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A different company, Hi-Rez, bought the Tribes IP and is planning to release a Tribes MMO called Tribes:Universe.

Neither really look like they will be anything close to what made Tribes 1/Tribes 2 (classic) great though.

You can't just leave everything the same or after a while players get tired of the same old thing and decide, "Screw it, I'm going to play something else."

Hrm... Check this article out:

http://www.massively.com/2010/10/09/gdco-2010-running-mmos-for-the-long-haul/#continued

Basically its devs like CCP and Blizzard on a panel who basically come out and say, if you want an MMO to last more than 10 years, you have to please the core player base.

If you don't do that, then you get bankrupt.

Turbine's in dire financial straits. I have no insider information, but it's pretty obvious.

Obvious to who? There have been regular updates to DDO on schedule since going free to play, and their revenue went up by 500% since going free to play. The number of subscribers has doubled, and I don't think that even includes the pay-to-play people such as me, who spend as much or more each month on buying content packs as a subscriber would. As long as they keep releasing content, they'll keep the revenue stream alive from people like me.

LOTRO is the second most popular US MMO, and it has some great expansions, including the new Moria one that just came out... It's like World of Warcraft only done *right*. But that's not going to last, for the same reason AC and DDO died.

{princess bride}Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.{/princess bride}

DDO went free after it slowly decayed. It's probably on the downswing from that huge influx right now.

Don't think so. But then, why look for real numbers when you can just spout FUD and pull stuff out of your ass.

What Turbine needs to do is make a new "boxed collection" every 6 months and sell it in stores for $20. That would keep the new players flowing in and might -- MIGHT -- save them.

You might not have heard, but brick and mortar games stores already have a few nails in the coffin, and could soon go the way of the arcade, the video store, and the buggy whip manufacturer. Ever heard of Steam?

And I have no doubt this spyware thing is a misunderstanding or exaggeration of the facts.

Just by viewing a page on a Turbine site, DDO players have confirmed (by inspecting packets) that the account name and email address were transmitted from the "Offer Wall" page. Add the pre-fetching comment here, and you might be able to see the problem. Sure, my password and credit card were not transmitted, and I only browse with NoScript, but I am probably not representative of the most vulnerable portions of the player base.

This MMO was the subject of a previous /. story, and since others have commented on other useful techniques, I'll leave you with this:

Zon (http://www.massively.com/2008/06/04/zon-the-mmo-that-teaches-you-to-speak-chinese/)

I've also seen it said (in a comment on here perhaps?) that it is preferable not to use pinyin romanisation as that doesn't help as much with making the correct sounds. Whatever it was pointed at GR as an alternative. Don't take that as gospel though as I may have no idea what I'm talking about!

Blizzard online game protocols ...
Fortunately reverse engineering a product for the purpose of interoperability is allowed under the DMCA.

That's assuming, of course, that you can convince a judge that your purpose was interoperability. Last I heard, it was still illegal to make a client interoperate with Blizzard's servers, and illegal to make a server interoperate with Blizzard's clients.

Gaika claims to "stream" MMOs.

'As a company, we knew we had to evolve ... to expand [our] audience ... and to get a much wider female audience.'

OMG! Ponies MMO!

Actually, they are gonna be the ones funding the Twilight MMO from the sounds of it... http://www.massively.com/2009/07/28/theres-a-er-twilight-mmo-coming/

Massively has run another wrap-up article on the announcement: http://www.massively.com/2009/08/18/ccp-games-reveals-new-eve-online-console-mmo-dust-514/ Details on how exactly this will impact 0.0 soverignty are scarce and as usually happens with the EVE forum when big announcements occur, people are assuming the worst. It's an ambitious plan that has the potential to extend EVE into the console market but there's a lot that could go wrong with it. If past experience is anything to go by though, CCP are certainly capable of doing the "impossible".

Apparently thats Kevin Burn's cat mittens:

http://www.massively.com/2009/03/04/a-decade-of-norrath-qanda-with-everquests-kevin-burns/

Why? Because 3rd party gold sellers are no saints.

If you think they are just macro farmers using normal payed or trail accounts then think again. Account hacking is the norm and when they do pay for accounts they are payed for with stolen credit cards, or with real cards where they after having received and used the game time they go to the bank and says they didn't receive the service. The bank issues a charge back and the MMORPG owner won't get any money and get higher CC transaction fees and penalties from the bank in the future due to the large number of charge backs.

Check the second half of this interview with the CEO of SOE if you don't believe me.
http://www.massively.com/2008/01/14/a-ces-interview-with-soe-ceo-john-smedley-pt-2/

So please think again before using a 3rd party gold seller service in any game in the future. These people won't think a second about hacking your account to steal the gold back or use your credit card to pay for more farming accounts.

According to Mr. Smedley at http://www.massively.com/2009/03/13/soe-brings-real-money-transactions-to-vanguard-despite-smeds-e/ this is totally a rumour. RMT will not be hitting Vanguard.

This story is rather incomprehensible to the rest of us. Could an EVE player explain some terms like sovereignty, ISK reserves, cyno-jammers and capfleet towers, please? Good thing that territorial control was explained...

The article also says

Once assured a place within GoonSwarm, Agamar proceeded to disband the Band of Brothers alliance using his director level access.

...but what powers does the director level access give you, exactly?

Seriously though, these charts are dubious at best - looking at WoW, it has an almost perfectly straight graph, showing 150% growth over the 6 months of last year, which I don't think anyone thinks is meaningful or accurate. They freely admit that they're taking the sample of GamerDNA members logging in, but then they just present the data without any attempt to discover true meaning. For example, if we take the assumption that WoW's userbase is fairly constant (I haven't heard any boasts about new subscriber numbers recently, so I figure that's a fair guess) than that 150% increase in subscribers is simply down to new GamerDNA members registering and adding to the time. If we assume gamers are equally likely to subscribe regardless of game they play, this means any game which shows less than ~150% growth in that period is actually losing subscribers, which includes titles like Tabula Rasa.

That's probably not the actual case either, but it just goes to show that this really needs some more analysis than the simple "Here's some login numbers" which is presented. Accurate descriptions of what's actually being graphed would be a start.

..that has a real underground economy, and drug-dealing cartel.

http://www.massively.com/2008/09/24/outlaws-of-eve-online-masudi/

If you're just a random member of the public and would like to take a sneak peek at how this new game is going to play out, the beta remains quite closed. This is a closed beta, period. "Open" means that anyone, regardless of whether they have already fronted $50 for the game, would be able to play.

Well, it's sort of open. I pre-ordered the game and I haven't paid a dime towards it yet until it ships out. If, at any point during open beta I decide that I hate the game, I can cancel my pre-order and not pay anything.

But you don't have to pay $50 to pre-order. Many retailers will not charge you if you pre-order online. I know EBGames doesn't. In-store, you probably have to pay a $5-$10 reservation fee.

Frankly it's enough to make me think that they have something to hide, and they can bet that I won't be going anywhere near this game until the proper reviews are out.

Many people have been involved with the closed and open betas of this game. If there was something to hide, it would already be out. Massively, as well as many other online magazines, blogs, and journals, have already covered this game almost daily and extensively - with ALL of the good and bad features reviewed.

There have also been several people on the Warhammer public forums that have expressed both good and bad opinions. Believe me, they're not trying to bait-and-switch the public.

Is this how they were hoping to capture WoW's audience, or is it an indication that they've abandoned hope of that possibility?

They were never hoping to capture WoW's audience. This game is very different from WoW, both in a good way and in a bad way. Mythic has repeatedly stated that they are not attempting to compete with WoW. They already know that people who are familiar with the tabletop version will be interested, and there will also be some people who have played WoW and want to try something different.

I do agree that their version of an open beta, which means that anyone with a pre-order can play, is different than the traditional open beta other game companies have put out. But you're still not paying a CENT (Euro / AUD or whatever your local currency is) until the game ships out or you go to the store to pick up a copy.

Since you want to compare Warhammer Online with World of Warcraft so badly...

They are launching a fraction of the content they were intending to have. Significant content too. Its like Blizzard shipping WoW with just Stormwind and the Undercity as capital cities.

They cut four character classes and are still shipping with 20 classes. How many character classes does WoW have right now? 20 classes is a lot to ship an MMO with in the beginning. They felt that those four classes that were cut were just not up to par with their expectations, and they may never see the light.

The capital city cuts were pretty bad, but it would have been worse had they shipped with six half-assed cities. They did discuss the fact that those cut cities will be reinserted into the game and will not charge for it.

They address this information about class and city cuts here.

People are content with WoW, especially with a new expansion releasing in 3-4 months. They don't feel like levelling up a new character in a MMO which is redone DAoC content.

Speak for yourself - not all people are content with WoW. If you read through some of the Warhammer Online forums, you'll see plenty of people who are getting sick of WoW and cannot stand the daily grind and the static classes. I am quitting WoW as soon as WAR is released. Even if WAR sucks, I'm not going back to WoW. The quests are too redundant, there is absolutely ZERO reward for exploration of the map, your in-game actions have no impact on the environment, and the classes are just too static.

If you want to be successful in dungeons and raiding, you have to follow the same path as anyone else. You almost cannot be versatile in how you play. I'm not sure how it is now in WoW as I haven't played in a few months, but at one point, if you want to be a warrior and play end-game content, you cannot be fury. BM hunters were avoided. Combat rogues were ignored. And so on. Even if you did end up in a decent group as an arcane mage or survival hunter, you couldn't contribute. There was always just one recipe to success and that was what killed the game for me.

And there are plenty of people who feel that WAR is not their cup of tea. That's perfectly fine. WAR was never intended to compete with WoW. WoW has its bright spots that WAR will never touch.

No PvE endgame in WAR. Endgame just like DAoC, a game made over five years ago.

They already discussed endgame content - remember, this is NOT a PvE game. End game content is there, but not completely finished. Many games do not ship out with complete end game content. WoW barely had any in the first year, and Age of Conan has a somewhat broken end-game system.

The bottom line is that you really cannot compare the two games. They seek to cater to two different groups of people - people who want an on-going raid in a realm vs. realm environment with public quests (WAR), and those that want highly polished end-game content with battlegrounds tacked on. (WoW)

Hmm... it seems we're losing two "berserker-brawler[s]" [The Choppa and The Hammerer], one "heavy tank" [The Knight of the Blazing Sun], and (roughly) "a World of Warcraft Warrior" [The Blackguard].

(source)

There are still 20 of the original 24 promised classes, and there really wasn't an equivalent set of roles across all races anyway, so it may still work out.

Me, I'm still pissed about the lack of Skaven.

Second Life Blogs - Blogs about the Second Life virtual world. Usually I list these by avatar name.

• The Lexx's Second Life - Alexzandria Aeon ("Lexx") is my "SL daughter" and a businesswoman.
• Jacek Antonelli - An artist and commentator on various aspects of the world.
• Hamlet Au - New World Notes - The "big dog" in Second Life blogging. Hamlet Au used to work for Linden Lab, and wrote a book, The Making of Second Life.
• life|cubed - One of my friends, "Padre" Triste Bertrand, who is also a minister in RL.
• Cala - Transgender in Second Life - She writes about some interesting topics.
• Evans Avenue Exit - I write this one. :-) I post about current events, scripting, and whatever else suits my fancy.
• Vint Falken - One of the premier European SL bloggers (she's from Belgium).
• Grand Unified Linden Blog - Official news and information from Linden Lab.
• Torley Lives - Everybody in Second Life should know Torley Linden. Torley is unique, helpful, and watermelon-flavored.
• An Engine Fit For My Proceeding - Ordinal Malaprop is SL's own version of Ada Lovelace...a fine Victorian lady and a top-flight scripter.
• Massively (Second Life) - The latest news and information about Second Life. (Massively.com also covers other virtual worlds and MMOs.)
• Second Thoughts - Prokofy Neva is perhaps the most-hated person in SL, and is sort of the "official gadfly." He's well worth reading for an alternate perspective, though.
• Dwell On It - Tateru Nino is one of the smartest people I know. Her writing is part of what got me into SL in the first place.
• MeraTalk - Mera Pixel is insightful, witty, and very purple.
• Second Life Grid Status Reports - When there are problems with SL--an all-too-often occurrence these days, alas--Linden Lab posts here.

Political Blogs - This is stuff with a right-wing bent, and is the section that will probably be most responsible for this post being modded down. :-/

• The Smallest Minority - Kevin Baker is partly a gunblogger, partly an excellent commentator. He's had good posts recently about education.
• La Shawn Barber's Corner - A Christian blogger who only dabbles in politics these days, spending more time writing about music and digital technology.
• Leslie Carbone - A Virginia political blogger who I found via Twitter.
• Personal Effects - Connie du Toit is one of the clearest-minded writers you'll find on many subjects.
• Geopoliticus - Kim du Toit (yes, he and Connie are married) is the L33t Master of Firearms, and an insightfu

http://www.massively.com/2008/06/07/warhammer-onlines-realm-imbalance-fears/

Some interesting thoughts there.

As a Warhammer fan (40k and Fantasy) I find myself torn between picking a Chaos Chosen or Dark Elf Sorceress as my first character, but I know a lot more casual players will pick the 'good guys', as long as they look awesome/hot.

Just want to correct a minor error: It's Matt "Positron" Miller of City of Heroes fame.

Also see http://www.massively.com/2008/02/21/gdc08/

Massively just did an interview with John Smedley and touched upon the issue of farmers/plat sellers and how they are using social hacking to bring in profits and hurt the company.

Part 1: http://www.massively.com/2008/01/14/a-ces-interview-with-soe-ceo-john-smedley-pt-1/
Part 2: http://www.massively.com/2008/01/14/a-ces-interview-with-soe-ceo-john-smedley-pt-2/

SOE owns and operates Everquest, Everquest 2, Star Wars Galaxies, and other MMOs.

I think the issue of farming is higher on the radar now than it ever has been. The behinds the scenes things are really frustration. A lot of these farmers are essentially stealing from us. What they do is they charge us back all the time. They use a credit card -sometimes stolen, sometimes not - to buy an account key. They use the account for a month, and then they call the credit card company and charge it back. We have suffered nearly a million dollars just in fines over the past six months; it's getting extremely expensive for us. What's happening is that when they do this all the time, the credit card companies come back to us and say "You have a higher than normal chargeback rate, therefore we'll charge you fines on top of that."

Massively just did an interview with John Smedley and touched upon the issue of farmers/plat sellers and how they are using social hacking to bring in profits and hurt the company.

Part 1: http://www.massively.com/2008/01/14/a-ces-interview-with-soe-ceo-john-smedley-pt-1/
Part 2: http://www.massively.com/2008/01/14/a-ces-interview-with-soe-ceo-john-smedley-pt-2/

SOE owns and operates Everquest, Everquest 2, Star Wars Galaxies, and other MMOs.

I think the issue of farming is higher on the radar now than it ever has been. The behinds the scenes things are really frustration. A lot of these farmers are essentially stealing from us. What they do is they charge us back all the time. They use a credit card -sometimes stolen, sometimes not - to buy an account key. They use the account for a month, and then they call the credit card company and charge it back. We have suffered nearly a million dollars just in fines over the past six months; it's getting extremely expensive for us. What's happening is that when they do this all the time, the credit card companies come back to us and say "You have a higher than normal chargeback rate, therefore we'll charge you fines on top of that."