Massively week in Review

by Joystiq Staff { Oct 21st 2008 at 11:00PM }

Joystiq's sister site Massively.com has all the news you'll need about MMOs. Here's the best, brightest, and most interesting stuff from the last week, all in one convenient place for your MMO minute.

	Star Wars MMO announced as The Old Republic We've waited for it for a long time, we knew it was coming: BioWare has announced the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic-inspired MMO at last: the title is Star Wars: The Old Republic! Commence rejoicing with Ewoks and Gungans in the streets!
	WAR has only just begun to compete with WoW, declares Mark Jacobs If you've been following this particular exchange you'll know the score, but let's recap: Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan just like turned around and said some stuff about Warhammer Online, about how he wasn't even in the Beta and stuff, and Mark Jacobs was like whoa, and he totally turned around and said some stuff about World of Warcraft, and now Mark Jacobs is all, like, dude, bring it, and everybody's like, ohmygawd, it is so on.
	Blizzard: Next MMO won't be WoW 2 Go ahead a strike the possibility of a World of Warcraft 2 off your list of possible next-gen Blizzard MMOs because it's officially not happening. In an interview with Wired, Blizzard's recently talkative Mike Morhaime flat out said that their next MMO project isn't a sequel to their first. Of course, he wouldn't divulge exactly what it was either or this would be an entirely different sort of news post.
	Massively in Metropolis: Making friends with Superman If you blow off Superman by ignoring his pleas for help, he'll be cranky at you. Meanwhile, Batman will be spending his time just waiting for you to turn on him and his family ... poised to take you down. Some discussion of quests with personality, plus exploration of the DCUO faction system called 'causes' below the cut!
	State of the Game reveals Blazing Sun Knights, Black Guards coming to WAR It's been a full month since the launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and general manager for Mythic Entertainment Mark Jacobs has now offered up the 'first annual' State of the Game address to players.

	CCP Games announces Quantum Rise expansion for EVE Online The next major expansion to EVE Online, known internally at CCP Games as 'Midas', now has a name: Quantum Rise. The winter expansion will bring with it a number of new features and enhancements for the industrial and economic side of EVE, which we've just gotten word about from CCP, as well as confirmation of the rumored "Orca" capital industrial ship.
	Massively in Metropolis: Why DCUO is a game worth making There are so many MMOs out there right now ... why do we need yet another one? And why does the DC Universe need an MMO? What's the point of having a title where you can talk to Batman and Superman? You may have already gotten a taste of the team's rationale in our ongoing look at DC Universe Online, but the SOE Austin team is a passionate one. They've got a lot of strong ideas about why this game needs to get made, and how they're making it.
	Massively in Metropolis: How your superpowers are going to work The big question behind a game about superheroes is pretty blunt. How am I going to feel powerful? How are my powers going to work? If you don't feel superheroic there's been a failure right from the get-go. That's entirely the point behind the development process at SOE Austin, for the DC Universe Online project.
	Massively in Metropolis: Why your time online trumps game design We've been exploring the game mechanics and design philosophy of DC Universe Online for the last week. We've talked about superpowers, factions, and questing, among a host of other issues. Today we want to be sure to highlight a fascinating exchange we had with DCUO Creative Director Jens Andersen and SOE Austin Creative Director Chris Cao about the role of fun in DCUO.
	EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey now available for preorder After a long Beta process, lots of speculation, and plenty of opportunities for delicious previews, the time of Shadow is almost upon us. SOE dropped us a line to let us know that the fifth expansion to EverQuest II, The Shadow Odssey, is now available for preorder.
	Dungeons & Dragons Online Module 8: The new player experience With the upcoming Module 8 for Dungeons and Dragons Online, the folks at Turbine were kind enough to give us a hands-on sneak peek into this impressive patch. We saw so much of the shiny that you can certainly expect more feature articles here at Massively concerning Module 8 in the near future, but for now, we wanted to focus on the new player experience for anyone looking to get into the game for the first time.
	Massively's tour of Dungeons and Dragons Online Module 8 It's fantastically beautiful, innovate, and coming soon it'll have a whole new passle of content for players new and old. If you've been reading along with the site you've probably already seen Massively's guide to the new player experience coming in DDO Module 8. We also had the chance to go on an extensive walkthrough of the new high end content, and that's what we're bringing to you today!
	Massively's WAR Camp: Tier 3 Scenario Guides This week on the WAR Camp, we're hitting the scenarios again, and we're focusing on a couple of the offerings in Tier 3. In Tier 3, knockbacks really start to make a difference, with most classes by this point having received their knockback abilities.
	Anti-Aliased: Games you should have played, but probably didn't What other games on the market are pretty good, but overlooked due to a lack of popularity? What games would I recommend to my readers who just aren't happy with the current mainstream market? What games should you have played, but probably overlooked? I think I have a few.
	Massively in Moria: Exploring Book 1, Chapter by Chapter As part of Massively's ongoing coverage of Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, we're happy to bring to you this extensive look through the entire Book 1 of Volume 2. This entire article will be approached as a comprehensive venture through the Book, from Chapters 1 through 14.
	Massively in Moria: Hands on with the Warden The Warden is one of the two new classes releasing in Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria on November 18th. It is considered a tank of sorts, yet uses medium leather armor instead of plate, and wields both a spear for melee combat, and a javelin for ranged combat.
	One of Warhammer's cut classes won't be coming back Eurogamer notes, from an interview they did with Mythic's Mark Jacobs last week, a reality that may frustrate Orc and Dwarf fans: one of the two remaining 'cut' classes will not be returning to Warhammer Online. In the interview, Jacobs is up front about the reality that either the Dwarf Hammerer or Orc Chopper will not be returning to the game.
	EverQuest: Seeds of Destruction goes live! We were there for the announcement of the expansion, with our fantastic chat with the developers. We had the chance to walk through the all-new content with you, and we've waiting while the lore has trickled out over the last few months. Now today's the day! EverQuest: Seeds of Destruction launches to eager fans.
	Rumors of new Star Wars Galaxies expansion most likely false Despite the somewhat-convincing video, this rumor seems to be false. When contacted by Massively, an SOE representative stated flatly that the company had nothing to do with the film. He went on to note the enthusiasm of SWG fans, and that the video appears to be assets and video from a number of other Star Wars games edited together.
	World of Warcraft's Hallow's End event has begun! Massively's sister site WoW Insider is your number one resource for all things World of Warcraft. That's why it should be no surprise on this eve of Hallow's End, they have an extensive guide to the in-game event for all that want to participate.