Glitch Beta Key Giveaway


[UPDATE] I have more invites, so comments have been reopened. Again, remember you will need a legitimate, active email address and to answer the email I send you to confirm.

It’s been a long time since Tiny Speck opened Glitch up to the public: Ten months by my count. But a few days ago, Tiny Speck opened the door to newbies by offering beta invites to current players. As promised in my previous article, I will be offering those invites up to the first three who comment.

The requirements are simple, but I will repeat them again since several of you had your posts looked over last time:

  • You must provide a valid email address. I will be sending you an email to confirm before I send the invite.
  • The first three to comment will be sent an email confirming that the address they gave is valid.
  • Once again, you must respond to the email.

 

 

John Smedley On: PlaneSide 2


John Smedley dropped by Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything,” and the community certainly did ask him anything. Naturally, the Q&A started with Smedley being asked, once again, to apologize for Star Wars Galaxies, which he did. For the sake of time, I’ve compiled a few of his more interesting answers.

In regards to Planetside 2’s premium subscription:

“subscription will NOT remotely be something you need to have. just something nice to have.”

When asked about an Everquest Classic (non-progression) server:

“if that’s what EQ fans wanted we would”

On Everquest Next:

“we plan to make EQ Next great by going places MMOS have never gone. I know that’s vague but it’s coming”

On advertising DUST 514:

“I’m sure helping get the word out. It is a great game. CCP is awesome.”

On balance in Planetside 2:

“At it’s heart, PS2 is similar to PS1. play it and let me know what you think.”

On hand-holding in MMOs:

“I despise the hand holding shit. hate it in a big way.”

On Vanguard:

“It’s going F2P next week with many members of the original team on it! It’s getting a lot of love.”

On streaming Planetside 2:

“We might even be working on a secret twitch.tv and youtube streaming thing I can’t talk about that might or might not be going in as I’m writing this.”

If you want to look through the comments yourself, check em out here:

(Source: Reddit)

World of Warcraft Dropping More Weight: Another Million Subscribers Lost


World of Warcraft is a paradox in and of itself: While the subscription numbers continue to drop, Blizzard has been very quick to point out that the game just continues to become more profitable. The problem, according to Blizzard, is that players are becoming bored with grinding content in between expansion packs. To stem the flow of gamers, Blizzard has offered everything under the sun minus the kitchen sink to bring back their ex-customers. So far, Blizzard has offered full upgrades to Cataclysm, free level 80 characters, a copy of Diablo III for subscribing for a full year, and more. To take care of what they see as the source of the leak, Blizzard has committed to less downtime between expansions and more content.

The latest numbers from Activision show World of Warcraft standing at 9.1 million subscribers, a ten percent drop from last quarter. Warcraft’s new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, launches later this year and hopes to stop, if not reverse, the exodus of players.

Despite this bad news, World of Warcraft remains the top subscription MMO by a wide margin.

(Source: Gamasutra)

The Old Republic Free To Play, Subscriptions Plummeted


Normally when I open an article with “to the surprise of absolutely no one,” I am exaggerating slightly. However, the announcement today that The Old Republic is heading to a free to play model should come as a surprise to absolutely no one with an internet connection and a finger on the pulse of Electronic Arts. Later this fall, The Old Republic will make its transition, allowing players to experience everything* that a galaxy far, far away has to offer. Players will have access to all eight classes, the complete story content, but will be limited in warzone and flashpoints, as well as space missions, travel functionality, and extremely limited access to the galactic trade network.

So why is Bioware suddenly choosing free to play? Well as the announcement puts it:

We feel that flexibility and choice in playing our game is important for all current and future players. For that reason, we began the exploration of expanding the game to include a Free-to-Play option.

Also, at the investor call today, Electronic Arts announced that subscription numbers dropped below one million (from the last reported figure of 1.3 million in May) but “well above” half a million. More specific subscription figures were not made available. Bioware heralded The Old Republic back in December as “one of the greatest and most ambitious achievements in video game history.”

(Source: The Old Republic)

Jagex Opens New Studio: New Game In Development


Develop Online reports that Jagex has opened a new studio outside of Cambridge, according to CEO Mark Gerhard. There has been no information revealed about the project other than that it is a “very experimental game,” and that the UK developer remains committed to its focus on quality over quantity.

“We actually do already have a small studio outside of Cambridge, and that’s working on a very experimental game.”

More information will be coming within the next few weeks on the new studio and what they are working on.

(Source: Develop Online)

Jagex: Our Other Projects Were Hobbies, That Ends Now


Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard has always been pretty frank with the internal going-ons at his company, and in a recent interview with Develop, he answered the question as to why all of Jagex’s products that are not RuneScape have either failed to launch or failed to make a profit, and the answer is simple. The company has been treating its non-scape products more as hobby projects than real games. Gerhard believes that 8Realms, Jagex’s HTML MMORTS which shut down recently due to poor response, received precisely the attention it deserved from fans.

“I think to other projects, like 8Realms and things like that, I think that was one of the last hobby projects that we carried through, and obviously that was evident. Now it’s just working on the projects that matter.”

Jagex is currently working on several major projects, including the upcoming combat upgrade for RuneScape as well as the upcoming Transformers Universe MMO currently slated for beta in 2012.

(Source: Develop Interview)

Security Warning: Massive Exploit In Ubisoft UPlay Games


[UPDATE] The exploit has been patched.

“We have made a forced patch to correct the flaw in the browser plug-in for the Uplay PC application that was brought to our attention earlier today. We recommend that all Uplay users update their Uplay PC application without a Web browser open. This will allow the plug-in to update correctly. An updated version of the Uplay PC installer with the patch also is available from Uplay.com.

Ubisoft takes security issues very seriously, and we will continue to monitor all reports of vulnerabilities within our software and take swift action to resolve such issues.”

[Original Story] What does this have to do with MMO Fallout? Nothing, admittedly. Rock Paper Shotgun is currently reporting on an extremely dangerous exploit in a handful of Ubisoft titles, specifically those that make use of the Uplay DRM. While the exploit has not been 100% confirmed, a vulnerability has been discovered which allows a website to pull up the Uplay window and install anything to its hearts content. Essentially a hijacked website could load up a user’s computer with viruses, key loggers, trojan horses, or other destructive software. According to the article, this exploit can also be accomplished via a simple email.

As the article also points out, this is not a rootkit, the exploit is in the browser plugin. If you want to lean on the side of extra security, you may want to uninstall the games completely. The (incomplete) list of affected games is below:

Assassin’s Creed II
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy
Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Assassin’s Creed III
Beowulf: The Game
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4
Call of Juarez: The Cartel
Driver: San Francisco
Heroes of Might and Magic VI
Just Dance 3
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Pure Football
R.U.S.E.
Shaun White Skateboarding
Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic
The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved

(Source: Rock Paper Shotgun)

Play The Secret World Free, August 3rd – 6th


If Trion bestows one thing on the world, it should be that your post-launch advertising should be aggressive and essentially ensure you mark every part of your potential customer’s behind with lipstick. Rift pulled this off very well with a wealth of content starting in the weeks after launch combined with regular discounts both in-store and online to where Rift sits now at $5 for a new copy at Gamestop. The Old Republic also attempted this maneuver with a number of weekend passes in an attempt to bring more people into the game who may not have tried it otherwise.

From August 3rd to August 6th, players are invited to try out The Secret World completely free of charge.

Early Access, Inactive Accounts, and Beta Accounts may all join in! If you do not currently have an account for The Secret World, you may register to participate starting today, Friday, July 27th, to have open access to this special celebration weekend!

Funcom has already announced monthly updates to keep The Secret World moving along at a pace that will hopefully ensure players have enough to do for a long time to come.

(Source: Funcom)

The War Z: Sandbox, No End-Game


I can’t wait until The War Z comes out so I can get to end-game and grind the super master zombie raid. What? I can’t do that? Well then. In an interview with PC Gamer, Executive Producer Sergey Titov explains that The War Z is first and foremost a game of survival. Your goal is not to earn achievements or cause zombie slaughter in mass quantities, but to explore the wilderness and survive. As a result, the game will not feature traditional quests. On that note, the game won’t even feature safe zones. As anyone who has seen a zombie movie will tell you, armored fortresses are really just a convenient metal/stone box where humans gather to await being eaten alive.

Additionally, there is no end-game. Instead, the goal is to create a toolset and allow people to play to their heart’s content and create their own games. For instance, one server may have a goal of defending a fortress against a constant zombie attack. Meanwhile another server might task players with simply surviving against the zombies and one another.

This is also why we’re allowing players to rent their own servers and create their own private worlds with their own rules. Some will do just that—building their own virtual “strongholds” so to say and inviting other people to join as long as they are going to follow their rules. Some will band together into clans and will fight other clans—either on public or private servers.

More on The War Z as it appears.

(Source: PC Gamer)

Nominations For 2012 Games Developers Choice Awards Online


It is that time of the year again. The third annual Games Developers Choice Awards Online ceremony isn’t held until October, but the list of finalists has been revealed. Zynga dominates the list of finalists this year with nine nominations, and Bioware’s The Old Republic taking six on its own. Additionally, Glitch received several nominations as well as World of Warcraft and Rift.

The awards are this October, check out the GDCA website.

Best Online Game Design

  • Glitch
  • Realm of the Mad God
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • DragonVale

Best Online Visual Arts

  • TERA
  • Empires & Allies
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • Age of Empires Online
  • Glitch

Best Community Relations

  • World of Warcraft
  • League of Legends
  • Solitaire Blitz
  • World of Tanks
  • Diamond Dash

Best Online Technology

  • Diablo III
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • Indiana Jones Adventure World
  • TERA
  • The Sims Social

Best Audio for an Online Game

  • Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • Tribes: Ascend
  • Marvel: Avengers Alliance
  • Diablo III
  • Indiana Jones Adventure World

Best New Online Game

  • Castleville
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • DragonVale
  • Draw Something
  • Rage of Bahamut

Best Live Game

  • League of Legends
  • Rift
  • Cityville
  • World of Warcraft
  • Eve Online

Online Innovation Award

  • Journey
  • Realm of the Mad God
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • DayZ Mod for Arma II
  • Idle Worship