Cryptic Studios – Jupiter Broadcasting

Perfect World | MMOrgue 15

chris — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:58:41 +0000

Over the past few weeks, there’s been one MMO company consistently popping up again and again, whether its because of acquisitions, announcements, or new products. The name “Perfect World” just keeps recurring.

I’ve decided to set aside today’s episode to cover some of those recent developments, and take a look at some of the moves this company has been making in the Western MMO markets as of late, as well as cover some of the information I gleaned from my time at PAX Prime.

Later in this episode, I’ll show you a little bit about a new F2P FPS that I got a hands-on demo of at PAX called Blacklight Retribution. But first, I’d like to cover a few of the newsy bits that’ve brought Perfect World into the public eye recently.

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Show Notes:

STO – F2P

MMORPG.com announcement

In a move that surprised … just about nobody, it was recently confirmed that Star Trek Online will soon be moving to a Free-to-Play subscription model. Details on the transition are scarce at the time of filming this episode, but according to a statement from Perfect World CEO Kevlin Lau, the transition is scheduled to take place before the end of 2011.

There are a few simple reasons that this came as no real surprise to anyone that’s been following Cryptic Studios and their recent acquisition by Perfect World:

Firstly is that this game, and their superhero game – Champions Online – both have possessed in-game cash shops since their launch.
While to some this came across as a “cake: have-eat” scenario, I always saw it more as testing the waters of a F2P model, without taking the full risk associated with such a move out-of-the-gate.
I also suspect that there was a lot of pressure from their former publisher, Atari, to recoup the cost of development of both of these MMOs, by charging both an up-front box cost and an ongoing subscription fee.
The move to a fully cash-shop-supported financial model is going to be just as seamless and simple for STO as it was for CO when they transitioned to F2P almost a year ago.
And secondly, if STO had remained a subscription-based game, it would have been the ONLY such subscription model on Perfect World’s books. That would be highly unlikely.
That being said, a subscription OPTION still exists in CO, and is likely to exist in STO as well, after this transition goes thru. In fact, in the same conference call where this F2P transition was first revealed, it was also mentioned that Perfect World is using Cryptic Studios to get more of a foothold in the subscription-based MMO market. Meaning that it’s also possible that more of Perfect World’s future products will offer a subscription option, in addition to their usual cash-shop offerings.

As for my opinions on the subject? I can pretty much summarize by saying that I consider this a very, very good thing for the future of Star Trek Online. I’ve been in touch with potential players of this game, and fans of Trek in general, and a primary sticking point to new players trying out the title has always been the subscription fee. By eliminating that barrier for entry, Cryptic and Perfect World will be opening the doors to a whole new type of audience, that can then “vote with their wallets” to determine whether or not Star Trek Online is worth investing in.

The presence of a strong set of UGC tools, and a strong community surrounding those tools, continues to be a unique selling point for Star Trek Online. I believe that if Cryptic really wishes to distinguish themselves in the F2P market, they need to leverage that set of tools as a primary selling point.

Early indications are that Free players will be unable to build their own missions, but will still have access to PLAY missions created by other players. Meaning that they can see the toolset in action, and if they are impressed by what they see, they may be enticed to subscribe or buy access through the in-game cash shop, in order to become a part of the UGC community of STO.

In order for that to happen, Freepers need to be shown the best of the best missions in-game. And so, additional support for mission creators needs to be brought to the fore of Cryptic’s community-based efforts. Reinforce those players that are making your game look the best, and you will reap the benefits tenfold.

As most of you are probably aware, Jupiter Broadcasting also produces a video podcast dedicated to Star Trek Online, so if you’re curious to hear a more in-depth editorial on the subject, I’d recommend following the next few episodes of STOked, as the story continues to develop. We hope to have someone from Cryptic join us on that show in the near future to discuss the Free-to-Play transition, and all of its implications.

NEVERWINTER

In other Perfect World-slash-Cryptic news, I thought I’d mention that back in August we received notification that the launch of Neverwinter has been officially delayed from a launch window of “Late 2011” to “Late 2012.” The initial quote from Perfect World indicates that this launch delay was being undertaken in order to “invest in a more immersive experience.”

Well, pardon me, but HELL YES. It’s about damn time that more game publishers start to realize that launching a product prematurely – especially an MMO – does way more harm to the long-term goals of that label and the associated development studio, than any monetary influx that the sale of boxes could bring. We’ve already seen this happen with the aforementioned Star Trek Online, which has been universally acknowledged by both its staunchest fans, and developers of that title, to have launched WAY too early to be considered a fleshed-out product. And the result of that premature launch has been a lack of consumer confidence in Cryptic Studios by the general gaming public, and, likely a lack of long-term success that COULD have been found if the studio had been allowed to spend another year or two in development.

So, lesson learned. Neither Cryptic or Perfect World want that to happen again. So Neverwinter will be out “when it’s ready.” And I, for one, am thankful to be kept waiting.

TORCHLIGHT MMO and TORCHLIGHT II

Torchlight MMO gets a launch window

Another bit of news that “leaked” out of that same conference call, was a confirmation that Runic Games is indeed moving forward at a steady clip on their plans to roll out a Torchlight MMO. According to the statements made by Perfect World, the title could be ready to launch as early as late 2012.

I actually had the pleasure of sitting down to speak with Runic’s CEO, Max Schaefer, during PAX 2011. When asked about eventual plans for their rumored MMO, he said it had always been Runic’s intent to create an MMO game, and that cutting their teeth on Torchlight and Torchlight II has been a necessary part of that process, as the lessons they’ve learned while developing those two titles has left them wiser and more well-prepared to tackle their big dream project.

But nowhere in that conversation did he indicate that they were already moving forward on the project to the point that a release could be more or less one year away from now. In fact, in my frank conversation with him, he actually indicated that Runic may even take a break from the Torchlight franchise after the launch of their impending sequel, and that no solid plans for their upcoming pipeline have been nailed down.

It’s possible that there’s been some crossed wires here between Perfect World and Runic. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that this initial estimate of the launch of the Torchlight MMO ends up being off by as much as a few years. Though there’s no doubt in my mind that it is, indeed, going to happen. It just seems to me that the success or failure of Torchlight II will determine the timing of that MMO’s development process, which doesn’t seem to have begun yet.

As for Torchlight II, I had the brief opportunity to get my hands in some co-op gameplay on the PAX floor, and was very happy with the experience. As many of you probably already know, Blizzard has recently announced that Diablo III will include some rather restrictive mechanics when it launches, including the lack of offline play, no modding, and an auction house for trading items for real world currency. All of these announcements have turned off many potential players of the upcoming title, but Runic has embraced those announcements as an opportunity to stand apart from the title it was once rumored to have been cloned from.

Torchlight II will include both an offline solo mode, and LAN play that will not be filtered through a central verification server. During my conversation with Max Schaefer, I asked if they were afraid of piracy that may result from this lack of restrictions, and his simple answer was no. That piracy will happen regardless of what restrictions you put in place, and that it can also potentially drive additional sales of your product. For example, if you visit a friend and end up playing a LAN session of Torchlight II using a hacked copy of the game, Runic feels you are very likely to enjoy that experience to such a degree that you end up purchasing the game at a later point in time. And with a box price of only $20, I can see that being a reality.

Torchlight II will also support modding. To such a degree that the actual development tools that were used to create the game will ship as a part of the retail program. And while there’s a steep learning curve associated with their use, the inclusion of these tools will allow the modding community to literally create anything they can imagine in Torchlight. From new campaigns and maps, to fundamentally altering the mechanics of the gameworld itself. One of the most common examples of this that’s been mentioned repeatedly, is the removal of the player cap on multiplayer sessions, which at the time of release will be set at between 4 and 8 players. But via modding, this restriction could potentially be completely removed.

As for the auction house concept, Max simply told me it’s beyond the scope of Torchlight II. There isn’t even a direct trading interface between players. The only way to trade items, is drop them on the ground where the other player can pick them up. If players wish to work out Paypal arrangements for such transactions, they’re welcome to, but Runic has no intent to cash in on the gameplay enjoyment of their customers.

In essence, Torchlight II is shaping up to be more Diablo-ey, than even the sequel that will bear the name. And Runic claims they are on target to release their title on the PC by the end of the year.

BLACKLIGHT RETRIBUTION

Let’s switch gears entirely now, and talk about an upcoming title from Zombie Studios and being published by Perfect World. This game caught my eye at PAX because I thought I was watching a game of what was essentially a Counterstrike clone, when suddenly one of the staff running the 4vs4 PvP demo told the players participating, to activate their “wall hacks!”

Welcome to Blacklight Retribution – an Unreal Engine dx11 competitive FPS set in a near-future of cyber-warfare. I’m not sure what the backstory of this world is, or if there even is one, but I’m also not sure that it matters for this type of gameplay.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about this title, as it’s most definitely NOT an MMO. Even though it contains a huge online presence, the lack of any form of persistence really rules out the MMO moniker from coming into play. Despite that, this F2P game is still being published by an MMO company, and I think that’s enough to warrant a little bit of attention.

The primary selling point of Blacklight, is Instant Action. Beyond just being able to load into a match using traditional matchmaking services, once in the match the use of your “Hyper-Reality View” (or HRV), will allow you to see your friends and foes thru the walls around you, allowing you to almost instantly track down the nearest target or defense point, and get into the action with minimal delay. The presence of this built-in “wall hack” mechanic actually adds a new layer of strategy to the game, as every player comes equipped with it. So even though you can see him thru those walls, he can potentially see you, too. And so knowing when your opponent is looking your direction is almost as important as knowing where he is, and whether there’s a wall between the two of you. Because of the addition of this one simple mechanic, I found the entire FPS deathmatch experience to have taken on a slightly more cerebral layer of consideration, and became more strategic than your average shoot-em-up match.

As a somewhat unique feature in this world of PvP deathmatch shooters, Blacklight also features a very robust customization interface. Players will have the option to change the look and feel of most of the weapons in the game, including adding laser sights to pistols, changing ammo types, or just adding decals to your weapons and armor. It’s really a very small matter, but it’s very fun, and really no stranger than adding a unique hat to your TF2 avatar.

In fact, fans of games like TF2 and Counterstrike will definitely want to check out Blacklight Retribution when it lands. At the price of FREE, you really have nothing to lose. I would caution you however, that the minimum specs are on the high-end, as the makers at Zombie Studios specifically want to ensure that their game is a cut above the level of most console shooter titles. However, that also means that this game is very much rooted in the PC market, and the UI and keybinds will not suffer from being “dumbed down” for players used to using controllers to frag their enemies.

Blacklight Retribution is undergoing extensive private beta testing right now, with the goal of being released before the end of 2011. However, the statement I received from one of the Zombie Studio reps at PAX, was that the title would only be released once they were sure they could deliver a bug-free and balanced experience out of the gate. When I asked the same question of an on-site Perfect World rep, they confirmed this by stating that the launch date would be at the discretion of Zombie, and hadn’t been finalized.

CLOSER

That’s it for this episode of The MMOrgue. As we look back on the stories of today’s episode, we notice that 3 separate development studios, all working under Perfect World, all producing vastly different products still all have a few simple design philosophies shining through:

1) Deliver PC-focused game experiences, regardless of whether the title is an MMO, shooter, or action RPG.
2) Eliminate or reduce the financial barrier for entry to enjoy these titles, and allow the consumer to ‘vote with their wallets’ to support the product or not.
3) Don’t launch the title until it’s ready for public consumption.

I have to say, as a gamer and industry enthusiast, I absolutely agree with those 3 principles, and can foresee myself becoming a long-term supporter of Perfect World if they can stick to their guns. The only hiccup remains the potential for cash shops to encourage that whole “pay to win” atmosphere that I’ve spoken out against in the past, and so far Perfect World has been sitting on both sides of that fence, depending on which of their games you look at. It’s in their best interest to steer as clear of it as they can, as they continue to gain more of a foothold here in the Western MMO market.

That brings us to the end of this week’s MMOrgue. Over the coming few weeks, I intend to produce episodes about League of Legends and Firefall, but the precise dates of each of those haven’t been pinned down as I’m trying to wrangle up an interview for each. So next week’s episode is a total mystery! I hope you can join me back here nonetheless, as I continue to plumb the depths of the online gaming market.

The post Perfect World | MMOrgue 15 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Caught in the Crossfire | STOked 92

chris — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:49:28 +0000

We’ve packed together the latest leaks and news about upcoming features, including details of the impending Borg Invasion, a KDF Flagship, and the Rhode Island class starship. All of this, PLUS a bonus helping of “Daniel Stahl SAYS STUFF” in this week’s news feed!

After that, we’ll share the results of our Starfleet Academy feature poll from last week, and lay out a whole new Community Feedback question for you all to make your voices heard!

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Show Notes:

NEWS:

Massive Star Trek DVD Sweepstakes on Facebook

TNG on Blu-ray Coming In 2012

Borg Invasion Teases:
* STOwiki has been gathering info
* Contact dialog popup leaked into recent patch
* 5x skill point rewards?!

The Foundry makes a TRIUMPHANT return!
… and then went away again, until Monday (so they could look at the collected data)

Tribble Test Reward is LIVE

KDF Flagship? WORK IN PROGRESS
Info on CapnLogan’s “free time” work on this project

Another compilation shot of the Odyssey Class (EntF)

Rhode Island Class vessel coming soon
* Decoy + Cloak power (Console? Type?)
* d’Stahl@dstahl: The RI power allows you to create an exact holo copy of your ship while you go stealthy and slink away. Any ship that was targeting you now targets decoy

Daniel Stahl SAYS STUFF

Stahl on Trek Radio
* Confirmed that Cryptic wants to split Ground and Space skills (no timeline)
* Acknowledges the current content drought, and plans to change that soon, and permanently
* SFA: Trivia daily coming, which will possibly reward doffs

He popped online and held an impromptu Q&A
* A replica Defiant interior is in the works for an episode in the next series – it is possible that will become available
* i’m trying to get CBS approval to expand on some story points in Shatner’s “The Return” novel..
* there is a new King of the HIll pvp map coming in next feature episode series

COMM FEED:

POLL RESULTS
Next Feature Requested for Starfleet Academy:

Testing Builds : 31.75%

Mission Replay Upgrade : 29.63%

Firing Range : 19.05%

Trek Trivia Quiz Game : 11.77%

PvP Arena “Dodge Ball” : 7.4%

StormyMaverick (and MANY others):
The NUMBER one thing I’d like to see at Starfleet Academy is THE KOBAYASHI MARU!

Divvur:
My idea would be for a mini-game. First you need to gain a Universal Cadet, perhaps through missions or recruitment assignments. You then ‘sponsor’ them for Starfleet Academy, much like Sisko did for Nog. Throughout their training, you use the mini-game to advise them (like a mentor) what to study for their upcoming tests.

eng09:
I would like to see SFA In a weekly Series, Like Paradise Lost, where the Changelings Infltrate Earth, But start Wuth the SFA.

New question:

Tell us your top “newbie” tip!

Something not covered by the tutorial
Tribal knowledge
I wish I knew then, what I know now

Leave your submission on our SHOW PAGE (where you are reading these show notes!)

The post Caught in the Crossfire | STOked 92 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Player Housing | MMOrgue 8

chris — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:03:02 +0000

In a break from our usual format, we’ve invited a number of correspondents onto this episode to discuss the ins-and-outs of different versions of player housing, and how different MMOs have incorporated owning your own home into the worlds we participate in. Through these conversations, we’ll discuss Second Life, Everquest II, Star Wars: Galaxies, Star Trek Online and City of Heroes.

We’ll also talk about the announced shut-down of SWG, the upcoming changes made to World of Warcraft’s Trial Account, and a press release that should be THE BEST NEWS EVER … and why it has disappointed Jeremy so much.

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Show Notes:

Supreme Court upholds decision to strike down Violent Video Game law
Originally penned in California, the law included dubious wording that would result in heavy fines against retailers that sold “excessively violent” video games to minors.
There’s lots more, but let’s just say… it was bad news for gamers! And NOT just because we wanna get our frag on, and witness our buddies’ heads explode in fountains of gore.

What it came down to, was First Amendment rights in the US. Our freedom of speech, and whether or not video games qualified as a protected form of artistic expression.

According to the highest authority we honor, they do.

In fact, their decision on this matter went so far as to quote their similarly favorable judgement on FILM, from the 1950s.

This decision sets a precedent that cannot be denied or overruled – that Video Games now stand shoulder-to-shoulder with books and films, as a protected media under Free Speech. Furthermore, it places additional faith in the non-government agency, the ESRB, to continue doing their part in ensuring that the content we are now guaranteed the freedom to enjoy, is appropriately categorized for our consumption.

With the decision handed down by the Supreme Court, we should now also be free from hearing about lawsuits over the “offensive” nature of some games’ content, and story after story of litigators attempting to blame the gaming industry for the bad behavior of modern youth. Not that complaints about violent subject matter will ever really go away… but at least, with this ruling as a foundation, the cries may quiet down to something more reasonable.

Second Life // EverQuest II
Guest : Ruth

You worked as a GM on Second Life for several years…

I’m an outsider to that game, or simulation, however it’s generally categorized. But as I understand it, the concept of “Player Housing” as defined by the MMORPG market, is a bit of a misnomer for SL.

In fact, housing in SL more-or-less -IS- the entire game, isn’t it?

What issues arise from having an entire economy and community based on personal property and infinite customization? (A specific anecdote to explain a point would be good here, if possible)

I don’t foresee any other MMO in the near future offering similar functionality to what SL offered. But if a developer chose to attempt it, are there any primary pitfalls that you might point out to avoid when implementing a similar system?

Now… let’s move on to EverQuest 2…
Demo Video 1
Demo Video 2

EQ2 included options to:
– Place pre-made objects in almost any position in your home
– Own several different homes/apartments
– Visit other players’ homes
– Through the use of log files and macros, even allowed an external editing tool

How did EQ2’s system stack up against SL?

How well did EQ2’s housing system mesh with its adventuring and crafting components?

Any major drawbacks of the system?

I, personally, consider EQ2’s housing system to be superior to anything else I’ve seen on the market in terms of striking a balance between customization and ease of creating esthetically pleasing atmospheres. Your thoughts?

SWG
Guest: Heather

Let’s start with SWG, since it is, at this point, mostly ancient history…

Player City and Tatooine House Interior (2:40 for house, 9:35 for Mall)

I’ll admit, I actually “employed” myself within this game, as an interior decorator. Briefly. I would go to peoples’ houses and rearrange their belongings in more pleasing ways, or provide them with specific projects (like aquariums, fireplaces, complex furniture, etc) for a small fee.

The fact that this game launched without a means to move items on the Z-axis felt like an absolute insult to gamers, considering how much they talked up the option of building your own home and decorating it however you liked. Eventually this was added, but workarounds like using a built-in staircase were common for many months.

They even added pitch/roll/yaw eventually. Jerks.

This game was known as a sandbox, leaving players to create their own fun from the ground up, and housing was no exception to this rule. Decorating a home required vast amounts of imagination, as there was very little pre-made decor. Sure, architects could make furniture and such, but after a very short time it all looked the same. Coming up with original-looking designs was more fun than actually adventuring, in my opinion.

As for the homes themselves, and the placing of them… hoo-boy… SWG was always plagued with issues regarding server stability and sync issues (at least up ‘til when I quit just before the NGE), so placing a home was sometimes a crap shoot. I knew people that’d lost entire homes and millions of credits worth of belongings, because their brand new spacious pad just up and vanished when the server randomly burped.

The pristine wilderness known to be so abundant in the Star Wars universe was dotted with harvesters, homes, factories, warehouses, shops, cantinas, shuttleports, and more… everywhere you looked. When cities were introduced, it only made the urban sprawl even worse. However, I would like to note that no other game has, to my knowledge, incorporated a series of local governing controls like SWG had for player cities. You had zoning controls, taxation, a voting system, and even a population census at the city hall. Very robust, even if utterly worthless in the long run.

STO / COH:
Guest: Sean

STO

Ship Interiors were never intended to be offered at time of launch. But a small, vocal minority of players within the community continued to LOUDLY pound the drum for this feature, continuing to insist that it was a necessary part of the Star Trek experience.

Eventually, Cryptic broke down and gave players Bridges. But with zero functionality. Eventually full interior layouts were added, but most players see them as worthless fluff. The sole function that cannot be accessed from elsewhere, has become a pain in the ass instead of a welcome diversion (Mission Replay).

Now, here we are more than a year after launch, and there remains very little functionality within ship interiors.

Sadly, this mimics how Cryptic treated Base Building in COX…

Before we move on from STO, I’d like to dig out some opinions from YOU on the matter of ship interiors, and player housing…

Q&A:

Many episodes of Star Trek take place entirely within ship interiors… If you, as a player, had to give up customization of your interior, to play missions similar to those, would you be OK with that?
Is the fact that this feature appears to have been rushed, a commentary on the developer in any way, and their ability to be swayed by a vocal community?
What additional functionality do these ship interiors need?

OK, tell me more about how Cryptic treated Base Builders in COX…

City of Heroes was launched in April 2004. Super Group Bases added in the paid expansion, City of Villains in June 2006.

Options: Small, Medium, or Large. Big rooms separated by corridors.
At launch: ~12 walls/ceilings/floors, about a dozen functional items, and ~100 decor items.
5 years later: 8 or so functional items added, removed clipping of placed items.

Once a very active community (chat channels, contests, forum activity)
Cryptic ignored the base building issues until they sold to NCSoft in 2007.
NCSoft continued ignoring it, except to nerf the storage availability. (2500 items, down to 30)

Part of Issue 13 was slated to include lots of base stuff. (DATE?)
When Issue 13 was split into two separate updates, the base features mysteriously vanished from EITHER set of patch notes.
Attempts to get commentary on this were met with silence, or locked threads.

In 2008 a dev named Sunstorm took on the role of Base Building Developer
https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=126267
He started a thread asking for some suggestions for additions and improvements to bases, made a few more posts, and then went silent. In October 2009, he posted that he’s still working on some stuff for bases. https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=2355311
But in December 2009, someone noticed that his forum name was no longer red. That only happens on the forums when a staff member is no longer employed.

So, what are the primary issues that Bases faced in CoH?
What role were they supposed to fill, functionality-wise?
The silence from developers is scary, disappointing, and a lingering dark blotch on their overall PR efforts. Is there anything they could say at this point to make up for these bad decisions?
Cryptic Studios is now behind Champions Online, which will soon be implementing “Hideouts” as a form of Player Housing. Do you have any sage words of wisdom for them on the subject, to assist in avoiding the pitfalls of the past?

————————

Tease of the Week:

Darkcryo Entertainment has announced Firefly Universe Online!
– No funding.
– No licensing.
– No names on the credits.
– No public access to the company website.
Color me beyond skeptical. I’m almost insulted.

Also, as a quick update to last week’s F2P-dedicated episode, I thought I’d point out that none other than World of Warcraft, the juggernaut itself, has decided to take a step in that direction. They are upgrading their Trial accounts to remove the time limit, and instead impose a level limit of 20. But you can make as many characters as you like.

Yay? Let’s face it – WoW at level 20 is pretty darn lame, and Blizzard has spent so many resources making their end-game and raid content top notch that this lowbie junk is just as old and busted as it’s always been. Despite some sites running with a headline of “WoW goes F2P!” just to draw in clicks, this is nothing of the sort, and will probably result in less than a blip on the subscription radar.

NEXT WEEK:

I will be digging deeper into the EVE controversies.
Also, based on feedback I received re: Hellgate, I will be trying out the Open Beta which opens June 30th. And I’ll have some initial impressions to share.

Play smart everyone, and remember … sometimes an emote is just an emote.

Download & Comment:

The post Player Housing | MMOrgue 8 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Infected Perfected | STOked 85

chris — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:00:22 +0000

In the first of a 3-week long series of events, the STOked boys are taking you on an in-depth tour of the Borg Special Task Force missions. Up this week is a guide to “The Infected” which includes tips and tricks for painlessly eliminating the Borg drones, and their leaders.

Before we dig into that however, BIG NEWS landed this week regarding the impending purchase of Cryptic Studios by Perfect World International. Despite the community’s uproar over this news, we’re taking a more level-headed approach to the corporate nature of this acquisition, and intend to share our thoughts on why this could be one of the best business moves STO could potentially see.

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Show Notes:

PERFECT WORLD BUYING CRYPTIC
It was announced this morning that “Perfect World” has penned a deal to purchase Cryptic Studios for 35million Euro.

Other links/Cryptic responses:
Compilation of pre-responses
Official announcement from PR Newswire

Thoughts:
J-RANT: Chinese Racism on Forums (for shame!)

F2P, Pay-to-Win
Star Trek IP in China?
“Angelica” 3D Engine — aging? Perhaps this acquisition is for the Cryptic engine?
PWE obtained Runic (makers of Torchlight) in 2009 and haven’t meddled at all.
R&D / Tech angle
“More importantly, Cryptic Studios’ highly reputable development team and its technology platform will further strengthen our well-established R&D capabilities.”
Jupiter Uniforms are here! C-Store: 280 pts
– Not a bad price for 5 new tops and pants.
– Pooooor Klingons…

TWEET LEAKS
– Earth Badge: https://twitpic.com/559m31
– Gatling Turrets: https://a.yfrog.com/img610/8388/62484048.jpg
– Qo’nos Courtyard: https://a.yfrog.com/img611/4751/dq60.jpg
– Exocomps to replace Drones: https://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg612/scaled.php?tn=0&server=612&filename=7xvjt.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640
— REALLY, DAN? A picture of an EMAIL?! Now you’re just taunting us.

Enterprise-F Dev Diary (How The Winner Was Chosen)
– Includes a “clay model” with more angles to view (still a WIP)

Infected Tips

Watch the uncut full stream here & Part 2 here:

General Tips:
– If you’re new, get experienced players to lead you through. There’s plenty out there now.
– Voice chat is highly recommended. (Vivox coming soon!)
– Follow directions. Or if you’re leading, give clear directions that are easy to follow!
– Do not progress any dialog pop-ups until the Team Leader gives the OK, or does it him/herself.
– Do not go in unprepared! Make sure you have a solid spec that plays to the specific strengths of both your Space AND Ground abilities.

SPACE:
Zip around BEHIND the gate, and do not activate the two popups until the team is in position.
With high DPS, you may be able to destroy the gate in a single activation sequence.
If you destroy the gate without killing transmitters, you get better loot.
If you do not destroy the gate in a single activation, you will be faced with 3-4 waves of borg ships that get progressively more and more powerful with each wave.

Good Space Boff Abilities:
Hazard Emitters (practically a must-have)
Tactical Team
A lot of DPS/buffs/debuffs
Gravity Well — good for chain reactions on warp cores!

Tactical Cubes have a ~5km explosion radius. If you are trying to keep the Transmitters alive, and have a Tac Cube spawned, be sure to lure it away from them before destroying the cube.

Tweet Update:
Cryptic_Gozer Dan Griffis
Weekly STF Update… Infected space 85% complete. Battle to destroy the Transwarp Gateway is much more interesting now

GROUND:
Ground Weapons:
Tactical — Sniper(x2)
Engineer+Science — CRM200 + Melee

Ground Kits:
Engineer: Fabrication or Bunker Kit
Tactical: Fire Team or Squad Leader
Science: Medic (at least one on the team)… if you want to DPS, I recommend Geophysicist

Order of Ground Targets:
Interlink Node
Infected
Drone
Medical
(Protos? Can be cleaned up at any time after Medical. May despawn on their own.)
AFTER ONLY TACTICALS ARE LEFT, SWITCH TO MELEE WEAPON
Tactical
Heavy
Elite

FIRST BOSS: Ogen
Pull him OUT of his room, into the hallway.
He will stop and summon friends halfway through the fight. If you are in the hallway, they will not join the battle.

END BOSS: Manus
Get into the alcoves on the wall opposite from the entry doorway.
This blocks line of sight between group members (meaning, no heals!), which prevents her “chain lightning” attack from hitting more than one target at a time.

NEXT WEEK: “The Cure”
Keep your tips/guides coming! Jeremy is gonna try and post the best ones over at JupiterColony.com

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The post Infected Perfected | STOked 85 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Rift, 2KGames, Mass Effect | MMOrgue 4

chris — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 07:33:12 +0000

This week, we finally get around to taking an editorial look at the beginning of the life of Trion Worlds’ flagship MMO, Rift. How are the initial impressions and population trends for this game? What’s the long-term outlook for this game’s future success?

After that, we’re taking a look at two new franchises that may soon be landing on the MMO landscape, from developers at 2KGames and BioWare. What are we in store for, from these top-name game shops? Tune in to find out, and speculate along with us!

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Show Notes:

First, an update on a previous story…

It was announced this morning that “Perfect World” has penned a deal to purchase Cryptic Studios for $50mil.

I’m going to save the majority of my commentary for this week’s episode of STOked, which will film live on Saturday, June 4th @ 11am PDT. Tune in to hear all about it, or catch it after it is published on Tuesday, June 7th.
- But, I will say that this quote makes me happy: More importantly, Cryptic Studios’ highly reputable development team and its technology platform will further strengthen our well-established R&D capabilities.
  - The emphasis on technology and R&D are what has made Cryptic a studio worth considering a player in the MMO industry as a whole, and it’s nice to see their new owners appreciate that fact.

RIFT

Inevitably… comparisons to WoW

Talents = Souls (some even exactly the same, just renamed)
Abundance of Kill, Click, Fetch and Deliver quests
UI elements (hotbars, extra hotbars)
“Whack-a-mole” combat mechanics – slave to cooldowns

Where it doesn’t live up to this:

Content (vastly inferior quantity)
The argument that “WoW has had 7 years to add content!” does not hold water. You have to compete with what’s on the market, not what was on the market 7 years ago.
Many “smaller” features, like guild banks
- Added a LFG tool within first 2 months… took WoW several years to make one!
Balance — “Trion Worlds has thrown up their hands due to the complexity of their soul system.”

Where it breaks the mold:

Rift events
- On one hand, fun change of pace
- On the other, interrupts otherwise mindless and easy to execute gameplay (grinding)
Soul construction, and ease of switching roles while adventuring
- At a glance, similar to Talents … until you realize the amount of options available to you.
- Can swap any of your 3 active souls, to any others you have unlocked (within your archetype).
- Individual souls are capable of doing things you can’t do in WoW: Tanking priests, healing rogues, Warriors with pets, etc.

Population consistency:
https://www.riftstatus.net/graph/Hammerlord/history/7d#!/graph/Briarcliff/history/30d

Most popular servers (which by default appear at the top of the list) are seeing growth, while smaller ones are shrinking or going stagnant.
Indicates that the trend is overall good for population.
Initial 30-day period definitely saw a drop, but not a monstrous one.
The response among active players seems to be “good riddance” for most of the folks that left. Community strengthened by it.
How many people? Under 1000 per server at “prime time”, but 58 different servers in the US, and another 41 in Europe (whoa!) Avg 500 per = almost 50,000 concurrent
- Implies a serious lack of content.

Overall…

RIFT is a success, for a very specific type of player.
– Likes WoW’s mechanics, but hates its age and lack of “outside the box” class structure.
– Likes WoW’s interface, but doesn’t want to rely on UI add-ons to customize their experience.
– Likes smaller communities, smaller population servers.
– New to MMOs

The future of RIFT…
Sadly, despite the success it is experiencing right now, I don’t see it remaining a top player in the MMO world after the launch of SWTOR and/or GW2. Even another WOW expansion pack would take a significant bite out of RIFT’s population. It feels to me like a game that a lot of people are playing while they bide their time waiting for something better to come along.

Why? LACK OF INNOVATION.
Almost every single aspect of RIFT has been done elsewhere, first. Admittedly, Trion Worlds has done many of those same things BETTER in RIFT (like active, dynamic events, which we’ve seen since Anarchy Online and Warhammer), but they are still not anything NEW.

2K Games Enters the MMO arena!
https://massively.joystiq.com/2011/05/23/take-two-signs-with-xlgames-to-make-existing-property-into-an-mm/
https://phx.corporate-ir.net/preview/phoenix.zhtml?c=86428&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1568889

Lineage creator Jake Song (and his company, XLGames) signed into partnership deal with 2K Games to “develop and publish a massively multiplayer online game for the Asian market based upon one of 2K Games’ top-selling franchise.”

Let the speculation begin!

Since this is specifically in reference to 2KGames, and not its parent company Take Two Interactive, you can probably rule out IPs that aren’t directly owned by 2K. Including:
- – GTA
- – Red Dead Redemption
- – LA Noire
This leaves a fairly short list when you’re talking about “top-selling” franchises:
- – Bioshock
- – XCom
- – Borderlands
- – Dungeon Siege
- – Civilization
- – Pirates!
- I wanna see an innovative MMO Shooter.
- The one most likely to get adapted would be Dungeon Siege, imho. Though a part of me would love to see either a Borderlands or Bioshock MMO.
  - I don’t honestly know how popular or appealing any of these IPs would be to a Korean gaming market.

What about XLGames’ “ArcheAge?”

Now undergoing its third beta phase, all reviews coming out of the game have been favorable. In fact, I’m honestly hoping to see an English version of the client available some time this year, as many of the sandboxey features of this game have definitely caught my interest.
Since this deal is a “partnership” and not a buyout, it’s likely that the future development and support of ArcheAge will not be affected in any way.

BioWare Talks Mass Effect MMO:

I’ll be honest, this is kind of a non-news item at this point, since it’s primarily based off a single quote. There’s not much to go on, but I’ll give you this:

https://www.vg247.com/2011/04/11/bioware-mass-effect-mmo-makes-sense/

“A lot of people say that they want to see an MMO, I think that kind of makes sense for this universe. […] If you get rid of the Reapers and win that, wouldn’t it be amazing to just live on the Citadel or just take a ship to Omega? That makes sense.”

That quote is from Casey Hudson, Executive Producer of the Mass Effect franchise.
Not just “some guy” musing about the future of Mass Effect… he is “the guy” that could make it happen.

That quote is also from more than a month ago, and nothing has been said since…
Bioware is waiting to see how SWTOR does on the market, before moving forward with other online projects.

They’re not a small-fry company: They take BIG risks, and expect BIG payoffs.
If SWTOR doesn’t show a viable payoff for some reason, we may not see further MMOs from Bioware.

Reasons it could work:

Mass Effect has a rich galaxy, filled with political intrigue and TONS of stories to explore.
“Magical” technology (Biotics) allows for limitless imagination and flashy gameplay.
Psuedo-realistic astronomy would be unique in current space genres, if allowed to explore.
Plenty of armor, weapons, ships, etc, already established.

Reasons it could FAIL:

If you destroy the Reapers in ME3, why is it worth tooling around in this universe? What are you saving?
It would HAVE to be a cover-shooter, to live up to Mass Effect. And developing the maps, cover mechanics, bullet physics, class balance, and everything else… PvP would be a nightmare in this setting.
Your crew… people? No, I want well-scripted, well-acted companions that I can get to know, converse with, maybe even romance. If I wanted to talk to people, I wouldn’t be playing video games!
You’re not Shepard. This IS the Mass Effect franchise. Without Shepard, is it really ME?

Nintendo recently applied for ESRB ratings on a game titled “Zelda Universe.” No other news. But it’s POSSIBLE that Nintendo is looking to enter the MMO space.
– Interactive website?

NEXT WEEK:

I will be exploring the concept of MMO shooters. Why did PlanetSide not find success? Will SOE fix those mistakes in PlanetSide Next? Will FireFall be the next big thing in online shooters? How could Duke Nukem influence the future of this market?

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The post Rift, 2KGames, Mass Effect | MMOrgue 4 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.