According to a press release put out today, Star Trek Online will hold its open beta from January 12th through January 26th. There are some preorder deals that will give you an open beta key, and there are bound to be numerous opportunities to win one at various spots around the net.

Star Trek Online is currently in closed beta, which began last month. Champions Online six-month and lifetime subscribers have been told that they’ll be in the closed beta before the end of the year, so those folks should get at least a month of beta access before the game hits the retail shelves on February 2nd, 2010.

Once the open beta begins, you’ll likely see a flood of information and guides about STO since the NDA will have been lifted. This will provide everyone with key information as to the finer details of the gameplay mechanics.

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online open beta dates announced originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Funcom

Funcom remains optimistic, though, thanks to numerous upcoming projects. The Secret World is reported to be “progressing well”, Age of Conan is planning a launch in Korea, the “Rise of the Godslayer” expansion for AoC is on its way, and Funcom recently received a grant to create an extreme sports MMO.

The full report can be viewed here.

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items

Funcom publishes sharp revenue drop for Q3 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It appears Cryptic has decided to add the infamous setting to STO for players to enjoy as a social destination — a hang out for bridge officers and visiting captains from other vessels. The Associated Press has reported that the game will feature 20 bridges at launch, giving even the most discerning captains their own pick on bridge design.

Regarding the addition of bridges, Craig Zinkievich, the executive producer of Star Trek Online, told the AP, “We didn’t want to have interiors at launch. We thought it was just a little bit too much. We really wanted to make sure we delivered a really deep experience, but your bridge not being in the game, it really felt like a hole in the game, and it was just something that we had to put in.“

We’ll try to get you a more high resolution screenshot later, but for now, enjoy this brief glimpse at your future command chair.

[Thanks, Chris!]

Filed under: Sci-fi, News items, Star Trek Online

Make it so: Star Trek Online to feature ship bridges originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Many congratulations go out today to both Wizard 101 and Ether Saga Online, as the two online games have both claimed themselves a National Parenting Publication Award (NAPPA) from Parenthood.com.

What does this mean exactly? Well it means that parents can rest easy knowing that these two games are fun, informative, and free of questionable content. If your kid plays either of these two games, you don’t have to look over their shoulder to police what they’re doing. The game takes steps to keep your kids safe and to make sure they’ll have a good time too!

Other recipients that weren’t from the online MMO category included EA’s Spore, and Guitar Hero On Tour, so it certainly speaks to the quality of these two titles for kids when they’re put in that sort of company.

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, Wizard101, Ether Saga Online

Ether Saga Online and Wizard 101 take home parenting awards originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A number of EVE Online fans who’ve needed their podcast fix have been tuning in to Planet Risk in recent months, a great mix of music and commentary from players who spend most of their EVE time exploring the uncharted expanses of wormhole space. Planet Risk is a live show that airs on Split Infinity Radio on Wednesdays; hosts Luminus Aardokay and Quivering Palm make Planet Risk available as a podcast afterwards and we recommend you check it out if you haven’t already. Today’s show should be interesting as they will host a debate between four candidates for EVE’s next Council of Stellar Management, the player-elected body that represents the wishes of the subscribers when dealing with CCP and how EVE Online is evolving.

We mentioned last week that the 4th CSM candidates have been announced but not everyone in the running had their positions on issues fleshed out in time for the CCP announcement. Since that day, more info about the 49 candidates is becoming available (thanks for pointing this out Darth Sith). Today’s debate on Planet Risk will have CSM candidates TeaDaze (known to many for his commentary during the Alliance Tournament), Song Li (from the Missions Collide podcast), Helen Highwater and Mike Azariah.

Continue reading EVE Online’s CSM candidates debate live on today’s Planet Risk radio show

EVE Online’s CSM candidates debate live on today’s Planet Risk radio show originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember how we always tell you to remain vigilant against malicious programs that can compromise your MMO account’s security? Well, it seems we now have more reason to remain vigilant.

Microsoft’s latest security intelligence report covers the resurgence of worm type viruses and specifically mentions one that targets MMO players — Taterf. As a worm, Taterf attempts to divine the user’s account name and password through keystroke logging, reading the active memory, and even injecting itself into the game client. Either way, by the end of it, you end up naked and goldless. Hrm, we wonder if Taterf has been masquerading itself as our last girlfriend.

Continue reading Microsoft warns users of worm that targets MMO players

Microsoft warns users of worm that targets MMO players originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s both ground combat and space combat featured, with Klingon, Federation, and Borg ships taking part in the overall action. In one scene we see a fleet of ships attacking a single Borg cube in quite a nice display of firepower, including several (of what appear to be) quantum torpedoes.

One of the more impressive aspects of this gameplay footage that we picked up on right way was the tactical maneuvering of what appears to be a mid-range ship of Romulan design. A captured still of the scene is pictured above, and you can clearly see in the video that the ship is moving to direct hits against its “bottom side” after the port shields were taking a significant beating. Note that the two ships attacking the main ship with green phasers are Klingon Vor’Cha class, so we’re assuming the ship demonstrating the tactical moves is of Romulan origin.

We also noticed that the ship pictured above bares some resemblance to the unidentified “classified” ship listed in the Ships of the Line articles at the official STO website. The above ship can be viewed more clearly in the HD trailer, however the unidentified ship on the STO website doesn’t have a clear image — only a blurry reconnaissance image. The warp nacelles both look similar (espeically if you take the image angles into consideration), both have the same general outline, and both have guns protruding from each wing. An interesting coincidence we wanted to point out.

The video after the break.

Continue reading New Star Trek Online gameplay trailer

New Star Trek Online gameplay trailer originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Linden Lab, the company behind the Second Life platform is launching the open beta of Project Nebraska today. Project Nebraska was the working title for what is now called Second Life Enterprise, a standalone Second Life solution for enterprise use.

This “Second Life in a box” solution, is actually in two boxes. It consists of a combined software and hardware bundle, including two 1RU rack-mount servers, prepackaged as an appliance and configured to provide virtual environment and voice services, ready to use with standard Second Life viewer software.

But that’s not all.

Continue reading Linden Lab launches Second Life Enterprise beta, Second Life Work Marketplace to come

Linden Lab launches Second Life Enterprise beta, Second Life Work Marketplace to come originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It would seem that spandex hasn’t gone out of style in the MMO world. Kotaku is reporting that Cryptic Studios told them that one million superheroes have been created in Champions Online to date. That’s a lot of different heroic concepts, costumes, and back-stories! What’s even more fun when you think about it? That means there are a million nemeses running around in there too. Cryptic has created a veritable cornucopia of comic-book evil.

In a quick survey of the team here at Massively, the average seems to be hovering at 4 characters per Champions Online account. If our completely unscientific average is anywhere near accurate, that would put Champions Online in the neighborhood of approximately 250,000 accounts, which certainly isn’t bad for having launched recently. With all the crime still out there on Millennium City streets, though, we hope those heroes will get to work — there are still a lot more bad guys to beat down!

Filed under: Super-hero, New titles, News items, Champions Online

A heroic million inhabit Champions Online originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard has indeed confirmed the cancellation of MechScape, although you wouldn’t quite know it from his comments, which seem excited to be working on a different title with a new direction. This isn’t the first time an in-development MMO has been rebooted in favor of a completely new direction, although Tabula Rasa at least kept its original name.

Why the sudden decision? According to Gerhard, MechScape wasn’t able to avoid the same pitfalls of RuneScape. Of course, making such a move is going to cost Jagex millions, but their current financial success will be shouldering the weight. The new game — known as Stellar Dawn — should be coming in 2010 and will be based on the MechScape graphics engine.

The big changes planned for Stellar Dawn are content and combat focused, although no specifics were given by Gerhard. It’s a bold move, no doubt, and sometimes this industry favors such decisions — other times it punishes them significantly. Whether you look at this as stalled (Tabula Rasa) or prolonged (everything Blizzard) development, you have to admit it creates a notable amount of interest in Jagex’s 2010 game.

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Mechscape

Jagex cancels MechScape at significant cost, restarts anew originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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