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Blizzard elaborates on Guardian Cub sales

Justin Olivetti — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST

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

Has Blizzard surrendered to the powerful RMT lobby or are there other forces at work behind the company's recent decision to introduce a loophole that allows players to buy in-game gold and items with real-world currency? According to a recent post on World of Warcraft, the sale of the Guardian Cub is meant to test the waters of fighting rampant account compromises.

Blizzard claims that gold farming is actually not as common these days, but instead most of the gold that is sold through third-party services comes from stolen accounts. The idea of bypassing third-party gold sellers by providing a cash shop pet that could be resold or traded in game was meant to be a creative solution to the problem.

"Players can buy one for the purpose of trying to sell it in-game, creating the potential for players to exchange real money for gold in a way that does not lead to account compromises. Of course, all that comes with the pretty important caveat that demand for the pet will be finite, and there's no guarantee you'll be able to find a buyer," Blizzard writes.

The company says that it doesn't expect this will solve the overall issue, the success or failure of the unique pet will help Blizzard determine if this approach is worth pursuing further.

Blizzard elaborates on Guardian Cub sales originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lost Pages of Taborea: Test driving Magic Hub

Jeremy Stratton — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea

I'm going to jump on this one before anyone else does. The company Overwolf developed a little application that provides MMO players with social networking, web, video and screenshot functionality without the need to alt+tab out of a game.

It's a lot like what Trion has built into RIFT, only in a third-party package, and Frogster partnered with Overwolf to provide a Runes of Magic-branded version called Magic Hub -- complete with RoM-specific buttons.

After some technical problems, I got Magic Hub to work and put it through its paces. There are other applications out there that provide a wide range of functionality for gamers, but since this one is customized for RoM, I thought I'd give my impressions.

Continue reading Lost Pages of Taborea: Test driving Magic Hub

Lost Pages of Taborea: Test driving Magic Hub originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Outspark announces Flint publishing platform

Matt Daniel — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, News items

Outspark -- makers of popular free-to-play MMOs Fiesta, Luvinia, and more -- announced today the release of its new publishing platform, Outspark Flint. It's a logical addition, considering the company's recent move to publishing third-party titles.

Outspark believes that Flint will bring new MMO titles into the reach of the more than 200 million players that Outspark commands. The first game on the Flint platform is Lord of Ages, an MMORTS which went live last week. Outspark claims that "the platform is enabling Lord of Ages to reach an even larger audience." The platform itself is an "open API that provides third-party developers and operators with all of the tools necessary for distribution, user acquisition, analytics, monetization, marketing and operations." Whether this new platform indeed helps Outspark reach its goals or not, we'll have to wait and see.

Outspark announces Flint publishing platform originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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'We hear you loud and clear': CCP clarifies third-party application licensing fees

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Business models, Economy

What should be a week of rejoicing following EVE Online's Incarna expansion going live has been soured by controversy over seemingly high-priced microtransactions and debate over fees associated with third-party application licensing.

Today, CCP has come out to address the second point and clarify its position. CCP Guard admits that the company didn't do the best job in explaining how third parties can charge a real-world money fee for their services apart from in-game currency, and he reposts an illuminating transcript of an interview with CCP Zulu regarding the licensing.

The problem came in the form of $99 licensing fees to use this new service, a charge that EVE players felt was extremely high. Apparently CCP agrees and will be looking into changing it to a "token charge" that will make the contract between CCP and the third party binding without it being a financial obstacle.

You can read the full explanation over at EVE Online, and while you're at it, you can snag yourself the expansion on Steam for $10.

'We hear you loud and clear': CCP clarifies third-party application licensing fees originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Third-party development

Brendan Drain — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Legal, EVE Evolved

When EVE Online was first released in 2003, it was a primitive beast from a small indie studio operating out of a tiny office in Reykjavik, Iceland. Although EVE has been expanded over the years, not all of that development has come from creator CCP Games. EVE players routinely step in to fill gaps in the game's functionality through the development of third-party applications, websites and tools. Early apps like the EVEMon skill planner were very limited in what information they could access about a player's character, but with the introduction of the EVE API system, a huge wealth of information became available.

Since then, we've seen a resurgence of third-party app and tool development, producing impressive apps like Capsuleer and Aura for the iPhone. We've also seen some incredibly useful websites like the ICSC jump planner suite, gambling site SOMER.blink and the Dotlan EVE maps with regularly updating statistics. Most app developers work on the projects in their spare time, and until now they've relied on donations or advertising revenue to keep up with server costs or keep development worth the time invested. As EVE is CCP's intellectual property, it's illegal for anyone to make money from it without the company's permission. This week, CCP released the first draft of a contract that would allow developers to monetise their apps, but the proposal was not received well by the EVE community.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at third-party app development and what's wrong with the proposed deal.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Third-party development

EVE Evolved: Third-party development originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Heroes of EVE

Brendan Drain — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Lore, Opinion, EVE Evolved

In last week's EVE Evolved, I looked at a few of EVE Online's most famous outlaws. In the game's open-ended sandbox, players are free to turn to a life of crime. Around every corner, you'll find another thief making off with someone's loot, or a pirate waiting for an unsuspecting victim to pass by. Worse still are the many scam artists and market manipulators you'll find in trade hubs like Jita, making a dishonest living at the expense of other players. But it's not all doom and gloom, and not all players are the dark, nefarious types EVE is famous for.

For every low-life scammer trying to steal your hard-earned ISK, there are helpful individuals working to counteract scamming. For every war-mongering pirate preying on new players, there are hundreds of people willing to teach new players to defend themselves and stay safe. Despite all the talk of EVE's anti-social element, you'll also find a rich and diverse community, built around forums, chat channels and dozens of blogs. Programmers even spend their free time to provide the community with free tools to aid play. These are all people I would call heroes of EVE, either because they work to prevent the wrong-doings of outlaws, or because they selflessly enrich the EVE community.

In this opinion piece, I look at a few of the people and groups I consider to be true heroes of EVE. Who are your heroes?

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Heroes of EVE

EVE Evolved: Heroes of EVE originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Beware third party downloads for Darkfall

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Launches, MMO industry, New titles, News items

Brannoc, the community manager for Darkfall, has released an announcement today regarding downloading the Darkfall client from any group other than Aventurine. In a nutshell, he says don't do it. Aventurine cannot guarantee the quality of those downloads or what may be hidden inside of them. If you wish to download the Darkfall client, do so from Aventurine's official torrent.

Brannoc's official announcement states, "Many people have begun to host the client we made available by torrent on other websites for direct download.

Aventurine cannot guarantee the efficacy of these clients and make no guarantees as to their security or freedom of malware. For that reason we recommend only utilizing official download sources for the Darkfall client.

Aventurine also does not support any 3rd party applications or programs for use with the Darkfall client.

Anytime you utilize non-official resources you run a security risk for your system and for that reason we recommend you keep an up to date antivirus program and firewall software up and running. "

Beware third party downloads for Darkfall originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Warhammer mod automatically reports tell spammers

Samuel Axon — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, New titles, Warhammer Online, News items

According to a ticker at the Warhammer Online Herald, Mythic has banned over 4,000 WAR users for gold farming and selling. Now to further the battle, its representatives at the Herald have suggested that players download a third party UI mod called "Spam Me Not" which not only automatically blocks incoming gold seller spam tells, but reports the sender of the tell.

We haven't used the app, so we don't know how well it works. It might block legitimate tells from friends. If you try it out, tell us how that works for you.

The post at the Herald says that the mod is not endorsed by Mythic, although one would think that mentioning it on the official site is at least a tacit endorsement. Mythic did go on to say that players should continue using the game's built-in spam reporting features as well.

Warhammer mod automatically reports tell spammers originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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