Heretics, aliens, and Orcs, oh my! The trailer for Warhammer 40k Online looks very promising.
LFG Expo Not Happening Just Yet
When you’re a writer whose main source of information comes from groundbreaking news relating to MMOs, a convention where companies announce groundbreaking news about MMOs is practically awe-inspiring. Looking For Group is such an expo, aiming to bring developers and players together under one roof where they may co-mingle, LARP, and cast magic missile (Sorry, you do not have sufficient runes for that). LFG Expo was supposed to run its first year at the end of this month, June 25th-27th.
Sadly, in order to garner more support from developers, Looking For Group will not be having its expo this year, delaying until sometime next year (likely June).
Hopefully next year will go much better.
Realtime Worlds Says No DLC For Me!
Australians may not be able to properly play All Points Bulletin when it launches, but the rest of us can rejoice. For a while now, I’ve seen a lot of complaints by players towards downloadable content (DLC) and microtransactions worming their way into various MMOs, be it the recent goggles/dog in Fallen Earth, the new mounts in Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and the ever-growing Cryptic Store, it seems many MMOs are including a cash shop in some form or another. There are enough of us willing to tolerate it and accept it that the fad is growing, but there is a group (albeit much smaller than many of them will admit to) that does not want anything to do with any MMO that offers cash shop items in a subscription game, whether they be useful or cosmetic.
Well, there is at least one MMO holding out for the time being. Realtime Worlds lead designer EJ Moreland has announced that All Points Bulletin, the upcoming cops and robbers shoot-em-up MMO, will not feature downloadable content or microtransactions in any form whatsoever. Even better, the game won’t even feature small paid “adventure packs” (I’m looking at you, Cryptic), but will only charge when…I’ll let Moreland explain it:
“We won’t be offering items for sale for real money. We have no DLC. Any update we do throughout the cycle is free except when we do a major retail event, which will add almost a completely new game. Throughout the year, we’re going to release both content updates, which are new missions, new clothing assets, new weapons, new vehicles. Basically, new things for the players to earn, customize, or experience. Then we have much larger updates, which will come less frequently, called activity updates. [These will] introduce new gameplay, new rulesets, or new large additions to the game. Then probably once every year or so, we’ll also do a retail event, which will be an expansion.”
Supporters of no-dlc-ever should be giving respect to Realtime Worlds, even if you don’t necessarily like the game. The above was stated in a round table phone interview with EJ Moreland.
Double The Turbine Points: In Plain English
If you are, or have been, a VIP player on Dungeons and Dragons Online, you already know how the system works: In addition to the normal perks of being a VIP player, you are given 500 Turbine points a month as something of an allowance. These extra points can go towards anything that the VIP program itself does not give, be it mercenaries or other perks.
From now until August 10th, VIP’ers will receive double the monthly alloted, one thousand points, to spend on their liking, and I found a number of people were confused as to how this will work out.
I receive my points on:
- Before June 11th: You will receive your double points in July and in August. Your points for June will have already been deposited.
- After June 11th: You will receive double your points this month, double your points next month, and August will be back to normal.
So those of you with current subscriptions will receive two months worth of double points, no matter what part of the month your subscription renews.
If you are not a VIP member of Dungeons and Dragons Online, you have until July 11th to enjoy two months of VIP, otherwise those who subscribe after July 11th will only receive one month.
Hopefully when Lord of the Rings Online goes free to play this year, we may see a similar promotion. This promotion does not include regular players buying their points.
AUS SOL on APB, Says RTW
It’s always a shame to see Australia getting beaten with the short end of the stick (the end with the railroad spike) and put as much blame on the ratings board as you will, it is far more likely to see a game not released in Australia because it was banned, rather than the developer simply saying “we don’t feel like it.” Such is the case when Realtime Worlds decided that they would not be setting up local servers in Australia, meaning Electronic Arts will not be selling All Points Bulletin to the Australian market.
All Points Bulletin, the upcoming MMO by Realtime Worlds, is a fast paced game that requires fast paced servers that can deliver fast paced action at a fast pace in order to pace itself with the fast pace of the fast paced players in a fast paced world. As such, unlike certain MMOs (Eve Online, Fallen Earth, etc) where players from around the world join one clustered server, it just isn’t feasible for Australian players to connect to US or European servers.
The exact reasons are not official, but the call is likely due to the cost of hosting the servers versus how much Realtime World expected to gain from selling box copies and subscriptions.
Fallen Earth Store: Doggies and Goggles
Log entry for the second week of June, 2051: It is nearly a month since I encountered the strange man in the ragged clothing. The prairie chicken eggs he gave me have yet to hatch, or do much at all. I am considering making breakfast out of them, as my supply of grilled chicken is running incredibly low. I find myself coming across more and more of the black chips that the strange man handed to me, in various places. Under a pile of coal, in the shirt pocket of a bandit I was hired to kill, on the person of several blade dancers, and even just sitting on the ground in Mumford. I have collected a substantial number of these chips, and continue to find more. I shall log in an entry when this mysterious use for them becomes apparent.
While delivering a bank notice to the vault in Embry Crossroads, I came across a sole man walking down the street with a dog. A pet dog! The man wore a ten gallon hat, and a light blue jacket over a ragged t-shirt, and jeans that would have been entirely white were it not for the small patches of unfaded blue sporadically placed on the garment. His eyes caught my own, and lit up in a fire of excitement. He motioned his hand to me, when I noticed his dog had jogged over and begun sniffing away. The man nodded his enormous hat and quickly blew into a sales pitch,
“Son, you may not know me, but I’m a traveling salesman you look like someone who could use a companion, and now this here fella ain’t no good for fightin’ (he’s a bit of a wuss when the going gets tough), but he’ll be the most faithful companion you’ll ever lay eyes on and if you don’t believe me you can take ‘im and lock ‘im in the trunk of yer vehicle along with yer significant other and see whose happy ter see ya when ya open it two hours later-“
I stopped him, and asked how much the dog cost. Ten dollars, “and I don’t take none of them chips y’all pass as cash.” Some paper money still exists, and if you want to look like a public moron the best method is to go down to the bank and ask to convert your chips into dollars. Luckily, the old American dollar had devalued so much that ten dollars was a pittance, and I purchased the dog. The man thanked me, tipped his skyscraper hat, and continued on his way. Oddly enough, I saw for a split second the inside of his bag, containing what must have been dozens of leashes and collars. On his way past, he removed a leash from his bag and, when I had turned around, he had yet another dog with him. Where did that dog come from?
I’ve decided to name him Pearce. It is a he, I made certain to check.
On a side note, I must investigate my cooking kit, as it has the unnatural ability to cook any meat I put in it into grilled chicken. After testing komodo dragons, cave lizards, cows, pigs, and even several bandits I discovered on the outskirts of town, I found all of their meat cooked into a fine grilled chicken.
In my defense, I did promise that I would do that again. Fallen Earth has gone the way of Blizzard, offering two items in a cash-shop store. The first item, already explained in the above, is a companion dog that follows you around. The Kaibab Cur doesn’t offer up a fight, nor will he aid you in combat. He does carry four items, and loves to go for long walks in the wasteland. The Kaibab Cur costs $10 USD and covers your whole account. A word of warning, however: The dog can be killed in PvP.
The second item is a pair of brass goggles that offer a small bonus, and alternately look awesome. The goggles cost $5.
No, You Are Not Owed A Refund
Whether you pay a monthly fee, buy cash shop items, or simply just play without paying, you are making some kind of investment in your MMO of choice, a combination of time and usually money. As I have pointed out before on many occasions, the major difference between MMOs and many other games is that MMOs are consistently changing. In fact, if you were to quit an MMO and come back two years later, what you might find may be drastically different than what you saw when you last played. Features are balanced, new updates are released, storyline progresses, and more.
An important factor I make note to remind people of is that your subscription fee pays for now. The subscription you pay for June 2010 has no bearing on July 2010, or even December 2010 and beyond. It is because of this that I stress that players should get into the mindset of “I’ve paid $150+ since I’ve subscribed for over a year.” Blizzard could care less if you subscribed to World of Warcraft in July 2008; if you are not subscribed now you will not play on their servers.
I point this out today because whenever I see a notice of a huge update to a game, or a game is shutting down, certain players feel that they are entitled to get their subscription back. Not the pre-paid subscription, as developers are always good about reimbursing players who paid for time past the shutoff date. What I refer to are players who believe they are entitled to their past subscriptions back as some form of compensation for their time.
First of all, your money is spent. Developers don’t shut a game down because they feel they’ve bilked enough money out of it and it’s time to close shop and live in the Bahamas for the rest of their lives. Your past subscription money has already been paid out, likely to some developer so he can feed his family. To put it short: If the developers had the kind of money to refund everyone their past subscriptions, then they wouldn’t be shutting the game down.
Secondly, and this is a crucial one: Please don’t act like you assumed the game would exist forever. Every MMO is going to shut down one day. It may be ten months later, ala FURY, or it may be over thirteen years later, ala Ultima Online. No matter how long it takes, it will happen eventually. Our characters may be a multi-year project, but like any good pet we know that one day that character will be lost, and instead of thinking about how we will be post-burial, we choose the present to have as good of a time as possible.
Third: In certain cases you do get compensation. When Star Wars Galaxies launched the notorious NGE updates, they refunded players who had purchased the latest expansion pack under the assumption that the game would be as it was. Many times when cash shop Korean games change services, they also offer players compensation in terms of in-game currency that they had spent.
In a sense, this article is primarily dedicated to those players of Lord of the Rings Online who expect a full refund of their past subscriptions because the game is going free to play, as well as World of Warcraft players who expect a full refund because Cataclysm is going to make The Barrens slightly less suitable for Chuck Norris jokes. The same goes for all games, however.
I tell people to vote with their wallets, because when the developers see their subscriber/cash-shop purchases plummet, if they are decent they will start listening to the community. Otherwise they will fall, or in the case of FURY, send emails to their ex-customers calling them losers.
Mortal Online Launches Soon…
Vanguard Server Mergers Ahoy!
Despite my hope that this announcement won’t come for another few years, I don’t think there will be many shocked faces when the shut-down notice is given for Vanguard. Late last year, Sony announced in a pretty solemn notice that several features had been canned completely, including alternate advancement and various dungeons, among other things. We were informed at the time that server mergers were planned, with no additional information at the time.
Fast forward almost six months, and the announcement is here: In July, more specifically the 7th, Vanguard will begin the process to merge the remaining three US servers into one, with the Halgar server being merged in August. Each server merger is expected to take 24 hours.
On the plus side, however, this is expected to be one of the more user-friendly server merges than you would normally find. Guild names are not affected, even guilds with the same names will be able to transition over with no issues. Players will be reimbursed for their houses, both in the cost of the house and the materials used to build it. Mail, friends/ignore lists will be kept, and items on dead players will be available to them at altars. Items in escrow and at the market will not be merged, however.
I must question, for another time, why Sony is performing a double merger, requiring players to make the same land rush twice for housing space.
There is a poll going on at Vanguard’s forums to decide the name of the server, with Telon currently winning at over 80%: http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?topic_id=53367
Square Enix's Servers Breached:
Dear valued FINAL FANTASY XI/TETRAMASTER player:
Square Enix is committed to protecting your user information. We have just been alerted to a potential breach of Square Enix’s secure systems from an external source. This may have resulted in the disclosure of a limited number of PlayOnline IDs, passwords and user account data. Please be assured that your credit card data has not been compromised. We are taking this matter very seriously and are conducting a full investigation.
As a precaution we are notifying you of this potential breach and we are resetting your PlayOnline password.
Please contact our Support Center by web chat and obtain a new password that differs from your prior password. Please keep this new password safe and always be on the alert for any “phishing” emails that ask you to disclose personal or financial information.
Support Center
http://support.na.square-enix.com/jump/chat2/
Hours of Operation: Mon-Fri 9:00AM to 6:00PM
*This week only, the Support Center will handle calls for this issue on Saturday June 5, and Sunday June 6.
*Please note that due to a large number of calls, it may take a long time until your call is handled. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.Again, we apologize for this inconvenience and we thank you for your continued support.
I’m not going to say I doubt Square Enix’s word when they say that credit card information has not been compromised, but if you do subscribe to Final Fantasy XI, or have in the past, you should keep a very close eye on your credit card for the next few months, and possibly remove it from your account information if you are unsubscribed. Current subscribers should consider switching over to a pay-by-card method. Better to be safe than sorry.
I say this because no game company’s lawyers would ever allow them to admit that credit card information might have been stolen if there is no existing evidence of it. To do so would incite panic and lawsuits that the company neither needs or can afford, especially in a time where information is so sparse and various IT teams are scrambling to plug holes.
To say Square Enix will be ruined by this, as a few trolls are, is overkill. To say that there won’t be backlash and a heavy amount of distrust between company and fanbase is disingenuous. Luckily Final Fantasy XI has a long history of keeping account information safe, so perhaps this will be shrugged off as a one time incident that didn’t result in any real harm.
Square Enix has been sending the above email to affected players, and reports indicate that a few players have had their passwords reset by Square. More on the account breach as it appears.
MMO Fallout 