John Smedley Deploys Lawyer-Grade Weaponry To Fight Planetside Cheaters


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Sony Online Entertainment has been taking the fight to cheaters in Planetside 2, and the battle has not been an easy one. Whenever the development team comes up with a new way to combat aimbots and other cheats, the people making said cheats simply find a new way to work around the system. So in a post on the Planetside subreddit, John Smedley appeared to clarify a few misconceptions about the policy against cheat users. In addition to the usual discussions of zero tolerance and constant development, Smedley also pointed to Sony’s newest battle tactic: Lawyers.

After having personally viewed some of the major cheat sites I can tell you I’m blown away by how sophisticated some of these operations are. They are making money on this. We’re working on that from another angle too that I’m not going to go into just yet (hint. it involves lawyers) . But we have the resources to fight this fight and we will keep doing it.

Fighting cheat makers in court will be a lengthy and expensive process, but more power to Sony if they are willing to go through with it.

(Source: Reddit)

MMOrning Shots: Does Preserving Nostalgia Trump Preventing Scams?


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RuneScape’s Old School server has been running for four days now and while the game is looking pretty stable, it isn’t completely up and running. Construction and player owned housing needed to be overhauled and are not currently available, and neither is the Barbarian Assault mini-game or one or two quests. The small team currently assigned to the game is still working on a method to accurately gauge player interest in further updates, with the community divided on whether to implement new updates or keep the game as it was.

Among the changes first implemented, Jagex altered the way herbs work to be less friendly to scams. At the time in which the server existed (August 2007), all herbs looked alike and were simply called “herb” until identified. This confusion generated a specific scam in which players would advertise unidentified herbs as being higher quality than they actually were. In an update in September 2007, Jagex changed herbs to “grimy” versions, allowing players to see what the herb was before actually cleaning it. When old school RuneScape launched last week, it came with the grimy herbs instead of the unidentified versions, prompting a backlash from the community. On Monday, Jagex updated the game to revert the system back to its more scam-friendly version in response to player demand.

Players who argue for unidentified herbs do so on the grounds that players voted for RuneScape as it was in August 2007, and that includes all of its features both good and bad. The players who argued to keep grimy herbs generally do so on the grounds that preventing players from scamming each other is more important than preserving nostalgia. Neither side is wrong, really, the question comes down to priorities. Is it more important for Jagex to preserve the nostalgia of RuneScape as it was on August 10th, 2007, or is it a higher priority to implement updates geared toward preventing unruly behavior, even if that means changing the game? The question then becomes about where the line gets drawn as to what is off limits.

So where do you draw the line? Keep everything as it was, or let the community vote on newer features?

The Old Republic 2.0 Condenses Commendation Tokens


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In my personal book of stuff, commendations and their ilk have generally leaned toward the side of useless. Ignoring how useful they actually are once you hit that mythical creature I have heard of but never seen, often called “end game,” the commendations you receive on the actual leveling path can range from highly useful to discarded and forgotten. This all banks on the prayer that the developer has made these commendations easy enough to obtain, and requires the player spend enough time in that zone, to obtain enough of that area’s commendations, before they outlevel the area and whatever reward said commendations might bring.

Currently in The Old Republic, commendations are planet-specific. So if you leave Hutta before you have any use of the Hutta commendations, odds are you probably won’t have any use for them in the future. With update 2.0, Bioware is condensing all of the planet-specific commendations into one wallet-sized credit card. Alongside planetary commendations, players will be able to obtain Classic (level 50 flashpoints/operations), Basic, Elite (level 55 flashpoints/operations), and Ultimate (Hard/Nightmare Mode) commendations, each with their own cap on how many can be obtained and stored.

Darth Hater notes that the planetary commendation cap is 100, as opposed to the thousand per planet currently in-game.

(Source: Darth Hater)

OldScape Vote Passes 250 Thousand, Membership Fee Lowered


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Jagex recently launched a poll to gauge interest in the return of classic RuneScape servers, bringing back the old school feel of August 2007. The poll, however, had a catch. Because bringing the servers back and maintaining them costs money, Jagex wanted to get a feeling as to how many people would actually participate in the servers should they launch. So for two weeks, subscribers are asked to vote yes or abstain from voting, with each vote contributing to a number of tiers, which will determine exactly how the service is supported post-launch.

At a minimum, the servers needed fifty thousand votes to launch at all, which the community easily blew through. At fifty thousand, the servers would be brought online with no updates, only critical maintenance, and would cost $15 a month. Luckily, however, the community recently struck through the two hundred fifty thousand vote mark, bringing the membership cost down to $5 with basic maintenance, anti-bot updates, and a small team for ongoing development. That $5 membership is on top of the

Should the community hit five hundred thousand, membership will be free and there will be a dedicated team for ongoing development. The poll runs until March 1st, however you can get on the servers starting today providing you are a RuneScape member and vote in the poll.

(Source: RuneScape Official Website)

Star Trek Online Is Perfect World’s Best Product


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So life isn’t exactly perfect over at the Cryptic Studios offices right now. Long story short, a series of bad choices and oversights on the part of the Cryptic team lead to a very long thread and a long apology from producer Dan Stahl. I will allow Mr. Stahl to explain it in concise detail:

An apology is due, and while I’ve admitted fault in previous posts about this , I’ll do so again in this one. The release that was pushed to Holodeck last week failed in several critical ways. There was a failure on the part of a designer to test their work before it was checked into the game. Similarly, there was a failure in communication with the QA team on the said check in and on top of that, no one headed the concerns on TRIBBLE. Ultimately, this is all my responsibility as the lead on the team and I do apologize. There has been corrective action on our end to address this issue and it is our intention that the build going out to Holodeck tomorrow will resolve problems introduced last week. This doesn’t mean that all bugs on Holodeck are magically gone, it means that we are looking into the processes that cause these bugs and taking action to correct them.

In addition, the removal of Fleet Marks was a heavy handed change. It needed to be done because it was getting out of hand and there was an ever increasing amount of exploitation in the Foundry to maximum Fleet Mark rewards. That said, we should have had the Fleet Mark changes we are making this week ready to go last week so there wouldn’t have been a week with the drop in Fleet Mark earning. Again sorry. It doesn’t make us feel any better when we make stupid mistakes.

One bit of information to take out of this is Stahl’s comment that Star Trek Online is currently Perfect World Entertainment’s most successful title. This puts the game over other big titles in Perfect World’s library, from the Torchlight series, Blacklight, PWI, and more.

While you may not agree with all of our designs and decisions, the proof is in the success the game is having and how much the game continues to grow. While we don’t share our internal information, STO is the best performing game for Perfect World Entertainment and is enjoy month after month increases in new captains.

This also puts Star Trek Online above Cryptic’s other game, Champions Online.

(Source: Star Trek Online Forums)

Star Trek Online Is Perfect World's Best Product


screenshot_2010-01-12-13-03-55

So life isn’t exactly perfect over at the Cryptic Studios offices right now. Long story short, a series of bad choices and oversights on the part of the Cryptic team lead to a very long thread and a long apology from producer Dan Stahl. I will allow Mr. Stahl to explain it in concise detail:

An apology is due, and while I’ve admitted fault in previous posts about this , I’ll do so again in this one. The release that was pushed to Holodeck last week failed in several critical ways. There was a failure on the part of a designer to test their work before it was checked into the game. Similarly, there was a failure in communication with the QA team on the said check in and on top of that, no one headed the concerns on TRIBBLE. Ultimately, this is all my responsibility as the lead on the team and I do apologize. There has been corrective action on our end to address this issue and it is our intention that the build going out to Holodeck tomorrow will resolve problems introduced last week. This doesn’t mean that all bugs on Holodeck are magically gone, it means that we are looking into the processes that cause these bugs and taking action to correct them.

In addition, the removal of Fleet Marks was a heavy handed change. It needed to be done because it was getting out of hand and there was an ever increasing amount of exploitation in the Foundry to maximum Fleet Mark rewards. That said, we should have had the Fleet Mark changes we are making this week ready to go last week so there wouldn’t have been a week with the drop in Fleet Mark earning. Again sorry. It doesn’t make us feel any better when we make stupid mistakes.

One bit of information to take out of this is Stahl’s comment that Star Trek Online is currently Perfect World Entertainment’s most successful title. This puts the game over other big titles in Perfect World’s library, from the Torchlight series, Blacklight, PWI, and more.

While you may not agree with all of our designs and decisions, the proof is in the success the game is having and how much the game continues to grow. While we don’t share our internal information, STO is the best performing game for Perfect World Entertainment and is enjoy month after month increases in new captains.

This also puts Star Trek Online above Cryptic’s other game, Champions Online.

(Source: Star Trek Online Forums)

Square Enix Shows Off FFXIV and Gamepad


If there was ever an MMO in line for “Best Comeback,” Final Fantasy XIV would be it. In the latest video, Square Enix shows off the custom built gamepad, as well as showing off a good deal of combat and controls.

Star Vault Releases Q4 Income


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Star Vault has released their fourth quarter releases for 2012, and the news isn’t all bad. Net sales lowered to 463,307 Krona ($72 thousand, approximately) from 501,252 Krona ($78 thousand) in the third quarter. Net profits continued deeper into the red at -895,699 ($140 thousand, approximately) from 706,844 in the third quarter ($110 thousand).

The fourth quarter saw the release of both Mortal Online’s free to play as well as the the launch of a donation system. Overall, according to the report, the model has compensated for the loss of license sales and Star Vault has seen positive development in all areas.

The number of subscriptions in the fourth quarter was approximately the same as in the third, with a slight increase following free to play. Sale of licenses will no longer be reported due to the new business model, as they have been discontinued.

In Henrik Nystrom’s notes, he discusses that the expansion Awakening went well, but did not increase sales as expected. Nystrom references 2012 as a transitional year, noting donations as important to continued development. The company is still working to be listed on Steam, and while the new cash flow has been positive, it has had no effect on the fourth quarter. Star Vault expects to break even in 2013.

(Source: Aktie Torget Press Release)

OldScape: RuneScape 2007 Server Details


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Jagex has run a live Q&A today, focusing on the upcoming 2007 Old School servers.

  • The servers launch this Friday, the 22nd.
  • The first month will be free for all of those who voted.
  • The February 22nd launch is an early access phase and is expected to have bugs.
  • Free players will only have access if the poll exceeds 500,000.
  • At the current 213,000, free players don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.
  • Rares (tradeable discontinued) will not be available.*
  • Gambling will not be removed*
  • Chat between the two versions (Current and OldScape) will be compatible.
  • Holiday events will not be added*
  • Characters will be separate, however accounts will not be able to log into both simultaneously.

*Barring 500,000 votes which is highly unlikely.

Currently, there are only 214,000 votes for the 2007 Classic servers. If the poll hits 250,000 by the end of the week, players can expect the following perks:

  • $5 a month subscription
  • A small team for development.
  • Basic maintenance.
  • Possible anti-gold farming updates.

If they do not hit 250,000, players will be expected to shell out $15 a month to access the game, with zero possibilities of updates or anti-gold farming systems.

Taco Tuesday: Don’t Ban Griefers, Make The Game Unbearable


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Today is Tuesday and that can only mean one thing: The cafeteria is serving up hot ground meat in between your choice of soft tortilla or crunchy corn shells. Regardless of your preferences of sauces and toppings, Taco Tuesday is inarguably the greatest day of the week, unless of course you hate life. It is around the taco table that we come together to discuss MMOs, in particular those big things and little things that make the genre great. So grab yourself a shell, load it up, and get ready to dig in.

Ever since MMOs first introduced the concept of open combat, the question has lingered as to how to allow players to battle each other to their heart’s content, while at the same time preventing people from griefing new players and driving away business. Games have attempted to throw in a number of features, all with varying success. Criminal systems are often used which prevent characters from entering certain areas/cities until they either wait out a period of time or grind faction points. The goal in these cases is to allow for free range murder with the penalty of inconveniencing the character for the duration of their criminal reign. Certain MMOs go further by punishing the character with experience/stat penalties if they are killed while flagged.

Two recent games are taking a far more hardcore approach to dealing with griefing and mitigating those with a strong habit of randomly killing/kidnapping everyone they come across, and those games are Wizardry Online and Age of Wushu. Wizardry Online is a hardcore MMO with permadeath and open PvP, a combination which means there is an obligation to ensure that opting to be a criminal is difficult and dangerous. When one player kills another in Wizardry, the victim is able to place a bounty on the head of the killer. Bounties are temporary and will eventually expire. Players with more than five bounties will be imprisoned upon their next death. Imprisoned players are unable to delete imprisoned characters, nor are they able to access other characters on the same account. Between paying back bounties or long hours of grinding to get out of jail, a particularly bad griefer could be punished past the point of being willing to play anymore.

Age of Wushu features a similar jail system. Snail Games may not have implemented any kind of permanent death feature in Age of Wushu, but they’ve managed to make prison almost as bad. Instead of trying to explain it myself, I will allow user Smokefin to give his testimony:

72 hours in jail. I killed 30 people and after that i died to 4 other players and went to jail. Now i need to serve 72 game time hours of jail. I literally didn’t believe it at first, but its true. SO: I play 4 hours a day, that means that i will be released from prison in 18 real life days, IF i managed to be online all those 4 hours a day, after that i will be executed and i will have halved stats for 24 hour game time. So i’m back to normal in 26 days if i play 4 hours a day.

72 game hours in jail followed by 24 game hours with stats halved? That is harsh. Maybe a little more punishing than I would have thought, and apparently enough to cause Smokefin to quit.

Where do you stand on penalties for griefing/rampant ganking? Should the worst offenders have their games essentially rendered unplayable for long periods of time?