4 March 2010 | |
LHStaff
To celebrate Darkfall‘s first anniversary, Aventurine has announced a new prices for the game. In March, you can purchase a special package for $59.99, which includes the Darkfall game and three months worth of subscription. Not leaving existing users out of the picture, Aventurine has announced a 30% discount off of the six month subscription package in March as well.
The developers have also announced the “I Love Darkfall” contest, to encourage players to show their love for Darkfall. No matter how. You can write a song, make a video, do a dance, and everything else you can imagine that will prove how much you love the game. The reward? 5,000$!
3 March 2010 | |
LHStaff
The rise and fall of Allods Online can be broken down into two categories, before the item shop and after. The game kicked off to to stellar reviews, fanfare, and lots of positive feedback. Really everything a developer could ever want. gPotato added the item shop shortly after the game went live, and all of that positive movement was gone. *poof*
Players frothed at the mouth over incredibly high prices for items such as an additional six bag slots for $20. Ouch. gPotato initially said ‘tough,’ standing by its decision. It appears the company realized its mistake, as it has announced a reduction in prices to key items, including the aforementioned bag.
List of changes in the item shop:
- Vial of Perfume reduced from 75gP to 25gP
- Large Perfume Kit reduced from 1350gP to 300gP
- Holy Rune reduced from 1500gP to 1000gP
- Rough Dragon Hide Backpack reduced from 2000gP to 600gP
- Small Deposit Box reduced from 1500gP to 1000gP
- Small Bag of Crystal Chips reduced from 250gP to 100gP
- Medium Bag of Crystal Chips reduced from 1200gP to 350gP
- Potions reduced from 250gP to 200gP
A gP, or gPotato, is $0.01, so the Rough Dragon Hide Backpack has gone from $20 to $6. A more reasonable $1 per slot. The changes put the desirable items more in line with other F2P shops, like the one I broke down for Runes of Magic.
Seeing as Allods Online has so much competition in the field of F2P games, the damage may already be done. Is the reduction enough to draw people back in, or are the potential customers that left during gPotato’s stonewalling a lost cause?
The developer has backpedaled, but now a show of good faith is needed. My idea – offer a discount on gPotatoes for a limited time to try to win over the angered players.
3 March 2010 | |
LHStaff
Disney Online has announced that the Open Beta for The World of Cars Online, the MMO based on their popular multimedia franchise, Cars, has hit open beta status and is waiting for you to start the engine. In the open beta, players will be able to race against each other, explore the world, play games, make new friends and.. earn coins. Detailed information is available below.
WELCOME TO OPEN BETA!
Hey all! Sparks here!
Guess what I am? I’m TOTALLY PSYCHED! Open Beta’s here. What are you waitin’ for? Drive on in!
The World of Cars couldn’t have opened without all your awesome ideas and feedback. You created this World. So keep making it better by voicing what you want.
This is only the beginning, and Open Beta gives the Pit Crew a chance to fix stuff before the World officially launches.
Is something not working right? Is there something you like or something you’d like to improve? Let us know.
During Open Beta, you can race against each other on the local tracks, explore the World, play games, make new friends, and earn lots of Coins.
There will also be special events where you can try out being a Sponsored Car.
What does Sponsoring your Car mean? After we close our Beta, you can get your Car sponsored by paying a monthly subscription fee to get extra stuff. You’ll be able to race on the Pro Tracks in the Piston Cup Series and use Coins to buy cool gear to customize your Car and Home.
Remember to check back often. We’ll be updating you on stuff, like when you can try out the Sponsorship features. Let us know what you think about the World.
Who knows what World of Cars will look like in a year from now? It will be what YOU want it to be. So drive on in and start the fun!
Keep Coolant!
SPARKS
P.S. Check out our Known Issues List (for updates on those tricky bugs), and don’t forget to Report a Bug if you see something not working.
3 March 2010 | |
LHStaff
Turbine has announced the release of a brand new social application for Lord of the Rings Online, entitled ”Player Feed“. The new application will allow fans of the game to share their in-game status and achievements with the world through Facebook, and is powered by my.lotro.com. This is not the first time an MMORPG integrates itself with a social network or portal, we’ve seen this happen with Twitter, MySpace, but mostly with official websites. This makes up for a brand new level of interactivity. Additionally, game tracking services such as XFire and Raptr have offered achievement tracking for World of WarCraft, and we can expect more and more web-integrated MMO’s in the near future.
You can view more information here, including a detailed installation guide, or you can just grab the new app here.
3 March 2010 | |
LHStaff
Quest Online have announced that their first MMORPG, Alganon, is taking a different course in life by switching from the monthly subscription model to a new model – Subscription Free. That means you will now be able to play the game by simply purchasing the client, and you won’t have to pay monthly fees. Alganon will also launch something known as “Tribute Market System” where players will be able to purchase optional in-game items such as pets, mounts, equipment, potions, etc. by using Tribute points, which can be purchased at any time. Tribute points can also be earned by simply logging in, but not much information is know about that yet.
The new subscription model will hit live servers somewhere in April, and more information is available here.
2 March 2010 | |
LHStaff
In a surprise announcement, the largest free virtual market for buying, selling and trading MMO accounts, MarkeeDragon.com, has announced they are getting out of the virtual marketplace business, sort of. MMOBay.net, a leading auction site for virtual goods has acquired the MD forums, which are in the process of being transfered over. No mention was made at what price the forums were sold for, but my guess is it was a lot.
In MD’s announcement Youtube video, he explains the move was so that they could try to legitimize the market over the next few years in the hopes that they could eventually make buying and selling MMO accounts not against the TOS agreements that most MMOs have today. Quite a lofty goal if you ask me.
So what will become of MD? Nothing has been announced yet, but they did say the new site will be launched sometime this week. As for MMOBay.net, it seems that this will catapult them to the top of the account selling market as the combination of the MD forums and their own member base will make them one of the largest, if not the largest virtual market place online to buy or sell wow accounts.
2 March 2010 | |
LHStaff
Fantasy Earth: Zero is an MMORPG developed by Fenix Soft and published by Square Enix, that was released in Japan on February 23 and was canceled several months later due to the lack of interest. The game was later on acquired by Gamepot and adopted a new free-to-play subscription model, which enjoyed much greater success when it was released on Square Enix’s PlayOnline service.. In Japan. But not anymore – Gamepot have announced that the Fantasy Earth: Zero Open Beta will launch on March 3rd.
While this is technically an open beta, there will be a character wipe after the end of Open Beta 1. But not all is lost: Gamepot have announced that they will be holding a Beta Bash where players have a chance to earn great in-game items for when the game Open Beta 2 launches. More information on Fantasy Earth: Zero is available on the game’s newly opened website.
2 March 2010 | |
LHStaff
A secret link of “Aion Community Team” was found at the end page of Eye on Community 02.26.2010 which revealed(intentionally or not) some details on the upcoming Aion Patch 1.9. The information also notes that a larger update will release in late 2010. Ever since the info leaked, players have been speculating about whether this is the grand Aion 2.0 update or not. There have also been speculations about the level cap raising in version 2.0.
During this meeting hosted by the development team, we’ll finalize the plans for the upcoming Aion update. In addition, we’ll be discussing the larger update of late 2010 that follows the v1.9 content update. Communnity Managers have been invited and their attendance is mandatory. As usual, the information we discuss is confidential and should not be disclosed outside the company. This is especially important to all Community Managers that have been recently requesting the immediate release of information. We will be discussing new content for the entire player base, but this meeting will also address some of the upcoming content that will affect our higher level players. Some of those topics will include:
-Daily Quests for level 50 and below
-New abilities
-Stun attack defense system
-Two-handed weapon transformation
-Dark Poeta drop rate increases.
We’ll be serving light lunch featuring the usual Tutty ‘n’ Beans.
Please discuss any vegetarian needs with the office manager. Please do not come wearing one of the transformed shapes from the Solarius items–we want attendees to be able to readily recognize each other. Review the attached PowerPoint slides and come prepared with your company-issues Shugo personal assistant and translator.
