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Newest F2P blog for Star Trek Online talks about dilithium
Star Trek Online has always had a variety of currencies for players, each allowing access to different stocks of items. But another form of money is coming into the game, and much like gold-pressed latinum, it's something that has a long history in lore. The rare and valuable dilithium is being introduced as a new form of reward, and the latest entry in the Path to F2P series discusses just how the new form of money will work. The most important role that the ore will play will be in replacing the existing free ship tokens that had previously come when players achieved a new rank. Earning a new ship will now be a more difficult and involved task, with a discount coupon and a free offering of refined dilithium to make it easier to earn a ship on a rank increase, but it won't be automatic. The entry goes on to state that the current implementation on the test server is not quite right, and it includes more discussion about how much effort is meant to be involved in getting a brand-new ship.
Captain's Log: Testing out the future
Captain's Log, Stardate 65264.3... Hello, computer (and players)! As you have must have seen by now, open beta testing of Star Trek Online's new F2P model is well underway; the developers have been posting dev diaries about the impending changes for the last couple of days. Because testers on the Tribble test server were required to start new characters, and because character transfers will not be an option for at least a few weeks, many players have begun a mad dash to level up their test characters in order to test out some of the retooled endgame content. Since testing, especially in this manner, can be confusing, I have decided to dedicate this week's Captain's Log to those who are willing to take on the challenge. Past the jump, you will find a checklist of sorts that you can use while testing (or, ultimately, playing) the new content and updates. I suggest reading each section and then checking it out in-game. While some recommendations may seem less interesting than others, I suggest you give each a fair shot so you can provide feedback on what can make the game better. Ensign, warp 10! Let's give our dedicated Tribbleites some structure to their testing time...
Lost Pages of Taborea: State of the economy
For months now, it's been no secret that Runes of Magic's economy has been out of whack. I've been sitting on this article, watching and waiting to see what would happen next. The assumption, of course, is that I think something will happen. I keep thinking that Runewaker, Frogster and RoM will align like stars to zap the economy back to its previous state, or that RoM's economy will act like a large, slowly deflating balloon, but nothing's happened for months. That's not to say the something that could happen will never happen. This period of severe inflation is a drop in the bucket compared to the life of the game. But what if the economy stays the way it is? I've stopped asking questions that pointed and started asking how this new economy makes sense. I don't think anything is more wrong with the economy now than it was before. Prices are higher, much higher, on everything. For some, that's enough of a problem, but is it a problem for the operation of RoM? In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, follow me down the rabbit hole to see how the weird might actually be normal.
Australia fights with Apple on pricing
Apple apparently hasn't answered back the Australian government just yet about its query this week on pricing for both apps and hardware. The Australian Parliament, including Labor Minister Ed Husic, has been knocking on Apple's door trying to figure out why the company charges more for its products in that country. Originally the issue was partially based on the difference between the American dollar and the Australian currency, but in more recent times, that difference has narrowed, to the point where they're only a few cents' difference. Apple already brought down app prices once this year, but those prices are still relatively high, and the company hasn't moved on hardware prices, sometimes selling computers for hundreds of dollars more than they'd sell for the US. Apple isn't the only company with higher prices down under -- Australians also face higher prices on video game consoles and their software (which is another issue that the local government is fighting with companies about). A certain percentage of this is politicians rabble-rousing, I think, but Husic is at least threatening more consequential action, suggesting that it might be "time for our pricing watchdog, the ACCC, to take up the case for long-suffering consumers and carry out a formal inquiry." Certainly in the case of digitally distributed software, there shouldn't be a reason for this phenomenon, which Aussies themselves are calling the "tech tax."
Enter at Your Own Rift: How gold farming really hurts the economy
Recently, Trion Worlds CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman talked to Gamasutra about how gold farming is a much bigger threat than we assume, particularly because of the large amount of credit card fraud. Those who played RIFT at launch probably recall the large wave of hacked accounts early on. According to Hartsman, the hacking attempts were so quick and so intense that the game could have been "denial-of-serviced off the internet" when it launched. As I was browsing the Auctioneer the other day, I was reminded of Scott's statement because gold farming has sucked a lot of the fun out of in-game economies in virtual worlds. Markets early on were lively, unpredictable, exciting, and full of freedom but very vulnerable because of the growing illegal trade of in-game currency for real money. In an effort to combat the rising real-life value of gold, games like RIFT have moved away from gold toward a system of non-tradeable tokens. But while these tokens have helped to curb the value of gold and reduce the demand for third-party RMTs, they've also removed a lot of the freedom from players. After the cut, we'll take a closer look at how exactly that's happened and why it hurts the economy.
Lost Pages of Taborea: A history of Diamonds
It's been a long time since we've heard anything about Diamonds being reinstituted into Runes of Magic's auction house. Since that fateful day they were removed, a lot of new players have joined, veterans have left and some things that should not have been forgotten... were lost. Having Diamonds in the auction house is an important feature that was planned from the get-go. It allows for seamless trading and player-controlled price fluctuations that keep all items obtainable for everyone. It's about having the freedom to play multiple ways. Options are more numerous than simply paying and having everything opened up or not paying and being stuck. With RoM's cash-shop items being integrated into the title's gameplay, there's a grayscale that lets players have many more options in how they want to play. It's not an overly complex issue, but one worth looking back on. Getting Diamonds back in the auction house isn't a lost cause, but the issue has dragged on to the point that long time players may have given up all hope. This edition of Lost Pages of Taborea is all about looking back at the beginning and bringing players up to speed on diamonds in (or not-in) the auction house.
Wargaming.net's World of Warplanes to share currency with World of Tanks
Whether you feel more comfortable on the ground or in the skies, Wargaming.net has you covered. The studio announced today some new details on the economic system for its upcoming title World of Warplanes. According to the press release, it will follow the model of its predecessor World of Tanks with gold, credits, and experience as the primary forms of currency. With the addition of World of Warplanes to its stable, however, Wargaming.net plans to allow "global interaction" between the two titles. This means, in case you couldn't guess, that all of those different forms of currency will be shared between the two games. This, in turn, means that any player that has racked up an obscene amount of gold/credits/experience in World of Tanks can put their excess currencies toward their advancement in World of Warplanes. If you want to get a jump on the competition before World of Warplanes' launch, you can sign up for World of Tanks at the official site.
DUST 514 may go true F2P in the future
While we've known that DUST 514 won't be as free as originally thought, there's still hope for a true free-to-play version to come. CCP's Hilmar Veigar Pétursson told GamesIndustry.biz that while PlayStation 3 owners will have to contend with a "cover charge" -- estimated to be between $10 and $20 -- before accessing the game for the first time, the company may drop it entirely in time. This fee is meant to help with the initial start-up costs for DUST 514, and will be refunded to players in the form of in-game currency that can be spent on unspecified in-game microtransactions. Pétursson isn't ruling out the possibility that the game might go completely free-to-play in the future, however: "You're really getting the game for free but you have to pre-buy credits in the beginning. We might go fully free-to-play down the line, but in the beginning we have a cover charge just to manage the initial launch of it. We have always been a big believer in growing up a social network behind the game in a slow and predictable way. Because we have seen that if you don't do that you can end up with a very unstructured experience, where there's no cohesion to the community. By growing it at the beginning we help to make a healthy environment initially." We first reported on this cover charge during last month's E3. Pétursson says that CCP will see how the cover charge plays out during the game's testing period. The company is just now recovering from a hotbed of controversy involving EVE Online's approach to in-game item sales.
Bounty Hounds Online coming in both boxed and digital versions
Bounty Hounds Online, an upcoming sci-fi action MMO, is going to give you a choice how you want it packaged: paper or plastic. Er, we mean "boxed or digital." The retail box will be released under the name Bounty Hounds Online Pro and will arrive in European shops this October. For the price of 10 Euros, players will get a leg up on this free-to-play title with exclusive content and in-game currency. Multiple language versions are planned for the box release as well. The game puts players in the role of mercenaries tasked with cleaning up an intergalactic war on a planet known as Clear Sky. You'll get to choose between five classes and four military companies before heading into the battle, not to mention the awesome-sounding CTU transformable combat pets. Recently out of closed beta, Bounty Hounds Online is slated for open beta on August 2nd. You can sign up by visiting the official website.
The Lawbringer: Paying for addons and APIs
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Not unlike most topics featured here on The Lawbringer, this one started with a blog post and a subsequent link to said blog post. CCP, the creators of MMO darling EVE Online, recently announced that players and customers could charge for third-party applications, utilities, and websites as long as the creator purchased a license. This is a fairly unprecedented move. CCP is probably the only company who could get away with this right now, but more on that later. This story got my mind spinning about what this means for data feeds all over the MMO world, how Blizzard's free APIs coming out soon will change the way people make apps and utilities for WoW, and some thoughts on for-pay addons. MMOs have spawned an impressive gray market of features, apps, utilities, and services that exist only because players are willing to partake in them. From Eve Online ship "fitting" apps to gold selling, the gray market lives alongside virtual worlds, and it is fascinating to think that these industries only exist because of the success of the genre. Recently, Blizzard previewed its own APIs that it would be releasing for web developers and app creators, providing easy-to-parse information to these development communities. This stuff isn't free, of course, which is interesting amidst the news that CCP would be charging a license fee for for-pay versions of utilities that make use of its APIs.
Compromised account leads to massive Bitcoin sell off, EFF reconsiders use of currency
Bitcoin, for those not aware, is a completely digital currency -- one where exchanges between individuals are largely anonymous and secured through cryptography, and one that has seen its hype-meter go off the charts in recent months. That, inevitably, has had some people waiting for a fall, and it took a big one this week. While things have since bounced back, the value of the currency on the so-called Mt. Gox exchange dropped from around $17.50 to just one cent in a matter of moments during the early hours of June 20th -- a drop that's since been attributed to a compromised account. Thanks to a daily withdrawal limit, however, that apparently only resulted in $1,000 actually being stolen, and a claims process has now been set up for those affected. While not directly related to the sell off, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (or EFF) also dealt a bit of a blow to the upstart currency this week, when it announced that it would no longer be accepting Bitcoin donations. According to the organization, that's both because it doesn't "fully understand the complex legal issues involved with creating a new currency system," and because it doesn't want its acceptance of Bitcoins misconstrued as an endorsement of Bitcoin. Head on past the break for an account of the aforementioned plunge as it happened. [Thanks, Zigmar; image: Wikipedia]
The Road to Mordor: Making your alts work for you
I have a confession to make. My name is Justin, and I'm a Lord of the Rings Online altoholic. I know. I have a problem! I'm weak! DON'T STARE WITH THOSE ACCUSING EYES! I always start out in games with the best of intentions: I'm going to stick with just one character, at least until I hit the level cap. I'll only make new characters to reserve names I like. I won't get class envy and wonder what's on the other side of the fence. I'll stay strong! I'll be an oak! And then I turn out to be a willow tree, blowing about in the winds of whimsy, and suddenly I end up with alts staggered all over the leveling track. It's all right; I've come to embrace my altoholic tendencies because it really is who I am as a gamer. I like to sample everything, to try out different approaches to the game, and if I don't end up with a maxed-out uber-raider, then I can live with it. If you follow this pattern and are prone to rolling up a lot of alts in LotRO, there are several advantages you can gain over the monogamous players out there. Today I want to take a look at how you can make your alts work for you, if only to give you an excuse to keep rolling them!
The Lawbringer: China, forced labor, and why we must stop buying gold
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Gold selling is a multi-billion dollar industry that spans the globe, with a healthy portion of in-game currency sales originating from China. It's a cheap operation to start up -- all you need is cheap labor, some computers, a PayPal account, and a copy of World of Warcraft. The overhead is low and the payoff is big because the demand is present for the supply. People have a perceived need to buy gold, so more people sell gold, which allows the market to grow. It won't stop, either, as tradable virtual currency from all types of games hit the gray market. What happens when an industry with low overheads becomes too profitable? What happens when a relatively simple setup like gold farming goes from the quaintness of cottage industry to a virtual currency-fueled industrial revolution? People start getting ideas when money is sitting there on the table, ready and waiting to be snatched up by the stalwart businessman. Combine that sentiment with the corruption and profit motives of institutions and a labor force that is for all intents and purposes free, and you get the sad tale of prisoners in China and the people in charge.
Global Chat: Dollars and cents edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! Global Chat this week is all about money. Be it real-world cash or piles of virtual gold, money is the foundation of much of our MMO experience. Ready to see what some of our best commenters had to say about all sorts of transactions this week? Follow along after the jump!
The Daily Grind: Are you in favor of alternative currency?
It seems to me that more and more MMO developers are utilizing alternative types of currency in our games. Whether they're tokens, barter scraps, or golden leaves, we're now having to chase down all manner of currencies to get the goodies we want. Our subject for discussion today: Is this a good thing or not? On one hand, I can understand that alternative currency helps to limit the amount of damage that gold sellers and farmers can do, and it provides incentives for players to participate in certain zones or activities. On the other hand, it feels as though these alternative currencies are cluttering up our bags, confusing our minds, and devaluing the standard currency in the game. So looking at your favorite games, are you in favor of barter systems and tokens as an alternative to gold, silver and copper? Should every game have a barter wallet if so? Or do you wish that devs would cut it out and stick with one type of money as the standard? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: Does game currency matter?
They say that money makes the world go 'round, and this used to always be true in RPGs. Without solid bank, your character would be swinging a cardboard sword at enemy dragons and weeping from the humiliation. But once you performed enough virtual muggings, you'd be rolling in dough and able to equip the very best gear and weapons. It struck me the other day that MMOs used to be more like this as well -- that the acquisition of gold, platinum or credits was a necessity to fund your character's gear. Older titles, like Anarchy Online, still function under this premise. However, it seems to me that with the rise of usable dropped loot, the value of money has decreased to the point where vendors are, in fact, a joke. Even stranger is the rise of alternative currencies in MMOs for decent gear that are gained through specific tasks instead of just picking it up off any old mob. So does game currency matter to you? Is it there merely for a few pricey items (i.e., money sinks like mounts) or do you feel it has more purpose? Do you see some MMOs that give more worth to currency over others? Do you focus your time on building up wealth, or is money merely for travel costs and repair bills? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Taiwanese Apple suppliers may be forced to raise prices
While the modern global economy has allowed companies in far-flung parts of the world to get into manufacturing, one of the many issues they face is exchange rate fluctuations. Electronics manufacturers in Taiwan are currently feeling the pinch as the Taiwan dollar has climbed more than other currencies in the region, jumping 2.5 percent in the past month and 7.2 percent in the past year. Each percentage point of exchange rate increase translates to 0.5 percent of profit margin according to Wintek, which produces touch panels for many Apple devices. Suppliers like Wintek rarely manage to achieve the sort of enormous profit margins that Apple does when selling to the consumer, and losing 3 percent off the top is tough to swallow. As a result, Taiwan-based companies may have to look at increasing the prices charged to Apple and other customers. Apple's premium pricing to end customers means that it has some flexibility to absorb price increases from suppliers in the short term. That will, of course, hurt its profits, which it won't tolerate for very long. Given the competitive marketplace, Apple will be reluctant to increase prices, but if the exchange rate situation doesn't improve soon, we'll probably see some decontenting or a slow-down in the spec increases. Instead of seeing next-gen MacBooks and iPhones getting more memory or better cameras, they will probably hold steady. [Via Electronista]
Guest Post: What will be Patch 4.0.1's legacy?
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. As the dust begins to settle in the wake of the great patch-aclysm of 2010, it's time to look back with a little perspective and see exactly what we've been left with. The most immediately visible effects revolve around the drastic changes to many of our favorite classes, but frankly, a bit too much hubbub has been made over these already. The WoW community is -- to put it delicately -- a rather passionate bunch, so we tend to react strongly to the need to relearn our classes. Realistically, though, it's just a matter of figuring out which playstyles suit us the most, adapting to them and hoping we don't lose any friends and guildies as casualties of evolution. Damage numbers are also relatively meaningless at this stage in the game. While we're sure to see some frustratingly unviable specs in Cataclysm like we have in the past (*cough* PvE subtlety), for the most part, the developers can tweak code through patches and hotfixes to ensure that we all eventually see appropriately-sized numbers flashing before our eyes. Since the order of buttons we press to succeed is in a constant state of flux anyway, we'll eventually forget that X skill or Y talent even existed. But some things will stick with us longer. I believe Patch 4.0.1's legacy depends more on permanent game changes that we'll one day take for granted.
Calculator's currency calculations currently kaput
OS X's built-in Calculator.app has built-in support for currency conversions. To get accurate results, you have to update the currency exchange rates from inside the application. This feature is currently broken for many users, as I discovered after it wouldn't work for me. Several threads on the Apple Discussion forums show this is a "known issue" with no known fix at this time. This seems to be happening to users of both Leopard and Snow Leopard. In the meantime, you can use the "Unit Converter" widget which is still working and updates successfully. You can add the widget by clicking on the "+" in Dashboard, or by double-clicking on it from /Library/Widgets/. Some users are reporting that other conversions are not working either. I did not have that problem, but if you do you can try deleting the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Calculator.plist file (where ~ means your Home folder). If you need to do currency conversions but don't want to use Dashboard, you can use Google instead; it will accept plain language conversions such as "20 euro to us dollars" and will offer other currency conversions as well.
Gold To Go ATMs dispense precious metals to the superwealthy, heading to the states this year
Goldline might be a bust (sorry, Glenn), but you're not gonna let that stop you from preparing for the imminent collapse of society. Or maybe you just want to hang with your friends at the Ayn Rand Book Club (The Fountainhead again?) and they prefer Krugerrands to the fiat currency of the USA. Any way you slice it, Americans (including our friend Scott) have "gold fever." Luckily, it turns out that the Gold To Go vending machines we saw early this year are on their way to the states. Stocked with up to ten different gold bars or coins, these bad boys accept cash or plastic and use a VPN to phone home to Germany for updates on the cost of precious metals every 10 minutes. They also feature an ID scanner / camera combo for preventing (or at least slowing down) potential money launderers. The devices can be found currently in the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, Bankshop in Reutlingen, Germany, The Westin Palace in Madrid, and the Orio al Serio International Airport, and they'll be hitting Las Vegas and Florida sometime this year. There might also be one next to the Coinstar machine at the Murray Ave. Giant Eagle (we'll check it out and let you know).
