Category: Editorials

Guild Wars Vs Account Theives: Aion To Follow Suit


With 16,000 accounts gone, less queues!
you must be this tall to buy gold.

No, not as in lawsuit. NCsoft’s Guild Wars has been taking several measures to protect accounts from theft, including their most recent venture: Requiring you to name one character on your account in order to log in (meaning I just lost access to my account). Aion, also published by NCsoft, is taking a similar run of reminding players to keep their accounts secure, although for slightly different reasons. Guild Wars has fansites being hacked to worry about, while Aion is more focused on irritated gold farmers.

Aion bans thousands of accounts on a weekly basis and as you can expect, such a move can get pretty costly for gold farmers. The result? Using your accounts to gold farm. It saves cash, and there’s nothing to clean up when the ban hammer drops. Aion has released a security warning to players regarding in-game links being used to phish accounts, as well as the possibility of NCsoft master account theft.

I don’t think players should need to be reminded to be wary of what they click on, but here we are.

Ragnarok: Laid Off? Take Three on Us


In this troubled economy, we’ve all been facing some hard times. With unemployment in the United States over 10%, it is likely one in ten people coming to MMO Fallout have been laid off, or will be laid off. With the bills piling up and the income dropping to nothing, monthly video game subscriptions are likely to be the first things to fall.

Ragnarok Online recently launched Gravity Cares, that gives aid to those who have been recently unemployed. If you were a subscriber as of June 1st, and you were recently laid off after June 1st, you can submit a form to get three free months of membership to Ragnarok. You’ll have to send the form by snail mail, but the whole process shouldn’t take more than a couple weeks.

It’s not often a company comes along and does something generous like this. We’ve seen a few MMOs give discounts to military members, but this is the first jobless aid I’ve seen to date.

Happy Holidays!


It’s been an interesting few months here at MMO Fallout, but for everyone tuning in today, have a happy holiday.

No matter what your holiday may be.

If you’ll be spending it with your family,

Your Guild,

or that guy who won’t stop contacting you through Google Talk.

I’m taking a day off. See you on the 26th!

Direct2Drive and Impulse: Good Stuff Cheaper


And you thought Steam was the only digital download service that had Christmas specials. Once again, these prices are in USD.

Direct 2 Drive

Impulse

Continue reading “Direct2Drive and Impulse: Good Stuff Cheaper”

Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We're Not Doing Well…


Vanguard is a tale of high expectations and the giant corporate belly. In fact, it only took four months after Vanguard’s release for Sony to gobble up the developers, Sigil. When Vanguard released in 2007, it was awarded the “Biggest Disappointment of the Year” award by Gamespy, noting the title’s lack of content, buggy performance, and the fact that the title was shoved out the door before completion.

It’s been a rocky two years for the title that was once touted as the Everquest 2 Killer. On the plus side, if anything just to get the good news out first, there will be more frequent (yet smaller) updates this year. Vanguard is looking at 2010 as a year to fix bugs, crush bugs, and fumigate the house. The developers are also looking at focusing on the story elements of the game, starting and ending chunks of storyline.

But the bad news, and there always is some, is that some planned updates have been shelved indefinitely:

Continue reading “Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We're Not Doing Well…”

Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We’re Not Doing Well…


Vanguard is a tale of high expectations and the giant corporate belly. In fact, it only took four months after Vanguard’s release for Sony to gobble up the developers, Sigil. When Vanguard released in 2007, it was awarded the “Biggest Disappointment of the Year” award by Gamespy, noting the title’s lack of content, buggy performance, and the fact that the title was shoved out the door before completion.

It’s been a rocky two years for the title that was once touted as the Everquest 2 Killer. On the plus side, if anything just to get the good news out first, there will be more frequent (yet smaller) updates this year. Vanguard is looking at 2010 as a year to fix bugs, crush bugs, and fumigate the house. The developers are also looking at focusing on the story elements of the game, starting and ending chunks of storyline.

But the bad news, and there always is some, is that some planned updates have been shelved indefinitely:

Continue reading “Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We’re Not Doing Well…”

Stargate Worlds Not Delayed: Was Never Finishable…


Gateworld, a Stargate fansite, recently published an interview with Shane Hensley from Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, about Stargate Resistance, CME’s upcoming shooter based on the Stargate universe. In it, Shane confirms essentially what we have all known now for about a month: That CME has moved most of their resources to Stargate Resistance, and Stargate Worlds has been shelved for the time being. He also confirmed something we’ve all known, but haven’t managed to get official word on:

We did not have the financial or human resources to successfully complete Stargate Worlds, so it was indeterminable when it would be completed.
-Shane Hensley, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, on Stargate Worlds

So Stargate Worlds hasn’t been delayed, because Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment never had the resources to complete it. Although Stargate Resistance has been confirmed to be a release to gain funds for CME, the following quote is a little harder on the nerves:

Continue reading “Stargate Worlds Not Delayed: Was Never Finishable…”

Metaplace to Shutdown: January 2010


Metaplace is the 2d, isometric little version of Second Life. It is a world built on lua functionality, allowing players to add actions to any object in the world (pets, animals, stuff, etc) to bring life to their creations, set up their own games within the game, and build their own world. Metaplace was made by Metaplace Inc. You can display RSS feeds in your house, have your own in-game advertising, and create your own effects.

Metaplace is also the second title that will be shutting down on the first day of the new year. On January 2010, Metaplace will join Dungeon Runners in the first titles of 2010 to be shut down. Much of the Metaplace crew has been laid off, although the company claims it will still be in business postmortem.

2009 was the year of the collapsed economy, one that hasn’t just ripped apart small companies, but the previously untouchable behemoths. Although, as already mentioned Metaplace Inc will stay up to work on a new project, Metaplace has become unsustainable from a financial stand.

More on the 2010 MMO Shutdown as it appears.

Play Alganon Now My Lord, Not Free Forever


Because apparently I've been using the gold icon too much.

Recently, several titles have thrown in the proverbial towel and have installed endless trial periods: Champions Online opened up the tutorial area (and first 15 levels) for free, forever. Warhammer Online opened up the Tier 1 (up to level 10) for free forever. Age of Conan is running a special to play the original game, sans trade and chat, for free forever. So, needless to say, more titles are jumping on the “unique trial system” method.

Alganon, noted World of Warcraft clone that launched December 1st, has a special offer for players. You can play the game, for free, for 30 days. Level up as much as possible. There are restrictions on chat and trade, as well as skill level caps (3) among other restrictions, and your character is deleted after 30 days unless you buy the game. A full free month? Usually you have to buy the game first to get that kind of deal!

Alganon is worth looking at if you are on the edge of buying the title, or if you just want something free to play for 30 days. Either way, check it out. Just remember it’s barely a month out the door: Don’t expect a 100% finished product.