Massively

The countdown to Fallen Earth's one-year anniversary is on!

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Giveaways, Post-Apocalyptic

One year ago, the post-apocalyptic wasteland entered this world a screaming, healthy baby MMO. It's been a year of highs and lows for Fallen Earth, as Icarus Studios weathered staff cuts while pumping out fixes, patches and a whole new zone. Also, monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Fallen Earth is inviting players to spend the next week counting down to the launchiversary with eight days of events, giveaways and parties. This will all culminate in a huge in-game celebration, which Icarus Studios is asking players to screenshot the heck out of in exchange for prizes.

The company is also excited to announce two changes to its popular Fallen Earth mobile phone app. The basic app is now free of charge (available for iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices), but Icarus is also offering "premium services" for the one-time charge of $9.99. These special services include starting crafting projects, buying and selling on the auction house, and using the in-game mail system. You can read all of the details on the Mobile App FAQ.

The countdown to Fallen Earth's one-year anniversary is on! originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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APB's voice chat feature will contain advertisements

Brendan Drain — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, New titles, News items, All Points Bulletin, Crime

With launch day closing in, crime MMO All Points Bulletin has been getting its payment scheme in order. The game's pricing structure was revealed at the end of April, including several flexible pay-per-time and monthly subscription options. In addition, the game will have a currency called "RTW points," which can be used for character customisations or converted into game time. While looking through the payment options in his account management page early this morning, one APB forum poster spied a strange button that set off a few warning bells in his head. Marked "VOIP Premium," the option removes adverts from APB's in-game voice chat for 30, 90 or 180 days in exchange for payment.

This was the first players had heard of adverts being inserted into their voice chat and speculation began to run wild in the game's pre-release forum community. Players feared the worst -- that right in the middle of their game, a radio advert would start playing over their speakers. Community Officer Toxico was quick to address concerns, explaining the exact circumstances under which the ads will be played. For an advert to play, you have to be entering a district and must not have heard an ad for the past three hours. This ensures that they'll never interrupt normal play and won't play in an irritatingly high frequency. While some forum posters are avidly opposing a premium VOIP service, most seem content with the explanation provided and the conditions under which adverts will be played.

[Thanks for the tip, Kip!]

APB's voice chat feature will contain advertisements originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively introduces premium membership services

Shawn Schuster — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Massively Meta

If you're reading this now, chances are, you're a fan of Massively.com. We want to make sure your experience here is as deep and customizable as possible. For this reason, some important changes will be coming to Massively starting tomorrow.

With more advertising space and less post text on the front page, your eyes won't be bogged down with confusing layout issues. And with our new Premium Services shop, you get to choose the features you want on the site. Custom content for the next generation of gaming journalism!

These changes promise to bring more exclusive content, more hard-hitting interviews and more chances for you to express yourself through the Massively community. Follow along after the jump for more information on the new Massively.com!

Continue reading Massively introduces premium membership services

Massively introduces premium membership services originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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World of Warcraft's rules for RMT

William Dobson — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, Economy

There's been a discussion going on at our sister-site WoW Insider regarding RMT (real-money trading) and their favorite MMO, World of Warcraft. Now wait a minute, you might say, WoW doesn't have RMT! While it's true that you can't just cough up real money to get that epic piece of loot you've been dreaming about, Blizzard has its own version of RMT with name changes, server transfers, and the new character re-customizations. They aren't alone in the industry with these for-cash perks -- plenty of other subscription-model MMOs do exactly the same.

The main reason that this has been brought up now is due to a recent thread on the official WoW forums, where a Blizzard poster actually detailed some of the company's rules (over a number of different pages) for adding the existing and any future premium services. They won't start charging for something that used to be free, and the pay features should be superficial conveniences and not 'integral to the game', ruling out item sales. Another very simple reason that they charge for certain things is to stop players from doing them too often -- no quickie gender-changes to beg on the Orgrimmar mailbox for a half-hour.

This seems to be the right way to go about things for a subscription-based MMO, or at least it has been so far. Leaving aside the debate about the future of the subscription model, would you pay monthly for a game that offered gameplay advantages to those that paid just that little bit more?

World of Warcraft's rules for RMT originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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