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.
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.
Good morning/day folks,
A couple of threads on this topic appeared during the night and rather than replying to each one of them I thought I’d create a new one.
We have, as you know, recently banned a large number of users for violating our User Agreement. If you found yourself unable to log in after the night, that would be the reason.
If you are 100% sure you have not been involved with any activity that would violate our User Agreement (this would also include anything related to RMT), then we suggest contacting our Customer Support team at Support | NCsoft who will be able to look into your case.
We understand that the timing is very inconvenient and will make sure that inquiries on this matter are made top priority. Our GMs will be working through the weekend to sort this out as quickly as possible.
– Ayase
Mass bans in any game remind us as to why police officers don’t take down an armed suspect in a crowded mall by firing an automatic rifle into the crowd and hoping to hit him. You’ll hit your mark eventually, but you are the one that will be explaining to little Tina why daddy won’t be waking up.
When the subject turns to real money trading (RMT), the situation turns from cop-in-mall to a McCarthy style commie hunt, the commies being the gold farmers and buyers (Note: Not a jab at China). Hunting down goldfarmers is akin to searching for a criminal by attempting to listen to their thoughts (Note: You are not Matt Parkman, nor do you work for the FAA). Banning for gold is an even hairier issue. Take for example the following issue: Xkcd sends TwinkpOwn892735 twenty thousand gold. R3dsp0t sends X Dalton X twenty thousand gold. Both of these transactions actually happened in an unnamed MMO, and one of the two were gold farmers. I’ll come back to that later.
Continue reading “False Positives Happen: The Response Is What Counts”
Ok, you caught me. I have to admit, however, that for a title that was as widely panned as Archlord (As I mentioned in my previous news bit, Archlord was panned for being “dull and repetitive” among other issues) Archlord is quite resilient. Last September we learned that the free to play title was to be shut down after Codemasters lost the rights to run the title in North America and Europe. Ever since the title launched, it was wrought with controversy, as I mentioned coming across quite a large number of claims of corruption within Codemasters, and convenient bans for people who purchased large amounts of in-game currency (The game runs on a micro-transaction format, shop currency is specifically what I am referring to).
Archlord shut down on the first of this month, for two days when the newest host, Webzen, officially launched the new North American and European servers. Webzen is offering a transfer service to players coming over from Codemasters, that is expected to complete on the 14th. In order to sweeten the deal, Webzen updated the game offering transfer players some microtransaction currency, and the new Archlord now features a female-only swashbuckling class.
A change of pace should be just what the doctor ordered for Archlord, but it may be too little too late. I foresee the next news story you see here on MMO Fallout related to Archlord will be its shutdown notice.
With Champions Online and DC Universe taking up most of the superhero limelight, we tend to forget that City of Heroes is still in the room. City of Heroes is getting along in its life, and despite having just celebrated its fifth birthday this year, the train keeps rolling. City of Heroes remains one of NCSoft’s more popular titles.
The developers over at Paragon have been working tirelessly this year to keep City of Heroes up to date and relevant. Aside from improvements to the customization of your superhero, Paragon announced Going Rogue, an upcoming expansion pack for the title. Set in a Utopian alternate universe to Praetoria, Going Rogue will introduce a new system that dives into the shades of gray in between the Hero and Villain. This expansion will allow heroes to become villains, villains to heroes, allowing each side to experience the opposing side’s cities without having to reroll a character.
More on Going Rogue as it appears. If you attend this year’s Hero Con, you can receive beta keys to the expansion.
In a move first capitalized by The Wizard, viewers got a glimpse of the oft-delayed and just as oft-sued, upcoming MMO Stargate Worlds. In the premier of Stargate Universe, character Eli Wallace is a gamer who finds his way into the Icarus program. After spending months attempting to complete an “unbeatable puzzle,” he gains the attention of Stargate Command. Of course, the game he is playing is none other than Stargate Worlds.
This is the first update on Stargate Worlds’ website since May, and it is unclear at this time whether this is a sign that the game is still going, or if what we saw was just a simple cameo from one section of the IP to another.
It’s only a little but we will have much more to show very soon as we mentioned earlier.
Certainly more to come. I don’t normally report on pure MMO news, but I make an exception for Stargate Worlds. You could make quite a nerdy soap opera based off of the development of Stargate Worlds. Will Stargate Worlds ever be released? Are the claims of the ponzi scheme true? Will Cheyenne’s employees ever be paid? Will Gary Whiting be thrown under the bus? Tune in next time folks! Same vaporware time, same vaporware place!
As September draws to a close, Funcom ends the month on a bad note: The developer of the MMO Age of Conan announced today that they are laying off 20% of their workforce. The developer is looking to reduce redundancies in its ongoing focus to move the company to Montreal, where they can enjoy more tax breaks and lower wages.
Funcom’s upcoming title (pictured above), The Secret World, has been officially delayed by “several months.” The title does not yet have an announced release date, and a release date of late 2010 to early 2011 is expected. It is unknown if this will affect Age of Conan’s upcoming expansion, Rise of the Godslayer.
Also unannounced is what effect, if any, will be had on Funcom’s current titles: Age of Conan and Anarchy Online.
Impatience is not a virtue in a recently launched MMO. In fact, hindrance is not a strong enough word to explain just how disappointed a player will be if they dive into a recently launched MMO with hopes of 100% stability, a lack of bugs and glitches, and a some residual issues that even the open beta or head start periods could not iron out before launch. Early World of Warcraft players will remember Blizzard being on hand with defibrilators day and night to revive the many servers from their often hourly heart attacks. Warhammer Online saw server queues, and more recently Aion saw total lockouts from certain servers, as well as the load of AFK shop owners bringing some parts of the server to their knees.
Continue reading “Fallen Earth: Stumbling Launch and Today's Stroke”
Impatience is not a virtue in a recently launched MMO. In fact, hindrance is not a strong enough word to explain just how disappointed a player will be if they dive into a recently launched MMO with hopes of 100% stability, a lack of bugs and glitches, and a some residual issues that even the open beta or head start periods could not iron out before launch. Early World of Warcraft players will remember Blizzard being on hand with defibrilators day and night to revive the many servers from their often hourly heart attacks. Warhammer Online saw server queues, and more recently Aion saw total lockouts from certain servers, as well as the load of AFK shop owners bringing some parts of the server to their knees.
Continue reading “Fallen Earth: Stumbling Launch and Today’s Stroke”
MMO Fallout 