MMO Weekly 17/03

17 Mar 2009 at 11:14:54 by Jeff Hollis

This week in MMO gaming was, as usual, a weird week.  It seems I say that a lot.  And I say that a lot because MMO games are intrinsically quirky, and the people who play them are, generally, an odd bunch.  As an MMO gamer myself, I feel unusually well qualified to comment on this issue.  Sometimes, when I'm walking down the street, I'll pass a store window and see my own reflection and I'll be like, “Who is that nerdy guy?” before I realise that I'm only looking at myself.  And then I have one of those moments of clarity when I realise, “Man, I'm a total game geek!”  Then I stop and do a little dance with my reflection and make faces in the window for a while until a crowd gathers and I've freaked everyone out.  Then I scream “It's all for you, Jaina Proudmoore!” as I run away.  Um...and now, on to this week's news!
 
Certainly one of the most surprising stories of this past week has to be the fact that Hellgate London got patched.  Yes, that's right, fully half of the rights to HGL are currently in the hands of Hanbitsoft, and they decided to patch their half of the game.  They eliminated “elite” mode, which separated players according to the subscription price they paid (elite players got some special content, but it never worked out very well).  Now all players will pay the same monthly fee, and everyone will be able to play together.  

Other changes include a system to match people up more easily, and help them find groups.  Also, the ability to link items in chat is now enabled, as is a functional achievement system.

Note that these changes only affect gamers in Korea and a select few other Asian countries.  When Flagship studios (the original developer) collapsed, Hanbitsoft obtained the rights to own, develop, and distribute Hellgate in that part of the world.  In what is perhaps the most unusual business deal ever put to paper, they don't have those rights in the western hemisphere.  Namco Bandai, a company that has never made a game for anyone over the age of 10, owns the rights to Hellgate in the US, Canada, and the EU.  Oh, and also Iceland, and that one town in Greenland that has an internet service, and that strange oil platform thingy off the UK coast that keeps claiming it's a country.  Namco has the rights to the game for all that territory.  But how I digress.

Namco's part of the liquidation of Flagship is that they now control Hellgate in the West, and they decided they wanted to simply shut it down.  This they accomplished earlier this year.  This occurred after a protracted slapfight/argument with Hanbitsoft, each of whom claimed they owned the whole thing.  Hanbitsoft and Namco eventually stopped arguing, and each settled for the rights to half of the game.  Then Namco took their half, which they fought so hard to keep, and destroyed it for no reason whatsoever.  It basically makes you wonder what the heck they wanted it for in the first place.  Needless to say, if you live in North America, the EU, or on a fiercely independent oil platform off the UK coast, you're copy of Hellgate isn't getting patched, and you still can't play.  You have the highly altruistic, incredibly selfless people at Namco Bandai to thank for that.

In other news, it seems that Curt Schilling isn't the only celebrity making an MMO.  This week we learned that Vin Diesel has, since 2002, owned his own small game development company, and they're working on an MMO based in the era of Hannibal Barca, the guy that hated Rome so much he sent some elephants to stomp on them.  Diesel is, apparently, pretty infatuated with Hannibal, as he is set to produce, direct, and star in a movie about him in the future.  The game is tentatively called Barca BC, and will be released to the public...well, whenever it's done.     

There's an odd admixture of Blizzard news this week, and it's all a bit hard to sort out.  First up: a huge bronze orc riding a wolf was finally installed in the courtyard of Blizzard's new office complex.  The statue has been planned for some time, but finishing the 8,000 kg bronze statue takes time.  The figure was completed by WETA studios (the special effects company that did King Kong and all three Lord of the Rings movies, as well as the upcoming Hobbit films) and put into place this week.   More information on the installation of this very heavy, very expensive, very nerdy statue can be found here, here, and here.

In related news, Blizzard's partner in China, The9, has told the General Admission of Press and Publication (GAPP) board that, if they don't approve the sale of Wrath of the Lich King in China, The9 will go out of business.  GAPP's problem with WotLK is that it features too many exposed bones.  This is a cultural no-no in China.  The9 and Blizzard have been working like mad to eliminate the appearance of exposed bone and other related artwork in WotLK, but GAPP has remained hesitant to approve the expansion's sale.  When one considers that WotLK is fundamentally about death knights and features ghouls, death, decay, and all matter of other necrotic nastiness, this game may not be approved any time soon.  GAPP was not completely unsympathetic, however, saying “the struggle is finding a balance between WLK’s “unhealthy” content and protecting the interest of a domestic operator.”

In a study in contrasts, Activision Blizzard's co-chairman Brian Kelly liquidated 2 million shares of his personal stock in the company recently, netting himself a cool $20m USD (and change).  While some speculated that this meant something bad was afoot at ActiBlizz, others pointed out that none of the other big stockholders in the company liquidated anything.  This appears to be some simple profit-taking by Kelly, and old ActiBlizz is doing just fine.   (Also doing fine:  Brian Frakkin' Kelly, who made $20m USD on a single stock trade!)

And last, but not least, we have the story of Tom Kidrin of Worlds.com.  Tom announced to everyone that he is planning on suing pretty much every MMO company on the planet, because Worlds.com owns the rights to 3D online virtual worlds.  They implemented this technology in 1997 in a little known game for sick children, and since that time, according to Tom, everyone else has been ripping them off. 

We're not really sure what the heck Tom's talking about, since it took ol' Tom not less than twelve years (!?!) to realise that everyone was ripping him off, and the first MMO (Meridian 59) also launched that same year.  Prior to this, other online 3D games also existed, but that's not stopping the Worlds.com lawsuit.  No siree, the patent trolling just goes on. 

And that's all for this week, kids.  If you'd like to catch up on the latest MMO tomfoolery each and every day, come and visit us over at our sister site, WanderingGoblin.com.  Until next week, ciao!

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