World of Darkness Cancelled


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CCP has officially announced that World of Darkness has been cancelled. Some of you may remember that, last month, CCP’s annual financial report stated that the company had written off a piece of software as no longer having any value. It looks like that property was World of Darkness. In his note accompanying the announcement, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson states that the team was unable to deliver the experience that they wanted, and as a result development has ceased and some 56 employees have been laid off.

The decision to end the World of Darkness MMO project is one of the hardest I’ve ever had to make. I have always loved and valued the idea of a sandbox experience set in that universe, and over the years I’ve watched the team passionately strive to make that possible.  To our current and former employees and fans of World of Darkness, I am truly sorry that we could not deliver the experience that we aspired to make.  We dreamed of a game that would transport you completely into the sweeping fantasy of World of Darkness, but had to admit that our efforts were falling regretfully short.  One day I hope we will make it up to you.

To those of you keeping a magnifying glass on World of Darkness, this news should not come as a shock. Between multiple layoffs and comments that World of Darkness was very low priority for CCP, with nothing to show for so long, it was only a matter of time before CCP cut their losses and moved on.

(Source: CCP)

Development Ceases On Pantheon


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Visionary Realms has announced that development on Pantheon has slowed to a halt, noting that the initial funding has been depleted and the studio can no longer guarantee paychecks to its employees. The post on the official website states that development has “slowed down,” while a tweet from KTAM Radio that was retweeted by Brad McQuaid states that development has ceased.

You heard it on #KTAMRadio first: @PantheonRotF to cease development due to lack of funds. Will resume when funding increases/resumes.

Visionary Realms is currently seeking investors for Pantheon. Any donations made until such funding is received will go towards keeping the website up.

(Source: Pantheon)

RuneScape Legacy Mode Detailed


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Back in February, Jagex revealed details on the upcoming Legacy Mode for RuneScape, aiming to bring back players who weren’t happy with the Evolution of Combat update. Legacy Mode allows players to enjoy the modern RuneScape with much of the old systems still in place, including bringing back the old combat system and special attacks.

Legacy Mode isn’t a complete return to 2011, but it does remove the combat bar and abilities and return the old interface and special attacks. XP rates and damage output won’t be exactly the same as you get in the live game. Servers will be formatted to work with both styles, with worlds specifically for legacy mode players.

Jagex hopes to implement Legacy Mode in several phases leading through the summer.

(Source: RuneScape)

Zenimax Bans Thousands Of Cheaters


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Beware all cheaters who enter through this gate, for your dastardly deeds have sealed your fate. Zenimax Studios has announced that “thousands” of cheaters have been exiled from Tamriel as a result of a sweeping ban that targeted bots, spammers, and speed hackers. The announcement notes that many of these bans are thanks to reports from viewers like you, and encourages the community to continue sending in reports as the miscreants show up.

The exact number banned was not revealed in the announcement.

(Source: Elder Scrolls Online)

City of Titans Shows Off New Tech Demo


Our friends over at Missing Worlds Media have unveiled a new video showing off map construction using the new Unreal Engine. It is quite impressive how dramatically a scene can be altered by changing the lighting and leaving models untouched. For more details on the upcoming superhero MMO, check out the City of Titans official website at the link below.

(Source: City of Titans)

Surprise: SOE's New MMO Is A Zombie Sandbox


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Surprise! We’ve known this is coming since Sony Online Entertainment first registered a trademark for H1Z1, but the cat is finally out of the bag. SOE officially announced H1Z1, a zombie sandbox MMO set to release its first public-playable version within the next four to six weeks. The game will see players scavenging stores and building up a defense in a persistent world, fighting both zombies and humans.

It will be our own version of America. We’ll have urban cities and desolate wide open places. All connected seamlessly. Our focus is building a sandbox style of gameplay where players can build shelters out of resources in the world. They can even work together to make amazing fortresses complete with weaponry to help defend against both the Infected and other players.

Check out the long Reddit thread below for the full reveal.

(Source: Reddit)

Super Data Research: ARPU In Shooters


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Superdata Research has once again come around with new insight into the industry. This time, the marketing group has come up with a list showcasing the average revenue per user of the top free to play shooters on the market. The list notes that games like League of Legends have nine players for every person playing Dota2, but that the latter brings in higher revenue per user because of its more core audience. World of Tanks and Team Fortress 2 lead the list by a wide margin.

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You can check out more detail on the list and analysis on why it is important at the link below.

(Source: Superdata Research)

SOE Revealing New Game Today


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John Smedley posted on Twitter earlier today to reveal that an unannounced game is set to be revealed later on this evening, with gameplay footage to show.

Watch http://t.co/OfEekcv325 tmw between 5-6pm PST if you are interested in the new game we haven’t announced. there is gameplay footage.

Smedley later tweeted that players will be able to get their hands on the full game soon™. More to come.

(source: Twitter)

MMOrning Shots: Donde Esta La Biblioteca?


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Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Jagged Alliance Online, where the Spanish language version is now freely available to all. Spanish speaking players will enjoy fully tailored localization as well as community management and customer service in their language.

Check out MMOrning Shots every Lunes, Miércoles y Viernes.

The State of MMO Fallout


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The great part of having this small website is that I can easily reach out the my viewers and say “hey, this is what is happening.” MMO Fallout started out as a pet project nearly five years ago, and while it hasn’t grown massive in terms of viewership, we’ve managed to carve out a fine niche for ourselves. Five years ago I barely knew how to run a Counter Strike server. As much as it pains my wallet to say, I have learned more from this website than the past four years of college have taught me.

MMO Fallout has also given me a lot of confidence that I did not have before. I can’t describe how it felt three years ago when I introduced myself via email to a rather prominent developer and saw in the response “we know who you are, we are a big fan of your website.” Numerous big name companies consider MMO Fallout to be a legitimate member of the press, so much so that I have received emails for the past couple of years asking if any of my employees would be attending conventions and trade shows, to set up interviews. I have no employees.

I should point out right about here that this isn’t a farewell address and MMO Fallout isn’t going away as far as I am aware. I want to address a few things that have changed recently as well as those coming hopefully on the horizon.

  • The name change.

I did get a few people asking who Connor is, in which case shame on you for not reading the contact page. This all started on Twitter with me changing my username back to Connor, which I followed by doing the same here on the main website. This is all a continuation of making MMO Fallout look more professional, a trek which started with moving off of free hosting, setting up our own domain, a more professionally created design, and by revealing my real name and photograph. I feel it’s about time that MMO Fallout started shedding its last vestiges of amateur behavior.

Essentially, I want this website to be something that I could stick on a resume and say “I did this.”

  • Consistency and schedule

This one has been the most difficult. The biggest problem that I have had working on MMO Fallout is the fact that I am the only one here, meaning that if I don’t do something, it doesn’t get done. It also means that I am my own boss, meaning I have only myself to answer to if schedules aren’t being kept to. I have made several attempts to create regularly scheduled articles, however they either mostly fell through or the traffic that they gathered wasn’t worth the amount of work required. What can I say? I am a softy. As a full time student often involved in multiple production projects at the same time, and one who works, MMO Fallout often finds itself on the backburner.

That being said, I am essentially going back to the drawing board in terms of regularly scheduled content. MMOrning Shots has been well received and while it occasionally does not run, that is more due to the fact that most of the screenshots come from press packets and are reliant on a steady flow. I will also feature more reviews, previews, and MMOments if nothing more than to prove that the segment is for more than simply showing my disappointment toward Defiance’s DLC.

I am going to be doing a lot of experimentation to see what works, what doesn’t, and what is sustainable over a long period of time or even better served as monthly editions.

  • Not As Massive?

Not As Massive is one of the columns I started to keep myself from becoming a one trick pony and to prevent the day when I’d suddenly get fed up with writing about MMOs and up and leave. I use the MMO Fallout Tumblr account for the MMO Fallout Book Club where I occasionally review movies, and I still talk about new games every now and then here.

I can guarantee that you will never see talk about MOBAs here at MMO Fallout, unless I end up bringing in a new writer who has any interest in the genre. I don’t, and they are not MMOs in my opinion.

  • New Writers

This is something that has been on my mind for a long time. I would love to see MMO Fallout expand and become something bigger than I had ever imagined, but I don’t see that happening for the time being. I have no financial interest in bringing new people on board, in case I haven’t been clear that Google ad banner in the top right brings in about ten cents a month. I haven’t made enough to cover a single one of website’s $5 monthly fee yet.

If I could get people on board just to write news, that would be great, but that involves convincing people to do work for no monetary benefit in the hopes that their experience might be beneficial.

  • And more…

I couldn’t think of a way to end this article, so I will leave you on an obscure “and more to come.” Enjoy a photo of a kitty that stepped on a bee. He is just fine, by the way.

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