I guess I missed the initial announcement because today I read on Kotaku that Lord of Ultima is now in open beta. It is a browser based game in which you build cities and do battle against the world. I am trying it out and it is okay so far. I've played a couple browser games and this seems to have a lot more features than most. It also has pretty graphics.
Besides the name, it doesn't have a thing to do with the Ultima or Ultima Online universe. Everything is generic fantasy. Perhaps there is some stuff later on or little easter eggs. The naming is purely to bring back nostalgic feelings. Get people to play.......and eventually pay.
While the game is free to play, there is a store where you can purchase diamonds. I assume other stuff will be sold in the future. Limited edition items or city decorations. The possibilities are as endless to which a wallet can be opened.
Will have to see how this game turns out.
In other news, Markee Dragon's redesigned website has opened. I have to say I am not a fan of the new design. The old one was unique and interesting. Now it is generic game blog 37452 with standard game screenshot backdrops. Also what is up with going with a blue color scheme? Even the dragon is now blue! Bleh.
March 20, 2010
March 15, 2010
Activmoneyism
The price of the first Modern Warfare 2 map pack has been revealed. What would you expect to pay for some new maps? Does $3 sound good? Well there are going to be 5 of them. Maybe $5 or $8 or even $9.99.
Tough luck. It is $15! And there isn't anything else announced thus far. Just 5 new multiplayer maps. That is 1/4 the cost of the original game. It is quite obvious this is a huge money grab. There are 25 of million of copies of MW2 out there. What is $15 x 10 million? More money than 99% of video games will ever make. For 5 freakin maps, two of which are being brought back from COD:4.
It is clear now why Activision forced out the people who were possibly standing in the way of this gold train. They probably want to start pumping map packs out en mauss. They could easily be doing at least 1 new map a month. Keep people hooked on MW2 like it is a MMO. In the mean time they are not patching any game bugs or issues, just major exploits.
Even more astonishing is Activision is holding back royalty payments to Infinity Ward staff. Delayed payments means interest. The longer they hold the money, the more Activision reaps.
There is just no end to their corporate greed.
Tough luck. It is $15! And there isn't anything else announced thus far. Just 5 new multiplayer maps. That is 1/4 the cost of the original game. It is quite obvious this is a huge money grab. There are 25 of million of copies of MW2 out there. What is $15 x 10 million? More money than 99% of video games will ever make. For 5 freakin maps, two of which are being brought back from COD:4.
It is clear now why Activision forced out the people who were possibly standing in the way of this gold train. They probably want to start pumping map packs out en mauss. They could easily be doing at least 1 new map a month. Keep people hooked on MW2 like it is a MMO. In the mean time they are not patching any game bugs or issues, just major exploits.
Even more astonishing is Activision is holding back royalty payments to Infinity Ward staff. Delayed payments means interest. The longer they hold the money, the more Activision reaps.
There is just no end to their corporate greed.
March 13, 2010
House Cleaning Dragon
It looks like Markee Dragon is cleaning up his act. He was never a saint to begin with, somehow getting himself perma-banned from UO way back. In a story he explained when Origin invited him to a fanfest, he told them he was banned. They unbanned him I think. Ah, the good ol' days.
He posted a video announcing the changes to his website and a bit on why it was happening. It boils down to game companies not liking his support of breaking their game rules (item sales, scripting, botting, etc.). So it is hard to do business with people who you are causing headaches for. I imagine he is doing this mostly because he has some new business plan or idea, and that revenue from these illicit operations was simply not worth holding on to anymore.
Oh well.
He posted a video announcing the changes to his website and a bit on why it was happening. It boils down to game companies not liking his support of breaking their game rules (item sales, scripting, botting, etc.). So it is hard to do business with people who you are causing headaches for. I imagine he is doing this mostly because he has some new business plan or idea, and that revenue from these illicit operations was simply not worth holding on to anymore.
Oh well.
March 11, 2010
I Realize This Blog is Here
I haven't been playing UO lately. After a month of Stygian Abyss, I had done pretty much everything the expansion had to offer. I ran the two new champion spawns dozens of times, worked up Mysticism, and slayed all the Peerless. It got boring pretty quick so I took a break. I planned on starting back again in January, but I was having serious wireless connectivity issues. In fact I still am, just having mailed the router back to the manufacturer for repair today. But I am mostly not playing because there is nothing to do.
I play UO to PVP. For the past 8 years there has only been one type of PVP available: Champion Spawns. I've run them all a thousands of times. Gotten every power scroll in duplicates. It just isn't appealing anymore. I was very excited when factions was being worked on again. There were a lot of nice changes and additions. Unfortunately that no longer appears to be the case. First Draconi is let go and now Sakkarah. It is hard to be enthusiastic when EA is making every effort to prevent UO from being updated.
There are more faction changes in the works, mentioned on Stratics forums and in the House of Commons chat. However, it appears they are dumbing down the system. Reducing it from 4 to 3 factions, reworking points so they are about doing all different things instead of killing other players. To me it sounds like they are trying to shoehorn Warhammer Online ideas into UO. And if you didn't know, Warhammer Online isn't doing very well. In fact it probably has many fewer subscribers than UO.
I make no promises when the next blog post will be.
I play UO to PVP. For the past 8 years there has only been one type of PVP available: Champion Spawns. I've run them all a thousands of times. Gotten every power scroll in duplicates. It just isn't appealing anymore. I was very excited when factions was being worked on again. There were a lot of nice changes and additions. Unfortunately that no longer appears to be the case. First Draconi is let go and now Sakkarah. It is hard to be enthusiastic when EA is making every effort to prevent UO from being updated.
There are more faction changes in the works, mentioned on Stratics forums and in the House of Commons chat. However, it appears they are dumbing down the system. Reducing it from 4 to 3 factions, reworking points so they are about doing all different things instead of killing other players. To me it sounds like they are trying to shoehorn Warhammer Online ideas into UO. And if you didn't know, Warhammer Online isn't doing very well. In fact it probably has many fewer subscribers than UO.
I make no promises when the next blog post will be.
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