This is an open letter to the gaming industry.

Dear Gaming Industry,

Please stop calling every online game you make a MMO. I’m not sure if you know what that means so allow me to tell you. It stands for Massive Multiplayer Online with the keyword being “massive”, that’s very important. You see when someone sees a game being advertised as massive, that person gets the impression that thousands of players will be able to game and interact together in one world or place. Now listen carefully because this is the most important part, it has to be at the same time.

I know this must come as quite a shock to you, but it’s true.  You’re probably saying to yourself, “wow, that’s a lot of people!” and you’re right, but this is why they’re called massive multiplayer online games, because they are indeed massive.

Now, I want to make sure you’re clear as to what that means, so below I’ve listed a few important rules that can be used as checkpoints so you can correctly determine if your game is a MMO or not.

• If your game has a limit to the number of players that can enter at one time and that number is less than a thousand. Your game is not a MMO.

MMOFPSs tend to be the primary abuser of this rule, but it also happens with other genres as well. You see if only 8, 16, 32 or even 100 players can join a game at one time, then it is not massive. Remember, around a thousand players is the magic number. This is more commonly called an online multiplayer game.

• If the whole game is instanced and the only place where players can see each other or interact with are within towns, then your game is not a MMO.

Since the only place where people can see each other, chat and interact with are in towns, then these towns act as a hub or chat room. The actually game is played in small groups or solo, which again means your game is not massive. Think of it this way, if you log onto BattleNet to play Diablo, you can chat with tens of thousands of players, but when you go into the actual game, only a dozen or so can enter due to the fact that every game is instanced. Your game is the same thing, except your using a “town” as the chat room.

I hope this letter has better explained to you what a MMO game is and hopefully in the future you will start to label your games correctly.

Sincerely,
Mike @ MMOCrunch

Its only been six days since Jagex declared Bot-Nuking Day and today at Runefest, Jagex announced they have banned 7.7 million accounts so far. Add the 1.5 million accounts that were banned a few weeks earlier and that brings the total to 9.2 million accounts. Let that sink in. Most games don’t even have 9.2 registered accounts, yet alone botting accounts.

During an insider session at Runefest, Jagex gave out some addition figures listed below.

• New botting accounts created every day – 100,000 – 200,000
• Gold-farming accounts banned on bot-nuking day – 1,500,000
• Accounts being banned per minute right now – 9,000
• Gold farming accounts banned since Tuesday – 7,700,000
• Accounts created from China and Korea per week – Old: 173,000, New: 953
• Decrease in player activity since bot-nuking day – 60%
• Banned accounts that were paid members – 10%
• Bots estimated to have been rendered ineffective – 98%

Jagex mentions that 10% of the accounts that were banned were paying members, so we can extrapolate that Runescape had about 7.7 million paying members before Tuesday and now currently has about 6.93 million paying members.

Congratulations go out to Jagex on their determination and success against the botters.

Check out the full insider sessions Runefest 2011 video below.

Continued…

We’ve see the trailers for the Huttball and Alderaan PvP Warzones and today BioWare released the trailer to the final Warzone  that will be available at launch, the Voidstar .

The Voidstar is an abandoned Imperial Battle Cruiser that disappeared during the Great War and was believed to contain the schematics to a power weapon. Not that it’s been rediscovered, floating around the depths of space, both the Empire and the Republic are racing to uncover the secrets that are stored in its memory banks, but to do so they must first take control of the ship.

Now that all three trailers have been released for the Star Wars: The Old Republic Warzones, BioWare also launched a new Warzones page where players can learn more about each of the different zones.

Below you can view the new Voidstar Warzone trailer. Enjoy.

Continued…

Today CCP announce they have reached the final level of sharing on their website eveisreal.net, which is a site where players can upload images, videos and stories about Eve Online to add to the history archives.  The final level rewards 2,000 Aurum to the characters with the highest SP on all active accounts.

Also announced today are two special promotions to lure in new Eve players and a little something for veterans who invite friends through the Buddy Program.

First all new paid accounts (including those converted from trial, invited through buddy program, created through special offers, etc.) will receive a free Cerebral Accelerator implant, available through the redeeming system. This is a limited time offer, so if you’re contemplating joining Eve, this is a good time to do it.

Cerebral accelerators are military-grade implants that significantly increase a new pilot’s skill development. They allow new capsuleers to more rapidly absorb information of all kinds, and as a bonus also enhance spatial processing abilities that are critical for weapons handling. The only drawback to this implant is that capsuleer training renders it ineffective after a while; as such, it will cease to function for pilots who have been registered for more than 35 days.

Also added is a bonus rare EVE ship for those that invite a friend through the Buddy Program and that buddy upgrades to a paying account.

The second sale, which starts today and lasts until November 28, 2011, is also aimed a new players who create an account, they’ll be able to get 180 days of game time for $49.95 or 3 PLEX.

Last night Blizzard held an open developer Q&A session for Mists of Pandaria, allowing World of Warcraft players to ask all the questions they’ve been dying to know about. Questions ranged from talent trees to mounts to PvP, raids, Glyphs, the new pet system and of course the Pandaren.

Below is the full rundown of all the questions that were answered during the Mist of Pandaria QA session. Get ready, it’s a monster list.

Continued…

Lately I’ve been reviewing a lot of theme-park MMORPGs, so for my next review I wanted to select a sandbox game and decided on Perpetuum. Also because it’s coming up on its one year anniversary in almost exactly a month, so I figured it was a good time for a review.

Perpetuum, which recently seems to have become the MMORPG of choice for disgruntled Eve Online players, like Eve has a player driven economy, open PvP zones, corporations and a steep learning curve. Although overwhelming at first, Perpetuum has some very useful tutorials and the first dozen or so assignments, which can be likened to quests, continue the tutorials if you need them.

The game begins with the character creation screen, which has a ton of customizable options, then moves onto faction selection, class selection and skill specializations, all before beginning the game. It’s a lot to take in all upfront, especially when you’re really not sure what type of player you want to become.

While it may be confusing at first, in actuality it all boils down to three main categories. Tactics and mechatronics, which means what weapons you can use and how strong your mech can become. Industry and research, which correlates to mining materials and crafting items/parts.  Then we have politics and economics for those who want to start up their own corporations and specialize in things like relations, management and finance.

Continued…

GameFront is reporting on a website that is know for game leaks and refers to a email sent to the website owner back in August from a Blizzard source that reveals everything that was announced at last weeks Blizzcon. The email is dated Aug 17th, which of course be photoshopped, however if you look at the image upload date, it was 2 months ago.

The email shows that Blizzard was originally supposed to announce the Diablo 3 release date during Blizzcon, however in late September it was delayed to early 2012, so that’s mostly likely why it wasn’t. The email also shows that the tentative backup date was originally set for Jan 17th. Does this date remain as the backup release date? I don’t know, but it’s a pretty good estimate at worse.

Looking at Blizzard release schedule over the last decade we can see every game and expansion has been released between Nov 14th – Jan 16th and June 29th –  July 5th. So a Jan 17th backup date is looking more and more legit. That’s enough to convince me and if it’s not exactly the 17th, I doubt it will be much further out.

Issue 21: Convergence will be City of Heroes first content update since making the switch to free-to-play and today we have new details as to what will be included.

Up first is the new zone called the First Ward, which was already announced over the summer. The First Ward holds Emperor Coles biggest secret and players will need to venture into this devastated city to explore its wastelands to find out what it is.

Within the First Ward, players will come face to face with the Seed of Hamidon, a new giant monster that roams the skies above the city. Players will face off against it during massive zone events to earn rare rewards.

At level 50, players can partake in a new Incarnate Trial called The Underground. Underneath the city lies the hidden lair of the Devouring Earth and Emperor Coles dark secret. Team up with the Rogue Desdemona, battle against the Devouring Earth and face off against the Avatar of Hamidon in the final battle.

Issue 21 also adds a new power set, Time manipulations for Defenders and a secondary set for Controllers, Corrupters and Masterminds. The new set will be available for free for all VIP players.

Two new costume sets will also be included, IDF and Defense.  The IDF set gives players access to the power armor worn by the IDF troopers, while the Defense set offers a sleeker, skintight option to emphasize aerodynamics.

A new co-op tutorial has also been added to help introduce new players to City of Heroes and to test their moral choices that will determine whether they become a hero or villain.

All players will gain access to the new First Ward zone, however only VIP members will be able to play the missions.

Below was have some new screenshot of City of Heroes Issue 21: Convergence, showing off the new zone, costumes, power set, new monster and the new starting tutorial location.

Continued…

Today marks League of Legends two year anniversary and to celebrate this momentous occasion, RiotGames has released a new legendary skin for Fiddlesticks, which includes the following.

• New and sinister sound effects on all of Fiddlesticks’ abilities
• A shocking new model featuring party hats and balloons
• Frighteningly festive spell effects

The skin is on sale in the RiotStore for 975 Riot Points. After the jump you can see some of Fiddlesticks new effects in a few screenshots that were released today.

Continued…

This past Tuesday marked “Bot-Nuking Day” in the free to play MMORPG Runescape which supposedly would introduce a new update that would be able to catch 98% of players who bot. Today however Jagex announced that they have sent out cease and desist emails to suspected botters threatening to sue them for statutory damages ranging from $200 to $2,500 per act of past, present, and/or future botting.

The email also offers suspected botters a one time amnesty and settlement lifeline. Players that accept will be placed on a watch list and will be monitored for the use of bots and other inappropriate third-party programs. Those that continue to bot will be named as a defendant in Jagex Limited v. John Does, which is a lawsuit based on DMCA violations that is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Pretty harsh if you ask me and reminds me of what the music industry has done over the last decade. If this new update can supposedly catch 98% of botters, then I really don’t see the reason to also file a lawsuit against them. If anything this sounds like the new anti-cheating patch isn’t working as well as they thought.

What do you guys think? Is this over the top or are cheaters getting what they deserve?