Tag: Free to Play

Uninstall Your Free To Play Games, Namco Says They're Low Quality


Today I uninstalled my entire catalog of free to play games. RuneScape, Lineage II, DC Universe, City of Heroes, Everquest II, Alganon, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Pitchblack, Star Trek Online, Hello Kitty Online (it was for screenshots for articles), Missing Ink, Gods & Heroes, Fallen Earth, and Age of Conan, and Team Fortress 2. Sure I was enjoying these games, but it wasn’t until Namco pointed out that they “can’t be high quality,” that I realized how fake and empty my enjoyment was. I mean, sure I was having fun playing through my dwarf fighter for absolutely free, but was I having the kind of fun I could be having by buying another PacMan re-release? I think not.

But Olivier Comte is right, the free to play industry is harming big budget titles. Just look at Modern Warfare 3, which sold 6.5 million copies in the first 24 hours. Or Skyrim, which sold 3.5 million copies on its opening weekend. Or hell, Portal 2 sold millions just in retail, not counting Steam sales. The point is that those games would have sold even more if there weren’t disgusting, greedy developers letting people play their low quality games for free. If there weren’t independent developers peddling their wares for sub-premium prices, maybe developers of real video games could have their voices heard without buying huge ads on gaming websites.

“The business model for smaller, easier titles is making an expectation to consumers that is whittling away at AAA development.”

Exactly.  Just look at the substandard titles that are set to launch as free to play. Planetside 2? Bound to be a failure. Ghost Recon Online? What was Ubisoft thinking? Jagex’s Stellar Dawn and Transformers MMOs? Hurting the industry. Hell, i’d venture that DUST 514 will result in the cancellation of Modern Warfare 4, because who can keep up with low quality, but free games?

Sure some people might say that these are the rantings of a developer publisher seeing the market shifting and, rather than accommodate for the changes by shifting their development system, decides to throw a tantrum in the Walmart parking lot and blame their perceived future losses on the customers.

But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Lineage II Compensation Detailed


Lineage II has not been having the best week or so. Between the number of technical difficulties that have cropped up, NCSoft has had enough trouble keeping the servers from buckling and passing out, let alone keeping them running smoothly enough to keep their players happy. Between crashing, lag, and game breaking issues, the community is understandably unhappy.

Luckily, NCSoft has a fix: Free stuff.

As many of you know, technical issues have created gameplay problems in the past week, leading to a less than optimal game experience for affected players. We deeply understand how difficult it can be to play in these conditions and we sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. You, the player community, are very important to us and we want to show you that we care and are working to right any wrongs that have happened.

NCSoft’s compensation package includes a 50% experience rune that lasts five hours, as well as five luxury cocktails, which boost your character’s abilities for 30 minutes each. In addition, NCSoft is running an even from January 25th to February 1st, in which players will enjoy no experience loss on death (unless in Chaotic mode), the reduction of the augmentation removal fee to 1 Adena, and the removal of teleport fees from most gatekeepers.

They are still working to fix some lag issues, warning that emergency maintenance will be taking place over the next few days.

(Source: Lineage II)

NCSoft Outsourcing European Hosting?


You know, I hadn’t really noticed until tonight how small NCSoft’s library has become in the west. With the shuttering of Lineage, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, Exteel, and Dungeon Runners, us westerners are left with Aion, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Lineage 2. Four titles? Granted, we have Blade & Soul (hopefully) coming out at the end of this year, and Wildstar and Lineage Eternal coming at some point in the future.

I can’t help but notice, however, that NCSoft’s personal appearance in Europe has taken a lesser role recently. Lineage II’s European service was recently handed over to Innova for the free to play transition, and when Aion goes free to play early this year, Gameforge is taking over service of that title. So far this is only on NCSoft’s titles in Europe that have transitioned to free to play, with the exception of City of Heroes in which case the two services (US/EU) were merged into one under NCSoft. This leaves Guild Wars.

If I’m lucky, NCSoft will answer my emails about future title publishing.

Gods & Heroes: Subscriptions Rescinded


I like Gods & Heroes, in fact it was the game the spurred on the “Why Aren’t You Playing” editorial series I’ve been neglecting. Despite how I feel about the game, Heatwave Interactive met with a rather low reception since launch last year, and mentioned in July that the developer was considering a free to play option at some unknown point in the future.

Well January 2012 is that unknown point. In a post today, Heatwave Interactive announced the end to Gods & Heroes subscriptions. Until the full free to play launches, subscription fees are being removed.

The Gods & Heroes team has been working hard over the past few months to secure the future of the game by taking it to a free-to-play model. Such a change is a significant undertaking; one that requires a large investment in time and resources to make this major transition a success. In the interim, we have made the decision to eliminate subscription fees and offer G&H players immediate and unlimited access to all areas of the game until the new Free-to-Play model has been finalized and implemented.

You will still need to buy the client, however, and Heatwave Interactive will be bringing the price down starting next week to $9.99.

(Source: Gods & Heroes website)

(Additional: Why Aren’t You Playing?)

Earthrise Back Online


Attention Earthrise Players:

The Earthrise Servers are back on-line, all players are now able to sign in and play the latest build. At this time “Only Previously Registered Players” will have access to enter the game, we will announce when we are ready to start accepting new registrations for Earthrise.

After an extended period of downtime, Earthrise is back online. The servers have been down since a scheduled one week maintenance starting December 8th, but wound up staying down for the rest of December and into January. Thankfully the servers are back now. Full free to play has not launched yet, but previous players can get back in.

Star Trek Online Early Access Begins January 5th


Set your sonic screwdriver to maximum extermination! Sorry, wrong franchise. As announced last year, Star Trek is Cryptic’s second title to make the transition to free to play, although the wait may feel like forever and a day. If only there was a way for Cryptic to allow past subscribers a chance to get into the game before the full launch and before all the new free players mob the server, so perhaps jaded ex-subscribers can get a decent look at how the game has evolved without server queues, crashes, and lag.

Well I have an answer to your oddly specific request: You can. Starting January 5th, Cryptic will reactivate all existing accounts to enjoy the splendor that is travel across the galaxy. You have to have purchased the game at some point, however. Trial players are not included in this offer.

You can check out the free to play matrix to see what will be available when the update goes live tomorrow.

(Source: Dev Blog)

(Free to play matrix)

Aion Free To Play In February…For Europe.


Considering the other titles lately to make the transition, an announcement of free to play from NCSoft or Sony Online Entertainment might be welcoming, but hardly surprising. Over in Europe, NCSoft announced that Aion will be undergoing a change in publisher, to Gameforge, who will be taking care of transitioning the European service, and its community, to a new free to play model. Starting in February 2012, players will be able to enjoy everything* that Aion has to offer for no fee.

In order to combat gold farming, “starter” accounts will be limited to two characters and have limitations from certain chat channels and private trading. Former subscribers will have access to almost everything, sans the increased instance cooldown and limited fortress siege rewards. You can read everything at the F2P matrix. Otherwise, NCsoft continues what has started as a rather generous program for free players, offering everything but the kitchen sink to anyone willing to sign up an account.

This does not affect the North American servers, and there are currently no announced plans to bring such a transition to the states.

(Source: Eurogamer)

(Additional: Free to play matrix)

Play Richard Garriot’s MMO While It Is Developed…


There are a select few articles here on MMO Fallout that garner attention after, say, six months of their publishing. It’s been ten months since I published the article about Second Star Interactive, a new development studio formed out arguably the greater minds of Ultima Online, Warhammer, and Dark Age of Camelot, and that article is still on the traffic radar. The comments on the article are just a small portion of the attention that my article brought in, and my tease about three factions and full pvp cause more than one urinary incident among fans.

Daoc 2? OMG i got the shivers

I already have my 50 bucks buried in a coffee can, counting the seconds until this happens…

SO longing DAOC2 or summat like it. I almost started to cry

Richard Garriot is talking to Electronic Arts about a relationship to create a spiritual successor to Ultima Online, as mentioned in a Eurogamer article today. Whether or not that deal is struck will place little sway on the direction of this MMO, however, as Garriot points out:

“I actually think it’s time to move on from that regardless, so even if we were to have access to the properties of my historical work, I don’t think I would change my current plans. I’m very confident of the current plans as the right way to evolve my creation, regardless.”

The interview reveals a number of details regarding Ultimate RPG:

  • Fantasy setting, although likely intertwined with science fiction.
  • Will likely preserve Ultima’s isometric view.
  • Ultimate RPG will be free to play.
  • Plans to make the game accessible via browser, client, iOS, and Android.
  • Target release date is 2012, 2013 (one of those two, says Garriot).
  • Ultimate RPG will take advantage of social media.
  • There are 25 people working at Portalarium (Garriot’s company)

Tantalizing readers even further, Garriot goes on to reveal that the game will be released closer to a Minecraft style format, allowing people to play as the game is developed.

“As soon as we have a viable game, we will immediately get it into players’ hands so that they can be a part of that creation process.”

(Source: Eurogamer)

Play Richard Garriot's MMO While It Is Developed…


There are a select few articles here on MMO Fallout that garner attention after, say, six months of their publishing. It’s been ten months since I published the article about Second Star Interactive, a new development studio formed out arguably the greater minds of Ultima Online, Warhammer, and Dark Age of Camelot, and that article is still on the traffic radar. The comments on the article are just a small portion of the attention that my article brought in, and my tease about three factions and full pvp cause more than one urinary incident among fans.

Daoc 2? OMG i got the shivers

I already have my 50 bucks buried in a coffee can, counting the seconds until this happens…

SO longing DAOC2 or summat like it. I almost started to cry

Richard Garriot is talking to Electronic Arts about a relationship to create a spiritual successor to Ultima Online, as mentioned in a Eurogamer article today. Whether or not that deal is struck will place little sway on the direction of this MMO, however, as Garriot points out:

“I actually think it’s time to move on from that regardless, so even if we were to have access to the properties of my historical work, I don’t think I would change my current plans. I’m very confident of the current plans as the right way to evolve my creation, regardless.”

The interview reveals a number of details regarding Ultimate RPG:

  • Fantasy setting, although likely intertwined with science fiction.
  • Will likely preserve Ultima’s isometric view.
  • Ultimate RPG will be free to play.
  • Plans to make the game accessible via browser, client, iOS, and Android.
  • Target release date is 2012, 2013 (one of those two, says Garriot).
  • Ultimate RPG will take advantage of social media.
  • There are 25 people working at Portalarium (Garriot’s company)

Tantalizing readers even further, Garriot goes on to reveal that the game will be released closer to a Minecraft style format, allowing people to play as the game is developed.

“As soon as we have a viable game, we will immediately get it into players’ hands so that they can be a part of that creation process.”

(Source: Eurogamer)

Veteran Rewards For Free Players? Sony Breaks The Rules


If 2011 is any indication, Sony Online Entertainment has been working hard to keep their players in good faith and put the old Sony (the one that would fundamentally alter a game years after release) behind them, even if it means busting the norms of free to play conversions. Everquest 2 players are already aware of Sony’s offer to activate any existing characters for free, refunding race/class packs that were purchased over the past two days.

To sweeten the deal even more, Sony announces their next treat with a question: Why should veteran rewards be available only for subscribers? After all, players may not subscribe but they might spend money in the cash shop as a silver member. So beginning December 9th, all Everquest II players will enjoy veteran rewards based on the date of their account creation.

(source: EQ2 Forums)