Runes of Magic: Credit Card/Paypal Blocks In Plain English


If Funcom's money was gold-backed...
Gold: Welcome to the club...

I wanted to have a slightly more serious conversation about a certain title that has garnered quite a bit of controversy around it by outside players and its community. I am, of course, referencing to the newly instated Diamond policy that restricts what players can do with diamonds purchased through certain avenues. Diamonds are a currency in Runes of Magic that are purchased with real life money. They can be traded to other players, or used to purchase items in the item mall.

Frogster implemented an update that restricts diamond usage among players, due to players using stolen credit cards and stolen paypal accounts to purchase diamonds, to send to their main accounts. Those who buy their diamonds with a credit card or paypal account, or even a Playspan account will not be able to trade the diamonds, nor will they be able to sell them on the auction house. They will be bound to your account, and can only be used on the item mall for items that will be bound to your character.

Explanation after the break.

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Conan Inactive Character Deletion: Barbaric Resolution

Those of you with inactive accounts that have characters below level 20 will have already received an email regarding this, or will be receiving one. In order to consolidate space and free up storage and names on the servers, due to an upcoming server merge, Funcom will be deleting inactive sub-20 characters.


Now that that is over...

That’s a nice tutorial character you have there. It’d be a shame if something were to happen to it. As I’m sure you’re aware, accidents happen all the time. You try to open a door, and suddenly you get struck in the head by a freak tire iron accident. Or those cars, we all know about those random explosions that occur when you try to start the engine. Just saying, a little protection money can go a long way.

Ok, so Funcom isn’t going to beat you with a tire iron if you don’t resubscribe, nor am I aware of any Italian mobsters who converse through cryptic dialog, but they will delete your unused, inactive characters that are under level 20. Those of you with inactive accounts that have characters below level 20 will have already received an email regarding this, or will be receiving one. In order to consolidate space and free up storage and names on the servers, due to an upcoming server merge, Funcom will be deleting inactive sub-20 characters.

More after the break.

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King of the MMOFPS Hill: Sony Vs CCP Vs Blizzard Vs Infinity Ward


By this time in, oh I’ll go for a long shot, 2011 we should be seeing the outcome of the battle of the titans: Four major contenders looking to bring their best and brightest to the field and answer one question: Who will dominate the MMOFPS market? Granted, two of the contenders are not actually fully declared.

According to insider reports, Blizzard’s unnamed upcoming MMO will be split into two parts, a social aspect and a first person shooter. Virtually nothing is known about the MMO so far. Likewise, Infinity Ward is rumored to be working on a Call of Duty MMO, with Modern Warfare 3 being moved to another company. Of course, there is Sony Online Entertainment, with the recent announcement of Planetside 2, and the most confirmed of the group: DUST 514.

More after the break…

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Speak Your Mind #1


Here at MMO Fallout, the articles usually come from one of two sources:

  1. News/Game websites: This is, obviously, where the news items come from. I have quite a large host of websites I get the news from, including news websites and the websites of the games themselves. This is the source I generally use when an article is more informative than persuasive, although I will add my own thoughts in if applicable (server closures, shutdowns, etc). Since most of these websites take weekends off, you’re much more likely to see opinion articles on weekends (news doesn’t happen on weekends, at least not on the internet).
  2. Blogs/Chat/Forums: My second source comes from random blogs, discussions I have in chat, and forums I read, that inspire me to discuss pertinent issues. I try to keep my articles unique based on those that I see from other blogs (Which is why you haven’t seen a “Alganon: Clone of WoW?” article here). I decided to not do a “best of 2009”, instead opting for my own questions of 2009 and hopes for the future, as well as a little roundup of drama over the year.

Where MMO Fallout truly thrives, and where my own message for this blog exists, is in talking to the players. If there is an MMO argument/debate going on in a game, you can probably bet that I am part of it in some fashion. By argument/debate, I mean an actual human conversation, not “this game sucks” or “that game is better”, although I will throw around sarcastic remarks as if I’m paid to do it.

I have been “found” a few times in the MMOs I play, as my username is virtually always Omali, or some variation of it (Omali, Jomali, and Katanda are the three most likely). The people I have talked to are very engaging, and regularly do I end up penning an article for MMO Fallout based on our discussion, however related to the actual content it is. I can find out only so much by the first option in my list of sources, many of my longest standing articles have been penned up thanks to my discussion with players (including the current NCsoft scandal. Thanks to select players, I began covering the story long before most other MMO websites picked up.

So what’s on your mind, viewers of MMO Fallout? Any questions on your mind that don’t fit into other articles? Think of this as a place to just get everything off of your chest.

Mythic Taking Back Dark Age of Camelot


...in Europe.

After eight years of publishing Dark Age of Camelot, European GOA will be handing the title back to its developers, Mythic Entertainment. Mythic will be handling the maintenance of the European servers starting in a couple of weeks. As for information on times, character transfers, and versions, localizations, and other details, Mythic had this to say:

“We are currently working with GOA to take over operation of the game and its European community, and will soon be providing details about pressing player questions such as existing subscriptions, character transfers, game versions, localization, and more.”
-Andy Belford on Dark Age of Camelot Europe

Luckily, unlike last year’s move of Archlord from Codemasters, this move isn’t marred with controversy (Unless you include the usual claims that this, much like any other news, is a sign of the game’s coming demise). I am interested in seeing how Mythic will be handling the transfers, although my guess is that players will have the option to transfer characters over.

As with anything, anything can happen. More on Dark Age of Camelot moving back in with its parents as it develops.

Champions Online Unlimited Demo Getting More Unlimited?


No longer the last thing demo players will see...

Earlier last year, slightly over two weeks ago to be exact, I reported the announcement that Champions Online would be joining the unlimited beta group, releasing the tutorial for free forever. Players have the opportunity to play through the first fifteen levels, fight off the Qulaar invasion, and apparently making me look like a bribed spokesperson, or possibly a fanboy:

“At least with Champions Online, you’re not seeing the best the game has to offer, suckering you into buying the title, followed by immediate disappointment when you realize that you just bought a house based on the mailbox and the garage door, to find the rest of the building had been burned down in a fire.”
-Omali, MMO Fallout, on Champions Online

My apologies to Age of Conan and Warhammer Online fans, and my condolences to the families of the keyboards you broke in the process of writing me hatemail.

But there are more important things afoot! The MMO Fallout super sleuths (myself stalking dev posts on various forums) were able to come up with this quote by Cryptic Studios’ Daeke, showing that the company is giving strong consideration to opening up more of the game for the unlimited demo’ers to play.

That quote, of course, after the break.

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Cryptic Wants Your Feedback on Christmas Event…


likely won't listen to it...

Part of my job here on MMO Fallout is to point out the flaws in developers, and in today’s case: Cryptic’s major issue is that, for how much they hype up their player communication, they do not listen to players. I said this several months ago (You Have Public Tests, USE THEM) after problems arose concerning easily fixed issues with the Halloween event.

The issues that arose out of the Halloween event were easily fixed, and many of them were fixed that night. The most ridiculous, however, was the two hour countdown that each portal had on it until the next opportunity to participate in the event, meaning players spent more time hopping instances hoping that their portal of choice wasn’t taken. Issues also arose with perks not being handed out correctly; I myself missed half of the Halloween perks, despite several attempts at the undead heroes, because the system simply refused to acknowledge my participation in the fight.

And here comes the Christmas event, after the break.

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Funcom: Going Casual


Sweet Robot, er, tiger?

With Funcom working on an expansion to Age of Conan, as well as the upcoming The Secret World, and the engine change to Anarchy Online, I admit I was both surprised and concerned when the announcement came that Funcom’s new division, Sweet Robot, would be working on a kid’s MMO: PetsVs Monsters. After playing Pets Vs Monsters: The Beta, the concern has relegated itself to my lower intestinal track.

But who knew? The same company that brought us layoffs and greatly lowered revenue is also bringing us more casual titles! Granted, this is nothing new. Back in a time when Ritual Entertainment made great first person shooters, they were gobbled up by Mumbojumbo and are now creating casual titles. Funcom announced that they have even more casual kid MMOs planned for the future, with Pets Vs Monsters in open beta currently.

Continue reading “Funcom: Going Casual”