Category: News

[Roblox] Opening The Toybox Part 2: For Parents!


Check out part 3: Gallery

Part 1 of Opening The Toybox was all about Roblox as a game and a company. Hearing about subscription prices, user demographics, and whatnot is great but we shouldn’t lose sight of why MMO Fallout has looked into Roblox: Parents. With the exception of Lego Universe, I have often found (and I’m sure most parents will agree with me) that so called kid-friendly games are overflowing with less than savory players. Coming from the games I play on a regular basis, the community of Roblox is a light in the dark wilderness of the internet. All forms of the hateful, obscenity laden internet seem to die at the borders of this online game, giving way to nothing more than a pleasant community with kids who just want to play games and have a chat.

And Roblox does have a team of moderators and community managers to not only filter out the bad eggs, but to keep the community engaged. Ever since I mentioned the ability to buy Robux in part 1, I’ve had a few parents asking me to clarify on a particular issue of child safety: Buying Robux without parental consent. For its part, Roblox does not keep credit card numbers on file, instead using third-parties such as Paypal to handle processing as well as pre-paid cards in stores. In addition, there are daily and monthly spending maximums to reduce the amount of “friendly fraud” possible. As for building, Roblox allows a much more free-form building mode than Lego Universe, while keeping fairly close in tune with the feeling of building with Lego, Megablox, or similar toys. All players have their own personal area available to them for free, which they can fill to their heart’s content for their own personal enjoyment, or to create their own game for others to enjoy as well.

Roblox offers much of what parents would like to see in an online game: A pleasant community filled with similarly aged players, a staff that moderates and quickly removes any offending players/objects, and the kind of safety that prevents your kid from running off with the credit card and spending a few hundred on hats. Your kids will have fun, more fun for free than many other games offer, and you can rest assured that they are in a safe environment.

This is part 2 of a 3 part Roblox series. Next week for the final issue, I will take a look at some more interesting creations picked by both myself and the Roblox staff.

May Marks The Newbie Blogger Initiative


It is May, and you know what that means! Or perhaps you don’t, in which case continue reading.

May marks the one-month Newbie Blogger Initiative, and MMO Fallout is proud to be sponsoring the event. NBI is a month where established bloggers like myself and others come together to encourage new writers to start up their own blog in exchange for some support. The theme, of course, will be MMOs in general or a specific title. Everyone benefits, from the sponsors who are able to enrich the community to the new bloggers who receive encouragement, advice, not to mention the nice boost of traffic.

So if you are an established (read: established does not mean famous) blogger looking to sponsor or a new writer looking for a helping hand, head over to the Newbie Blogger Initiative forums and sign up. I will have more to discuss on this topic as the month goes on.

TERA/The Old Republic Discuss Server Transfers


Since I know how much you all love hearing about server transfers, I’ve lumped both games in the same article.

You may be aware of TERA’s pre-launch woes, particularly a lacking in space on player vs player servers. Alongside the release of a new PvP server, En Masses is opening temporary free server transferal for all players. Transfers are immediate, free of charge, and will remain so until the server populations level out. You can not transfer between PvP and PvE servers, and your character cannot have any chronoscrolls. For a full list of the restrictions, check out the announcement here. After the announcement, transfers will remain free if used for the purpose of balancing server population.

Now for games that have been released. Over on the Old Republic, Bioware has announced that server transfers will be held in waves, beginning in early summer. Players will be limited in which servers are able to transfer from and which servers can be transferred to, with more details to come as the time approaches. After, server transfer limits will open up, allowing anyone to transfer anywhere, although not necessarily for free. Presumably, if servers drop enough in population, Bioware may take the Warhammer route and retire servers.

 

Dominus Is Dead, Announces Pitchblack Games


It is with a heavy heart that I have to say goodbye, or at least goodbye for now. We simply cannot deliver the game you deserve with the resources we have. We never quit trying, even when hope faded, because you – our community – kept us inspired.

It is a sad day for sandbox fans, as another title has died on the operating table. Dominus, or Prime: Battle for Dominus as it was once known as, is being shut down mid-development due to a lack of resources over at Pitchblack Games. This may not be the end of Pitchblack Games, or Dominus, however.

Interested investors are kindly asked to email info@pitchblackgames.com. The notion of using Kickstarter has been thrown around by the community, with no response from Pitchblack on the matter.

Either way, it is sad to see another prospective gem fizzle out before it even has a chance to compete.

(Source: Pitchblack Forums)

Roblox Part 1: Opening The Toy Chest


Concraft by ConceptDesign

Check out Part 2: A Parent’s Guide

Check out Part 3: Gallery

You often hear about MMOs being referred as “another world,” or “another life,” or even a “second life.” We’ve referred to games as virtual themeparks, virtual sandboxes, and any hybrid of the two. It isn’t often, however, that we hear a game referred to as a “virtual toy box,” and those three words sum up Roblox with incredible accuracy. Odds are you’ve heard of , perhaps even played it at one point, and if you are in the game’s demographic, you may be playing it right now. After all, Roblox is ranked #1 in the US for total engagement time.

Survive disasters with full physics

Roblox is a game where players can mould their own worlds and games and then allow others to play in their creations. At one moment you can be playing a game of paintball (above) and the next, Spongebob could be chasing you through Bikini Bottom, gaining experience to unlock new classes in a Call of Duty style massive battleground, or even raiding dungeons like Indiana Jones.

I had an opportunity to have a chat with the Roblox developers, and we discussed some of the finer points of Roblox.

How popular is ROBLOX? What kind of demographic does the game attract?

Roblox sees nearly 10 million unique visits per month. About 80% of our viewers fall into the 8-16 year old age bracket, and roughly 85% of our users are male. At this time, one of our fastest growing age segments is 14+ males.

The gentleman I spoke with from Roblox Corp. explained that Roblox is more in tune with games like Little Big Planet or Minecraft, where players are given the tools to build, rather than a few sets of pre-built options, and are allowed to let their imaginations go wild. I inquired as to how well ROBLOX would relate to Lego Universe, and his response was positive:

What would be astonishing to the Lego Universe player is that, in ROBLOX, the entire game is built by players. Whereas Lego Universe incorporates building as a side mechanic to the game, ROBLOX puts user-generated content front and center. Roblox users build their games themselves, then invite friends and promote their games on our website to keep players visiting.

Obstacle course.

I spent some time in ROBLOX and found an incredibly diverse and creative array of games created by the community. At the time of this writing, the most concurrently played game is a Call Of Duty/Battlefield style game where players fight on foot, in the sky, and in vehicles in an immense territory control battle.

So where does ROBLOX get its income? Free players view video advertisements before entering games. ROBLOX offers a subscription service in the form of the Builder’s Club, which starts at about $5.95 a month and offers more spaces to build in. In addition, builders receive a daily stipend of Robux, the game’s virtual currency that can otherwise be purchased ala carte by free players. Additionally, builders club members are able to add badges (achievements) to their areas, as well as sell merchandise for Robux to other players. Robux are used to buy virtual goods, namely clothing for your character and toys to spice up your area.

Players are able to utilize Lua scripts to customize their games, making for the diverse assortment of play areas I saw during my visit. There were definite themes, a good number of the top games were usually obstacle course and “build to survive” modes, as well as various shooters themed off of other games. There were also several role playing servers, including a rather humorous map allowing for the role play of a McDonald’s worker. Fancy living.

What really astounded me about Roblox was the community. There are a lot of very creative kids playing Roblox, and I can only describe the community as almost an unbelievable Garden of Eden where evil and vulgarity has never stepped foot. I made a lot of friends during my time spent in game, and cannot in good faith recall a single moment of players harassing each other, using vulgar language or putting each other down, and not a single accusation of cheating. On the contrary, I found myself on the receiving end of many friend requests.

Roblox is a great game for parents looking for games suitable for their kids, which I will discuss more on next week.

This is part 1 of a 3 part Roblox series, with part 2 to come next Friday, the 4th of May. Part two will be a Why Aren’t You Playing, where I take a more in-depth look at the game overall.

Hundreds of Thousands To Lose Internet Access In July


MMO Fallout is all about the internet, and in order to maintain our world we must keep it secure. Last November, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a raid alongside other agencies to take down a massive internet ad-fraud scheme. The hackers involved were exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows to redirect users to false websites for phishing purposes.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the virus the FBI was unable to simply pull the plug as the computers had become reliant on the servers being up. So they replaced the servers with clean hardware and have maintained the systems at a rather high cost (over $80 grand), without anyone knowing that their internet was being modified. Approximately 360,000 computers are still believed to be infected.

The bad news gets worse, however. The servers are having their plugs pulled in July, after which anyone still infected will lose access to the internet, and that brings us to why I am talking about this here at MMO Fallout.

I strongly suggest that all users visit the following website. If dcwg.org is down (which is probably will be), try the website below it.

http://www.dcwg.org

http://www.dns-ok.us/

These websites will check if your computer is looking up IP addresses properly. If they aren’t, you are infected, and should head over here to find a fix:

http://www.dcwg.org/fix/

Browse safe, my friends.

Alganon Expansion Delayed To Q4 2012


Alganon is a game that doesn’t get a whole lot of coverage here at MMO Fallout, namely because it suffers from the same affliction that most small studios undergo, which is spending too much time working on actual development to put out press releases. Last we heard, Alganon was set to release an expansion in “Winter 2011,” titled Rise of the Ourobani. The expansion brings in a new race, the Ourobani, a new continent, the new Warden class, and flying mounts. Unfortunately, player housing has been cut for the time being and will probably not be

In Quest Online’s April newsletter, the developer announced that the expansion has been delayed until Q4 2012.

Due to unforeseen circumstances and the massive amount of work that our small team had to do on the expansion, after evaluation of the project, it was decided that more time was needed in order to do some critical bug fixes as well as to spend more time on certain areas and features of the expansion in order to do the best work possible. For this reason, the expansion has been delayed to Q4 2012.

More on Alganon as it appears.

(Source: Quest Online Newsletter)

(Source: Derek Smart Twitter)

[Update] The Old Republic: Free Month For Most Loyal Players


[Update] Bioware has extended the free month to anyone who also receives Legacy level 6 on their account. The time to obtain this has also been extended to April 22nd.

[Original Story] Bioware wants to thank its most loyal customers for sticking with the developer during these hard times. Of course, how do you factor in how loyal a player is? You could ask for a human sacrifice, but Human Resources is notorious for requiring long and redundant paperwork to be signed before any such promotion can take place.

So Bioware has decided to rate “most loyal” as anyone with at least one level 50 character. Those of you who have subscribed since launch but have not reached end game? Well, you’re loyal but they are more loyal. Perhaps you shouldn’t be such a casual gamer?

But don’t fret, all players subscribed regardless of loyalty will receive a free Tauntaun pet. in addition, previous subscribers can log in from April 13th to April 19th.

More on The Old Republic as it appears.

(Source: The Old Republic)

John Romero Making MMO-Ish Shooter


“It’s a persistent game, it has persistent player data, the character grows and gets better over time. I think most gamers expect that now anyway, but this was a design I’d done a while ago. I think it’s pretty valid.”

John Romero is one of the industry’s finest, even if he no longer works with John Carmack, and if the man wants to make his own MMO-ish shooter, then by God he will. In an interview with Eurogamer, Romero stated that while the game is still in pre-production stages, he has a solid vision of what he expects the title to become. Romero discusses his distaste for the current shooter genre, and mentions that his game will play faster than the Gears of War titles currently available, and won’t rely on the slower-paced cover based systems and characters who act as bullet sponges. Not to say Gears isn’t a great game, it just isn’t the type Romero would like to create.

If this makes you think of Quake Live, you probably aren’t too far from the target. Granted, very little about Romero’s game, so we will simply have to wait for more details.

(Source: Eurogamer)

NCSoft Reactivating Aion Accounts


Aion free to play technically doesn’t launch until next week, but NCSoft has something all players can get into, past, present, and prospective. Starting today, inactive accounts that are in good standing will be reactivated and able to log on. When Aion Truly Free goes live, a new server Kahrun will be launched. While you cannot play on the server until it goes live, starting today players will be able to create characters and reserve names on the server.

To compensate current players with additional time on their accounts, NCSoft is crediting 40 NCcoins per day remaining on the account (or around 1200 coins for each month you had remaining). The credit may take several days to process, however.

(Source: Aion news)

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