Gala Networks has announced that the upcoming update to Allods Online, titled Path to Victory, will bring with it the ability for users to generate their own dungeons and game content for everyone to enjoy. Coming June 5th, Path to Victory adds towers to private islands which generate gold income and consumables for powerful spells. The owners of the Allods can store the resources within dungeons protected by monsters and guards, to hide them from other players who can in turn plunder said dungeons in order to steal those resources.
The update brings a number of other features with it, including the new tradeskill for weapon smithing. Look for Path to Victory to pop out on June 5th.
Things haven’t been all sunshine and lollipops for Gala Net. In fact, the company has been operating at a notable, and growing, loss for the past four quarters straight. In the most recently released quarterly report, Gala announced an operating profit in the red at -167,145 (thousand JPY). On the heels of this news, MMO Culture has learned that Gala Net’s operations in North American and Europe, as well as Brazil, will be sold off to Webzen. The deal was struck just a few hours ago, and the transaction will take place on February 15th, 2013.
Webzen appears to have picked up Gala Net on the cheap, to boot. According to Reuters, Gala Net was sold for $17.5 million. Gala Net is best known for its publishing of Allods Online, Uncharted Waters, Continent of the Ninth, and more. Webzen has been covered here at MMO Fallout over their publishing of Archlord after Codemasters dropped the title back in 2009. We will have to sit back and see how the two services change as a result of this acquisition, although all likelihood points to gPotato’s games being assimilated into Webzen’s library.
When Allods Online was running through its beta period back in 2009/2010, it was praised for the amazingly high quality of gameplay, stability, wealth of content, and prospects for future expansion. Many of us in the press were referring to it as the free to play World of Warcraft, standing high above its brethren. When the game was in beta, there was nothing short of praise from themepark fans of the game’s high quality and deep prospects for success.
Unfortunately, gPotato shot themselves in the foot early on with poor decisions in cash shop items that required players to spend money (and a considerable amount) in order to play the game properly or be able to stay competitive later on in PvP or participating in raid content.
The perfume was later removed and replaced with another, equally unpopular cash shop item which was later made free. Judging by the latest news out of Allods Online, the community has not been so forgiving. gPotato announced the merger of the last two remaining servers in North America, to one.
With one server left in North America, the future presence of Allods Online on the continent is in question. gPotato will need nothing short of a miracle (or perhaps a marketing campaign) to bring this title back from the ditch.
Aika Online launched under Gala-Net back in early 2010, and quickly became a subject of controversy in April when it was revealed that the company had begun an IP block on all players outside of North America (due to Hanbitsoft carrying the rights to publish in Europe), after Gala-Net had already opened the cash shop, allowing non-North American players to start throwing their money in. Gala-Net came to something of a half-compromise. Players wouldn’t be refunded, but anyone who had created an account prior to the IP blocks would be allowed to continue playing. European players were miffed, especially since the European release was delayed over the North American release by several months.
Well the segregation is over! Although the services won’t be merging (for now), both Aika Online and Aika Global (the latter being Hanbitsoft’s operation) have announced that they are opening doors to previously blocked players. On February 17th, Gala-Net opens to European players and Hanbitsoft opens to American players. It is important to note that the two games are still operated by completely different companies. Your characters, potato chips, TCoins, and accounts will not transfer between services (unless something changes in the next week).
Unless this is the start to a service merger in between the two companies, but that’s just my speculation.
Back before Mortal Online launched, I believe it was Henrik who said Star Vault could easily find a publisher, but they would be forced to alter a lot of the game’s content in order to please them, and allow the game to ship. Since then, I’ve been thinking about the relationship many developers have with their publishers, and I can only describe it one way: Battered person syndrome. How many times have you heard of major parts removed from a game, not because the developer decided upon it, but because the publisher demanded it? Electronic Arts (most memorably with Spore) is guilty of it, as are most other big name publishers. In fact, with many MMOs it feels as if the publisher does all the talking, while the developer sits in the back and hopes it’s not doing anything that will result in a beating after the press conference. This is, of course, no different than your local television station choosing not to air certain stories because an advertiser doesn’t like them, or the firing of a Gamespot employee because of his Kane and Lynch review, but the standard seems to be that the publisher wears the pants in the relationship.
So why is it that whenever I think of gPotato (or Gala-Net), I think of Jerry Lewis? A bumbling, fumbling figure who is always apologizing but never really taking control of what goes on around him. You can’t help but feel this way every time a major issue comes up in the game, be it the cash shop prices, the fear of death mechanic, and now the curse mechanic, among others, where Gala-Net comes back and says “Sorry, we can’t do anything. All we can do is forward your suggestions to Astrum Nival, and hope they implement updates.” This has become the token response and offers up plenty of reason as to why I declared Allods Online as potentially the biggest PR disaster of 2010.
Is Astrum Nival really in such a position where they can dictate the terms to their publisher, in a direct opposite to what is generally an “industry standard,” as disturbing as that terminology sounds? Does the potential for Gala-Net to say “either you start listening to us or you’ll have no publisher,” instill such little fear, that AN could turn around and say “that’s okay, we have X other publishers lined up to put our game out, under our terms.” Or is Astrum Nival really just the Duke Nukem of developers, where when poor old gPotato sends their fifth courier of the week with humble requests, they are met with a short and concise “blow it out your ass,” followed by a round of buckshot to the chest, with gPotato only receiving a response a week later when the messenger’s disembodied head appears in the mail, accompanied by a single-word letter: “no.”
I have always noted here on MMO Fallout that, as far as cash shop grinders go, Gala-Net publishes some of the better quality titles. Not that my word holds much sway, but Allods Online and Aika Online were the only two cash shop grinders to make much of an appearance here on MMO Fallout, and really many other MMO news websites. The difference between Aika and Allods, however, is that when Aika Online had its own cash shop issues (region issues) they managed to fix it in a way that satisfied almost everyone involved.
Watching gPotato deal with Astrum Nival is akin to a friend in a bad relationship who refuses to acknowledge the stagnant environment, despite their consistent somber appearance, and the little fact that they break out sobbing whenever the conversation turns to the estranged partner. So you continue to watch as the explanations become more desperate; doing it for the kid, there’s still hope, doesn’t want all the time to be wasted, it will resolve itself, think about the good times, etc.
But speaking of the child, where is Allods Online in all of this feud? Not neglected, but I have a feeling he wouldn’t be very appreciative of the treatment he is receiving. He certainly would be a lot more popular in school if his parent (Astrum Nival) would stop embarrassing him and losing him friends by showing pictures of the time he wet the bed (last week), and had to wear mom’s underwear for the day because all of his was in the wash. And where will we find Astrum Nival and Gala-Net when they enter his bedroom to find a note on the table, and an empty bottle of sleeping pills on the desk? They will find that it’s too late to settle their differences, have the two teams actually listen to what the other has to say, and perhaps treat each other like they took a small interest in what the other was saying.
And at the end of the day, when Astrum Nival is standing over its only creation, wondering how those years of development could have gone down the drain, the president of Gala-Net will look on with a massive grin on his face, as he announces, “I’m sorry to hear about your loss, but I have good news. Aika Online just launched its next expansion, and we have two upcoming MMOs we’ll be publishing in addition to our current list of seven. Hey listen, if you have a new MMO coming up, you know where to contact us, but I can’t promise much: Very busy with publishing offers.”
Perhaps I’m just personalizing this on a level too far.
Earlier this year I started Checking In With The Better Business Bureau, a segment talking about the consumer protection group with no authority. Back in February I checked up on a few MMO developers to see their scores, and this time I want to go more in depth on each company and their score.
For those of you who have forgotten or do not live in the United States, the Better Business Bureau is an independent organization that fields complaints and offers the company a chance to respond. The idea is to create a web of trusted businesses where people can check what is being complained about and how the company reacts to those complaints. When it comes to your score, a business can maintain a good score if they respond in a way that pleases the BBB.
Blizzard: B
Blizzard’s score has plummeted from February’s A+ rating. The BBB’s explanation is as follows:
“Recent complainants allege the company closed accounts on 130,000 users without providing notice, and accused them of using “hack” techniques to cheat on gaming. Most of these complainants deny any illegal usage, and in some cases, they challenge the company to provide them some proof of the alleged violation. The company responds in some cases concerning faulty servers by advising that new servers installed should remedy the problem. The company addressed a few complaints regarding account terminations by issuing the same letter in each instance of complaint, accusing the complainant of cheating, lying or using hack programs.”
Cryptic Studios: C+
Cryptic’s rating has remained steady since April, and the BBB has some kinder words for them than Blizzard.
“Our complaint history for this company shows that the company responded to and gave proper consideration to most complaints. However, more than one complaint is unresolved meaning the company failed to properly address the complaint allegations or their response was inadequate.”
EA/Mythic/Bioware: A
Technically lumped into EA, the BBB scores Electronic Arts with an A.
“When considering complaint information, please take into account the company’s size and volume of transactions, and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm’s responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints.”
Funcom: A+
Funcom is maintaining their A+, with surprisingly few complaints in the past year. The BBB had this to say:
“BBB had previously identified a pattern of complaints concerningcustomer service issues. The company discussed with BBB in October 2008 ways to correct the cause of the customer complaints. Complaints have decreased in volume since the meeting.”
Gala-Net: F
For those of you unaware, Gala-Net is gPotato, publisher for such games as Allods Online and Aika Online.
“Our complaint history for this company shows that the company responded to and gave proper consideration to most complaints. However, more than one complaint is unresolved meaning the company failed to properly address the complaint allegations or their response was inadequate.”
Jagex: C-
This is based off of one complaint.
NCsoft: B-
NCsoft is up, from a C- to a B-. According to the BBB, this is due to a few unanswered complaints:
Based on BBB files, NCsoft Corporation has a BBB Rating of B- on ascale from A+ to F.
Reasons for this rating include:
Failure to respond to 5 complaints filed against business.
Sony Online Entertainment: A
Most of the complaints, according to the BBB, are from people who forget to cancel their trial accounts.
“Consumer complaints received by the BBB allege difficulty in using this company’s online gaming service and being over billed or billed after they cancel the trial offer. In response to these consumer complaints, Sony indicates that some of their games may come with a limited number of days of game-play with purchase of the game software…”
Square Enix: A
Along with Sony, score remains in place.
“Our complaint history for this company shows the company gave proper consideration to complaints presented by the Bureau.”
Turbine Inc. : A+
Technically now part of Warner Brothers.
The BBB had nothing of interest to note.
A few companies on the list slipped in the past couple of months, most notably Blizzard over that mass ban. I guess it depends on how these companies view the non-authority of the BBB that dictates their reactions.
More on the BBB in three months when I follow up this article.
You heard it poorly translated here first, MMO Fallouters! It’s good to see that the word has finally reached Astrum Nival, even with all the Western Allod’ers whose “Russian friends” claim that the Russian version is now “a barren wasteland” and are not trolling at all I swear. There are a number of people angry over the replacement for fear of death: armor curses that can only be removed by cash shop items, but that is another story for another day.
You heard it here first…well, second. It almost feels like back in April that I last talked about Astrum Nival, Gala-Net, and Allods Online, and quite frankly I am disappointed at my seeming lack of ability to play on this cesspool of bad public relations. In fact, I would go as far as saying only Cryptic Studios can rile up their base in a fit of rage to match what follows an announcement from Gala-Net.
To those of you who have slipped out of the loop, Allods Online is a recently released free to play Russian MMO that has garnered quite a bit of controversy this year, all of it surrounding the title’s cash shop. The game itself is of top quality, especially compared to the over-saturated free to play cash shop market, but ever since the cash shop opened in February developer Astrum Nival seems to be digging themselves deeper and deeper into a growing pit of flames.
In February, the controversy began with the price of items in the cash shop, with a focus on the fact that there was a 1,000% increase across the board for cash shop items compared to the Russian version, that I specifically held back on writing about until I could confirm that the prices were indeed intentional. Not only were the prices intentional, but were followed by a patch that made Perfumes much more useful. Perfume is a cash shop item that is used to remove Fear of Death, a debuff that stacks and adds 25% drop in stats per stack, up to four times, and at end-game can take hours of waiting or a nice sum of gold. With the patch, not only did leveling become slower, but monsters became tougher and resurrection by another player now incurred Fear of Death. As I put it:
I’d like to take a closer look at number 2, because this is something a lot of Allods Online’ers have pointed out to me: What this means is that Heroic Instances, which cannot be exited, now have a requirement for perfume. As perfume lasts for 30 minutes, and costs approximately 75 cents per bottle, the Allods Online forums were kind enough to do my math for me and figure out that raiding at end-game will cost an easy minimum of $50 per month
It took less than a week for gPotato to announce that the prices would be coming down on cash shop items, which I had pointed out was moot as now the focus had turned on the Fear of Death and perfume mechanics. March brought restructuring to the cash shop. In April, while gPotato was busy pinning all of this on Astrum Nival, I noted that the Russian patch notes indicated the removal of Fear of Death, following a player-driven poll asking which feature players would most like to see removed. I also noted at the end this item cursing feature that was set to replace Fear of Death, but that I didn’t have much in terms of details on it at the time.
Fast forward to June and here we are. In the July 7th patch, Fear of Death is going to be removed and replaced with item curses. When a player dies now, there is the chance that a curse will land on a slot in their inventory. If the item is rare (Rare, epic, or legendary only) the curse will invert the stats of the item. More importantly, bosses now have a chance of dropping rare items in an already cursed form.
The only method of removing the curse is through a cash shop item that must be either bought on the cash shop or through the auction house (from those who purchased it on the cash shop) for a hefty sum. So, as one Allod Online’er put it, Astrum Nival essentially took a temporary grievance that can be waited out, and turned it into a permanent grievance that must, without exception, be fixed with a cash shop item or heavy gold in the auction house.
It isn’t very often I get to start out an article with “and finally the saga is coming to a close,” because (despite my own objections) stories like these tend to go on for a long, long time, or simply fade away into obscurity to the point where no one is talking about it anymore (because I also watch the communities for further news on ongoing stories). I don’t like to lead people on, which is why I only update ongoing stories as important events occur.
So with great pride, I can finally say that the Aika Online cash shop issues are coming to an end! Earlier this month, I talked about how Aika Online under gPotato was only meant to work in North America. Unfortunately, the company allowed players from virtually any country to register and play. When the time came for the actual developer to put their foot down and demand IP restrictions, gPotato had already launched the cash shop one week prior. The end result was that non-North American players found themselves locked out of the game, and their purchases.
Well put down those credit card chargebacks, folks, because after a couple of weeks gPotato is back with great news: The IP blocks will still be put in place, however anyone with an account created before the blocks can still play, all items and characters intact.
It’s good to see Aika’s continued track record of listening to their customers, and even better to see another saga come to an end.
And I shall whisper, no. Being the publisher of an MMO is hard work; your tasks are relegated to bug reporting, polishing upcoming versions, localization, and running events. You don’t fix bugs and you can’t add in any features, and you serve essentially as a franchise for the MMO in question. A lot of people don’t know this little gem, and the end result is that the publisher usually ends up taking flak for what the developer is doing (or not doing).
Gala-Net has seen your criticisms and feedback and wants you to know…It’s really not their fault. Gala-Net, or as you know them better, gPotato, is the publisher of both upcoming titles featured on MMO Fallout, Allods Online and Aika Online. In a development diary, Gala’s own Darren Allarde wants to let you know exactly what Gala-Net does in regards to Allods, mainly so you can be sure to direct your rage against Astrum Nival next time.
“We don’t fix bugs, we report them. We don’t program and work on new in-game features, we hear what you have to say, tally it up, and communicate to Astrum Nival the feedback that makes sense for the game in our region.”
-Darren Allarde, Gala-Net, on Allods Online
But you aren’t here to hear Gala-Net direct your complaints to the correct source, we’re here to talk about Astrum Nival who undoubtedly wants some of that old time loving back. You know, back when Allods Online wasn’t just that punching bag for punkish sarcastic twits who run MMO bl-diverting attention! and was still an MMO to give paid MMOs a run for their money in the form of seven thousand dollar runes.
Astrum’s been running a poll on what the players would like to see removed, and topping out the list on both English and Russian localizations was easily the removal of Fear of Death, the debuff upon death that can only be fixed by waiting, paying out the wazoo with gold, or buying expensive cash shop perfumes.
Well seeing as how Russia has at least 8 hours on the rest of us, the patch notes for the Russian Allods have already been released, with the following line poorly translated in Google:
According to the summarization of voting canceled “The fear of death.”
You heard it poorly translated here first, MMO Fallouters! It’s good to see that the word has finally reached Astrum Nival, even with all the Western Allod’ers whose “Russian friends” claim that the Russian version is now “a barren wasteland” and are not trolling at all I swear. There are a number of people angry over the replacement for fear of death: armor curses that can only be removed by cash shop items, but that is another story for another day.
More on Allods Online and its return to grace after these messages from our sponsors (grab a sandwich, this might take a while…actually grab me one too).
Allods Online is a great example of how a title can grow under the guise of a World of Warcraft clone, gain the attention of both gamers and publications as a beacon of individuality in the WoW Clone genre, pull forward and grow a community that could rival the Darkfall community in terms of loyalty and vicious attacks on naysayers. That being said, Allods Online is also an excellent example to how a company can turn its customers against it in the flash of a hand.
gPotato’s response spoke to many players as “deal with it, and pay up or leave,” however the latest announcement should shed some light on the situation. This week, Allods Online will receive an update, and gPotato has
restructured the pricing based upon your feedback in conjunction with the data we’ve reviewed and communication with our developer. Consequently, we’ve revised pricing so that more people can participate in this feature of the game.
gPotato, on Allods Online
Sure, gPotato can play a mean fiddle, but can they put a crack in the wall with a sweet but ferocious melody? As I’ve mentioned before, the community is still in a position where they are more than willing to return if the prices of the cash shop are lowered and gPotato does something about the requirement of investment in order to stay competitive at end-game.
So Allods Online isn’t going anywhere, at least not for now. The benefit of not having launched yet is that you get to make stupid mistakes like this and still make up for it in time for the big day.
MMO Fallout 