Test servers: Perfect for the developer who wants to publicly test things. Throughout history, or at least the past decade, test servers have been used for everything from stress testing to gauging player interest, to using player feedback to balance updates. In more recent years, a majority of developers have discovered the uses of a test server, and the number of MMOs that do not use these servers have dwindled substantially.
Surprisingly, however, players will not be given pre-made characters, and it appears that they also will not be able to copy existing characters over to the test server (a common practice in MMOs), but instead the characters that they do create will be placed in super-xp-mode, where leveling is quick and drops are jacked up for maximum efficiency. Whether or not this will slant feedback is up for grabs, but we will know that when the test servers launch next week.
Update: According to a report from Bethesda to Joystiq, the lawsuit has not been dropped. Please accept our apologies as our bounty hunter tracks down Interplay investor “Frymuchan” for his disservice.
“It’s an ongoing legal matter. I don’t know where whoever reported that got their information, but it is ongoing and we are going to see how it plays out in court.”
It feels like a long time since I’ve been able to update on the Bethesda/Interplay lawsuit, and in fact it’s been over four months since the latest lawsuit news! And what news it is:
Bethesda has dropped the lawsuit against Interplay, over the Fallout MMO “Project V13,” allowing the struggling developer to move full steam ahead in their development. The terms of the dropped lawsuit are in the secret vaults for now, but hopefully someone from Bethesda or Interplay can shed some light in the coming days, on the status of Project V13 and the two company’s involvement, and perhaps what led to the lawsuit being dropped.
For the sake of not getting up hopes, I’m still leaving Project V13 in the “rumor mill” file, as no longer being sued puts the title exactly where it was before the lawsuit began: On a long road to nowhere. We are also awaiting news of Bethesda’s upcoming MMO, speculated to be based on the Elder Scrolls universe (Well if it was a Fallout MMO, it is scrapped now)
The Fallout MMO is expected to go into beta sometime in mid-to-late 2012, and no that isn’t one of my jokes.
Warner Brothers has been on a spending spree this week, and their latest acquisition? Turbine Inc, in case you didn’t read the title. I won’t say much about Warner Brothers, considering they own virtually my entire childhood, but my favorite part of acquisitions always comes from the press releases, where both the purchaser and the purchased have a chance to perform the introductory sniffing.
“Turbine is a leader in online entertainment and a strong strategic fit for Warner Bros. as we continue to broaden our games portfolio and development capabilities,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. “Turbine’s renowned online game development and publishing expertise will help us develop additional online product offerings, while also providing us with new and innovative ways to market and communicate with our consumers.”
And…Turbine?
“We have been looking to expand access to our online worlds to more players and more markets,” said Jim Crowley, president and CEO, Turbine, Inc. “This acquisition is very exciting because it allows us to expand globally while continuing to focus on creating spectacular online games that our loyal fans and players have come to expect.”
The technically-no-longer-independent studio has a point! According to the press release, Warner Bros hopes to utilize Turbine’s experience in a pay-wall free cash shop to introduce new features to give people incentives to hold on to their games, such as charging people for upgrades to movie-themed games to update the title to correspond with the movie. Yes, what they are proposing is essentially a new name on DLC, but it is the thought that counts.
“The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online have both been an enormous success for Turbine and we look forward to working with their talented development team to continue creating award-winning online games.”
Yes, thank you Warner Bros! By the way, how much did Warner Bros pay for Turbine? You guessed it, $160 million, including sums to be paid to shareholders if they meet financial requirements over the next few years.
It feels like it was all the way back in January, more specifically the twelfth, that I was maliciously defending Runes of Magic (being the troll I am, apparently). Frogster implemented an update that bound all diamonds (cash shop currency) purchased to the player’s account, if said diamonds were purchased with a credit card or through Playspan. The reason for this was that gold farmers mainly were purchasing diamonds on throwaway accounts with stolen credit cards, and then transferring them to their main accounts to sell to buyers.
Well there is more news in Runes of Magic’s Diamondgate. Earlier today Runes of Magic shut down for what was supposed to be routine maintenance, only for an announcement to appear on the forums that the ability to trade diamonds for gold will be shut off for the time being. Frogster’s reasoning is due to a drastic rise in gold selling recently, and assures players that the trade will return once it is deemed “safe” to freely trade.
I’ve been floating around the internet since the days of AOL and Prodigy, and the main theme I’ve noticed in game communities is that the players (read: 12 year old boys be it in body or mind) are sexist enough with their “no girls on the internet” and the sudden change in attitude should a member of the female gender be present, God forbid use a microphone.
More importantly, I know what you’re thinking ladies: Why don’t we have a shopping MMO? Or a fashion MMO? I want every stereotype of women to come together as one title, so when my boyfriend (who is the man in the relationship) tells me to get off of his World of Warcraft account, which I am too feminine to understand, he has a title to direct me to where I belong. Well enVie (get it?) has exactly what you’re looking for! Virtual Worlds of Entertainment hopes to bring the MMO spectrum with an extra boost of estrogen. A social MMO (read: Second Life) with a slant, caters to women who want an “engaging online world that speaks to them.”
And what will you be doing in this engaging online world that speaks to you? All kinds of things women do all the time in real life. Enjoy unique shopping experiences, dabble in high fashion, make-up, and intimate encounters. It’s like a shopping mall and a romance novel all in one!
enVie was kind enough to send me their research material, unfortunately in my busy schedule I don’t have time to view all combined twelve seasons of Sex In The City and Desperate Housewives, although it is the thought the counts.
Before you check your calendars for what will undoubtedly be the fifth time, no this is not a belated April Fool’s joke. Hopefully enVie will use this time sparingly to produce a much more detailed explanation as to what this game entails, before people simply chalk it off as a Second Life with sex (read: Second Life)
Check your Java version: Do you have Java 6 Update 20? If not, download it now! Yesterday Sun released Java 6 Update 20, an out-of-cycle patch that fixes a gaping security hole in all current versions of Java, that allows an infected or booby-trapped website to pass on a drive-by download and install malware on the viewer’s computer. Security watchdog sites are reporting multiple websites that are running these drive-by download attacks, and warn everyone to update to the latest version immediately, or you put your computer’s security in a great deal of risk.
I am Blizzard, and this is my new mount. She weighs one hundred and fifty kilograms, and fires custom tooled cartridges at three hundred thirty three rounds per minute. This gun generates five hundred thousand dollars, to run for one hour.
Out of date references aside, Blizzard’s new mount was the subject of a bit of speculation I was planning for yesterday, wondering how many people (aside from a lot) would be willing to pay for a $25 mount that, aside from looking gorgeous, didn’t have any extra flair. Of course, that article went right out the window when I saw the queue just to purchase the mount: one hundred forty three thousand people.
WoW.com has done some number crunching, and estimated that the flying horse mount has generated approximately half a million dollars per hour in the first hours after its release. So good on you Blizzard. Some companies get blasted for much cheaper items being too expensive, but Blizzard proves once again to be the exception to the social rule.
MMO Fallout 
