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I found Batman in Champions Online! Cue lawsuit from DC Comics!
Category: Editorials
Happy September!
Happy September everyone! This is the month many of us will be starting our fall semesters of school, college, or university (or in my case, Lincoln Logs 101). In that respect, let’s talk about what’s taking the top of our priority list: Massively Multiplayer Games!
Launching…
September is a month of birth, and what a month it is. September sees the launch of:
Champions Online Launched! And More!
Gather your superfriends, punch out a destructoid bot, and collect your action figures; Champions Online went live earlier this morning for all of you who did not gain access to the head start. Everything you remember from the beta, minus many of the bugs, is here. Players who haven’t logged in a few days will find themselves having to download several small patches (100-150mb), but should be in the game in the matter of only a few minutes.
But that’s not all! Not content with simply releasing the game and sitting back, Cryptic has taken this time to announce the first “State of the Game,” announcing further updates. Cryptic is looking at making the end-game more difficult in response to player feedback, among other tweaks. The announcement has also come of Blood Moon, a free update that currently has no details available.
Unrestricted: A Dead Feature
Imagine, if you will, that you live in Medellin, Columbia. Not only that, but imagine Medellin is the only city, and you have no other choice but to live there. You are forced to deal with the daily life of terrorists, drug lords, bombings, kidnappings, and random muggings and shootings. The government does nothing about these murders, because they don’t have the resources, and may be in the pockets of some of these drug lords. The leaders may be manipulating data to make the records sounds better than they are. Now imagine a new city forms, where there is still a little crime here and there, but it’s more along the lines of littering, with violence much, much lower and a government that cares. Would you (We’re disregarding financial issues here) move to this new city? Of course you would!
The reason for this analogy is to focus on the point that anything looks more popular when people have no choice. In this analogy, Ultima Online was Medellin, Columbia. I’ve always referred to Ultima Online as the Wise Granddaddy of MMOs, that other titles should take wisdom from and learn from both the good times and the bad. Ultima Online was the first mainstream MMO, and the release version was also insanely unapologetic and unforgiving; but there was no competition. When Everquest was released two years later, players began flocking out of Ultima Online, and resulted in Origin pulling what I’ve dubbed the Trammel Effect, bringing major changes to the game’s pvp aspects.
Full PvP is a dead feature, and I intent to explain exactly why.
Continue reading “Unrestricted: A Dead Feature”
Tibia ME: The WoW of Mobile MMOs
In the world of PC MMOs, ten thousand subscribers is around the lines of Asheron’s Call, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, and Planetside. For a large company, the number can mean imminent cancellation of a title, as it no longer becomes profitable to develop for, let alone run the servers. Others wing it, limping on with what they have, determined to please those who have stayed loyal, and possibly turn around the trend.
Good News For All Points Bulletin
For a company that has only ever shipped one game, that game being Crackdown in 2007, Realtime Worlds is doing very well for itself. Not content with simply moving to a new office, the developer has opened a new 8,000 square foot studio, in addition to the existing 26,000 square foot already existing office.
Considering the leviathan that is Sony has been pulling multiple layoffs over the past year, it’s good to see a small company expanding upon its staff. This measure can only mean good things for Realtime World’s upcoming MMO: All Points Bulletin.
Enjoy your new pad, Realtime. All Points Bulletin goes live in 2010.
Aion: Open Beta, Head Start Announced
Aion releases September 22nd, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait until the end of September to try out this bad boy, nor do you have to import the Asian version to get on distant servers. After many rumors of the sort, the announcement has come that Aion will be holding a week long open beta, starting September 6th, giving access to 30 levels and the full environment to fly around in.
Those who preorder the game will be able to access the head start, and get right into the action on September 20th, a full two days before the full game launches. Players who preorder will also be able to set up their names and servers on the 18th, two days before the early start.
To those of you teetering on the edge: Don’t forget that this is an open beta, the key word being BETA. Although Aion has launched in other parts of the world, that does not mean that there will not be starting glitches in the open beta. That is what the beta is for, to hammer out the final bugs. Also remember: Aion has quite a pull from the community. Expect the patch and client servers to be down for some time, assuming it isn’t hosted on Fileplanet. Champions Online, that recently went into Open Beta, had a good 24 hours of difficulty with servers and clients.
Update: Good news! The Aion client is now available for download!
Get it from
- Fileplanet: http://www.fileplanet.com/201991/200000/fileinfo/Aion-Game-Client
- Gamershell: http://www.gamershell.com/pc/aion_the_tower_of_eternity/
- Bit Torrent:ftp://ftp.ncsoft.com/Aion/Client/Torrent/AionFullInstaller_1.5.0.1.zip.torrent
Special Subscriptions Return!
Good news everyone! On the 25th, Cryptic gave a short message detailing that they were out of the special 6-month and lifetime subscriptions for Champions Online. The end to the deal was quit a showstopper, and was the topic of much ridicule and complaint over the forums, email, and chat support.
Well, let no one say that the power of the people is not a powerful power, because the subscriptions are back! Rather than employing a set number to be doled out “until supplies last”, the offer will continue until 11:59 on August 1st. If you were still on the edge or if you misses your chance, now is your time to take advantage of the deal.
Don’t forget, purchasing either one will get you special access to the Star Trek Online beta!
Atari Vs Turbine: In Plain English
I’ve seen a few websites on this recent lawsuit that Turbine has filed against their publisher, Atari, and the whole thing sounds like a James Bond film, albeit corporate instead of the world. All in all, I found the reporting somewhat confusing, as to who had what motives, and what exactly was going on. So I decided to set up a new section of MMO Fallout, “In Plain English”, where things can be spelled out clearly and in context the average user can understand.
Crimecraft: Perfectly Good Hills
Crimecraft launched today, and if there’s one thing to say about the developers, Vogster Entertainment, it is that they are very self aware. They recognize that Crimecraft is foremost a shooter, and secondly an MMO (the persistent lobby). They are stout in their belief that Crimecraft is not, as many naysayers seem to believe, a “Grand Theft Auto IV MMO” and is more focused on team play than soloing. More importantly, when asked about their upcoming competitor All Points Bulletin, Vogster has nothing to say other than bring it on.
MMO Fallout 