MMORPG.com Locks Discussion Of Its Own Editorial, Cites Rules


stupid mouth

What a strange article. MMORPG.com, as with virtually any other MMO news site, does not allow the discussion of private servers and actively suspends/bans anyone who merely mentions the idea of their existence. I can’t blame them for this, after all I do it too. When you’re in a business where you’d like to get developers to respond to you every now and then, allowing your users to discuss how to play their game for free or on hacked servers is generally seen as no bueno. Again, entirely reasonable from everyone’s perspective. What I did find interesting is that MMORPG’s Garret Fuller published an editorial not only discussing how much he enjoys a particular private free shard for Ultima Online, but using it as an example of why people enjoy the classic shards and how today’s MMOs can learn from them.

 It is the old version of the game and simply gives players the sandbox they have been looking for. The rules for most free shards allow players to buy into some stats and such, but the shard I play on is by the book for Ultima’s Second Age. After playing now for two weeks and using Razor’s Interface there are some valuable lessons I have learned about why players go back to sandbox games and why they stay active.

What is even more interesting, if not a bit humorous, is that the article does indeed violate MMORPG.com’s rules on discussing private servers, and Community Manager Mike B quickly showed up to lock the discussion thread for the article:

We’re going to be locking up the comments on this thread as this is a one-off piece by Garrett. As you all know, we do not allow the discussion of free/private/emulated etc. servers on our forums. We appreciate your understanding. Thanks!

The double standard is rather blatant on MMORPG’s part for publishing the article and then trying to dismiss any feedback or conversation about it by deleting threads and banning users, especially when the header for the article says “come discuss it on the forums.” If you can’t open a topic to feedback, it might be a sign that you know that the discussion will either not go in your favor, or you shouldn’t be talking about the subject to begin with. To openly invite people to discuss it, and then start deleting threads and banning accounts, well that’s just poor journalism.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

Eve Online Introduces Official Dueling Mechanic


crimewatch_UI

The Eve Online community will never cease to amaze me in its creativity. For a while now Eve Online players have enjoyed an unofficial dueling system via a rather awkward system called “can-flipping.” One player would steal a single unit of ammunition from another player’s jet-can, the player would be flagged and could legally be attacked by player #2, allowing for something of a dueling system to exist in the relative safety of high security space. As the mechanic caught on, players have used it to set up entire tournaments and king-of-the-hill contests. So why implement an official feature when the emergent version has been so readily available?

Well, Eve Online launched Retribution, and chief among the changes to the manner in which players interact is that stealing from a player now flags the thief as legal to attack by anyone, not just the person they stole from. Thus, the unofficial dueling system was rendered broken (or at the very least unsafe). With the upcoming Retribution 1.1 patch, it will now be easy as pie to challenge another player. Simply send them a challenge in high security space, and CONCORD will step back and give the two of you five minutes to blast each other into space dust.

Just a warning to those thinking of joining in from the sidelines: Outside players are able to interact with the combatants just as they would normally, interfering with a limited-engagement via remote-assistance will flag the assistor as a global target).

(Source: Eve Online)

Vanguard Opens Up More Features For Free


vanguard

What are you thinking about, Vanguard? Why so distant all the time? Reaction to Vanguard’s free to play transition last summer has been rather positive, but at the same time pretty lukewarm, with players noting the very restrictive free to play model that SOE had implemented as the primary reason behind the negativity. Before Vanguard even went free to play, Sony Online Entertainment was already doing patchwork on opening the game up more to free players, and since then the team has been working on fixing bugs, working on content changes, and planning for future updates.

In a post today, Producer Henry Burgess has revealed that both free players and members will receive a boost in Vanguard:

We have decided to expand and improve on the free- to-play offering for Vanguard. That means everyone can play any race, any class, to any level for free. You can also own a house, create guilds, and do a bunch of other things.

Free players will have full access to all of the game’s races and classes, as well as enjoying an unlimited gold purse and the game’s 50 active-quest limit. Free players will be able to have four bag slots, normal broker fees, 75 bank slots (compared to 25), as well as full access to caravans, brotherhoods, the ability to create a guild, and the ability to own a house. Members will enjoy a boost of 50% bonus experience, 12 character slots, double faction gains, a 10% discount at the marketplace, 20% discounted broker fees, two houses (20% discount on upkeep), 20% discounted mail fees, and a 20% discount on most other fees in-game. All of this with the other features members are already accustomed to (500 Station cash, customer support, etc).

(Source: Vanguard)

Falling Out #22: Doctor Who Doesn’t Know MMOs


reboot22

That magical golden age of MMOs where everything was perfect? Of course it existed. Super serious.

Allods Online Receives Subscription Server In Russia


allods_100219_234817

Back when Shadowrun Online was still seeking funding, I noted a pretty cool feature of the game’s payment model. Two versions of the game are being released, with the first being your basic free to play model: no upfront fee but with a cash shop carrying your general assortment of microtransactions. The second, the “campaign” edition, cost $40 (or $25 in the Kickstarter) and plays on a separate server where the cash shop does not exist, however the items are still available to purchase via in-game money. You can actually still get a copy of that $40 campaign edition for $25 by donating through the game’s website if you’ve missed the Kickstarter.

But this isn’t about Shadowrun! Over at Russian Allods Online, otherwise known as the place that gets everything before we do, Allods Online has launched a new server “Threads of Fate.” The server is very different in that, unlike the rest, it requires an active subscription in order to play. In the server Threads of Fate, the cash shop does not exist and while certain cash shop items will no be available at all, others will be purchasable from in-game shops and as rewards for quests. Players will not be able to transfer their characters from cash-shop enabled servers over to the subscription server, however subscription server players may be able to cross over to the free to play servers in the future.

It will be interesting to see if other developers attempt a subscription-only server, even if it is to test the waters, or if this hits Allods Online in the west. Allods Online launched to massive support from all sorts of gamers as the “free to play World of Warcraft,” and had its reputation shattered due to multiple missteps by gPotato and Astrum Nival regarding cash shop items and prices.

(Source: Russian Allods)

The Current State Of Gods & Heroes


godsnheroes2

I’m writing this in response to a comment recently left here at MMO Fallout by user Sapphic about the game Gods & Heroes:

Well the servers went down in September and according to the website still haven’t come back up, the forums are still down I can confirm. No reply from trying to contact them, no update or reply to messages posted on their facebook page or twitter. Also their other game in development, Minis with enemies has, even tho it was promised in a video on the front page, not been updated since June 2012. Heatwave have gone totally silent in any form of communications about any of their released or in development products. Though I would reply to this in case anyone found this and thought of putting money down for GnH. As I would recommend not doing until Heatwave at least update in some variety of what is happening.

As many of you likely know, Gods & Heroes doesn’t have developers. It hasn’t since January 2012 when everyone was reassigned to other projects at Heatwave Interactive, none of which have show any activity since around July. So what has happened since then? On September 27th, the Gods & Heroes game servers and website went offline for maintenance with no estimated downtime and with the possibility of extended maintenance. As of December 2nd, the Gods & Heroes Facebook still had players reporting the servers as offline. I did my own investigation and found that the servers, when accessed through the game client, are indeed online. I have no method of pinpointing exactly when they came online, but it appears to be sometime in mid-December. They are still online as of this writing.

Heatwave Interactive has been completely silent since September 2012, as far as I can tell. As of this publishing, the forums are not just offline, the URL forwards to a Verizon “page not found” error. The game’s website is woefully out of date, still listing the game as sold via Steam, Gamestop, and EB Games when it was removed from those stores around a year ago. The download client that the website provides via the account management page is completely broken and will return an “out of date” error and instruct the user to download a newer version from the main website.

If you’re still interested in giving Gods & Heroes a play, it costs a $9.99 one time fee on the Gods & Heroes website and doesn’t have a subscription or cash shop, be aware that the active community is just about nonexistent. There are three servers and they are all pretty quiet. So if you do take Gods & Heroes for a spin, bring a few friends or you’ll be going solo.

Wakfu Publishing Changing Hands In North America


018

New news, Wakfu players. As of March 1st, Square Enix will no longer be handling the publishing of Wakfu in North America. In an email to account holders sent out today, Ankama Games will be taking full responsibility of publishing in the region. The good news is you won’t have to do anything, unlike in most other transitions. If you have an account on Wakfu, you already have an Ankama account. Ankama Games is the developer and international publisher of Wakfu, meaning players will be dealing directly with the source instead of a third party publisher when it comes to game issues.

We’d like to reassure you that this decision was not made lightly, and that this process will not have any impact on the game itself, your characters and progress, or the delivery of new content; we will do our utmost to ensure that the transition will be as seamless as possible and without interruption of service.

This may be the easiest publisher transition in MMO history. Characters and accounts will make the transition with no input needed from the user, subscriptions that overlap the transition date will not be affected at all, and accounts will have the same amount of Ogrines as they did under Square Enix. There won’t even be any server downtime associated with the move (planned).

(Source: Wakfu News)

DUST 514 Coming Into Open Beta Next Week


800px-DUST514_WB_CommandPit

Good news, fans of console first person shooters that are also linked via the same servers to PC science fiction MMOs. The days of DUST 514 character resets are over, as of January 22nd the MMOFPS will officially head into open beta and full character development will commence. CCP had already combined both servers last week allowing the two communities to begin commingling. As part of the update process, DUST players are able to become part of Eve Online corporations, and vice versa. DUST mercenaries are able to take on contracts by Eve Online players with the goal of attacking or defending territory on planets based in Eve Online’s universe.

Players who take part in a match before the big day will receive 100,000 skill points.

(Source: Destructoid)

[Community] Must We Threaten To Sue Over Everything?


jomali

As you all know, The Secret World went Buy-to-Play, dropping the required subscription in return for giving subscribers more perks and allowing the unwashed masses to play (and presumably spend some cash in the cash shop) by simply picking up the box copy. Like any other town with a bridge to live under, there is a subsection of players who are apparently licensed, practicing, ambulance chasing lawyers, and naturally someone brought up the idea of suing Funcom over the transition. The claim is that the terms of the subscription/lifetime account have been changed without prior knowledge, and that somehow Funcom has diminished the value of the deal without offering a refund.

If you take a look at The Secret World pre-transition, you’ll find two tiers:

Subscriber:

  • Access to The Secret World for that month.
  • Cash shop points based on multi-month packages.

Grand Master (lifetime):

  • Access to The Secret World forever.
  • 1 additional character slot.
  • Set of XP potions.
  • Set of Talismans.
  • 10% discount to cash shop.
  • Snakeskin Jacket.

Following the transition to buy to play, the following benefits were added to accounts:

Subscriber:

  • Mayan time accelerator (reusable bonus xp item)
  • $10 worth of bonus points (cash shop)
  • Item-of-the-month gift
  • 10% discount to everything in the store.

Grand Master:

  • 20% discount to cash shop.
  • Everything subscribers receive above.

Additionally, Funcom instituted a “price guarantee” to subscribers and grand masters ensuring that they will be able to receive any DLC for free by marking down the price to match the monthly bonus point stipend. For example, if a piece of DLC is released that costs $20, the price will be marked down to $10 for subscribers and grand masters. In the shortest sense: There isn’t anything in the new plan that subscribers or grand masters no longer have access to in the new plan. In fact, the benefits (even over the new buy to play tier) have only increased.

I suppose it all comes down to whether or not you see the addition of another tier (buy to play) as removing a benefit from subscribers/grand masters. Perhaps it would have been better from a PR perspective for Funcom to allow players to request refunds for multi-month packages that still had time left rather than to force the players into adopting the new system. Like it or not, there are still a good deal of players who remain loyal to subscription-only games and would not touch a buy-to-play/free-to-play game with a ten foot pole, let alone spend money on it.

Heading forward, however, the MMO community should always know that when a company states that they have no intention of going free to play, they actually mean “at this time.” With the market of MMOs very heavily favoring optional subscriptions rather than mandatory subscriptions, such a transition isn’t as much a possibility as it is an inevitability with the only question being how far post-launch does the game move over? There are obvious exceptions to the rule, strong titles like Eve Online and World of Warcraft who see a better environment in subscriptions, or games like Warhammer Online that simply don’t have the funds to make the transition.

Regardless, you won’t find any legal expert who will agree that Funcom has done anything worthy of legal action, even if some customers aren’t entirely happy with the transition.