Lego Universe And Autism, Or, A Shattered Heart


I hate reporting on MMOs shutting down. For how much the market is saturated, each game holds a special place in at least one person’s heart, and no matter how unmarketable the title was there will always be a group to mourn its loss. It almost goes without saying that when a kid’s MMO is shuttered, the effect is even worse. I received this comment on the Lego Universe article yesterday:

I sure hope you are willing to make the server files available to people who wish to run a private server in their home for their children to play. I understand you cannot allow internet based servers, but there should be a way to play on a LAN. Please, for those of us who bought the game. I have a son with Autism, and I am very concerned about how this shut down will affect him!
-Mike Shaffer

I think Mike misunderstood that I have no affiliation with Lego Universe, but how do you answer that question? How do you tell a child with autism that the game that has helped them so much is going away? A quick trip to the Lego Universe forums was apparent that Mike isn’t the only person in this position as a parent. Read on for other stories from the forums…

Continue reading “Lego Universe And Autism, Or, A Shattered Heart”

Lego Universe And Autism, Or, A Shattered Heart


I hate reporting on MMOs shutting down. For how much the market is saturated, each game holds a special place in at least one person’s heart, and no matter how unmarketable the title was there will always be a group to mourn its loss. It almost goes without saying that when a kid’s MMO is shuttered, the effect is even worse. I received this comment on the Lego Universe article yesterday:

I sure hope you are willing to make the server files available to people who wish to run a private server in their home for their children to play. I understand you cannot allow internet based servers, but there should be a way to play on a LAN. Please, for those of us who bought the game. I have a son with Autism, and I am very concerned about how this shut down will affect him!
-Mike Shaffer

I think Mike misunderstood that I have no affiliation with Lego Universe, but how do you answer that question? How do you tell a child with autism that the game that has helped them so much is going away? A quick trip to the Lego Universe forums was apparent that Mike isn’t the only person in this position as a parent. Read on for other stories from the forums…

Continue reading “Lego Universe And Autism, Or, A Shattered Heart”

NCSoft, Nexon, Others Relieved Of Identity Attacks…


Over in Korea, players have a lot more to lose when a company leaks their information. Unlike in most other countries, players are often required to register to MMOs with the Korean equivalent of the social security number, and more than once data leaks have resulted in these numbers being readily available for the gaming public. An entire black market has surrounded these games, and at least once per year I am contacted by a group offering entrance into several Korean only betas with accounts registered with stolen identities.

Nexon made big news last month when they announced that the details of thirteen million accounts in Korea were stolen, including the Korean RRN (Resident Registration Number) in an encrypted format. In response, a number of Korean developers have announced plans to stop collecting Korean numbers and instead outsource the collection process to a third party agency. Rather than storing the sensitive data, the agency processes the RRN of the registrant, matches it up to the list, and reports to the developer if the person is an adult, child, nonexistent, or a bot.

Rather than jump on the bandwagon of hate, I think this is a good thing for everyone. Players no longer have to worry (as much) about their identity being stolen, and the developers have a massive load taken off of their backs. Korean MMOs require a player’s identification because the country has strict laws on minors playing certain games and during certain times, and requires companies to enforce such restrictions. As a result, developers have become prime targets for identity theft and security breaches by hackers in search of the delicious gooey center of personal data.

So developers not having access to your RRN can only be a good thing. For those of you in the states, would you trust Turbine or Sony with your social security number? Neither would I.

Sorry, The Old Republic Means Repetition In Media


A journalist in gaming will express a distrust in mainstream media. After all, whenever someone in Korea dies from dehydration after a week long Starcraft binge, or a sadist in Vermont murders his child because her crying interrupted his Call of Duty kill streak, the rest of us are painted equally as unsociable psychopaths just waiting for someone to press the right button to send us on a killing spree. Heading further into the niche, I as a writer for MMOs have a similar distaste for mainstream gaming media for similar reasons. The mainstream gaming media loves to paint us as strangers with too much time, too much expendable money, and not enough sunlight or social interaction.

So it stands that whenever a grandiose MMO releases, the same stories from past will be recycled. Yes, any MMO with an economy of any kind will bring in gold farmers. Yes, the most preordered MMO in recent history is having issues with server capacity and getting people a spot in line. And they are behind in the times, too. Apparently no one told the gaming press that making your game free to play has not been a death sentence since 2009, and that the transition isn’t a switch that developers hit in a last ditch hope to make money, but rather a lengthy process that costs a lot of time and money.

For the next few months, expect to hear everything you already knew. Bear with them, they get paid moderately well to run the same stories every now and then.

Triple Station Cash, December 17th Only


Sony cash days have achieved almost holiday status for some, like the return of the McRib or when your bank fires that teller who asks you for identification every time you just want to deposit a check. While Sony has performed double cash weekends in the past, this is one of the few times that triple cash has been offered, least of all allowing players to use a form of payment outside of the Station Cash cards (which are not available everywhere). For today only, until midnight pacific standard time, players can either purchase cash using a credit card or redeem Station cash cards, and receive triple the amount.

Station cash is based on $1 = 100 points. You can read more at Sony’s website. Sony is currently running a “12 Days of Christmas” promotion, with new deals in various games every day.

(Source: Station Cash)

Star Wars Galaxies: Final Address To The Community


Looking back on Star Wars Galaxies and all these years I am so thankful for being able to be a part of the Star WarsGalaxies community both as the Producer and as a fan. It would not have been the incredible experience that it was without you, the players and fans, the dedicated team of people who worked on it over the years and the fantastic Star Wars® galaxy itself, which offered us a very unique and compelling place to explore, fight, play, make friends, and build our homes.

This is a book of memories, so let me start with a few of my own.

When I was a little boy, my father brought me to the movies to see a new science fiction film that he heard was pretty good. What I remembered most was the feeling of awe I had back then, and still feel to this day. Once I had experienced Star Wars, my life would never be the same again. In May of 2004, I walked into the office at Sony Online Entertainment to start a new job working on a game based on the very same story that had amazed me in my youth. Cool! I was very excited. All I wanted to do then was learn how this thing worked, and I spent the next seven years doing just that. I can say that not a day passed in the development of Star Wars Galaxies where I didn’t learn something new. Each day presented different challenges and solving them was always a rewarding accomplishment. It is everyone’s hope to find a job that you look forward to each and every day. Being a developer onStar Wars Galaxies was just that kind of job for me.

Star Wars means something different to each of us. That’s why we played Star Wars Galaxies. On June 26th, 2003, SOE and LucasArts released Star Wars Galaxies and, for the first time, you could play online with your friends in the Star Wars universe. I was amazed at how much there was to do in the game – player housing, crafting, entertaining, combat, and more. One of the most exciting times for all of us on the team was the launch of the Jump to Lightspeed expansion, which let players fly and battle it out in space in a true 3D simulation. Now we could all truly live out our Star Wars fantasies. It was like being a kid again.

Continue reading “Star Wars Galaxies: Final Address To The Community”

Darkfall 2.0 Visual Test Video


Whenever I see flyby videos of Darkfall 2.0, I always feel as though I’m watching a version of Morrowind with improved graphics. Darkfall 2.0 launches at some point in the future.

Bioware Caves: Offers 48 Hour Grace Period


I hate to use the term “caved,” because it implies that Bioware is conceding to a less than favorable position. MMO launches are great in that when you preorder the game itself, you generally receive a preorder key which allows you access to the head start, and occasionally the beta. This key also tells the developer that you intend, or have, already purchased the game. The problem with ordering your boxed copy online, as people do, is that you can’t always be ensured that your copy will arrive in time for the game’s release. In response, many developers offer grace periods after the head start where players are able to play without requiring their final registration key.

Up until now, the official word from Electronic Arts has been no grace period, at all. Thanks in part to a very fanatical outcry from fans, Bioware announced on the forums that they have reversed their decision and will be allowing a two day grace period for players to enter their details.

While we’ve worked closely with our retailers in the launch territories to ensure copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic are available from our launch date of December 20th, we understand that for those of you who’ve pre-ordered, there may be a concern about getting your copy on time. We’ve heard you want a ‘grace period’ where you can continue to play without having to enter a final product registration code (AKA ‘game code’).

Your 30 days are not affected by this grace period, so technically you could submit your code at the last possible minute and enjoy 32 days instead of the prescribed 30. Now everyone say grace…period.

(Source: The Old Republic forums)

Testing The Old Republic: Procrastinating My Preorders


Bioware announced a long time ago that early access to The Old Republic would be staggered, your place in line would be determined by the date in which you ordered the game. So I decided to do a little test: About two minutes ago, I preordered The Old Republic on Origin. For those of you reading this on a different day, that is 1:10pm eastern on December 15th, 2011, or two days after the head start began.

The point of this experiment is to see how long it takes Bioware to catch up to the people like myself who for some reason held off of ordering the game, and how many days of early access we are granted. So I will update this article as soon as I am let in.

UPDATE: As of 2:21pm EST on December 16th, I am in. So two days missed out of the original “up to 5 days.” Not bad for the most preordered MMO of all time.

It All Ends Today: Star Wars Galaxies To Shut Down


Credit for this amazing piece of art goes to JakinIrali on the Star Wars Galaxies forums.

It’s been eight years since Star Wars Galaxies first came on to the scene and amazed us with an endless amount of content, a sprawling world to explore and allow our characters to live out their lives. Since then Galaxies has become one of the most controversial MMOs in history, and I don’t think I have to tell you why. If we learned anything from the New Game Experience, it is that MMO players are passionate and unforgiving, but mostly unforgiving. But at the same time, the most nostalgic. Not a day goes by (at least judging by my inbox) without players lamenting back to the old days of Galaxies, where they could set up camp and go hunting, to come back to the Mos Eisley bar and watch a Wookie dance to relieve their battle fatigue. Where playing doctor was a profession and not merely sexual innuendo.

Unfortunately, I’m terrible at eulogizing. Despite the absolute loathing many Galaxies fans hold (and will hold for a long time) for Sony and Lucas Arts, I think Galaxies will go down in history as one of the most determined and resilient MMOs in the industry. There is so much to learn from this game that allowing it to fade into history would be a disservice to the work the developers put into it.

And speaking of history, what better to send this game off than the original Xplay review?