Picking up an MMO is a life-changing event no matter what way you look at it. Not only will it become an integral part of your daily life depending on your level of dedication, it opens up a whole new world that’s just a username and password away.

An MMO can be so many things to a user but above all it serves as a catalyst to help feed any lingering social needs. It diminishes the requirement to approach a person face-to-face in order to find a common ground or spark a conversation. When logging on to a server you automatically have one thing in common with everyone: the game. Generally, in meeting a person outside of a game you can’t help but develop initial opinions based on visuals. But in an MMO, personality automatically becomes the deal breaker. You can log in to an MMO without heeding to real-life standards such as clothes, good self hygiene, and still be accepted. Race, class, ethnicity, and religion all become secondary aspects to a user. All walks of life delve into MMO’s from all over the world without feeling alienated based on any given set of social mores. 

Like any major decision, there are definite benefits and downfalls to developing an in-game relationship. Taking the next step can either do a world of good or create a bevy of problems depending on the circumstances.

The Benefits of an MMO Inspired Relationship

One of the large scale benefits of joining an MMO community is the social transformations that can take place. An introverted personality can pick-up on social skills that extroverted players display in order to develop their own skill set that can be exercised in and outside of the game. Not only can it help you develop personal skills, it can be the catalyst for meeting that special someone. This doesn’t mean that you should go into an MMO expecting to find your soul mate, but there is always the possibility of hitting it off with a person you commonly play with whether it be a friendship or something more. Developing in-game relationships can transcend the fantasy realm and become a long-lasting tie.

Not only do MMO’s warrant the blossoming of in-game relationships, they help build upon pre-existing relationships. The leader of my guild, Brad, is a perfect example. He went to high school with his wife, Angie, but never really talked to her until after they both graduated. They added each other on MySpace as friends and she messaged him because he had World of Warcraft content on his profile. All of Angie’s Everquest friends had quit for WoW but she hadn’t yet decided if she wanted to play. Brad suggested she try it. It was the final push she needed to join the community and so she bought it. Angie needed all the patches and at the time dial-up was the only thing available so Brad offered to burn the patches to a CD for her. She met him at his work to pick it up and they ended up hitting it off. After that, they began playing WoW together on a constant basis. It gave them something to do with each other even if they couldn’t meet up face-to-face. They believe it helped to bring them closer together because they were in essence able to spend more time with each other whether it be a date online or off. Years later they married and still continue playing MMO’s together to strengthen their relationship.

The Downsides of an MMO Inspired Relationship

In joining a game server you instantly have access to thousands of people’s opinions. Although playing an MMO can help an introverted personality expand, it can also boost pre-existing frustrations. Many people sign up to an MMO only to find that they are unable to connect with other players. This can further feelings of social alienation you may already feel out of game and deepen a depression. Since you are exposed to what thousands of people think, you will soon find that not everyone has a strong moral compass. There are no repercussions to what people say or do in a game because behavior isn’t regulated. You are exposed to racism, prejudice, and sexism. The negativity felt in-game from one persons dialogue can boost any issues you may already be dealing with. Above all, it’s easy to be taken advantage of whether you are emotionally stable or not which can then lead to rash, life-changing decisions. For example, there have been multiple reports of players committing suicide because of failed in-game relationships.  

An MMO ripens your possibility of creating a long-lasting relationship but these relationships aren’t always necessarily healthy. I had a friend dating someone exclusively in-game. He was on cloud nine until things began to fall through the cracks. Towards the end of the relationship he developed control issues and a deep jealously for all other players she played with. After they broke it off, he went on to become severely depressed not eating or sleeping from that point on. Even if an in-game relationship you develop is strong, it can condone the neglecting of more pressing personal issues such as waning self-health and failing friendships. When you are attached to someone in-game it encourages you to play the game more and let everything else fall to the wayside.

As previously discussed, playing an MMO with a loved one can create a whole new level of connection but it can also form an insurmountable barrier based on game etiquette. A prime example is a real-life friend of mine had their partner begin an in-game relationship that escalated to flirting, endless hours of voice chatting, and hiding conversations. They then discovered the in-game relationship which lead to serious trust issues. Since the betrayal was in game, the cheating party didn’t realize the severity of the issue. Meanwhile, my friend questions their motives from therein and can no longer look at their partner in the same light.

Overall, MMO inspired relationships have their ups and downs just like any other tie. All it takes is good judgment and to realize that as much time as you spend on an MMO it is still just a game and you can’t let it consume your life.

Disclaimer: This article is filled with merely observations and does not serve as any final judgment.

My friends Ivan and Shamrokk over at The Big Freaking Podcast had a chance to sit down with Jack Emmert, Chief Operating Officer of Cryptic Studios. Cryptic has released two big AAA titles within 6 months of each other: Champions Online and Star Trek Online. He is proud to say that Cryptic is the only developer to release four MMORPG’s in its game developing lifetime. Counting City of Heroes, City of Villains’, Champions Online and most recently Star Trek Online, not many studios come close.

Jack Emmert, an avid comic book fan who reads over 90 titles monthly, says his favorites are The Green Lantern and The Hulk. He holds multiple academic degrees and was approached to do City of Heroes while he was working on his dissertation about animal sacrifices. He left a possible career of being a professor of Greek and Latin to create Cryptic Studios with Rick Dakin in 2000. While he reminiscing about the lean years during the parting of ways from NCSoft he says, “He never got misty eyed” over selling The City of Heroes/Villians franchise but thought they would be working on for the next decade. He claims that Cryptic and NCSoft had “divergent interests” and after rescuing the company from the brink of financial apocalypse they acquire the Star Trek IP along with the Champions IP (Intellectual Property, the right to an idea.)

It sounds like Jack Emmert has been through hell and back with Cryptic. He’s passionate about his products and like everyone who creates a product for a particular market he has to deal with the critics. The mention of the different ratings systems and the mediocre scores would seem to have an impact on future customers for both games. But as Jack Emmert explains how the ratings system itself is quite imbalanced. When websites like Metacritic, Massively and Gamespot reviewed Warhammer Online and Age of Conan they didn’t expect the player sudden player drop off. Leaving many of the reviewers burned [sic] by loss of credibility.

Jack Emmert says it isn’t the reviewers or the fans that are ruining the MMORPG industry, “Wow has almost destroyed the MMO genre” he says. “Not in a bad way”, he follows, it’s because (wow) epitomizes everything that an MMO is, leaving all the others to be compared to it. This is why many reviewers judge a game on what it is NOW instead of what it COULD BE. But he also feels that it will take a lot of money and a strong IP to rival the World of Warcraft. After spending over 100 million dollars he feels that Bioware’s upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic could be the game to rival WoW.

The future plan for Cryptic Studios looks very promising. Jack Emmert seemed very positive about the new upcoming updates for both games, Star Trek Online’s Season 2 and Revelations for Champions Online. An entire survey of the taken by the Star Trek Online community is going to be created into the next expansion called Season 2. “What the players want is exactly what we’re going to give them”, Jack says with authority. When posted a question of a death penalty or lack thereof, he admits that the community has strongly requested it and it will be in an upcoming patch. “What is fun about a death penalty” he jokes but then tells us a deep, dark developer secret that the only reason why a death penalty is incorporated into a game is to get the player to play longer.

There is one thing to be wrong, but not to stay wrong. At certain  times during the interview Mr. Emmert admits to certain points where bothChampions Online and Star Trek Online they could be improved. He is looking to improve the company overall and make better product for the public. But the problem is a logistical issue of manpower, he doesn’t want to be detract from the developer team that is making new content to go back and fix certain issues. Problems ranging typos to quests that don’t tell the player where to go and ultimately description of powers and items that don’t make any sense, it will take manpower to make these changes.

Their latest campaign is to actively reach out to the community and the press to find their place amongst this universe of games. One of the many steps they are taking is something they practiced during their days as developers of City of Heroes/Villains’, they did this from taking a page from Richard Garriot’s book. By creating characters and actively getting involved with the players firsthand they get to see the game through the gamer’s eyes instead of a developer. In doing this they are looking to bridge the gap between gamer and developer.

Enter Bill Roper, the good cop to Jacks bad cop. As Shannon Posniewski ascends from the position of a software engineer to an executive role, this frees up Bill Roper to be the one who is going to oversee all games. One of Bill Ropers new roles as troubleshooter is going to be “making sure he play tests all of the taskforces in Star Trek.” Jack abruptly ends this subject with, “there is a little bit more going on than everybody knows yet.” Hmm, could there be a big surprise coming from Cryptic this year at E3!

Could it be Jack Emmert’s dream project of making a Godzilla MMO? Nah, never happen and I’m not one to speculate but one thing is confirmed that it will not be made for any consoles. “Consoles are not a current focus” he confides to the surprise of both Ivan and Shamrokk, he says he’s looking to “make the best PC products they possibly can.”

I will stop here; I don’t want to give everything away, but this was one of the most in-depth, personal and honest interviews I have ever had to chance to hear. This is a man that has made some tough decisions, choosing on becoming a video game developer than a college professor. During many sleepless nights he held up this company with the help of his staff. His employees look to him and put their trust in him not just as their boss, but as a leader.

Jack Emmert and Cryptic Studios seems resilient, they have bounced back from numerous setbacks. The selling of a successful MMO franchise to release other successful MMO’s and in dealing with bad press they learn from their mistakes and keep the future in focus. According to Jack, 100,000 subscriptions is a success and their mission is to keep that level of quality. This builds confidence in their customer base and opens the door for future business.

But his main focus is on his employees that depend on him and his customers that look to Cryptic Studios to have fun by playing their games. That is the bottom line over at Cryptic Studios; they are just looking to make fun games, at the end of the day Cryptic is just a bunch of gamers. To hear the rest of the interview and catch up on past shows head on over to The Big Freaking Podcast, download and enjoy!

Until then…

Play safe,

Frank Inktomi

Look, someone who is different!

Anyone who makes it through this lengthy review of Global Agenda gets an anti-TL:DR cookie.  You all love cookies, yes?

Character Creation: Bottom line, it’s present only so it could be listed as a feature on the box.  Sure, you can make a character, play with some sliders to make it “yours” but it is all for naught.  Once you enter the game you’ll look just like every other character.  When you do get fed up looking like every other member of your class, and believe me, you will, you’ll have to plunk down large sums of credits for new gear skins and dyes to really diversify yourself.

Opening & Lore: Your character comes into existence during the (optional) tutorial mission.  The introduction video and eventual escape from a gigantic test tube is voiced with the background of how all player characters came to be.  The bit of lore is interesting, but it’s just a taste of something greater.  Something that’s never shown in the game again.

There’s actually quite a bit of well-written history and backstory for Global Agenda.  The catch is that struggle between the Commonwealth and the players isn’t documented in the game anywhere.  And that’s why the title feels soulless.  There’s no greater story thrust in our face at every turn to remind us why we keep fighting, who we are fighting for, and who we are fighting against.  To get a lore fix players have to head to the official website and read tales and history that should be presented in the game in some fashion.

Here is a bit of soul.

User Interface: To call Global Agenda’s User Interface clean would be an adequate description.  It’s not minimalist, but far from busy.  The HUD is laid out like most other combat-based MMOGs – hotkeys set to the number bar – but there are only eight buttons located at the bottom of the screen.  That’s not the “default,” that is all there can be.

Each button corresponds to switching to or using equipment.  Furthermore, the equipment is the same across all classes.  Meaning that ’1′ is always your melee weapon, ’2′ is your ranged weapon, ’3′ is your specialty weapon and so on.  The mini-map, party frame, personal frame, chat window and buffs are relegated to the outskirts of your viewing screen.  This leaves players a wide-open targeting area with a single distraction; two small bars displaying personal health and energy.

Global Agenda is a third-person shooter at its core, and the User Interface is designed with that in mind.  It’s just not perfect and the lack of customization doesn’t help.  The major point of contention comes from the Medic class.  Medics quickly learn to hate the UI due to its frustrating auto-targeting of friendly players.  Hi-Rez Studios touts the lack of tab targeting as one of the title’s defining features, but the design decision (and PR talking point) is one that medics whine over constantly.

Obviously, a medic does not point its gun at the thing it wants dead, but the player it wants to save.  When there is a group of players in a tight area, as there often is, a healer will invariably fight with the auto lock-on function of the gun.  It’ll hit the wrong player, stick to players with full health instead of half health, or lash someone far away when the person jumping in front of the gun is the intended target.  There’s nothing more frustrating than watching your assault bite the dust because the Healing Beam decided Mr. Cloaked Recon was more important.

Quests & Grinding: There are no quests at the moment – Hi-Rez Studios is planning to do its own thing – making grinding the only option.  The grind in Global Agenda isn’t like the repetitive monotony in other MMOGs.  Not entirely at least.  The only way to gain experience in Global Agenda is by completing missions, PvE or PvP.  Again, you actually have to complete the mission; a disconnect or crash results in wasted time and lost XP.  Talk about frustrating.

The way Global Agenda awards XP is through perks and bonuses at the end of missions.  Kills, assists, damage, healing, and other statistics are analyzed and calculated to award contributors.  Every player gets something, the skillful get the most.  Therefore, XP per hour is based solely on personal skill and teamwork.

That was me a few levels ago.

Dungeons: The PvE missions are the only thing in Global Agenda comparable to your average dungeon.  There’s only four strict PvE missions, with a fifth assigning two party members to be assassins on the other team.  Only having four dungeons may sound like an incredibly small number, Hi-Rez manages to keep things fresh by adding dynamic elements to each dungeon.

Maps and layouts remain the same, but the Commonwealth adapts to the invaders by mixing everything else up.  Mob count, pathing and placement changes per deployment.  Complicating matters is the addition of (generally) easy-to-avoid platforming obstacles – fire pits, poison rooms, and magmafalls.  That’s until shit hits the fan after a party member hits an alarm, spawning two helbots on top of you as you attempted to tip-toe around a flowing river of lava.  Let’s not forget the rotating team of boss mobs, each with their own unique abilities and attacks.

Believe it or not, Global Agenda’s missions are challenging.  It’s actually quite amazing when you consider how stupid the AI can be.  The Commonwealth’s guards may hide or cower in plain view and they often die to the traps in their own facilities. Very stupid.  Yet, the proof’s in the pudding; 50-70% completion rate is the going norm for a PvE victory, according to information from the Player Search.

PvP:  PvP is a fickle beast in the eyes of many a player.  There’s the group that loves it, the faction that hates it and the people who are indifferent.  This fissure is generally caused by the idea of ganking, or one player dominating another because of level or gear differences.  That doesn’t happen in Global Agenda.

The PvP system is designed so that everyone is capable of participating in all battles.  Two medics of the same skill but drastically different levels will heal on the same level.  That’s because the system rewards higher level players with gear that increases the versatility of a character, rather than its overall power.  There is simply no need to artificially boost or lower the abilities of a character to allow guildmates or friends to play together, because levels are relatively meaningless.  PvP is all about personal skill and teamwork, not time spent.

Player combat, either individually, as an Agency or as an Alliance, is the core experience of most players.  Players train for it, level from it and learn the ropes of the game from level 1 to 50 by murdering their fellow gamers.  Your basic random team PvP matches have a solid range of scenarios to participate in, ranging from payload and escort to king of the hill and assault missions.  The game offers nothing innovative to the idea of squad-based shooting, it just executes the staples well.

Unfortunately, the much touted feature of Alliance vs Alliance combat is not on par with standard PvP.  Large alliances have had a huge advantage over smaller ones – newly introduced Theft Missions notwithstanding – and these guild monopolies have even worked the system by allowing people to take territory, just to take it back for bonuses and perks.  It’s doubtful anyone expected a new mechanic to be perfect at launch, but there are some clear shortcomings to the system.  For instance, why bother having an attacking team load into a mission if there is nothing to stop them.  No players, no automated system, nothing in their way.  Player time is wasted, unless the defending Alliance quickly forms a group and joins before being too far behind.  It is a very annoying and frequent occurrence.

I think I will advance in another direction.

Polish: The core gameplay of GA is polished, period.  Shooting works, PvP is well balanced and PvE isn’t full of bugs.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of issues outside of shooting.  Hell, walking looks painful.  Crafting is annoying, and not worth the time or credits it takes to max level.  The mail and auction house system are archaic and the specialization trees are uninspired.  Even basic grammar and fact checking has been overlooked.  “You team has 90 percent” and an audio warning of “10 seconds remaining” when there are 30 seconds left are just two examples of facepalm-worthy slips.

It is plainly obviously that the gameplay was completed first.  Everything else was put on the back burner until shooting was deemed fun and enjoyable.  That’s actually a good thing though, because the game isn’t broken, just rough.

Technologically speaking, Global Agenda delivers a mediocre buffet of buzzwords and choices.  Graphically, the game looks like your typical Unreal Engine 3 game, meaning average.  Our ears fair no better, receiving a soundtrack and voiceover work that failed to move me in any direction.  There’s a generally acceptable ping for everyone and the game contains enough sliders and tweakable settings to support a wide range of hardware.  The one downfall is Window mode.  Its implementation is poorly executed with a hidden and locked mouse (hit enter to chat to bring it up, or alt-tab out) and persistent sound.

The offering is a lot like Old Country Buffet – there is a lot to chose from, but none of it is better than average.

Uniqueness: Global Agenda is a merger of Team Fortress 2, Tribes and EVE Online with a multitude of various MMOG staples sprinkled on.  I can’t name another MMOG that’s even close to that menagerie (PlanetSide would be the closest).

This is the only spot on this protective AvA dome that a player can land on. Easter egg!

Overall: Global Agenda has two things going for it, it is original and the core gameplay is enjoyable.  The next most important thing is that Hi-Rez Studios has already shown that it is willing to do what it takes to whip the rest of the game into shape.  Two patches have been released to address bugs and tweaks.  Each also included requested features, such as repair kits, and additional content, like new Alliance vs. Alliance maps and mission types.

Players looking for something different would be naive to pass up on Global Agenda.  After all, how many recently released MMOGs have had people talking about how well the company has supported the game and its subscribers?

Now if only Hi-Rez Studios would release some sort of trial to tease you with.  Global Agenda is now available for $39.99 from Amazon and has a slightly lower than normal subscription fee, should you chose to subscribe instead of the single-purchase method, of $12.99 a month.

The FFXI March update is now live. This new add-on introduces a ton of new content to the world of Final Fantasy XI, including the Odin and Alexander summons previously mentioned at VanaFest 2010, the Wings of the Goddess storyline missions, several job tweaks – for Puppetmaster, Summoner and Beastmaster. Another new feature is the “Trial of the Magians”, a new title given to any player that completes a series of quests for level 75 characters. To initiate a quest in Trial of the Magians, players must speak with the “Magian Moogle,” an NPC located at H-5 in the Ru’Lude Gardens. Anyone interested can read the full patch notes here. So much for Final Fantasy XI shutting down..

Today I had the opportunity to participate in a small vent chat with Cryptic_Gozer of Cryptic Studios. Gozer is the lead designer for several of the special task force (raid) missions in Star Trek Online, and took some time to talk about Infected and The Cure with us during his day off work. Here are the highlights and some never before released information he shared:


Regarding the Infected Mission:

1) The tactical cube in Infected drops a purple item if played correctly. Nobody has yet achieved this.
2) On the test server the gate health is now 800k instead of 200k and has a 20 second window in which the shields are down. One wave comes out and then the gate shuts down. The gate does not open again until every npc is dead. There are also no longer spawns above and below the gate.
3) When fighting the end boss (Rebecca Simmons), a player in the group will be targeted with a blue circle. That player will do damage to other players in the group within a particular range regardless of what that player does. The goal is for that player to get away from the other team members.
4) Borg will no longer double-spawn in the end room of Infected. They still respawn, but the respawn timer no longer starts until the borg die (rather than when they spawn).

This gate just got stronger

1) Marks of Valor are planned to be tradeable for other badges/tokens in the game.
2) Dropping a STF mission will no longer allow you to retake it, unless the timer has reset already for that mission.
3) The first part of The Cure does not give marks.
4) Comparing Rebecca Simmons to the Borg Queen, Gozer stated “On a scale of 1-10, you guys are at a 2 right now”.
5) Khitomer Accord will explain why the borg were so weak in the tutorial (also created by Cryptic_Gozer) and hidden in the Khitomer Accord mission (not an objective) will be a way to obtain a borg bridge officer (with robotic uniform and not an engineer).

Fighting it out in Dungeons and Dragons Online : Eberron Unlimited

Yesterday Dungeons and Dragons Online : Eberron Unlimited came out with a state of game address from Fernando Paiz,  Executive Producer of the MMOPRG that covered quite a bit of ground on what is coming up in the months to come.  Here are some of the highlights on what was covered in the letter.

Update 4 is coming out in April and will feature a storyline that involves House Deneith, Searing Heights, a new kind of undead and a nefarious band of pirates led by the infamous Captain Tew with his beloved pet, Ratty.  Other content packs later in the year will involve a fiendish carnival and a new Wilderness adventure that will contain the first quest with underwater combat.

Cosmetically there will be some additions to give your characters a new look as well.  Items are being worked on that will alter your appearance when equipped but keep the stats benefits from the last item you had on.  This will lead to the user eventually getting hats and helms in April,  such as a cute fluffy bunny hat or evil dire rabbit helm.

Guilds are due to get a tune up in the weeks to come with the housing system being revamped.  Players that are tired of playing the same races will get a treat with Half-Orc on its way to the game.  Towards the end of the year there will be a chance to try this race with a plus 2 bonus to strength.  Another class that is being asked about is Cleric Domains. Paiz has this say on the subject

“A few folks asked about Cleric Domains. I don’t have anything to announce for 2010, but I will say that when it gets to be the Cleric class’s turn to get a polish pass, that is when we will consider these types of additions to the class.”

They are also working on some new classes for hirelings to let players better fill out their parties with them.  Look for Favored Souls and Bards to appear first and maybe another class or two later in the year.

In addition to adding new content to the game there are also some improvements and fixes on the way as well.  In the works are Mass Heals working on parties of up to 12 players, improvements to weapon sets and fixing some bugs in key maps.  Bigger requests they hope to get done this year include adding string search to auctions, improvements to avatar animations and doing a polish pass on ranged combat.

In an effort to expand the game to audiences around the globe, plans are in the works to get European players into the game as soon as they can. Paiz states “We are also evaluating how we can bring DDO to players who speak other languages and live in other parts of the world. The localization and rollout work is likely to take some time, but look for some announcements on this later in the year as well.”

So that is a summary of what players should expect in the coming months for this popular MMOPRG.  Keep visiting the website for any future updates as more news comes in.

Hi-Rez Studios held a second Developer Chat two weeks ago (posting the recording days later), and I’ve finally found the time to digest everything in the hour plus conversation.  Executive Producer Todd Harris and VP of Game Operations Stew Chisam fielded the questions chosen from community submissions, with PR Specialist Michal Adam handling the moderation duties.  The second chat was much like the first, long and repetitive.  It’s buried, but there is information in the podcast worth highlighting.

One of the topics of discussion I brought up was pointedly asked by Michal:
“Is Hi-Rez going to do something about the advantage that large alliances/agencies have over smaller ones, or is it going to be a free-for-all like EVE Online?”

Todd responded that the company envisions Global Agenda as a game that will enable small agencies of talented players to be competitive.  This very concern is why the Theft Mission structure (read about it here) was created.  By enabling any agency to assault production facilities the developer has given smaller squads the ability to hurt large ones.  Todd believes the new mission type will lead to a contraction of agency size; the larger the agency the more vulnerable it becomes.  Defense Facilities (also in the notes) help small agencies as well.

The topic came up later on, at which point we were told that Hi-Rez Studios will “continue to be very, very focused” on agency balancing.

The lack of new content for level 30-50 was the largest complaint of the live chat channel.  The background is that after level 25 there is very little new content for the players to access.  There’s no additional game types (PvE or PvP), and all of the deployable equipment has been unlocked.  The only thing to look forward to is additional skill points for the plain specialization trees.  So it’s a very fair complaint.

In the near term, all Hi-Rez Studios can do is placate the playerbase.  We can expect additional payload options for sections that currently have only one option – boost, jetpack and melee weapons – to roll out soon (TM).  The options would unlock depending on level.  The gear would be focused on versatility as opposed to making a character more powerful.  Adding consumables (like from those “elf” games)  was kicked around as well.  These “potion like” items would give players temporary benefits, act as a money sink and open up additional crafting tasks.

The most talked about point of interest was the lack of an open world.  To date, everything in the game is instanced.  There’s no where to adventure, no exploration, no quests and no ability to leave Dome City besides to do battle.  That is going to change via a “premium” content patch (won’t be available to non-subscribers).

Initially, I thought that the decision was horribly unfair.  After all, Champions Online was taken out back when Cryptic tried to charge for the upcoming content patch.  That being said, the more I heard about it, the more I realized how deserving subscribers are of the addition.  The open zone sounds like it’s going to be rather massive in size, “several minutes to jetpack across,” with much to do.  The patch will come with a new mission structure for the desert area.  Basically, Hi-Rez’s version of a quest hub.  Missions will include PvE and PvP choices.  Hi-Rez is rewarding its subscribers, not charging them extra.

The lack of an open world in Global Agenda was one of my main concerns, so I am glad the issue is being taken to heart.  Can’t wait to hear more about it.

A heart breaker to some will be that there are no new classes “in the short-term plans.”

Todd did most of the talking, but Stew verbalized the most memorable sentence of the chat.  He proclaimed that the developers are “here to earn your subscription.”

I’m still waiting on my pony Stew.

Trees, mountains, more trees, more mountains and more trees

Normally when I say I’m lost in a game I’m referring to the games atmosphere and gameplay, but this time I literally mean I’m lost.  I’ve wandered out from one of the game’s cities into the wilderness and have been lost for about an hour or so.  I have no idea where in the game I am or how to get back to where I came from.  I haven’t seen a single player, NPC or Mob the entire time other then a few pigs or rabbits, which are scarce at that.   For those of you who haven’t played Mortal Online yet, there is no in-game map, so you never really know where you are or where any city is.  There are no sign posts on trails or at outposts pointing to a cities direction, or at least I haven’t found any.  Considering Mortal Online is set to release this month, within 2 weeks, I’m shocked at the lack of content outside the cities.

I found the end of the world

A few weeks ago I wrote how the Mortal Online open beta was a dud due to the lack of content, however one reader replied back with “I’ve killed minotaurs, lizard men, terror birds, been in giant battles, wear full plate and have steel weapons. Plenty to do in the beta.”  My question to this reader is, where?  I’ve been walking around in all directions for over an hr and I haven’t seen one mob, not one.  I did find two outposts, but they were completely empty.

I now have about 6-8 hrs worth of gameplay in the Mortal Online open beta and while the games mechanics such as fighting, stealing, crafting and other systems are all working very well, I don’t really have anything to do.  I think the main issue I’m having is not having a map.  I don’t know where I am in relation to other cities and I don’t know where any thing is.  Just finding NPCs to buy and sell items takes forever because you have to search the entire city to find where they’re located.  I’m not saying I need a map with NPC icons everywhere, but a map that shows where the market is or where the smiths are located would be helpful.

Mortal Online does have some big content issues, but the game mechanics and rules are a breath of fresh air.  This is the first game where I’ve been able to steal items directly from a players loot bag, yes I’m playing as a thief and love it.  But aside from stealing items from people, I can’t seem to find anything else to do.

Update: I was not offline or desynced, after around 2 hrs I finally ran into a group of people and they pointed me in the direction of  a city.  This is also not a review, we do not review games in beta.

Today Atari released a fact sheet regarding the content for Star Trek Online Update 1; also known as the 45-day patch or Season 1. Update 1 is scheduled to go live sometime between March 18th and March 31st.

More Klingon Content to Come

Lifetime Subscriber Perks

• Classified Access Codes – A free C-store item.
• The Captain’s Table – A special social area exclusive to Lifetime subscribers, available to both Federation and Klingon captains.
• Special In-Game Title – “Career Officers” are those who’ve joined Starfleet or the KDF for the long haul.

PVP Updates

• Wargames – Federation players can now participate in PvP against one another to better prepare for the dangers of the battlefield.
• New PvP Map – Explore “Shanty Town,” a brand new Ground Assault map available for both Klingon and Federation players.

Customization

• Off-Duty Uniforms – Experience Risa in style! Starfleet officers will have the option to change into off-duty outfits to enjoy more casual attire.
• New Stances and Hairstyles – Further customize your Captain by changing his or her hairstyle, or adopting two brand new stances: Stern and Relaxed.

Ships

• A New Klingon Battle Cruiser – The K’Tanco Battle Cruiser has been made available to Klingon Lieutenant Commanders.
• Klingon Ship Customization – Use the ship tailor to customize your Bird of Prey or Raptor.
• Respec Is Here – Unhappy with your Captain’s loadout? Use the respec tool to change things up.

Missions

• New Fleet Actions Everywhere!
  • The Big Dig – Available in Romulan space.
  • DS9 Under Siege - The True Way has attacked and boarded DS9. Repel the invasion to save the day.
  • Klingons Can Play, Too – Klingon Captains may now access the Crystalline Entity, Big Dig and Breaking the Planet Fleet Actions

Skills

• New Skill: Starship Attack Vectors – Improve your ship’s accuracy and critical hit chance.
• New Skill: Combat Maneuvers – Improve your ship’s evasion and turn rate.
• New Skill: Starship Battle Strategy – Improve your ship’s critical hit severity and damage resistance.

In The C-Store

• New Bridge Variants - All new ways to update your Bridges’ look, available for a low price in the C-Store for both Federation and Klingon ships.

Federation Ship Variants – New takes on your old favorites, available for a low price in the C-Store.

Hi-Rez Studio announces that Global Agenda will be progressing to version 1.2 during maintenance tomorrow.  The second major patch for the squad-based MMOG comes just two scant weeks after version 1.1 went live. I hope the developers at Hi-Rez are fully stocked with caffeinated beverages, because they’ve been busy.

Patch highlights:

• Significant updates and new content for the Alliance vs Alliance gameplay, including the addition of Theft missions, defense capabilities, trading and abandoning of territories and a lot more.
• 4v4 Arena Queues – The 4v4 Arena Queue is for pre-made teams of four players, and offers two new maps built specifically for 4v4 combat.
• City Chat
• Numerous bugs fixes and tweaks to PvE (animations), AvA, the AH and mail systems.

Read the full patch notes here.

Global Agenda will be down for patch application between 11:00 AM EST and 3:00 PM EST.  Patching should happen automatically through Steam.  No conquest zones will be available tomorrow to accommodate time differences and patch deployment.  Conquest play, including the two new maps, will be available on Wednesday.