Tag: SOE

Sony's "Back To School" Sale: Double Station Cash


Sony’s “Back to School Bonanza” sale strikes me as odd, given spending more on MMOs isn’t even on my list of priorities once I go back to school in September. Either way, put down your Ramen and tell your homework exactly where to shove itself, because between September 2nd and 5th, Sony is holding a double Station cash event. You can redeem a cash card on the above dates and receive twice as much cash.

Check it out here. Certain games will be having specials during the above period including cash shop sales and double experience.

Everquest II: Now With A Decent Free Trial


Technically Everquest II has the mother of all free trials, however if you’re looking to bud into the subscription-only sector to play with friends, this promotion doesn’t exactly help you. Announced on the Station website, the new free trial offers 14 days of worry-free gaming, with a few perks on the side. Players receive a superior experience potion offering twice the advancement for two hours, and a special cloak that increases run speed by 25%.

If you don’t play the subscription version, you can still obtain the cloak and potion in Everquest II Extended, along with a few other items according to players. For casual players who don’t have anyone playing the subscription version, Extended is still the best deal.

Planetside 2 Will Have A Cash Shop

Planetside 2 will have a cash shop, but without offering exclusive weapons/armor.


I’ve downplayed cash shops quite a bit here on MMO Fallout, but I understand the people who do not like them, and why, and the factions of supporters and opposers continues to widen as new ideas are implemented. On the extreme sides you have players who won’t play a game now unless it has a cash shop, and players who will not play any game with a cash shop. There are issues over items in the cash shop being attainable through natural gameplay, or only selling vanity items or variations of existing weapons (for instance a different color/design but with the same stats).

So for some, the SyndCon experience of Planetside 2 was less about destructible buildings, space gameplay, and skill-based system, and more about the inevitable presence of a cash shop.

If a weapon can be bought in the cash store, he was quick to assure us that it would be attainable in the game as well. Definitely though, one of the things that will be sold would be customization.

In a game like Planetside 2, the cash shop ultimately comes down to a matter of skill over stats. Unlike a traditional MMORPG, will it matter that your store-bought rifle does 20% more damage if you can’t aim it properly? Or how a tuned sniper rifle won’t change the fact that the player still has to draw a bead on your head from across the valley. Watching the impact of the cash shop will be interesting, to say the least.

More on Planetside 2 as it appears.

SOE Authenticator Coming To Device, iOS, and Android


Even if you did hide the authenticator image behind several pages of CSS. With the recent hacking of Sony’s services, one might be slightly concerned about the safety of their account. Following in the steps of Blizzard, Square Enix, and a select few other companies, Sony Online Entertainment has announced that the company will be releasing their own version of the authenticator.

Right now, players can purchase a dongle at Sony’s website for $9.99 (USD) with free shipping for the time being. Sometime down the line, an iOS and Android app will be released, but there is no timetable for release.

This will no doubt be a pleasant addition to any SOE fan’s accessories. There are no plans to my understanding for a Blizzard-like incentive (in-game pet).

Vanguard Gets A Patch


Allow me to be the first to exclaim: Holy cow! If you don’t understand why Vanguard being patched warrants an article, you probably don’t follow Vanguard, and if you don’t follow Vanguard…Well I’ll let the community’s wrath be a surprise. So far, MMO Fallout is running on comments that Sony would like to take Vanguard to a free to play system, but that some key infrastructure must be put into place first (updates to the game, actual developers working on the title, etc).

The update added in today doesn’t do much apart from some bug fixes, but the overall message is that Sony does indeed still notice this red-headed step child. This will likely still not quell discussion surrounding John Smedley’s comment over their subscription service back in January:

“The monthly subscription fee means players can expect a lot of new content from us. And I say a lot — I really mean that. This is something that we feel obligated to the players, because they are paying a monthly sub fee.“

More on Vanguard as it appears.

DC Universe Server Mergers, Name System, Phasing


As my emails have shown, I’m not the only one still confused about DC Universe’s upcoming server merger/melding on Monday. Previously, I presumed that this not-merge-merger would allow players to keep their names, as the servers weren’t merging. As it turns out, however, that is not the case. When the mergers go live on Monday, players may find that their superhero title is no longer accessible, and must be changed.

Sony is handling this in a semi-traditional fashion. Players who are subscribed will take precedence over those who do not. If two players carry the same name, the character with more hours logged will be allowed to continue the honor of having that name. If you are on the losing end of the ticket, you will receive a token for a free name change. Also mentioned is how players will change between PvE and PvP phases. In order to swap roles, heroes will have to visit the Watchtower, while villains will need to visit the Hall of Doom.

Hopefully this will bring the much needed population to a game whose multi-year longevity is still deeply in question. The megaservers roll out Monday.

Star Wars Galaxies: One Month In


It’s been one month since I started playing Star Wars Galaxies on my new character, and by now I had completely forgotten that I never set up a subscription after entering my serial code, so that was a bit of surprise. Since last week, I managed to find a few items in my bag that took me back to Tatooine to complete missions I never finished the first time. One of those missions turned out to be the Death Trooper line of quests, that started out as very low level (level 1) and immediately sprang to level 10 and then level 90. So I still have the level 90 Death Trooper mission in my journal, that will sit there for a long time.

The Death Trooper mission, what I did play of it, was a massive pain in the ass even from the Galaxies point of view. I found myself traveling back and forth every other mission between Tatooine and Dathomir, two planets that are not connected meaning I had to travel to Corellia, then travel to Dathomir so I could talk to one person, then travel to Corellia, then travel to Tatooine so I could talk to a scientist, who would send me back to Dathomir, and back and forth. I own the book that the mission is based off of, as seen to the left, and apparently the Death Trooper saga is canon.

My current role, as I talked of last time, are working for the Royal Security Forces on Naboo, tasked with defeating terrorists, preventing local thugs, and being randomly de-mounted and scanned in Theed. In my previous few missions, I had to go to several locations and kill 14-16 mobs to distract them, and then bug their antenna. This confused me from a continuity point of view: If I’m killing large amounts of a group to distract them, why am I the one who has to plant the bug? Isn’t the point for me to distract so someone else can plant the bug? Someone didn’t think this mission line through (probably me).

But this wouldn’t be a Galaxies episode without me whining about issues I’m having in-game. I’ve talked before about the game showing its age, but no more so than the slow reaction that Grandpa is showing me here. I walk through a group of terrorists and can make it about ten seconds away before they notice and start shooting at me. In some cases, I’ll fire at a guy and his buddy standing two feet away won’t move a finger. About ten seconds later, just before I kill the guy I’m attacking, he’ll finally snap up and start shooting me. For what Galaxies adds in atmosphere, this takes a lot of it away.

What really annoyed me is that apparently Qa’ashi has become quite a poor aim. Earlier I complained that I had trouble with the locking system being too strict, in a “No, you will aim at this person because I told you to,” sense. I’m not sure if this is just part of the process, or if I hit something somewhere to turn it off, but now I can’t get the target to stay on at all. If I move away from the person I’m aiming at, I stop targeting them. Normally I’d follow the “maybe you should learn to aim” people, but when mobs have lag and terrible pathfinding issues like in Galaxies, where they go into 50 mph sprints about two hundred feet in the opposite direction (to better hit me with their pistol?), keeping a steady aim can turn into a real pain in the ass.

Star Wars Galaxies: Week 3


*Note: I finished writing this before the double exp update, this does not include any gameplay spent after today’s update*

Hallelujah! Week 3 of Star Wars Galaxies is over and done with, and I am finally off of Tatooine. Although my time working for Jabba was just grand (A little run in left me with -450 standing with the Hutts, but 3305 with Jabba, if that makes sense), I was finally able to get the droid head I’d been looking for and get my fully functional R2 droid from Watto. I was quite surprised as to how long that particular quest series took me, and by the end of it I was still level 21, still working my way towards end-game.

Despite what tone my opening image may convey, I’m finding this game extremely addictive. Despite some issues with availability over the past week, I was able to get two levels, although I finished the Jabba The Hutt line (for now) and even managed to speak with the big guy himself. Walking around Jabba’s building adds to the atmosphere I talked about in earlier articles, because there are certain places you cannot go until you raise your faction rating with Jabba. I wasn’t even allowed to be in the same room as Jabba until I finished mission lines for two of his followers, and even then I had to complete missions for his assistant, Jabba himself, and then a torture droid to finally get the head I was looking for.

The Hutts are just as seedy and disgusting as you could hope for in a Star Wars game, and my missions involved sabotaging competing pod racers, killing their champions, murdering opposing traders, and just generally enforcing Jabba’s will wherever it need be enforced. At the end, however, I was forced in a mission to bring information to either a Rebel or Imperial messenger (this sets up your allegiance). I chose the Rebels over the Imperial scum, no offense to any Imperial scum reading this.

I can’t get away from the issues with context response in this game, however. As in the first image, there are problems with interconnecting rooms and being able to shoot through them, but not be within line of sight of the enemy. Having to step into the room just to shoot a guy through an open doorway takes away from the immersion, as do my attempts to move from target to target, even though the game tends to go completely off screen to someone who is out of range, rather than the guy standing two inches away from the person I just killed.

I only gained two levels, but I did accomplish a lot. From now until who-knows-when, my smuggler has been transferred to Naboo, where I am working for the Rebel Alliance, getting in good with the Royal Security Forces on Naboo, meaning I can look forward to missions involving killing thugs, gangs, and murderers rather than helping them along. Oddly enough, I still have a higher status with the Empire than the Rebel alliance, but that is because I started out at a disadvantage (missing that rebel checkpoint in an earlier article).

Leveling has slowed down, a lot, likely because of the insane amount of time spent traveling from spot to spot to finish quests. On Tatooine, having to travel five thousand kilometers or more just to get to one area, then kill ten mobs and have to travel three thousand kilometers to the next, is not uncommon. I can only hope Naboo will provide quicker leveling.

My house will stay on Tatooine. I have still yet to go back and put some of my new posters on the walls. This may just be my time playing, but I’ve yet to see any players since the prior week.

But still, if you haven’t played Star Wars Galaxies and want to check it out, I would suggest doing so. If you’re a “veteran,” even a disgruntled one, come back and give it a go. Create some new memories before the game goes offline for good.

LucasArts Breaks Silence: Talks Galaxies


With all the talks from Sony Online Entertainment regarding Star Wars Galaxies shutting down, LucasArts has been silent on the issue. Not anymore. In a letter from LucasArts, Gamepro has published the following:

 The decision to shut down the game has not been an easy one. SOE and LucasArts investigated every option to keep the game open, including taking it to a free to pay model. However, that model just isn’t financially viable. Changing the business model for an experience like Star Wars Galaxies takes a major investment and overhauling of the existing infrastructure of the game. We’re unfortunately at a point in our life cycle where a change of this magnitude is just not possible. The harsh reality is that we’ve reached a point where the game is no longer a sustainable business. None of us wanted to see this point, but we’re extremely proud of the last eight years of the game and the community that has supported it.

We have a lot planned between now and December and we want to make sure that from now until then, we send off Star Wars Galaxies in a style befitting such a great game. We’ll be right there in the game with everyone else, counting down until the end, making sure we connect with all the friends we’ve made over the past eight years. It may be bittersweet, it may feel like it’s happening before it should, but we have approximately five months remaining where we can all enjoy the game together. We sincerely hope the community will join us.

Well it’s certainly a response, and it does show that a free to play model was at least considered.

Much Ado About Vanguard


I took the liberty of stocking this article with tissues, as I’m sure there are a few Vanguard fans who will be shedding tears over this article. No, Vanguard is not shutting down (as I’ve talked about in previous articles). Massively has an article up about Sony Fan Faire 2011 regarding Vanguard today, where Salim Grant has confirmed that there are two updates to Vanguard planned to go into effect this fiscal year.

In addition to new content, Grant also confirmed that developers who had previously worked on the game are being brought back to fill in the empty areas of the game. The content, as stated by Grant, will be implemented in a way that it cannot be burned through quickly by veteran players, and will fill the gap for some time.

When asked about free to play, Grant confirmed that the idea has been tossed around the board room, but no consensus has been reached and such an implementation is not yet on the table. Doing so would require some form of revenue, meaning a Station Cash injection into the game in the form of a cash shop.

Oh the times they are a-changing. When John Smedley talked last year about Sony not being done with Vanguard, it looks like he wasn’t just blowing smoke up our collective-assuming that Vanguard can get a small number of developers together to introduce more content, perhaps the game could get that influx of old players necessary to really give Sony a reason to work on the free to play system. The recent price drop in Sony’s All Access Pass should also be enough of a reason for players to get involved in Vanguard who may not have tried it before.

Of course this is just well wishes from an old player. Maybe I’m just surprised that Sony is giving the game real acknowledgement other than “yes, I love my son, which is why I home school him and keep him locked in his bedroom.” Hopefully much more on Vanguard to come.