GotMMOG?

So, I’ve started trekking around the galaxy in Star Trek Online’s Open Beta. First impression? Talk about code reuse. The ground component (where you’re running around with your main character in space stations or on planets) is SO much like Champions Online. The difference is less cel-shading and more legible text. Meanwhile, the space part is very reminiscent of the Starfleet Command games of yore (which is a good thing). A quick summary:

The Good

- Starship combat is fun and what you’d sort of expect. The controls might take a little getting used to (you’re using WASD and the mouse though you can remap those keys all you want) but soon you’ll be working your firing arcs to take out enemies left and right.

Where's the Flying Trait? Oh yeah...

- Character creation is like Champions which is actually a good thing in this case. You can choose a preset race (from the ST universe) or create an “Unknown” race which is you picking four main attributes that affect your stats and then customize the hell out of your appearance.

- While it might get a bit tiresome later, the main way you go from star system to star system is actually kinda cool. It’s a large map with systems hovering in 3D space. You and everyone else in the instance can wander around and enter whatever system you want. At some point, you’ll get over the cool aspect of it but it’s still an interesting way to do it.

- You, your ship and your bridge officers all have slots for things like weapons, devices and the like. And, just like Champions, you’ll end up with a shitload of devices and other doodads dropping from mobs and as mission rewards. This lets you customize your ship and officers all sorts of ways.

...Then take a left at Regulus. If you hit Vega, you've gone too far...

- Speaking of bridge officers, these guys act as a combination pet and stat-enhancer for you. Onboard your ship, their skills (which you level up with points you gain accomplishing missions and the like) can be used in combat or for non-combat tasks (scanning, etc.). Planetside, you can bring one or more of your bridge officers (the total party size varies depending on the mission) along with you. Each has skills that can be used on the ground (and of course, whatever you’ve equiped them with can also be used).

- Despite the whole Champions cloning experiments, the space aspect of the game really does feel right. You start with your typical Reliant-style light starship and gain access to others as you level up. And space looks real nice when you’re in a system. Even the inter-system space (that whole map thing) looks nice.

The Bad

- Unfortunately, the planetside stuff is just too Champions-esque in a boring way. The environments are mediore looking and have a lot of the standard bits and pieces you might have seen in Cryptic’s other games. Enemies spawn and just stand around like mannequins. Animations (like when you knock an enemy down) just look so stiff and automated (i.e. the guy’s just standing there then cut to the knock down animation). Take this with a grain of salt, since plenty of MMOs can be similar. It’s just a bit TOO much like Champions though.

I know he's a drone but, c'mon...

- The enemy AI/logic seems a bit weird. I’ve been in team combat with AI enemies where the enemies just pick a single ship to pick on while the other members of my team just pound the hell out of their fleet. Meanwhile, on the ground, enemies show no logic beyond running up to you and trying to hit you. Granted this isn’t an FPS but what’s the point of having a dodge function (double-tap a direction) then?

- The currency system is ridiculous. There are tons of different “currencies” in the game. Energy credits (you only get these by selling items then you can use them to buy items), Starfleet Merits (gained from missions, used to buy or up your bridge officers’ skills), Data objects (there are several types of these; used to buy special items), and there are still more. The Data objects are hilarious because there are at least 6 or 7 different types of them. The prices in the price list look hilarious…something like 5 3 2 1 5 2 3 1 with each number sitting next to the icon of a Data object. Give me a break!

The Ugly

Space sure is gorgeous!

- You know how “modern” MMOs tend to make it easy for you (or like WoW are trying to make it easier) to find the target of your current missions/quests? Yeah, STO won’t have that. You might get a blip on a map mixed with twenty blips for merchants/vendors or a blip next to a star system if it’s close enough. Otherwise, you’re on your own. Zone chat was full of people asking where the fuck some guy was…and this was in the main starbase.

- You know that whole thing about being able to read the text finally (something about comic ink at 1280×1024 just didn’t work for me)? Well, turns out there isn’t much to read but there are plenty of screens to read it on. I understand the need/desire to make it look like we’re having a conversation with a talking head that barely talks but give me a break.

Real friends act as photon sponges...

- Combat still pisses me off in places. Even space combat where, in combination with the aforementioned bullying by the AI (though that can be forgiven since it IS a potential strategy when dealing with an opposing force), there are problems of balance. Again, grain of salt/open beta, but since your “team” (why they didn’t just call this task force or something I don’t know) can be left at any time I have a feeling this is going to be an ongoing problem. In some cases battles were ridiculously hard (and the death penalty is that you just have to wait to respawn though I expect that to change) and took multiple deaths for a team of three to accomplish. Meanwhile, the “public event” sort of battles that you stumble upon tended to have upwards of ten people in there at a time laying waste to Klingon fleets of 4-5 ships.

I can understand sending a fleet of five ships (say two cruisers and three bird of prey) against a group of three players. That can be tough but you can do it–if you play it right–without getting killed. And, I can understand if my team mates leave but the game already spawned those suckers, there isn’t much you can do. But, assuming I either survive that or you send the extras running to make things even, the next fleet you send me should be tied to my current state (solo) and be more like three bops or one cruiser and a couple of bops.

I guess we’ll see how things turn out once the game launches. I for one, though, think this game will have it’s time as all of them do at launch but will eventually settle on a niche subset of players that will keep the game alive for a couple years. The starship combat is fun when balanced (or tipped in your favor) and the missions stack towards starships rather than ground combat (so far). That combined with the PVP that I haven’t seen yet could keep that subset of players happy for a while.

g afk

Pun intended.

I know this is relatively old news by Internet standards but Cryptic announced that it had 1 million characters created on Champions Online. I’m sorry. “characters created”?!? As anyone knows, just about everyone eventually creates at least one more character. Sure they might not create it that early after the release of a game. But, then again, this is a game where the best part of it is creating that character.

Knowing that, it makes that statistic (and whoever their marketing person at Cryptic is) look stupid. It’s like when Funcom went nuts about its subscriber count when they were barely two months out from release. Now, how’s that subscriber count, Funcom? Well, they won’t say because they’re afraid to screw their stock prices. Funny that. You’d think that if they had a good number to throw back the conversation would’ve definitely included some numbers or better wording like “100k? That’s ridiculously low. I can’t go into details but I can tell you it’s well above that number.”

If you look at their quarterly numbers, you can guesstimate a range at least of potential subscriber numbers. First, you have to remember that Funcom has published a couple of adventure games (The Longest Journey)–which might be the inspiration for the upcoming Secret World MMO–and is still (yes, still) running Anarchy Online.

But, let’s take it to extremes for a sec. Their Q1 2009 revenue was $7.7 million. If we just take that and assume that’s 100% subscriber fees (no other games, no box sales), you’re looking at a max of 513k subscribers (assuming everyone’s paying the $14.99 subscriber fee).

Now, none of Funcom’s games were on the radar for retail PC game sales in January of 2009 (which I’ll assume continues into March). Also, you can grab a box for $9.99 or less these days so it’s doubtful box sales amount to much.

So, let’s ignore box sales revenue as negligible (remember, Eidos published the boxed game so they’re retaining some of those pennies from box sales).

Anarchy Online subs are in there but they’re using a tiered model for subscriptions (free for basic content, $5/mo for two of the expansions and $19.95/mo for the full content). However, if you look at Q1 2008’s revenue it’s at $928k. Q1 2008 was before AoC was launched and while AO was still running. And, since it’s doubtful AO saw a dramatic increase in revenue since then, we’ll just take that $928k out of the revenue figure.

That still leaves $6.7 million on the books for AoC. There’s also a note about $800k in royalties that are being applied in Q1 2009 but were carried over from 2008.  That brings us to a final figure of $5.9 million. There’s the potential that some of this revenue is deferred revenue resulting from the recognition of pre-paid subscriptions (quarterly, yearly or lifetime subs) but in the interests of simplicity, let’s just make that an asterisk on the final sub count.

That gives us a final sub count of 398k. Or a general range of 400-500k. Pretty sizable for an MMO that’s “dying” by some accounts.

Still, I can’t help but think that’s high for an MMO that gained initial popularity but had a slew of problems that took over a year to fix. The fact that they had their free weekend to entice people in tells me they’re not happy with their numbers either. If the 100k number that’s been thrown around is anywhere near true, their revenue numbers would be closer to $2 million.

So, unless they’re cooking their books some how or doing something a bit shady like recognizing box sales as deferred revenue over time, it looks like they’re holding on to a sizable subscriber base. Mind you, there is probably a portion of that revenue that represents “inertia” subscriptions like mine that I only recently canceled despite not playing the game for almost a year.  It’s the gym model: you lock in that monthly/recurring subscription in the hopes that the subscriber will hold on for a while before they realize they’re wasting $14.99 a month on a game they aren’t playing.

And, by the way, I realize I’ve been working on Q1 numbers despite Q2 numbers being available. All this does, though, is just show the trend and adjust the current subscriber numbers. Assuming $1.6 million is purely subscriber revenue, you’re talking about a 100k drop in subscribers. Ouch. Now, our estimates are at 300-400k subscribers.

In addition, you can see a significant drop in EBITA which is due to increased operating expenses. This is most likely from them ramping up The Secret World MMO development and marketing. Bad timing though. Your revenue is decreasing due to subscriber losses and while The Secret World sounds intriguing it’s likely to be a niche MMO like all your others.

Oh, and don’t forget that WoW Cataclysm is going to be coming out sometime in 2010 around the time your new MMO is coming out. Fubar sounds like the best way to describe it.

Good luck!

g afk

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

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…

g afk

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…

g afk

Gamsutra’s reporting that Champions Online has been delayed from July to September. Cryptic says they want to polish the game and who are we to deny them the ability to bring a more solid game to market so we don’t have to wait for game update 27 to finally have a game we’d like to play. As long as they don’t get Duke Nukem Syndrome, we should be fine…

After all, with the new build your own adventure functionality in CoH/CoV, die-hard comic book MMO fans will still have plenty to do while they wait.

g