NCSoft – Page 24 – MMO Fallout

Why Turbine Saved The Industry: The Safety Net of Free To Play

Here at MMO Fallout, I don’t think it is any surprise that Turbine is essentially my deity, and for numerous reasons. The one I’d like to get into today is what I call The Great Safety Net, not invented but popularized by Turbine. Before Dungeons and Dragons Online went free to play as a saving grace, an MMO losing its subscription was generally accompanied by an announcement that the game would be shutting down. The company couldn’t sustain the title anymore, and hell since the game was shutting down in a few months why not let everyone enjoy it while it lasts?

Dungeons and Dragons Online is a perfect example of a game that was falling down hard, and moved to what was, at the time, a fairly experimental system involving Turbine points, a VIP system, an allowance, and the contents of the item shop itself. Of course, communities saw this and immediately called the impending death of the game. After Turbine launched the free to play effort, Dungeons and Dragons increased its paying subscribers by 40%, with a 500% increase in sales over the first year.

So why do I say Turbine saved the industry? With Dungeons and Dragons Online, Turbine has proven that there is an option other than simply shuttering a title. Following Dungeons and Dragons Online, Turbine has proven that even a healthy title can become an even bigger cash cow when Lord of the Rings Online went free to play. Since Dungeons and Dragons Online, we’ve seen Everquest II move to free to play, alongside Pirates of the Burning Sea, and upcoming Champions Online, Global Agenda, Alganon, and more. Even the normal banter has changed. In many of the forums I visit, the phrase has changed from “I wonder how long until it shuts down” to “I wonder how long until they go f2p with a cash shop.”

Granted, taking the plunge into free to play cash shop is not a guarantee at success, but rather it’s like putting a cast on your horse’s broken leg in hopes that it will heal, rather than outright shooting it. In the case of Chronicles of Spellborn, well you can’t go free to play if your developer goes out of business. Perhaps if Turbine had popularized this just a year or two earlier, we might still be playing Tabula Rasa, The Matrix Online, and other titles.

More and more we can see companies experimenting with or thinking about the Turbine model. Sony is getting into the system with Pirates of the Burning Sea and Everquest II. Funcom and Mythic have discussed such moves with Age of Conan and Warhammer Online respectively, noting that the option is not off the table but not being considered at the moment. Cryptic is taking Champions Online to such a model. The option is no longer cake or death.

Of course, there are some companies that would rather shoot the horse than risk the cast, although with the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons Online, more of those companies might start seeing the light. I’m looking at you, NCsoft.

Which MMOs would you like to see go free to play? Drop us a comment below. Want MMO Fallout beamed directly to your email account? Sign up in the sidebar. Follow us on Twitter: @mmofallout.

City of Heroes/Villains/Rogues Says Welcome Back, Weekend!

City of Heroes may be six years old, but NCsoft is still committed to keeping the old super geezer alive. Last month saw the release of the latest full expansion pack, Going Rogue, allowing both heroes and villains alike to grey in the lines between heroism and villainy. This past April brought in Ultra Mode, the brand new higher graphics settings, and numerous other free updates.

Paragon Studios wants you to enjoy City of Heroes for all of its splendor, with a welcome back weekend, and not only do they want you to enjoy Paragon’s new ultra mode, but the team is opening up Going Rogue for the weekend. As stated on the website, Going Rogue content is only accessible up until level 14, and your powersets will become unavailable after the weekend is over if you don’t own the expansion.

The welcome back weekend begins Thursday, October 7th, and continues until Sunday, October 10th at midnight Pacific time.

Lineage II Merger: One Final Server

[UPDATE] Since this article has recently started receiving a high amount of traffic, I want to point out that the information below was true as of this article’s publication (September 10, 2010) and that more up to date data can be found in the Lineage 2 category.

Lineage II is one of NCsoft’s biggest hits, scoring #3 worldwide in NCsoft’s sales lists for Q1 2010, and having the benefit of being so good that addicted kidults are willing to sue over it. Granted, most of Lineage II’s sales and subscribers come from Korea while over in North America and Europe, not so much.

So it is with great…I would imagine joy that NCsoft announced that the North American and European Lineage II servers will be shut down and accounts will be merged into two servers (one NA, one EU). As part of the merging process, any character under level 20 that has been inactive for a year will be deleted. In addition, players will only be able to keep seven characters from all servers combined, and those with the lowest experience will be deleted, so it is advised that players move items from low level to high level accounts, and figure out which they want to keep and which they would like to delete.

The merger hits October 5th (reflected in the MMO Fallout calendar, so you don’t forget). This move consolidates five US servers into one, and three EU servers into one. There is currently no information on how clans, alliances, Olympiads, castles, etc will play out.

Nerdgate 2010: Lineage II Is Just That Good

1212500952-lineage3_11 — Three Times The Addictive!

When I wrote my “I Can’t Do This Alone” article, I put a lot of emotion into my disgust with the stereotype that MMOers still have in today’s society, of which I don’t think I need to remind you. Every once in a while, however, someone goes and ruins the image for the rest of us, resetting those stereotypes and putting us back a good year or so in progress.

Lineage II is a great money maker for NCsoft, and according to my profit rundown on the company earlier this year, Lineage II is NCsoft’s #3 game worldwide in terms of sales, with both in the Lineage lineage still going strong despite their increasingly old age. But, much like the “dangerously cheesy” Cheetos, could Lineage II be so good that it strips the life away from a normal person? Of course not, don’t be stupid.

News is hitting the stands today of a Craig Smallwood, who is suing NCsoft for making Lineage II too good, causing him to become addicted. According to the lawsuit, Smallwood alleges that he spent so much time on Lineage II that he became “unable to function independently in usual daily activities such as getting up, getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends.”

So where is NCsoft at fault? NCsoft “acted negligently in failing to warn or instruct or adequately warn or instruct plaintiff and other players of Lineage II of its dangerous and defective characteristics, and of the safe and proper method of using the game.” Also, according to the lawsuit, Smallwood is claiming that his addiction left him with emotional distress, put him in the hospital for three weeks, and required a regimen of therapy. This is after five years of playing for roughly ten hours a day.

Smallwood is asking for $3 million USD.

Personally, I don’t see where the news story is, but someone asked me to write up about this. Rolling the story down to its basics, and what you end up with is a person with an addictive personality becoming addicted to something. This is really no different than a compulsive gambler or drinker. This addict, however, chose not to take responsibility for his addiction, and instead chose to make a quick grab for cash from the company that provide(d) the product for him.

Another note to think about: Smallwood was banned from Lineage II for real money trading, and my personal belief is that his lawsuit is in retaliation either because he bought gold and was caught, or he’s been running a gold farming troupe with his three accounts and got caught. Smallwood alleges that the ban was to “force” him to play Aion.

So: Before you or anyone you know treats this as “some nerd,” just remind yourself that Craig Smallwood is either an addict or an estranged gold seller/buyer, just one that happens to be able to afford a lawyer. And to the regular news media who will eventually pick this up, and maybe see this page: Us real nerds don’t associate with Smallwood, please don’t build a bridge where a bridge is not needed.

Richard Garriot Wins Lawsuit Against NCsoft

If Funcom's money was gold-backed... — I hope NCSoft has plenty of it...

Oddly enough, it was exactly one year ago yesterday (shortly after MMO Fallout began) that I wrote up about Tabula Rasa, where I mentioned that Richard Garriot was suing NCSoft for $24 million for alleged fraud. In his lawsuit, Garriot claimed NCSoft forged a letter of resignation, both to themselves and the community of Tabula Rasa, and used it to get out of contract terms that would put Garriot in control of a number of stock options under the conditions of involuntary termination. In short: NCsoft fired Richard Garriot, and then lied about the conditions of his departure to get out of paying him millions of dollars in stock options.

The jury awarded Garriot $28 million, which NCsoft is of course planning to fight tooth and nail.

NCsoft: Exteel is Shutting Down This September

Exteel was something of an experimental move by NCsoft into the free to play cash shop market, and launched back in December 2007 to the fanfare of…something. As far as fanfare goes, Exteel was one of the games I never actually bothered looking up, considering it was developed and published by NCsoft. Not unlike Dungeon Runners, the game hasn’t made much news since its launch, and the announcement of it shutting down just begged the question: Exteel was still running?

That being said, on September 1st, Exteel will shut down because, as it turns out, the robot fighting cash shop MMO is not “financially viable.” In August, players should expect more information as to planned compensation for players, although if past history is anything to look at, players will likely receive keys to City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Lineage, along with game time for each respective title (I know that is what I received when Tabula Rasa and Auto Assault shut down).

Until then, enjoy the game while you can.

Aion: Reactivation Weekend With Double Exp

Dear everyone who quit Aion (and those who left after the server merge debacle),

If the latest information from MMODATA.net is to be believed, Aion’s subscription numbers may be down but the worldwide subscription count is still estimated at slightly below three and a half million (making it indeed second to World of Warcraft). Regardless, the folks at Aion would love to see your smiling faces again, grinding your way to the end game, where you might do some PvP and punch a few gold farmers in the face for good measure. So this Friday, July 30th, NCsoft is activating all of the old accounts for the weekend, so that they may partake in the delight of double experience. Just pay no attention to your mangled username.

As startled as some of you may be, I will remind you that whatever issues I take with a company, I always continue to promote new ways to get into MMOs for as little as possible (if anything).

Good News Everyone! Aion Transfers Back On Schedule

I reported yesterday that the character transfer system, which was to follow the server mergers in Aion, was delayed due to an unseen issue that did not arise until literally the day of. In the post, NCsoft promised that they would provide 24 hour notice before the transfers went into motion again, and that players should be prepared for notice at any given time. There was no indication on how long the fix would take, and luckily it was barely a day, as the following post on Aion’s website states:

We have managed to correct the problem that was causing the transfers to fail and are ready to bring the servers down again to transfer all those that had queued prior to yesterday’s maintenance. If you queued prior to the 14^th July your transfer will go through, there is no need to queue again, please make sure that your character meets the transfer requirements before the maintenance.

The servers will be taken down at 4am CEST for approximately three hours, after which the queue for character transfers will be reopened. Normal restrictions on transfers are still in effect, and players are required to read the restrictions if they would like to minimize item loss in the transition.

Aion Transfer Delayed…Again.

In the process of merging a large number of their servers, Aion has run into a number of snags, the latest of which brings a temporary delay to the character transfer program. In a post on the Aion website, NC announced that the transfer service was put on hold due to unforeseen issues.

Character Transfer Services have been disabled while we troubleshoot technical issues that arose this morning. You will not be able to initiate a character transfer during this time. If you have already initiated a transfer for a character prior to the maintenance window, you will not have to repeat the process. Your character transfer will already be queued when we re-enable transfer services.

NCSoft has promised to give players 24 hour notice, but cannot give any more detailed information as to how long the transfer services will be down. More on the Aion transfer service as it appears, hopefully I’ll be able to get you some news soon on this event which has turned into nothing but a pain in the backside for all parties involved.

Aion: Server Merger Plans? How Do Those Work?

aion0069 — Assuming the GM's don't murder you first.

You would think that, given NCsoft’s history with MMOs, that they would offer their wisdom to the Aion Development Team in regards to the upcoming server mergers. On that thought, Aion could go to virtually any MMO that has run a server merger in the past and see how they accomplished what must feel like an amazing, never-before-performed feat to the Aion team. As much as I hate to say it, the old method works fine, as follows:

Character creation for existing accounts is shut off temporarily until the server merge.
Characters without conflicting names are transferred as-is.
Characters with conflicting names are given based on seniority (age of the character), presuming the senior character is active.
Characters forced to change their name are offered free name change tokens.

Instead, Aion is opting to require everyone to change their names, with the inevitable result being that the more famous players will lose their names, players who preordered the higher priced editions just for the early name reservation will be out of luck, and the ensuing clusterload to the servers will end up with thousands of people all trying to get their names back at the same time.

The story gets better. Aion wants you to know that they recognize what a name means to a person. It is not just an identifying set of symbols for you meat sacks, but it gives personality and depth to your toon. So instead of making the process more efficient, Aion is adding another layer of bureaucracy to the mix:

“If you’re unable to regain your name after the server merges, and feel that another player took it to consciously harm you or your reputation, we’ll have a way for you to submit an appeal for manual review (‘manual’ equating to ‘live human being’).”

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to waste hours trying to access the name change service after the server mergers, only to lose my name and then spend a month or two on the line with customer service trying to negotiate and explain exactly why I think I deserve the name more than the other guy. This is of course before NCsoft tells me that the other person did not constitute name theft.

NCsoft should be paying special attention to players who paid for the ability to reserver their names, and those who paid for the ability to change their names. Those players should either be given priority access (characters who reserved their names should be entered into the new database a day or two early), or at the very least compensated for the money they spent specifically for their names.

According to Community Manager Ayase on the AionSource forums, consideration is being given to name change ticket buyers and preorders (collector’s edition), but nothing is set in stone as of yet.

I can only imagine that NCsoft might have something to do with NCWest’s inadequate tools. More on Aion’s Server merger as it appears.

But wouldn’t it be ironic if enough people left over this that another server merger was needed?

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