Gauging subscriber numbers in an MMO that doesn’t want to reveal them is difficult. Although it is possible to go through a company’s financial reports and make an estimation based on income, you still won’t end up with a hard number. Gold farmers, on the other hand, are an excellent indicator of how well the game is doing. An easy formula to remember is that as presence and force go up, the population goes up with it. In Aion, for example, gold farmers see the game as such a lucrative market that they are doing everything short of breaking into the NCWest offices armed with pistols, in order to push NCsoft back and keep selling to the community.
So launching to one million accounts aside, if I had to gauge Star Trek Online’s success by how many spam bots I had to put on ignore this morning in-game, I’d have to say the title is doing well for itself. Cryptic also appears to be doing a decent job of banning the bots, as almost all of the accounts I put on ignore were banned by the time this article is coming out.
More on Star Trek Online as it appears. Oddly enough, I don’t remember Champions Online having this issue. Maybe gold farmers hate super heroes.
Perfect World’s upcoming MMO Battle of the Immortals breaks one of the unwritten and of questionable logic, yet universally fundamental rules of MMOs: Pets don’t aid in combat. For some reason or another, the idea that any pets that are not part of a summoning spell, should be vanity pets that do not give an advantage, in some effort for fairness. Personally, I have never fallen into the idea that having a pet that aids you in combat would somehow make you overpowered, and it is good to see Perfect World breaking the mold with Battle of the Immortals.
In Battle of the Immortals, as announced this week, players will have the opportunity every now and then to capture their fallen foes as pets. These pets are afforded their own abilities to aid in Player vs Environment and even player vs player combat. To further this stray from the norm, mounts will also receive the same treatment, allowing upgrades to give different abilities.
I am a rabid collector of vanity pets (and I will not sleep until I have every action figure in Champions Online), but I think it is time we threw away this misguided belief that pets with benefits would somehow overthrow the balance of the game, especially when that game already has classes that can summon items, or hunters who have their own pets they can tame.
The Battle of the Immortals closed beta starts in less than a week. Head over to massively and grab yourself a key while they still have some!
Meridian 59 is acclaimed as the first MMORPG, following a long line of Multi-User-Dungeons (MUDs) and paving the way for Ultima Online to come in and steal the show only to give way to Everquest, and eventually World of Warcraft. Despite a fifteen year timeline, these titles are still up and running to this day, Meridian making its rounds at fifteen years. Unfortunately if these titles had been released on the home console market, they would have died out a long time ago.
When Turbine said that developing for a console was easier than developing for a PC, they were 100% correct, but for the wrong reasons. Developing for a console is easy because you can optimize the game for one configuration, hence why each current generation console is able to get current generation graphics despite comparatively low specs to the equal PC (A pc may need two gigabytes of ram to what the console only requires 512 megabytes). With a console you don’t have to worry about people screaming for support for every obscure peripheral device, and cheating is much less of an issue (well it was at least).
I said the most important thing an MMO has to deal with for success is retention rate, not only pulling in a lot of subscribers but keeping them there after they have started paying those monthly fees. Obviously keeping the game flowing is a cause, but it all pours into keeping the subscribers happy while keeping your focus of the game.
Console MMOs, however, have a generally unmentioned brick wall: Life expectancy. This week Microsoft announced that on April 15th, Xbox Live will shut down for good on the original Xbox. Not only will service for the Xbox shut down, but also service for all Xbox Original games on the 360, meaning say goodbye to your Halo 2 multiplayer statistics, those are gone. Now, the Xbox doesn’t have any MMOs to speak of, but it does raise a firm brick wall: Not only does the MMO have to deal with its own life expectancy, but that of the console’s online service. Granted, an MMO that was released on the Xbox two years before the Xbox 360 launch would have enjoyed a five year lifetime, but you could still look towards Everquest, Ultima Online, and Meridian that are still running after ten years.
As far as console MMOs, players have the choice between Final Fantasy XI, Everquest, and almost nothing else. Phantasy Star Universe is here, but shutting down on all systems sans Xbox360 this March, and Massive Action Game is making its rounds on the PS3 but just launched last month. Other than Final Fantasy’s success, which has been slight compared to the PC MMO market, and Everquest limping along which topped out at below thirty thousand and has since dropped, the only other MMO to speak of is the Phantasy Star Universe line. Each Phantasy Star Online title in the franchise has had a two to three year life expectancy before shutting down due to low subscriber numbers.
So the MMO market in consoles may be bigger, but tapping into that market is a difficult venture that has yet to be accomplished. Age of Conan, Star Trek Online, Champions Online, The Secret World, and DC Universe Online are just a few of the titles looking to break into the MMO marketplace, with Massive Action Game just recently launching on the PS3 to much support from the fans. Although doing analysis would be much easier if the publishers would give us straight numbers on the titles, all we can do is go by the official reports, as well as reports from players on the field.
Is there a console version of World of Warcraft (not literally) that will rise up and tell all of the other console MMOs how the game is really played? If the (slightly buggy) transferral of Final Fantasy XI from the Playstation 2 to the Playstation 3 is any indicator, hopefully we can avoid the human aspect of the console MMO (That just because your neighbor was gunned down at the age of 25 and you weren’t doesn’t mean you are going to live forever).
Who would have thought I would be following up on a Blizzard story and a Red 5 story at the same time? The9 is a spurned lover. After losing the rights to World of Warcraft Asia-Edition earlier this year to NetEase (granted, who promptly got the game banned just as quickly) and taking a massive loss in revenue, assuming that the company was in some financial difficulty would not be too illogical. Of course, you would be wrong. Not only does The9 have some moolah saved up, likely from the time World of Warcraft was feeding them seven or eight million players in the Asian region, they have enough to financially back two companies: Fire Rain and Red 5.
“Wait a minute, Omali,” you say. “I know that name, Red 5!” I would certainly hope so, I mentioned them just about a week ago. Red 5 has been in the news several times, not only because their MMOFPS is so tightly under wraps that the company actually suffocated (and will likely cancel) it, but because of the substantial number of employees who have been laid off over the past few years. A company of over one hundred has been reduced to approximately 35, and according to my last report, is currently focusing on an MMO for the Chinese Market.
Red 5 has been to death’s door and back, but will it be enough to sustain the company to completion of its Chinese MMO, let alone to spark a re-interest in that MMOFPS they were working on so many ages ago?
More on Red 5 Studios, and the obligatory Star Wars references, as it appears.
Dr. Aeon needs your help, presumably apart from constant wrong numbers trying to reach Aion’s customer support. In his war on television, and the “facts” they use to slander him, Aeon is calling on the best and brightest heroes and villains alike to help him spread his propaganda. Help him, and he may have something of far more value for you: A jump start on the upcoming City of X graphics upgrade, for all players.
Hopefully this news straight from the mouth of an insane roleplaying GM is more of an indication that the much needed graphics upgrade will be coming sooner rather than later (later still being sometime before Going Rogue goes…rogue). City of Heroes will be celebrating six years running this April, and six years has taken much of a toll on the title.
Next to Aion, City of Heroes still stands as one of NCsoft’s more profitable titles after all of these years, and the graphics upgrade is just icing on the cake at this point. Whether or not the fan reaction to the “event” will actually have a toll on release is unknown, but it is likely Dr. Aeon just knows something that we don’t.
Last month I talked about Aventurine’s plans for Darkfall this year, more specifically the focus on making the new player experience much more of a soft palm and not a bronze-knuckled fist. I also raised concern that this is creating speculation in the Darkfall community that this will bring updates along the lines of the New Game Enhancements, Ultima Online’s Trammel, and Runescape’s trade restrictions. The fact that those updates went through with as cryptic a notice, and Star Wars Galaxies did a lot of damage to developer-customer trust, doesn’t help the situation. I noted that more information would be coming in the near future.
I can say what I want, but with a recent announcement by Aventurine, the usual group just got another reason to call care-bear on the title. In a message to the community earlier today, Tasos announced the specifics of the previously mentioned new player experience. With it brings a very limited protection program, where new accounts have what is called newbie protection, that protects them from other players. Lasting for only a few hours, newbie protection will only allow for combat against monsters, inside of the new player zone. You can not damage other players, nor can you use structures that cause damage to other players. Teleports, Runestones, portals, clans, mounts, and skilling up on other players is also disabled while Newbie Mode is active.
The NPE is optional, and can be turned off at any point. Luckily the Darkfall community as a whole is backing up this protection, and Tasos’ confirmation that it was implemented specifically “without softening the game.” Despite the outcry of the normal vocal minority, who still believe this to be a ‘slippery slop’ towards a Trammel-esque update, Aventurine is showing that they know who they are advertising to, but that those players should be helped as they get used to the game, not punished.
Warhammer 40k Online is one of those titles you don’t read too much about, except for plenty of speculation on the part of the public. Announced three years ago, we know now that the MMO will be slated for release in 2012 (Competing year with the Fallout MMO Beta). I’ve wanted to do an article on the Warhammer MMO because, as far as titles go, I feel Warhammer 40k’s hype may end up killing it before it comes out of the womb.
As it stands, Warhammer has a following of what I refer to as the disgruntled Ex. Players who left Warhammer Online, who are now looking towards the 40k MMO for everything they expected from Warhammer Online. Such conditions can only lead to even higher disappointment than what the players may have experienced had Warhammer Online never entered the picture. The 40k MMO will also have to pass the hurdle of being the “spiritual successor,” despite absolutely no links to the original game aside from lore, where the two face a level of comparison down to the microscopic level.
In the absence of information, people will fill in the void with their own speculation, and the end result is never good. THQ hopes to fill this void this summer at the Electronics Entertainment Expo where Warhammer 40k Online will be fully revealed in all of its splendor and glory. Until then, more on Warhammer 40k Online as it appears.
Dungeons and Dragons went free to play earlier this year, and ever since then Turbine has been on the hot streak with the title. Apart from opening up a new server, Turbine noted a 40% increase in paying subscribers as a result of this program. Players are enjoying the game, paying for content, and the game has turned into an even bigger cash cow for Turbine. So I know what you’re thinking, prospective Dungeons and Dragons Online Players: Omali, how can this deal get sweeter? Does Turbine have an update, let’s call it Update 3, coming out that will make Dungeons and Dragons Online even better, even if I don’t want to pay?
That is an extremely specific question, and good enough that I have an extremely specific answer! The answer of course is yes. Turbine has raised the bar once again, offering more to free players while at the same time not detracting from the subscriber experience.
Leveling sigils are no more, removing the limit on levels on free players.
New high level dungeons for all players.
Solo difficulty has been removed and replaced with “casual” difficulty. Essentially it is solo difficulty, but able to be used by groups.
And new items in the item mall.
While you’re at it, take part in two new events in celebration of the game’s upcoming 4 year anniversary (February 26th).
Dungeons and Dragons remains among the best free to play games on the market, and if you have not checked the title out, now is as good of a time as any. Dungeons and Dragons Online still receives regular major content updates every two to three months.
I have good news and I have bad news for you Cryptic fans out there, and in favor of the old journalistic value of stringing you along, I will start with the good news.
This news concerns Star Trek Online, which launched just yesterday. Despite the fanfare of the vocal minority on the Star Trek forums over the open beta and head start, Star Trek Online opened to better than expected numbers, one million accounts. Aside from being on the top 10 lists on Amazon, Steam, Direct 2 Drive, and other venues, Cryptic’s latest title has been doing so well that the company will be beefing up the server capacity in order to contain it all.
Unfortunately, where there is good, there is bad. While Star Trek Online players prosper, Chamions Online players are met with sorrow. Those of you who play Champions Online, and are at least moderately active in the forums, will likely know Daeke, Cryptic’s Community Manager. No, Daeke was not pulled out of a ship through its open hull (well, he wasn’t killed by it, but that is another story entirely. Daeke has left Cryptic, on unknown terms he is either not willing to talk about or unable to legally.
I think even those who constantly complain about Cryptic will be sad to see Daeke go, although the conspiracy train is already trudging out of the station. The speculators believe that Daeke was fired due to his slipping of the information that the next expansion in Champions Online would be a paid-for expansion, a factor Cryptic may have wanted to keep under wraps, especially considering the uproar the announcement has caused.
Gustav says: Don't say anything without a lawyer present.
Being the purported Cryptic employee that I am, I have to take as much opportunity as possible to spread uncertainty among those who would otherwise believe such claims. Granted, a talk with Cryptic will offer more specific results than, say, a talk with Jagex’s CEO Mark Gerhard (Ask him anything about the game, assuming he even acknowledges the question, the answer will likely be “I can’t talk about that at this time.”), but the question still remains as to whether or not Cryptic takes player feedback to heart. Take, for example, earlier last year I reported on Cryptic’s seeming lack of recognition towards their own test servers, not only making the mistake of having a two hour cooldown during the Blood Moon event, but after lowering the time making the exact same mistake on the Winter event.
Ask Cryptic is back, on this forum thread, you can literally ask Cryptic anything you want, on any subject, as long as it is respectfully worded (No, you can’t ask “why are you guys such Nazi nickle-and-dimers”). If the question is related to upcoming content, your odds of getting a straight answer are much more likely. Otherwise if you’re going to be giving a little bit of advice, you may be better off doing it on the feedback forums where you can be ignored on a more fulfilling level.
Not to say Cryptic doesn’t care about its userbase, but they have had something of a breakdown in communications ever since Champions Online, that is yet to have been corrected. Moments that make you wonder who in their right mind green-lighted that move.
MMO Fallout 