MMO Fallout

Wargaming Sues Chinese Developer Over World of Tanks Ripoff

There are only two certainties in life: Death, and that if there is a product in existence, China has ripped it off and claimed it as its own. Now you can find a ripoff of just about anything in China, including MMO Fallout as I recently discovered. Litigation against these companies is generally extremely difficult, if not impossible, in part because copyright infringement apparently does not translate into Mandarin. I say this with the full knowledge that any time I talk about China being infamous for ripping off products, that MMO Fallout will probably be hit with a surge of attempts at breaking into the site. Twenty six thousand attempts in April, and still going strong.

World of Tanks developer Wargaming is taking the fight head on by filing a lawsuit against the developer of Project Tank, Chinese companies Changyou and Gamease. So how does a company steal a game based on tanks that existed in reality? By using the exact same historical inaccuracies and stealing the tanks that did not exist as well, according to Wargaming.

“Copying is evidenced by the fact that the designers of Project Tank copied historical inaccuracies found in WOT, each of which does not affect gameplay but which was included in WOT to simplify the tank modelling and rendering process. Copying is further evidenced by the fact that the designers of Project Tank copied tanks from WOT that never existed in real life, and which included features original to WOT.”

The Project Tank closed beta has been shut down with a message calling Wargaming’s litigation “bullying.” Wargaming is seeking damages and an injunction against Changyou.

(Source: Polygon)

MMOrning Shots: City of Steam Open Beta

Set your alarms for 10pm eastern and don’t wake up until then, because the City of Steam open beta is here. While the game is still in beta, there will not be any more wipes once the servers get up and running tonight. So no complaining, otherwise I’m going to hit you with this shoe. You can’t see it because this is text, but I’m holding it in my hand. It looks heavy and the heel is rather hard.

MMOrning Shots is a (somewhat) 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.”

World of Warcraft Down To 8.3 Million

Sound the alarms, prepare for the apocalypse, and call up your mother to tell her you never liked her cooking anyway, because World of Warcraft has announced a drop in subscriptions and that can only mean one thing: An apocalyptic flooding of the internet by the usual group of self-involved, cynicism spewing gamers that always pop out whenever news like this hits. Activision Blizzard has revealed that World of Warcraft lost 1.3 million subscribers last quarter, hitting 8.3 million at the end of March.

“While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter. The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U™, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and
careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years.”
-Bobby Kotick

Blizzard released Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, which ranked as the #1 PC game for the quarter. Black Ops II ranked #2 in overall dollars.

(Source: Activision Blizzard)

Perfect World Is Banning Neverwinter Foundry Exploits: Creators And Players

Consider this a classic example of why we can’t have nice things. Neverwinter is just another of Cryptic’s games to feature a foundry, where players can create missions for other players to enjoy for their wonderful stories, deep and thoughtful mission design, and…ah who am I kidding? Neverwinter is an MMO and therefore the community will exploit everything until it is taken away from them. Players quickly found a way to exploit the foundry system, creating missions that are nothing more than a bunch of high value mobs in a pit, unable to fight back while the player farms them for gold, items, and experience.

Unfortunately for players, Perfect World Entertainment is apparently cracking down on large amounts of experience and items gained through the foundry. The patch released earlier today modified gains through the foundry, and Neverwinter has taken action not just against accounts that created the foundry missions, but against players who repeatedly used those foundry missions to level quickly. Some foundry creators are reporting their accounts banned, while others are claiming that their access to creating foundry missions has been revoked. Players who repeatedly used quick-leveling foundry missions are similarly reporting bans.

So far there hasn’t been any official announcement of the bans, apart from player reports.

Revenue Doubled Under Free To Play

As much as I know there is a subsection of gamers who want nothing more than for The Old Republic to be down and out so they can justify kicking it over and over, I have bad news for you: According to an earnings call by Electronic Arts, The Old Republic has not only grown exponentially in size, it is making lods of emone. 1.7 million new players have joined since the game went free to play, bringing up subscriptions to just under half a million.

“The really interesting thing that’s happening inside the service right now is monthly average revenue for the game has more than doubled since we introduced the free-to-play option. And as we look forward, we’re going to continually invest in new content for the service and for players every six weeks or so.”

Granted that news shouldn’t exactly be surprising. We would have been more surprised if The Old Republic had somehow managed to have less players and be making less money after the transition.

(Source: Polygon)

Face of Mankind Kickstarting An Overhaul

Face of Mankind is one of those games that most of you have likely tried at one point, or at the very least heard about it as a concept. The game relies almost solely on player interaction, between individuals and the factions that they represent. Alliances come and go, as do wars, and territories change hands on a regular basis. As an MMO, Face of Mankind has carried a small but dedicated base of players, which Nexeon Technologies hopes to grow with the announcement of Face of Mankind: Fall of the Dominion.

Fall of the Dominion seeks to relaunch Face of Mankind and create what its predecessor had always hoped to be, allowing players to have a real impact on the world around them. That said, Nexeon Technologies needs a cool fifty grand in order to see that dream to reality, so the team has appealed to the Kickstarter gamers to see their project through.

In Face of Mankind: Fall of the Dominion, the players may have as much freedom as they want; at the center of this lies an incredibly powerful Faction system. This system creates the foundation for every mechanic in the game, with almost all conflict potentially escalating to war if the politics aren’t played well. How it pans out is entirely up to the players to decide. Players can create their own faction, capture territories, and dominate the universe.

Can anyone say MMO Fallout Decomposed Boot Corporation?

(Source: Kickstarter)

See People Get Banned In Darkfall: Unholy Wars

I have often said that MMO gamers are a notoriously vindictive bunch, and I count myself as part of that demographic. There is something undeniably satisfying about being able to see that a gold farmer or an abusive player that you reported has been banned, a satisfaction that is generally denied by developers unwilling to divulge any information regarding action taken against accounts. In games like RuneScape, where being banned means removal from the high scores, you can generally assume that someone is banned even if it isn’t explicitly stated.

For Darkfall Unholy Wars, there is the Unholy Banhammer, a database where no-goodniks are strung up on display with their username, clan (if applicable) and reason for ban for everyone to see. The list is populated pretty heavily by gold farming accounts with gibberish names like Fdsdgd Cvdfsggb. You can check out the complete list of names (currently 63) below, updated regularly.

(Source: Unholy Banhammer)

MMOrning Shots: Original Crisis

Today’s MMOrning Shot comes from Sony Online Entertainment and showcases DC Universe Online’s upcoming DLC Origin Crisis. Players will be tasked with battling through time and alternate realities with Lex Luthor and Superman with the goal of preserving or altering the origins of certain heroes and villains. Origin Crisis also introduces a new powerset, Quantum, allowing the player to manipulate time and gravity itself.

MMOrning Shots is a (somewhat) 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.”

Monday Night Cap: EA Uses The Force

After hearing that Electronic Arts has scored an exclusive license to develop and publish Star Wars games, I’m guessing at least some of you had an expression comparable to the one above.

“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come,” said Disney co-president John Pleasants in a statement. “Collaborating with one of the world’s premier game developers will allow us to bring an amazing portfolio of new Star Wars titles to our fans around the world.”

On one hand, I would love to see Battlefront 3 be made on the Frostbite engine. The thought of upgrading the Battlefront model to include environmental destruction is one that makes me very happy. We know that Bioware can make great single player RPGs, and I trust the company if they’re going to continue the work that had been started on Star Wars 1313.

And yes, there have been plenty of controversies coming out of EA in the past couple of years, so all I’m saying is look at this with about mid-level expectations. Not so much the next coming of Half Life, but more the next coming of Poker Night at the Inventory: Something not a whole lot of people asked for but will probably be enjoyable regardless.

World of Darkness: A Long Way Out

One of the downsides of MMOs lies in their very long development times, and it can be easy to forget just how far out certain games are when the developer is already talking about them. Take World of Darkness as a prime example, coming from CCP and set in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade. The more we hear about the upcoming sandbox MMO, the better it sounds. player-driven stories, permanent death, and more.

On the other hand, it will be a few more years until we get our hands on World of Darkness. At least two, likely more. The game is still in the stages of pre-production, and the team is unwilling to offer much in the way of deep gameplay videos. Luckily, though, the team has about seventy people working hard on getting systems in place, and restructuring Eve Online’s technology to work in a faster, more action oriented setting.

So keep those mouths puckered, World of Darkness will be ready for you to want to suck their blood before you can say vampire. In every language on earth, past, present, and future.

(Source: Penny Arcade)

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