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Why exactly is Hellgate:London so bad?
Earlier today we brought you word that there has been some unrest in the ranks at Flagship Studios, makers of Hellgate:London. Though Kotaku's discussion with studio representatives makes it sound like much ado about nothing, it's worth wondering where from Mr. Somberg's angst originated. In this the games blogger Shamus, of the site Twenty Sided, may be able to assist. Though Shamus is a dyed-in-the-wool tabletop player, he also regularly plays PC titles. Intrigued by Hellgate's terrible reputation, he dove in expecting to find that the negative hype about the game was likely just as insubstantial about the pre-launch positive. Instead, he found himself sinking into a quicksand of strange design choices and poorly documented subsystems.In what he's calling an autopsy of the game, Shamus lays out what makes Hellgate:London the yawning disappointment it is. His first analysis post centers around the fact that there's almost no reason to care about the world or its inhabitants. An unnecessary amount of snark and in-joking sucks all the veracity out of the setting. His second post is all about the game's unapproachable crafting system. Think "undocumented black box" and you'll have some approximation of what's involved here. From there you can look to his site for future discussions of the game, or head back into his archive for previous discussions on the genre.
Hellgate: London programmer claims staff leaving 'in droves'
Things are not well at Hellgate: London developer Flagship Studios according to Guy Somberg, an audio and gameplay programmer at the fledgling studio. Somberg wrote on his personal blog a month ago – which was recently dug up by GI.biz – that people are leaving the company "in droves" following the poor sales and negative feedback of its post-apocalyptic jaunt.Somberg does have some hope for the future (wait, isn't London occupied by demons in 2038?), saying that the game is doing well in Korea and has yet to start in China. He concludes that he likes the job, but that all the artists and programmers leaving the company is taking a toll on the future of Hellgate: London and Flagship as a studio. Well, we're hearing good things about Mythos ...
Anti-Aliased: How to pick the MMO for you
Let's be honest for a moment - there are a ton of MMOs out there. We have everything from fantasy, to dystopian future, to fantasy, to horror, to fantasy, to pirates, to fantasy, to sci-fi, and even all the way down to fantasy. While this is great for people who love choice, this is a complete nightmare (or should I say Bloodymare, ha ha, gaming puns) for anyone who's new to the genre or wants to start off with a fresh game that's different from what they're playing.How do you separate the good from the bad? How do you know if you'll stick to a game? You don't want to gamble with an expensive game only to find out that you totally hate it and wish it would burn in the deepest depths of hell. (I'm looking at you, Risk Your Life.) So, do you rely on what your friends tell you or what reviewers tell you?In my opinion, no one knows you except you. So when you sit down and want to pick the right game the first time, here's a few pointers and suggestions to get you started.
Hellgate: London goes to Korea, makes it big
So do you remember when Hellgate: London wanted you to give it a second chance? Well apparently it found a new Korean boyfriend. Launching in beta-mode last January 15th, Hellgate has since officially launched on February 22nd to critical success. Apparently, in the two weeks following the February launch, Hellgate: London managed to grab over a million subscribers. By Flagship's count, that makes Hellgate: London the most successful Korean launch in the last three years; quite the difference from its state-side grand opening last year.Apparently all the buzz started in Korea during the January 15th beta, when gamers at PC Cafes picked up on the title. Ever since then it has been garnering a strong audience. We're happy to see the game has found a home, as hopefully this means Flagship can bankroll some more people into the Mythos team to make that game even cooler.[via Joystiq]
Hellgate: London finds success in Korea
Last year's launch of Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London was not exactly what we'd call a family album moment, its release plagued by client crashes and enough bugs to have the Orkin man calling for backup. Still, one person's trash is another's treasure, as Bill Roper and company have announced that in the two weeks since the Korean launch of the Hellgate beta more than a million accounts have been registered. According to Flagship, this makes the MMO the most successful online game launch in Korea in the past three years.Hellgate's beta officially kicked off in Korea on January 15, and according to Korean online game tracking service Gametrics, the game quickly found an audiences with gamers in PC Cafes, ranking ninth among online games, fifth among RPGs, and was the most popular beta being played. This was followed by a commercial release on February 22, a launch that Flagship boasts achieved "record sales," though it's a record that we're pretty sure will be broken soon enough.
Hellgate: London would like a second chance
We all know that Hellgate: London didn't exactly have the best of launches; actually it had a very terrible launch. The biggest problem was probably all the bugs in the game, which more often than not were responsible for regular client crashes among other game-ending glitches. This sort of thing tends to kill games forever, but Hellgate: London has been sticking it out over the past several months and things have actually gotten better -- at least as far as the bugs and additional content goes. So now Flagship Studios is hoping players will come back and give the game a second (or possibly third) chance.From what we've heard and seen of these updates, it sounds like Flagship isn't pulling any legs here -- the game really has gotten better. Even so, we really have to wonder if that's enough to bring previously-scorned players back to the game, as many of them have no doubt moved on since last year. Maybe it would be wise to drop the price on the game a tad and offer some sort of incentive for players to come back or try the game for the first time. Mythos might be the perfect conduit to spotlight these new improvements; if Flagship can think up a clever way to do it.
Interview with Flagship's Max Schaefer
On their latest video podcast, the folks at 1UP had a chat with Flagship Studios' COO and executive producer of Mythos, Max Schaefer. He talks a little about Mythos' raison d'être as a sort of technology demo for last year's action MMO, Hellgate: London. It's taken on a life of its own since then to become the kinder, lighter action MMO, brighter and more just plain fun. In keeping with their more social goal for Mythos, there is full guild support, and they'll be adding in email, minigames, group-oriented content and, yes, an item mall. Following the lead of the Asian casual game market, Mythos is free to download, free to play, and though you may want to buy certain things to help you along the way at their item mall (though nothing overpowering -- you won't find the best swords or armor at the item mall), you will be able to see and do everything without paying a penny.Schaefer calls this new philosophy "Triple-A casual" -- top flight production values using the latest tech, but keeping development time short and focusing on the fun. We've been hearing a lot about Mythos lately; here's hoping they start their open beta soon so that we can all play.
Hellgate: London solo players get huge patch
Hellgate: London players who've had their copy of the game sitting all alone on a shelf somewhere may want to dust off their discs, because the 1.2 patch for non-subscribers is heading their way. The big reason this matters is mostly because the last patch that single (re: non-subscribing) players got was the 0.6 patch back in December. Well, that's not the only reason, the other is that this patch will bring with it a metric ton of updates, including lots of bug fixes. We're glad to hear it, because the game looks like it could be pretty enjoyable -- if not for the amount of fun-ending issues.Flagship Studios have the patch in their final Q&A state and are readying a beta version of it for players to try out sometime this week. The patch itself contains all the content and updates that the multiplayer version of the patch had -- so essentially it's the same patch as the one released on March 17th.We sincerely hope these patches keep on coming, because with every improvement the game receives we're finding it harder to resist a summertime purchase out of sheer curiosity.
Behind the Curtain: What's in a name?
How much attention do you pay to the names behind the MMOs we're playing just now? Do you dig up as much information as you can on the developers, producer and designers involved in up and coming games? Do you even pay any attention at all?I'll be honest – I picked up Star Wars Galaxies based on the licence alone. While I've been a gamer since my Uncle gave me a ZX Spectrum as a child, I didn't know anything about the people behind Galaxies. I had heard about Everquest of course – I wasn't stupid after all – but Galaxies was my first MMO, and I was a noob in every sense of the word. I didn't know anything about the designers, the developers, and I didn't even think to check up on them.I was a little more aware when I came round to World of Warcraft. I was, and still am, a big Diablo 2, fan, so I knew who Blizzard were. I hadn't picked up Warcraft 3 when it came out, due to the PC I had t the time not being to run it, but I knew that it'd been a huge commercial and critical success for Blizzard, so I knew that it was a safe bet. Plus, it was taking the world by storm already, so it was a bit of a no-brainer. Maybe I'm just older and wiser now, or maybe the information is just easier to get a hold of, but I pay more attention to the people actually making the game that I'm interested in – I thought this week, we could have a look at some of the names you should be aware of.
Hellgate: London balances, Stonehenge coming today
Do you still care about Hellgate: London? We don't ask out of an attempt at snarkiness, we're asking with genuine curiosity. We ask because there's a big update for subscribers dropping today and we just want to know if that describes any of you. Or maybe you're a former player and just want to keep up with changes. For example, even though out brief fling with the game ended months ago, we were still interested to hear that the game was adding Stonehenge, a large outdoor hub designed to break up some of the monotony of city living. There's also some balance tweaks to the character classes and a new Dueling Arena.But do you care? Have you played? Are you still? Do you want to know what's going on in the world of Hellgate? Does this update pique your interest? Because we get the feeling that most of you have moved on or were never that interested to begin with. We look forward to hearing if that's right or off-base.
Another look inside Mythos
Lots has been written already about Mythos, a free-to-play Diablo-esque MMO from Flagship Studios (makers of Hellgate London), and there are plenty of guides (including our own) to look through if you want some insight on what the game is like. And here's another-- our friend Stropp has punched up another preview of levels 1-5 in Mythos.Like a lot of other people who've played the game, Stropp compares it directly to Diablo 2-- lots of running around, clicking, and just generally crushing everything in your path. As we've heard before, there are three classes and three races in the game, so while the game itself is a little simpler than the major MMOs (it is F2P, after all), the gameplay is solid and well-traveled enough that it stays fun. There's also an achievement system, apparently, in which you can win titles that actually grant attributes for your character. Sounds cool, even if it's not quite as developed as some other games yet.Mythos is currently in very, very open closed beta-- they'll give away a beta invite to almost anyone if you ask nicely enough. The buzz just keeps going-- it may be the free-to-play game of 2008.%Gallery-10781%
One Shots: Meet Gargantua
Today we bring you another screenshot from the upcoming Hellgate: London Stonehenge expansionfrom reader Ghen. Here we get to meet Gargantua, one of the beasties you might encounter in Stonehenge. Though the UI hides them (and Hellgate has no option to remove its UI), Gargantua has large "mace-like" hands that he swings at you -- as if he didn't look scary enough without the threat of physical violence.Do you have any ominous images of monsters from your favorite game? Send 'em our way (and for holiday shots, don't forget our holiday postcard contest!), so we can feature your screenshot and story for tomorrow's One Shots! It's easy to participate -- just send your screenshots and stories to oneshots@massively.com. %Gallery-9798%
One Shots: Hellgate's Stonehenge
Ghen sends in One Shots' first images of Hellgate: London. This image comes from the beta servers for The Stonehenge Chronicles, Hellgate's patch 1.0, expected to go live in January. Flying overhead we see an Exospector, which Ghen describes as "a demon sky-whale." Our response? Kill it! Kill it!Do you have any good shots of holiday celebrations in your favorite game? Send 'em our way (or dress them up a bit and submit them to our holiday postcard contest!), so we can feature your screenshot and story for tomorrow's One Shots! It's easy to participate -- just send your screenshots and stories to oneshots@massively.com. %Gallery-9798%
WRUP: Season's greetings edition
Time once again to check in on What yoU aRe Playing in the world of MMOs lately. Last week, the Nielsen Company reported that World of Warcraft was the most-played PC game from April to November of this year, with the average user still playing a whopping 17 hours per week. Yowza.Is that you? Are you going to be playing WoW all weekend? Personally, I'm going to be busy doing a lot of holiday stuff (I'm making the trek back to my hometown of St. Louis, MO this weekend, and I haven't actually "started" doing my gift shopping yet), but I do have that pristine copy of Guild Wars that I picked up at Best Buy way back on Black Friday, so hopefully in between all the merry making this weekend I'll be able to break that out.And are any of you actually planning on getting an MMO as a gift? With the subscription fees and all, these games are really something that you buy for yourself, but I wouldn't have a problem with seeing a copy of Hellgate under the tree. What are you playing?
IAHGames makes you elite
A side-effect of IAHGames bringing Hellgate: London out of beta code quagmire yesterday and up to patch 0.1, is that nobody who had completed the game was able to access Elite mode. A few hours ago, the service was taken down for the whole region for 3 hours, while IAHGames did some custom patching. The result is anyone with a character of level 30 or above in the Asia-Pacific region (at the time of the patch) now has access to Elite mode. Anyone with a character below level 30 who completed the game before the upgrade and wants access to Elite mode will need to submit a support ticket with the name(s) of their characters. You have until Tuesday's maintenance window to get your requests in.
IAHGames to implement Patch 0.1 for Hellgate: London
IAHGames have just announced that they will be going ahead with plans to patch Hellgate: London with Patch 0 and Patch 0.1 in just a few hours, starting at 9AM Thursday, Hong Kong time. The whole maintenance process (if all goes well) will take 10 hours, and will run until 5PM Hong Kong time. This will be the first time the servers have run post-beta code, and while we've been assured that Flagship Studios have found a way to convert the characters in the Asia-Pacific region to the production system, we're really not certain what the results will be, exactly.
Hellgate: London (Asia Pacific) service collapse
IAHgames reports that HellGate: London (Asia-Pacific region) went down at 8:50PM Hong Kong time (about an hour and a half ago) - reason unknown. The operations team spotted the outage and were on the job within a half hour, and are now attempting to determine the cause and bring operations back up. All we know at this time is that this seems to be more than just the login services failure experienced a couple of days ago. It's Friday night in the Asia-Pacific region - not a good time for a mass service outage (actually there isn't a good time for a mass service outage). At present there's no word on how long before the game is expected to come back up. [Update: 10:15PM Hong Kong time - The service is back up, but the cause of the outage is as yet unknown]
IAHgames announces no Hellgate character wipe
IAHgames took their time getting a fresh announcement out today, saying that teleconferences ran overtime, but it's just come through in the last few minutes. The word is no character wipe for Hellgate: London in the Asia-Pacific region. The engineers at Flagship Studios have apparently found a way to migrate from the pre-production (beta) character system to the production (patch0 and later) character system without wiping everything clean. The problem is pinned on the Asia-Pacific region going live 'simultaneously' with the USA servers. Actually, because they're on the Western side of the dateline, they went live the day before the USA, essentially running beta software.
All your tomorrows
IAHGames, you may recall, pushed off the planned Hellgate: London character wipe and downtime and were going to make an announcement 'tomorrow'. Well, today now is tomorrow, and the announcement just got made. Apparently, the announcement is: We're making our announcement tomorrow. We are also additionally thanked for our patience - which might come as some cold comfort to those of you wondering how long before your characters get wiped - or even if they will be. It looks like IAHGames might be trying to find ways to avoid deleting the character database. If they are, I wish they'd just say so - even if they ultimately don't succeed. The new, new announcement is scheduled for 1PM Hong Kong time tomorrow. We'll be waiting. Patiently, as they say.
IAHGames postpones Hellgate: London Patch0
IAHGames has abruptly postponed the implementation of patch0 for the Asia-Pacific Hellgate: London servers a scant 90 minutes before implementation. This maintenance would have seen the servers down for eight hours and all characters wiped completely. IAHGames has not offered any explanation for the sudden postponement, but apparently there will be a new announcement on Tuesday Hong-Kong time. We don't know if they've found a way to proceed without wiping the characters, or if the wipe is going ahead anyway. We'll be watching and will keep you informed, as soon as there's more news to hand.
