Nominations For Golden Joystick Awards/GDCO


The Golden Joystick Awards have been running for 29 years, making the ceremony older than a good amount of the people reading this website. Every year, games compete in a number of categories from shooter to adventure and everything in between, with the voting determined by viewers like you. This year marks the first year that there is a “Best MMO” category, as well as “Best free to play,” meaning Jagex won’t be the only developer with a Golden Joystick (Jagex has won “Best UK Developer” two years in a row, but that category is gone this year).

The Games Developers Choice Online Award is in its second year, and spawned from GDC Austin, and acts as a sister competition to the Games Developers Choice Awards, similar yet focusing on online innovations. The actual awards ceremony will take place on October 12th at Games Developers Conference Online in Austin, Texas.

You can still vote for the Golden Joystick Awards here. For the sake of space, check after the break for the full nominee list.

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Everquest II: Now With A Decent Free Trial


Technically Everquest II has the mother of all free trials, however if you’re looking to bud into the subscription-only sector to play with friends, this promotion doesn’t exactly help you. Announced on the Station website, the new free trial offers 14 days of worry-free gaming, with a few perks on the side. Players receive a superior experience potion offering twice the advancement for two hours, and a special cloak that increases run speed by 25%.

If you don’t play the subscription version, you can still obtain the cloak and potion in Everquest II Extended, along with a few other items according to players. For casual players who don’t have anyone playing the subscription version, Extended is still the best deal.

Crimecraft De-Mergifying Servers Tomorrow


No, de-mergify is not a word, but technically neither is Crimecraft, or Bleedout, or Vogster. Earlier this year, Vogster merged the two servers on Crimecraft down to one, resulting in a certain writer for MMO Fallout losing his low level character (pictured above). To bring in more players and increase the scope of the game, Vogster just recently launched the free client on Steam, offering players a bonus pack if they sign up before August 29th.

So tomorrow (the 25th), Vogster is set to open a second server to alleviate the population. Vogster is going to need a second briefcase for the lods of emone that will be pouring in.

Good luck to Vogster, the existing community, and those who are just now discovering Crimecraft.

Faxion Online To Shut Down


My favorite questions are those that answer themselves. For instance, when the entire Faxion Online team was laid off, the question turned to how long the servers would remain standing before UTV finally announced the shut down. The answer: Today. Faxion Online players were greeted today with a somber note:

It’s with an extremely heavy heart that I write to inform you of the upcoming discontinuation of Faxion live services. This week, we will begin the process of ending live service, starting with the immediate discontinuation of store purchases, online registration, and client downloads, with final server closure scheduled to commence within the next 30 days.

Faxion is the heaven vs hell MMO that launched earlier this year in May, to a substantially low reception. Although the game was praised for its concept, it was widely panned as being unfinished and buggy. The game was described as essentially launching in a beta state, with the beta phase being an alpha. Unlike a few other MMOs that managed to launch in the beta stage and still move on to survive a few years out, Faxion didn’t gain the trust of its financier, UTV, laid off everyone at the company.

If Faxion is a lesson to MMO companies, that lesson is about launching an unfinished product in a market saturated with competition. The era where an indie developer can thrive because the game is free to play is over, with Lord of the Rings Online, Everquest II, and a growing list offering AAA experiences for next to nothing.

Who knows, perhaps K2 Networks will buy Faxion and relaunch it.

What Happened This Week: Love Your Thread Title Edition


MMO Fallout wouldn’t be what it is today (and that isn’t say much as it is) without the inspiration I receive from reading forum posts, so this week’s Week In Review is dedicated to all of the completely non-biased people out there who registered at MMORPG.com to explain to me why x-company is a scam outfit and why x-MMO will probably stab me and steal my kidney…but you don’t have an agenda. I read these threads, too. Not to gain any insightful information, but purely for the entertainment. From an aesthetic point of view, it’s like seeing a homeless guy in a dirty, patched up trench coat in New York City holding a sign that says “the end is near” screaming as loud as he can for someone to listen to him. So you do, and you even throw five bucks in his hat to contribute to his meth habit device to stop the apocalypse.

I spot the good threads immediately on the thread ticker, because they always sound the same: “Unbiased preview of Star Wars: The Old Republic” devolves into why the game will flop and Bioware will go bankrupt. “Honest thoughts on ____ from a fanboy” is one that gets me. I don’t think anyone is questioning your genuine nature, perhaps the reason your thread is being trashed is because your thoughts, although honest, were neither educated nor enlightened.

So instead of going over some news, I’ll use the top 5 list to talk about some topics of interest.

1. DUST 514 and Final Fantasy XI: Could Signal Playstation Vita Dominance

I love and hate the idea of MMOs on the Playstation Vita, but all signs point toward the system being able to support true MMOs. Square Enix has already signed on to port Final Fantasy XI over, and CCP wants to put DUST 514 on the console, hopefully with more titles in the future. Should the Vita (with its 3G internet) prove capable of bringing the genre to a portable mode, I think we’ll see more companies jumping on. Then we might see a World of Warcraft port to Playstation Vita, and all productivity would be gone.

But in all serious discussion, having MMOs on the Vita would certainly drive the system up. Pulled away from the computer during a raid in World of Warcraft to go to the store? Sign off on the PC, and sign back in on the Vita, and you won’t have to worry about your random dungeon group putting you on ignore or calling you names or something.

Addiction? Thy name is Vita.

2. Now We Play The Waiting Game, Faxion Online

At this point, Faxion Online is in about the same position Chronicles of Spellborn was two years ago, minus the commitment from Acclaim to keep the title going. The game is online, but apparently has no one working on it. The servers are online, but the game has no support. The question that remains is how many people are still investing money into a game that may shut down as soon as later on today, or as long as a year from now, with no measured response from UTV? A look at the forums would tell you nobody, but the big spenders are also generally relatively quiet about their spending.

Otherwise how would Alganon still be running?

3. How Many Last Times Do You Need?

Ubisoft released a game. Normally I need not say more, what with many of your thoughts immediately turning to the topics of shoddy PC ports, brainless DRM, and bugs. The release of From Dust brought with it controversy, not just because the game is being hailed as a buggy port of a console game, but because players feel lied to over the inclusion of Ubisoft’s famed always-on DRM, requiring the user to be connected every time they start up the game, rather than the “one time activation” Ubisoft previous promised.

But Ubisoft doesn’t work MMOs, and From Dust isn’t an MMO, so why the notch here? If I had a nickel for every time I saw the same person posting “I will never buy from ____ again,” I would put those nickels in a sock and beat them with it. The repeat offenders, moreso, because they are often the worst. Here is a thought: When a company is known for lying about its products, perhaps the best idea is not to pre-order them.

For example, I didn’t pre-order Gods & Heroes from Heatwave Interactive because I know fully well how indie developers fare with MMOs. Oh I’ll buy it, but not until the price comes down on the boxed copy.

4. No, You Won’t Get Banned For Your Language Of Choice

Hellgate Global is one of a few games I play that carries international servers, yet officially expects players to speak English. Barring the obvious “not everyone speaks English” bit, I’ve found that none of the GM’s in-game were actually willing to ban a player for breaking this rule. In the closed beta, they popped in every now and then to say “please speak English only,” but that was the extent of the enforcement.

As long as you aren’t spamming, you should be fine. To the players who fill the chat box by whining about the players not speaking English, there is an ignore function and I suggest you use it: I certainly have to block your posts.

5. What Happens If The Old Republic’s Servers Buckle?

I think I’ve brought this up before, but it warrants repeating. Bioware has confirmed that they are artificially limiting the amount of copies of The Old Republic being sold before launch, and at launch, in order to ensure that players are not stuck behind queues, servers crashing, intense lag, and other rounds of downtime that affect virtually every MMO upon release. After launch, Bioware will increase the amount of copies available as they see fit, and as their server structure is capable of supporting those players.

So I don’t think it needs to be said that some of TOR’s success at launch will be directly tied to Bioware being able to keep their servers steady. After all, nothing says alienating potential players by first telling them that they can’t buy the game, but then turning around and having those safety measures be for nothing. On Rift’s side, Trion has avoided adding servers by continually increasing server capacity.

Does Jagex Have Any Enthusiasm For Stellar Dawn?


Stellar Dawn isn’t just an MMO that got me listed in Wikipedia, it is also the subject of a bit of controversy. Back in 2008-2009, then CEO Geoff Iddison stated that then-named MechScape was virtually complete and that we would see a public closed beta sometime in late 2009 with a release in 2010, following a previous announcement that the game would be done in 2009. In late 2009, new CEO Mark Gerhard announced that MechScape had been taken to the shed and shot, citing the company’s dissatisfaction with the game’s quality. Much of the game, including its engine, would be reused in Stellar Dawn, a similar yet different MMO set to release in 2011.

Jagex has been pretty adamant about the 2011 launch date, even up to swearing that the title will release this year. Despite that, we know extremely little about how Stellar Dawn will function, outside of knowledge that some features from the dead MechScape may or may not be pulled over. There also hasn’t been any in-game footage released, no screen shots aside from concept art, and the company has been very hush on features and gameplay aspects. Compare this to the press surrounding Guild Wars 2, The Old Republic, and really any other game coming out this year, and the silence is deafening.

On second thought, compare that to Jagex’s other title: Transformers Universe. Not set for release until an unnamed date in 2012, Transformers Universe has had far more exposure than Stellar Dawn. With multiple trailers, Jagex even appeared at BotCon and GamesCom to show off the character customization tool that players will use to create their Autobots/Decepticons.

Reportedly the game is in internal alpha, so the end result is still up in the air. I still can’t get past the idea that a game coming out later this year has had so very little revealed about it.

Video of the ___: Runescape, Cheater's Paradise


I care little for the inner-drama in MMOs, so the fact that the person who posted this was a player moderator, and had his status revoked afterward, plays no part in this video being posted here. With the overwhelming quantity of gold farmers that have infested Runescape since its reinstatement of free trade, Jagex has taken to issuing the usual “don’t look over there, look over here,” developer blog, promising that they’re doing something to stop the bots.

And more importantly: What is Jagex doing to keep the game from being swamped with bots and gold farmers like it was pre-trade? They seem to be very sure of themselves that their secret weapon can combat this.

I’m still waiting to see this secret weapon.

Video of the ___: Runescape, Cheater’s Paradise


I care little for the inner-drama in MMOs, so the fact that the person who posted this was a player moderator, and had his status revoked afterward, plays no part in this video being posted here. With the overwhelming quantity of gold farmers that have infested Runescape since its reinstatement of free trade, Jagex has taken to issuing the usual “don’t look over there, look over here,” developer blog, promising that they’re doing something to stop the bots.

And more importantly: What is Jagex doing to keep the game from being swamped with bots and gold farmers like it was pre-trade? They seem to be very sure of themselves that their secret weapon can combat this.

I’m still waiting to see this secret weapon.

NCsoft Q2 Release: Profits Up, Aion/Lineage 2 Down


The first thing you’ll notice about NCsoft’s quarterly report for the second quarter of 2011 is a massive spike in sales from Lineage. NCsoft attributes this to strong item sales promotions. As of now, Lineage is the company’s best source of income, despite the game’s removal from its Western presence just a couple of months ago. Lineage’s item sales have propelled a 67% year over year increase in income, despite a 1% decline in overall sales over the same period. City of Heroes and Guild Wars continued a slow decline, although City of Heroes will undoubtedly hit an increase in sales once the game goes free to play later this year.

Lineage’s success, however, comes on the heels of both Lineage II and Aion dropping a hefty amount, attributed to “slow seasonality” in the report. I talked last year about NCsoft’s regional breakdown in sales, as a response to why some western gamers described feeling like NCsoft doesn’t pay the hemisphere as much attention. As of Q2 2010, the regional breakdown is as such:

  1. Korea: 64%
  2. Japan: 10%
  3. Royalties: 7%
  4. N. America: 9%
  5. Europe: 5%
  6. Taiwan: 3%

Those figures in Q2 2011:

  1. Korea: 71%
  2. Japan: 10%
  3. Royalties: 9%
  4. N. America: 4%
  5. Europe: 3%
  6. Taiwan: 3%

You Need A Better Source Than A Guy Who Knows A Guy


I simultaneously love and hate Massively. On one hand, they have a habit of being right when they offer credence to a layoff rumor, no matter how obscure the source. On the other hand, it’s still a rumor, and I don’t humor rumors unless they have a solid backing. Over at the Faxion Online forums, a couple of players are channeling ex-staffers laying claim that the entire Faxion development team has been laid off.

The question that remains is quite simply: What happens to Faxion next? Does UTV simply ride the game out until it is no longer making money? Will they sell it to another company? Will a new team be hired? Am I looking far too deep into this?

Then again, it might just be my 1:30am cynicism settling in.