Perhaps he will go to work at Bioware? Between Mythic’s billing server exploding, the shut down of their merchandise store, and last November’s announcement of server mergers and massive layoffs (40%), you would think that the news couldn’t get any worse. Well, it did. Josh Drescher, producer of Warhammer Online, posted on his twitter account that he has been laid off, and cannot give any more details. His twitter post reads:
FYI: I can’t get into details (and, in fact, don’t HAVE many more details), but it was a layoff. I wasn’t fired and I still love Mythic.
Many of you may remember Drescher from the video podcasts for Warhammer Online created before and after release. But Josh does have a word for all of you who take this as a sign Warhammer Online is dying:
Quick note, then I’m going offline for a while: WAR isn’t dying. The game is better now than ever before and more goodness is on the way.
Even though it’s not my baby anymore, I’m proud of what it’s become and want the team’s hard work to be rewarded moving forward.
It’s good to see no (public) hard feelings between Drescher and Mythic. More on Warhammer Online as it gets laid off.
A lot of professional gaming publications have a you-scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch-yours relationship with developers. The publication promises that it will give the review a fair score, and the developers often send them exclusives and swag (have you ever seen the desk of some of these writers? Covered!). Of course, the publications get their copies of the games long before we do, generally with an agreement that they will do short previews, followed by a set universal date for when the review can be published. The intent is well, as developers want to allow as much time as possible for the publication to actually play the game before reviewing it. It is to be said that even with these time allowances, some publications still make it out the door with unprofessional, rushed reviews of games that the reviewer did not play (I’m looking at you, Eurogamer) that result in low scores, and of course the review itself being removed.
Your average Joe, on the other hand, does not abide by these restrictions. He does not have any incentive to hold off or formulate his opinions in a thoughtful, or calm manner. He might, on a regular review website, but on a public forum he will type as his heart directs him: Right over to the surplus sale on expletives. A publication may understand the differences between beta and release, but Average Joe does not, and neither does the person who is reading the review based on his closed/open beta experience.
What is accepted, almost universally, is that when a game hits open beta, it should be in an virtually finished state. Aside from stress testing the servers, MMO developers should not be using the open beta period prior to release as a method of gauging incomplete features or mechanics, and the game itself should not drastically change on the day of release. Despite this, it still happens, as I have said before:
“Abilities get tweaked, some features get buffed, and yes some features get nerfed. MMOs are never a final product, and big changes should always be expected.”
-Omali, MMO Fallout, on something likely unimportant
In an email sent out with keys to the city, Realtime Worlds noted:
Before finalising reviews, we want you to experience the full, rich experience of APB as it is meant to be seen. We want you to see wild customer customisations, player progression and clans making an impact on the living breathing city of San Paro. This key code also therefore grants you, along with our pre-order customers, VIP early access before the official launch day. June 26th in North America and June 28th in Europe.
It makes sense, but for the wrong reasons that sets a bad precedent for Realtime Worlds. Now that the news of this embargo is being reported on, when the game does come out and widely reported issues with shooting and driving become even more publicly available, people may assume the worst: That the embargo was an effort to stifle critique.
I’ve been quite critical of Cryptic in the past, mentioning that they have the most convincing cardboard cutouts pretending to be community relations, and going as far as advocating that people never buy straight from Atari.com, ever… Whatever the case may be, writing articles on Cryptic has become something of a repetitive task, as generally the news that I would put on here comes in the same package: Cryptic did something, annoyed a lot of their customers.
Today’s news comes from the latest massive update to the Cryptic Store, making almost every preorder bonus (sans playable Borg) available to players for a fee. Needless to say, once again, the forums are in an uproar. I’m finding a lot of the issue comes from players not angry that the previously exclusive items are being sold on the cash shop, as this knowledge was known before the game launched, although a small number of items did not carry this. The manner in which Cryptic went about doing so is what is getting feathers ruffled.
Foremost, the phrase “too soon” comes to mind. Ignoring the several days of head start, the items remained exclusive for a whole four and a half months following launch. Many players believe that, even though Cryptic said that they would eventually make the items available on the cash shop, that they should have waited a longer period of time before doing so. A second major complaint I’ve seen is that only a certain group of the bonus items are available, while others remain exclusive. A number of players are crying foul due to a feeling of favoritism of some preorder options over others.
I have to agree with the complaint relating to the item shop versions being much cheaper than the bundled package. As someone who purchased an enhanced version of Star Trek Online, the same perks I paid around $30 more for are now available on the Cryptic Store for pennies on the dollar. Time is one factor, and as I have already pointed out, that extra cost became virtually useless in the matter of four months. Not only this, but I distinctly remember Cryptic employees recommending that players purchase numerous copies of the game in order to get all of the bonus items.
Perhaps the most relevant complaint, and the reason I decided to write up this article, is based around trust: Essentially, exclusive and unique are made subjective, fit to change at Cryptic’s discretion (which in the terms of these items, comes down to when newer players ask for them to be on the cash shop). This will put a lot of distrust around various Cryptic promotions, as anything listed as “exclusive” will no longer be viewed as such by the community, simply an attempt to lull players into making a purchase, and then sticking the item on the cash shop some months later for a drastically reduced price.
I’m not calling on Cryptic’s destruction, as anyone who reads MMO Fallout would know I stray away from. What I am saying is that there will likely be noticeable drop in certain preorder packages for Cryptic’s third MMO, to be announced this summer. Cryptic looks to lose some cash from those people who preorder just for the exclusive items, and yes those people do exist despite some of us (me) wishing people wouldn’t prepurchase five different copies of the same game for digital items.
If your purchase relies on the presumption that only you and a select group of people will ever be able to use that item, and if anyone else gained access to said item you would quit the game, do yourself a favor: Cancel the order before it finishes. It’s a fairly easy way to save money, especially for someone in your position.
I’ve been quite critical of Cryptic in the past, mentioning that they have the most convincing cardboard cutouts pretending to be community relations, and going as far as advocating that people never buy straight from Atari.com, ever… Whatever the case may be, writing articles on Cryptic has become something of a repetitive task, as generally the news that I would put on here comes in the same package: Cryptic did something, annoyed a lot of their customers.
Today’s news comes from the latest massive update to the Cryptic Store, making almost every preorder bonus (sans playable Borg) available to players for a fee. Needless to say, once again, the forums are in an uproar. I’m finding a lot of the issue comes from players not angry that the previously exclusive items are being sold on the cash shop, as this knowledge was known before the game launched, although a small number of items did not carry this. The manner in which Cryptic went about doing so is what is getting feathers ruffled.
Foremost, the phrase “too soon” comes to mind. Ignoring the several days of head start, the items remained exclusive for a whole four and a half months following launch. Many players believe that, even though Cryptic said that they would eventually make the items available on the cash shop, that they should have waited a longer period of time before doing so. A second major complaint I’ve seen is that only a certain group of the bonus items are available, while others remain exclusive. A number of players are crying foul due to a feeling of favoritism of some preorder options over others.
I have to agree with the complaint relating to the item shop versions being much cheaper than the bundled package. As someone who purchased an enhanced version of Star Trek Online, the same perks I paid around $30 more for are now available on the Cryptic Store for pennies on the dollar. Time is one factor, and as I have already pointed out, that extra cost became virtually useless in the matter of four months. Not only this, but I distinctly remember Cryptic employees recommending that players purchase numerous copies of the game in order to get all of the bonus items.
Perhaps the most relevant complaint, and the reason I decided to write up this article, is based around trust: Essentially, exclusive and unique are made subjective, fit to change at Cryptic’s discretion (which in the terms of these items, comes down to when newer players ask for them to be on the cash shop). This will put a lot of distrust around various Cryptic promotions, as anything listed as “exclusive” will no longer be viewed as such by the community, simply an attempt to lull players into making a purchase, and then sticking the item on the cash shop some months later for a drastically reduced price.
I’m not calling on Cryptic’s destruction, as anyone who reads MMO Fallout would know I stray away from. What I am saying is that there will likely be noticeable drop in certain preorder packages for Cryptic’s third MMO, to be announced this summer. Cryptic looks to lose some cash from those people who preorder just for the exclusive items, and yes those people do exist despite some of us (me) wishing people wouldn’t prepurchase five different copies of the same game for digital items.
If your purchase relies on the presumption that only you and a select group of people will ever be able to use that item, and if anyone else gained access to said item you would quit the game, do yourself a favor: Cancel the order before it finishes. It’s a fairly easy way to save money, especially for someone in your position.
Darkfall has been reduced to $29.95 Euro/USD, and no I did not make a typo there. Those of you buying the Euro edition will be happy to know that Aventurine has reduced the price of the Euro edition to match the US edition, pre-VAT.
But the news gets better for our fledgling one year old MMO: Darkfall will be coming to more retail outlets and online shops. Where does this mean? In all likelihood, we will probably see Darkfall on Steam, Direct2Drive, or ImpulseDriven (or any combination of the three) as well as Wal Mart, Target, Play.co.uk, Game (for you UK’ers), Gamestop, and various other locations and localized game retail shops.
With Darkfall on digital distribution services, the game is likely to see a whole host of newbies flying in from all around the world. Hopefully the current servers will accommodate, and by servers I of course refer to the “Newbie Population Control” guild.
With the free trial, newbie protection program, and new player guild, as well as the lowered price for the game itself, there has never been a better time than now to dive into Darkfall if you have not give the game the opportunity.
It’s been a while since any real news on Project V13, other than Bethesda reminding us that the lawsuit is not over, and January’s announcement that the beta would be running sometime in 2012.
Like any good E3, the event brought with it plenty of news outside of the convention itself. Foremost: Interplay has seen fit to launch a Fallout Online website, that appears to be legit (Interplay is linking to it from their main website), and allows people to register for the beta, whenever that comes out.
Good time to move Project V13 to the Upcoming section! Don’t forget when you sign up, that the beta is not expected until 2012.
When you’re a writer whose main source of information comes from groundbreaking news relating to MMOs, a convention where companies announce groundbreaking news about MMOs is practically awe-inspiring. Looking For Group is such an expo, aiming to bring developers and players together under one roof where they may co-mingle, LARP, and cast magic missile (Sorry, you do not have sufficient runes for that). LFG Expo was supposed to run its first year at the end of this month, June 25th-27th.
Sadly, in order to garner more support from developers, Looking For Group will not be having its expo this year, delaying until sometime next year (likely June).
Australians may not be able to properly play All Points Bulletin when it launches, but the rest of us can rejoice. For a while now, I’ve seen a lot of complaints by players towards downloadable content (DLC) and microtransactions worming their way into various MMOs, be it the recent goggles/dog in Fallen Earth, the new mounts in Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and the ever-growing Cryptic Store, it seems many MMOs are including a cash shop in some form or another. There are enough of us willing to tolerate it and accept it that the fad is growing, but there is a group (albeit much smaller than many of them will admit to) that does not want anything to do with any MMO that offers cash shop items in a subscription game, whether they be useful or cosmetic.
Well, there is at least one MMO holding out for the time being. Realtime Worlds lead designer EJ Moreland has announced that All Points Bulletin, the upcoming cops and robbers shoot-em-up MMO, will not feature downloadable content or microtransactions in any form whatsoever. Even better, the game won’t even feature small paid “adventure packs” (I’m looking at you, Cryptic), but will only charge when…I’ll let Moreland explain it:
“We won’t be offering items for sale for real money. We have no DLC. Any update we do throughout the cycle is free except when we do a major retail event, which will add almost a completely new game. Throughout the year, we’re going to release both content updates, which are new missions, new clothing assets, new weapons, new vehicles. Basically, new things for the players to earn, customize, or experience. Then we have much larger updates, which will come less frequently, called activity updates. [These will] introduce new gameplay, new rulesets, or new large additions to the game. Then probably once every year or so, we’ll also do a retail event, which will be an expansion.”
Supporters of no-dlc-ever should be giving respect to Realtime Worlds, even if you don’t necessarily like the game. The above was stated in a round table phone interview with EJ Moreland.
If you are, or have been, a VIP player on Dungeons and Dragons Online, you already know how the system works: In addition to the normal perks of being a VIP player, you are given 500 Turbine points a month as something of an allowance. These extra points can go towards anything that the VIP program itself does not give, be it mercenaries or other perks.
From now until August 10th, VIP’ers will receive double the monthly alloted, one thousand points, to spend on their liking, and I found a number of people were confused as to how this will work out.
I receive my points on:
Before June 11th: You will receive your double points in July and in August. Your points for June will have already been deposited.
After June 11th: You will receive double your points this month, double your points next month, and August will be back to normal.
So those of you with current subscriptions will receive two months worth of double points, no matter what part of the month your subscription renews.
If you are not a VIP member of Dungeons and Dragons Online, you have until July 11th to enjoy two months of VIP, otherwise those who subscribe after July 11th will only receive one month.
Hopefully when Lord of the Rings Online goes free to play this year, we may see a similar promotion. This promotion does not include regular players buying their points.
MMO Fallout 