mmorpg.com – MMO Fallout

Black Desert Online Reduces Costume Prices 10%

MMORPG.com is reporting that costume prices in Black Desert Online will be reduced by 10% in response to community criticism over high prices. Currently in beta, Daum Games has taken heavy backlash on its forums over the perception that its prices for cash shop items were too high, with costumes going for as much as $32. According to associate editor Suzie Ford, Daum has confirmed that prices will drop by 10%, with the publisher keeping an eye on community feedback in order to continue tweaking its pricing for the future.

The announcement has been met with mixed reception by the Black Desert Online community, with some praising the developer’s response as others decry prices as still being too high after the reduction. Whether or not the new prices will inspire customers to pony up for costumes and pets will have to be seen when the game goes live in the coming weeks.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

Everquest Next Drops Ties With Storybricks

Daybreak Game Studios has announced that they have cut ties with Storybricks and will continue developing the game’s AI in-house. The comment came during a live stream where the team also revealed hopes that the game will come to Xbox and Playstation.

“We are not working with Storybricks any more. We made the decision that it was in the best interest of the game to take that work in-house.”

(Source: MMORPG.com)

Lessons From 2013 #4: Threats From Devs

Despite some of the criticisms I make here at MMO Fallout, I have a decent relationship with most developers that I talk about. I don’t water down my editorials and for the most part they are fully aware that anything negative is said with the best of intentions. That out of the way, MMO Fallout has received several threats of defamation and slander lawsuits, all of which disappeared when pressed to explain precisely what was said that was false or published with the intention of damaging said company/individual. Over at MMORPG.com, however, 2013 saw the delisting of two games due to the actions of their developers. Back in March, WWII Online was removed completely after Cornered Rat Software threatened to sue over comments made by users in the forums. Just a month later, Jason Appleton threatened the website over comments made about Greed Monger, resulting in the game also being removed.

Forums for MMORPG.com and big video games are often toxic pools of hatred, but a place where someone is allowed to vent their frustration, even if it is poorly worded, incorrect, or agenda-driven, is always preferable to one where the developer has a strangle hold and silences any criticism. The unfortunate side of the MMO genre is that as the market continues to push itself far past the saturation point, with games shutting down left and right, the very developers who can’t afford to push their customers away are doing just so, and they are the same people who will be sitting alone, wondering where everyone has gone and why no one returns their calls anymore.

This lesson of 2013 is that websites are not responsible for the statements that their forum users make, although if you want to shoot your potential for publicity in the head, you should target the largest MMO websites first to convince everyone else to stop covering your game.

Raph Koster's MMORPG.com Q&A

Raph Koster performed a live forum Q&A on the MMORPG.com forums, answering questions about his views on the industry present and future, and boy were the questions interesting. When asked about an MMO mimicking pre-Trammel Ultima Online, Koster stated his disbelief that a modern Ultima Online could work, and that the “whole gankfest thing” is a relic of the past that simply doesn’t work anymore.

To me the essence of sandboxiness that was in UO and SWG is not about the PKing. It is about a simulated world, a functioning economy, a low power difference between high and low level players, and a system that doesn’t push you into combat as the only way to play the game (or even classes).

Koster also states his belief that MMOs haven’t moved much since the days of Metaplace, aside from the ever increasing budgets. He believes that while Grand Theft Auto hasn’t influenced the genre since GTA 3, Minecraft has proven far more influential. There is a lot more to read, and you can find the entire Q&A at the link below.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

Greed Monger Threatens MMORPG.com With Lawsuit, Game Unlisted

Greed Monger has been completely unlisted from MMORPG.com following a request from Electric Crow Games. According to Managing Editor Bill Murphy, the MMO news website was contacted with a request to remove negative posts, with legal action against the website threatened if the requests were not made. MMORPG.com’s policy is to completely remove a game’s listing when such a request is made.

Bill Murphy commented:

In case this hasn’t been answered yet, yes. He emailed me directly and asked us to remove the negative posts about the game. He also hinted at taking legal action if we didn’t remove the posts of our users, and we decided we didn’t need a baseless lawsuit.

If you want to blame someone for the removal of the game listing and forums, blame Jason Appleton. But when someone threatens us with legal action, we can either a.) ignore it or b.) react with what we think is appropriate. In Greed Monger’s case, it’s probably just better to igore its existence as a website.

I wish the Greed Monger devs well, but I’m not too thrilled with how they handled the negativity our forum users tossed their way. If they can’t take the criticism and claims of trolls, they’re in for a rude awakening in this industry.

Maybe one day we’ll re-add the game to our list, but that depends on whether or not our users are allowed to post about it without the site being under threat of legal recourse.

This is not the first time a game has been unlisted from MMORPG.com. World War II Online was removed at the request of Cornered Rat Software just recently, and Mourning was famously removed in response to Loud Ant Software abusing MMORPG.com staff.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

WWII Online Removed From MMORPG.com By Cornered Rat Software

You may not have noticed that World War II Online suddenly went missing from MMORPG.com earlier today. The main game page for WWII Online and the forum directory became inaccessible, although threads were not deleted and can still be reached and posted in with direct links. The removal came with no immediate comment by either MMORPG.com staff or a developer, leading to speculation that the game’s sudden absence was due to anything from a technical glitch to demands by Cornered Rat Software.

Well the latter group is correct. The removal of WWII Online was at the request of Cornered Rat Software, as MMORPG.com administrator Meddle posted, confirming on the forums.

CRS requested that we remove the forums from the site. Our policy is to also remove the game listing as well in this event.

We’ve discussed here at MMO Fallout before that Cornered Rat Software doesn’t exactly have great track record on dealing with criticism, what with a very heavily moderated forum that is mostly closed off to the public and only accessible to accounts with active subscriptions. Being a third party website, the WWII Online forums at MMORPG have become a platform for current and ex-customers to vent their frustrations with Cornered Rat Software without fear of being banned in retaliation or simply having their threads shut down. As a result of the clash between former and current players, the forum subsection ultimately became a never ending, out of control flame war.

To MMORPG.com’s credit, however, the removal of the game’s forums does come at a high price: The complete removal of WWII Online from the website period. Whether or not CRS sees this as a preferable alternative to what was being posted is up for speculation.

Community Concerns #3: The Revival

brilliant_medium — I'm legally required to remind you to game responsibly.

Today’s “Absolutely Brilliant!” comes from user Gnatbug on the MMORPG.com forums. Gnatbug has a list of rules for how to go about buying an MMO, and although he may be a little too selective (#4), he hits right on the money.

Rule #1) Never Pre-Order unless you have played in the open beta of a game!

Rule#2) Never buy a lifetime subscription before you have played a game!

Rule#3) Always google the game to find out what others think, then make up you mind.

Rule#4) If Cryptic is developing…a game WAIT 5days before buying it …Just to make sure it has content!

Rule#5) HE WHO HAS GAS …Travels at the back of the line!

#5 couldn’t be more true.

MMORPG.com: Slander With Human Shields

You have been issued a warning by one of our moderators.

Warning Category: Trolling
Reason: Posting excessive negative comments or baiting others to respond in a negative manner is considered trolling on the MMORPG.com forums.

I have this problem over on the MMORPG.com forums, and that is whenever I make a positive post about Mortal Online, a moderator comes along and issues me a warning and deletes it. This phenomena doesn’t just follow me when I’m in the Mortal Online forums, but also on the other boards where trolling is frequent and positive voices are low. What does yank my chain, however, is that when I am replying to posts, be it the original poster or someone else in the thread, the actual inflammatory posts are very rarely removed. Someone makes a comment that Star Vault is likely collecting credit card numbers to use for identity theft when Mortal Online goes down? Fine. Calling them a troll? You’ve been issued a warning. In fact, just using the term “troll” in reference to someone else can net you a warning, regardless of the rest of your message.

So, I thought, perhaps the moderators are just misguided. Maybe the career trolls that roam the boards are friends with moderators. However, the answer hit me like a sack of bricks: United States Safe Harbor laws remove the liability of hosts from the actions of their users, so MMORPG.com can’t be sued for slander because someone on the forums, for example, wrote a thread claiming that a company was going bankrupt, using forged “insider” documents, and where the retaliatory posts displaying the true story were conveniently deleted. Meanwhile the website itself moves onward with their faux-passive aggressive writing, not outright trashing but just leaving the door open enough so that the point gets out.

Of course, like any enterprise, the real intent occasionally leaks out in a graphic and clear-cut manner, such as (and I’m just spitballing here), having one of your writers summarize his “I got hacked” rant by claiming that Blizzard is scamming its users by staging account theft in order to scare their users into buying authenticators.

I think Blizzard just staged the whole thing to squeeze some extra money out of me! Damn you Blizzard you slippery snake, I’m on to you. Everyone who is reading this is now wise to your scheme. Oh, I’ll buy your precious little “authenticator” just so you keep your grubby little mitts off my account you cheeky monkeys.

If there’s one thing MMORPG.com is, however, it is efficient. I don’t think I’ve ever managed to call someone out on a lie and have my post stand for more than a half hour after. If there is another thing MMORPG.com is, it is polluted. The community is disgustingly polluted by users who have no other agenda than to sit at their keyboards and make a few thousand posts calling this company a “scam artist,” or gloating about how they managed to perform a fraudulent charge-back and turned around, bought the game again, and performed yet another fraudulent charge-back.

MMORPG.com is a joke, and one that isn’t particularly funny.

I Don’t Do Reviews, For Good Reason

The Fallen Earth LLC Boardroom — Where we go to discuss Fallen Earth.

If you’re a visitor to mmorpg.com, you’ve probably found yourself stepping into the middle of a controversy. Apparently yesterday’s review of Fallen Earth caused such an uproar that mmorpg.com’s staff saw fit to remove it from the website. I decided to get my super sleuth kit, and by super sleuth kit I mean grabbing part 1 off of Google Cache before it was deleted.

Continue reading “I Don’t Do Reviews, For Good Reason”