Make notes on your paper calendar, kids, you have until February 10th to give consent to transfer your Aika Online details over. As of January 31st, gPotato will no longer be publishing Aika Online. On that same day, the title will be transitioned over to T3Fun’s services. All information, including account ID, email, password, and game data will be moved over in the process, but only if you sign in and migrate your account before the due date, otherwise the data will be lost forever. To prepare for the exchange of services, gPotato has warned that any items or gold in the auction house as of January 31st will be lost, and recommends removing said goods before such time.
Aika Online launched in 2009 under both gPotato and T3Fun, with the former publishing in North America and the latter in Europe. In February 2011, the two publishers appear to have settled territory disputes, as both games opened their doors to anyone to play, regardless of region. On October 27th, 2011, T3Fun shut down the servers for its version of Aika Global, making way for gPotato to rule all of Mordor. I suppose now the shoe is on the other foot.
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.
For every day that goes by, the odds of successfully importing a free to play MMO from Asia to the west become more difficult. Several years ago, the only competition that a publisher had to contend with consisted of similar titles with an insane amount of grind, poor localization, and an almost nonexistent customer support to match the “pay to win” cash shop. Now that the Western free to play market is no longer a place where subscription games go to die quietly, the market has become ever more saturated with each passing fiscal quarter, and the market has only grown less tolerant of poor imports.
Last December, gPotato shut down Tales Runner. More recently, the publisher announced that on March 27th, two more games will meet the same fate. Luna and Prius Online will both be turned off at the end of March. To compensate players, gPotato is offering compensation packages including cash shop currency reimbursement to use on their other titles.
So far in 2012 we have seen or will see the launch of TERA, The Secret World, Guild Wars 2, Neverwinter, and a whole lot more. and the free to play conversions of Aion, Star Trek Online, and Everquest (to name three), and the deaths of Everquest Online Adventures, Earthrise, and Lego Universe (so far). In an already crowded and competitive market, developers and publishers must become increasingly vicious to keep their games afloat and to not be tossed to the sharks.
Under the risk of a new “spam Omali’s website with expletives and win a free iPad,” contest, I must push on. This story was tipped to me by Vetarnias on the MMORPG.com forums. gPotato isn’t the first developer to have a “review our game and have a chance at winning a prize” contest, but considering the number of deleted topics at MMORPG.com’s Uncharted Waters Online forums, I’m guessing they didn’t consult their target before running said competition.
Back in June, Uncharted Waters launched a two-tier contest. The first, create a new character and hit level 80 and the top three achievers will win iPad 2’s. It’s important to note that use of cash shop items to speed leveling is completely within the rules. The second? Spam MMORPG.com and win a 3DS.
Yes, write a review (read: a positive review) or helpful commentary and win either a Nintendo 3DS or a cash shop ticket. The contest page even provides a handy link to the MMORPG.com UWO forums for maximum efficiency. And if you don’t have an MMORPG account, well you can sign up for one just as easy as pie. The promotion is over, the contest ended on the 30th of July, and if you look on the forums the posts have been removed by moderators.
It is unclear if NetMarble and gPotato are going to still be giving out the 3DS given all of the candidates have had their reviews scrubbed. I scoured the forums for any posts between June 20th and now (not a difficult feat as the forums see only a handful of posts each day), and couldn’t find any mention of the contest anywhere, or anyone actually being awarded the prize. Perhaps this whole ordeal is being quietly swept under the rug.
I think a better question to raise here would be if this falls under the jurisdiction of the blogger disclosure laws by the Federal Trade Commission. If it does, and the users who won either of the prizes were in the United States, that person could fall under some heavy penalties for not disclosing in his endorsement that the article was written in return for a gift.
A little late to the game, but we don’t play favorites when it comes to charity work (unless your company is using Child’s Play as some shameless plug to get money to send a fraction of said donation to charity). Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen an outpour of support from MMO developers toward Japan. The Final Fantasy servers are just coming up, with more game content on the way, and a number of other companies have offered their support, through donations or through the cutting of billing to Japanese players.
gPotato is running a charity where purchases to specific items, seen here, in specific games will result in 100% of those proceeds going to charity. Allods Online and Aika Online are not included in that list, with at least one of the two not participating because the concept of donating involves investing money with no expectation of making a return or profit.
But this isn’t about the developers who refuse to participate in charity. If you play any of gPotato’s games, this is an easy way to make a donation.
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.
It’s shameless advertising day on MMO Fallout, and today’s publicity prostitutes are gPotato with Allods Online! Sex sells, and nothing says free to play cash shop fantasy title like two blond haired women in underwear groping one another.
Is it just me, or does the woman on the left bear a resemblance to Yeoman Janice Rand from Star Trek?
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.
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.
Back in June, Uncharted Waters launched a two-tier contest. The first, create a new character and hit level 80 and the top three achievers will win iPad 2’s. It’s important to note that use of cash shop items to speed leveling is completely within the rules. The second? 
MMO Fallout 