase: Low Type: Buy to Play Shooter Release Date: August 30, 2016 Pros: +Great graphics. +More explosions than a Michael Bay movie. +Gameplay feels fast-paced and fluid. +Each chassis has a variety of skills available for loadouts. Cons: -The story is underdeveloped. -Focus on score cheapens deaths. -The primary input device seems to change at random. -PS4 version is unoptimized.
Nexon has unveiled the latest addition to the growing catalog of mobile MapleStory spin-offs. Tentatively titled "Project MNP," it appears to be a three lane tower defense game where players choose heroes and unleash abilities by playing cards. It's an unexpected twist for the franchise, considering other mobile MapleStory releases were more in line with the PC counterpart: Pocket MapleStory and MapleStory M (set to launch in South Korea sometime soon).
Project MNP will launch for both iOS and Android some time in 2016. No word yet on whether the release will be international or region locked before becoming available globally.
It's interesting to see Nexon focus on the MapleStory IP while MapleStory 2 receives relatively little attention, particularly in the West. In any case, MapleStory is likely to see future mobile spin-offs if Project MNP and its cousins are successful.
Livelock is an upcoming cooperative top-down shooter set to release some time in 2016. In a world decimated by a burst of gamma radiation, select humans have uploaded their brains to machines and merged with artificial intelligence.
Players traverse post-apocalyptic maps, banding together in groups of three— with three playable cybernetic hunters—to "break the infinite cycle of war" (by seemingly killing everything). The announcement trailer, appropriately set to dubstep, shows off the chaotic firefights brimming with colorful effects.
Livelock is developed by Canada-based studio Tuque Games and will be published by Arc Games. The game is set to release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
The Culling is a unique battle royale survival game where 16 players fight to the death in an enclosed tropical island paradise. Players scavenge for items, craft weapons, and build traps to survive and be the last man standing.
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Publisher: Xaviant Playerbase: Shut Down Type: Battle Royale Release Date: March 4, 2016 Pros: +Last player standing Battle Royale. +PvP focused. +Fast-paced matches. +Great perk system. Cons: -Combat can feel janky. -Only one map. -Very steep learning curve.
The new year is barely a month old and the 2016 MMO line-up continues to grow. It's easy to get whirled away on the hype-train express in eager anticipation of an upcoming title.
I was amped for WildStar, spoon-fed excitement by online communities and gossip from friends telling me that World of Warcraft's killer was about to be unleashed. Hype rarely lives up to the final product, regardless of the medium—whether it be games, movies, or television shows. But I happily get swept each time a new title is peering over the horizon.
Now that Blade and Soul has kicked off the new year there are a few titles pinging my hype-radar that I can't help but feel a little giddy for:
Black Desert Online
Tree of Savior
Lost Ark
Albion Online
Crowfall
Escape From Tarkov
Gloria Victis
Shards Online
Even Star Citizen is claiming a 2016 release (and if it does I'll be winning a glorious bet). Not all of the aforementioned titles are guaranteed to release this year but with each passing month I can't help but anticipate playing (I'm still waiting for Starcraft: Ghost). And maybe this year the hype will live up to the final product.
What MMO release are you eagerly anticipating? What MMO were you most hyped for in the past? Let us know in the comments below!
Each week the MMOs.com crew posts a question about MMOs to you, coinciding with the weekly podcast. We hope to hear from you in the comments section below!
Ah yes, the sweet smell of Friday morning MMORPG controversy is like music to my ears. I woke up today and received a Facebook message (professional) from Ethan Ash Cashner regarding a news post from yesterday titled “Divergence Online Has Been Removed From Steam.” Mr. Casner is one of the developers for the aforementioned sandbox MMORPG. He asked MMOs.com to remove the news post “in its entirey, the first moment you have.” We are accused of misrepresenting the facts, but Mr. Casner and the Divergence Online team are criticizing our integrity for the purpose of spinning their own version of events.
Let’s recap what’s happened. Divergence Online released through Steam on January 06, 2016 to mixed reviews. The Star Wars Galaxies [2.0] spiritual successor was met with harsh criticism, accused of stealing assets from SWG. I’m sure Mr Casner wouldn’t subject himself to stealing assets. Oh wait.
The Divergence Online IndieGoGo Launch trailer used the iconic Star Wars theme, blatantly disregarding Lucas Film’s copyright; this use is NOT covered by fair use either—in fact it fails every single one of Youtube’s four factors of fair use. But there is NO evidence that Divergence Online stole assets from any other project. As Matt stated in the news post, “Divergence Online has had a rough time on Steam with consistent accusations of having stolen assets from its primary source of inspiration, Star Wars Galaxies being slung at it.”
The Steam Store page was not only rife with comments accusing the game of stolen assets but also included personal attacks against Mr. Casner. In a Facebook post Mr. Casner protested Valve’s lack of action against reviews which violate Steam’s Terms of Service. “For a few weeks now, we've been asking steam to please police their reviews and requesting that at the very least, they moderate comments made that directly violate their own rules and regulations...”
In response to Mr. Casner’s requests Valve removed some of the comments. But in the process of reviewing comments Valve discovered one user accusing the Divergence Online team of stealing his assets.
Then, this morning I woke up to an email essentially saying "Thanks for contacting steam, we've removed things you pointed out to us that violated our terms of service", then within about 2 hours I got another email saying "Yeah, that guy who we kicked off for harassing you guys like two hours ago? Ok well, he just sent us an angry email and we'd like you to spend another week of your time defending against it. I know we already just ruled on this, but for some reason, yeah do all this other stuff."
In their defense the Divergence Online team [allegedly] politely refused to use the asset. The disgruntled commenter accusing Divergence Online emailed Valve, who in response removed the Divergence Online Store page for further review. Mr. Casner has chosen not to dispute the claim, and Divergence Online remains removed from Steam.
Here’s where MMOs.com is accused of misrepresenting the facts. Mr. Casner told MassivelyOP that he, himself, ultimately decided to remove the game from the Steam Store.
Last night, we reached out to Divergence’s chief developer, Ethan Casner, who reassured us that the game itself is not in jeopardy but that he effectively pulled the game’s store page down from Valve’s platform himself because of sustained harassment from Steam users and Valve’s alleged failure to adequately address it.
[...]
So Casner registered his intention to take down the game’s store page, and Valve complied.
According to MassivelyOP Mr. Casner “further rebuffed accusations made on another MMO website, which he says quoted his partner’s tweets out of context in order to assert that Valve had removed Divergence from Steam by force.”
Mr. Casner’s partner is one Ana Morgan, who posted 4 tweets regarding the takedown of Divergence Online, and later deleted them. She details the points previously mentioned: that Valve removed Divergence Online due to the accusations of an individual, and that a Skype log exists detailing the refusal (copies of which have not been shared).
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We at MMOs.com are baffled as to what we are accused of. The tweets were listed as Mrs. Morgan posted them to further reveal the story. We in no way misrepresented her statements, nor accused Divergence Online of any wrongdoing, but gave the game the benefit of the doubt. Our writer Matt even defended Divergence Online, stating “From what it sounds like, the team has the proof to sort this out and have Divergence reinstated on Steam.” Perhaps, we are accused of believing Divergence Online could reinstate their game on Steam. We apologize.
MassivelyOP contends we misrepresented the reasoning behind Divergence Online’s removal, claiming that Valve did not remove the game by force. But publicly available information points to exactly that. Mr. Casner himself admits to the matter in the aforementioned Facebook rant.
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Mr. Casner stated that Valve is asking the Divergence Online team to defend themselves against stolen asset accusations after purging the Store Page. His statement directly contradicts what he tells MassivelyOP. Mr. Casner goes on to rebuke Mrs. Morgan’s tweets in the same post with MassivelyOP:
I told [Valve], ‘Please enforce your rules or we don’t want to have a store page anymore,’ and their response was to disable the store page – not remove it from Steam itself – as if responding to a support request to do so, hand A having no knowledge at all that hand B just ruled on the issue,” he explains. “Nobody ‘kicked anyone off of Steam.’ We asked them to make some changes regarding the enforcement of their own rules (so that we don’t have to spend development time doing it), and we’re waiting on them to say, ‘OK.'” His partner, he explains, meant in her tweets not that Valve had literally taken the game down but that Valve was responsible for the circumstances leading to Casner’s decision.
So Mrs. Morgan was detailing the logical steps required for Mr. Casner to remove the post? If that’s the case why would you remove tweets if they expressed the truth? Mrs. Morgan’s formerly deleted tweets corroborate Mr. Casner’s Facebook post, further reinforce the notion, by stating: It seems anyone can email Valve and accuse developers of using their work without permission and! Here's the best part…” and “Valve takes down the game in question WITHOUT requiring ANY kind of proof from the person making the accusation.” She then details that she has a Skype log (not shared) detailing the refusal and that they gave the accuser a free key. The same person who allegedly emailed Valve and had the game taken down.
It seems Mrs. Morgan didn’t verify her tweets with Mr. Casner before pressing “Tweet.”
There is no conspiracy here. There is bad journalism-blogging and bad politics. And while Mr. Casner requested we interview him the facts were laid bare by publicly available statements through Steam, Facebook, and Twitter. Requesting information from a developer is done to reveal ambiguities, not re-enforce an agenda. MassivelyOP gave a dishonest developer a dishonest platform to spread his views. And it seems they did not fact check, but took the developer’s word at face value.
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It is also entirely unprofessional for MassivelyOP’s Editor-In-Chief to state, “That site [MMOs.com] is precisely the one that spread misinformation last night and is rebuffed in the article under which you are commenting.” Particularly when MassivelyOP built their entire article off of the word of Mr. Casner rather than conduct a simple Google search. Mr. Casner himself is not a reputable source. We request a formal apology.
Mr. Casner is entirely inconsistent in sharing the amount of money he makes per week through Steam. In his Facebook rant he states that the game generates $100/week, but in the Steam Community image he shared with us on Facebook he states that the game generates $60/week. Both posts were created within 24 hours of each other. How can someone who can’t keep his numbers straight expect us to trust him?
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Notorious Steam comments have also littered Mr. Casner’s career. He spends more time engaging in playground politics and name calling negative reviewers, rather than developing his game. He taunts his customers with underhanded vitriol and then complains he can’t tolerate negative comments. I imagine that if Mr. Casner spent as much time working on his game as he does crafting comments he might be closer to a finished product.
Mr. Casner did contact us and demanded that “this one [the news post] has to go, in its entirely, the first moment you have.” He is attempting to rewrite his game’s development history by altering media perception to put the decision in his pocket.
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At MMOs.com our position is to present truth without catering to developers or advertisers, but to the community. Going forward we will not be covering Divergence Online, but will continue to support other Star Wars Galaxies spiritual successors such as The Repopulation. There is almost universal disdain for Divergence Online and the way Mr. Casner, in particular, has handled himself in regards to the community and ourselves. We’ve provided disproportionate coverage when compared to how little progress has been made over the years.
We sincerely hope Ethan’s personality does not continue to hinder the development of a promising game.
Beginning with Rift's latest update, today, January 27th, Trion Worlds requires players to earn Earring Slot unlocks and Planewalker: Water by purchasing them through the cash shop marketplace. Previously, both items were obtainable with Voidstones. But now, players will either have to fork over cash or trade in in-game currency for REX to purchase both from the marketplace. Players were given a—short—two day notice to trade in their Voidstones "for these cool items today!"
An official follow up post from Ocho of the community team clarified the situation:
"Ultimately this is a business decision, to best support RIFT moving forward into the future. We're on the cusp right now of RIFT's 5th Anniversary, and we've got great stuff planned for 2016. But that stuff takes Engineers and Designers and CS and QA and a whole lot of other folks."
"We're going allow Earring Slots and PlaneWalker: Water to be purchased individually for Credits, and will be removing the Typhoon Edition from the store for Credits.
Prices will be as follows:
Earring Slots -2250 Credits
Planewalker: Water - 1500 Credits"
The situation seems to be another portent of the game's state, and follows on the heels of Rift guild Apotheosys' claims of mistreatment by Trion. Watch the satirical rant about Trion from one of Apotheosys' members below.
What do you think of Trion's decision to make Earring Slot unlocks and Planewalker: Water available exclusively through the marketplace?
[Trion Worlds RIFT - Free to Play MMO 2016] Trino's Nazi regime | Goodbye mein Führer, goodbye Rift!
NCSoft's franchise-based MOBA Master X Master will arrive in "North America and Europe later this year!" according to the Western MXM twitter account. Like Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm, Master X Master features characters from NCSoft games like Blade & Soul, WildStar, and Lineage.
Unlike other MOBAs Master X Master emphasizes PvE content, with over 25 maps and 5 difficulty settings to challenge players. And, perhaps the most interesting mechanic, players choose two characters for each match and swap them like a tag-team with one click.
It will be interesting to see how Master X Master fares in the West. NCSoft's franchise line-up is not as familiar to a Western audience as Blizzard's cast of characters. But with unique mechanics and PvE gameplay elements it may offer enough novelty to stand on its own.
Given the recent surge of older MMO titles re-releasing through Steam we had to make a compilation list to keep track. While Steam isn’t a proven method to revitalize an older MMO it is fascinating to see developers push aged titles, some of which are over 10 years old. Some games like Knight Online have seen a baffling amount of success, while others are boxed away in the ever growing Steam warehouse. Games posted to Steam years after their release beg the question, “Why not sooner?” While the answer isn’t always clear we’ll be updating this list with new-old titles as they release. Let us know of anything we may have missed in the comments below.
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Aion
Fantasy MMORPG Aion was released in North America on September 22, 2009 but found its way to Steam six years later, on October 29, 2015. Aion originally required a subscription but it’s been free to play since 2012. Built on CryEngine, players join one of two factions and grind through an enormous amount of content. While the graphics are dated for some players Aion does offer unique PvPvE gameplay where players wage war amid fortresses, artifact hunting, and instances brimming with warring players and NPCs. In the following months of its Steam release Aion’s playerbase remained consistent, hovering around 1000 players. While, perhaps, not as enticing as newer MMORPGs, Aion is a solid distraction—especially since it’s on Steam.
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Granado Espada
After sitting on Greenlight for two years Granado Espada finally released through Steam on January 07, 2016. Originally released for a North American audience in 2007, T3Fun’s fantasy MMORPG offered gameplay design choices. Rather than controlling one character players form a tripartite party, guiding their trio of musketeers through dungeons and across zones to slay mobs. Slaying oversized creatures to the excellent soundtrack featuring music from soundTeMP is rewarding by itself, along with the game's steampunk environments (a setting largely ignored in the genre). While gameplay follows the traditional MMORPG formula it’s worth playing for players interested in seeing how MMOs have evolved, or for players who simply like to grind to a fantastic soundtrack.
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Audition Online
Originally launched in Korea in 2004, Audition Online is one of the oldest games to grace the Steam store. Launched in NA/EU in 2007 the hip-hop and pop music rhythm game didn’t make its way to Steam until June 03, 2015. Gameplay is similar to 5Street, where players press keys corresponding with dance moves, with scores determined by how close player’s strokes align with the beat. Audition Online emphasizes social features such as guilds (Fams) and Couples, who must pass a dancing test to marry. The music is a bit dated, and while the game’s community has slowly dispersed over the years, Audition Online has maintained a fairly steady player base (around 100). Players with an interest in rhythm games may find something to love in Audition Online.
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Swordsman Online
Even though Perfect World Entertainment has their own distribution platform, Arc, the Chinese game company chose to release Swordsman Online through Steam on January 28, 2016. Originally released on July 03, 2014, the choice to push the game on Steam was a bit surprising, but not unprecedented. Built on the Angelica III engine, the wuxia action MMORPG sees players join one of ten martial arts schools with distinct play styles, and features polished environments and exaggerated acrobatic prowess. But as a wuxia MMORPG it must contend with NCSoft’s Blade & Soul. While originally releasing 2 years prior to Swordsman, BnS captures player imagination with titillating characters. Swordsman Online joins fellow PWE published title Forsaken World on Steam.
Knight Online was one of the first popular free to play titles launched in South Korea back in 2003. The fantasy MMORPG was subsequently released in North America the following year, on August 17, 2004. Part of the original PvP tradition, players choose between one of two warring factions and enter large-scale nation vs. nation battles (the game’s “bread & butter”). For some reason Knight Online has proved incredibly popular with Turkish players; many show off their patriotism with Turkish capes and flags decorating their character. Knight Online released through Steam on January 25, 2016 to incredible success, with more than 20,000 concurrent players in the first 24 hours—more than H1Z1 and Left 4 Dead 2 respectively. While Steam reviews have been less than favorable, Knight Online is at least a short term success and proves that, perhaps, old games can thrive through a re-release on Steam.
While unable to contest the popularity of its predecessor, Lineage II is one of the oldest MMORPGs to release through Steam (November 12, 2015). The 3D fantasy MMORPG released in South Korea even before World of Warcraft, on October 01, 2003. It made its way to Western shores on April 27, 2004. 14 million players have traversed the PvP-centric universe, more when private servers are accounted. Featuring 36 classes, additional sub-classes, and years of additional content, there is plenty to do in Lineage II. But age hasn’t been kind to the game. Players complaining of bots running the economy that have now become the foundation of Lineage II's market. But NCSoft’s game is a classic Korean MMORPG, and the successor to NCSoft's most profitable MMO.
(15 votes, average: 3.73 / 5)
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