Author: Admin

MMOments: Secret World Legends and the Power Of Second Impressions


The Secret World will go down in history as one of the few games to put some of its executives in actual, physical prison, a strong connection considering that the game itself didn’t exactly leave much of a splash on the genre when it launched in 2012. It’s disappointing but true, while critics were praising the title for its intelligent missions and players were getting through the launch ARG, the game initially tanked Funcom’s stock value and never really garnered the kind of following it deserved or really needed. It was no failure by any means, don’t get me wrong, but five years later, the game is in some dire need of a reboot.

For those who haven’t given The Secret World a look, Secret World Legends is a not-exactly-horror game set on modern day Earth with a lore steeped in conspiracy. To picture the world you will inhabit, imagine that every conspiracy theory you’ve ever heard is true. The Illuminati exist but they don’t really control everything, there is a town in Solomon Island, Maine that has been besieged by zombies, the Egyptian gods were real, and Transylvania actually does have vampires living in it. Who knows, Bigfoot probably also exists. You start the game by choosing one of three factions to join: The Illuminati, the Dragon, and the Templars. Who you join basically determines your faction quest line and your choice of faction specific outfits, otherwise you’re pretty much going through the same zones and missions.

The absolute strongest aspect of Secret World Legends carries over from The Secret World: Its story telling. While the animations are about as stiff and lifeless as you’d expect from a Funcom game, the missions themselves are quite a bit of fun to go on. Best of all are the investigation missions, bits that have you solving rather difficult puzzles that require outside reading and research. Normally this is where I’d joke and say “grab your bible, because you’re going to need it,” but you’re actually going to need access to a bible if you don’t want to cheat and look up the answers. A number of the puzzles in Secret World Legends involved cracking open a bible and reading passages to find clues. Crazy, right?

You won’t be doing any long division or physics problems for the puzzles, they’re more understanding references and taking a look at the scenery. Some are obscure, require you to really soak in the scenery, while others are simple “the answer is the length of this song.” Almost every mission starts and ends with a cutscene, and usually some sort of message from your faction offering some more information on the case.

Combat is the next big thing in Secret World Legends, because the one that existed in The Secret World wasn’t exactly what you’d call…well received. This time around, combat is more action oriented, with a reduced number of slots for actions along with each weapon having its own special ability. Combat isn’t great, but it is a step up from the floatiness of The Secret World.

I can appreciate that the game points out harder enemies on the map, not only because they are more engaging to fight than the random mobs roaming around but because this game is seriously stingy when it comes to drops. I imagine that Trond Aas must be getting more from his commissary than Funcom is willing to dole out in goods. The plus side is that you don’t have to spend much time comparing stats since your weapon/talisman drops will just be recycled to gear up your current weapon, so the lack of loot is sort of complimented by the fact that it is mostly useless for purposes other than feeding your current equipment regardless.

As someone who abandoned The Secret World early over its lack of players (understandably contributing to just that problem), I’m glad to see Funcom give the game another chance rather than letting it slide into a slow death. While you would be within your rights to be angry about having to start over,

More impressions to come.

Exploit Knocks Secret World Legends Into Extended Downtime


What originally began as a simple maintenance downtime has resulted in the Secret World Legends servers being offline for much of the day, with services now expected to resume at 5pm eastern. The downtime originates from an exploit discovered in the game that allowed players to generate mass quantities of currency. As a result, Funcom has taken the servers down for an extended period of time to figure out what to do about the exploit and to deal with the spread of bad currency being injected into the economy.

We’re terribly sorry for any inconvenience caused by today’s extended maintenance. As some of you may know by now, there was an issue discovered with the Exchange and it’ll take time to come up with a proper solution to both the underlying issue and the effects it may have caused. Today’s maintenance period has been extended until at least 17:00 EDT / 21:00 UTC (please correct me if the conversion is wrong somehow) and we’ll try to keep you in the loop on any other developments. Patch notes will be posted on the official website at www.secretworldlegends.com once the servers are back up.

While the exploit itself wasn’t dealt with until this downtime, Funcom reacted quickly after learning of its existence and was able to disable to auction house to avoid further complications. For now, the servers aren’t expected to come back up until 5pm at the earliest.

(Source: Reddit)

PSA: Don’t Update Your The Secret World Launcher, It’s Broken


If you were thinking of checking out The Secret World in defiance of the head start launch of Secret World Legends, you might want to tread lightly in allowing your patcher to update itself. Why? Well players are finding that the The Secret World client is automatically updating itself to the Secret World Legends client, a similar but wholly different game in terms of servers and support from Funcom.

Luckily, there is a solution:

You have to download the new patcher from http://register.thesecretworld.com and install it to a DIFFERENT folder. Then copy the files from that folder into your old TSW folder and run the patcher as usual.

BACKUP your settings from %localappdata%\Funcom\TSW FIRST. The installer overwrites some of them.

This just locked some of us out of our final raids. Thank you, Funcom!

(Source: Funcom Forums)

Funcom Unveils Information Regarding The Secret World Transfers


Funcom is finally ready to hand over the details on Secret World Legends, namely the process by which you will transfer your character over. Starting Friday, June 23, you’ll be able to log into your account on the Secret World Legends website and transfer your account over. The transfer will only be available until an undetermined time in August and can only be performed once, so make it count!

For a limited time (until some time in August 2017), you can initiate a ONE-TIME copy of your current TSW clothing items and membership over to your Secret World Legends account.  Activating this also unlocks all of your weapon pages in Secret World Legends! Once you log into your Secret World Legends account page, click the TSW Legacy Transfer button to begin the process. That’s it! You get to choose exactly when your items and membership gets copied, but again, this is only available until some time in August.

Most clothing items barring faction rank gear will transfer over, as will pets. Achievement rewards will cross over but the achievements will not.

(Source: Secret World Legends)

One Year Later: Umbrella Corps Was Dead On Arrival


You didn’t need to be a psychic to tell that Umbrella Corps was going to come out of the gates and immediately crash into a brick wall, but I don’t think anyone actually foresaw it performing as poorly as it did given that its predecessor Operation Raccoon City still managed to hit 3 million sales despite overwhelmingly negative attention. Launched June 2016 as an alleged eSports title, Umbrella Corps peaked at 428 players on Steam and immediately crashed into the low double digits over the following 30 days.

And why not? It was the spiritual sequel nobody asked for to a spinoff from the Playstation 3 that few actually enjoyed despite it selling well. I suppose Capcom was hoping that customers wouldn’t subscribe to the whole “fool me once” ideology, and if they were then they misjudged the market. Fatally. It’s a bad sign when you announce your serious project and the customer base is treating it like a bad April Fool’s Day joke.

Umbrella Corps is a cover-based game where cover barely offers help and in many cases is actively detrimental, a shooter where in many situations guns are less preferable than your melee weapon, a zombie game with AI so inconceivably stupid that zombies will miss their attacks from close range or just outright ignore you, and a Resident Evil game embarrassing enough that Capcom decided to strip the game of its titular ties to the franchise prior to release. Like Raccoon City before it, Umbrella Corps shows the signs of a game that could have been much better had Capcom put into place a competent leadership utilizing realistic funding with genuine determination to see the game through to completion.

But they didn’t. Umbrella Corps was released alongside the Beginning Hour demo for Resident Evil 7, the latter of which received much higher praise, making it clear that Capcom had put all of its cash into the main series while handing the Osaka studio fifty cents and demanding that they make a million dollars out of it. Actually, I’m more inclined to believe that Capcom handed Osaka Studio the budgetary equivalent of a hundred dollar bill and said “don’t spend it all in one place,” then proceeded to completely ignore the studio up to, and following, release.

To hammer down on Umbrella Corp’s problems, Capcom had just enough energy to keep patching the game for two months, until on August 19 they patched in four player mode. While Umbrella Corps is a 3v3 game by design, by August the community had grown small enough that getting together a group of six people in matchmaking was a laborious effort, and as a result Capcom patched in the ability for matches to start with just four people. Also in August, Capcom ran its one free weekend for the game. It didn’t work, the population barely blipped and by this point the game’s reputation as not even bad enough to be ironically good was well known.

The only saving grace for Umbrella Corps may be that it was wholly ignored by much of the media when it launched due to the same day release of another, much higher profile disaster: Mighty No. 9. In the world of gaming, Capcom spilled fruit punch on the new carpet only for few to notice because Comcept was playing with fireworks in the next room and set the whole house on fire. The game managed to make it into a number of “Worst of 2016” lists, with a few publications noting its dramatic drop in population, but otherwise the game by this point has mostly been forgotten by the press, gamers, and by Capcom itself who probably had a few options on the table to at least try and revitalize the community but didn’t consider the potential payout worth the effort.

Villagers & Heroes Launches New Starfall Expansion


Villagers & Heroes has announced the launch of its next expansion for this fall. Dubbed Starfall, the new expansion is set to bring a ton of new content from an increased level cap, new loot system, talent trees, and more. You’ll be able to level up to 90 thanks to seven new content zones, as well as a fifth rebirth option. Starfall promises more powerful loot with more stat boost and weapon masteries specific to each class.

“We’re very excited to announce the expansion to our game”, Said Mad Otter Games C.E.O Damon Slye. “Starfall is our most ambitious expansion to date that not only adds plenty of new content such as new locations, but also reworks a large portion of the game such as crafting, loot, and the progression system. Oh, and did I mention we are removing repair costs for weapons and armor?”

The list of updates is gigantic, and you can read them all here. In the move up to launch, Mad Otter Games is also offering a challenge for players with rewards for the whole community. For more information, check out the official website.

Zenimax Permanently Bans Hundreds of ESO Accounts Over Morrowind Codes


A bunch of players logged into their emails to find some bizarre notifications this week. For some, they were learning that not only had their subscription been cancelled but their accounts were permanently disabled. While MMO Fallout is not a stranger to reports of mass bans over cheating or bug abuse, this one is a bit peculiar. As it turns out, Zenimax Online permanently banned players over their Morrowind game codes.

The issue, at least for many, appears to stem from the player having entered an early access code for Morrowind without later entering in the full product code (which would indicate that they pre-ordered for early access and simply cancelled). Others noted that they had cancelled their pre-orders due to issues with Amazon not shipping/delaying physical copies of the collector’s edition. Others went further, stating that they had not only received their copies but had entered the codes only to find their accounts banned due to not owning the content anyway.

The thread discussing the incident can be found here, with players complaining of being locked out despite customer service claiming to reactivate their accounts for 24 hours to resubmit their product key. Codes which, for users who already redeemed the keys on their accounts, will be useless.

“Thank you for reaching out to us about your account. Our records show that this account has been deactivated as a result of not applying a valid Morrowind game code. This account has been notified on multiple occasions that we required a Morrowind Collector’s Edition code to be redeemed on the account, and as a result of this code not being redeemed, the account has been turned off.

However, we are willing to make a one-time exception and have reactivated this account for 24 hours. During this time, we ask that you please redeem a valid Morrowind game code to your account. Should your account not have a Morrowind game code redeemed on it within 24 hours, the account will be permanently deactivated. If you have any questions or issues redeeming a code, please respond to this message, and we’d be happy to provide assistance.”

The accounts have since been reactivated. Zenimax’s official statement:

Yesterday, we deactivated a few hundred game accounts due to not applying a valid ESO: Morrowind game code. However, we found that some game accounts were wrongfully suspended and we are in the process of fixing those accounts now. This should only take a couple hours to complete today; we appreciate your patience while we correct this issue. If you are still not able to access your account by this afternoon, please contact our Support Team and they will follow up with you. Thanks in advance, and we apologize for the confusion this has caused.

[Community] Why the Marvel Heroes Store Change Matters


Last week MMO Fallout reported on Gazillion Entertainment reducing the price of storage by 50% and refusing to reimburse people who had already made purchases. I’ve seen a lot of discussion on this, both for and against the decision, and I wanted to discuss why this is a topic that needs attention.

First off, let me qualify that whenever the term refund or reimbursement is brought up in this article I’m strictly speaking in terms of cash shop currency. I’m not suggesting, nor do I think many would expect, Gazillion to hand out hundreds of one or two dollar refunds over the PSN. In the grand scheme of things, Gazillion could have easily run a check to see who had purchased the storage upgrades and set the system to place the G’s back in their wallet, or just grant them extra storage for the equivalent new price. But they didn’t.

Gazillion is obligated to do something for its early backers, not because it’s written into law but because of how Marvel Heroes is being marketed and sold to consumers. I’ve seen a lot of people comparing this to buying a product and then complaining when it goes on sale, a comment which I have to say is wrong on two levels. First, this isn’t a normal product that you buy from a store. It’s a digital good that you’re buying for an as of yet unreleased video game. The cost didn’t come down because of a sale, but because Gazillion made some adjustments and found the price to be too high based on user feedback. As a short second, most stores will reimburse you if an item you bought goes on sale shortly after.

This calls back to an issue that we’ve talked about for years: Developers deciding that open beta now means soft launch, allowing them to effectively launch the game and monetize it while claiming immunity from strong criticism because it’s just a beta. You can’t have it both ways without risking trust issues with your customer base, which is why the first thing that most developers do when they launch a game these days is hammer down the cash shop. It may seem like priorities in the wrong place, but it stops moments like this from happening.

Another point I’ve seen come up is on the idea of products coming out and immediately going on sale. Yes, that does happen and it is not received positively by the customer base for whom it becomes a reason to not trust the developer/publisher. While it may not be particularly egregious, you risk burning out customers early because what you’re telling them is that you don’t have your stuff in order, and you’re willing to make them foot the bill for it. It’s the new form of old developers who sold long subscription times on the premise that they would never go free to play, only to make liars out of their PR people.

Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter.

Protector’s Jubilee Returns To Neverwinter: New Rewards/Events


It’s back! Like the McRib, the Protector’s Jubilee only comes around once every so often to the delight of its audience. While Neverwinter’s event may not be glazed in barbecue sauce, it does offer a host of freebies and sales during the week long event. Beginning Tuesday and running through June 26, players will be able to take part in several events including Elminster’s Messages which will task you with traveling to various zones to complete quests as well as the Protector’s Speech Skirmish, an instanced party mini-game involving the protection of Lord Neverember himself.

During the event, you’ll also be able to get your hands on free goodies including the bag of holding and level 60 experience boost. You’ll need to log in each day to claim the new item.

(Source: Neverwinter)

Marvel Heroes Refuses Compensation Over Storage Price Cut On PS4


Marvel Heroes is permanently cutting the price of storage on Playstation 4, and in case you’re worried about compensation for those who purchased storage at its previous price, you have nothing to worry about. You’re not getting compensated. Prices have dropped 50%, with the beginner starter pack running for 250g (from 500) and the individual packs running for 100g (from 200). When asked on the forums, Gazillion responded that there are no refunds or compensation being issued.

Sorry but we are not issuing refunds or price protection at this time.

Marvel Heroes is still in beta so adjustments to prices are guaranteed as user feedback is taken. Gazillion refusing to compensate players who bought in early could harm long term trust and discourage early purchases.

(Source: Marvel Heroes)