Does anyone else remember the excitement you felt when you learned that Richard Garriot was back and making MMOs? I believe it was 2005/2006 that Tabula Rasa was fully announced and confirmed to be in development, and many of us just couldn’t wait to see what Garriot’s twisted mind would come up with. Another Ultima Online, perhaps?
SecondStar Interactive is a new studio formed out of names we know well.
Darrin Hyrup: Founder of Mythic Entertainment.
Lory Hyrup: Lead Designer of Dark Age Of Camelot.
Cooper Buckingham: From Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot, The Sims, and Gods & Heroes.
Tim Cotten: Ultima Online.
Eric Piccione: Art Director responsible for the look of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot.
What type of MMO is SecondStar working on? I have absolutely no clue. All we know is that the game is running off the HeroEngine, the same engine you’ll find in Star Wars: The Old Republic and a few other upcoming titles.
I know what some of you are thinking (Ultima Online pre-Trammel PvP with three factions and an extensive crafting system and RvR) and I must ask to contain your drool! That being said, the wait for information shouldn’t be long, SecondStar has rounded out their announcement by claiming a late 2011 release date.
I don’t want to get into the whole discussion on whether or not Jagex is a corrupt corporate entity, but with last week’s news that the developer is now offering the option to pay to be unbanned, one has to bring up the ethical concerns of a company having a financial interest in banning its own players. As one player put it, imagine if you will that a judge received 20% of the fines he issues out. Sure, plenty of judges would put ethics above money and still work fairly, but when those odd cases do slip through the cracks and a player is unfairly punished, it will bring up the question of “are they ignoring my appeals because they are incompetent, or because they think I’ll pay up to be unbanned?”
The official response from Jagex (Mark H) is that these fees are being used to fund the ICU (Internal Conflicts Unit?) so that less membership fees and advertising revenue have to be used to fund it. Jagex’s official policy appears to be that cheaters should have to pay to fund the staff that have to look through their appeals. Again, the specifics are something Jagex refuse to release, so we’ll have to wait until someone is given this offer before we can talk specifics.
But while we’re on the subject of cheaters, Jagex announced alongside the wilderness vote that they had a system in place that was infallible in catching bots. Naturally, I advised players to be wary of this claim, as it had been made in the past to no avail. Nonetheless, I was proven correct over the past week since Jagex revived free trade. In many parts of the free world, and members worlds, bots are more common than even before free trade was initially taken away.
So Jagex is capable of removing the cheaters, but unwilling, which would mean they lied about having a no tolerance policy. Otherwise, they are willing, but incapable, which would also mean they lied about the system they had in place. Which one is it?
Massive Action Tactics Online Of Duty Free To Play
I know what you’re thinking: “Omali, this sounds like yet another free to play lobby based substandard shooter with a cash shop attached where players can pay to win,” to which I must ask that you set aside your stereotypes for five minutes and realize that you are likely 100% correct on that prediction. In Activision/Blizzard’s latest quarterly report, the company reveals plans for yet another Call of Duty developer, Beachhead Studios, to work on a Call of Duty game for the Asian markets. While the traditional Call of Duty never sold too well in Asia, thanks to the abundance of piracy, having mandatory multiplayer and self-hosted servers (not to mention the game being free) will give Activision a tighter control on those who want to play their game.
The financial report doesn’t give any information as to when we can expect the Call of Duty MMO, or if there are any plans to expand the title to the Western hemisphere. In the same financial report, Blizzard highlighted their plans for 2011, including:
Grow World of Warcraft with new content; work towards StarCraft II and Cataclysm launch in China
It is worth noting that Wrath of the Lich King was delayed two years before release in China, due to the restrictions placed on games and Blizzard’s well publicized publisher fiasco, so a 2011 launch for Cataclysm may be on the less realistic side. Still, it would be nice for the Chinese players to remain somewhere close to their Western counterparts.
For those of you who haven’t heard of Battleground Europe, it is widely regarded as the first MMOFPS in history, released in 2001 and is still running to this day. As someone who played Battleground Europe back when it was still just WWII Online, I have to say the quality of the title was unmatched, both in the implementation and the sheer force that the allies and axis threw upon one another in massive fields, towns, and cities, experiencing everything from raids to enormous bombing runs.
And as any MMO goes, Battleground Europe peaked, and began its dip into the game that exists today: A game that is even more barren and lifeless than its successor in the field, Planetside. I guess you could say the main difference between Planetside and Battleground Europe at the moment is that Planetside at least was successful enough to spawn a sequel.
But this article isn’t about making fun of Cornered Rat Software, or their near-comatose game. Unbeknownst to me, and 99% of the gaming community, the guys at CRS have been upping the funding lately, with the Builder’s Program (private investment) and through the increase in the base subscription price to $17.99 a month. Sure you can subscribe for three months and bring that price down, but we’re talking about the base entrance price for a monthly fee.
There is nothing to be worried about, like the game tanking, however. If the posts on the related threads are anything to go off of, Cornered Rats has quite a number of players willing to pay for subscriptions, often on multiple accounts, as a “donation,” despite not even playing the game. That must be nice for the folks at CRS, having people who expect literally nothing out of you, and are willing to pay you for just that. I also witnessed posters claiming that they hated the change in subscription, but would continue paying the price just to stop any snowballing of people leaving.
Whether or not World War II Online is a good shooter is irrelevant to the fact that not only will free trial players be walking into a dearth of population, but then they’ll be enticed with a cost higher than any triple-a MMO on the market. And the drones on the Battleground Europe forums can throw inflation and costs of development as much as they want. $15 is less funding than $17.99, but $0 and a disgruntled customer who isn’t coming back is far, far worse.
If you’re going to ask for higher prices, you’d better have something to offer that meets that increase. Games far more successful and independent companies far smaller than Cornered Rats have gone more years without raising their subscription price, or putting payment plans into effect with termination fees. So please, don’t try to play this off as a special case. It isn’t, and you aren’t.
It’s been a surprisingly long time since I’ve had an opportunity to write about Dungeons and Dragons Online (since last June, actually). Those of you who play or follow Dungeons and Dragons Online may remember Turbine’s announcement last year that they would be taking back Dungeons and Dragons from Codemasters. Codemasters, who was operating the MMO in Europe, was still operating under the subscription system. Due to contractual issues, Turbine ended up canning the game’s operation in Europe altogether, and players were instead transferred over to US based servers.
Luckily, however, Turbine is bringing the game back to Europe, with support for German and French language. The current estimate is “2011,” for release. MMO Fallout will bring you more information as it appears. Players who transferred over to the North American service can likely expect their accounts to be transferable to the European service when it does launch.
I quickly sent an email to Cryptic as to why the standard edition of the game has been removed from every digital distribution source, and received the following in response:
“Since we lowered the prices on the digital deluxe and are happy to offer the DDE value to any customer, removing the standard seemed reasonable, as there’s no compelling reason to confuse customers with two digital SKUs that are pretty much priced the same. I guess another way of thinking about it is that the DDE now becomes the standard, only it grants more perks – we’re giving anyone who buys STO digitally that value..”
So the Digital Deluxe edition is becoming standard, and the standard edition is being retired. At $14.95, the deluxe edition is the price of a month’s subscription anyway. Thank you to Ivan Sulic from Cryptic for the quick response.
Damn you, Sony! With the impending release of the Everquest progression server, people like myself are no doubt trying their hardest not to resubscribe just to try the game out one more time, a feat that (at least I am finding) is proving hard to keep up. And much like the insensitive alcoholic who shows up at your one year of sobriety celebration with a case of beer, willingly shoveling your addiction right underneath your nose, Sony is ensuring that those of us on the fence will be knocked right off with a brick to the septum.
If you log into your Station accounts, some of you may find that your Everquest accounts have been reactivated until the 21st of February, just long enough to get a good week in with the progression server. Not all accounts appear to be affected by this, and I am unable to pinpoint exactly what the prerequisites are for the reactivation. If your account shows as “pending,” then you will be able to log in until the 21st.
So thank you, Sony. While you’re at it, can you spot me twenty bucks for Cool Ranch Doritos and a couple gallons of Sweet Tea? I’m going to need them.
Some people don’t like the nudity aspect of Mortal Online, while others don’t mind it. While the Risar (Orcs) continue taking over the land of Nave, you would think players would be focusing on fighting back rather than admiring Oorak’s alien muscle structure, one particular part of his muscle structure.
Of course, this is just a matter of penis…I mean, opinion. And to think, he told me it was another arm.
Undead Labs is on the MMO Fallout list of “Developers We’d Like To See Succeed,” and not just because they are promising us a zombie MMO, although that reason covers the basic essentials. Thanks to a publishing deal with Microsoft, Undead Labs is taking the Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment route by first creating a zombie game on Xbox Live Arcade, that will set up the story and structure that their zombie MMO will be built around. While Class 3 will start out as an open world third person action title, Undead Labs will be inching the IP closer to MMO territory.
Although Class 3 will be an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive title, I want to make it very plain and clear that Xbox users should not put a lot of faith in Undead Labs’ MMO similarly appearing on the system. Microsoft may be publishing this title, but the company has a long history of snuffing out MMOs from much bigger companies. Age of Conan, Champions Online, Star Trek Online, and Final Fantasy XIV are just a few of the titles that were slated for release on the 360, but pushed back into oblivion or outright canned as a result of Microsoft’s interference.
The issues with an MMO on the 360 are quite simple, once you understand Microsoft’s system for their online games. Releasing regular patches is difficult, as Microsoft has to certify every update. The MMOs take up a lot of bandwidth that would go through Xbox Live’s servers, and most of the companies expect Microsoft to open their MMOs up to silver members, because who wants to pay for internet + Xbox Live + subscription fees just to play an MMO? The Xbox360 version of Final Fantasy XI is playable on a silver account, and even Square has admitted in the past that FFXI only made it onto the console because Live was in its infancy at the time, and that the company does not expect similar results for FFXIV.
So if Undead Labs does get around to making their MMO (rather than finding Live Arcade games a more feasible form of income, which it likely is), expect it to pop up on the PC and possibly the PS3. If their MMO does appear on the 360, it won’t be an MMO in the traditional sense of a persistent world. Microsoft would never allow it, although as publisher they may at least ensure that the title does not release on the PS3.
I stand by what I said last August.
As much as I hate to play the pessimist, those who are waiting out on a 360 version of Final Fantasy XIV might as well wait in line behind those still hoping for a console edition of Champions Online, Age of Conan, and Star Trek Online, who are standing right over there with the folk waiting for Duke Nukem Forever and the rapture.
…Ignore the Duke Nukem tidbit. Good thing I’m such an optimist, right?
If this pre-release hype doesn’t have you foaming at the mouth, you are likely a long-time MMO player and have heard this drivel a thousand times over. I have a theory that the bigger the company’s mouth is prior to release, the more disappointing the game is.
You’ll remember that Hellgate: London, after the game’s launch and subsequent crash back to earth, was picked up in full by its Korean publisher Hanbitsoft. You may also remember that the game still runs to this day in Asia, under the aforementioned Hanbitsoft. In case this isn’t bringing up one single question, you may also remember that at one point Hanbitsoft announced that Hellgate: London would be returning to North America and Europe. Oh and that “plans are set to go in motion later this year…”
It was over one year ago that Hanbitsoft announced Hellgate: London was returning to the west, as a free to play title. One year of virtually no information or announcements from Hanbitsoft as to the status of this resurrection. Sure, people who purchased Hellgate can still play the single player, but who wants to play solo, a game that would be much more fun with someone to actually chat to?
Maybe I’m just being too optimistic when I say I’m still holding out for Hellgate Online to return, and I’m sure there are those with me who are inactively waiting it out. That being said, I can’t get this feeling out of my mind that Hanbitsoft has either forgotten about the game or has quietly shelved their resurrection idea in the west. I’d ask, but I need a Hanbitsoft account, and that requires a Korean SSID.
MMO Fallout 