Author: Admin

New Everquest II Matrix And F2P Details


When Sony turned Everquest II into two services, they did so for a number of reasons, not least of which being a negative push back from the (at the time) current population of subscribers who did not want even more cash shop interference. And for what it’s worth, those of us on the Extended servers should be thanking these tough defenders, because when Sony merges the two services in December, those of us on the Extended servers will see a notable boost in what content we have available to us with a simple .

Gold players (subscribers) will now be able to access all races and all classes, according to the new free to play matrix. As many of you know, Platinum (the $200 yearly plan) is gone to anyone except recurring subscribers. You can find even more information on the transition here, while the EQ2 Wire has posted information that recurring subscribers will also be treated to monthly Station Cash injections into their accounts. Sony will also be discontinuing service with Live Gamer, the player to player auction house for RMT, around this time.

Coming December, there is a new way to spell Everquest II, and it’s l-o-d-s of e-m-o-n-e, and what’s that spell? Loads of money!

Probably.

New Player Experience: Is Vanguard Prepping For Free To Play?


Here’s something you didn’t expect to hear today: A Vanguard content patch was released. Sony Online Entertainment has been making relatively good on its past promise to begin supporting the title, and has unleashed a new dungeon as well as a new player experience. For starters, corpse recovery has been removed, making death less frustrating. Additionally, the experience required to attain each level has been scaled back, as well as increased loot drops (permanent) and the “golden path,” a leveling guide that assists players in finding areas to gain experience.

So is Vanguard in the preparation stages for free to play? It would certainly seem so, what with laying down the carpet and rose petals for the influx of players that the change would bring. We’ll be keeping an eye on Sony for the time being.

Crimecraft To Add Persistent Territory Control


I love Crimecraft, even if the Bleedout campaign mode often makes me want to punch a small kitten, but the trailer for the upcoming Gangwars update carries a lot more gore and dismembered body parts than I remember seeing in-game, to which I say: Kudos! Set following the Bleedout campaign, Gangwars sees the rise of player gangs out of their usual role of ragtag drug addled thugs shooting one another in the street, and takes the fight to a persistent territory control system.

You can find details on the expansion here. The update also brings with it new all sorts of new stuff. This almost makes me want to join a decent gang. Almost.

And Now An Unsolicited Testimonial: Tribes Ascend


Tribes: Ascend is not Tribes Universe, let’s get that out of the way from the start. The game is not the multi-hundred player shooter ala Planetside that Hi-Rez had promised us, that game is currently on hold until development of Tribes: Ascend finishes. Now that we have that out of the way, Tribes Ascend is an upcoming shooter by Hi-Rez, the same guys that made Global Agenda. Billed as free to play from the start, Ascend is offering a rather useful package for those that preorder. The package costs $30, and bequeaths upon you 3,000 Tribes gold ($30 worth), a 30-day booster for experience, tokens, and points ($15 on cash shop) and lifetime VIP status which gives you a permanent boost in said exp/tokens/points, as well as priority access and VIP-only servers.

I love Tribes, and Ascend does an outstanding job of bringing the fast paced action back to its glory days. A third map was added in today, there are currently two game modes (capture the flag and rabbit), with continuous updates as the game progresses through the closed beta phase. I can’t help but be amazed once again at the skill of longtime Tribes players, who are able to use the geometry to move faster than I can keep track of them. They’re like watching someone extremely skilled in Sonic the Hedgehog, the speed at which they can still react fluently is beyond comprehension.

Playing completely free, I have a lot of respect for you. You have access right off the bat to the soldier (with that spinner disc launcher) and a gunner class, but everything else is locked up unless you buy gold coins to unlock the classes, preorder the game to obtain the 3,000 gold to buy the classes, or grind an enormous amount of tokens to unlock the classes for free. Each loadout costs 15,000 tokens to unlock for free, and now that my character is halfway through level 5, with the added VIP bonus, I’ve achieved around 1,200 tokens.

If you’ve been playing Tribes, odds are we’ve come across one another (my username is Omali). I’ve come across familiar faces quite a bit, especially since I tend to play in the off-hours. Otherwise, check out my Twitter page to see how you can nab a beta key.

Darkfall Free Weekend: This Weekend


Rejoice, fans of free for all sandbox MMOs, because Aventurine has a proposition for you. If you’ve departed Darkfall for any reason in the past, you are cordially invited to come back and experience the changes that have occurred in your absence. The instructions are relatively simple:

Anyone who does not have a currently running subscription needs simply login via the Account Management Page, ( here for European accounts, and here for US accounts) click on the button to activate your free days, and enjoy the benefits of our Happy-Hour weekend! All running subscriptions will automatically have 3 free days added to their account and don’t need to take any action other than to log-in.

The welcome back weekend lasts from Friday to Monday, according to the email sent out by Aventurine to past subscribers. In addition, players will partake in 400% experience gain, plus a massive increase in drop-rates and items dropped by foes.

So what do you have to lose? Other than everything equipped and on your inventory.

CCP Responds To Star Vault’s Terms of Service


As a small website operator, I’m always interested in seeing what kind of overwhelming response can be generated when someone far more popular than me links to my story. Last week, I brought up the rather humorous story of Mortal Online’s Terms of Service being stripped directly from Eve Online’s, down to the accidentally placed “Eve Online” (seen above). Massively ran with the story and, unlike myself, they are popular enough to get a joking response out of CCP:

We shot them (the company that makes it) this message.

—
Star Vault:

We here at CCP couldn’t help but notice that our expert wordsmithing, legal poetry and cunning turns of phrase have been emulated with sincerest flattery by your technical writing and/or legal staff. In fact, ardent fans of our EULA have surfaced, themselves noticing your homage to our work. See their assessment here:http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/09/mortal-online-plagiarizes-eve-onlines-terms-of-service/

EVE Online is a notoriously dangerous universe. So we have to caution you — in fact, we demand that you don’t follow our footsteps or use our copyrighted work. After all, internet spaceships are serious business, so probably best to keep our internet spaceship business out of your business language. Please stop using our legal agreements, and kindly remove our name from your website.

—
What are people going to copy next… our spreadsheets?!

CCP Responds To Star Vault's Terms of Service


As a small website operator, I’m always interested in seeing what kind of overwhelming response can be generated when someone far more popular than me links to my story. Last week, I brought up the rather humorous story of Mortal Online’s Terms of Service being stripped directly from Eve Online’s, down to the accidentally placed “Eve Online” (seen above). Massively ran with the story and, unlike myself, they are popular enough to get a joking response out of CCP:

We shot them (the company that makes it) this message.

—
Star Vault:

We here at CCP couldn’t help but notice that our expert wordsmithing, legal poetry and cunning turns of phrase have been emulated with sincerest flattery by your technical writing and/or legal staff. In fact, ardent fans of our EULA have surfaced, themselves noticing your homage to our work. See their assessment here:http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/09/mortal-online-plagiarizes-eve-onlines-terms-of-service/

EVE Online is a notoriously dangerous universe. So we have to caution you — in fact, we demand that you don’t follow our footsteps or use our copyrighted work. After all, internet spaceships are serious business, so probably best to keep our internet spaceship business out of your business language. Please stop using our legal agreements, and kindly remove our name from your website.

—
What are people going to copy next… our spreadsheets?!

Bigpoint Invokes MC Escher In Concept Art


Click on the image above to see a larger version, and follow these simple steps: Starting at the room in the northwest corner, move your finger down the hallway to the large room. Head down the first flight of stairs, down the second flight of stairs, and down the third flight of stairs. Now head around the bend, through the archway, and find yourself on the same level as you started from, while remaining walking on a flat surface.

I need to lie down, my brain hurts.

Rift F2P? Over Scott Hartsman’s Dead Body


Will Rift eventually become free to play? No one can say for sure. As long as Scott Hartsman has a say, however, anyone who wants to play the MMO will have to pay up. In an interview with Eurogamer, Scott Hartsman of Trion stated that Rift is still growing, and that there are absolutely no plans to change face and make the game free. After all, the game is so pupillary, why would they reduce to 85% of the community (ala the 85/10/5 rule) paying nothing?

“One of the assumptions people make is you can just take a game and throw a switch and change the model. For starters, you’d have to decide that that would be a good thing, and I do not think it would be – that would be a fairly large net negative for Rift and Rift community.”

Sorry, folks! If you want to get into Rift, why not take advantage of Trion’s rather aggressive sales strategy? The game is on sale very cheap, very often.

Rift F2P? Over Scott Hartsman's Dead Body


Will Rift eventually become free to play? No one can say for sure. As long as Scott Hartsman has a say, however, anyone who wants to play the MMO will have to pay up. In an interview with Eurogamer, Scott Hartsman of Trion stated that Rift is still growing, and that there are absolutely no plans to change face and make the game free. After all, the game is so pupillary, why would they reduce to 85% of the community (ala the 85/10/5 rule) paying nothing?

“One of the assumptions people make is you can just take a game and throw a switch and change the model. For starters, you’d have to decide that that would be a good thing, and I do not think it would be – that would be a fairly large net negative for Rift and Rift community.”

Sorry, folks! If you want to get into Rift, why not take advantage of Trion’s rather aggressive sales strategy? The game is on sale very cheap, very often.