Hi-Rez Studios’ upcoming “team-based shooter-MMO”,  Global Agenda, is officially launching on February 1, 2010.  Players will be able to begin playing both varieties of the game on that date, and can pre-purchase them now.  There’s even a Limited Edition that includes a poster and Commonwealth Art Book on top of the other pre-order incentives:

• Gain access to Beta – Players that pre-order will gain access to Global Agenda beta events in January. Note that the beta servers are available for play only during specific play test windows, and that tests may be limited to only certain game features. To participate in the Global Agenda beta, you must register your Product Key online at the Global Agenda website following your pre-purchase. Registered beta participants will receive specific test instructions prior to each Closed Beta test event, as the events are announced.
• In-game Items – Players that activate their Product Key on the Global Agenda website prior to February 1, 2010, will receive a special in-game helmet captured from the Commonwealth, as well as head flair honoring the Global Agenda “No Elves” marketing campaign.
• Reserve Your Player Name and Agency Name – Gain access to Global Agenda’s pre-launch “Name Reserve” event, in which players are given the opportunity to reserve their in-game name ahead of launch day (exact dates for the Name Reserve event to be announced). Players will also be able to reserve an Agency name during the game’s official launch.

Check out the rest of our Global Agenda coverage, and stay tuned for an exclusive interview with the developers.

Yesterday Funcom made an announcement that Age of Conan would offer an unlimited free to play trial offer for any players that signed up before Jan 1st, 2010.  The offer included levels 1 – 20 and was limited to the intro island of Tortage, but players could play the game in this zone for as long as they wanted.

It is no longer a secret that free to play MMORPGs not only work, but can make serious cash by having in-game stores or offering tiered memberships with benefits to players that pay extra.  Age of Conan was rocked by a horrible launch losing a huge chunk of their player base within a few months, however over the last year they’ve made serious improvements.  As we recently saw with Dungeons & Dragons Online, moving to the F2P model can seriously revive an almost dead MMO.  Although I wouldn’t put D&D and AoC in the came category, it is safe to say AoC is not as health as they would want to be.  Switching to a F2P model might be the cure and revive a game that seem to have long reached its peak.

Funcom might be testing the waters with this unlimited free trial.  Who knows, we might be seeing a completely free to play Age of Conan sooner than you think.  Checkout the free offer here.

Seems like it’s nothing but good news for Frogster and Runewaker Enterainment today, the publisher and developer behind the free to play MMORPG Runes of Magic.  Not only did Runes of Magic win the ‘International Game of the Year 2009′ at the German Game Developer Awards, but it also announced that since the game launched earlier this year, Runes of Magic has surpassed more then 2.5 million registered players.

One thing to make clear is that “registered players” does not equal “active players”. However for a game that has only been out since March 2009, 2.5 million is pretty good, although I’d be interested to know what their active subscriber stats are.

Say what you will about Champions Online, but Cryptic has been releasing steady updates that have gone a long way toward fixing the game’s issues and improving the play experience. Players logging into CO tomorrow will be seeing these new changes, not the least of which is the closing of the dreaded Costume Gender Gap! Otherwise, there is a reduction in the cost of creating high level crafted gear, several fixes to missions and no nerfs.

User Interface and Chat

• The confirmation window that appears when changing crafting schools now makes it more clear that changing specializations within a school will reset your crafting level to 1.
• The Purchase Power UI should no longer give an untranslated error message for the Pro Tips.
• Items can now be sent in the mail UI via the context menu.
• Logging in to a character will now correctly set the status message of your character for both player search and the friends list.
• Chat channels should no longer show themselves as having zero users in them.

Powers

Celestial

• Redemption: Animation should now always occur correctly.

Munitions

• Two Gun Mojo: Animation no longer gets interrupted when moving left to right too quickly.

Sorcery

• Divine Renewal: Animation will now be interrupted correctly when attacked.

Missions and Content

Desert

• Barbarians at the Gate: Fixed bug where critters could get stuck and prevent further waves from spawning.
• Blank and Stein’s Monster: Fixed bug where Damage Over Time powers could kill Dr. Blank before he finished his transformation.
• Minding the Mutants: Mission now fails properly if the mutant is not delivered before time expires.
• Neutronium Nightmare: This missions should no longer becomes stuck if the player fails to pick up mission drop after defeating the Neutronium Thief.

Monster Island

• Proclamations of the Lawgiver: Removed “This item grants a mission” data since this mission is granted by Father Elk.
• Raptor Rush: Mission now lasts the full 20 waves and requires 60 raptor defeats.
• Secret Manimal Den: Rescued manimal now pauses at secret door instead of clipping through it.

UNITY

• It Hurts When I Do This: Fixed scientist AI so they give credit quicker and avoid pathfinding issues.

Nemesis

• Nemesis Confrontation: There should no longer be any missing geometry in the Lair.
• Nemesis Confrontation: Improved quality and performance for low-end graphics cards.
• Nemesis minion ambushes should now be correctly targeted.

Items

• The VF-7 ‘Torchie’ Flamethrower and U-BKL Firesnake Flame Rifle now correctly apply “Clinging Flames”.

Crafting

• Crafting component costs for all Blue and Purple quality fixed stat gear have been recalculated. Most Primary quality Upgrades now require far lower economic value of components to create. Most Secondary quality Upgrades are slightly more expensive. Overall, creating high end upgrades should be easier and more affordable for crafters now.
• Several Blueprints that had incorrect scales of components were also fixed (Primary quality Upgrades that only took Secondary Upgrade quantities of components to craft).
• Fixed a bug that was causing recipes to be unlearnable at their required skill level.
• Epiphanies/Insights/Profundities are now correctly tagged as Components so that they get displayed in the crafting UI when set to sort by slot.

Costume Creator/Tailor

• Added the following Female Parts to match existing Male Parts:
• HANDS: Armor Gauntlet, Armor Sleek, Armor Scalloped w/ Claws, Ancient Mystical Claw, 2 Fingers.
• BACK: Backpack Tech, Rocket Pack Stealth
• FEET: Armor Knight, Scalloped w/ Claws, Simian, 2 Toes
• MOUTH: Armored Chin Square, Armored Chin Slim, Armored Mouth Guard, Armored Jaw Hinged, Armored Ventilator, Mask Wrapped, Helmet Grill, Tentacles
• EYE: Eye Plate Visor Robotic, Eye Plate Visor Wired, Eye Plate Robotic, Goggles High Tech
• EYE ACCESSORY: Glasses Round
• ARM ACCESSORY: Spikes Meandering, Armor Bolted, Armor Chitin, Shackle
• LEG ACCESSORY: Armor Bolted, Knight Plate
• HIPS WEAR: Subligar: Knight
• TOP ACCESSORY: Knight Helmet Fin
• SIDE ACCESSORY: Ear Caps, Horns Ornamental

Hero Games

• Zombie Apocalypse: Games will now start with two zombie players instead of one if there are enough players queued to fill the map.
• ”Fatty” Zombie: “Om nom nom” hold power is now prevented by blocking.

MMOCrunch has yet another upcoming MMOG for you to play, Hi-Rez Studios’ Global Agenda.  The developer is hosting another of its beta weekend’s this coming weekend, and Hi-Rez was kind enough to grace us with a collection of keys.

Entering to win is simple:

• Go to http://www.globalagendagame.com.
• Use referral code “MMOCrunch-GABETA” (without the quotes) when registering.
• If you’ve already registered, simply login, go to “My Account,” then go to the Beta Registration tab and update your Referral Code to “MMOCrunch-GABETA”.

Keys will be delivered to the winners on Thursday night.  Let us know what you did, and didn’t like about the title!

Wondering what Global Agenda is?  Check out the GameX interview that covers the basics, and nitty-gritty details of the upcoming MMOTPS (that’s massive multiplayer online third-person shooter), its unique pricing structure and earlier coverage.

I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day about what we were playing and he dropped a line that resonated with me. He said, “MMOs are an easy way I can play online with my friends, but I don’t prefer them as games.”  As any true fanboy would, I mentally started to rise to the challenge, ready to defend my preferred genre with a discussion of how deep, complex and hard to design the typical MMO is, but I stopped myself and instead went over my own current playlist. Here’s what I am playing right now:

King’s Bounty: The Legend – A fun, tactical wargame/rpg in the vein of Heroes of Might and Magic and of course, the original King’s Bounty. A simple, but fun battle game with the RPG elements of quests and leveling your hero.

Borderlands – If Diablo and Call of Duty had a baby in a stylish, cel-shaded hospital staffed by Fallout 3, you would get Borderlands. An awesome, co-op shooter with the RPG elements of quests, leveling and loot. Heck, there are even pick-up groups for when I feel the need to have someone steal rare loot from me because “his buddy’s other character might be able to use it.”  What is more MMO than that?!

Fort Zombie – A clunky, buggy RPG about surivival after a zombie apocolypse… but a great game nonetheless. Rescue survivors, scavenge for supplies and prepare your fort for the coming darkness. If I were writing a Zombie MMO, I would start here for inspiration.

Elona – A roguelike that looks like an old-style JRPG, but has neat features like customizable housing, randomized side-quests and investing in shops.

King Arthur The Role-Playing Wargame — A cross between Total War and Master of Magic set in the myths of King Arthur? Sign me up!

Oh yeah and I am still messing around with Champions Online… on the side!? Heck, last night I was seriously considering reinstalling my old copy of Dungeon Lords for something “new”… which is the computer game equivalent to slitting one’s wrists while listening to Gordon Lightfoot. So, for the moment at least, like my friend, it seems I don’t prefer MMOs as games either.

This isn’t all bad (though from a standpoint of blogging about MMOs, it sucks) and probably not unexpected either. Part of it is a light case of burnout. (I think most MMO-fans have suffered from burnout at one time or another.) Another part of it is a bit of disappointment in the latest crop of games. I still think MMOs are the most complex and hardest games to design, but it seems that for all of that complexity, we are stuck in a rut of shallow, repetitive, themepark games that are all scrambling for scraps in WOW’s very long shadow. I still love MMOs for the character building and the persistent worlds. Unfortunately, most single-player RPGs offer even more character build options and most MMO designers have scrapped persistent worlds for linear hack-fests and fetch quests.

So… what does all of this mean? Well, I think it means I need a new MMO. Something different and fresh that can shock me out of my funk a bit. That is where I need your help. I need suggestions. What games are you playing and enjoying? Do you have any games that you feel are substantially different from the normal MMO fare? Do you have a game you are just plain dying to hear about?

Fire off a comment and help me find a new game… please… before I press install on Dungeon Lords…

Karos Online open beta begins today, Dec 4th 2009.    Karos Online is a free to play fantasy MMORPG being developer by Galaxy Quest, which is set to be release before the years end.  Although the open beta is scheduled to end on Dec 31st, so most likely the game will not be released until January.

During this open beta phase players will receive prizes for participating which are listed below.  We received some closed beta keys last week for their final phase of closed beta testing, so if you didn’t get a change to snag on of those keys, here’s your chance to play the game in open beta.

Referring friends: From the start of open beta, players will be able to invite their friends to play Karos Online via the official website. For every five friends who join the game and reach level 5, the referring player will receive a reward, as follows:

• Five friends will award the player 10 Strength Potions
• Ten friends will award the player 3 Weapon Enchant Scrolls and 3 Armor Enchant Scrolls
• Twenty friends will award the player 5 Weapon Enchant Scrolls and 5 Armor Enchant Scrolls
• The first invited friend to reach level 5 will be awarded 5 Big Potions of Rejuvenation, which restore their character’s HP and MP.

Entering a Gift Key: Gift Keys will be offered by participating websites starting this week. Upon entering a Gift Key, players will receive 5 Strength potions which temporarily increase their character’s movement and attack speed.

Levelling up: Upon reaching levels 5, 10 and 20, players will be automatically entered into a weekly prize draw. The draw will take place every Friday, and winning players will be announced on www.karosgame.com. The higher the level, the greater the prize!

• Level 5 (10 weekly winners):  an Amethyst, Diamond or Sapphire (depending on character’s class) giving a bonus when combined with an accessory
• Level 10 (4 weekly winners): 10 Weapon Enchant Scrolls and 10 Armor Enchant Scrolls  
• Level 20 (1 weekly winner): an Iron Wyvern, a Holy Creature piece of armor which serves as a mount in the game.

Guild building: The start of open beta will also kick off a month-long build-up exercise for guilds that will run through the 31st of December. Guilds meeting the target criteria on the 31st will receive exciting prize bundles — more details coming soon!

Cryptic Studios and Atari will be releasing a Collector’s Edition of Star Trek Online alongside the standard edition.  The premium pricing, unconfirmed price of $79.99, will net bold gamers a collection of extra goodies:

• The full game (duh) in “deluxe packaging.”
• A “Deluxe manual”
• A metallic reproduction of the in-game communicator.
• Three guest passes that are valid for three days.
• An in-game Red Matter Capacitor that recharges your ship’s energy for a short time.
• The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine uniform options.

Deluxe is described as being of high quality.

Star Trek Online is currently in closed beta, with open beta coming soon.  The game launches (into space) in late February.

Today the battle for Mirkwood begins as the latest expansion for Lord of the Rings Online is launched, Siege of Mirkwood.  The new expansions allows players for the first to dwell into the treacherous forest of Mirkwood as they take part in the epic conclusion to Volume II of the LoTRO.  To coincide with the launch, Turbine has release a new Siege of Mirkwood trailer which you can view below.

NEW FEATURES:

• The Epic Conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria™ – Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths.  This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion.
• Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 65, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.
• Join Epic Battles on Demand! – Jump into the heat of battle with the new Skirmishes feature.  Skirmishes offer endless action in repeatable, randomized instances where players can create and lead customizable soldiers into battle, training them to greater skill as they earn victories against the forces of shadow.  Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new “Skirmish Join” function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.
• Take up Arms! – Infiltrate the dark jails, deadly arenas and savage stables of Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths, and strike a blow against Sauron’s forces in new 3 and 6-player instances.  Call upon your fellows to adventure into the most deadly 12-player raid yet and face the ultimate challenge – the Nazgûl Lord!
• Major Gameplay Enhancements – Turbine continues to improve the award-winning experience of LOTRO with major improvements to the combat and Legendary Items systems.  Players will experience improved responsiveness when in the heat of battle.  Players will also be able to create and craft their own customized Second and Third Age Legendary Items from raw materials and grow their weapons’ power to level 60.  Achieve new Legacies, new titles, and a fourth Runic slot that will make Legendary Items even more unique and powerful.

I’m a ravenous consumer of video games.  I buy a handful of games every month, there’s no slow month or off-peak period for me.  As long as games are being released, there is a good chance that at least one of them will interest me.  Thanks to the recent surge in quality F2P titles, like Runes of Magic or Dungeon & Dragons Online, I have a few other avenues of digital deliciousness to investigate.  My rampant consumerism hasn’t been influenced by the rise of quality free titles, at least not yet, but they are affecting each other.

The bloated nature of today’s games means that there is a constant struggle for harddrive space.  Simple titles can take up hundreds of megabytes of space, while the complex MMORPGs can devour 10 gigs easily.  I don’t know about you, but when I purchase a title I have this inherent need to complete it.  By doing so I feel that the spent discretionary funds serve their purpose, to entertain.  This is why I never could beat a game that I pirated (I was very poor once).  My heart just wasn’t in it, and many other pirates are the same way, collecting rather than playing.  F2P games avoid the stigma by offering constant growth.  If it isn’t my character leveling in Runes of Magic, then it’s my statistics in Combat Arms, or my summoner level in League of Legends.  This aspect keeps me invested in the game and its associated community.  But whenever a new game comes along, F2P or otherwise, I always look at the F2P list first to see which will go.

Again, it comes down to a perception of entertainment value per dollar spent.  Unless I wrote off a paid for game (ie beating Batman Arkham Asylum), then there’s no way I’ll uninstall it over one of the many F2P titles floating around on my harddrive.  That may not sound like a big deal, I know I could always reinstall the title if I enjoyed it, but I’ve never done that.  I have never had my relationship with a F2P game re-kindled after its 1s and 0s were removed from my magnetic disk, and that’s a shame.

The developers of the various titles are partially to blame for not releasing material to reclaim our interest, but the initial damage is done by a gamer’s perception of worth.  Why is it that we can write off a F2P game that has given us hours of entertainment so easily?  Is it because it isn’t going anywhere, easily re-downloaded if needed, or because we aren’t monetarily invested?  What can developers do to solve this genre pervasive conundrum?

I know that I could purchase new harddrives to circumvent the problem, but that will only delay the issue.