Mortal Online's Billing Servers Explode: Players Double Billed


If you have a Mortal Online subscription, you will want to check your bank account and email (where your payment confirmations are sent). According to several players on the Mortal Online forums, and confirmed by Star Vault, a recent billing issue has resulted in an unknown number of players being double, and reportedly triple, billed for their subscription fees.

Any double charge will of course be solved, we have recently moved parts of our shop system that I expect causes some of these issues. It should be solved asap.

I’ve contacted Star Vault to confirm whether or not the company is actively seeking out the extra charges, or if players will be required to submit a billing dispute with customer service on a case by case basis. I have not yet heard back, more than likely given today is Sunday. Those of you playing Mortal Online should check to make sure you weren’t charged twice. As for those who have expired accounts, you should be safe. Checking your bank won’t hurt, however.

I will update this when I receive a response from Star Vault.

Mortal Online’s Billing Servers Explode: Players Double Billed


If you have a Mortal Online subscription, you will want to check your bank account and email (where your payment confirmations are sent). According to several players on the Mortal Online forums, and confirmed by Star Vault, a recent billing issue has resulted in an unknown number of players being double, and reportedly triple, billed for their subscription fees.

Any double charge will of course be solved, we have recently moved parts of our shop system that I expect causes some of these issues. It should be solved asap.

I’ve contacted Star Vault to confirm whether or not the company is actively seeking out the extra charges, or if players will be required to submit a billing dispute with customer service on a case by case basis. I have not yet heard back, more than likely given today is Sunday. Those of you playing Mortal Online should check to make sure you weren’t charged twice. As for those who have expired accounts, you should be safe. Checking your bank won’t hurt, however.

I will update this when I receive a response from Star Vault.

TERA: Not Meeting Financial Expectations, Major Server Merger


The Exiled Realm of Arborea, also known as TERA, has been a long time coming for North American and European markets, although Korean players have been enjoying the game since January. Well, some of them are anyway. I’ve mentioned in the past that MMOSite has done their best to trash this game’s release in Korea, and for all intent and purpose…they weren’t completely wrong. According to MMO Culture, TERA is set to undergo its second server merge since release, and boy is it a big one. The first merger dropped the list of 37 servers to 35, but tomorrow that number is set to plummet to about 15.

TERA’s major pull has been not only the graphics, but that the game is an action-based, non-targeting MMO, and the game looks beautiful. Merging servers isn’t an issue in and of itself, however in NHN’s recent revenue filings, the company stated that TERA did not meet expected sales figures.

More on TERA and its impending launch in the west as it appears.

Earthrise Is On Sale. Get It On Direct2Drive


Earthrise is relaunching today with the release of Territorial Warfare, bringing in a slew up content as well as doubling the size of the game world and bringing in territory control (go figure).

More importantly, you can find Earthrise at a lower price. Now, on the official website the price has dropped to $29.99 USD, or €29.90 (about $43 USD), OR you can head over to Direct2Drive and get the game for $29.99 USD universally.

Earthrise has released on Direct2Drive now, so those of you who preordered can now download.

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.