Back in March 2010, I wrote about my concerns with Star Wars: The Old Republic, primarily built around the expectation by EA Games that the game would require one million subscribers in order to “break even.” In fact, in the very-pre-release hype, EA went as far as saying that they could not only see one million subscribers, but that the number could go as high as two million. Naturally, I expressed my concern that The Old Republic could wind up like Tabula Rasa (I would have made a comparison to All Points Bulletin, but the game had neither launched or crashed at that point), shutting down after about a year.
Perhaps in response to the news that investors are lacking faith in EA Games’ ability to maintain its MMOs (Warhammer and All Points Bulletin being two examples), EA responded this week by reeling back on their one million subscriber comment. In fact, they went as far as rolling down numbers to claim that The Old Republic could be profitable off of only five hundred thousand subscribers, although EA would prefer to see the insanely profitable number of one million and beyond.
So is EA CFO Scott Brown doing damage control? Very likely, as both comments came up during conference calls attended by Gamasutra. Claiming one million to “break even” is a recipe for disaster, and in a world where EA can’t risk losing any more investors to their MMOs, the fate of The Old Republic may sit on Scott Brown not exaggerating in conference calls from now on.
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!
Those of you who are acquainted with Sony Online Entertainment are likely aware of Live Gamer, the “legit” real money trading website where players can buy and sell characters, gold, and more between each other without fear of getting scammed by some guy sitting in China watching ten WoW bots do their work. Currently, the Live Gamer Exchange only covers Everquest II, Vanguard (Vanguard had 54 characters up for sale, with only one bid between them), and Free Realms.
No matter how you feel about Live Gamer, the company has announced a partnership with Electronic Arts to cooperate on their MMOs. There is no word as of yet as to which of EA’s MMOs this will include (The Old Republic, Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot, and Ultima Online), or exactly what services Live Gamer will bring to these titles, but speculation is abound. Considering Live Gamer currently allows players to trade currency, characters, and items for cash (and vice versa) in the MMOs it does support, it isn’t too far of a reach to assume that whatever MMO EA decides to lend will offer similar features.
I don’t think it is a very well kept secret that here on MMO Fallout, I have a huge man-crush on Derek Smart. He makes me laugh, makes me cry, I send him flowers and he sends me restraining orders. We joke around, and we both love MMOs, and at the end of the day isn’t that what love is all about?
As I have pointed out numerous times, Derek Smart is not one to take it, whever it may be, lying down while the internetizens trample all over his beaten corpse. No, at some point Massively picked up on the story of Alganon copying a speech by Bioware, that was actually a speech from 2004 by John Smedley (as we found out.).
And who showed up to the party, but Mr. Smart himself?
OK, the weekend is officially canceled!
I have not yet issued an official statement because, tbh, I don’t have all the facts yet. Being a weekend and all, I don’t expect to know what happened until Monday. I am about to rush off to church, but decided to just post this quickly to let everyone know that this just came to my attention.
I hired a PR firm to handle media relations etc for QOL when I came aboard. They were tasked with that press release.
While I’m certain that there is a reasonable explanation for the similarities in the releases, I simply do not want to speculate but only to say that we are going to investigate this tomorrow.
Next week I will issue an official statement once I have all the facts.
Wait…So the PR firm wrote it all…but reading back, they were quoting you. You can read the press release, you are quoted as saying it. So what you are saying is that your PR firm fabricates quotes in order to make a statement. But I won’t finalize it here, you are on your way to church afterall.
I don’t know wtf you’re going on about or what motivates your ire (at least I have an excuse), but wtf does the announcement (in the news you linked to on MMORPG) about the game being released have to do with this discussion?
Of course I knew about the release. But how the hell am I supposed to know if parts of it were either plagiarised, referenced without credit to the source, based on homage or whatever if I didn’t compose it? Do we have to now go out and fact check press releases? Seriously?
More importantly, what has this got to do with Google Alerts? You do know how that actually *works*, right? Right? My guess is that you don’t. And even if you did, you’re trying to claim ignorance in order to continue your net rage ire.
The first I even heard of this issue was when Warcry sent me an RFC which I was greeted to this morning when I opened my email. Then I got one from Massively and others. Most of us with families and jobs, actually have *lives* beyond the Net. So its not like we’re no-life-having cretins looking to stir up trouble at every opportunity. So excuse me if I wasn’t trolling the net on Saturday when this was first posted.
I am waiting to get an official answer back from the PR firm, but from where I’m sitting, this is a non issue and I’m not throwing anyone under the bus.
Anyone with more than two functioning brain cells can read easily see that the opening commentary is nothing more than a reference.
Even running the original link* through http://www.copyscape.com doesn’t yield anything other than similar phrases being used in both releases.
The reference to “pillars” is a commonly used phrase in various structure driven arenas (e.g. the government). And the bit that preceded my commentary is a single line that the firm chose to use in order to make their point and precede my commentary.
“Traditionally, massively multiplier** online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,””
Nothing beyond that is remotely the same. Since John Smedley made similar remarks in a talk he gave, go find out who first uttered those words, source it, then go back and accuse anyone else who uses it of plagiarism.
And if you really want to have fun with semantics, go ahead and run “Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games” through Google. Have fun with that.
This is just stupid and why it even made the news is beyond me. But it just goes to show that sites – trying to scrap a few dimes together – will do anything for hits. And since we’re the latest flavor of the day, here we are.
You clearly have an axe to grind and have no common sense whatsoever; so arguing with you is going to just be a lesson in futility. So go ahead, have fun. I’m sure you need to validate your otherwise inconsequential [anon] existence.
This was in response to a player linking to the announcement dating back to April. To answer a question early on: Fact checking your press releases would be very nice. Not that it has happened yet, but a misleading press release can result in lost trust between you and your players, and at worst a misleading ad can result in a court reminder that misleading advertising is illegal. Despite another company doing your press releases, your company is still liable for what they say, and if fact checking even comes on the table, you should consider a new PR firm.
“Most of us with families and jobs, actually have *lives* beyond the Net. So its not like we’re no-life-having cretins looking to stir up trouble at every opportunity. So excuse me if I wasn’t trolling the net on Saturday when this was first posted.”
Stay classy, Mr. Smart. I only have the one functioning brain cell, but as I mentioned previously it wasn’t a reference as much as it was quoting you directly. And you can see that many of the phrases are not mere “similar remarks” but quoted word for word.
And if it makes you feel any better, nothing I do here is “for the hits.” I do it because, like a nurturing mother, I love you and, as one commenter pointed out at this juncture, the fact that Mr. Smart’s comments were rated into the dust just goes to show how the public is taking it.
First of all, I didn’t accuse anyone of anything – and I certainly didn’t say that anyone here didn’t have lives. But if the shoe fits, go ahead, wear it – and don’t let me stop you.
Reading comprehension is something that is taught at the very early stages of development. Some people basically never did learn it or leave school with the skills to put two coherent sentences together, let alone construct a paragraph that actually makes sense.
And others tend to deliberately take things out of context in order to continue promoting their attack driven agenda.
That said, I stand firm by what I said. Deal with it.
@ Warrior.
First of all, thanks for that particularly wasted effort. You clearly have no clue what you’re talking about and if you – ever – worked in PR, you would know that everything you just posted is patently rubbish. To wit: A CEO should go and fact check a PR written by a company hired to do it. You must have been working for PR in an alternate universe or something. Go ahead, give me your name and tell me the PR firm where you worked. Go ahead.
It is always delightful to see people in glass houses throwing stones. Especially at someone who clearly doesn’t care for angst driven man-children on the Internet behaving badly.
Attacking people – especially developers and people in authority – for no apparent reason is the real reason why gamers are, primarily, treated as nothing more than a means to a revenue stream and nothing else.
Even the headline for this news bit is quite unprofessional. Stealing is a serious accusation and quite clearly thats not what has happened here .This is yet another example of irresponsible writing passing for journalism in order to push people’s buttons, gain hits etc. Buy hey, to each his own – and thanks for the memories. Most people have more than two brain cells and can clearly something like this for what it is.
I see, so you didn’t call them “no-life cretins” and they could understand that if they weren’t so developmentally delayed. For the record, the CEO doesn’t have to fact check the Press releases, that is something that should be done by someone in the company however. Technically it is your job, just not necessarily directly. And you did check it, at least you approved it. According to your PR firm:
As a CEO he looked it over, approved it, moved it forward. While drafting the quote, I looked for inspiration from other press releases, about MMOs. Yes, sometimes it is easier to write something up by using someone else’s thoughts as examples.
I don’t often talk about legalities, but according to your presumably fired PR guy, you did approve that you said, in quotes, what was lifted from another person and used as your own quote. I might not be a lawyer, but claiming another’s quote as your own would likely fall under the realm of plagiarism, a form of theft. Again, the quotes weren’t just “similar,” many were exact right down to misspelling of “multiplier,” grammar errors, lifted directly from both quotes. But I’m not here to make accusations, so let us move on.
To sum it up, I’m going to go with Warrior’s third option, in his post on Massively:
3. Derek: You need a handler. Appoint someone you trust to counsel you and reign you in. As a CEO, you should not be posting long-winded rants about internal affairs. You should not be bashing your constituents, predecessors, or anyone you fired in public forums. You should not be involved in online shouting matches. While part of the job is to be a punching bag, proactively inviting attacks and controversy is not. There is a proper way to behave as a leader. There is a proper tact that you must take when communicating with stakeholders. Please show restraint and get a grip on your roles in the companies for which you are responsible. You do them a disservice otherwise.
You can find Derek Smart’s comments on the Massively article, here:
This is one of those times I must issue an apology: Saturday, May 8th, I issued an article (partly in sarcasm) that Alganon’s press releases may be clones of The Old Republic, owing to the following similarities in notation:
But, there is just slight similarity between the following press release on the Alganon website from April:
“Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” Derek Smart continued. “In Alganon, in addition to these we’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. We delivered a fun, immersive adventure that gamers expect in a top quality massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, we’re not done yet. A whole new adventure with new updates will follow soon, starting with a consignment house, new classes, PvP and much more.”
“Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., “In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story. At the same time, we will still deliver all the fun features and activities that fans have come to expect in a AAA massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set in a very exciting, dynamic period in the Star Wars universe.”
Due to unconfirmed reports, I was unable to fully verify that the message did indeed originate from Bioware, and for that I must issue a correction. As Derek Smart dutifully noted, the press release did not copy Bioware from 2008, but John Smedley from 2004.
“Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay elements – combat, exploration and character progression. In Everquest 2, we’ve added a fourth element to the equation; a story“
So again, please accept my apologies for noting that the speech was two years old, when I should have noted it as six years old.
On the next episode of Feeding the Alganon Trolls, we answer all of your ambiguous, inflammatory questions: I don my miners hat and hazard suit and descend into the furthest depths of hell to locate Derek Smart’s home town.
This is one of those times I must issue an apology: Saturday, May 8th, I issued an article (partly in sarcasm) that Alganon’s press releases may be clones of The Old Republic, owing to the following similarities in notation:
But, there is just slight similarity between the following press release on the Alganon website from April:
“Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” Derek Smart continued. “In Alganon, in addition to these we’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. We delivered a fun, immersive adventure that gamers expect in a top quality massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, we’re not done yet. A whole new adventure with new updates will follow soon, starting with a consignment house, new classes, PvP and much more.”
“Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., “In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story. At the same time, we will still deliver all the fun features and activities that fans have come to expect in a AAA massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set in a very exciting, dynamic period in the Star Wars universe.”
Due to unconfirmed reports, I was unable to fully verify that the message did indeed originate from Bioware, and for that I must issue a correction. As Derek Smart dutifully noted, the press release did not copy Bioware from 2008, but John Smedley from 2004.
“Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay elements – combat, exploration and character progression. In Everquest 2, we’ve added a fourth element to the equation; a story“
So again, please accept my apologies for noting that the speech was two years old, when I should have noted it as six years old.
On the next episode of Feeding the Alganon Trolls, we answer all of your ambiguous, inflammatory questions: I don my miners hat and hazard suit and descend into the furthest depths of hell to locate Derek Smart’s home town.
I’ve been covering Alganon for quite a while, and I always get the same response: Omali! Alganon is a clone of World of Warcraft! Why not just cover the more popular one?
Well, Alganon may be a WoW Clone in terms of its old UI, and far too many other features that Quest Online is slowly tearing apart seam by seam, but when it comes to good ol’ press releases, Alganon is in fact a The Old Republic clone. Odd, considering TOR is still not released.
But, there is just slight similarity between the following press release on the Alganon website from April:
“Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” Derek Smart continued. “In Alganon, in addition to these we’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. We delivered a fun, immersive adventure that gamers expect in a top quality massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, we’re not done yet. A whole new adventure with new updates will follow soon, starting with a consignment house, new classes, PvP and much more.”
“Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., “In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story. At the same time, we will still deliver all the fun features and activities that fans have come to expect in a AAA massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set in a very exciting, dynamic period in the Star Wars universe.”
Tune in for my followup story, where I investigate whether or not the toiletries in Quest Online’s building were stolen from, you’ve never seen it coming, Icarus Studios.
I’ve been covering Alganon for quite a while, and I always get the same response: Omali! Alganon is a clone of World of Warcraft! Why not just cover the more popular one?
Well, Alganon may be a WoW Clone in terms of its old UI, and far too many other features that Quest Online is slowly tearing apart seam by seam, but when it comes to good ol’ press releases, Alganon is in fact a The Old Republic clone. Odd, considering TOR is still not released.
But, there is just slight similarity between the following press release on the Alganon website from April:
“Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” Derek Smart continued. “In Alganon, in addition to these we’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. We delivered a fun, immersive adventure that gamers expect in a top quality massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, we’re not done yet. A whole new adventure with new updates will follow soon, starting with a consignment house, new classes, PvP and much more.”
“Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., “In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story. At the same time, we will still deliver all the fun features and activities that fans have come to expect in a AAA massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set in a very exciting, dynamic period in the Star Wars universe.”
Tune in for my followup story, where I investigate whether or not the toiletries in Quest Online’s building were stolen from, you’ve never seen it coming, Icarus Studios.
When Electronic Arts announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic is their largest development project ever, I immediately became worried for the title. In all likelihood, The Old Republic has an enormous budget, more than most other MMOs can shake a stick at, and as a result will have the eyes of EA glaring down on it when it does officially launch, and the resulting post-month 1 subscriber numbers are presented to the bigwigs. As I’ve mentioned before on several postmortem “What happened” episodes, the number one cause of MMO death is not unsubstantial subscriber numbers, but lower than what the developer/publisher wanted.
So a game like The Old Republic will likely require a lot of subscribers to meet that budget they hooked into the title, and EA was kind enough to tell us exactly what that number is to break even: One million. Now, there are only a handful of titles that have over a million paying subscribers. A small handful, a very small handful. For some reason, one million has become the benchmark for success, even though several of the top 10 mainstream MMOs do not have one million subscribers. Not only does EA believe they will hit the one million mark, but they can see the game going up to two million and over.
Unfortunately EA may be setting themselves up not for failure, but for disappointment. Disappointment we can only hope doesn’t translate into EA pulling a Tabula Rasa and shutting the title down a year later. So far the experience from press testers has been positive, so who knows? Titles like Eve Online, Runescape, World of Warcraft, and Fallen Earth are not exclusive to breaking the rule of MMO releases: That the population peaks at launch and, following a sharp decrease after the free month, a gradual decline.
I think that, when The Old Republic does go into preorder, it will be right up there with Age of Conan and Warhammer Online for the most orders of the year. If Bioware can pull a higher than normal retention rate following launch, it will be good tidings for the foreseeable future. High expectations are dangerous, but not guaranteed to end in disappointment. Remember that.
Star Wars: The Old Republic, is by no means a small feat. Bioware promises to blend the storytelling of the previous Knights of the Old Republic games in with the gameplay and persistence of an MMORPG, and wants to immerse the character into the world of the Jedi, the Sith, smugglers, bounty hunters, troopers, and yet to be unveiled classes. Players have the ability to permanently affect the world around them through the choices they make in-game, 300 years after the events of the Knights of the Old Republic games.
One of The Old Republic’s features is 100% full voice acting of players and non player characters. In order to increase the player-base, Bioware announced today that the 40 novels worth of in-game dialogue will be acted out in English, and now French and German. Now that is a lot of voice acting.
Bioware is going all out with The Old Republic, and the game is getting a lot of hype because of it, even though I don’t approve of the “wow killer” title people are attaching. More on TOR as it appears.
MMO Fallout 