Excuse Me Aion, Have We Met Before?


This 9 minute trailer for Aion’s future is best viewed in HD. What you are seeing is a collection of projects NCsoft is working on for Aion, to be released at different times and not as a single update/patch.

Some of the features noted:

  • DirectX 10
  • Cryengine 2 upgrade
  • New zones
  • Dynamic weather and seasons
  • Player Cities
  • Mounts
  • More fluid combat
  • More weapon types (crossbows for starters)
  • New classes
  • City sieges
  • Player owned cities
  • More

No this video isn’t new, but it is a good indicator.

CCP: No, THIS Is How You Charity


How do you charity without donating money?

Inspiring rivalry between companies is one thing, but if given the opportunity, I would probably spur on a competition of who can think of the best way to get players giving to charity. To say that such a competition exists is probably morally reprehensible, but one can dream, in the form of “This is How You Charity.”

If there is one thing Eve Online is known for, it is the combat of real money trading by the ability to spend ISK on actual game time. A successful player can essentially play the game for free. Back in 2004, CCP held a charity drive where players could donate to the Asian tsunami relief. Now in 2010, they plan on doing the same for the Haiti earthquake relief.

Between January 29th and February 15th, players have the opportunity to donate their PLEX (30-day game cards that can be bought with in-game cash) to the “CCP PLEX for Haiti” character, which will be converted into cash, and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to charity. The Red Cross, specifically.

So get your Eve Online on..line, and get to donating!

So That's Where The Lineage 3 Code Went!


None shall pass!

Here at MMO Fallout, we pride ourselves on being able to not only take important legal matters and translate them into digestible snausages for the masses, but also the ability to refer to a one man team as “we.” With Atari Vs Turbine and Bethesda Vs Interplay on the table, it’s easy to overlook less reported cases. For starters, NCsoft Vs Bluehole Studios!

By the time Lineage 3 was first canned, quite a number of the game’s mechanics were already in place and, by measure, copyrighted. A couple members of the developer team moved on to Bluehole Studios, currently working on upcoming MMO “The Exiled Realm of Arborea” (TERA), sparking a lawsuit by NCsoft. According to NCsoft, the two developers took with them source code relating to several copyrighted technologies. Mr. Kang and Mr. Yo are the former employees named in the lawsuit.

Sadly the case jumped right over MMO Fallout, in terms of breaking news. At least until today, where the Seoul District Court has awarded over 2 billion won in compensation to NCsoft. Naturally, Bluehole is expected to appeal the ruling. It is uncertain what effect this hefty fine will have on Bluehole, or TERA.

2 billion won equates to approximately $1.7 million dollars USD. More on TERA, not so much on Lineage 3, as it appears.

So That’s Where The Lineage 3 Code Went!


None shall pass!

Here at MMO Fallout, we pride ourselves on being able to not only take important legal matters and translate them into digestible snausages for the masses, but also the ability to refer to a one man team as “we.” With Atari Vs Turbine and Bethesda Vs Interplay on the table, it’s easy to overlook less reported cases. For starters, NCsoft Vs Bluehole Studios!

By the time Lineage 3 was first canned, quite a number of the game’s mechanics were already in place and, by measure, copyrighted. A couple members of the developer team moved on to Bluehole Studios, currently working on upcoming MMO “The Exiled Realm of Arborea” (TERA), sparking a lawsuit by NCsoft. According to NCsoft, the two developers took with them source code relating to several copyrighted technologies. Mr. Kang and Mr. Yo are the former employees named in the lawsuit.

Sadly the case jumped right over MMO Fallout, in terms of breaking news. At least until today, where the Seoul District Court has awarded over 2 billion won in compensation to NCsoft. Naturally, Bluehole is expected to appeal the ruling. It is uncertain what effect this hefty fine will have on Bluehole, or TERA.

2 billion won equates to approximately $1.7 million dollars USD. More on TERA, not so much on Lineage 3, as it appears.

Red 5: Goodbye For Now, West! Hello China!


I don't want to go on the cart

A man once said, “Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach Gym.” I have a similar phrase for companies that make MMOs:

“Those who can’t develop, develop for China.”
-Omali, MMO Fallout, on the Asian MMO Market

Now, if you’re going to accuse me of implying that the Asian MMO market is saturated with hundreds of titles that are nothing more than cookie cutter item mall clones with enough grind to turn a pepper plant into microscopic sized specks, developed by small companies that rake in huge profits of the item mall selling faster leveling and insanely rare items for cash, and then use that money to not support the product by not getting rid of the endless amount of gold farmers that will populate the server and sell to a market in the millions whose standards barely break the point of “I don’t care about lore, immersion, or anything else as long as I can kill this one NPC several thousand times over,” well I would have no idea what you are talking about. I contest your assumption that I am comparing the quality aspect of developing for the Asian market, to the literature aspect of writing a book for toddlers.

Red 5 Studios was founded by World of Warcraft veterans, including Mark Kern, Team Lead over at Blizzard, which could lead one to believe that the company would be marginally as successful as Blizzard. Thanks to some trouble hiring, despite Red 5 going as far as bribing the hopefuls with Ipod Shuffles, development at the new studio never took off the ground. A company that fits the profile of “Never was, is not, and never will be,” Red 5’s initial staff of 100 was butchered down to 65 in 2008, after the company closed its Shanghai office.

Red 5 has confirmed that they have had another round of layoffs, leaving the company with a skeleton crew of just over 30 employees. Webzen, who you will remember took control of Archlord in the Western markets, invested in Red 5 back in 2008, over an MMOFPS that the developer was working on. It now appears that the title may never be released, and Red 5 has plans for another game.

This time, rather than a worldwide release, Red 5 will be “restructuring” and focusing on releasing an MMO in the Chinese market, although they are still claiming that the MMOFPS is not down and out yet, simply shelved until a further date. Haven’t heard that before.

More on Red 5 as it appears.

Runes of Magic: No, THIS Is How You Charity


I believe there's a "shut down MMO Fallout" fund you can give to.

Here at MMO Fallout, I like to spur competition between companies when the outcome can only be good things. For example, two companies fighting over who can feed the most homeless, or who can produce the most adorable puppy. Naturally, I have to settle, but who can donate the most to charity is just as well. If I get to throw in a jab at Ndoors, and their attempted scam questionably ethical Child’s Play charity run that Child’s Play rejected (due to Ndoors taking 95% of the donations and pocketing it), well the merrier.

Back in November, Runes of Magic discounted one of their mounts and gave the players an offer: If you buy this mount for $15, we will donate $4.50 to charity. The charity in question is “Save the Children,” an organization dedicated to improving the lives of children in the 50 countries it is located, with workers now located in Haiti aiding in the relief effort.

Thanks to player purchases, Frogster has donated over fifty thousand USD. I just have one question: Do I write Mao’s Charity Steed or Runes of Magic on my tax writeoff?

Cities XL To Shut Down This March


Historical inaccuracies aside.

With all the commotion(?) over Phantasy Star Universe biting the dust this March, one might think three MMOs shutting down would be enough for the first half of 2010. Odds are none of those people play Cities XL. In an open letter to the community,  Monte Crisco emailed all current subscribers to let them know that Cities’ MMO part, “Planet Offer,” will be shutting down early this year. March, more precisely the 8th.

As for why, well allow me to sum it up in just a few words:

“Not enough players decided to subscribe.”
Monte Crisco

Low subscriber numbers is generally the deciding factor in shutting down an MMO, when the game no longer becomes profitable. Luckily, players will have full access to the single player game even after the online part shuts down.

Monte Crisco’s letter to the community after the break.

Continue reading “Cities XL To Shut Down This March”

Chronicles of Spellborn 2.0 On Its Way!


It's coming back.

Technically, The Chronicles of Spellborn never went anywhere. Back in MMO Fallout’s infancy, I wrote about Acclaim taking over the MMO, with the intentions of reviving the game and relaunching it the next year with a free to play, microtransaction model. Until then, of course, Chronicles of Spellborn would be completely free to play.

Well, 2010 has come around, and that means it’s about time for an announcement from Acclaim as to the status of this reboot. On the Spellborn forums, we were treated to not just any customer service rep’s explanation, but the CEO himself Howard Marks. Marks had this to say,

“The rumors are true! Spellborn Version Two is on the way. The developer has released the new version in Japan, and based on the success of that launch and the fine tuning of the game, we will keep you informed as to when we shall launch the English version of the game. When we do, we will be inviting registered players of the old version, who have valid email addresses on file, to become our beta players. In the meantime, why not check out some of our other great free games at www.acclaim.com? Hope to see you ingame! ”
— Howard Marks, CEO of Acclaim Games, Inc.

Thank you How-did he just say that this has already been released in Japan? The Japanese market must be a better litmus test for Chronicles of Spellborn if you are willing to base the relaunch of the title in a completely separate market based off of the results.

For the record, I still recommend trying out Chronicles of Spellborn, or Acclaim’s two other free to play MMOs. There hasn’t been much more information about the tweaks that will be coming, but MMO Fallout will be here to cover the relaunch of Chronicles of Spellborn.