Darkfall 2.0 may still be far off in the distance, but Aventurine is still working hard to bring new players into the community. In a few weeks, players will be able to get into Darkfall for the easy price of $14.99. Similar to Warhammer Online a couple years back, Aventurine is dropping the client cost in favor of simply paying for the subscription once the trial runs out.
This promotion comes with both purchasing and game play relayed changes and it will last until the launch of Darkfall 2.0. We will be removing the client purchase fee and to start playing Darkfall you will only need to pay the monthly fee. We are also preparing something that has to do with skill gains.
It’s Corgi time. Do you use Raptr? If you aren’t familiar with the program, Raptr runs on your desktop and tracks your game usage over the PC, PS3 and Xbox360. In essence, Ratpr is quite similar to Xfire, except it also tracks your Xbox/Playstation achievements/trophies. As you play your games more and achieve not just time played but achievements in-game as well, you have the opportunity to unlock rewards (generally in the form of virtual items and coupons for tech gear).
If you achieve “experienced” in any of the games below, you will be able to claim a free copy of Rift. Claim your copy of Rift and rank up on that in Raptr to also claim a free digital upgrade to the collector’s edition and a free pair of Dwarven Smithy goggles. Sorry, folks, the rewards system is in beta and is only available in the US, Canada, UK, France, and Germany.
EVE Online (PC)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)
Aion (PC)
EverQuest 2 (PC)
Diablo III (PC)
World of Tanks (PC)
Champions Online (PC)
World of Warcraft (PC)
The Witcher 2 (PC)
Diablo III Beta (PC)
League of Legends (PC)
Everquest (PC)
Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)
The Lord Of The Rings Online (PC)
Aion free to play technically doesn’t launch until next week, but NCSoft has something all players can get into, past, present, and prospective. Starting today, inactive accounts that are in good standing will be reactivated and able to log on. When Aion Truly Free goes live, a new server Kahrun will be launched. While you cannot play on the server until it goes live, starting today players will be able to create characters and reserve names on the server.
To compensate current players with additional time on their accounts, NCSoft is crediting 40 NCcoins per day remaining on the account (or around 1200 coins for each month you had remaining). The credit may take several days to process, however.
The “Hellgate: Stuck At Waterloo Bridge” article went over very well, so I’m expanding the series. If you are like me, you woke up this morning and immediately checked your account on NCsoft’s website, and booted up that old City of Heroes client you hadn’t touched in about a year. Again, if you are like me you were met with a “cannot connect to server” error, in which case you missed the above warning at the verification page.
Earlier this year, NCsoft discontinued the separate client for City of Heroes. In order to play, you will need to have the NCsoft launcher and may or may not have to download the game over again. I had to download around three gigabytes of data. For those of you who would rather not jump on the horse before it’s born, so to speak, you can check your account info on NCsoft’s website. If your account has been activated, you will see your City of Heroes profile marked as a playable and free account.
The “Hellgate: Stuck At Waterloo Bridge” article went over very well, so I’m expanding the series. If you are like me, you woke up this morning and immediately checked your account on NCsoft’s website, and booted up that old City of Heroes client you hadn’t touched in about a year. Again, if you are like me you were met with a “cannot connect to server” error, in which case you missed the above warning at the verification page.
Earlier this year, NCsoft discontinued the separate client for City of Heroes. In order to play, you will need to have the NCsoft launcher and may or may not have to download the game over again. I had to download around three gigabytes of data. For those of you who would rather not jump on the horse before it’s born, so to speak, you can check your account info on NCsoft’s website. If your account has been activated, you will see your City of Heroes profile marked as a playable and free account.
Age of Conan isn’t the only game getting in the spotlight. City of Heroes is the first big name Superhero MMO, launching in 2004 and since spawning two expansion packs, twenty “issues” (big content updates), and countless holiday events. Despite the game’s obvious decline in subscribers as it has aged, City of Heroes has managed to survive the competition of Champions Online and the recently released DC Universe Online, while maintaining its level of income.
So imagine my surprise when NCSoft announced today that City of Heroes will go free to play. Free players will have access to heroes and villains up to level 50, with 45 zones of content, 8 archetypes over two characters, and 105 power sets. The veteran rewards program is being discontinued, instead VIP players will receive points for every month they are subscribed, which can be used to purchase the rewards previously found in the veterans program. Veteran reward points will be transferred over, even if you do not subscribe.
There will be a VIP only server, although the current 15 servers will remain intact. Free players will not have access to super groups (guilds), Whisper chat, in-game mail, posting on the forums, limited auction house, and of course queue priority and VIP server access. Free players will have to purchase access to the mission architect, inventions, purchase server transfers, and will not have access to in-game customer support.
Given the success of previous game (don’t forget the 1000% increase in revenue for Champions Online), there is only one way to spell this out for NCsoft: l-o-d-s of e-m-o-n-e, and what does that spell? Loadsa money!
I know at least one person will eventually reply with “Um, Omali, it’s technically buy to play not free to play, as you’d still need to buy the client.” Final Fantasy XIV players are coming upon November 22nd, when early adopters will start hitting the end of their second free month of game time. Just this week, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIV would receive yet another extension on their free time, giving a total of three free months (two if you don’t count the free month included with purchase).
As Casey Schreiner pointed out on the G4TV MMO Report this past week, as Square Enix has a patch coming that will hopefully fix a lot of the issues, but that patch isn’t set to come until early 2011, players are likely to see a few more free months added to their game time. Until then, Final Fantasy XIV is technically a free to play title. Remember, if you buy Final Fantasy XIV and register your character before…no, that was the 19th. Never mind.
More on Final Fantasy XIV as it shuffles lazily into our path.
I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve been in rather a slump this year. We’ve seen the closure of Dungeon Runners, Metaplace, Cities XL, Phantasy Star, and now Chronicles of Spellborn, Exteel, and possibly All Points Bulletin in the near future. So, owing to that knowledge, we take what good news we can, and more specifically that good news is that Earth Eternal has been sold!
In a posting today on the Earth Eternal website, Sparkplay CEO Matt Mihaly (one of the two remaining staff members) announced that the bidding has ended, and the game has been sold to an unnamed buyer. The buyer cannot be named currently, as the contracts haven’t been signed and all of the formalities are not finished, but Mihaly has promised that it is a known company with the pre-existing audience to give the game its due attention. As he put it:
“I’m pretty happy this company won the bidding, as I think they have the resources and the pre-existing audience to help make EE a success.”
We’ll have the company name in about a week, but until then let’s throw MMO Fallout’s rule on speculation out the window and try and guess who it is. My bet is on Jagex, who seems to have a growing interest in funding fledgling MMOs. Whoever it is, it’s a big company according to the news report (“moved astonishingly quickly for a company of their size.”).
Great! Now all we need is for Realtime Worlds to announce that they’ve secured an investor and the week might not seem so bleak.
Australians may not be able to properly play All Points Bulletin when it launches, but the rest of us can rejoice. For a while now, I’ve seen a lot of complaints by players towards downloadable content (DLC) and microtransactions worming their way into various MMOs, be it the recent goggles/dog in Fallen Earth, the new mounts in Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and the ever-growing Cryptic Store, it seems many MMOs are including a cash shop in some form or another. There are enough of us willing to tolerate it and accept it that the fad is growing, but there is a group (albeit much smaller than many of them will admit to) that does not want anything to do with any MMO that offers cash shop items in a subscription game, whether they be useful or cosmetic.
Well, there is at least one MMO holding out for the time being. Realtime Worlds lead designer EJ Moreland has announced that All Points Bulletin, the upcoming cops and robbers shoot-em-up MMO, will not feature downloadable content or microtransactions in any form whatsoever. Even better, the game won’t even feature small paid “adventure packs” (I’m looking at you, Cryptic), but will only charge when…I’ll let Moreland explain it:
“We won’t be offering items for sale for real money. We have no DLC. Any update we do throughout the cycle is free except when we do a major retail event, which will add almost a completely new game. Throughout the year, we’re going to release both content updates, which are new missions, new clothing assets, new weapons, new vehicles. Basically, new things for the players to earn, customize, or experience. Then we have much larger updates, which will come less frequently, called activity updates. [These will] introduce new gameplay, new rulesets, or new large additions to the game. Then probably once every year or so, we’ll also do a retail event, which will be an expansion.”
Supporters of no-dlc-ever should be giving respect to Realtime Worlds, even if you don’t necessarily like the game. The above was stated in a round table phone interview with EJ Moreland.
I know what you are thinking: The oldest graphical MMO out there, and people are still paying a subscription fee? To which I respond, quiet you! Meridian59, even in its old age, is still unique to virtually any MMO out there. Visually, it may be like someone turned Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall into an MMO.
Chat, as many articles have pointed out, is sparse on the global line. Global chat uses half of your mana pool, although that means that there is not much conversation going on, there is also virtually none of the meaningless banter you might find on another MMO. The community is very tight knit, as you would expect. Meridian59 was far ahead of its time, with a dynamic NPC faction system that goes as far as allowing guilds to take over servers if they are dedicated enough.
Unfortunately, as those of you who quit Meridian will know, you still must create an account via sending an email to subscriptions@meridian59.com with your intended account name, password, and email address.
With the recent move to non-profit, the death of its old company, and general age, Meridian59 may not be on this earth much longer. So if you’re going to give great grandpa Meridian a try, you might want to do it as soon as possible: It’s free!
More about Meridian59 as it appears…I don’t want it to close!
MMO Fallout 