Tag: MMO

Mortal Online: Not Against Selling The Game


Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but so is speculation. Ever since the sale of Earth Eternal following its almost invisible launch and shut down, I am convinced that any MMO has a potential buyer as long as the owners are willing to sell. Over on the Mortal Online forums, Henrik Nystrom has posted the type of long, rambling message that only I could beat or fully appreciate, in which he talks leadership, testing, and potential buyers for Mortal Online.

His somewhat frustrated rant can be summed up rather effectively: StarVault would love to have more testers, better tools, and more developers, but they don’t have the resources. You may remember that Mortal Online is running at a loss due to a lack of subscribers, resulting in two cost cutting measures according to the company over the past few financial reports. Henrik then goes on to speculate on selling the game:

If there is not enough resources we will have to adapt and see what options we have… There are plenty of major companies that have their eyes on Mortal, and have had so since the beginning. They know exactly what is needed to develop and release a game such Mortal on your own, and that alone is a huge accomplishment which we are proud for. They know its almost impossible to develop a large scale such MO with such small team and they are very eager to get their hands on both the game and the team.

Henrik then points out that if StarVault does sell the game, the buyer may very well change the core of the game.

If they share the exact same vision with full loot, full pvp, monthly payment however is another question. Which I guess why most of us is here, us the devs as well, but if it means that if some of those core features changes when a company have the rights for it and it gives a bigger player base then that’s what they will go for most likely.

You can read the entire post at the link above, but it sounds like StarVault’s financial troubles are stinging more than they did a few months ago.

Station Price Dropping To Little Over 1 Subscription: $19.99/Month


Sony Station access is an excellent deal, and it’s about to get even greater. Normally priced at $29.99, or the cost of about two Station subscriptions, Sony announced at E3 that the price will drop to $19.99, or 1 and 1/3rd the cost of a subscription to one of Sony’s MMOs. The announcement was made at E3 today, with no specific date other than “soon.”

For those unfamiliar with Station Access, the service grants players access to:

  1. Access to all of SOE’s titles:
  1. DC Universe
  2. Everquest
  3. Everquest II
  4. Everquest Online Adventures (Playstation 2)
  5. Pirates of the Burning Sea (membership perks)
  6. Planetside
  7. Star Wars Galaxies
  8. Vanguard
  9. Free Realms (membership perks)
  • Additional character slots for Vanguard, Everquest, and Everquest II
  • Bonus adventure packs.
  • More features added as new content is released.
    • It’s important to note: You MUST own the game in order to receive a subscription to it. You don’t have to buy Pirates of the Burning Sea or Free Realms, but you have to buy Everquest, DC Universe, etc in order to gain access. The pass covers the subscription, not the purchase of the client if one is required.
    Good news? Bad news? Sign of more downgrading to come? Hopefully not.

    Major Fallen Earth Announcement Coming May 31st


    Fun fact: The announcement is not for content coinciding with the release of a Fallen Earth line of Lego minifigures and playsets, although those odds would be much higher were this the 1990’s. So what is the big major extraordinary amazing unannounced news? You’ll have to wait until Tuesday to find out.

    The Fallen Earth team has a MAJOR announcement during the scheduled maintenance set for next Tuesday, May 31. We’re giving ya’ll a chance to sit down with Senior Game Designer Marie “Aro Sei” Croall as she discusses the State of the Game and plans beyond.

    Take out the trash, call off work, heat up those microwave dinners, put your pets to bed and your kids in the kennel, you won’t want to miss this. You’ll have two chances to hear this amazing announcement live (or just check this website), which you can find here on Fallen Earth’s ustream. Once at 3pm and once at 8pm Eastern.

    Of course, the question now is…what would be this major? Of those answers I can think of, it is either:

    • Fallen Earth is going free to play.
    • Fallen Earth is shutting down.
    • Icarus Studios is making a new game.
    We already know of a lot of upgrades coming to the game. Combat changes, that housing system, and more. What better time than now to announce a free to play section? If the announcement starts out with “we want to thank everyone who supported Fallen Earth from beta to launch and onward,” then you might have grounds to be concerned.

    Third Square Enix MMO In The Works…Why?


    Square Enix’s past with MMOs can be summed up a such: Final Fantasy XI was released and still trucks along well to this day. Fantasy Earth Zero was launched, died a quick death, and was revived by another company only to die again just this year. Final Fantasy XIV, however, is where the story gets interesting. Still reeling from its own launch, FFXIV has yet to institute subscriptions and has no timetable for doing so. The PS3 version has been delayed indefinitely with no release in sight. Finally, Square Enix’s upcoming MMO…hold the phone, upcoming MMO? One moment please.

    And we’re back. Yes, folks, Square Enix is working on a third MMO, according to their most recent earnings report. The game is set to be announced this fiscal year, which means this article is essentially show boating and a reason to incorporate Tough Guys Don’t Dance into MMO Fallout.

    There is good news, non-Final Fantasy fans. The MMO will be a different IP, it appears, meaning it could be anything from Dragon Quest to Thief, Kingdom Hearts, or more (personally I’m rooting for Snoopy’s Red Baron MMO). More on this title as it appears.

    My MMO Is Not A Car (Please Stop Comparing Them)


    I read an interesting conversation about World of Warcraft “clones” (because I can’t say no to a topic I know will leave me steaming), someone brought up cars, and why no one refers to today’s cars as “Model T clones,” or “Ford clones” because Ford made the first commercially viable automobile. This got me thinking, and I found that cars do get compared just as much as MMOs do. Not all the way back to the Model T, but to one another, as “clones.”

    Automobiles are, for the most part, structurally similar. They contain your basic engine, headlights, dashboard, steering wheel, four wheels, etc. Compared to an MMO, these would be the systems that make the game not unique, but are rather required simply to maintain functionality. Where vehicles start to branch out starts to come into effect when looking at the casing (graphics), handling (controls), speed (performance), reliability (long term viability), and other perks and pieces. For example, my Kia Rio looks a bit like my friend’s Honda, but while my car carries Sirius Satellite Radio, his car has fancy things like anti-lock breaks and electric windows.

    What you end up with are automobile companies that are famous for one thing or another, each with a line of vehicles that are easily distinguished from one another from a visual and statistical perspective. For example, most minivans look alike, but when you look at them closely, you start to see the distinguishing features.

    So perhaps the car analogy does fit well, but the same applies to any line of products, and I imagine I would see similar conversations going on cars if I frequented those forums the same way I do for MMOs.

    What Happened This Week: 4/24-4/30 Edition


    Welcome to the second episode of Week In Review (or whatever I’m calling it this week), your look at some stories that didn’t make MMO Fallout headlines for one reason or another.

    1. Bethesda’s MMO May Not Be The Elder Scrolls

    Chalk this one up as a disappointment, and actually a rather old news story by news standards. I came across an article from early April from Bethesda stating that multiplayer in The Elder Scrolls was entirely possible, but the company believes multiplayer would detract from what they see as primarily a rich and deep single player game, rather than the recent formula which appears to be a short single player story with the primary focus being multiplayer level grinding.

    For what it’s worth, Bethesda was referring to the game Skyrim coming up this year, and an MMO is still possible in the future, having a game that is completely online instead of trying to split the two systems and dilute both experiences. Until Zenimax opens its doors and tells us what it’s been working on, all we can do is speculate.

    2. Rift’s New Coin Lock Restrictions Prevent Banning

    One of my criticisms with Rift’s coin lock system is that, although it was designed to stop commercial account theft by making the character unable to trade, drop, or deposit, the system did not stop non-commercial account theft (IE: The guy who steals your account just to ruin your day). It did not prevent the person from getting banned via chat-spam or a gold farmer using the account simply to spam advertisements for their website.

    The new restrictions on Rift’s coin lock restrict access to everything Guild and Chat related, so a compromised character can no longer speak, nor can they wreak havoc on their guild. All I can say is, good on you Trion. There is the matter I brought up of tying the account lock to email, a system likely to also be compromised along with a person’s account, but it’s a good step nonetheless.

    I use Rift’s authenticator on my iPad, not that I’m worried about my account being stolen. I set it up just to test it when it came out and, quite frankly, I’m too lazy to go through the channels to have it removed.

    http://rift.mmosite.com/opinion/more_coin_lock_restrictions.shtml

    3. I Shared The Agency’s Lack of Enthusiasm

    Looking back on The Agency, I’m almost relieved the title was canned. The more I saw the game’s trailers and interviews, the more I saw a concept that worked well in theory, but in practice would not fit well within the MMO genre. More importantly, I noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm from Sony Online Entertainment, almost reminiscent of a kid who doesn’t want to play a musical instrument, but his parents make him, so he tries his best because he’s stuck there anyway, but he’s ready to throw that thing in the trash as soon as he receives the green light. The news for The Agency was sporadic, and often went through long periods with absolutely no information.

    The Agency reminds me of Dungeon Runners, an experimental title that has ceased its operations. On the other hand, however, Sony can hopefully put more manpower into its upcoming series continuities; Everquest Next and Planetside Next.

    4. I’m Looking Into Culling More Categories

    I’m trying to give myself a consistent set of guidelines with MMO Fallout, because I hear from the grapevine that that is what real journalists do. Being the nonprofessional dope I am, I’m pretty much winging it. I did decide on delisting MMOs that are cancelled before release, at the end of the month they are cancelled, meaning The Agency is delisted, as well as Stargate Worlds.

    Looking at my editorials page, I realized I need to do a lot more with that section than I have in the past. Checking in with the BBB is a series I’m proud of, but the category became rather stagnant and unchanging, even at three months per article. So I’ve deleted the category, and the series has been relegated to once every six months, meaning I’ll put out an article in June.

    I’ve also deleted Looking Back, Moving Forward, because I hate monthly recaps. I don’t want to reread my own articles at the end of every month to pick out which ones I happen to like the most. Sales is gone, because I now have a dedicated sales and where to buy page that is hard enough to keep updated by themselves, especially since I’ve broken the HTML on the Sales page so many times it’s a wonder this website hasn’t started murdering random viewers in some violent revenge plot against its human oppressors.

    So my remaining articles are In Plain English, which still has a purpose. My more regular categories will be Killing MMOs, Week in Review, and Community Concerns, all of which will be weekly articles.

    That’s all for this week.

    Marvel Universe: No Customized Characters, Ever.


    There is something to be said about MMOs. Specifically, MMOs have always been about creating a character (occasionally one that looks like you), and setting him loose in a world to run through their story. The more casual among us might use this character creator to push out an aesthetically pleasing avatar with generous amounts of cleavage, while the more hardcore role players may spend hours customizing every last detail down to the width, depth, and length of their character’s cheekbones, and bless them for it. Key factor is, I play my character to have his part in the overall story. In WoW, you are just another peon in the ongoing war between the Alliance and Horde. In games like Aion and Rift, your character has a bit more prominence than the simple grunts on the battlefield. In DC Universe, your character gains his powers via exobytes from Lex Luthor.

    In Marvel Universe, however, players will be relegated to controlling iconic Marvel super heroes, including Spiderman, Wolverine, etc.

    Players will play iconic Marvel characters, just as they do in SHSO. In fact, the game will feature more Marvel characters than any Marvel game to date. We won’t be merely “sidekicks.”

    If this is Gazillion’s selling point, I’m not buying. I’ve played City of Heroes, Champions Online, and DC Universe, and all three of those have managed to allow me to create my own hero/villain and not feel like the sidekick. Hell, in Champions Online I had my own nemesis, and I even got to customize him with his own backstory, minions, powerset, and looks.

    This raises a lot of questions that leave me intrigued, but not actually interested in trying out the game. Is there some form of character progression? If so, how will the story justify the heroes suddenly losing their powers and having to grind to get them back? Will there be any customization at all? How do you justify a couple thousand Spidermans running around?

    Individuality is a big contender in the life and death of MMOs, and so is progression and hoarding things. What Gazillion is proposing sounds like taking DC Universe Online’s Iconic Play Mode, calling it an MMO in and of itself, and throwing it onto the internet. Actually, I should say it sounds like Super Hero Squad Online on Hard Mode.

    So I guess my question to Gazillion Entertainment is this: As a free to play cash shop MMO, why should I choose your title over Champions Online? The IP? I hope that isn’t your only selling point. I’ll be waiting for this to come up as new information develops.

    Suit Up: More Star Wars Galaxies Server Mergers Coming…


    Star Wars Galaxies is always an interesting topic here on MMO Fallout. On one hand, you have Sony Online Entertainment, who referred to Galaxies as having one of the most active communities in SOE’s portfolio of games. On the other hand, you have those who remain in Star Wars Galaxies who, apart from complaints of only a small number of the remaining servers being active, are more likely to agree that the game has improved in leaps and bounds since the NGE and CU updates. On the third, mostly useless vestigial T-Rex arm sprouting from your chest, you have the Star Wars Galaxies Pre-Update players, a group of disenfranchised “veterans” (I hate that term) that devotes itself to trolling any MMO discussion, even if it has nothing to do with Galaxies, or Sony for that matter.

    Sony is opening up free server transfers on Star Wars Galaxies, and historically that has lead to just one outcome: server mergers. The announcement mentions no end date, but does mention that while players will be able to transfer off of Starsider, they will not be able to transfer back. In addition, a Sony staffer mentioned that paid transfers will no longer be possible. Players will be restricted to one transfer, per character, per 90 days.

    You can read the details here, but the link has been dead (along with the entirety of Star Wars Galaxies’ website) for quite a while. I will follow up with more details when I can get them. Obviously a server merger has not been announced, but given the status of many of the remaining servers (according to players), a merger is likely on the books.

    There is a forum thread to discuss the server transfers here.

    Major Layoffs At Sony Online Entertainment


    Word that Sony Online Entertainment Seattle is having layoffs and that studio closure is possible. http://bit.ly/eSxtvq
    -George Broussard on Twitter

    This was reported by Kotaku, although there has yet to be an official statement, Kotaku reporter Owen Good (who reported on the story) has confirmed it with a more involved source than George. It has yet to be seen which studios have closed down, although reportedly the studio behind the upcoming Agency MMO has been slashed.

    This is no doubt a bombshell, not only for us playing Sony’s games but more importantly for the people who are losing their jobs and livelihoods. MMO Fallout is committed to this story, and will be updating as soon as any news is released.

    Sony and Square Enix: Not Billing Japan This Month


    With the recent earthquake in Japan, the power companies have asked that people and companies conserve as much power as possible, for fear of an electricity shortage. In response to the warning, Square Enix has decided to temporarily shutter services for Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV in Japan for at least a week, and will not be billing players for the cycle through April. More information is expected on how long the servers will be down, although players in Japan likely have more important out-of-game issues to deal with at the moment.

    Source for Square Enix

    Meanwhile, Sony Online Entertainment has announced that they are suspending billing for Japanese players. The company does not host servers in Japan. In addition, Sony had linked up players to the Google relief effort where they can donate.

    http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

    Our hearts go out to those affected by the earthquake, and we here at MMO Fallout wish a speedy recovery for Japan.

    %d bloggers like this: