Getting a Cryptic member to post on the official forums is not exactly an impossible task, many of them do it on a daily basis. On the Star Trek Online forums, CapnLogan (of the Cryptic Logans) went on to explain his work on saucer separation, among other updates he had planned and others which could be planned (if the users complained enough, wink wink). When a user asked if certain updates were being delayed due to polygon restrictions or time allotment, he responded:
The extent to Cryptic shrinking the Star Trek Online team is yet to be seen, or in what areas, and how this is affecting development (because as CapnLogan has point out, it is clearly affecting development). MMO Fallout will be looking for some specific information to add on to this article.
More on Star Trek Online, and Cryptic’s other MMOs, as it appears.
Earlier I reported on Sony handing out the pink slips to 35 unnamed employees dispersed to several different projects (to ensure the public that they were not targeting one specific game), and if you assumed Vanguard was among the layoffs, you would be correct. A few ex-Sony employees have chimed in on the forums, confirming the layoffs and reporting that among the games affected are mainly Everquest II, Vanguard, and The Agency. Only a few of the employees were actually named, including Joel Sasaki, the Vanguard Community Manager, as well as Brett Scheinert, the man responsible for the Everquest II: Sentinel’s Fate raid design.
Best of luck to those affected. MMO Fallout will continue covering MMO developers, through the good and bad.
Bike dwarf aside, let me ask you something: How much do you expect to pay for a lifetime membership? Depending on which MMO you go to, assuming it even offers such a deal, you’re probably looking at between one and two hundred dollars. Very few MMOs offer lifetime subscriptions, as although it does offer a large upswing in cash, it is one-time and assuming the player utilizes the full amount worth, you then have a player riding for free.
In Free Realms, Sony’s foray into the kid-friendly world of MMOs, they are offering lifetime membership for thirty bucks. Even better, if you have (in the past) purchased 12-month subscription packages, you will be automatically converted to the lifetime membership at no charge.
Getting into, and staying in, Free Realms just got a whole lot cheaper. So if you have a kid who plays this game, or you play it with them, there is not time better than the present to turn them into an MMO junkie.
“In a move to better align the company’s resources against areas of growth that meet consumer demand in today’s online market as well as improve operational efficiency, Sony Online Entertainment has eliminated just over 4% of its full-time workforce, equaling 35 people. The changes will better position SOE to deliver against its emphasis on developing games for a wider, more diverse audience and remaining a worldwide leader in online gaming.”
I would put my money on Vanguard being one of the games to lose at least one person. With the economy the way it is, I don’t think anyone can blame Sony for having to do some restructuring, following a number of other MMO developers who have had layoffs these past few years. Hopefully those thirty five employees were not from Sony’s account services sector.
On that note, security is a day to day issue with MMOs, with potential account thieves never sleeping in their quest to take your stuff. That being said, I make a note not to talk about security as much because it seems as though when any small group of people have their account stolen, at least one of them will presume that there is some massive wave of account theft going on or, in the case of Aion, that the company is working with the account thieves. When the developer itself releases a security alert, however, I pay attention.
Sony this week announced a security alert for Everquest II and Station, warning players of emails being sent directing users to URLs that look virtually identical to the actual Sony website: http://auth.station.sony.com
If you feel your account may have been compromised by one of these emails, you can contact Sony through their chat, email, or directly through their phone customer support.
Title aside, I have to say I love when MMO developers surprise me with updates. For example, a few years ago Jagex released the long awaited player owned houses on Runescape with the advertisement simply stating players would be allowed to “sit on chairs.” For many of the previous few skills, aside from Dungeoneering and Summoning, the skill releases were fairly large surprises. Perhaps it is the idea that, by not giving any information as to upcoming large updates, the company can remove the player-driven hype factor that precedes releases, and the unrealistic expectations that come with it.
So I imagine many players on Aika Online were pleasantly surprised when the latest patch went live, introducing the “lead nation” system. With this new update, the “lead nation,” as calculated by the system, will be unable to form alliances for the week that it is the lead nation. Afterwards a new nation will be picked for the next week, and the cycle will continue. This is to ensure that lead nations can’t partner with just as powerful nations in order to dominate the playing field.
Not to point out Aika Online and Runescape specifically, as there are plenty of MMOs that have surprised with major updates. I’m not part of the group that attains unrealistic expectations, nor do I necessarily assume the worst out of an impending update, but I do prefer surprises to long, drawn out teasers and trailers.
Previously known as Mechscape, Jagex’s entry into the Sci-fi genre of MMO brotherhood has had a shaky startup. Not only has the title been delayed, canned, delayed again, seen two CEOs, but there hasn’t been much in terms of coverage for the fledgling title. Promised to not be “Runescape In Space” (likely why Mechscape was dropped as its name), Stellar Dawn is set to be Jagex’s biggest new offering to date, next to Dungeons of Demonheim on Runescape.
Luckily, Stellar Dawn has officially launched its website with an early 2011 release date. Over on the Stellar Dawn website, you can apply for the closed beta, check out some concept art, and join the forums to discuss the upcoming game.
When Realtime Worlds announced that All Points Bulletin would not feature a cash shop, of course they meant “unless the voices in our heads tell us that the community wants a $25 mount.” Whether or not you enjoy paying over an existing subscription fee, I think we can all agree that the cash shop system is sweeping its way through the MMO frontier, regardless of what you or I may think about it. There are real concerns in your favorite MMO swapping to a Turbine model, or the Cryptic/Sony double-dipping system.
Fans of Final Fantasy XIV take heart: Square Enix will not be putting a cash shop in (unless you ask for it). And even if you ask for it, Square will adamantly refuse to allow a person’s real money equate to how much power they have in-game, meaning that anything added to a FFXIV cash shop will be vanity only. Although there are those who oppose cash shops in subscription games in all forms, vanity or not, this news should bring a sigh of relief to those holding off their preorders out of fear of a Turbine-esque shift some six months to a year in the future post-launch.
The last time I talked about All Points Bulletin, I believe I said something along the lines of…
“…if Realtime Worlds wants to bill itself as a competitive online shooter, then the shooting and driving mechanics need to be overhauled yesterday.”
-Omali, MMO Fallout, On All Points Bulletin
That’s it. Dave Jones of Realtime Worlds has already said he expected All Points Bulletin to receive bad reviews, and his prediction came true almost immediately after the game launched. The major points that the reviews and critics of the game focused on were the driving and shooting mechanics. For a game that bills itself around driving and shooting, driving a car was a test of patience, and shooting was a matter of who had the better gun or the best camping spot.
In a recent announcement on the website, Realtime Worlds put out an article titled “The Road Ahead.” In the article, Neil Castle announces plans to overhaul the driving system, allowing for the same old drifting while also increasing handling and giving the vehicles less of a sloppy feel. In addition, all aspects of the shooting and weapons systems are being looked at and balanced.
These are just two updates coming in a major overhaul to All Points Bulletin, that will change the way missions are structured, how cheaters are dealt with, players camping in certain areas, and more. Hopefully this will bring just the upgrade All Points Bulletin needs to become the driving, shooting game that people might actually want to play for the driving and shooting aspects (and not just the character creator).
Today’s news gets stranger and stranger. Earlier today, it was reported that TERA, upcoming MMO by Bluehole Studios, has been subsidized by the Korean Government. As part of the Global Plan, the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has selected Bluehole to be part of their fund in an effort to expand Korea’s presence in the MMO realm (this is where you point out the hundred thousand Korean MMOs on the market). It is quite an exclusive program, and is one of nine projects selected.
Don’t worry, it gets stranger. Heading back over to the states, our news focuses on 38 Studios, which at this point in times is located in Massachusetts. As it seems, Rhode Island is very interested in having 38 Studios, with their upcoming MMO Copernicus, and they were willing to extend an olive branch. Granted, the olive branch already existed, but Rhode Island is offering 38 Studios a guaranteed $75 million loan in exchange for relocating the company. For a teeny tiny company like 38 Studios, the thought of a guaranteed $75 million must be a godsend (or a nightmare imagining paying that back).
Next time on MMO Fallout? I’m still waiting on the release of Kim Jong Ill’s MMO.
Those of you who have seen my Better Business Bureau articles may have wondered at one point: But Omali, what do you think about the ESRB? My answer, of course, is I hold the ESRB in the highest, most prestigious form…of contempt. The ESRB was formed in an attempt to rate games based off of their content, particularly because parents feared at the time that a company would put out a game titled “Mr. Friendly the Baker in Fairy Land” that would end up with Mr. Friendly taking an AK-47 and mowing down some of his less friendly customers. On the other hand, the ESRB has trenched itself into the American (with equivalents in most other countries) psyche so well that most retailers will not carry a game that has not been rated. Rather than offering parents a guide with which to purchase games for their kids (parents don’t look at the ratings, how do you think kids get on Halo?), it instead opened up an avenue through which kids would funnel money into an M rated game, simply because it was M-rated, and thus full of blood and guts. The ESRB does occasionally make the news for leaking unannounced games.
When Blizzard was still intending on putting in the RealID system, requiring players to post with their real names, the ESRB fielded a lot of complaints. Once the scare was over, however, a reply email was sent to all of those who had emailed in. The problem? Whoever sent out the email from the ESRB replied to all, meaning anyone who received the email could easily look and find over a thousand email addresses of those who had sent complaints.
The email was this, for those of you who didn’t complain:
Thank you for contacting the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) regarding the policy recently announced by Blizzard Entertainment which would have required participants in its official forums to post comments using their real first and last names, and for expressing your concerns regarding potential privacy implications.
It is our understanding that Blizzard has provided an update announcing that it will not be implementing the above-referenced policy with respect to its forums, and users will not be required to post using their real names. You can read Blizzard’s announcement regarding this most recent development athttp://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1&pageNo=1.
Separately, if you have questions regarding Blizzard’s implementation of its Real ID option — which by our understanding is unrelated to Blizzard’s plans for its forums — and/or the new capabilities this option offers, they will likely be answered by reviewing the information posted at http://www.battle.net/realid/.
ESRB, through its Privacy Online program, helps companies develop practices to safeguard users’ personal information online while still providing a safe and enjoyable video game experience for all. We appreciate your taking the time to contact us with your concerns, and please feel free to direct any future inquiries you may have regarding online privacy to our attention.
Regards,
Entertainment Software Rating Board
Would that be irony? Or just a depressing turn of events?
MMO Fallout 