27 November 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Delivering bad news the day before Thanksgiving was an age-old tradition well ahead of doing so during an Apple press conference. (Seriously, why does that work?) Unfortunately for fans of the real-time strategy genre, the news that Trion Worlds buried last Wednesday, and has made more public now, is not good. End of Nations, the MMORTS we’ve seen, played and had as a topic of interview, has seen its Open Beta testing phase postponed “until further notice.” Closed Beta was completed in early October.
The reason for the postponement was due to the lengthy Closed Beta process identifying “several key areas of the game which need polish and improvement.” That’s what it’s designed to do, so no shock there. What’s disconcerting isn’t the delay in beta progress but the follow-up email that was delivered to early adopters.
According to the email, Closed Beta customers will be receiving refunds. Hopefully the refunds are optional, a gesture of goodwill for an unexpected lengthy delay. Unfortunately, the case may be much more dire, an axing of development.
Speculate away, but I certainly hope that isn’t the case. Trion has been on the up and up, treating customers as the lifeblood of its existence, so I await the follow-up news on Petroglyph with baited breath.
Whichever way the cookie crumbles, Lore Hound will have more as it comes.
19 April 2012 | |
Pherephassa
… and has been shut down. Talk about poorly planned game launches. The Secret War isn’t an actual MMORPG, but it’s been in the works for months as a part of Funcom’s upcoming game The Secret World. You can win goodies your character will be able to use once the MMORPG launches, such as weapons, clothing, potions and titles. You can also win prizes like a trip to Montreal, and the use of your name in-game (I’ll admit it, I don’t really care about the trip. But I would love to have my name somewhere in the game!).
It’s been a topic of controversy since its announcement many months ago – as it was originally the only way to apply for TSW’s closed beta and required Facebook. Eventually after much forum screaming, Funcom added in a way to apply for beta without having to go through this app, but it seems as though misfortune has continued to shadow The Secret War. The first official launch came and went, and ended with a delay of unknown length. A few days ago, The Secret War was finally launched like a thief in the night, without fanfare or announcement. If there’s one thing that’s certain in the MMO world, however, it’s that fans of a game will discover any tidbit related to their game of choice, and it wasn’t long before people were playing like mad. So like mad that the day after the app launched, Funcom changed the points required to progress from one level to the next, leaving many people – myself included – having to earn their ranks twice.
Continue Reading
