You’re fired – MMO Fallout

Albion Online is ditching its upkeep system in favor of a new way to keep you paying for your plots of land. Initially, plots of land will be considered unclaimed until a player puts down a bounty of silver to take over ownership. After a set amount of days, generally one or two months, the plot of land will come up for auction during which other players can outbid you for your plot. If another player wins the plot, they take over not just the land but the buildings that were erected there by the previous owner.

The good news is, the owner isn’t completely out of luck. For starters, owner bids count as double, so you only need half as much money to fend off competing bidders. Secondly, land owners receive a compensation based on the value of the buildings on their land should they lose the bidding war.

The goal of this new system is to prevent a constant blockade of building plots – and also to give players joining Albion Online later a fair chance at owning a desirable building space. Theoretically, players now can purchase any plot – as long as they are able to outbid the previous owner. With this change, we want to encourage a more fluid market and also bring some additional „economic PvP“ into the game.

(Source: Albion Online)

Discussing layoffs after a game launches is akin to beating a dead horse. I should know, as the Human Resources director in my old company had brought in a live horse and a baseball bat to give the saying more meat (or to be blunt about it, depending on your flavor of pun). The Old Republic is one of the largest, most stable launches in MMO history. So large and stable in fact, that Bioware laid off an unnumbered amount of staff to keep the system from being too balanced and stable.

Of course this is all conjecture. Layoffs following an MMOs release are to be expected as the game’s requirements shift downward in scope. There isn’t any more detail than what I’ve pointed out here, but if you are interested in some marketing lingo, you can check out Greg Zeschuk’s statement at the Old Republic forums below.

Best of luck to the recently laid, and in case you are still looking for jobs, Turbine is hiring.

(Source: SWTOR Forums)