I always get choked up doing the month in review. Not in the sense that my emotions are overwhelming me and I might start crying at any moment, but that my hand literally latches on to my neck and starts choking me as I gasp out “why didn’t you cover that?” and I once again become my own verbally and physically abusive relative.
What a depressing month July was, especially in the realm of NCsoft. My trust in the aforementioned Korean developer has always been on shaky grounds, but this month made me truly wonder what goes on behind those doors. The Aion server mergers amounted to little more ingenuity than a kid proclaiming “I know how to do things and I don’t need advice” before he takes his metal fork and recreates Don Quixote with an electrical outlet. Rather than take tried and tested methods, Aion used the nuclear option: When an adult has two kids fighting over a cookie, and neither wants to share said cookie, and one child had the cookie first, the parent eats it. Resolving an issue through mutual destruction doesn’t end with all parties satisfied, it ends with no parties satisfied. NCsoft is still working to fix imbalances caused by the mergers and transfers, so I’ll be following that for the next few weeks.
There is also growing rage against CCP with Eve Online, which I’ve been following for the past few months. I’m going to talk about that in the coming week or so. But until then, here’s my highlights of the month:
July kicked off with the announcement that the Playstation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIV would be delayed until March 2011 in order to fix a few issues. I’ve been very open with my distrust in console MMOs, and the delay of Final Fantasy has done nothing to alleviate those concerns. FFXIV will absolutely come out, but going into the future I think we’re going to see the same lack of hospitality from Microsoft towards MMOs on the 360. As this was BBB month on MMO Fallout, Square Enix stays strong with an A rating.
And speaking of MMOs not coming out on the 360. Cryptic jumped into the growing $25 mount fad with their own version: The $25 Galaxy-X starship. Aside from being a spaceship, this cash shop item comes with a bit more of a boost than your average $25 mount. This ship has special abilities, and is in the upper tier of ships. Cryptic’s BBB rating has been staying steady at C+.
If a kid with dynamite strapped to his chest asks where the Blizzard offices are, tell him I’m not at work. In what will likely end up being 2010’s most controversial move, Blizzard announced that your forum posts would begin using your real names, no exception. Over the course of three days, the internet went absolutely nuts, and the Blizzard forums exploded. Three days is all it took for Blizzard to say “Hey, sorry, we won’t do that,” and retract their plans. It just goes to show, when a giant like Blizzard stirs the hive, no one is safe from the swarm. Blizzard’s BBB rating has plummeted from an A+ to a B in the BBB.
Less controversy, more individuality. How many MMOs have you played where game-time is a lootable item? I’ll be more precise: A game that is not a cash shop free-to-play. Give up? Add Eve Online to that list, and you’ll make one. CCP announced plans to make PLEX, the redeemable in-game game-time item, a normal item. What this means is players will be able to not only store it on their ship, but loot it from another player’s wreckage if they happen to be carrying it.
Back to the controversy for a moment. NCSoft is no stranger to controversy, and the community hit the fan when the plans for the Aion server mergers were announced. Rather than taking on precedent in MMOs, the Aion team went ahead and decided that rather than resolve name issues by using tried methods (activity, age of character), that they would instead rename all characters and require players to use the free name change support tickets. Needless to say, as I predicted, the servers were swamped on the day of the merge.
I mentioned last month that if All Points Bulletin wanted to have a long life, it was going to have to need less shooting and driving mechanics from All Points Bulletin, and more shooting and driving mechanics from a game someone would actually like to shoot or drive in. A few days later, I noted a new post on APB’s website, The Road Ahead, detailing plans to overhaul the driving and shooting mechanics, among other issues currently affected the game.
Sony Online Entertainment may be looking to bring people back to the old days of Star Wars Galaxies…with DC: Universe! In an interview this past month, we were given a sneak peak at the Green Lantern Corps, a powerset that will be fairly exclusive and, if the developers have any say, will only be obtained by a small portion of players, possibly following a system similar to the original Jedi unlock.
Jagex is not content with just Runescape, FunOrb, and War of Legends. Earlier this month, Jagex confirmed that the upcoming sci-fi MMO Stellar Dawn would certainly be here in 2011. That wasn’t all of Jagex’s time in the news, as CEO Mark Gerhard made headlines calling Free Realms “insipid” and that the game “didn’t resonate with anyone, didn’t have any identity.”
In an interview with Eurogamer, Gerhard confirmed that Jagex has yet another MMO in the works, a fantasy title with no other details to present other than that Jagex is building a game from learned mistakes that could not be implemented in Runescape.
Those who favor the free-to-play realm should be very happy with this past July. In their own respective interviews, we were teased by the prospect of Age of Conan and Star Trek Online going free to play. Granted, both Funcom and Cryptic have said not to hold our breaths, but as far as MMOs go I will hold my breath as long as it suits me.
But less speculation, more confirmation! Everquest II is the next title to take the fall with Everquest II Extended. Unlike the varying attempts we have seen already, Sony is opting to separate EQ2X from the normal Everquest II and bill it as its own game. Servers and services will be segregated, and EQ2X will feature heavy cash shop focus, with pricing tiers similar to Dungeons and Dragons Online. The “vanilla” Everquest 2 will be unaffected.
And, unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Late this month, NCsoft announced that their free to play game Exteel would be shutting down on September 1st. In a letter to the community, NCsoft expressed their regrets that the developer found the game “no longer financially viable,” and decided to globally shut down the servers. In the coming weeks, NCsoft will announce compensation plans for players.
Speaking of NCsoft, Richard Garriot announced that he is very pleased with the court’s decision in his lawsuit against NCsoft. Garriot sued NCsoft one year ago on allegations that the company fired him, and then covered up his termination with a falsified letter claiming that he had resigned, which would forgo him many of the stock options offered to him in his contract in case of termination. NCsoft is expected to fight this decision.
MMO Fallout 