It is May, and you know what that means! Or perhaps you don’t, in which case continue reading.
May marks the one-month Newbie Blogger Initiative, and MMO Fallout is proud to be sponsoring the event. NBI is a month where established bloggers like myself and others come together to encourage new writers to start up their own blog in exchange for some support. The theme, of course, will be MMOs in general or a specific title. Everyone benefits, from the sponsors who are able to enrich the community to the new bloggers who receive encouragement, advice, not to mention the nice boost of traffic.
So if you are an established (read: established does not mean famous) blogger looking to sponsor or a new writer looking for a helping hand, head over to the Newbie Blogger Initiative forums and sign up. I will have more to discuss on this topic as the month goes on.
Since I know how much you all love hearing about server transfers, I’ve lumped both games in the same article.
You may be aware of TERA’s pre-launch woes, particularly a lacking in space on player vs player servers. Alongside the release of a new PvP server, En Masses is opening temporary free server transferal for all players. Transfers are immediate, free of charge, and will remain so until the server populations level out. You can not transfer between PvP and PvE servers, and your character cannot have any chronoscrolls. For a full list of the restrictions, check out the announcement here. After the announcement, transfers will remain free if used for the purpose of balancing server population.
Now for games that have been released. Over on the Old Republic, Bioware has announced that server transfers will be held in waves, beginning in early summer. Players will be limited in which servers are able to transfer from and which servers can be transferred to, with more details to come as the time approaches. After, server transfer limits will open up, allowing anyone to transfer anywhere, although not necessarily for free. Presumably, if servers drop enough in population, Bioware may take the Warhammer route and retire servers.
It is with a heavy heart that I have to say goodbye, or at least goodbye for now. We simply cannot deliver the game you deserve with the resources we have. We never quit trying, even when hope faded, because you – our community – kept us inspired.
It is a sad day for sandbox fans, as another title has died on the operating table. Dominus, or Prime: Battle for Dominus as it was once known as, is being shut down mid-development due to a lack of resources over at Pitchblack Games. This may not be the end of Pitchblack Games, or Dominus, however.
Interested investors are kindly asked to email info@pitchblackgames.com. The notion of using Kickstarter has been thrown around by the community, with no response from Pitchblack on the matter.
Either way, it is sad to see another prospective gem fizzle out before it even has a chance to compete.
You often hear about MMOs being referred as “another world,” or “another life,” or even a “second life.” We’ve referred to games as virtual themeparks, virtual sandboxes, and any hybrid of the two. It isn’t often, however, that we hear a game referred to as a “virtual toy box,” and those three words sum up Roblox with incredible accuracy. Odds are you’ve heard of , perhaps even played it at one point, and if you are in the game’s demographic, you may be playing it right now. After all, Roblox is ranked #1 in the US for total engagement time.
Survive disasters with full physics
Roblox is a game where players can mould their own worlds and games and then allow others to play in their creations. At one moment you can be playing a game of paintball (above) and the next, Spongebob could be chasing you through Bikini Bottom, gaining experience to unlock new classes in a Call of Duty style massive battleground, or even raiding dungeons like Indiana Jones.
I had an opportunity to have a chat with the Roblox developers, and we discussed some of the finer points of Roblox.
How popular is ROBLOX? What kind of demographic does the game attract?
Roblox sees nearly 10 million unique visits per month. About 80% of our viewers fall into the 8-16 year old age bracket, and roughly 85% of our users are male. At this time, one of our fastest growing age segments is 14+ males.
The gentleman I spoke with from Roblox Corp. explained that Roblox is more in tune with games like Little Big Planet or Minecraft, where players are given the tools to build, rather than a few sets of pre-built options, and are allowed to let their imaginations go wild. I inquired as to how well ROBLOX would relate to Lego Universe, and his response was positive:
What would be astonishing to the Lego Universe player is that, in ROBLOX, the entire game is built by players. Whereas Lego Universe incorporates building as a side mechanic to the game, ROBLOX puts user-generated content front and center. Roblox users build their games themselves, then invite friends and promote their games on our website to keep players visiting.
Obstacle course.
I spent some time in ROBLOX and found an incredibly diverse and creative array of games created by the community. At the time of this writing, the most concurrently played game is a Call Of Duty/Battlefield style game where players fight on foot, in the sky, and in vehicles in an immense territory control battle.
So where does ROBLOX get its income? Free players view video advertisements before entering games. ROBLOX offers a subscription service in the form of the Builder’s Club, which starts at about $5.95 a month and offers more spaces to build in. In addition, builders receive a daily stipend of Robux, the game’s virtual currency that can otherwise be purchased ala carte by free players. Additionally, builders club members are able to add badges (achievements) to their areas, as well as sell merchandise for Robux to other players. Robux are used to buy virtual goods, namely clothing for your character and toys to spice up your area.
Players are able to utilize Lua scripts to customize their games, making for the diverse assortment of play areas I saw during my visit. There were definite themes, a good number of the top games were usually obstacle course and “build to survive” modes, as well as various shooters themed off of other games. There were also several role playing servers, including a rather humorous map allowing for the role play of a McDonald’s worker. Fancy living.
What really astounded me about Roblox was the community. There are a lot of very creative kids playing Roblox, and I can only describe the community as almost an unbelievable Garden of Eden where evil and vulgarity has never stepped foot. I made a lot of friends during my time spent in game, and cannot in good faith recall a single moment of players harassing each other, using vulgar language or putting each other down, and not a single accusation of cheating. On the contrary, I found myself on the receiving end of many friend requests.
Roblox is a great game for parents looking for games suitable for their kids, which I will discuss more on next week.
This is part 1 of a 3 part Roblox series, with part 2 to come next Friday, the 4th of May. Part two will be a Why Aren’t You Playing, where I take a more in-depth look at the game overall.
Announcing your intention to blow up the economy, in any other online game, would probably be met with raised brows and perhaps a few suspensions depending on the developer. When the mantra of the developer is just as hardcore as that of its players, say CCP for example, the reaction might be closer to a kid with fireworks: they’re just interested in how big the explosion will be.
In fact, CCP thinks it will be “absolutely brilliant.” You may remember the CSM member who resigned from his position and was suspended from Eve last month for suggesting a coordinated attempt to harass an emotionally unstable person into suicide. Well, he is back, and tomorrow will lead “Burn Jita,” in an attempt to cripple the Eve economy.
Reportedly fourteen thousand Thrasher ships are prepared for an all out assault on Jita, Eve Online’s trade hub. Luckily, CCP had warning that the event would take place, and the developer has made sure to swap servers around so Jita can handle the imminent influx of players.
“We’ve said, okay, stick Jita on the big, scary server, and put all the surrounding systems on these other servers.”
And CCP isn’t just all for this, they find the idea of intervening appalling.
“The worst thing we could do is to stop it happening. It would be appalling for the game. It would be against everything we stand for.”
Get your popcorn and stock up on clones, we are in for a bumpy ride.
Back in 2007, Ukrainian developer GSC Game World stunned us all with S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadows of Chernobyl, an alternate reality where the Chernobyl power plant explodes once again causing all kinds of oddities to emerge in the zone. Over the next few years, GSC would release two followup titles: Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat. The games were applauded for their open worlds, extensive AI system, and disturbing atmosphere. Unfortunately, as of yesterday, GSC has officially closed its doors, resulting in the cancellation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2.
In keeping with the spirit of the franchise, the team from GSC has gone on to form Vostok Games, and has announced their upcoming free to play MMO, Survarium.
“The topic of mankind who survive, but in totally new conditions, very dangerous ones where death is around, where there are mutants, factions, where there are some mysterious goals, where there is something like the Zone, explored by the well-known stalkers.”
Most important is that this is not a S.T.A.L.K.E.R MMO. That is a completely different game, and will probably never be released outside of Russia.
File this one under pipe dream, Yahoo News is reporting that Nexon has contacted Electronic Arts with an offer to buy the company.
Japanese online game company Nexon reportedly contacted Electronic Arts (EA) about making an offer, according to Bloomberg, citing a South Korean newspaper.
The contact is still a rumor, and even if it holds true does not mean Electronic Arts will respond. EA’s stock has seen a steep decline, down almost 40% since this time six months ago. Also, to clarify: Nexon is primarily a South Korean company, but its headquarters is based in Tokyo, Japan.
Good news, Star Wars fans in Croatia! Bioware has announced today that The Old Republic is available for purchase in a whole host of countries previously unavailable. The entire list includes thirty eight countries over Europe and the Middle East, although only a select number of countries in the list will actually have The Old Republic appear on retail shelves. The rest will have to buy through Origin.
Check the list below to see if your country is listed. Unfortunately, if you don’t speak English, French, or German, you are out of luck. Bioware has no plans on adding any additional languages or launching servers for the new territories, so you will have to use the existing European servers.
MMO Fallout's reporter in the field fails us once again...
In case there is any confusion, you are indeed reading an article posted on April 25th, 2012, for an announcement that was posted on April 25th of the same year. Cryptic Studios has announced via their corporate website that an unknown user gained unauthorized access to their servers in December 2010, analysis of which has only just come back recently.
The unauthorized access included user account names, handles, and encrypted passwords for those accounts. Even though the passwords were encrypted, it is apparent that the intruder has been able to crack some portion of the passwords in this database. All accounts that we believe were present in the database have had the passwords reset, and customers registered to these accounts have been notified via e-mail of this incident.
If you have a Star Trek Online or Champions Online account dating back to December 2010, it is strongly suggested that you secure any other accounts that share the same email address/username/password.
Bigpoint’s dungeon crawler Drakensang Online doesn’t just have the big mouth of its developer to back it up, it drives around in its Lamborghini waving around the wad of dosh to anyone willing to take a glance. I took a look at the game back in February and found it to be an enjoyable game despite its focused reliance on the cash shop and regular sales.
But Bigpoint went even further in its latest press email, detailing everything that Drakensang Online is that Diablo III and Torchlight II are not. It might be a bit unfair to throw in comparisons of “weekly content updates” and “frequent community events” in relation to two games that haven’t even been released yet, but then again Bigpoint isn’t known to be subtle in their advertising.
We’ll see if Bigpoint is writing a check its tush can cash when Diablo III launches in a few weeks, with Torchlight following hopefully this year.
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