Author: Admin

Yea, Well, The Old Republic Will Fail When…


You may not be aware of it, but here at MMO Fallout I have a very lax policy of commenting. I don’t require you register, or for that matter even fill out your username or email address (a good portion of the comments here are entirely anonymous). There are well over five hundred comments spanning 1,100 articles, and in the two and a half years since MMO Fallout was funded, I think I’ve had to delete one legitimate (not a spam bot) comment but only because the person was using a large amount of racial epithets. Still, there are a lot more comments about this website off site than on site.

I think it has something to do with not wanting to risk looking like a fool on the off chance that your premise is inaccurate and you are unable to edit the message, which is also why I receive more emails than I do comments. With The Old Republic, I managed to hit a nerve with a few people every time I referenced the game this past year as clearly “the biggest release of 2011.” First I was told to wait until I’d played the game. Truth be told, I started playing The Old Republic around the time the Electronics Entertainment Expo was still running, so I already had experience. Then the closed beta weekends started and those same people told me to wait until open beta for the game to flop.

Naturally, closed beta turned to head start and I was told to wait until launch, that was when the game would flop. Forget that, by this point, The Old Republic had already been referred to as the best selling preorder for Electronic Arts. Finally the game launched, and this is where those same people started sending me actual “proof,” in the form of empty guild channels. I was told to wait until the dreaded first month passed, and that is when I would see subscriber numbers drop off and the server mergers start.

Well now Bioware has stated that The Old Republic has sold two million copies and retained 1.7 million subscribers, most of whom are past the first month. No doubt the next step will be waiting for the initial three and six month subscribers to drop off, and then we’ll play it by expansion. Will The Old Republic grow or decline? I don’t know, I don’t claim to foresee Bioware’s production schedule to ensure players at end-game don’t get bored too quickly.

In other words: I’ve already talked about how Guild Wars 2 will be insanely profitable and popular, and some of the fans shouldn’t take good news for The Old Republic as a personal assault on their game of choice.

Incoming Bot Nuke: March 2012


Jacmob is the creator of RSBuddy, one of the major bots back in the day. Why is he important? Following the bot nuke, and the shuttering of RSBuddy, Jacmob was hired by Jagex to work on anti-bot solutions. In a post on the RSBuddy forums, Jacmob talks about an upcoming March 2012 bot nuke:

It’s been a while since that preliminary bot nuke last October. Now that there’s been time for competent people to move on and various arrangements to be made, I will soon be making my final announcement on RSBuddy. In particular I will speak about the end of RSBuddy and what the approach will be to any further related projects. I will also speak in general terms about the larger bot nuke that’s due in shortly, which should encompass every type of bot and conclude the development time needed to deal with bots for a long while.

Hopefully there will be more details soon.

Tribes: Ascend Parodies Dead Rising


Tribes: Ascend has released a new video parodying Dead Rising’s serious trailer. Shazbot!

Hi-Rez has announced an April 12 launch date for the free to play shooter Tribes: Ascend, although anyone can get into the open beta now by heading to the official website.

Try LOTRO and DDO In Your Browsers With Gaikai


Well, don’t get your hopes up. Turbine today announced Gaikai, allowing players to trial Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online without having to download either game’s client. Playable through your browser, the trial is heavily limited: One hour, due to technical issues that prevent any repeat or extended play at this time.

Currently, the LOTRO trial on Gaikai will allow you to play for up to one full hour. For most players, this will allow you to create your character and complete the starting area for your race. At the end of the trial, you will be logged out from the game and your character and progress will be stored on our servers. You will then be provided with links to download the game client to continue your adventure.

You can find the entire FAQ at the link below, this promotion (for now at least) is only an incentive to give the game a try.

(Source: LOTRO website)

Return To Telara For One Week


Good news, Telarans. Well, ex-Telarans. It’s been one year since Rift launched, and Trion wants to bring back all of its past subscribers, even those above level 20. Starting today, March 8th, and running until March 14th, anyone with a past subscription to Rift will find their accounts reactivated to join in the festivities. Take part in carnival games, enjoy the festivities, or just go back to your grind.

After the 14th, accounts without a subscription will revert back to Rift Lite, and any character that is above level 20 will be inaccessible without a subscription.

(Source: Rift)

The Jagex Contest That May Have No Winner


Jagex has a simple contest running on their website: All you have to do is post on this thread with your avatar set to your character wearing a tattoo from the recently released Squeal of Fortune. Do so, and a random person is picked each week for three weeks to win lifetime membership to RuneScape. There’s only one problem holding back this contest: Obtaining the tattoos.

You see, each member is afforded two spins in the Squeal of Fortune daily activity, and the tattoos are extremely rare to obtain. How rare? As of this writing, there are thirteen pages of posts in the contest thread and not a single person has a tattoo and the contest was announced in the 27th of February. At this point, if you are lucky to obtain a tattoo, you have a real chance at winning the lottery by being its only entrant.

Then again, we all know that my account (mtomali) is going to win this contest. I haven’t had a tattoo even come up as a possible option in daily spins yet, but I’m sure it will happen eventually.

DUST 514 On Vita: Companion App


If you had purchased a Vita under the pretense that you would be graced with the free to play MMO shooter known only as DUST 514, prepare to be disappointed. In an interview with Eurogamer, Executive Producer Brandon Laurino has once again spoken up to clarify on a few questions and notes that the Vita DUST 514 app will be a companion app only.

“At the most basic level, you can do transactions on the market; equip and customise your character, your vehicles; set up strategies with your friends and Corporation members – all of these sort of companion functions on the go.”

That being said, CCP is still looking at possibilities for further development of the app, and while it is unlikely that gamers will be on the front line for the glory of whichever Eve Online corporation has the most expendable money, player feedback should bring in any features that don’t make it into the initial release.

On the other hand, this isn’t necessarily a death call for MMOs on the Vita. Square Enix has hope to port Final Fantasy XI over, and then who knows who else would be willing to step up and assault our productivity?

DUST launches on the PS3 this year.

(Source: Eurogamer)

Jagex Previews New Armor


Ever since Jagex launched the High Definition RuneScape a few years back, many of the game’s assets have fallen behind in terms of visual quality. Over the past few months, Jagex have been slowly upgrading the more popular equipment sets, and this month (possibly this week) the developer is set to release upgraded versions of over two hundred pieces of equipment.

You can preview a few of the armor updates in the link below, the update itself should be going live as soon as this week.

(Source: RuneScape Forums)

The New MMO Fallout


I want to give you all a warm welcome to the brand new MMO Fallout! After a few long and painstaking weeks, we are finally ready to unveil the brand new look. I want to stress that there may be issues with the website as everything is transitioned over, and if you find any bugs feel free to throw me an email: mmofallout[at]gmail[dot]com. Among other changes, you will find that navigating our enormous list of games is now much easier. The new category system will be changed in the near future to better accommodate some of the more populated sections.

A very special thank you to David O’Boyle, without whom this website would still look like just another blog.

A reminder: If you find any broken pages/images, send me an email at mmofallout[at]gmail[dot]com or on twitter @mmofallout.

 

DUST 514 Drops Cover Charge, Fully Free To Play


DUST 514 is set to release this summer on the Playstation 3, and last year CEO Hilmar Veigar made an interesting comment to Games Industry that the downloadable title would be free to play, but carry a cover charge that would be reimbursed via in-game currency.

“You’re really getting the game for free but you have to pre-buy credits in the beginning. We might go fully free-to-play down the line, but in the beginning we have a cover charge just to manage the initial launch of it.”

Since then, someone must have spoken some sense into CCP, because DUST will no longer require a cover fee. In an interview with Eurogamer, CCP Executive Producer Brandon Laurino says that the previous policy was confusing, and that DUST 514 will be free to download and free to play.

“It’s not the classical, ‘We’re going to have four maps at launch…’ We are covering literally a universe of planets, so there’s thousands of different maps and they’re all available to everyone who’s playing,”

You can read the entire article at the link below for some information on what will be available in the DUST cash shop when the game goes live.

(Source: Eurogamer)