Author: Admin

Speaking of Macrotransactions: Bigpoint's $1,000 Spaceship


I hesitate to talk trash about Bigpoint games, and not just because the company could throw a million bucks my way to shut me up and it’d be like the CEO dropped a few pennies out of his pocket, but because the company has indeed found a way to monetize any aspect of their games as promised. And the players? Could not be more overjoyed, at least according to the $200 million that Bigpoint drew in in 2010.

The spaceship that you see to the left has sold two thousand copies in four days. DarkOrbit, by Bigpoint Games, has put this item up for sale for the insane price of €1,000 or approximately $1,337 USD (I see what they did there).

Bigpoint is, and really always has been, the company to come right up front and admit that they sell power, and that there are plenty of people willing to pay major sums of money for that power. I find interesting how many people are disputing that the numbers presented are fact. I dispute the claim that The Old Republic will not be profitable, but I don’t dispute sales figures put out by a company who stands to lose a lot of good faith and press if they lie.

All I know is, Bigpoint has nothing on Eve Online’s theorized $10,000 golden ship.

Mythos Will Not Die: Coming Back In December


Stupid Omali, why did you delete the Mythos category? Frogster might be finished with Mythos, but that isn’t stopping Hanbitsoft from completing its collection of dead Flagship Studios projects by scooping up the title and announcing the first closed beta test of Mythos Global. Set to begin December 1st, Hanbitsoft wants you to know that this is not the same Mythos that crashed in Europe, but a better Mythos.

More information to come.

Jagex Fights Gold Farmers, Restricts Free Accounts


Nuking bots from an MMO is easy, at least in comparison with nuking actual gold farmers. After all, programs can be broken from the outside, manipulated into revealing themselves, and detected through various means. But how can you know that the person behind the account grinding dragons for five hours is any different than the player grinding dragons for five hours to sell the gold for real money? Not until he actually makes the sale, and even then proving that the sale was for real cash is incredibly difficult.

With the new website, Jagex has announced restrictions for all new free accounts going in effect today:

  • New free-to-play accounts can only give away gold coins or items, or make a trade with an imbalance in the recipient’s favour, to the value of 25000 coins per 24 hours. This limitation also applies to drop trades.
  • New free-to-play accounts can make Duel Arena bets with no greater imbalance than 25000 coins per 24 hours.
  • We have also made a change to Wilderness PvP, where noted items will only appear to the original carrier when dropped upon death; not the killer. This affects all accounts – not just ones subject to the limitations above.

“The limitations will remain in effect until the affected account purchases membership. Subscribing will remove these restrictions permanently, even if the subscription later ends and is not renewed.”

It’s disappointing to see how much rampant gold farming can affect a game for its players.

DC Universe F2P Fun Facts, And Vanguard Free To Play?


If tweets carried a physical representation, the updates by John Smedley today would look not unlike grasping critics by the hair and smearing their faces in Sony’s statistics. Earlier today, Smedley tweeted a few of DC Universe’s accomplishments since its move to free to play:

  • Over 100% pre-f2p concurrent users.
  • 6% growth daily.
  • 700% increase in revenue (47% PC / 53% PS3)
  • Over 85% of daily logins are returning players.

Additionally, a user by the name of mupchu777 tweeted to John Smedley: “how about making vanguard saga of Heroes ftp… If not just kill the game already.” Mr. Smedley tweeted a response, “stay tuned.”

Cryptic.

Video of the ____: Chuck Norris Allows World of Warcraft To Survive.


There are ten million people in World of Warcraft, because Chuck Norris allows them to live. This new ad went live during the NFL Chargers vs Bears game.

New Everquest II Matrix And F2P Details


When Sony turned Everquest II into two services, they did so for a number of reasons, not least of which being a negative push back from the (at the time) current population of subscribers who did not want even more cash shop interference. And for what it’s worth, those of us on the Extended servers should be thanking these tough defenders, because when Sony merges the two services in December, those of us on the Extended servers will see a notable boost in what content we have available to us with a simple .

Gold players (subscribers) will now be able to access all races and all classes, according to the new free to play matrix. As many of you know, Platinum (the $200 yearly plan) is gone to anyone except recurring subscribers. You can find even more information on the transition here, while the EQ2 Wire has posted information that recurring subscribers will also be treated to monthly Station Cash injections into their accounts. Sony will also be discontinuing service with Live Gamer, the player to player auction house for RMT, around this time.

Coming December, there is a new way to spell Everquest II, and it’s l-o-d-s of e-m-o-n-e, and what’s that spell? Loads of money!

Probably.

New Player Experience: Is Vanguard Prepping For Free To Play?


Here’s something you didn’t expect to hear today: A Vanguard content patch was released. Sony Online Entertainment has been making relatively good on its past promise to begin supporting the title, and has unleashed a new dungeon as well as a new player experience. For starters, corpse recovery has been removed, making death less frustrating. Additionally, the experience required to attain each level has been scaled back, as well as increased loot drops (permanent) and the “golden path,” a leveling guide that assists players in finding areas to gain experience.

So is Vanguard in the preparation stages for free to play? It would certainly seem so, what with laying down the carpet and rose petals for the influx of players that the change would bring. We’ll be keeping an eye on Sony for the time being.

Crimecraft To Add Persistent Territory Control


I love Crimecraft, even if the Bleedout campaign mode often makes me want to punch a small kitten, but the trailer for the upcoming Gangwars update carries a lot more gore and dismembered body parts than I remember seeing in-game, to which I say: Kudos! Set following the Bleedout campaign, Gangwars sees the rise of player gangs out of their usual role of ragtag drug addled thugs shooting one another in the street, and takes the fight to a persistent territory control system.

You can find details on the expansion here. The update also brings with it new all sorts of new stuff. This almost makes me want to join a decent gang. Almost.

And Now An Unsolicited Testimonial: Tribes Ascend


Tribes: Ascend is not Tribes Universe, let’s get that out of the way from the start. The game is not the multi-hundred player shooter ala Planetside that Hi-Rez had promised us, that game is currently on hold until development of Tribes: Ascend finishes. Now that we have that out of the way, Tribes Ascend is an upcoming shooter by Hi-Rez, the same guys that made Global Agenda. Billed as free to play from the start, Ascend is offering a rather useful package for those that preorder. The package costs $30, and bequeaths upon you 3,000 Tribes gold ($30 worth), a 30-day booster for experience, tokens, and points ($15 on cash shop) and lifetime VIP status which gives you a permanent boost in said exp/tokens/points, as well as priority access and VIP-only servers.

I love Tribes, and Ascend does an outstanding job of bringing the fast paced action back to its glory days. A third map was added in today, there are currently two game modes (capture the flag and rabbit), with continuous updates as the game progresses through the closed beta phase. I can’t help but be amazed once again at the skill of longtime Tribes players, who are able to use the geometry to move faster than I can keep track of them. They’re like watching someone extremely skilled in Sonic the Hedgehog, the speed at which they can still react fluently is beyond comprehension.

Playing completely free, I have a lot of respect for you. You have access right off the bat to the soldier (with that spinner disc launcher) and a gunner class, but everything else is locked up unless you buy gold coins to unlock the classes, preorder the game to obtain the 3,000 gold to buy the classes, or grind an enormous amount of tokens to unlock the classes for free. Each loadout costs 15,000 tokens to unlock for free, and now that my character is halfway through level 5, with the added VIP bonus, I’ve achieved around 1,200 tokens.

If you’ve been playing Tribes, odds are we’ve come across one another (my username is Omali). I’ve come across familiar faces quite a bit, especially since I tend to play in the off-hours. Otherwise, check out my Twitter page to see how you can nab a beta key.

Darkfall Free Weekend: This Weekend


Rejoice, fans of free for all sandbox MMOs, because Aventurine has a proposition for you. If you’ve departed Darkfall for any reason in the past, you are cordially invited to come back and experience the changes that have occurred in your absence. The instructions are relatively simple:

Anyone who does not have a currently running subscription needs simply login via the Account Management Page, ( here for European accounts, and here for US accounts) click on the button to activate your free days, and enjoy the benefits of our Happy-Hour weekend! All running subscriptions will automatically have 3 free days added to their account and don’t need to take any action other than to log-in.

The welcome back weekend lasts from Friday to Monday, according to the email sent out by Aventurine to past subscribers. In addition, players will partake in 400% experience gain, plus a massive increase in drop-rates and items dropped by foes.

So what do you have to lose? Other than everything equipped and on your inventory.