Massive Multiplayer Online Games - MassMOG.com -- MMORPG Stuff: News, previews, screenshots & other info

Theme Re-re-re-do

Hoza — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:15:22 +0000

Again, the theme is changed. I know it's annoying at times... to me too, trust me. I'm just not able to spend a lot of time on the theme with all the other stuff going on with the site's rapidly-expanding back end system.

For now, you'll be seeing (as of this writing), a pretty happy, bright theme that is a stark contrast to the previously-stark, bleak theme. However, I'm really not as happy with such brightness in the long run. However, this theme's structure just provides too much great functionality to avoid. I'll use it to get the hang of this theming system (yeah, I know, "blah, blah, blah, techie crap, blah") and then spiff up the colors and such to something I like more.

Thanks for visiting and I apologize for any visual pain I'm causing you while things are in flux. (Overall, this current theme is pretty, IMO, so I'm sure it's not too bad for you.)

Bring more friends! More content coming soon. Promise.

More Site Updating -- Yay.

Hoza — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:12:07 +0000

I've been slow on updates again lately. I'm doing another round of big back-end updates to make it easier for me to post stuff. Hopefully I'm nearing the end of this work so I can get back to posting content instead of fumbling through PHP & CSS code!

Thanks for dropping by -- please do so again soon. I'll get the content flowing again soon, I promise!

Dungeons & Dragons Online "Black Friday" Specials

Hoza — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:35:22 +0000

Turbine Games is running a special for paid portions of their now-free-access game Dungeons & Dragons Online during Thanksgiving weekend until Nov. 30th (Monday). Go check out the goodies you can get if you choose to buy bits of the game. I'm sorry about the delayed delivery of this info. I was out of town.

Champions Online Free Thanksgiving Weekend

Hoza — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:02:00 +0000

I was away for the first part of "Thanksgiving weekend", so I missed this notice. However, if you've got some time this weekend, there's still a chance to play Champions Online for free during this weekend's free trial event. The free time period will end on Nov. 30th at 10am Pacific time. This is part of a big push for the new Nemesis Confrontation content. Have fun (sorry I didn't alert you sooner, but hey, I was eating a wonderful meal and spending great time with my family! :)

Support Child's Play in Denver this Thursday (Nov. 19)

Hoza — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:16:03 +0000

Any gamers (or wannabe rock stars) near Denver might consider attending this year's Kotaku Child's Play Fundraiser -- formerly part of the national FundeRazer effort. The Child's Play Charity is amazing and well worth your investment. The event is on November 19th (ack, tomorrow??!?) at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom starting about 8pm. $10 is the "suggested donation" minimum at the door, but more will be welcomed, so don't be stingy!

This year, Child's Play was only one week in and had already raised $500k in money and gifts for children's hospitals all over the world. Awesome. Hospitals on the donation list include locations in Denver and Colorado Springs, which are the ones getting proceeds from this event. Check the map at Child's Play to select a hospital you want to give to.

Drop by the Kotaku event to party with a great group of folks supporting a great cause and play Rock Band or DJ Hero on a big stage! For many of you, it might be the closest you get to performing in a band! It's pretty fun and the crowd has made it a blast for each of the past two years.

Anyway, it's a fantastic fund raiser and should be a lot of fun, as usual. Please help spread the word, as we'd love to fill the house and raise some cash... oh yeah, and there are a bunch of prizes you might win. Bonus!

Thanks for considering it and please spread the word.

Free Champions Online Trial This Weekend

Hoza — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:22:50 +0000

A quick bit of news about the free-play trial weekend happening roughly now in Champions Online. The "Blood Moon Weekend" will allow you to play the MMO Champions Online for free from 10:00 a.m. October 30th (today) until 10:00 a.m. November 2nd. (Pacific time zone, U.S.)

There are some funky-looking things going on revolving loosely around a Halloween theme, including the obligatory "zombie apocalypse" that is all the rage in gaming these days. (Yeah, I'm hooked on Left 4 Dead too, so I'm always up for training for when the real zombie apocalypse is upon us!) For the full info on the Blood Moon events and to see a video showing some of what's coming up, see the official Blood Moon page. (There, I've said "blood moon" just about more than I care to.)

Get over there and download the client to get underway.

Limited Champions Online Subscription Deals announced

Hoza — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:38:35 +0000

Press Release Summary:

Oh... crud. Again I'm faced with the temptation to pony up the dough for a "lifetime subscription" for a game that I haven't yet played. How the heck am I supposed to know if I want to play it for the rest of my life? Oh, and of course, you had better damn well keep the game going until at least one day after my last heartbeat or I'm going to be complaining to someone... someone important, I tell you!

*ahem*.. Anyway, the point of this is to say that Cryptic has unveiled the special "Limited Champions Online Subscription Deals" that include both discounted 6-month 'scrips as well as the ever-tempting "lifetime" subscription. Details after the break...

Final Fantasy XIV Online Goodies

Hoza — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:07:44 +0000

An article over at SCRAWL extracts mass quantities of information about Final Fantasy XIV Online from a video interview on the DVD of a Japanese magazine, Famitsu Wave. I clearly need to read up on this game more, as I've (embarrassingly) been completely clueless about it. I'm not very well versed in the worlds of FF, much less Final Fantaxy XI, which I absolutely should have played more -- maybe I need to fire that sucker up and give it a whirl again?

At any rate, if you want some spiffy info on FFXIV Online, straight from the developers, you can get a synopsis, along with the video itself at SCRAWL: Final Fantasy XIV 'Famitsu Wave' Interview Pours Information.

...BTW, I'm not sure how excited I should get about this game, but watching their teaser and checking out some screenshots, I'm thinking "gorgeous" would be a word that works. As usual, it's unclear how much of the visuals in their marketing gobbledy-gook is pre-rendered nonsense, but looking through the screenshots on the official Final Fantasy XIV Online site, they've got a stunner brewing at Square Enix. Zowie!

We'll see what claims of "You can trust that we plan to create a world of new possibilities that redefine the MMO" end up producing. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it sounds good to me!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland MMO announced

Hoza — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:14:22 +0000

Press Release Summary:

Virtual Fairground has announced it's upcoming MMOG title coming to a browser near you: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland MMO . V.F. has built and launched another Flash-based MMO, Club Galactic recently and is drawing on that project to build out the Alice game. AAiW (yeah, I just needed to abbreviate that -- it's not official.. I'm just lazy) is being targeted at girls as "an online hang-out with a darkly romantic and mysterious style." Uh... what?

So, I suppose if you're a girl and you like your romantic games to be dark & mysterious... well, I suppose you have your target. Look for this one sometime in mid-2010. Read more of the press release after the break...

WoWathon - To Level 80 For Child's Play!

Hoza — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:14:24 +0000

I love this idea: gaming marathons for charity. I've seen a couple similar projects roll by recently, but I missed one that you guys/gals will maybe want to contribute to: WoWathon. "Three Players; Two Characters; 80 Levels; Benefiting Child's Play" I love it!

The concept for this "WoWathon" was spawned when the participants came across the Mario Marathon that recently raised about $30,000(!!) for the Child's Play Charity when they crushed through all seven Super Mario games in sequence. Amazing.

This event looks something like this:

"We're going to be gaming around the clock (rotating 8 hour sleeping shifts) until we hit level 60. We're going to be broadcasting live from our dining room in the hopes of inspiring you to donate as well. If we reach our quota, we'll raise our targeted donation cap and game until we hit 70 (and so forth with level 80). We've started a small pot, but we're depending on you to help us reach our goal of $1000 (and beyond!)."

Currently, they've passed level 40 and are working their way to the $1,000 mark. Donations are handled through ChipIn, so don't worry about the money not getting to where it belongs. Child's Play is a fantastic charity, raising many hundred thousand dollars over the years -- well into the millions, actually -- in support of Children's Hospitals and other childrens' centers in hospitals all over the world. Spread the word on this WoWathon effort, as well as generally supporting Child's Play and consider yourself as having done a Very Good Thing.