Club Penguin
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Disney shuts down Club Penguin clone plagued by racism and 'e-sex'
Disney has shut down Club Penguin Online, an explicit clone of Club Penguin where racist language and virtual sex went unchecked.
MMO Family: A cornucopia of kid-friendly Halloween events
Part of the fun of MMOs is the chance to dress up our characters, so it's no surprise that the month of October is a big one for kid-friendly MMOs. There's a plethora of pumpkins, countless costumes, and copious amounts of creepy housing decor. And the vast tonnage of treats available makes those real-life treat bags look minuscule in comparison. In this week's MMO Family, we've got a roundup of several Halloween celebrations in kid-friendly games. And while most are about the "stuff," there are also several creative contests and events that are worth a look. Get your scare on below!
Jukebox Heroes: 14 MMO soundtracks you can check out on SoundCloud
I'm a pretty slow adopter of new technology and services, so I've only recently really started paying attention to the music-sharing service that is SoundCloud because I've started to see more and more MMO composers plopping down their work onto the site for the world to enjoy. Now that I've spent some time with SoundCloud, I've got to say just how impressed I am with what it can offer to the soundtrack community. Composers and studios can put their soundtracks up on the site for people to listen through without that annoying arbitrary 30-second limit that certain digital distribution platforms use. In addition to providing music for the ears, musicians have the option to show where these albums can be purchased -- and in some cases, offer the tracks as a free download. In return, listeners can tag portions of the songs and have back-and-forth discussions with the composers. I've done a lot of digging and have discovered quite a few MMO soundtracks that are available on SoundCloud, including some that you can legally download and enjoy today. Here are 14 to get you started, but if you see any more, please let us all know in the comments!
Free for All: What a Memoria MMO might look like
There are a few styles of gaming that we just don't see much of anymore, and point-and-click adventure games has been one of those. The good news is that compared to other older styles like text-based or email-gaming, point-and-click adventuring is making a comeback. Thanks to the mobile market and its resurrected titles like Broken Sword and amazing newer games like The Walking Dead, adventure-lovers have much to do. Personally, I find adventure gaming to be a thrilling experience because they generally allow a player to use her brain more than her reflexes, and the experiences are usually quite beautiful too. Memoria is Daedalic Entertainment's latest adventure game set in The Dark Eye universe. It's often described as "the German Dungeons and Dragons." I'm not sure that the description gives either IP full credit, but The Dark Eye is one interesting universe. As usual, though, my mind wondered how the game could be worked into a multiplayer version. A massively multiplayer version. I've asked the same question of other games before, so let's look at how Memoria might make a killer MMO!
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online sunsetting in September
It looks as though Disney is going on a good old-fashioned reaping today and culling some of its less-profitable MMO properties. In addition to shuttering Toontown Online, the Mouse House is sunsetting Pirates of the Caribbean Online on September 19th. The official announcement informed players today of the sad news and explained the decision to cancel this title: "The Walt Disney Company is committed to offering high-quality, entertaining play experiences in both online virtual worlds and mobile apps. At this time, we are shifting our development focus towards other online and mobile play experiences, such as Club Penguin and a growing selection of Disney mobile apps." The upshot of this is that the final month will be playable for free to anyone interested, and any players who paid up past August 20th will receive an email with details regarding refunds.
MMObility: The Chromebook 'All In One' project - Ten standard MMOs
It's time for another installment of my month-long look at the Samsung Chromebook, the newest in the line of all-in-one devices brought to us by Google. Everything has worked pretty well so far, but the light notebook does have its issues. I'm so used to using my Google Nexus 7 tablet for reading emails and now reading articles and magazines that I am having a hard time without the pinch-to-zoom. I love the instant zooming; it's much easier when I am reading or surfing the net. (Wait, do we still say "surfing the net"?) In fact, the main issue with the Samsung Chromebook is its size. I have to hit ctrl-+ to zoom in pages often. Other than the smaller fonts, few other issues have cropped up -- I've found gaming has been really fun on this little guy. I've noticed that everyone who reads of gaming on the device is sort of perplexed. Why would I want to game on such a non-gaming machine? It's simple, really. As the title says, this is another attempt of mine to find the perfect device for doing all that I do using only the browser: writing, gaming, gaming, writing, watching videos, writing, and playing games. This week, I have 10 "standard" MMOs for you. These are games that act more like a common, client-based MMOs than the MMORTS titles I covered last week, but with some exceptions. The desktop browser can handle amazing, 3-D graphics, but a Chromebook does not allow downloads like Unity or Java. Keep that in mind.
Free for All: The second annual Frindie Awards
It's time once again for the Frindie Awards, my attempt to shine some light on the best indie, browser-based, free-to-play, and unusual MMOs that are all-too-often ignored by press -- and players. This one is for the little guys! Well, mostly. It's also for those games that seem to have passed under the collective radar of Massively readers or that seem to be very misunderstood. Picking the winners this year is just as hard as it was last year, maybe even harder. 2012 was an incredible year for MMOs, so I would rather have just put together an article that highlights every single favorite. In the end, it's more helpful to make myself pick out a winner. It's a rare thing for some of these games to even receive a nod on a major website, something I still can't figure out. Either way, it's best to think of all of the MMOs on this list as my favorites from 2012. Anyway, let's get to the awards!
MMO Family: Winter roundup of kid-friendly MMOs
Winter is always my favorite time of year for family-friendly MMOs. Holiday events tend to be the norm now in most MMOs, but they're tailor-made for games with a younger audience. Winter also seems to usher in lots of new changes and updates as well, so it's time again to revisit some popular titles to play catch up. Over the past year, we've looked at several new titles and visited veteran MMOs titles to see what's changed. From Club Penguin to Pirate101, we'll look at recent updates and upcoming news in MMO Family's winter roundup!
Club Penguin gets $4.7 million online safety campaign
Games for kids need to be safe for kids, and recent news about Habbo highlights the importance of this. In the aftermath of concerns raised in that community, Disney has decided to launch an expansive safety campaign for its popular Club Penguin title. The campaign will spend $4.7 million to target not only the children who who play the game but also parents through advertising on various media including websites, magazines, television, and in the game itself. Club Penguin co-founder and Executive VP of Disney Online Studios Lane Merrifield emphasizes the company's stance on the importance of online safety and that education is a key element. Merrifield states, "From the very start, our vision for Club Penguin was to create a safe place for my kids and their friends to play online. The scale may now be bigger than I could ever have imagined but that philosophy has not changed. As an industry I think we can help teach kids the lessons that they need to become responsible digital citizens."
Free for All: New browser-based converts shine light on issues
I recently threw out a prediction that within five years, most of our MMO content will be coming through our browsers. To be more specific, I think that most players in the United States will be enjoying their favorite MMOs within a browser. That can mean several things but does not refer to games like Free Realms, a client-based game that is only signed-into at the browser level. As with any discussion about genres, mechanics or styles in the MMO world, I have to be very specific. It's pretty likely that a very large percentage of the US playerbase is already playing browser-based games. Look at the American market for games like RuneScape, Battlestar Galactica Online, Club Penguin, Drakensang Online, Evony, and Ministry of War and you might just find millions of players. Next we need to consider that there are more games coming into the browser market. This new batch is essentially a group of standard, client-based MMOs that are porting themselves to the browser. I tend to be a little skeptical about some of these in the short-term, for several reasons.
MMO Family: Why games are good for family
A couple of years ago, Massively readers engaged in a great discussion that doesn't get covered nearly as much as it should. Thanks to former Massively columnist Lisa Poisso, the column MMO Family was born, and she and the readers looked at how MMOs affect the family, both the positives and the potential dangers. I'm excited to have the opportunity to start the column up again because I think a lot has changed in the short time since the column went on hiatus. We'll revisit a few issues that Lisa brought up and some of the more recently released MMO titles to see which ones are the best for family-centered gaming. To kick things off, I'd like to explore why MMOs are good for kids and for the family unit as a whole. When it comes to talk about kids and gaming, the discussion tends to revolve around the negatives, like violence, antisocial behavior, or lack of physical activity. No one will argue that MMOs, as with most anything, can have detrimental effects when played to excess. But to focus on the negatives is to ignore the vast amount of benefits that gaming can provide. Read on for a few examples.
MMObility: The rise of the browser
Over the last week I have been obsessing over Glitch, the new browser-based MMORPG brought to us by Tiny Speck. I will go into details of why in my Rise and Shiny column, but for now, let's just say that I think it is one of the greatest things I have come across in a long time. For the record, I was talking about Glitch before it was popular (that hipster cred should get my a free pair of glasses in Glitch!) and was excited about starting this column because of games like Glitch. In short, I knew that the browser market was huge, and I knew it was only going to grow bigger. Yes, I know what you're thinking, and yes I am claiming that we are starting to see the end of the heavy-duty client and demand for expensive hardware and upgrades. It's a big prediction, but click past the cut and let me explain.
MMO Family: A parent's look at Club Penguin
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Perhaps the leading name in virtual worlds aimed at the younger set, Club Penguin has taken its place as the starter game of choice for many a young online gamer. Ask around any elementary school, and you're bound to find kids who're playing this Flash-based browser game. We'd heard of the game too, of course -- but we'd never played. So let's take a look at how this virtual world of waddling friendlies stacks up against the rest of the kids' games we've reviewed in our Parent's Guide to Kids & Family Gaming.
A cautionary tale of account security in Club Penguin
Many MMO gamers have children who are eager to jump into the online world but are unaware of the dangers that lurk there. While many kid-friendly MMOs have systems to guard children from unwelcome contact and identity theft, they still require the assistance of parents to teach their kids how to be safe in games. The Ancient Gaming Noob's Wilhelm recently shared a cautionary tale involving his daughter, Club Penguin, and a breach of account security. Even though she was cautioned not to share a list of details with anyone in game, all it took was the offer of a special item to get her to give up her account name and password to a stranger. This resulted in a headache, as the account was banned, and Wilhelm went back and forth with Club Penguin to re-establish his daughter's account and security. In the end, he found that Club Penguin's security was just as questionable as his daughter's judgment, and passed this story along to the rest of us in an effort to guard our own young ones from this unfortunate event. Considering that account security, personal identity and privacy are hot topics these days, we feel that this story is an eye-opener as to how far both game companies and families have to go to protect our loved ones from being exploited. You can read Wilhelm's full account over at The Ancient Gaming Noob.
The Game Archaeologist and the Legend of the Sims: The history
The Sims Online was one of the odder entrants into the MMO genre this past decade, an online iteration of an immensely popular game franchise that promised deeper social interaction. With EA at its back and the Will Wright name affixed to the front, TSO (not to be confused with Cryptic's STO) had a solid shot at cracking the big time. It did not. It went over as well as a fish flopping out of water to make a go for it on dry land, eventually realizing that it was both going nowhere and dying slowly. The end result? It stunk. And yet it was an interesting failed experiment in MMO gaming, especially considering that the concept wasn't as off-base as we once thought. With social "dress up" games booming -- Second Life, Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin, Hello Kitty Online, even elements of LEGO Universe -- The Sims Online could be seen as a prophet of the future, mistreated in its own time. Return with us to the days of pixelated 2-D isometric glory, as the Game Archaeologist interprets the Simlish of ancient tomes for your benefit.
Free for All: Are kids' games valid?
I had the dream again, but this time with a twist. I walked through the store, admiring the shelves and shelves of tiny robots, toy trains and action figures. Cool toys lined every shelf, articulated robots and little army men with swappable guns. Tanks, space marines, huge dragons and all sort of wind-ups tempted me. This time, though, I talked to the store owner about how I frequently have this dream, and that normally I find a section of really cheap toys that I pile up in my arms to buy. He proceeded to show me a stack of those type of toys, clearance toys, and offered me entire armies and model kits for just a few dollars. As usual, I woke up before I can buy them and take them home to adorn my office with. It's a slightly frustrating dream, but always a lot of fun. In the meanwhile, I stopped long ago with collecting toys. They take up too much space, gather too much dust and generally get no use at all. I have replaced these toys, though, and now have a new collection of bright and shinies: kids' free-to-play MMORPGs. I have played every one of them I can get my hands on, sometimes getting pretty high up in the game, and sometimes just exploring or talking with other players. They give me that same feeling that a toy gives you. Yes, adult reader, you know the one I am talking about and surely you too have at least a few toys adorning your office as well?
Disney Interactive shows overall loss, Club Penguin gains profits
Disney ventured into the world of casual MMOs for kids back in 2005 with Virtual Magic Kingdom. While VMK is no more, the Disney staff responsible for those MMOs are no doubt patting themselves on the back this week for making that leap. Disney released its Q1 2010 earnings earlier this week, and Disney Interactive Media -- a division that covers console, handheld, and PC/online games -- reported profits down 29%. The standout in these numbers was MMO Club Penguin, which saw "strong growth in paid subscription contributing to better results," according to SVP and CFO Jay Rasulo. This follows the trend toward casual games as of late, and is serving to help steer Disney away from high end console games. Disney CEO Bob Iger says "we're going to continue to make games for the high end, we'll be very, very judicious in how many and which ones we choose."
Survey says: MMOs taking up 15% of gaming time
World of Warcraft may have around 25 hojillion subscribers (give or take), but it would appear that only a small fraction of our collective gaming time is being spent in massively multiplayer online worlds. A recent survey conducted by GamesIndustry.com (via IndustryGamers) asked 13,000 US and European citizens, aged eight and up, to break down how much time they spent playing various types of games. The article detailing the survey's results, titled "Today's Gamers MMO Focus Report," claims that US citizens spend more time with MMOs than Europeans by far – 21 percent on this side of the Atlantic and 10 percent across the pond. Furthermore, 8-12-year-old males make up the majority of US players, "[which is] explained by the popularity of virtual worlds aimed at young children, such as Club Penguin and Disney Toontown," according to the report. We might normally wonder how the rest of our time stacks up in other gaming genres, but we're too busy playing Modern Warfare 2 online. See ya later!
Plenty of gaming options for today's 'tweens
According to this MSNBC article, there are no less than 200 youth-oriented virtual worlds and MMOs either in development or on the market. Some of these titles even boast account numbers that rival Facebook and MySpace as analysts estimate 30M users in Club Penguin, 52M users in Neopets, and 90M in Habbo.Is this really surprising though? Probably not when you consider that kids today aren't totally different in this generation than previous generations. 'Tweens have always liked to socialize, play, and simply "hang out." The difference nowadays is that parents tend to have looser restrictions and the kids can accomplish most of the things they like to do without even leaving a computer chair. The rules and tools have changed.The article also talks about a 89/10/1 rule that most F2P/RMT games aim for. This rule assumes that 89% of people will play your game for free, 10% will pay the minimum, and 1% will spend lots of money. Apply that rule to the recent announcements that both Free Realms and Runes of Magic have surpassed 1M users. If the rule applies, it means 100,000 people are paying the basic fees (~$5/month) and 10,000 are spending oodles on extras ($15+/month). That's roughly $650,000 per month, which isn't half bad depending on your development costs.
The New York Times reviews Free Realms
These realms may not be completely free, but darn if the New York Times loves them anyhow. It's a little strange to see a major publication like the NY Times reviewing Free Realms, let alone any review for an MMO from any outlet. Still, the fact that SOE's little free-to-play game-that-could smacked down the one million accounts mark in record time probably has a little to do with this much attention.As far as reviews go, this one is highly positive and praising of both Free Realms and SOE, and its not very surprising at this point. Just about everyone has had nothing but good things to say about the title -- not that any game is without its faults, especially at launch.The message the NY Times' review ends with is one we agree upon. Free Realms is definitely a triumph for the company that lost much of its EverQuest thunder to Blizzard's World of Warcraft. And really, there's no greater proof than having everyone talking about the game. Well that one million account record is also good proof, we suppose.
