[Update 6/29/10] With the overwhelming response this article has received, both here and on other websites, I’ve posted a followup below the original article.
Mortal Online is part of a major turning point in the massively multiplayer online industry, but in a way that has little to do with the content of the game itself. I’m not talking about the engines that MMOs run on, or the way that players interact in the growing worlds, or even the size and scope of the world itself. I speak of the way these titles are run, and the communities who pay for them, the promises that are kept, and the breaking point of patience and willpower. Continue to read and you will understand why the era of false promises, infinite delays, and broken dreams is over, but more importantly, why some MMOs will die because of it (not necessarily Mortal Online).
Up to a year ago or so, the typical mantra for buying a game was if you bought a console game and you didn’t like it or it was broken, you could always sell it used for a small payback on the cost of the game. For PC games, up until around 2004, it was possible to just transfer your cd and the key to another person, like a used game sale, but without the option for turning to Electronics Boutique or a real store to sell it for you. With MMOs, on the other hand, there has never been a legitimate way to sell. You have to transfer your account with the game, which risks the account getting banned if the company detects it, leaving you with no money, and no game.
This should not be taken as a generalization when I say that a lot of MMO developers quickly latched on to this idea, and several of those used it to put a choke hold on the player. In recent years, the focus has shifted to giving an MMO enormous amounts of hype prior to release, to pump up the pre-order sales before the closed beta is even done with, the NDA lifted, and the game can be talked about. A few developers walk the same borderline of fraud that you see in commercials, where what they say isn’t technically fraud, but it’s certainly misleading. As an example, many of you have likely mocked the commercials where the advertiser states “prices starting at under twenty five dollars!” only to find that the price starts at $24.99 for a barely working piece of trash and immediately jumps to $100 for the next step up.
Before an MMO launches we are subjected to countless claims of features that are delayed for months on end, if not years, if not scrapped entirely at some point in a secret manner. But these same features are used to advertise and gin up pre-orders, and then the executives sit back and wonder why virtually every subscription MMO in existence has such a low retention rate following its first month. The player is out fifty bucks, and might even convince himself when the developer claims that the feature he wanted that was missing at launch is coming “soon” (read: following two years of delays before it is eventually cut), that he should continue his subscription for a few months just to see how the game turns out.
I am picking on Mortal Online specifically in this article because this is the MMO that really popularized the new fight against the idea that once players pre-ordered, they were at the mercy of the developer no matter how many times/years the game was delayed despite accepting orders, and how many features ended up not being in the game, or being broken, at launch. Players issued charge-backs in large numbers on Mortal Online, so much so that many third party forums relating to MMOs/Mortal Online were regularly filled with information, accounts and advocacy for players to perform said charge-backs.
The moral lesson with Mortal Online is that developers can no longer promise features, and then use initial box sales as a fund to develop those features for actual release some months down the line. After several years, patience and tolerance for this has reached its breaking point, and players are sending a message that these acts that have become so commonplace in the MMO market, are no longer going to work. The legitimate use of a charge back is gaining momentum, and I have no doubt that at this rate it will be powerful enough to utterly destroy an MMO before it even makes it out the door.
As much as I am against resorting to a charge-back, the old “shit happens” excuses just don’t cut it anymore in defending companies that launch unfinished or wholly broken MMOs. In any other video game genre, the kind of stuff developers pull would never be tolerated, and the momentum is moving in such a way that it will no longer be tolerated in MMOs either, especially when companies make the same mistakes over several titles.
Always buy an MMO with a credit card, and never preorder an MMO on Steam (in the event where you issue a charge back, you entire Steam account will be completely disabled). Remember: A charge back is not to be used as an excuse to bum-rush your way into a game without doing any research on it, and is not for buyer’s remorse. It is strictly for cases where what you are promised is not what is delivered. In the case where it is found that you issued an illegal charge back, you can be sued for wire-fraud or theft of merchandise, among other charges, depending on where you live.
[6/29/10]
I wanted to address a few comments I’ve been seeing on various websites in regards to this article, mainly that I was not informative enough with the original article. I was afraid, and apparently rightly so, after I published this that it would gather some notice from the Mortal Online community, on both sides, and it has.
My intention with this article wasn’t to bash any game in particular, but to focus on the broad-spectrum themes that lead up to Mortal Online becoming the scapegoat for a new trend. It has become all too common for developers to start talking far too specifically about a title long before those features are even finalized, or approved in some cases. Interviews about the content of the game now merely run down to throwing out whatever is in the concept stage to get the most ooh’s and aah’s. Although there’s been a few criticisms of my “poor research” in not providing examples for a few arguments, this was by design, as the instant I pointed out a single MMO, or even a selection of MMOs, I would be immediately slammed for “having a grudge” against said game/company. Rather, my goal was to indulge the reader and allow them to fill in the blanks with their own experiences.
One thing I do hold Mortal Online guilty towards, and this stands for a number of other MMOs, is the “here’s a list of features, but not all of them will be in after launch.” Before Warhammer Online launched, Mythic removed most of the capital cities, preferring to have two decent cities at launch rather than all of them in a poor state. The cities, along with the removed classes, would be launched at a later time once the game shipped. Mythic has caught up on classes, but there hasn’t been much as to when, if ever, the capital cities will see release. Given the number of MMOs that have used the undisclosed-future-release plan where the content was silently cut or radically changed, I think it’s safe to say that Star Vault’s lack of specificity was to their detriment.
I have always advertised MMO Fallout as having a focus on the MMO industry as a whole, with insights into the companies, trends, and such, but I often feel that I assume and demand too much out of my readers, by which I mean that I occasionally get ahead of myself and assume that the rest of you have been following my blog since the start (which is why I always try to begin with summaries of what is going on).
The key to this article is that the player will always vote with their wallets in the end, on the issues that really matter, and in this case that issue is the tolerance of players with regards to developers making vague promises with the hopes that the player will continue to stick on until whatever feature it is is released, assuming it is at all.
I stuck Mortal Online in because it is indeed the poster child of the reaction, but not necessarily all factors of the cause considering how newly released it is. Although MMO Fallout didn’t exist at the time, I was closely following the months leading up to the launch of Warhammer Online and Age of Conan. In both of those cases, the populations of the game plummeted following release, especially given that both of these titles broke a record on pre-orders. Although players were disappointed at their purchase, they simply wrote it up as a $50 loss and moved on.
Mortal Online got the short end of the stick because of pre-release fear rather than hype, especially when one staff member talked about their troubles with funding, that caused some players to issue charge backs out of fear that Star Vault was bound to go bankrupt before the game ever launched. Other players saw what they believed to be an irresponsible length of delays, and yes, a great number just rode on the bandwagon with the mantra that “I’ll preorder it, and if I don’t like it I can always do a charge back and troll the forums about how I got my cash back.”
Ultimately I believe Mortal Online became the poster child for this because Star Vault is a tiny company that has seen a lot of stumbles, and people decided that even if they were in the wrong, there was little to no chance of retaliation from a company with pockets so thin that they were selling pre-orders in order to fund the beta.
Here at MMO Fallout I stand up to core principles that I never give a disincentive to trying out a title. The closest you will find to reviews here are the month-in-review articles I do where I give short, one or two sentence thoughts about the MMOs that I am playing at the time. I could increase my hits by a mile by converting MMO Fallout into a website where I plaster ads, talk about why x company wants to rip you off, review MMOs based off of twenty minutes of gameplay, call John Smedley the devil, make funny photoshops of Bill Roper, and generally jump on the troll bandwagon, but I would rather give players the avenue to form their own opinions.
I crack wise-ass jokes about companies and their games, but at the end of the day you will always find me encouraging people to try out the game, no matter what the content of the article, and regularly blast trolls. I recommend people try the game out for themselves, rather than make their decision based off of a review, or something someone wrote on a forum, which is why I regularly post sales, trial information, and more avenues on how to get into MMOs for the lowest price possible. I suggest you read the following, along with the rest of MMO Fallout:
- No You Are Not Entitled A Refund
- Take Notice: Aika Cracks Down On Harassment
- A Downward Spiral Does Not Mean Death
- Rules: Why Do They Need To Be Repeated?
I’m not a man without morals, so I apologize to the Mortal Online community that the original article ended up coming across as a misdirected, poorly sourced flame pit. I rarely follow up articles like this, and hopefully this long-winded response will tie up some loose ends.
MMO Fallout 
Excellent article! It appears that developers try to outdue each other in their efforts to lower the bar of what the public will accept. Mortal is the latest in a long line of such titles. For example, they sent out boxed versions of the game 6 months before release. All the box contained was a DVD with no documentation. The DVD was unuseable (unpatchable) when it was received as they had changed to a new patch system. Their response was to promise that new DVDs that actually worked would be sent out at release. Well, they launched 3 weeks ago and no such DVD has ever been sent.
Simply claiming that it’s an “indy” product is no excuse. Folks have to smarten up and learn that they are consumers and are not donating to the cause, but rather are purchasing a product.
Once people stop accepting the latest shovelware, developers will actually start to raise the standards of what the release instead of the steady spiral we are in today.
Nice hit piece.
Unfortunately, it’s wrong. Mortal Online did, in fact, launch with all promised features.
The writer of this libelous article does a lot of grandstanding about missing features, but FAILS to list a single one, as if his say-so was good enough.
So, writer, list the missing features that were promised at launch.
What trash.
How about their whole deity system which was prominently listed on their features tab for a year (right up until launch)? You know.. the one where you could build temples for your god or go tear down ones from competing dieties. Your war against them was supposed to increase or decrease the power of your god.. Any of that in game?
The game launched with one.. single… small.. dungeon.
One of the major features (Thievery) was removed for launch.
There is no siege system nor any real guild warfare system in place
Magic system is listed as “basic” with actual magic schools to come “later”
The capital city of the main continent.. the hub of life on the continent… didn’t make it into release.
Those are just off teh top of my head… I’m sure if anyone cared they could get a list 2 pages long.
That’s the problem with this article – weak research and a lack of proof.
Let’s be absolutely clear: the religion system, conquest system, advanced magic, and thievery WERE NOT systems that were promised for launch.
The list of promised features were the core of the game, as advertised by Star Vault. They were:
– The full Myrland continent
– At least 9 races, male and female
– Blood mix and character customization
– Main features of the skill system
– Full PvP, full loot
– Full melee and ranged combat
– Basic magic combat
– Mounts and mounted combat
– Basic GUI for the crafting system
– Resource gathering
– Basic Guild mechanics
– Basic player housing
– Basic NPC mobs and wildlife
– Hidden/secret features
The author of this article failed to address which features were missing at launch.
Heh, you fail at comprehending “hype” then.
If the company puts out a small notice in their forums about “promised features” and then in the same hand, goes and does an interview with MMORPG about their “features”, as well as listing all these major features ON THEIR OWN SITE, then they are in fact, hyping up their own game.
Without the pre-orders for MO, you wouldn’t even have had a beta. You wouldn’t have had an open beta. You wouldn’t have anything. They used this hype generation of mage vs mage duels like in UO, and religion and deities, and sieging, warfare, guild systems, alliances, complex housing and AI all to draw in people to preorder. AFTER people preordered, was when they announced a feature list for launch. It’s laughable and unethical, but I think MO won’t get far so their ethics will come around to bite them in the bum.
ROFL.. so a post buried on a random thread as a reply overrules the Features tab of a games website? RIIIIIGHT.
Again… before we even get started.. what about the DISC? Does it get any simpler than that? They sent a worthless DVD out 6 months ago. They promised that they would send an updated (working) disc at launch. Game launch 3 weeks ago. No discs!
If thats not a missing feature I don’t know what is!
KoolAid… keep drinking!
What does it have to do with promised features? MO released in a broken and bugged state, despite all the promised features being in they are way more basic then any MMO player would imagine.
Neither do they mention that the promised features are the only thing that will be available in the game, normal MMOs offer way beyond what is on their feature list.
Oh yeah.. want a missing feature? How about a working DVD? You know.. the ones people bought in June 2009 that were mailed in Jan. The ones that didn’t work but we were told the real working copies would be sent out at release. Well it’s 3 weeks AFTER release. No discs.
Does that count as a missing feature?
I have to say, well said — and you left out the part about Mortal Online going to another new low, and keeping people’s credit cards on file (without permission), and then as a pre-order (where you paid just for the box) also decided to enter them in a subscription whether they wanted it or not.
Read more here:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/274869/Unethical-behavior.html
It would be nice to get a little traction on this issue since so few people are aware of it, and that they will be charged without their consent.
This is only the tip of the iceburg. These guys charged everyone full price almost a year before the game launched. They recently moved all the purchase info from their purchse website to their account page. They decided that everyone who pre-ordered the game would be auto subscribed to the game even without their chosing a subscription type or payment mthod. This was againt the original TOS but that TOS was recently edited to say that by buying the game you agree to become subscribbed. Just imagine all the people that bought the game 11 months ago, gave up on it (never charged back) and are suddenly going to get billed a subscription that they never agreed to or signed up for!
Also.. they decided that EVERYONES free month/sub would start on June 9th. So you didn’t get to choose to wait a few months until they fix the game.
It’s no wonder this game is the posterchild for chargebacks.
Excellent article and the initial bash on MO was justified. You should not give in to fans negative comments next time, SV (developers of MO) are the least professional bunch I have ever seen.
“The moral lesson with Mortal Online is that developers can no longer promise features, and then use initial box sales as a fund to develop those features for actual release some months down the line. After several years, patience and tolerance for this has reached its breaking point, and players are sending a message that these acts that have become so commonplace in the MMO market, are no longer going to work.”
Actually, the lesson is that this does work. That is why they do it more and more. Go back to the first MMORPGs filled with content at release, and the trend only continues. For however many jaded gamers try to make some point or risk their credit charging back a few dollars, millions more noobs just started playing WoW and have no idea what the launch of AO was like, etc.
That said, MO, like Darkfall, is one of the only innovative games to come out in awhile that is worth giving a few dollars for, as craptastic as it is. I really don’t know how people can play the same EQ clone over and over. Sure, it works great, but I already played it 20 times, and each version is dumber and less interesting that the last.
The trend downwards has been going on longer than you know, ever since the days of the first real MMORPGs ( I mean real ones here like Meridan 59 (1995), EverQuest (1999) Asherons Call (1999) ) where the development of these titles would be by programmers who just love the fanatasy world they are creating and it did show, players spent thier lives on these games as they were truly addicitve titles. Not anymore it seems.. personally I call the 1995-2001 period the “golden age” of MMORPG development and ideas, what we have now ( I am not including WoW (2004)here as that game is huge for different reasons ) is a total dark age for MMORPGS, we either have the “make a quick buck” shoddy title releases and theme park clones ( we know the titles) , or we have the nearly rans with some great progressive ideas but with awful production and amature at best support and execution.
I do find it hard to believe that no major software house has hit on the idea of producing a game with the feel of earlier titles,the real skill management and complexity balanced with that addictive fun factor in a huge open world enviroment that caters to people who remember what a real MMORPG used to be about. It seems that the mindset is stuck with hardcore PvP totally unrestricted ,survival of the fittest only game ideas or the theme park, game on rails ideas being punted out to us.
I would love a game that has a huge world where my character isnt just a clone in a slightly different skin to the many other PC’s around me,where If I see a place I can explore it, where If I want to get down and dirty in a fight with other players for whatever game reason ( faction,race,guild) I can do so and be either rewarded for it or suffer a penalty, fights dont have to be fair , just fun, win or lose and nothing should be gamebreakingly hard to replace, where if I want to just go off into the wilds and live, hunt and practice trade or survival skills for days on end I can…you get the point. I just want that game to actually have the content it says it has and that it works, and at the least stretches my mind to want to learn more and keep playing! I know this game will cost alot of money and time and effort to make but to those who do it well they will make a fortune out of us oldtimers looking for that game we thought we would be playing by now “back in the day”.
I don’t know what the future hold for the MMORPG genre of games that I love but It’s really not looking good right now, I do hope I am wrong.
Virtually every other commenter is either 14 or completely retarded.
Suck it up, kids. This is how the real world works.
Have you never purchased a product in your life?
It’s the marketing guys’ JOB to sell their product. How was preordering Mortal any more of a gamble than preordering any other game? I’ve preordered a lot of crap games. Hell, I preordered MOH: Rising Sun. Yeah. I was that stupid.
What about those Toyotas they told you were THE SAFEST car on the road, right up until the gas pedal stuck and you drove into a wall? Every marketing team is going to spin features and specifications in their favour, because that’s how marketing works.
It’s YOUR fault you didn’t do the research, YOUR fault you were impatient, and YOUR fault for being naive enough to believe a next generation MMO being developed by 20 something guys was going to come out of the gate looking like WoW in its, what, 6th year now?
Every MMO is shitty at launch. Mortal is shittier than some, but BY FAR not the worst. Nowhere near the worst. We got all of the promised features minus thievery (but we, the customers, essentially demanded they take it out for reworking, so stfu), the game improves noticeably every week, and I’m having the time of my life in game.
Wouldn’t trade Mortal for any MMO from the past 10 years to the next.
Maybe people should stop blaming companies for their own stupidity. Nobody put a gun to anybodies head forcing them to buy the game before it was released. Those who did wanted to help fund a company that has a vision for a non-cookie cutter MMO. That’s what I did and have no regrets. Maybe all the people that are bitter about the state of MO at release should have read the forums for maybe 10 minutes and they’d have a good idea whether they should purchase the game or not. People who blindly throw their money away deserve to have it taken from them.