Today’s video comes from a team of developers working on taking Morrowing and remaking it using the Skyrim engine. The mod team of more than 70 is looking to go further than a simple port, adding in voice acting and sprucing up an otherwise dated and barren game world with more scenery. Check out the entire development video above.
Blizzard Gives Parents More Control
Blizzard has announced that accounts with parental controls turned on will soon have the ability to make in-game purchases turned off by default. The decision likely comes from last year’s list of companies dealing with children racking up massive bills on their parent’s card using cash shops and mobile app stores, including Apple paying out $100 million for unauthorized purchases. With the threat of class action lawsuits and suggestions of litigation to deal with a lack of self-regulation, Blizzard is joining a group of companies implementing their own policies.
(Source: Blizzard)
MMOrning Shots: Big Baby
The TERA winter event is probably over. It wasn’t over for me when the Philadelphia airport cancelled ten flights at the same time (one of them being mine) and the customer service kiosk turned into a free for all pvp area. After ganking someone for the ticket, I was able to make it home in a timely manner with a slight jetlag debuff. Did anyone else notice the giant baby in that picture?
Sony Online All Access Changing In February
Sony Online Entertainment has announced upcoming changes to gold membership in Everquest, and not all players will be happy. Instead of the monthly stipend of 500 station cash, members will be able to purchase one item up to two thousand station cash, sans bundles, studio items, etc.
The week of February 3rd, 2014 we will be making a very important change to the Gold Membership level in EverQuest The current benefit of receiving 500 Station Cash (SC) monthly will be replaced with a new program that allows you to select one single item valued up to 2000 SC each month. Nearly all items within the games’ Marketplace will be available for this selection. Players Studio, bundles and additional exclusions may apply. This new benefit must be claimed each month that you are a member as it will not carry over to subsequent months.
The new plan benefits those who save up their station cash for large single purchases, while those who use their stipend to buy multiple cheap items may feel the value of their subscription lessen.
(Source: Eqwire)
Photo of the Now: Brad McQuaid's Throne
Brad McQuaid is working on an MMO, the secret kind of MMO. The Kickstarter for McQuaid Online is on its way, but for now the man himself has posted a teaser picture on Twitter.
(Source: Brad McQuaid)
MMOrning Shots: Live Together, Die Together
I recently started playing through Path of Exile with a group of friends, rather than going it solo. There is an organized chaos to playing Path of Exile with a party that usually ends up with people shouting “where did you go” and a long list of expletives if someone picks up an item that they don’t need that you do. Then again, that may just be how we talk to each other.
Neverwinter Permanently Drops Prices
Over at Neverwinter, prices are falling faster than snowflakes on something that repels snowflakes, I am not very good with analogies. What I can tell you is that companions are currently on sale for 60% off until December 30th, after which the deal will be almost as sweet. When the sale does end on Monday, prices will be permanently reduced by up to 47%. Reductions depend on the rarity level of the companion, but range from 29% off to 47% off for the rarest and most common respectively.
Companions will be priced between 800 and 2500 zen, which can still be obtained in-game by trading astral diamonds, following the update on December 30th.
(Source: Neverwinter)
Is Relic Localizing Phantasy Star Online 2?
Earlier this year, gamers were dismayed to hear that Phantasy Star Online 2 would likely not be making it to the west, despite the game being fully translated into English for certain Asian regions. The news wasn’t a definite no, but allegedly Sega doubts the game’s ability to gain traction in Europe and the Americas. Luckily, that may not be the case. At the beginning of the year, Relic Entertainment was sold to Sega as part of THQ’s bankruptcy. A job listing has popped up on Relic’s website for a programmer/engineer to work on a live MMO from Japan.
Among the list of duties and requirements are:
- Ramp up and perform due diligence on an existing live MMO project in development in Japan, embedded with the live team
- 5+ years’ engineering experience from PC client/server based MMO development
It could be Phantasy Star Online 2, or it could be some other property.
(Source: Relic Careers)
RuneScape: 2014 Power To The Players
Jagex has declared 2014 to be the year of player-developer collaboration, not unlike every other year that the developer has promised to listen to its community better. How do you accomplish this? Through things. Foremost, Jagex plans on implementing an in-game poll system to allow better opportunity for players to vote on upcoming content.
In mid-January, we’re going to launch a new in-game poll system, which will give members at least one new content poll to vote on each week. In total, there will be up to seven guaranteed content polls each month, covering a range of topics including quests, minigames, combat updates, skills, bosses, reworks, core gameplay changes and much more besides.
How else? More polls! The announcement does detail plans to add in more quests, high level content, and a continued effort to remove RuneScape’s niggling problems. The first poll launches January 13th.
(Source: RuneScape)
Mark Kern Responds To Departure From Red 5
Recently we learned via a leaked email from Red 5 Studios that Mark Kern had been voted out by fellow board members. In a blog post on MMORPG.com, Kern gave his well wishes to those remaining at Red 5. As for his alleged termination, don’t believe everything you hear. Kern refers to his leadership at Red 5 as his Kobayashi Maru test, going on to use multiple film references to convey a rather vague point.
For the past twelve months, I was presented with a Kobayashi Maru test. When that occurs, the Captain must always find his own solution. While there have been rumors about whether I was demoted, terminated or maybe even corporately executed, I will only say this: remember that Han always shot first. It does not matter if the person revising history is George Lucas himself, because Greedo never shot first (sorry George).
As internal office politics often go, we may never know what really happened at Red 5 Studios apart from some anonymous employee comments.
(Source: MMORPG.com)
MMO Fallout 