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.
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.
Quest Online Fires Back: Countersues David Allen
I don’t feel I have much to apologize for on MMO Fallout as I stand by my statements and comments, and very rarely do I make a factual error. On the other hand, it is equally rare that a procession of articles succeed in embarrassing me as much as the Derek Smart/David Allen series of events that began last year when Alganon officially launched. I’m going to reiterate what I said in March when I wrote up “We’re ****ing Done Professionally,”
“I can only apologize to anyone who disliked reading this as much as I disliked writing it.”
Since Derek Smart has taken over leadership, Alganon has gained significant exposure in the gaming marketplace. By parroting Derek Smart’s initial reaction to David Allen’s lawsuit, I’m not sure what exposure Mr. Smart may be referring to. Out of all of the news I have seen on Alganon, the grand majority has to do with the lawsuits and, in a solely news aspect, Alganon has been barely featured at all.
Suffice to say, the train has departed the station, and there is no going back for my coverage of all things (well…not all things) Alganon, essentially until the game shuts down. I won’t allow myself to just stop writing about a game just because I happen to dislike the rhetoric being thrown around every time I get something to work with relevant to MMO Fallout.
It feels like only yesterday that Derek Smart was on the scene, reminding not only us but David Allen that Quest Online would be bringing legislation against him. Quest Online announced that they are filing a countersuit to David Allen’s defamation lawsuit. In the claim, QOL alleges pretty much what Derek Smart has been saying in the past: That Allen locked QOL out of critical Alganon systems when he was fired, that another employee gave him access to the company’s funds, among other allegations.
More on all things Alganon that has nothing to do with Alganon as it appears.
Play Lord of the Rings Online, Free Forever…
Get your defibrillator and heart medication out, and take a seat. In a move that will no doubt send shock-waves through the industry, Turbine has announced that Lord of the Rings Online is going free-to-play, following the system of Dungeons and Dragons Online. Starting this fall, players in Europe and North America will have access to the game for free, no subscription.
“Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is bringing quality games based on The Lord of the Rings to multiple platforms, and the franchise’s expansive adventure story lends itself perfectly for LOTRO free-to-play, giving a wide range of players the opportunity to experience the game, We are focused on expanding our game franchises onto new digital platforms to maximize quality experiences for gamers worldwide and LOTRO’s new model is a great leading example of this.”
-Jeff Junge, Warner Bros
From my understanding, the original Lord of the Rings game will be available for free, with expansions sold much like Dungeons and Dragons Online’s adventure packs, alongside convenience items, quest packs, and more. Or, buy VIP access and get hold of everything plus a nominal allowance of Turbine points, for a flat monthly fee! According to the announcement, up to level 50 is free.
More on Lord of the Rings Online as it appears.
Just What I Wanted: The Mummy Online
When The Mummy came out in 1999, it turned out to be a huge hit in the box office (although it gave me perpetual nightmares about scarabs crawling under my skin). Following on that success, The Scorpion King hit theaters in 2001 with similar success, with yet another sequel in 2008 hitting number 1 on the box office for opening day (beating out The Dark Knight on opening day). I purchased Tomb of the Dragon Emperor back during a Black Friday sale and decided to watch it today, having not opened it since purchase.
So imagine my surprise when I see that Bigpoint is making an MMO surrounding The Mummy. The Mummy Online is a free-to-play browser MMO in the works for release this Winter, and Bigpoint sees plenty of opportunity in this:
“We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with The Mummy film franchise,” said Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games. “The action-packed story of Egyptian mythology and 1930’s fortune hunters provides a great backdrop for our team to build an awesome online game experience.”
Built on the Unity engine, The Mummy Online will be a 3D MMO, likely similar to Free Realms or Fusion Fall. Now I know what you’re thinking; “Omali! The Mummy series hasn’t been relevant since 2002. This will bomb!” You might be correct, after all, were the title not free-to-play. One of the issues that crashed The Matrix Online was that the game was delayed so long that the fervor of the original movie had died to the painful failures of the sequels and, by then, very few wanted a Matrix MMO. With The Mummy Online being free to play and browser based, several initial barriers are removed.
That is to say, there is nothing preventing this from being a cheap pull to an IP that was popular a few years ago, but we’ll see about that when it launches.
More snooping around Hollywood’s garbage cans for MMO IPs as they appear. I hope Brendan Fraser is an NPC.
Aion 1.9: Louie Goes Legit
NCsoft has big goals behind the 1.9 update to Aion. In fact, as this video shows, they are willing to bet that leveling has become so much faster, that players won’t have any reason to buy powerleveling services, leaving Louie from Louie’s Power Leveling For Losers…oddly out of business. But hey, even Louie is finding Aion so much fun, he’s going legit! So go help Louie with his raiding, and if you don’t, he’ll break your legs.
I hope Rooster Teeth keeps making these videos.
Darkfall: Our $1 Free Trial Is Now $0
Aventurine is notably one of the few MMOs to ever attempt to justify a lack of trial program, citing that the game was “not ready for it.” Back in February, Aventurine decided no time was better than the present, and with Darkfall reaching nearly one year in age, opened up a trial for the cost of $1/€1. Due to the reaction to the one dollar/euro trial, Aventurine has decided that it is time for a free fourteen day trial, twice the length of the original trial, for none of the cost!
So what’s been going on in Darkfall lately? Well, if you haven’t been paying attention to the bi-monthly Darkfall articles, the game has become quite a bit fairer. Couple that with a few mass bans, and the upcoming Darkfall 2010 patch, and you have plenty of improvement to a one year old MMO. With new player protection, health balancing. Depending on who you ask, Darkfall has gone down in population recently, so with any luck this new trial program will bring fresh meat…new players into the game for the veterans to kill…care for and introduce into the game.
Accounts from Asia are being throttled with priority to American and European players on American and European servers respectively.
More on Darkfall as it appears.
True Games Vs Petroglyph: Lawsuit Over
Diablo-style God-of-War reminiscent upcoming MMO Mytheon is among the ongoing list (read: all of them) of MMOs with troubled developments. Citing poor efficiency and unreasonable demands for time and funds, publisher True games launched a lawsuit against the developer, Petrolyph. I commented (not here) at the time that the reasons cited in the lawsuit make it sound like True Games’ lawyers are the same people who troll MMO forums about how they cancelled their preorder because they didn’t anticipate that an MMO from an indie developer is likely to be delayed for months on end, but rather the game itself is an artful scam, by a fraudulent company. Petroglyph stated, in their defense, that True Games was expecting essentially a AAA title.
I’ve never been good at subtle titles, so you’re already aware of how this story ends. Unlike the other lawsuits I cover, this suit does have a happy ending: Although neither side is admitting fault or wrongdoing, they have settled their differences and Mytheon is back on track for a June 13th launch.
Congratulations and, once again, best of luck to Mytheon in becoming…well, a launched game.
MMO Fallout 