Greetings Gamers! Now that all the fun and “geekery” of E3 is over and all of us are coming off our nerd-highs, its time to get back to business. We heard a lot of cool things that are in store for several of our favorite MMO franchises as well as some exciting news about upcoming console games (ex: Halo 4 and The Last of Us – check out the gameplay video).
As we move into the summer months, when there are usually big titles released for all of those on summer vacation, we are hearing more MoP, TERA and Diablo news. We will also have to say goodbye to another MMO as another difficult decision had to be made to shutdown the servers of a classic MMO with a good six year run. Details on the SWTOR server transfers, collector’s edition pets and mounts, and the RMAH (Real Money Auction House) can all be found in this issue. Enjoy!
GW2 to Launch Before Thanksgiving
Posted 6/14/12 – Guild Wars 2 fans are rejoicing around the world as a number of documents surfaced that alluded to a release date in Q3/Q4 of this year. Predictions indicate that the release will be before Thanksgiving and an official announcement is imminent.
Massively post
TERA Offers Free Seven-Day Trials
Posted 6/14/12 – Trion has announced that they are now offering seven-day free trials for TERA. Despite their jealous CEO, this game held some titles for graphics and an interesting approach to combat. Player combat is not only based on stats but on the skill of the player. This would be a disaster if implemented in WoW considering the caliber of some players these days. Follow these links to read more.
Gamasutra post | GameZone post
SWTOR Free Server Transfers Available
Posted 6/13/12 – As Bioware had alluded to in the past, and at E3, they will be opening up select servers for free transfers to help balance the server population. You will not be able to select your destination server; instead Bioware has matched up specific destination servers with each of the origin servers. The following links has a post about the transfer and the link to the list of eligible servers.
Gamespy post | SWTOR Transfer page
MoP CE Pet and Mount Unveiled
Posted 6/12/12 – You read that correctly, a mount with the collector’s edition of Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard has unveiled the customary pet you get with the collector’s edition but also a matching mount. The pet is called the Lucky Quilen Cub and the mount is an Imperial Quilen. This is the first time a mount has been offered as part of the collector’s edition. I haven’t decided yet if its enough to make me want to buy another collector’s edition. Follow the link to read more about, including WoWHead links.
WoW Insider post
Real Money Auction House Now Live in Diablo III
Posted 6/12/12 – Blizzard has officially activated the Real Money Auction House so now you can profit from playing Diablo. This is the feature that interested me the most about Diablo III. I am curious how successful it will be and if it will be worth the time investment to farm gear and try to sell it for cash that I can in-turn use to pay for my WoW subscription. If you are using it, leave a comment and tell me what you think so far. Follow the link to read more about it.
WoW Insider post
TERA Patch Offers GvG and Daily Quest Improvements
Posted 6/12/12 – TERA has been out for about a month which means its time for its first patch. This patch offers improvements to the daily quests as well as GvG. If you have figured it out, GvG is Guild vs Guild PvP. Yes, the guild master has the ability to toggle the guild as pacifists or battle-ready. I think this would be an extremely popular mechanic in WoW considering how big PvP is in that game. Its interesting the new approaches developers are taking with PvP (thinking back to RvR in a recent Warhammer patch). Follow the link to read more.
Massively post
Phantasy Star Universe is Offically Shutting Down
Posted 6/9/12 – It is a sad day when news of another beloved MMO is shutting down its servers. SEGA reluctantly made the decision to do that with Phantasy Star Universe. I never played PSU but I know it was one of the originals. The single player console version will remain active, but the MMO portion will be shut down permanently on September 7th. Follow the link to read more.
Massively post
The Return of Station Cash Subs
Posted 6/8/12 – The SOE president admitted that removing the ability to purchase subscriptions using Station Cash was handled poorly. Therefore, they have decided to allow the purchase of subscriptions for a limited time. This is all well and good but what about those people who decided to spend their Station Cash on something else because they couldn’t use it for the subscription. Follow the link to read more or see the forum post by John Smedley.
Massively post | EQII forum post
I also provide The MMO Times in an e-mail. If you are interested in receiving the e-mail version please subscribe.