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Aion opens a new server, eliminates subs, and reactivates accounts today

MJ Guthrie — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Business models, Expansions, News items, Free-to-play

Today is a big day for players anticipating next week's launch of Aion's Ascension and the title's conversion to free-to-play. Once server maintenance is completed, players will have a new server, subscriptions will be discontinued, and the doors will reopen for inactive accounts.

Starting today, players will be able to log into the new Kahrun server to create characters and reserve names; however, actual play will not be possible until the launch on April 11th. Catering to the Central Time Zone, all sieges, arena timers, and the like will be based on CST.

All accounts are also changing from subscriptions to the Truly Free model, eliminating all billing. Still have a month, three months, or even a year of time left? In compensation, NCsoft is crediting players by converting all remaining game time to NCoin at a ratio of 40 NCoin per remaining day. Don't panic if you don't see the credit immediately; it might take a couple of days to process everything.

On top of all this, all inactive accounts in good standing are reactivating today to give Daevas a chance to prepare for 3.0. So dust off those wings and jump back in!

Aion opens a new server, eliminates subs, and reactivates accounts today originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Trion Worlds customer database hacked, 'no evidence' credit card info stolen

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, Legal, RIFT, Miscellaneous

Trion Worlds has become the latest in a long string of MMO studio security breaches this year, as the company reported an intrusion into its customer database. At risk of compromise were customers' user names, passwords, birthdates, email and billing addresses, and partial credit card info. However, the company states that "there is no evidence" that full credit card numbers were stolen at this time.

In a message posted on the Trion Worlds website, the company promises that it is both researching the intrusion and taking steps to increase security. As part of this, all RIFT players will be asked to change passwords and security questions, and their mobile authenticators will need to be reconnected.

The company urges customers to watch their bank statements for questionable activity, and provides customers with resources to get a free credit report and putting a freeze on credit reports.

To compensate customers for the issue, Trion is providing all RIFT players with three extra days of gaming time and a Moneybags' Purse that increases all money looted by 10% in-game.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Trion Worlds customer database hacked, 'no evidence' credit card info stolen originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SOE reveals compensation plan for outage, says at least a few more days until services are restored

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 12 May 2011 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, in-game, MMO industry, Legal, Promotions, Miscellaneous

Sony Online Entertainment's broken its string of the now-standard "Our games won't be up today" message to deliver substantial news about the restoration of its services and how players will be compensated. "At least a few more days" is all the studio is willing to commit to a time frame before its MMOs come back online, but at least it provides hope to the anxious players waiting to click their Station Launcher icon.

More definite, however, is the plan for how SOE will make good with its playerbase. All current SOE players will receive 30 days of game time added to their accounts plus one day for every day the system's been down. Depending on the game to which players are subscribed, SOE has a list of specific in-game items, currency, Station Cash, events and bonuses ready. This applies to both the studio's PC and PS3 titles.

Finally, all Station Account holders will be enrolled in a complimentary identity theft protection program. U.S. players will be enrolled in Debix for a year, while residents in other countries will be set up with similar services. Codes will be sent out by email for these programs, and U.S. players will need to enroll by June 28th to get the coverage.

SOE reveals compensation plan for outage, says at least a few more days until services are restored originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 12 May 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SOE releases further breach details, 24.6 million accounts compromised

Jef Reahard — Tue, 03 May 2011 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Miscellaneous

There's an old adage that things are always darkest just before the dawn, and right now the folks at Sony Online Entertainment -- as well as millions of customers -- are enduring another round of grim news. The San Diego-based MMORPG publisher has just announced that approximately 24.6 million accounts may have been stolen, in addition to the 12,700 credit or debit card thefts reported yesterday.

A new SOE press release reports that personal information including names, addresses, email addresses, login names, and hashed passwords has been illegally obtained by hackers. Another 10,700 direct debit records were pilfered from accounts in Austria, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain, including bank account numbers and the information mentioned above.

SOE plans to compensate consumers with 30 days of free subscription time as well as an additional day for each day its systems are down. The company will also provide "a complimentary offering to assist users in enrolling in identity theft protection services and/or similar programs."

SOE releases further breach details, 24.6 million accounts compromised originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 May 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Freesky Online merges two servers, offers players compensation

William Dobson — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: News items, Free-to-play, Browser

Browser-based MMO strategy game Freesky Online has just finished merging two of its servers to help bring the player population up. The Paradise and Canaan servers have been turned into a single server called Paradise&Canaan, and the server's map was made bigger and filled with more resources to give the inflated population a chance to prosper in their new environment. The hope is that a greater population will increase the amount of PvP action that goes on and offer new strategic alliance opportunities.

Along with the positive effects, the merge brought a lot of inconvenience to players: those that had a character on both servers were only able to keep one, and friends lists and existing alliances were deleted. Players were also unhappy about having their ongoing activities interrupted. To make up for all of this, the game's developers IGG have put together some compensatory goodies for affected players. There are two different gift packages; the players' reputation level affects which pack they will receive. To see what you might be entitled to, visit the news article about the merge at the game's official site.

Freesky Online merges two servers, offers players compensation originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Should players be rewarded for creating content?

Krystalle Voecks — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind

American McGee, during a recent Geek.com interview, made a comment about user-generated content in games that made us stop and think. The snip in question was: "...I think if game products or publishers are relying on "outside the box" content created by users to drive interest in their titles - then they should find ways of compensating those users for developing added value." While he may have been talking about Little Big Planet at the time, we thought immediately of City of Heroes Issue 14, and other systems like Myst Online: URU Live, which will be depending on player-created content for future growth when it comes back up.

You could argue that at this point players who create and run Mission Architect content are largely already rewarded; there are several badges available that way, and it's a nice break from the regular missions when you've already run them eleventy-billion times since launch. Of course, as anyone who has actually built a mission arc can tell you, writing one can suck away some serious time from you very easily. So this morning, we thought we'd take it to you, the Massively community - do you think players should be rewarded in some fashion for creating content in MMOs? Should it be something simple like badges, or should it be more involved? Should Paragon Studios and NCsoft look at giving players who create quality arcs more space to create in? Free game time? Or is the ability to create fun content and get recognized by the community for writing good arcs enough reward in itself?

The Daily Grind: Should players be rewarded for creating content? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Extended PotBS downtime yields player compensation

William Dobson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Historical, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Bugs, Patches, Server downtime, News items

A recent period of extended downtime in Pirates of the Burning Sea, caused by an issue with the latest patch, has left a mob of very angry pirates to placate. Thankfully, most pirates will forget why they were angry if you can toss them a handful of doubloons, and so Flying Lab Software has dug up a few treasure chests in order to give compensation for the lost play time.

Players will be receiving 6 Bonus Loot Books, which give a 20% chance to get double loot from enemies for two real-time hours, and 6 Bonus Experience Books, granting a 20% experience boost for two hours. These goodies will be put straight into player's inventories when they log in, after a small patch this Wednesday.

Extended PotBS downtime yields player compensation originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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