Mortal Online: Even If The "Leak" Is True…


This bird will kill you.

Rumors suck, no question about it, especially when you’re in a system where verifiability is absolutely naught. IRC logs can be forged, pictures can be photoshopped, and ex-employees always have a bone to pick with their employers. For this reason, I decided a long time ago that I wouldn’t even humor unsubstantiated claims. If I did, you’d be seeing a lot more articles on how this company or that company is going bankrupt, and Warhammer would have shut down at least thirty times since last year.

There’s an odd sense of gratification that people, some of them journalists, get when a company does badly or (god forbid) goes under. Even when The Matrix Online shut down last year, after four years and countless updates and events, people still called the game a massive failure. There are people who not only believe that behemoths like Sony Online Entertainment or NCsoft will go bankrupt because of an update they didn’t like, they regularly reinforce that they hope it happens. From jaded Star Wars Galaxies fans, to people who were dissatisfied with Mortal Online, to World of Warcraft haters, and everyone in between. You name any MMO on the market, and odds are someone is expressing their volatile rage through claims that the game is shutting down, and the company is going bankrupt.

Of course, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and eventually one of these trolls will become a prophet. Warhammer Online is still online two years after launch, although when the game does one day shut down someone will be there to say “See? I told you it’d shut down but no one believed me,” and even more to stand there and talk about how Mythic deserved it for one reason or another. Forget the fact that the doomsayers have been calling death for years, yet always being wrong, the one time they happen to be right and suddenly their insider information is legit.

Over at the Mortal Online troll community (located on the Mortal Online section of the mmorpg.com forums), the tribesmen have been worshiping a supposedly leaked IRC log where a Star Vault employee claims that Mortal Online will shut down next month, likely leapfrogging the latest troll fodder that Star Vault is in the red, money-wise. If the rumor is true, however, it won’t spell the complete death of Mortal Online, as according to the text log the game will be rebuilt ala All Points Bulletin and rereleased, possibly under a new engine.

But this isn’t about whether Mortal Online will be with us in January, because even if Star Vault were to say tomorrow that they were shutting down, it wouldn’t make this report any more credible. Something leaks every other month on Mortal Online shutting down, and to give credit to this one because happened to hit the mark would just offer validation to those who should not be validated.

So those of you currently playing Mortal Online and enjoying it, keep doing what you do. To those of you looking to buy the game, wait a month if it makes you feel better. I don’t pretend to be an expert prophet on which MMOs are going to live or die, but as to the claims that Mortal Online will shut down next month: I’m going to say no.

Mortal Online: Even If The “Leak” Is True…


This bird will kill you.

Rumors suck, no question about it, especially when you’re in a system where verifiability is absolutely naught. IRC logs can be forged, pictures can be photoshopped, and ex-employees always have a bone to pick with their employers. For this reason, I decided a long time ago that I wouldn’t even humor unsubstantiated claims. If I did, you’d be seeing a lot more articles on how this company or that company is going bankrupt, and Warhammer would have shut down at least thirty times since last year.

There’s an odd sense of gratification that people, some of them journalists, get when a company does badly or (god forbid) goes under. Even when The Matrix Online shut down last year, after four years and countless updates and events, people still called the game a massive failure. There are people who not only believe that behemoths like Sony Online Entertainment or NCsoft will go bankrupt because of an update they didn’t like, they regularly reinforce that they hope it happens. From jaded Star Wars Galaxies fans, to people who were dissatisfied with Mortal Online, to World of Warcraft haters, and everyone in between. You name any MMO on the market, and odds are someone is expressing their volatile rage through claims that the game is shutting down, and the company is going bankrupt.

Of course, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and eventually one of these trolls will become a prophet. Warhammer Online is still online two years after launch, although when the game does one day shut down someone will be there to say “See? I told you it’d shut down but no one believed me,” and even more to stand there and talk about how Mythic deserved it for one reason or another. Forget the fact that the doomsayers have been calling death for years, yet always being wrong, the one time they happen to be right and suddenly their insider information is legit.

Over at the Mortal Online troll community (located on the Mortal Online section of the mmorpg.com forums), the tribesmen have been worshiping a supposedly leaked IRC log where a Star Vault employee claims that Mortal Online will shut down next month, likely leapfrogging the latest troll fodder that Star Vault is in the red, money-wise. If the rumor is true, however, it won’t spell the complete death of Mortal Online, as according to the text log the game will be rebuilt ala All Points Bulletin and rereleased, possibly under a new engine.

But this isn’t about whether Mortal Online will be with us in January, because even if Star Vault were to say tomorrow that they were shutting down, it wouldn’t make this report any more credible. Something leaks every other month on Mortal Online shutting down, and to give credit to this one because happened to hit the mark would just offer validation to those who should not be validated.

So those of you currently playing Mortal Online and enjoying it, keep doing what you do. To those of you looking to buy the game, wait a month if it makes you feel better. I don’t pretend to be an expert prophet on which MMOs are going to live or die, but as to the claims that Mortal Online will shut down next month: I’m going to say no.

Global Agenda 50% Off


It could buy Hi-Rez?

Since launch, Global Agenda has seen a myriad of updates and content releases along with the transition to a free to play title with boosters in the cash shop. Those of you still on the edge for buying Hi-Rez’s game will be happy to hear that the game will be 50% off for the next four days, until November 29th.

Up to the 29th, you can find Global Agenda in the Global Agenda store for 50% off, so $14.99 USD. Meanwhile, those of you who already own the game will be happy to hear that boosters are on sale for 25% off. A ten day booster is now about six bucks, and so on.

More on Global Agenda as it appears.

Eve Online/Final Fantasy XI On Sale On Steam


Play forever...

With November coming to a close, the holiday deals are already beginning. For Steam, Eve Online and Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection are now on sale, for the next 24 hours. As usual, all values are in USD. This sale lasts until Noon EST on November 26th.

The sale has ended.

Eve Online

  • Was $19.99, now $5.00 (75% off)
  • Will not work with existing Eve Online accounts.
  • All current, past, and future expansions are free.
  • Do well enough to play for free by paying for your subscription with in-game cash.

Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection

  • Was $9.99, now $4.99 (50% off)
  • Includes 4 expansions and 3 add-on scenarios.
  • Requires verified VISA/Mastercard in order to subscribe.
  • North American codes do not work on Japanese PlayOnline accounts, and vice versa.

Learning Skills Get The Boot: Eve Online


Free stuff.

Stargate Resistance isn’t the only game to lower their stores. As of today in Eve Online, NPCs will no longer sell orders for the Learning Group, now known as Learning Skills. Why? All learning skills are being deleted, that’s why. Coming on December 14th, all learning skills will be removed from the game, with varying forms of reimbursement. Skillpoints invested in learning skills will be returned, while skill books will be exchanged with the vendor’s price. All new and existing characters will receive an additional 12 base points in each attribute. In addition, the 100% bonus up to 1.6m SP will be removed. Injected learning books will not be reimbursed.

You can read all about it in the latest developer blog, and stay tuned to the blog to find out the second half of December’s Santa patch.

Eve Players like graphs.

More on Eve Online as it appears.

Earth Eternal Buyer Likely Time Warner


Huzzah?

“I’m pretty happy this company won the bidding, as I think they have the resources and the pre-existing audience to help make EE a success.”

One of our last messages from Sparkplay CEO Matt Mihaly before the Earth Eternal servers and website shut down in what feels like a year ago. Speculation has been high since Earth Eternal shut its doors and announced that, although they did find a buyer at auction, the buyer could not be named and there was absolutely no inkling to when the game would be coming back.

The Earth Eternal fans have been diligent, admittedly more diligent than myself, in sleuthing and unearthing just who purchased Earth Eternal, and the answer is? Time Warner, which most of you figured out from the title. Of course, this isn’t a concrete announcement, but Earth Eternal’s silent Facebook page has a fourth administrator, Jac Ky. Jac Ky’s profile lists his likes as Cartoon Network India, Cartoon Network Australia, and his few wall posts include the Ben10 Omniverse game.

Again, this isn’t concrete, but it does coincide with the fact that Earth Eternal was recently moved to a new host, on the same servers as Cartoon Network’s website. Undoubtedly Time Warner has some deep pockets, and if the speculation is true may be putting some major upgrades into Earth Eternal to get it ready for relaunch.

Of course, we may see Duke Nukem Forever before we see Earth Eternal relaunch, so whoever purchased it is moot at this point. Big thanks to Rhinok over in the MMORPG.com forums for finding this information.

Play Star Wars Galaxies Free This Week


Harrison Ford...

What does Star Wars and Indiana Jones have in common? If you answered Harrison Ford, you would be correct. And if you want to be your own Indiana Solo and rescue Princess Belloq (kudos if you know who that is off-hand), from the evil Toht The Hutt-I’m just going to stop merging names. If you’d like a hat and whip of your own, you are cordially invited back to Star Wars Galaxies this week, while subscribers will receive the items as wearable cosmetics.

Sony is also offering a free to play week, which technically started two days ago (the 23rd) and goes until the 30th of November. During this period, you can pick up your fedora and whip, while after the period ends those who subscribed or stayed subscribed can turn the items into wearables. Otherwise, they’re really only good for displaying in your house.

So there is no confusion, the whip is cosmetic and does not act as a weapon. For those of you thinking of checking out Star Wars: Galaxies, the link above has a nice list of new updates you may have missed.

Thirty Thousand Man March: Chinese Aion Protest


Oddly enough, those are all on one faction.

Over in China, Aion follows the suit of many other MMOs: A major bot problem. This isn’t necessarily due to NCsoft “not caring” about the gold farmers, but rather the enormous market compared to services in the West that brings in a substantial profit margin and results in a flood of input into a system that is already large enough to explode. It’s important to remember a major facet of gold farming: If there wasn’t any demand, there wouldn’t be any market for supply. But there will always be a demand, proportional to the size of the population, and legitimate players cannot be blamed for the actions of those who do buy from these services.

Players in China, however, decided that enough was enough, and staged a protest. MMOSITE estimates that there were thirty thousand people in attendance, in a protest that spanned numerous cities and lagged those areas to a slow crawl. Players created new toons adorned with names like “no bots” and “ban the bots.” Eventually, at least four servers buckled under the strain and had to be taken down for maintenance.

Of course, this inevitably received the attention of NCSoft, who attempted to disperse the crowd by spawning several Grand Chieftain Saendukals (boss), which the swarms of players quickly overtook.

You can read the entire story here: http://news.mmosite.com/content/2010-04-12/30000_aion_players_protest_bots_led_to_servers_down.shtml#ue_pic

Hopefully this sent a clear message to NCsoft to ramp up the anti-bot operations over in China. Here in North America/Europe, the bot problem isn’t nearly as large and NCsoft has brought in the G-Unit to bust gold farming. I’m not certain if there is a similar system in China.

More in Aion as it appears.

Do You Community Like Healshot Communities?


Do you rock the party?

There’s no doubt that clans make an MMO. While it is true that a title can flourish on players running around rag-tag, nothing says organized community like a healthy clan system. Clans can bring a number of their players from other games, and can liven up the environment in whatever title they inhabit to incite those who may be on the edge to join, or simply not quit.

Case in point: Alganon! Over on the Alganon boards, a clan by the name of Silent Warriors Gaming, publicized by Jon Norton, aka Healshot. Norton and his clan want to spread the word of Alganon, and he is willing to go on all number of MMO forums to let the call be heard, even if it is mostly copied and pasted from one website to the next. Healshot is looking to get Alganon mentioned on a few MMO podcasts, as well as the clan’s own podcast.

I’m not going to vouch for the community standing, or possible lack thereof, on Silent Warriors Gaming, but it’s good to see a clan taking interest in promoting a small title, even if that clan doesn’t have any posts on its own Alganon forums…

Stargate Resistance To Shut Down This January


Just like a Swedish Fish and my mouth.

When Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment was still filing bankruptcy while claiming that they never had the resources to complete Stargate Worlds, we were treated to Stargate Resistance, a lobby based shooter more akin to a four-classed Team Fortress than the MMO we were all anticipating. Stargate Resistance was supposed to be the cash cow to bring in some moolah for SGW. When Cheyenne routed the game over to Fresh Start Studios, I think many of us anticipated that the game would be shielded Cheyenne’s imminent full collapse. It wasn’t.

Earlier today, Stargate Resistance was fully pulled from all digital distribution websites, and is no longer for sale. A note on the Stargate website reads:

On November 16, 2010, the License Agreement between Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, Inc. and MGM Interactive, Inc. expired.  As a result, Cheyenne will no longer be able to offer Stargate Resistance for sale to new customers.   However, in the best interests of our customers, game play will be provided for a period of 60 days (until January 15, 2011) to customers who purchased Stargate Resistance prior to November 16, 2010.  Look for more information as it becomes available.

The January shut down will mark 11 months as Stargate Resistance’s lifespan which, as user Night_Chrono puts it:

We beat APB so thats what matters at the end of the day.

More on the continuing Stargate saga as it appears.