Author: Admin

Bioware: Fansites? No Advertisements Anywhere!


Class 3 Bankruptcy

Back in the age of gaming magazines, getting an exclusive was really a privilege, as the other newspapers would have to wait until the next month’s (gaming magazines primarily printing monthly) print in order to keep up. In the age of the internet, however, exclusives simply mean an hour or two ahead of the competition. Developers have always had a pretty tight system of rules for offering information, and that system has (for the most part) been fair. Don’t unfairly trash the game, give ample screen time, and that is about it.

Operating a fan site (a decent fan site) is expensive work. Between managing databases and active users, the costs of bandwidth and storage space can get pretty high, and virtually any fan site not backed by some conglomerate (and many that are) offer some form of advertising to help pay down costs.

With regards to the upcoming The Old Republic, Bioware is having none of that. If you run a fan site and want any hope of Bioware talking to you, or promoting you through Twitter/Facebook, you may not accept any income whatsoever, either from advertising or from donations. None, nada, zilch. If your fan site pays its writers, you’re going to have to foot that bill yourself. If your fan site operates off of revenue from Google Ads or some other advertising, guess you’re not getting that promo or exclusive information.

Websites, especially the popular ones (which I would know nothing about), can reach bandwidth costs into the hundreds of dollars per month, and many go even higher. To demand that your fans not supplement their websites with some form of payment means that only a select few, those operated by wealthy groups of players, will have any hope at getting that sweet sweet Bioware nectar.

Of course, you could always list yourself as press and bypass that restriction. According to the website that broke the story, Toroz, Bioware is looking into the situation, and this policy may see some alterations in the coming months. That being said, when you’re about to launch your first MMO, you can’t do much worse than giving your potential customer base (given many of your fan sites wouldn’t have the funds to stay afloat without advertising revenue and donations) the middle finger and chastising them for being poor.

I’ll be following this story in case Bioware comments, and given MMO Fallout doesn’t offer advertising, perhaps I’ll have better odds at getting a statement.

Aika Online: Both Versions Opening Globally


Two Services, One Globe...

Aika Online launched under Gala-Net back in early 2010, and quickly became a subject of controversy in April when it was revealed that the company had begun an IP block on all players outside of North America (due to Hanbitsoft carrying the rights to publish in Europe), after Gala-Net had already opened the cash shop, allowing non-North American players to start throwing their money in. Gala-Net came to something of a half-compromise. Players wouldn’t be refunded, but anyone who had created an account prior to the IP blocks would be allowed to continue playing. European players were miffed, especially since the European release was delayed over the North American release by several months.

Well the segregation is over! Although the services won’t be merging (for now), both Aika Online and Aika Global (the latter being Hanbitsoft’s operation) have announced that they are opening doors to previously blocked players. On February 17th, Gala-Net opens to European players and Hanbitsoft opens to American players. It is important to note that the two games are still operated by completely different companies. Your characters, potato chips, TCoins, and accounts will not transfer between services (unless something changes in the next week).

Unless this is the start to a service merger in between the two companies, but that’s just my speculation.

Frogster: This Is How You Charity


The Blokes At ROM

Here at MMO Fallout, I never turn down a good charity story, and today is no different. Frogster has a yearly run on Runes of Magic for Save The Children (Germany edition), a children’s rights organization that engages in all sorts of projects, with the goal of improving healthcare and education for all kiddies no matter where they be.

Between December and January, players of select Frogster games could purchase exclusive items where, after VAT and third party costs, the proceeds went to Save The Children in Bhutan. In total, $112,500 USD was collected.

“In Bhutan, there are suddenly children surfing the Internet and zapping through 400 television channels. Their parents, on the other hand, are people who haven’t learnt to read or write. They have never in their lives been bombarded with advertising. In other words, what we have here is a clash of two ages of civilisation.”

You can read more here: http://game-newswire.com/index.php/the-news/338-frogster-donates-82000-euros-to-children-in-bhutan.html

Second Star Interactive: Dark Age Of Camelot + Ultima Online?


Second Star

Does anyone else remember the excitement you felt when you learned that Richard Garriot was back and making MMOs? I believe it was 2005/2006 that Tabula Rasa was fully announced and confirmed to be in development, and many of us just couldn’t wait to see what Garriot’s twisted mind would come up with. Another Ultima Online, perhaps?

SecondStar Interactive is a new studio formed out of names we know well.

  • Darrin Hyrup: Founder of Mythic Entertainment.
  • Lory Hyrup: Lead Designer of Dark Age Of Camelot.
  • Cooper Buckingham: From Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot, The Sims, and Gods & Heroes.
  • Tim Cotten: Ultima Online.
  • Eric Piccione: Art Director responsible for the look of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot.

What type of MMO is SecondStar working on? I have absolutely no clue. All we know is that the game is running off the HeroEngine, the same engine you’ll find in Star Wars: The Old Republic and a few other upcoming titles.

I know what some of you are thinking (Ultima Online pre-Trammel PvP with three factions and an extensive crafting system and RvR) and I must ask to contain your drool! That being said, the wait for information shouldn’t be long, SecondStar has rounded out their announcement by claiming a late 2011 release date.

More on SecondStar’s upcoming MMO as it appears.

Jagex: Bots And Buying Banned Accounts…


Shouldn't have said that...

I don’t want to get into the whole discussion on whether or not Jagex is a corrupt corporate entity, but with last week’s news that the developer is now offering the option to pay to be unbanned, one has to bring up the ethical concerns of a company having a financial interest in banning its own players. As one player put it, imagine if you will that a judge received 20% of the fines he issues out. Sure, plenty of judges would put ethics above money and still work fairly, but when those odd cases do slip through the cracks and a player is unfairly punished, it will bring up the question of “are they ignoring my appeals because they are incompetent, or because they think I’ll pay up to be unbanned?”

The official response from Jagex (Mark H) is that these fees are being used to fund the ICU (Internal Conflicts Unit?) so that less membership fees and advertising revenue have to be used to fund it. Jagex’s official policy appears to be that cheaters should have to pay to fund the staff that have to look through their appeals. Again, the specifics are something Jagex refuse to release, so we’ll have to wait until someone is given this offer before we can talk specifics.

But while we’re on the subject of cheaters, Jagex announced alongside the wilderness vote that they had a system in place that was infallible in catching bots. Naturally, I advised players to be wary of this claim, as it had been made in the past to no avail. Nonetheless, I was proven correct over the past week since Jagex revived free trade. In many parts of the free world, and members worlds, bots are more common than even before free trade was initially taken away.

So Jagex is capable of removing the cheaters, but unwilling, which would mean they lied about having a no tolerance policy. Otherwise, they are willing, but incapable, which would also mean they lied about the system they had in place. Which one is it?

Call of Duty MMO, Cataclysm, To Asia We Go!


Massive Action Tactics Online Of Duty Free To Play

I know what you’re thinking: “Omali, this sounds like yet another free to play lobby based substandard shooter with a cash shop attached where players can pay to win,” to which I must ask that you set aside your stereotypes for five minutes and realize that you are likely 100% correct on that prediction. In Activision/Blizzard’s latest quarterly report, the company reveals plans for yet another Call of Duty developer, Beachhead Studios, to work on a Call of Duty game for the Asian markets. While the traditional Call of Duty never sold too well in Asia, thanks to the abundance of piracy, having mandatory multiplayer and self-hosted servers (not to mention the game being free) will give Activision a tighter control on those who want to play their game.

The financial report doesn’t give any information as to when we can expect the Call of Duty MMO, or if there are any plans to expand the title to the Western hemisphere. In the same financial report, Blizzard highlighted their plans for 2011, including:

Grow World of Warcraft with new content; work towards StarCraft II and Cataclysm launch in China

It is worth noting that Wrath of the Lich King was delayed two years before release in China, due to the restrictions placed on games and Blizzard’s well publicized publisher fiasco, so a 2011 launch for Cataclysm may be on the less realistic side. Still, it would be nice for the Chinese players to remain somewhere close to their Western counterparts.

Mindless, But Wealthy, Drones: Battleground Europe Edition


If only...

For those of you who haven’t heard of Battleground Europe, it is widely regarded as the first MMOFPS in history, released in 2001 and is still running to this day. As someone who played Battleground Europe back when it was still just WWII Online, I have to say the quality of the title was unmatched, both in the implementation and the sheer force that the allies and axis threw upon one another in massive fields, towns, and cities, experiencing everything from raids to enormous bombing runs.

And as any MMO goes, Battleground Europe peaked, and began its dip into the game that exists today: A game that is even more barren and lifeless than its successor in the field, Planetside. I guess you could say the main difference between Planetside and Battleground Europe at the moment is that Planetside at least was successful enough to spawn a sequel.

But this article isn’t about making fun of Cornered Rat Software, or their near-comatose game. Unbeknownst to me, and 99% of the gaming community, the guys at CRS have been upping the funding lately, with the Builder’s Program (private investment) and through the increase in the base subscription price to $17.99 a month. Sure you can subscribe for three months and bring that price down, but we’re talking about the base entrance price for a monthly fee.

There is nothing to be worried about, like the game tanking, however. If the posts on the related threads are anything to go off of, Cornered Rats has quite a number of players willing to pay for subscriptions, often on multiple accounts, as a “donation,” despite not even playing the game. That must be nice for the folks at CRS, having people who expect literally nothing out of you, and are willing to pay you for just that. I also witnessed posters claiming that they hated the change in subscription, but would continue paying the price just to stop any snowballing of people leaving.

Whether or not World War II Online is a good shooter is irrelevant to the fact that not only will free trial players be walking into a dearth of population, but then they’ll be enticed with a cost higher than any triple-a MMO on the market. And the drones on the Battleground Europe forums can throw inflation and costs of development as much as they want. $15 is less funding than $17.99, but $0 and a disgruntled customer who isn’t coming back is far, far worse.

If you’re going to ask for higher prices, you’d better have something to offer that meets that increase. Games far more successful and independent companies far smaller than Cornered Rats have gone more years without raising their subscription price, or putting payment plans into effect with termination fees. So please, don’t try to play this off as a special case. It isn’t, and you aren’t.

Dungeons and Dragons Online Returning To Europe


Just replace September with March.

It’s been a surprisingly long time since I’ve had an opportunity to write about Dungeons and Dragons Online (since last June, actually). Those of you who play or follow Dungeons and Dragons Online may remember Turbine’s announcement last year that they would be taking back Dungeons and Dragons from Codemasters. Codemasters, who was operating the MMO in Europe, was still operating under the subscription system. Due to contractual issues, Turbine ended up canning the game’s operation in Europe altogether, and players were instead transferred over to US based servers.

Luckily, however, Turbine is bringing the game back to Europe, with support for German and French language. The current estimate is “2011,” for release. MMO Fallout will bring you more information as it appears. Players who transferred over to the North American service can likely expect their accounts to be transferable to the European service when it does launch.

Star Trek Online: No More Standard Edition


He's dead, Jim.

At least one of you read the Where To Buy page in the past few days and noticed just one issue with Star Trek Online:

Purchase On:

  • Standard Edition
    • Amazon (unavailable)
    • Direct2Drive (unavailable)
    • Gamersgate (unavailable)
    • Impulsedriven (unavailable)
    • Steam (unavailable)
  • Digital Deluxe

I quickly sent an email to Cryptic as to why the standard edition of the game has been removed from every digital distribution source, and received the following in response:

“Since we lowered the prices on the digital deluxe and are happy to offer the DDE value to any customer, removing the standard seemed reasonable, as there’s no compelling reason to confuse customers with two digital SKUs that are pretty much priced the same. I guess another way of thinking about it is that the DDE now becomes the standard, only it grants more perks – we’re giving anyone who buys STO digitally that value..”

So the Digital Deluxe edition is becoming standard, and the standard edition is being retired. At $14.95, the deluxe edition is the price of a month’s subscription anyway. Thank you to Ivan Sulic from Cryptic for the quick response.

Everquest Reactivation Campaign


Fippy Darkpaw

Damn you, Sony! With the impending release of the Everquest progression server, people like myself are no doubt trying their hardest not to resubscribe just to try the game out one more time, a feat that (at least I am finding) is proving hard to keep up. And much like the insensitive alcoholic who shows up at your one year of sobriety celebration with a case of beer, willingly shoveling your addiction right underneath your nose, Sony is ensuring that those of us on the fence will be knocked right off with a brick to the septum.

If you log into your Station accounts, some of you may find that your Everquest accounts have been reactivated until the 21st of February, just long enough to get a good week in with the progression server. Not all accounts appear to be affected by this, and I am unable to pinpoint exactly what the prerequisites are for the reactivation. If your account shows as “pending,” then you will be able to log in until the 21st.

So thank you, Sony. While you’re at it, can you spot me twenty bucks for Cool Ranch Doritos and a couple gallons of Sweet Tea? I’m going to need them.