GotMMOG?

Here’s the response I got to an e-mail I sent Amazon customer support about the whole Champions Online pre-order not mentioning open beta or early access details:

Hello,

Thanks for your comments about listing of the promotional details in our website. We’ll consider your feedback as we plan further improvements.

Customer feedback like yours really helps us continue to improve our store and provide better service to our customers. Thanks for taking time to offer us your thoughts.

If you still need to cancel an item, visit Your Account (http://www.amazon.com/your-account) and click the “View Recent and Open Orders” button. As long as your order hasn’t shipped yet, you can cancel an individual item or the whole order from there.

Gee, thanks for caring. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. And I’ve spent a lot of money with them, specifically on games. Maybe during my PAX trip I should pay a visit to Jeff Bezos and see if he cares…I have a feeling he doesn’t.

Chalk one up for game devs and retails. Gamers: 0.

g afk

So, I’d been playing the Champions Online Open Beta on and off over the last few days and after a break of a couple days decided I wanted to screw around again…maybe even make another character.

BAM…no shards found. Well, guess what that means? Turns out, Crytic decided to do some sort of weird custom pre-order deal per ENTITY. What does that mean? Well, I say that because if you pre-ordered from Amazon in the US (like I did), then you ONLY get access to the Open Beta, not the Early Start.

(cue double-take here)

I’m sorry…wtf? Who the fuck does that? Pre-orders have traditionally meant you get to start early MINIMUM. Beta access, closed or open, was usually icing on the cake. Since when does a pre-order mean you get taste a piece of BETA software but not get early access ahead of all those noobs that waited for the retail release? I gave you a guaranteed fucking order…you’re definitely getting it. And you ask me to turn around and bend over?

Wow. No, not that Blizzard game…the exclamation of surprise and shock. But, you know why I say that? Check this out…here’s what Cryptic’s description says you get if you happen to be British or French:

Amazon.fr customers receive access to our Open Beta, beginning August 17, as well as entry to our Early Start Program. In addition, your purchase includes Grenade Bandoliers, Retro Jetpro and Kendrium Fleethelm costume pieces, along with the Benign Symbiote and Secondary Mutation in-game item!

and

U.K. Amazon customers customers will receive entry to our Open Beta, beginning August 17, as well as entry to our Early Start Program. Additionally, Amazon UK customers will receive the Harlequin Headpiece and Retro Jetpro Jet Pack. When they purchase the retail copy, customers will receive 30 days of game time.

Holy shit! You’ve got to be French or British to do what US gamers have done for almost a decade! Now you know why I said Entity above. It’s the same fucking company (Amazon) just the UK and French subsidiaries.

Gets better. Check this place out…go on, I’ll wait…

Notice it? ONLY Amazon (US) and Direct2Drive are NOT able to get into the Early Start Program. Beauty.

Better still, the Amazon page doesn’t mention any of this…which is why I had to find this posting on the Cryptic forums after getting an error in the launcher. WTF?

It’s incredible to think…the MMO market’s been around for the better part of a decade and several big MMOs have come out in the last couple years. Yet, some how, Cryptic…the same company who made CoH/CoV (and so shouldn’t be unfamiliar with MMOs) did this bullshit?

Honestly, I don’t even blame Amazon. Sure they should make it clear on their Web page but it’s Cryptic’s responsibility in the end. It’s their game and their reputation. Right now, I’m going into my Amazon account and canceling my pre-order. Why the hell should I guarantee them income day one when my order ships? I’ll take my time jumping into that fucking crap.

Great job Cryptic. I can’t wait to see how you fuck up Star Trek Online.

g afk

For those of you that don’t use BitTorrent and need to patch your Closed Beta install to prep for the Open Beta, here’s the FilePlanet (ugh) link to get the patch.

BitTorrent types (you know who you are) can just grab it here.

Looks like you need to patch up to get things rolling properly in the Open beta coming up in a week and a half.

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Ahead of the European and US release of Aion, it looks like we’re in for a weeklong Open Beta starting Labor Day weekend (in the US). Looks like they’re leaving the level cap in place but “enhancing” the game for Western audiences while also populating the game with more stuff to do.

A Pre-Select (I guess they ran out of terms for advanced access”) period starts on the 18th and the Head Start begins Sept 20th.

As is typical of someone who’s been in a beta for a game, I’m mixed on the launch. The initial excitement is dampened by experience but at the same time a lot of doubts about how they’d deliver the game are gone.

Still, I stand by my assessment from earlier that the game brings a lot of what was learned (and that works) in the previous generations of MMOs, especially WoW, and enhances a couple things.

I guess I need to try to plow through the levels to get to the end-game/PVP part of the show to see if the game will have any sort of staying power. The one positive is that I, a solo player at heart, has managed to survive and advance without much help (though I admit to grouping up once in a while to help someone or to get through a quest objective quickly). I think this sort of trait is key for a game that wants to see people stick around longer than the first 3-6 months…that period when everyone chews up all the SP content and stands around at the level cap wondering what’s next.

UPDATE: I guess it helps to check Twitter: Pre-Selection means you get to lock in a character name or two ahead of the Head Start.  Fun.

More to come!

And, on a side note, we’re heading to PAX 2009 next week so if we can squeeze out any new tid bits or other info on some of the new MMOs coming out (STO anyone??), we’ll drop updates here as soon as we get them!

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So, CrimeCraft is officially out. The thing is…who cares? I played the closed beta and as unfinished as it was the only real bullet point of any note was the fact that the bulk of the game was supposed to be about the FPS-like (definitely not straight FPS…just FPS-like) matches. Basically, the game is something like a hybrid of Guild Wars with the “MMO” lobby and instanced gaming and a third-person shooter.

It’s been a month or two since I played it so it’s possible they might have made some changes for the better but I seriously doubt it. You’ve still got the static NPCs, you’ve got imbalanced weapons, you’ve got a lot of people trying to be gangster.

Also, I think the fact that they’re self-publishing (definitely not showing up in Amazon’s catalog) and not seeing much in the way of advertising is a telling sign. No one wanted to grab this sucker and roll with it…on 24’s.

Feel free to try it out but don’t expect much.

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After a long download AND patch download, I got a chance to try out Crytic’s new fangled answer to the aging CoH/CoV MMO. And it crashed.

But, hey, it’s beta (albeit Open Beta). I dove in after that without any issues. Some notes from that first session:

1) Why do I run so damned slow as a hero? Maybe I’m not super yet?

2) They’re using a sort of “objective radius” approach which is kind of cool (so just imaging seeing a big circle on the map telling you your objective is going to be found in there…no Thottbot hits, no guessing). Cool.

3) The graphics are definitely comic but in some ways that’s a negative. From a distance, NPCs and some parts of the city/environments are pretty simplistic.

How about Arial non-bolded? Am I going blind?

4) Speaking of comics, now, I know the comic font makes it more “authentic” but that special way inkers write out speach bubbles and intros works because everything’s very short (they’re not writing novels). Maybe it’s more of a color thing (after all most comics have a white background for the written word…for good reason: it’s easier to read) but my eyes were definitely hating reading the quest text and other copy all over the place. Actually made me avoid reading the quests altogether. Just skimmed the rewards part and moved on.

5) Holy shit! You can pick up objects and use them as weapons against mobs (well, you can throw them). They do massive damage and are fun as hell. Nice!

6) I had no idea what the hell the whole equipment thing was about. You get a 3×3 grid of slots to fill that are supposed to correspond to the three main areas of crafting: arms, science, and mysticism. Still don’t think that’s everything.

Where the hell am I supposed to go?

7) A lot of instancing. There are definite common areas but they’re using the whole AoC/WAR/LOTRO/MMO 3.0 instancing technique to allow the story to flow better for you. Even so, the common areas seem to host a very small number of people. The main instances closed at something like 30-40 people. Maybe a good thing but it sort of defeats the purpose of an MMO. Besides, the instances don’t have usable names…all numbers and letters. Ugh.

8 ) Your abilities are based on a whole energy concept. You use certain abilities to build energy (kind of like rage for Warriors in WoW) and other abilities can use that energy. You start off with a baseline amount of energy.

Decisions, decisions...

So it becomes a tug of war as you eat up energy fast with one ability (which also does better damage and the like) and generate energy slow with another ability. So combat becomes a numbers game (no surprise…it’s an RPG in the end!) as you do your best to take advantage of big hits in between little hits. 1v1 you’ll usually be fine. But if you get mobbed, watch out…

9) Character customization is ridiculous but in a good way. You can pick archtypes based on the general type of power (electricity, fire, psionics, guns, wahtever) and get the default setups for those areas or you can go custom and mix it up a bit. Thing is, you only

Sweet Fancy Moses

really mix up three things: energy building attack, energy using attack, and general starting stat profile. The real meat though is customizing the look of your character. Jeez. I’m telling you…you would be hard pressed to NOT find something you need to make whatever comic book hero you want…real or imagined. Insectoid robot? Check. Rock skinned beast? You got it. The detail is incredible. I literally spent 30 minutes putting my first guy together…just great shit.

10) They’re using a public quest system like WAR with the same rewards based on points earned during the event. Nice to see but nothing ground breaking.

11) The missions are inline with your standard MMO quests though superhero-themed of course.

12) Haven’t really dug into crafting as you don’t really hit that until level 10 or later. Just got to level 11 and the main area where you select your crafting profession as I fell asleep at the keyboard…lol

Oh noes! My energy!!!

13) Mobs are ranked as henchmen, villans and supervillans. They vary in strength as you might expect with supervillans being a bit like goldies from WoW but not necessarily as powerful (i.e. along with my NPC partner following the main story arc I was able to solo the first guy without too much trouble). It’ll be interesting to see how that difficulty pans out at higher levels.

All in all, this is definitely the place to be for comic fanboys. I still haven’t learned to fly but it’s got the feel of a superhero game. Now, if you’re not a fanboy, it’s worth a look but don’t expect anything too groundbreaking. A lot of the hallmarks of a typical MMO (NPCs that stand around, griding, etc.) are all there so you’re not going to piss yourself here.

Just remember, it’s in open beta right now so bugs are still being crushed by the fist of justice…

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And open beta is on the horizon. Unfortunately, yours truly had no time really. I managed to log a couple of hours with my Cleric and that was it. Nuts.

The funny thing is…as soon as the Aion beta closed out, I got my little notice from Amazon about the Champion’s Online Open Beta! Noice.

Of course, the main problem is waiting for it to download off of FilePlanet. A little side story: I hate FilePlanet.  It’s the back alley of game sites where they’re constantly AND I MEAN CONSTANTLY harrassing you so you’ll pay to be a subscriber. What the hell do I need to subscribe for? Just because one or two betas are forced into the putrid squalor that is your craptastic site doesn’t mean I should have no choice but to wear a body condom and dive in. Okay, maybe I’m being unfair…maybe it’s because their site has been for the longest time a load of shit that just happened to have some files people wanted to download…or maybe it was the fact that it’s just another site that forces you to sign up to grab a free download via “low-speed” download.

But I digress. Looking forward to checking this sucker out. I didn’t last long in CoH but maybe it’s because that thing was just a bit too dated for me. Of course, Cryptic isn’t off to a great start…I don’t get it. MMO’s have been around for a decade now. You don’t realize that people are going to swamp your servers if you let them? FFS, what did you think you were creating? Performance art geared towards widowed Icelanders with dark skin? You’re dealing with comic fanboys who can’t wait to done tights and a cape (you know who you are) and fly around some fictional city looking for a granny to save.

Meanwhile, Cryptic is also offering access to the CLOSED beta for Star Trek Online. All you’ve got to do is…wait for it…pay for a lifetime or pre-release 6 month subscription. You also get some in-game items but as usual it comes down to how long you think you’ll be playing. If you’re gonna play guaranteed for more than 13 months, the lifetime membership is worth getting. It’s essentially 13 months of $14.99 payments (roughly). So, for every month you stay with the game beyond those 13 months, your effective monthly payment gets smaller. For instance, if the game’s around for 5 years and you’re a die hard CO fanboy, you’ll have gotten the 5 year ride for $3 and change. Nice…but then again, how can you know? And who’s got $200 lying around that isn’t already being used for something else? lol

We’ll see how things go once we finish downloading the client and wrestle our way in…we might throw some limited edition comics in the path of the masses so we can find a server…

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Gamasutra’s reporting a couple of updates on the NCSoft front.

First, Jeff Strain’s decided he’s done with Guild Wars and Arenanet and is moving on. While I seriously doubt this will have a serious affect on Guild Wars or Aion, it is interesting to note not that there was another departure (David Reid) but that NCSoft referred to this as an “inevitable” set of events. Sounds more like someone’s trying to stir things up so NCSoft can compete with WoW.

Not sure where that’s going though…they’ve had some decent (though niche) MMOs like CoH/CoV and GuildWars isn’t necessarily niche. And, of course, TR didn’t do so well in the end. Sure, Lineage is more a game for Asia than America and Aion will likely NOT grab that much of the market from WoW. I think it’ll be more like WAR, taking a chunk but relegated pretty quick once a lot of the guys out there playing decide they’d prefer more…uh…manly characters to play.

Now, on to the jinx…

When you’re being successful, you DON’T go around calling the ball on your MMO before it launches over here. It seems with 225 servers and $32.7 million in revenue in the first quarter that Aion’s run in Asia, NCSoft thinks they’re on to a winner. One thing, big guy, the West isn’t ASIAN. Maybe if the general style of the game wasn’t anime, and you were still seeing success in the Asian market (meaning it had some sort of univeral appeal despite the art/cultural style), I’d agree with you. Or better yet, if you’d launched in the US first and saw success, then I’d say sure.

But, 225 servers across several countries means what to me? And how many subscribers are spread over those servers? If you assume 10k limits on servers but also that they aren’t full all the time and that some people play across multiple servers, you’ve got a ballpark of anywhere between 500k and 2.2M subscribers. I seriously doubt you got 2.2M subscribers. More likely closer to a 1M at best.

Thing is, we also know, people will drain off after a few months and it won’t be long before you need to start looking at content updates to keep things interesting 3-6 months after launch.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Aion will have a decent showing (again, anime does not equal success in the US across the board) here and in Europe. The key question is going to be WHO will they lock in? Lock in enough people in a guild and that guild will start playing in your game more often, driving more people in on a consistent basis. However, the average MMO gamer is fickle and despite a “smooth” transition from WoW to Aion in terms of features and the like, there is also the differences in game play and a lack of add-on support at this stage.

I think they’ll do a lot better than WAR and LOTRO did if only because there is a better crafting system more akin to WoW’s. People seem to have drop kicked crafting in recent MMOs thinking it’s like the RTS genre and resource gathering. Sure people don’t want to always hunt down daisies but they DO want to do it at some point, especially if they can craft some bitchin’ potion or armor piece that they can sell. Also, the guy buying that armor piece will be more engaged because now he doesn’t have to run through some raid or dungeon with a group 10 times to get a good drop that works for his class.

Anyhow, stay off the “we’re number 2″ soapbox for now. It didn’t work in Funcon’s favor that everyone thought AoC was going to be a WoW killer…AoC? What’s that?

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I know we’re sort of carpet bombing Aion tid bits but…hell, what else is about to launch in a month?

Looks like those of you who purchased the standard edition on the NCSoft site for digital download (all two of you) can upgrade it to the CE (digital) for $10 more. Nice.

Meanwhile, CB 6 is coming up this weekend. From the look of it, this is likely the last of these suckers before the open beta (when the riff raff show up) and launch (when the servers get hammered). Let loose those beta keys and get at it.

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If you’re looking for the Collector’s Edition but don’t care about the tchotchke’s of the physical box, Steam’s selling copies still (and potentially until launch since it’s all digital) for $59.99. It’s a $10 premium over the standard edition but it’s also $10 cheaper than the boxed CE (I guess that plastic statue, soundtrack, and box costs you $10). And, you get all those in-game bonuses the CE people get for $10 less.

Up to you.

g afk