The Siren Song of Games

Posted by Stropp on October 27, 2007 Hmmm. Done it again. Succumbed to the siren song of new games. Perhaps I need to be tied to a mast by my crewmates as I sail past the game store. Last night I stopped in at EB Games on the way home from work and put down a deposit on both Hellgate: London and Mass Effect. Hellgate is due to be released next Thursday, and Mass Effect (I think) on the 20th of November. Of course this clashes also with the release of Tabula Rasa next Friday (the 2nd.) I'm not sure if I need to buy it at the release date to get the preorder and hence the goodies. I'm not sure if I care anyway. I think I will end up playing TR at some point, it's definitely a good game, but I might wait until it's a bit more mature. And today is the Royal Australian Air Force Airshow at the Edinburgh Air Force Base in Adelaide. I'm just waiting on my sister and nephew to arrive and we'll head on down to see the action. It's not the biggest air show around, I've been to the Joint Services Airshow at Andrews Air Force base in Washington and that's huge, but it's an air show nonetheless, and my nephews first (he's 4.5.) So anyway, you might find a little less talk about MMOGs in the next few weeks, and more about Single Player gaming goodness. I know that Hellgate does have strong MMOG elements, but I'm still not sure you can really classify it as one. Mass Effect is an XBox 360 game, and I'm not sure if it has any multiplayer aspects. That doesn't bother me since I'm more interested in the RPG aspects and the story.

Rumour Mongering – KOTOR Online

Posted by Stropp on October 25, 2007

There are some more rumours of the KOTOR MMOG in development by Bioware. The article on Primotech Portal is apparently based on information from a "source close to Bioware."

The rumour is that the game is being developed at the Bioware Austin studio with some of the developers who have worked on some of the companys past big games including Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and of course the first KOTOR game. (The second KOTOR was developed by Obsidian).

Rumour even has a release scheduled for sometime in 2009. Of course, we all know that really means first quarter 2010. So there is still some time to go before this hits the shelves, providing the rumours are true. It's probably a bit early to order your lightsabres.

Hellgate London EULA Ruckus

Posted by Stropp on October 19, 2007 I was just reading Blues News and came across a item about the EULA for Hellgate London. Apparently, accepting the EULA gives Electronic Arts the right, amongst other things, to collect personally identifiable information about the customer, the customers computer and IP, and all the applications on the computer. Not surprisingly the comments on the news are less than complementary. EA also came under fire for using the Securom software (which acts like a rootkit) with Bioshock, and I expect that they will be using the same software for Hellgate London. The EULA though, in my opinion, really takes the cake for instrusiveness. I honestly don't mind some copy protection on software, even if lately it is getting out of hand. But to insist on having access to all the information on my computer is a bit much.

3. Consent to Use of Data. You agree that EA, its affiliates, and each Related Party may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer, including without limitation your Internet Protocol address, operating system, application software and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online play. EA and/or the Related Parties may also use this information in the aggregate and, in a form which does not personally identify you, to improve our products and services and we may share that aggregate data with our third party service providers.

Also not surprisingly, there a bunch of the commentors are saying that they will no longer purchase Hellgate London. I wonder how much of an effect this will have on game sales. If history is anything to go by, it probably won't have much of an effect. How about you? Do unreasonable EULAs or onerous and intrusive copy protection mechanisms like Securom determine your final decision to purchase a game? Or do you just decide to trust the publisher?

How To Make A Lot Of Money

Posted by Stropp on October 13, 2007 There are a lot of websites, blogs and eBooks out there about how you can make a lot of money. Here's my surefire, guaranteed and simple three step plus 1 process.

1. Start a game company.
2. Create a bunch of great, best selling games over twelve years.
3. Sell your game company for around 775 million dollars (link to PDF).
4. Profit!

The first step is easy. All you need is a few bucks and a cool name. A game idea is good too. The next step is a bit harder. Creating great games is harder than it sounds. Good ideas? Well everyone has good ideas, not everyone implements those ideas well. Bioware has been making great games for over twelve years now. And they've been doing it consistently. Bioware has been a solid and profitable (important) company pretty much from the beginning. What I find so surprising about this acquisition is that it didn't happen sooner. In hindsight, the writing was on the wall when they partnered up with Pandemic. At the time I wondered why Bioware would want to partner up with another company in the fashion they did. Now, it looks a lot like both companies were positioning themselves for a buyout. Sweetening the pot as it were. Not surprisingly this has made waves all over the web. Bloggers (and Slashdotters) everywhere lamenting how the evil EA Empire will crush every last bit of creativity out of Bioware/Pandemic. You know, a couple of years ago I might have agreed with them. Seeing the destruction of great studios like Westwood didn't fill me with confidence. Nor did the treatment of games like Earth and Beyond, and the Ultima Online 2 development. But EA has been showing some signs of change. The whole EA Mythic thing for instance. EA purchased Mythic Entertainment in order to run their MMOG development projects. That is a great sign that they are taking MMOG development seriously. My biggest concern is what will happen to the rumoured Bioware MMOG. If Bioware continues to develop it, will this step on EA Mythic toes? Best intentions aside, politics is a strong force. It will be interesting to see what EA does with Bioware. Will Bioware lose its identity or will it retain its branding and become EA Bioware? Will Bioware be tasked with handling a major part of EAs business? Just as Mythic was tasked with the MMOG business, Bioware may be given the RPG business. After all, that has been Biowares major focus and where it can be considered strongest. I guess only time will tell. I'll definitely be disappointed if Bioware is swallowed and digested into the EA organism because the source of many great games will then be gone. In the meantime, there are games like Mass Effect on the horizon that I am looking forward to playing. And just over the horizon? Well maybe a KOTOR MMOG. Now that, I'd like to see. Hopefully the acquisition won't stop that from happening.

The Front Lines

Posted by Stropp on October 11, 2007

Warhammer Beta Closing Polish Needed

Posted by Stropp on October 10, 2007 EA Mythic has announced that Warhammer Online will be closing down their beta servers on the 10th of October for two months, opening them up again in early December. There is a post by Mark Jacobs of EA Mythic on the F13 forums that goes into some detail on the background for this decision. My first thought was that this indicated some problems with the game that required some major rejigging of the games systems. It looks like this isn't the case.

2) That we are yanking out whole systems: Nope, we are adding new systems (as planned) and balancing the existing systems. Here's a shocking bit of news, the game isn't balanced yet. Thanks to the tools we have now, we are able to identify what is messed up and we can now fix it ahead of time, as opposed to the past. Trying to fix these things while we have lots of beta testers running around is not conducive to getting a game out on schedule.

But, there is still quite a lot of work to do by the looks. With the release being scheduled for sometime in Quarter One 2008, Mythic have a reasonable amount of wiggle room to complete the game on schedule. Of course, it is still possible that the Q1 release is too optimistic, depending on the work to be done, and that the game will be pushed out again. When you look at it, the Warhammer Online beta started much earlier than most other MMOG betas. If you consider that most games have two or three months of beta before the game is released, then the resumption of the beta in December still gives them a generous amount of time to conduct testing before the game is released. In any case, I would much rather see the developers push back the release date and continue to polish the game than to do a Vanguard and release a buggy mess. If they need to temporarily close the beta to do that, then so be it.

Gods and Heroes – Not So Heroic Now

Posted by Stropp on October 10, 2007 What does it mean when a company decides to put the game they are developing, and that is currently in the beta test phase, on an indefinite hold? The news has just come through that Perpetual Entertainment is putting the brakes on the development of Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising.

Loyal and faithful community members and Beta testers, thank you for your support, help, and understanding during the Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising development process. The development team established some very lofty and ambitious goals when the initial work was started on Gods & Heroes. Recently, we took a step back to evaluate the competitive landscape, the game's current state, and the overall goals for our organization. And while we are truly proud of and pleased with what we have created in Gods & Heroes, we also realize that achieving the level of quality and polish that we are committed to will take a significant investment. The Perpetual team is faced with a unique challenge of simultaneously developing both Gods & Heroes and Star Trek Online in addition to growing our Online Game Platform business. After assessing all of Perpetual's opportunities, we have made the decision to put the development of Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold. I want to express my overwhelming gratitude to the community, engineers, designers, artists, animators, and the game services team for the support and effort that has gone into Gods & Heroes. Moving forward, we're shifting our collective focus, resources and development efforts to Perpetual's Platform Services division and Star Trek Online, thereby ensuring that the game lives up to the high level of expectation set by the dedicated Star Trek fan base. Again, I would personally like to thank all of the Gods & Heroes supporters who have been with us from the beginning. Hopefully, your continued support will be as valuable to our future endeavors as it was with Gods & Heroes.. Vade in pace, Chris McKibbin

You might remember that it was only a few weeks ago that Perpetual laid off a substantial part of their Gods and Heroes development team. The commentary at the time was that they had reached the point where they just needed to polish the game and didn't require so many staff working on the game. It really looks like Perpetual bit off more than they could chew by developing two MMOGs at the same time. Modern game development is an extremely costly endeavor. MMOG development, doubly so. Developing two MMOGs at the same time. Well, you know what they say about fighting a war on two fronts. Laying off staff usually indicates budgetary problems, and let's face it, a MMOG based on the Star Trek franchise is a far safer bet for a good financial return than a completely new IP like Gods and Heroes. The comment in the news release about evaluating the competitive landscape is pretty telling. It is unlikely now that Gods and Heroes will ever be completed by Perpetual Entertainment. I think that the best that can be hoped for, is that the source code and other assets will be sold to another developer who will complete the game. In fact I think this is the most likely outcome, especially if they need the cash to complete Star Trek Online. That Gods and Heroes is in beta indicates that it is close to being complete. That there is a fair bit of info out about the game means that any company willing to complete it, knows pretty much what they are getting. If PE gets the right offer we may see Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising some day after all.

Aussie Rising – Subs Falling

Posted by Stropp on October 9, 2007 In May 2003 I departed the sunny shores of the land of Oz for a couple of years of living in the strange lands of the USA. At the time the Aussie dollar was sitting somewhere around the 60 cent mark. I was quite happy about this, because I realised that if I saved a few quid while dodging bullets and violence on the mean streets of Baltimore, then when I returned to Oz, I would nearly double my money. Well, that particular foreign exchange fueled dream never panned out. Within months, the Aussie dollar started to mysteriously rise in value. I simply put it down to the messing about with the space-time continuum by that lout, Murphy. By the time I departed the city where the US Army sends its medics to the local hospitals to train in dealing with gunshot wounds, the Aussie was up in the high seventies. Why the reminiscence? It happens that in the news the other day, there was a mention that the Aussie dollar is now at an eighteen year high against the US dollar. The pundits are saying that it will reach 0.90 USD sometime in December, and will be at one dollar early in the new year. Apparently it's because there's a lot of metal under the ground in the Outback that is worth digging up and selling to other people. Now while this is bad news for Aussie exporters who deal with the US, it's great news for those of us who buy stuff from American business. Like say, game subscriptions from Blizzard, SOE, or NCSoft. While the Europeans have a big enough market to have the same subscription prices, Euro for Dollar, as US subscribers. Aussies have always as far as I know, paid for subs at US rates. This means that a US$14.99 sub will cost OZ$24.98 when the rate is 60 cents, and OZ$19.99 when the rate is 75 cents. When the Aussie reaches parity, we Antipodeans will finally be paying OZ$14.99 for our MMO subscriptions. Unless of course that mongrel Murphy decides to screw with the fabric of the universe again.

Tabula Rasa Release Pushed Back

Posted by Stropp on October 4, 2007 I saw some news today about the release of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa being pushed back to the 2nd of November from the 19th of October. Players who preordered still get a three day head start. The head start now falls on the 29th of October. I really think this is a good thing. While the last patch fixed a few of the problems I was having, and added a lot of content in the Wilderness zone, there's still quite a bit that needs doing to finish the game. The only problem I see is that two weeks may not be enough. There will have to be some heavily caffeinated developers grinding away on the game to make the deadline. Adding an additional month would probably make more sense. Tabula Rasa is going to be facing some stiff competition, and getting it out early isn't going to give the game an advantage. There  is already too much competition out there, and Tabula Rasa is getting some criticism for not offering enough. While Tabula Rasa is in no way doing a Vanguard, it's important to get the game as good as possible before release. Yes, at some point it has to be released, and no game is perfect, but get things as polished as possible. I really like Tabula Rasa, and I'm having a lot of fun in the beta. I think the game has a lot going for it. And, it's different from most other offerings on the market at the moment. That's something to capitalize on by making sure of a smooth launch.

Poll – How Many MMOs Have You Played

Posted by Stropp on October 4, 2007 One of the sites to link to my First Look at Tabula Rasa last month was Warcry in their Tabula Rasa section. In their news post, they refered to me as someone who has played a myriad of MMOs. It got me thinking (always a dangerous thing) about how many I have played or beta'd. I wondered if I was alone in my MMO fetish, or if there were other freaks like me who can't seem to stop trying out the latest and greatest online game. I'd also love you to tell me which games you have played. I'm especially interested if you've played the non-mainstream MMOs. There are a lot out there. Leave a comment you freaky MMOers.