Is Gatheryn in open beta or not? Massively says not yet, but following Merry and Pippin’s example, I showed up where I wasn’t invited because they couldn’t keep me away. Picture above is from the docks, where it’s clear they haven’t invented automated rust scrapers and hull painters in Elymia as of yet.

In news of the OTHER upcoming superhero game, Massively also has screens of SOE’s DC Universe Online. This fast-paced, arcade-ish actioner looks to be the evil twin to Champions Online’s more traditional quest-based offering.

After a shaky launch for its open beta, Cryptic’s hero game has been slowly winning over the blogosphere. A Ding World’s Sente quite likes the game, now that he’s had some time with it. And quite a few bloggers agree. Do the folks from the City of Cats have another hit on their hands?

Melmoth of KiaSA couldn’t even barely see the game for the bloom. After hours of dedicated investigation, he has some tips to making your Champions Online hero a little less glowy.

Naamah of Aionic Thoughts takes a look at Aion’s first action figure — and doesn’t like what he sees. Zombie Bo Derrik? With wings?

The big news yesterday was all about Guild Wars 2. This sequel to the incredibly popular F2P fantasy RPG picks up years after the original game ends, and opens up the world in incredible ways. Syp of Bio Break has a rundown of the new features.

GW2 won’t have traditional quests — it will have Events. See something happening? Head on over and have a look — the world is alive and things are happening all around you.

Given a couple of days to digest CCP’s revelation of a planetside-based ground game to complement EVE Online’s space game in Dust 514, the bloggers have weighed in, and CrazyKinux has gathered together their reactions.

In all the excitement about Champions, Dust 514, Guild Wars 2 and other high profile news, is there room for yet another beta? Post-apocalyptic MMO Fallen Earth hopes to entice Fallout fans into their world with their open beta. Darren of Common Sense Gamer thinks it plays quite a lot like EVE Online, especially with the lengthy crafting sessions. Syp goes so far as to say it might be this autumn’s surprise hit.

Slavering to get back to World of Warcraft’s older zones with a new revamp as part of the Cataclysm expansion? Not so fast — Gordon of We Fly Spitfires gives a list of reasons why it’s likely a huge hoax. But we’ll find out this weekend, as Blizzard will undoubtedly have something to say about it at this year’s Blizzcon.

And lastly, some of us play MMOs to get away, for awhile, from reality. But Julian of Kill Ten Rats argues that in a LOT of ways — the real world is better!

The Elymian Isles are a fabled land of peace and industry, where clockwork creations stamp noisily through the cobblestone streets while the populace engages in sundry pasttimes of strategy and skill to earn the silver coin of the realm.

It’s steampunk, it’s minigames, it’s Gatheryn, the casual MMO from newcomers Mindfuse. Gatheryn went open beta yesterday to very little fanfare, but I got the news through Twitter and they couldn’t keep me away. I’ve been looking forward to playing this game since I heard about it nearly a year ago. Steampunk and minigames? Yes!

Gatheryn is the first game I’ve played that is based on Simutronics’ HeroEngine, the same game engine that will be used by Bioware’s “Star Wars: The Old Republic”. So the sorts of performance and customizability we see here can perhaps give us a clue of what to expect when SWTOR comes out.

Gatheryn’s character creator gives you an almost Vanguard-like ability to change all the minutiae of your body’s measurements, from inter-eye width to average nosehair length, but comes up fairly short on clothing options, though the coloring palette will give you range to make your own, unique, look. The hairstyles were fairly extensive, and there’s no reason to stick with natural hair colors. Want to make your hair look as if it were on fire? You can do that.

Your first introduction to Elymia is a city similar to Victorian London, except with wider streets and less sewage, probably thanks to the aid of the clockwork helpers scattered about. The clockwork above welcomes me to a small park full of tables with Draughts (anachronistically referred to as Checkers) boards on them. Sitting down at a table sends the camera to a bird’s-eye position over the board as you wait for an opponent. I soon moved on — there were few other players available, and most were enjoying other minigames.

Elymia’s economy is built around Silver. You earn silver for winning games, or at least losing less quickly. You spend silver on fruit and drinks which you will need to survive and likely on clothing and pets. You have a health bar, and bubblers here and there that can heal you, so I think it’s safe to say it’s possible to come to some harm in some way, perhaps by not eating or drinking enough?

The city invites exploration, with mysterious doors, dark rooms and hidden plazas scattered about as well as tantalizing notations on the maps about docks and regions outside the city that, perhaps, are not as safe as those within.

Gatheryn’s core activities are minigames, mostly familiar, but with a steampunky twist. I really enjoyed the five minute hunt through a lady’s chambers for some hidden items to steal, and look forward to seeing more games along those lines, than the rather pedestrian implementations of such children’s games as Hangman and Fishing. Also, Sudoku? This games gives one of the highest silver rewards, but solving Sudoku is a first semester programming exercise — it’s one of the easiest games in which to cheat. I expect a nerf to Sudoku before long.

Gatheryn has a great look, but the minigames to date, with some exceptions, are not as compelling as those in Puzzle Pirates, Neopets or Wizard101. The in-world games like the item hunt and draughts/checkers show a potential for a great timewaster in the future, but hangman, Sudoku, word search, fishing and a Boggle-like word maker will have difficulty competing with the thousands of similar Flash games on the web.

Working on a first impressions piece about Mabinogi. Will keep the self-flagellation to a minimum but really, I only do it because it feels good when I stop.

On to the blogs!

Are persistent henchmen the new groups? Syp thinks they might be. Star Wars: The Old Republic will have them (echoing the party you gathered in Knights of the Old Republic). Guild Wars has their henchmen. EverQuest has their mecenaries. Star Trek Online has their bridge crew. Have MMOs truly come full circle back to their single player, you+your crew of helpers, roots? Is it truly not worth the trouble anymore to be part of a group that includes other living people?

Beau at Spouse Aggro takes a stand that we, as players, shouldn’t ever settle for the same-old, same-old. Because, American Idol is pablum and hip hop has stopped innovating in order to chase the bouncing ball of commercial success. Hey, I LIKE American Idol, and you know why? Because it’s not ABOUT the music. It’s about the journey. Not about the horse, it’s about the horse race, right? He has a point, though. If all people ever play are the popular games, all people will make is games just like them. You want something different? You have to play something different.

I would have HATED to have missed Wizard 101 just because it wasn’t like any other MMO.

Spinks has a few words of advice for raid leaders on how to keep people focused and moving. Though she’s speaking specifically of WoW, this is more or less how you had to run an EverQuest raid if you expected anything to happen (though EQ required appointing team leaders for healing, pulling, crowd control and so on that may not apply to WoW). REALLY good advice.

What if you played an MMO, not for loot and levels, but just for fun? It’s an idea that hasn’t been popular lately, with achiever-type games that urge you to progress at great speed to a legendary end game where everything you have worked for for so long is reduced to stats and parses and soul-crushing grinds. But there’s ways to put some of the fun back in achiever type games, if you work at it.

Green Armadillo is working through EverQuest II a section at a time, not letting explorations of dusty tombs or fiery lands go by just because they no longer give the best experience. And Hudson has gone all the way back to the original achiever MMO, EverQuest, to see what mysteries still lurk in the places nobody goes.

Drew Shial of The Wizard of Duke Street is loving EQII as well, especially the Timorous Deep quest lines added with the Rise of Kunark expansion. Reasons why he’s having fun? The relative LACK of explicit guidance as compared to WoW’s reliance on guides and in-game help, and the plot (and plot twists) of the Sarnak’s quest to both find themselves and preserve their way of life. I love reading these kinds of stories :)

Gordon of We Fly Spitfires is nostalgic about an old SOE game, but it’s not EQ or EQII — he’s missing the good old days of Star Wars: Galaxies. Surprised? I hear a LOT of people wax nostalgic about that game, though I could never get into it (and plus, it ran poorly on my machine, always a downer).

No matter what the game, I always hear the same things about the games people really loved: they were an integral part of a story, even if it was only a story they made up, and they shared their time with friends. Doesn’t matter what the game is. Memories are made through stories and friendships.

Caliga takes a little look at two social MMOs, Gatheryn and Blue Mars. He doesn’t like how Gatheryn looks because, well, compared to Blue Mars, everything looks a little cheap. But how much of a computer will you need to run Gatheryn vs Blue Mars? And neither game is done, Gatheryn may add optional shaders for more graphical coolness. Both games, though, are different than most games of the genre.

Blue Mars, reports Caliga, is a planet full of self-contained regions, any of which could have different rules, payment plans — anything. Second Life meets Metaplace, right?

Ooops, guess we’ve hit the end of the text box, so it must be time to get going. See you tomorrow, and no matter where you are — have fun!

After the disappointment of finding out that Atlus’ NeoSteam wasn’t actually very (if at all) Steampunk, it was wonderful to come home today to find that somewhat more authentically Steampunk MMO Gatheryn has entered closed beta!

Full details below, but be warned: They are going to ask you about your favorite Steampunk books…!

Greetings!

Some time ago, you expressed your interest in Gatheryn, a new steampunk-themed casual MMO from Mindfuse Games. We appreciate your enthusiasm, and we would like to thank you for your patience as Gatheryn draws closer to release!

Your continued interest is about to be rewarded, in fact: We at Mindfuse are preparing to start the Beta Testing phase for Gatheryn! As of today, we are opening the registration process to become a beta tester, and as thanks for your early interest and support, we’d like to invite you to be among the very first to sign up. By completing the full registration form, available now, you’ll be signing up for an actual Gatheryn account, and you’ll get a chance for an early look at the steam-powered Elymian Islands!

You can sign up for your full account, including full access to our new website features, at http://www.mindfusegames.com/index.php?option=com_user&task=register

Please note that our Beta Tester selection process is going to occur in waves, with our first rounds of testers playing strictly by invitation. Completing this form will not guarantee you an immediate Beta account. We will, however, be giving consideration to our earliest supporters, so sign up now, and thanks once again for your interest in Gatheryn!

In addition, please have a look at our all-new website, online now at http://www.mindfusegames.com.

Cheers,
Silas Gray — Elymian Ambassador to OutWorld

See you in the Elymian Islands (I hope!)