In a curious bit of news, Heatwave Interactive have bought the MMO properties (including game and middleware tools) of the defunct Perpetual Studios and are planning to bring Gods and Heroes back. This makes sense – Perpetuals MMO toolset exists and was good enough for Bioware to option it on the MMO they were working … Continue reading
Filed under MMOs …
Three Isn’t The Magic Number – Warhammer Online
One bit of common criticism I’ve seen about Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is that its PvP failed because it had only two sides, not three. Mythic’s Dark Age of Camelot had three realms and reputedly had some of the best PvP experiences of the MMO genre; meanwhile, Mythic’s WAR only had two opposing sides … Continue reading
The (Near) Future for Paragon Studios
Given the current state of CoH/V, what does the future hold for Paragon Studios? A few things, but some haven’t been as discussed as others. Not The Sarah Palin Book Or Gay Slang The obvious ones to mention are Issue 17: Dark Mirror and Going Rogue. The Dual Pistols powerset is going through an open … Continue reading
How Many Players Does Aion Have Anyway?
As a point of comparison to CoH/V the other day, Aion earned 89 846 million Won in Q4 2009. Doing the same kind of calculation – converting Won to $US ($76.9m) using an end-of-period exchange rate, dividing that number by $15 a month x 3 for the quarter (so $45) – you end up with … Continue reading
How Many Players Does CoH/V Have Anyway?
The core metric for assessing the size of a MMO is the number of active players. It’s a simple metric that is easy to understand and compare, even if it isn’t perfect (after all, revenue and profitability are probably more important regardless of player base size). It’s power is such that good numbers are trumpeted … Continue reading
Old News Is Still Interesting News
Matt Miller, aka Positron, former lead developer of CoH/V and now free creative element at Paragon Studios, spent a few days in Seoul at the end of last year. Given NCsoft’s headquarters is in Seoul, I don’t think he was going over just for the sights. Speculation to follow.
The Laziest Star Trek Online Review EVAH.
It belongs to The Independent. Let’s review the review (so it’s fair use for me c’n’p it below): “The launch of a MMO is always beset with woes. Glitches, lags, server meltdowns and unfavourable comparisons to World of Warcraft tend to be the norm, and Star Trek Online is no exception. Despite the hiccups, though, … Continue reading
One Simple Step To Becoming The Hero of the Revolution
Get your head chopped off. The sudden disappearance of Daeke from the Champions Online forums, followed by the announcement that he’d “moved on to other things” was an interesting set of events. Not because Cryptic saw another Community Manager pass through ChampO – they’ve had Sporkfire, IronAngel, Kestrel, Awen (popped up but mainly Star Trek … Continue reading
The Trials of UnSub: Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
It was the best of trials, it was the worst of trials. Let’s get this straight: Vanguard has the best trial set-up I’ve yet seen in a MMO. You get to play on a separate island using a ‘small’ (2GB) client that is set-up to both provide a storyline and a chance to get your … Continue reading
Going for Prime Loot Makes One Selfish
Saw this excerpt on a study that indicated that exposure to luxury goods can make people more selfish / less altruistic. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it could potentially why indicate that guilds / players who are surrounded by the best items any MMO has to offer tend to get a “screw the … Continue reading
World Class Villains 