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MMOG Fortunes Rise And Fall
ringbarer writes "The disappointingly mismanaged MMO Star Wars Galaxies has hit another low. The Japanese translation of the game has barely managed to reach its first Birthday, and now it's been canceled. A Rough translation is available, but the original untranslated news can be found here." I'm not entirely sure, but it seems as though players who've paid beyond the end of December will have their accounts transferred to a US/EU server if they're so inclined. Otherwise they'll have their money refunded. Apparently money isn't something SOE is smarting for, at the AGC this past week President John Smedley announced that they'll be releasing what is essentially a free MMOG, with no monthly fee. Speaking of free, the always excellent Puzzle Pirates is essentially doing the same thing. They're also doing some crackerjack Halloween Events tonight, if you're interested in some swashing and some buckling. Dark Age of Camelot's events for today's holiday sound pretty neat too.
The free trial lasts forever, but with limited abilities. You only pay if you want to engage in higher level play. Additionally, there are both servers with subscription (flat fee gives you full access) and micropayment (pay only for the features you want) models. Surprisingly, the micropayment model doesn't unbalance gameplay that much since all games are skill-based rather than level-based and there are no items that give anyone an unsurmountable advantage in a competition/PVP.