Snail Games yesterday performed a server merge on Age of Wushu to address the game’s low population. January 7th marked the mergers of the White Tiger and Golden Kirin servers into the Blue Dragon server. As a result of the merger, all Jianghu rankings were reset as well as school rankings, NPC relationships, and guild territory.
You can read more at the FAQ posted below.
(Source: Snail Games)
Snail Games is the subject of legal action on two fronts, so for the sake of brevity let’s talk about both of them in one article, shall we?
The first, former executive of Snail Games David Runyan is seeking damages from his employer alleging unlawful dismissal and racial discrimination. Runyan’s lawsuit specifically targets Snail Games founder Mr. Shi Hai, alleging racial discrimination against non-Chinese employees of the company. Shi Hai, according to the lawsuit, preferred Chinese employees to non-Chinese and would make disparaging comments about American customs and culture. Runyan was terminated following a back injury, and is alleging that his termination is due to his race, nationality, and necessity for disability leave.
(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)
Second, Blizzard is hot off the heels of their recent successful lawsuit against a copycat Hearthstone game, and the behemoth has set its sights on Snail Games. The latter recently launched a mobile game Taichi Panda in China and the main character is a panda. Unhappy with the similarities in character design and naming, Blizzard’s Chinese publisher Netease sent a letter to Apple requesting that the app be removed from the app store. Snail Games has denied the claims, releasing a helpful comparison chart (even more helpful if you speak Chinese) explaining the origins of the panda’s character design.
(Source: MMO Culture)
To clarify common misconceptions and answer the surge of questions, Black Gold Online’s optional time save system acts as a bonus, completely optional feature to supplement normal game progression. PvE experience and PvP rankings remains unaffected and all levels of equipment and materials(white to epic) can be acquired in game via questing, battegrounds, auction and world drops.
PvE experience and PvP rankings unaffected by this system? Smashing. But since you admit that the system is fraught with misconceptions, how about some in-depth explanation?
Black Gold Online records a loot index, measured by in-game actions like questing, killing, bosses, etc, and assigns the player a color. Every hour, that index is attributed to a save, which the player can only have a certain amount of, which then transforms into a Vial of Time whose quality is based on the color of the time index. That vial can then be acquired by the player for free or by purchasing with credits (RMT), or it can be sold on the Time Exchange to other players for their credits.
“We’re refining this new system and our top priority is develop a transparent and accepted F2P model for the North American audience.”
If the idea is so transparent, why do I still have no idea what is going on? Maybe it is just me, and this makes sense to everyone else, but the news story to make the system “transparent” runs in circles, goes nowhere, and not only hasn’t answered a single question I have about Black Gold’s loot system, it raises even more questions about Time Index, save slots, free vs paid, etc.
My understanding of the system is this: You play the game with no subscriptions or cash shop, and you fight stuff and quest and kill bosses and other players. During your play, you obtain loot as you would in any other game, but your activity contributes to a bonus chest that becomes available every hour. This chest is filled with even more random loot based on the quality of your activity, and you can opt to use one of your free saves (two per day according to the article), buy the chest, or sell it for credits to spend toward future chests. You have limited space for these chests, so you have to deal with them before another chest overrides that space.
Am I anywhere close to the target on this one? Can someone explain this in a way that doesn’t make them sound like they’re selling time shares?
(Source: Black Gold Online)
To clarify common misconceptions and answer the surge of questions, Black Gold Online’s optional time save system acts as a bonus, completely optional feature to supplement normal game progression. PvE experience and PvP rankings remains unaffected and all levels of equipment and materials(white to epic) can be acquired in game via questing, battegrounds, auction and world drops.
PvE experience and PvP rankings unaffected by this system? Smashing. But since you admit that the system is fraught with misconceptions, how about some in-depth explanation?
Black Gold Online records a loot index, measured by in-game actions like questing, killing, bosses, etc, and assigns the player a color. Every hour, that index is attributed to a save, which the player can only have a certain amount of, which then transforms into a Vial of Time whose quality is based on the color of the time index. That vial can then be acquired by the player for free or by purchasing with credits (RMT), or it can be sold on the Time Exchange to other players for their credits.
“We’re refining this new system and our top priority is develop a transparent and accepted F2P model for the North American audience.”
If the idea is so transparent, why do I still have no idea what is going on? Maybe it is just me, and this makes sense to everyone else, but the news story to make the system “transparent” runs in circles, goes nowhere, and not only hasn’t answered a single question I have about Black Gold’s loot system, it raises even more questions about Time Index, save slots, free vs paid, etc.
My understanding of the system is this: You play the game with no subscriptions or cash shop, and you fight stuff and quest and kill bosses and other players. During your play, you obtain loot as you would in any other game, but your activity contributes to a bonus chest that becomes available every hour. This chest is filled with even more random loot based on the quality of your activity, and you can opt to use one of your free saves (two per day according to the article), buy the chest, or sell it for credits to spend toward future chests. You have limited space for these chests, so you have to deal with them before another chest overrides that space.
Am I anywhere close to the target on this one? Can someone explain this in a way that doesn’t make them sound like they’re selling time shares?
(Source: Black Gold Online)
Black Gold Online is innovative, like that time I rigged a pair of secateurs so I could use them to eat cereal and accidentally knocked out both of my front teeth. The game is being developed as something similar to, but not really, Guild Wars 2 with more point and click gameplay, and is being created by Snail Games who many of you will recognize from the equally unorthodox Age of Wushu. Where Black Gold Online hopes to innovate is in the lacking presence of both a cash shop and a subscription. Where does the income come from? I guess you could call it “pay to loot.”
According to a post on MMO Culture, a system called Black Gold Time will automatically lock loot received in a given time frame. After a few hours, some items will be locked and others will be put into the player’s inventory. For the sake of not being completely over the top, basic items will be immediately placed in the inventory. Players then have to pay for gold with cash which they can use to unlock and claim items that remain locked. You also have a chance of rolling the dice and receiving a discount or even free items.
I have something else to say about this, but I’ve decided to innovate MMO Fallout and lock it behind a paywall. Send $1 in unmarked bills to MMO Fallout (no address, the postman will know where to take it) for a key to unlock my opinion.
(Source: MMO Culture)
Black Gold Online is innovative, like that time I rigged a pair of secateurs so I could use them to eat cereal and accidentally knocked out both of my front teeth. The game is being developed as something similar to, but not really, Guild Wars 2 with more point and click gameplay, and is being created by Snail Games who many of you will recognize from the equally unorthodox Age of Wushu. Where Black Gold Online hopes to innovate is in the lacking presence of both a cash shop and a subscription. Where does the income come from? I guess you could call it “pay to loot.”
According to a post on MMO Culture, a system called Black Gold Time will automatically lock loot received in a given time frame. After a few hours, some items will be locked and others will be put into the player’s inventory. For the sake of not being completely over the top, basic items will be immediately placed in the inventory. Players then have to pay for gold with cash which they can use to unlock and claim items that remain locked. You also have a chance of rolling the dice and receiving a discount or even free items.
I have something else to say about this, but I’ve decided to innovate MMO Fallout and lock it behind a paywall. Send $1 in unmarked bills to MMO Fallout (no address, the postman will know where to take it) for a key to unlock my opinion.
(Source: MMO Culture)
Ferrets are adorable, they are like a cute rodent with the intelligence of a pig, playfulness of a puppy, and the ability to poop in a litterbox like a cat. They are mischievous and will steal your car keys and go joy riding and if you’re really not paying attention may end up joining a chain gang and I’m sorry I’m getting distracted by that picture up top. At the same time, I fall into the category of people who will never own a ferret thanks to a fantastic allergy to pet hair, all of it. So to compensate I’ve delegated myself to crazy virtual pet guy, which is like the guy down the street who owns thirty cats but on the internet.
Age of Wushu has introduced a new pet ferret that can only be obtained between June 11th and June 23rd, and the process to retrieve it is simple: Top your account off with 2000 gold. How much is two thousand gold, you might be asking? Well let’s head on over to the Snail Games page where we can top off our accounts and-
Six hundred dollars. To obtain this pet ferret, Snail Games expects you to top off your account with six hundred dollars. To put that into perspective, with that same money I could buy a real ferret and keep it alive longer than the gold would last me in Age of Wushu. I could invest that $600 and have my money make money. Or make three months payments on my car (loan plus insurance). Or upgrade my computer with a new video card and some ram. Or try and bribe a politician, something useful.
At the end of the day, this is simply a gift for players topping up their accounts with a lot of money. If Snail Games decides not to sell the ferret by itself on the cash shop (assuming they aren’t already), that is their own marketing failure and they are ultimately the only ones who will be hurt by it.
Ferrets are adorable, they are like a cute rodent with the intelligence of a pig, playfulness of a puppy, and the ability to poop in a litterbox like a cat. They are mischievous and will steal your car keys and go joy riding and if you’re really not paying attention may end up joining a chain gang and I’m sorry I’m getting distracted by that picture up top. At the same time, I fall into the category of people who will never own a ferret thanks to a fantastic allergy to pet hair, all of it. So to compensate I’ve delegated myself to crazy virtual pet guy, which is like the guy down the street who owns thirty cats but on the internet.
Age of Wushu has introduced a new pet ferret that can only be obtained between June 11th and June 23rd, and the process to retrieve it is simple: Top your account off with 2000 gold. How much is two thousand gold, you might be asking? Well let’s head on over to the Snail Games page where we can top off our accounts and-
Six hundred dollars. To obtain this pet ferret, Snail Games expects you to top off your account with six hundred dollars. To put that into perspective, with that same money I could buy a real ferret and keep it alive longer than the gold would last me in Age of Wushu. I could invest that $600 and have my money make money. Or make three months payments on my car (loan plus insurance). Or upgrade my computer with a new video card and some ram. Or try and bribe a politician, something useful.
At the end of the day, this is simply a gift for players topping up their accounts with a lot of money. If Snail Games decides not to sell the ferret by itself on the cash shop (assuming they aren’t already), that is their own marketing failure and they are ultimately the only ones who will be hurt by it.
We love Age of Wushu here at MMO Fallout, in that special way that I should probably point out that this article isn’t sponsored or backed by Snail Games in any way. Snail Games is offering five bags of Age of Wushu branded stuff to gamers who buy a copy of the retail edition from Gamestop, and submit a photograph with the game, receipt date, and Age of Wushu clearly visible.
Those of you in the know are likely already aware that Age of Wushu is a free to play title featuring a cash shop and VIP subscription. What you may not have known, even if you have played Age of Wushu during its long beta period, is that the VIP subscription is bound to your character, not your account, as stated by Snail Game’s Community Moderator:
VIP will be character bound. If you have VIP currently on Blue Dragon, you will not have VIP on White Tiger.
Age of Wushu’s VIP service costs $10 per month, per character that you wish to attach it to, and offers perks including offline leveling, increased rewards and warehouse/stall space, and more. I’d like to think that the problem here is some combination of poor translation and perhaps a misunderstanding of the market. Taken for what it is, VIP is basically a package of time-based perks that you buy from the gold shop. It isn’t a traditional subscription in the sense that you enter your credit card details and the game bills you monthly, you have to manually top off your account with gold and purchase the package.
Owing that, Age of Wushu’s VIP being character bound isn’t really surprising or unprecedented, even if it doesn’t invalidate complaints by some players that the service should be account-wide. Perhaps the mistake is that the VIP package sounds too similar to the traditional subscription services we’ve come to expect from other MMOs, which explains why some players are surprised that the benefits are character-bound. Either way, the reaction I’ve seen to this has been pretty mixed, with players split pretty much down the middle in support/rejection.
MMO Fallout 