NCSoft – Page 12 – MMO Fallout

Carbine Staff Knocks Down Cheater On Forums

Wildstar staff Cougar took to the forums to publicly respond to a player asking why his account ban hadn’t been dealt with ten days later.

I’m assuming that with your posting here that you don’t mind us talking about your account status in public. I have a spare moment before my next meeting and am doing this on a lark. I understand this opens me up to “oh oh oh my ticket” which I don’t intend to keep up with. I am a fickle beast. You, and your alts, were reported a number of time by players for AFK Botting. We found you afk botting in a PvP Match (which as you know, was a really big issue for us – which is now better thanks to AddOns no longer being able to join matches automatically, among other things). We did our secret stuff … okay afk bot confirmation doesn’t take much clandestine stuff once we are on top of you. We sent you tells over time and you never reacted and continued doing the same thing over and over.

We closed your account. You opened up a ticket in question, asking for us to give you your account back. In that opening salvo of asking us for getting your account back, you admited that you were afk botting while doing homework. You then added 5 replies in two days to the ticket with various stages of pleading/begging. Including internet meme pictures. (http://i2.kym-cdn.co…392/289/116.gif). A few agents have investigated it internally and found your account to be worthy of permanent closure. You are exactly the problem case players have been pleading for us to remove from our game. We agree with them.

Now, why we’ve taken some time to tell you that your ban will not be overturned I’m not sure. So thank you for bringing that to my attention, however you’ll forgive me if we don’t prioritize deserved-to-be-banned-customers over paying ones right now.

(Source: Wildstar)

Go Back And Revisit Old Events In Guild Wars 2

To date, Arenanet has introduced more than two dozen living world updates to Guild Wars 2. The feature is great, for those of you who can keep up with it. For others, missing a week or two due to real world obligations or simply taking a hiatus means missing out on rewards and the world’s ongoing evolution. Thankfully this is set to change for (most) affected players. Beginning with the launch of Season 2 on July 1st, as long as a player is able to log in during the two week period, they are able to “bank” the living world to return to at any time after. If you aren’t able to log in during the period, you are still able to access the content for a small fee of in-game currency.

“The Living World exists to drive the story of Guild Wars 2 forward and create a sense of speculation, wonder, and intrigue around the world of Tyria and its characters. We want to create the feeling that anything in Tyria can change and get players looking forward to what might happen next. A natural system that provides story and context for these changes makes sense when we regularly expand the experiences in our game”.

Season 1 will not be included at the launch of the new journal, as it was not built with the journal in mind, but Arenanet hopes to add it in at some point in the future. Season 2 will move away from the concept of meta-achievements entirely, replaced with story-mode achievements accompanied by open world event achievements with each step.

(Source: Arenanet Press Release)

Wildstar Early Access Hammered By DDOS

With players piling into Wildstar’s servers for early access, what more could a developer possibly ask for? A denial of service attack, apparently. Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney posted on the game’s Reddit to confirm that the servers were under attack and that it was being handled. Since then the servers have come back to normal.

I’ve heard from a few folks it’s a confirmed DDOS attack (real time updates, may change, fog of war, etc.). Partially handled. Servers taking in some players now, player counts rising. Ninjitsu continue.

Never underestimate the potential of anonymous basement dwellers with botnets.

(Source: Reddit)

Classic Servers: Another Developer "Gets It."

Private servers are a very stingy subject in the gaming press. Many developers don’t like to acknowledge them and, honestly, there is at least one of my contacts who will never return my emails after this article just for the act of referencing their existence. MMO Fallout does not condone private servers, nor do we allow them to be advertised in our comments section. I like to think that private servers can be an important tool for developers to gauge their audience’s expectations, however. Private servers that exist simply to cheat, to bypass a subscription, or gain accelerated experience/items will always exist, and those don’t offer much of a lesson outside of that some gamers are unwilling to invest the time or money.

As more developers are realizing, however, there is a great opportunity in classic servers. Jagex has not only maintained the original RuneScape Classic, but launched a version of 2007 RuneScape that remains updated thanks solely to the majority vote of its community. Sony Online Entertainment has, for a long time now, dabbled in classic and progression servers for Everquest. Ragnarok Online launched a classic server back in 2012, and NCSoft recently announced a classic server for Lineage II, at least the Korean version.

There are a million legitimate reasons why a developer wouldn’t want to create their own classic servers. A classic server would need some form of monetization, where a cash shop would risk driving away the target audience and a subscription would put the server in competition with those same private servers that operate for free. The developer could, however, capitalize on this very issue. A dedicated developer could offer stability and quality where many classic servers are at risk of shutting down at moment’s notice, operate on inferior server infrastructure, and are partially hand-built by the operator due to the inaccessible nature of certain MMO mechanics (server side operations).

Other developers refuse to create a classic server on the grounds that doing so would compromise their “artistic vision,” a belief that MMOs change with time and that introducing a classic server would be counter to that vision, or an admission that they made the wrong choice somewhere down the line. Further developers cite an unwillingness to risk splitting the community in half.

Happily, it appears that more developers are recognizing the potential for classic servers or those with alternate rulesets.

Classic Servers: Another Developer “Gets It.”

Happily, it appears that more developers are recognizing the potential for classic servers or those with alternate rulesets.

Lineage II Classic Server Coming

NCSoft is set to launch a classic server for Lineage II in Korea. The version includes legacy systems including the old inventory, pre-revamp locales, old crafting recipes, clan system, party system, xp loss, and more. All in all, it looks like the classic server will be somewhere in between the first versions of Lineage II. The beta servers are officially live on the Korean service, however NCSoft has not announced anything about the service coming to North America or Europe.

(Source: MMOcast)

NCSoft Q1 Profits Down 22%

NCSoft has released their finances for the first quarter of 2014, and the results are certainly worth taking a look at. Revenues and profits fell by approximately 20% in the first quarter due to a drop in sales in Lineage 1. The report states that in-game item sales were “scaled back,” and were responsible for much of the loss in profit. Lineage’s sales dropped by nearly half, from $70 million last quarter to $40 million this quarter. Lineage II and Guild Wars 2 saw a drop in revenue, while Aion and Blade & Soul increased by a modest amount.

Blade & Soul continues to perform strongly in China, adding to NCSoft’s royalty revenues. NCSoft did not market as heavily in the first quarter, seeing marketing expenses drop nearly 40%. As for demographics, royalties now make up 25% of the overall income distribution. European revenue dropped heavily, down to just under 3% of NCSoft’s total income. Korea dropped off heavily but still remains at the top with 52% of revenue, and North America increased slightly to 13%.

(Source: NCSoft Financial Documents)

MMOrning Shots: I Mustache You A Question

Today’s MMOrning Shots comes to us from Wildstar, where my character is sporting quite a leafy mustache. You too can have such a mustache by joining the Wildstar open beta, going on now until the 18th.

Check out MMOrning Shots (eventually) every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Wildstar Beta Opens May 8th

If you haven’t had a chance to check out Wildstar, your time is coming soon. NCSoft has announced that Wildstar will enter open beta on Thursday May 8th. The beta is scheduled to run until May 18th and allows players to access content up to level 30. For more information on Wildstar, check out the website at the following link. Wildstar is set to go live on June 3rd.

(Source: NCSoft Press Release)

Molten Games Suffers Massive Layoffs

Molten Games, the San Diego-based developer founded by ex-Blizzard and Sony Online Entertainment employees, has lost its funding and laid off its staff. The studio was in development of Blunderbuss, a “core” MMORPG built on the Unreal Engine 4 and featuring action combat.

The layoffs were confirmed by the San Diego chapter of the International Game Developer’s Association on the group’s Facebook page.

We’re getting word from contacts at Molten Games that the studio has lost its funding and laid off its employees. They are currently seeking funding to continue development. Let’s be proactive and help our fellow developers land on their feet.

Molten Games was originally funded by NCSoft, who were not able to comment on the matter as an investor with no role in management.

(Source: Gamasutra)

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