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  • TERA Weekend Event Postponed

    Posted on February 5, 2012 by Omali Comment

    “The sneak peek event planned for this weekend unfortunately has had to be cancelled. As we currently cannot foresee when we will be able to guarantee a smooth running of the event, there is no new date as of yet. We’re working closely with the TERA developers at Bluehole to fix the remaining issues.

    The cancellation was not due to load problems caused by the large number of potential players. Player numbers would have given us a look into possible issues within the scope of a stress test. Due to unforeseen reasons, problems arose already during the entry into the game world.

    As soon as we have new information regarding a rescheduled event planning and once all technical issues have been resolved we will inform you on our website, in the forum and via the usual social media channels.

    We apologize for the cancellation of the event and assure you that we are doing our utmost to provide all players access to TERA as soon as possible. We thank all TERA fans for their patience and understanding and hope to have positive news for you very soon.

    From the TERA Europe Facebook page.

    This entry was posted in TERA, Upcoming and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Who Should Publish Dark Millennium Online?

    Posted on February 3, 2012 by Omali Comment

    Although Dark Millennium Online was not cancelled, as per the false report circulated late last year, at the time we were given some rather uncertain news that the game was on uneven ground and that there was nothing set in stone. When THQ published its earnings report for the third quarter of 2011, they mentioned that Dark Millennium Online would be taking a more cautious approach.

    Gamasutra reports that in an investor conference call, Brian Farrell (CEO) has revealed that THQ is seeking a partner for distribution, and that THQ cannot afford to publish the game by itself.  Of course, a developer hiring a third party publish an MMO is hardly surprising, even more so for a company like THQ that has seen better financial times.

    (Source: Gamasutra)

    This entry was posted in Upcoming, Warhammer 40k and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Bigpoint: 250 Million Registered Accounts

    Posted on January 31, 2012 by Omali Comment

    Bigpoint Games notoriously has a big mouth when it comes to pointing out their accomplishments, and despite the objections of some of the gaming community over the publisher’s very blatant and self-noted pay-for-advantage model, the company continues to post major profits and major user numbers. Today, the publisher announced that their portfolio of over 60 games has brought in more than 250 million registered accounts. That’s enough accounts for around 3% of the world’s population to have an account.

    As I’ve said before, Bigpoint has been consistently up front about selling power in their games, and very successfully at that. The developer raked in revenues of $200 million in 2010, and that number continues to grow as they add more titles to their lineup.

    (Source: Bigpoint press release)

    This entry was posted in Drakensang, KULTAN, Live and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • TERA Can’t Escape Licencing, IP Blocks Coming

    Posted on January 30, 2012 by Omali Comment

    Back when Bluehole announced that TERA would have no region restrictions whatsoever, I was admittedly skeptical. An MMO without regional restrictions generally spawns from one of a few circumstances: The same company is publishing it in all regions ala City of Heroes, or there is only one worldwide server ala Eve Online and Mortal Online. In the case of TERA, back in 2010 Bluehole announced that while the clients are region specific, there was nothing stopping someone in Europe from purchasing a North American client and playing on those servers.

    Not the case. If Bluehole truly wanted cross-oceanic play, this idea was met with a dead “negative” by the game’s publishers. Bluehole did make this statement to Massively:

    We had to change our stance on IP restrictions due to licensing and security issues. While we can’t go into the reasons in detail, we would like to say that although these restrictions are not a panacea for preventing hacking, they are highly effective, and produce more positive results than might be expected.

    So licencing reasons. Restricting IP addresses will not accomplish much in preventing gold farmers in Russia or China from accessing North American and European services or stolen accounts, considering ease of use in a proxy. Unfortunately, these IP restrictions also mean that certain regions aren’t able to play the game until a publisher picks up the title in that region. In many cases, the game just never releases in those regions.

    Still, this is another example of what happens when you let the developers make announcements about decisions that should be handled by corporate. If TERA had announced from the start that there would be region restrictions (or had they not waited a year and change to go back on that statement) than this wouldn’t even be an issue (save for the regions that can’t play at all).

    TERA launches in May for North America and Europe and is being published by En Masse Entertainment (North America) and Frogster Interactive (Europe). Read up on Bluehole Studios’ lawsuit with NCSoft here.

    This entry was posted in TERA, Upcoming and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • NCSoft Is Suing TERA Again

    Posted on January 26, 2012 by Omali 1 Comment

    It’s been two years since I last talked about the lawsuit between NCSoft and TERA developer Bluehole Studio, so I think a recap is necessary. Many years ago, before Lineage III was known as Lineage Eternal and when NCSoft still had plans to develop the MMO on the Unreal 3 engine, several members of the Lineage III staff left to form their own developer, Bluehole Studio, developer of the MMO The Exiled Realm of Arborea. NCSoft sued Bluehole in Korea in 2006, claiming that the developer had stolen software and hardware, as well as art, to make TERA. Bluehole was convicted in Korea and convictions were upheld (for the most part). A civil complaint was filed in 2010 and overturned by the courts. However, as you are well aware, TERA continued its development and launched in Korea with a western release early this year.

    As it turns out, NCSoft isn’t taking this US release sitting down. The publisher launched a lawsuit in New York today, with essentially the same charges of theft of physical and intellectual property.

    “Their business plan was simple and audacious: create a competing product using the very work they had done while at NCsoft, launch it themselves to great fanfare and acclaim, and, in the process, deal a crippling blow to their former employer,”

    NCSoft seeks an injunction barring TERA from releasing in the United States, as well as enhanced damages for Bluehole’s misconduct. Appeals of the criminal and civil cases in Korea are still ongoing.

    This entry was posted in Lawsuits, NCSoft Lawsuit, TERA, Upcoming and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Video of the ____: ArchAge Boss Hunting

    Posted on January 21, 2012 by Omali Comment

    The bosses in ArchAge are enormous, and if this video is any indication, the presence of siege weaponry is going to be invaluable when fighting them. I’ve seen a few complaints that the siege equipment makes the boss too easy, but I don’t really see the problem. If ArchAge has a system where siege equipment can be destroyed by bosses, all that does is add more demand into the economy so crafters like myself can make good money off of boss hunters.

    For more ArchAge and other MMO news, check out the games list on the right.

    This entry was posted in ArcheAge, Editorials, Upcoming, Videos and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Let’s Talk Pathfinder’s Bounty System

    Posted on January 21, 2012 by Omali Comment

    At the beginning of the month, I did an article on Dominus, and their advertised bounty hunter system, making the point that it was woefully prone to abuse, not unlike many other bounty systems MMOs have attempted to incorporate over the past decade or so. Well the folks at Pathfinder Online must be after my own heart, because they’ve detailed their own bounty system that addresses many of my concerns.

    First off, players are given the option to place a bounty when they are murdered (killed unlawfully) and apparently only at that point. Not only can you put a bounty on the person who murdered you, but anyone else who damaged you or assisted that person. So let’s say you are ganged up on by a fighter, a ranger, and a healer. You’ll be able to put a bounty on the heads of the fighter who murdered you, the ranger who stayed afar and pelted you with arrows, and the healer who healed the two.

    In addition, you can specify who can redeem the bounty. The idea is that bounty hunter guilds will form up, and players can essentially contract a specific guild/player to be able to collect the bounty, preventing the killer’s friend from collecting it. But death isn’t the end: When your bounty is collected, you are given the option to re-issue it. Want to make a griefer pay? Keep resubmitting his bounty until your coffers run dry or he rage stops logging in.

    This also raises a heavy risk for players who like to role play as red (criminal) gangs. Kill the wrong person, and you could find yourself on the receiving end of a very long manhunt. Granted, this whole system does not apply in cases of declared war, where killing is lawful. The hope is that this will prevent players from running around killing each other for no reason and to make a murderer’s life that much more dangerous.

    Granted, there are still some ways to exploit this system, including the murderer being in secret cahoots with the mercenary guilds, but the Pathfinder solution is one of the best I’ve seen.

    This entry was posted in Pathfinder Online, Upcoming and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • NCSoft Outsourcing European Hosting?

    Posted on January 19, 2012 by Omali Comment

    You know, I hadn’t really noticed until tonight how small NCSoft’s library has become in the west. With the shuttering of Lineage, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, Exteel, and Dungeon Runners, us westerners are left with Aion, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Lineage 2. Four titles? Granted, we have Blade & Soul (hopefully) coming out at the end of this year, and Wildstar and Lineage Eternal coming at some point in the future.

    I can’t help but notice, however, that NCSoft’s personal appearance in Europe has taken a lesser role recently. Lineage II’s European service was recently handed over to Innova for the free to play transition, and when Aion goes free to play early this year, Gameforge is taking over service of that title. So far this is only on NCSoft’s titles in Europe that have transitioned to free to play, with the exception of City of Heroes in which case the two services (US/EU) were merged into one under NCSoft. This leaves Guild Wars.

    If I’m lucky, NCSoft will answer my emails about future title publishing.

    This entry was posted in Aion, City of Heroes, Hot Titles, Lineage 2, Lineage Eternal, Live and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Pathfinder Online Invokes Everquest/RuneScape Death Mechanics

    Posted on January 18, 2012 by Omali 1 Comment

    Pathfinder Online almost sounds like a cheap title one might use to parody an MMO with poor AI. That being said, the folks over at Goblin Works have piqued my interest with the announcement that death in Pathfinder will function similar to the old Everquest corpse walk, and yes I just used the words “upcoming MMO” and “old Everquest corpse walk” in the same sentence in 2012.

    In a blog on the Goblin Works website, the team describes the mechanic in more detail. When a player dies, they can be resurrected by a nearby friend. If no one comes to their rescue, they will respawn at their bound location with everything they had equipped still on them. Anything in your inventory, however, is now in the possession of a soulless husk lying dormant on the ground of some creature-ridden cave. Should another player come across your fresh carcass before you do, they will be able to loot a random selection of your items with the rest being destroyed in the process.

    According to the website, this is to ensure that players don’t just have friends loot them and give their stuff back, as part of your inventory is destroyed for good. It also means that players in groups can defend that person’s stash while they run back, even if no one in the group is capable of resurrection.

    Pathfinder Online is an upcoming sandbox/themepark hybrid MMO with open world PvP based on the pen and paper RPG. Expect more articles coming up on Pathfinder, including how Goblin Works shoved my own foot in my mouth over a bounty system.

    (Source: Goblin Works Website)

    This entry was posted in Pathfinder Online, Upcoming and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • TERA Release Date: May 1st, 2012

    Posted on January 17, 2012 by Omali Comment

    Good news, everyone! After a long period of awaiting information from En Masse Entertainment, the publisher has finally announced today that TERA will launch in North America on May 1st this year. Players will be able to order a standard and collector’s edition from various retailers, as well as no doubt a digital version on Steam and other outlets.

    The Exiled Realm of Arborea, or TERA for short, is an action MMO based on the Unreal 3 engine, that was released in June of last year in Korea. The servers in Korea merged following reports that the game was not meeting financial expectations, a response by players to a noted lack of end-game content and an overwhelming presence of bots.

    More on TERA as it appears.

    (Source: TERA website)

    This entry was posted in TERA, Upcoming and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.


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