If you live in the Western Hemisphere then it is likely that you just recently heard the term free-to-play (F2P). Sure, it’s been a part of the gamer lexicon for a years now, but F2P games have taken off recently, due in large part to one of the most successful publishers in the genre, Nexon. Nexon opened its North American arm by testing the waters with one of the most loved games of Korea, MapleStory. The trouble is that for many Westerners the genre is stigmatized. They believe that F2P is acquainted with poor quality, bug ridden titles that are filled with nonsensical characters and brutal grind fests. Without knowing exactly how the subscription-based Western market would react to a flood of F2P titles Nexon gambled on the micro-transaction model, and never looked back.
Nexon’s initial success with MapleStory (shared by developer and now Nexon subsidiary, Wizet) lead to further North American expansion by way of the MMOFPS Combat Arms, and a second MMORPG called Mabinogi. The Korean company’s success didn’t slip by the rest of the video game industry. Since 2005 numerous smaller, often less polished F2P titles have hit the market, only to disappear into obscurity or discontinued altogether. Few have had the mass market appeal or revenue generating success of MapleStory, but Frogster’s release of Runewaker’s Runes of Magic has thrust the micro-transaction F2P model back into the spotlight.
Runes of Magic, an admitted WoW clone with its own unique twists, has been doing quite well for itself. Although Frogster hasn’t disclosed any monetary figures, one can infer the title’s success from the amount of buzz it has managed to generate in the mainstream video game press. Generally speaking MMOG announcements, let alone F2P announcements, don’t make it to the “big leagues” unless the news revolves around a new product, or worse, a devastating proclamation. Not only does RoM continue to make the news, but it’s slowly gaining a healthy blogging community. Something that a AAA title like Warhammer Online continues to lose.
Speaking of losing ground, have you heard the news? Dungeons & Dragons Online is being relaunched as a free-to-play micro-transaction title on August 6 (in North America only). Not only is the new(ish) model making lots of money for those who embrace it, but it’s saving other titles from being shutdown entirely. Giving previously overlooked gems like DDO a second lease on life. Love them or hate them, the F2P genre is here to stay, and only going to get bigger. And with less risk to the developer up front, gamers of all types should be keeping an eye out for new and unusual niche titles and MMOGs set in completely foreigngenres (non-RPG).
Who wouldn’t have given up a random finger or toe to be investing in the ground level of Blizzard Entertainment? I know they were own(ed) by Vivendi Entertainment, but it was good to dream about for a few minutes. Unfortunately, all software studios are not as successful as Blizzard is; many run out of money, close their doors and shut down their servers. Let’s take a look at some ways that these companies find ways to raise money to develop the games we come to know and love.
Not all work out: The most current possible casualty could be Firesky/Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. The studio is in danger of possibly losing the Stargate Worlds license if they don’t raise capital by August 1st. Which is less than a week away, it looks like they will need some angels to pull themselves out of this one. I’m not talking about angels as in Aion, I am using a real investment term to describe a wealthy investor that invests in small private companies.
This opens the trapdoor of a very risky style of investing, private equity funding. This is the type of money raising that vaulted many investors into millionaire or multimillionaire status in the internet bubble of the 90’s. But the MMO bubble of the 2000’s doesn’t seem that it’s getting the same type of response. These games, especially the ones with popular intellectual properties such as MGM’s Stargate, The Matrix Online and Lord of the Rings Online are more expensive to create. You are not just paying for the natural expenses of running a business and payroll, but also the weight of the name will cost you as well.
What’s in a name: This could be a reason why many studios try to develop their own brands or IP’s (intellectual properties). Some are successful such as Valve who created a very successful and respected name in the industry with the Halflife storyline. Complete with their own unwilling (and silent) hero Gordon Freeman, they quickly built the Half-life brand into as one of the best FPS’s in gaming history. I read recently that they too are looking for funding, not from the traditional methods, but from the community.
As reported on Gamasutra.com, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell tells Australian TV show “Good Game” that he is “super interested in” what he thinks “would be much better if the community could finance the games.” So what happens now? Do I go down to my local Gamestop and say, “I’ll take 100 shares of Valve please, put this money toward their next game. I hope it’s a winner!” All they would need is for little Johnny to lose money that he put towards the next installment of Half-life 3, the forums would be on fire for months.
Gabe Newell, Co-founder Valve Software.
Umm, no. That’s not how it works, thankfully. What would have to be done is certain contracts would be drawn out, there would be something called a “prospectus” handed out. A prospectus or “Red Herring” as it’s called has details about the company, where the money would be going and all the inherent risks. Basically states that you will most likely lose your money. And that is true, the trick to private equity funding is to invest in a few, one will make up for all the losses. But the most important thing is to have the money to lose. Even when a company is publicly traded on an exchange such as the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange doesn’t mean it’s totally safe. Just means it’s more accessible and easier to get your money in and out of.
Thar she blows!:And I wonder what Carl Icahn (above) thinks of video games since he is has such a large stake in Take-Two Interactive. Carl Icahn is a billionaire investor who sets his sights on Take-Two back in March. He raised his stake up to 2 million shares at roughly $5-6 per share. Even though the company has had some setbacks and a few of their most expected titles were delayed, he still in the money for roughly $6 million with the stock trading over $9. However, Carl Icahn has his own agenda, he is most noted for his machinations that eventually lead to a company he own part of to being bought out. This is something that Take-Two has rejected in the past, Electronic Arts wanted to buy them out back in 2008 for 2 billion or $25 a share. Does Carl think they are still worth that much?
Traditionally, smaller software companies have been more open to find funding through private channels. Sometimes larger companies help out looking for a cut in the action, while the studio works like mad at releasing fast enough and stay afloat until the ship rolls in. I hope that the ships rolls in for Firesky, they are looking into a small group of investors called MMOMOGULs for funding. They need someone like a Carl Icahn to step in and save the day. So we’ll know in about a week if there is a future for the Stargate Worlds MMO.
/crosses fingers
Come play with the big boys: As far as Valve is concerned I feel that they are in perfect position to take them public through something called an Initial Public Offering. This will put them in the market with big players like EA, Take-Two and Activision-Blizzard here in the states. This will create a way for them to raise money and even get the common investor involved, without too much legal mumbo jumbo. It is the traditional way that most companies raise money through Wall Street. Hey, I would even buy shares in Valve, especially if all this money they are raising was for a new mmorpg.
Archymedes stands on the brick bridge overlooking the aftermath of the battle. Through the dust clouds he can barely make out all the bodies that lay broken across his field of vision. With one dwarf sized meaty fist he wipes soot, blood, and sweat from his brow. His vision does not improve. The cost of this battle was high, paid for in the sacrifice of good men and women fighting under the banner of order. For now the battle is over, the region has been captured, and how long it will remain this way is anyone’s guess. For now, Archymedes stands on the brick bridge, overlooking the scene of battle, and wondering if it was worth it. Bloody Hell, Yes.
My WarHammer account has once again come and gone. This time I will let it. During this time I experience some of the best gaming moments ever. Great RVR battles, keep sieges and defenses, and even survived a server merger. All in all the game is very good. It is still plagued by bugs that prevent this game from becoming great. Driver crashes, crash to desktops, some freezing and hitching, are still there. For a game that has been out this long, this is completely inexcusable. I was lucky my crashes happened only once or twice a week. Others were not so lucky. I did manage to recruit a few people back to the game, but they left as soon as they could due to the excessive bugs and crashes. I had a good time, but it could have been great, so in closing I offer some free advice to mythic. Fix the bugs. At least acknowledge the many posts on the forums that are reporting issues. Then fix the bugs.
For now I am on my way back to Azeroth. My death knight and several alts are waiting. Patch 3.2 is on the horizon. The only question is, where did I park my flying mount?
Following in the footsteps of my colleague, the stress test for the DDO Beta will be held tonight–the 27th of July–from 8PM to 11PM EDT. This isn’t your run of the mill stress test however as Turbine will be opening up a new section of the game for people to play in during it.
From 8PM to 11PM EDT, the length of the test, all Slavarath quests from the Slavarath Plane of Battle pack will be open as well as the Slavarath raid. If you’re in the Beta, tonight is your night. (And, of course, you’ll be helping the developers out by testing out capacity and stress and all that.)
If you’ve been following any of the Comic-Con coverage, then you’ve surely heard about the ‘State of the MMO‘ Panel that was supposed to discuss the future of the genre. Instead of doing that, however, the panel came down to discussing why their prospective games were the future. Now, I can’t speak for everyone, but pimping your own game at a panel you’re supposed to be participating in about the genre itself just seems like bad form.
As Kotaku mentions, one of the only genuinely reflective statements came from Min Kim, representing Nexon, saying the following: “”Access is gonna change…the price point is going to drop to free for a lot of these games…but access is going to change. Traditionally when you get a new PC game you have to worry about whether your hardware can run it. Developers are going to realize that it isn’t about building the flashiest experience, but making sure the game is accessible to the widest audience.” Nexon was as guilty as the rest, though, so don’t let the prior statement fool you. Didn’t you know that Combat Arms is the future of the MMO genre?
If you’ve been wondering just when the FPS MMO Borderlands would be launched, wonder no longer. Gearbox has now officially dated, as of Comic-Con, the game’s release date. Borderlands release date will be on October 20th for North America and October 23rd for Europe.
Originally, the game was aiming for a more realistic look but the fine people at Gearbox have since switched the art style to something more… well, cartoony. You don’t have to take my word for it; you can view the newest trailer here.
(Ed. Note: The FPS MMO genre isn’t all that clearly defined to this journalist and I’d argue that this counts. Feel free to argue otherwise in the comments, as I’m open to new ideas. – James 7/27/09)
Those of you lucky enough to have a spot in the Fallen Earth beta better be ready for today’s stress test. Fallen Earth LLC asks that everyone log in from 12:00 PM EST till 3:00 PM EST for a special stress test event, dubbed Texas Invasion: A Clan Challenge.
Texas Invasion isn’t your usual ‘break the servers’ setup. In order to guarantee a large number of players the company will be dishing out prizes at random, and as rewards. Anyone who logs in gains a shot at winning one of fifteenconsolation prizes, while the person who racks up the most points will be rewarded with the “Defender of the Province” title and “a special prize pack.”
Points are earned by collecting Texan Encrypted Chips (one point), Texan Republican Ciphers (two points) and combining them to form Decoded Texan Republic Data (four points). The objects drop of the invading mobs. The player with the most points will gain the, likely, ultra rare title.
You can find a full FAQ on the Fallen Earth website.
Frogster America announced the company’s latest addition to the free-to-play MMORPG Runes of Magic, Secret of the Goblin Mine. The Goblin Mind proper, which is labeled as a “minigame” by Frogster, will be a solo dungeon that is restricted to one play through a day. Should you die in your quest you will not be able to attempt the adventure till the morrow.
The hardcore addition to Runes of Magic does not stop there though. The mine also needs to have its three tasks completed in under 30 minutes for the treasure chest, full of “rare armor recipes and handcrafted objects”, to appear at the end of the dungeon. To top it off, only the bravest and most dedicated of warriors will obtain the ‘Goblin Hero’ title.
The July 28th patch isn’t just for the hardcore though. More casual players will be able to take part in an epic weapon quest series that promises to be “the toughest quest series that Runes of Magic has to offer”.
In addition to uncommon recipes and epic weapons, players will, for the first time, be able to cultivate their own plants inside their homes. Plants will reach maturity in three to seven days, but their yields are dependent upon the attention they receive.
Secret of the Goblin Mine launches Tuesday, July 28. Check out Frogster’s trailer.
Since my last article review of Aion at a low level, I have had a chance to invest a bit more time in the Chinese version of the game. Having progressed far enough to see the Abyss finally, I wanted to take some time and give some updated impressions on my play experiences since I am a bit farther into the game.
The Grind
The first thing I want to touch on are my experiences with the grind in the game so far. From levels 1-20, I can say that I was pretty much able to quest through most of my levels. The campaign quests give a substantial amount of EXP over the standard quests, and there are some repeatable quests to help you through some of those areas where you do find yourself grinding to reach the next level after your quests are all completed.
Between the levels of 20-24, the grind starts to pick up more and more each level. The percentage of your levels EXP you are able to get through quests starts to gradually go down in this range for a few reasons. The first is that the amount of exp to reach the next levels ramps up pretty quickly, and secondly, some of the quest EXP rewards don’t seem to be enough. The repeatable quests really don’t reward to well either, as one requiring you to kill X amount of mobs, rewards you at turn in with amount of exp equal to killing 2 of those mobs. In the time it takes you to go turn them in, you could have kept killing and came out better off. As a result, I spent a lot of my time grinding in the jungle and desert in Eltnen. Once reaching 25 however, things seem to pick up a lot (I’ll touch on this later).
Legions (Guilds)
During my time playing, I had a chance to delve into the Legion functionality with some of my guys on the NA and Chinese versions. My first beef is that Aion only allows 3 different ranks for your legion members, and these rank titles can’t seem to be changed. While you can set permissions for each of the 3 ranks, you can’t have 2 people be the highest rank. In MMO guilds like mine where there are 2 leaders, this is somewhat disappointing and inconvenient. The current version I played during the NA weekend and Chinese also only allow 10 characters for your legion name, which I find unnecessarily restrictive. Since my guild’s name is 11 letters long, I can only fit “Inquisitio”. This forces us to abbreviate ourselves to INQ, and I am sure other MMO guilds will have to do the same unless the newer version updates we haven’t played yet increase the character limit.
Aion legions also have levels like some other MMOs like EQ2 and WAR. Unlike its predecessors, Aion only has three levels for legions. Upgrading your legion to level 2 requires having 10 people on your roster, and a payment of around 120,000 gold. Once you upgrade, you will have roster limit increased from 30 to 60 maximum members, although in my opinion the fact that there is one at all strikes me as silly. Once you upgrade, you can also customize a guild emblem for your cloak. There are only a dozen emblems, but you can pick any background color you can imagine. You can also change your guild emblem at any time if you so chose for a small fee.
The one really good aspect of Aion’s legion system is if you are able to upgrade to level 3. Level 3 requires a higher roster count and around 1.2 million gold, which is not as bad as it sounds on paper given how much money I was making. Any decent size guild should have no trouble getting this cash together if everyone kicks in a bit of cash. At level 3, the limitations of the emblem system redeem itself by letting you put your own design. This means you can literally use any graphic or logo you want to represent your guild. During my playing I managed to see some pretty interesting logos as seen in the above screenshot. Overall I think there is room for improvement in the legion functionality, but specialized level 3 emblems make for an awesome feature.
Rifts
Once you reach level 20 and start to move into the third tier of zones, you will start to get your first taste of PvP. It seems like every so often, there are rifts or portals that appear somewhat randomly that connect to the other faction’s area. These rifts seem to have a chance to appear in one of many predetermined locations across the zones, which are quite large, and have a set number of uses before they become unusable. From my own experiences, it seems that at almost any given time there is a rift up that either leads to the enemy area or has the enemy coming into yours.
There are no PvP restrictions in terms of where you can go and who you can attack. Enemies can even go inside the perimeter of your main fortress if they are careful to avoid guards, which is not difficult. While you are able to attack anyone of any level, you will not know what level the people on the other faction are. This makes for some interesting encounters where people misjudge the strength of their opponent. In one personal experience, a bunch of us ganged up on a single enemy only to have him obliterate all of us by dropping a meteor on us! In addition to the PvP points awarded, there are special “infiltration” quests that require you to go to the enemy zone and complete tasks there. In this regard the rift aspect of the game makes the PvP not consentual, which is fine by me but may turn off others.
The Abyss
Once your reach level 25 the game starts to open up and you are allowed to start delving into the Abyss, which is the games central area for RvR.
As soon as you hit level 25, you will receive a new campaign quest series to complete in order to be able to access the Abyss. The campaign consists of 3 mini trials you have to go through in order to prove your worth, but also double as a minor tutorial. The first test consists of proving your worth by completing 1 task from 3 available choices. I chose a challenge to kill some monster under the arena in a certain time limit that was laughably easy. The second trial tests your knowledge, and has you answering a series of multiple choice questions that serve to educate you a little about the Abyss and some of the game’s lore. It’s impossible to fail it seems as picking the wrong answer prompts you to try again among the remaining choices.
The final trial is a test of flight in which you have to fly through a series of rings in a short time. This serves to educate the player about the use of these rings which are present in the Abyss. Flying through the rings replenishes a portion of your flight timer and gives a small speed boost during the trial. Like the previous trials, it was not difficult at all and I was able to complete it on my first run through. Once all trials are complete, you are shown to the Abyss portal (as seen above) and are free to go through whenever you want.
Once you arrive in the Abyss, you will find yourself in a fully functional fortress area with pretty much everything you will ever need. The fortress was complete with various vendors, banks, auction house, bind point, and even teleporters to take you to many of the games PvE zones. You will also notice that there are new standard quests for the Abyss that helps alleviate the strain from leveling, as well as campaign. The first campaign mission presents the player with a simply amazing tutorial about RvR in the Abyss through the use of various cutscenes.
Abyss Tutorial
Here is a quick summary:
The first thing they explain is that the Abyss has a total of 9 keeps that you can fight over, and they are spread across 3 different layers: bottom, core, and top. The Balaur are a monster faction that participates in the Abyss wars, and they often take over these keeps.
Each keep has some sort of damage shield that protects it from air assaults. Trying to attack a keep from the air while the shield is up is supposed to be difficult and damaging. Inside each of the keeps is some sort shield generator that powers the shield. If this generator is destroyed, then the shield goes away and people are free to assault from the air without any kind of penalty or negatives.
The Abyss environment itself look very nice and seems to vary as you go from island to island. The entire area is flight enabled, and the rings can be used to guide you over some of the longer stretches between islands. There are teleports that take you from the bottom level to the top level, but if you look up at the sky on the bottom level you can see the upper level far above.
The core of the Abyss can be seen in the center and resembles a large sun-like ball of fire. In case you were curious, flying into this ball of fire will result in being insta-gibbed. PvE in the Abyss was getting me around 13 AP (Abyss Points) per kill at level 25. The fact that you can gain points through PvE can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at things. On one hand some people might not like the fact people can PvE grind their way up the ranks to abyss abilities and gear. On the other hand, people opting to take this route do so in an area where they can be ganked at any moment, so it will help drive traffic to this area making people somewhat easier to find.
Rewards
Abyss rewards come in the form of abyss abilities for reaching certain ranks, and item rewards for cashing in your points.
Over on Aion Source, I spotted this thread that shows an example of some of the high ranking Abyss abilities. One of the more notable abilities this high ranking person has is the ability to effectively turn themselves into a raid boss once every 2 hours for 10 minutes. This is definitely an interesting dynamic that should be interesting to see in action.
Items are the other major reward you get from PvP. There are stores in which you spend your Abyss points in order to purchase high end gear. There are various degrees of gear for each level range that have varying prices. Most of the green items can be bought purely with points, but some of the high level gold (epic) items also require medals which are earned during fortress sieges.
The Abyss gear actually looks to be itemized well, a problem that WAR had at launch with a lot of its PvP reward gear. The above picture shows 2 Abyss bows that are both level 30. The green one costs much less AP then the gold one, but the gold one features more damage, stats, and socketing slots for manastones. It is up to the player to decide if they want to hold out for the higher end item, or hold out for higher level gear. Since players lose AP for PvP loss, some may want to cash out sooner depending on their luck. One final point, spending points you have earned subtracts them from your total, thus reduces your rank. This means as people purchase items, there will be a constant moving up and down the RvR ranks, and high rank players will have to decide if they want to give up their rank abilities to cash out their points for weapons.
Conclusion
I really am looking forward to seeing how this all pans out when the game releases in North America. The game has solid PvP rewards, risk, and keeps / artifacts for people to fight over. For all the comparisons you hear about this game with WoW because of the playstyle, I’m starting to think it might be in many ways like an asian DAOC. If everything works out, I think this game could offer a lot to people who were fans of DAOC and disgruntled Warhammer fans. I look forward to continuing my journey on the Chinese version a while longer, and I am curious to see how the patches NA will have at release alleviate some of the issues with the game. If they can reduce the grind as they claimed in a recent interview, then I think this will be a game a lot of people will probably be jumping into if the end game ends up being solid.
MCV reports that APB, the crime-filled MMO from Realtime Worlds, will be heading to retail in March 2010. The 360 and PC title will be delivered to shelves thanks to a distribution agreement that the Scottish developer holds with EA Partners.
MCV claims that rumors of EA buying Realtime Worlds are unsubstantiated.
APB, aka All Points Bulletin, is being designed by David Jones, the man credited with creating everyone’s favorite suicide game, Lemmings, and a little something called Grand Theft Auto. APBwill mark the developer’s second title after the acclaimed 360 action game Crackdown.
APB takes place in a modern, fictional city constantly torn asunder by “Gangs” and “Law Enforcement”. Players will be able to decide which road they’d like to travel by taking part in robberies, or arresting the offending individuals.
MMORPG World of Warcraft, LOTRO, Eve Online, Guild Wars, Everquest 2, Runescape, Lineage 2, Warhammer Online MMOCrunch is the home to MMORPG Games and MMO News
Gabe Newell, Co-founder Valve Software.
Archymedes stands on the brick bridge overlooking the aftermath of the battle. Through the dust clouds he can barely make out all the bodies that lay broken across his field of vision. With one dwarf sized meaty fist he wipes soot, blood, and sweat from his brow. His vision does not improve. The cost of this battle was high, paid for in the sacrifice of good men and women fighting under the banner of order. For now the battle is over, the region has been captured, and how long it will remain this way is anyone’s guess. For now, Archymedes stands on the brick bridge, overlooking the scene of battle, and wondering if it was worth it. Bloody Hell, Yes.
