The next Elder Scrolls Online expansion, Morrowind, hits stores soon. For now, enjoy the latest trailer showcasing assassins and the various great houses of Morrowind. In case you missed it, Morrowind is set for release on June 6. Those who pre-order will receive early access set to begin soon on May 22. Find out more at the official website.
Category: News
Neverwinter: 20% Off Mounts, 15% Off VIP
It’s sale time! Starting now and running through Monday May 15, Neverwinter players can go shopping for 20% off of mounts and 15% off of VIP services.
20% Mounts & 15% VIP Starts Thursday, May 11 at 7:30am PT (or after maintenance)
20% Mounts & 15% VIP Ends Monday, May 15 at 7:30am PT
For information on Neverwinter’s VIP program, click here.
In Plain English: KLM Starfall Education Foundation v. Trion Worlds, Inc.
Today’s In Plain English covers the very short lawsuit between Starfall Education Foundation and Trion Worlds regarding the Rift expansion Starfall Prophecy. You may be aware that Trion Worlds recently changed the name of the expansion to the Prophecy of Ahnket and wanted to know why. The explanation lies in a recent lawsuit filed by a children’s charity foundation over its ownership of the trademark “Starfall.”
If you don’t know what Starfall is, I’ll let the charity’s website explain itself:
Starfall Education Foundation is a publicly supported charity, 501(c)(3). We create free and low-cost experiences whereby children can successfully learn through exploration. On the Starfall website and in Starfall classrooms, children have fun while learning in an environment of collaboration, wonderment, and play. We teach through positive reinforcement to ensure children become confident, intrinsically motivated, and successful.
Donors to the Starfall Education Foundation can sleep soundly knowing that your contributions went to fund the Bardacke Allison LLP, Melkonian & Co, and Purvis Gray Thompson, LLP law firms for the purposes of filing a dispute over a video game expansion title. For what might otherwise seem to be a pretty minor issue, Starfall decided to bring a team of three lawyers on board, an ultimately pointless move since Trion Worlds didn’t put up much of a fight or make much in the way of arguments on their own behalf.
Still, a $400 filing fee is a big lump of money when your 2015 revenue looks like this (via Citizen Audit):
Unlike certain other cases covered here on In Plain English, this story is fast and has a simple ending. Rather than fight what could become a lengthy and costly legal battle over something rather trivial, Trion Worlds decided to settle. Those of you who play Rift, or read about it, will know that Trion Worlds has changed the name of the expansion to Prophecy of Ahnket, a decision that might be confusing if you don’t understand this underlying context.
Trademark ownership is only as strong as the owner’s protection, although MMO Fallout has doubts that the case would hold up given a company willing to lawyer up and take a stance. The numerous Starfall video games and video game related websites that we were able to find over the course of a half hour, many of which predate the Starfall 2002 founding date, and thus its 2004 trademark registration date, could make a solid case against Starfall’s claim to the term. Still, I’m not a lawyer, so don’t take any of this as legal advice.
Anarchy Online Releases On Steam
Funcom has announced that its science fiction MMO Anarchy Online is now available on Steam. The game is free to play and can be downloaded here.
“Anarchy Online is one of the longest living online games in the world and millions of players have made the planet of Rubi-ka their home,” said Funcom CEO Rui Casais. “Bringing the game to Steam is something we have wanted to do for a while and we hope this will bring in new players as well as inspire veterans to come back now that it is easier than ever to travel to Rubi-ka again.”
Anarchy Online originally launched in June 2001. Funcom recently stated in a quarterly report that active development on the title had ceased.
The Secret World Legends Hits In June
Funcom’s reboot of The Secret World, dubbed Secret World Legends, has been confirmed for a June 26 release date. The title is making the transition from buy-to-play fully fledged MMO to a free to play shared world experience with revamped combat, upgraded visuals, and more.
Secret World Legends plunges players into a shadowy war against the supernatural in an adventure that crosses our world with the realms of ancient myth and legend. As players traverse the globe unraveling complex investigations into the unknown, they’ll need to uncover clues and use their own wits as much as their characters’ abilities. A highly extensive and customizable arsenal of firearms, weapons, gear and otherworldly powers will give players the strength to battle the forces of darkness as they dig deeper into these vast and mysterious lands. Players can go at it alone and enjoy the over 100 hours of story at their own pace, or team up with others as they explore the world and unravel its mysteries.
Characters from the current The Secret World incarnation will not transfer over to the new game when it launches in June. For more information, check out the video below or head over to the official website.
Jagex Lifts Lid On ‘The Shifting Tombs,’ For Menaphos
RuneScape’s first expansion Menaphos: The Golden City doesn’t come out for another month, and Jagex has revealed the first mini-game coming along with the desert city: The Shifting Tombs. Playable alone or with a group, The Shifting Tombs is a fast-paced skilling activity for mid to high level players launching alongside the expansion. Adventurers will navigate through procedurally generated catacombs with the goal of gathering as much loot as humanly possible and cleaning the corruption that has spread through the city.
Access to the tombs requires a minimum of level 50 in Agility, Construction, Crafting, Divination, Dungeoneering, Prayer, Runecrafting, Thieving, with better rates unlocked at levels 70 and 90.
(Source: Jagex Press Release)
Grind For Charity, RuneScape Mental Health Awareness Week
Jagex has partnered with CPSL Mind, The Prince’s Trust, and YMCA Right Here to spread awareness of Mental Health Week with the Gielinorian Giving Event. Beginning now and running for two weeks, players can gather charity tokens to turn in for pieces of a cosmetic Defender of the Mind outfit, plus a shield and pet. In addition to the outfit, it is also possible to purchase a Defender of the Mind cosmetic cape from Solomon’s Store.
All throughout this week, we’ll be co-running a Get Started in Games Design course with our partners at the Prince’s Trust & Cambridge Regional College. On Thursday & Friday, the group of young adults will spend time at Jagex HQ, working alongside our game developers to build their own games, with an awards ceremony planned for Friday evening.
The nature of the event should be rather familiar to anyone who has played previous events. All you have to do to participate is play the game and you’ll earn charity points through regular skilling and combat. 1000 points can be earned per day, with that number resetting at midnight and also extendable via Runecoin purchases. Those of you with more money to burn than time can purchase charity points straight up.
All proceeds from sales of the cape and Runecoins spent will go toward the three charities.
(Source: RuneScape)
Turbine’s Renewal of the Asheron’s Call Domain Is Probably Nothing
The internet is buzzing, or at least a small section is, over the news that Turbine has renewed the Asheron’s Call domain through 2022. While the revelation has naturally caused speculation on whether or not Turbine has plans for the property, the real answer is fairly likely to not exactly be what the community wants to hear. In practice, domain renewals are cheap and easy and done simply to protect a company’s IP. After all, while Turbine may have no interest in further work on the series, they don’t want the domains dropping into less scrupulous hands.
Domains generally only get pushed over to the public when the company goes fully bankrupt. Games like Hellgate: London for instance have had their hosting servers taken over by fan sites and revival projects, while games like the 2D Half Life 2 fan title Codename: Gordon link to a domain that has since been taken over by a porn website distributing malware, forcing Valve to remove the game from Steam. In either case, Turbine probably doesn’t want its domain linking to private servers or porn.
So don’t read too far into this domain renewal.
Darkfall Returns: Rise of Agon Is Live
Darkfall is back! Rise of Agon, a revival of the original Darkfall MMORPG, has officially launched. Darkfall originally launched under now-defunct developer Aventurine in 2009 only to shut down and be revived as Darkfall: Unholy Wars in 2012. Unholy Wars was subsequently shut down alongside Aventurine due to poor economic conditions in Greece. Aventurine, while they were in business, had originally planned a revival of Darkfall 1.0 (as some have referred to it) only to cancel those plans later on.
Rise of Agon is one of two Darkfall revivals that are coming out, as Aventurine sold the rights to two developers. Curious players can join in on the action by buying into the game’s $10 subscription fee.
(Source: Rise of Agon)
Trion Worlds Makes Glyph Great Again: Speeds Performance
Who doesn’t want a faster game browser? Don’t answer that. Trion Worlds has announced that its game platform Glyph should be running much smoother following an update aimed at improving client performance. Chiefly, the update removes the browser which was not only a hog of system resources but required a lot of maintenance in stability and security. According to the announcement on the Glyph website, usage has dropped from a previous 200mb when in the background to around 50mb.
There are other updates coming that should continue the trend of lightening the load.
(Source: Trion Worlds)
MMO Fallout 