 We asked for it. Apparently. Ugh. “You like, you buy, you ride”.
I have dubbed these the Copykats, on account of them turning up almost exactly a month after WoW brought in RMT mounts, for the exact same price. It may seem, to the ignorant, that this is a flagrant attempt to repeat Blizzards success with the Sparkle Pony. It turns out it’s just a spooky coincidence!
Corvic:
1. I actually concepted this mount a year ago and have been waiting to make it, just have not had the time due to making all the cool stuff we make for the game allready that is not station cash. So we are not following anybody on this one.
2. Price is a tough one to decide, I think the price is good because it gives some exclusivity to the mount. At 5 bucks everyone would have it and it would no longer be special.
Anyhows, I find the idea that the reason the mount is priced at $25 instead of $5 to make it “exclusive” to be highly objectionable. To deliberately exclude players based on their disposable income does not seem right to me. If it would have worked at $5, they should have gone with that to maximise the number of people that could enjoy it. Naturally, being the unpleasantly cynical creature that I am, I am far more inclined to think that the real reason they’re charging $25 is that WoW has shown them that they can get away with it, and it will maximise profits.
These three mounts will be around for about a month, we are told, before being replaced on the market by new mounts. A sort of Mount-of-the-month club. Could get rather expensive. Things like this must be so difficult for parents who have multiple children who play.
Honestly I’m tired about raging about RMT in EQ2. There has been a long pattern of SOE saying they’ve gone as far as they want *, and will not go further. Some segments of the playerbase, and the popular EQ2 bloggers, accept it and shout down those of us who see where it is leading, and then once folks are used to it, the boundaries are pushed further again. We get the MMOs we deserve, and if the players are not willing to stand up to being treated as an exploitable resource, that’s how it’ll be. It’s tiring and probably pointless, shouting like Canute against the unstoppable tide of corporate greed. I love EQ2, and I am not angry with it. Just disappointed. And I do not think EQ2 loves me; just my money. It is not a relationship that will end well.
So here’s some old posts on it:
The launch of Station Cash.
Profits and Prophecies: DDO and EQ2, and their money-making schemes.
* For instance, when the Exchange servers (which allow players to buy and sell items and characters with real money) were implemented, players were concerned it was another slidey step down a slippery slope. This is what we were told:
22nd of December, 2007.
We aren’t going to be allowing RMT in any way, shape or form on the non-exchange enabled EQ II servers. Period. End of statement. If we catch people, we ban them and have been for a long time now. The truth of the matter is it’s very difficult to combat them, but we have people at SOE who fight the good fight each and every day. In the near future you’re going to see us becoming a lot more public about this then we ever have been. I think we’ve done a bad job at communicating just how seriously we take this fight.
We’re interested in working with LiveGamer because they are unique in the RMT world due to the fact that they are pledging (and are putting technology behind it) to not buy from farmers. Farmers are the bane of our existence at SOE. They cause us endless amounts of grief and do real financial damage in a meaningful way.
What do I mean by that?
Many of them use stolen credit cards, obtained by unsuspecting users who give them credit card #’s to purchase in-game gold. I’m not saying all of the RMT shops out there use stolen credit cards, but a LOT of them do. Your credit card is absolutely not safe in their hands.
In addition we recieve large scale (over $500k so far) fines for chargebacks that these scumbag farmers routinely do. They purchase a new account.. use it for a month and then call the credit card company to say “I never paid for this”. Over time, as the # of these incidents rise we get fined by the credit card companies. And it’s not just us, other large MMO companies are seeing exactly the same problem.
In any event, I wanted to stop in and at least set the record straight – you aren’t going to be seeing RMT allowed on the non-exchange enabled servers.
John Smedley
President, Sony Online Entertainment
Maltheas’ sleep had been troubled of late. In his dreams he flew across icy vista, as if in search for something, but what? At first, he chose to believe it was just his tail telling him he needed to stop buying gnome-sized blankets for the cool cog designs on them. Yes, every tinker loves cogs, but every priest of Nife knows the importance of wrapping up snug and warm! However, even after investing in a rather more sensible dwarf-sized quilt (with hammers on, so bedtime tinker-cred was still assured) he awoke shivering and perplexed.
“Bahs!”, he squeaked, knowing full well that it was clearly a vision. Maltheas is no stranger to visions. Indeed, he owes his very sanity, if not life, to the one that brought him to Qeynos, where Seeress Ealaynya Ithis was waiting for him. This, though, was an altogether less useful sort of vision that just made his toes cold without giving him any sort of instructions. Still chilled to the bone, he decided to pop down to the kitchen for a hot drink. But he was not the first one there. There was a small meeting already in progress, and they were a sorry and miserable sight indeed. Zoltoon had somehow managed to put every single one of his robes on at once, and Muldoon the Lurikeen was sitting on top of a hot-water bottle almost as big as himself. As Maltheas entered they looked at him glumly, and handed him a steaming mug of cocoa.
“It won’t help much, me furry pal, but it’s better than nothing. We’ll be catching our deaths o’ cold if we don’t get this fixed! Be telling him yon theory, Zolt.”
“It would appear, after discussion with our colleagues, that rather than being a vision for a specific person, like all experienced adventurers are used to, it is in fact some sort of psychic leakage. I would surmise that a being of great power, probably a god, is looking for something, somewhere rather cold, and getting overly emotional about it. Quite inconsiderately, I might add. From what you’ve told us about your dealings with him, I believe the culpable entity to be Mithaniel Marr.”
“Oohs! I hopes he findings it soons!”
“If only we knew an expert on gods, and getting them to behave properly.”, Zoltoon remarked, giving Maltheas an extremely hard stare.
And so it was that Maltheas was sent out into the Qeynosian morning, with a heatstone in each pocket, and a determination to ensure that the toes of Norrath would be safe from overnight frosting.
You too can investigate this perilous event! From now until the launch of GU56 there is a special prelude quest, Vision of Valor, which you can pick up from a Priest of Marr at the Temple of Life in Qeynos, or any of these other locations. It is the continuation of the Marr plotline that has been going on for a couple of years now, and shouldn’t be missed by any lover of Norrathian lore.
Maltheas has been in the presence of Mithaniel Marr before, during the investigation into the vanishing of Erollisi Marr, but never his manifested avatar. He is one of the better behaved of the gods Maltheas has met, neither asking to be brought booze, or playing childish pranks.
 Maltheas learns of the coming of New Halas from Mithaniel Marr Though players have known it was coming for a while, this is the first that the folks of Norrath have heard about the coming of New Halas. Sales of warm clothing, already high from the chilly dreams, are likely to skyrocket as adventurers prepare to investigate this new land unveiled to us by Mithaniel Marr. Maltheas will meet you there!
Update: I forgot to show the quest rewards! You receive a book called “Journal of a Disciple of Marr” which recaps some of the Marr plotline, and a Valorian Bloom. The book is sitting on the table in front of Maltheas.
 Maltheas likes sparkly things, and books.
A Casual Stroll to Mordor has some interesting news regarding Lord of the Rings Online’s next expansion.
Adam Mersky is shown, in an until now overlooked video, to have said “… our next big region will be Enedwaith later this year.â€.
There is speculation around the web that this is the next paid expansion, but I have my doubts.
For a paid expansion you’d want somewhere that people have heard of. I’d never heard of Enedwaith, for the excellent reason that very little happens there in the books. So I think that what Enedwaith will be is an area added by one of LotRO’s free updates. Interestingly though, Enedwaith would lead us right up to the Gap of Rohan.
The Mirkwood expansion has already brought us near to the Northern border of Rohan , but how much better to enter through the Gap of Rohan!
 Enedwaith: The Road to Rohan? My best guess, then, would be that the next full expansion will cover Rohan, Isengard, Fangorn Forest, the lands along Anduin the Great River (where Boromir will have his unfortunate accident), and perhaps beyond, whereas Enedwaith will be a free update this year.
I dislike personalising disagreements. Sometimes though, the behaviour is so outrageous that avoiding that isn’t an option. This is one of those times. There is a gentleman, a maker of games, who has been quite unpleasant to some fellow bloggers I’m somewhat fond of. If you’ve spent 5 minutes in the MMOverse, then you’ll know who it is I mean. He is an expert is personalising arguments, so it is hard to not do so in return. My life has left me with a profound dislike of bullies who throw their weight around, and the inclination to stand up to them.
It is said that if you blog his name three times he will appear. And threaten to sue you. Frankly I don’t need to have to listen to his silly self-aggrandising nonsense here.
Anyhows, by way of venting, I present a brief guide to arguing with people on the internet:
1. Make sure you point out how small and unimportant the person you are talking to is. How their blog/website/magazine isn’t read by anyone, how they never made awesome games, and that they’re a bunch of no-life nerds. Question their intelligence and integrity. The smaller you make your opponent, the mightier you’ll look in comparison, provided nobody wonders why you are wasting your time on these mosquitopeople.
2. If something bad has occurred, blame an underling. Force that underling to post an excruciating account of how everything is their fault, and how you should fire them. Make sure they point out how awesome you are. Remember, the credit is yours, but the buck stops anywhere else.
3. The best form of defense is attack! Claim the people who pointed out the bad thing you did to be the real villains, who desire nothing more than to bring down the giant of the industry that is you. Pay no heed to whether they or their colleagues have written rather generous positive posts, or even support your attacks on their fellow bloggers. Bridges are to be burned. You don’t need those nerdy gaming writers anyway. Not when you can just copy other people’s press releases.
16th of May Update:
4. If someone accuses you, with absolute proof, of plagiarising the words of Developer B, accuse Developer B of plagiarising from Developer A at location X. Make sure you insult your accuser’s journalistic integrity for not discovering this before posting. Even though Developer A was never AT location X, and has no recollection of saying it. Making stuff up about your fellow developers is just as fun as making stuff up about bloggers! (Awesome work there, n3rfed!)
In the last few days I’ve been revisiting Fallen Earth. I tried the trial for a couple of days a few months ago, but didn’t really get into it. Having scored a free month from Massively, I’ve come back to give it another try, and I’m finding it more engaging than before. Maybe I’m just in more receptive mood, or it could be something to do with all the patches that have been applied in the meantime. I’m having fun. And so is my horse.
 Fallen Earth's version of Arkenor, with his trusty steed, Mintball. It’s a weird game, in a good way. Combat is First Person Shooter style, which makes it both exciting, and usually quite short, one way or the other. If, like me, you’re not actually terribly good at FPS any more then this might give you some problems, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it again. Being a bit rubbish at combat is not necessarily a problem anyway, as you gain xp for harvesting and crafting. Not just crafting xp that only makes you better at baking cakes. The real stuff. Technically you could hit the level cap without very much combat at all, though harvesting ingredients does lead to the occasional unpleasantness with the local mutated fauna and flora, so you’d want to at least have some rudimentary combat skills.
Crafting seems quite deep, with just about everything in the game being craftable, and so many different ingredients that my bank is set to burst. To my joy, the only thing that stops me from working every craft is time, as unlike the other skills, crafting skills improve through use rather than needing points put in them. To craft an item can take a significant amount of time, but you don’t have to stand about waiting. You just set it off, and go about your business. You can queue up to 20 crafting jobs that will trigger in order, providing you have the ingredients in your inventory. How I am managing to bake and sew while riding about shooting things I am unsure, but it beats having to watch a progress bar. You continue to work through your crafting queue when you’re offline, which is particularly handy for lengthy jobs, like the parts I am putting together for building my All Terrain Vehicle. At the moment most crafting jobs takes between 1 and 10 minutes, but I think that will increase as I move to higher level items.
The game engine is smooth and pleasant, and the UI is responsive. Inevitably, given the setting, the colour palette tends towards earth tones, with very few bright colours. It’s a dirty, rusty, decaying sort of world, but perhaps if mankind can learn its lessons it will bloom again. It’s also a big world with, so far as I’ve seen, no instant travel. You receive a basic horse early on in your career, which makes this a lot less painful. Later you can get faster horses, and a variety of mechanical vehicles. At the moment that is quite sufficient for me, though I will be interested to see exactly how long it takes to get from the furthest high level reaches of the game world back to Sector One. Maybe we could try to get the old train lines working again.
This week there was a major patch called Blood Sports. The main feature is a sort of PvP arena that you can pop in and out of as desired. I haven’t tried it yet, mostly because I suspect it would involve a lot of me being punished for being under-equipped. I’ll check it out when I feel a little less like a puny newbie.
In addition, the level cap has risen from 45 to 50, and a new world area has been opened up to support that. That obviously doesn’t affect me too much either yet. There have also been a whole swathe of skill rebalancings, which probably do affect me, but I hadn’t had time to get to used to how they were before, so I probably won’t notice. The Fallen Earth 1.4 patch notes can be read in full after the jump.
If you fancy checking this rather unique MMO out, there is a ten day trial available over on the official website.
Continue reading Fallen Ark (And Mintball) + Fallen Earth 1.4 patch notes
Warhammer Alliance has been serving the needs of the Warhammer Online community pretty much since the game was announced. In an astounding move today, Games Workshop has filed a lawsuit against Warhammer Alliance demanding it hand the site over to GW, and pay damages. Curiously they’re also insisting on a trial by jury, in the US state of Maryland, which is likely to be inconvenient for the defendants, and makes the whole business much more expensive.
There are some obvious flaws in the lawsuit. It claims that the domain was registered in 2009 with the intent of cybersquatting, but a whois check clearly shows that the domain was registered in 2004. Not to mention that I know the site is older than 2009 because I’ve been posting there a hell of a lot longer than that. It is a provably false claim.
In this post Mark Jacobs, producer of Warhammer Online, laid out why there would be no official forums. Oh, and he posted it ON WARHAMMER ALLIANCE. IN 2008.:
That’s why I don’t want to have official forums. Whether it was SOE, Blizzard or us, official or semi-official forums are exactly like I described above for every successful MMORPG that I have played or watched from afar (and that is *most* of them). The unsuccessful ones were even worse. The problem is that most people who read the boards are looking for information and a reasonable number of people want to cause trouble, “grief” the forums or simply get their jollies by saying and doing things that they wouldn’t do in real life. As usual, a small percentage of people make life more difficult for everyone else. Back when games had hundreds of people playing, well, no big deal. We ban those guys and life returns to normal. With millions of subs for WoW and hopefully lots and lots for WAR, well, it becomes much more complicated, difficult and soul-sucking for the devs and the community people. I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what Sanya and I had to go through (and she had it worse since she is a woman and that brought out the worst in some people) in the early days of DAoC. How she and other community managers put up with the kind of name calling, insults, vulgarity, profanity without losing their minds is amazing.
So there were no official forums. Instead, fan-based ones were intended to fill the gap, and this was encouraged by Mythic, who got all the benefits of a forum without having to pay to host or staff it. Warhammer Alliance ended up being the main one of these, being used by the developers to interact with players. Games Workshop is SHOCKED that a forum for Warhammer Online might mention Warhammer in its name. If mentioning the name of the game that you are about is indictable, then just about every game-specific website is in a whole lot of trouble. Will they go after Warhammer Vault, or Warhammer Stratics? The Warhammer Online wikia? They all carry at least as many adverts as Warhammer Alliance.
Last year, in an about turn, Mythic decided it wanted to have official forums after all, but that clearly does not suddenly cause existing forums to retroactively become inappropriate.
It has been a couple of decades since I stopped liking Games Workshop terribly much. They used to be a nice little independent gaming company here in the UK that railed against the unfair practises of the big guys, such as TSR (remember them?). It didn’t take too much success before they became “the man”, and realised how high they could push their prices (I used to pay 50 pence for 3 lead miniatures), but this lawsuit is outrageous, even for them.
It is unclear at this time as to whether Warhammer Alliance will dispute the claim. Given the potentially crippling costs of defending this suit, I would not blame them for just backing down, even though it would be another victory for bullying corporations. I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t be certain of the lawsuit’s legal merits, but it is certainly a disastrous bit of public relations.
The full text of the lawsuit is after the jump. The legalese will make your head spin, or at any rate it set mine into a whirl, but it is worth a read.:
Continue reading Games Workshop moves to shut down Warhammer Alliance
Mortal Online is a sandbox-style skill-based MMO developed by Swedish developers Star Vault. With the client available for download from their website at the moment, I thought I’d take a bit of a peek. I’ve not really been following it, so it’ll be a voyage of adventure.
As ever, this is still open beta, and things are subject to change. Originally due to launch last year, Mortal Online has been delayed several times with its last promised release date March 2010. No new release date will be announced until a desync issue is cleared up, giving time for any problems to be dealt with. I can only look at what is in front of me though, but I’ll try to be fair.
So let us begin.
 Mortal Online - Race Selection First you pick your species. We have good old humans; the Alvarin, this land’s version of the elves; the Oghmir, who seem to be hairy beastmen; and the Halfbreeds, who are ostensibly half-orcs, but look rather reptilian to me. I’m going to be boring and go with a human.
 Mortal Online Character Creation - Picking your bloodline. Next you pick your race and age. As a human I can choose up to 4 bloodlines in my ancestry, each of which will affect my cap in various stats. The first race you pick also determines what appearances you can choose from. Your age also affects the stat caps. Generally speaking, the older your character, the higher his intelligence and psyche can go, but you start losing physical attributes.
With that sorted, we move on to deciding his appearance.
Oh. Oh my.
I’m not a prude. Really I’m not. I just wasn’t expecting to suddenly be confronted by fully modelled male genitalia. It’s polite to give some warning. In the interests of keeping this blog vaguely safe for work I won’t embed the screenshot, but you can see it here. Female characters are equally unclothed. It’s not awful or anything. Just seems a bit unnecessary, and I could see it putting some folks off.
Anyhows, there’s the usual collection of sliders (though thankfully not for *that*), and hair choices, though having only ten hairstyle options seems a bit limited these days. Finding it quite difficult to create an educated looking fellow with what’s available. You can only change your face, rather than your body, so I won’t be able to be mildly overweight as I like to do when given the option. Nevermind. This slightly wild-looking beardy chap will have to do. Hopefully they’ll let me put some pants on soon.
I notice that when I move the camera, or spin him, it takes his hair a little while to catch up with the rest of him, like an ill-mannered wig. Hopefully that doesn’t happen in the game proper. I had a bit of a problem at this point, as when I finished designing my character, the next button in the top right refused to acknowledge being clicked. Starting over from scratch and trying again had the same problem. Eventually I got it to work on the 4th try, though I’m not sure what, if anything, I did differently.
We next pick a starting profession. Mortal Online is skill-based, rather than class based, so this just decides what skills and equipment we start with. My acolyte, starting with some basic magical ability, can later learn anything the blacksmith apprentice or scout can.
Lastly, you choose your first name and surname, and your starting city. I was expecting at this point to also select my Deva name, which is a sort of shared soul between all your characters, but it appears that fascinating idea may have been dropped.
So far, I have mixed feelings. It is glitchier and has more placeholder information than I would expect at this stage. Still, there does seem to be a decent base, and character creation, while vital to get right, is less important than what you experience in the game itself.
I still have no pants, but I appear to have mugged a caveman and stolen his Flintstonesque mandress. Tune in next time, as I hit the “Play” button.
 Mortal Online's Main Menu
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