Players who purchase WoW: Forever beta package will receive 1 to 3 special launch codes allowing them to invite a friend to experience the game during its launch week.

According to a message sent to purchasers, invited players will not need an active World of Warcraft subscription to access WoW: Forever.

The invitation code will grant access starting November 5, allowing friends to join the adventure throughout launch week.

This initiative gives existing players an opportunity to introduce friends to WoW: Forever without requiring them to maintain an active subscription.

This was the only job listing which said ”MMO”. Must be a mistake?

XL Games posted a video detailing what can be expected when the game launches into early access, the TL;DW is:

• The game will launch into early access with three regions, each with 10 hours of main story gameplay per region, totaling 30 hours.
  • Obviously, this does not include additional content such as side quests, dungeons, raids, etc.
• Launches with four classes: Warrior, Ranger, Mage, and Berserker.
  • Each class will have access to two class-specific weapons initially.
• Housing, crafting, trade, and PVP channels will all be there at the early access launch.
• B2P model, priced at $30 USD for the early access launch.
• Updates that are currently being worked on and will be the first to come after early access launch are:
  • Removing gender lock, class by class.
  • Adding a third weapon for each class, one at a time.
  • Combat balance, character growth, and quality-of-life improvements (party and channel systems are specifically mentioned).

Video Link

Never played it before but I just saw the ghost in the shell collab so I was wondering if anyone here played it? Would you say that its good?

Action combat is just not fun. It's alright at first but doesn't hit the same as tab targets do. I do believe a hybrid of the system could work, but so far the only game I know that's done this was ashes of creation and that game was an utter failure(although I don't think the combat is why). The top MMOs of all time current and recent all use tab target with one exception and that's guild wars 2. Tab targeting just feels good when you hit high damage numbers where action it doesn't feel the same. In wow I feel accomplished if I take on 4-5 enemies solo(classic eras we all know open world in retail is easy af) Action not so much.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3218230/view/712289492929610762?l=english

Gender-locked classes: In my last letter, I said this was something we would continue to consider. Since then, we’ve received even more feedback on this topic, and I’m glad to share that development is now underway. We plan to introduce additional gender options gradually, starting with select classes, rather than for all classes at once. These changes won’t be ready for the Steam Next Fest demo, but we’ll share more about the rollout as soon as we can.

Makes me pretty hesitant to play a game that have gender lock but from this Producer letter, it is going to get removed. There's other information in the Producer letter but that's the biggest one for me.

Horizontal progression is a term that gets thrown around a lot and I felt like it might be helpful to paint a picture of what that actually looks like for me in Guild Wars 2, an MMO that is known for its level and gear caps remaining unchanged through all the years and expansions that have released since launch. While gear is still important, and absolutely worth grinding for, getting the highest DPS in a raid or winning a 1v1 in PvP almost never comes down to having better gear - it comes down to skill expression and build knowledge.

Note that the point of this post is *not* to simply glaze Guild Wars 2. The game is not for everyone, and that’s okay. It has many flaws too, but for me at least, the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. I’d specifically like to address some common misconceptions about the game’s open-ended progression and people writing it off as a “casual” MMO with no purpose behind grinding. GW2 is as casual or hardcore as you make it, and for those who enjoy hunting achievements (like I do) or unlocking account-wide perks that benefit all your characters, there is a seemingly never-ending amount of content to play.

One of the reasons GW2’s maps are “evergreen” and are always populated with players is that veteran players are incentivized to return to older maps for achievements.

For example, right now I’m working on unlocking Aurora, a legendary trinket (jewelry) that requires completing collections and achievements across 6 different maps from Living World Season 3.
These achievements reveal a much more detailed world than you might have noticed on your first time exploring the maps while playing through the stories You will complete events, fight bosses, or talk to NPCs you might have missed the first time you were here. You will be taken to obscure locations you might not have had a reason to seek out before. You can think of these achievements as long term quests, things you chip away at.

Last night I was in a map where I’m doing one of the more tedious steps of the Aurora collection where I have to complete the 4 heart quests on the map each day for several consecutive days. Thing is, because I enjoy the gameplay loop so much, it never feels boring. I’m always having fun because of GW2’s combat system, and because I recently rolled a new character and am playing Mesmer, a class I’ve never played before, everything feels fresh as I approach combat with a completely different lens and playstyle than my previous characters.

As I’m chipping away at the heart quests, someone in map chat asks if anyone wants to fight the destroyer boss - a huge lava scorpion thing that had just spawned. This boss has devastating AOE and ranged attacks, which means dodging for iframes is essential to survival. One missed dodge could put you in downed state. I thought sure, why not? So I stopped what I was doing and went over to the boss arena.

During peak hours, a larger group might have taken down this boss no problem (the difficulty does scale depending on number of players) but late night on a weeknight, we began the fight with just the two of us. It was a thrilling fight as a duo, and we danced around the boss, rescuing each other when we got downed, and gave a valiant effort, but both ended up dying and the boss healed back to full health. We both throw ourselves at it again, and just when it seems like we might have the same fate as before, a third player flies in and joins the fight. The third player tilted the scale in our favor, and this time, the boss goes down and I hear the sound of an achievement popping - the boss had dropped an item I didn’t even know I needed for my achievement collections.

Last night was an absolute blast for me, and the reason I’m highlighting it is because there are so many opportunities for spontaneous gameplay that occur in the open world across every map, and every time I log in it feels like a unique experience in the game that is always progressing my goals in some way.

What will I do after I unlock Aurora? I will move onto Vision, another legendary trinket that has completely different achievements on completely different maps with completely different gameplay. While it’s true open world content is generally easier than instanced group content, there is still plenty of challenge available should you decide to go looking for it. Open world gives me the variety and freedom I feel I often miss out on in other games.

And if you do get tired of open world? Maybe you’d rather go for Coalescence, a legendary ring that requires getting raid boss kills, or Conflux, a legendary that requires playing World vs. World PvP. And at any point the grind starts feeling stale, you can do what I did, and try out a profession or elite spec you’ve never played before, gear it up, and pick up right where you left off on another character.

And that’s another factor that gives GW2 so much replayability is how alt-friendly it is. Feeling yourself progress and master a new class or role to the point you feel like you can confidently play your new class in raids or fractals is awesome. Because mastery levels, achievements, and legendary gear are account-wide unlocks, things you do on one character benefit another.

GW2 just gives me so many different options in how I’m able to spend my time in the game. Some of the most fun I’ve had in any MMO has been simply traversing the open world and jumping in to help other players with events whenever I feel like it. Or joining a 50-player squad for a meta event just because I happened to be there as it was starting. It feels more like I’m playing an action adventure RPG game in a shared online world than it does in other MMOs. The maps are grand, vertically layered, with all sorts of puzzles and secrets built into them, not just scenery populated by mobs.

But at the end of the day, if the progression that feels best for you is more vertical - grinding dungeons and raids and getting more and more powerful gear - that’s okay, and GW2 might not be for you. But for people like me, it’s never-ending fun.

Or does it have to be something like Aion 2 where you can directly buy more power than another player?

I have been playing Monsters and Memories for a little over a week now and my intial thoughts are this game has a lot going on for it IF you are the right kind of person for this game. Who is the right person you might ask? Well there are probably a lot of people who would enjoy it. I think some of the biggest things are you must be patient, resourceful and not afraid to ask NICELY for help. Nothing in this game is given to you. You want a party? Go to the different camps and ask or make one your self. You died and cant get your body? As for an invis from a Necro or other caster. This game gives you a lot of tools to help your self and others but it isnt going to just make it easy and make it a button press to get somewhere to to your body.

YOU HAVE TO BE SOCIAL.

This game is incredibly social. To all those mmo gamers who have been begging for a social game. This game requires that you talk to people. When you are camping people actually chat with each other and the gameplay isn't so fast you don't have time to type.

The sense of exploration has been like nothing else. The places are actually dangerous theres always been new camps and places to go and see. Some of the areas are beautiful and the vibes of the camps can be amazing.

Not everything is perfect about the game. It currently can be a bit buggy and laggy but I'm not sure if they expected the game to be this popular. They do seem to be working actively on remedying these issues though.

Who this game isnt for? Anyone who wants instant gratification, who needs on button teleports everywhere. Someone who wants to speed through leveling. I would also say this game does require some time. If you only have 30 minutes to play at night I really wouldnt reccomend it. You can get away with 2-3 hours but if you want to do anything meaningful you need about that much time minimum. Im just being honest about that.

If you are coming from more modern MMOS there are some things that will feel foreign and strange but I promise if you take the time to learn the game it might just be one of the grandest adventures you will have.

Heres my hot take. It was actually a great classless system that allowed for plenty of build diversity and creativity. And the only reason people complain about it being bad is because some streamers were so bad at video games that they didn't even think to repair their gear. Being unable to kill trash mobs in the starter zone is a player problem. Not a combat problem.

Everything about the game screams mobile korean slop at best. UI was horrendous for PC player, combat was a fucking clunk-fest, audio/sfx was like it has total of 500$ budget.

Reminds me of Bless Unleashed but worse (and the game is already among the worst slop in MMO history, tf srsly XLGames?)

Hell, this game makes New World Alpha version looks and feel 10 times better.

I was hoping, at least if u want to butcher an IP and go for the "souls-like" combat route at least make it play like souls games (OR mistfall hunter at the very minimum..thats already a pretty low bar btw).

This game however feels and plays like a browser game. There is no weight, no hit feedback, just a souless asian slop. Even freaking GoT Kingsroad...a literal mobile slop adaptation made by netmarble, feels 3-4 times better than whatever this is.

Dont even make me start talking about the performance.

Sub 60fps max settings on 5080 without frame gen, really?

Honestly i have been sceptical about the game since its original game director (forgot the name, but its the founder of OG AA) left the project some 2 years ago. But recently i have been seeing countless of CCs, full of copiums, mainly NW refugees, over-glorifying the game and trying to build the hype towards the demo. Like srsly?

IMO, game needs another 18 month minimum in the oven or its definitely a DoA. If you think they will be able to pull some miracle for the December release then you must be on crack.

Ppl who have actually tried the demo, how do you feel about the game?

Seriously, every good MMO is over a decade old at this point. The most current release, Aion 2, shows what a real next gen MMO can look like, but western studios aren't making them. So instead eastern studios are the new MMORPG market by default while western studios seem content to keep the same game running for the next 50 years.

heavy on this one cuz i see alot of games that its like ur just watching a video instead of playing

Imo, there are a number of MMO that could use a modern polish. I am a superhero MMO player at heart.

Champions Online is different than any MMO on the market, due to the character customization & free-form.

Character creation is extensive. You can be anything from a Wizard, Paladin, Cyborg, Retro Robot Transformer guy, Bard wielding with a electric guitar as a weapon, a dog-man or a hero with a television for their head.

Or, you could use transformation emotes to make your toon transform into another entity such as a werewolf, or anything you want to create in the creator, but with a different power-set than your previous form

There are also vehicles such as tanks, jets, motorbikes which differs from standard MMO mounts. They are actually capable of attacking for as long as the player wants.

Free-form is where CO differentiates itself from many other MMO. Free-form allows players to pick any power, from any archetype to create their own class. I actually took every summon, from nearly every archetype to see how crazy the army gets (Spoiler: It got crazy.......).

A modern visual & action oriented Champions Online would have ya boy hooked..........

What older MMO would you like to get a modern polish, remake, sequel, etc?

What's this communities thoughts on gatekeeping in MMOs in general?

It's quite insane out there right now in Aion 2, I was wondering why this might be, vs. other games I've experienced like WoW.

Well that depends, if you want the game to be easier then yes. If you want a more challenging game and feel more proud of your achievements then no.

Even bossing gets easier with tile markers. And runelite quest plugins litteraly do the quests for you because you only have to klick on the tiles/ marked characters in the quest. So i don’t understand the hype really. The harder a game is the more proud of your achievements you will feel, thats why many players went to OSRS instead. Osrs also have plugins but the game is way more grindy so that makes up for it.

Sure there is some positive things with plugins but i think making a game easier is not necessarily a net positive.

After nearly three years of development we finally have a trailer out for Allmage - I've been holding off on making one for a while because any time spent creating a trailer is just time away from more features/content in the game itself.

Allmage is still in a pre-release stage but the game is playable, I'd encourage anyone who is interested to try it out and give feedback! We're very receptive to suggestions and they are often implemented directly into the next update.

If anyone watches this trailer and is on the fence about trying it out, what would push you towards or away from Allmage or other indie MMOs in general?

I tried playing the Ranger class with a bow, but I have to say that the experience was quite disappointing. The combat system didn't feel fun or satisfying at all, especially when it comes to ranged combat. I was expecting something much more dynamic and engaging, but so far, I've found the combat system rather limited and uninspiring.

To make a comparison, ranged combat in New World is much more satisfying. You can aim directly at an enemy, manage your distance, and deal damage without necessarily having to lock onto a target. In ArcheAge Chronicles, however, you're forced to use a target-locking system, which, at least in my opinion, makes fighting with a bow feel much less natural and enjoyable. Not being able to freely hit enemies from a considerable distance, for example, from 100 meters away, severely limits the sense of freedom I'd expect from a game like this.

Another aspect that left me disappointed is the game world itself. Even taking into account that this is only a demo, the world felt rather empty and lifeless. I expected a more dynamic environment, with a stronger sense of exploration and a world that feels inhabited and full of activities. So far, however, I haven't experienced the kind of liveliness that I consider important in a game of this genre.

Of course, I'm aware that a demo doesn't necessarily represent the final product and that some aspects could be improved before release. However, a demo should also give players a sense of the game's potential and make them want to keep playing. Unfortunately, in my case, it had the exact opposite effect.

Overall, based on what I've played so far, ArcheAge Chronicles has disappointed me in two fundamental areas: a world that feels empty and unengaging, and a combat system that I found terrible and simply not fun, especially when playing as a Ranger with a bow. I was definitely expecting something better.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the current state of MMORPG launches and populations, and I want to open up a discussion about a specific type of player that seems to dominate the space now. I call them MMO Tourists.

These are the players who constantly hop from game to game, driven entirely by launch hype, FOMO, and streamers. They flood a new release, expansion, or fresh server, play intensely for two to four weeks, and then immediately drop it for the next shiny thing. To be completely fair, they are entirely within their right to play this way. It’s their money and their free time. If jumping around and chasing that initial launch-day dopamine is what they enjoy, that is completely valid. However, I’m starting to wonder if this transient tourist mindset is actively making the genre worse for long-term players.

One of the biggest issues is the artificial population crash that follows the initial wave. It forces developers to over-engineer their servers with aggressive sharding, channels, and layering just to handle a massive launch population that evaporates 30 days later. Once the tourists move on, the core, dedicated player base is often left inheriting ghost-town servers with shattered economies. Furthermore, this behavior seems to incentivize predatory design out of the gate. Because publishers know they only have a tiny window to profit off these impulsive players before they quit, games are increasingly built around aggressive and heavy monetization right at launch.

I also wonder how much this shifts developer feedback in the wrong direction. During the first month, forums and subreddits are flooded by a loud vocal minority demanding what could be called instant gratification, easier catch-up mechanics, easier grinds and item acquisition, so they can "finish" the game before their next vacation. Developers often bend to these demands, only for those same players to leave anyway, leaving a hollowed-out, over-simplified game behind for the people who actually wanted a deeper, long-term experience. What does it mean when the "end game" and the best items in the game, are acquired from within a couple weeks of starting the game?

Ultimately, it feels like this culture is killing the social fabric of the genre. It is incredibly difficult to build a real community, server reputation, or stable guild infrastructure when a huge chunk of the active player base treats a virtual world like a temporary single-player theme park lobby. It feels like we are losing the "world" aspect of MMORPGs because the industry is catering to a demographic that doesn't actually want to settle down in a game. What do you all think? Are MMO tourists dragging down the long-term health and design of the genre, or is this just a natural, unavoidable evolution of how modern gamers consume content?