My Security Idea Affirmed By Perfect World Entertainment


Back in April, I talked about how to end security issues for a good number of users, and my largest point was the separation of anything that could be compromised along with a computer. Assuming Trion’s figure that 80% of account thefts are via keylogger is correct, the company must assume that a person’s email address is compromised as well, and retrieving a frozen account should not be doable via email. Instead, I suggested offering phone services, like Blizzard and a few other companies do now. In order to protect the account before it is stolen, companies employ a variety of methods. Authenticators, on-screen PIN, computer authentication, etc. Now, my issue with this is that the phone services offered to us without smart phones is lacking, really only applicable once the account is already gone. My idea was similar to Trion’s coin lock, except instead of sending you an email, you register a phone number with your account upon creation and you will receive either a text or a robo-call with the code.

Looking through wikis for Perfect World Entertainment’s games, I found a security feature for Perfect World:

As a prevention system against account hackers, Perfect World has a Phone Lock feature for those who wish to use it. The Phone Lock, when activated, will freeze an account until the player of that account dials in using the registered phone number. Once the number is recognized, the account is temporarily activated for login. The player must login within 10 minutes of activation before the account login is frozen again. The player may continue to play despite the freeze. If the player logs out after the 10 minutes are up, that player must once again dial in to temporarily deactivate the Phone Lock. The phone lock feature is exclusive to the Chinese Malaysian version of the game.

This is a nice idea, but cumbersome in the long run. Personally, I prefer my idea of one-time activation for a computer with per-login activation (for people who use internet cafes) given as a strictly optional option. This does at least show that I’m not the only one thinking about how phones are a better source of account safety than computers and email alone.

Lord of the Rings Online Begins European Migration


The European servers for Lord of the Rings Online should be down by now, as the big migration begins toward a single global service for Turbine’s MMO. Beginning today, Turbine will be transferring users to the new Lord of the Rings global service, a transition that will take approximately two to three days. To entice players, Turbine is offering a full year of VIP for £79.99.

The global faq can be found here. Hopefully the transition goes seamlessly. It’s been a good few years for Lord of the Rings players in Europe under Codemasters, hopefully Turbine can show them just as loving of a home when the move is completed later this week.

Icarus/Gamersfirst Chatting on Ustream


A lot of people turned out to MMO Fallout today looking to see what the big announcement for Fallen Earth was, and now that I’m out of work I can tell you. In a ustream transmission today, Icarus Studios announced that Gamersfirst will be taking over Fallen Earth. I’ll wait for you to wipe the soda off of your computer screen.

Fallen Earth is set to come back at 11pm.

8:00 Transmission has begun.
8:06 “This is not a change we’re going to be making immediately. We are transitioning our servers and working on our hardware and solidifying that aspect.”
8:10 “Fallen Earth dev team will continue developing Fallen Earth. Business as usual.”
8:12 Multiple passenger vehicles coming out, you can quote as “really fucking big.”
8:13 Servers will be located on the east coast.
8:14 Factions are going to matter.
8:20 More sandbox oriented features.
8:30 All discussions on free to play are hypothetical, but Icarus has said that the cash shop would be as far removed from essential gameplay as possible, citing pay to win as a “dick move.”
8:41 The official corporate response to “will we be able to lease weapons (ala APB)” is “fuck that.”
8:44 There will not be destructible terrain, however player buildings can be destroyed.
8:57 I don’t think there are any more questions relating to the transition that can be answered so I’ll leave it here.

Age of Conan Servers Merging


Now that I’ve run the Crom praying joke into the ground, I’m going to have to come up with a new introduction for Age of Conan articles. Starting today and continuing tomorrow, Funcom plans to merge the Age of Conan servers for American and European players. On the United States side, Tyranny and Cimmeria will merge into one PvP server. On the European side Crom, Hyrkania, and Ishtar are joining to one PvE server. Also on the European side are Fury, Aquilonia, and Stygia are merging into one PvE server.

The whole process should take about a day for each respective service, North America to start today and Europe to start tomorrow. Character names are being kept on a basis of activity, age, and last login date, meaning two characters with the same name who joined on the same day on the same month will have their name decided by who logged in most recently. If your friends have to change their name, they will automatically update in your friends list. Guild names will be changed to reflect the server they came from if their names conflict.

After the server merge, players will be given one free transfer to move to a server of their choice, so if your server is a little too crowded you can always move somewhere else.

You can read the whole FAQ here.

Perfect World Entertainment Buys Cryptic Studios


Talk about the pitcher beating the runner with his own baseball bat. Following the announcement this month that Atari was divesting itself of Cryptic Studios and selling off the developer, Gamut News is reporting that Perfect World Entertainment has purchased 100% of the minds behind Champions Online and Star Trek Online.

Under the stock purchase agreement, Perfect World will pay an aggregate purchase price of approximately EUR35.0 million in cash, subject to working capital and other adjustments as provided in the agreement. The consummation of the transactions contemplated in the agreement is subject to satisfaction of closing conditions.

Perfect World Entertainment has been making quite an effort to break into the American/European markets, and this acquisition looks to be their golden ticket. The big question on a lot of minds is whether or not Neverwinter Online is transitioning with Cryptic, or if Atari plans on taking the IP back and licensing it to a different firm. Furthermore, this also raises interest in what Atari’s next quarter will bring financially, with the removal of Cryptic Studios.

Can anyone else say free to play Star Trek Online?

Interplay Circling The Drain: Project V13 In Jeopardy


Fallout Online, or Project V13, or the Fallout MMO, or “that MMO that is never being released” as it is known in my parts of the neighborhood. Whatever you call it, players have already taken sides in the Bethesda Interplay lawsuit, based on who they would rather see win and develop the Fallout MMO. To bring you up to speed, Interplay sold the rights to Fallout to Bethesda, on the terms that Interplay would retain the rights to an MMO and begin development with something to show by 2009.

In September 2009, Bethesda launched a lawsuit against Interplay to retrieve the rights to the MMO. After multiple back and forth bickering, the judge granted Interplay the right to continue working on the MMO, and last we heard (January 11th), Bethesda was trying to make the claim that they only licensed the name for Fallout, not any of the concepts (apocalypse) or characters or themes. You see, Bethesda did the licensing under the impression Interplay wouldn’t make a Fallout style shooter MMO, but instead some completely other genre of MMO, an argument that wouldn’t fool the standing judge of the county of Gullibility.

Well, much like Stargate Worlds, this MMO may come to an end simply through the art of bankruptcy. I’m guessing the sales from Fallout and Baldur’s Gate on Good Old Games aren’t doing enough to keep the cash flowing, because Interplay posted a cash balance below $3000 USD, and a capital deficit of over $3 million. They went on to note that if the financial situation doesn’t change soon, the company will either go into bankruptcy or be forced to sell off (I’m guessing to Bethesda again).

I’m not one to call doom and gloom, but if you didn’t see this coming you weren’t paying enough attention. Project V13 never had much of a chance in Interplay’s hands, being a company that can barely keep out of debt trying to pull off one of the most expensive genres of video games is a recipe for bankruptcy from day one. At this point, Cartoon Network’s Fusion Fall has a better looking financial future.

What Happened This Week: 5/22 – 5/28 Edition


I saw an interesting thread over the past week. It asked “would you rather take one million dollars if it meant never being able to play Guild Wars 2?” My answer was an absolute yes. Now, I loved Guild Wars, even though I got bored once I finished the leveling and storyline quests, and I never bought the last two expansions and I occasionally enjoy player vs player combat, but not to the level of being competitive. That being said, I’d take a million dollars to not play any specific video game, even if it means not having a chance to try Duke Nukem Forever. I could use that million to pay off my car, buy a house, get into a great college, and pursue my career at the expense of what? An experience that will last me maybe a year?

I would hope that everyone would agree with me, with the exception of those of you who are filthy rich and wipe using one million dollar bills that didn’t exist until you purchased the US Treasury and started printing them. Even once you factor in taxes being taken out, you are still looking at all of your financial burdens (house/several cars/college loans) being taken care of.

But enough about money, let’s see what happened this week.

1. Warhammer Online Free? Don’t Hold Your Breath

Now that Age of Conan is going free to play, a move I’ve been suggesting since 2009, the attention is being turned to Warhammer Online making the move. As much as I’d love to see WAR go free to play, I don’t think such a move is feasible anymore. From my monitoring of the Warhammer Online forums and looking at the game’s history, Mythic may have neither the manpower nor the support to make such a leap. Changing payment systems requires a lot of resources from a business and mechanics perspective, changing systems around to accommodate a cash shop, conceptualizing and balancing said cash shop to not throw the game off balance, etc.

You have to hand it to the Warhammer Online community though, those that have stuck through for this long are a very dedicated group. They understand that there is likely no big update coming to be their savior and turn the game around. In the US, WAR has dropped to two servers and continues to bleed like a stuck pig. As much as Mythic has done to improve the game since launch, the major factor has always been too little, too late.

2. I Prefer My Softs NC’d Rather than Ubi’d

I recently attempted to redownload Rainbow Six Vegas from Direct2Drive, only to find following the six gigabyte download and installation that I could not activate the game. “Unknown error.” After clicking on the link to the support page, I was told to submit a question. Upon clicking that button, I was greeted with (what else?) an error message. Could not access the page. So no way to validate my copy, no way to contact ubisoft. I purchased Vegas for $3 on Steam as part of the $13 Rainbow Six collection on sale today, figuring Steam will offer better activation coverage.

Speaking of activation, I finally got around to reactivating my NCsoft account. I haven’t touched my account since before NCsoft implemented that authentication system, so my computer was not authenticated. Turns out, I also forgot my password reset answers (spelling issues). I sent an email to NCsoft’s customer support after shaking off several months of too-damn-lazy syndrome, and got a response the next day, notifying me that my account was reset and I would have to set up new reminder questions and a new password. So I’m all set for the Aion welcome back week this Thursday.

3. Phasing Vs Exclusion: Telling A Good Story

The problem with telling an ongoing story in an MMO is that you have one of three options: You can make a story that has no impact on the world, and impress very few. Who cares about the story when they know major characters will never die? Then, you can take the more accepted route which involves phasing. In Runescape, in the quest While Guthix Sleeps, around six major characters to the series die. This doesn’t include the multitude of other quests where major characters die, are incapacitated, or are enslaved by the enemy. At the same time, I’ll see different NPCs than someone who did not complete the quest, even though were are in the same room and can see each other. Finally, you have world events. World events change the world for everyone. They remove quests, add in other quests, and move NPCs and training spots around. In Tabula Rasa, for instance, world events lead to the destruction of two major player bases, leaving behind smoldering ruins. In World of Warcraft, the most famous world events occur during expansion releases. On the other hand, you risk excluding players. The Matrix Online was the worst offender, because unless you started from the day the game launched and never missed an event, you were out of tune with the continuing story and had to rely on a text based “what you missed” to be filled in. Not as good as seeing it live, definitely a disincentive for players.

The best approach is probably a hybrid of world events and phasing. Phasing for the small stuff, and world events for the big stuff. For an MMO like Runescape, world events are just not feasible with how the story relies on the player doing quests. Many can’t be randomly removed because that would create too many broken links.

4. Some Thoughts Regarding Marvel Universe Online

In addition to comments about my mentioning of Superman, when MMORPG.com picked up on my Marvel Universe article (No Customization, Ever), I had a good amount of people knocking on me for bashing the quality of the game before release, and more recently I had people asking why I haven’t talked about Runescape’s upcoming Freminik Sagas update being similar. For those who don’t play, the Freminik Sagas are part of an expanding idea to have players take roles of other characters in the Runescape Universe. This is to allow the player to witness events that took place previously in the game’s lore, without requiring factors like time travel or intervention.

I haven’t mentioned Runescape because I particularly like the idea. It worked when the player took control of Zanik in the Chosen Commander quest, and it will likely work here too. My problem with Marvel Universe Online is not an assumption on the game’s quality (and I’ve pointed out several times that I would absolutely play it), but that my issue is with the game being advertised as an MMO, but not to the MMO crowd. If you’re trying to net the crowd that does not play MMOs, and calling your game an MMO, they won’t bite. The same happened with All Points Bulletin, when Realtime Worlds said “hey, it’s not really an MMO, it’s a shooter online!” The MMO core lost interest because it wasn’t an MMO, and the shooter core who aren’t keen to pay a subscription lost interest because of the added “fees.”

Now, MUO is cash shop supported, and hopefully features a lot more free content than Super Hero Squad. So when people ask me why I’m so untrustworthy of Gazillion Entertainment on this one (aside from looking at Lego Universe and Auto Assault, that is), I simply tell them for the same issues I had with All Points Bulletin. MUO is an identity crisis waiting to happen.

5. How About A Star Trek Diplomacy Single Player Game?

I’ve always said that if you want gripping story, go play a single player game. Now, in the case of games like Runescape, the actual story mode is indeed single player. I may have opened up the western half of Ardougne, but the guy sitting next to me still hasn’t cleared the rubble pile or killed the leader of the Trolls, Dad. I stopped the invasion of Varrok by a powerful necromancer, but the guy sitting at the Grand Exchange selling rune platebodies hasn’t even heard of the guy (in context of the game) yet.

So I’d love to see a good Star Trek game that features combat, but also relies as heavily on diplomacy as the television series does. I want to have my own crew, have them live out their lives, and encounter stories that can take place entirely on board my ship. I want to have a video game become popular and have to figure out why everyone is playing it and how to stop it. I want tribbles to invade and have to turn my head as I flame broil the furry, and adorable, cretins back to the hell they spawned out of.

In short: I want a story driven Star Trek game, and Star Trek Online doesn’t have the structure to provide that. It’s my money and I want it now!

Wait, Earthrise Is Back On Preorder? Off Shelves?


Dear Internet,

Perhaps I’m missing something obvious here. To the best of my memory, Earthrise has been launched and is still running live, at least a quick trip to the official website would lead me to believe so. According to the website, there is a plan to drop the price of Earthrise to $29.99 USD on June 1st, which may coincide with this oddity over at Direct2Drive. At MMO Fallout’s #2 favorite distributor, the game is strangely back on pre-order for a June 1st release date, but is listed at $20.99, with a regular price of $29.99, which fits the development plan.

Meanwhile, I also noticed that Earthrise dropped off the face of the earth from my local Target, as well as Target in general (you’ll remember Final Fantasy XIV was still being sold through the website). Not even the computers had the game still in the system.

I’ve contacted Direct2Drive in regards to the listing, but I’m not expecting an answer soon (it is a Saturday after all). I might actually pick up Earthrise tomorrow morning (I never make a purchase after midnight, it is not in my best financial interest), if it’s going for $20.

[Update]: I got a response back from Direct2Drive:

The preorder status would be at the publisher’s request.  I can only guess that it is to do a special “re-release”. For more info on that you may want to ask the publisher, we follow their instructions on selling their game.

Major Fallen Earth Announcement Coming May 31st


Fun fact: The announcement is not for content coinciding with the release of a Fallen Earth line of Lego minifigures and playsets, although those odds would be much higher were this the 1990’s. So what is the big major extraordinary amazing unannounced news? You’ll have to wait until Tuesday to find out.

The Fallen Earth team has a MAJOR announcement during the scheduled maintenance set for next Tuesday, May 31. We’re giving ya’ll a chance to sit down with Senior Game Designer Marie “Aro Sei” Croall as she discusses the State of the Game and plans beyond.

Take out the trash, call off work, heat up those microwave dinners, put your pets to bed and your kids in the kennel, you won’t want to miss this. You’ll have two chances to hear this amazing announcement live (or just check this website), which you can find here on Fallen Earth’s ustream. Once at 3pm and once at 8pm Eastern.

Of course, the question now is…what would be this major? Of those answers I can think of, it is either:

  • Fallen Earth is going free to play.
  • Fallen Earth is shutting down.
  • Icarus Studios is making a new game.
We already know of a lot of upgrades coming to the game. Combat changes, that housing system, and more. What better time than now to announce a free to play section? If the announcement starts out with “we want to thank everyone who supported Fallen Earth from beta to launch and onward,” then you might have grounds to be concerned.