Tag: MMORPG

Comic Con Hands On: Marvel Heroes


When thinking about Marvel Heroes, I want you to remember one name: David Brevik. If you already know who David Brevik is, then my mention of his name should automatically make you think of Diablo, and that is where I would like to begin. For a while now, you may have heard of Marvel: Heroes be referred to as “Marvel Ultimate Alliance Online.” It isn’t, at least in the sense that the two don’t carry much resemblance. Instead, I think it would be more suitable to think of Heroes as the spiritual successor to Diablo. Born of the same mind, and although vastly different in many ways, it feels quite familiar.

As I’ve already mentioned, I had an opportunity to head over to New York Comic Con, and I made a note of going to the Marvel: Heroes booth and taking the game for a couple of spins. And the folks handing out cards and helping out players wanted me to be absolutely clear: Marvel: Heroes is completely free to play, and not at all pay to win. You don’t have to pay to continue through the story, you won’t have to pay to unlock heroes, and you won’t have to worry about pay to win equipment.

The demo I was able to play was rather short, a condensed version of the level that took about ten minutes to play through. Starting out on the rooftop of a city building, I was given a quest to head down into the subway and defeat Electro. Down in the city below, I took to the streets with my fellow heroes (with usernames like NYCC19), on an expansive but linear street filled with gang members. Along the way, our heroes grouped up momentarily to take down Shocker, who cut through our group of newbie players like a hot knife through butter. But through diligence (and an incredibly lenient revival system for the sake of the demo), we managed to take him down.

Heading into the sewer, I found myself in one of Marvel’s instanced areas. It was just Electro, myself, and a whole bunch of grunts in the way. The inspiration that Marvel: Heroes draws from Diablo is obvious, the player moves around by clicking the left mouse button on the scenery, which also translates to the character’s primary attack. Each character has a secondary attack made possible with the right mouse button, and additional powers that are unlocked and used with the ASDF keys.

The game looks fantastic, and handles just as fluidly. Heroes handle pretty much just like you’d expect them to. For instance, Tony Stark is more suited to ranged combat, and while he isn’t afraid to get down and dirty, I wouldn’t recommend staying in melee distance for too long. The Hulk doesn’t have much on the side of ranged combat, but he does have a knack for smashing things. And Deadpool carries both his trademark swords and pistols, making him useful in melee or ranged situations. In total there will be a few dozen heroes to choose from, each with a massive range of costumes, with the possibility of more heroes post-launch.

Overall, Marvel: Heroes is turning out to be a great game. I’ll be looking forward to covering the game as it progresses closer to launch.

Taco Tuesday: If I Could Turn Back TIme


It is Tuesday and that can only mean one thing. I am either neglecting my patients for the delicious meat-stuffed corn tortillas down in the cafeteria. One of the greatest, or perhaps the greatest, fifty two days of the year. Taco Tuesday is where we get together to reminisce, throw together new ideas, or even think about how we would improve on those we’ve already made. Now if you hadn’t already figured since I make a weekly column about it: I love tacos. Soft shell, hard shell, with the fixings, steak, chicken, fish, venison, vegetarian, really it doesn’t matter. What I don’t like is when the chef prepares a delicious sauce made of rat poison and then decides to apply it to my food after I have already bought it. No refunds.

So for this week, I’d like to talk about various “events” that should have been thrown out while still just a thought in someone’s brain.

5. Planetside: Core Combat

It isn’t often that an expansion can actually damage the game it is attached to, but Core Combat managed to pull it off anyway. Core Combat introduced the idea of caverns, underground areas that could only be accessed by constantly active/inactive portals, where players would battle it out over ancient technology. By capturing nodes in the field below, players were then able to bring those modules up to the surface and gain access to equipment that placed them above their standard, non-alien tech using foe.

The caverns in Core Combat were a pain to get to, a pain to navigate through (a series of small floating bases connected by zip lines), all for a reward that wasn’t really worth the effort. And as a result, the caverns below each planet were about as populated as before the expansion went public: Zero.

4. Allods Online And Its Cash Shop

I remember years ago calling Allods Online as the Free To Play World of Warcraft, and for what its worth I still think the game had a shot at winning that title. Playing in the beta all those years back, Allods Online offered for the subscriptionless crowd exactly what World of Warcraft offered for the subscription crowd back in 2004, and we loved it. Allods Online had depth, the content was polished and the game looked great to boot. And the content promised by gPotato had us foaming at the mouths.

And then the cash shop was introduced. One mistake after another, from inflating prices 10x between Russia and North America/Europe to the whole system of “pay us when you die,” mechanic, the combined powers of Astrum Nival and gPotato managed to not just make poor decisions for the game’s cash shop, but both developers ganged up on their PR departments and made a note of beating them to a bloody pulp. In the case of the Fear of Death mechanic, Astrum Nival portrayed an astounding ability to learn absolutely nothing from its community, and replace the temporary debuff with a permanent debuff. Needless to say, Astrum Nival learned its lesson, but not before Allods Online had relinquished its title as the next World of Warcraft, and set fire to that massive pile of money that the community was just waiting to hand over.

So where do we find ourselves in 2012? Allods Online is a great game, now that many of the cash shop problems have been ironed out. Unfortunately, the game has burned so many bridges that its once-loyal fans aren’t coming back.

3. Jagex And The Great Fansite Lawsuit

I’ve always said Jagex has had an interesting relationship with its community. In the eleven years since RuneScape’s inception, much of that time has been one arm over the shoulder, the other holding a gun to the customer’s back. Sure, the Jagex of old appreciated fans creating websites, but if you mentioned one you could be permanently muted. The old Jagex that held Q&A’s with its community to fight off the idea that they were closed, but the Q&A could predictably hold more than half of the answers being “I can’t answer that now,” with nothing of substance stated. While Jagex has improved its community relations exponentially under Mark Gerhard, there are still old wounds yet to be closed.

But Jagex’s lowest point in PR has to be in 2006 when Tip.It published an article titled Biased Banning Raises Brows. The article sharply criticized Jagex’s banning policy, from vague bans for apparent advertising and inappropriate conduct, to banning families/friends playing on separate computers from the same house (and thus the same IP address), accusing them of being one person multi-boxing. The article also discussed the banning of players with names that would make sense in other languages, but might sound inappropriate when directly spoken in English, and Jagex’s policy of allowing accounts to exist for months, if not years, before banning them without warning and without the ability to change their names. On Tip.It, the article generated quite a bit of discussion with players offering their own stories of over-the-top permanent bans for minor offenses, or misunderstandings on Jagex’s part (banning one player for impersonating a moderator, the person in question simply expressing a desire to one day become a moderator).

So how did Jagex respond to the thread? With grace. Founder Andrew Gower showed up on the Tip.It forums to deny the claims in person. Oh and he threatened to sue the author for libel.

We are considering legal action against the author of this article on the basis of libel. It would be within the author of this articles interest to remove it and contact us immediately.

Now RuneScape was too big by 2006 and this event was too isolated to cause any PR damage, but I like to think Andrew Gower might regret having flown off the handle and seriously considered launching a frivolous lawsuit for the purpose of shutting up some random guy on the internet.

2. Monte Crisco Asks For Subscription

Of course I’m talking about Cities XL, a game some of you may not remember. Cities XL was a city building MMO by Monte Crisco, allowing players to choose between playing online or playing offline, with various perks and setbacks for either play mode. Players online were able to trade resources between cities, work together to build monuments, and generally accomplish what Sim City had not yet attempted. Then Monte Crisco added a subscription.

In order to play online, Cities XL required a subscription fee. The service itself was nowhere near worth the $10 a month Monte Crisco expected players to fork up for the ability to trade between cities, and lose their cities should they stop paying. Cities XL released during that period where multiple different types of products were attempting to launch with subscriptions attached, and like many of its fellow experiments, when it died it left a bankrupt developer. Monte Crisco went bankrupt and the sequel, Cities XL 2012, was developed by Focus Home Interactive.

1. Announcing MMOs Too Early

I bet you thought #1 would be about Star Wars Galaxies didn’t you? Well Galaxies is dead and that issue has been beaten to death. I want to talk about vaporware, in the sense that some MMOs are announced way too early, and the developer either attempts to hype it up all the way to release, or they go silent for the following decade and everyone assumes that they’ve died at the computer screen from malnourishment. Take Darkfall for instance. Darkfall was originally announced in 2001 and released in 2009. Funcom originally announced Anarchy Online’s new engine upgrade in 2007, and Half Life 2: Episode 3 was supposed to be finished five years ago.

Point being: It is important to have a game in a realistic state before you begin talking about it.

World of Warcraft Exploit Leads To City Massacre


In some MMOs, the idea of players being able to engage in PvP combat outside of designated areas can be horrifying. Someone gaining the ability to engage in combat where they shouldn’t could go on a rampage and make use of the full loot systems in games like RuneScape, and make the lives of many players miserable before they are eventually banned. In MMOs like World of Warcraft, the threat is slightly less present. Death is little more than a time setback, the penalty paid in a moderate fee to repair armor.

And speaking of World of Warcraft, everyone is dying. In the streets, in the houses, but mostly in the main cities. For several hours yesterday, on multiple servers, a kill exploit ran rampant through the major cities of Azeroth, with low level characters mowing down players and NPCs without a second thought. The exploit was hotfixed by Blizzard, and the perpetrators have presumably been banned. Eurogamer tracked down the source of the exploit, and found quite an interesting justification for the action:

“We had to. The first account ban for using the kill hack was issued around 30 minutes before we started nuking cities. We did so because we knew it was going to be fixed,”

Now might be a good time to explain that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you are obligated to.

(Source: Eurogamer)

Fallout MMO Back On The Table? Zenimax Working On F2P MMO


It’s been a while since we’ve had an opportunity to talk about the long dead Project V13, since January when Bethesda won its lawsuit against Interplay and subsequently terminated the Fallout MMO. Meanwhile, Zenimax Studios continues its long development of The Elder Scrolls Online, an MMO adaptation that has left fans curious and the media rather underwhelmed. But with the lawsuit now over and done with, players want to know: Will we ever see a Fallout MMO?

The answer is possibly. Rich Vogel, formerly of Bioware, has joined Zenimax Studios under a brand new development team, Battlecry Studios. So far Zenimax has only commented that the team is working on an unannounced project, however job listings at Battlecry are looking to fill the position of monetisation designer. The MD’s jobs entails designing an economy around the unannounced game, managing prices of virtual goods and maintaining a balance between the free and paid currencies.

Now remember that there is no specific mention of Fallout anywhere, but with The Elder Scrolls already undergoing the MMO treatment and Bethesda’s determination to grab the MMO rights back from Interplay, it stands to reason that this could be an online Fallout title.

Working Out A Bounty System


A bounty system is to sandbox MMOs like peanut butter to fluff on a sandwich perhaps with a glass of cold milk on the side (soy or almond if you prefer). While the sandbox purists will say that developers should just allow players to run their own bounty system, because risk is just part of the experience, having some infrastructure in-game can be very helpful without restricting freedoms. Ensuring the person claiming the bounty actually made the kill, and that the bounty holder must pay up.

But it feels like the developers are just setting themselves up for abuse with current bounty systems, so I’d like to offer a few of my own thoughts on a bounty system. They are just my thoughts, they could be wrong.

1. Money In, Money Out.

I think most players will agree that a bounty system is specifically a player to player affair. I hate you because you kill me a lot, you talk crap in chat, or perhaps you just crossed an angry person with a lot of expendable cash. So I’m not entirely sure why some MMOs don’t have a 1:1 input to output ratio on bounty levels.

As a gamer, I take issue with government subsidized murder to deal with personal squabbles. If xXx Leg0la$ xXx wants me dead because I stuck my sword in his head and stole all forty of his apple pies, he can do so without asking companies like Aventurine to help him buy a bounty hunter, ie: my friend who kills me and splits the reward. Even more importantly, removing the glut will prevent people from using the bounty system to get rich, with the money coming from nowhere.

Ultimately, a bounty system should be a transfer of wealth, not a generator of it. It should act as an arbiter, essentially, to prove the kill and distribute the reward.

2. The Bounty System Will Be Gamed, Regardless.

How do you keep someone like myself from gaming your bounty system? Simple: You can’t. And that is something that developers will need to understand going forward if you’re going to make this an enjoyable system and not a convoluted, overreaching and unenjoyable mess. A bounty system is a social system, and you’re up against geniuses in social engineering.

But even on a 1:1 ratio as mentioned above, you won’t stop the system from being gamed. When a player has a bounty on their heads, they will simply allow themselves to be killed by a clan member and split the profits. Prevent their clan from gathering the reward? They will set up a mule, outside of the clan, to get the kill. Allow only trusted/known people to gather the reward? Well then you’ve just negated the point in making the system official, if the person is known well enough that they could just as well be trusted on the honor system.

And enough on gaming the bounty poster, what about the bounty pursuant? Set up a clan member as a trap by throwing a massive bounty on his head, and when lone hunters show up to kill him, the group jumps out and just thrashes him. In RuneScape they do something like this by having everyone stand on one square, giving the illusion that there is only one person.

So your system is going to be gamed, one way or another, but at least in the world I’ve created it isn’t being abused to generate wealth out of nowhere.

3. Have Some Fun With It.

Here is my ideal bounty system for a game like Mortal Online or Darkfall. Players naturally drop something identifying when they die, let’s say their head or a finger. Whatever the object is, it decays and disappears after a short period of time, let’s say 24 hours from the time of death, to prevent players from gathering them in large quantities and simply hoarding them until the appropriate bounty is posted.

I, as the bounty poster, give my bounty notice and reward to the broker, we’ll call him that creepy guy in the back alley on the edge of town. You, as the hunter, go to him to see who is on the menu. When you kill your target, gather his head/finger as proof, and bring it to the creep, he pays you the reward. And naturally you are free to keep the loot from the person you killed as an extra reward.

Simple, minimalist. An NPC to act as an arbiter and nothing more.

Darkfall: Unholy Wars Announced


Tasos Flambouras has gone to Youtube to announce Darkfall: Unholy Wars. In the video, Flambouras talks about how the job of fixing the current Darkfall was too great, and as a result Aventurine has decided to relaunch as a separate game entirely. In the video, Flambouras praises the community for its extensive feedback, and notes that Unholy Wars is in internal testing and is gearing up to roll out.

Unholy Wars features a massive art change, as well as an entirely new map, new races, new environments, a new GUI, and more.

Quite exciting news. Check out the video trailer below.

Final Fantasy XIV Subscription Ending…Again.


Final Fantasy XIV is a poster boy in just how badly an MMO can launch. It is also a shining example of a developer doing everything in their power to return a game to its intended light, as Square Enix has worked tirelessly these past two years in what will finally come together as FFXIV 2.0: A Realm Reborn. Boy, it sure has been a long two years. As already announced, Final Fantasy XIV will shut down its servers on November 11th in preparation for the launch of 2.0. Afterward, early testing will begin on the release of the MMO’s rebirth.

After September 29th, however, subscription billing will end. Players currently subscribed as of that date will be able to play until November 11th for free, while inactive accounts will not be reactivated.

(More info: FFXIV Website)

Taco Tuesday: Five More Steam Greenlight MMOs


I’m writing on scenic on-campus, and that can only mean one thing: It is Taco Tuesday, inarguably the greatest day of the week in cafeterias all around America and hopefully much of the world. Taco Tuesday is also the day where I get to put some focus on games that I think you should be watching out for, even if I don’t normally have an opportunity to fit them into everyday MMO Fallout life.

Continuing on with the past few weeks, I’d like to expand upon my list of Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter games. The best part about Steam Greenlight is that, generally, a lot of the games I get to talk about are already available to play either as live titles (Perpetuum, Battleground Europe, etc) or in beta (see this list). So even if the games wind up in limbo on Greenlight for the next two years, you can still download them from their respective sources and play now.

1. Dino Storm

Just take a minute to soak in the above image. A cowboy riding a dinosaur wielding a laser gun. With that sort of introduction, Dino Storm has a lot to live up to. From the looks of things, Dino Storm features questing, loot collection, and player vs player combat with territory control and resource collection. Gain recognition and even compete with other players for offices and become the town sheriff.

It may not be sharks with laser beams attached to their heads, but surely this unholy trinity is worthy of some sort of attention. Even better, you can play Dino Storm’s open beta right now.

Official website: http://dinostorm.com
Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=94544410&searchtext=

2. NEStalgia

So I’m a sucker for 8-bit graphics and old school RPGs. Sue me. NEStalgia merges old school RPG mechanics with the trappings of the MMO genre, merging turn based combat with online play, auction housing, and guilds. NEStalgia is free to play without microtransactions, but with an optional subscription which unlocks new classes and ways to customize your character’s appearance.

NEStalgia can be played currently at its website.

Website: http://silkgames.com/nestalgia
Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92588954&searchtext=

3. Dark Blood

I normally wouldn’t consider myself to be easy to please, but show me a game where I can play as an ass-kicking polar bear, and I’m a happy guy. Dark Blood is a beat-em-up arcade brawler along the lines of Dungeon Fighter Online, and the game looks pretty good to boot. Dark Blood is free to play with microtransactions (as you’d expect), and there isn’t really much more to add. You’ll fight through dungeons, massacre all sorts of creatures in large quantities, and fight other players in arena combat.

So if you enjoy games like Dungeon Fighter, why not play the best looking game in the bunch? Dark Blood can already be played at its website below.

Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=94463555&searchtext=
Website: http://darkblood.outspark.com/

4. Heroes & Generals

I love World War II, and there is a particular place in my heart for massively multiplayer games that are set in World War II, even better if the game is a first person shooter. The core of Heroes & Generals is a team-based first person shooter, players taking to the trenches and fighting it out on foot, in planes, or in vehicles. Strategically, both sides must manage resources and territory, sending troops where they are needed and taking command. If this is sounding like a 2012-Battleground Europe, stop me now.

Heroes & Generals is being developed by the founding fathers and core developers of IO Interactive, our dear friends who brought us Hitman and Freedom Fighters. You can sign up for the beta at the website below.

Website: www.HeroesAndGenerals.com
Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93051095&searchtext=

5. Island Forge

Yes, I’ve talked about Island Forge before, but it wasn’t from this particular computer. Island Forge presents two games in one: One half of the game is a hex-based world creator. Design and publish islands for other players to quest through, creating your own stories and adventures only limited by your creativity. The other half involves, of course, exploring other player’s creations, besting their quests and knocking a few heads together.

Island Forge is quite impressive, seeing as how it was developed by a single person. You can even play the game in its current iteration on the main website below, free for 30 days with a subscription going forward. And since I’m already on track to “this is a sales pitch” comments, you can support Island Forge’s Kickstarter below as well.

Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93854071&searchtext=
Website: http://islandforge.com/
Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1391235405/island-forge-establishing-a-creative-player-commun

Would You Continue Playing If Your Characters Were Wiped?


I love perma-death in games. For instance, in Minecraft I always play on Hardcore Mode. I do so knowing that I could make a few weeks or even months of progress in the game, only to die because a spider killed me or I was poisoned or surprised and fell to my death. But I have more of an appreciation for the game’s atmosphere and cautious nature, as death is no longer simply a setback.

This article has nothing to do with perma-death. Rather, I want to talk about losing your character in a situation where you did not foresee losing it, but still have access to the game. I recently had to reformat my hard drive, and I had no opportunity to backup my saves for Mass Effect, Eschalon, and other games where my saves are not saved online. Since then I’ve found a gap in enthusiasm has left me unable to play Mass Effect to the point I was at before the crash.

I had this problem with games like ArchLord, Earth Eternal, and Hellgate, where even though I couldn’t wait for the new host to take over, once the game relaunched and I set up my account I found myself unable to force my way through the same progress I had made initially.

And those games were just available for a year or so. If RuneScape, for example, one day told me that my character of nine years would be wiped, the decision would be simple. While the grind wouldn’t be nearly as bad, the time invested in my character would be so enormous that anything short of the game’s death would not justify losing that time. And a lot of people would return simply out of brand loyalty, or to start “on even ground,” as they tell me. I cant count myself as part of the flock.

After eight years, Ryzom is shutting down two of its three servers, and instead of merging characters has decided to wipe all accounts. I always look at late-age wipes as a high stakes game of Phoenix. The baby that is birthed from the flames might go on to live a full life. On the other hand, as history has shown us with a certain MMO whose community would strangle me, it is often a last gasp before death.

Hopefully Ryzom will see its community loyal enough to not only return but grow in its new life.

More MMO Kickstarters To Watch Out For


Whenever I talk about Kickstarter projects, I always do so with a simple warning: Kickstarter is a crowd-funding tool for projects that may or may not see the light of day. You are acting as investor, and should be aware that the projects you fund may run into problems and never be completed. Whenever you invest, you should be aware that you are taking a risk. With that knowledge, let’s continue:

1. Island Forge

Island Forge features classic (old-school) RPG elements, with a unique (brand-new) game design. Explore player-created islands and stories, fight creatures, craft items, and level up with a unique health-based experience system. You can meet others in town and form party expeditions to explore and fight creatures. You can also go solo to follow stories at your own pace. Choose your level of peril when setting out on each expedition, or even choose no peril. Earn resources to craft weaponry, potions, spells, and other equipment for your character.

Kickstarter Page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1391235405/island-forge-establishing-a-creative-player-commun

2. Forge

FORGE plays like a third person shooter, but with the abilities, strategy and pace of MMO PvP combat. It is built with a focus on fun and accessibility, but with the attention to detail and balance of a deep, competitive game. Whether you’re new to first person shooters and MMOs, or a veteran, FORGE will be easy to pick up yet offer much to learn as you play. FORGE places you into an epic fantasy setting, taking on the role of a warrior from a culture unlike any you’ve seen, fighting for your right to return home. FORGE is built to be enjoyable even if you have only a limited amount of game time available each night, keeping the low time requirements and ease of access of a traditional first-person-shooter (FPS). Skill is the only determining factor between victory and defeat, not whether you were able to grind out a set of armor or weapons better than your opponents.

Kickstarter Page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/166522941/forge?ref=live

3. Sidequest

With SideQuest, we’ve decided to tear down those walls and treat game ideas like they came a la carte, rather than as part of a fixed menu. We’ve taken MMO PvP and endgame elements and married them to a robust single-player campaign; we’ve taken the aesthetic and feel of classic console RPGs and leavened it with modern PC design innovations; we’ve taken Japanese aesthetics and paired them with Western narrative techniques; and we’ve crafted a deep, rich setting and populated it with absurd characters. In short, we believe that it’s possible to have your cake and eat it too.

Kickstarter Page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1460827633/sidequest?ref=live

4. Quest Fallen

Quest Fallen is an upcoming, multi-platform, massive multiplayer online role playing game for browser, Android and the upcoming Ouya console. It will feature classic top down rpg gameplay with mmo features like guilds/clans, chat/messaging and PvP arenas. There will be an extensive map to explore with multiple dungeons in the beginning. New content and quests will be continually added and updated to keep you coming back.

Kickstarter Page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ariahstudios/quest-fallen-a-retro-style-mmorpg-web-android-ouya?ref=live

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