Scott: I dislike you. Todd: Tell it to the cleaning lady on Monday. Scott: What Todd: Because… because you’ll be dust on Monday. Scott: Huh? Todd: Because I’ll be pulverizing you sometime over the weekend. Scott: I’m sorry… what? Todd: And the cleaning lady… cleans up… dust. She dusts. And she has weekends off, so… Monday. Right? Envy: What in the hell are you talking about, Todd?
The above quote is from Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, and is a wonderful example of trash talking gone horribly wrong. Granted, Todd beats the crap out of Scott until he has his powers removed for violating the ways of the vegan (note: neither gelato nor chicken parmesan are vegan.), but irregardless he loses in the end.
I don’t get the same glee or satisfaction that others do when a developer does bad or has to shut their game down because of a mistake in development or post release that drives their customers away. I didn’t throw Realtime Worlds into the dirt like a lot of other MMO news websites did, but at the same time I didn’t baby them. I called out the mistakes and called out the positives, voiced my opinions on the future (which were not very positive) and called it as I saw it.
So I hope Undead Labs is wearing a sturdy faceplate when the door slams open on them. Rich Foge of Undead Labs, currently working on a zombie themed console MMO, made a statement that will no doubt spark console vs pc flaming, as well as some ire from the PC MMO community:
“MMOs get breaks because of their social nature, but if you really look at them closely they’re barely even games. Mario 64 (nearly 15-years-old at this point) feels better than any MMO I’ve ever played. MMOs aren’t even close to keeping up with cutting edge videogames from a gameplay or presentation perspective.”
Foge wants an action console MMO, one where your abilities are directed by your skills with a bat, and your ability to dodge with the buttons, not by mathematics, random number generators, and skill balancing. A game with physics, and intelligent AI, and a living breathing world where objectives are done not for gear but for the betterment of the world and those that inhabit it. A game where you and a bunch of buddies can drive your armored car up to a gas station, and while one guy fills up the car and another guy protects him, two more burst into the building through the windows and start stocking up on Kraft Mac and Cheese while gunning down zombies (okay the mac and cheese was my addition). And you know what? Undead Labs are gamers and they’ll be damned if they just sit back while this game is not being developed!
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. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the games are bad: What I am getting at is that the hype is so much over the feasible game’s quality, that the end product is nowhere near what was promised after cutbacks and delays, and that is where the disappointment comes from.
Undead Labs wants to do a combat based shooter MMO? Alright. Will it be instanced? If so, you can take your pipe dream for a subscription and throw it into the garbage now. If not, hopefully you have a system to combat inherent lag, similar to Planetside.
Even so, I’d like to think that more people each year become attuned to the pre-release hype as the meaningless drivel that it is. For people like myself, who have to turn around and write about the hype, the talking points get old fast. In fact, I lose another thirty minutes off of my estimated lifespan whenever a company uses the term “innovative” in its advertising which, thankfully, Foge did not use even once.
So being the seemingly contradictory hopeless optimist that I am, I’m going to stay over here with the pessimists, who keep me grounded and to earth with regards to my expectations.
And if any of you think that Undead Labs’ MMO will ever make it to the Xbox 360, you are out of your mind. That is all I will say on the matter. The Xbox Live community has a better chance of Microsoft making the service free.
Mortal Online is a tricky little bugger. On one hand, if I write anything good about the company I am a paid shill. On the other hand, if I write anything unfortunate or bad about the game or even mildly associated with it, I stand to draw a lynch mob from the Mortal Online forums. So either way, I stand to wake up with the severed head of my Bioshock mini-figure in my bed with me tomorrow.
Today’s video is a humorous one, and comes from a player named Griefa (yes, I get it), who recorded Mortal Online post-patch, taking issue with a small problem, most notably that one of the game’s cities had been picked up and removed causing players to fall through the empty void.
The town has since been replaced, to my knowledge, and all is hunky-dory in the hood that is Mortal Online. Well, at least as far as the city being missing is concerned. The fix took a few days because the developers were off for the weekend.
If you woke up with a strange urge to gorge yourself on meat stuffed with other meats, it must be November…or just another Monday morning. With November coming, and the holiday season right around the corner, we take a look back on what October brought us: Halloween events, particularly in the hat trading simulator formerly known as…I believe it was called Team Forts. Yes, while we were busy killing all the demons (only to find out we were the demons), it was business as usual in the land of MMOs and the developers who create them.
Naturally the Better Business Bureau makes number one on our list. Now, most of the companies remained unchanged with their scores since July, except for Cryptic Studios who apparently took my advice and started replying to complaints. Their score now sits at an A- from its original C. The “Checking In With The BBB” will be back in January.
DC Universe Online was delayed. Sorry, Joker! Those who preorder before November 15th get guaranteed access to the beta, however. Those who didn’t preorder get jack squat. Although there is no set date, DC Universe Online is set to go live sometime in early 2011.
Square Enix announced an embargo…I mean a voluntary request that reviewers hold off for thirty days, a threat I would like to see enforced through practically every gaming website/magazine in existence losing their free swag, because the grand majority completely ignored this request. You can still send us swag, Square, we love you for your need to smother your customers, not in spite of it.
And speaking of Final Fantasy XIV, the game bombed on Amazon.jp. Final Fantasy XIV on Amazon’s Japanese website still carries a 1.5 star rating, with 137 one-star ratings to five one-star ratings. Square Enix would later reward early adopters with a free extra month of the game. My apologies to the owners of Gizzard Blendtertainment for any confusion that the article caused.
Lord of the Rings Online in Europe…what a saga. Through October, MMO Fallout brought you weekly updates on the situation regarding LOTRO’s release in Europe under Codemasters, as well as our own speculations (that turned out to be correct) on whether or not the issues were really technical. Codemasters announced that Lord of the Rings Online Europe will make the free to play transition on November 2nd.
Speaking of cash shops, Eve Online is getting one. Don’t worry, kids, it’s only vanity items. In the same interview, CCP’s own Tori Olafsson denied any claims that the developer was working on an Eve Online 2, or reboot of Eve, noting that such options had “no purpose.”
Oh don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming! With the launch of the new Everquest II Extended, Sony announced that Everquest II servers would be merging, shutting down a total of six servers.
All Points Bulletin joins the ranks of Earth Eternal in games that are dead, but not really dead because someone might be buying them, but they aren’t playable. Neither game is online, and though we know there is a buyer for Earth Eternal, and likely one for All Points Bulletin, we still don’t know who it is yet.
And finally, likely the biggest double-take of October, the announcement that Champions Online would be going free to play. Yes, Cryptic wants to take their thumb out of the pie and shove their entire fist into it as Champions Online goes partially Turbine this coming Q1 2011. More on the Champions Online transition…soon.
If you woke up with a strange urge to gorge yourself on meat stuffed with other meats, it must be November…or just another Monday morning. With November coming, and the holiday season right around the corner, we take a look back on what October brought us: Halloween events, particularly in the hat trading simulator formerly known as…I believe it was called Team Forts. Yes, while we were busy killing all the demons (only to find out we were the demons), it was business as usual in the land of MMOs and the developers who create them.
Naturally the Better Business Bureau makes number one on our list. Now, most of the companies remained unchanged with their scores since July, except for Cryptic Studios who apparently took my advice and started replying to complaints. Their score now sits at an A- from its original C. The “Checking In With The BBB” will be back in January.
DC Universe Online was delayed. Sorry, Joker! Those who preorder before November 15th get guaranteed access to the beta, however. Those who didn’t preorder get jack squat. Although there is no set date, DC Universe Online is set to go live sometime in early 2011.
Square Enix announced an embargo…I mean a voluntary request that reviewers hold off for thirty days, a threat I would like to see enforced through practically every gaming website/magazine in existence losing their free swag, because the grand majority completely ignored this request. You can still send us swag, Square, we love you for your need to smother your customers, not in spite of it.
And speaking of Final Fantasy XIV, the game bombed on Amazon.jp. Final Fantasy XIV on Amazon’s Japanese website still carries a 1.5 star rating, with 137 one-star ratings to five one-star ratings. Square Enix would later reward early adopters with a free extra month of the game. My apologies to the owners of Gizzard Blendtertainment for any confusion that the article caused.
Lord of the Rings Online in Europe…what a saga. Through October, MMO Fallout brought you weekly updates on the situation regarding LOTRO’s release in Europe under Codemasters, as well as our own speculations (that turned out to be correct) on whether or not the issues were really technical. Codemasters announced that Lord of the Rings Online Europe will make the free to play transition on November 2nd.
Speaking of cash shops, Eve Online is getting one. Don’t worry, kids, it’s only vanity items. In the same interview, CCP’s own Tori Olafsson denied any claims that the developer was working on an Eve Online 2, or reboot of Eve, noting that such options had “no purpose.”
Oh don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming! With the launch of the new Everquest II Extended, Sony announced that Everquest II servers would be merging, shutting down a total of six servers.
All Points Bulletin joins the ranks of Earth Eternal in games that are dead, but not really dead because someone might be buying them, but they aren’t playable. Neither game is online, and though we know there is a buyer for Earth Eternal, and likely one for All Points Bulletin, we still don’t know who it is yet.
And finally, likely the biggest double-take of October, the announcement that Champions Online would be going free to play. Yes, Cryptic wants to take their thumb out of the pie and shove their entire fist into it as Champions Online goes partially Turbine this coming Q1 2011. More on the Champions Online transition…soon.
Being a business oriented website just wouldn’t be business oriented without the fun task of, what else, reading financial reports, and even more so reporting on those figures when they are released. The most fun one can have on a Monday afternoon.
In Square Enix’s latest earnings forecast for 2010, the company lowered its expected sales by 10.5%, or $99 million USD. Net income, a fancy term for what you got after costs and taxes are factored, dropped by almost 30%, or by $8.7 million USD. This forecast, dated for April to September months, is lower than 2009’s figures for the same period.
Despite what several Final Fantasy fanboys may tell you, from behind the barrel of a pistol, the past few games have sold exceptionally well, with Final Fantasy XII being one of the fastest selling games in the UK of 2010. Granted, Final Fantasy XIV received about as equally negative praise as entering a PETA conference dressed in Lady Gaga’s meat outfit, but the financial report cited a loss on sale of property and equipment as being part of the revision as well as slower growth in sales.
And…cue the claims that Final Fantasy XIV is going to bankrupt Square Enix!
Here at MMO Fallout, I don’t think it is any surprise that Turbine is essentially my deity, and for numerous reasons. The one I’d like to get into today is what I call The Great Safety Net, not invented but popularized by Turbine. Before Dungeons and Dragons Online went free to play as a saving grace, an MMO losing its subscription was generally accompanied by an announcement that the game would be shutting down. The company couldn’t sustain the title anymore, and hell since the game was shutting down in a few months why not let everyone enjoy it while it lasts?
Dungeons and Dragons Online is a perfect example of a game that was falling down hard, and moved to what was, at the time, a fairly experimental system involving Turbine points, a VIP system, an allowance, and the contents of the item shop itself. Of course, communities saw this and immediately called the impending death of the game. After Turbine launched the free to play effort, Dungeons and Dragons increased its paying subscribers by 40%, with a 500% increase in sales over the first year.
So why do I say Turbine saved the industry? With Dungeons and Dragons Online, Turbine has proven that there is an option other than simply shuttering a title. Following Dungeons and Dragons Online, Turbine has proven that even a healthy title can become an even bigger cash cow when Lord of the Rings Online went free to play. Since Dungeons and Dragons Online, we’ve seen Everquest II move to free to play, alongside Pirates of the Burning Sea, and upcoming Champions Online, Global Agenda, Alganon, and more. Even the normal banter has changed. In many of the forums I visit, the phrase has changed from “I wonder how long until it shuts down” to “I wonder how long until they go f2p with a cash shop.”
Granted, taking the plunge into free to play cash shop is not a guarantee at success, but rather it’s like putting a cast on your horse’s broken leg in hopes that it will heal, rather than outright shooting it. In the case of Chronicles of Spellborn, well you can’t go free to play if your developer goes out of business. Perhaps if Turbine had popularized this just a year or two earlier, we might still be playing Tabula Rasa, The Matrix Online, and other titles.
More and more we can see companies experimenting with or thinking about the Turbine model. Sony is getting into the system with Pirates of the Burning Sea and Everquest II. Funcom and Mythic have discussed such moves with Age of Conan and Warhammer Online respectively, noting that the option is not off the table but not being considered at the moment. Cryptic is taking Champions Online to such a model. The option is no longer cake or death.
Of course, there are some companies that would rather shoot the horse than risk the cast, although with the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons Online, more of those companies might start seeing the light. I’m looking at you, NCsoft.
Which MMOs would you like to see go free to play? Drop us a comment below. Want MMO Fallout beamed directly to your email account? Sign up in the sidebar. Follow us on Twitter: @mmofallout.
Lord of the Rings Online went free to play in North America on September 10th, leaving the European fans with nothing more than speculation on when Codemasters would follow suit. Original claims of technical difficulties spiraled into Codemaster’s General Manager Dave Solari announcing that the issues were contractual rather than technical, earlier this month.
Well the wait is finally over, as an announcement on the Codemasters LOTRO website revealed November 2nd as the official launch day for Lord of the Rings Online free to play, bringing with it Volume III: Book 2, the LOTRO store, and more. Those of you not currently playing on the American Lord of the Rings servers will certainly be happy to hear it.
MMO Fallout wishes Codemasters luck. We’re all counting on you.
Sometime around Dungeon Runner’s shutdown, the blokes at NCsoft talked about how somewhere around one third of players who signed up for Dungeon Runners free accounts never got past the client download. Considering Dungeon Runners lists one gigabyte as a requirement on the box, I can only imagine how much the issue transcends to other free to play games , like the late Chronicles of Spellborn (eleven gigabytes).
Runes of Magic, coming in at a whopping seven gigabytes, wants to lower the barrier to entry, while cutting some fat in the process. In an announcement on the main website, Frogster announced the release of Runes of Magic Slim, a much smaller client that carries essentially the same data. This half-sized, 3.5gig client was made possible through the magic of compression, and retains all of the functionality of the original Runes of Magic client, plus increased optimization and performance.
Gustav Rancero says: I haven't appeared in a while.
When Bill Roper left Cryptic Studios, I couldn’t help but feel that great change was to come to the world of Cryptic’s two MMOs: Champions Online and Star Trek Online. It isn’t that Roper is necessarily a bad person, just that he loved cash shops with the kind of passion that can only be found between a man and Scarlett Johansson. Since then we’ve received news that Cryptic is leaving the MMO scene on future titles, putting less of a focus on the cash shop in Star Trek Online, with more to come.
After a year of mandatory subscription, Cryptic announced that they are moving towards the free to play model, ala Turbine, the cash shop will start offering healing aids, buffs, reward multipliers, and more. The subscription will still be there, but players will have a free to play option with limitations.
Silver Members:
Have access to all zones.
Do not have access to custom archetypes.
Have 2 character slots (Gold = 8).
Have 1 inventory bag slot (Gold = 4).
Cannot utilize power tinting.
Can place 5 items at any time on the auction house (Gold = 10).
Cannot access veteran rewards.
Chat restricted for first 20 hours.
Forums restricted to posting in certain boards (can read all boards).
Self-help knowledge base (Gold access free live support)
Do not have priority login (Gold gain priority)
Purchasable for Silver:
Gold archetypes.
Adventure packs.
Gold costume parts (have access to 3,000+ parts initially).
Gold costumes.
Gold travel powers
Hopefully Cryptic Studios will enjoy the same success with this transition that Turbine and Sony have enjoyed with their respective free to play transitions. The model Cryptic presented sounds a lot less over-encroaching with the cash shop, and maybe MMO Fallout’s favorite Cryptic representative will stop by and give us a one on one? I’m already in the bathroom performing the ritual, just stand in front of the mirror and say: CapnLogan CapnLogan CapnLogan!
Of course, this transition brings up the age old question: Is Champions Online going free to play DDO-Style or LOTRO-style, meaning is it changing systems because a forced-subscription model is no longer viable and this is Cryptic’s Final Fantasy (Dungeons and Dragons Online) or because the previous model was fine but Cryptic sees this model doing even better (Lord of the Rings Online)? The answer, of course, can only be found in speculation, and hopefully my sentiments about Star Trek Online turn out to be true.
“I have my concerns about Champions Online passing the MMO Turing Test, but I have a lot more faith in Star Trek Online’s long term viability.”
More on Champions Online as it appears. There is currently no set date for the free to play transition, however the beta will begin
Back in my “autopsy” of The Matrix Online, I mentioned that the game’s poor reception had a lot to do with timing: the game being released in a time where the third movie had come out and did its part trashing public interest in the franchise. Adding to that, the game was never advertised on a major scale, and many of you may have never heard of it. Of course, the Matrix Online was online for four years which many would bill as a pretty successful run.
“If you’ve never heard of the Matrix Online, that wouldn’t be surprising. The game had very little advertising going for it, leading to the low sales that eventually brought the game down to cancellation four years later. The poor reception of the following two Matrix movies did little to ignite enthusiasm for the game, and eventually the number of players leaving outweighed the number of players entering.”
I’ve seen a few MMOs announced this year that have me worried about timing and its effect on the longevity of these titles. Earlier this year, The Mummy Online was announced by Bigpoint for release this winter, and I noted that the game’s possible only saving grace was that it will be free to play with a cash shop, as well as powered by the UNITY engine, making it browser based. There isn’t much research into the Mummy video game franchise, although the movies have done pretty well (not by critic’s standards, but the latest iteration sold over two million dvds).
Hi-Rez Studios, makers of Global Agenda, announced that they not only own the rights to the Tribes series, but they have an MMO in the works for the jetpack-induced shooter, and the only thought running through my mind at the time was: disgruntled fans. If there is any fan-rage to match that of Star Wars versus the New Game Enhancements on Galaxies, it is Tribes vs Tribes: Vengeance. In fact, asking a Tribes fan what they thought of Vengeance is likely to put you at just as much danger as asking a Star Wars nerd his favorite line from Jar Jar Binks.
The Mummy Online will only be a two year dead franchise by the time The Mummy Online launches this winter, assuming it hits its release date. Tribes won’t be going into alpha until 2011, likely for a release in 2012, by which time the IP will be eight years dead (Tribes: Vengeance was 2004). Couple the last title’s performance with a franchise thought dead, and you have a recipe for a blasé launch.
Then again, hopefully I’m wrong. The quality of the game isn’t what I’m worried about, the naturally warm embrace of the MMO community *ahem* is what scares me, especially with what I said a few weeks ago about how one project tanking can financially destabilize the entire company. How about a new non-MMO Tribes game to test the waters? The initial cost is much lower, and it’ll be a nice gauge of the market.
Naturally the Better Business Bureau makes number one on our list. Now, most of the companies remained unchanged with their scores since July, except for Cryptic Studios who apparently took my advice and started replying to complaints. Their score now sits at an A- from its original C. The “Checking In With The BBB” will be back in January.
Lord of the Rings Online in Europe…what a saga. Through October, MMO Fallout brought you weekly updates on the situation regarding LOTRO’s release in Europe under Codemasters, as well as our own speculations (that turned out to be correct) on whether or not the issues were really technical. Codemasters announced that Lord of the Rings Online Europe will make the free to play transition on November 2nd.
Oh don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming! With the launch of the new Everquest II Extended, Sony announced that Everquest II servers would be merging, shutting down a total of six servers.
MMO Fallout 