Been thinking about picking up that MMO title, but don’t want to run the risk that your initial investment will be a dud? Direct 2 Drive has the answer for you. As part of their 5th year anniversary, you can pick up a few select MMO titles for just $5 USD. This week (Running from the 20th to the 26th), the following titles are only $5 (USD)
For those of you not looking to pick up any new MMO titles, there is a plethora of old and new titles on sale for five dollars, with a new range of titles every week. If you’ve been holding off buying Eve, Age of Conan, or Planetside, you have until this Saturday ends to snatch up a copy and get your free month.
If you have five dollars handy, you can choose between one of these titles and a foot long Subway sandwich. In my discredited opinion, the MMO might last longer.
Crimecraft launched on August 25th, and today being September 17th, that would make it not even a month after the title’s release. So it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that Vogster Entertainment, the creative minds behind the lobby based, third person shooter title, has made some cutbacks to the development team. After some cooking today, the story originally appearing as a rumor that Vogster had shut down completely, the story was clarified to reveal that only the Chicago studio closed, with significant cuts elsewhere.
“We regret the necessary staffing changes and the talented employees that this impacts, but it is an unavoidable step in moving to the operational stage of CrimeCraft and optimizing for the development of yet to be announced titles.”
Now is a good time to point out that, although layoffs are never a good sign for a company, such a move for a small company isn’t exactly uncommon. If history is any sign of the future, the layoffs involve primarily a group who were hired temporarily, for the purpose of being the development team, rather than part of the launch team who will go on to maintain the game post-launch.
That being said, players of Crimecraft wouldn’t have much to worry about, even in a worst case scenario. MMOs succeed, and MMOs barely scrape by, but they rarely shut down until they are no longer profitable. Crimecraft, with its instance format, is on the lower end of the spectrum of upkeep, aside from content development, when compared to the upkeep that, for example, Eve Online’s one shard requires to keep running. As many cutbacks that Vogster might do in the future, it is likely that Crimecraft will be profitable for a long time to come.
It seems like Fallen Earth LLC just can’t catch a break when it comes to server stability. What was originally supposed to be a September 9th release was pushed back last month to September 15th. Now, we have news that the title has been delayed again, to September 22nd, to deal with varying launch difficulties.
“Our main focus is to make sure that Fallen Earth is easily accessible to as many fans as possible,” said Jessica Orr, product manager for Fallen Earth. “We are working on initiatives that are near fruition and we simply need more time.”
Luckily for those of you who preordered, this means you will receive an extra six days on to your head start; The newest delay has not affected the head start.
Some Thoughts: After two delays, Fallen Earth LLC can expect an uproar if this launch goes badly (IE: Server crashes, obvious bugs, etc). It’s good to see a company that is willing to push back a product, and potentially lose customers, to ensure that their product will be ready on time, but some will see the developers as possibly pushing development too close to the line, making optimizations and fixing issues that should have been fixed long before the game went gold.
Interested in seeing how Fallen Earth will perform when it launches this September 22nd.
TenTonHammer is reporting on a rumor that Sony Online Entertainment may be working on a more casual Star Wars MMO, that might be based on the Star Wars: Clone Wars CGI film. Not much is known on the title, but it is very likely that Sony will build the game off of the Free Realms engine, delivering the MMO as a freemium, browser based game, not necessarily aimed towards children, but instead a wide variety of players.
With Star Wars: The Old Republic being released next year, will this title be launched close-by as a free alternative? Does Sony really need two running Star Wars MMOs at one time? Will players be willing to take Sony up on a new Star Wars MMO on the idea that they learned from their mistakes with Star Wars Galaxies?
People think that I must hate being wrong when I write articles for MMO Fallout when, in fact, the opposite is true. Even though the main purpose of MMO Fallout is somewhat doom and gloom, I do try to balance that with articles on success and companies prospering. So it makes me glad to see the dedication to Darkfall that Aventurine has, with a vision that they are bringing into the world, to make the game in their image, while still being accessible to more and more players.
On September 2nd, Aventurine released a balancing patch in preparation for an upcoming October Expansion. The patch tweaks quite a few mechanics of the game. Some important notes:
Ships are now cheaper, but with reduced hitpoints
Ships and Warhulks are slowed by damage.
Weaponsmithing leveling is faster creating higher leveled weapons.
New one handed clubs, and elemental bows
Shield blocking damage has been reduced
Spell trees level faster in preparation for adding more schools
Spells cost less, but have a lower AOE damage.
Villages bring in more gold, but have less hitpoints
Training on monsters gives triple the experience of fighting players
Darkfall is the closest thing you’ll get to the original Ultima Online, obviously barring the lack of an isometric view. Aventurine knows their target audience, and knows who they are not advertising to, and they are ok with that.
People think that I must hate being wrong when I write articles for MMO Fallout when, in fact, the opposite is true. Even though the main purpose of MMO Fallout is somewhat doom and gloom, I do try to balance that with articles on success and companies prospering. So it makes me glad to see the dedication to Darkfall that Aventurine has, with a vision that they are bringing into the world, to make the game in their image, while still being accessible to more and more players.
On September 2nd, Aventurine released a balancing patch in preparation for an upcoming October Expansion. The patch tweaks quite a few mechanics of the game. Some important notes:
Ships are now cheaper, but with reduced hitpoints
Ships and Warhulks are slowed by damage.
Weaponsmithing leveling is faster creating higher leveled weapons.
New one handed clubs, and elemental bows
Shield blocking damage has been reduced
Spell trees level faster in preparation for adding more schools
Spells cost less, but have a lower AOE damage.
Villages bring in more gold, but have less hitpoints
Training on monsters gives triple the experience of fighting players
Darkfall is the closest thing you’ll get to the original Ultima Online, obviously barring the lack of an isometric view. Aventurine knows their target audience, and knows who they are not advertising to, and they are ok with that.
Imagine, if you will, that you live in Medellin, Columbia. Not only that, but imagine Medellin is the only city, and you have no other choice but to live there. You are forced to deal with the daily life of terrorists, drug lords, bombings, kidnappings, and random muggings and shootings. The government does nothing about these murders, because they don’t have the resources, and may be in the pockets of some of these drug lords. The leaders may be manipulating data to make the records sounds better than they are. Now imagine a new city forms, where there is still a little crime here and there, but it’s more along the lines of littering, with violence much, much lower and a government that cares. Would you (We’re disregarding financial issues here) move to this new city? Of course you would!
The reason for this analogy is to focus on the point that anything looks more popular when people have no choice. In this analogy, Ultima Online was Medellin, Columbia. I’ve always referred to Ultima Online as the Wise Granddaddy of MMOs, that other titles should take wisdom from and learn from both the good times and the bad. Ultima Online was the first mainstream MMO, and the release version was also insanely unapologetic and unforgiving; but there was no competition. When Everquest was released two years later, players began flocking out of Ultima Online, and resulted in Origin pulling what I’ve dubbed the Trammel Effect, bringing major changes to the game’s pvp aspects.
Full PvP is a dead feature, and I intent to explain exactly why.
In the world of PC MMOs, ten thousand subscribers is around the lines of Asheron’s Call, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, and Planetside. For a large company, the number can mean imminent cancellation of a title, as it no longer becomes profitable to develop for, let alone run the servers. Others wing it, limping on with what they have, determined to please those who have stayed loyal, and possibly turn around the trend.
The little MMO that could, Stargate Worlds has gathered quite the following. Not the massive scale of Aion or World of Warcraft, but quite an impressive following. I’ve been somewhat reluctant to talk about the title because, up until this point, it appeared that the prospects for this game were bleaker than the cancelled Halo and Harry Potter MMOs. Last year the company faced lawsuits over unpaid wages, as well as the departure of some key figureheads.
Well it appears Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment will be continuing on with the Stargate ship, as according to a post on MMORPG.com, they have received funding from investors.
“Things are actually very good here right now. We received some funding commitments that will provide financing over time and allow us to move forward with development and start catching up on our past due financial obligations, including some back payroll that we paid last week.”
Unfortunately, I still can’t say I have high hopes for Stargate Worlds coming to completion. When the Executive Producer jumps ship, it’s generally a bad sign. My prediction is that, unless CME becomes acquired by a big name publisher/developer like NCSoft or Sony Online Entertainment, this ship’s going to capsize very quickly.
MMO Fallout 