Cryptic Rushed Star Trek Because Of Strict License Deadlines


Good news, fervent defenders of Star Trek Online. The guys over at the STOked podcast managed to snag an interview with Stephen D’angelo, Executive Producer of Star Trek Online at Cryptic Studios. In the interview, which you can view below (it starts at 11:20), D’angelo talks about the deadlines that Cryptic faced when developing the MMO, most notably the fact that when Cryptic acquired the license from Perpetual Entertainment (the previous developer that had gone under), they also inherited the game’s due date for completion. For Cryptic, this meant starting several years behind schedule.

So now when time someone tells you that Star Trek Online was rushed because Bill Roper loves money, you can strike them with facts.

From The Book of Sony: CCP Apologizes For Controversy


A brief recap: Back in June of this year, CCP released the latest expansion for Eve Online, Incarna. Incarna brought a good amount of new content to Eve, but players were chiefly concerned with two aspects of the update: The Noble Exchange and Walking In Stations. Players are now able to buy cosmetic clothing for their characters, at rates some people found rather steep. Considering the factor that players were unable to see one another, CCP went ahead with the now infamous $70 ocular implant. The Captain’s Quarters (or Walking in Stations) was blasted for not having enough content and causing performance issues for players on lower-end machines.

Responding to player outrage, a string of poor PR moves only served to put CCP in an even worse light. At first, the company responded by making the poor comparison to how people pay more money for designer clothing. An internal memo leaked that discussed ships and bullets, but was later shot down by CCP as gathering random thoughts from the staff, and that the memo had no bearing on real company policy. CCP finally released an official statement that they had no intention on selling non-vanity items in the cash shop. Following that announcement, CCP dropped the ball by announcing that the $70 ocular implant wasn’t even the top tier of items, and that Eve would see a $10,000 gold plated Titan ship if they believed the ultra rich portion of the fan base would buy it.

Well CCP has released a couple of new blog posts, chief of which offers an apology by CCP Hilmar relating to his actions over the past few months. In the blog post, Hilmar discusses issues pertinent to the community, from the Walking in Stations portion being little more than a prototype glorified as a full feature, to the poor presentation of the cash shop. After some soul searching, Hilmar is ready to get CCP back on track, returning to the business players once loved.

I’m sharing these revelations with you now because it’s taken this long to transform them into action. From all this self-reflection, a genesis of renewal has taken root, a personal and professional commitment to restore the partnership of trust upon which our success depends, and a plan that sets the foundation for us to sensibly guide EVE to her fullest potential. In the coming days and weeks, the details of this plan and what it means for you will be unveiled. Part of what led us down this path is the fact we have not communicated well. This blog, and those that will follow, will hopefully demonstrate our conviction to transparency.

You can find the entire apology here with a look at future content here

Without Reservations: Neverwinter Will Be Full Fledged MMO


It’s amazing how time flies. Fourteen months ago, Cryptic announced what we all knew: A Neverwinter Nights non-MMO game that wasn’t an MMO was being developed as a completely non-MMO coop online, but not massively, multiplayer game that isn’t an MMO. With how in-your-face Cryptic was on reminding us that the upcoming game was not an MMO, a lot of questions were asked. With Atari just recently (at the time) coming out of a lawsuit against Turbine and the settlement papers locked behind closed doors, it appeared to make sense that Atari could continue its Neverwinter game, but could not call it an MMO.

Apparently Perfect World Entertainment, now that Atari doesn’t have the licensing rights to D&D anymore, does not have those same reservations, or the conditions are different, or some other factor we’ll never find out about, because following the news that Neverwinter will be delayed until 2012 to better adjust it, the game is now being touted as a full MMO. It will be an action-based MMO similar to Vindictus or (I’m going to be stabbed for this) Dungeons and Dragons Online, and will likely keep Cryptic’s original vision of session-based gameplay.

You can read the rest of the article here.

 

 

Week In Review: Keep Your Origin Account Safe Edition


Today’s week in review is a bit more interesting than previous works, if I do say so myself as an unbiased outside source. As far as MMOs go, I’ve been spending a lot of time in Lord of the Rings Online with my pitiful leveling speed in an already slow to level game. Currently I am either level 27 or 28, somewhere in the Lonelands working on book 2 of volume 1. To give a better idea of my placement in the storyline, consider the length of a football field, and my position is the Thursday before the game even begins.

I normally prefer games that don’t rush you to end-game, but with Lord of the Rings I think I’d prefer a system that simply doesn’t see three or four level differences in between chapters. Completing a single level 25 quest only to see the following be level 29 is like getting a glimpse of sunlight only to be dragged fifty feet underground and start the process of digging up to the surface all over again.

1. Banned In One Game, Banned In All: EA Origin

Consider this the controversy of the week. Players are understandably angry over comments made by EA Games today regarding the recent Battlefield 3 beta launch. On the beta forums, a DICE employee Bazajaytee posted a warning to players that playing on modified servers could result in your account being compromised, stats to be altered, or even banned from EA Origins.

To complicate matters further, Bazajaytee posted further along in the thread that “if your account gets banned, it does mean that any EA game you have on your account would also be unavailable.” This is concerning, considering my time in the Battlefield 3 beta I could see modded servers directly in the server browser. Will EA be actively removing the modded servers from the browser? Is it possible to join a modded server through the quick join button, and if so does my entering a random server and capturing a point to see +20,000,000 experience put me at risk of being banned and losing access to my other games?

I hate to use the L word, but this sounds legally questionable.

2. The Feeling Of Playing Torchlight, But In An MMO

I love Torchlight. Granted, I bought it way back when it was released and never got around to playing it up until a few weeks ago, but nonetheless I consider myself a big fan of the game. Shortly through my playthrough, I started to understand the positions of people I’d seen posting on the MMORPG forums, about how Torchlight is the game MMOs should aspire to be more like.

So I started taking a list of things I enjoyed about Torchlight that I hated with an MMO. Loot became a thing of the past, because all I had to do was send my wolf off to town to sell my things. Gone were the days of trudging back to town with my pockets full every fifteen to twenty minutes, or doing side by side comparisons of what to keep and what to destroy based on its worth. All I had to do was move the items to my pet’s inventory and click a simple button, and two minutes later my trash became cash. As for my cash, I think I’ve spent most of it on reviving myself over buying anything. The enemies I’ve fought drop so many health and mana potions, not to mention I picked up a heal self spell, that I’m never in need of resupplying.

My favorite part, without a doubt, is upgrading my gear. My weapon cycles maybe once every ten levels, but the feel of finally getting my hands on a more powerful weapon is exhilarating. At one point, I came across a ram head-shaped one-handed mace that carried almost double the attack strength of my sword. So, ditching my sword and equipping the mace, I threw myself into the nearest crowd of mobs and bathed in their blood and crushed bodies. The weapons feel powerful, as though my mace is actually busting some skulls.

That being said, Torchlight also shares my frustrations with MMOs, specifically in the sense that bosses are just bigger versions of existing mobs but with more health, higher defense, and more powerful attacks. Unfortunately with the game’s hack and slash nature, I probably haven’t noticed if any bosses had the capacity for more intelligent tactics than chase player -> attack player, because I’m too busy breaking kneecaps and setting my pointer finger up for early onset arthritis.

3. I Can’t See Why An MMO Lottery Wouldn’t Work

I see this a lot on various game forums, the question generally comes up of “why can’t we have a lottery where players buy tickets and then at the end of the month a winner is decided for the jackpot.” The discussion then rises and buckles under the complaint that players would be rich through sheer luck and with no time invested. Now that is half of a lie.

The real issue that players oppose is the time invested aspect over luck. It has nothing to do with luck, luck is an inherent system in MMOs. After all, it is luck that I managed to kill thousands upon thousands of dragons and never obtained their rarest drop over the course of a few months and a hundred hours of grinding, while the other guy managed to saunter in and grab two of them in a good long five hour play session. If people didn’t like the idea of getting rich in MMOs based on luck, we wouldn’t have any of the systems that we do, and most of your items would be completely useless thanks to high drop rates.

So forgetting luck and throwing off time invested, why not have a system where players can buy lottery tickets and have the chance at winning the pot? It’d be a great idea for a money sink, all the rich players who would gamble away their riches in a lottery and never win anything, with a percentage of the total amount invested going to the actual payout.

4. The Fact That TOR Is Still Buyable Concerns Me

Ever since Bioware announced that The Old Republic preorders would be throttled to allow for a smooth launch, the chatter has not died down at all. Now, we know from an EA financial release that The Old Republic has already become the best preorder title in EA’s history, but the fact that the game is still for sale with release just months away raises a few questions.

The optimist in me is saying that this is a result of Bioware upgrading their server structuring as the preorders continue to roll in, upgrading stability and adding more servers where needed. The pessimist in me says that players are going to be greeted by the exact same closed door server queue that the throttling was designed to prevent, or just temporarily barring accounts on launch day under the name of “first come, first serve.”

As much as I try to ignore the pessimist in me, he is loud, obnoxious, and unfortunately has his moments of insight. The Old Republic’s launch in December is going to come under heavy scrutiny if Bioware doesn’t ensure smooth sailing from the get-go, which as previous titles have shown is akin to the Wright brothers attempting to invent an airplane that not only flies but performs so well that no future model could improve upon it.

5. You Know What? I Don’t Want Those Games Back.

I talk about nostalgia a lot here, but push coming to shove I don’t think I’d want a lot of those old, missed MMOs back in action. I recently got my hands on Freedom Fighters on the PC, and with all that I remembered about it I stopped playing the game about a quarter of the way through the story mode because I just couldn’t stand it anymore. The game was not as I remembered playing it back in 2003, just because I’ve become so accustomed to things changing and, for the most part, getting better.

I didn’t remember the game handling so clunky, or the areas that would instantly kill you if you didn’t perform an action somewhere else, or how your weapons had near zero accuracy. As a result, Freedom Fighters just doesn’t have the same place in my heart that it did before I installed it. So in that sense, I’d like Tabula Rasa, Chronicles of Spellborn, Shadowbane, and the other games to stay where they are: Dead. Otherwise you’d be killing my youth.

G1 To Cheaters: Don't F-Up Your Last Chance


The Gamersfirst team working on All Points Bulletin quickly became my best friend thanks to their method of not merely banning cheaters but publicly humiliating them. In a dev blog update yesterday, Bjorn continued the approach of calming the crowd by reassuring that the team is indeed fighting aimbots. Recently, Gamersfirst was able to perform a mass ban on the three largest cheat tools, also posting some rather humorous complaints from the cheat forums.

But the G1 team is not entirely without knowledge on how to milk inane cheaters who would come back on a new account and continue spending money sympathy. They have put forward an offer: delete the cheats, start a new account, and they might allow you to continue playing their game. Maybe, if they feel like it.

Even stranger for some of us is the notion that some of these cheats that were caught cost upwards of $30 a month. Look, for $30 monthly, I will play your APB for you. If you prefer, I’ll even throw in the added DLC, where I eat all the junk food and drink all of your RC Cola, for absolutely free.

G1 To Cheaters: Don’t F-Up Your Last Chance


The Gamersfirst team working on All Points Bulletin quickly became my best friend thanks to their method of not merely banning cheaters but publicly humiliating them. In a dev blog update yesterday, Bjorn continued the approach of calming the crowd by reassuring that the team is indeed fighting aimbots. Recently, Gamersfirst was able to perform a mass ban on the three largest cheat tools, also posting some rather humorous complaints from the cheat forums.

But the G1 team is not entirely without knowledge on how to milk inane cheaters who would come back on a new account and continue spending money sympathy. They have put forward an offer: delete the cheats, start a new account, and they might allow you to continue playing their game. Maybe, if they feel like it.

Even stranger for some of us is the notion that some of these cheats that were caught cost upwards of $30 a month. Look, for $30 monthly, I will play your APB for you. If you prefer, I’ll even throw in the added DLC, where I eat all the junk food and drink all of your RC Cola, for absolutely free.

Final Fantasy XIV Patch Notes Are A Novel


Final Fantasy’s slightly delayed 1.19 (not to be confused with Minecraft 1.9) patch doesn’t come for another few days, but you can read the patch notes and list of planned changes right now, and a long read it is. The update is enormous and covers so many things that I couldn’t possibly go into each and every aspect in this blog post (but I’ll try anyway). Square Enix is implementing a wide variety of updates, from abolishing physical levels, attribute points, and elemental points. The update also introduces a massive change to the crafting system, with some new recipes, a lot of altered recipes, and a couple abolished recipes. Players will also be able to rent/buy chocobo, travel in air ships, and take part in new guild leves, grand company quests, and more.

Again there is far too much for me to fully explain here. It’s good to see the Final Fantasy XIV team is still trucking along, even hiring new people to expand the team, especially after Square Enix boss Yaochi Wada stated a few days ago at a press conference that “the Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged,” placing much of the blame on Square’s most recent MMO.

More on Final Fantasy XIV as it appears.

Mark Jacobs Back From The Dead


Mark Jacobs made a name for himself here at MMO Fallout, particularly his quote regarding the launch of an MMO and its success being determined by whether or not the developer could be seen adding servers post-launch. Jacobs famously departed from Mythic Entertainment, and much like Richard Garriot following his departure from NCSoft, fell off the face of the earth in terms of future projects or developments.

Well Jacobs is back and, like countless before him, has formed his own company to divert from the standard corporate environment. Jacobs has formed City State Entertainment, with the goal of creating games for tablets, social media, and mobile demographics. Or as hardcore gamers will call it, Jacobs recognized the market potential in churning out FarmVille clones, games that require little effort to churn out a large profit via microtransactions. Or as a business major would call it, Jacobs will roll in cash for a fraction of the effort put into his previous projects. Jacobs says not to worry, however, as the company has no plans on becoming the next Zynga, and instead will form their own IP that they hope to translate to other medium.

City State Entertainment’s first title is set to release in Q4 2011. The company formed back in March and constitutes a number of ex-Mythic employees. MMO Fallout will be continuing coverage as more information on the first title is revealed.

Has Aion Embraced Pay To Win?


Pay to win is a highly controversial label in the MMO business, and I should know. I haven’t even finished the second sentence for this article, yet there is already a mob forming inside of my house ready to beat me to death if I show even a hint of unwavering and militant opposition to the monetary scheme. Going back to our old rule book, it’s important to remember the rule of perception: The important factor is not your intent, it is the player’s reception. If players viewed Turbine’s survey wall as an underhanded, deliberate scam, that is how it will be remembered.

Aion has a special sale going on in the NCsoft store that has managed to ruffle more than a few feathers: The publisher is selling Felicitous Socketing in both Fabled and Eternal flavors, in single sets or bundles of three. The items is single-use and allows you to socket a manastone with 100% success rate. If this makes no sense to you, you’ve probably seen socketing in games like Diablo or Torchlight, except in Aion this system is designed to be unreliable. Failing a socket will cost you the manastone. Couple low success rates with higher level armor/manastones, and you have an expensive recipe for disaster. When researching this topic, I came across a notable amount of posters claiming losses rising up to and over ten million Kinah.

To top it off, the items are only available until October 12th, after which they will be removed from the store. So I’ll leave this one up to the viewers. Do you think this constitutes pay to win?

James Cameron: Avatar MMO? Perhaps


Is the Avatar MMO a possibility? A question best left to James Cameron himself, perhaps asked by IGN. And by the good grace of Grendaline, IGN has come through with just such an interview. In an exclusive interview with Cameron, IGN asked the all important question, “what are your thoughts on turning Avatar into an MMO experience?” While the answer isn’t a confirmation that such a game is in the works, it does open the door to an Avatar MMO in the future.

I think Avatar is a perfect IP for an MMO. It’s a very, very big world and based on the first film, you might not sense that, but we’re talking about an entire planet, an entire alter world, and in fact a universe that has other planetary bodies, as well, and other cultures, other life forms. Eventually people will see enough scope to be able to see how the MMO will work, but that’s going to have to be launched…the timing of that is going to have to be carefully orchestrated with the release of the second and third film because we don’t want to be giving away elements before the fact. And also I think one of the cool things about an MMORPG is that you have to have a lot more possibilities for characters than what you see in the film. The film is really just a leaping off point, so we’ve got to create a rich and diverse world that lives well beyond the films.