Tag: Cryptic Studios

MMOments: League of Incredibly Awkward Gentlemen


vacation

Today’s MMOments comes from Champions Online and may be the creepiest interactive moment I have ever experienced in an MMO since I stumbled on a GM cybering in Age of Conan. I recently started playing Champions Online again, creating a new character since I’m using the Perfect World account that managed to get a beta invite to Neverwinter and there are no characters on it. Since Cryptic has seen fit to set up a new studio with the sole purpose of fixing Champions Online, I figured why not? Now I know why not.

Champions Online has a habit of sneaking missions on you, and occasionally you’ll be walking around and an NPC will come up and invite you to start a quest. So when the game threw a popup on the screen asking if I would like to accept an invitation to the fortress of something or other, I hit accept thinking nothing of it. The map loads and my hero is standing at the door in this low-lit mission control room with a table in the center and the adjoining chairs all filled with darkly lit figures. One of the figures says “please, have a seat.” You have to look at this with the understanding that it was so well choreographed that this is one of those rare moments in gaming where you’re not entirely sure if the person you’re speaking to is a hardcore role player or just a really atmospheric scripted event.

So I walk over to the table and have no idea how to sit down, so I just kind of stand at my seat. I can now see that the table is headed by Superman, Captain Marvel, Albert Wesker from Resident Evil, and two other heroes. The addition of licensed heroes/villains makes my brain tick “alright this is clearly just a roleplaying clan.” The Man of Steel continues his dialog about how we’ve all been gathered to join forces to stop a nearly invincible hero that is threatening to destroy the world, and the presentation of his speech and the stillness of the other “actors” has me once again thinking I might have stumbled into, say, someone’s foundry mission or something of the like. The only comparison I can think of is when you are dreaming and your mind realizes you are probably dreaming so you try to break your surroundings but you can’t so you’re stuck in a self-realized limbo.

This is the first time that I’ve ever exited out of a game because I felt too awkward to keep playing, and I will probably never know if those were real players or just scripted NPCs.

MMOrning Shots: Champions Tronline


CO_070313_7

Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Perfect World Entertainment, and shows a piece of the new story arc hitting Champions Online, FATAL ERROR. Players are tasked with saving the world’s supercomputer from being hacked, I can only assume by a subsection of comic-book rendered neckbeards living in their mother’s basement. Episode 1: Intranet Deployment, has launched on the live servers allowing players to dive in and grab some exclusive gear and even a vanity action figure, as well as Questionite ore.

Intranet Deployment acts as a daily instance/mission. You can check out the announcement page at the link below.

(Goto: Champions Online)

Star Trek Online Is Perfect World’s Best Product


screenshot_2010-01-12-13-03-55

So life isn’t exactly perfect over at the Cryptic Studios offices right now. Long story short, a series of bad choices and oversights on the part of the Cryptic team lead to a very long thread and a long apology from producer Dan Stahl. I will allow Mr. Stahl to explain it in concise detail:

An apology is due, and while I’ve admitted fault in previous posts about this , I’ll do so again in this one. The release that was pushed to Holodeck last week failed in several critical ways. There was a failure on the part of a designer to test their work before it was checked into the game. Similarly, there was a failure in communication with the QA team on the said check in and on top of that, no one headed the concerns on TRIBBLE. Ultimately, this is all my responsibility as the lead on the team and I do apologize. There has been corrective action on our end to address this issue and it is our intention that the build going out to Holodeck tomorrow will resolve problems introduced last week. This doesn’t mean that all bugs on Holodeck are magically gone, it means that we are looking into the processes that cause these bugs and taking action to correct them.

In addition, the removal of Fleet Marks was a heavy handed change. It needed to be done because it was getting out of hand and there was an ever increasing amount of exploitation in the Foundry to maximum Fleet Mark rewards. That said, we should have had the Fleet Mark changes we are making this week ready to go last week so there wouldn’t have been a week with the drop in Fleet Mark earning. Again sorry. It doesn’t make us feel any better when we make stupid mistakes.

One bit of information to take out of this is Stahl’s comment that Star Trek Online is currently Perfect World Entertainment’s most successful title. This puts the game over other big titles in Perfect World’s library, from the Torchlight series, Blacklight, PWI, and more.

While you may not agree with all of our designs and decisions, the proof is in the success the game is having and how much the game continues to grow. While we don’t share our internal information, STO is the best performing game for Perfect World Entertainment and is enjoy month after month increases in new captains.

This also puts Star Trek Online above Cryptic’s other game, Champions Online.

(Source: Star Trek Online Forums)

Star Trek Online Is Perfect World's Best Product


screenshot_2010-01-12-13-03-55

So life isn’t exactly perfect over at the Cryptic Studios offices right now. Long story short, a series of bad choices and oversights on the part of the Cryptic team lead to a very long thread and a long apology from producer Dan Stahl. I will allow Mr. Stahl to explain it in concise detail:

An apology is due, and while I’ve admitted fault in previous posts about this , I’ll do so again in this one. The release that was pushed to Holodeck last week failed in several critical ways. There was a failure on the part of a designer to test their work before it was checked into the game. Similarly, there was a failure in communication with the QA team on the said check in and on top of that, no one headed the concerns on TRIBBLE. Ultimately, this is all my responsibility as the lead on the team and I do apologize. There has been corrective action on our end to address this issue and it is our intention that the build going out to Holodeck tomorrow will resolve problems introduced last week. This doesn’t mean that all bugs on Holodeck are magically gone, it means that we are looking into the processes that cause these bugs and taking action to correct them.

In addition, the removal of Fleet Marks was a heavy handed change. It needed to be done because it was getting out of hand and there was an ever increasing amount of exploitation in the Foundry to maximum Fleet Mark rewards. That said, we should have had the Fleet Mark changes we are making this week ready to go last week so there wouldn’t have been a week with the drop in Fleet Mark earning. Again sorry. It doesn’t make us feel any better when we make stupid mistakes.

One bit of information to take out of this is Stahl’s comment that Star Trek Online is currently Perfect World Entertainment’s most successful title. This puts the game over other big titles in Perfect World’s library, from the Torchlight series, Blacklight, PWI, and more.

While you may not agree with all of our designs and decisions, the proof is in the success the game is having and how much the game continues to grow. While we don’t share our internal information, STO is the best performing game for Perfect World Entertainment and is enjoy month after month increases in new captains.

This also puts Star Trek Online above Cryptic’s other game, Champions Online.

(Source: Star Trek Online Forums)

An Ode To The Oldest Living City Of Heroes Hero


I logged into my old NCSoft account a while back and found this gem, so I took a screenshot tonight to show everyone. If you look at my oldest character on the Freedom server, Alexandravich, you will see that she hasn’t logged in in approximately 4,705 days. The character is locked and I just don’t have the heart to unlock it and see what lies under the veil of “this character hasn’t logged in in over 90 days.” What kind of costume did my even worse fashion sense come up with? What power sets does Alexandravich have? Does she look cool or pretty stupid? I’m pretty sure Alexandravich predates City of Villains, but I’m not sure by how much.

Either way, you’ll see that Alexandravich hasn’t logged into City of Heroes in 4,705 days, which would place her last login on January 1st, 2000, or approximately six months before Cryptic Studios is even founded and about four and a half years before the launch of City of Heroes. So I guess we can mark time travel as one of her powers.

Anyway, as I was saying: Don’t do drugs and stay in school. Otherwise that guy with the claw feet above will eat your face.

Cryptic Introduces Account Guard


Since the days when people began storing things in secret locations, there have been others waiting to pick the lock, steal the combination, and steal whatever was being hidden. In the age of the internet, keeping your personal data hidden becomes more difficult as the days go on, and developers have been on the assault against account thieves.

Cryptic is beefing up their security with Account Guard. When the user attempts to log in from an unidentified computer, the system will send a key to the email address associated with the account. The key must be entered, otherwise the user will be unable to log in. If there is a failed attempt at logging in, the user will be notified by email.

The system can be opted out of if the user prefers not to enroll.

(Source: FAQ)

Lockboxes Illegal? Cryptic Would Rather Dump Your Country


It’s been almost two years since Bill Roper has had anything to do with Cryptic Studios, but with some of the recent money-related decisions made by the developer, you would never know he’d left. Not long ago, Cryptic introduced lockboxes, cash shop items that have the chance at offering valuable items to the players who buy them. Apparently the lockboxes constitute gambling in some countries, including the Netherlands, and according to several users on the Star Trek Online forums, are being investigated by various government bodies.

And if your laws do prohibit such gambling, Cryptic’s Borticus wants you to know that Cryptic is listening. Not so the company can react, just so they know which country to ban.

I hope you realize that the most likely course of action here, if any is taken, is that the STO becomes unplayable in the Netherlands. IP blocks, proxy blocks, etc.

And I know what you’re thinking, but you have absolutely nothing to worry about for Cryptic’s bottom line. Your money wasn’t really that significant anyway.

Honestly? Probably less revenue than would be lost by not doing any more Lock Boxes.

And sure, some people might point out that Cryptic’s past monetary decisions didn’t prevent the company from posting six to seven figure losses, leading to them being dumped on the streets by Atari, but those people are missing an important point: Cryptic asked for your money, not your opinion.

(Source: Jupiter Force forums)

Cryptic Studios Was Hacked…In 2010…


MMO Fallout's reporter in the field fails us once again...

In case there is any confusion, you are indeed reading an article posted on April 25th, 2012, for an announcement that was posted on April 25th of the same year. Cryptic Studios has announced via their corporate website that an unknown user gained unauthorized access to their servers in December 2010, analysis of which has only just come back recently.

The unauthorized access included user account names, handles, and encrypted passwords for those accounts. Even though the passwords were encrypted, it is apparent that the intruder has been able to crack some portion of the passwords in this database. All accounts that we believe were present in the database have had the passwords reset, and customers registered to these accounts have been notified via e-mail of this incident.

If you have  a Star Trek Online or Champions Online account dating back to December 2010, it is strongly suggested that you secure any other accounts that share the same email address/username/password.

(Source: Cryptic Studios)

Star Trek Online Heading Free To Play


Tell me you didn’t see that one coming? The blokes over at Seeking Alpha have posted an earning’s call with Perfect World Entertainment’s CEO, who has revealed that Star Trek Online will be heading free to play by the end of the year.

And also Star Trek Online, after the acquisition, in fact Cryptic is working on the free-to-play model for Star Trek Online. This is going to be launched by the end of this year as well. So I think free-to-play model we have a bigger potential in US market and also in China market. Thank you.

Kelvin Lau also dropped the release expectation for the Torchlight MMO:

Torchlight from Runic, as mentioned, I think the MMORPG version is going to be – is scheduled to be launched in late 2012 or early 2013, okay?

Yet another MMO going free to play, although it wasn’t like we didn’t see this coming long before Cryptic was ever acquired by Perfect World Entertainment.

Neverwinter Delayed, Atari Loses Rights To D&D

So many questions answered. The Atari Vs Hasbro lawsuit, who is developing Neverwinter, and what does this mean for Cryptic Studios?


A very long-awaited news line comes to a close today: Atari and Hasbro have settled their lawsuit and Atari has come out the loser in the deal. As announced on Gamespot today, Hasbro is regaining full rights to the digital licensing from Atari, meaning Atari will no longer be able to license Dungeons and Dragons games. As part of the settlement, Atari will still be able to sell and develop a selection of D&D games, from Daggerdale to an upcoming Facebook game.

Neverwinter is the other half of the lawsuit, especially considering the sale of Cryptic Studios to Perfect World Entertainment left a lot of questions unanswered. Did the game transfer with Cryptic? If not, who would develop it? Neverwinter now carries a “late 2012” release date, attributed to Perfect World Entertainment’s desire to invest in a more immersive experience.

The year delay hopefully signals that Perfect World Entertainment won’t be tolerating Cryptic’s habit of game development: Short development cycles that produced products that ultimately lack content and polish. With legal issues out of the way, hopefully development of Neverwinter can resume to its full extent.