MMO Fallout

ROBLOX Honors Erik Cassel With Charity Drive For Cancer Research

It is never easy to say goodbye to a friend or co-worker. Erik Cassel was the co-founder of ROBLOX, along with David Baszucki. Unfortunately, Erik passed away on February 11th, following a battle with cancer. To show their support and to remember Erik, players attended a memorial held within ROBLOX the following day on February 12th. In order to honor his memory, ROBLOX will be selling special hats and shirts, with proceeds from the sales going toward cancer research.

In honor of ROBLOX co-founder Erik Cassel, we’re featuring some special clothing items until February 25. Longtime users know that Erik could often be found in ROBLOX wearing the “Well Worn Hat” – this hat meant a lot to Erik, and now that he’s passed, it means a lot to us. We’ve re-named it Erik Cassel’s Hat, and we’re now offering it for 20 Robux. We’ve also made new commemorative “Erik” t-shirts, which are only a single ticket. We hope you’ll wear them in remembrance of Erik. Based on the sales of these items, ROBLOX will make a substantial donation to cancer research. Thank you to the entire ROBLOX community all for your respect and support.

We here at MMO Fallout send our thoughts and wishes to Erik Cassel’s family, friends, and coworkers, and hope the best for them in these difficult times.

NCSoft License Unreal 4 For Two New MMOs

No rest for NCSoft. Coming on the heels of Guild Wars 2’s success, and with the recent release of Blade & Soul over in Korea, and the upcoming releases of Wildstar and Lineage Eternal, you might fall under the pretense that the Korean publisher is up to their necks with work. You would be wrong, as NCSoft has inked a partnership with Epic Games to develop two new MMOs under the Unreal 4 Engine.

There are no confirmed titles in the works, and the two games are separate from NCSoft’s existing library. Rumors suggest that one or both may be either the long-delayed and thought to be cancelled Lineage III, and possibly Aion 2. Aion had recently stated a committal to existing IP.

Regardless, we won’t be seeing anything from these games for a long time. According to an NCSoft rep, not until after Lineage Eternal.

(Source: TIG)

MMOrning Shots: Disgrace

The humor in Side Quest is a bit sophomoric at times, but it gets by all the same. Side Quest is still offline (the game is mid-development) and will be until some major updates can be added in.

Mortal Online Shows Higher Resolution Textures

There is no denying that the citizens of Nave have faces only a mother could love, and in many cases a body of hair that even Robin Williams would be impressed by. Not too long ago, Star Vault set up a donation system where players are able to throw a little extra into the coffers. The idea, of course, is that while Star Vault does not receive 100% of revenue from subscriptions (I’m guessing much of it goes to licensing), they are able to keep 100% of the donations, which they put toward extra development goals.

The latest goal to be announced comes in the form of $6,000 toward the “character build” update, aiming to bring a brand new look to Nave’s player folk, both in the face and armor departments. The update will also allow several other features to be put into place, including general optimizations and a few other graphical improvements. The whole list of improvements is as follows:

Much better looking player characters (rebuild of all races and genders).
Better looking character face customization; more support for scars, tattoos etc.
Rebuild of all armor meshes/materials/shaders parts making them look much better.
Allowing us to add more and new armor parts in the game.
Almost all resource material gets its real and unique look.
Much better control over the dye system.
Better performance on player characters, no more 1-2s freeze lags when loading a bunch of players.
Removal of the texture merges system which means a big memory optimization on the client and better overall performance.
More players on the screen will not add cost on the client as it did in the old system.
A full new armor set will be included in this package; new types will arrive in the future now since the new system will allow it.

The donation system has drawn some controversy, although from outside the Mortal Online community rather than inside of it. The concept may seem surprising to players outside of the game, but the community hasn’t just embraced the donation system, they are the ones who demanded it be put in place to begin with.

(Source: Mortal Online)

Jagex Allows Vote For OldScape: Revive RuneScape From Aug ’07

scapemas

Would you pay $15 a month for access to classic RuneScape? No not that far back, we’re talking 2007’ish, before the original trade restrictions were put into place. Well do I have news for you. In a blog post on the RuneScape official website today, Jagex has outlined plans to release a snapshot version of RuneScape dated back to August 2007. Before, well, a whole lot. Just imagine, a RuneScape where Jagex never restricted trade (or nuked bots), where Dungeoneering doesn’t exist, no God Wars or top tier equipment, no grand exchange (auction house), etc. No evolution of combat and no microtransactions.

Want to go back to the nostalgic days? All you have to do is vote.

So, just like the poll for the return of the Wildy & Free Trade, which saw a jaw dropping 1.4 million votes , we will be running a similar poll and letting you – our valued members – decide the fate of ‘Old School RuneScape’, given that you directly fund the game’s ongoing development and supporting services. This decision – along with the level of service, investment and potentially any additional fee for the service – is truly up to you to determine.

The blog post highlights several stages of development depending on how many votes the poll gets, from the bare minimum (50 thousand) where the service comes back as a $15 a month subscription (yikes) and only receives critical maintenance.

At 250,000 votes, the membership fee comes down to $5 and will support a small development team to fix bugs and (hopefully) implement the modern anti-bot technology as best they can.
At half a million votes, the game will have a full development team and no additional costs, as well as some content development and anti-bot technology.
At 750,000 votes, the game will have all of the above plus the free portion available to non-members.

These servers, at any of the above levels, would be the exact version from back in 2007 and would maintain the ‘old school’ vibe and rules. The old graphics, hiscores, log-in, are all part of the same archived build and would be retained. We wouldn’t ever add any micropayment updates.

The poll will be live on February 15th and run for two weeks. Your options are yes, or don’t vote.

(Source: RuneScape Website)

Jagex Allows Vote For OldScape: Revive RuneScape From Aug '07

Want to go back to the nostalgic days? All you have to do is vote.

So, just like the poll for the return of the Wildy & Free Trade, which saw a jaw dropping 1.4 million votes , we will be running a similar poll and letting you – our valued members – decide the fate of ‘Old School RuneScape’, given that you directly fund the game’s ongoing development and supporting services. This decision – along with the level of service, investment and potentially any additional fee for the service – is truly up to you to determine.

At 250,000 votes, the membership fee comes down to $5 and will support a small development team to fix bugs and (hopefully) implement the modern anti-bot technology as best they can.
At half a million votes, the game will have a full development team and no additional costs, as well as some content development and anti-bot technology.
At 750,000 votes, the game will have all of the above plus the free portion available to non-members.

These servers, at any of the above levels, would be the exact version from back in 2007 and would maintain the ‘old school’ vibe and rules. The old graphics, hiscores, log-in, are all part of the same archived build and would be retained. We wouldn’t ever add any micropayment updates.

The poll will be live on February 15th and run for two weeks. Your options are yes, or don’t vote.

(Source: RuneScape Website)

Falling Out #24: Keeping Your Priorities

Some people want to focus on the fact that Scarlet Blade has exposed breasts and very thin outfits as a point of controversy. Why not focus on the quality of the game which, since the sex is so ham-handedly shoved down the user’s throat, I have to guess will be incredibly mediocre.

The Old Republic Introduces Pay-By-Phone In Select Countries

My credit card is like a third kidney to me, or a second ab, or a third stomach. Always attached, never without function. That being said, some people still prefer to pay for their game purchases via phone, and a good number of MMOs have systems in place to accommodate this. Bioware is the latest to join the club by offering Cartel Coin packs via SMS to players in select countries. Currently, players are only able to buy 450 Cartel Coins ($5 USD), plus any carrier fees that may apply, and the service is consolidated to a select few countries. Over time, Bioware hopes to increase the service to other countries, as well as expand the limits of purchases.

Currently purchasing via SMS is limited to the following countries:

Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Czech Republic
France
Germany
Hungary
Norway
Poland
Russia
Spain
South Korea
Sweden
Taiwan
Turkey
Ukraine
and The Netherlands.

(Source: The Old Republic)

Get All Of Tribes: Ascend With A Single Purchase

Tribes Ascend is enjoying all of the benefits of Hi-Rez Studios’ continued efforts to tweak its free to play model, ensuring that players have access to all of the game content but those that are willing to pay for it aren’t being nickle and dime’d. In response to player feedback, Hi-Rez has announced an upcoming patch for February 15th that will allow players to buy every single weapon, class, and perk in the current game. Non-gameplay affecting items are not included (cosmetics), and VIP players will receive a discount.

If all goes according to plan the single purchase edition will be available this Friday 2/15, along with the upcoming content patch.

No word yet on price, however it is set to be “in the ballpark of other PC shooters.” So possibly around $50-60 for the whole kit and kaboodle.

(Source: Hi-Rez Studios)

MMOrning Shots: Waiting On A Sinkhole

Today’s MMOrning shot comes from RuneScape. Last week Jagex released sinkholes, where every half hour players are able to join up in random groups of five and explore dungeons with the goal of working together to complete the tasks at hand, while at the same time competing with your team to see who can gain the most points. The NPC in charge of the event will freely teleport players to the location of the sinkhole.

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