Author: Admin

Jagex Looking To Lap Up The Guildford Unemployed


Back in September, Codemasters announced that it would be shuttering its Guildford studio, following the poor performance of Bodycount, the developer’s new first person shooter. Just last week, Electronic Arts announced that their Guildford Studio would be facing redundancy layoffs, or possibly a complete studio closure. On the one hand, EA did state that employees laid off at the studio would be considered for other positions at EA.

Not missing an opportunity to pick up the local talent, Jagex will be holding an event in Guildford to recruit the recently unemployed. The event will take place at the White House Pub on October 25th from 4pm. Last year, Jagex followed a number of other developers in picking up the ex-employees of Realtime Worlds after the studio closed down and APB went offline.

Turbine Issues Account Security Warning


Greetings,

Turbine is concerned that a third-party recently may have attempted to access forum account information. There is no indication at this time that your account was modified or compromised. For your protection we suggest you change the password to a unique, hard to guess password not associated with any other sites or services. If you changed your password after October 11th, then you can disregard this message.

To change your password, please follow these steps:

  1. Go to https://myaccount.turbine.com/ and click on “Forgot your password?” You may also click this in the game launcher.
  2. Follow the instructions on how to recover your password. A new password will be sent to this e-mail address.
  3. Once you have received the password reset e-mail, change your password. Please remember to use unique, hard-to guess passwords that are not associated with other online services or sites.

Turbine takes your account security seriously. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at https://support.turbine.com/. You may submit a new inquiry to our Customer Service team, and they will be able to assist you further.

Thank you,

Turbine Support

(Source: Email sent out to Turbine account holders.)

John Smedley on Everquest, Free To Play, Vita, and More


For the record I tried to hold off on the “are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I make no promises. In an interview with Gamespot, Sony Online Entertainment’s President John Smedley sat down to talk about Everquest, DC Universe, and more. Most important, Smedley mentioned that Sony has no intent on shuttering Everquest at any point in the foreseeable future.

 I look at EverQuest the way I look at Dungeons & Dragons. We’re on version 4 of D&D and people are still playing in droves. Look at Magic: The Gathering…15 years I think of an awesome game. So we are big believers that this franchise is going to be there for a very long time, and we’re investing in it a lot.

Sony has quite the load on their hands, with upcoming MMOs Planetside 2, Everquest Next, and the transition of DC Universe to free to play later this month. The developer has also shown interest in revitalizing their much-neglected MMO Vanguard, as well as a heavy hand in development for Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures. In the same interview, Smedley also confirmed that SOE plans on utilizing the Vita for its own products, but would not comment on specifics. All I know is that if Everquest is ported over to Vita, I can kiss my productivity and wallet goodbye.

When asked about the changing environment of the MMO pricing model, Smedley commented that although the market is shifting toward free to play, the subscription model definitely still has its place, especially with The Old Republic coming this December. In essence, the subscription isn’t going anywhere until the fat lady sings.

This is good news, especially after Ten Ton Hammer published a rather in-depth article on the issue of cheating in Everquest. You can read up on that here.

Jagex Fighting Runescape Bots: Traps


I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge creative efforts by Jagex to get rid of bots, given all the grief I’ve thrown at the company over the past year or so. In today’s update on Runescape, Jagex specifically targets gold farmers automating the killing of frost dragons, a lucrative money maker for high level players. A few changes to note:

  • There is a bone pile in the corner of the map, which cannot be reached. The idea is that a bot will keep trying to reach the bones.
  • Dragons now have a new attack, where the player must stop attacking or be damaged.
Jagex notes that this is just the first of many planned updates to beat bots. I have a feeling that this system will be beaten within a week, but it’s good to see that the company is making changes that do not involve either restricting players or trumpeting ineffective ban numbers.

Turbine: Change Your Passwords


Number one question coming into MMO Fallout over the past few days: Has username and password information been stolen from Turbine’s forums? The answer, until something official can be confirmed, should be taken as a probably. While not confirming that any data was stolen, Turbine posted a news bulletin of the forum maintenance with the added note that polayers should change their passwords.

As an additional precaution we recommend that all players change their passwords by visiting http://myaccount.turbine.com. Please remember to use unique, hard-to guess passwords that are not associated with other online services or sites, and always look for and report unusual activity in your account to Turbine customer support.

I recommend changing your password proactively.

Community Concerns: How Should Security Be Rated?


In case you hadn’t noticed, Week in Review (much like Month in Review before it) is going the way of the dodo. I’d rather utilize my Sundays to discuss more meaningful topics to MMO Fallout than the metaphorical digging from the trash bin I did in past months. I always have something in the works to make MMO Fallout less of a news source and more of an information database, to make my articles less time-based (less likely to be outdated) while at the same time staying relevant and interesting.

My current project is to discuss and rate the security on a company by company basis, which I will be doing hopefully in each Sunday’s editorial. I can guarantee an editorial every Sunday, but not that it will be on security, because some of the questions I will be asking need direct information from customer support, and we all know how fast they generally respond.

If I don’t bring this up now, someone will point it out: Yes, I am including actual security breaches in the analysis.

1. Prevention

How well do publishers prevent an account from being broken into in the first place?

  • Authenticators (either dongle or app form)
  • On-screen PIN (clicked with mouse, sends encrypted message, not through keyboard)
  • Computer recognition (Only recognized computers may log in)
  • IP recognition (If an account suddenly logs in from another country, it is locked)

2. Recovery

Once the account is stolen, how is the process?

  • How long does it take an account to lock down?
  • What damage can be done while the active account is moving about?
  • Can the thief plant information to later use to steal back the account?
  • etc.

3. Cleanup

Once the account is returned to its rightful owner.

  • Compensation (does the company return lost items/characters)

This isn’t the entire list of questions I’ll be taking into account, but it is rather comprehensive. Hopefully I can get some of these developers to get on board and help me out.

GDC Online Awards: MMO Awards


No, Games Developers Conference Online, the piggy nibbler award is for me. GDCO has come and gone, and although the Golden Joystick Awards won’t be released for a little while longer, I wanted to share the results. Because what makes for more controversy and argument than the opinion of someone who molded a piece of metal to represent that opinion?

  • Spiral Knights (Best Online Game Design)
  • DC Universe (Best Online Visual Arts)
  • Rift (Best Online Technology)
  • Wizard101 (Best Community)
  • Shadow Cities (Online Innovation Award)
  • Clone Wars Adventures (Best Audio for an Online Game)
  • Minecraft (Best Community Relations)
  • Garden of Time (Best Social Network Game)
Everquest was also inducted into the GDCO Hall of Fame, next to Ultima Online.

Important: Final Fantasy XIV Subscriptions Start Soon


It’s been ten long months since someone at Square Enix restructured the Final Fantasy XIV team with the human resources equivalent of a carpet bomb, and since then the game has arguably come a long way, both in the huge number of updates bringing in new content, much needed content, fixing the old, purging the bad (physical levels?) and a new way of thinking for the FFXIV team. Unfortunately for us, the time we all knew was coming has shown is ugly head: The free period of Final Fantasy XIV will be coming to a close.

In a new lodestone, President Yoichi Wada announced that the transition will come in late November or early December of this year 2012. But hey, anyone who has been with FFXIV since the beginning has had a full year to play for free. Unless you are me, who adopted early and thanks to my already slow leveling process managed to get three skills above level ten. More importantly, as any person who bought the game should question, what about the subscriptions we still had to sign up to when the game started?

Anyone who has played FINAL FANTASY XIV at any time since its release is already in possession of a FINAL FANTASY XIV service account. These accounts are set to renew their subscriptions automatically, barring deactivation by the account holder. Therefore, if we were to begin regular subscription billings for all existing contracts, players who will not see this announcement or who may not currently wish to pay subscription fees would automatically begin to be charged for their accounts. To avoid this, we have decided to first suspend all automated renewals for service accounts. Only account holders who have agreed to reactivate the automated renewal system will be billed.

That’s generous of them. Final Fantasy has had a year of player dropoff, making for a lot of people who stopped playing and probably don’t follow the game anymore. You can read the entire announcement, as well as download a few documents outlining the team’s plans for the future.

Warhammer Online Isn’t Going Free To Play


I’m sure a lot of people expect me to do the usual poking of fun at Mythic over Warhammer Online, and truth be told I have enough content to fill more than just an introductory and self-parodying paragraph. So for the sake of getting to the point, I will not be referring to Warhammer as “boring crap,” nor will I make a joke about Mythic apparently not seeing the worth in players investing in the MMO, apparently even if that investment is absolutely nothing. And for once, I will stop inciting Mark Jacobs.

VP Eugene Evans over at Bioware Mythic wants the world to know that Warhammer Online is alive and still fighting for survival, and much like the steak supply in a house full of vegetarians, isn’t going anywhere. Evans stated that subscriptions on Warhammer Online have actually risen since the announcement of the free to play MOBA. That being said, if players want Warhammer for free, they’re going to have to turn to Wrath of Heroes. Warhammer, according to Mythic, has no intention on shutting down, nor does it have any intention on going free.

“We also think this is a better approach. You know, how do you make it more accessible? How do you make it a fun experience out of the door? So we’re really starting almost from the ground-up but having the benefit of being able to draw on everything we’ve learned from producing Warhammer Online.”

Since today has seen some conspiracy theories, let’s take a guess on the intention behind Warhammer never going free to play. It’s a successful business move, and if WAR needs anything it’s a bigger community, so who is behind it? Does the team really think that keeping the subscription is best, or does this have to do with EA’s refusal to move their other MMOs into the free to play realm?

Warhammer Online Isn't Going Free To Play


I’m sure a lot of people expect me to do the usual poking of fun at Mythic over Warhammer Online, and truth be told I have enough content to fill more than just an introductory and self-parodying paragraph. So for the sake of getting to the point, I will not be referring to Warhammer as “boring crap,” nor will I make a joke about Mythic apparently not seeing the worth in players investing in the MMO, apparently even if that investment is absolutely nothing. And for once, I will stop inciting Mark Jacobs.

VP Eugene Evans over at Bioware Mythic wants the world to know that Warhammer Online is alive and still fighting for survival, and much like the steak supply in a house full of vegetarians, isn’t going anywhere. Evans stated that subscriptions on Warhammer Online have actually risen since the announcement of the free to play MOBA. That being said, if players want Warhammer for free, they’re going to have to turn to Wrath of Heroes. Warhammer, according to Mythic, has no intention on shutting down, nor does it have any intention on going free.

“We also think this is a better approach. You know, how do you make it more accessible? How do you make it a fun experience out of the door? So we’re really starting almost from the ground-up but having the benefit of being able to draw on everything we’ve learned from producing Warhammer Online.”

Since today has seen some conspiracy theories, let’s take a guess on the intention behind Warhammer never going free to play. It’s a successful business move, and if WAR needs anything it’s a bigger community, so who is behind it? Does the team really think that keeping the subscription is best, or does this have to do with EA’s refusal to move their other MMOs into the free to play realm?