Category: Editorials

Community Concerns #2: Cryptic Leaving The MMO Scene


Possibly Neverwinter Wonders

“The big change is the development philosophy. There are some more changes coming in terms of the games, but we’ll cover that in the months to come. The big change is that we’re not making MMOs, we’re making online multiplayer games.”
-Jack Emmert, CEO, Cryptic Studios.

Things are really bustling over at Cryptic Studios. Bill Roper and Craig Zinkievich are gone, and the throne has been passed to Jack Emmert, who wow’ed us with the announcement that Star Trek Online would be putting less emphasis on cash shop items in the future. Both Champions Online and Star Trek Online boast healthy numbers, according to Emmert, which intrigues us (read: me) here at MMO Fallout all the more with Cryptic’s announcement that they are no longer developing MMOs.

I wanted to talk, today, about comments I’ve been seeing both in my own emails and on other forums, on Cryptic’s shift to these CORPG’s (Cooperative Online Role Playing Game), and why this is causing fear in a few players. Culminating in CEO Jack Emmert’s statement above that Cryptic is moving away from MMOs and onto online cooperative games with Neverwinter Wonders, the question inevitably comes up as to what this means for longevity in Star Trek Online and Champions Online. Cryptic’s two MMOs have come under fire in recent months with concerns that the games may not have much in terms of long term viability, and statements like the one I presented above just add fuel to the fire.

Jack Emmert refers to the status of Champions Online and Star Trek Online as “healthy” and “significant,” respectively, and really all we can do is take his word on it. Champions Online recently reached its first birthday, and is still receiving updates and booster packs (with Demonflame on its way). Star Trek Online has somewhat turned into Cryptic’s main product, and is still receiving regular content updates in the form of weekly episodes and occasional larger updates. Cryptic is set on getting in touch with their community with regular question and answer sessions, as well as monthly “state of the game” addresses.

So when I say that the concerns are understandable, and even justified, I want it to be clear that they are overreactions. Cryptic’s change in pace to non-MMO titles may actually be a good thing, as keeping Champions Online and Star Trek Online as their only two MMOs ensures that the titles won’t have to fight one another to the death in order to obtain attention from Emmert and crew. Remember, Sony and NCsoft may have major libraries of MMOs, but most of their games are being worked on by completely different developers. Cryptic has separate teams, but they are still one company. If Paragon Studios went under, for example, the Aion team would be unaffected.

I have my concerns about Champions Online passing the MMO Turing Test, but I have a lot more faith in Star Trek Online’s long term viability.

Remember, if I see any concern that something is going terribly wrong with any MMO, this website is the first place you will find it. I expressed my concerns greatly on All Points Bulletin, and on the flip side I said over a year ago that Star Wars Galaxies wasn’t going anywhere, and it is still trudging along with regular support. This wasn’t the greatest choice of words for Emmert, and he needs to address this quickly on the forums/website for both games.

More on Cryptic Studios as they appear.

Trolls Beware: Lord Of The Rings Online Is Thriving


You have defeated a level 20 troll.

There is still a group of players who cling to the old ideology that free equates to terrible community, imminent shut down, and dying developer. I don’t think I need to count out how many people were screaming on forums before the Lord of the Rings Online free to play shift about how this would ruin the game, and that current subscribers would drop the game like a sack of rotting flesh-bricks, and how the community would be inundated with children and social deviants who would do nothing but grief (read: making Chuck Norris jokes over region chat).

So when I forward Turbine’s announcement at GDC that their revenue has doubled, with over half of players using the Turbine store, I recognize that people will simply deny this information as Turbine misrepresenting facts to inflate their figures. There is no convincing someone who flat out denies Turbine’s figures of the free to play launch having a bigger reception than the game’s original launch, or that 20% of past subscribers have returned to the game, or that peak player counts are triple their previous level.

I personally have a premium account, seeing as I bought the Lord of the Rings special edition for $1 in a Christmas sale some years ago, but I have yet to put any money into the Turbine store. One can argue long term stability, but ultimately all we have to go on is speculation as to whether or not the game will sustain these figures. Over half of your game’s population using the cash shop is an incredibly high figure, however, presuming Turbine doesn’t include the VIP subscribers who receive an “allowance” of Turbine points each month.

Perhaps this is just a boom for Lord of the Rings Online, but Turbine can worry about how the population levels out as it happens, rather than listening to screams more frantic than the children playing in traffic outside my window.

Codemasters: No F2P Yet, No More Welcome Back


No Dice, Europe

It’s time for another weekly “When Is F2P Coming To Europe?” update. Unfortunately, not only is there still not estimated time, Codemasters announced last week that they would be unable to sustain the Welcome Back promotion that LotRO Europe had been enjoying up until this point, although the 5% bonus promotions will still pop up from time to time. The following was posted today on the European forums.

Dear players,

Whilst we don’t have any dates or concrete information to share with you as yet, the good news is that it looks like the major challenges we were facing are nearly resolved and we will be moving forward with the next step of Free to Play implementation for the European service shortly.

At this stage we are optimistically looking to have plans finalised sometime next week at which stage we will be able to give you more solid dates of when we hope to proceed with the launch.

As always we thank you for your patience and do apologise for the continued delay of this launch.

You can sticky up that link for direct updates, and hopefully Codemasters will remain on track for next week’s burst of information. MMO Fallout will continue your weekly updates on Codemaster’s transition to free to play. In the meantime, European players have been playing on the North American servers. There are, as of yet, no IP restrictions on creating an account and signing in, although you will need the North American client.

FFXIV: Amazon Bombed In Japan?


もしこれを理解していれば、あなたは日本人〔日本語〕を読むことができます！

私の時は広場Enixについて話してください　私が　通常　言及して　ファイナルファンタジーXIVが多分どのように日本で素晴らしいことをするかに. Sorry, I left my translator on. That being said, however, Japan has always been the primary consumer of Final Fantasy-based goods, and holds a considerable stake in the Final Fantasy XI community. So when I say Final Fantasy XIV will do great…in Japan, I don’t mean to imply that the title will do poorly here in the West, but that there will be a considerable divide in purchases.

You can imagine my surprise when I was tipped off that Amazon.co.jp already has Final Fantasy XIV listed at 28% off. Not only that, but the reviews put the title at a 1.5 star rating, with 78 out of 98 reviews being a one star. Eighty reviewers, a public opinion does not make, but from the information I could scrape off of Google’s poor translation, the sentiments were very similar in each.

So either Amazon.jp has been blitzed by a wave of disgruntled early adopters, or my sentiment that Japanese players would be more willing to put up with Square Enix’s square wheel methodology was incorrect. As a reminder, the Square Wheel methodology is how I imagine Square’s development techniques. They take a square wheel and innovate on it, making it one of the best looking wheels on the market, the craftsmanship is just stunning, and you would buy it in an instant, but it is a wheel…that is square. It could have the best traction in the world, and it is still a square wheel. Driving becomes so much of a pain in the rear that it ruins the rest of the experience. The wheel is square because square wheels are different, but not different in a good way, different in an “I’m going ten miles an hour, tops, and the bumping is causing the rest of my car to fall apart, but otherwise my car is a sex machine,” different.

I like Final Fantasy XIV, and I would love it if they would change some unfriendly mechanics. Square Enix is like the friend with a great personality that you don’t hang out with because he pierced his nose with a giant metal rod, just to be different, in complete opposition to the rest of his personality. He needs to be taught that there are more relevant ways for him to be different.

More Final Fantasy XIV analogies as they pop up. Big thanks to Wiezard over on the MMORPG.com forums for the tip.

Square Enix: Embargo On Your Reviews! Thirty Days!


Excuse me, I'd like to return this company.

As I’ve stated before, it has become standard in our culture of gaming for companies to hold swag over a company’s head, in return for more favorable reviews. Ask any developer with loads of cash, and they’ll tell you it’s not technically bribery for, say, Eidos to purchase a major full page advertising space on Gamespot for Kane and Lynch, and then have a reviewer fired for giving the game a poor rating. Or when a company puts an embargo on reviews for their game, where the publishers can probably expect not to get any preview copies if they break that embargo.

So Square Enix has put out a polite request to reviewers to hold back their reviews for three to four weeks after launch, much in the same way Clint Eastwood holds a gun to your head and asks if you feel lucky, punk. Sure, there’s a chance that all six rounds were expended, but do you really want to take the risk and miss out on the Final Fantasy XV preview copy? I didn’t think so.

The real question will remain in how Square Enix responds to those who do not listen to the embargo, especially those that publish poor reviews, like Gamespot (4.0). Will there be an embargo on Square Enix sending swag to said publisher? Will Square take the Realtime Worlds method and try to laugh off the bad reviews by saying they were expected? Personally, I’m against reviewing MMOs at all, in favor of getting players into free trials.

Square asking for a few weeks to fully review the game really isn’t a terrible idea, what will make the difference is how they respond to those who go against their request.

More on FFXIV as it appears, which could be a while due to the slow patcher.

A Live Community Is A Happy Community


Han Solo works Black Fridays in the electronics section of Best Buy.

Massively has an excellent interview with Lydia Pope, community manager at Sony Online Entertainment overlooking Star Wars Galaxies. Despite all of the rage one might find toward the aging Star Wars MMO, those who do play the game are just as involved as those who played in years past. So much so, in fact, that Lydia feels strongly enough to say that Star Wars Galaxies has one of the most active communities on Sony Online Entertainment’s list of MMOs. With the GM-run events, players are still coming out in droves to run their own events.

But why does Star Wars Galaxies have such an active community? Lydia believes it is partially due to the game’s built-in social aspects. Player owned houses, hubs, emotes, the Galactic Senate, etc, allow a level of interactivity between players and between GM’s that other games just don’t offer. In fact, Lydia explains that community leaders are not an appropriate answer to better feedback.

“[In] our other games, where we have community leaders, we don’t get that in-depth with the feedback.”

An active community is a happy community, and can really boost morale to a game. Back in the times of Ultima Online, players may remember Richard Garriot running around as Lord British (alongside Lord Blackthorn), and then years later as General British during Tabula Rasa’s short reign. Say what you want about the guy, but it is nice to be able to post on the Alganon forums and get a response from CEO Derek Smart and other devs. Some of you who played The Matrix Online will remember the events that took place in that game as well.

Of course, if you hadn’t noticed from my listing of Tabula Rasa and The Matrix Online, an active community does not a healthy game make alone. It does, however, increase the odds of someone sticking around who may have become bored and quit early on.

Warhammer Online: Not Going F2P


That's Mr. Fifteen Dollars To You...

Join any internet discussion on Warhammer Online, outside of the realm of Warhammer Online’s forums, and odds are someone will eventually ask “when is Warhammer Online going free to play?” or something of the like. Despite Mythic’s claims that Warhammer Online is still profitable, there has been a vocal push to the game expanding the endless demo (tier 1) to the entirety of the game, supported by expansion packs.

Well, in a Ten Ton Hammer interview, Mythic producer Carrie Gouskos wants to be clear that WAR is not going free to play, at least not in the short term.

Ten Ton Hammer: Looking at the RvR pack and how it is being offered, the big question is why you’re sticking with subscription when everybody and their brother is going free-to-play right now? What’s the thought process behind that?

Carrie’s answer conveyed what a lot of players fear on such a change:

One of the big things that came up with free-to-play was that in order for it to work in a RvR game, you have to consider monetizing the power, such as the weapons, armor, and things like that. This is really scary because that is something that I don’t think players embrace. If you look at MMOGs that are free-to-play, a lot of people approach it as if you spend a lot of time or spend some money, you can get it. I think that works for a lot of things, but when it’s power, then it gets into fuzzy territory. With the focus that we have on RvR, it seems that it might not work.

We’ve definitely made some changes to the game’s economy this year. If we ever go into free-to-play, that would help us do that. But, it’s not where our focus was.

Thank you. Don’t get me wrong. We do have some vanity stuff that we’ve looked at and said if players want to buy it, that might be something we’ll make available. But power is really, really scary. And that’s the only thing that would be worth anything.

For a few minutes, I couldn’t understand why this sounded so familiar. I mean, it’s not like it’s possible to have a free to play option, without breaking your promise on changing the player’s subscriptions, right?

“As I said in that interview, we will not be changing your subscription model. We’ve heard you folks loud and clear that you do not want items with stats introduced, you don’t want players buying their way to power, etc. Your world will stay the way it has been and we will continue to support it with new content, items, etc.”

DC Universe Online Delayed Until 2011


Sorry Preorderers...

Holy batjinks, Batman! It’s a letter from The Riddler! It reads,

Dear Batman and Robin,

No doubt you’ve put down fifty or sixty bucks on the upcoming MMO DC Universe Online, with the hopes of playing it this November. You’ll find that I have stolen all of the DC Universe Preorders and have hidden them in a location that neither you or your insipid heroes will ever find without my help. If you want any chance of finding your precious preorders by early 2011, you will need to follow this riddle. The answer lies in a 1979 song by new wave band Oingo Boingo.

Thanks to the hijinks of the Riddler, DC Universe Online will not be launching this November. Instead, the title has been pushed to sometime in early 2011, whatever that might mean. If you’ve preordered the game, you’ll find yourself with a guaranteed spot in the ongoing beta. Other than that, you’re out of luck for the full version. Look at it this way, you’ll get that much more time playing the (albeit broken and unfinished) game that much longer!

Looking forward to more information on DC Universe.

F2P Vs P2P: Making The Food Comparison


(How) do you pay?

October here on MMO Fallout is all about free to play (a topic I intend to touch upon this month) vs pay to play, but I wanted to start this month off by giving an analogy between the two systems. By this point, I don’t think anyone takes free to play verbatim, as in not having to pay to play the game. Nowadays, free to play generally means supported by some form of VIP subscription (freemium), cash shop, or combination of the two. There is something to be said about the real meaning behind free to play, but that is a discussion for another day. Today, I want to make the food comparison between free to play and pay to play, to give a better understanding as to why both systems can coexist in a game like Lord of the Rings Online or Everquest II.

When thinking of free to play, the first thing that comes to mind is likely cash shops. A free to play game is more akin to entering a restaurant with a free entrée coupon. You are enticed because you’ve always wanted to try that chicken souvlaki, and this is your perfect opportunity. Now, unless you go the cheap route and ask for a glass of water, odds are you’ll be getting a drink. I hear nothing washes down souvlaki like a good glass of red wine, but some of you might go for a soda, or perhaps a glass of milk (who drinks milk with dinner?). Either way, you’re up to a couple bucks on the table. The cute waitress asks you if you’d like an appetizer, and you are rather hungry thanks to your breakfast/lunch of the leftover lasagna someone left in the fridge, so you opt for the endless soup and salad bar. Finally the waitress gets your souvlaki order, and asks you if you would like to add any side dishes. Before you know it, your free Souvlaki entrée is now a meal consisting of soup, salad, red wine, roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus, that free cup of water, and a nice strawberry mousse for dessert. You walked into the restaurant preparing to be a cheap-ass, and now you’re looking at a $20+ bill. But the souvlaki was free.

That is essentially free to play in a nutshell. If you find a game you truly enjoy, odds are you’ll find yourself spending cash on it faster than you can even keep track. A few dollars here, a few dollars there, and suddenly you’re paying more than subscribers are paying on their pay to play games, only they don’t have the core game to go back to once they stop payment, and you’re having fun while you do it.

Subscription games, on the other hand, are like an all you can eat buffet. You throw the guy at the counter your ten bucks and sit down to four long tables of ever-replenishing food. Sure you would never pay money to eat those tiny octopus that are on the table, but why pass up the chance now? In the mood for chicken? You can have your choice of chicken, honey chicken, sweet and sour chicken, chicken wings, chicken fingers, barbecue chicken, roasted chicken, and that’s just one section of the table. Grab a slice of pizza, then a bowl of soup if you feel like it. Fill up your plate with barbecue ribs and crab legs, then head back for roast beef and potatoes. Just don’t leave anything on your plate, or you’re in for a long talking to about starving children in China. All in all, the buffet may not have your souvlaki and a drink like red wine will cost more than the included soda, but overall you can fill up whether you are among the sampler (try a little of everything) or the “the world is going to end tomorrow, I’d better store some body fat,” kind of person. The only difference is that here the tray of crab legs isn’t bum-rushed and cleared out in two seconds.

Subscription games allow you to try it all without having to pay extra. For the most casual of the bunch, you might be paying more than you are getting out of it, but the choice and availability of options makes paying the extra bit worth it. The hardcore will feel like they are eating like kings for the cost of eating like a peasant, and will clean their plates sucking down each and every bit of content that can fit into their gaping maws.

Neither system is intrinsically better than the other. With the free to play option, you are able to get your core gameplay, and still spend a few bucks on extras tailored to what you want, and can even save money over the monthly costs of a subscription game. On the other hand, subscription games offer you extras you might not have considered on the free to play game, and can open your eyes to features you may have missed out on or brushed off as unnecessary because they cost a few dollars.

Now: Does anyone know a good souvlaki restaurant in New York? This article is making me hungry.

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Looking Back, Moving Forward: September 2010


True next gen capabilities.

It’s time to change the MMO Calendar, which can only mean it’s time for another Looking Back, Moving Forward. September brought upon us life, as well as death, and a whole lot of free to play.

It’s been over a month since Earth Eternal shut down, following Sparkplay’s demise. Even though the game was sold off during an auction back at the end of August, there hasn’t been much word out of Earth Eternal’s Facebook or Twitter pages. MMO Fallout is still looking for news on this ongoing story, including just who bought up the game to begin with!

Speaking of delayed action, although Lord of the Rings Online in North America launched its free to play turnover on September 10th, its equivalent in Europe, hosted by Codemasters, has yet to follow. Going off of claims of lack of preparation, Codemasters is still giving no concrete date on when the transition will take place.

Speaking of free to play titles, Sony’s Pirates of the Burning Sea announced its transition to free to play, following Everquest II Extended and Lord of the Rings Online. There is no set date, but Pirates will be following the formula of its predecessor from SOE, Everquest II, with the cash shop.

Generally we’ve had some sort of prior notice to a game shutting down, usually between one and four months, sometimes longer. When Realtime Worlds announced that All Points Bulletin was shutting down, they gave us one week’s notice, with no real date given at the time. All Points Bulletin shut down just 90 days after it launched, making it the shortest lived (launched) mmo in history. Exteel, the mech-based MMO, was NCsoft’s latest MMO to shut down, a free to play venture with a cash shop and, as some players referred to it, a “pay to win” system. Exteel’s shut down, unlike APB’s, was rather unsurprising due to NCsoft’s past actions with the title.

Cryptic Studios revealed why the Klingon faction in Star Trek Online will not be pumped full of content to the point where it rivals that of the Federation: Because there aren’t enough people playing Klingon to justify setting resources on it. Of course, few players play Klingon, in a grating circular motion, because there isn’t enough content for the faction.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Adventures launched this month, to an odd reaction. Disregarding the idea that this is technically a kids game, much of the reaction appears to be from people far outside this game’s intended audience. As I pointed out in my article, there’s a very good reason you don’t see professional journalists going out and reviewing Imagine: Party Babyz.

Mortal Online’s Henrik claimed that the upcoming Epic Patch will be so big and change the game so drastically that it will be like Mortal Online 2. The so-called Epic Patch is set to go live at an unconfirmed date, but will contain everything including a new patcher, higher resolution, new inventory, new AI, new game master capabilities, and more.

The lawsuit between Quest Online and David Allen is finally over, with both sides wiping post after post off of the internet. Following the recent settlement, a few MMO Fallout viewers noticed that both Derek Smart and David Allen have had blog posts and comments on third party websites wiped clear, perhaps part of the settlement.

Final Fantasy XIV launched at the end of the month to mixed reactions, but luckily with Square Enix backing the title there is no chance of FFXIV heading underwater by the end of next month (November). The latest installment into the Final Fantasy MMO franchise won’t be making Aion or World of Warcraft flinch, but it will maintain a health population for many years to come. Those who would like to check out the game can do so via buddy invites.