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Top 5: Lessons We Should Learn From Infinite Crisis

This week Turbine Entertainment announced that Infinite Crisis is shutting down, news that shouldn’t have really been a big surprise given the game’s extended development period, stretched out beta, lack of promotion, and how Turbine was throwing $50 cash packs in with Nvidia graphics cards.

Infinite Crisis isn’t the only game I’m going to talk about here, so just imagine the title was “Lessons We Should Learn From The MOBA Industry”

1. Developers Face A Steep Uphill Climb

If earning a seat at the MMO table is about as hard as getting a reservation at Rao’s in New York City, then the MOBA industry is right up there with a gig at Carnegie Hall. There are a few dozen MOBAs on the market right now, only a small handful of which will dominate the rest while the industry graveyard continues to branch out and buy up more land for the recently deceased. We talk a lot here about how World of Warcraft clones fail because, for the most part, players aren’t willing to forego the time and money spent leveling their characters to go do the same thing over again.

The MOBA genre, with its hyper-competitive nature, has a lot of shortcomings that can kill it early. You’re going up against companies with established communities, years of work balancing each individual hero, and thriving eSports scene. In order to break into the industry, it seems that companies either need to bring something different to the table (ala Smite), be backed by a company with a massive community (ala Dota 2) or to have gotten into the industry at an early age (League of Legends/Heroes of Newerth).

2. Big IPs Still Mean Squat In Gaming

Isn’t it fitting that, out of all of the MOBAs, the ones that crashed and shut down happen to be based on very popular properties? Warhammer is a franchise that spans tabletop games, pen and paper role playing, video games, novels, and more, and yet none of that mattered when the MMO toppled and the MOBA couldn’t sustain itself through beta. The same goes for Transformers Universe, a popular IP with the backing of an established developer with a massive customer base.

Even Guardians of Middle Earth, with all the power of the Lord of the Rings, couldn’t avoid being critically panned (22% approval on Steam) with presently deserted servers on PC. The game came and went on PS3 so quietly that even Warner Bros. didn’t notice to update its website to stop directing people to buy the PS3 version on Amazon, or even acknowledge the game’s existence on PC. According to Steam Charts, Guardians of Middle Earth has a 30 day peak of 19 players on Steam.

3. The Perpetual Beta Is Tired And Pointless

The idea that a game should receive more lenient coverage when in beta became a thing of the past when developers started fully charging for products that were still in beta, and it would be irresponsible to not acknowledge this when MMOs/MOBAs are shutting down without ever launching, and many don’t even offer some form of refund to the customers that went out on a limb and spent their hard earned money to fund an unfinished project.

And while the unfinished state of the game is a great excuse to deflect criticism when reviewers tell you not to spend money, Turbine apparently has no problem using beta time played to justify denying a refund to their founders, which is the exact sentiment given by Turbine’s Community Manager.

That’s mostly it. Because Founders got to play for 2+ years, you guys were well outside our refund window. We really do thank you for supporting the game, as it was your support that kept us going. Make no mistake about that. But, they guys who just bought their elite pack or starter pack from Steam, they didn’t get to play for as long as you guys.

4. The MOBA Genre Is In The Middle Of A Soft Crash

Right now the genre is in a position where developers are looking at the success of the likes of League and Dota and saying to themselves “I can do that too.” What we’ve wound up with is three major players (League, Dota, and SMITE in that order) and a whole lot of stragglers. This isn’t the case of the MMO industry where we have one game to rule them all and a ton of other companies making much smaller, but still livable incomes. The MOBAs that are down on the bottom of the list are struggling to remain relevant, in a genre that is heavily favoring those few at the top.

Compare the 30 day peak of Infinite Crisis to Dota2 on Steam: 1,557 to 967,674. Or Super Monday Night Combat (152), or Demigod (27), or Guardians of Middle Earth (13).

5. Fully Funded Betas Are Still A Bad Place For Your Money

Paid betas have taken on one of the worst attitudes and practices by developers, as repeated by Turbine’s community manager. Developers like Turbine have no problem selling a beta as though it is a finished product, ending character wipes, opening up a fully functional cash shop, and pulling hundreds of dollars out of players, yet when push comes to shove and people start giving the game negative reviews because of bugs or unfinished features, they turn around and claim that it’s unfair because the game is not released and not a finished product.

And when games like Infinite Crisis shut down after a prolonged beta and short launch? Well then it’s considered a full experience, and when pushed on a refund? Deny the entire concept of a finished game.

I know some of you feel as though you only had a small amount of time to play a “finished” game, but Infinite Crisis is a game that was built to consistently change. Even after launch we were still going to produce new champions, add new features, and continue iterating the game as we went forward. As we posted during our launch announcement, launch was never going to be a stopping point in the eyes of our development cycle. We’re an online game, and we’ve changed a lot (and changed for the better) over the last two years.

Turbine’s CM knows as well as you or I do what the players mean by “finished,” that being when the game sheds its beta tags, but you have to hand it to Turbine. Infinite Crisis was finished enough to open up the cash shop, not finished enough to review as a final product, and when it shut down right after launch? Well what exactly does “finished” mean, really? Hold two sides of the same coin, and then deny that the coin exists.

We understand when indie developers can’t finish a game because it’s a couple of guys working out of a motel/office funding the game partially out of pocket and partially through donations/pledges. A company like Turbine, on the IP of DC Comics and the backing of a corporate hulk like Warner Bros. shouldn’t be dropping development of a game because it wasn’t making enough money during beta.

It’s PR spin, and people aren’t going to fall for it. Infinite Crisis shutting down right after launch is bad enough as it is, bridges will be burned and customers will be lost, it’s an unfortunate part of business. But burning founders can damage a brand, in the case Turbine’s future ability to put a game out in beta and ask people to join in early to fund you, as people will look back to when Infinite Crisis shut down and see that while those who jumped in late were refunded, the people who were there from the beginning were told “oh well, too bad.”

I feel that this is a bad sign for Turbine overall.

Eve Online Raises $100 Grand For Charity

Whenever disaster strikes in the world, we can always count on the charitable hand of the gaming community to help those in need. Last month saw Nepal and surrounding regions struck by two massive earthquakes. The devastation left thousands dead and even more injured and without shelter or basic resources. The Eve Online community, as they always do, called on CCP Games to start another charity drive.

And they did. Between May 1st and the 24th, players raised $103 thousand dollars, amounting to slightly less than seven thousand PLEX. The donation includes $500 from ISD volunteers as well as 365 PLEX from an auction. The check for the donation was presented, in large form, to the Icelandic Red Cross.

Once again, here at CCP we are finding it very difficult to choose words that express our gratitude to the EVE Community for the incredible generosity you have all shown over the course of this fundraiser. The Community Team does however have an amazing display on the windows of our office as a constant reminder of the fact that we serve what is, without a doubt, the finest gaming community on Earth.

CCP and the Red Cross would like to thank the EVE community for its generosity.

(Source: Eve Online)

Diaries From Gielinor: Tuska Event Fatigue

As I work on this piece, my character is toiling away semi-afk balancing on Tuska’s spine for agility experience and Tuska fragments that can be turned in for points. At 8:44 am, more than halfway through the day in server-time, the overall contribution isn’t at 50%. It isn’t even close.

RuneScape’s third world event is only three days in and already players are getting discouraged and seemingly dropping out. Tuska has won the first two days, leading players to speculate whether or not the event has been rigged to give Tuska an early lead and raise the tension, or whether Jagex overestimated the abilities of the community and made the event too hard by accident.

One major issue brought up is that since the Tuska daily event can be easily capped in one run, players don’t have any incentive to return other than for the good of the fight. As I’ve said numerous times before, Jagex has long nurtured RuneScape into a game centered around efficiency, and as a result (whether they like it or not) if it isn’t on the higher end of the reward/time spectrum, players will simply ignore it. This is the culture that Jagex created, and one that will guide development.

In the long run, rewards will beat lore every time. If it isn’t rewarding, players won’t do it. If something else exists that is more rewarding, they’ll spend their time doing that. If the event is being purposely designed for players to lose, they’ll get discouraged and stop participating completely, because they have no real participation in the event.

I’d like to see a response from Jagex about how this event is going to play out, because we haven’t even reached the end of day 3 and people are already worn out.

[Column] Shovelware Makers On Steam Should Be Afraid

Today marked the day that Valve took a leap forward for the cause of customer service and announced that players would be allowed to return their games, no questions asked, within two weeks or two hours of game time, whichever comes first. There are certain caveats to the deal on what can be returned and what can’t, but as far as the crucial details go, two weeks or two hours is all you really need to know.

Before I start to get critical, I’d like to point out that I have been calling for a refund system on Steam for years, as their “all sales final” policy has been more and more problematic when coupled with their laissez faire policy on curation allowing broken games to make their way into the store space. Valve already does what it can to deny these games front page coverage, but this policy will be the silver bullet to possibly knock specific developers off of Steam forever. You know the ones I mean.

I also don’t see this as a big problem for independent developers putting out cheap games at low prices. As has been echoed by other voices on the web, I feel that anyone who would buy a short indie game to play it for an hour or so and then refund it wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of buying it in the first place, and would likely pirate it. The only measurable notice that the dev will see are the sales going up, and then slightly coming down.

One are where I do see this having a harmful effect on a legitimate developer is in the realm of review bombing, an issue that is already prevalent on free to play and low cost items, but will now be easier if groups of people can buy easily buy a game, bring the overall rating down, and then all request a refund and walk out without a loss of their own. Review bombing is a problem as it is.

For PC gamers, this system is great. The small demo or benchmark download is, with some exception, just about extinct, and with the variety of PC builds available, there is no way of knowing for sure if a game will run on your system without forking over the sixty bucks and praying. Additionally, it also knocks out a good source of income for developers releasing poor quality games and cashing in before word of mouth spreads.

Which brings me full circle to the point of this article, Valve has put a bullet in the head of fly by night developers peddling their wares on Steam. Not only do they struggle to find an audience, thanks to a lack of presence on the main page, but now their source of income (ill informed customers) has been cut off at the neck.

I’ll end this by recommending that you don’t assume that every developer that has concerns about the system is hiding bad intentions, just as well that any customer who applauds the system is just looking for some easy free games. Valve’s lack of specificity and reminder that each refund is handled case by case means that we’ll need to wait until the system is actually used to see where it is ripe for abuse, and where Valve draws the line.

Overall, this system is a major leap forward for Valve as a company and Steam as a platform.

Steam Introduces 14-Day Refunds

Valve has surprised us again with the reveal of a new refund policy, allowing customers to get a full refund on their purchase, for any reason, withing two weeks of the purchase. Bought a game and can’t play it? System not powerful? Game broken beyond playable? Didn’t like it? Not a problem. Valve will be honoring refunds for any game, so long as the game hasn’t been played for more than two hours and the request is made within fourteen days.

Refunds will not be given for 3rd party purchases (steam keys, wallet cards, etc), movies (for obvious reasons), games that have been VAC banned, and gifts that have been redeemed by the recipient. The good news is that you should also be able to get a refund should a game you just purchased go on sale.

Refunds are designed to remove the risk from purchasing titles on Steam—not as a way to get free games. If it appears to us that you are abusing refunds, we may stop offering them to you. We do not consider it abuse to request a refund on a title that was purchased just before a sale and then immediately rebuying that title for the sale price.

(Source: Steam)

Turbine Shutting Down Infinite Crisis

Turbine Entertainment has announced the impending sunset of Inifinite Crisis this August. Infinite Crisis exited beta on March 26 of this year, giving the game a shelf life of about 141 days from launch to shut down.

After much deliberation, we regret to announce the official shutdown of Infinite Crisis. We will end development efforts today and will close the service on August 14, 2015.

As the MOBA market continues to expand and saturate itself, it has become much more difficult to find an audience. Infinite Crisis is the second high profile MOBA to shut down this year, after Jagex’s Transformers in January and EA’s Dawngate in February.

(Source: Infinite Crisis)

ArcheAge Releases Ongoing Server FAQ

With ArcheAge’s server merger coming later this year and Trion Worlds vague on details, players naturally have a lot of questions to ask. In order to keep players updated as the plans move along, Trion Worlds has set up an evolving FAQ on the ArcheAge forums answering questions as they pop up.

As we saw in Trion’s latest stream, it looks like ArcheAge’s ‘non-traditional’ merger will emerge in the form of opening up a new server and then shuffling players from their server to these new “evolved” servers. This is how mergers were handled in the Russian version of ArcheAge.

We are still looking at a number of options before solidifying the process. The basic plan is as follows: new servers will be created, and players from current low population servers will be moved to these shiny new servers. Yes, that means… LAND RUSH! All other details are under evaluation.

I mentioned in my column yesterday that any merge should naturally see the legacy servers eventually being closed down, and while that hasn’t been confirmed, the FAQ does say that inactive characters will most likely be moved automatically to the new servers:

Most likely, players who are on a low population server and inactive at the time of the Evolution will be relocated automatically.

It’s important to remember that nothing in the FAQ should be considered finalized at this point, that more questions will be answered in the coming weeks/months, as more details are set in stone. You can follow the link below to read the current FAQ.

(Source: ArcheAge)

[Community] Let’s Call A Merger A Merger

Originally I intended this week’s Community column to be speculation about how Trion Worlds would handle ArcheAge’s upcoming server merge, given that the plans are still in the conceptual stage and any real action that will be taken is still months down the line. To fuel speculation, I looked at how server mergers were handled in Korea and Russia under XLGames and Mail.ru respectively, and hoped to get a comment from each party.

While Mail.ru and XLGames didn’t respond to my request, I was told by Trion Worlds that an FAQ was in the works. It isn’t out as of this publishing (approximately 2pm EST on Monday, June 1st), so I’m going ahead with my original plan.

It’s safe to say that the term “server merger” has such a negative connotation attached to it because, in the eyes of the ever-rational internet mob, developers might as well post an announcement that they’ve failed at business. Couple that with a media in love with negative headlines, and you’ve got a recipe for PR disaster. Because of this, Trion Worlds isn’t the first to treat the phrase like they’ve been accused of having lice, and have joined the growing list of developers shuffling players away from low population servers (before closing them usually) without actually using the term “merger.” Even Blizzard opted to develop its engine to support cross-realm play rather than merge its list of low population servers.

There tends to be an even more negative response to this tactic, since if there’s one thing people hate more than being lied to, it’s when companies talk to them like they are lawyers in a courtroom dodging a guilty plea by questioning the definition of the term “murder.” To go back to the previous analogy, they are the kid in school trying to explain that while their head has been buzzed and their hair smells of medical shampoo, there is no way you can prove that they were responsible for the lice sighting that the school warned about over the morning announcements.

This isn’t the first time Trion Worlds merged without ever using the term. In Rift, Trion would convert low population servers to “trial servers” in order to force players off of them without actually calling it a merger. Designating a server as “trial” would result in character creation being disabled (for subscribers) and would limit players to the two main cities, forcing players to transfer off once they had finished the content available in the free trial.

We won’t know what Trion plans on doing with ArcheAge until they release more information, but we did grab this soundbite from their latest Twitch stream:

“It’s basically taking lower population servers and then creating an entirely new server and allowing players to migrate from that server to the new evolved servers.”

If their approach to merging servers in ArcheAge is anything close to what they did in Rift, it is likely that players will be not so gently coerced into transferring over to these “evolved servers,” through various limitations on these legacy servers. This way, once the population has sufficiently dwindled, the servers can be logically shut down due to lack of activity, with any characters remaining forced to transfer off.

So the notion that the servers were never merged is technically correct, and as I have said before technically correct is my favorite kind of correct.

Lego Universe Was Hindered By Dong Detection Software

Lego Universe was an MMO that allowed players a free space to build anything their heart desired, and since the internet is well known as a mature and well behaved medium, it may surprise you to learn that some players were using the creator to build brick representations of male genitals. Former Lego Universe developer Megan Fox took to Twitter to discuss how Lego wanted a free build game with absolutely no dongs.

The moderation costs of Lego Universe were a big issue in general. They wanted a creative building MMO with a promise of zero penises seen. They actually had a huge moderation team that got a bunch of screenshots of every model, every property. Entirely whitelist-based building.

Obviously Lego Universe’s problems extend far beyond simple dong filtering, but a moderation team can get expensive very quickly, and most assuredly was a large factor.

(Source: Eurogamer)

APB Reloaded Server Merge And New Engine

APB Reloaded is on track and ready for the North American server merge this Tuesday, June 2nd. The recent merger of APB’s European server into Citadel saw increased activity from new and returning players, and Reloaded Productions is hoping that the same will hold true for the North American server.

In other news, work continues on the upgraded Unreal engine for APB, as seen in the screenshot above. When the new engine launches, APB will require a 64-bit operating system in order to continue playing, leaving a small portion of the community in the dust.

Making the game 64-bit only solves several long-standing memory management and performance issues that we are happy to finally put behind us. But it does mean that a small percentage of machines currently used to play APB will need a new OS in order to continue playing.

You can find out more at the official website.

(Source: APB Reloaded)

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