Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has received an extensive patch dubbed "Defenders of Eorzea." This patch adds the most important feature of in any video game ever: the ability to raise your own Chocobo! The chance to raise a Chocobo is just a single facet in a feature-rich patch which includes all of the following:
Hello and welcome to the eighteenth edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM's column on Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this week's column, we'll be taking a look at the classes that make up the Disciples of the Land. While in other MMOs gathering is relegated to secondary skills for your combat classes, FFXIV treats the three gathering professions – Botanist, Miner and Fisher – as true classes. The gameplay for DoL classes is unique compared to any of the other Disciples, and all three classes have their own unique skills (cross-class as well), equipment and quests available.
Coinciding with the final day to get your SOE Live All Access badge for $149 (you can get it here) is the release of this year's panel lineup. Since player panels have not been announced, they are not on the schedule yet, and what content will be livestreamed is still unknown. The full schedule is available here and notable panels are:
Continue after the jump for Landmark, H1Z1 and miscellaneous panels of interest.
Week after week, I continue to be impressed by the way SOE is continuing to give players the opportunity to contribute to the development of EverQuest Next. Through the roundtable discussions, constant twitter interaction and especially the workshop, the players are being given an unprecedented ability to influence the design of a game that has the potential to change the way we think about MMORPGs. What an incredible privilege, and we're just getting started.
With all the talk of new mechanics and new technology in EQN, it's easy to miss one of the key factors that will define this game and set it apart from the competition. While other games have to sell us on the promise of compelling story or an engaging and lasting endgame experience, Landmark allows SOE to sell us on the entire game world.
As time goes on, and particularly after SOE Live, more and more of us will buy in to EverQuest Next through Landmark. As we continue to move forward, designing and iterating on all kinds of user-generated content, we'll develop an intimate understanding of the way the world is put together.
For those of us that play Landmark and engage with the workshop and with the community, by the time EverQuest Next opens its doors it will already feel like home.
Imagine setting foot in Norrath for the first time, already knowing the names of every tree, being able to recognize the building styles of different races, and just generally knowing how the world works in a way we wouldn't have dared to dream about a year ago. The stage will be set for the new history of Norrath in a way that we have never experienced.
It's the nature of the beast that MMOs are so bound by their retention strategies, often leading to developers implementing unpopular systems to keep people playing and paying. What if a game could create a retention strategy that made the game more popular? What if the reason we continued to log in was because we were invested in the world, and are proud to be a part of it? I'd take that over being drip-fed on a gear treadmill any day.
The question had to be addressed sooner or later, as in these times of so many quality free-to-play titles, the old strategies just won't fly. We've all played that game, we've had a lot of fun playing that game, but players are smart and we need to be fooled.
Earlier today, Trion Worlds revealed RIFT's second expansion, titled Nightmare Tide. Slated to release later in 2014, players will be able to adventure beyond Telara and enter the Plane of Water itself. New story quests, five addition levels (taking the cap to 65), more artifacts to collect, new inventory slots and more will be waiting in these abyssal depths.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn's Patch 2.3: Defenders of Eorzea is scheduled to go live on July 8, 2014. Yesterday afternoon, Square Enix released an epic 8-minute trailer for the update!
Hello and welcome to the seventeenth edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM’s column on Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this week’s column, we're going to continue our look at the recently released MMO from Carbine Studios, WildStar; in particular, we’ll be examining the game to see what design elements would fit well over here in Eorzea.
In part one we looked at their take on player housing (e.g. free to start, impacts rested XP, customizable to fit your playstyle, etc.) as well as their Renown social currency and how it encourages players to actually group together as they wander Nexus. While both of these are important elements that I’d like to see Square Enix take a look at, housing and social currency are more secondary activities in the grand scheme of MMOs. These systems may help prolong your interest once you’re invested, but first you have to get to that point and that requires getting past the first hurdle many MMOs fail at: combat. Luckily FFXIV has succeeded in making a keybind MMO that’s interesting to play, but there’s always room for improvement and WildStar has much to offer.
It's been three weeks since the Warlords of Draenor Alpha went live, and for three weeks I've been exploring every nook and cranny of Frostfire Ridge, the Horde starting zone in World of Warcraft's next expansion. Now, as we wait impatiently for Blizzard to release the next zone for testing, the time has come for me to share my findings.
Allow me to sum up my experience right now, in a single word. Breathtaking. Allow me now to explain why.
UPDATE: If you signed up for the EverQuest Next (not Landmark) beta through PSS1, make sure you re-apply for the beta via SOE.
The 2.5 year-long SOE and ProSiebenSat.1 partnership is finally coming to a close. It was met with controversy back when it was announced in January 2012, spurring a huge feedback thread that had even players not affected by it upset, and caused others to stop playing SOE games entirely. A couple of months after a 30-60 day transition warning was released, the lack of cohesion and foresight in the original agreement caused PSS1 and SOE go back to the table (though 'lessons learned from DCUO's transition' was the proported reasoning), kicking off a delay that resulted in current EU SOE accounts not being forced to migrate to PSS1. After all the pain the community went through, the integration finally went into effect on June 20, 2013.
After over two years of community grief and a year of the actual integration, SOE has announced that it is ending its partnership with PSS1. We can only hope that our EU friends that left the game will now return to EverQuest II.
As of today’s date (June 18, 2014), region locks have been lifted. New EU residents wishing to register should do so via SOE hosted sites.
On or about July 1, 2014, we will offer PSG players the opportunity to migrate their existing accounts to SOE account management, in order to continue playing SOE games. All earned status, characters and in-game coin will transfer with the account.
Continue after the jump for the entire message.
Hello and welcome to the sixteenth edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM’s column on Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this week’s column, we're going to take a look at the recently released MMO from Carbine Studios, WildStar. This one's going to be different than when we looked at The Elder Scrolls Online earlier this year; I won't be trying to help anyone choose between the two. Instead, we're going to look at WildStar as inspiration for changes in FFXIV. While the games themselves are quite different, some systems could still be used or modified to improve things for everyone here in Eorzea.
