MMO Weekly 04/11/08

Welcome, friends, to this week's edition of MMO Weekly! This week we take a look at the very latest developments in MMO gaming. Of course, this includes new games, information about old games, quirky gaming stories, and stories so completely dorky, we couldn't pass them up. Read on, and enjoy!

First up, we have the latest developments in the never-ending saga of Hellgate: London. Formerly owned and developed by Flaghip, the latest news is that HGL is currently owned by Korean developer Hanbitsoft. Following the announcement of its ownership of HGL, Hanbitsoft revealed that it has formed a new studio, Redbana, to continue development of the game. It is even preparing an extensive update, amounting to a free expansion.

The announcement was full of additional, juicy details. Hanbitsoft also stated that it also owns Flagship's other MMO, Mythos. That game, too, is undergoing continued development, also at Redbana. It is planning a launch of Mythos in the near future. Hellgate may even be re-launched, though it's unclear what that means.

Normally, this would be considered good news. The problem, of course, is that Hanbitsoft's ownership of either HGL or Mythos, or both, is about as clear as swampwater. When developer Flagship went bankrupt, the ownership of both titles came into dispute.

Namco Bandai is in control of Flagship's website, and the common belief is that it is the current owner of HGL. In fact, it has recently announced it is going to shut the game down as of Febuary 1, 2009. What's more, it was announced this summer that a new developer, Runic Games, would be developing Mythos, and releasing it shortly. To further muddy the waters, it has been rumored that the Mythos IP was actually acquired by an unnamed Texas bank after Flagship's demise, and that Runic may not own the IP at all. To bring matters into the blurriest, foggiest possible focus, it should be remembered that Hanbitsoft had previously laid claim to Hellgate, and that its claim was disputed by Flagship's founder, Bill Roper himself.

Now, didn't that clear things up nicely? No? More details – all of them utterly baffling – can be found here, here, and here. And no, reading them won't help you understand this one bit better. I'm personally betting that a huge legal squabble is in the post.

In other completely baffling news, EA (parent company of Mythic Entertainment) announced that bad behavior on its forums would have some very dire consequences. Forum misconduct may now result in a double ban: banning from the official forums, as well as from the game itself. That's a pretty radical move, as most companies view the game (which customers pay for) and supporting forums (which EA supplies for free) as separate. To make matters more extreme, EA clarified the issue thusly: since all their games are now linked via a master account, a forum ban would result in a banning from all the EA games you own. Here it is, in their own words:

Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly reccommend people play nice and act mature.

EA later “clarified” the issue, saying essentially, “Ooops, we didn't mean that. We meant the opposite of that. Sorry for the confusion.”

In a related story, EA announced that Warhammer Online has 800,000 active subscribers. This makes WAR the second largest subscription-based MMO on the planet, and kills any rumors (started by Blizzard bigwigs) that WAR subscriptions were in decline.

On a lighter note, would you like to get your hands on a Voidwalker plushie? How about some gnome earrings, or a warlock trinkets? Or perhaps you're more interested in some nicely carved, Warcraft-esque pumpkins? If that's what you need, we've got your fix here, here, and here.

As you are probably very aware, Age of Conan is one bloodthirsty game. Well now, all that murder and mayhem will have consequences. Funcom announced this week that the game will now track your unwarranted kills, and if you kill too many players, you'll suffer for it. Exceptionally aggressive players may even be labeled murderers, and be ostracized from the cities in the game. They'll only be able to interact with merchants (all lowlifes), quest givers (who can't be trusted), bankers (who are more like loan sharks), and other NPCs (all miscreants) in camps outside of town. The only way to redeem yourself? You'll have to do a series of penitent quests. If you want to know more, and even see a video of all this bronze-age justice in action, hit the jump.

Speaking of video, have you seen the latest demo of Global Agenda? It's looking to be a solid MMO with super soldiers, hot FPS action, and exciting gameplay. However, the video promo also has the single most annoying developer commentary we've seen in a long, long time. These developers have somehow learned to speak infomercialese, and it's equal parts annoying and uber dorky.

Since we're talking about shoot-em-up MMORPGs, another FPS-based MMO made the news this week. It seems that Tabula Rasa - a solid MMO featuring super soldiers, hot FPS action, and exciting gameplay (whoa, deja vu!) - added a stunning feature. They've chosen to add an actual FPS point of view, along with the ability to zoom in like a sniper. Considering the game promised FPS action when it was released months ago, the fact that this “feature” was implemented this past week is....amazing. :)

Since it went over so well in last week's article, let's finish up with some “Fast Fun Facts”, shall we? Here we go:

• Jack Thompson, anti-gaming attorney extraordinaire, was officially disbarred. Geeks world-wide collectively rejoiced.
  
  
• Want to see some orcs on a coffee break? Click here.
  
  
• Rik Reil, famous Second Life blogger, wrote a parody post this past week about an upcoming MMO made by Quakers. World of Peacecraft was, according to Rik, designed to spread the peaceful message of Quakerism. After half the gaming sites in the universe began to cover the story as factual, Rik had to explain that the whole thing was nothing but a joke.
  
  
• Did you realize that the population of Azeroth is now twice the population of Ireland? Yeah, it's true.
  
  
• Thankfully, Canada has now passed a law making it illegal to raid, PvP, or engage in any gaming activity while driving. The roads of Canada are now a much safer place.

And that's all for this week, fellow game geeks. For your daily fix of MMO news (always served up with a hot, steaming side of offbeat humor) come visit us over at WanderingGoblin.com. Until then, ciao!