Author: Admin

What Happened This Week: 4/15-4/21 Edition


This weeks question is for those of you who have quit an MMO (so virtually all of you). What level of interaction do you keep with your estranged title? Do you forget all about it and move on to your next title of choice, or are you one of those people who turns on jihad mode and begins a crusade to bring the game and company down because they did something that caused you to quit? Do you keep watch to see if they improve upon what made you quit to begin with, or is it a matter of once they lose your interest, it’s gone forever?

I can’t explain my interest in Hellgate Global. When I played the game at launch, I wasn’t too interested in it. In a way, I had the same reaction to Hellgate as I did with All Points Bulletin, in that it was a shooter/sword/RPG that tried to combine the best of both worlds, but ended up not doing either in a unique way. Essentially, it was Diablo, but played from a different perspective, and I lost interest in the same fashion I lost interest in Diablo: Going through similar looking dungeons (often the same dungeon several times for different missions) over and over again. And yet, I’m signed up for the beta. I could not give a single valid explanation why, other than that I paid the money for the boxed copy.

1. Yoshi’s Cookie: I Admire the Final Fantasy XIV Team

Say what you want about Final Fantasy XIV and odds are your complaints are very valid. What you can’t say is that the current development team, lead by Naoki “Yoshi” Yoshida, lacks motivation. Reading the producer’s letters, I can’t help but admire the devotion and passion that Yoshi and his team have put into Final Fantasy XIV in the past few months. Development has been steaming forward, with a ton of needed updates to turn Final Fantasy XIV into a viable product. FFXIV is functionally a great game, but it needs content and direction so players are doing something other than grinding exp and taking up the same leves over and over again.

What Yoshi has proven is that the team is not above slashing content that doesn’t work, or making drastic changes to other content. Among the updates in the works are the complete removal of physical levels, reworking the battle system, changing the job titles to be more recognizable, introducing grand companies and an achievement system. You can read the list of planned and currently in-the-works updates here.

2. Omali, Why Do You Hate Gamersfirst So Much?

I don’t have a personal grudge against Gamersfirst, I just have very low confidence in the company’s ability to police their own games, mainly because the company has absolutely failed to police their own games. The titles they do maintain are filled to the brim, as I’ve said before, with cheaters and gold farmers. So although I’d like to believe Gamersfirst when they say they have the cheaters all figured out, that’s exactly what Jagex said about gold farmers in Runescape, and I have the feeling Jagex has better resources for catching cheaters than G1.

Those of you who frequent MMO Fallout are well aware that I refuse to join in on the “I hope ___ game fails because I hate ___ company” trash that populates video game forums, and that it’s rather rare that a game comes out that can be labeled purely garbage. Just to name a few examples, DC Universe is a game I harp on, and my issues are not in the gameplay, but its longevity. The original All Points Bulletin had a lot of promise, but needed a real identity as either a shooter or an MMO, but not both. Earth Eternal had less bugs than any other game I’ve ever played but had almost no content outside of kill quests.

I want All Points Bulletin to become Gamersfirst’s big title that will come out and virtually lobotomize all of the cheaters that Realtime Worlds never dealt with, that will inspire the company to run the gold farmers out of their other games. If they are unable to, hopefully Gamersfirst will be able to survive the disappointing reception. Realtime Worlds didn’t.

3. Let’s See Some More Games Revived.

Let’s go over some titles, shall we? Earth Eternal is being revived by a Japanese company, APB by G1, Star Trek Online was revived by Cryptic, Gods & Heroes is entering closed beta under Heatwave Interactive, T3fun is bringing back Hellgate London, and there are probably a few more I can’t think of right now. If The Mummy can get an MMO deal, I want to see some of these other defunct MMOs come back.

I want to see Tabula Rasa brought back, because with all the changes that the developers made in the two months before the game shut down, a lot of the community’s problems were fixed, albeit too late. Shadowbane should be brought back now that the existing version wouldn’t suffer the same problems of the original run (remember the Shadowbane reboot?), and would be run by a single, stable company. I want Dungeon Runners brought back as a free to play title with a cash shop, so the game can financially support more than three people. But above all, I want Tabula Rasa brought back, so I can shoot Richard Garriot in the face with a level 40 shotgun for allowing his team to screw the game two ways to Sunday.

4. I Don’t Have Autism.

The reason I set up MMO Fallout is because of my fascination with the business side of the genre. This is one of the few sections of the gaming industry where a company can’t just throw a game into the open, occasionally lower its price, and then get to work on the sequel. Currently, I feature over 70 MMOs on the category list, including news for games I don’t list (Guild Wars among them).

I noticed a surge in this after Minecraft really gathered steam, and that’s the amount of people who are equating what they see as hard work to autism, and I’ve had a few people asking me if I have autism. First of all that’s an incredibly offensive thing to ask someone, and as a random person on the internet it’s none of your damn business.

Next, I want to make something clear about MMO Fallout. I have a job, I work around generally between 25-30 hours a week at my retail job that I’m using to pay for my car and insurance. I subscribe to, at most, two MMOs, by virtue of my own wallet and time. Writing articles for MMO Fallout takes up a couple of hours of the day at most, spread out throughout my free time. So I wouldn’t call MMO Fallout my “second job.” More like a hobby I’m using to get myself trained for my ultimate end-game (as you’d see in my about page, talk radio).

5. Taking MMO Fallout To The Next Level

I’m going to start trying to get some interviews with different developers. When I call MMO Fallout a hobby, that doesn’t change how serious I am with expanding this website into something bigger. I have a lot of ideas on what I want to do with this blog, and simple text based articles aren’t going to cut it.

Marvel Universe: Steep Uphill Climb


At one point working on MMO Fallout excavated a tiny part of my brain, and replaced it with a long list of industry names and their associations. So any time I hear the name Bill Roper, David Bravik, or Max Schaefer, the “Flagship Studios” red alert goes off and won’t stop buzzing until I finish writing the article. My article on Marvel Universe’s complete disregard for character creation caught a lot of attention (and was featured on MMORPG.com), and the topic as a whole stemming from the initial interview has been thrown back and forth by supporters and dissenters.

I raised the all important question at the end: What will make Marvel Universe stand out from its competition? The market is already somewhat saturated with three MMOs. Two of them hold subscriptions, one is free to play. All three allow me to heavily customize my hero, including free range of powers. Two allow me to play as a villain. One relies on a cash shop. One leans more toward action games while the other two lean closer to the traditional RPG. Now, the future of Champions Online rests in where Cryptic is sold off to, and DC Universe hangs on the will of its players to continue populating the servers, but City of Heroes has proven it isn’t going anywhere soon.

So I’ve been pondering what Marvel Universe will bring to the MMO table, and I’ve come to a few conclusions.

  • Story: If Gazillion can manage a ton of characters but give them their own stories, they could have a viable system. Bring players in with the flow of free characters, play through their stories, then offer premium characters with more story as cash shop purchases. If MU only carries one storyline for all characters, you’re going to see the population drop off fast once people complete with their favorite character.
  • Gameplay: I have a feeling Marvel Universe is going to be Marvel Ultimate Alliance Online, and honestly I’m okay with that. I loved the Ultimate Alliance games, sans the PSP versions, and an online lobby based game would likely make a fitting sequel. That being said, Marvel Universe won’t be an MMO. A game where you choose from pre-created characters and run through levels isn’t an MMO, it’s an online game. It can still be fun and support microtransactions, but it is not an MMO.
  • Pricing: Gazillion did good by announcing Marvel Universe as a free to play MMO, because tacking on a subscription would be throwing a brick wall right at the starting line. If Gazillion plays their cards right with the microtransactions, they can stand to make a lot of money from Marvel Universe. Make the free content engaging enough and people will want to buy the premium content. Heading into the system of “well the free stuff is kinda crap, but it is free, but the paid stuff is better,” won’t bring in enough people to cover those that are disenfranchised by the message.

I want to make it clear that I’m not saying Marvel Universe will be a bad game, but rather expressing my concerns in Gazillion advertising it as an MMO. It should not mark itself as an MMO because it will not function as an MMO, and should not be supported and developed for as it if were an MMO. Gazillion is clearly going after a different audience than those who play City of Heroes/Champs/DC Universe, and calling it something along the lines of Marvel Ultimate Alliance Online might have presented the game to its proper target audience. Gazillion has already talked about the game being ultra cheap to maintain (a system similar to Guild Wars).

Pull the MMO market and tell them they aren’t able to create their own characters, and they will reject the game as an MMO. Call it an online game with microtransactions, and you’ll have a wider audience. Those who want to play a superhero MMO are likely already playing a superhero MMO, but again Gazillion is not advertising to MMO players.

I’ll be doing more articles on Marvel Universe as more information appears.

Why Buy Cryptic Studios?


I’ve said this before, but I believe Neverwinter to be the root cause behind Cryptic losing money, compounding the loss that Star Trek Online put on the revenue from Champions Online, alongside a less than stellar launch by both titles. I don’t believe that either of the two titles performed as well as Cryptic had hoped they would, and only recently did Champions Online start producing a substantial amount of money. Tracking the reaction that Champions Online and Star Trek Online received is rather easy. Both games were touted as being developed with a system that could easily create large amounts of content quickly and at a low cost. However, when both games released after a very short (by MMO standards) development period, they launched with very little to distinguish themselves from the competition. Players blasted both games for a lack of content, heavy focus on the cash shop (more so during Bill Roper’s phase as leader), and Cryptic’s general lack of attention to the userbase.

At first I joked that Gamersfirst might buy up the game, turn them both into free to play cash shops trashed by cheaters and gold farmers (similar to their other games), but I have a feeling that if Cryptic is bought up and it isn’t by Jack Emmert as rumored, the buyer will be a company none of us have heard of before. Still, that hasn’t stopped the major news websites from speculating on what big name company will pick up Cryptic.

Going by the big names, Sony has enough on their plate at the moment, and I think the acquisition of Vanguard was enough to end any future purchases of games hemorrhaging money. EA/Mythic/Bioware won’t pick up the studio because of their own problems with All Points Bulletin, Warhammer Online, and the major upcoming release of The Old Republic and the possibility of a Mass Effect MMO. EA can’t afford to take on a sinking ship, not when they are already having trouble securing investors over the performance of their past MMOs. NCsoft won’t pick up Cryptic Studios because…well it’s NCsoft. The company has no second thoughts toward severing a limb to save the rest of the body, and this acquisition would be like finding a rotten leg in a creek and asking your doctor to sew it back on. Funcom is a no go, and Blizzard also has enough on their plates with World Of Warcraft, Project Titan, and their other games.

It’s a shame, too, because I have a feeling the Neverwinter MMO won’t be leaving Atari with Cryptic wherever they go, meaning the lack of that development cost will lift a heavy financial burden off of Cryptic’s arms. Perhaps with moving Star Trek Online free to play, as hinted last year, Cryptic could bring themselves back into the green and have two decent if not necessarily heavy hitters in the MMO field.

I’d love to see Cryptic find a new home where they can continue improving upon Star Trek Online and Champions Online. I also hope they can finagle Neverwinter Online to move with them. As I’ve said before, I think Cryptic’s knowledge of instancing can play to their favor in a game that will revolve around heavy instancing.

Hellgate Global: Are You Chosen?


If you’re like me, you already have a T3fun account thanks to Aika Online going global this past February and not wanting to deal with Gala-Net. If you do not have a T3fun account, now is a good time to get one. Registering your account (or logging in) and heading over to Hellgate Global’s website will net you a relatively easy access to the Hellgate closed beta. Clicking on the “Do you have what it takes button” and then applying for the beta nets you about a 50-5o chance of getting in instantly, otherwise T3 notes a list of websites that will be offering keys in the coming weeks.

There is no download link yet, the beta doesn’t start for another two weeks (June 3rd). Just enough time to forget you’ve been accepted into the beta.

Eat Yourself In Mortal Online: Gain Weight


Mortal Online launches the Dawn expansion at some unknown point in the near future, and among the new features is a cooking system that allows players to cook pretty much anything they want (although cooking rocks won’t result in a healthy meal), and with the cooking system comes a weight system. Gorge yourself on food, and you will gain weight, and naturally your stats will change with your increased/decreased girth. Another feature being presented is cannibalism, the ability to not only kill a player and loot them, but eat their corpse to regain health.

Luckily, Henrik confirmed a question I’ve been wondering for a good while now: Is it possible to eat yourself? The answer? Yes.

“Cooking gives new interesting surprices everyday…
Today Sebastian and me was playing, I killed sebastian, when he came back he took his own corpse which had a certain weight.. he couldnt resist to taste him self…. and started to eat, he filled is stomach with the carcass which wasnt to good for his health. After that I just had to kill him again, he came back once again and looted his new carcass, now he found something interesting, his new carcass had an increased weight.. thats because he stuffed him self with his previous carcass. so you see we now have weight as well and it works just like it should in real life, pretty cool.. Then I took his head and logged out with it haha. Funny little moments we have at the office, just wanted to share it with you as well.”

If you ate your own carcass that was stuffed with the consumed carcass of yourself that your previous self had eaten, would you become twice as fat, or would the resultant paradox simply shut down the Mortal Online servers and give you a massive nosebleed?

Mortal Online’s Dawn expansion comes out sometime either late this month or early next month, while Star Vault works out last minute issues.

This Is The First Part: Secret World 360 Delayed Forever


Before the discussion begins, let me just put something out in the open: I would love to see an MMO on the Xbox 360. Final Fantasy XI has somewhat of a monopoly, and Phantasy Star isn’t an MMO in the traditional open world sense, so that leaves Final Fantasy with the reigns. I don’t own a 360 (used to), but I know plenty of people who would love to see DC Universe, Everquest Next, Planetside Next, or even DUST 514 or The Old Republic moved over to Microsoft’s console. That being said, after the number of cancelled MMOs for the console in just the past two years, I have no faith that Microsoft will ever allow another MMO on the system (remember, Final Fantasy XI was allowed because Live was in its infancy, according to Square).

I hold the same true to Undead Labs’ MMO, but my statement over The Secret World on the 360 is only affirmed by today’s announcement that the console version is on hold. Indefinitely. How do I know? Funcom commented this:

“We are focusing on the PC version right now.  That is our primary market and we want that version to be as good as possible.”

Sounds like the MMO edition of “it’s not me, it’s you.” Actually, now that I think about it, this sounds like something Cryptic said regarding Champions Online. I could use a flashback right about now…

“It has always been, and still remains our intent to release on consoles, and as soon as we’re able to share more information about it, we will.”
-Daeke, Community Manager, Cryptic Studios, on Champions Online on consoles.

That would be it. Now bring it home with what Cryptic said about Star Trek Online on the consoles.

“It’s something we can readily do in terms of technology. We’ve had it up and running on certain consoles, and had plans and designs in order to take advantage of those platforms. But as it stands right now it’s a little difficult to make that final leap on the business side of things. So, currently, just like Champions, the console version of Star Trek Online is on the back burner.”

That’s the important figure. It’s not the technological side, it’s the business side. Let’s not also forget Funcom’s intent on releasing Age of Conan on the Xbox360 and what came of that venture (read: nothing).

I’ll say the same as I said with Undead Labs’ MMO. If it does release on the 360, it will play in a form that isn’t really an MMO, but rather closer to Call of Duty in that it features a persistent leveling system but takes place in stagnant, lobby based, locally hosted match making servers.

More on The Secret World as it appears.

Age Of Conan Wants You Back: Almost Two Weeks Free


Former player of Age of Conan? Promised yourself you’d never go back to Funcom after they [insert reason here]? Well, even if you don’t hold a grudge against the company, they are willing to have you back. In fact, starting today Funcom has taken the liberty of reactivating your account for you, until the end of May. While current players are receiving a handful of potions and experience boosts, former players can return for the next week and a half and see what they’ve been missing in the land of Hyboria.

Check out the announcement here.

Hellgate Global 12 Minute Trailer


Hellgate: London. It’s easy to forget that this game is still running in the east, and that T3Fun has been working to bring the title back at some point between now and the point where hell actually does take over earth. Over the past couple days, T3fun has been posting a ton of photos in preparation for what will be a June 3rd release date for the closed beta.

Hellgate: Global falls into the growing list of MMOs have that are being revived by new developers.

You can check out Hellgate Global’s Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter.