NCsoft wants to poke fun at traditional awards ceremonies with the Golden Chippies award for the best and brightest of MMO journalists. Set to be handed out at Brighton’s Developers Conference, the Golden Chippies will cover a wide array of categories:
GM Award for Appearing to Know More than the Developers
Tank Award for Impenetrable Resolve and Integrity
Emote Award for Most Eminently Cheery Journalist
AFK Award for Hardest MMO Journalist to Track Down
Twink Award for the Strongest Introduction to MMO Journalism
MMO Journalist of the Year
NCsoft EU PR Director Cat Channon had this to say:
“MMO journalism is a labour of love for those involved. A niche but growing subset of traditional gaming media, these guys really are doing it through devotion to the genre. The Golden Chippies allow us to sing their praises over some classic seaside fare and raise some cash for a good cause in the process.”
Now all I have to do is wait until the Golden Chippies come to America, and for NCsoft to acknowledge my existence.
Age of Conan isn’t the only game getting in the spotlight. City of Heroes is the first big name Superhero MMO, launching in 2004 and since spawning two expansion packs, twenty “issues” (big content updates), and countless holiday events. Despite the game’s obvious decline in subscribers as it has aged, City of Heroes has managed to survive the competition of Champions Online and the recently released DC Universe Online, while maintaining its level of income.
So imagine my surprise when NCSoft announced today that City of Heroes will go free to play. Free players will have access to heroes and villains up to level 50, with 45 zones of content, 8 archetypes over two characters, and 105 power sets. The veteran rewards program is being discontinued, instead VIP players will receive points for every month they are subscribed, which can be used to purchase the rewards previously found in the veterans program. Veteran reward points will be transferred over, even if you do not subscribe.
There will be a VIP only server, although the current 15 servers will remain intact. Free players will not have access to super groups (guilds), Whisper chat, in-game mail, posting on the forums, limited auction house, and of course queue priority and VIP server access. Free players will have to purchase access to the mission architect, inventions, purchase server transfers, and will not have access to in-game customer support.
Given the success of previous game (don’t forget the 1000% increase in revenue for Champions Online), there is only one way to spell this out for NCsoft: l-o-d-s of e-m-o-n-e, and what does that spell? Loadsa money!
I saw an interesting thread over the past week. It asked “would you rather take one million dollars if it meant never being able to play Guild Wars 2?” My answer was an absolute yes. Now, I loved Guild Wars, even though I got bored once I finished the leveling and storyline quests, and I never bought the last two expansions and I occasionally enjoy player vs player combat, but not to the level of being competitive. That being said, I’d take a million dollars to not play any specific video game, even if it means not having a chance to try Duke Nukem Forever. I could use that million to pay off my car, buy a house, get into a great college, and pursue my career at the expense of what? An experience that will last me maybe a year?
I would hope that everyone would agree with me, with the exception of those of you who are filthy rich and wipe using one million dollar bills that didn’t exist until you purchased the US Treasury and started printing them. Even once you factor in taxes being taken out, you are still looking at all of your financial burdens (house/several cars/college loans) being taken care of.
But enough about money, let’s see what happened this week.
1. Warhammer Online Free? Don’t Hold Your Breath
Now that Age of Conan is going free to play, a move I’ve been suggesting since 2009, the attention is being turned to Warhammer Online making the move. As much as I’d love to see WAR go free to play, I don’t think such a move is feasible anymore. From my monitoring of the Warhammer Online forums and looking at the game’s history, Mythic may have neither the manpower nor the support to make such a leap. Changing payment systems requires a lot of resources from a business and mechanics perspective, changing systems around to accommodate a cash shop, conceptualizing and balancing said cash shop to not throw the game off balance, etc.
You have to hand it to the Warhammer Online community though, those that have stuck through for this long are a very dedicated group. They understand that there is likely no big update coming to be their savior and turn the game around. In the US, WAR has dropped to two servers and continues to bleed like a stuck pig. As much as Mythic has done to improve the game since launch, the major factor has always been too little, too late.
2. I Prefer My Softs NC’d Rather than Ubi’d
I recently attempted to redownload Rainbow Six Vegas from Direct2Drive, only to find following the six gigabyte download and installation that I could not activate the game. “Unknown error.” After clicking on the link to the support page, I was told to submit a question. Upon clicking that button, I was greeted with (what else?) an error message. Could not access the page. So no way to validate my copy, no way to contact ubisoft. I purchased Vegas for $3 on Steam as part of the $13 Rainbow Six collection on sale today, figuring Steam will offer better activation coverage.
Speaking of activation, I finally got around to reactivating my NCsoft account. I haven’t touched my account since before NCsoft implemented that authentication system, so my computer was not authenticated. Turns out, I also forgot my password reset answers (spelling issues). I sent an email to NCsoft’s customer support after shaking off several months of too-damn-lazy syndrome, and got a response the next day, notifying me that my account was reset and I would have to set up new reminder questions and a new password. So I’m all set for the Aion welcome back week this Thursday.
3. Phasing Vs Exclusion: Telling A Good Story
The problem with telling an ongoing story in an MMO is that you have one of three options: You can make a story that has no impact on the world, and impress very few. Who cares about the story when they know major characters will never die? Then, you can take the more accepted route which involves phasing. In Runescape, in the quest While Guthix Sleeps, around six major characters to the series die. This doesn’t include the multitude of other quests where major characters die, are incapacitated, or are enslaved by the enemy. At the same time, I’ll see different NPCs than someone who did not complete the quest, even though were are in the same room and can see each other. Finally, you have world events. World events change the world for everyone. They remove quests, add in other quests, and move NPCs and training spots around. In Tabula Rasa, for instance, world events lead to the destruction of two major player bases, leaving behind smoldering ruins. In World of Warcraft, the most famous world events occur during expansion releases. On the other hand, you risk excluding players. The Matrix Online was the worst offender, because unless you started from the day the game launched and never missed an event, you were out of tune with the continuing story and had to rely on a text based “what you missed” to be filled in. Not as good as seeing it live, definitely a disincentive for players.
The best approach is probably a hybrid of world events and phasing. Phasing for the small stuff, and world events for the big stuff. For an MMO like Runescape, world events are just not feasible with how the story relies on the player doing quests. Many can’t be randomly removed because that would create too many broken links.
4. Some Thoughts Regarding Marvel Universe Online
In addition to comments about my mentioning of Superman, when MMORPG.com picked up on my Marvel Universe article (No Customization, Ever), I had a good amount of people knocking on me for bashing the quality of the game before release, and more recently I had people asking why I haven’t talked about Runescape’s upcoming Freminik Sagas update being similar. For those who don’t play, the Freminik Sagas are part of an expanding idea to have players take roles of other characters in the Runescape Universe. This is to allow the player to witness events that took place previously in the game’s lore, without requiring factors like time travel or intervention.
I haven’t mentioned Runescape because I particularly like the idea. It worked when the player took control of Zanik in the Chosen Commander quest, and it will likely work here too. My problem with Marvel Universe Online is not an assumption on the game’s quality (and I’ve pointed out several times that I would absolutely play it), but that my issue is with the game being advertised as an MMO, but not to the MMO crowd. If you’re trying to net the crowd that does not play MMOs, and calling your game an MMO, they won’t bite. The same happened with All Points Bulletin, when Realtime Worlds said “hey, it’s not really an MMO, it’s a shooter online!” The MMO core lost interest because it wasn’t an MMO, and the shooter core who aren’t keen to pay a subscription lost interest because of the added “fees.”
Now, MUO is cash shop supported, and hopefully features a lot more free content than Super Hero Squad. So when people ask me why I’m so untrustworthy of Gazillion Entertainment on this one (aside from looking at Lego Universe and Auto Assault, that is), I simply tell them for the same issues I had with All Points Bulletin. MUO is an identity crisis waiting to happen.
5. How About A Star Trek Diplomacy Single Player Game?
I’ve always said that if you want gripping story, go play a single player game. Now, in the case of games like Runescape, the actual story mode is indeed single player. I may have opened up the western half of Ardougne, but the guy sitting next to me still hasn’t cleared the rubble pile or killed the leader of the Trolls, Dad. I stopped the invasion of Varrok by a powerful necromancer, but the guy sitting at the Grand Exchange selling rune platebodies hasn’t even heard of the guy (in context of the game) yet.
So I’d love to see a good Star Trek game that features combat, but also relies as heavily on diplomacy as the television series does. I want to have my own crew, have them live out their lives, and encounter stories that can take place entirely on board my ship. I want to have a video game become popular and have to figure out why everyone is playing it and how to stop it. I want tribbles to invade and have to turn my head as I flame broil the furry, and adorable, cretins back to the hell they spawned out of.
In short: I want a story driven Star Trek game, and Star Trek Online doesn’t have the structure to provide that. It’s my money and I want it now!
Aion’s 2.5 patch brings a whole lot of sexy to NCsoft’s already big-hitting title. The patch brings with it a new graphics mode, new content, customizations, pets, mentoring, armors, abyss changes, dynamic maps, and more changes than you could legally shake your finger at. In fact, NCsoft is so excited, that they want to welcome back their old players (again) to show them just how well the game has improved…just not for a few weeks. Possibly to give the current subscribers a leg up on the update and work out any kinks before reopening the doors, the welcome back week runs from June 3rd to June 13th.
If you haven’t logged into your NCsoft account since the security update, you may want to get a head start. NCsoft enacted a new security policy, requiring computers to be authenticated before an account can log in from them. In order to authenticate a computer, you will need to enter your password hint answers, and if you don’t know those, go through support to get them changed. Do so soon, because there’s no saying how much NCsoft’s Customer support will be backed up.
Furthermore, those of you who never played Aion will have the opportunity to take part in a ten day trial, experiencing up to level 20. The trial goes live May 26th. Oh NCsoft, why did you have to pick June 3rd and make me choose between Aion, the Hellgate Global beta opening, and the Duke Nukem Forever beta (among other things that week)?
It’s that time of the year already, the first quarter financial reports are starting to stream in. Last year wasn’t so great for NCsoft, considering they lost a $28 million lawsuit against Richard Garriot. Sales of Aion, Lineage, and City of Heroes went down, while Lineage 2, Guild Wars, and NCsoft’s other titles saw a brief increase.
Another point worth noting is the American presence in NCsoft’s portfolio: It’s dropping. Whereas North America made up 12% of NCsoft’s sales in Q4 2009 (23,733), this figure has plummeted to 5% in Q1 2011 (or a paltry 7,129). Similarly, NCsoft’s presence in Japan and Taiwan has been suffering, albeit not nearly as much, and Europe has also plummeted from 12% down to 4% since Q4 2009. Royalties have skyrocketed, around 50% higher than the same time in Q1 2010. This is attributed mostly to Aion’s performance in China.
Although these figures look great for NCsoft as a whole, they don’t really spell well for the Western markets for the coming years. As sales continue to fall in North America and Europe, NCsoft continues to shut down games, with the most recent being Lineage (just in the west) this June. Perhaps the trend can turn around with NCsoft’s upcoming titles: Blade and Soul, Lineage III, and Guild Wars 2 are looking to draw in big crowds, with Guild Wars 2 likely being the first to launch.
I have a question for all of you who read this introductory paragraph. Have you ever rage-quit an MMO? I haven’t. I’ve quit more MMOs in the past than I can count, but they’ve never been out of a fit of rage. Single player games, yes, I’ve stopped playing because every time I played I wanted to smash my keyboard through the monitor, but for some reason I’ve never rage quit an MMO. Getting griefed by some loser in Meduli who is abusing bugs to pickpocket me and then jump onto buildings, just doesn’t get an emotional response from me.
I still remember the time I died in Runescape and lost almost everything I owned (I had invested all of my money into very high level gear for the time), and I stopped playing for about a week. Not out of anger, but I went back and started recuperating my losses, and eventually I got all of my gear back. I suppose my reaction is because, in MMOs, death is meaningful when you can lose everything on you, so for many of us it triggers a sympathetic response. In a single player game, you lose the time you spent from the last checkpoint, which simply triggers frustration at having to play through the same area or sit through the same cutscene over and over again until you progress.
1. What Did We Learn From the Sony Incident?
First of all, we learned that even people giving testimony to Congress aren’t to be trusted. The media took the story that Sony was running outdated software and ran with it like the Olympic torch. Turns out, Dr. Gene (the security expert) was merely parroting what he had heard in the media, without actually looking at Sony’s records. The servers were indeed running an up to date version of Apache. What Sony needs to do is come out and say “Yes, we had a firewall, yes we were running up to date versions of Apache” if they haven’t already.
The offer of identity protection was a good move, but will ultimately not be useful. No relevant credit card data was stolen, apart from the twelve thousand expired credit cards Sony had stockpiled on a database somewhere in the off-reaches of their systems. Sony’s stupid move in all of this was foremost trying to take the hackers head-on, but secondly placing regular data in plain text. If they hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be hearing rumors of passwords being in plain text, or credit card data being unencrypted. It simply wouldn’t be as present.
2. So What’s The News With Lineage 2?
The announcement that Lineage was shutting down in the west was rather abrupt to those of us who don’t play, to be honest the game falls into the system of only appearing in the media when NCsoft releases their financial reports to tell us how great their games are doing in Korea. Make no word about it, Lineage is still going very strong in the east, and in 2010 actually outperformed Lineage 2 by a full 10% of NCsoft’s total income. The game made up 30% of NCsoft’s income in 2010 (20% Lineage 2, 44% Aion, 2% City of Heroes and Guild Wars respectively). Lineage, to my understanding, didn’t even have official support in the west for 64-bit operating systems until late 2010.
Lineage 2 is still active according to several active players I discussed the game with, but with biases the way they are, I have the feeling Lineage II will be next on the chopping block for the west, possibly coinciding with the release of Lineage III. I’m not one for calling death, but this is NCsoft we’re talking about, they don’t take under-performance lightly.
So, I say…Keep playing Lineage 2. The game will die one day, so why not spend the time until then having fun instead of worrying about when the time will come?
3. Star Wars Galaxies Server Mergers
This one made me chuckle. Looking back at my previous article, I had to laugh thinking about how frustrated I was that I couldn’t get any information regarding the Galaxies server transfers, due to the random DDOS attacks that preempted Sony’s database being hacked and taken offline for the better part of the month.
Now that that debate is over, we can get back to the important discussion, namely how many servers will shut down when Sony finishes the free transfer system. My bet is on at least half, so about six servers if Sony does do a server merger, which likely depends on how the population shifts during the free transfer phase.
4. NCsoft Bribing Asmodians
To assist in the creation and leveling of Asmodian characters, players on selected servers with an Asmodian, level 10 or higher, will receive a huge supply of Berdin’s Amulets. Berdin’s Amulets deliver a 50% additional EXP gain from hunting, gathering and crafting. The effect lasts one hour, with a one hour cooldown after activation.
In short: Not enough Asmodian players at max level participating in PvP on select servers, Elyos players taking too much control. This is one of the big problems 2-faction MMOs have, is that generally one side steamrolls the other, causing the losing side’s members to leave, meaning an even bigger steamrolling on the following round of action. In a game like Aion, being on the losing side of faction warfare can mean never having access to certain content simply because your side does not have control over territory.
In addition to giving exp incentives for leveling up, Aion is allowing Asmodians on certain servers access to instances otherwise inaccessible due to the aforementioned fortress control. Players who do control fortresses will also be awarded greater than players on the Elyos side, as an extra incentive for participating, and succeeding, in turning the tide. You can read it all here.
5. Runescape Has The Best RP: Virtual Mafia Complete With Dirty Cops
Back in a time before research (2009), Jagex introduced virtual game pieces for Runescape, items in-game that allowed for community driven events, including stopwatches, tickers, and more importantly, dice. The introduction of dice, of course, lead to a Runescape version of craps. And inevitably, the online community being what the online community is, groups sprang up using this to scam from players. At the same time, legitimate gambling rings formed to allow for a safer environment to play.
Where there is gambling, however, there is a mafia behind the scenes shooting your friend Joey because he had sex with the don’s daughter. This may be my extra-strength medication talking, but I am fascinated by the idea of a mafia running a questionably legitimate (according to the game rules, not calling the outfit a scam), run by teenagers. If you head over to this thread, there is allegedly a clan on Runescape that uses a single world for dice games, and has a player mod either in the clan or on its payroll to mute the accounts of competing clans on their world.
If that isn’t brilliant, my name is Farmer Joe. Isn’t this the Valhalla of role playing? Here you have a virtual form of gambling, secretly run by the mafia, using corrupt police to virtually cut out the tongues of the competition. The only way this could be more extreme is if Jagex allows money to be transported in large quantities via suitcase, a Runescape version of crack cocaine for the dicing mafia to deal, and the reintroduction of player-vs-player worlds so the mafia could literally murder their competition. Or if the aforementioned teenage mafia don actually murdered his competition, although I can’t say I condone such conduct. This is the first thing that popped to mind when thinking MMO mafia:
What’s next? Runescape hookers? Already existent, just check a free to play world near a bank. In case you’re thinking about it, don’t. I already have the Runescape mafia on my payroll. You’d be surprised what those Runescapers will agree to if you package those chocolate coins with the foil wrapping and tell them it’s “rl geepee.”
That’s all for this week. Tune in next time, when I’ll be showcasing a thing. Better yet, I’ll be showcasing a thing in a place.
[Update: 5/18] I’ve been seeing a lot of searches pointing to this page by players who want to know if their accounts will work on the Korean version when the North American servers shut down. Simple answer is no, your account will not work on the Korean version.]
Writing this article, I’m reminded of a few random comments placed on the last NCsoft article I wrote (about how NCsoft’s subscription games were performing better than their non-subscription games). Lineage entered the scene back in 1998, a year after Ultima Online, and with it brought the little game studio known as NCsoft to an eagerly awaiting pile of money, spawning a sequel as well as shuttling NCsoft into one of the major players nowadays in the MMO industry. Ironically, the designer of Lineage (Jake Song) had previously worked on NEXUS, for Nexon.
Lineage is still going strong in Korea, some unknown number under one million according to Wikipedia, but over here in the west the game just isn’t doing well. Not well enough to maintain profitability anyway. Today, NCsoft announced that the western service for Lineage will be shut off this June 29th. While there are no updates planned, the article does mention ruleset changes and in-game events planned.
Information on compensation is already available. Unused time will be refunded, and any player with an active subscription during 2011 will receive:
Lineage II activation code and two months game time, as well as some free items.
Aion activation code plus collector’s upgrade, and two months free game time, as well as free items.
Guild Wars activation code.
City of Heroes activation code and two booster packs.
It’s always sad to see a game go, especially knowing that it is still available (just not in your region). For what it’s worth, Lineage’s western counterpart lived a full life, and died a ripe old age of thirteen years (that’s 91 in MMO years)
Back in March, we learned the NCsoft was planning on merging the world of City of Heroes, to allow interaction between North American and European accounts. Rather than merging servers, the services themselves were to be merged, with players given access to both services as one grand list. In the original announcement NCsoft praised the move as allowing for more interaction, as well as equality in updates and functionality.
The good news just keeps coming, as the City of Heroes team announced today that the service is coming sooner than expected. Originally estimated “by the end of summer,” the service will be merged next week, on the 10th. Players of the European service are expected to read the Frequently Asked Questions, as their login details may change as a result of the merger.
I push this idea as much as I can here at MMO Fallout, but the old adage that free to play was a last ditch effort by subscription titles that were tanking died when Dungeons and Dragons Online pulled off the transition, and proved to the industry that throwing in a cash shop wasn’t just a way to stave off death for another few months, but rather a way to revitalize a game, boost the community, and (in the case of Lord of the Rings Online) cause a successful game to become even more successful. That being said, I find myself in a lot of arguments with hardcore loyalists to the Guild Wars games who claim that the business model (buy to play) is “wildly successful,” and is something the entire industry should adopt. What they don’t pay attention to is that Guild Wars brings in a whole 2% income for NCsoft. If NCsoft were to switch all of their games to buy to play, their profits would plummet to around 10% of what they are making now, assuming similar sales to Guild Wars.
So Massively had an article where NCsoft’s Jeremy Gaffney states that subscriptions are “probably” more profitable than microtransactions.
“There’s still a lot of money being made in subscriptions right now. Worldwide there’s a lot of money being made in [micro]transactions, but there’s probably a bit more money really being made in subscriptions worldwide,”
I’m sure the boots are quaking at Turbine (with their paltry double income from LotRO, and 500% increase in DDO), Cryptic (with their laughably small 1,000% increase in revenue), and Nexon (who posted over 50% increase in revenue over last year), not to mention Sony Online Entertainment, Gala-Net, T3fun, GamersFirst, Perfect World Entertainment, and the host of other companies who have found solace in the cash shop model.
Gaffney is correct in one sense, there is still a lot of money to be made in subscriptions, and both business models are equally viable. As for subscriptions bringing in more revenue than cash shops, I’m going to have to request Gaffney show me the money.
Money is a powerful tool that can buy many things. In the wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we’ve seen an outpour of support from MMO developers and their players. Square Enix has shut down Japanese Final Fantasy servers, while Sony Online Entertainment has announced the suspension of billing for Japanese players. Global Agenda has pledged 100% of sales for the next ten days to the Red Cross, while CCP is offering players the option to convert their PLEX into cash to donate.
NCsoft is next on the list, with a substantial donation to the relief effort, particularly the restoration projects. In a recent announcement on the Aion forums, NCsoft announced:
NCsoft sends its most heart-felt condolences to the victims and people of Japan. As such, NCsoft will donate 500 million Yen (approx 4.5 million Euros/3.9 million GBP/6.3 million USD) to restoration of damages in the region. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan.
MMO Fallout 