Category: Editorials

[DEVELOPING] The "Sony Hacked" Mega Article


I’ve decided to sticky this article and use this instead of creating more articles on the same issue. The most recent news will be up top, and to stop clutter, any previous news will be below the “read more” link.

[5/8/11]: PSN services remain offline due to a planned attack for this past weekend.

[5/7/11]: Sony Europe “Welcome Back” includes free games.

[5/4/11]: Sony has posted their response to the United States House of Representatives.

What we know so far:

  • Playstation Network: Offline until further notice.
  • Sony Online Entertainment: Offline until further notice.
  • PSN users will be compensated 30 days free game time, and nonspecific free downloads.
  • SOE users will be compensated 30 days free game time, plus various other items.
  • There are multiple class action lawsuits in the works.
  • The attack was carried out by Anonymous.
  • There have been no reports of credit card fraud as a result of this attack.

Continue reading “[DEVELOPING] The "Sony Hacked" Mega Article”

PS3: Compensation. No PSN This Week.


Those of you who play DC Universe on the PS3, of whom are planning on coming back to the game once it comes online, may be interested to hear the details of Sony’s “Welcome back” package. Announced on Sony’s Facebook page, the plan includes:

  • 30 days free game time.
  • Plus one free day for every day the service was interrupted.
  • And the mask you see above.

I hear if you play your cards right, Shigeru Miyamoto will come to your house and play Super Smash Bros. (but only the N64 version) with you. Actually, I’m being told Shigeru Miyamoto is from Nintendo. My apologies for the mistake. I’ve been tracking down the Free Realms and Massive Action Game, although the Free Realms guys have not released any compensation details, and the Massive Action Game guys haven’t talked about the downtime at all, as far as I can see.

And finally, a Playstation Network update. According to an article on CSMonitor, a Sony rep has announced that the Playstation Network will not be back up and running “this week.” There has not been an official announcement on the Sony blog, despite the article being published yesterday, so take the news as credible at your own risk.

At this rate, players will receive almost two months of free DC Universe game time on the PS3, with PC SOE users reportedly receiving 30 days free game time plus one day for every day the service is offline. There is still no information as to when the Sony Station service will be returned.

Final Fantasy XIV Bots


I’m going to use these bots in a good way, and not just because I want to simultaneously annoy the people who believe me to be paid by Square Enix to prop up Final Fantasy XIV, but also to greatly annoy the people who think I’m getting paid to associate Runescape with the cheater’s paradise that it is.

I came across these bots in Final Fantasy XIV, and promptly reported them via the in-game support system. While I was taking down each of their names, however, it did dawn on me that these bots might actually be a good sign. Back when I played Tabula Rasa in its year of existence, there were never any gold farmers. I think, overall, there was one guy (not even your stereotypical gold farmer, it was some guy in Utah if I remember correctly) we all knew who tried selling currency and high level armor for money, and he was simply flamed out of global chat, and then his account would be banned. No, he wasn’t particularly good at it.

Granted, Tabula Rasa was not a game to gold farm. Gaining currency was easy enough that you would expect heavy inflation, but there wasn’t much worth buying from other players, so not much of a market formed. The player base was also tiny enough that there was no one buying. Now, I’ve spoken with other players who tell me that the bots I saw on my server (Karnak server) are much more prevalent on some other servers, and this tells me two things: Foremost, there has to be a decently sized community, because there is a market for currency/items. Secondly, Final Fantasy XIV has an economy, because there is a desire to buy gold to buy things with.

When the gold farmers leave Final Fantasy XIV, that’s when you’ll know the game is dead. Until then, however, this truck is still…trucking?

SOE Hacked: Important Information


So the chickens have come home to roost, or however that saying goes. Earlier today, I talked about how Sony Online Entertainment had shut down its entire service following an investigation that may have changed their stance on SOE’s database being safe from the hack that took down the Playstation Network last month and resulted in everyone’s information spewed all over the net. Sony has issued a press release, and the news is not good:

 Stolen information includes, to the extent you provided it to us, the following: name, address (city, state, zip, country), email address, gender, birthdate, phone number, login name and hashed password.

Customers outside the United States should be advised that we further discovered evidence that information from an outdated database from 2007 containing approximately 12,700 non-US customer credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (but not credit card security codes) and about 10,700 direct debit records listing bank account numbers of certain customers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Spain may have also been obtained – we will be notifying each of those customers promptly.

Sony originally believed that SOE was not compromised as part of the PSN hack, but investigations that concluded yesterday revealed that the system was indeed broken into by an unauthorized party. It is important to note that the main credit card database was not hacked, at least according to Sony. It may not be a bad idea to get a new card, however.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the attack and as a result, we have:

1)         Temporarily turned off all SOE game services;

2)         Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and

3)         Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.

If it makes you feel more comfortable, I suggest going to your bank/credit card issuer, and requesting a new card. You’ll have to live without the card for a week or so, but that’s a small price to pay if Sony’s database was stolen and they are able to get through the encryption. I’m not trying to cause undue fear with these articles, but any information regarding identity theft should be taken very seriously.

If you use your Sony password on other websites, I highly suggest you get a new regular password. SOE’s services remain offline.

Sony Station Offline Today Pending Investigation


Good morning, folks. Those of you attempting to log into any of Sony Online Entertainment’s games may be asking yourself, “why can’t I log into my favorite SOE game?” or “why am I asking a non-Sony blog why their services are offline?” Of course those of you who came here before checking Sony’s website will have missed the following announcement:

We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday).

I call the joke on Sony Offline Entertainment, it’s mine. I’ll be watching for further announcements later today.

What Happened This Week: 4/24-4/30 Edition


Welcome to the second episode of Week In Review (or whatever I’m calling it this week), your look at some stories that didn’t make MMO Fallout headlines for one reason or another.

1. Bethesda’s MMO May Not Be The Elder Scrolls

Chalk this one up as a disappointment, and actually a rather old news story by news standards. I came across an article from early April from Bethesda stating that multiplayer in The Elder Scrolls was entirely possible, but the company believes multiplayer would detract from what they see as primarily a rich and deep single player game, rather than the recent formula which appears to be a short single player story with the primary focus being multiplayer level grinding.

For what it’s worth, Bethesda was referring to the game Skyrim coming up this year, and an MMO is still possible in the future, having a game that is completely online instead of trying to split the two systems and dilute both experiences. Until Zenimax opens its doors and tells us what it’s been working on, all we can do is speculate.

2. Rift’s New Coin Lock Restrictions Prevent Banning

One of my criticisms with Rift’s coin lock system is that, although it was designed to stop commercial account theft by making the character unable to trade, drop, or deposit, the system did not stop non-commercial account theft (IE: The guy who steals your account just to ruin your day). It did not prevent the person from getting banned via chat-spam or a gold farmer using the account simply to spam advertisements for their website.

The new restrictions on Rift’s coin lock restrict access to everything Guild and Chat related, so a compromised character can no longer speak, nor can they wreak havoc on their guild. All I can say is, good on you Trion. There is the matter I brought up of tying the account lock to email, a system likely to also be compromised along with a person’s account, but it’s a good step nonetheless.

I use Rift’s authenticator on my iPad, not that I’m worried about my account being stolen. I set it up just to test it when it came out and, quite frankly, I’m too lazy to go through the channels to have it removed.

http://rift.mmosite.com/opinion/more_coin_lock_restrictions.shtml

3. I Shared The Agency’s Lack of Enthusiasm

Looking back on The Agency, I’m almost relieved the title was canned. The more I saw the game’s trailers and interviews, the more I saw a concept that worked well in theory, but in practice would not fit well within the MMO genre. More importantly, I noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm from Sony Online Entertainment, almost reminiscent of a kid who doesn’t want to play a musical instrument, but his parents make him, so he tries his best because he’s stuck there anyway, but he’s ready to throw that thing in the trash as soon as he receives the green light. The news for The Agency was sporadic, and often went through long periods with absolutely no information.

The Agency reminds me of Dungeon Runners, an experimental title that has ceased its operations. On the other hand, however, Sony can hopefully put more manpower into its upcoming series continuities; Everquest Next and Planetside Next.

4. I’m Looking Into Culling More Categories

I’m trying to give myself a consistent set of guidelines with MMO Fallout, because I hear from the grapevine that that is what real journalists do. Being the nonprofessional dope I am, I’m pretty much winging it. I did decide on delisting MMOs that are cancelled before release, at the end of the month they are cancelled, meaning The Agency is delisted, as well as Stargate Worlds.

Looking at my editorials page, I realized I need to do a lot more with that section than I have in the past. Checking in with the BBB is a series I’m proud of, but the category became rather stagnant and unchanging, even at three months per article. So I’ve deleted the category, and the series has been relegated to once every six months, meaning I’ll put out an article in June.

I’ve also deleted Looking Back, Moving Forward, because I hate monthly recaps. I don’t want to reread my own articles at the end of every month to pick out which ones I happen to like the most. Sales is gone, because I now have a dedicated sales and where to buy page that is hard enough to keep updated by themselves, especially since I’ve broken the HTML on the Sales page so many times it’s a wonder this website hasn’t started murdering random viewers in some violent revenge plot against its human oppressors.

So my remaining articles are In Plain English, which still has a purpose. My more regular categories will be Killing MMOs, Week in Review, and Community Concerns, all of which will be weekly articles.

That’s all for this week.

PS3 Services Returning This Week


Finally some good news for our PS3 players of DC Universe, Massive Action Game, and Free Realms (the latter of which I for some reason ignored on the past articles relating to the PS3 outage). According to the Playstation Blog today, services will be returning to the Playstation Network this week and, as expected, compensation will be coming along with it. Players will be given free downloads of select software of unknown name or quantity (perhaps a free digital download of DC Universe to bolster subscriber numbers?), 30 days of free PSN Plus, and that:

Additional “Welcome Back” entertainment and service offerings will be rolled out over the coming weeks as the company returns the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services to the quality standard users have grown to enjoy and strive to exceed those exceptions.

In addition, Playstation users will undergo a forced update if they want to be able to sign into PSN:

In addition, PS3 will have a forced system software update that will require all registered PlayStation Network users to change their account passwords before being able to sign into the service.  As an added layer of security, that password can only be changed on the same PS3 in which that account was activated, or through validated email confirmation, a critical step to help further protect customer data.

You can read more on the blog link above. No news yet on compensation for DC Universe or Free Realms subscribers.

Super Servers Sounds Better Than Server Merger


I have a new goal: Find the guy who writes Sony’s press releases, and hire him to the MMO Fallout team. In an announcement today on Sony’s website came the revelation of four “super servers,” to reduce queue times, delivered in a much more positive fashion than “we’re merging servers.”

We have heard your concerns about queue times on the servers. This game is about people playing and fighting together so we feel your pain. Sometime in the next month, we are going to test new technology to meld all of our US and European PC and PS3 servers into four Super-Servers, one for each platform in each region.

This news couldn’t have come at a worse time, what with Sony not only going through layoffs, but also the continued downtime of the PS3 DC Universe since the 20th.

This announcement takes me back to what I said in January:

Will this be one of the few MMOs whose population doesn’t crash one month after launch? I’m not holding my breath, but let’s hope for the best.

DC Universe is a fun game, but since launch I’ve had to question its long term viability. The leveling to end game is fast, and Sony really went off track in terms of the game’s social features.

Marvel Universe: No Customized Characters, Ever.


There is something to be said about MMOs. Specifically, MMOs have always been about creating a character (occasionally one that looks like you), and setting him loose in a world to run through their story. The more casual among us might use this character creator to push out an aesthetically pleasing avatar with generous amounts of cleavage, while the more hardcore role players may spend hours customizing every last detail down to the width, depth, and length of their character’s cheekbones, and bless them for it. Key factor is, I play my character to have his part in the overall story. In WoW, you are just another peon in the ongoing war between the Alliance and Horde. In games like Aion and Rift, your character has a bit more prominence than the simple grunts on the battlefield. In DC Universe, your character gains his powers via exobytes from Lex Luthor.

In Marvel Universe, however, players will be relegated to controlling iconic Marvel super heroes, including Spiderman, Wolverine, etc.

Players will play iconic Marvel characters, just as they do in SHSO. In fact, the game will feature more Marvel characters than any Marvel game to date. We won’t be merely “sidekicks.”

If this is Gazillion’s selling point, I’m not buying. I’ve played City of Heroes, Champions Online, and DC Universe, and all three of those have managed to allow me to create my own hero/villain and not feel like the sidekick. Hell, in Champions Online I had my own nemesis, and I even got to customize him with his own backstory, minions, powerset, and looks.

This raises a lot of questions that leave me intrigued, but not actually interested in trying out the game. Is there some form of character progression? If so, how will the story justify the heroes suddenly losing their powers and having to grind to get them back? Will there be any customization at all? How do you justify a couple thousand Spidermans running around?

Individuality is a big contender in the life and death of MMOs, and so is progression and hoarding things. What Gazillion is proposing sounds like taking DC Universe Online’s Iconic Play Mode, calling it an MMO in and of itself, and throwing it onto the internet. Actually, I should say it sounds like Super Hero Squad Online on Hard Mode.

So I guess my question to Gazillion Entertainment is this: As a free to play cash shop MMO, why should I choose your title over Champions Online? The IP? I hope that isn’t your only selling point. I’ll be waiting for this to come up as new information develops.

Marvel Universe Will Be Free To Play


No, I’m not talking about Super Hero Squad! Marvel Universe Online is in fact still in development, and in an interview with Massively.com, Jeff Lind talked about the game launching from the start as free to play:

That was the big surprise of the day! We are very excited about that. We think that [F2P] is an awesome way to make this game much more accessible. It’s a great way to get more people to play (which is good in and of itself), but also we think it’s a good business decision. We think this is a better way to make games in the business now. There is plenty of evidence out there — you guys see it all the time — and we feel like this is a great way to go for the game.

I have an article coming on Marvel Universe that should be published tonight. Find out why I believe this title is going to hit a hard brick wall at launch.