Bethesda Wants Elder Scrolls Online Separated From Xbox Live Fees


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Xbox Live Gold requires a monthly subscription in order to play your games online. When you figure that Elder Scrolls Online already has a cover charge of $14.99 a month, this means that Xbox users will be expected to pay 20% more than their PC brethren and possibly PS4 users (Sony has previously said that publishers will decide on the PS+ requirement). The good news is that Bethesda is working behind the scenes to convince Microsoft to give the company a pass. According to Paul Sage from Zenimax:

 “we have been in talks with Microsoft about that very thing, and seeing whether or not there’s any room to change their minds about that, for folks who are only paying The Elder Scrolls Online and don’t want to pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription, just to pay the Elder Scrolls Online.

Will it work? Probably not, if previous attempts are any indication. Microsoft isn’t exactly known for making exemptions.

(Source: OXM)

Naoki Yoshida Apologizes For FFXIV Launch Issues


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If you’ve tried playing Final Fantasy XIV in Europe or North America, you are likely fully acquainted with the extended length of downtime and maintenance period on the related server clusters. A large number of players were completely unable to log in on Sunday, and the problems with heavy loads continue to plague FFXIV’s servers. FFXIV’s producer, Naoki Yoshida, has posted an apology on the official forums in response to the ongoing issues, noting that while many of the login bugs have been fixed, there is still problems related to heavy traffic that must be attended to. Unfortunately for eager players, it looks like the login restrictions will not be going right away.

Although we have successfully addressed a number of serious issues in the past several days, we have nevertheless decided to implement login restrictions for the time being due to the extremely heavy load being placed upon the servers. In this way, we can ensure that the maximum number of players can play the game without risking a server crash. I know no one wants to wait to log in, but I hope you all understand why we believe this precaution is necessary.

(Source: FFXIV Forums)

RuneScape: Divination Skill Impressions


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Divination is the latest skill to be released in RuneScape, and it is certainly interesting. The premise of the skill is that after the god Guthix is assassinated, the resulting fallout caused immense damage to the world in which the game takes place. Guthix’s life energy dispersed in the form of wisps, a combination of divine energy and memories. The divine energy is the force that once protected the world of Gielinor, but was shattered and sent raining down from the heavens upon Guthix’s death. By harvesting wisps for their divine energy and memories and return them to various craters located around the world, in the hope that this will heal the damaged planet.

It’s important to remember that Divination is a gathering skill, not unlike Fishing, Woodcutting, Mining, etc. With that knowledge, training Divination is a slow trudge through a seemingly endless bog of grind. You start out at level one with the basic wisps, and every ten levels you leave your current spot and make your way to the next tier of wisps. An oversimplification? Yes, but if you play RuneScape then you already know that this is generally how gathering skills work, except Divination doesn’t give you the piles of items to sell off at the end of the day.

As a gathering skill, Divination is meant to complement other skills. Fishing gives resources to cooking, mining to smithing, farming to herblore, etc. Divine energy can be weaved into portents and signs, powerful items that are carried in the inventory and activated automatically. These items offer benefits including automatic healing once your health drops below half, the ability to save more items upon death, increased gravestone timers, resurrection on the spot, automatic banking of items collected, and more.

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Divine Locations are one of Divination’s odder creations. Locations are essentially skill hotspots that are weaved and placed down, allowing anyone around to harvest before it disappears (generally after 30 seconds). The lesson to take home is sharing is caring, and Divination rewards plopping down your divine location in a crowded area by just handing you resources as other players harvest them. The downside to divine locations is that only one can be put down per day, and you can only harvest a limited amount of those created by other players.

And finally, players have access as they level up to abilities that allow them to “upgrade” resources of lower level to those of higher level. While it sounds cool to convert three coal into a mithril ore, or two trout into a tuna, the RuneScape Wiki shows that you’d be better off just selling the resources and buying the higher material at a profit.

Ultimately, Divination is a means to an end. Divine energy can be traded to other players at the benefit/cost of experience gain. Many signs and portents can be traded, but odds are most of your divine energy is better spent boosting your experience gain towards the next tier of wisps.

Does Snail Games' Explanation Make Any Sense?


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To clarify common misconceptions and answer the surge of questions, Black Gold Online’s optional time save system acts as a bonus, completely optional feature to supplement normal game progression. PvE experience and PvP rankings remains unaffected and all levels of equipment and materials(white to epic) can be acquired in game via questing, battegrounds, auction and world drops.

PvE experience and PvP rankings unaffected by this system? Smashing. But since you admit that the system is fraught with misconceptions, how about some in-depth explanation?

Black Gold Online records a loot index, measured by in-game actions like questing, killing, bosses, etc, and assigns the player a color. Every hour, that index is attributed to a save, which the player can only have a certain amount of, which then transforms into a Vial of Time whose quality is based on the color of the time index. That vial can then be acquired by the player for free or by purchasing with credits (RMT), or it can be sold on the Time Exchange to other players for their credits.

“We’re refining this new system and our top priority is develop a transparent and accepted F2P model for the North American audience.”

If the idea is so transparent, why do I still have no idea what is going on? Maybe it is just me, and this makes sense to everyone else, but the news story to make the system “transparent” runs in circles, goes nowhere, and not only hasn’t answered a single question I have about Black Gold’s loot system, it raises even more questions about Time Index, save slots, free vs paid, etc.

My understanding of the system is this: You play the game with no subscriptions or cash shop, and you fight stuff and quest and kill bosses and other players. During your play, you obtain loot as you would in any other game, but your activity contributes to a bonus chest that becomes available every hour. This chest is filled with even more random loot based on the quality of your activity, and you can opt to use one of your free saves (two per day according to the article), buy the chest, or sell it for credits to spend toward future chests. You have limited space for these chests, so you have to deal with them before another chest overrides that space.

Am I anywhere close to the target on this one? Can someone explain this in a way that doesn’t make them sound like they’re selling time shares?

(Source: Black Gold Online)

Does Snail Games’ Explanation Make Any Sense?


Black-Gold-Online-2-620x350

To clarify common misconceptions and answer the surge of questions, Black Gold Online’s optional time save system acts as a bonus, completely optional feature to supplement normal game progression. PvE experience and PvP rankings remains unaffected and all levels of equipment and materials(white to epic) can be acquired in game via questing, battegrounds, auction and world drops.

PvE experience and PvP rankings unaffected by this system? Smashing. But since you admit that the system is fraught with misconceptions, how about some in-depth explanation?

Black Gold Online records a loot index, measured by in-game actions like questing, killing, bosses, etc, and assigns the player a color. Every hour, that index is attributed to a save, which the player can only have a certain amount of, which then transforms into a Vial of Time whose quality is based on the color of the time index. That vial can then be acquired by the player for free or by purchasing with credits (RMT), or it can be sold on the Time Exchange to other players for their credits.

“We’re refining this new system and our top priority is develop a transparent and accepted F2P model for the North American audience.”

If the idea is so transparent, why do I still have no idea what is going on? Maybe it is just me, and this makes sense to everyone else, but the news story to make the system “transparent” runs in circles, goes nowhere, and not only hasn’t answered a single question I have about Black Gold’s loot system, it raises even more questions about Time Index, save slots, free vs paid, etc.

My understanding of the system is this: You play the game with no subscriptions or cash shop, and you fight stuff and quest and kill bosses and other players. During your play, you obtain loot as you would in any other game, but your activity contributes to a bonus chest that becomes available every hour. This chest is filled with even more random loot based on the quality of your activity, and you can opt to use one of your free saves (two per day according to the article), buy the chest, or sell it for credits to spend toward future chests. You have limited space for these chests, so you have to deal with them before another chest overrides that space.

Am I anywhere close to the target on this one? Can someone explain this in a way that doesn’t make them sound like they’re selling time shares?

(Source: Black Gold Online)

Server Control Is A Necessary Evil


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If you aren’t aware of the server locks on Final Fantasy XIV, chances are you either picked a low population server or you aren’t coordinating with a clan/group of friends. During the open beta phase 4, a large number of servers were locked down in order to keep the population in check. With the launch of early access, Square Enix has once again begun locking servers in order to disperse population and prevent servers from being overloaded. The general reaction has been mixed, leaning toward negative, with complaints mostly related to being cut off from friends/clans.

As usual, both sides have a point. Gamers want to be able to log in and play with their friends with as little impediment as possible. Square Enix want to disperse the population more evenly among the servers available to prevent players from congregating on one or two servers, overflowing them while leaving the other servers empty and abandoned. To meet Square’s goal of not having unbalanced server population and ensuring that players on the more popular servers don’t experience heavy instability, server locks are a necessary evil. It is similar to NCSoft implementing faction locks on Aion servers to keep the sides from becoming any more unbalanced.

The server lock idea, however, will live or die in the court of public opinion based on whether or not Square Enix plans on allowing players to easily transfer over to their intended servers once the launch population levels out (unless we see the rare case where the population continues growing).

Age of Wushu Merging Servers 8/28


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Snail Games USA has announced that Age of Wushu will be merging two servers in order to increase player interaction and reduce low population areas. On August 28th, Black Tortoise will be merged into White Tiger during the game’s normally scheduled maintenance. According to the FAQ, character data including progression, guilds, and Jianghu Rankings will cross over. Characters with the same name will be able to keep their name with server distinctions added on, however school positions will be reset.

As this will be a fresh reset server, all school positions will be reset. Players can apply with School NPCs for positions in the school structure on day 1. The weekly school tournament will be conducted as normal on the first Sunday following the merger (September 1, 2013).

You can read the entire FAQ at the link below. While the new server is titled “White Tiger,” the server is not the same as the existing White Tiger.

(Source: Age of Wushu)

Star Vault Q2 Finances: Sales Down, Profits Down


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Star Vault has released their second quarter finances for 2013. Following a rise in the first quarter, net sales dropped approximately 15% to $811,263 USD while net profit fell further into the red at $-937,168 USD. According to the quarterly report, the number of active subscriptions in Q2 2013 is in line with Q1 2013. Earlier in the second quarter, Star Vault sold approximately one million shares to two investors from the UK and USA, allowing for “accelerated development” as the report describes.

Star Vault CEO Henrik Nystrom’s statement:

Just like in the beginning of 2013, we have in the second quarter could see a slightly positive trend as the number of registered members of the Forum of Mortal Online has increased slightly compared to the first quarter, which is obviously pleasing.

Through the private placement we completed in May 2013 was Star Vault capital to advance the development moving forward and deliver new features to the game. At present, we use external services to mass produce content for Dominion (territory control) and the new continent. Before that we delivered in April a ‘mount package, which could be completed with the help of playing donations. Mount package has been received with great joy by our players and brings to my mind a new dimension in Mortal Online.

Henrik Nystrom
CEO, Star Vault AB

The information above was pulled directly from the AktieTorget stock exchange and all monetary values converted from SEK into USD based on international conversion rates provided by Citibank NA. The graph uses the original SEK figures presented in the document, and the statement from CEO Henrik Nystrom was translated into English from its original Swedish via Google’s translation service.

MMOrning Shots: Son of a Trigon


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Today’s screenshot comes to us from Sony Online Entertainment, on DC Universe’s upcoming DLC release: Sons of Trigon. Releasing later this fall, Sons of Trigon marks the eighth DLC expansion to the super hero/villain MMO since release, as well as the 11th power: Celestial. Players will take on Trigon alongside either Wonder Woman or Circe, in a battle for either power or peace.

Sons of Trigon DLC picks up where the Sins of the Father storyline left off. Through blood ritual, Trigon escaped his dimension and was preparing to attack the Earth. However, he became trapped in a nightmare version of Gotham City, a wasteland filled with sin. In this new DLC, Heroes and Villains will explore these wastelands as they race to confront Trigon and his sinful sons.

The Distinction Between Account Service And Cash Shop


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Zenimax’s Matt Firor stated in an interview that Elder Scrolls Online required a box price and subscription because free to play, while valid, just wasn’t compatible for the game that they were building. So with Zenimax claiming that the experience is all about being able to enjoy the game for a flat subscription with no monetization being shoved in the player’s face, instinctively I asked how long it would take before Zenimax confirmed a cash shop. I expected something more like a few months after launch, not twenty four hours after the article was published.

An article on ESO Hub confirms through Matt Firor that Elder Scrolls Online will have a cash shop.

According to Matt Firor will be available in The Elder Scrolls Online an item shop, where her character fun items and services you can buy as a renaming of the character.

BUT! I am still holding my breath on this one. Account services like renaming being an added fee is pretty standard even going back to subscription games without cash shops. Now the question is regarding what Zenimax considers to be “fun items.”

(Source: ESO Hub)