MMOrning Shots: Stargate Worlds


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Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us straight from the vault under the What Could Have Been category, and is indeed one of the first screenshots of Stargate Worlds ever released to the public. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment put this out in 2006. For added pleasure, enjoy a snippet from the last press release in 2009 assuring us that the lights are indeed still on.

Our official response is that the lights here are still on and the development team is working hard every day to get this game built. Team members are in the office seven days a week to deliver Stargate Worlds. Brad Wright is the Stargate expert and a creative consultant on Stargate Worlds who advises us on the story; unfortunately we had not recently updated him on our progress or the impact from the current global economic crisis, and he was not fully aware of the continuing progress on our game.

Taco Tuesday: Now The Gloves Come Off


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In this week’s Taco Tuesday, I want to talk about Missing Worlds Media and City of Titans. With the Kickstarter now over and the money getting set to roll in, it must be understood that playtime is (mostly) over. No longer can Missing Worlds Media be treated as the ragtag group of volunteers with a dream for a better tomorrow that may never be realized. They have accepted money and that means, for better or for worse, City of Titans is going to happen. This means setting budgets, deadlines, and someone to enforce both. It means you now have real customers and obligations to meet, and people that you need to answer to.

As far as expectations go, Missing Worlds Media is now on the level of other independent game studios. This means that the excuse of “we’re just a group of volunteers” doesn’t cut it anymore. That works for games like Black Mesa, where the development team was literally an unfunded group of volunteers. City of Titans, on the other hand, has money going into it by people who are going to expect the product that they paid for. The Kickstarter should be the point where the team at Missing Worlds Media recognizes that City of Titans is now a serious project that they have committed to. This isn’t to say that the fun has to go away, but the stakes are higher and the game has officially begun.

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At the risk of being branded a cynic, devil’s advocate, hater, etc, let me just say that I still have high hopes for City of Titans and will continue supporting it here at MMO Fallout, but with the understanding that this is when Missing Worlds Media needs to buckle down and make this game their priority rather than just a project to be worked on by a group of volunteers. This means managing the team, schedule, and the funds that drive it all.

How do you feel about City of Titans? Drop a comment in the box below with your thoughts.

Final Fantasy XIV Pulling Square Enix's Bootstraps


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Here at MMO Fallout, we have something of a love-hate relationship with Square Enix. Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn is one of the best MMOs we have played here in a good while, but the travesty that was FFXIV 1.0 has still not faded from our minds. The good news is that the success of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has resulted in Square Enix adjusting their earnings forecast. The publisher expected a loss of $20 million USD, however a combined success from FFXIV and arcade sales has boosted those figures up to a $48 million operating profit.

Square Enix is gearing up for update 2.1 which will introduce a new pvp arena, free company housing, and dungeons.

(Source: Siliconera)

Jagex Highlights Runefest Revelations


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Runefest has come and gone with attendees getting the chance to meet the developers, participate in activities, and test out upcoming updates. Jagex has sent us over a list of some big reveals from Runefest, including the name of the next skill, the 200th quest, world events, and more. Check out the list below:

  • The Invention Skill, which is a partner to the recently launched Divination skill and represents a technological leap forward within the game.  This skill will allow players create their own gear and “soul weapons” which can be leveled up to increase their power as players progress through the game.
  • The RuneScape Community App, which will allow players to chat and access the Grand Exchange, RuneScape’s trading system, through their mobile devices.
  • A preview of the 2nd World Event which has been confirmed to involve the two gods Armadyl and Bandos, who will be travelling across the world map trying to gain followers and influence.  Players will also be able to opt into innovative open world PVP.
  • Upgraded matchmaking which will allow players to easily find other player who are interested in playing specific social content, allowing them put together teams easily without interrupting their gameplay.
  • Players were shown a glimpse of two new quests – The 200th quest which will focus on the Elves and a new Master quest featuring the return of Zaros.
  •  “The Church of YOU” – Over the past decade players have been central to all RuneScape content and are the world guardians, now they can start to amass their own followers to worship their in-game achievements.

(Source: Jagex Press Release)

[Community] RuneScape Prestige Mode Rejected


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How violently can a person say no? RuneScape is a grinder’s game, there are over twenty five skills all of which require more than thirteen million experience in order to hit level 99, and one which goes further up to level 120. As far as even MMOs go, RuneScape takes a long time to hit high levels, and involves a lot of very tedious grinding. So I can’t imagine why someone at Jagex thought that prestige would be an appropriate suggestion to spitball to the community. The idea is simple, if you’ve played games like Modern Warfare 2. You prestige by resetting your level to one and starting all over again, but you do so with a cosmetic effect. For RuneScape, each prestige would increase the experience required to hit end-game by 100%, so 26 million experience to reach 99 a second time, etc.

The idea was put up to a vote and was summarily rejected, with 61% of 28,594 voting no. Since the requirement for implementation was 75% of the vote, prestige has been canned for now with the possibility of being reworked and sent back up for a vote in the future.

MMOrning Shots: Claymation


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Whenever I look at Jagex’s screenshots and video for RuneScape, it always feels like I’m looking at a clay diorama. Today’s MMOrning Shot is a snapshot from RuneScape’s latest Behind The Scenes video, showing off one of the game’s distractions and diversions, the fishing contest.

 

City of Titans Breaks $675,000 As Clock Hits Midnight


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Missing Worlds Media never stood a chance of failure, not if its devoted community has anything to say about it. As the sun sets on the City of Titans Kickstarter campaign, the team comes out with a grand total of over six hundred seventy five thousand dollars. That level of pledge ensures the release of the City of Titans character creator app on iOS and Android, a Mac version of the game available at launch, auras and travel powers, wings, more powers, and more costume sets.

The success of this venture into crowd funded and community-built gaming is truly impressive, and we wish the best of luck to our friends at Missing Worlds Media. Now comes the hard part.

(Source: Kickstarter)

MMOments: Slow And Steady Rebuilds Lumbridge


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The Battle for Lumbridge was the first world event in RuneScape, taking place from July to the end of September, and pitting Saradomin Vs Zamorak in a massive battle of heavy resource grinding. In addition to helping out their chosen god, players aided the Duke of Lumbridge in deciding how to rebuild the village. The battle is over now and the combatants have left the field, leaving Lumbridge to build itself up from the ground.

Considering that the Lumbridge Rebuildathon is a daily event that you can finish in less than ten minutes, I didn’t think I would find it as engaging as I have. Not for the game itself, which involves picking up inventories of debris and putting them in a stack, but watching the area slowly transform as players complete tasks. Buildings are slowly being rebuilt and the battlefield cleaned of barricades, tents, and buildings. There is a feeling that your work is actually contributing, an improvement over the Battle of Lumbridge’s divine tear gathering.

And there are experience rewards.

From The Archives: LOTRO E3 '06 Trailer


Tonight’s bit of nostalgia comes from Lord of the Rings Online, more specifically the game’s E3 2006 trailer. Lord of the Rings Online launched in April 2007. Check us out on Youtube for further videos and nostalgia, or continue following us here at MMO Fallout dot com.

Warhammer Opens All Accounts For Last Push


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Warhammer Online shuts down December 18th, and to send off the game with style Mythic has decided to open up all accounts for a last month and a half of bashing in skulls. There will even be some people playing Warhammer. A post on the official website notes that all accounts in good standing as of October 31st are welcome back, alongside NPCs that will offer level boosts.

To give Warhammer Online a proper sendoff we are opening the game to anyone free of charge that has or had an account in good standing starting October 31st, 2013.  We will be adding new NPC’s to the game in order to power up your characters as well as other unique experiences for everyone to enjoy as we say goodbye to Warhammer Online over the next few weeks.  So please join us and help say goodbye to Warhammer Online in one last big WAAAGH!

See you in-game.

(Source: Warhammer Online)