Looking Back on 2009, Heartless' Predictions Reviewed

Its that magical time of year where I get to review my predictions for the previous year. Read my original predictions post here.  My commentary is after the jump:

1. The economy will not "collapse", but it isn't going to get better until the governments of the world leave it to the free market to correct itself.

The economy didn't collapse and the government's inability to leave the free market to itself has made the situation shittier than it has to be.

2. The weak economy will encourage smaller, fiscally responsible game development projects. This will lead to a bunch of interesting stuff coming out in the MMO space, whether technically massively multiplayer or not is yet to be seen.

I was correct on this one.  We saw smaller projects like Free Realms become a success. 

3. Even with number 2, subscription based MMOs will still be king of the revenue stream at the end of 2009. Thank World of Warcraft for giving MMO developers false hope everywhere.

I'm going to call 50/50 on this one. World of Warcraft still promotes the wearing of Money Hats and had another solid year,but many other subscription MMOGs are struggling. Micro-transactions are becoming popular, but  they are tough to monetize properly even with a good game such as Free Realms or Battlefield Heroes.  Both titles have struggled to find the money-generating balance with micro-transactions and F2P.

4. World of Warcraft will not get a new expansion, but something will be announced. It will focus more on new hero classes, the Alliance vs Horde conflict, and high end raiding.

WoW did not get a new expansion in 2009, but WoW: Cataclysm was announced.  I was way off on the details of what Blizzard had planned.  However, I like the concepts of Cataclysm!

5. WAR will still be around by the end of 2009, but who remains around to develop it may be drastically different.

I was dead on for this one: Mark Jacobs gone and most of the development staff laid off.

6. More MMOs will close their doors. The true sign of doom will be when SOE starts closing down some of its B-team living painfully on Station Pass.

Matrix Online (a Station Pass B-team member) and Tabula Rasa are the two major shutdowns this year.

7. Speaking of SOE. The doom and gloom continues as SOE continues to push RMT practices on its non-RMT games.

Wrong.

8. An MMO project will come out of left field this year and surprise us all. Scott Jennings may or may not be involved, but he’ll blog about it regardless.

See this post: Scott Jennings in Left Field, Finds Dust

9. The world will end if Diablo III and Starcraft II are both launched in 2009.

Well, I'm still here and that must mean these games didn't launch together. Leaves a slot open for 2010 world-ending predictions.

$24 Million Dollar Arsebiscuits

News today, Richard Garriott blasts NCsoft with $24 million lawsuit:

Yesterday, Kotaku broke the news that Garriott was suing his old pals at NCsoft to the tune of $24 million for fraud, and generally being a bunch of fetid arsebiscuits.

Interesting, this shall be.

By the way, what are arsebiscuits?

Not A Good Time For Failing MMOs

Tabula Rasa is going the way of the dodo. Age of Conan may be following as well: Age of Conan Servers To Merge, Funcom Sees Layoffs.

Two ominous signs have come recently for Age of Conan fans; developer Funcom went through a round of layoffs, and they announced plans to merge some of the game's servers in order to maintain a "healthy" population. Despite this, Funcom has maintained that development will continue for both the PC version and the upcoming Xbox 360 version of the game, confident that Age of Conan won't follow Tabula Rasa into oblivion. A writer at Vox ex Machina doesn't share that view, pointing to several of the game's flaws as reasons why it didn't maintain the popularity it enjoyed at launch.

Tough economic times call for tough measures, but a little voice in the back of my head keeps telling me these games probably wouldn't survive even in the best of economic times. I wonder which game will be next...

Not A Good Time For Failing MMOs

Tabula Rasa is going the way of the dodo. Age of Conan may be following as well: Age of Conan Servers To Merge, Funcom Sees Layoffs.

Two ominous signs have come recently for Age of Conan fans; developer Funcom went through a round of layoffs, and they announced plans to merge some of the game's servers in order to maintain a "healthy" population. Despite this, Funcom has maintained that development will continue for both the PC version and the upcoming Xbox 360 version of the game, confident that Age of Conan won't follow Tabula Rasa into oblivion. A writer at Vox ex Machina doesn't share that view, pointing to several of the game's flaws as reasons why it didn't maintain the popularity it enjoyed at launch.

Tough economic times call for tough measures, but a little voice in the back of my head keeps telling me these games probably wouldn't survive even in the best of economic times. I wonder which game will be next...

Tabula Rasa: Why all the delays?

If anyone plays Tabula Rasa and wonders where their subscription payment goes, this video may just hold the key. Or maybe it will help us understand why Tabula Rasa was delayed so long. Either way, opening a beer will never be the same.



What do you expect from someone who requires that their name comes before a game's title? All we need is for Mr. Garriott to show up on MTV to show off his crib...

...oh snap!

Tabula Rasa: Why all the delays?

If anyone plays Tabula Rasa and wonders where their subscription payment goes, this video may just hold the key. Or maybe it will help us understand why Tabula Rasa was delayed so long. Either way, opening a beer will never be the same.



What do you expect from someone who requires that their name comes before a game's title? All we need is for Mr. Garriott to show up on MTV to show off his crib...

...oh snap!

Tabula Rasa Delayed

Bad news for any Tabula Rasa fans, it is being delayed; again. The plan now is to launch Tabula Rasa at the end of October to pre-order customers and a live launch on November 2.

The development team wants some more time to test a recent overhaul of the crafting system and give beta testers the chance to test out the new high level areas. In any case, it means another delay added onto a long list of delays that have kept Tabula Rasa out of gamer's hands.

Personally, this kills any chance I would be interested in playing the title. Team Fortress 2 is almost officially here (it is in pre-order beta atm) and if a certain other beta invitation ever goes through I will have another MMOG to play around in. Sorry, Tabula Rasa. Wrong place, wrong time, and a complete failure to turn me on.

Tabula Rasa Delayed

Bad news for any Tabula Rasa fans, it is being delayed; again. The plan now is to launch Tabula Rasa at the end of October to pre-order customers and a live launch on November 2.

The development team wants some more time to test a recent overhaul of the crafting system and give beta testers the chance to test out the new high level areas. In any case, it means another delay added onto a long list of delays that have kept Tabula Rasa out of gamer's hands.

Personally, this kills any chance I would be interested in playing the title. Team Fortress 2 is almost officially here (it is in pre-order beta atm) and if a certain other beta invitation ever goes through I will have another MMOG to play around in. Sorry, Tabula Rasa. Wrong place, wrong time, and a complete failure to turn me on.

No One's Talking!

Tabula Rasa is set to launch October 19th, the beta NDA has been lifted, but I can't seem to find anyone that will give a decent post about their beta experience. Hopefully, in the next couple of days we will see some great posts from beta testers.

Sadly, this just confirms my suspicions that the interest in Tabula Rasa is not that big. I'm not interested in the game and I don't know anyone that is actually set on playing it. A few of my "I play every MMORPG" friends may give it a whirl, but they will play anything.

I'm debating whether to give the game a try. It has been a good while since I gave a random game a chance. I normally stick to playing games that I've followed for months (or years) through development, beta, and launch. I have paid almost no attention to Tabula Rasa and that may have set the stage for me to play it. Unfortunately, there is that whole work, school, wife, and dog equation that I need fit gaming back into.

No One's Talking!

Tabula Rasa is set to launch October 19th, the beta NDA has been lifted, but I can't seem to find anyone that will give a decent post about their beta experience. Hopefully, in the next couple of days we will see some great posts from beta testers.

Sadly, this just confirms my suspicions that the interest in Tabula Rasa is not that big. I'm not interested in the game and I don't know anyone that is actually set on playing it. A few of my "I play every MMORPG" friends may give it a whirl, but they will play anything.

I'm debating whether to give the game a try. It has been a good while since I gave a random game a chance. I normally stick to playing games that I've followed for months (or years) through development, beta, and launch. I have paid almost no attention to Tabula Rasa and that may have set the stage for me to play it. Unfortunately, there is that whole work, school, wife, and dog equation that I need fit gaming back into.