Tag: MMO

F2P Vs P2P: Making The Food Comparison


(How) do you pay?

October here on MMO Fallout is all about free to play (a topic I intend to touch upon this month) vs pay to play, but I wanted to start this month off by giving an analogy between the two systems. By this point, I don’t think anyone takes free to play verbatim, as in not having to pay to play the game. Nowadays, free to play generally means supported by some form of VIP subscription (freemium), cash shop, or combination of the two. There is something to be said about the real meaning behind free to play, but that is a discussion for another day. Today, I want to make the food comparison between free to play and pay to play, to give a better understanding as to why both systems can coexist in a game like Lord of the Rings Online or Everquest II.

When thinking of free to play, the first thing that comes to mind is likely cash shops. A free to play game is more akin to entering a restaurant with a free entrée coupon. You are enticed because you’ve always wanted to try that chicken souvlaki, and this is your perfect opportunity. Now, unless you go the cheap route and ask for a glass of water, odds are you’ll be getting a drink. I hear nothing washes down souvlaki like a good glass of red wine, but some of you might go for a soda, or perhaps a glass of milk (who drinks milk with dinner?). Either way, you’re up to a couple bucks on the table. The cute waitress asks you if you’d like an appetizer, and you are rather hungry thanks to your breakfast/lunch of the leftover lasagna someone left in the fridge, so you opt for the endless soup and salad bar. Finally the waitress gets your souvlaki order, and asks you if you would like to add any side dishes. Before you know it, your free Souvlaki entrée is now a meal consisting of soup, salad, red wine, roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus, that free cup of water, and a nice strawberry mousse for dessert. You walked into the restaurant preparing to be a cheap-ass, and now you’re looking at a $20+ bill. But the souvlaki was free.

That is essentially free to play in a nutshell. If you find a game you truly enjoy, odds are you’ll find yourself spending cash on it faster than you can even keep track. A few dollars here, a few dollars there, and suddenly you’re paying more than subscribers are paying on their pay to play games, only they don’t have the core game to go back to once they stop payment, and you’re having fun while you do it.

Subscription games, on the other hand, are like an all you can eat buffet. You throw the guy at the counter your ten bucks and sit down to four long tables of ever-replenishing food. Sure you would never pay money to eat those tiny octopus that are on the table, but why pass up the chance now? In the mood for chicken? You can have your choice of chicken, honey chicken, sweet and sour chicken, chicken wings, chicken fingers, barbecue chicken, roasted chicken, and that’s just one section of the table. Grab a slice of pizza, then a bowl of soup if you feel like it. Fill up your plate with barbecue ribs and crab legs, then head back for roast beef and potatoes. Just don’t leave anything on your plate, or you’re in for a long talking to about starving children in China. All in all, the buffet may not have your souvlaki and a drink like red wine will cost more than the included soda, but overall you can fill up whether you are among the sampler (try a little of everything) or the “the world is going to end tomorrow, I’d better store some body fat,” kind of person. The only difference is that here the tray of crab legs isn’t bum-rushed and cleared out in two seconds.

Subscription games allow you to try it all without having to pay extra. For the most casual of the bunch, you might be paying more than you are getting out of it, but the choice and availability of options makes paying the extra bit worth it. The hardcore will feel like they are eating like kings for the cost of eating like a peasant, and will clean their plates sucking down each and every bit of content that can fit into their gaping maws.

Neither system is intrinsically better than the other. With the free to play option, you are able to get your core gameplay, and still spend a few bucks on extras tailored to what you want, and can even save money over the monthly costs of a subscription game. On the other hand, subscription games offer you extras you might not have considered on the free to play game, and can open your eyes to features you may have missed out on or brushed off as unnecessary because they cost a few dollars.

Now: Does anyone know a good souvlaki restaurant in New York? This article is making me hungry.

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Check Out The New Sales Page!


Save you some of this.

I’ve been getting some feedback over MMO Fallout’s sales articles, namely they are cumbersome and take up far too much space on the main page, and secondly that they can be confusing if they aren’t updated in a while. So, in response, I’m launching the MMO Fallout Sales Directory. Located at https://mmofallout.com/sales, you’ll be able to find a consolidated list of the current Steam, Direct2Drive, and Impulsedriven sales.

Large sales will still be posted here on the main page (Steam/D2D’s giant Christmas sales for starters) while the rest will be updated on the Sales page, and through Twitter. So keep watching the Twitter feed on the side of the page for items like:

More sales to come. You can follow sales easier by following MMO Fallout on Twitter at @mmofallout

Earth (Hopefully) Eternal Coming Back Soon…


Captain Crunch, not Captain Kirk!

Earth Eternal has been making the newsstands recently due to the game’s almost-closure, auctioning, and selling off to an unnamed company. To the dismay of many of us, on August 31st Earth Eternal shut down with absolutely no explanation or forewarning, bringing both the website and game offline, along with a long silence from the company’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

Well, yesterday the Earth Eternal twitter sparked up:

The EE servers are closed until further notice. All your characters are saved and the new owners will be bringing the game back soon(ish).

On September 9th, the following was posted on Earth Eternal’s Facebook page:

Hi everyone. As you know, Earth Eternal is down. Our ISP pulled the plug for non-payment, which was expected. I wasn’t able to give you any warning, unfortunately, because I was at Burning Man and completely out of reach for the week that it went down. Full backups of all the data exist and the company that is in the process of buying Earth Eternal will be starting it back up again in the nearish future.

Hopefully more to come in the next week or so. Still no word on Earth Eternal’s buyer.

Crafting Crime With Crime Craft: A 1 Year Look


A long time ago...

Crimecraft launched in August 2009 to not-so-huge fanfaire over the persistent-lobby-based-shooter-on-the-Unreal-3-Engine. A modest title by any means, Vogster quickly moved the game from a subscription base to a free to play cash shop system, not unlike the Turbine model, and since then the game has been trucking along with a healthy population, healthy enough to ensure that the game will stay afloat for a good long time, at least.

Looking into my archives, I haven’t written a non-sales article on Crimecraft since September 2009, so I was quite surprised when I received an email in my inbox regarding Crimecraft. Apparently at least one of the guys over at Vogster Entertainment is a big fan of the MMO Fallout, and noted my prior interest in the title and a lack of news-stuffs since then. The email contained a promo-code with a leveling boost to incite me back into the game, and incite it did.

I’ve clocked in several hours on Crimecraft in the past week, and I am thoroughly enjoying the new changes. My biggest gripe from the launch was that the A.I in the PVE matches was a combination of too unpredictable, and too stupid. All too often it was easy to sneak up on an NPC and kill them without their AI even activating, but this time around I found NPCs moving around and actively seeking cover. If you start a shootout, other NPCs in the area may come to investgiate. The system isn’t perfect, but it is a far cry from the figures who just stood around and waited for you to shoot at them.

Luckily he only grazed my medulla oblongata.

Another great addition I noticed is the ease in obtaining weaponry. Within a few PVP matches, I had looted a decent shotgun and an assault rifle that gave me a fighting chance over my 3-shot burst SMG. Vogster wasn’t lying about the gibbing/gore mode either, as my character regularly found himself decapitated by close shotgun shells to the face.

I quickly obtained a few boosts in the form of a heart monitor that displays enemy positions on the mini-map, and a few healing drugs that can be consumed in-game. The missions, which will comprise much of your experience, are still pretty basic, not that I’m asking for more depth. You’ll find a myriad of what you would expect, each containing several tiers:

  • Kill _ with smg/rifle/pistol/etc.
  • Do ___ damage with smg/rifle/pistol/etc.
  • Kill ___ of ___ type NPC.
  • Kill ___ players carrying smg/rifle/pistol/etc.
  • Win __ matches of ___.

The more traditional missions involve going from person to person in the main lobbies, with a story centered around the protection of the city from the unruly gangs and scum that inhabit the surrounding areas, and generally involves heading into PVE instances to complete one of the above mission types.

Stockpile PVE is still all about collecting crates containing everything from weapons to drugs to crafting materials. I also had the chance to try out Safeguard, a PVE mode where players are tasked with protecting a weapons cache from wave after wave of bots, which I particularly enjoyed as the opportunities to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of bots added to the difficulty if you didn’t clear them out fast enough before the next wave spawned. Headhunter is a test of patience, although killing the prerequisite number of bots to incite the boss to appear isn’t a particularly difficult task.

Ammunition and health are much more prevalent now than at launch, with players and bots dropping both much more often. Aside from the AI, one of my biggest issues was running out of ammunition and forcing myself to die in a PVE match in order to obtain more. Now, with the expected amount of ammunition conservation, I find myself running out of ammo much less.

Oh, and in case I didn’t mention it before, the Crimecraftian in-game advertising is still present, as seen below, and still raising the penetrating question: People still use Napster?

Jokes aside, Crimecraft is still a great game worthy of a look, even if you don’t plan on forking up any cash. The game can be downloaded from the website for free, or if you really want you can pluck down ten bucks on a digital copy and get the extra perks that come with it.

Me? I think I’ll continue sporting my OG (original gangster) title, and Tommy Vercetti lookalike outfit. Crimecraft is a great game, and you might even catch me logged in now and then! My character’s name is Rastlowski, if you didn’t pick it up from the screenshots.

More on Crimecraft as it appears.

Nerdgate 2010: Lineage II Is Just That Good


Three Times The Addictive!

When I wrote my “I Can’t Do This Alone” article, I put a lot of emotion into my disgust with the stereotype that MMOers still have in today’s society, of which I don’t think I need to remind you. Every once in a while, however, someone goes and ruins the image for the rest of us, resetting those stereotypes and putting us back a good year or so in progress.

Lineage II is a great money maker for NCsoft, and according to my profit rundown on the company earlier this year, Lineage II is NCsoft’s #3 game worldwide in terms of sales, with both in the Lineage lineage still going strong despite their increasingly old age. But, much like the “dangerously cheesy” Cheetos, could Lineage II be so good that it strips the life away from a normal person? Of course not, don’t be stupid.

News is hitting the stands today of a Craig Smallwood, who is suing NCsoft for making Lineage II too good, causing him to become addicted. According to the lawsuit, Smallwood alleges that he spent so much time on Lineage II that he became “unable to function independently in usual daily activities such as getting up, getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends.”

So where is NCsoft at fault? NCsoft “acted negligently in failing to warn or instruct or adequately warn or instruct plaintiff and other players of Lineage II of its dangerous and defective characteristics, and of the safe and proper method of using the game.” Also, according to the lawsuit, Smallwood is claiming that his addiction left him with emotional distress, put him in the hospital for three weeks, and required a regimen of therapy. This is after five years of playing for roughly ten hours a day.

Smallwood is asking for $3 million USD.

Personally, I don’t see where the news story is, but someone asked me to write up about this. Rolling the story down to its basics, and what you end up with is a person with an addictive personality becoming addicted to something. This is really no different than a compulsive gambler or drinker. This addict, however, chose not to take responsibility for his addiction, and instead chose to make a quick grab for cash from the company that provide(d) the product for him.

Another note to think about: Smallwood was banned from Lineage II for real money trading, and my personal belief is that his lawsuit is in retaliation either because he bought gold and was caught, or he’s been running a gold farming troupe with his three accounts and got caught. Smallwood alleges that the ban was to “force” him to play Aion.

So: Before you or anyone you know treats this as “some nerd,” just remind yourself that Craig Smallwood is either an addict or an estranged gold seller/buyer, just one that happens to be able to afford a lawyer. And to the regular news media who will eventually pick this up, and maybe see this page: Us real nerds don’t associate with Smallwood, please don’t build a bridge where a bridge is not needed.

I Can’t Do This Alone: I’m Sick Of The MMO Stigma


Help Me Gabe Newell!

Two months ago, I changed the “Month in Review” category to a monthly review called “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” and at the time I promised all of you that I would explain my reasons at a later date. As at least one person has pointed out, the legacy “Month in review” articles have been completely wiped from MMO Fallout, and I feel I have some obligation to explain why. As some of you know, it takes about five seconds to figure out my information by doing a who-is search on this website, and although the articles themselves were supposed to be a lighthearted joke, they were discovered by a potential employer, one who saw MMOs as a “waste of time,” and promptly lost any hope I had of getting the job.

Although video games have lost many of the stereotypes that once ran rampant, our particular genre has been held back multiple times from graduating with the class. Go on to your MMO of choice and start asking people if they admit or talk about said MMO in real life,  and see just how many of them will respond with either “I don’t talk about it” or “I don’t even say I play this game.” For a lot of people, admitting they play World of Warcraft is like hanging a big sign that says “I have no life,” around their neck, an idea that could not be further from the truth. In fact, companies like Blizzard and Sony Online Entertainment just proved to the rest of the world that “normal” people do populate MMOs, and that the basement-dwellers that people often associate with the genre are such a tiny minority.

The sheer double standard of a lot of people is what frustrates me the most. For example, there is a Starbucks right in my place of work, and it sickens me to no end that someone will tell me that I spend too much on MMOs (I spend $20-$35 a month, if I’m playing more than one MMO, and virtually never buy anything from the cash shops) where they themselves spend $4 a day on one medium frappucino (that amounts to over $100 a month on a 5 day workweek). Or when that same person tells me MMOs are “childish,” right before they complain that they wanted whipped cream and chocolate shavings on their drink. The people who play games like Modern Warfare 2 or social networking games also seem oblivious to their own double standards. The same person who boasts about his all-nighter grinding towards the next level of prestige on Modern Warfare 2 will turn around and point to your two and a half hour raid in Gnomeregan and say “what a time-sink! You just grind and get no real life benefit.” Don’t even get me started on people playing Farmville who think MMOs are a waste of time.

This is part of the reason I started MMO Fallout in the first place, and that is to break down the barrier of entry into the genre. To have someone searching for Steam sales, for example, and come across “Oh look, Champions Online is on sale for $6 (Christmas sale), maybe I’ll try it out and see what all the fuss is about.” That person plonks down six bucks, and suddenly he is hooked. He goes to his friends and tells them about this great superhero MMO that costs $15 bucks but is “totally worth it, and there’s a trial!” They try out the unlimited demo and some people like it, and others don’t. Those who don’t like it might try to look for another superhero MMO, and find City of Heroes, and the whole cycle starts over again spreading to new companies, new genres, and new games. It’s like the crack in your windshield that spiderwebs out and eventually becomes a gigantic mess.

I don’t blame the people who have this stereotypes, because this always happens throughout the history of humanity outside of gaming. Those of you who early-adopted Guitar Hero will likely remember getting labeled as “losers who think they can play guitar because they play a video game.”  Anyone who played Guitar Hero knows that no one plays it because they think it’ll make them good at guitars, and that stereotype is almost out the door now that Guitar Hero and Rock Band have brought rhythm games into the mainstream.

I hope World of Warcraft continues getting bigger, because the more people play it, the more they will realize that it can be played without completely sucking your life away. I hope Darkfall and Mortal Online get bigger, so people will realize that neither game is populated by sociopaths, bullies, or people who are bullied in their normal lives. I hope Runescape gets bigger so people will realize that not just children play it. I hope Eve Online gets so more people enjoy the idea of a spreadsheet simulator (I kid, I kid).

We cannot focus on the outsider’s stereotypes of us until we start removing our stereotypes of each other, and get rid of this in-fighting and elitism that plagues our gaming experiences. We need to sit back and lay some assumptions to rest:

  • STOP calling each other fat losers. Every time you do this, you are only perpetuating a stereotype.
  • Not everyone who likes PvP is a masochist/bully victim/little kid.
  • Not everyone who dislikes full PvP is a care bear/kid/casual gamer.
  • Not everyone who disagrees with you is trolling. That goes the same for someone who doesn’t like a game.
  • Likewise, not everyone who is loyal to a company is a fanboy, or an employee in disguise.
  • World of Warcraft is not just for casual gamers.
  • John Smedley/Bill Roper/Jack Emmert/etc are not Satan incarnate.

I’ve been in countless guilds/clans over the past decade, and I can say without a doubt that the MMO genre takes all kinds, and you cannot single out one group and make them the poster child. I’ve dealt with every type of player you can come across, from the kid who ragequits the guild because no one will power level his character while he is offline at school, to the authoritarian guild leader who, despite billing the guild as “mature,” won’t let you say “ass” in voice chat, to the little kid who knows far too many expletives to his age, and back up to guildmates who are on retirement and have to log off for a while because their grandchildren are coming over to visit. I’ve guilded with the prude, the overly flirtatious, the guys who pretend to be girls, the girls who pretend to be guys, the children who pretend to be adults, the guy who steals a guild member’s account and pretends to be him, the insomniac, the whiner, the guy who falls asleep at his keyboard in the middle of a raid because he is pooped out from working almost sixteen hours a day, the girl who is a girl gamer and won’t stop reminding us that she does in fact have lady parts, to the guy gamer who reminds us that he has man parts.

World of Warcraft is what really started breaking down the wall, and although I know a lot of gamers who scream bloody murder every time Blizzard does something that can be seen as catering to the casual masses. But while companies like Cryptic, Turbine, and Sony are off handing out free sweets in the form of unlimited trials and free to play games, we’ll find ourselves speeding towards the same conclusion that befell Dungeons and Dragons players in the 80’s: That no, we’re not freaks, and what we enjoy is a hobby, not a way of life. We don’t have delusions nor do we have our own separate realities. We don’t believe that the games are real, or realistic, and we’re not about to go Pardu and start stabbing random strangers in New York under the belief that they are wandering Goblins.

We as a community can only do so much to tear down the boundaries, and we need help from our corporate masters if we’re going to succeed. So I’m calling on Blizzard, Sony, Turbine, Cryptic, NCSoft, Square Enix, Quest Online, Funcom, Jagex, Bioware, Gala-Net and all the other developers and publishers to come out and make the public informed, so that you and I will not have to be “embarrassed” that we play this game, or that game, because of the social stereotypes we might face if we did.

This rant has gone on a lot longer than I anticipated, so I will end it on this note: I don’t talk about social online games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, and the others that you’d find on Facebook, but I support them greatly. They may be casual, they may be mindless, but they are addictive, and they are an integral part in breaking down the barrier between gamers and non-gamers, to integrate us into “normal” forms of entertainment.

As for why I picked Steam for the logo: no reason.

I Can't Do This Alone: I'm Sick Of The MMO Stigma


Help Me Gabe Newell!

Two months ago, I changed the “Month in Review” category to a monthly review called “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” and at the time I promised all of you that I would explain my reasons at a later date. As at least one person has pointed out, the legacy “Month in review” articles have been completely wiped from MMO Fallout, and I feel I have some obligation to explain why. As some of you know, it takes about five seconds to figure out my information by doing a who-is search on this website, and although the articles themselves were supposed to be a lighthearted joke, they were discovered by a potential employer, one who saw MMOs as a “waste of time,” and promptly lost any hope I had of getting the job.

Although video games have lost many of the stereotypes that once ran rampant, our particular genre has been held back multiple times from graduating with the class. Go on to your MMO of choice and start asking people if they admit or talk about said MMO in real life,  and see just how many of them will respond with either “I don’t talk about it” or “I don’t even say I play this game.” For a lot of people, admitting they play World of Warcraft is like hanging a big sign that says “I have no life,” around their neck, an idea that could not be further from the truth. In fact, companies like Blizzard and Sony Online Entertainment just proved to the rest of the world that “normal” people do populate MMOs, and that the basement-dwellers that people often associate with the genre are such a tiny minority.

The sheer double standard of a lot of people is what frustrates me the most. For example, there is a Starbucks right in my place of work, and it sickens me to no end that someone will tell me that I spend too much on MMOs (I spend $20-$35 a month, if I’m playing more than one MMO, and virtually never buy anything from the cash shops) where they themselves spend $4 a day on one medium frappucino (that amounts to over $100 a month on a 5 day workweek). Or when that same person tells me MMOs are “childish,” right before they complain that they wanted whipped cream and chocolate shavings on their drink. The people who play games like Modern Warfare 2 or social networking games also seem oblivious to their own double standards. The same person who boasts about his all-nighter grinding towards the next level of prestige on Modern Warfare 2 will turn around and point to your two and a half hour raid in Gnomeregan and say “what a time-sink! You just grind and get no real life benefit.” Don’t even get me started on people playing Farmville who think MMOs are a waste of time.

This is part of the reason I started MMO Fallout in the first place, and that is to break down the barrier of entry into the genre. To have someone searching for Steam sales, for example, and come across “Oh look, Champions Online is on sale for $6 (Christmas sale), maybe I’ll try it out and see what all the fuss is about.” That person plonks down six bucks, and suddenly he is hooked. He goes to his friends and tells them about this great superhero MMO that costs $15 bucks but is “totally worth it, and there’s a trial!” They try out the unlimited demo and some people like it, and others don’t. Those who don’t like it might try to look for another superhero MMO, and find City of Heroes, and the whole cycle starts over again spreading to new companies, new genres, and new games. It’s like the crack in your windshield that spiderwebs out and eventually becomes a gigantic mess.

I don’t blame the people who have this stereotypes, because this always happens throughout the history of humanity outside of gaming. Those of you who early-adopted Guitar Hero will likely remember getting labeled as “losers who think they can play guitar because they play a video game.”  Anyone who played Guitar Hero knows that no one plays it because they think it’ll make them good at guitars, and that stereotype is almost out the door now that Guitar Hero and Rock Band have brought rhythm games into the mainstream.

I hope World of Warcraft continues getting bigger, because the more people play it, the more they will realize that it can be played without completely sucking your life away. I hope Darkfall and Mortal Online get bigger, so people will realize that neither game is populated by sociopaths, bullies, or people who are bullied in their normal lives. I hope Runescape gets bigger so people will realize that not just children play it. I hope Eve Online gets so more people enjoy the idea of a spreadsheet simulator (I kid, I kid).

We cannot focus on the outsider’s stereotypes of us until we start removing our stereotypes of each other, and get rid of this in-fighting and elitism that plagues our gaming experiences. We need to sit back and lay some assumptions to rest:

  • STOP calling each other fat losers. Every time you do this, you are only perpetuating a stereotype.
  • Not everyone who likes PvP is a masochist/bully victim/little kid.
  • Not everyone who dislikes full PvP is a care bear/kid/casual gamer.
  • Not everyone who disagrees with you is trolling. That goes the same for someone who doesn’t like a game.
  • Likewise, not everyone who is loyal to a company is a fanboy, or an employee in disguise.
  • World of Warcraft is not just for casual gamers.
  • John Smedley/Bill Roper/Jack Emmert/etc are not Satan incarnate.

I’ve been in countless guilds/clans over the past decade, and I can say without a doubt that the MMO genre takes all kinds, and you cannot single out one group and make them the poster child. I’ve dealt with every type of player you can come across, from the kid who ragequits the guild because no one will power level his character while he is offline at school, to the authoritarian guild leader who, despite billing the guild as “mature,” won’t let you say “ass” in voice chat, to the little kid who knows far too many expletives to his age, and back up to guildmates who are on retirement and have to log off for a while because their grandchildren are coming over to visit. I’ve guilded with the prude, the overly flirtatious, the guys who pretend to be girls, the girls who pretend to be guys, the children who pretend to be adults, the guy who steals a guild member’s account and pretends to be him, the insomniac, the whiner, the guy who falls asleep at his keyboard in the middle of a raid because he is pooped out from working almost sixteen hours a day, the girl who is a girl gamer and won’t stop reminding us that she does in fact have lady parts, to the guy gamer who reminds us that he has man parts.

World of Warcraft is what really started breaking down the wall, and although I know a lot of gamers who scream bloody murder every time Blizzard does something that can be seen as catering to the casual masses. But while companies like Cryptic, Turbine, and Sony are off handing out free sweets in the form of unlimited trials and free to play games, we’ll find ourselves speeding towards the same conclusion that befell Dungeons and Dragons players in the 80’s: That no, we’re not freaks, and what we enjoy is a hobby, not a way of life. We don’t have delusions nor do we have our own separate realities. We don’t believe that the games are real, or realistic, and we’re not about to go Pardu and start stabbing random strangers in New York under the belief that they are wandering Goblins.

We as a community can only do so much to tear down the boundaries, and we need help from our corporate masters if we’re going to succeed. So I’m calling on Blizzard, Sony, Turbine, Cryptic, NCSoft, Square Enix, Quest Online, Funcom, Jagex, Bioware, Gala-Net and all the other developers and publishers to come out and make the public informed, so that you and I will not have to be “embarrassed” that we play this game, or that game, because of the social stereotypes we might face if we did.

This rant has gone on a lot longer than I anticipated, so I will end it on this note: I don’t talk about social online games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, and the others that you’d find on Facebook, but I support them greatly. They may be casual, they may be mindless, but they are addictive, and they are an integral part in breaking down the barrier between gamers and non-gamers, to integrate us into “normal” forms of entertainment.

As for why I picked Steam for the logo: no reason.

I Thought We Already Knew About Cryptic’s NeverWinter Nights MMO?


I'm sure it will have a cash shop

Ever since MMO Fallout was in its infancy, I’ve been talking about the ongoing lawsuit between Turbine and Atari over the Dungeons and Dragons IP. One interesting note I had about the lawsuit was Turbine’s allegation that Atari was working on a Neverwinter Nights MMO behind their backs, and was intending on shutting down DDO to ensure that there would only be one MMO based on the IP on the market. Of course, this litigation is still going on, not to mention Hasbro’s attempt to grab back the D&D IP from Atari for allowing competing companies to use the D&D name.

At GenCon, Atari gave a cryptic (ha!) hint that they were working on a new D&D game which, coupled with the fact that Atari has been buying up Neverwinter Nights domains like they’re going out of style, and Cryptic has their new MMO being announced at the end of this summer, it all seems to time up just right to announce the essentially-announced Neverwinter Nights MMO.

At this point in the saga, we’re like the fans following the release of the sixth Harry Potter book: We knew the seventh was coming out, all we were waiting for was a name and a date. And J.K Rowling would fool no one going on stage and waving around a piece of paper while exclaiming this great new book she has coming out, all the while buying up Harry Potter related domains.

So…There’s no need to pull back the veil, Atari: The fabric you’re using is already see-through.

I Thought We Already Knew About Cryptic's NeverWinter Nights MMO?


I'm sure it will have a cash shop

Ever since MMO Fallout was in its infancy, I’ve been talking about the ongoing lawsuit between Turbine and Atari over the Dungeons and Dragons IP. One interesting note I had about the lawsuit was Turbine’s allegation that Atari was working on a Neverwinter Nights MMO behind their backs, and was intending on shutting down DDO to ensure that there would only be one MMO based on the IP on the market. Of course, this litigation is still going on, not to mention Hasbro’s attempt to grab back the D&D IP from Atari for allowing competing companies to use the D&D name.

At GenCon, Atari gave a cryptic (ha!) hint that they were working on a new D&D game which, coupled with the fact that Atari has been buying up Neverwinter Nights domains like they’re going out of style, and Cryptic has their new MMO being announced at the end of this summer, it all seems to time up just right to announce the essentially-announced Neverwinter Nights MMO.

At this point in the saga, we’re like the fans following the release of the sixth Harry Potter book: We knew the seventh was coming out, all we were waiting for was a name and a date. And J.K Rowling would fool no one going on stage and waving around a piece of paper while exclaiming this great new book she has coming out, all the while buying up Harry Potter related domains.

So…There’s no need to pull back the veil, Atari: The fabric you’re using is already see-through.

Earth Eternal Likely To Shut Down


Adorable.

Earth Eternal is one of those MMOs I talked about mainly on my Facebook page, which mostly occurred last year when I was in the beta. The MMO has always been tiny, be it the furry inhabitants that populate the world, or the teeny developer that created it, but not the client that ran it. Earth Eternal is like WoW-Lite, I believe I referred to it as, but injected with a full syringe of vitamin-D (The D stands for D’aww).

So, of course, I’m saddened to say Earth Eternal will likely be shutting down fairly soon. In an open letter to the community, Sparkplay CEO Matt Mihaly announced that the team has been cut down to two people, one of them being him, and the latest attempt to sell the game has failed. Although Earth Eternal is up for auction, it is probable that no one will buy up the title.

“I will keep you updated as to what is going to happen with Earth Eternal, but in all likelihood we won’t know until late on Friday whether someone is going to buy EE and keep it running or not. Let’s hope for the best!”

Here’s hoping for the best.

More on Earth Eternal as it appears.