What happened to "The MMO Report" you say? Well, turns out the name had already been in use for a while. Seeing how I’m the new kid on the block, I decided to change it. I must be the nicest guy in gaming, right? Anyway, welcome to the very first MMO Weekly. It is still a slow week for news from the MMO genre, but we’ve dug deep to get you the latest news from your favorite games.
Age Of Conan
It was this past Tuesday that the Age of Conan servers went down for the server merger and it seems to have gone smoothly. Well, as smoothly as a server merger that admits your game is severely under-populated can be. Hopefully, Funcom can do something to reinvigorate their player base and get some new subscribers. One thing that comes to mind is either giving me a free weekend or lowering the subscription fee.
Lord of the Rings Online
This week in LotRO news, the team has posted the second guide for soloing content in Middle-Earth from level 20-40. The guide starts of by telling you the mid-level quests are mostly the "slayer-variety," which you non-MMO players call the "kill ten rats"-type quest. At level 35 you can purchase a horse (mount) from Eogar, the horse-master, for around 4 gold after you finish a quest chain.
Every year various websites determine what are the best games of that year. Each individual website comes up with their own winner; that devalues the award, don’t you think? Well, there aren’t too many websites strictly covering MMOs, so to get an award in the genre is more meaningful. At MMORPG.com, Lord of the Rings Online won "Best Overall Game" and it’s Mines of Moria expansion won "Best New Expansion" over games such as Wrath of the Lich King (WoW) and The Shadow Odyssey (Everquest II). Turbine also won the "Favorite MMO Studio" from the same website. All awards were picked by the readers, which I think is a better award than one from a random website.
World of Warcraft
Still no patch this week, but I am expecting patch 3.0.8 to drop by the end of February. Yeah, I tend to make really precise predictions. Instead, Blizzard announced a bunch of servers that will allow free transfers from the high-population realms to the lower population realms. You can start transferring your characters from now until Wednesday, January 21, or until Blizzard feels that they have gotten the job done. The forum post is copied below:
This thread will contain information on the free character moves to and from PVP realms we currently have available to assist in population dispersal. In the event that these realms meet our transfer goals before the scheduled end date, the transfers to these realms will be disabled. We highly recommend that if you are planning to transfer that you do so at your earliest convenience. No characters will be eligible for these free moves once the transfers have been closed.
You can begin your transfer by visiting the Character Move page located here: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.html
These transfers are scheduled to close on Wednesday, January 21, at 6:00 pm PST (Thursday, January 22, 1:00 pm AEDT) provided our transfer goals are not reached prior to this time.
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Source A (PvP)
Arthas
Bleeding Hollow
Bonechewer
Boulderfist
Burning Blade
Dragonmaw
Frostmane
Illidan
Kel’Thuzad
Laughing Skull
Lightning’s Blade
Magtheridon
Mal’Ganis (Horde Transfers Only)
Mannoroth
Sargeras
Shattered Hand
Skullcrusher
Tichondrius
WarsongDestination A (PvP)
Drak’Thul
Hakkar———————————————————————————————
Source B (PvP)
Barthilas
Frostmourne
Jubei’Thos
Thaurissan (Horde Transfers Only)Destination B (PvP)
Gundrak (Oceanic)
Guild Wars
It has been a long while since I have heard some news coming out of this free-to-play MMO, and I’m glad to tell all you Guild Wars players that new content is coming. In a post by the developers on their website, the team talks about monthly maintenance and content updates which will come every three or four months. The first big content release will arrive in April. They mention three features coming in the April content update which includes increases to account-based storage, improvements to character-based storage, and account-based changes to the Hall of Monuments. Hope that gets you excited.
P.S. I bet you a gold piece they announce Guild Wars 2 at E3 this year.
Warhammer Online
And what about the lead zeppelin of MMOs, Warhammer Online. After not hearing much about the game since their free content update, it came to my attention that WAR is coming to Russia. Three different retail versions will be in Russian gamers’ hands on February 5th, with region-based servers and full customer support.
"Everyone at Mythic Entertainment is honored and gratified each time we get the chance to bring the glory of WAR to those who have yet to experience it," said Mythic Entertainment co-founder and general manager Mark Jacobs. "In February, a whole new force of Russian recruits will join the ranks of Order and Destruction –- and it’s going to be fantastic."
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