Author: Admin

Global Agenda Going 100% Guild Wars Model


Free stuff, free stuff everywhere.

Before I go into the news story, I’d just like to make one of my opinions public: I have a very big hunch that the era of B-list MMOs keeping the $15 a month fee is moving towards its end. Obviously I can’t predict where the market will wind up, but I earnestly believe that we are in the beginning of a shift where we will see a number of MMOs lower their subscription price, go freemium, or entirely free to play. Developers are seeing how many more players they can grab at a lower price, with the influx of new people paying far outweighing the group who was willing to pay the full price. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and despite complaints by a very vocal minority, the benefits can far overshadow the negatives if done correctly.

Global Agenda, being a part-MMO title that launched this February, became so successful that Hi-Rez had to add a new server to accommodate overseas players. I do get the hunch that, much like a certain Cities XL game that came out in 2009 and shut down in March, Global Agenda’s paid MMO side is not doing as well as the company had hoped. Oddly enough, this seems to be a trend with games that release with one half free, one half paid content, unless the game’s name is Guild Wars of course.

Hi-Rez Studios announced today that Global Agenda is going free to play (well, the subscription portion was), and speaking of Guild Wars, Global Agenda will be channeling Arenanet’s policy of having the game itself be free to play, with option paid expansion packs. Expansion packs are expected to release only once or twice per year, at rates similar to non-subscription game expansions (I haven’t purchased a non-subscription expansion since the Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons. Twenty to thirty dollars sounds about right). Token awards for pre-subscribers will end on the 25th of June, and Hi-Rez has assured us that if the level cap expands, players will not need to buy an expansion pack to access the higher level cap.

Global Agenda is one of the few MMOs I don’t follow too closely, and I’m quite certain that the community will fill in the blanks behind this change, but look at it this way: At least Hi-Rez didn’t take the path of Cities XL and simply close up shop because not enough people were subscribing.

By the way: Global Agenda is 33% off on Steam until July 5th. What great timing.

Thar Be Sales On Steam, Landlubbers!


Updates:

  1. The sale is over. Go home.

↓ – “Activation and download may take up to 48 hours after purchase.”
♣ – Paypal is not accepted if paid in pounds or Euros.
♥ – 30 days only applies to new Station accounts.

VOIP Ads? In My All Points Bulletin?


More likely than-BUY NOW AND SAVE CASH

Gentlemen, start your pitchforks. A detail savvy player on the All Points Bulletin forums has discovered that, in addition to requiring players to pay a subscription (be it in hourly increments or in monthly flat fees), Realtime Worlds has also decided to place advertisements in the game’s VOIP feature. And what could be better than getting advertisements in a paid game? Paying an addition fee to not hear them. RTW is offering 30, 90, and 180 day specials to not hear advertisements.

According to Community Officer Toxico, who was quick to respond, the advertisements only play every three hours, while loading a district. The prices are pretty cheap, starting at about one dollar for 30 days (40 rtw points). People naturally don’t like advertisements, but if one ad every three hours is enough to ensure RTW won’t be charging for VOIP, I think the APB players will survive. You always have that mute button when entering a district.

More on APB as it appears.

Mortal Online Compensation Coming


Currently offline...

To expect an MMO to launch with no down time is ridiculously out of line. Despite the utilization of closed beta, open beta, and finally head start, the servers that run an MMO are usually ground down to the core in the opening month. Lag, random crashes, and more plague the game and launch issues are so common that the rule of thumb with MMOs is that those who are not patient should not become early adopters.

Now, I may come off as being a little more brute than necessary. Server crashes are often fixed in the first few days of launch, and lag disperses as players move out from more crowded areas. Occasionally, however, the server hits hurdles that bring the game down on a regular basis. As a recent example, Darkfall last year had a several month period where it was virtually impossible to buy the game. Those of you who remember World of Warcraft’s launch are probably in the fetal position underneath your desks right now. In many of these cases, the developers ask for the hand of forgiveness by compensating players for lost game-time.

Mortal Online’s servers have not been doing well since launch, and saying that is an understatement. Maerlyn, of Star Vault, announced that there is compensation coming for players, that is being decided by management. While they are still working on fixing the server stability issues, for now the servers will be staffed all day long in order to allow for a manual reboot in the case of a crash, which will cut down on the duration the servers are offline following a crash.

More on Mortal Online’s compensation model when it appears.

Aion Server Mergers To Be Quick/Painless


Still gives me nightmares.

When Aion launched last year, a last minute decision was made post-launch to add a few servers to alleviate load. Of course, as is the usual case with MMOs, the population has gone down since release and the extra servers are no longer necessary, as the queues and server load of old are just that, a thing of the past. As pointed out in the NCsoft financial report, although Aion numbers have gone down since last September’s launch, NC believes that the numbers will maintain their current position, especially with the 1.9 and 2.0 patches.

When Aion’s servers merge, they want to give players free reign to move from server to server to find themselves a suitable new home. As a result, players will be given free, unlimited transfers between July 8th and August 18th.

Server mergers will begin July 7th (The same day as the Vanguard server merges.) and the following servers will be merged:

North America
New Siel (West Coast)
Siel & Ariel
New Vaizel Server (West Coast)
Vaizel, Kaisinel, Yustiel & Fregion
New Israphel Server (East Coast)
Israphel, Lumiel & Marchutan
New Zikel Server (East Coast)
Zikel, Triniel, Azphel & Meslamtada
New Nezekan Server (Oceanic)
No Change

Europe
New Spatalos Server (ENG)
Spatalos & Gorgos
New Telemachus Server (ENG)
Telemachus & Castor
New Perento Server (ENG)
Perento, Kahrun & Kalil
New Kromede Server (GER)
Kromede & Votan
New Thor Server (GER)
Thor & Nerthus
New Balder Server (GER)
Balder& Lephar
New Urtem Server (FRA)
Urtem & Vidar
New Suthran Server (FRA)
Suthran, Arbolu & Deltras

Your items, equipment, kinah, legions, warehouse items, broker items, and AP. Name change coupons will be provided if you were not able to keep your name through the merger. Fortress ownership will be reset.

Read the full FAQ here: http://powerwiki.na.aiononline.com/aion/Server+Merge+FAQ

Dark Age of Camelot: Still Thinking About You


Coming soon...

Nine years is a long time for any project. By the time an MMO’s ninth birthday comes around, their community has been long-ago set on what they want out of the game, the developers have found their strong points, and although the game likely stopped growing years ago, those who have stuck with it often form quite a tight community.

Dark Age of Camelot launched in 2001, and since then the earlier areas of the game have been feeling quite neglected. With the upcoming 1.104 patch, Mythic hopes to revisit the old dungeons and revitalize drops with new bonuses and higher quality items that past expansions have introduced into the game. Albion, Midgard, and Hibernian gear will be updated as well with various bonuses.

Mythic isn’t the only developer going back and revisiting old areas to give them a touch of shine and polish. More on Dark Age of Camelot as it appears.

Runescape Free* Membership Trial Coming


Not Free.

In regards to freemium titles, MMOs that offer a small portion of the game for free with the rest at a subscription rate, that the existing free portion of the game technically serves as a trial. It may not be limited by time, but it is limited in content available. With Runescape, Jagex would prefer that the free portion was not referred to as a limited trial, as their goal is to create a fully realized game that free players can indulge themselves in without paying a dime, ever. Other than that, there is no way for players to gain access to the members worlds without actually paying a membership fee.

With the above image leaked from the player moderator forums on Runescape, June 23rd will bring us the first ever limited time trial in Runescape, for Runescape memberships. And that is where the niceties end. Oddly enough, in order to partake in the 7 day trial, you have to provide a credit card that can only be used on one account, and there is a several dollar fee that is taken out as a deposit and returned at the end of the process. In addition to all of that, the player must manually disable their subscription before the seven days are up, otherwise they will be automatically put into the billing system for the full game.

The credit card reason is obvious: To stop real money traders from ravaging members with countless throwaway accounts. The fee, on the other hand, makes little sense. The cost is small enough as it is, but if you have a credit card and those few dollars, why not spend the tiny amount more and experience members for the full 30 days rather than just a week? You don’t get the money back, but if you have the credit card and the few dollars to plop down as a deposit, would you really miss it?

In order to combat abuse, you will only be allowed one account to a credit card, not that the real money traders have ever had much of an issue stealing credit cards before (Hint: The 2007 Runescape anti-rwt updates were in response to rampant credit card theft being used to pay for membership on bot accounts).

More on Runescape as it appears.

Pirates of the Burning Sea: Removal Because They Love You


Some of these ships will be gone.

From the outside looking in, it may appear that the days are numbered for Pirates of the Burning Sea. Having launched in early 2008, the past two years have been a bumpy ride for Flying Lab Software and their band of swashbucklers. Most of the game’s original servers have shut down, leaving only Antigua (North America), Roberts (Europe), and Carribean (Russia) left. The game’s future is certainly up in the air, but the developers are going to have to buckle down if they want to stem the dwindling population.

One way Flying Ship has decided to battle player dissatisfaction: I like to call it The nuclear option. In an effort to balance the power of various ships and to bring more attention to the “vanilla” ships of PotBS, FLS announced that they will be removing the recipes for multiple first and second rate ships, including the Invincible, Prince, Trinity, and Triumphant. Instead, third class ships will now be considered the strongest, with balancing done around that class in comparison to the “vanilla” ships.

Luckily those of you who have the recipes for the above mentioned ships will be able to keep them. Otherwise, you are out of luck as FLS has removed the ability to create the recipe starting now, with the latest patch.

More on Pirates of the Burning Sea as it appears.

There Would Be A Call of Duty MMO Tomorrow


Page 1 of Google "Bobby Kotick"...

Back in January I talked about how Infinity Ward was rumored to be working on a Call of Duty MMO, which of course would likely be worked on by a different company under Activision at this point given Infinity Ward’s current less-than-functional status. Call of Duty itself, as I have said on a few occasions, has achieved near-MMO status. Starting with Modern Warfare and moving forward, the Call of Duty series has been pumping in the MMO-features, allowing players to level up, gain achievements, earn experience, unlock new weapons and customizations for their weapons, earn badges. Technically all Call of Duty is missing is having the servers run by Activision, and perhaps a subscription fee.

I also noted that, were Call of Duty to take the WW2 Online route and go for the large persistent world, that the company would likely take the World War 2 MMO genre and dominate it, given the quality of Modern Warfare and World at War. That being said, I did express concern that a Call of Duty MMO with a subscription that operates solely on instances, ala Crimecraft, would likely hit the ground running directly into a brick wall, as players quickly drop the title and return to the free alternative, or even WW2 Online.

If you believed Robert Kotick of Activision was salivating at the thought of slapping a subscription fee on Call of Duty, then you’ll be needing a replacement bucket. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Kotick stated:

“I would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow”

Does the audience want a Call of Duty pro-subscription? Kotick believes so.

“I think our audiences are clamoring for it. If you look at what they’re playing on Xbox Live today, we’ve had 1.7 billion hours of multiplayer play on Live. I think we could do a lot more to really satisfy the interests of the customers.”

When asked if Activision would pursue a Call of Duty subscription model, Kotick responded “hopefully.”

Is it too early to call Godwin’s law on future comments?

No Elves: Global Agenda Video #2


Global Agenda’s “No Elves” video ranks up there with Aion’s “The More You MMO” and Turbine’s banner advertisements for Dungeons and Dragons Online (Broccoli or the Beholder?), so imagine my excitement when I see a new “No Elves” video.

Moral of the story? Don’t bring your puffball net and toad mount to a gun and jetpack fight.