Tag: TERA

TERA: Not Wiping After Open Beta


There’s a phrase I once heard that goes along the lines of “in MMOs, the betas are like the infantile stage of release. They need to be wiped, regularly.” The folks at En Masse Entertainment, however, feel differently and will not be wiping characters when open beta transitions to head start. Rather, their mantra is:

The feeling of playing a character you know will be wiped — it sucks.

In fact, if you take the Frequently Asked Questions thread by its word, En Masse might have considered keeping characters over from the closed beta, except the developer is implementing a brand new starting experience between closed and open beta. The FAQ continues to state that En Masse wants players to enjoy the open beta enough to pre-order (if they hadn’t) and be able to continue on with their characters.

This is hardly a big deal, all things considered. Open beta lasts for three days (April 19-22) with almost a week following before the game heads into a three day head start, so seeing this as a fractured six day (estimated, figuring in the inevitable server queues and down time) just brings it in line with most other MMO’s launch schedules.

(Source: En Masse Forums)

TERA Weekend Event Postponed


“The sneak peek event planned for this weekend unfortunately has had to be cancelled. As we currently cannot foresee when we will be able to guarantee a smooth running of the event, there is no new date as of yet. We’re working closely with the TERA developers at Bluehole to fix the remaining issues.

The cancellation was not due to load problems caused by the large number of potential players. Player numbers would have given us a look into possible issues within the scope of a stress test. Due to unforeseen reasons, problems arose already during the entry into the game world.

As soon as we have new information regarding a rescheduled event planning and once all technical issues have been resolved we will inform you on our website, in the forum and via the usual social media channels.

We apologize for the cancellation of the event and assure you that we are doing our utmost to provide all players access to TERA as soon as possible. We thank all TERA fans for their patience and understanding and hope to have positive news for you very soon.

From the TERA Europe Facebook page.

TERA Previews Coming Soon


Moving with MMO Fallout’s commitment for expanding our medium, I’ve committed to producing more video features. While I will not have access to the TERA sneak peek this weekend, reportedly neither the sneak peek or beta tests will be covered by a non disclosure agreement, meaning MMO Fallout will be publishing several TERA previews, both in video and text over the course of the closed beta period.

Stay tuned for more information.

TERA Can’t Escape Licencing, IP Blocks Coming


Back when Bluehole announced that TERA would have no region restrictions whatsoever, I was admittedly skeptical. An MMO without regional restrictions generally spawns from one of a few circumstances: The same company is publishing it in all regions ala City of Heroes, or there is only one worldwide server ala Eve Online and Mortal Online. In the case of TERA, back in 2010 Bluehole announced that while the clients are region specific, there was nothing stopping someone in Europe from purchasing a North American client and playing on those servers.

Not the case. If Bluehole truly wanted cross-oceanic play, this idea was met with a dead “negative” by the game’s publishers. Bluehole did make this statement to Massively:

We had to change our stance on IP restrictions due to licensing and security issues. While we can’t go into the reasons in detail, we would like to say that although these restrictions are not a panacea for preventing hacking, they are highly effective, and produce more positive results than might be expected.

So licencing reasons. Restricting IP addresses will not accomplish much in preventing gold farmers in Russia or China from accessing North American and European services or stolen accounts, considering ease of use in a proxy. Unfortunately, these IP restrictions also mean that certain regions aren’t able to play the game until a publisher picks up the title in that region. In many cases, the game just never releases in those regions.

Still, this is another example of what happens when you let the developers make announcements about decisions that should be handled by corporate. If TERA had announced from the start that there would be region restrictions (or had they not waited a year and change to go back on that statement) than this wouldn’t even be an issue (save for the regions that can’t play at all).

TERA launches in May for North America and Europe and is being published by En Masse Entertainment (North America) and Frogster Interactive (Europe). Read up on Bluehole Studios’ lawsuit with NCSoft here.

TERA Can't Escape Licencing, IP Blocks Coming


Back when Bluehole announced that TERA would have no region restrictions whatsoever, I was admittedly skeptical. An MMO without regional restrictions generally spawns from one of a few circumstances: The same company is publishing it in all regions ala City of Heroes, or there is only one worldwide server ala Eve Online and Mortal Online. In the case of TERA, back in 2010 Bluehole announced that while the clients are region specific, there was nothing stopping someone in Europe from purchasing a North American client and playing on those servers.

Not the case. If Bluehole truly wanted cross-oceanic play, this idea was met with a dead “negative” by the game’s publishers. Bluehole did make this statement to Massively:

We had to change our stance on IP restrictions due to licensing and security issues. While we can’t go into the reasons in detail, we would like to say that although these restrictions are not a panacea for preventing hacking, they are highly effective, and produce more positive results than might be expected.

So licencing reasons. Restricting IP addresses will not accomplish much in preventing gold farmers in Russia or China from accessing North American and European services or stolen accounts, considering ease of use in a proxy. Unfortunately, these IP restrictions also mean that certain regions aren’t able to play the game until a publisher picks up the title in that region. In many cases, the game just never releases in those regions.

Still, this is another example of what happens when you let the developers make announcements about decisions that should be handled by corporate. If TERA had announced from the start that there would be region restrictions (or had they not waited a year and change to go back on that statement) than this wouldn’t even be an issue (save for the regions that can’t play at all).

TERA launches in May for North America and Europe and is being published by En Masse Entertainment (North America) and Frogster Interactive (Europe). Read up on Bluehole Studios’ lawsuit with NCSoft here.

NCSoft Is Suing TERA Again


It’s been two years since I last talked about the lawsuit between NCSoft and TERA developer Bluehole Studio, so I think a recap is necessary. Many years ago, before Lineage III was known as Lineage Eternal and when NCSoft still had plans to develop the MMO on the Unreal 3 engine, several members of the Lineage III staff left to form their own developer, Bluehole Studio, developer of the MMO The Exiled Realm of Arborea. NCSoft sued Bluehole in Korea in 2006, claiming that the developer had stolen software and hardware, as well as art, to make TERA. Bluehole was convicted in Korea and convictions were upheld (for the most part). A civil complaint was filed in 2010 and overturned by the courts. However, as you are well aware, TERA continued its development and launched in Korea with a western release early this year.

As it turns out, NCSoft isn’t taking this US release sitting down. The publisher launched a lawsuit in New York today, with essentially the same charges of theft of physical and intellectual property.

“Their business plan was simple and audacious: create a competing product using the very work they had done while at NCsoft, launch it themselves to great fanfare and acclaim, and, in the process, deal a crippling blow to their former employer,”

NCSoft seeks an injunction barring TERA from releasing in the United States, as well as enhanced damages for Bluehole’s misconduct. Appeals of the criminal and civil cases in Korea are still ongoing.

TERA Release Date: May 1st, 2012


Good news, everyone! After a long period of awaiting information from En Masse Entertainment, the publisher has finally announced today that TERA will launch in North America on May 1st this year. Players will be able to order a standard and collector’s edition from various retailers, as well as no doubt a digital version on Steam and other outlets.

The Exiled Realm of Arborea, or TERA for short, is an action MMO based on the Unreal 3 engine, that was released in June of last year in Korea. The servers in Korea merged following reports that the game was not meeting financial expectations, a response by players to a noted lack of end-game content and an overwhelming presence of bots.

More on TERA as it appears.

(Source: TERA website)

TERA: Not Meeting Financial Expectations, Major Server Merger


The Exiled Realm of Arborea, also known as TERA, has been a long time coming for North American and European markets, although Korean players have been enjoying the game since January. Well, some of them are anyway. I’ve mentioned in the past that MMOSite has done their best to trash this game’s release in Korea, and for all intent and purpose…they weren’t completely wrong. According to MMO Culture, TERA is set to undergo its second server merge since release, and boy is it a big one. The first merger dropped the list of 37 servers to 35, but tomorrow that number is set to plummet to about 15.

TERA’s major pull has been not only the graphics, but that the game is an action-based, non-targeting MMO, and the game looks beautiful. Merging servers isn’t an issue in and of itself, however in NHN’s recent revenue filings, the company stated that TERA did not meet expected sales figures.

More on TERA and its impending launch in the west as it appears.

Bots? In My Asian MMO?


More likely than you think...

Asian MMOs live and die like rats. They appear quickly, populate an area with many of their clone offspring, and several years down the line it becomes difficult, nay impossible, to get one of the major gaming publications to even take a passing glance at that carcass in the streets, other than to pinch their nose and complain about the smell. Mmosite.com may be a sensationalist, almost tabloid-esque, news source whose community will gather like a lynch mob whenever a new game carries the title “subscription based,” but I do use regularly browse their news and forums to get a glimpse at the current happenings in Korea/Japan/China. They also give a lot of space for Asian MMO developers, offering them blogs and server space to get their game out. In a way, they are the nega-MMO Fallout.

Did I mention MMOSite was sensationalist? Now, of course I won’t knock on the site for desiring a controversial topic to write about, but it feels like every few months MMOSITE runs an article about the latest big-name MMO from China/Korea being overrun by cheaters. In this case, the game is TERA, and they point out that bots are getting by quite easily in this action-based MMO due to the presence of areas filled with mobs that have low health, low attack, and spawn frequently. Due to the number of bots clogging training areas, allegedly “many” legitimate players are quitting the game out of frustration.

MMOSite has a point, however. I’ve yet to see a substantial number of free to play games in Asia die solely because of the level of botters, but TERA is not a free to play MMO. TERA launched with a subscription, meaning players are far less likely to just ignore the large number of cheaters, and the game’s life expectancy will take a hit if cheaters are not addressed.

TERA launched last month in South Korea, and is set for a North America/European launch sometime later this year.

 

TERA: No Stinking IP Blocks!


We must bring the fight against TERA.

A few months ago, we talked about area restrictions in MMOs, as a few select incidents brought up questions of legality and responsibility on the part of the publisher. Due to legal agreements, the publisher for an MMO in North America cannot allow players from Europe if another company has publishing rights in that region, otherwise they risk negating their agreement. In cases such as Aika Online, the two companies may come to an agreement allowing existing players to continue using their accounts, while more controversial incidents resulted in players being blocked with no reimbursement even after they had paid sums of money in the cash shop.

Luckily for players of TERA, the community manager Scapes has revealed that players will not be region restricted, although they will have to purchase the correct client. In short: A player from Europe will be able to purchase a North American client, and play on the servers, and vice versa.

Our goal is to give players the choice as to which server they are going to discover the world of TERA. In a time that players are becoming more connected around the world, we believe that IP blocking has no place in a world class Action MMO. Note that accounts created with one publisher will not be able to access the other publisher’s servers. Additionally, player data such as characters or progression will not be shared or transferrable between different publishers’ servers.

So there you have it. Find a server and stick with it.

More on TERA as it appears.