Posts Tagged ‘PvP’

Tired of elves or hunting for eggs? How about some browser based gore?

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

In the world of free-to-play games, you’re sometimes forced down a narrow path of options.  Thankfully, this is starting to change, with more and more genres being released everyday, but the vast majority still involves some fantasy ‘lightness’ as I might call it, or youth focused titles.  Stack the browser based, I can play it at work option, and the pickin’s start getting rather slim.  So where does that leave us late 20-early 30 something’s that still want a decent game, but are a bit tired of fantasy light?  Enter stage right, Resistor Production’s recent release, Disciple.

discipleThis free-to-play, literally anywhere via a web browser turn based strategy and fighting game is set in the fantasy world (I know…but stay with me here) of Aphelion, is persistent, and here’s the kicker; specifically targeted at ‘Adults’ with it’s bloody battle sequences.  Given the turn based battle structure, players’ characters are always fighting, even if the are online or off.  Battles are conducted only when both parties agree, and both wins and losses grant XP points as well as geldors, Disciple’s in-game currency.  These battles also allow players access to more powerful weapons and armor, as well as increase their overall ranking.  Newcomers create one of three unique character classes, which ultimately determine their life foundation, strengths, and battle style.  Disciple is already supporting clan battle battles right out of the box, as well as a fully featured chat functionality.

Tobias Batton, Founder and CEO of Resistor Productions is the main driving force behind this new browser battler.  “I wanted to take MMORPGs to the next level with Disciple and its ability to be played anywhere yet be challenging, graphically rich, engaging – even addictive,” said Batton. “Disciple is all about creating a character that is an extension of the player’s personality, and watching it grow and become more powerful, no matter where the player is or what their circumstance.”

Disciple, and all it’s bloody goodness are free-to-play, but offers users the option to purchase more geldors via microtransactions, and/or a small subscription fee; thereby providing the best of both worlds, however a play chooses to play.

Will this new free-to-play be your main go to?  Probably not, but I found myself engaged in a number of battles, having almost no time to head to the armory to grab some new gear before I received a battle request from player after player, clearly indicating there are a number of battlers out there, thirsty for blood.  A great lunchtime, or any time you need a break PvP battler, Disciple is ready for blood filled action at www.disciplemmo.com.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Funcom’s Age of Conan servers to be halved

Thursday, January 15th, 2009
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Funcom has just announced their list of planned server merges, with over half falling by the wayside.  Of the current 49 servers in action, post mergers, funcom’s MMO Age of Conan will be reduced to only 18.

While European servers will see the least drastic of the changes, with 12 servers remaining open due to the language variety (Age of Conan is currently available in English, French, German, and Spanish), the North American and Oceanic regions will be hardest hit.  The current 24 servers operating in these areas will be reduced to six, with only one PvP, and two PvE servers remaining open in the United States.  Each of the 3 servers will combine populations of the six or seven currently operating servers.

Funcom tested this move last week, with a successful merger of the Oceanic servers, and is expected to roll out the US and European mergers this week.

This is a significant point in it’s own right, as this is the first quasi-indication from funcom on how AoC’s numbers have dwindled since launch.  The silver lining in this cloud is that dedicated fans, and even those that may be new to the game will see a much increased server population, thus leading to much player-to-player interactions, and naturally a boosted in-game economy (man, I can’t WAIT to see prices on the Auction House explode).

Funcom says that they’re pushing forward with the high level and end game content (a comment we heard directly from funcom representatives at the Leipzig GC), as well as the first expansion pack.

In some ways I’m a bit taken back by this, in other ways, not.  Funcom’s Age of Conan made a lot of noise prior to the launch, won Voodoo Extreme’s MMORPG of the year 2008, and who could forget Keaira’s playboy appearance?  I personally have only spent a few days with Age of Conan, but found the gameplay and graphics to be stellar.  As noted above, I did hear it directly from funcom reps that the biggest problem they’d experienced with the AoC community were complaints about not enough end-game/epic materials and dungeons.  The last I knew, they were working on this content last summer, but weren’t giving out any definitive dates as to when the content would be released.  Another fact to consider is AoC/funcom’s timing.  When AoC was first released, we knew that Blizzard was rapidly moving forward with the WotLK, but hadn’t given any indications to it’s release date.  Funcom nailed the AoC release date; in so much as WoW players (myself included) had cleared a number of heroic dungeons, collected their purples, and were, well, to be quite honest, a bit bored.  Age of Conan fit the bill and filled the void.  Given the massive numbers that Blizzard is yet again reaching with Lich King success, could many others like me have simply moved AoC down the list again?

Related articles
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Free to Play ACE Online enters Open Beta

Monday, September 1st, 2008

A while back we wrote about Dean Takahashi’s coverage of Wicked Interactive acquiring the North American publishing rights for a number of Yedang’s free to play, ad supported titles.   Wicked Interactive plans to release “Priston Tale”, “Priston Tale 2,” and “ACE Online”.  It seems like the first title out of the gate is ACE Online.  Perhaps a wise choice given it’s unique gameplay and wide audience appeal.  Wicked Interactive recently opened the doors on it’s new free to play title ACE Online.  The game is hosted on Wicked Interactive’s web portal: subagames.com.

Wicked Interactive is doing a bit of celebrating in game via various world events, giveaways, PvP tournaments, special item lotteries, and “Last Nation Standing” Nation Wars.

“This is a major milestone for Wicked Interactive and Suba Games as we launch our first open beta and begin to build the ACE Online and Suba games communities,” said Stanley Yu, CEO of Wicked Interactive Ltd. “The response to the game’s closed beta release has been overwhelming and we are truly excited about the community that is building around the game and the Suba Games platform. ACE Online really is an innovative title that combines elements of strategy, role-playing and aerial combat to offer an experience fit for every type of player.”

This intense 3D space shooter combines elements of action and MMORPG games.  Coming out of the Yedang Online studios, one of Korea’s top gaming enterprises, the game places players as fighter pilots in ships known as “Gears”.  Facing an intergalactic world at war, players complete missions along with engaging other players in intense aerial dogfights.

While still heavily influenced by the traditional MMORPG game format, ACE Online also adds a dash of action and shooting elements into gameplay.  Players not only quest and level, but must have quick trigger fingers and tight barrel rolls and the ability to shake bogies at top speeds.  As players improve and level up their fighters, they acquire credits which can be used in the game’s item shop to purchase hundreds of customizable weapons and add-ons for their “Gear”.  These customizations aid players in becoming a master pilot.  The games PvP system features intense player vs. player combat know as “Nation Wars”.  ACE Online seeks to differentiate itself from competitors with this unique blend of action/shooting/RPG gameplay format.

ACE Online is a free to play title with no monthly subscription fees.  It features four unique “Gears” to choose from, each with it’s own specialties, along with deep leveling and gear customization features via the in game shop.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Age of Conan getting some GOOOOOOD updates!

Monday, June 16th, 2008

It looks like Friday the 13th wasn’t so bad. Funcom, publishers of Age of Conan announced that a whole new horsecart is gonna be pulling into the station soon with a booty full of goodies.

You can have a read of AoC’s official newsletter here, or…sit back and let me give you the highlights:

Decent, as we’ve come to expect it, none of this schoolboy baby business, PvP implemented. Yay! For anyone that’s accustomed to playing PvP roles as opposed to PvE has come to realize that AoC is lacking a bit where others make PvP pretty darn close to white knuckled combat.

One tiny little jab at Funcom if I may? There’s one sentence that sticks out like a sore thumb in the newsletter:

“Following the launch of Age of Conan we sat down immediately and started fleshing out some ideas for what we wanted to do with the PvP (player vs. player) features in the game, and now we are ready to reveal it to you.”

Ummmm. Following? I mean, I don’t mean to sound like a jackass here but uhhh…wouldn’t you want to map out the PvP strategy and development BEFORE you launched the game? Call me crazy….

Colors! Yes, color codes. A new fugitive system is being implemented whereby a color coded system will correspond to the appropriate wanted status of each character. This is based on how many lower level players they’ve killed. The basic David v. Goliath scenario is set here, as there are greater PvP rewards for killing a more wanted player. Theft of items and money will be awarded to death of the player with the highest fugitive status.

Awwww yiy….LOOT baby! The AoC loot system is being retooled. In case you haven’t noticed, loot in AoC thus far has been…well…almost insignificant. Funcom is changing this presumably to make loot a more integral part of character progression. The AoC street sweepers union is rather happy about this.

Powerpoint FTW! No, thankfully you’re not going to have to sit through a 32 slide presentation in order to play. Powerpoints refers to the new achievement system being put into place. These are points earned primarily during endgame play, but…you can continue to receive them in a steady influx provided that you keep your subscription status active. Powerpoints are pretty much, more or less similar to WoW’s Marks of Honor, and can be spent on special abilities and/or gear. Fear not…Funcom’s been tracking you, and these Powerpoints will be applied retroactively once launched. In other words, all the time you’ve already spent ingame has been tallied, tabulated, and will be waiting for you once the patch is applied. And in this slide, you’ll see our productivity vs. cost and performance is increasing due to….(sorry, I couldn’t resist)

Chit Chat. Ummm…yeah. Funcom. Funny that the name com (as in communication?) is part of the brand’s name, but yet, communicating ingame should provide an achievement award in itself. A completely new chat interface will be hitting your UI soon.

Strap your seatbelts on riders, as all this a few more improvements are heading your way in late June/early July.

All in all, I’ve been OK with AoC. Funcom’s latest offering gets the OK seal with a bit of trepidation. It’s got a lot of things going for it, and I’m almost pulling for it like the little engine that could. Graphically, the game is stunning, sound is not so bad, but there’s also that nagging suspicion in the back of my head that just keeps saying to me “They rushed it to market, they rushed it to market….”. Does this sound familiar with any of Funcom’s other offerings. Yes. Me too. Ok, I’ll say it: Anarchy Online. Do it with me now….roll eyeballs….groan. Yes, it was bad. Very bad. But…on the other side of the coin, Funcom got their $H@& together might fast, and within a year the game was actually pretty decent. The Shadowlands expansion pack changed the whole face of the game, and if you hadn’t been in on the original release (or lived on rocks and never read forums) it might have even passed as a good game. I have the very same hopes for AoC. It’s got good bones, and hey let’s face it, even market leader World of Warcraft wasn’t perfect when initially released upon the world.

Zemanta Pixie

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Blizzard takes the battle of the bot offline and brings it to creator’s front door

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

It seems as though Michael Donnelly’s WoW bot (Glider) has ruffled some serious feathers in the City of Love. Basically, it shakes out like this; Donnelly’s bot ‘grinds, loots, heals, and even farms soul shards without you’ for a small license fee of $25. In other words, this bot will make you boatloads of money, mats, rep, etc. and pretty much anything else you want, all while you’re off at school, the gym, or sleeping.

It’s a well known fact that MMO producing companies have a high disdain for anyone caught cheating the game. Be this gold farming, buying accounts, or using bots to perform automated functions. On the other hand, there will always be those out there that are willing to push the edges of the envelope, and see just how far they can go with Blizzard or any other manufacturer.

Where the legalese comes in is that Blizzard is claiming that Blizzard’s designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time. Hmm: clearly they’re unaware of how much time I spend playing the game. ;)
Blizzard is also claiming that Glider infringes on copyrights and is a violation of the EULA “because it copies the game into RAM in order to avoid detection by anti-cheat software”.

Donnelly contends that there is no copyright violation present as “no ‘copy’ of the Warcraft game client software is ever made.”

As it stands right now, Donnelly and Blizzard (along with parent company Vivendi Games) are lawyering up, and it looks to be an interesting showdown in the Ring of Blood. Now this is some serious PvP action! And please dear god: let the judge use the phrase PWND, just once: please? :)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »