To expect an MMO to launch with no down time is ridiculously out of line. Despite the utilization of closed beta, open beta, and finally head start, the servers that run an MMO are usually ground down to the core in the opening month. Lag, random crashes, and more plague the game and launch issues are so common that the rule of thumb with MMOs is that those who are not patient should not become early adopters.
Now, I may come off as being a little more brute than necessary. Server crashes are often fixed in the first few days of launch, and lag disperses as players move out from more crowded areas. Occasionally, however, the server hits hurdles that bring the game down on a regular basis. As a recent example, Darkfall last year had a several month period where it was virtually impossible to buy the game. Those of you who remember World of Warcraft’s launch are probably in the fetal position underneath your desks right now. In many of these cases, the developers ask for the hand of forgiveness by compensating players for lost game-time.
Mortal Online’s servers have not been doing well since launch, and saying that is an understatement. Maerlyn, of Star Vault, announced that there is compensation coming for players, that is being decided by management. While they are still working on fixing the server stability issues, for now the servers will be staffed all day long in order to allow for a manual reboot in the case of a crash, which will cut down on the duration the servers are offline following a crash.
More on Mortal Online’s compensation model when it appears.
When Aion launched last year, a last minute decision was made post-launch to add a few servers to alleviate load. Of course, as is the usual case with MMOs, the population has gone down since release and the extra servers are no longer necessary, as the queues and server load of old are just that, a thing of the past. As pointed out in the NCsoft financial report, although Aion numbers have gone down since last September’s launch, NC believes that the numbers will maintain their current position, especially with the 1.9 and 2.0 patches.
When Aion’s servers merge, they want to give players free reign to move from server to server to find themselves a suitable new home. As a result, players will be given free, unlimited transfers between July 8th and August 18th.
Server mergers will begin July 7th (The same day as the Vanguard server merges.) and the following servers will be merged:
North America New Siel (West Coast) Siel & Ariel New Vaizel Server (West Coast) Vaizel, Kaisinel, Yustiel & Fregion New Israphel Server (East Coast) Israphel, Lumiel & Marchutan New Zikel Server (East Coast) Zikel, Triniel, Azphel & Meslamtada New Nezekan Server (Oceanic) No Change
Europe New Spatalos Server (ENG) Spatalos & Gorgos New Telemachus Server (ENG) Telemachus & Castor New Perento Server (ENG) Perento, Kahrun & Kalil New Kromede Server (GER) Kromede & Votan New Thor Server (GER) Thor & Nerthus New Balder Server (GER) Balder& Lephar New Urtem Server (FRA) Urtem & Vidar New Suthran Server (FRA) Suthran, Arbolu & Deltras
Your items, equipment, kinah, legions, warehouse items, broker items, and AP. Name change coupons will be provided if you were not able to keep your name through the merger. Fortress ownership will be reset.
Nine years is a long time for any project. By the time an MMO’s ninth birthday comes around, their community has been long-ago set on what they want out of the game, the developers have found their strong points, and although the game likely stopped growing years ago, those who have stuck with it often form quite a tight community.
Dark Age of Camelot launched in 2001, and since then the earlier areas of the game have been feeling quite neglected. With the upcoming 1.104 patch, Mythic hopes to revisit the old dungeons and revitalize drops with new bonuses and higher quality items that past expansions have introduced into the game. Albion, Midgard, and Hibernian gear will be updated as well with various bonuses.
Mythic isn’t the only developer going back and revisiting old areas to give them a touch of shine and polish. More on Dark Age of Camelot as it appears.
In regards to freemium titles, MMOs that offer a small portion of the game for free with the rest at a subscription rate, that the existing free portion of the game technically serves as a trial. It may not be limited by time, but it is limited in content available. With Runescape, Jagex would prefer that the free portion was not referred to as a limited trial, as their goal is to create a fully realized game that free players can indulge themselves in without paying a dime, ever. Other than that, there is no way for players to gain access to the members worlds without actually paying a membership fee.
With the above image leaked from the player moderator forums on Runescape, June 23rd will bring us the first ever limited time trial in Runescape, for Runescape memberships. And that is where the niceties end. Oddly enough, in order to partake in the 7 day trial, you have to provide a credit card that can only be used on one account, and there is a several dollar fee that is taken out as a deposit and returned at the end of the process. In addition to all of that, the player must manually disable their subscription before the seven days are up, otherwise they will be automatically put into the billing system for the full game.
The credit card reason is obvious: To stop real money traders from ravaging members with countless throwaway accounts. The fee, on the other hand, makes little sense. The cost is small enough as it is, but if you have a credit card and those few dollars, why not spend the tiny amount more and experience members for the full 30 days rather than just a week? You don’t get the money back, but if you have the credit card and the few dollars to plop down as a deposit, would you really miss it?
In order to combat abuse, you will only be allowed one account to a credit card, not that the real money traders have ever had much of an issue stealing credit cards before (Hint: The 2007 Runescape anti-rwt updates were in response to rampant credit card theft being used to pay for membership on bot accounts).
From the outside looking in, it may appear that the days are numbered for Pirates of the Burning Sea. Having launched in early 2008, the past two years have been a bumpy ride for Flying Lab Software and their band of swashbucklers. Most of the game’s original servers have shut down, leaving only Antigua (North America), Roberts (Europe), and Carribean (Russia) left. The game’s future is certainly up in the air, but the developers are going to have to buckle down if they want to stem the dwindling population.
One way Flying Ship has decided to battle player dissatisfaction: I like to call it The nuclear option. In an effort to balance the power of various ships and to bring more attention to the “vanilla” ships of PotBS, FLS announced that they will be removing the recipes for multiple first and second rate ships, including the Invincible, Prince, Trinity, and Triumphant. Instead, third class ships will now be considered the strongest, with balancing done around that class in comparison to the “vanilla” ships.
Luckily those of you who have the recipes for the above mentioned ships will be able to keep them. Otherwise, you are out of luck as FLS has removed the ability to create the recipe starting now, with the latest patch.
Back in January I talked about how Infinity Ward was rumored to be working on a Call of Duty MMO, which of course would likely be worked on by a different company under Activision at this point given Infinity Ward’s current less-than-functional status. Call of Duty itself, as I have said on a few occasions, has achieved near-MMO status. Starting with Modern Warfare and moving forward, the Call of Duty series has been pumping in the MMO-features, allowing players to level up, gain achievements, earn experience, unlock new weapons and customizations for their weapons, earn badges. Technically all Call of Duty is missing is having the servers run by Activision, and perhaps a subscription fee.
I also noted that, were Call of Duty to take the WW2 Online route and go for the large persistent world, that the company would likely take the World War 2 MMO genre and dominate it, given the quality of Modern Warfare and World at War. That being said, I did express concern that a Call of Duty MMO with a subscription that operates solely on instances, ala Crimecraft, would likely hit the ground running directly into a brick wall, as players quickly drop the title and return to the free alternative, or even WW2 Online.
If you believed Robert Kotick of Activision was salivating at the thought of slapping a subscription fee on Call of Duty, then you’ll be needing a replacement bucket. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Kotick stated:
“I would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow”
Does the audience want a Call of Duty pro-subscription? Kotick believes so.
“I think our audiences are clamoring for it. If you look at what they’re playing on Xbox Live today, we’ve had 1.7 billion hours of multiplayer play on Live. I think we could do a lot more to really satisfy the interests of the customers.”
When asked if Activision would pursue a Call of Duty subscription model, Kotick responded “hopefully.”
Is it too early to call Godwin’s law on future comments?
Global Agenda’s “No Elves” video ranks up there with Aion’s “The More You MMO” and Turbine’s banner advertisements for Dungeons and Dragons Online (Broccoli or the Beholder?), so imagine my excitement when I see a new “No Elves” video.
Moral of the story? Don’t bring your puffball net and toad mount to a gun and jetpack fight.
Perhaps he will go to work at Bioware? Between Mythic’s billing server exploding, the shut down of their merchandise store, and last November’s announcement of server mergers and massive layoffs (40%), you would think that the news couldn’t get any worse. Well, it did. Josh Drescher, producer of Warhammer Online, posted on his twitter account that he has been laid off, and cannot give any more details. His twitter post reads:
FYI: I can’t get into details (and, in fact, don’t HAVE many more details), but it was a layoff. I wasn’t fired and I still love Mythic.
Many of you may remember Drescher from the video podcasts for Warhammer Online created before and after release. But Josh does have a word for all of you who take this as a sign Warhammer Online is dying:
Quick note, then I’m going offline for a while: WAR isn’t dying. The game is better now than ever before and more goodness is on the way.
Even though it’s not my baby anymore, I’m proud of what it’s become and want the team’s hard work to be rewarded moving forward.
It’s good to see no (public) hard feelings between Drescher and Mythic. More on Warhammer Online as it gets laid off.
A lot of professional gaming publications have a you-scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch-yours relationship with developers. The publication promises that it will give the review a fair score, and the developers often send them exclusives and swag (have you ever seen the desk of some of these writers? Covered!). Of course, the publications get their copies of the games long before we do, generally with an agreement that they will do short previews, followed by a set universal date for when the review can be published. The intent is well, as developers want to allow as much time as possible for the publication to actually play the game before reviewing it. It is to be said that even with these time allowances, some publications still make it out the door with unprofessional, rushed reviews of games that the reviewer did not play (I’m looking at you, Eurogamer) that result in low scores, and of course the review itself being removed.
Your average Joe, on the other hand, does not abide by these restrictions. He does not have any incentive to hold off or formulate his opinions in a thoughtful, or calm manner. He might, on a regular review website, but on a public forum he will type as his heart directs him: Right over to the surplus sale on expletives. A publication may understand the differences between beta and release, but Average Joe does not, and neither does the person who is reading the review based on his closed/open beta experience.
What is accepted, almost universally, is that when a game hits open beta, it should be in an virtually finished state. Aside from stress testing the servers, MMO developers should not be using the open beta period prior to release as a method of gauging incomplete features or mechanics, and the game itself should not drastically change on the day of release. Despite this, it still happens, as I have said before:
“Abilities get tweaked, some features get buffed, and yes some features get nerfed. MMOs are never a final product, and big changes should always be expected.”
-Omali, MMO Fallout, on something likely unimportant
In an email sent out with keys to the city, Realtime Worlds noted:
Before finalising reviews, we want you to experience the full, rich experience of APB as it is meant to be seen. We want you to see wild customer customisations, player progression and clans making an impact on the living breathing city of San Paro. This key code also therefore grants you, along with our pre-order customers, VIP early access before the official launch day. June 26th in North America and June 28th in Europe.
It makes sense, but for the wrong reasons that sets a bad precedent for Realtime Worlds. Now that the news of this embargo is being reported on, when the game does come out and widely reported issues with shooting and driving become even more publicly available, people may assume the worst: That the embargo was an effort to stifle critique.
I’ve been quite critical of Cryptic in the past, mentioning that they have the most convincing cardboard cutouts pretending to be community relations, and going as far as advocating that people never buy straight from Atari.com, ever… Whatever the case may be, writing articles on Cryptic has become something of a repetitive task, as generally the news that I would put on here comes in the same package: Cryptic did something, annoyed a lot of their customers.
Today’s news comes from the latest massive update to the Cryptic Store, making almost every preorder bonus (sans playable Borg) available to players for a fee. Needless to say, once again, the forums are in an uproar. I’m finding a lot of the issue comes from players not angry that the previously exclusive items are being sold on the cash shop, as this knowledge was known before the game launched, although a small number of items did not carry this. The manner in which Cryptic went about doing so is what is getting feathers ruffled.
Foremost, the phrase “too soon” comes to mind. Ignoring the several days of head start, the items remained exclusive for a whole four and a half months following launch. Many players believe that, even though Cryptic said that they would eventually make the items available on the cash shop, that they should have waited a longer period of time before doing so. A second major complaint I’ve seen is that only a certain group of the bonus items are available, while others remain exclusive. A number of players are crying foul due to a feeling of favoritism of some preorder options over others.
I have to agree with the complaint relating to the item shop versions being much cheaper than the bundled package. As someone who purchased an enhanced version of Star Trek Online, the same perks I paid around $30 more for are now available on the Cryptic Store for pennies on the dollar. Time is one factor, and as I have already pointed out, that extra cost became virtually useless in the matter of four months. Not only this, but I distinctly remember Cryptic employees recommending that players purchase numerous copies of the game in order to get all of the bonus items.
Perhaps the most relevant complaint, and the reason I decided to write up this article, is based around trust: Essentially, exclusive and unique are made subjective, fit to change at Cryptic’s discretion (which in the terms of these items, comes down to when newer players ask for them to be on the cash shop). This will put a lot of distrust around various Cryptic promotions, as anything listed as “exclusive” will no longer be viewed as such by the community, simply an attempt to lull players into making a purchase, and then sticking the item on the cash shop some months later for a drastically reduced price.
I’m not calling on Cryptic’s destruction, as anyone who reads MMO Fallout would know I stray away from. What I am saying is that there will likely be noticeable drop in certain preorder packages for Cryptic’s third MMO, to be announced this summer. Cryptic looks to lose some cash from those people who preorder just for the exclusive items, and yes those people do exist despite some of us (me) wishing people wouldn’t prepurchase five different copies of the same game for digital items.
If your purchase relies on the presumption that only you and a select group of people will ever be able to use that item, and if anyone else gained access to said item you would quit the game, do yourself a favor: Cancel the order before it finishes. It’s a fairly easy way to save money, especially for someone in your position.
New Siel (West Coast)
Siel & Ariel
MMO Fallout 