Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from KingsIsle, circa 2008, sent out almost five months before the game launched, alongside the following tagline.
More than three years in secret development, KingsIsle has designed Wizard101 as top quality entertainment in an online environment that is safe for families. It is expected to launch in the third quarter of 2008 and is not yet rated.
Xbox One? After this commercial, they should call it Xbox Fun. Wait, I already made that joke in the header. This is why you shouldn’t update your website via typewriter, no backspace key.
Considering the recent library of kid-friendly MMOs shutting down, I decided to check in our friends at Sanrio Town and see how Hello Kitty Online was doing after all these years. We don’t talk about games like Hello Kitty Online much here at MMO Fallout, except to point to the company’s knack for charity work, and it’s been a good year or so since we last checked in with our feline friend. Unfortunately, while the lights are still on, it appears that no one is home. The servers are online, however the game has not received any new content since March 2012. To top it off, Google went berzerk as I tried to enter the forums, warning that the domain had been flagged for containing malware.
According to a few members of the forum, concurrent population is in the single digits assuming it doesn’t drop down to zero at times. It looks like Hello Kitty Online is essentially over and done with.
Hello everyone,
First of all, we’d like to thank all players for supporting this game since the very beginning; it couldn’t have come this far without you.
Circumstances have contributed to a significant loss of players and we’ve decided to cease the current game operations for the Global English version and take City of Steam back. This is a decision we have taken months to reach, and are confident that it’s best for the health of the players, the community and the game itself.
City of Steam is not shutting it down. We at Mechanist Games will improve and self-publish the game, and endeavor to make it available to as many of the original fans as possible by cooperating with popular English language browser-gaming platforms (to be announced).
City of Steam will be upgraded during the time it is offline to better suit the player demographics of the new browser-gaming platforms publishing the game; new content, new features, new systems, massive change to the economy and statistics, new equipment and cosmetics, new quests and an overhaul of most of the level art and main quests. Some features will be removed. There will also be a massive flying fortress for characters of any level to congregate in.
Because of these numerous and sizeable changes, the game will be re-launched in November under the title City of Steam: Arkadia.
Thanks to all the game’s players, and the support of the City of Steam community.
Mechanist Games
(Source: City of Steam)
The good news is that Phantasy Star Online 2 is fully localized in English and ready to go for a launch in the west. The bad news? It will likely never launch here. According to an undisclosed source in an article by Tristan Oliver over at TSSZ, Phantasy Star Online 2’s localization will only be rolling out to English speaking Asian countries. Sega hasn’t officially shot down any prospects of the title coming to the Americas and Europe, however the source speculates that there may be enough doubt that the game would be profitable in the west to prevent the game from ever making its way overseas.
Sega has been silent about a western launch since their appearance at the Penny Arcade Expo last year. Some gamers are already playing PSO2 on the Japanese servers with English patches, and you can too with this handy guide from Kotaku.
(Source: TSSZ)
The good news is that Phantasy Star Online 2 is fully localized in English and ready to go for a launch in the west. The bad news? It will likely never launch here. According to an undisclosed source in an article by Tristan Oliver over at TSSZ, Phantasy Star Online 2’s localization will only be rolling out to English speaking Asian countries. Sega hasn’t officially shot down any prospects of the title coming to the Americas and Europe, however the source speculates that there may be enough doubt that the game would be profitable in the west to prevent the game from ever making its way overseas.
Sega has been silent about a western launch since their appearance at the Penny Arcade Expo last year. Some gamers are already playing PSO2 on the Japanese servers with English patches, and you can too with this handy guide from Kotaku.
(Source: TSSZ)
No, I’m not here for candy, and if you rustle my head one more time I will stab you.
MMO gamers are hardly strangers to in-game protests. We’ve seen plenty of protests in games like RuneScape, Aion, and more over everything from updates to lack of communication and more, the removal of a mechanic or the reintroduction of one that had been removed. The size and efficiency of said protests ranges based on the catalyst and the game in question, but players have had quite a bit of success in the past with organizing sit-in’s and mass exodus or unsubscribing. There is plenty of debate as to whether or not protests actually accomplish their goals, because you won’t find many developers willing to admit if they are.
Players in Dungeons and Dragons Online organized a sit-in on the Wayfinder server in Stormreach city, to show their dissatisfaction toward a change in the True Reincarnation system coming with Update 20. True reincarnation resets your character to level one with bonuses from your “past life.” The update removes the primary way players obtained True Hearts of Wood and will require players to run epic-level sagas in order to obtain commendations to trade in for True Hearts. In layman’s terms, the update will add a lot of grind and make the process of True Reincarnation much longer, with the goal of either directing player’s attention to sagas or toward the cash shop to open their wallet.
Will Turbine cave in to player demands? Tune in next time to find out.
(Source: Occupy Stormreach)
According to Matt Firor of Zenimax Studios, Elder Scrolls Online will not have a pre-installed gentleman’s club. Fans of the series will recall that in Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, players could visit Desele’s House of Earthly Pleasures. Not as popular a location as Mehrune’s House of Strider Sausage and Goat Cheese, but that’s beside the point. Instead, Firor inserted a side note that just because the game doesn’t come with such a facility out-of-box, doesn’t mean players won’t find an empty house to set one up for themselves.
Similar to what we saw with the (in)famous Goldshire Inn from the incredible World of Warcraft, we Ultimately decided to leave these choices up to the player to establish things like the House of Earthly Delights from Morrowind. Were not implimenting it ourselves…but whose to say there isnt a vacant building in Suran just waiting to be turned into ESO’s first whore-house! ESO is about choice, and well leave the implementation of those choices up to the “creative” players.”
Does anyone object to me naming the building Mehrune’s Dagger?
Behaviour Interactive is the developer working on Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade, and naturally some of you may have a few questions for the developers. Luckily, MMORPG.com has announced that several key members of the Behaviour crew will be on hand for a Q&A on Monday. If you have anything you would like to ask of the development team, head on over to the link below and drop a question or two.
The live Q&A is at 4pm eastern on Monday, October 21st, but you can ask your question now by putting it in the thread at the link below.
(Source: MMORPG.com)
MMO Fallout 