MMO Fallout

Side Quest Hits Kickstarter Again

I love Side Quest, as many of you are fully aware. During the few months that the game was open to the public for early development testing, I can honestly say that I played it more than any other game in my library, much to my enjoyment and the dismay of whoever had to field my bug reports. For those of you out of the loop, I described Side Quest in one article as Patapon meets fantasy MMO. Your heroes move across the screen on their own volition, and it is up to you to manage special attacks, potions, and anything else that may be present on the battlefield. Where Side Quest strives to be make a name for itself is in the boss battles, each with a unique battle mechanic. One tasks the player with riding down a fast moving river on a log raft, maneuvering the log to avoid rocks while still paying attention to the giant squid attacking them. It also has a rather humorous story and a fine pvp battle system in both synchronous and asynchronous.

Now the first Side Quest asked for $10,000 on Kickstarter and fell rather short of their goal. The team has gone back to Kickstarter to fund the second half of this sports reference before the game can launch. The Fractal Entertainment crew is asking for five grand, offering a number of rewards including the ability to design your own weapon, armor, or even an NPC. There are the usual grab bag of rewards available, including cash shop coins and beta access, as well as a meet and greet at higher levels.

Check out the trailer for the game below.

(Source: Kickstarter)

Rift Details Loyalty Plan For Members

Rift’s conversion to free to play is turning out to be pretty awesome, if I do say so, and I do. Generally when other MMOs go free to play and decide to keep hold of their loyalty programs, they either award loyalty for all players or they do so only to those who subscribe to the premium membership. In the case of Rift, Trion is doing a little of both. Loyalty points no longer accrue simply from subscribing to the premium service, since a subscription is no longer necessary. Instead, players will fill their loyalty meter by subscribing, purchasing or spending credits, or via Rift’s new REX.

The Loyalty system is, at its core, the same philosophy – it’s our way of saying thanks for supporting RIFT. If you choose to spend real money in RIFT you’ll gain Loyalty (with one little loop hole discussed below *wink*). As you accrue Loyalty, your Loyalty meter will fill and unlock new rewards, like Special Costumes only available through Loyalty, the ability to change your target icon to Elite or Raid status, and unique dimensions.

REX is, as you may have guessed, Trion’s version of PLEX: Cash shop credits that can be bundled and sold to other players, effectively allowing the game to be fully accessed for free. Current and former subscribers will be happy to know that their previous months of service in Rift will count toward their starting set of loyalty currency, and you will be able to keep your already obtained loyalty items.

(Source: Rift)

Star Vault’s Q1 2013 Shows Growth

Star Vault has released their Q1 2013 reports and things are looking up, somewhat. The Swedish developer notes a combination of increased subscriptions since last quarter as well as the introduction of the ability to donate money for development, as contributing to the company’s revenue growth in 2013. Star Vault’s net sales for Q1 2013 amounted to slightly over $100 thousand USD, or a 45% rise since Q4 2012. Net profit has come closer to reaching profitability with a similar 47% rise to just over seventy grand in the red.

Henrik Nystrom commented on Star Vault’s outlook:

We are cautiously optimistic about 2013, and we may for the first time in a long time see that the increase in player activity begins to appear in our quarterly report. Revenues from our movement has grown and we have achieved a positive cash flow. I would add that the figure includes a bridge loan 394 000 SEK, which in turn is related to a private placement.

Star Vault is still aiming to get Mortal Online approved via Steam Greenlight.

As for game development in the first quarter of 2013, we have mainly focused on fixing bugs and polishing the Mortal Online since we are high listed on STEAM Greenlight, called the list for the U.S. distribution channel STEAM, which we plan to release our game in the near future. Before this game release is done, we need to prepare for increased traffic both game code-wise but probably also the size of the physical game area. We continue to make the first gameplay in Mortal Online as well and smooth as possible for the players can more easily get into the game and quickly start developing their characters.

(Source: Star Vault Q1 2013 Finance Report)

Star Vault's Q1 2013 Shows Growth

Henrik Nystrom commented on Star Vault’s outlook:

We are cautiously optimistic about 2013, and we may for the first time in a long time see that the increase in player activity begins to appear in our quarterly report. Revenues from our movement has grown and we have achieved a positive cash flow. I would add that the figure includes a bridge loan 394 000 SEK, which in turn is related to a private placement.

Star Vault is still aiming to get Mortal Online approved via Steam Greenlight.

As for game development in the first quarter of 2013, we have mainly focused on fixing bugs and polishing the Mortal Online since we are high listed on STEAM Greenlight, called the list for the U.S. distribution channel STEAM, which we plan to release our game in the near future. Before this game release is done, we need to prepare for increased traffic both game code-wise but probably also the size of the physical game area. We continue to make the first gameplay in Mortal Online as well and smooth as possible for the players can more easily get into the game and quickly start developing their characters.

(Source: Star Vault Q1 2013 Finance Report)

FFXIV: A Realm Is Reborn On August 27th

You remember Final Fantasy XIV, right? It’s that game that a few of our old website logos used to be based on. It’s been a while now since Final Fantasy XIV shut down to the public, with the promise of an upcoming relaunch in the form of A Realm Reborn. Well wait no longer! While the beta for Realm Reborn has been trucking along for a while now, with the third phase to come sometime this month, Square Enix has been rather quiet on the exact details. Now we know thanks to a press release from Square that FFXIV: A Realm Reborn will launch August 27th.

Players are able to pre-purchase the title on PC or PS3 and receive early access to the game, as well as other item perks. The collectors edition includes a number of extra perks including a FFXIV themed authenticator. You can check out the entire details of the pre-purchase packages at the link below.

(Source: FFXIV)

MMOrning Shots: That’s Wakfu

One day someone will say “Omali, I saw this game on MMOrning Shots and now I am a happy customer,” and maybe, just maybe, those fine fellows who develop games at [redacted] will stop beating me up and stealing my lunch every day. Maybe, I can always dream.

MMOrning Shots is a daily line of screenshots from various MMOs. Most are taken in-house or come to us in press releases, but if you would like your screenshot featured, send it over to contact[at]mmofallout[dot]com with the subject “MMorning Shots.”

MMOrning Shots: That's Wakfu

MMOrning Shots is a daily line of screenshots from various MMOs. Most are taken in-house or come to us in press releases, but if you would like your screenshot featured, send it over to contact[at]mmofallout[dot]com with the subject “MMorning Shots.”

Neverwinter Unveils Caturday, Gift Pack For Players

As many of you are aware, Neverwinter suffered a fair bit of downtime this weekend thanks to the mass abuse of a bug allowing players to duplicate Astral Diamonds using the auction house. While originally stating that non-cheating characters would not be affected overall, Perfect World had decided to perform a rollback to early Saturday morning, taking action against accounts that had abused the bug and going into the game’s history to track down those who were abusing it prior to Saturday’s outbreak. As compensation for Saturday’s extended downtime, as well as for the inconvenience in the rollback, Perfect World has given all characters created prior to May 21st a Caturday pack.

All characters that have been created before 6:00 A.M. Tuesday, May 21, 2013, will receive the Caturday Survivor’s Pack, which will appear in your in-game mail as an attachment to the message, “You Survived!” The items within the Caturday Survivor’s Pack are bound to each character that receives it.

The pack includes a cosmetic cape, a dwarven mask, teleport scrolls, experience boosters, and a stone of health. The cutoff date was initially May 19th, however Perfect World has moved it to the 21st at 6am PST.

(Source: Neverwinter)

Taco Tuesday: How Will Planetside Manage Cheaters?

Last year I asked John Smedley if Planetside would be shutting down with Planetside 2 releasing, since Planetside was already dead in the water in terms of population. The response I received was that Sony would rather seek options including transforming Planetside into the free to play model before they shut the servers down, and that there would be more details as to where things were going in 2013. Just a day or so ago, Sony Online Entertainment threw a block grant of six months of game time in Planetside for Planetside 2 players. John Smedley also noted on Twitter:

This also gives us more time to make it f2p. So enjoy starting tmw late morning. And yes I’m sure we will miss flag some people.

Even though I knew that Sony preferred free to play to shutting the game down outright, my reaction to the announcement is still a sound “why?” I understand why Sony would want to take that road, since by their own admission no one plays Planetside anymore and therefore anything is better than nothing. On the other hand, players like myself are fully aware of why Planetside doesn’t have a trial system: because hackers were abusing it and mass-creating accounts. So when Planetside goes free to play, it’s hardly unrealistic to assume that the hackers will simply return in droves to ruin the experience once again.

Will Planetside become a den of aimbots, exploits, and hackers? At first, most assuredly. Afterward, who can say? Part of me wants to say that Sony will address the problem of mass-hacking in Planetside because otherwise the investment required to take the game free to play wouldn’t be worth it. A game like Planetside that is fully player vs player will see its population turn right around and leave if the game is infested with hackers. The hope, of course, is that Planetside will generate enough revenue after the transition that Sony can afford to have some full time staffers on hand to update the systems to battle cheaters at a software level while simultaneously having staff in-game to track down and ban cheaters by hand.

And again, this all comes down to how prepared Sony is to deal with the cheaters who will no doubt show up once the doors open.

MMOrning Shots: The Phoenix Project

We’re not just building a game; we’re building a world, which we hope will be able to stand on its own merits in an environment fraught with intense competition. It will only be able to do so with the support of its surrounding community.

I love reading up on the two City of Heroes spiritual community sequels, The Phoenix Project (pictured above) and Heroes and Villains. The above is The Phoenix Project being tested on the Unreal Engine with stock assets. You can check out the current status of The Phoenix Project by heading over to the Missing Worlds Media website.

MMOrning Shots is a daily line of screenshots from various MMOs. Most are taken in-house or come to us in press releases, but if you would like your screenshot featured, send it over to contact[at]mmofallout[dot]com with the subject “MMorning Shots.”

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