GotMMOG?

It took a little time to put together but we’ve finally got our review of Aion up. Check it out!

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You’ve got to love the spin on this support note from SOE about SWG closing down a bunch of servers.

They say the transfer service freebie is a success when in fact it masks the closure of servers to deal with declining populations. Classy.

Not that it’s unexpected. I’ve been waiting for the ax to drop for some time. Lucas Arts has said they’re supporting it and not planning on shutting it down but c’mon, in business, you’re not going to keep a losing product going. My guess is they’ve culled enough resources so that the allotment of fees from the people still paying (and a portion of those from the Station Access accounts) are keeping things either semi-profitable or break-even.

All it’ll take though is something to draw away enough players to finally give them an excuse to shut it all down and be done with it. No doubt there are some passionate people out there keeping it alive but it can’t last forever.

Thankfully the shutdown doesn’t include my server…packing would’ve been a bitch.

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Sebastian Streiffert, Community Manager for Aion at NCSoft posted a new update about queues, server caps and additional servers.

We’ll see if it makes a difference tonight.

There’s also a great server statistics page with the breakdown of levels, factions, and classes…very cool.

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Brian Knox, producer for Aion at NCSoft, talked on mmorpg.com about queues. The spiel is the same though…server balance, queues being a necessary evil, etc.

Honestly, though, I don’t recall any queues on WoW at launch…sure it was slow authenticating and getting you in but there wasn’t a need for a queue right away…I remember queues kicking in later. Even so, the real trick was the outlay of new servers and hard population limits. I mean, c’mon. If I created a single character on a server, then I’ve got a committed slot. Sure, I might not use it (though I’m more likely not to use it if I have to queue up or if I put it on a low-pop server because of those same queues).

It’s like the solution is actually causing more problems in terms of predicting server pops?

It sounds more like someone didn’t think (which is ridiculous considering the fact that Aion’s been out for a year at least in Asia) of putting together a contingency plan for rolling out new servers to handle load. Who hasn’t done that? And if you think people will eventually leave and abandon those servers, so be it. You just do the character transfers over to existing servers that need people and consolidate the servers.

At this point in the “age” of MMOs, it’s inexcusable that this sort of planning isn’t part of the initial development. Even more so because they knew how many pre-orders they had and so could make some assumptions about how many would connect for the head start.

I haven’t had a chance (and probably won’t until late tonight) to log into Siel to see what the queues are like. Last night (before launch) people were talking about 1-3 hours of queue time. I logged in after midnight (thanks work!) without a queue…but that was a West coast server (Siel) and it was largely quiet. We’ll see…

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EA released an official trailer for APB from Realtime Worlds. Like we said before about the whole CrimeCraft vs APB thing, this one looks real good. It’s exactly what it’s supposed to be: GTA in space an MMO shell.

Really looking forward to this. There are still many ways they can screw this shit up but so far it’s looking good.

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The Penny Arcade guys are getting some digital print in the LA Times.

Crap, now that they’re mainstream enough to get profiled by the LA Times, I think we need to move on to something else…dammit…

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Seems the “queue” issue as people flood the servers to get in is bubbling to the top. While the idea of funneling people into the servers in an “orderly” fashion makes obvious sense the point is, if there are so many people trying to get in that you NEED a queue, is it possible there’s something you haven’t built for?

After all, if the queue is solely to limit authentication, then you really need to look at improving authentication speed. There’s no excuse there.

And, if the problem is server population (i.e. your servers can’t take more than 10k people per server and 20k people are trying to get in), you have to ask yourself why? Pre-selection told you just how many people were interested in getting in there for the Head Start since both events are for pre-orders only.

Beyond this, you can limit how many characters can be added to a particular server. If I can’t create a character, I can’t log into the server anyway.

Excuses aside, I think there’s a disconnect somewhere if you need to have a queue. Game or no game, you’re talking about software and networking. If everything is properly designed, you’ll have limited things where they need to be limited (at the start) and made sure the rest runs smoothly.

Ideally, you’ll have built a dynamic system that can allocate resources as needed to areas that are getting hit hard. So, during initial launch when everyone’s busting down the authentication and starter location gates, all your servers are allocated there with maybe a handful worrying about high level areas or auctions or whatever.

On another note, if you’re a CE owner or got some bonus gear with your pre-order, you need to “activate” it on your characters during the Head Start period only. After you’ve gotten your box and are “official”, you shouldn’t have to do this for new characters. Check here for instructions on how to gear up during the Head Start.

Alright, time to dig into the game…see you around Siel (if I can get in)!

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…which means the Head Start is almost upon us!!!

The NCSoft crew’s been keeping a status page on the preselections (and what servers are available or limited in any way). At this point, though, it’s a bit late to care.

If you’re having issues with your launcher or the game the first thing to try is to shut it all down (kill the game from your task bar and kill the launcher from the system tray on the right). Wait for a few seconds or if you’re tech savvy, go to your task manager and make sure there are no NCLauncher.exe or AionClient.exe processes running. If there are and they aren’t going away after about 10-15 seconds (unless you’re on a really slow machine), kill the processes.

Now, just launch the launcher. It should update itself and if you haven’t downloaded the patch, update the client. If you get an error about the launcher have an error the last time it ran, it’s probably because of your killing it.

If you’re having a different issue, check out Ayase’s (Sebastian the Community Manager) post on AionSource.com.

If you get a chance, feel free to let the Aion crew at NCSoft know you appreciate their efforts. They might not be having the smoothest of launches so far but they’re definitely a lot more responsive than previous MMOs at this stage.

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Dungeon Runners, a F2P Diablo-esque MMO, is finally getting the ax. I never got a chance to play it but then again, being what looked like Diablo with a MMO component didn’t really appeal that much to me.

The real question is, what tanked it? Was it the lack of anything really interesting? (Check!) Or was it the fact that making it free to play diminished its perceived value anyway? (Maybe!)

Again, not having played it, it’s difficult to judge the gameplay but something tells me that’s usually it. I mean, c’mon, if there were a free game out there that was awesome, wouldn’t you play it? And you’d expect a percentage of you would be willing to shell out AT LEAST $5 a month to get access to something (assuming it was anything worthwhile), right?

I don’t get it. These MMOs get flung out there and they think just because they lowered the bar to zero so anyone can play it that they can compensate for something that just isn’t fun. Worse yet, why come back? It’s not costing you anything so there’s no “maybe I should try to play this thing since I’m paying for it.” Worried about cancellations? Worry about WHY they’re canceling not how MANY are canceling.

The MMO market has quickly taken on the gym membership model for business and people wonder why MMOs don’t “make it.” I’ve likened the gym membership model to a rowboat that’s leaking water like a sieve. The gyms are baling water out fast enough that they’re not sinking (new memberships) but not addressing the fact that the water’s still coming in (canceled memberships). Did you know there was this statistic a couple years back that gyms added 1.7 million membership in a given period…and lost 1.4 million to other gyms or attrition.

If a game is solid in terms of features and playability (both as a noob and as a vet) and isn’t ridiculously priced, it’s going to do well. Sure, you’ve still got to get enough people in the door to create a network effect so that the floodgates just open but build it well enough and market it right and you’ll get there. It’s not like WoW got 11 million subscribers year one. It’s taken FIVE years to get there…with a lot of that subscriber base being recent adds both by entering new markets outside the US (remember, they’ve got 6 million of those subscribers in Asia) and in recent years (it’s not like they were at 11 million by 2005).

I’m curious to see how Aion does. They’ve already got a chunk of Asian subs. According to Wikipedia, WoW’s 11 million includes about 2.5 million or more NA subs (2.5 million in early 2008 so I’m guessing closer to 3-3.5 million by now). If Aion can break a million in NA and another million in the EU, then I think we’d have a solid contender for the “WoW-killer” title everyone seems to want to bestow on someone. Wouldn’t it be funny if Blizzard’s next MMO is the one that kills WoW?

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Surprise, surprise. It seems Vogster, the creator of the largely useless CrimeCraft shooter dressed in MMO gear is laying off some people as they “shift” from dev to maintenance of their–as they put it–”Persistent World Next-gen Shooter” or PWNS. LMAO. Right…Maybe it’s time I prepare my own Sustained Tactical Futuristic Urban game, or STFU as I call it, for layoffs now too.

Something tells me they’re seeing lackluster sales (hint: have you considered distributing it better?) and subs. At this stage, there isn’t much you can really do unless you have millions more to invest and revamp the game or something (like, maybe, picking a different name since it’s a blatant copy of Warcraft and also implies something MMOish which you don’t seem to have or want to promote anyway). Better yet, why not host a contest to find and vote for the best name for the game?

I mean, after all, you do need to shift focus once the game is made…technically you don’t need a full staff dedicated to creating all the systems and content and such necessarily. Ideally, you’d have a content creation and maintenance team that’s substantially smaller and you’d move development resources to the next game. Or if you’re onto something and are selling the game like gangbusters, you’d dedicate that dev team to the next expansion…or put some of them back into the maintenance team to update the game more regularly.

Something tells me these guys, who don’t strike me as veteran MMO devs, dreamed of billions in revenue as people, tired of WoW (which they are) flooded their servers to finally play something different and interesting. You’d think a shooter mixed with an MMO would work wonders since I know plenty of shooter gamers who drop out of regular play to join their guild in WoW for a while.

C’mon guys. Why is this so hard? Look at this article about WoW and iteration. Not everyone can afford the time to iterate everything but there’s definitely something to be said about making an interesting feature available and providing a clean and easy mechanism for feedback. It can work well IF you’re committed to it and if you act on it.

All I can say is, when I first heard about CrimeCraft and APB, I thought GTA where everyone (or almost everyone) is a player rather than an NPC. APB looks like it’s much closer to that idea and will likely do a lot better than CrimeCraft is right now. I can’t say that NO one likes CrimeCraft. But, in a market with COD, Halo, and L4D all coming out with sequels in the next few months that everyone wants, why would I care about a “persistent world” shooter? COD is much more entertaining and fun and I already know people I can play with. CrimeCraft? No idea. I know one person who WAS interested in it but with Aion coming out and their love for WAR still out there, guess who’s gonna lose a subscriber?

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