Hey, Rift’ers. I know you’re busy fighting back Alsbeth and the legion of undead attacking Telara at the moment, but offer me a moment of your time. Do you have a friend looking into Rift who just doesn’t want to throw $50 down on the box, but doesn’t want to miss the event? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you’re in luck! Your friend can play with you during select times, just by creating an account and applying a code.
Have your friend head over to Trion’s website, log in (or create an account), and give them the code you received in your email linked to your Trion account. It will look like this (minus the pixels on the code):
The event goes from 10am PDT April 1, 2011 through 10am PDT April 4, 2011.
The program FRAPS is great, but recording tends to slow down my computer. Xfire video does the job, but not all of my games are supported. I’d love to see more MMOs implement what Trion just did today: integration with Youtube. In today’s patch, Trion added in support for players to link their Trion accounts to their Youtube accounts. By hitting Ctrl + Y in-game, players can record up to three minutes of footage. When the capture is complete, the video is encoded, and once the encoding is complete, can be sent off to Youtube straight away. Note: Unfitting death metal music and terrible editing skills not included.
To show the system, I’ve included a short 30 second video I recorded today, using this system. I did have some trouble on longer videos with the video skipping, and I’m not sure what is causing that.
If you are in Rift, hopefully you’re doing better than my server in fighting back Alsbeth. More importantly, I’d like to see more MMOs incorporate their own recording system. I’m looking at you, Alganon.
The coin-lock system in Rift is, as I mentioned, a substandard method of stopping account theft because it doesn’t impact what Trion has referred to as the cause of 80% of all hacked accounts: Keyloggers. With what Trion has referred to as a nonstop attack on the account databases and servers, it was only a matter of time before one of the parasites made it through, as shown just this past week when a player managed to log into another player’s account with their details.
If this were, say, Runes of Magic, the person who found the vulnerability might put thousands of accounts as hostage until the company fulfills a list of demands that could only come from a frothing-mouthed disenfranchised fanboy, but rather than setting himself up for a bunkmate, Mr. ManWitDaPlan alerted Trion to the exploit, and the team has managed to fix it.
The vulnerability existed deep in the server code, dealing with the error checking of the login validations. If this is Greek to you, just feel safe that it’s been fixed.
An important lesson to be taken from this is a reminder that bugs will always occur, and sometimes they have a much larger implication than others. In this case, I have to hand it to Trion for their fast response and willingness to work with the guy who discovered the exploit. As Trion put it:
We do block them as they are detected, but the fact that they are using distributed botnets (compromised computers from across the globe) means that this will remain something that we will continue keeping an eye on, forever.
So score one for Rift, and for Trion’s ability to recover from a setback.
Rift launched last month to the fervor of a substantial number of people, opening up more than thirty servers in the days after launch to deal with population. With the mechanics involved, Rift has pulled in players from World of Warcraft and similar MMOs, by presenting a similar game with a new mechanic attached: Dynamic rifts. Of course, the attraction of the large crowd could lead to the two inevitabilities: A whole lot of compromised accounts and a whole lot of real money traders to steal those accounts.
In response to growing complaints of account security, Trion has responded by implementing the Coin Lock program. Coin Lock is similar to the computer identity systems your banks may have begun using recently, where a computer is identified as the “home computer” and any attempt to log in from another computer requires additional information in order to proceed. Without that information, the characters will go into coin lock, during which the following activities will be disabled:
Accessing the Auction House.
Sending Mail (can still receive and view mail or remove items).
Selling to vendors.
Deleting Characters
Salvage, Runebreak, or destroy items.
Trade.
You can continue to play and gain coin and items, but cannot get rid of them.
“80% of the hacked accounts we’ve seen are from keyloggers.”
The method to unlock a character from coin lock is via a code sent through email, so if your account is compromised via key logger, and thus your email address compromised with it, this system won’t help. At all. Yet by Trion’s own admission, their new security system is going to help, at most, 20% of compromised accounts.
Trion should be utilizing other features in addition to the white list. Why not a black list? If I know that I will only play Rift from my location, why not be able to blacklist all other areas, no exceptions? How about an authenticator that operates through a smart phone app, ala World of Warcraft? A four digit pin that must be entered with the mouse instead of the keyboard, ala Aika Online and Runescape? There are plenty of options that Trion has, and they don’t even need to manufacture security dongles.
The feature of this white list is about as effective as having two locks on your door for extra security, but allowing the same key to work with both. Then again, this is just frustrating because, by Trion’s own admission, this will not help 80% of compromised accounts. It is a start, so we’ll see how this turns out.
Just enough time to watch the Lord of the Rings Extended Director's Cut Trilogy
Less than a week ago, I mentioned that Trion was opening up over twenty new servers for Rift’s head start, after population built up into fifteen hour long lines just to log in. Of course it is worth pointing out that, with any MMO launch, a few of these servers will be going the way of the Dodo a few months out when the game has settled down to its base population.
Not content with adding twenty three new servers, Trion is looking to throw even more realms onto the pile, with the announcement of another 31 servers that will be added in March 1st (today) for launch. The official list contains 19 US servers, with 12 in Europe divided into 9 EN, 2 DE, and 1 French. The resulting count leaves server figures at 58 North American servers and 41 European servers.
When the time does come to it, hopefully Trion will be able to merge servers quickly and efficiently. You can check out the full server list here, or by ordering Rift from one of the many MMO Fallout-trusted retailers, and then log in.
Rift’s head start launched out the door yesterday, and almost immediately the title was punched in the throat, dragged into a back alleyway, and beaten with a metal club for all of its bandwidth. Of course, those of you familiar with MMO launches will be well aware of the launch-day queue lines, matched and surpassed only by lines for new rides at Disney Land. Everquest added one new progression server due to the overwhelming demand. Trion, on the other hand, has added over 20.
At the start of the day, Trion had added in 13 servers, comprising of seven US servers. Over the course of the day, ten more servers were added to continue alleviating stress on existing shards. Depending on how the game goes at the true launch, more servers may have to be added to compensate for the additional, additional load.
Being who I am, I have to add my voice of pessimism. Once the pre-launch hype wears down and the post-free-month community settles in, the excess servers will likely be merged. Of course, Rift could continue growing after launch, in which case you are free to take this article, sharpen the edges, and use it to murder me in my own apartment.
In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been out in North Carolina for the past week or so (hence the lack of updates) in a period of what I can only refer to as not having the internet, at all. But, now that I’m back, it’s time for a quick wrapup of what I should have written about at the time, but didn’t, so now the news is coming a few days too late. Just like getting a newspaper, right?
1. Enjoying the Rift Beta
I tweeted two RIFT VIP keys before I left, and hopefully those two people are enjoying the current beta event, which was extended to Saturday morning. I hope to have more of these giveaways in the future, so subscribe to my twitter in the right hand side, or follow @mmofallout so you can take part, and so that my internet ego my grow to epic proportions.
2. That Superhero MMO Is A Bestseller
DC Universe became Sony Online Entertainment’s best selling MMO to date, also topping Steam’s sales charts over the past week. In fact, DCU is selling so well that the title is having a hard time staying in stock in many retailers, I imagine partially due to people like myself who put down a few bucks to reserve the game, but went ahead and bought it somewhere else instead.
3. All Points Bulletin says “Two Strikes, and You’re Out”
At least according to Jagex, not having a no tolerance policy on cheating works to keep paying customers who may have gone out of line once, but are indeed salvageable by the great legitimate-promoting gods. So K2 Networks announced on their blog that they will be instituting a two-strike policy when APB goes live. Cheat once and you are temporarily banned, cheat twice and you are permanently banned. Of course, one could glance at Valve, whose previous policy of banning for five years was rescinded because the accounts went right back to cheating, but I wouldn’t want to distill the hope well.
4. That Other Superhero MMO Is Now Free
Champions Online may not be Cryptic’s first MMO, but it is their first AAA title to go partially free to play. Launching on the 25th, Cryptic is reporting large increases in population (most of them free players). Free players will find themselves with access to all of the game’s content, with restricted arche-types, with access to purchase the premium packs from the Cryptic Store. The premium packs are made up of the expansions that were released over the past year or so.
5. No Loving For EA’s MMOs, Say Investors
At least according to Gamasutra. With Star Wars: The Old Republic on its way, investors are a bit scared to support the giant corporation, looking back at the poor performance of Warhammer Online and especially after the two month lifespan that was All Points Bulletin. Bioware may have had successes in the past, but this is the company’s first dive into the MMO genre, and if Richard Garriot has taught us anything, even having a successful past in the field does not guarantee that your current project won’t go directly into the trash bin.
The Old Republic is being backed by a powerful company and developed by one with a name in the gaming business, both of which mean absolutely nothing in terms of whether or not the game will succeed, especially against the odds of its budget.
6. Codemasters Reveals Anti-Hacking Service
Codemasters hates account thieves, and for players of Lord of the Rings Online (in Europe), they are now offering a service for those of you who have had your accounts stolen. Players must be eligible to raise a support ticket, report the incident within seven days of it occurring, and the service also requires GM verification. Meeting these three requirements will reimburse the player and allow them to get back to where they were pre-account cleaning. A word of warning, however, abuse of the system may lead to a permanent ban.
I feel like I’ve been gone for a good month. Oh well, back to the old grind stone!
This month sees the launch of DC Universe Online, with the launch dates of Rift and Xsyon confirmed for very early March, and Earthrise coming in February. Over on the MMORPG.com RIFT forums, I’ve noticed a number of posts from people who reported purchasing not only the collector’s edition of the game, but six or more months of membership in advance. As an afterthought, I decided to look through the post history of a few of these people, and found similar stories: Not much hope in the game, considering they are putting down so much money.
Granted, this phenomena isn’t new. This seems to happen every time a new MMO launches, where a small group of players who don’t have much faith in the game purchase the most expensive version, and are often the first to throw the words “fraud” or “scam” around when the game doesn’t turn out exactly as they hoped it would be, when they hoped it would be so. Take Final Fantasy XIV as a recent example. I’ve seen people post that they had purchased not only the collector’s edition of Final Fantasy XIV, but also added about a year’s subscription worth of Crysta to their account. Some of them admitted that they played the game during open beta, and didn’t like it, yet proceeded to not only purchase the most expensive version of the game, but invest a ton of cash right from the start. Why? Because they “had misguided faith.”
The example I gave above is actually mild compared to the more extreme section of players. Back when Mortal Online launched, I had quite a few people asking me why, despite a few of my articles here on MMO Fallout, I was so aggressive towards players gloating about their chargebacks from Star Vault. One player I got into a heated argument with was because he not only purchased the game one time, and reversed the charges because of the lag and how much he hated the developers, but he then proceeded to buy the game a second time, perform a chargeback, and then boast about it on third party forums. I came across a number of players who played the open beta, didn’t like certain core features (open PvP, sandbox title, stat-based) and still proceeded to purchase the full game, only to perform a chargeback because they believed they were lied to.
Obviously my writing this article isn’t going to magically change the way life works, but I just wish people would make more informed decisions about throwing their money around, or perhaps make an intelligent choice about purchasing a game you played and hate. Hell, that’s the major reason I started reporting on sales in the first place, to not only get people into the games, but to get them in at the best possible price. PC games were never able to be returned, no matter how high your buyer’s remorse, and the fact that you can call you bank and start crying like a child because you got ganked and quit doesn’t change the fact that the whole ordeal would have never happened if you thought with your mind rather than your wallet.
This month sees the launch of DC Universe Online, with the launch dates of Rift and Xsyon confirmed for very early March, and Earthrise coming in February. Over on the MMORPG.com RIFT forums, I’ve noticed a number of posts from people who reported purchasing not only the collector’s edition of the game, but six or more months of membership in advance. As an afterthought, I decided to look through the post history of a few of these people, and found similar stories: Not much hope in the game, considering they are putting down so much money.
Granted, this phenomena isn’t new. This seems to happen every time a new MMO launches, where a small group of players who don’t have much faith in the game purchase the most expensive version, and are often the first to throw the words “fraud” or “scam” around when the game doesn’t turn out exactly as they hoped it would be, when they hoped it would be so. Take Final Fantasy XIV as a recent example. I’ve seen people post that they had purchased not only the collector’s edition of Final Fantasy XIV, but also added about a year’s subscription worth of Crysta to their account. Some of them admitted that they played the game during open beta, and didn’t like it, yet proceeded to not only purchase the most expensive version of the game, but invest a ton of cash right from the start. Why? Because they “had misguided faith.”
The example I gave above is actually mild compared to the more extreme section of players. Back when Mortal Online launched, I had quite a few people asking me why, despite a few of my articles here on MMO Fallout, I was so aggressive towards players gloating about their chargebacks from Star Vault. One player I got into a heated argument with was because he not only purchased the game one time, and reversed the charges because of the lag and how much he hated the developers, but he then proceeded to buy the game a second time, perform a chargeback, and then boast about it on third party forums. I came across a number of players who played the open beta, didn’t like certain core features (open PvP, sandbox title, stat-based) and still proceeded to purchase the full game, only to perform a chargeback because they believed they were lied to.
Obviously my writing this article isn’t going to magically change the way life works, but I just wish people would make more informed decisions about throwing their money around, or perhaps make an intelligent choice about purchasing a game you played and hate. Hell, that’s the major reason I started reporting on sales in the first place, to not only get people into the games, but to get them in at the best possible price. PC games were never able to be returned, no matter how high your buyer’s remorse, and the fact that you can call you bank and start crying like a child because you got ganked and quit doesn’t change the fact that the whole ordeal would have never happened if you thought with your mind rather than your wallet.
MMO Fallout 