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The Summoner's Guidebook: Dealing with rage and bad players
May 03, 2012

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League of Legends screenshot
Like any competitive multiplayer game, League of Legends induces its fair share of rage. People hate to lose. When your team is only three to five people, each contributor has a distinct identity, making it very easy to single out that feeding Ezreal. Compared to a game like Global Agenda, where teams are very large and individual contribution is harder to measure, League of Legends makes blame very easy to assign.

This week in the Summoner's Guidebook, we're going to talk about the effects of nerdrage on your team and how to deal with those violent emotions in a more productive manner.

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MassivelyThe Summoner's Guidebook: Dealing with rage and bad players originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    TERA gives players a guide to guilds
    May 03, 2012

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    If these players were in a guild, they'd be having at least 30% more fun right now.
    Maybe TERA is your first MMO, maybe you want to learn about what TERA offers its guilds, or maybe you just want to see guilds defined as something other than small-scale drama generators for once. There are a lot of reasons you might want to look at TERA's new guide to guilds in the game, but whatever your motivation, the guide will provide you with all the answers you need to start guilding away with ease.

    The main benefit to being in a guild in TERA are the guild quests; available all across the game, each guild quest provides players with Catharnac Awards that can be used to improve the guild's level and buy special items from vendors. You also need to be part of a level 3 guild to run for public office, which is all the more reason for politically minded players to make friends. But don't take our word for it -- after all, there's a guide to tell you all of this in detail.

    MassivelyTERA gives players a guide to guilds originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 May 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    City of Heroes player summit promises Water Blast power set, cyberpunk costumes
    May 03, 2012

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    Sadly, you cannot have a friend summon you to the summit. Even if your friend is playing a time-based character.
    If you weren't in California over the past weekend, you sadly had to miss out on the City of Heroes player summit. That means no voice in the several panels during which the doors were thrown open for new suggestions. But you can at least read through the summary of the weekend's events to find out what nifty new elements will be coming to the game in the near future, including four new powersets and several new costumes.

    While there's not a firm launch schedule, players can look forward to Water Blast (exactly what it says on the tin), Natural Affinity (healing over time and debuffing), Symbiotic Armor (a new defensive set based around absorbing damage types), and Radiation Armor (again, what it says on the tin). Players can also look forward to another Super Pack as well as the upcoming Retro Sci-Fi costumes and a Cyberpunk set. There's a lot of interesting tidbits, so if you want to get excited about the future, best to read through the event summary at OnRPG.

    MassivelyCity of Heroes player summit promises Water Blast power set, cyberpunk costumes originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 May 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    World of Tanks appreciates the military with a World of Thanks
    May 03, 2012

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    If you've actually been shot at in a tank, this game is probably a bit less fun.
    When you log in and play World of Tanks, you're playing the entertaining part of war, the part with cool machines wreaking havoc. Real wars obviously aren't fought by logging in and choosing a tank; they're fought by brave men and women willing to lay down their lives for their country if necessary. Thus, in honor of National Military Appreciation Month, Wargaming.net is donating to several charities for American veterans with your purchases.

    Four charities -- AMVETS, Homes for our Troops, the Military Families Fund, and Paralyzed Veterans of America -- will be receiving 10% of the proceeds from all American purchases of larger Gold packs and 75% of the proceeds for all American purchases of the T14 package. To help raise awareness of veteran concerns, the company will also be hosting several giveaways through the month. It's a nice nod toward the reality of armed conflicts, and it lets you play at a private little war while still donating to survivors of real battles.

    MassivelyWorld of Tanks appreciates the military with a World of Thanks originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 May 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    Ask Massively: Moving shop edition
    May 03, 2012

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    My new home is in a trackless expanse of desert with a stew pot.
    As you read this, I'm making my final preparations to move from my home for the past three years into a new and much nicer home. Of course, this brings with it certain concerns. Will the utility companies reconnect everything correctly? Will the movers drop something I can't easily replace? Will I forget something in the old apartment and have to go back?

    So, if my posts next week seem a bit off, assume that the move resulted in fiery death all around and I've been replaced by a crude AI pasted in Visual Basic.

    This week's Ask Massively, sadly, does not include anything about AI or my new apartment. Instead, it's about player-run events and why we cover some of them but not all. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, send it to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

    Continue reading Ask Massively: Moving shop edition

    MassivelyAsk Massively: Moving shop edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 May 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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      TERA subscription error affects thousands [Updated]
      May 03, 2012

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      TERA
      According to several tipsters and many, many pages on TERA's forums, something's gone badly wrong with En Masse's account system. The studio admits that some players have been billed immediately upon selecting a subscription plan instead of being billed after the 30 days. Other players have reported not being able to log in at all, as the game cannot find their subscriptions or free time and delivers an "expired account" error.

      En Masse posted that it is aware of the situation and is working to resolve it. The studio says that players who purchased a physical copy of the game and signed up for a subscription before entering their game code triggered this problem. However, we've also had reports of players who have encountered this error when dealing with digital copies.

      Affected players should now be able to log in to TERA while En Masse works on fixing the error.

      [Thanks to Andrew, Schippie, and Alex for the tip!]

      [Update: En Masse has contacted us to note that the 2000 players have been affected by the "insufficient remaining subscription time" issue, not the "immediate billing" error. En Masse says that these are two separate issues that the studio is actively working to resolve as fast as possible. We've updated this article accordingly.]

      MassivelyTERA subscription error affects thousands [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 May 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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      The Daily Grind: Does fighting multiple mobs at once make you feel heroic?
      May 02, 2012

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      City of Heroes
      One of BioWare's stated goals with Star Wars: The Old Republic was to make players feel more "heroic" by having them wade into packs of mobs more frequently than one-on-one encounters. The thinking here is that movie heroes often fend off whole groups at a time to showcase their prowess and tenacity, so why not game heroes?

      SWTOR isn't alone in tossing players into enemy packs and seeing how it turns out. Most of the superhero MMOs are notorious for doing this, but if a Batman can't lay waste to entire street gangs at once, why does he wake up in the morning?

      So we want to hear from you on this: Does fighting multiple mobs at once make you feel heroic? If you accidentally pull more than expected and live to tell the tale, does it fill your inner ego banks and make you flex and go, "Oh, I am bad, you know it, you know it!"?

      Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

      MassivelyThe Daily Grind: Does fighting multiple mobs at once make you feel heroic? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 May 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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        SWTOR on the rise and planning more PvP, endgame content
        May 02, 2012

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        SWTOR
        Star Wars: The Old Republic's moon (that's no moon...) is waxing, not waning, says Daniel Erickson. BioWare's lead designer on the project said that rumors of the game's demise are incredibly premature -- and outright wrong.

        Following Update 1.2 and the Rakghoul Outbreak live event, Erickson reports that player activity in the game is increasing. He said that the studio is working hard to keep its customers happy: "The community has generally been excited about the direction the game is going as we finish up our last must-have quality of life features (group finder, etc) and can start concentrating full-time on creative things like the world events."

        Erickson said that the live event was kept a surprise to make it "feel organic" and not spoil everything in this age of instant internet sharing. He said that the team took a cue from World of Warcraft's Corrupted Blood plague that swept through the game in 2005 and tried to channel the player's actions to fun rather than griefing.

        He says that the team discovered that SWTOR had a huge PvP community and has since "turned a huge amount of resources" to developing more content for that side of the game. BioWare's also shifted several team members over to creating more endgame content as the players chew through the stories at an increasing rate.

        MassivelySWTOR on the rise and planning more PvP, endgame content originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 May 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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        The Repopulation lets players customize outfits to their hearts' content
        May 02, 2012

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        The Repopulation
        As The Repopulation is free from conventional MMO leveling and hews to skill-based progression instead, dealing with player gear is substantially more difficult than it would be otherwise. The team posted a five-minute dev video explaining how items, repair, and what it calls "fittings" work in the game.

        The long and the short of The Repopulation's gear system is that players will be able to pick the outfit (or "shells") that they like the best visually and then equip the stats they want on it. This is done through fittings, which is similar to socket systems found in other MMOs.

        As outfits take damage, the conditions of the fittings can and do degrade, reducing the stats associated with it. If it gets too bad, the fittings will either need to be repaired or replaced.

        You can check out The Repopulation's gear system after the break. The team is currently accepting signups for June's alpha testing.

        [Thanks to Halldorr and J.C. for the tip!]

        Continue reading The Repopulation lets players customize outfits to their hearts' content

        MassivelyThe Repopulation lets players customize outfits to their hearts' content originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 May 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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        CCP analyzes EVE's Jita player event
        May 02, 2012

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        EVE Online - Jita heatmap
        If you warped into EVE Online's Jita merchant hub last week, chances are you didn't make it out alive. If you were plying your trade elsewhere in New Eden, the much-hyped "Burn Jita" campaign likely didn't even register on your radar.

        It registered on CCP's, though, as shown by the company's latest EVE-focused dev blog. As per usual, there are a bunch of pretty graphs and plenty of tech-speak. There's also some verbiage related to TiDi (time dilation), which is CCP's way of dealing with massive concentrations of players in its single-shard universe. It's worth noting that since the devs had advance warning of this particular player-run event, they were able to beef up EVE's server infrastructure to handle the increased load. You can read all the technical details on the game's official website.

        MassivelyCCP analyzes EVE's Jita player event originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 May 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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