The Korean MMO Project Black Sheep is changing its name to Akser Online.
Raider has long been Twix and “Project Black Sheep” is now “Asker Online.” The Korea MMO is currently still in development at Neowiz Korea, the minds behind Bless Online. Like Bless, Project Black Sheep, pardon me, now Asker Online, also relies on an action combat system and great graphics.
Little is known about the game yet, but it seems to be already behind schedule. It is expected to soon enter a closed beta that was originally planned for the beginning of the year. The game aims to impress with lots of action, realistic PvP, and breathtakingly fast combos. We have selected a gameplay video and a trailer for you.
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The next closed beta phase of ArcheAge will start tomorrow evening and is expected to be 4 times larger than the last one.
ArcheAge promises to send out many more invitations for the next beta. However, players who participated in the second beta should not rely on being invited again, as access is only guaranteed for alpha players and founders. However, Trion Worlds expects the next beta to be 4 times larger than the last. Thousands of codes have been sent to players who registered on the official site. Additionally, they plan to distribute codes through a series of events with partners.
At the start of the open beta, three more servers will go live, one of which will be in Europe. Existing beta characters will not be deleted and can be continued.
The beta will take place from Thursday, August 14, at 7 PM, until the following Tuesday also at 7 PM.
The list of links to sites where you can snag an ArcheAge beta code can be found in the source.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the weekly stream of the WildStar developers “The Nexus Report”, they discussed in detail the future plans for the MMO and aim to focus on two aspects in the upcoming weeks, which have already been developed: the difficult raid access quest and the rune system.
“You’re not getting in here!”
Raiding has so far been reserved for a very small percentage of players in WildStar, who have struggled through the lengthy attunement quest series. Obviously, they want to change this and encourage more players to at least take a look into the raid instances – they can always scream and flee later.
Three parts of the quest series will be shortened:
It will no longer be necessary to complete all Veteran dungeons on silver; a bronze rating will suffice. Previously, players achieved this only by repeatedly running the same instance over and over until they had enough routine to meet the tough time limits.
Secondly, it will only be necessary to collect 100 data patterns instead of the previous 300. Even hardcore players often criticized this intermediate step, as it represented merely a “time-sink” that forced them to run through the same adventures repeatedly.
Finally, they want to change the task for which all world bosses had to be killed – what this change will look like has not yet been definitively decided, but a reduction in the required bosses is probably the most likely scenario.
“You’re not getting in here!” – But soon, more players will be able to show an “ID”.
These announcements are currently causing a massive outcry in the official forum and on the communication platform reddit, as Carbine had long insisted that they did not want to change the access quests to maintain their difficulty level and the “hardcore” factor of the raids.
Realistically, nothing changes about the difficulty: Only lengthy tasks will be shortened, which only take a lot of time but hardly require any specific gameplay performance: The required bosses still need to be defeated, and nothing changes about the raid instances themselves. However, it is problematic that players who are already raiding have spent a lot of time on this quest and now feel slighted.
We reported on this conflict a few weeks ago and can understand Carbine’s move very well. Some raid guilds attributed the shortage of new raid players and the associated loss of players to the cumbersome access quest. Changes seem appropriate here, and a significant part welcomes this decision.
Clear rune rules are needed in the land…
The second major announcement is the massive change in the rune system. Previously, rune slots were distributed relatively randomly on items, both in type (water, fire, fusion, etc.) and in number. It could happen that during the first visit to an adventure, you receive a strong weapon that had a rune slot and during the next visit find the same weapon again – this time, however, with 4 rune slots.
To make armor from similar gameplay content more equivalent going forward, a uniform distribution of rune slots will be introduced, which looks as follows: Green items will only have one rune slot, blue items from crafting professions and reputation vendors will have two, and all armor pieces from adventures and dungeons three. However, what type of runes an item has is still random. Only items obtained after the respective patch will be affected by this change – all items previously obtained will remain completely unchanged.
… and new runes too!
Often as a player, you are dissatisfied with the rune slots on an item, and a socket for fire runes would be much more useful if it were designed for water runes instead – going forward, you can influence this too! Through a new item, you will be able to exchange all rune slots, but only once per rune slot. However, you are not entirely free in this selection, as you get a choice of two elements each time.
Need an example? If an item has a slot for a fire rune, you can choose to change that slot and get a random selection, for example, “water” and “fusion” (but never “fire” – the original type will not be offered).
Finally, you will also be able to add new rune slots to existing items, increasing the maximum number of runes by up to two times – the corresponding item for this should be obtainable through both PvP and PvE activities.
These changes provide players with even more opportunities for targeted customization without completely negating the random factor in loot distribution – hopefully, these changes will have the desired effect.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
For fans of the MMO “Guild Wars 2“, there is again new content available on the servers, as yesterday the second part of “in the grip of the dragon” was released, the latest episode of the “living world”.
The main attraction is of course the new area, which allows players to venture deep into the Drytop, where they can take down new enemies and claim new rewards.
In addition to the fun monster hunt, advancing the story is mainly on the agenda, as there are accusations against Queen Jennah, who is allegedly an accomplice in the attack on Godfall – players must now get to the bottom of these harsh words and find out what really lies behind them.
But there are also problems with the Asura: The clever Taimi is making good progress with her waypoint calibrator, but she is supposed to give up the research on it; otherwise, the council member Phlunt will not participate in the great gathering of the races. Again, it’s up to the players to find the best possible solution to support Taimi with her project while also ensuring that all species are represented in the grand plan to defend against the dragon.
PvPers have not been left out this time: If they choose the Dry Region reward path during the episode, they can unlock rewards while gracefully showing other players who the biggest tough guy in Tyria is.
With this update, the living world bids farewell for the summer break; how the story regarding the dragon and the political maneuvering continues will only be revealed in the fall of this year – one can be excited.
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The makers of the online shooter Destiny, Bungie, have released an impressive multiplayer trailer on the occasion of gamescom. The PvP mode shown in the video strongly resembles a massive battle in an MMO at certain points.
During the press conference, the developers proudly announced that their costly project is the most pre-ordered video game in history. However, this milestone has a small flaw: this impressive statistic applies to games trying their luck as a new brand.
The signs are good for Destiny, which officially launches on September 9. But this is just the beginning, according to Bungie. Already in December, the first expansion “The Dark Below” will be released; after all, this is a long-term project – no wonder, with a budget of supposedly 500 million dollars.
Over 5 million people have already played Destiny in the beta. Analysts go even further and estimate that the MMO shooter will easily sell more than 20 million copies.
Now back to the video. In this, player-versus-player battles can be seen taking place in an arena in the Crucible. Teams can expect challenging objectives, as there are multiple ways to decide the match in their favor.
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The unofficial numbers for the distribution of players across the individual German World of Warcraft servers paint a completely different picture of the load.
On wowprogress, one can roughly read from a table how players distributed themselves across the individual German servers at the beginning of August and which faction they belong to. Wowprogress counts only one character per account and only if that character has defeated a raid boss in the Battle for Orgrimmar (at least on normal difficulty) or has a level 90 in a guild that has recorded raid progress. So these are not official numbers, but they are likely to be very close to reality.
Of the eight largest German servers, seven have tipped
This results in a surprising picture of a divided server landscape. Of the eight largest German servers, a total of seven have “tipped”. This means one faction is dominant there, while the other is vastly inferior, almost non-existent on some servers.
Tipped towards the Horde are: Blackhand, Blackrock, Eredar, Thrall, and Frostwolf.
Tipped towards the Alliance are: Antonidas and Aegwynn.
The only balanced server with more than 10,000 registered raid chars is Blackmoore. What is surprising is that even “PvE” servers have tipped in one direction or the other. Many of them have been in this situation for years. It also stands out that among the most popular servers, five belong to those that are found at the beginning of the alphabet, thus at the very top of the server list. A trend that is confirmed in many MMOs.
The 25 smallest WoW servers fit into the largest
Another interesting statistic that shows the difference between “prosperous” and “empty” servers: According to the list, the raid population of the 25 smallest servers, when combined, is still below that of Blackhand, the largest German server.
Mein MMO thinks: It would be an interesting experiment to see how WoW would have developed without realm pools and character transfers – we will probably never know without a parallel world. Blizzard has chosen to solve the problems associated with the severe imbalance in player distribution differently than through direct server consolidation or any attempts to balance the imbalance. They work with realm pools, cross-realm play, and connected servers. Now they are planning for the next expansion that the Horde and Alliance will share an auction house. This should help players on the empty side of a tipped server, provided they are still on the realm by then and have not long since been transferred at a cost.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The list of the top 20 games that consumed the most hours of Raptr users on PC in July is here. The Elder Scrolls Online has dropped out of the top 20, Final Fantasy XIV made a leap, WildStar is losing but holding on bravely.
The top 20 list from Raptr is an indicator of the popularity of individual games. Of course, these are not absolute numbers; the program simply reflects the number of hours players spent in the games using the Raptr program. In the absence of other methods to measure these numbers, this list is one of the most important trend indicators in the gaming scene.
Blizzard remains ahead with World of Warcraft and Hearthstone
In July, the three favorites are back at the top. After League of Legends and Dota 2, the MMO giant World of Warcraft follows. The content drought, as players have waited in Azeroth for something new for eleven months, does not stop Raptr users from spending a lot of time in World of Warcraft.
In 7th place is already Hearthstone. In July, the first wings of Naxxrams provided an extra reason to play, even if only in the last weeks of July. This could increase in August, even though the weather actually invites people to switch to tablets. If Hearthstone ever gets the promised Android support, it could affect the PC numbers on Raptr.
Final Fantasy XIV on the fast track, WildStar loses
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is gaining popularity among Raptr users, climbing from rank 16 to 11. July saw the Patch 2.3 which included another important update and a free login weekend. Unlike most other MMOs, there is almost nothing negative to say about FF XIV; it seems to be picking up pace.
For WildStar , many expected a significant drop, and it has occurred. After launching in June, when WildStar started at a strong sixth place, it was clear it wouldn’t stay that high. However, the drop was not as dramatic as expected. It only fell to 13th place – far less than the doomsayers had predicted. Since the Raptr list is based not on player numbers but on hours played, WildStar could very well stabilize at such a value, thanks to its hardcore nature and the fact that it brings new content every month, even with relatively few players. However, the numbers for early August do not seem good.
The Elder Scrolls Online drops out of the top 20, Guild Wars 2 rises slightly
After The Elder Scrolls Online dropped to the bottom of the list in June, it has now fallen out of the top 20. It is ranked 26th. Meanwhile, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim has jumped up 5 places and is back at 14. The assumption is that some online fans have turned back to the now somewhat seasoned Skyrim. It could also be due to a Steam sale of the old game. Major changes are planned for TESO in the coming months, which will surely affect the playtime.
Guild Wars 2 remains almost unchanged at one of the lower ranks in the top 20. A content boost is currently happening with the new season of the Living World, so one might have expected a stronger increase in hours played.
World of Tanks loses steam, Star Wars: The Old Republic makes a comeback
Another game we’re covering that makes it into the list is World of Tanks , which is losing some steam among Raptr users. It has fallen from 11 to 19. Here, other focuses have been set in the last few months with the iOS version Blitz and the version for Xbox 360. Now, however, a new Patch 9.2 has been released for PC, which brought a new feature with the fortifications.
Just back in the list is Star Wars: The Old Republic . The game rose from 22 back into the greener pastures of the top 20. Here, too, a larger expansion is expected soon is on the way. It will be interesting to see how this will reflect in the Raptr numbers.
You can read about which PC titles more than 20 million active Raptr users were occupied with in June here.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In ArcheAge, the winners of a creative competition have been selected, showcasing a sense of humor.
For the last beta of the sandbox MMORPG ArcheAge, Trion Worlds came up with something special and asked for player creativity. They were to provide a design for a sail. The five best, they promised, would be selected and richly rewarded with a Founder’s package.
Hundreds of submissions were received, including true treasures. However, they didn’t want to limit themselves to just five. Therefore, they quickly declared two sails with kraken motifs as both worthy of prizes and awarded a bonus prize to a clever but not very artistically demanding “meta” sail. On the sail, it read: “404. Sails not found.”
Next Thursday, the next closed beta phase will continue.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The tank simulation World of Tanks claims to have broken the 100 million barrier in combination with its sister game World of Warplanes. The ports on Xbox 360 and iOS have contributed to this. WoT aims to continue progressing in this direction.
According to a report from GamesinAsia, the tank simulation World of Tanks, along with World of Warplanes, now has 100 million players, which does not reflect the number of active players but rather the total number of accounts ever created. The majority of players are surely from World of Tanks. The vast majority of them likely drive their tanks on PC, but the expansion of tank warfare to iOS and Xbox 360 has probably brought in the missing millions. The Xbox 360 version has already attracted 3.8 million players since its launch in February. The iOS version, World of Tanks Blitz, has been downloaded over 5 million times.
That leaves just over 90 million for the PC. Impressive numbers. The CEO of Wargaming.net states that World of Tanks has created and occupied a niche. The current jump is attributed to the successful port to Xbox 360 and iOS, and this is also a direction that they want to pursue further.
To celebrate the occasion and for Gamescom, a new trailer has been produced.
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In Blizzard’s free card game Hearthstone, the next wing in Naxxramas opens today at midnight. In the Construct Quarter, four new bosses and a total of nine new cards await Hearthstone players.
On the night from Tuesday to Wednesday at 23:59, the Construct Quarter, the penultimate wing of the Terror Necropolis Naxxramas, is set to open. Again, it will demand 700 gold or a fee in euros before revealing its horrors and treasures.
Patchwork, Grobbulus, Gluth, and Thaddius – the Construct Street Boys
Four bosses instead of three, as in the other wings, await you in the Construct Quarter – for this reason, next week the Terror Wyrm Lair, like in WoW, will only have two bosses.
The leak from a few months ago, which brought us so much joy and you so many spoilers, unfortunately ends at Patchwork. We do not know in detail how the fights against Grobbulus, Gluth, and Thaddius will proceed.
Patchwork will be a quirky fight. Because he doesn’t play cards. Instead, he has a weapon (reportedly a 5/8 meat hook) and can simply remove a minion from the board with his hero power. Reportedly, he has Windfury in HC, meaning he attacks twice, although for one point less damage. Those thinking “No problem, just destroy the weapon once and that’s it” – it is supposedly set to respawn immediately. This is the fight that most players who knew about it have been scratching their heads over beforehand. Sounds like: Always ‘a hand’s breadth’ of spotter under the keel.
About the other opponents, we currently only know – through data mining – their hero powers and a little more.
The Plague Giant Grobbulus causes 1 damage to minions with his hero power (2 in HC). If one dies from the damage, Grobbulus summons a slime. The slime creatures are said to be 2/2, but Grobbulus can buff them up.
The hungriest of all dogs Gluth sets the HP of all minions to 1 with his hero power. It is said that he has some self-buff cards and bites harder when a minion with deathrattle dies.
And ambiance sound supplier Thaddius switches the attack and health values of all minions with his hero power.
And what loot is there? Perhaps the most important cards of the expansion!
For defeating Patchwork, there is Grave Robber (a 1/2 minion for 1 mana). Whenever you summon a minion with a deathrattle effect, Grave Robber gains +1/+1. This unassuming card is highly regarded by many experts. They believe that a deck can, should, must, and will be built around it. Especially with the many cheap deathrattle cards, this could lead to extremely potent Zoo variants.
Completing Grobbulus rewards players with the Mad Scientist . A 2/2 minion for 2 mana that brings a secret from your deck onto the battlefield with its deathrattle. Those with the corresponding deck can get value here. It is not much worse than a standard 3/2 or 2/3 minion. It could be a viable alternative for Mages, Hunters, or Paladins. Because the secret is played without costing mana. It does have a high randomness factor.
For defeating Gluth, you receive Zombie Chow , a 1-mana minion with incredible 2/3 stats that heals the opposing hero for 5 health points with its deathrattle. It has already been hailed as the “best new 1-mana drop” in the game, as it can dominate in the early game when the focus is not on dealing damage to the opponent but on getting as much value back as possible. A good investment for control decks.
For defeating Thaddius, the Wailing Soul joins the repertoire, a 3/5 minion for 4 mana that silences all your minions. A trick card that allows for extreme combinations and has certainly given some fever dreams to innovative deck builders. Certainly not a card you just throw into a deck, but one that is suitable for synergy with cards that are hindered by negative deathrattle or other effects.
The Thaddius Trio
For successfully completing the Construct Quarter, the player will receive two Legendary cards.
Stalagg, a 7/4 minion for 5 mana and Feugen, a 4/7 minion for 5 mana. While Stalagg is considered “okay” as he is likely to vanish from the board in the opponent’s turn against a lower mana cost than 5, Feugen generates considerable interest thanks to his higher health, making him the more attractive card.
If both die in a battle without being silenced or transformed, they activate a joint deathrattle effect and summon Thaddius (an 11/11 minion). Those planning to play Feugen might also consider making room for Stalagg. The two will certainly attract Sheeps, Frogs, and Silences. No one wants to face Thaddius.
The Class Cards: This time Priest and Warrior
The class card for the Priest is the Dark Cultist , a 3/4 minion for 3 mana that gives a friendly minion 3 health points as deathrattle. Considered perhaps the strongest class card of the expansion and could single-handedly elevate the Priest. A strong drop for only 3 mana, even slightly better than the Earth Ring Farseer that would otherwise be played for this cost. Experts are already quite excited.
The Warrior receives the Bite of the Death as a class card, a 4-mana weapon with 4/2 that deals 1 damage to all minions as deathrattle. A cheaper alternative to the Arcanite Reaper, which could prove even stronger in certain situations. It should replace the Arcanite Reaper unless one loads up to the teeth or has no access to the wing.
Who the Warrior and Priest will have to defeat with a premade deck is not yet known.
This was already the penultimate round of the expansion. Next week continues with Kel’Thuzad and his lap dragon Sapphiron. The question that moves us: Where is Mister Bigglesworth?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The early access of the zombie survival MMO H1Z1 will probably take a while longer. At SOE Live, the house convention, they also do not want to announce a release date.
If you search the internet for “H1Z1 Early Access”, you will come across articles announcing an upcoming EA launch in May, June, July, and August. By the latest for SOE Live, which starts at the end of the week alongside Gamescom, one had expected the announcement of an early access date. However, this hope was dashed by SOE president John Smedley late Monday evening our time with a tweet, embedded between thoughts of buying a puppy, stating that they will not announce a date for the launch of H1Z1 Early Access at SOE Live:
we aren’t announcing an H1Z1 EA date at SOE Live btw.
In the Reddit thread on the topic, fans are hotly debating Smedley’s tweet. Some believe that Smedley is trolling the fans and misdirecting them with the tweet since they want to announce the release date sooner. Others who are more optimistic believe that instead of mentioning a date, they will simply open the servers directly. Others do not see it so positively and are quite annoyed (fitting for the zombie MMO). We will keep you updated on the latest developments.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Teut Weidemann from Ubisoft has examined the business model of League of Legends and uncovered some weaknesses.
According to Teut Weidemann from Ubisoft’s Blue Byte, the business model of League of Legends has three weaknesses: League of Legends gives away too much for free, regularly introduces overpowered champions only to nerf them later, and has a conversion rate that is too low.
The conversion rate for client-based games typically ranges between 15% and 25%, while World of Tanks even reaches 30%. In League of Legends, however, only 3.75% of players spend money.
According to Weidemann, Riot openly admits to introducing heroes that are so strong that players must have them immediately, only to weaken them later. However, this apparently doesn’t bother LoL players. Weidemann believes that by nerfing, Riot damages the newly purchased “goods” of the players.
Riot can afford generosity, others may not
The reason why the business model of League of Legends works is the huge player base of the game. Weidemann warns other developers not to copy Riot’s supposed success model: “They can afford it; you maybe can’t.”
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The SF-MMO Defiance has switched to a Free2Play model for PC. However, there were delays in changing the payment model for Playstation 3 and XBox 360. Now, it should at least be happening for the PS 3.
The MMO shooter Defiance was actually supposed to switch to a free-to-play model on the consoles PS 3 and XBox 360 a month ago. However, Trion Worlds had to postpone it because a new version of the game had made the MMO shooter too unstable. Players have been waiting for the promised transition since then, and information has been sparse.
It has now been announced that the switch of the payment model for Playstation 3 should occur this week. On Tuesday, the US servers will be affected; on Wednesday, August 13th, the EU servers are also expected to switch.
Existing Defiance accounts will receive a Patron status for 30 days and retain some of their bonuses.
The switch for XBox 360 will take longer. It is said that Trion Worlds is working with Microsoft on a solution.
In the sandbox MMO Landmark, players can now join guilds. At the SOE Live convention, more information is expected on how Landmark will proceed.
With the latest patch, Sony Online Entertainment has finally brought guilds to Landmark. With the newly introduced interface, player guilds can be created and managed, there are guild news, essentially the full package. SOE stated that they have kept the interface intentionally simple at the beginning. It is to be refined and expanded later.
At the end of next week, parallel to Gamescom, SOE Live will start, where fans of Landmark hope for more information about the game. Some expect that a date for the open beta will already be announced for Landmark. For a free-to-play game like Landmark, this would be equivalent to a soft launch.
The patch notes for the latest version of Landmark, which brought guilds as well as glass voxels and much more, can be found in the sources.
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The SF-MMO WildStar received mostly positive reviews from the press two months after its release. The general tone of the criticism is very positive, though some criticize the game for a lack of innovation.
Better reviews than The Elder Scrolls Online, but also fewer
The website Metacritic aggregates reviews from around the world and produces a nice score. For WildStar, it is 82 out of 100. This is significantly more than The Elder Scrolls Online (71 out of 100). However, TESO received much more attention from the international press than WildStar. The 64 listed reviews for The Elder Scrolls Online contrast with only 39 for WildStar.
The major sites praise mainly the pace and enthusiasm of the game
A selection of press opinions:
The major US pop culture and video game site IGN gives 87 points. Although some launch issues and technical difficulties are noted, they are considered islands in a sea of bubbling creativity. WildStar is described as loud, bright, and booming. Those who cannot handle it may find the game not suitable for them. WildStar is particularly worthwhile for players who are willing to invest a lot.
The British PC Gamer gives WildStar 90 points. They enjoy the clever quest and outstanding combat system.
The German Gamestar ranks the game similarly high, with Jürgen Stöffel scoring it 86 out of 100 points, describing his trip to Nexus as playing in a frenzy. Just the simple act of defeating monsters was so much fun for him that questing became secondary.
The German online magazine 4Players gives 85 points. The tester elevates WildStar from a hidden gem to a hit. They praise a colorful mix of new and proven elements.
Slight criticism for lack of innovation
At mmorpg.com, an online site focused on MMOs, after a test marathon, it lands at 84 points but restricts that the game brings little new. What WildStar does, it does with elegance and drive.
Strategyinformer, another English-language online site, strikes a similar note. With a score of 80 points, they note that it is not an MMO that advances the genre. However, it is well-balanced and mature.
The online magazine Polygon, which is rather oriented towards gaming culture, rates WildStar with 70 points. The tester indicates that he has seen too little of the endless ocean of content. Most of what he does in WildStar he has experienced before, but this time it feels somehow faster. At the moment, that is enough to please him.
With 82 points, WildStar ranks an impressive 12th place among current PC games.
We at mein-mmo.de also tested the game and agree with the general positive tone of the press. Our Cortyn gave WildStar a few more points than the global average. For us, the SF-MMO scored 89%.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The zombie MMO H1Z1 is being developed by Sony Online Entertainment in constant contact with the fans. However, not everyone at SOE handles this as casually as President John Smedley.
A report from the Baltimore Sun introduces SOE’s new concept of involving fans early in the game’s development. As early as April, the head of the studio, John Smedley, addressed fans with a lengthy post on the popular forum reddit to present this new approach of continuous exchange. By now, there is a subreddit only for H1Z1, where developers regularly make appearances.
Even the leading employees at SOE were quickly thrown into the deep end. They avidly read forum threads on reddit and participated in the discussions. But that was just the first step. Soon it was said to developer Jimmy Whisenhunt: Get in front of the camera, you’re doing a live stream now. The first broadcast of H1Z1 turned into a live demo. “I don’t know where this will go, to be honest,” Whisenhunt said at the time. Users saw the game and commented. Reddit was buzzing, and the devs have since been in constant contact with the fans. In a series of developer blogs, individual employees present themselves and their current work in detail.
According to Smedley, this type of interactivity could revolutionize game design. Although he admits that it was a shift for the team. For developers used to working in silence and presenting their game only when it is finished, this openness can also be exhausting. Smedley said, according to the Baltimore Sun: “I would say everyone carries the concept with them. But to varying degrees. Not everyone feels comfortable with a live stream on Twitch.”
The downsides of openness
Mein MMO thinks: In recent weeks, the model of openness that Smedley represents with SOE and which is praised in the presented article has also shown some weaknesses. Because when fans continuously participate in the development of the game, developers make themselves vulnerable and exposed. They cannot, like Blizzard or others, merely murmur a “When it’s done” and pacify players after promising transparency and continuous exchange.
The fans, who have been spoiled with information from the daily life of game development, have recently experienced a bit of withdrawal because the progress of H1Z1 has apparently fallen behind schedule.
However, there is hope that by the end of the week, with SOE Live, new information about H1Z1 will arrive. Especially the release date for early access is eagerly awaited.
Every MMO is actually dying constantly. Every game loses users over time, players are disappointed, everything is going down the drain. Whether it’s World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls Online, WildStar, or EVE – everything is doomed.
Actually, all MMO players should wear black. Always. Because their game is dying! From the very first moment it is doomed. Just like pretzels start to get soggy the moment you take them out of the package. You have to imagine it like the doctor just delivered the baby, proudly holds it up, and the nurse makes a face and says: “That’s nothing special. It’s bound to go free-to-play soon.”
You read in columns that everything is dying. Always. WoW – with 6.8 million players? Doesn’t matter. Almost dead. The trend is going downward. The Elder Scrolls Online significantly improved after three patches and blessed with fiery supporters? A fringe phenomenon! A few forever stuck in the past cling to the illusion, refusing to accept any reality. And WildStar? Pah, we don’t even need to talk about that. A bizarre niche game, doomed to fail from the start. So it is said in many corners of the internet.
Guild Wars 2: Many players said that the remaining MMOs would find their resting place here.
When Guild Wars 2 came out, I made the mistake of being the only one in my circle of acquaintances who continued playing World of Warcraft. I was constantly nagged about the superiority of the new one: “What? You’re in a queue? How 2006 is that! I’m in an overflow server!” – “What? You’re waiting for a tank? How 2006 is that? We don’t need that!” – Clearly: WoW was practically dead. Anyone still playing it was committing some sort of desecration – with a clothespin on their nose. That the game is still fun, those few players probably had to convince themselves in their delirium.
It’s well known that predicting the demise of WoW is one of the most popular pastimes in the MMO world, a sort of evergreen among self-proclaimed MMO experts. But even EVE Online, the little game that has grown and thrived against all odds for years, has been said to be dying for more than 10 years. EVE was nice for a while, but now it’s time for something new. And we won’t even talk about all the games that were predicted to switch to free-to-play two minutes after their announcement. It’s sad that some free-to-play games even ended up doing better afterward, but that’s another topic.
And who’s to blame? The Swiss! No, just kidding, actually everyone
What is actually causing all of this?
The Course of Events
On one hand: MMOs are indeed always dying. Almost every MMO goes up sharply and then down. Many more people buy an MMO than there are players who continue playing after two months.
Currently a popular topic in WildStar: More players at the release!
Is that a problem? Well, not really. It’s normal. The developers know about it and have models in place that assume that not everyone who buys a game will still be playing it in the second, third or eighth month. No one cares that there are such models and that the developers expect player losses from the very beginning.
Players believe that if an MMO’s curve is pointing downward, that’s a sure sign: It’s a total flop. But that’s simply the reality of games. A drastic collapse is something different. When a game falls so far short of expectations that a stable player count cannot be found, then it’s a problem. But usually outside the sacred halls of developers, people don’t know the numbers and calculations. They don’t know the player count a game needs. They can’t form a judgment. But does that stop anyone? Of course not. The idea is: “If a game is emptier in the second month than in the first, then it’s a flop.” It may seem that way, but it’s simply nonsense.
Whoever makes winter coats also has a calculation that anticipates they won’t sell that well in summer. Without knowing the budget and expectations of the companies, you simply cannot say if a game is “doing well,” if it is “dying,” or if it is “fading away.”
The business plans are more or less secret…
If you have the business plans and see the numbers, you have a rough idea; beforehand, you don’t. In most recent MMOs, no one really knows how they are doing and whether they are meeting expectations or not. It’s all just an impression that intensifies into a sort of “self-fulfilling prophecy.” An MMO is struggling because everyone says it is struggling.
And why does everyone think an MMO is struggling? Because they see fewer players in the game, in their guilds, in their friend lists, in the second month than in the first. Here the circle closes.
How much perception can deceive was recently shown by numbers about the profit of games that offer the option to subscribe or have a quasi-subscription. There, two MMOs, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Lord of the Rings Online, lively competed for the top spots, which have been considered dead for at least four years based on all predictions and expert opinions.
The Press
The second problem is the press, I must say. New titles are attractive, the publisher buys advertising, the game sells out on Amazon, there are discounts, special magazines are printed about the game, specials are written, internet traffic booms, and the interest is huge. For most titles, the press follows the “Barney Stinson” formula: New is always better.
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Most MMOs are only treated with indifference two months after their launch; PR news continues, but not much else happens. Because then they are already on the verge of the next game that has to be pushed. The testers who intensively cared for the game and wrote guides are now needed for something else. The normal coverage is taken over by news writers, who often have no relation to the game.
Interest in the MMO that was eagerly awaited three months ago has faded. This creates the very strange impression that everything that is coming is great. Everything that was already there must be old news. “Is anyone still playing that? No. No one talks about it anymore.”
Many games have more previews than reviews.
The Industry
And yes. Of course, studios are often partly to blame for the problems. They miss innovations, develop away from their players, make compromises where they shouldn’t, are only interested in their profit, and sometimes have a really bad idea. But most of all, they have a huge credibility problem.
At Star Wars: The Old Republic, fans became increasingly suspicious about whether everything was really going well.
No one publicly announces, “Our game is not doing well.” Lay-offs and departures from key positions are sold as “normal rotation.” The community managers smile outwardly as if they were models, flight attendants, or… community managers. The lead developers might be in deep trouble, but externally they present a confident demeanor and promise: We’re doing fine, everything will be okay, we’re working on the content, it’s great. Because these statements are often passed on to players, unaffected by the press, fans no longer trust such statements. The people involved seem like football coaches in a relegation zone, who have just been expressionlessly offered a handshake from the board, assuring them that they are “fully supported.” And some community manager or press officer would have assured the drowning on the Titanic that everything was fine and that cocktails would soon be served. The incoming floodwaters might be regrettable, but they’re working hard to have that under control soon.
How does a real “We are doing well” differ from a false one? If the person who says it is a professional (and they are): Then not at all. As a player, you simply believe no one anymore but rely on your approximate feeling and the echo in the resonant body of the forums, the trolls, the fans, and it screams: “The end is near!” So an MMO is practically always dying.
And this is indeed where one of those nasty vicious circles kicks in that people fear. Because if a game falls short of expectations and investors lose faith in the game, they turn off the money tap: Content becomes less frequent, servers get merged, communication with fans dries up – but still, not a single word is heard that the game is struggling. Therefore, MMO players no longer listen to what the industry is saying and assume that the sun-kissed beauty is actually coughing up blood, especially when she smiles particularly photogenic into the cameras.
The Players
And of course, the players themselves are to blame for every MMO always dying in perception. Today, there are far more games, even in the MMO niche, than anyone could ever play. You constantly feel like you’re missing out on something. Therefore, one somewhat justifies to oneself that the game everyone is talking about isn’t right for them. That it would be a waste of time to get involved.
And it’s also fun to see through things. An informed player and reader stands out by not believing everything they read somewhere.
You don’t have to be a prophet to give every single game the thumbs down, predicting that it will only reach niche title status at best. And if others get upset about it? The more the better. A bit of pessimism in MMOs is like predicting that the sun will rise the next day: “I predict that it will fall short of the highest expectations and will not reach the success of World of Warcraft.” Oh really? No shit, Sherlock? I predict that too.
Because just as there are pessimists regarding an MMO, there are also hopeless romantics who describe the game in the most beautiful colors. To say that they are wrong and that the game will never be as good as the fanboys believe – you don’t need to be the reincarnation of Nostradamus for that.
Just don’t mess with me!
And of course, there are also players who declare a game dead for purely selfish reasons. Because especially in MMOs, there is a competitive mindset among players like in Highlander. There can only be one MMO, to dominate them all. A game that as many as possible should play, to rule over the others, so that their games wither away and not their own.
By the way – I used to tell myself back during the times of Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft that my acquaintances just wanted to ruin WoW for me because they wanted me to play Guild Wars 2 with them. Well. No one is safe from false perception.
I have learned from experience, even if it sounds like a Sunday sermon: There are no dead or living games, only good or bad ones. And the most important thing is whether they are enjoyable or not. The rest really isn’t that important, is it?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The online shooter Warface advertises in Russia with the classic combination of a beautiful woman and guns.
World of Warcraft also once advertised with celebrities
Sometimes you have to smile when you look at what is being sold to you by marketing agencies, although in the MMO sector here it usually ends well. But World of Warcraft also once advertised with celebrities. And while it was somewhat believable that Smudo or Thomas D. might pilgrimage to Azeroth from time to time, it was much harder to imagine nature boy Chuck Norris or William Shatner doing so. But the advertising was mostly amusing and played with the image of the actors and the game, without being too blatant. After all, it is important for advertising not to insult the intelligence of the players. In other countries, they go a step further and consciously appeal to some baser instincts without hesitation.
Different countries, different customs
Warface, an online shooter from German developer Crytek (Farcry and Crysis), is not a big deal here. However, in Russia, the game seems to be thriving, as a press report states. Mail.ru, a huge corporation that is also trying its hand as a publisher, organized a tournament with a prize pool of 1.5 million rubles – about 31,000 euros.
The accompanying story to the tournament also mentioned the Russian starlet Lera Kudryavtseva. The actress, singer, and presenter has become so enthusiastic about the game “Warface” that she was more than willing to lend her voice to one of the characters there and even undress for the sake of the game.
The report then shows some photos, featuring a scantily clad lady posing next to various war apparatus. How do you get back to the game from that? Quite simply, the report then ends on a conciliatory note: She and her son are now said to be practically obsessed with Warface.
The tasteful and by no means clichéd photos can be found in the sources.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The US publisher of TERA, En Masse Entertainment, invites talented players to create extraordinary images that could then be featured in the loading screen of the Free2Play MMO.
With an unusual action, US-TERA is looking for new loading screens. Every MMO veteran knows that they wear out after the x-th viewing. And anyone who stared at the loading screen forever might have thought: “I can do better!” At least that’s what En Masse Entertainment is counting on, launching a design competition. The action runs until Sunday, August 17, where players, instead of securing loot through quick reflexes or endurance, can do so with their creativity. For five players, playing TERA after the competition will surely be a special experience. And in Teamspeak, you’ll hear them asking: “Hey, hey – did you just see the loading screen? That was me!”
Unfortunately, European players are left out this time. Gameforge held such a competition before – most recently for Valentine’s Day. Some impressive loading screens came out of that, but they remained available to players for only a few weeks. Player Neokeater from the Arcadia server was one of the winners, creating this cute Elin artwork fitting for “Lovers’ Day”:
Speaking of Gameforge and TERA EU. Today is the last day where you can get a special gift for logging in. Among other things, there are a weapon skin, the pet Voracious, and some useful rolls that allow you to reset the cooldown of certain instances.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Seven to ten new starships will be launched for Delta Rising. The expansion for the Free2Play MMO Star Trek Online is planned for October.
In a letter to fans, Stephen D’Angelo, the Executive Producer of STO, reveals what kind of hardware is being planned for the Delta Quadrant. It will amount to seven to ten ships of the new “Tier 6” class. The STO team is aware that this selection of new ships will not be enough to meet all the needs of a modern captain. Therefore, the current ships will remain fully functional and compete with the new ones.
After all, fans have put a lot of work into their current ships, and the developers do not want to diminish that. They also understand that some players may have become attached to their “baby”.
In the coming months, D’Angelo further reveals, there will still be much to test. Some of this will take place on the public test server Tribble, where players can try out the new content and features and provide feedback to the developers.
Before the expansion launches, they want to inform fans as much as possible. Only about the storyline of the expansion will silence be maintained, aiming to surprise the fans of the MMO.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
