As I had mentioned earlier on this blog, I have recently stopped playing LOTRO. So today I went and officially canceled my account, however while doing so I saw no option to remove my CC and billing information from their system. Having been a victim of random charges by unsaid company in the past I wanted to remove my info so that my subscription would not accidentally be restarted. Seeing no way to do this from Turbines website, I contacted support, who basically said,

You either keep your CC information in our system or the game that you PAID for will no longer work, ever.

At first I was confused, so I asked him to explain and sure enough he confirmed what I had thought. The full transcript of our chat is in the image to the left.

Now there are 2 things wrong with this policy.

1) You are treating your users as criminals. This is inline with what the video game, music and movie industry have now been doing for years. Treating customers like criminals in a desperate attempt to prevent data from being copied or in this case sold to another user.

2) You are holding my CC information as hostage. If I cancel I can never play the game again without going and purchasing a new copy and if I don’t my CC information stays in your system. As any gamer will tell you, there comes a time when perhaps you wish to replay a certain game and should be able to. You did PAY for it. I’ve done this with dozes of games, Starcraft being the last as I got nostalgic when talk of SCII started.

What Turbine is doing is completely unacceptable. If I decided in a year to start playing again I have every right to without leaving my CC information in there system for said year. After all I might never decide I want to play again and my CC info will remain there forever since most likely I would have forgotten by then.

In the transcript above you will notice that a Supervisor was going to call me. He did, about 10 mins after the chat to my surprise, however my phone was on vibrate and on my bed so I didn’t hear it. I did reply to the ticket opened by the Supervisor and receive a reply that basically said the same things as the support rep. However he did add some more info.

- If you remove your CC information your account will be permanently disabled INCLUDING any days remaining on your account. Again there logic is beyond me.
- Trying to replace your CC info with a Game card will not work, since you have to remove your info first, your account will become dead.

So basically once you enter your CC info Turbine gets to keep it or they take away your game, WITHOUT refund. Whats next for the gaming industry? monitoring the number of installs? Oh wait there already doing that too!

A lot of MMORPGs these days have begun to implement a lot of new ideas and gameplay aspects that promises to draw in millions of players and keep them happy for years and years. Sometimes these things are pvp related, sometimes they are pve related. One thing, however, that always seems to get left out is player housing.

In today’s MMORPGs player housing is a very important aspect. There is no doubt that players enjoy having their own personal space and area to “live in” with their character. So why haven’t popular MMORPGs, like World of Warcraft, implemented them yet? Certainly the inhabitants of WoW would enjoy their own space to call their own.

Recently, with their latest update, Turbine decided to add player and “guild” housing into their popular Lord of the Rings Online game with much fanfair. Each race has its own neighborhoods that contain 30 or so houses ranging from guild houses, delux houses, and standard houses. Depending on the view, size, and landscape around the house determines the size and upkeep. Each week, in order to keep your house, you will have to lay down a certian amount of cash.

Bottomline, player housing is fast becoming an important aspect of the MMORPG community. It is a way for you to customize your existence within that community. There is a reason why sites such as MySpace and Facebook are so popular, and one of those reasons is the ability to make your profile your own. A place you can call your virtual home. These things are not fads, and as more and more MMORPGs get developed the players are gonna start taking note which ones have and do not have (I’m looking at you Tabula Rasa) player housing.

Ok, maybe not yet, but I’m laying it down right now saying that I guarantee that Blizzard will create a MMO out of the beloved Starcraft series. In fact if this site is still around by the time the game comes out I will give a free copy to everyone that posts in this thread (contact by email). And if within 10 years Blizzard does not announce a Starcraft MMO than I will give everyone $50.

Seriously, why wouldn’t they. I mean Starcraft is the best selling RTS game of all time, beating out every Warcraft RTS game to date. It has 3 races all with incredible character selection that could easily be turned into a MMOFPS. Just imagine creating your character and being able to choose between Marine, Firebat, or Ghost and being dropped into Zerg territory for your first mission. With Starcraft’s immense following a World of Starcraft MMO would most undoubtably become the biggest MMO ever.

However taking into account that Starcraft II took 10 yrs, I wouldn’t hold my breath for World of Starcraft. Maybe by 2017 I’ll be writting about how World of Starcraft is almost out

(First 50 responses only) 

Some very interesting news cropped up today telling us all that LucasArts and BioWare have teamed up, yet again, on an unannounced project. It was a very interesting read and one that hinted at a lot of possibilities for the duo. Naturally, I won’t bother restating what has already been said in the press release (you can read that here). What we will discuss here is what exactly this could mean.

BioWare has been developing an MMORPG for a while now, it’s no secret. What is a secret is what exactly their MMORPG is based on. Naturally the gamers of the world have united in an attempt to convince them to make one based off their hit-RPG, Knights of the Old Republic. This notion was, obviously, fueled earlier today by this press release. Now I hate to burst bubbles, I really do, but we have to look at this scenario logically. As much as I’d love an MMORPG based off of KotOR, I just do not see it happening, and here’s why:

1. LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment still have a contract that allows for Sony to develop the Star Wars MMO property. I don’t see Sony quietly backing out of this and allowing more competition into their very small arena. A BioWare Star Wars MMO would kill their property.
2. [Quoted from the LucasArts/BioWare press release today]“BioWare’s mission is to deliver the best story and character-driven games in the world, delivering powerful emotional experiences to our fans.” No MMORPG, ever, has character-driven games. It is, with our current technology, impossible. MMORPGs are world-driven, not character driven.
3. The press release is announcing a new partnership, not one that has been working on an unannounced title since 2006 (when they announced they were beginning development on an MMORPG).
4. Why would they announce the partnership but not the game? If this really was about them making a Star Wars MMORPG then they would have announced it along with this deal. Everybody is already assuming that this means the Star Wars MMO is coming. BioWare knows this, and LucasArts knows this which is why they kept their game a secret because with everybody assuming its an MMORPG they don’t have to worry about their new IP being leaked to the public.

I understand that this is all circumstantial evidence, but these things need to be brought up. This deal in no way signifies that their will be a BioWare Star Wars MMORPG. I very much hope I am wrong, but as of right now I believe they may be working on a completely separate game altogether. LucasArts has many, many other IPs including Indiana Jones. There is a good chance BioWare is asking to be a part of one of those franchises.

Hellgate: London seems to be a pretty typical MMORPG when you look at the game and world. It has all the same elements of an MMORPG like quests, ability to play online, different armor, stats, levels, a number bar for your skills and spells. All very typical of your everyday MMORPG, but does that make Hellgate: London an MMORPG?

As somebody who loves MMORPGs, I tend to travel around the forums a lot. On these forums it gets brought up a lot. Somebody will say something like how they can’t wait for the “new MMORPG Hellgate: London to come out,” and then a forum fight will ensue between the MMORPG purists (people who maintain the strict definition behind the acronym MMORPG) and the others (people who generally just use the acronym to define any online game). It has actually become quite interesting as people struggle between keeping the acronym a strict set of standards to define an MMORPG, and allowing it to become just a word to describe a genre of video games.

So, back to my original question: is Hellgate: London an MMORPG? Well, let’s look at why some would not call it an MMORPG:

1. The game is completely zoned. Even the safe zones in the game can only hold 50 or so people.
2. There is no persistent world where thousands of people can inhabit the land together.
3. There is a single-player component, an MMORPG no-no.

All legitimate reasons as to why it could not, technically, be called an MMORPG. However, in this day an age I’d still say it is, simply because the term is fast becoming an industry genre that is being applied to what can only be called a “baby boom” of MMORPG games. Its too complicated to come up with genres for each and every differing title and the term MMORPG seems to be broad enough to give people a rough idea of what your game will look like and be, which is what a genre is supposed to do anyways. Bottom line, games need genres, and it just so happens the moniker MMORPG has been adapted to define these new not-quite-MMORPG games.

I stumbled upon Voig.com today while surfing the net and they have some very nice graphics showing many MMORPG stats such as subscription numbers, active players, genre along with a few others. So I thought it was interesting if I listed some of the stats here. All stats are up till Aug 2007.

Top 5 MMORPGs
World of Warcraft – 25% market share
Runescape – 16%
Second Life – 12%
Knight Online – 11%
GuildWars – 10%

Having recently played both LOTRO and EVE, I was surprised to see some low numbers. 290k for LOTRO and 175k for EVE as of August 07.

36 Million active MMORPG players combined

MMORPG Genres
71.5% Fantasy
15.5% Sci-fi
3.0% Social
1.5% FPS
8.5% Other

Business Model
47% Pay to Play
49% Free to Play
4% Other

Kicking this website off to a start, we at MMOCrunch will begin a weekly series entitled “Before the Now”, where in, we will be taking a look at various MMORPGs and how they have evolved from their past into what we see today. Usually, in most games, only minor changes have taken affect but other times you’ll get a game that has completely changed everything, even the developer/publisher. One such game is Warhammer Online.

Warhammer Online was not always being developed by the DAoC-famed Mythic Entertainment. Before Mythic the game was being developed by Climax Online and published by Sega. It was quite a different game back then having promised features that most MMORPGs still do not have.

Starting development in 2004, Climax took some bold steps to differentiate their newly acquired IP from other like-minded fantasy MMOs such as Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft, both of which were months from release. The game was promising the ability to play as a total of 5 different races (Human, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, and Halflings), and almost 100 different careers. There were NO levels planned for this game, everything was to be based off the skills of your chosen career. Should you decide to switch careers, you could, and you could keep using those skills from that previous career too. Neat idea huh? Too bad its never been carried over to other games.

Their PVP system was proving to be rather unique as well. Unlike the current Mythic rendition of the game this one was not promising any realm vs realm PVP. No they were developing something completely unique, which I’ve decided to term career vs career PVP. You see, the game was being developed so that most, if not all, careers had an equal opposing career (witch, witchhunter). These career characters, if they saw the other on the field, could attack eachother. No matter where they were; town, castle, cave, they were open to PVP. Such careers being planned for this were the Bandit and City Guard careers, as well as the Priest and Cultist careers. In addition to this style of PVP the game was planned to include the usual all-out PVP areas of the map as well as a more traditional dueling PVP-mode (like WoW).

Unfortunately, this game never really made it passed its’ first year in developement. GamesWorkshop (owner of the IP) decided to pull its funding from Climax in June of 2004. Climax attempted to go it alone with its’ own funds for a while but it eventually closed down for good in late 2004 due to trouble in securing a publishing agreement, presumedly with Sega.

On May 18th, 2005 Mythic and GamesWorkshop secured a deal that would allow Mythic to recreate the MMO franchise from scratch and now we have the game the is currently being developed with a release date scheduled for early 08′. The original game had a lot of fresh ideas, and although were probably not ideal for the Warhammer world they could have definitely been used to spark up interest in a new IP. Unfortunately that never happened and Climax is now back to developing console-specific games.

Come back next week when we take a long look though the history of Tabula Rasa. The game that went from a hardcore fantasy MMORPG to a casual Sci-Fi MMORPG. 

Rumors just keep flying in, this one coming from EGM’s December issue about a Halo MMOFPS.

“Microsoft may start a war–word is they’re making a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter for 360. Hmm, wonder what Bungie is up to?”

This is referring to the secret Halo project that Peter Jackson is working with Bungie on. Personally I think if it is a MMOFPS than its a great move by Bungie. I mean look at Blizzard with the Warcraft series. They took a RTS game that had a huge following, built a great MMORPG out of it and walla, the biggest MMORPG of all time. Halo might even surpass World of Warcraft since both console and PC games alike will surely flock to it given Bungie reputation for gaming excellence.

Primotechnology has an article about a rumor that a new MMORPG based in the Starwars universe is in the works by BioWare.   The story says that this new MMORPG will be based in KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic), which was release in 2003 and later followed up with a sequel.  Having played both KOTOR and Starwars Galaxies I’m definitely excited about BioWare making this game cause seriously Starwars Galaxies sucked.  If this is indeed true I’m sure it will be welcomed news to all Starwars fans who are looking to play a good MMORPG.  My only worry is that since EA has recently acquired BioWare they might stick there noses in there and mess it up.  But I trust BioWare, there good people.

There has been much debate about what a MMORPG should be. Should developers do away with level grinding? How about gold and item farming? Include or don’t include PvP? Create a in-game story line or let the players roam free? How should the fighting system work? So I’ve decided to write down a list of features that I would like to see in a MMORPG.

• No Level Grinding - Sorry to those of you who enjoy playing 100+ hrs before you finally have a character that can do cool things, but I’d rather get to the good stuff right away. I think the player should get X amount of points during character creation and those are all the stats and skill points they get the whole game. So once you have created your character you’re maxed out. You can than get some better items/weapons, but you don’t have to go around killing rats just to level up.

• Quick Travel for Everyone - Traveling to a location to do a quest or to meet up with some buddies shouldn’t take 10-15 mins. The point of games is that there exciting, I shouldn’t have to watch my guy ride a horse for 10 mins before getting to where I want to be. Just warp me there and let me play.

• Few Quests – Yes, get rid of quest grinding. I don’t want to help your uncle clear out his basement of rats, find your sister who is lost in the woods or go to a town on the other side of the world to deliver some cookies to your mother. These are pointless and BORING quests. Quests should involve massive boss fights and should be relatively quick to get to. I don’t have 5 hrs to do 1 quest 1 time. One to two hrs tops to get to the end. Or create something where once you get to the boss you can save that spot so you can get back later. There should only be around 10-20 quests in the entire game.

• Boss do NOT Drop Uber Items – If bosses do not drop the best items in the game then there will be no item farming. Completing a quest should be a 1 time event in the game, once it’s done, I don’t want to do it again unless it’s to help someone who hasn’t done it. So what reward should players get? Maybe a reputation reward. Maybe a item that is cool to have but not vital to the game. For example in LOTRO it would be cool if I could put armor on my horse. While having no practical use in the game, it’s definetly cool to have and you would be the envy of everyone who didn’t have it.

• Random Item Drops – Again I’m against any type of boring grind so I think all weapon and item drops should be completely random. All stats on these items should be random and can drop off any and every creature. This would completely do away with item farming and if you were to get an uber item it would be 100% unique and give the item some real value.

• PVP is a Must - I’m sorry for those of you who do not like PvP, but this is what makes the game interesting. MMORPGs shouldn’t be about grinding to get all the best stuff, it should be about surviving in a hostile and violent world. However I would make some changes. First I would give the player about to be attacked a 3-4 sec warning if they are in a safe zone. Lets say I wanted to attack some helpless sap oblivious to the fact that I was about to stab them in the back, I would have to first select the fact the I wanted to attack them. This would warn the player saying “so and so is about to attach you” The player would have 3-4 seconds to get ready or run before I could actually attack. Outside of safe zones the player would get a shorter warning or none at all.

• Corpse Looting, yes! – Sorry, but if I kill you I should be able to take 1 item. Now this is a bit harsh since most players spend a lot of time collecting their items, so everyone should have a few slots where they can select items that are unlootable. However if there are only 5 slots and you have 6 uber items, sorry but your going to lose that item if you die.

• None Storyline Driven Gameplay – Game storyline is vital to any game as well as to MMORPGs. However I do not believe that it should be the driving force behind the gameplay. I don’t want to wait for a content update before I have something else to do. There should definitely be a storyline, but it should only be a backdrop for the game and not be the game. The players themselves should be the storyline. Not everyone person wants to be a good guy, some people want to play the evil side, so let them. Servers should be setup where players are fighting against other players for land, control and world domination and not just a never ending stream of boring monsters.

Well thats what I want in a MMORPG. I’m sure I can add a few more points, but thats the big stuff. I want a game doesn’t waste my time, doesn’t force me to grind 95% of the time I’m on and most importantly FUN! If you know of any MMORPG thats gets close to this please let me know. I’d love to play it.