2009 has come to a close, and has brought us plenty in terms of surprise sequels and drama. Here is a comprehensive list of the surprise sequels and drama that hit this past year.
2009: Surprise Sequels and Drama Aplenty
Check Out the Darkfall Demo!
According to the MMO Fallout reporters currently stationed in Greece, PC Master Magazine is currently giving away a promotional 10-day time card for Darkfall, alongside a client DVD.
…for those of you living in Greece. According to the MMO Fallout reporters currently stationed in Greece, PC Master Magazine is currently giving away a promotional 10-day time card for Darkfall, alongside a client DVD. This is going to be a short article, but I felt it was worth mentioning for a couple of reasons:
- The trial will most likely expand to Europe and, eventually, North America.
- Darkfall will see a surge of new players.
This demo system will bring a lot of help to Darkfall, of which is currently in a sinkhole of sorts: The only way to obtain the title, currently, is to pay the full $50 price tag, which many players are not willing to do on a game they haven’t even been able to trial.
More on the Darkfall trial system as it appears.
Guild Wars Vs Account Theives: Aion To Follow Suit
No, not as in lawsuit. NCsoft’s Guild Wars has been taking several measures to protect accounts from theft, including their most recent venture: Requiring you to name one character on your account in order to log in (meaning I just lost access to my account). Aion, also published by NCsoft, is taking a similar run of reminding players to keep their accounts secure, although for slightly different reasons. Guild Wars has fansites being hacked to worry about, while Aion is more focused on irritated gold farmers.
Aion bans thousands of accounts on a weekly basis and as you can expect, such a move can get pretty costly for gold farmers. The result? Using your accounts to gold farm. It saves cash, and there’s nothing to clean up when the ban hammer drops. Aion has released a security warning to players regarding in-game links being used to phish accounts, as well as the possibility of NCsoft master account theft.
I don’t think players should need to be reminded to be wary of what they click on, but here we are.
Ragnarok: Laid Off? Take Three on Us
In this troubled economy, we’ve all been facing some hard times. With unemployment in the United States over 10%, it is likely one in ten people coming to MMO Fallout have been laid off, or will be laid off. With the bills piling up and the income dropping to nothing, monthly video game subscriptions are likely to be the first things to fall.
Ragnarok Online recently launched Gravity Cares, that gives aid to those who have been recently unemployed. If you were a subscriber as of June 1st, and you were recently laid off after June 1st, you can submit a form to get three free months of membership to Ragnarok. You’ll have to send the form by snail mail, but the whole process shouldn’t take more than a couple weeks.
It’s not often a company comes along and does something generous like this. We’ve seen a few MMOs give discounts to military members, but this is the first jobless aid I’ve seen to date.
Happy Holidays!
It’s been an interesting few months here at MMO Fallout, but for everyone tuning in today, have a happy holiday.
No matter what your holiday may be.
If you’ll be spending it with your family,
Your Guild,
or that guy who won’t stop contacting you through Google Talk.
I’m taking a day off. See you on the 26th!
Shadowbane: What Happened
Out of all the titles that appear on What Happened, Shadowbane is the longest running. At six years, I would agree that although the game shut down, it was definitely a success in all manner of speaking. One of the top selling PC games at launch back in 2003, Shadowbane is still considered one of the best open pvp MMOs on the market. Offering fully open player vs player combat in a dynamic world where players can morph terrain, hire AI guards and have them patrol, as well as building and destroying buildings.
Shadowbane was not without bad times, however, and unfortunately when the bad times hit, they were very bad. The game transitioned to a free to play in 2006, where ads would be shown at different points in the game (open, close, and upon death). The game still suffered from a number of bugs and glitches, and in 2008 would be completely rebooted.
In 2008, Shadowbane went offline to perform a complete reboot in order to stabilize the servers and increase performance. As a result, all characters were deleted and all houses were destroyed. Only three of the five servers were brought back online.
Shadowbane was, from the start, a cult hit that never truly got off the ground, despite the rabid following of its fans. On one side, Shadowbane may be the only example of an internet petition actually accomplishing something. The original shut down date of May 2009 was extended to July due to player feedback.
Overall, Shadowbane was an interesting period in several ways: For instance, it showed how successful a game with Ultima Online’s mechanics can be, one that is parroted by Darkfall and Mortal Online. It gave ultimate freedom to the players, and did away with instancing, pre-set plots for housing, and other standards of MMOs.
There is the possibility that Shadowbane will be making a comeback, in the form of a non-MMO title. Ubisoft has recently trademarked the title for non-MMO purposes.
Direct2Drive and Impulse: Good Stuff Cheaper
And you thought Steam was the only digital download service that had Christmas specials. Once again, these prices are in USD.
Direct 2 Drive
- Crimecraft $39.99 $29.95
- Warhammer Online $29.99 $19.99
- Star Wars Galaxies $19.95 $9.95
- Final Fantasy XI $19.95 $9.95
- Alganon $39.95 $19.95
Impulse
- Eve Online: Dominion $19.95 $9.95
- Alganon $39.95 $19.95
- Fallen Earth $49.99 $24.99
Continue reading “Direct2Drive and Impulse: Good Stuff Cheaper”
The Matrix Online: What Happened
I’ve been sitting on the “What Happened” articles for Shadowbane and The Matrix Online for some time now, although I can’t explain why I’ve been waiting to put them out. With the upcoming shutdown of Dungeon Runners and Metaplace, I might as well get caught up on my shutdowns.
The Matrix Online launched back in March 2005, and truly had a lot going for it. An ever changing world, MxO had one of the best story systems in the MMO industry: One that changed by the week. Story progression took the part of new missions every few weeks, while live events were the main staple of immersion; with developers taking the part of the game’s NPCs and acting out live events, including the assassination of Morpheus. Players were brought into the storyline through hints of the following events that would appear over the city, such as certain billboards, or suspicious agents appearing.
Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We're Not Doing Well…
Vanguard is a tale of high expectations and the giant corporate belly. In fact, it only took four months after Vanguard’s release for Sony to gobble up the developers, Sigil. When Vanguard released in 2007, it was awarded the “Biggest Disappointment of the Year” award by Gamespy, noting the title’s lack of content, buggy performance, and the fact that the title was shoved out the door before completion.
It’s been a rocky two years for the title that was once touted as the Everquest 2 Killer. On the plus side, if anything just to get the good news out first, there will be more frequent (yet smaller) updates this year. Vanguard is looking at 2010 as a year to fix bugs, crush bugs, and fumigate the house. The developers are also looking at focusing on the story elements of the game, starting and ending chunks of storyline.
But the bad news, and there always is some, is that some planned updates have been shelved indefinitely:
Continue reading “Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We're Not Doing Well…”
Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We’re Not Doing Well…
Vanguard is a tale of high expectations and the giant corporate belly. In fact, it only took four months after Vanguard’s release for Sony to gobble up the developers, Sigil. When Vanguard released in 2007, it was awarded the “Biggest Disappointment of the Year” award by Gamespy, noting the title’s lack of content, buggy performance, and the fact that the title was shoved out the door before completion.
It’s been a rocky two years for the title that was once touted as the Everquest 2 Killer. On the plus side, if anything just to get the good news out first, there will be more frequent (yet smaller) updates this year. Vanguard is looking at 2010 as a year to fix bugs, crush bugs, and fumigate the house. The developers are also looking at focusing on the story elements of the game, starting and ending chunks of storyline.
But the bad news, and there always is some, is that some planned updates have been shelved indefinitely:
Continue reading “Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We’re Not Doing Well…”
MMO Fallout 