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Shards Online adds permadeath ruleset
Shards Online's Kickstarter campaign is on fire, having blown past its $50K fundraising goal and now plowing through stretch goals. With eight days to go on the campaign, who knows how far it'll get, but there's one thing for certain: Thanks to passing the $80,000 mark, the fantasy sandbox will incorporate permadeath into some of its server rulesets. For the stretch goal, the developers wrote, "We will add an extra official ruleset to Alpha One with increased skill gains and permanent death! Not only will we have this ruleset running on some of our official servers, but players will be able to run these rules on their own community servers."
Shards Online's Kickstarter has already reached its $50k goal
Sandbox MMO hopeful Shards Online has met its Kickstarter goal of $50,000 with 23 days still to go. Citadel Studios' first Kickstarter for the ambitious game reached only $73,401 of its $320,000 goal last June. Project lead Derek Brinkmann dropped by the Massively comments last week to reassure potential donors and explain the thinking behind the new campaign: I'd like to personally address the concerns about our new goal. After our previous campaign winded down, we put our heads together and created a refocused plan to get to alpha. The minimum amount we could get to alpha with was 100k. It doesn't seem like much, but we have been in active development for over a year and have already personally invested quite a bit of money into the project. We reached out to our friends and family and found we were able to raise 50k from small investments. That gets us half of the way there. We decided that reaching out to our fans would be the best way to get the rest of the funds. The alternative was to approach angel investors which would have forced us to change the spirit of the project. Stretch goals begin at the $60,000 mark and include emote animations, new craft skills, and a permadeath ruleset.
Shards Online returns to Kickstarter [Updated with the video]
Shards Online is back on Kickstarter, this time with a modest $50,000 goal and a promise to match donations dollar-for-dollar up to the final goal. The multiplayer sandbox made waves earlier this year thanks to its playable pre-alpha client and its unique multiverse built on player-run servers. We've got the new Kickstarter trailer and the abridged press release below.
Leaderboard: Should MMOs include player-run servers?
This week's Massively Speaking briefly touched on the trend of player-run MMO servers. Games including H1Z1, Star Citizen, and Shards Online are toying with the concept, and while it's yet to take off in a big way, it could play into the future of the genre. What say you, Leaderboard readers? Is there room in your definition of MMO for player-run servers, or does a game/shard need to be dev-run to qualify? Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
Shards Online opens website with 24 hours left on Kickstarter
As of this writing, Shards Online has 24 hours remaining on its Kickstarter program and has yet to break a quarter of its funding goal. Odds are that it's not going to hit that marker, although fans are encouraged to jump in and donate while the campaign is still running. But the team at Citadel Studios isn't giving up on the project and has launched a website for the game devoted to all things related to Shards Online. Despite what you may have suspected from the last paragraph, the page is not currently fishing for donations. The team will be holding the game's first community roundtable discussion on June 13th, starting at 8 p.m. EDT, when the developers will discuss what comes after Kickstarter and why there are no plans to ask for funding on the site directly. It'll be worth watching if you're a fan of the game -- and if you're a fan and still haven't donated, now is the time to do so. [Source: Citadel Studios press release]
Asheron's Call 1 and 2 go free-to-play in August
We are in the final months of a pay-for-play Asheron's Call, as Turbine announced yesterday that it will not be charging a subscription after June 31st. "As of August 2014, Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2 will no longer charge a subscription fee for players," Turbine posted. "The last payments will be processed on June 31st [sic], making July the final 'paid' month. Note that this means some players will technically receive some portion of July free as a result, as we have decided to absorb the cost and not run partial payments to cover it." The free-to-play version of both MMOs will continue operating, although new or lapsed players will need to pony up $10 to activate an account. Turbine also said that the forums will remain running, that help will be limited, and that it will no longer be doing MSN Zone migrations after May 31st. As for player-run servers, Turbine plans to offer up a "basic" Asheron's Call server and client download by the end of the year, supported by new sub-forums. [Thanks to Jack for the tip!]
Shards Online developers plan for a player-run MMO
More or less every MMO starts up its advertising with some trace of the idea that you can play however you want. Not every MMO talks about the idea of letting players run the servers at the top level, however. But that's what Shards Online is aiming to provide. A recent interview with the developers discusses the idea, with studio co-founder Derek Brinkmann explaining that it's one of the first steps to dismantling the idea that the designers have to tell you how to enjoy yourself. Citadel Studios is a team made up of former Ultima Online developers who wondered why more games haven't embraced the idea of taking live events to their logical conclusion with modern technology. Shards Online is set in a multiverse, with several different worlds featuring slightly different rules, while players can tweak the overall structure to their individual preferences by running their own servers. The game is in development for Windows, Linux, and Mac, with an alpha expected later this year.
The Game Archaeologist: The care and feeding of older MMOs
When an MMO has reached a certain age and dwindled to a certain player population, what do you do with it? Do you put it out to pasture, nurture it, or put it down? With some of our older graphical MMOs approaching their 20th anniversaries, the question of what studios should do with aging titles is becoming very important. It's not just important for the games in question but as a precedent to the population of games that will one day become just as old. Lately we've seen different studios act on this topic in a wide variety of ways, all of which I find fascinating. Some of these games have seen tragic ends, while others may be entering into the enjoyable golden years. If nothing else, it's shown me that there isn't just one set answer for this and that some devs are hoping to do the right thing by their companies and their players.
Asheron's Call limits updates, goes free, and plans player-run servers
Once Turbine applies a March 4th update to Asheron's Call, the studio plans to move the game into maintenance mode -- with benefits. Producer Severlin dropped the news on the forums today: "Once this next update is in the hands of the players, the updates to Asheron's Call will be limited. We intend to fix critical bugs and continue maintenance and support on the game. While there is always a chance we will put out a small update if time permits, players should have the expectation that updates will be limited to maintenance, bug fixes, and perhaps balance iterations of February content such as the new Coliseum." Severlin elaborated that "this change of focus is necessary for the company." Asheron's Call is perhaps best-known for its monthly story updates that have gone out since the game went live in 1999. The good news is that Turbine says there are no plans to close the game and will be working to make both Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2 free in the near future: "We are working on a date in the not-to-distant future where all active accounts will be able to play the game for free. Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2 will be a gift to our loyal players." Also, Turbine is starting an initiative to allow player-run servers by the end of the year. "Our intent is to help these players build a community so these processes can be created and distributed to people interested in running an Asheron's Call game," Severlin said. [Thanks to Padre for the tip!]
