I was happy to find out today that both Firefall and Reddit.com were going to shutdown their sites, and in Firefalls case its beta testing, on Jan 18th to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act. I decided I must do something as well and will be canceling my SWTOR account after my pre-paid subscription comes to an end regardless of how I feel about the game, unless EA reverses its stance on SOPA. Neutrality is not good enough, EA must publicly state they are against both laws.  I will also be boycotting all gaming companies that support the Act which according to Reddit include the following:

• EA
• Capcom
• Microsoft (Not anymore)
• Nintendo
• Sony
• Sega
• THQ
• Square Enix
• Take Two
• Ubisoft
• Nival

Below is a great video that explains what SOPA is meant to do and what it will actually do. In essence it will allow any company to shutdown any website they “claim” are breaking their copyrights. I put claim in quotes because there is no due process or even a notification given to the website with the violation. The company also doesn’t actually have to prove they own the copyright.

A recent example was when Universal Media Group was able to shutdown MegaUpload because of a free song upload by various artist including P. Diddy, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, and others. The song was to protest SOPA and did not violate any copyrights, however just the request by UMG was enough to shutdown the site. Keep in mind MegaUpload is not some small website like MMOCrunch or many others, it’s the 72nd largest website in the world. Also keep in mind they were able to do this NOW and SOPA or PIPA have not even become laws yet. So just imagine what will start once these laws pass.

SOPA is not only supported by gaming companies, but by the movie and music industry as well, which in the past have had no problem suing 12 year old girls for downloading a song. So shutting down a website will probably mean even less to them. SOPA is the death of internet freedom and creativity and I hope you all will do your own protest or boycott in support of stopping SOPA and PIPA (Protect IP Act).

RockPaperShotgun also has a complete list.

Continued…

So you hit level 10 and you feel like you could take on the whole Empire (or Republic) yourself? Star Wars: The Old Republic allows you to take the fight to the opposite faction via PvP battlegrounds called warzones. There are currently three warzones in the game, all with varying objectives required for victory.

Not only are warzones a fun experience, they also provide good rewards in the form of commendations which can be used to purchase equipment, weapons and consumables. Of course, if you want to get your hands on these goodies you’ll need to get amongst some blaster fire and earn your keep!

Here to assist you on your path to galactic domination and help you and your team to victory is a brief guide to each warzone and some basic strategies.

Continued…

It’s always fun to try to predict what’s going to happen over the next year so here is our list of 2012 predictions for MMO gaming.

Guild Wars 2 will gain more players than Star Wars: The Old Republic – I’m having a great time playing SWTOR, but it’s just not different enough to hold my attention in the long run. I predict players will flock to GW2 and before 2012 ends, Guild Wars 2 will have a larger active player base than SWTOR.

Diablo 3 will be delayed until early July – Blizzard has never released a game or expansion in the first or second quarter past Jan 16th and since no release date has yet been announced, I’m going with an late second or very early third quarter release.

Warhammer Online will go Free-to-play –  I still can’t believe they haven’t so I’m guessing 2012 will be the year.

Blizzard will reveal their Titan MMO project – We all know it’s going to be a new IP, but that’s basically all we know right now. I predict that this years Blizzcon, they’ll spill the beans.

Black Prophecy will be shut down or sold – The game is seriously lacking players and while it still has promise, it has no change to turn things around in its current form. I predict Gamigo either shuts it down or sells it off.

End of Nations will be a flop - I love the concept that Trion is doing with End of Nations, but I just don’t see it being a hit and predict it will be a failure in 2012.

Eve Online will rebound from 2011 and continue to grow – I’ve never played the game, but it’s my favorite MMO I to hear about. I predict CCP will get back to basics and subscription numbers will continue to rise in 2012.

Mythos Global will shut down…again – The third attempt to run a successful version of Mythos will fail and the game will close down yet again.

The Secret World will go free-to-play by the end of 2012 – Not that I don’t think it won’t be a good game, but it doesn’t have the pull other titles like D3, SWTOR and GW2 have. I predict it will have a great launch, then peter out like so many other MMO games, changing to free-to-play only months after launch. That or it will launch as a free-to-play title.

There you have it, my nine predictions for 2012 and I’m going to say I’ll get more than half right.

One of the biggest driving forces for players in MMO games is to do better than everyone else or at least most people. Whether this means being the best PvP player, getting the best gear, crafting or just making more money than others, there’s always a constant pressure to do better. This tends to lead to players taking advantage of the game through “cheap” or unfair tactics and can eventually lead to cheating through the use of exploits, bots or other means. However there is a huge difference between cheating and taking advantage, although it often blurs the line.

I recently came across an area in SWTOR that provides a player with thousands of credits for little to no effort, so I decided to take advantage of this and farm the location manually for a few hundred thousand credits. (I want to make it clear that no bot or macro was used) Is this cheating or just taking advantage? I’ll give you a hint, I don’t think it’s cheating.

Another example came out today, again in SWTOR, showing a method where by using the /getdown dance move, players can make themselves un-targetable in combat. This of course is an exploit as the developers never intended for a social dance move to become an invincible skill in combat.

Continued…

I haven’t yet reached end-game, but I’m moving along at a decent pace, currently level 34 and at this point I thought I’d be enjoying at least some open PvP goodness. Yet in the last three worlds, Nar Shaddaa, Tatooine and Alderaan, all of which have open PvP zones, I’ve only run across two enemy faction players.

So where’s the PvP? Yes, I know I can join the Warzones, but to be honest, I’ve grew tired of them in Warhammer Online and while BioWare has added new elements and Hutt Ball, I still prefer open PvP much more than warzones, plus I hate Hutt Ball. I basically do my one daily Warzone per day and that’s it.

What I really want is open PvP and while I’m constantly told I’m flagged for PvP, I never see anyone. The two times I did, the guy ran away because I was a few levels above him and the second time we actually fought. He caught me during a mob fight so he killed me first, but 10 secs later after I revived myself, I was able to kill him.

Being my first open PvP kill I was expecting some sort of reward or at least acknowledgement of my first kill, but there was nothing, which just left me with an empty, why bother, feeling. I didn’t even gain XP or Valor for the kill.

Now, I’m not asking for a full fledged PvP rewards system like so many MMORPGs have today, because in my mind that just leads to PvP grinding. But I would like at least some acknowledgement of my efforts. Even something as simple as a personal stat board to show me my kills and deaths.

The problem with the open PvP zones is there is absolutely no incentive for players, which is why they’re empty. Why bother in a open zone when you can queue up for a warzone and get all the rewards? While hardcore PvPers will say the reward is in the kill itself, that’s not enough incentive to get most players to participate, so there has to be some reward be it XP, Valor or something else.

When it comes down to it PvP is flat out broken in Star Wars: The Old Republic and needs to be fixed asap. Being a one character per MMO type of guy, I don’t re-roll or start alts, my biggest concern is getting to the endgame and finding out there’s nothing left for me to do.

At a recent auction in China for the upcoming MMORPG Age of Wulin, a gamer purchased an in-game virtual sword for $16,000. Other gamers also purchased virtual items, a $1,600 Hook of Departure sheath and a Lordly Spear sheath for $2,500.

Now forget the fact that the two lesser items are only sheaths for cosmetic purposes, why are these people buying items for a game that’s still in beta? What happens if the game is a flop?

Age of Wulin is also a PvP centric game, what happens if it has full corpse-looting? These people are either going to lose their items or never use them for fear of getting ganked. I’d also hate to be this guy once the first expansion gets released and makes his $16,000 sword worthless.

In a class action lawsuit filed against Square-Enix back in June of 2009, a Final Fantasy XI player accused the company of deceptive and unfair advertising strategies as listed below. On Dec 23rd of this year, the lawsuit was dismissed by the judge who concluded the claims were “without merit“.

This case narrowly focuses on Defandants deceptive advertising, unfair advertising, and fraudulent concealment to conceal certain critical information about their online games. The deceptive advertising, unfair and undisclosed business practices, and concealment concern, among others:

1. Licensing of the online games software disguised as a sale
2. Monthly fees (“fees”) to play online games
3. Penalties for late payment fees
4. Interest charges for late payment fees
5. Charges while the online game account is suspended
6. Termination of the right to use the online game for late payment of the fees
7. User restrictions and conditions related to the online games
8. Termination of game data for late payment of the fees

However in a press release sent out by Square-Enix it stated,

The District Court ruled, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed, that Square Enix’s business practices and click-through user agreements were both fair and legal. Both Courts confirmed that Square Enix owns all of the character-related data generated during gameplay.

While this case was not a direct challenge of who owns the actually gaming account, it does state that Square-Enix owns all the “character-related data“, which in itself if a huge win for MMO publishers. This in itself doesn’t close the debate as to who owns the actual account, but it is a step forward for MMO publishers and a defeat for those players who argue they own their accounts and characters.

The big showdown between the companies that run these virtual worlds and the players the inhabit them is unavoidable and I hope within the next few years we’ll have a court case that once and for all will determine who is the rightful owner of these virtual characters and property.

Many Star Wars fans are up in arms at the discovery that despite being told in August there’d be a grace period for those who order physical copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic, there will, in fact, be no grace period. While any pre-order code will allow players entry into the early access, in order to keep playing come launch, you must have your actual game code. Many people made their purchasing decisions based upon the declaration of a grace period, and are understandably upset by this sudden change. There have been thousands of posts this evening on the subject, as angered fans vent their wrath upon the forums.

Although some good news, however meager it may be, has been revealed – after several hours of the posting frenzy, Stephen Reid, the Senior Online Community Manager, posted to say that sales and marketing are working to ensure that copies will be sent out prior to launch. European retailers will have the game on the 15th of December, US retailers on the 20th, and those who ordered digitally via Origin will have their game codes emailed to them on the 16th. There is still question as to how this affects those who ordered the Collector’s Edition and US customers who ordered online, but at least Reid is continuing to communicate as best he can to address concerns. He has even apologized twice – first for the ‘misunderstanding’ and then for calling this fiasco a misunderstanding.

It’s a shame, really. My guess is this was done by EA, and not Bioware, but the end result is the same for me – the trust Bioware has built over the past years has been rather badly shaken. Even if Bioware fully meant to have a grace period, and was forced by EA to renege on that intention, it’s difficult to continue to trust them when they can at any time be forced into altering their public statements like this.

With the release of The Old Republic rapidly approaching, I’ve seen many examples of old MMO discussions popping up all over various gaming forums. It’s the argument about how you cannot compare a completely new MMO (In this case SWTOR) to a long running and established MMO (In this, and most cases frankly, World of Warcraft).

The latest example I saw was on a big gaming site forum where a user was stating that the “looking for group” (LFG) solution that SWTOR currently has is very bare bones when you compare it to WoW. While WoW streamlines the process of finding groups to an extreme degree (too extreme for the tastes of some players even), the SWTOR tools for finding groups are much more basic, largely consisting of providing you with a chat channel and ticking off a flag that indicates to anyone looking at the zone population list that you want to group.

It did not take long before people started angrily complaining that the thread author was being completely unfair in comparing SWTOR with WoW. Their argument was that obviously WoW has been out for 7 years now and would have a lot more features than anything you could expect from a game that was just about to launch. The SWTOR defenders did not argue that the way that SWTOR handle grouping currently was in any way a better solution than what WoW does, simply that it was okay for BioWare to release SWTOR with a sub-optimal LFG tool set and then eventually patch in a more fully featured version at a later stage.

There are many variations of the above argument, with different features being called out and different new MMO’s being compared to established ones. But the basic premise of them all are that it is unfair for players to compare one MMO product to another, if one of the products has been around for a long time.

It’s an argument that is bizarre to me. When SWTOR comes out it is going to be competing against WoW in its current state, not what WoW was like 3, 5 or 7 years ago. It’s going to be a full price MMO, so to a consumer they will be able to buy and subscribe to either WoW or SWTOR for around the same price. Does it really make any kind of sense to turn a blind eye to the issues of a game simply because it is new, if it’s offering an inferior experience to an existing and comparatively priced product?

If you try to apply that logic to another product it’s clear that it doesn’t make much sense. Let’s say that a new car company just launched its first car. They decided to price the car at around the same level as a large BMW. But their car didn’t have ABS, no power steering, no climate control and the front passenger door would occasionally fall off if you turned too hard into a corner. Obviously no sane customers would pay for this car. No consumers would say “ah, well they don’t have all the decades of experience with building cars that BMW do. I’m sure they’ll eventually figure out how to make sure their doors don’t fall off”.

It seems to me that this kind of argument is all too often used by people that are already so emotionally invested in a new or upcoming game that they feel the need to defend “their” game by any means. Even if its by using logic that is so poorly thought out that even a Scientologist would shake their head and go “now that is just dumb”.

There is one important point that I want to make, though. While I think it is completely fair that players compare MMO’s regardless of their age, I am *not* saying that all MMO’s necessarily need to match each others feature set 1:1.

When WoW came out it could not match the most popular western MMO of the time, Everquest, in every way. Everquest was a big established MMO with several expansion packs under its wings and many years of polish. But WoW managed to offer an experience that was different and compelling enough that it didn’t matter that Everquest had some features that WoW did not. The overall experience of playing WoW was simply more enjoyable than playing Everquest, despite this disparity of content and features.

Likewise it is entirely possible that SWTOR will not need to have as streamlined a LFG tool as WoW does to match or even beat the success of WoW. Perhaps the deep stories will mean more to players. Or perhaps players will be overjoyed by the companion system. The point is that an MMO can still beat out another MMO even if it is missing some features. In the end it is all about the overall experience for the players.

I just wish that people would stop trying to “protect” new MMO’s from criticism by saying it’s “unfair” to compare them to MMO’s that have had years of post launch updates. At the end of the day players will play whatever game that presents the most fun experience to them and no one is going to care if the game came out in 2011, 2009 or 2004.