I am not the kind of person who dwells on the past, which is why I spend a lot of time looking at screenshots of games that I used to play that have since shut down. Black Prophecy no doubt required more advertising than it received. It wasn’t a bad game and you can see from the screenshot above that the game looks absolutely gorgeous. Gamigo shut the game down last year after it launched to low reception and after the developer Reakktor Media went bankrupt.
Pop quiz: Why would a newspaper publisher have interest in an MMO developer? That is rhetorical, I can’t give an honest answer either. Regardless, back in 2008, for some reason newspaper publisher Axelrod Springer AG purchased the majority stake in Gamigo. Since then Gamigo has published some very high quality games, from Jagged Alliance Online to Black Prophecy, and a number of other games. Unfortunately as the communities of many of Gamigo’s games will tell you, few of the titles in their library have had an opportunity to shine, and some have even been shut down, due to a simple lack of exposure to the marketplace. Ask around and odds are not a whole lot of people will know that there exists a Jagged Alliance MMO, or Dungeon Empires, or that Black Prophecy was one of the best looking free to play MMOs on the market.
So I can only hope that someone from Samarion, who recently took over Gamigo, reads this and understands a simple fact: You have to make people aware that your games and company exist. Throw some money into advertising, get your name out there, and show everyone what you’ve got.
(Source: Gamasutra)
Pop quiz: Why would a newspaper publisher have interest in an MMO developer? That is rhetorical, I can’t give an honest answer either. Regardless, back in 2008, for some reason newspaper publisher Axelrod Springer AG purchased the majority stake in Gamigo. Since then Gamigo has published some very high quality games, from Jagged Alliance Online to Black Prophecy, and a number of other games. Unfortunately as the communities of many of Gamigo’s games will tell you, few of the titles in their library have had an opportunity to shine, and some have even been shut down, due to a simple lack of exposure to the marketplace. Ask around and odds are not a whole lot of people will know that there exists a Jagged Alliance MMO, or Dungeon Empires, or that Black Prophecy was one of the best looking free to play MMOs on the market.
So I can only hope that someone from Samarion, who recently took over Gamigo, reads this and understands a simple fact: You have to make people aware that your games and company exist. Throw some money into advertising, get your name out there, and show everyone what you’ve got.
(Source: Gamasutra)
I find myself asking this question a lot: Why does everything I love die? Black Prophecy is easily one of Gamigo’s most impressive looking titles, not to mention a unique player in its own right. Launched last year, Black Prophecy is a sci-fi MMO similar to Eve Online but with a more action-oriented control scheme and a more traditional MMO quest system. It wasn’t perfect, but for many players left on their own after the cancellation of Jumpgate Evolution, it was something to call home.
Unfortunately, times have not been so great to the game or its developer. Back in February, we mentioned that Reakktor Media was insolvent and regardless of the quality of Black Prophecy, it wasn’t bringing in enough money to keep afloat. So it comes as terrible news that Black Prophecy will shut down on September 26th. Players will no longer be able to buy cash shop funds starting today.
(Source: Announcement)
Black Prophecy exploded on to Gamigo’s library of titles as one of the best looking MMOs on the market, even more surprising when you look at the free to play model. The game has been praised for its high production quality and customization, but rather criticized for lack of variety in quests and poor server stability. Unfortunately, as Games Industry is now reporting, the future of Black Prophecy may rely on an outside provider.
Developer Reakktor Media is insolvent, and is seeking contract work to stay afloat.
“We are in a position to accomplish basically anything what is played right now, even if we were focused in the recent times on multiplayer mobile gaming. However, the MMO area is historically our organically grown core competence.”
If there is any hope for Black Prophecy, Gamigo owns 19% of Reakktor Media and may be a prime candidate to buy it up in case the play for contract work doesn’t generate enough income to keep Reakktor afloat.
(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)
Black Prophecy exploded on to Gamigo’s library of titles as one of the best looking MMOs on the market, even more surprising when you look at the free to play model. The game has been praised for its high production quality and customization, but rather criticized for lack of variety in quests and poor server stability. Unfortunately, as Games Industry is now reporting, the future of Black Prophecy may rely on an outside provider.
Developer Reakktor Media is insolvent, and is seeking contract work to stay afloat.
“We are in a position to accomplish basically anything what is played right now, even if we were focused in the recent times on multiplayer mobile gaming. However, the MMO area is historically our organically grown core competence.”
If there is any hope for Black Prophecy, Gamigo owns 19% of Reakktor Media and may be a prime candidate to buy it up in case the play for contract work doesn’t generate enough income to keep Reakktor afloat.
(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)
File this under “pretty damn cool.” For years, MMOs have been looking for new and inventive ways to kill gold farmers and bots, and quite a few spectacles have come out of it. Aion instated the G-Unit, a team dedicated to bot busting, as well as public executions, Eve Online had Operation Unholy Rage, Runes of Magic has injunctions, and Guild Wars has had public executions in-game as well. Of course, I’m just summarizing.
I’m sure many of you won’t recognize Martial Empires, but the game does make news today for the company’s intuitive offering in bot busting: Baited NPCs. These monsters patrol the game and act as bait to bots that will attack anything. The monster itself publicly announces “do not kill me!” and those who heed the warning will go unpunished. Those who do decide to attack the monster will be immediately killed and turned into an unplayable ghost, which I’m guessing can only be fixed with an email to Gamigo.
The idea itself is pretty unique and intuitive. Chances at success? None. Considering Gamigo plays host to a large number of MMOs, I don’t understand why anyone thought this would be effective. The entire system could easily be circumvented with as simple as an If/Then statement in the bot’s programming stating that if the NPC sends a certain string of code (that will be unique to the bait-NPCs), not to attack it. It also isn’t difficult for bots to recognize and respond to chat, as even in Runescape and other MMOs there are bots designed to allow very basic conversation should another player approach them.
Martial Empires is a very new MMO, so perhaps I’m being too harsh on it.
MMO Fallout 