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Beta Perspective: RPG MO

The best thing about old school gaming is that no matter how old I get, it stays just the same. RPG MO, which sounds like the gaming equivalent of the twenty pound bag of generic cereal you can buy for $1 at the grocery store, is an in-development MMO heavily reminiscent of RuneScape Classic that has taken up a lot of my time this past week.

If Andrew Gower had begun developing RuneScape classic a couple of years ago, what he created would look a lot like RPG MO. Graphically, the game is as basic as it gets without being fully text. Characters have no animations and slide across the tile board which is presented at a maximum of 16 by 16 squares. Performing actions is displayed with a simple thought bubble above the character’s head, and the most complicated graphical design on the menu is a health bar with a light gradient.

Functionally, RPG MO is just as basic as its graphics. As with RuneScape Classic, combat is a one on one back and forth of watching your fighters smash each other with swords until somebody dies. Mobs do not roam currently and won’t chase you if you decide to run from combat. They will initiate attack if you walk by them, however, and can only be run from after three rounds of combat, during which you also cannot eat. Death means losing all but your two most expensive items.

As a stat-based game, leveling is a matter of grinding various skills to improve your character, from making him more powerful in combat to equipping more powerful gear and gathering/crafting better stuff. It’s pretty impressive just how faithful RPG MO is to older games, with little details like needing to equip raw fish in your hand in order to cook them, or equipping tin and copper in both hands to smelt bronze. More intricate crafting is done using a Minecraft-esque tiled box, placing specific reagents in patterns.

There is also the built in mod system, allowing you to activate one of any number of officially sanctioned mobs to make your experience all the more user friendly. The mods vary from simple UI enhancements to an in-game wiki menu and more informative menus.

Ultimately, there is a lot to do in RPG MO, like raise pets, build a house, fish, cook, make weapons and armor, punch cows, and more, which makes it even better that this game runs on just about anything down to a toaster. I even got the game working flawlessly on my Chromebook on a wifi connection that can barely run Youtube in low definition.

I also just want to point this out, you can throw ten pieces of ham onto an anvil for a 1% chance at turning it back into a live pig to keep as a pet. There is a lot more to talk about with this game, and hopefully I’ll be able to dedicate more Beta Perspective articles to it and perhaps grab a chat with the developer, but for now I really recommend you check it out at http://mo.ee/

Transformers Universe Layoffs Coming

Jagex has confirmed that layoffs and employee shuffling are expected to hit the Transformers Universe team. In a statement to Games Industry, a Jagex spokesperson noted that the game has reached a stage in development where redundancies in staff can be shuffled over to other projects and in some unfortunate cases be laid off. While no layoffs have occurred yet, they will likely be happening at some point in the near future.

Jagex human resources have already begun the consultation process with the team, and are looking into repositioning individuals to other existing or emerging roles.

The UK developer is looking at shuffling its employees toward RuneScape, the recently announced card game Chronicle, and an unannounced title that may or may not be the unnamed fantasy MMO dubbed “Thirdscape” by fans that CEO Mark Gerhard very briefly spoke about four years ago.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

Darkfall Opens Free Week

Starting now and running through November 18th, prospective players can download and play Darkfall Unholy Wars completely free of charge. If you have Steam installed, simply click on this link to begin downloading the client. You have until midnight Pacific on November 18th to play, after which the game will require a subscription to continue. Players interested in purchasing a subscription will find that the first month has been discounted 75%. The discounted subscription price ends November 19th.

(Source: Steam)

RuneScape Expands The City of Elves

This week sees the second half of RuneScape’s Lost City of the Elves expansion. The update introduces the latter half of the Elven city, bringing with it new high level skilling locations, new monsters to fight, and new rewards.

Prifddinas first opened its doors in September and has seen the high level community flock to make the city their home. With a population surpassing exclusive havens such as the Cayman Islands and Monaco, Prifddinas has become the home to the RuneScape elite who have draped the city with over 650 thousand flags in celebration of their maxed skills.

Also now open this month is the Well of Goodwill, where players can donate in-game items and gold to be converted to real money and donated to charity.

(Source: RuneScape Press Release)

Community: A Never Shall I Ever Option

For this week’s Community Mondays, I wanted to talk about something I’ve taken to calling the Never Shall I Ever option, and how such a mechanic would be well received in MMOs. The idea comes from RuneScape, back when Jagex announced that players would be able to talk to an NPC to reset certain skills, a process that could only be done once and could not be reversed under any circumstance, players who wanted no part in the process were given an out.

You could talk to the same NPC and pick the option to completely disable stat resets on your account, permanently. Like the reset itself, this process does not expire and can not be reversed by Jagex under any circumstance whatsoever. I personally activated this on my account. Should it ever get stolen, and it won’t, the attacker may steal my stuff, but they won’t be able to damage the character itself.

So I would like to see this Never Shall I Ever mechanic implemented in other games, an irreversible process that cannot be undone because there isn’t anyone with the authority to do it. The process itself would have to be have some sort of protection to prevent hackers from using it maliciously, of course, but it would save a lot of headache for customers and customer service.

The question then becomes what can be protected? Players with no intention of ever deleting their characters could permanently protect them from deletion, disabling access from IP addresses originating in foreign countries to cut down on account theft, put extra requirements on purchasing cash shop currency or account services, etc.

What would you like to be able to disable on your account? Apart from the subscription fee.

Old School RuneScape Polls New Continent, Achievements

It’s hard not to see Old School RuneScape as something of a gamer’s pipe dream. Every single update, barring bug fixes, has to be vetted through the player base and cannot be added unless 75% of the voters say yes. Over the past year, the polls have managed to shift Old School on a content path that is wholly independent of the main RuneScape game, to a level where quite a bit of content now exists in Old School that RuneScape 3 players do not have access to.

In the latest poll, Jagex has placed a hefty bit of content up for vote. Today through November 12th, players will be able to vote on a brand new continent full of activities, each activity which will be individually polled should the continent itself pass muster. Players are also able to vote on the introduction of new achievement diaries, elite achievements, repeatable tasks, and more.

Also up for vote is a change in the voting mechanic. Players can vote on lowering the approval level to 70% from 75%, the option to abstain, the option to change your vote, and changing the minimum requirement to vote.

With twelve thousand votes so far, the new continent has 90% approval, and the achievement diaries and elite tasks have 88% and 81% respectively. The minimum requirement to vote is just toeing the line. Everything else is falling quite short of reaching the 75% requirement.

(Source: RuneScape)

MMO Rant: Vote of No Confidence In Trion Worlds

I’ve been sitting at my computer trying to come up with a word to describe Trion Worlds, and so far the best that I’ve come up with is “impressed.” Not impressed in a good way, if you’ve noticed that this is a rant, but more impressed in the sense that you’ve walked into your home to find a man with a flashlight and your finest jewelry, and he impressively tries to convince you that he’s actually a jewelry cleaner who does house calls. Actually, the word would probably be audacity. As in, I can’t believe the audacity that Trion Worlds would, once again, lie and assume that nobody would notice or care.

So what am I sitting here fuming about, you’re probably asking. This week saw the release of ArcheAge’s new continent Auroria, and the launch went about as well as you’d expect. Hackers, gold farmers, and big guilds scooped up most of the new land, server problems meant that many players couldn’t even log in until after the land was already taken, and the response from both the developer and publisher on land hoarding has been nothing. Really, there’s too much to talk about with the expansion, dealing with things I don’t fully understand like item consolidation and the usual Trion tactic of nerfing drops and expanding the cash shop, so I will forward you instead to Massively’s “It’s Getting Harder To Like ArcheAge” article to better explain those aspects.

Instead, I am going to focus on the bold faced lie that has been the ever-delayed 10% discount on marketplace purchases for founders and patrons. During its alpha/beta stage, Trion Worlds listed a 10% marketplace (cash shop) discount as a bonus to purchasing patron status. When it was obvious that the feature wouldn’t be ready for launch, due to relying on XL Games to code it in, Trion Worlds quietly slipped an “after launch” into the advertising and, in the first wrong move of this ballad, played it off as the post-launch implementation having been the plan all along. I didn’t cover this discrepancy because, while questionable, the discount was still on its way and we were assured that it would be applied retroactively.

At this point, Trion starting talking about an “equitable” alternative, one that was never mentioned in the game’s advertising. With this week’s update, the company revealed that the 10% discount has been replaced with a 10% bonus to credits purchased in credit packs. And oh, it gets better. Just read the forum post by Scapes:

A few months ago when we first discussed the ArcheAge Patron Program, a 10% discount on Marketplace purchases was mentioned as a perk of being a Patron. While an “after launch” caveat was included in this perk, both XLGAMES and Trion Worlds have determined that the time to develop this perk would be significant, delaying the benefit to our Patrons longer than we’re comfortable with. Instead, we will be implementing an equitable solution that Trion Worlds can execute on its own.

Today, all Patrons who purchased Credit Packs after Head Start began (September 12) will get a 10% bonus of those sums granted to their accounts. This bonus will only apply to accounts that purchased Credit Packs after their Patron Time was purchased, are in good standing (not banned, no chargebacks), and have not had their Patron Time or Credit Pack purchase refunded. It does not apply to the Credits from the Founder’s Pack and Starter Pack packages. The 10% bonus Credits will apply on future Credit Pack purchases by Patrons.

Just so we are crystal clear, let’s go over just who has been stranded out in the wilderness. The 10% bonus applies retroactively to credit packs made after patron time was purchased, after the head start. Those of you who purchased founders to use the 10% discount in conjunction with your credit stipend get nothing. If you spent money on credit packs during alpha and beta, you also get nothing. APEX buyers also receive absolutely nothing. The only way to receive the altered terms of the deal is to have purchased credits, after head start began (September 12th), with active patron.

It’s also hard not to laugh at how this is being spun as pro-consumer, when the new deal just so happens to benefit Trion Worlds most of all while giving founders and those who bought their credits early the middle finger. It also doesn’t acknowledge the fact that if you buy credits from Trion Worlds, you already get at least a 10% bonus regardless of your patron status.

I’ll wrap up by saying this: In one of my previous jobs, a co worker was fired after their cash register came up $150 short for the second time. In his infinite wisdom, the manager declared that this worker was either stealing or dangerously incompetent, but either way he couldn’t be trusted with money and had to be let go. I feel the same can be said about Trion. Whether they meticulously lie and justify it with the idea that by the time customers figure out that they’ve been duped, Trion already has their money, or whether the team is honestly this out of touch that they don’t see the problems with their decisions, it is evident that Trion Worlds cannot be trusted to stick to their word.

Just remember that the next time Trion Worlds is advertising a new game, anything mentioned in the perks is subject to unannounced caveats. Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter.

EA Filing Blames The Old Republic For Revenue Losses

While Bioware has wasted no time discussing how popular The Old Republic is, revealing at Gamescom that over one million players log in monthly, with Super Data Research placing the MMO as among the top ten revenue generators in 2014. In fact it looks like the only people that The Old Republic is currently letting down are the executives at Electronic Arts. In its latest quarterly report, EA Games noted $454 million in revenue over the past three months, primarily driven by FIFA, Titanfall, and Battlefield 4 Premium Edition.

Not all of EA’s properties were up to projections, however, as the company blamed several of its products for a $400 million decrease in revenue.

This increase was partially offset by a $413 million decrease in revenue primarily from the SimCity, Crysis, Dead Space, and The Sims franchises, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

SimCity and The Old Republic are both responsible for a combined $63 million decrease in revenue, according to another section of the report. It is important to note that both monetary figures are decreases based on internal projections for the quarter, and do not conclude that any of the related studios are running at a loss.

(Source: EA Games Filing)

Final Fantasy XIV Steam Trial And Free Weekend

Square Enix has announced that hopeful gamers can now try out Final Fantasy XIV through Steam. Head on over to the Steam website, or through your Steam client, go to the Final Fantasy XIV store page, and click on the “try demo” button located on the side-bar. The trial is good for 14 days and includes certain restrictions on player activity. Further, the game has been discounted 50% on Steam down to $12 until November 12th.

Secondly, Square Enix has invited previous players back into the world of Eorzea to check out update 2.4. Users who have previously purchased the game client, or who were grandfathered in from FFXIV 1.0, will be able to log in starting November 7th and running through November 10th. Download the client and patch up today.

(Source: Final Fantasy XIV)

RuneScape Double Exp Weekend Statistics

RuneScape just recently went through a double experience weekend, and if you are anything like me you took really poor advantage of the boosted leveling. To show just how much productivity increased over the weekend, Jagex has released a comparable chart showing this weekend’s gains versus earlier in October. Summoning was the most popular skill across the board with prayer the least popular in experience gained and 99’s achieved.

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