Tera Online News

The Velika Guardian
Issue 3

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Hot off the virtual presses, the third issue of the Velika Guardian is here! Isn’t it nice to enjoy your weekly TERA community news magazine without pesky subscription inserts falling out onto the floor? As always, hit us up at community@enmasse.com with your news tips and clever suggestions for the Guardian!


Focus Group Test 2 Westernization Postmortem Published

Learn what our Focus Group testers thought about our Westernization efforts for TERA in our second FGT2 postmortem article. The first article addressed the gameplay experience while this one covers the game's comprehensive localization efforts as described in the article's opening passage:


Read the entire FGT2 Westernization postmortem article. Or if you missed it, check out the first postmortem article on gameplay.


Producer Sam Kim on Ten Ton Hammer Live on May 29th

Tune in to TERA! This Saturday, En Masse Producer Sam Kim speak with Ten Ton Hammer Live, the MMO news website’s live streaming podcast. Sam will answer TERA questions from Ten Ton Hammer and its community. The podcast begins at 7:00 PM Eastern (12:00 AM GMT).

Visit TenTonHammer.com for more information.


Vote in ZAM.com’s Poll on MMOs at E3 2010!

ZAM.com has published a new poll asking which MMO title you most want to learn more about at this year’s E3. Guess what? TERA is in the running! Cast your vote on the ZAM.com website.


En Masse Staff Interview Round-Up

If you’ll forgive the pun, we’ve been participating in interviews en masse this month! We know it's not easy to keep track of them all so we've compiled links to all of this week's interviews: TenTonHammer.com chatted up VP of Publishing Chris Lee on user-created content in MMOs, Producer Sam Kim discussed core game elements in an interview on Stratics.com, and Lead Writer David Noonan answered Examiner.com’s TERA lore questions and provided six new screenshots. In the realm of TERA fansites, Senior Producer Brian Knox spoke with Italian fansite TERAOnline.it about PvP and German fansite TERA-Welten.de interviewed Community Director Jason “BrotherMagneto” Mical.

With all this interviewing, you may think we’ve lost our virtual voices. Think again: more interviews are coming your way next week!


Screenshots of the Week: Set 3

Feast your eyes on three of the cities and towns you’ll visit in TERA in the third installment of our weekly screenshot feature. Beyond the majesty of Velika lie Lumbertown and Crecentia, two villages that each border two different forests filled with unique creatures. Head over to the official TERA forums and vote for which woodland Screenshots of the Week should feature next!



Scope out Screenshots of the Week: Set 3.


TERAHispano.com Publishes "Road to Velika" Walkthrough

Spanish TERA fansite TERAHispano.com has produced a new article based on players' experiences during our second Focus Group Test: a walkthrough of TERA’s first few levels leading up to the city of Velika. Read about the new character experience from creation to level 11 on TERAHispano.com!


TERA’s First Fan Art Contest Ends Soon!

Have you entered the first TERA Fan Art Contest yet? Time is running out!

Post your original masterpiece on the official TERA forums for a chance to have it featured in our June newsletter along with a short blurb about your artistry. But hurry up: the deadline for contest submissions is next Friday, June 4th! Check out the excellent entries made so far and submit your own in the Fan Art Contest thread!

One more word on digital newspaper versus dead tree newspaper: your risk of papercut while reading the Velika Guardian averages around zero.
-- Scapes

The Velika Guardian
Issue 3

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Hot off the virtual presses, the third issue of the Velika Guardian is here! Isn’t it nice to enjoy your weekly TERA community news magazine without pesky subscription inserts falling out onto the floor? As always, hit us up at community@enmasse.com with your news tips and clever suggestions for the Guardian!


Focus Group Test 2 Westernization Postmortem Published

Learn what our Focus Group testers thought about our Westernization efforts for TERA in our second FGT2 postmortem article. The first article addressed the gameplay experience while this one covers the game's comprehensive localization efforts as described in the article's opening passage:


Read the entire FGT2 Westernization postmortem article. Or if you missed it, check out the first postmortem article on gameplay.


Producer Sam Kim on Ten Ton Hammer Live on May 29th

Tune in to TERA! This Saturday, En Masse Producer Sam Kim speak with Ten Ton Hammer Live, the MMO news website’s live streaming podcast. Sam will answer TERA questions from Ten Ton Hammer and its community. The podcast begins at 7:00 PM Eastern (12:00 AM GMT).

Visit TenTonHammer.com for more information.


Vote in ZAM.com’s Poll on MMOs at E3 2010!

ZAM.com has published a new poll asking which MMO title you most want to learn more about at this year’s E3. Guess what? TERA is in the running! Cast your vote on the ZAM.com website.


En Masse Staff Interview Round-Up

If you’ll forgive the pun, we’ve been participating in interviews en masse this month! We know it's not easy to keep track of them all so we've compiled links to all of this week's interviews: TenTonHammer.com chatted up VP of Publishing Chris Lee on user-created content in MMOs, Producer Sam Kim discussed core game elements in an interview on Stratics.com, and Lead Writer David Noonan answered Examiner.com’s TERA lore questions and provided six new screenshots. In the realm of TERA fansites, Senior Producer Brian Knox spoke with Italian fansite TERAOnline.it about PvP and German fansite TERA-Welten.de interviewed Community Director Jason “BrotherMagneto” Mical.

With all this interviewing, you may think we’ve lost our virtual voices. Think again: more interviews are coming your way next week!


Screenshots of the Week: Set 3

Feast your eyes on three of the cities and towns you’ll visit in TERA in the third installment of our weekly screenshot feature. Beyond the majesty of Velika lie Lumbertown and Crecentia, two villages that each border two different forests filled with unique creatures. Head over to the official TERA forums and vote for which woodland Screenshots of the Week should feature next!



Scope out Screenshots of the Week: Set 3.


TERAHispano.com Publishes "Road to Velika" Walkthrough

Spanish TERA fansite TERAHispano.com has produced a new article based on players' experiences during our second Focus Group Test: a walkthrough of TERA’s first few levels leading up to the city of Velika. Read about the new character experience from creation to level 11 on TERAHispano.com!


TERA’s First Fan Art Contest Ends Soon!

Have you entered the first TERA Fan Art Contest yet? Time is running out!

Post your original masterpiece on the official TERA forums for a chance to have it featured in our June newsletter along with a short blurb about your artistry. But hurry up: the deadline for contest submissions is next Friday, June 4th! Check out the excellent entries made so far and submit your own in the Fan Art Contest thread!

One more word on digital newspaper versus dead tree newspaper: your risk of papercut while reading the Velika Guardian averages around zero.
-- Scapes

The Velika Guardian
Issue 3

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Hot off the virtual presses, the third issue of the Velika Guardian is here! Isn’t it nice to enjoy your weekly TERA community news magazine without pesky subscription inserts falling out onto the floor? As always, hit us up at community@enmasse.com with your news tips and clever suggestions for the Guardian!


Focus Group Test 2 Westernization Postmortem Published

Learn what our Focus Group testers thought about our Westernization efforts for TERA in our second FGT2 postmortem article. The first article addressed the gameplay experience while this one covers the game's comprehensive localization efforts as described in the article's opening passage:


Read the entire FGT2 Westernization postmortem article. Or if you missed it, check out the first postmortem article on gameplay.


Producer Sam Kim on Ten Ton Hammer Live on May 29th

Tune in to TERA! This Saturday, En Masse Producer Sam Kim speak with Ten Ton Hammer Live, the MMO news website’s live streaming podcast. Sam will answer TERA questions from Ten Ton Hammer and its community. The podcast begins at 7:00 PM Eastern (12:00 AM GMT).

Visit TenTonHammer.com for more information.


Vote in ZAM.com’s Poll on MMOs at E3 2010!

ZAM.com has published a new poll asking which MMO title you most want to learn more about at this year’s E3. Guess what? TERA is in the running! Cast your vote on the ZAM.com website.


En Masse Staff Interview Round-Up

If you’ll forgive the pun, we’ve been participating in interviews en masse this month! We know it's not easy to keep track of them all so we've compiled links to all of this week's interviews: TenTonHammer.com chatted up VP of Publishing Chris Lee on user-created content in MMOs, Producer Sam Kim discussed core game elements in an interview on Stratics.com, and Lead Writer David Noonan answered Examiner.com’s TERA lore questions and provided six new screenshots. In the realm of TERA fansites, Senior Producer Brian Knox spoke with Italian fansite TERAOnline.it about PvP and German fansite TERA-Welten.de interviewed Community Director Jason “BrotherMagneto” Mical.

With all this interviewing, you may think we’ve lost our virtual voices. Think again: more interviews are coming your way next week!


Screenshots of the Week: Set 3

Feast your eyes on three of the cities and towns you’ll visit in TERA in the third installment of our weekly screenshot feature. Beyond the majesty of Velika lie Lumbertown and Crecentia, two villages that each border two different forests filled with unique creatures. Head over to the official TERA forums and vote for which woodland Screenshots of the Week should feature next!



Scope out Screenshots of the Week: Set 3.


TERAHispano.com Publishes "Road to Velika" Walkthrough

Spanish TERA fansite TERAHispano.com has produced a new article based on players' experiences during our second Focus Group Test: a walkthrough of TERA’s first few levels leading up to the city of Velika. Read about the new character experience from creation to level 11 on TERAHispano.com!


TERA’s First Fan Art Contest Ends Soon!

Have you entered the first TERA Fan Art Contest yet? Time is running out!

Post your original masterpiece on the official TERA forums for a chance to have it featured in our June newsletter along with a short blurb about your artistry. But hurry up: the deadline for contest submissions is next Friday, June 4th! Check out the excellent entries made so far and submit your own in the Fan Art Contest thread!

One more word on digital newspaper versus dead tree newspaper: your risk of papercut while reading the Velika Guardian averages around zero.
-- Scapes

The Velika Guardian
Issue 3

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Hot off the virtual presses, the third issue of the Velika Guardian is here! Isn’t it nice to enjoy your weekly TERA community news magazine without pesky subscription inserts falling out onto the floor? As always, hit us up at community@enmasse.com with your news tips and clever suggestions for the Guardian!


Focus Group Test 2 Westernization Postmortem Published

Learn what our Focus Group testers thought about our Westernization efforts for TERA in our second FGT2 postmortem article. The first article addressed the gameplay experience while this one covers the game's comprehensive localization efforts as described in the article's opening passage:


Read the entire FGT2 Westernization postmortem article. Or if you missed it, check out the first postmortem article on gameplay.


Producer Sam Kim on Ten Ton Hammer Live on May 29th

Tune in to TERA! This Saturday, En Masse Producer Sam Kim speak with Ten Ton Hammer Live, the MMO news website’s live streaming podcast. Sam will answer TERA questions from Ten Ton Hammer and its community. The podcast begins at 7:00 PM Eastern (12:00 AM GMT).

Visit TenTonHammer.com for more information.


Vote in ZAM.com’s Poll on MMOs at E3 2010!

ZAM.com has published a new poll asking which MMO title you most want to learn more about at this year’s E3. Guess what? TERA is in the running! Cast your vote on the ZAM.com website.


En Masse Staff Interview Round-Up

If you’ll forgive the pun, we’ve been participating in interviews en masse this month! We know it's not easy to keep track of them all so we've compiled links to all of this week's interviews: TenTonHammer.com chatted up VP of Publishing Chris Lee on user-created content in MMOs, Producer Sam Kim discussed core game elements in an interview on Stratics.com, and Lead Writer David Noonan answered Examiner.com’s TERA lore questions and provided six new screenshots. In the realm of TERA fansites, Senior Producer Brian Knox spoke with Italian fansite TERAOnline.it about PvP and German fansite TERA-Welten.de interviewed Community Director Jason “BrotherMagneto” Mical.

With all this interviewing, you may think we’ve lost our virtual voices. Think again: more interviews are coming your way next week!


Screenshots of the Week: Set 3

Feast your eyes on three of the cities and towns you’ll visit in TERA in the third installment of our weekly screenshot feature. Beyond the majesty of Velika lie Lumbertown and Crecentia, two villages that each border two different forests filled with unique creatures. Head over to the official TERA forums and vote for which woodland Screenshots of the Week should feature next!



Scope out Screenshots of the Week: Set 3.


TERAHispano.com Publishes "Road to Velika" Walkthrough

Spanish TERA fansite TERAHispano.com has produced a new article based on players' experiences during our second Focus Group Test: a walkthrough of TERA’s first few levels leading up to the city of Velika. Read about the new character experience from creation to level 11 on TERAHispano.com!


TERA’s First Fan Art Contest Ends Soon!

Have you entered the first TERA Fan Art Contest yet? Time is running out!

Post your original masterpiece on the official TERA forums for a chance to have it featured in our June newsletter along with a short blurb about your artistry. But hurry up: the deadline for contest submissions is next Friday, June 4th! Check out the excellent entries made so far and submit your own in the Fan Art Contest thread!

One more word on digital newspaper versus dead tree newspaper: your risk of papercut while reading the Velika Guardian averages around zero.
-- Scapes

The Velika Guardian
Issue 3

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Hot off the virtual presses, the third issue of the Velika Guardian is here! Isn’t it nice to enjoy your weekly TERA community news magazine without pesky subscription inserts falling out onto the floor? As always, hit us up at community@enmasse.com with your news tips and clever suggestions for the Guardian!


Focus Group Test 2 Westernization Postmortem Published

Learn what our Focus Group testers thought about our Westernization efforts for TERA in our second FGT2 postmortem article. The first article addressed the gameplay experience while this one covers the game's comprehensive localization efforts as described in the article's opening passage:


Read the entire FGT2 Westernization postmortem article. Or if you missed it, check out the first postmortem article on gameplay.


Producer Sam Kim on Ten Ton Hammer Live on May 29th

Tune in to TERA! This Saturday, En Masse Producer Sam Kim speak with Ten Ton Hammer Live, the MMO news website’s live streaming podcast. Sam will answer TERA questions from Ten Ton Hammer and its community. The podcast begins at 7:00 PM Eastern (12:00 AM GMT).

Visit TenTonHammer.com for more information.


Vote in ZAM.com’s Poll on MMOs at E3 2010!

ZAM.com has published a new poll asking which MMO title you most want to learn more about at this year’s E3. Guess what? TERA is in the running! Cast your vote on the ZAM.com website.


En Masse Staff Interview Round-Up

If you’ll forgive the pun, we’ve been participating in interviews en masse this month! We know it's not easy to keep track of them all so we've compiled links to all of this week's interviews: TenTonHammer.com chatted up VP of Publishing Chris Lee on user-created content in MMOs, Producer Sam Kim discussed core game elements in an interview on Stratics.com, and Lead Writer David Noonan answered Examiner.com’s TERA lore questions and provided six new screenshots. In the realm of TERA fansites, Senior Producer Brian Knox spoke with Italian fansite TERAOnline.it about PvP and German fansite TERA-Welten.de interviewed Community Director Jason “BrotherMagneto” Mical.

With all this interviewing, you may think we’ve lost our virtual voices. Think again: more interviews are coming your way next week!


Screenshots of the Week: Set 3

Feast your eyes on three of the cities and towns you’ll visit in TERA in the third installment of our weekly screenshot feature. Beyond the majesty of Velika lie Lumbertown and Crecentia, two villages that each border two different forests filled with unique creatures. Head over to the official TERA forums and vote for which woodland Screenshots of the Week should feature next!



Scope out Screenshots of the Week: Set 3.


TERAHispano.com Publishes "Road to Velika" Walkthrough

Spanish TERA fansite TERAHispano.com has produced a new article based on players' experiences during our second Focus Group Test: a walkthrough of TERA’s first few levels leading up to the city of Velika. Read about the new character experience from creation to level 11 on TERAHispano.com!


TERA’s First Fan Art Contest Ends Soon!

Have you entered the first TERA Fan Art Contest yet? Time is running out!

Post your original masterpiece on the official TERA forums for a chance to have it featured in our June newsletter along with a short blurb about your artistry. But hurry up: the deadline for contest submissions is next Friday, June 4th! Check out the excellent entries made so far and submit your own in the Fan Art Contest thread!

One more word on digital newspaper versus dead tree newspaper: your risk of papercut while reading the Velika Guardian averages around zero.
-- Scapes

First Half of TERA Focus Group Test 2 Postmortem Published

We have finished compiling and processing the massive amounts of feedback received from TERA's second Focus Group Test and now the community gets to read our findings and how TERA will evolve as a result! The feedback generated by our dedicated Focus Group Testers has been seperated into three broad categories: gameplay, Westernization, and technology. The first piece focuses on gameplay while the second piece will focus on the latter two categories. Our summation of Focus Group Test 2o follows:


Click here to read the full gameplay postmortem.

TERAHispano.com Interviews Chief Operations Officer Pat Wyatt

First of a pair of major question-and-answer sessions with TERA fansites this past week, TERAHispano.com asked more than twenty questions of En Masse Entertainment's Chief Operations Officer Pat Wyatt and Producer Sam Kim. Subjects ranged from game security to feature development and included two questions specific to the Spanish community. Here is a sample question:


Click here to read the full interview on TERAHispano's website. It is available in English.

TERAGamers.de Interviews TERA Producer Sam Kim

The second fansite to recently publish their En Masse Entertainment interview, TERAGamers.de asked Producer Sam Kim more than a dozen questions regarding core game elements, character customization, and localization. Read on for a pair of juicy answers:


Click here to read the full interview on TERAGamers' website. It is available in both English and German.

World Lore Galore!

Eager to learn more about the world of Tera? Be sure to check out the two newly published world lore pieces! Click here to learn about the landmass of Northern Shara on the official TERA website. Looking for a different presentation style? Click here to be taught about the history of the land as lectured by a Baraka to his young Human student.

Anticipate more details and TERA world lore in coming weeks!

Apply Today to Test TERA Tomorrow!

Well, not precisely tomorrow: more "in the near future" but that doesn't flow as well.

En Masse Entertainment has launched its new tester application process! TERA fans looking to test the game can now sign up to participate in upcoming test phases using this short survey. Be sure to read the original news piece for more information.

TERA Included in IGN's "Big Games List" for E3 2010

With 2010's Electronic Entertainment Expo coming up fast, IGN.com has published and continues to populate their "Big Games List", a directory of games being shown at the show. Here is a quote from the article:


Click here to read the full list on IGN's website. E3 2010 begins June 15th and En Masse Entertainment will be there demonstrating TERA on even more demo kiosks than were available at GDC 2010. Expect more E3-related updates toward the end of May!

Ideas for Instances: Puzzles for Instance!

Threads from the official TERA forums and fansite forums may also be included in the Velika Guardian! Shortly after the second Focus Group Test ended, Focus Group Tester n00balisk posted a poll asking fellow community members their thoughts on what they would like to see in TERA's instanced game areas. The consensus of more than 170 votes was overwhelmingly in favor of being challenged to solve puzzles in addition to testing their mettle against boss monsters and their minions.

n00balisk goes on to suggest "the puzzles [could be] randomly generated each time you enter the instance. That way even if you are familiar with the puzzle it will be different each time you enter. This would keep each experience somewhat fresh! I think it would be great to have the puzzles require each person to play their part!"

Interested in joining the conversation? Click here to visit the forum thread.

Share Your News with the TERA Community!
Discovered a hot scoop? Sourced new press coverage? Found something newsworthy? If it's TERA-related, tell us about it!

The Velika Guardian is YOUR community newspaper and we are eager to hear what you feel it should feature. Tell us about it us via email at community@enmasse.com and keep an eye out for the next issue: your news may be published!
-- Scapes

Concerning security on TERA, answered by En Masse Entertainment COO Patrick Wyatt:

Greetings from TeraHispano.com, Pat! First of all thanks a lot for your time and for answering our interview questions. How is everything at the moment in the TERA camp?

Thanks for the opportunity to talk to TeraHispano’s fans, Nestor. It has been busy at En Masse Entertainment over the last few months. When we opened the Seattle office in November last year there were only four of us, but we’ve grown dramatically since then--we have 32 people working at En Masse! Now that we’ve brought aboard so many talented people, we’re making preparations for the launch of TERA.

Our most recent effort was preparing for the second Focus Group Test. Unlike a beta test, where users are playing a mostly-complete game and providing feedback about hardware compatibility and server scalability, the Focus Group Test gave several hundred users the chance to play the game early enough in the development process that the dev team will be able to listen to their feedback and then make substantive changes to the game.


I´ve read a lot about your point of view about MMOs security. Let’s talk about this first. Gold farmers and game-fraudsters earn about 1-10 billon dollars annually. With TERA in the eyes of a lot of people (and growing) I think you should know TERA will be focused by these "cybercriminals". Are you conscious of this?

We’re very much aware of the problems caused by cybercriminals in other online games; given the enormous amount of money that they can generate by gold farming and stealing game accounts, then selling game gold for real-world money, it’s no surprise that they’re already looking into TERA. While their interest does validate the growing excitement for our game, we know that online crime is a critically important problem to solve, and that we have to do much more than other game publishers have done in the past. Players have already seen that simply pulling out the “ban-hammer”—as publishers have done for many other games—is an ineffective solution.

We have a lot of work to do to ensure that our game has a high-quality play environment free from chat-spam, account theft, purchase fraud, phishing, scamming, and all the other nasty behaviors that criminals use to make money. We don’t have these mechanisms in place yet because we’ve been focused on creating an excellent gameplay experience first. That said we know it is a critical area for us to innovate before we launch to ensure that gamers have a great experience playing TERA. Just so no one gets alarmed by that statement, we won’t be using GameGuard or its like.

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