Earthrise: Come Back, Old Players!


Earthrise wants you back to see a cool thing they just added into the game. With a list of patch notes substantial enough for Masthead Studios to call it an expansion, Earthrise launches the welcome back program, offering ten days (starting today) for veteran players to return to the relatively new MMO. If you’ve played in the past and never renewed your subscription, you will find yourself able to log in starting today through the 23rd.

So head on in, if you haven’t already, to experience if the game has changed for the better since your last encounter.

Earthrise: Come Back, Old Players!


Earthrise wants you back to see a cool thing they just added into the game. With a list of patch notes substantial enough for Masthead Studios to call it an expansion, Earthrise launches the welcome back program, offering ten days (starting today) for veteran players to return to the relatively new MMO. If you’ve played in the past and never renewed your subscription, you will find yourself able to log in starting today through the 23rd.

So head on in, if you haven’t already, to experience if the game has changed for the better since your last encounter.

Rift Welcome Back Week Not Quite Working Yet


Former rift players, you’ve likely received an email from Trion regarding a welcome back week beginning today and lasting until July 19th. Excitedly (or with a simple motion of interest), you probably went to log in only to find yourself blocked by a “thank you for your interest, but you need to resubscribe” message. Trion is in the process of reactivating old accounts, and unfortunately the email was sent out earlier than expected to a lot of people. The following was posted by Trion’s Elrar on the forums:

Hey all,

We’re currently working to enable the 7 free days on all returning players accounts. The emails jumped the gun a bit as activating all accounts may take some time to complete, we’ll provide an announcement once all returning players can take advantage of the event.

Apologies for the confusion, but you do not need to setup a subscription, once your account is re-activated the only thing you’ll need to do is log in to the game – hang tight until the activations are complete.

Thanks!

I will update this once the process is complete, or you can just wait until later on to try and log in.

Final Fantasy XI On Playstation Vita? Not on PS3


I believe Sony has talked before about the Playstation Vita being capable of supporting MMO platforms, and it appears that Square Enix is the first company to step up to the plate and give consideration to the concept. Siliconera is reporting that Square Enix has a vested interest in porting Final Fantasy XI over to the Playstation Vita with no timetable on anything. The plans themselves are not complete, and there is no guarantee this will actually work, come to fruition, or be viable over the Vita.

There are no plans for a PS3 port of Final Fantasy XI, however, as the process is a lot more complicated and Square is likely hard at work on keeping what will be the release version of Final Fantasy XIV on the PS3 up to date with the PC development.

Still, this is an interesting concept. If some MMOs appear on the Vita, it might just give me an incentive to buy the thing. You know what I’m thinking…Hello Kitty Online: Vita.

Alganon: Free Server Transfers to Europe


Every time I write an article about Alganon, I inevitably get the same question: Omali, why do you bother reporting on this game? My answer is a rather simple one: I believe that Alganon does not receive the attention it should be getting. I’ve never broken the cardinal rule of MMO Fallout (never report just to announce new content) regarding Alganon, so nothing shady is going on according to my book.

In our last installment of Alganon, I talked about the opening of a European server. That server, named Aeon, opened today. The server is located in Amsterdam, and should offer a better experience for European players who otherwise experienced unbearable lag on the United States server.

Today we launched the Aeon Alganon server, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We’re pleased to offer this new server, centrally located in Western Europe for the convenience of our players in the EU. This server can be accessed through the Europe tab on the world list, and players on any continent can choose to play on either the Aeon server (EU) or Matma’el (US).

For the next week until July 19th, players will be allowed to transfer their characters to the Aeon server for free. After the time is up, the server transfers are going back up to 1363 tribute (between $8-9 USD). I’ve marked the dates on the MMO Fallout calendar.

Video Of The ____: Warhammer Under Climax


This trailer is from the Climax version of Warhammer Online, in development before Games Workshop pulled funding over disagreements over art and design.

$70 Monocle? We're Not Even Halfway To The Top


First off, Eurogamer owes me the sum of $4 for a now ruined blueberry bagel with peanut butter and jelly on it (the organic kind). The more I consider publishing this article, the more I’ve been refreshing the page, staring at the calendar hoping that today is April 1st, or someone hacked Eurogamer’s website to post a fake article. In an article just published, Eurogamer talked to CCP about future inclusions to the Eve Online Noble Exchange, including the possibility of a $10,000 gold-colored Scorpion (ship).

I guess the signs are out there. Take this, for example, from Eve’s Dev blog about the cash shop:

Deluxe tier outfits are aimed at flamboyantly rich capsuleers regardless of whether they measure their wealth in ISK, Aurum, PLEX, or currencies from Earth. While price is of little concern for these players, they could find themselves spending two or three times the price of an affordable outfit on a single piece for their ensemble. An exceptional tier is rumored to exist that represents a very special and rare investment for the wealthiest members of the EVE community.

So a special tier is planned for those who are above what is considered “flamboyantly rich” in “Earth currency.” Chariman of the Council of Stellar Management (CSM) Alex Gianturco believes that there is no reason for backlash against vanity cash shop items, regardless of how expensive they are.

“My perspective and the CSM’s perspective is that if they come out with something like – just as a hypothetical [example] – unique ship models with limited runs that they want to charge $1 billion for: as long as it doesn’t impact the competitive gameplay of Eve Online – If some crazy rich person wants to buy that, I don’t care and, by and large, the CSM doesn’t care, and that money helps go to develop Eve.”

Eve Online players are understandably standing once again on rocky ground after CCP’s own Arnar Gylfason refused to declare that non-vanity items were off the table forever:

“Saying never …” Gylfasson paused. “That puts me in an awkward position.”

It will certainly be interesting to see exactly how high CCP is looking to go in terms of cash shop costs, and what exactly will fill that spot of crazy rich. Like I’ve said before, going for an insanely rich item that is visual (other players can see on you in space) will likely wind up being a massive target painted on your ship for every player in the galaxy to target.

$70 Monocle? We’re Not Even Halfway To The Top


First off, Eurogamer owes me the sum of $4 for a now ruined blueberry bagel with peanut butter and jelly on it (the organic kind). The more I consider publishing this article, the more I’ve been refreshing the page, staring at the calendar hoping that today is April 1st, or someone hacked Eurogamer’s website to post a fake article. In an article just published, Eurogamer talked to CCP about future inclusions to the Eve Online Noble Exchange, including the possibility of a $10,000 gold-colored Scorpion (ship).

I guess the signs are out there. Take this, for example, from Eve’s Dev blog about the cash shop:

Deluxe tier outfits are aimed at flamboyantly rich capsuleers regardless of whether they measure their wealth in ISK, Aurum, PLEX, or currencies from Earth. While price is of little concern for these players, they could find themselves spending two or three times the price of an affordable outfit on a single piece for their ensemble. An exceptional tier is rumored to exist that represents a very special and rare investment for the wealthiest members of the EVE community.

So a special tier is planned for those who are above what is considered “flamboyantly rich” in “Earth currency.” Chariman of the Council of Stellar Management (CSM) Alex Gianturco believes that there is no reason for backlash against vanity cash shop items, regardless of how expensive they are.

“My perspective and the CSM’s perspective is that if they come out with something like – just as a hypothetical [example] – unique ship models with limited runs that they want to charge $1 billion for: as long as it doesn’t impact the competitive gameplay of Eve Online – If some crazy rich person wants to buy that, I don’t care and, by and large, the CSM doesn’t care, and that money helps go to develop Eve.”

Eve Online players are understandably standing once again on rocky ground after CCP’s own Arnar Gylfason refused to declare that non-vanity items were off the table forever:

“Saying never …” Gylfasson paused. “That puts me in an awkward position.”

It will certainly be interesting to see exactly how high CCP is looking to go in terms of cash shop costs, and what exactly will fill that spot of crazy rich. Like I’ve said before, going for an insanely rich item that is visual (other players can see on you in space) will likely wind up being a massive target painted on your ship for every player in the galaxy to target.

Much Ado About Vanguard


I took the liberty of stocking this article with tissues, as I’m sure there are a few Vanguard fans who will be shedding tears over this article. No, Vanguard is not shutting down (as I’ve talked about in previous articles). Massively has an article up about Sony Fan Faire 2011 regarding Vanguard today, where Salim Grant has confirmed that there are two updates to Vanguard planned to go into effect this fiscal year.

In addition to new content, Grant also confirmed that developers who had previously worked on the game are being brought back to fill in the empty areas of the game. The content, as stated by Grant, will be implemented in a way that it cannot be burned through quickly by veteran players, and will fill the gap for some time.

When asked about free to play, Grant confirmed that the idea has been tossed around the board room, but no consensus has been reached and such an implementation is not yet on the table. Doing so would require some form of revenue, meaning a Station Cash injection into the game in the form of a cash shop.

Oh the times they are a-changing. When John Smedley talked last year about Sony not being done with Vanguard, it looks like he wasn’t just blowing smoke up our collective-assuming that Vanguard can get a small number of developers together to introduce more content, perhaps the game could get that influx of old players necessary to really give Sony a reason to work on the free to play system. The recent price drop in Sony’s All Access Pass should also be enough of a reason for players to get involved in Vanguard who may not have tried it before.

Of course this is just well wishes from an old player. Maybe I’m just surprised that Sony is giving the game real acknowledgement other than “yes, I love my son, which is why I home school him and keep him locked in his bedroom.” Hopefully much more on Vanguard to come.

Compensation or Not: Fee Is Still A Fee


In an article on Games Industry, CCP talks about their upcoming shooter and companion to Eve Online, DUST 514. CCP’s CEO Hilmar Veigar threw out one of the best spins I’ve seen to date on the cost of the game, not calling it a cost but rather a “cover charge,” and claiming players are still getting the game for free.

“In the beginning you have to pre-buy credits, so you pay something like $10-$20 to enter the game and you get the equivalent number of credits in the game once you do that. We call this the ‘cover charge’,”

This goes into the whole argument of allocation of resources, or what your money actually goes to pay for, and was the subject a few years ago regarding mandatory tips at restaurants. In the latter example, it has been decided by courts that a tip must be compulsory, otherwise it is considered a surcharge and must be suitably declared as taxable income. It’s legal as a service charge, but cannot be called a tip or gratuity.

So for all intent and purpose, DUST 514 is not free to play regardless of how much you are compensated in in-game cash, because the charge is not voluntary. You’re not getting the game for free because you have to pay to access it.

“You’re really getting the game for free but you have to pre-buy credits in the beginning. We might go fully free-to-play down the line, but in the beginning we have a cover charge just to manage the initial launch of it.”

Anyone who visits this website knows I almost always side with companies on the art of making money, that is what CCP exists to do: Make money. Not just enough money to get by and provide everything for free, but lods of emone! I understand Sony’s big initiative with pushing free to play games on the Playstation Network, but pushing DUST 514 as part of the program and then requiring an upfront fee not only negates the purpose of the program, but it also damages the image of the program itself.

I’m fine with CCP charging $10 for DUST, even the proposed $20. Just don’t treat me like I’m a gullible idiot by calling the game free to play while requiring an upfront fee. If that’s the case, then Call of Duty is free to play because I don’t have to pay for its online either.