What Happened This Week: Love Your Thread Title Edition

MMO Fallout wouldn’t be what it is today (and that isn’t say much as it is) without the inspiration I receive from reading forum posts, so this week’s Week In Review is dedicated to all of the completely non-biased people out there who registered at MMORPG.com to explain to me why x-company is a scam outfit and why x-MMO will probably stab me and steal my kidney…but you don’t have an agenda. I read these threads, too. Not to gain any insightful information, but purely for the entertainment. From an aesthetic point of view, it’s like seeing a homeless guy in a dirty, patched up trench coat in New York City holding a sign that says “the end is near” screaming as loud as he can for someone to listen to him. So you do, and you even throw five bucks in his hat to contribute to his meth habit device to stop the apocalypse.

I spot the good threads immediately on the thread ticker, because they always sound the same: “Unbiased preview of Star Wars: The Old Republic” devolves into why the game will flop and Bioware will go bankrupt. “Honest thoughts on ____ from a fanboy” is one that gets me. I don’t think anyone is questioning your genuine nature, perhaps the reason your thread is being trashed is because your thoughts, although honest, were neither educated nor enlightened.

So instead of going over some news, I’ll use the top 5 list to talk about some topics of interest.

1. DUST 514 and Final Fantasy XI: Could Signal Playstation Vita Dominance

I love and hate the idea of MMOs on the Playstation Vita, but all signs point toward the system being able to support true MMOs. Square Enix has already signed on to port Final Fantasy XI over, and CCP wants to put DUST 514 on the console, hopefully with more titles in the future. Should the Vita (with its 3G internet) prove capable of bringing the genre to a portable mode, I think we’ll see more companies jumping on. Then we might see a World of Warcraft port to Playstation Vita, and all productivity would be gone.

But in all serious discussion, having MMOs on the Vita would certainly drive the system up. Pulled away from the computer during a raid in World of Warcraft to go to the store? Sign off on the PC, and sign back in on the Vita, and you won’t have to worry about your random dungeon group putting you on ignore or calling you names or something.

Addiction? Thy name is Vita.

2. Now We Play The Waiting Game, Faxion Online

At this point, Faxion Online is in about the same position Chronicles of Spellborn was two years ago, minus the commitment from Acclaim to keep the title going. The game is online, but apparently has no one working on it. The servers are online, but the game has no support. The question that remains is how many people are still investing money into a game that may shut down as soon as later on today, or as long as a year from now, with no measured response from UTV? A look at the forums would tell you nobody, but the big spenders are also generally relatively quiet about their spending.

Otherwise how would Alganon still be running?

3. How Many Last Times Do You Need?

Ubisoft released a game. Normally I need not say more, what with many of your thoughts immediately turning to the topics of shoddy PC ports, brainless DRM, and bugs. The release of From Dust brought with it controversy, not just because the game is being hailed as a buggy port of a console game, but because players feel lied to over the inclusion of Ubisoft’s famed always-on DRM, requiring the user to be connected every time they start up the game, rather than the “one time activation” Ubisoft previous promised.

But Ubisoft doesn’t work MMOs, and From Dust isn’t an MMO, so why the notch here? If I had a nickel for every time I saw the same person posting “I will never buy from ____ again,” I would put those nickels in a sock and beat them with it. The repeat offenders, moreso, because they are often the worst. Here is a thought: When a company is known for lying about its products, perhaps the best idea is not to pre-order them.

For example, I didn’t pre-order Gods & Heroes from Heatwave Interactive because I know fully well how indie developers fare with MMOs. Oh I’ll buy it, but not until the price comes down on the boxed copy.

4. No, You Won’t Get Banned For Your Language Of Choice

Hellgate Global is one of a few games I play that carries international servers, yet officially expects players to speak English. Barring the obvious “not everyone speaks English” bit, I’ve found that none of the GM’s in-game were actually willing to ban a player for breaking this rule. In the closed beta, they popped in every now and then to say “please speak English only,” but that was the extent of the enforcement.

As long as you aren’t spamming, you should be fine. To the players who fill the chat box by whining about the players not speaking English, there is an ignore function and I suggest you use it: I certainly have to block your posts.

5. What Happens If The Old Republic’s Servers Buckle?

I think I’ve brought this up before, but it warrants repeating. Bioware has confirmed that they are artificially limiting the amount of copies of The Old Republic being sold before launch, and at launch, in order to ensure that players are not stuck behind queues, servers crashing, intense lag, and other rounds of downtime that affect virtually every MMO upon release. After launch, Bioware will increase the amount of copies available as they see fit, and as their server structure is capable of supporting those players.

So I don’t think it needs to be said that some of TOR’s success at launch will be directly tied to Bioware being able to keep their servers steady. After all, nothing says alienating potential players by first telling them that they can’t buy the game, but then turning around and having those safety measures be for nothing. On Rift’s side, Trion has avoided adding servers by continually increasing server capacity.