Author: Admin

Mortal Online: Facebook Discount, Expansion Coming


We have been silent for some time now while working very hard on our first expansion titled Dawn, and we now feel ready to reveal its contents. The expansion will be released in April, and it will not cost anything, all you need is an active subscription.

Mortal Online has gone through some…troubles in its short less-than-a-year on the market. Since its launch last June, the team over at Star Vault have had to deal with ongoing lag and server stability issues, the accidental deletion of an entire city, the realization that their combat system may be unfeasible, a few publicized exaggerations regarding patches, not to mention that the game is still not profiting, and Star Vault is selling stock for five cents a share. Given this, any progress is worth publishing for the fledgling developer, and Star Vault wants nothing more than to make the upcoming expansion go smoothly.

To start, finally a followup on the mount update I wrote about last month. With the new mount system, each horse will carry its own unique stats, as well as the slots to equip with new saddles, armor, headpieces, and horseshoes. By customizing the horse, players will increase their speed, defense, and storage capacity. There are a lot more updates to be seen in the upcoming expansion, which can be read here.

More importantly, however, is the announcement in this month’s newsletter that players will be able to link their Facebook profile with their Mortal Online account, and have updates sent to their wall based on what they do in-game. Why link? Star Vault is offering a discount to your subscription if you do. I do not have any information currently regarding how much the discount is, however I will post more information in the coming month.

In addition, Star Vault is looking to release a system reminiscent of World of Warcraft’s Armory, allowing players to view real-time status updates on the guild territory, wars, and characters. Of course, being a PvP-centric game, displaying your information will be completely optional.

Finally, it appears that Star Vault is making progress on the server stability end of things, recording a 50 hour uptime before the servers were brought down for maintenance. This will surely be a delight to players.

More on Mortal Online as it appears.

April Fool’s 2011 Roundup


April Fool’s is one of my favorite days of the year, because I love seeing what jokes companies will come up with, my personal favorite being Google’s yearly jokes. Today isn’t even over, and I think the award for the best joke goes to ArenaNet with Guild Wars, who not only created a trailer and page for the Commando class, but added in an entire mini-game to Guild Wars as a “preview.”

Here is an ongoing roundup of today’s jokes, good and bad.

April Fool's 2011 Roundup


April Fool’s is one of my favorite days of the year, because I love seeing what jokes companies will come up with, my personal favorite being Google’s yearly jokes. Today isn’t even over, and I think the award for the best joke goes to ArenaNet with Guild Wars, who not only created a trailer and page for the Commando class, but added in an entire mini-game to Guild Wars as a “preview.”

Here is an ongoing roundup of today’s jokes, good and bad.

The Agency Canned Amidst Sony Layoffs


SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.

With the announcement that Sony Online Entertainment had performed layoffs and shutting down studios (Denver, Seattle, Tuscon), a lot of the eyes on the news websites turned at The Agency, Sony’s upcoming yet secretive MMO. So, although disappointing, it isn’t all too surprising that the game is the first on the chopping block among the cost cutting at SOE.

Granted, the news is not all bad. In reaction, John Smedley has posted to Planetside Universe that the Planetside Next team has actually expanded, and a post on the Everquest forums has reaffirmed players that the game is not going anywhere.

Once again our best wishes go out to the 205 employees who are now on unemployment. Hopefully you’ll all have just as easy of a time finding a new job as the Realtime Worlds guys did last year.

The Agency Canned Amidst Sony Layoffs


SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.

With the announcement that Sony Online Entertainment had performed layoffs and shutting down studios (Denver, Seattle, Tuscon), a lot of the eyes on the news websites turned at The Agency, Sony’s upcoming yet secretive MMO. So, although disappointing, it isn’t all too surprising that the game is the first on the chopping block among the cost cutting at SOE.

Granted, the news is not all bad. In reaction, John Smedley has posted to Planetside Universe that the Planetside Next team has actually expanded, and a post on the Everquest forums has reaffirmed players that the game is not going anywhere.

Once again our best wishes go out to the 205 employees who are now on unemployment. Hopefully you’ll all have just as easy of a time finding a new job as the Realtime Worlds guys did last year.

Play Rift? Have Friends Who Don’t? Free Time For Them!


Hey, Rift’ers. I know you’re busy fighting back Alsbeth and the legion of undead attacking Telara at the moment, but offer me a moment of your time. Do you have a friend looking into Rift who just doesn’t want to throw $50 down on the box, but doesn’t want to miss the event? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you’re in luck! Your friend can play with you during select times, just by creating an account and applying a code.

Have your friend head over to Trion’s website, log in (or create an account), and give them the code you received in your email linked to your Trion account. It will look like this (minus the pixels on the code):

The event goes from 10am PDT April 1, 2011 through 10am PDT April 4, 2011.

Play Rift? Have Friends Who Don't? Free Time For Them!


Hey, Rift’ers. I know you’re busy fighting back Alsbeth and the legion of undead attacking Telara at the moment, but offer me a moment of your time. Do you have a friend looking into Rift who just doesn’t want to throw $50 down on the box, but doesn’t want to miss the event? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you’re in luck! Your friend can play with you during select times, just by creating an account and applying a code.

Have your friend head over to Trion’s website, log in (or create an account), and give them the code you received in your email linked to your Trion account. It will look like this (minus the pixels on the code):

The event goes from 10am PDT April 1, 2011 through 10am PDT April 4, 2011.

Major Layoffs At Sony Online Entertainment


Word that Sony Online Entertainment Seattle is having layoffs and that studio closure is possible. http://bit.ly/eSxtvq
-George Broussard on Twitter

This was reported by Kotaku, although there has yet to be an official statement, Kotaku reporter Owen Good (who reported on the story) has confirmed it with a more involved source than George. It has yet to be seen which studios have closed down, although reportedly the studio behind the upcoming Agency MMO has been slashed.

This is no doubt a bombshell, not only for us playing Sony’s games but more importantly for the people who are losing their jobs and livelihoods. MMO Fallout is committed to this story, and will be updating as soon as any news is released.

Perfect World Entertainment: This Is How You Charity


You may have thought that the charity articles were over, and you would be wrong. Following all of our other articles, we’ve got an update from Perfect World Entertainment. For the next two weeks, until April 13th, players of Perfect World International (by Perfect World Entertainment) will be able to purchase the Super Inventory Stone, which upgrades your inventory to 64 slots.

The item is one per character, and lasts forever. 50% of the proceeds are sent to charity. The charity of choice is the American Red Cross.

For more information, check out the web post: http://www.perfectworld.com/blog/?p=218551&style=pwi

Rift: Now Integrated With Youtube


The program FRAPS is great, but recording tends to slow down my computer. Xfire video does the job, but not all of my games are supported. I’d love to see more MMOs implement what Trion just did today: integration with Youtube. In today’s patch, Trion added in support for players to link their Trion accounts to their Youtube accounts. By hitting Ctrl + Y in-game, players can record up to three minutes of footage. When the capture is complete, the video is encoded, and once the encoding is complete, can be sent off to Youtube straight away. Note: Unfitting death metal music and terrible editing skills not included.

To show the system, I’ve included a short 30 second video I recorded today, using this system. I did have some trouble on longer videos with the video skipping, and I’m not sure what is causing that.

If you are in Rift, hopefully you’re doing better than my server in fighting back Alsbeth. More importantly, I’d like to see more MMOs incorporate their own recording system. I’m looking at you, Alganon.