Author: Admin

NCSoft Reactivating Aion Accounts


Aion free to play technically doesn’t launch until next week, but NCSoft has something all players can get into, past, present, and prospective. Starting today, inactive accounts that are in good standing will be reactivated and able to log on. When Aion Truly Free goes live, a new server Kahrun will be launched. While you cannot play on the server until it goes live, starting today players will be able to create characters and reserve names on the server.

To compensate current players with additional time on their accounts, NCSoft is crediting 40 NCcoins per day remaining on the account (or around 1200 coins for each month you had remaining). The credit may take several days to process, however.

(Source: Aion news)

RuneScape Credit Card Fraud Warning: Squeal of Fortune


Having your account stolen in RuneScape just became a lot more dangerous. A very serious concern has arisen with regard to Squeal of Fortune, and Jagex’s method of keeping storage of user payment details. Jagex stores credit card information for recurring subscriptions, and uses that same card to purchase Squeal of Fortune spins. While the card number cannot be accessed, Jagex requires no extra information to process the purchase.

Squeal of Fortune is a grab-bag style mini-game where players can purchase spins (and receive them in-game) to have a chance at receiving rare equipment. If an account is stolen, there is nothing preventing the thief from doing very real damage by running up a massive bill through Squeal of Fortune. Why would someone do that with no real benefit to themselves, you might ask? Never question what a person might do to cause grief to another, especially over the anonymity of the internet.

The only way to remedy this for the time being is to head over to Runescape.com and remove your credit card from the account. Go to the main website, click on account settings, membership, and extend membership. You will see a list of payment sources on file, click “manage saved cards,” and there you will be able to delete the card off of the record.

Future membership purchases can be made with the option to not remember the card details. For players with the lower membership rate, there is a leeway when resubscribing where you will still receive your current rate. If the account is compromised and money is transferred, Jagex will not be refunding any money spent, legitimately or not.

With the on-screen PIN to prevent theft in the case that an account is stolen, RuneScape has more security around a player’s virtual bank than it does around the player’s actual bank.

(Source: Tip.It Warning)

Jagex Introduces Microtransactions In RuneScape


When Jagex introduced the Squeal of Fortune, they did so with the premise that the mini-game was balanced. Powerful and expensive rewards were relegated to untradeable and extraordinarily rare chances, and each player was only offered one spin per day (two for members). Today, however, Jagex has reversed years of outspoken anti-real money trading policies by introducing an update allowing players to purchase extra spins.

Spins can be bought in packages of 10, 20 (with 5 bonus spins), and 40 (with 35 bonus spins) for $5, $10, and $20 respectively. Jagex has denied that this constitutes paying for an advantage as players are not buying a specific item. The company has also denied that this constitutes gambling as there is no chance of “loss,” as players will always win something, even if it is a cheap 50 coin payout.

The gambling issue, however, stands to be a very important one. This update puts Squeal of Fortune in a similar bracket with lotto bags that many free to play games offer, and depending on if anyone decides to bring question, may constitute gambling and be subject to varying restrictions, laws, and even bans depending on the country.

Regardless of any potential and currently unknown legal implications, this move is sure to draw fire from the community, thanks in part to Jagex’s extreme stance over the past decade against any form of extra payment in return for advantages, and the justifications from developers (see above) as to how this does not violate the core principles is not being received well.

Hopefully more to come as this story develops.

 

City of Heroes Dropping Localization In France/Germany


Community Manager Andy Belford over at Paragon Studios would like to thank you all for the tremendous support of the European communities ever since City of Heroes went live, and subsequently free. That is, except for the French and German communities who have not “seen rapid growth” in the past. As a result, Paragon Studios has announced that starting immediately, City of Heroes will begin phasing out support for French and German communities.

Official support for the French and German clients will end when Issue 23 is released, and players will be required to use the English language version.  The French and German servers (Vigilance and Zukunft) will not be closed down, however the content will be changed to English. In addition, all support tickets will still be answered in French or German.

(Source: City of Heroes website)

Darkfall Developer Blog: Korea And Onward


Who loves Korea? MMO Fallout loves Korea, and not just because the country has spiraled up to about 50% of my traffic over the past couple of days. Aventurine also loves Korea, in the latest Epic Blog Tasos Flambouras starts by commenting that the developers are heading to Korea to sign an agreement with new partners with more details to come next week.

In addition, you can check out the entirety of the blog to read up about changes to the user interface, the upcoming addition of “player points,” the addition of an achievement system, and new village control system.

Darkfall 2.0, the major relaunch of Darkfall is set to go live this year, or more specifically, sometime between today and the apocalypse.

(Source: Epic Blog)

Ghost Recon Online Keys: First Come First Serve


Hey there. If you’ve been looking for Ghost Recon Online keys, look no more. MMO Fallout has three keys to give away, listed below, first come first serve. Follow the instructions to redeem your key.

  • GRN-N9NM-CA9V-CAQQ-BHTY
  • GRN-N9TG-DMLX-3YWG-L73C
  • GRN-N9TM-JP9Q-K6G8-WGCL

Follow @mmofallout on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS for the drop on future beta keys and giveaways.

Gods & Heroes Doesn't Have Developers


Gods & Heroes has had a rough life for an MMO. Back in the day the game began under Perpetual Entertainment which turned out to be not so perpetual and went bankrupt in 2008, orphaning its two MMOs. Already hit with a setback, Gods & Heroes was bought up by Heatwave Interactive, developed further and released in 2011 to almost no fanfare. The game was fun, but riddled with bugs and containing very little content outside of questing. Heatwave came out shortly after with a blunt announcement: The game wasn’t running up to par.

This January, Heatwave stopped charging subscriptions in favor of a buy to play system, with the promise of an upcoming free to play system. In an announcement today, however, Heatwave has announced that there isn’t much of a development team left, and won’t be until the game finds funding.

However, at the end of 2011, it was clear that we would either have to let the team go, or find another way to keep them around. So, in order to keep the game alive and have a real chance at getting the free 2 play effort funded, we’ve reassigned the majority of the development team to new projects and made the service free for everyone. The game will have to remain in this state until we find further funding. I hope my honesty and transparency about what has been going on with G&H communicates our commitment and belief in the project.

Gods & Heroes isn’t shutting down any time soon, however. There is enough funding to cover hosting.

There is definitely no expiration date on Gods and Heroes and funding for that is not an issue. I want to make it very clear that we have no intention on shutting Gods and Heroes down and we are committed to the IP.

Gods & Heroes is still available via digital distribution for $10 with no subscription fees.

(Source: Gods & Heroes Forums)

Gods & Heroes Doesn’t Have Developers


Gods & Heroes has had a rough life for an MMO. Back in the day the game began under Perpetual Entertainment which turned out to be not so perpetual and went bankrupt in 2008, orphaning its two MMOs. Already hit with a setback, Gods & Heroes was bought up by Heatwave Interactive, developed further and released in 2011 to almost no fanfare. The game was fun, but riddled with bugs and containing very little content outside of questing. Heatwave came out shortly after with a blunt announcement: The game wasn’t running up to par.

This January, Heatwave stopped charging subscriptions in favor of a buy to play system, with the promise of an upcoming free to play system. In an announcement today, however, Heatwave has announced that there isn’t much of a development team left, and won’t be until the game finds funding.

However, at the end of 2011, it was clear that we would either have to let the team go, or find another way to keep them around. So, in order to keep the game alive and have a real chance at getting the free 2 play effort funded, we’ve reassigned the majority of the development team to new projects and made the service free for everyone. The game will have to remain in this state until we find further funding. I hope my honesty and transparency about what has been going on with G&H communicates our commitment and belief in the project.

Gods & Heroes isn’t shutting down any time soon, however. There is enough funding to cover hosting.

There is definitely no expiration date on Gods and Heroes and funding for that is not an issue. I want to make it very clear that we have no intention on shutting Gods and Heroes down and we are committed to the IP.

Gods & Heroes is still available via digital distribution for $10 with no subscription fees.

(Source: Gods & Heroes Forums)

TERA Korea Patch Adds In Cosmetic Cash Shop


Ahoy, TERAns! The great part of being on the lower end of the development scale is that kTERA gets all of the updates before we do here in the West. On one hand this does annoy a certain portion of the base who see the developer playing favorites, but on the other hand you might also see the Korean community as something of a guinea pig, to taste test the content for poison before it is brought over to the west. We saw this particularly with the Russian community in Allods Online a couple of years ago and TERA is no exception.

Over on the Korean TERA front, Bluehole Studios has added in a cash shop featuring time-limited and unlimited cosmetic items. There are eye glasses that sell for $2.50 for 30 days or $4 for 365 days. The mount sells for about $21 for 365 days. Before you explode into the comments section, it is important to note that the 365 day label is a farce, the items are listed for 365 days also have a note that they do not get destroyed after 365 days.

While the cash shop is cosmetic, there are gameplay changers included. Each item gives the user a set amount of T-Cat coins (22-30 for glasses, 304 for horse) which can be used currently to purchase twelve hours of crystal protection (no longer lose crystals upon death) and special sealing scrolls which are normally expensive items and are used in crafting.

You can check out the items here. So far no word on the cash shop making its way to North American and Europe.

DC Universe Legendary Is Even More Legen – Wait For It…


As part of a measure to keep all of their games in-line with one another, Sony Online Entertainment announced today that Legendary (subscriber) members of DC Universe Online are in for a treat. Starting April 3rd all Legendary players will receive a monthly “allowance” of 500 Station Cash on PC or Loyalty Points on PS3. In addition, players will be able to find Promethium lockboxes that can be unlocked free of charge, while free and premium members must buy keys from the cash shop. In addition, Legendary members will receive 150 replay badges which are used to reset instance loot lockouts.

Station Pass members are likely used to the restrictions by now, and can skip this section. You need a recurring subscription to receive the 500 station cash/Loyalty points, and the 500 station cash does not stack with other games on the station pass (You can still receive 500 station cash if you subscribe to each game individually). Loyalty Points on PS3 are due to Sony being unable to use Station Cash on the system.

In the future, Sony hopes to place DLC packs on the loyalty market.

(Source: DC Universe Online)