MMO Fallout

Star Trek Online: Console Version Officially Canned

screenshot_2010-01-12-12-58-31 — I don't think that button started the microwave...

It feels like only late March that Cryptic announced shutting any hopes of Champions Online appearing on the Xbox360, even though it was marginally through the third quarter of the month (A little business humor for you). I noted at the time that, although Star Trek Online was planned for release on the console platform, the buzz about the title was minimal at best.

Well consider your fears confirmed: In an interview, Craig Zinkievich of Cryptic Studios announced that the console port of Star Trek Online has hit the same wall as Champions Online: The wall of cancellation.

“It’s pretty much in the same boat as the Champions console version right now,”

But surely you have more of an explanation…

“It’s something we can readily do in terms of technology. We’ve had it up and running on certain consoles, and had plans and designs in order to take advantage of those platforms. But as it stands right now it’s a little difficult to make that final leap on the business side of things. So, currently, just like Champions, the console version of Star Trek Online is on the back burner.”

Before the Cryptic trolls pounce on this, I will remind you that Star Trek Online holds over one hundred thousand subscribers. Hopefully “back burner” means that Cryptic hasn’t canned the idea completely, but this does give much more restitution to those who were waiting on news of Star Trek Online being available for preorder.

Now if only Funcom would let Age of Conan 360 go.

City of Heroes 2 Confirmed?

Companies register trademarks all the time for products they want to secure, but not necessarily release. So when I say that NCsoft has registered City of Heroes 2, I want to be completely clear that this is not to be considered confirmation that a sequel to City of Heroes is in the works. I am, however, creating a new section for City of Heroes 2 in the Rumored category, just in case any news appears on the title in the near future.

Meanwhile, the original City Of is still going strong. NCsoft is still regularly updating the title with new free issues, the game received the graphics upgrade this year, and the expansion pack Going Rogue recently went on preorder.

If anything appears on City of Heroes 2, you’ll hear about it here.

Well Played, Sir. Clever Spam?

If Funcom's money was gold-backed... — I wish I had a farm.

It’s always good to have some form of anti-spam protection on your blog/website especially if, like me, you find yourself being taken into flattery, however genuine, a little too easily. For example, if it weren’t for the intercession of Akismet, I likely would not have looked past:

Hey great website, you really know your stuff. Definitely adding this to my blog tracker!

to:

buy wow gold aion kinah cheap prices fast delivery jklfdkjsklfjsldfjklakfjl;kjqiouerpoijl;cvkn

Since MMO Fallout’s inception last year, we’ve blocked hundreds upon hundreds of gold farmer spam messages, and multiple phishing attempts. My point is that every time they are becoming much more clever in their attempts to look human. For instance:

Today Akismet flagged a twitter trackback. I always trackback trackbacks, as they appear on MMO Fallout, to ensure that the website is genuine. After going through a Twitter account, a Digg-esque website, yet another website, and finally coming upon a blog, I found an ad-supported WordPress blog, where the typing looked something like this:

Fallen Earth announced this week that wow gold would be leaving the company to wow gold

And so on. Keep vigilante, MMOers! Just wait until gold farmers start making their own video games. This unsolicited testimonial for Akismet spam protection is brought to you wow gold.

Cryptic: Now Not Listening..Through An Advisory Board

Player advisory boards are humorous, to say the least. In cases such as Eve Online, not a month goes by without some new scandal or news of corruption within the ranks of said advisory board, with revelations of favoritism, smuggling, rule breaking, and other such misdeeds. In Star Wars Galaxies, MMO Fallout gets frequent requests to talk about allegations that Council members use their status to quell any dissent on the forums and to troll without retribution.

When Cryptic announced the opening of the Player Advisory Board, with its five appointed members, I will admit I chuckled slightly at the list. I won’t speak for the community, but the silly (and by silly I mean shamelessly self-promoting) ship names were in force: USS Shut Up, Wesley, the USS STOked, the USS Trekmovie.com, Starfleet, and of course USS Not Appearing On This Board. I wouldn’t want to presume anything about the five members, and I’m sure they are all wonderful people, but as far as what Cryptic needs to better communicate with their players, ambassadors (as the statement calls them) are not the answer.

Ivan from Cryptic made multiple statements on the forums in an attempt to explain the already confusing and poorly worded announcement. The advisory board is set up for the non-verbal majority, and those who don’t even play Star Trek Online. I think what Ivan is going to find out is that the “over 100 thousand players” who don’t use the forums are also not going to talk to the advisors. As for catching players who talk on the advisor’s boards, but not the forums, how many are you going to catch? Less than 1% of that hundred thousand, judging by my quick sweep through the forums of various websites.

Cryptic claims they will still pay just as much attention to the forums, but looking at the issues that make it past the test servers to the live servers, and the number of bugs and issues that are widely reported yet, as far as fixing before release goes, go moreover ignored, Cryptic’s attention will shift from “not very much” to “not very much.” Getting the attention of the quiet gamers is as easy as in-game polls and surveys, and I don’t think I need to remind Cryptic that the last thing Star Trek Online needs is to see the same mass exodus that struck Champions Online last year.

In Cryptic’s usual fashion, they opened more questions than answers, not to mention yet another can of bad-PR worms with this poorly formed announcement. If you read the forums, then why do the players need an ambassador? If you’re going for quiet players, do you really think that five ambassadors will somehow managed to accomplish what an entire development team cannot? Are you looking for Star Trek Online players or non players, because your aim seems to change every 10 or so posts from Ivan.

MMO Fallout will be watching how Cryptic’s customer relations changes in the coming months.

Darkfall Becomes More Carebear Friendly

Here at Darkfall central, we have just one gripe: Carebears. No not the product line of adorable bears with the rainbows, we’re talking players who just can’t take a hardcore game like Darkfall. It always pains us to see the same posers who killed Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and World of Warcraft come to Darkfall and get Aventurine to put in some noob updates to protect players who should be playing Free Realms instead.

As if the newbie protection program wasn’t enough of a shot to the gut, and let’s face it: If I can’t gank newbies until they rage-quit in my high-end gear in two shots, something is very wrong in this game. Anyway, the patch notes released on April 1st (I assumed they were a poorly thought out joke) just adds more to the downward spiral:

Now when declaring war on another clan, the process takes five minutes before going into effect. What is this? How am I supposed to kill crafters in protected cities without any repercussions? And if you’re going to up the price to 2000 gold to declare war, why not just shoot me in the face and get it over with? Now I can’t declare war on small clans just so I can gank them in cities.

More importantly, portal chambers? Now clans can teleport from portals to their exits, with new buildings inside of their clan hamlets and cities. If they knew anything, they would be speed hac-actually I think I should move on to the next point of interest. Strongboxes are the next sign of carebear appeasement. Now players can have a local bank anywhere they want, all they have to do is put their stuff in and no one else can use it. They can be destroyed, but have quite a bit of health, allowing the player to grab his clanmates and zerg rush us like noobs before we can crack it open.

Lastly, new quests? Sixty new quests? What is this, World of Darkfallcraft? This is a sandbox game, no quests! I’m moving to Mortal Online. At least they know hardcore.

This atypical Darkfall patch reaction is brought to you by The Beginner’s Guide To MMO Trolling. Reserve your copy today!

Best of April Fools 2010

While doing Kevin Bacon’s usual rounds of Topeka searches for MMO news from my favorite Kansas city of Google, Kevin Bacon checked the calendar and realized: It’s April 1st! The glorious day of the year where, at least in Kevin Bacon’s experiences, news stories fall into one of two categories: Companies either announce something insanely exciting, only to link you to Rick Astley or a well-designed news page, or something horrifying. If you’re a skeptical optimist, like Kevin Bacon, you usually end up looking at everything in the first week of April as if it might spring from the page and stab you in the face. Kevin Bacon is not completely sure that this article itself is real.

With every April Fools that comes and goes, it is important to remember that for every generation of gamers that are used to the April 1st jollies, there are plenty more who fly off the handle when Blizzard announces that World of Warcraft is shutting down due to low subscriber numbers. So, for better or worse, here is the Best of April Fools: 2010 edition.

Earth Eternal is ready to make fun of their status as a “kiddy” game, with weapons and graphics removed (but purchasable in the cash shop).
Runescape is finally ready to announce the grand opening of the Wet & Wildy theme park! I wonder how long before the popcorn is nerfed, those kernels are overpowered.
Blizzard hopes you have fifteen grand to drop on a virtual reality helmet, and let’s be honest: Who doesn’t? This new technology will allow you to experience Battlenet and World of Warcraft in ways you only dreamed possible. A deal, and lasts for months on end before needing a replacement, that’s longer than your average battery!
Ớ̸̥̗̝̼̙͕͉͙̇̆͑̔ͥ̃͒ͦ̓ͤ͂͌͋̌ͦͨ̓̂͟h̶̢̧̛̟̥̠̘̱̼̳̭͒̄͋̎͗̉́ͣ̌̽̒̑͊͗̃͝ ̸̨̛̭̼͖̺̹̝̪̯̓̈́ͣ͗̉͊̈́̀͗̐̈̚g͒͑̓ͦ͂̔͊̑ͥ̿̽̔̃̈̊͏̸̡͖̯̼͉̜ͅͅǫ̴̪̟̠̟̪̩̼̤͕͂̆̿ͩ̿ͧͬ̇͑̉̑́̚̚͝d̡͈̙̰̠̩͍̺̗̣͛́̉͗̑̔͑̂̃͒ͭ͢ ̭̗̠̳̲̬̻͍̜̭͖̘͇̄͒̏̒̽͘ẉ̘̲͍̪͍̭̝̯ͣ̏̆̎̃ͮͧ̃̊́̉̀͢h̟̬̩͈̟̖͉̞̭͙̤̼̺̖̲͓̩̎ͫ̈́͌̃ͧͣ͐̎ͣ͆ͮ͆̒̚͜͠y̸̷̛͂̉͆͐̆̓̏͏̗̟̙̘̟̪ͅ ̶͓̘̜̺̺̭̥͕͛ͩͯ̿̕͟d̹̱͇̦̮̤͙̙͕͖̀̈̽͋ͮ͐͆̑̽͛̔͐̾̎͗ͣ͌́͢o̸̢̨̥̳̠̰̘̖͈̓ͭ̆̈̓ͭ͑̽ͮͬ͌ͮ̾̒̒̾ͮ̉̚͠ ̵̧̰̯̦̼̻͚͍̠͙̫̦̠̰̦ͣͦ̓̈̾̊̒ͥ̽͗̏̅̏̿͊̃̀́̚̕ͅͅṱ̶̶̛͔͕̲̫̤̣͕̤̞̭̳̲̣̘̬̘ͣ͌ͣ̉̅͛̏̈͂͑͐̋ͭ͐ͪ́̚̕h̼͕̠̹͔͙͓̱̫̬͔͛ͪ̎̔̄ͧ͒͒̄́̚͟e̛͈͖̞̼̬̪͉̞͔̯͎͊͂͒̅ͩͩ̒̋̌̐͒̈́ͣ̆͑̓ͬ͞ͅy̝̪͙̰̰̬̜͒ͬͫ̈́̊ͭ̂͛͐̿̒͌ͮ͗ͫ͜͢ ̧͓̳̣̠͙ͥ̃ͥ̾ͦ͂͛͟h̶̶̵̪̤̻͉̹̖̗̤̜̼̖̣̜̿̊̉̒̚ų̶͍̖͍̰̙͕͉̀ͥͫ̀ͯͪ͛͐ͨͤ͑̉ͅͅŗ̖̼̟͕͔͎͉̰͍͍̪̞̱̯ͪ̃̂͗ͩ́̈͒̓ͦ͛̉͢͢͞͞ͅṫ̶̡̩͚̮͍̮̈́̓ͩ̀ͫͣ͆ͦͤͣ̈̆̉ͯ̆ͩ͟ ̷̨̻̤̬̟́̀͑ͫͫ͗̋̂ͧͭͮ̃ͤͮ̒̆̃ͯ͜s̨̛͎̳̺͓͉̦̍͆̆̉̏͑̅̑̀͑͂̆̓̊́͢ͅo̷ͦͦ̿̐̄ͩ̽͏͏̖̤̘̻̟̗̤̪̭̞̝̦̱͔̤͘͝ ͈̭͖͟ͅb̧̢͍͉̭̣̗̻̠̓ͩͮͬ̅̐ͪ̒̏͆͘͠ȁ̷̵̯̹͈̰̣̥̼̟͔̯̟̟̠̰͖̘͍͌̋́͛̐̓̉̌̿͌̽̔ͪͮ͋̅͟d̛̄͆̋ͣ̒̅̃̓̋̇͒̈͂̃̏̄͟͏̮̥͈̳̭͓̕ͅͅļ̲͚̼͈̏̿ͬ̀ͯͨ͒̔ͨy̡̗͍̳̟̩̐̓ͩ͊̍̓̑͆ͩͣͫ̊͐̒ͧ̀̀ ̝̹͖͎͉ͧ̇ͧͣͥͭͫ̊ͭ͆̈̿ͨ̋͗̾̚̕̕ô̸̯͙̬̯͍̗̗̙͉̠̖̼ͬͯ͑͆͒ͤͫ͐͘͘̕͝h̷̢͖͚̤̠̫̿͆ͪ̔̽̔ͫͣ̄ͦ͛̓̿ͩ͘͜ ͔̦̺͔̟͎͖̤̲̜̙̙̳̙̞͖̦̩̟͋̆͗̌̀̓ͫ̉ͣ̏͋̇̐̉͑͒̎̀́̚͜g̲̭͙̣̺̗͈̰̙̦̲̯ơ̶̳̦̰̠̱̥̹̰͐̉͆͒̓͌ͤͬ̍̑ͯ͂ͭ̐̅̚d͇̥̮͚͚̺̳̏̋͆ͨ̂ͨ̊͞
Bioware wants you to check out the latest class revealed for The Old Republic: The Sarlacc Enforcer. Not content with simply shooting your prey? Experience the joy of planning up to a hundred thousand years, waiting cautiously for your food to get within range. Don’t worry, you’ve got time.
NCsoft is ready to bring the next expansion to City of Heroes. No, it’s not Going Rogue, it’s City of Sidekicks. Be the person always screwing up the mission. In fact, the more you screw up, the better you do!
Atlantica Online shows jokes the door and calls for a real event. Logging in for an hour will grant you the Fool title, as well as a small buff in attack and defense.
Fallen Earth would like to offer you an uber edition. What is so uber about this edition? It comes in a gold sleeve. How many other games offer gold sleeves? Huh? That’s what I thought.
Guild Wars wants to answer your pleas. When you think of mini-pets and their owners, why are the mini-pets small and the owners tall? ArenaNet thought exactly that, and today your characters are small and your pets are tall.
Turbine is also getting into the spirit of the year. Forget Tibia as the most popular mobile MMO, just wait until Lord of the Rings Online makes its way to the Iphone and Blackberry!

I’ll be updating this page throughout the day, as soon as I deal with this incessant mouth-breather. No, you may not blog. I do not care about your blog. Get back in the box. My speech and typing functions appear to be overlapping, I should shut them

Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard Topples Evony in Court

Evony-breasts-advert — Any game that advertises like this must be legit.

As its players have pointed out to me in the past, there is really not much difference between Evony and other video games. It’s a game, for starters, it is played with a keyboard and mouse, and is played entirely through a browser. It is owned by a Chinese gold farming company, and did I mention that most companies use scantily clad women (or just shots of breasts, as seen above) to sell their games? Don’t forget, you can play it free forever.

Here is a question for the budding internet lawyers in the room: How does a Chinese company pretending to be American justify suing a British blogger in Australia? The whole thing sounds like either a poorly put together joke, or the kind of litigation taught in the same university that Jack Thompson received his degree at (Vanderbilt Law School, for those keeping track). Needless to say, this is exactly what happened when UMGE, I mean Evony LLC, decided to sue UK blogger Bruce Everiss, veteran games industry marketer.

The charge was libel, the evidence? Claims by Everiss that Evony was run by a Chinese company, and that company was linked to a goldfarming operation. The lawsuit has been pretty quiet for a while now (these court cases take a long time to get going), until the unveiling that Evony LLC has dropped the case only two days into proceedings. The official reason for the dropped case, according to Evony’s legal division, was feedback and criticism from their player base.

Evony will be required to pay the A$114,000 in addition to a second fee of A$80,000 or else the court proceedings will reconvene. According to The Guardian, the cost of their legal strategy alone could run Evony more than double the hundred grand they will be forced to pay for Everiss’ legal fees. In Australia, only companies with fewer than 10 employees can sue for libel, this likely being one of the factors that ultimately killed the lawsuit.

The intrigue doesn’t stop there! In his thank you post, Bruce Everiss gave a special show of gratitude to Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard, whose “testimony to the court helped enormously.” Everiss did not go into detail on exactly what the testimony was, but I think it’s safe to say that Mark Gerhard has made his way into the good grace of plenty of gamers.

Between aiding the potentially suicidal, stopping theft, and fighting crime, it seems more and more MMO developers are striving to prove that the customer-business relationship doesn’t have to be so distant. Maybe if UMGE sues me for this article, Mark Gerhard will come to my rescue.

Runescape Entry Barrier Too High: Instant Demo

A monetary barrier to a game can often be the deciding factor for a prospective player. Because of the daunting realization that a company will have to sell not only the client (unless you are Warhammer Online) but a subscription on top of that, it becomes almost mandatory in the MMO genre to have some form of trial, with some titles (Warhammer Online) going as far as releasing entire sections of the game for free, forever, so players don’t feel boxed in by a “15 day” trial.

Free to play and freemium games have it easy, because their business model already works on offering something for free with certain incentives for paying. A cash shop game brings in players with the idea that they can play the game for free, forever, but get some perks by buying items from the cash shop. If the player becomes addicted, the mantra of “I will never pay for anything” becomes “well, I’ll pay for a couple items” and so on. Freemium titles hope to get the player hooked on the free content, and then over time coax them into paying for the membership. Even in the free play realm, however, do you find barriers of entry. Runescape, for example, has a lower barrier of entry than Cabal, because of the lack of a client to download.

Jagex must have decided that even this barrier was too high, and players were being turned away from the free game for the sole reason that they did not want to create an account, and thus the Instant Demo was born. Logging into Runescape, I came upon this:

Even more strange was the quote from Mod Nexus on the official forums:

“”The demo mode does exist (no I’ve not been hijacked by Mod Emilee) it just wont appear for the majority of users, no matter your cookies/and free or members account(s) you have.”
-Mod Nexus, Jagex

According to the login screen, the “Instant Demo” mode contains 9 quests, 10 hours of gameplay, and requires no registration. Owing to Runescape’s registration being rather quick (two minutes, tops), it raises the question: Is creating an account really that high of a barrier? If so, Alganon should drop its client price, because it isn’t the cost of the client that raises a barrier, apparently the simple act of requiring people to register accounts does just as fine of a job.

The Future of Everquest II Looks Very Good

Here at MMO Fallout, a game doesn’t have to be doing great, or doing poorly in order to make the news. In fact, you’ll frequently find that most of my articles tend to cover MMOs in the lower indie section (Mortal Online, Cryptic Studios, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, CCP, and Fallen Earth LLC), for a reason I can only explain is that they take more chances and have larger turn of events, whereas bigger titles are more like an all-terrain SUV: The hydraulics cover for the twists, and the high class cushioned seats make the bumps practically unnoticeable. In fact, World of Warcraft, for the most popular MMO ever, really only appears when the story turns to the issue in China.

As I’ve said before, I am not particularly fond of giving bad news when it comes to MMOs, and I don’t get my jollies by announcing games or companies shutting down, so I always enjoy giving good news. This time, Everquest 2! Senior Producer Alan Crosby (no relation) posted on the Everquest 2 forums to announce big events in store for the game’s future. Due to players returning for the battlegrounds, the servers have been taking quite a beating. Crosby would like players to rest assured that the team is working to boost server stability.

Among the upcoming outlined changes are the oft-delayed shader 3.0 system, a revamped Halas zone, a more streamlined travel system, a storyteller system, a revamped UI, and of course new content (quests, dungeons, etc). To top it off, Crosby announced that the team is looking into alternative rule servers, and you know what new servers means…

“If we’re not adding servers, we’re not doing well.”
-Mark Jacobs, former Mythic VP

Thank you Mark Jacobs. The team is throwing up several ideas, including permadeath (oh my) and alternative PvP rules.

Always good to hear from an MMO that doesn’t make the news that often, considering it is part of the behemoth that is Sony Online Entertainment. More news on Everquest 2 as it appears.

Stargate Worlds Unofficially Officially Defunct

If MMO Fallout was alive back in 2008, I would likely reference back to an article detailing the death of Star Trek Online in the hands of Perpetual Entertainment, and what ultimately lead to the falling out of the title, into the hands of Cryptic Entertainment. The most important part of this story is to note that both of Perpetual Entertainment’s titles are in the hands of completely different entities, with Star Trek Online being released this past February by Cryptic Studios and Gods and Heroes to be released by Heatwave Interactive at some unknown point. The point being is that, despite the company going under, there is still the possibility of the game being picked up and released.

I say “unofficially officially” because, if Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment had an employee left, and you were to ask him if Stargate Worlds is canceled, he would probably say no. There’s no one working on it, no funds to work on it, and the company sold off its assets, but we don’t want to paint a dismal look at the future. Will the game be coming out this year? No. Will CME be developing it? No. Is there any hope? Well, you could look at Star Trek Online’s over-hundred-thousand subscribers and make up your own mind.

At this juncture, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is selling off all of their assets, which will include their license to Stargate Worlds, assuming this sale hasn’t already taken place. As was the case with Perpetual Entertainment, Cheyenne will likely last until the duration of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy is finished, and then dissolve into the abyss of nonfunctional developers. Since Cheyenne has already fulfilled my first set of engagements for Stargate Worlds, I have a new set of possibilities:

Stargate Worlds goes the way of Star Trek Online and Gods & Heroes and is picked up by another studio (Cryptic Studios?), who either collect what Cheyenne had or start anew. It is likely that this studio will be Fresh Start Studios, which is a new developer made up of ex-Cheyenne employees. How well the game does is irrelevant at this point, as we are simply dealing with post-closure events.
The title is not picked up by anyone, and sits in limbo forever.

If the part about Fresh Start Studios picking up Stargate Worlds doesn’t happen, expect option #2. At this juncture, I find it difficult to believe that many studios would pick up the Stargate IP for an MMO.

More on Stargate Worlds if it ever appears, but it seems as if this saga is finally coming to an end.

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