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Community Detective Issue #22: Allods Online [Updated]
My first few minutes with Allods Online were one part awesome and two parts aggravation. There was intrigue in the form of my research into player-crewed airships, and there was annoyance at the forced installation of Pando Media Booster, a third-party app that supposedly improves download speeds but is really little more than bloatware. Once I had the game patched and running (and the offending program removed), it was time to get down to brass tacks. Community Detective has largely been concerned with traditional subscription-based MMOs to this point (detours into the lands of Global Agenda and Runes of Magic notwithstanding), so I'm branching out a bit this week to the realm of free-to-play. Despite its cash-shop missteps and death-penalty brouhahas, Allods has a certain allure, and I figured it was time to answer a few burning questions. In no particular order: What the heck is an allod, what kind of community can you expect in one of the larger F2P games, and what sort of customer service is on offer from gPotato?
Community Detective Issue 10: Final Fantasy XIV
Welcome to the Eorzea edition of Massively's Community Detective. I've been spending a fair bit of time in Square-Enix's Final Fantasy XIV of late and have finally managed to collate some data on the game's community and customer service apparatus. Those of you looking for a ranty review of Square's much-maligned epic probably won't find what you're looking for here, although I'll occasionally offer a bit of side commentary on my in-game experiences to go along with the usual community questions and support tickets. Without further ado then, let's jump into the Age of Adventure.
Massively's Community Detective, Issue #6: Lord of the Rings Online
If you've been playing MMORPGs for any length of time, or you keep up with the latest happenings around the industry, you're probably familiar with Lord of the Rings Online's Landroval server. In addition to being the "unofficial" roleplay server for Turbine's Tolkien-based MMORPG, Landroval is consistently mentioned as one of the finest communities in online gaming. Whether it be in forum discussions on various gaming websites, chats with gaming buddies, or even internal discussions here at Massively, Landroval is almost always referenced when someone asks about a friendly server that offers a dense and mature population. For this week's issue of Community Detective, we decided to put Landroval to the test. While the community lived up to its billing, we did encounter some curious inconsistencies with regard to Turbine's customer service. Head past the cut for our findings and impressions.
Massively's Community Detective, Issue #5: Vanguard - Saga of Heroes
Much has been written around the MMO blogosphere regarding SOE's Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. From its troubled beginnings as a not-quite-ready-for-launch title, to fledgling Sigil Games Online's financial difficulties, to lead designer Brad McQuaid's well-publicized struggles with management and personal issues, the spiritual successor to EverQuest has always had a bit of a dark cloud hovering over its head. Happily, a fun game remains despite all the problems, and the title's snake-bit tendencies don't seem to have affected either its community or its customer service. Fly past the cut (on your rented pegasus) for more.
Massively's Community Detective, Issue #4: Warhammer Online [Updated]
"Don't roll a black orc, they'll just piss you off [since] newbies don't know how to back you up," said one of the helpful folks on Warhammer Online's Badlands server when I asked about class choice. While you may disagree with his assessment, he was one member of a very friendly community, and one of many that took the time to answer questions and make a new player feel welcome on multiple occasions. Unfortunately that's more than I can say for Mythic's customer service department. When it bothered to respond, it wasn't inclined to help with the simplest of support tickets, nor provide any sort of explanation. Waaagh WAAAGH! past the cut for more.
Massively's Community Detective: The customer service case files, Issue #1
"Glad you made it to Age of Conan, and please, please feel free to look me up if you need any further help or want a group." When that bit of purple private tell text scrolled through the chat box of of our newly created guardian last week, it was clear that we weren't finding what we initially expected when we set out to research the community in Funcom's sword and sorcery MMORPG. Welcome to the inaugural issue of Massively's Community and Customer Service Investigations. Together we'll be examining all kinds of interesting factoids about both the community and customer service aspects of your favorite MMORPGs. If community is the heartbeat of this genre, we're here to take its pulse, and arm you with the information you need to make informed decisions when it comes time to look for greener pastures. Similarly, a game's customer service record can provide a gauge on everything from the professionalism of the overall operation to the health of the company behind it, and our investigations will put the system through its paces to bring you both hard data and analysis over time. This week's issue examines two PvE-focused games, one large and one small, in the form of EverQuest II and Age of Conan, respectively. Join us after the cut to see how the titles fared in terms of community and customer service.
