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The Game Archaeologist: Will classic MMOs survive without free-to-play?
It's amazing to me how quickly the industry has shifted to where we don't just welcome free-to-play as a business model in MMOs -- we downright expect it. Take a look in the comments of any new MMO that dares to launch with a subscription-only model: People will be tripping over each other in an attempt to predict just when said game will break down and admit that it needs F2P. Whether or not BioWare's admission that it's looking into F2P for Star Wars: The Old Republic surprised you or not, it's a sign that no game is immune to the allure, dollar signs, and downright necessity of the popularity and flexibility of this model. I think this brings a pressing question to bear in the field of classic MMOs: Will they survive without free-to-play? It's a pretty important question for a few reasons. One, a surprising majority of remaining sub-only MMOs are older ones; two, people now expect free in games they try; and three, players aren't exactly flocking to classic MMOs anyway. This week I want to explore the conundrum that these games are in and why some players may have blinders on when it comes to the fate of their favorite games.
Why I Play: EverQuest II
EverQuest II has always been a funny beast to me. I was not raised on a steady diet of SOE MMOs like some, and when EQII rolled around in November of 2004, I decided to go with some lesser-known title from Blizzard instead. I'd heard bad things about SOE in general, and EQII looked just as inaccessible as EverQuest did on the store shelves. Plus, to put a final nail in the not-interested coffin, I hated the graphics. I still do. Hate the graphics, that is. If someone was to award MMOs for Most Blandly Generic, Plasticy Models Straight from the Uncanny Valley, EverQuest II would be a shoo-in. Yet the years wore down my mostly semantic objections to giving EverQuest II a go, and after a few false starts, I spent a few wonderful months in the game last year after it went free-to-play. While I couldn't sustain interest in this on top of all of the other titles I was playing, I'd heartily recommend EQII to anyone complaining about tapped-out content in other MMOs. EQII is the Super Walmart of MMO features and content, far eclipsing most other competitors. Here is why I played and why you might want to, too.
The Daily Grind: Should games bother innovating guild systems?
In-game support for MMO guilds has come a long way in the last 15 years. Ultima Online launched without guilds at all, let alone chat, so we tacked our guild abbreviations onto our character names. EverQuest's early months required guild leaders to petition GMs to form guilds. In fact, it wasn't until Asheron's Call that an MMO tried to break away from the "unofficial online shooter clan" mold and provide something different: a monarchy system that encouraged players to form official but dynamic allegiances, which provided an in-game benefit to patrons and vassals alike. But the genre didn't iterate on Asheron's Call's invention, instead preferring to bolster in-game guilds with perks like guild vaults and achievements -- cool stuff, but layered over a static, military style of guild structure with generic ranks. Most MMOs don't allow you to join multiple groups, either (Guild Wars 2 being a notable exception). So today I'm wondering whether you think there's room for innovation in MMO guild mechanics. Should studios design unique and flexible guild systems, or should they just get out of the way and let players decide how to organize themselves like we had to Back In The Day? 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!
SOE to bring back Station Cash subscription purchases -- for a week
We reported this morning that SOE had quietly removed the option to purchase non-recurring subscriptions in its MMOs with Station Cash. SOE President John Smedley arrived on the EverQuest II forums to apologize for how it was handled and assure players that this purchase option would return for a limited time so that last-minute partakers could take advantage of it: "I'm sorry we didn't do a good job of messaging this. It was handled while we were at E3 and that was bad. Very simply put, we pulled the non-recurring subscriptions because we want a closer look at the numbers and how our overall pricing of subscriptions is impacted by it. I don't want anyone thinking they were pulled because of double SC promotions or anything like that. "We're trying to figure out the right balance of things that make our customers feel great about our pricing and balance that against our customer base as a whole. We aren't saying they are going away for good. We're just looking carefully at the data right now and how we do this right. Please be patient while we figure this out. These non-recurring subscriptions are something we're still working through and we want to make sure we do this right. Obviously as a business we have to make sure the decisions we're making good for our players, and I assure you that's what we're trying to do. "I've asked the team to put them back up for a week to let people buy them with existing SC. I'm not sure when it will be back up. Maybe today or maybe Monday (a lot of our team went to E3)."
SOE removes option to purchase subs with Station Cash
In a stealth move, Sony Online Entertainment has quietly removed the ability to purchase non-recurring subscriptions from its MMOs' marketplaces. Players in both EverQuest and EverQuest II noticed the change while in the game and went to the forums for official confirmation. Previously, players were able to use Station Cash (SOE's universal game currency) to snap up single-month subscriptions. This allowed frugal players to acquire discounted subscriptions, as SOE occasionally has a sale on Station Cash and throws in-game deals for spending it. Community Manager Piestro confirmed the removal in a forum post: "Hey folks, just jumping in to let you know this was indeed an intentional change. This decision was partially based on the very limited utilization of this feature." This removal comes at a bad time for players who did purchase subs this way, as SOE is giving bonus Station Cash to players redeeming game cards this weekend. [Thanks to Don for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: Would you leave your current MMO for its sequel?
With Guild Wars 2 in the offing, long-time Guild Wars fans have an interesting dilemma on their hands. Trading up is probably a foregone conclusion in most cases, but abandoning Guild Wars altogether may sting a bit if you've invested a lot of time and energy into the original incarnation of Tyria. The same could be said for faithful EverQuest fans when EverQuest II rolled around in 2004, and perhaps again whenever Sony Online Entertainment formalizes its EverQuest Next project. For today's Daily Grind, then, we'd like to know how easily you could leave your current MMO if a sequel were to materialize. We know you'd check out the new shiny, but would you leave the older title for good? 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!
WildStar to support and encourage addons
While some fledgling MMOs may act coy or hesitant about including user-created addons for their game, WildStar is going the opposite route and embracing them full-on. Lead Client Engineer Jon Wiesman penned a dev blog explaining why Carbine is enthusiastically supporting addons for the game from launch. Wiesman previously worked at EverQuest's Verant and is currently the driving force behind WildStar's UI engine. He reports that not only will players be able to change the look and layout of the UI from the get-go, but WildStar will support Lua to allow for addons and mods. He assures potential players that creating such addons won't be a frustrating experience devoid of proper instruction and support: "If you can program at all, I promise you'll be able to make an addon for our game. Our commitment is to make sure the process is documented, clear, and accessible. Promise." [Thanks to Bill for the tip!]
The Soapbox: The perils of passive gaming
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. My folks don't really understand my infatuation with video games (and MMORPGs in particular). "How can you sit there and play a game for two or three hours at a time?" my mom is fond of asking. Ironically, this usually happens on a visit that ends where most of our visits do: on the couch in front of the television. Don't get me wrong; she's no couch potato, and in fact she has the meanest green thumb you'll ever see. When the sun goes down, though, my parents (like most of their generation, I'll wager) park their butts in front of the TV. That I should park my own posterior in front of the computer is exceedingly strange to them even though online gaming is to the 21st century what television was to the 20th. I wonder, though, if games are starting to become more passive forms of TV-like entertainment.
SOE games down Monday for 24-hour maintenance
We imagine that the word downtime makes Sony Online Entertainment employees cringe, convulse, and eye-twitch for hours on end after last summer's disastrous hacker-induced service outage. Happily, though, the next service interruption is planned, and we've got plenty of notice. SOE will be performing maintenance this Monday, April 23rd, and the firm says that all of its game services will be unavailable for approximately 24 hours. The downtime starts at 3:01 a.m. EDT. Commerce transactions and account management functionality will also be affected, so you might as well cross all of your SOE-related plans off Monday's calendar.
The Soapbox: The curious case of Vanguard
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. "Yaaay!" "FU-- yeah!" "Finally." "WOW! This is the best MMO news I have heard in a long time!" These are just a few of the comments that greeted our recent announcement of Vanguard's upcoming free-to-play conversion. The reactions were overwhelmingly positive, and Sony Online Entertainment's open-world fantasy themepark was lavished with praise by a wide cross-section of Massively readers. This makes me wonder where all these folks have been since the game's launch in early 2007. It's not like Vanguard shut down and is being resurrected, you know? More importantly, I wonder whether free-to-play can actually save the game from the scrap heap of shuttered SOE MMOs.
SOE trumpets EverQuest's F2P success
How's that free-to-play experiment working out for EverQuest? Pretty well, according to Sony Online Entertainment's latest press release. The company has just published a few facts and figures relating to the recent conversion of its long-running fantasy themepark. Some of the more interesting nuggets include a 125% spike in item sales, a 150% uptick in unique log-ins, and over three times as many account registrations when compared to the subscription model. SOE has also released a handy video recap for EverQuest newbs. The game has been around since 1999, after all, so have a look at the Living Legend clip after the break to catch up on 13 years of MMO history. [Source: SOE press release]
The Perfect Ten: MMO tributes to real-life people
When a beloved friend, family member, hero, or role model dies, we feel the pain of that loss and grieve in many different ways. Part of that grieving and healing process is often entails those left behind constructing some sort of tribute to the dearly departed. Sometimes this comes in the form of a shrine of flowers, sometimes it's the establishment of a charity, and sometimes it's creating an in-game memorial that thousands if not millions of people will see over the course of years. So while death and illness are depressing topics to dwell upon, I find the many MMO tributes that studios and even gamers have erected to be inspiring and a celebration of individual players' lives. With the help of my fellow Massively staffers, I researched 10 wonderful in-game tributes that serve to honor the lives of fellow gamers.
The Game Archaeologist: Bio break!
Man oh man, why couldn't I just take a month or so off of this column without getting sucked back into it? Why must classic MMOs be so compelling and newsworthy these days? I planned to take some time off of TGA while I went through Dark Age of Camelot in Choose My Adventure (which you're all reading, yes?), but there was so much to talk about regarding older MMOs that I couldn't sit back and stay mum. Ergo, I've dashed off this special "break" column devoted to commenting on recent news about classic games. Hopefully this will help tide you over until I get back into the full swing of things in April. On the docket for today's discussion is Vanguard's forthcoming F2P change, EverQuest's recent conversion, Anarchy Online's stunning graphic engine video, and more!
Leaderboard: Ultima Online vs. EverQuest vs. Asheron's Call
Back at the turn of the century, you didn't have the equivalent of cable's infinite choices when it came to MMOs. No, you pretty much had the standard Big Three of network programming: Ultima Online, EverQuest, and Asheron's Call. With the subscription model firmly in place, most players had to choose their loyalty and choose it well. For today's Leaderboard, we're going to pretend that no other MMOs exist other than those three and see how the 2012 crowd divides up between them. Would you fly your banner for Ultima Online and its enormous sandboxy world? Would you cast your lots with EverQuest, the once great and powerful king of the genre? Or would you throw in with Asheron's Call and its monthly stories? Call it a popularity contest, a trip down memory lane, or an all-out brawl between MMO senior citizens. It's a three-way title fight on this week's Leaderboard, and only one game will live to see next week!
Vanguard going free-to-play this summer, beefs up dev team
With Sony Online Entertainment's heavy free-to-play push these past couple of years, Vanguard players hoped that they would not be overlooked by their digital overlord. Breathe easier, heroes, for this summer will bring thee and thine a F2P Vanguard -- and a big push for further game development! While specifics about the F2P conversion are hazy at the moment, SOE says that players should look to its work with previous MMO F2P adaptations (such as the recently relaunched EverQuest) for an idea how things will go down in Vanguard town. It's not just going to be a token change for this mostly forgotten title; SOE says that it has assembled a new team of Vanguard-loving devs to generate more frequent updates, including "general improvements and new content." The game's previous update was this past December. Coming on board to shape the future of the game are Director of Development Andy Sites, Creative Director Salim Grant, and Technical Director Todd Schmidt. The announcement concludes with a promise for team spotlights, more information on F2P, and development discussion to come in the near future.
Choose My Adventure: Dark Age of Camelot, week two
Some of you probably know that I first got into the blogging scene with my Warhammer Online blog Waaagh! Back then in early 2008, I was a veritable Mythic and PvP newbie, and I spent a good portion of the lead-up to the game's release reading up on Dark Age of Camelot. I figured that, after all, WAR would be built on the foundation of DAoC. In a way, it both was and wasn't. The one thing I never did was actually play DAoC. Older MMOs can be quite intimidating; they have deep-rooted communities and tomes of updates and history, and they were more rough around the edges. Rough in their cores, too, if we're being honest. So the intimidation factor kept me away until this past week, when Massively readers sent me on a quest to Camelot for the first time in my life. Last week readers voted on the character I was to roll. An impressive 82% of you said to check out the realm vs. realm ruleset and roll a a Midgard (43.2%) beastly (40.8%) hybrid (43.3%) character. After reading some of the recommendations in the comments, I ended up making a female Troll Skald on a traditional server. She may be lumpy and bulky, but I took a shine to her right away.
Terrazas talks EverQuest F2P launch and anniversary celebration
March is definitely roaring in like a lion for EverQuest. It's launching its new free-to-play program, and it's also celebrating its 13th anniversary with a big bash in game. With all of the changes, players are sure to have more than a few questions about the free-to-play transition and the state of the game today. We recently sat down with SOE Producer Thom Terrazas at a roundtable to answer those questions, so read on for details on the new free-to-play plan as well as the Hero's Journey, revamped maps, birthday celebrations, and the announcement of a brand-new server!%Gallery-150850%
EverQuest's massive 13th anniversary and free-to-play celebration events revealed
In two days, EverQuest will not only be celebrating its 13th (!) anniversary and adding a sizable update to the game, but also will be making the jump to a free-to-play hybrid model. Since this is no small potatoes, SOE has planned a huge array of events to celebrate the occasion. The fun begins on the Plane of Knowledge, where players can enjoy 13 special quests that harken back to the greatest hits of EverQuest's history. There's also a new raid and the return of 40 events from previous anniversaries to keep everyone busy. The update has a new feature called the Hero's Journey, which is a guidebook that will lead players through a path in EverQuest. To make things even more user-friendly, EverQuest's map system will see a major overhaul that includes the ability to show you paths to your destination. Finally, SOE has an absolutely gigantic F2P conversion FAQ that covers nearly every conceivable question about the transition, including payment options and previous status in the game. EverQuest will go F2P starting at 3:01 am EDT on Friday, March 16th.
The Tattered Notebook: What's free and what's not?
Tuesday, December 6th is going to be a very busy day for the EverQuest II team. The devs are launching an expansion, patching a game update, and performing the transition to make all servers free-to-play, simultaneously. And just as the dust settles from all of that, Frostfell is due to begin shortly after. With the stream of news announcements over the past month, there's bound to be confusion over what's free and what you'll need to pay for. Even veteran players have had questions about the game update versus the expansion, so in this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll give a rundown of what's what and even add in some handy links for more details.
Preview EverQuest's upcoming City of Bronze
The development of EverQuest has been a steady constant amidst seas of change, with the development team hard at work on the Veil of Alaris expansion. This 18th update for the venerable game will usher in a variety of updates and improvements -- and, of course, new zones. Erillion, the City of Bronze, is one such region and quite fittingly is the latest zone to have a video overview for players to inspect before the expansion's launch. Narrated by Alan VanCouvering and Bob Painter, the video describes both the original concept of Erillion and the challenges faced in designing such an orderly environment. It had to look as mechanical and orderly as possible, after all, but it also had to look organic rather than just being the same building pasted in dozens of times. Click on past the break to watch the video if you'd like to see the city before you can venture there in person. [Source: Official press release]
