Author: Admin

The Old Republic Launches In More Countries


Good news, Star Wars fans in Croatia! Bioware has announced today that The Old Republic is available for purchase in a whole host of countries previously unavailable. The entire list includes thirty eight countries over Europe and the Middle East, although only a select number of countries in the list will actually have The Old Republic appear on retail shelves. The rest will have to buy through Origin.

Check the list below to see if your country is listed. Unfortunately, if you don’t speak English, French, or German, you are out of luck. Bioware has no plans on adding any additional languages or launching servers for the new territories, so you will have to use the existing European servers.

(Source: The Old Republic)

Cryptic Studios Was Hacked…In 2010…


MMO Fallout's reporter in the field fails us once again...

In case there is any confusion, you are indeed reading an article posted on April 25th, 2012, for an announcement that was posted on April 25th of the same year. Cryptic Studios has announced via their corporate website that an unknown user gained unauthorized access to their servers in December 2010, analysis of which has only just come back recently.

The unauthorized access included user account names, handles, and encrypted passwords for those accounts. Even though the passwords were encrypted, it is apparent that the intruder has been able to crack some portion of the passwords in this database. All accounts that we believe were present in the database have had the passwords reset, and customers registered to these accounts have been notified via e-mail of this incident.

If you have  a Star Trek Online or Champions Online account dating back to December 2010, it is strongly suggested that you secure any other accounts that share the same email address/username/password.

(Source: Cryptic Studios)

Drakensang Relates To Diablo III and Torchlight 2


Bigpoint’s dungeon crawler Drakensang Online doesn’t just have the big mouth of its developer to back it up, it drives around in its Lamborghini waving around the wad of dosh to anyone willing to take a glance. I took a look at the game back in February and found it to be an enjoyable game despite its focused reliance on the cash shop and regular sales.

But Bigpoint went even further in its latest press email, detailing everything that Drakensang Online is that Diablo III and Torchlight II are not. It might be a bit unfair to throw in comparisons of “weekly content updates” and “frequent community events” in relation to two games that haven’t even been released yet, but then again Bigpoint isn’t known to be subtle in their advertising.

We’ll see if Bigpoint is writing a check its tush can cash when Diablo III launches in a few weeks, with Torchlight following hopefully this year.

Xsyon Wants You Back: 10 Days


Remember that MMO, Xsyon? It launched at the beginning of 2011 after much hubbub and a few delays, and since then it’s been trucking along in the background, making great strides as it has rolled along this past year. So to bring back anyone who may have left in that time, Xsyon is offering old members ten free days starting May 18th.

Now, the free ten days is being issued over the course of about a five week period. Players will be notified of when their scheduled ten days will be in this time period. For active subscribers, Notorious Games is offering two free extra weeks added to your subscription.

Xsyon recently celebrated its first anniversary.

(Source: Notorious Games)

Shadowbane Resurrected…In China


There are two words I never thought I would say again. Shadowbane holds a name similar to pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies, it has become the benchmark by which many sandbox gamers judge their MMOs, and very few if any titles come close to matching the awe-inspiring devotion of the Shadowbane fandom. So why haven’t you heard of it (if you haven’t)? Shadowbane shut down in 2009 after several changes in ownership and business model, and cementing the community’s hatred of Ubisoft.

Well, Shadowbane is back. Changyou, a Chinese-focused game site, has purchased the source code and rights to Shadowbane and is using these properties to develop World of Shadowbane. There are virtually no details released right now, but here in the west we can always pray for a miracle.

More on World of Shadowbane as it appears.

(Source: MMO Culture)

Hundreds of Thousands To Lose Internet Access In July


MMO Fallout is all about the internet, and in order to maintain our world we must keep it secure. Last November, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a raid alongside other agencies to take down a massive internet ad-fraud scheme. The hackers involved were exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows to redirect users to false websites for phishing purposes.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the virus the FBI was unable to simply pull the plug as the computers had become reliant on the servers being up. So they replaced the servers with clean hardware and have maintained the systems at a rather high cost (over $80 grand), without anyone knowing that their internet was being modified. Approximately 360,000 computers are still believed to be infected.

The bad news gets worse, however. The servers are having their plugs pulled in July, after which anyone still infected will lose access to the internet, and that brings us to why I am talking about this here at MMO Fallout.

I strongly suggest that all users visit the following website. If dcwg.org is down (which is probably will be), try the website below it.

http://www.dcwg.org

http://www.dns-ok.us/

These websites will check if your computer is looking up IP addresses properly. If they aren’t, you are infected, and should head over here to find a fix:

http://www.dcwg.org/fix/

Browse safe, my friends.

[Europe] TERA Custom Guild Emblems Temporarily Removed


I’ve always said that developers/publishers should not punish the entire community for the actions of a small group. Now, I hadn’t taken a full look at the TERA guild emblems I posted (which were essentially dumped from a folder on my hard drive) until I started writing this article, but lo and behold I found a penis in the pile. Unsurprising in the highest order. In Europe, however, TERA publisher Frogster has taken upon itself to disable the feature entirely for everyone for the time being.

We had to remove the possibility to use custom guild emblems, as there were cases of inappropriate pictures.

The emblems aren’t gone forever, just until Frogster is able to filter them.

We haven’t just removed the guild emblems without contacting Bluehole Studios. We’re working together with them on this problem, and try our best to find a way to censure/filter inappropriate images.

Community Representative Sealath also explained that the publisher also has an issue with the logos being saved to the local hard drive.

(Source: TERA forums)

Jagex Announces May Madness, Madness In May


[Update] It appears I was right. There is a countdown on the RuneScape forums that is leading toward the 28th.

If metrics from Google searches here at the MMO Fallout office/Dunkin Donuts are anything to go by, last year’s bot nuke in RuneScape did its job: Destroy injection/reflection bots at the time. As Jagex stated then, this was not a permanent solution and bots would be back in some fashion. Earlier in January, Jagex revealed the next generation of their anti-bot technology: Project Optimus, to be released at an unknown date. Last month, we noted that Jacmob, an ex-bot maker who was hired by Jagex to fight bots, stated that the next bot nuke was coming shortly, likely in March. As March has come and gone and the number of returning bots rises, it is safe to assume that the update was not ready for launch.

Jagex has announced Mad May, which will offer bonuses to RuneScape members in the form of extra loyalty points, an item that offers double experience, the standard weekly updates, and what Jagex has referred to as “wild weekends,” a vague comment that each weekend will bring something new and exciting.

So why mention the update now, instead of waiting for the monthly Behind The Scenes article? If history has anything to say on the subject, Jagex has something to celebrate. It could be the next bot nuke, a major update to the game, or perhaps Mark Gerhard adopted a cat. We’ll have to wait until May to find out.

(Source: RuneScape Website)

A Day Without A Play: SOE 24 Hour Maintenance


Cancel your Monday plans on Everquest, ask Batman for a rain check, and take down your “John Smedley is Satan” banner. This Monday, the 23rd of April, Sony Online Entertainment will be going offline for maintenance. The extended maintenance period will last approximately 24 hours, from midnight to midnight Pacific time.

Consider Monday as the day people will want to play Everquest the most.

TOR Subscribers Will Decline To 1.25 Million In March 2013


Cowen and Company, market analysts, are suggesting that The Old Republic peaked shortly after launch and has begun its decline. The analyst group suggests that Bioware’s announcement of 1.7 million subscribers marks the MMO’s peak, and that by the end of the current fiscal year, The Old Republic will boast 1.25 million subscribers. The current fiscal year ends in March 2013.

A 450,000 subscriber loss over the course of a year? That doesn’t sound too bad. At the very least, the issue Cowen and Company attributes the subscriber loss to sounds simple enough to rectify before the year is out:

“While the game got off to a good start, the relatively light amount of end-game content does appear to be taking a toll.”

Despite this prediction, Cowen and Company goes on to predict that EA will outperform the market by 20% year over year, thanks to The Old Republic and a number of other titles.

(Source: Gamasutra)