“I felt a great disturbance in the gaming community, as if a million souls cried out in sarcasm ‘No, REALLY? I never freakin’ GUESSED!’.”

Bioware’s mystery MMORPG is Knights of the Old Republic Online.

I have a bit of a public relations background, and I’ve been knocking around the MMO community for several years now, so let me lay out the scenario for EA/Bioware/LucasArts as it has stood up until today.

• They’ve had an MMO in the works for quite some time at Bioware.
• They’ve stayed characteristically closed-mouthed about exactly what it is.
• The internet has been tossing the “Bioware’s making Knights of the Old Republic Online” rumor around for quite a while.
• Bioware previously said that the release window for their MMO was “late 2010 or early 2011″.
• There was no announcement of specifics at E3 about the MMO, to the extent that, when asked by a Massively reporter “How’s KOTOR Online coming?” in a Q&A session, developer Dan Tudge said “I…don’t know what you’re talking about,” which was followed by a PR rep for EA/Bioware saying “Good answer.”

A well-planned and well-executed Imperial plan, designed to keep the MMO community in the dark as long as possible.

And then along comes Jar Jar John Riccitiello, Chief Executive of Electronic Arts, in an interview with the well-known platform for breaking MMORPG news, the Conde Nast Portfolio.

“We’ve got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development,” said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. “And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about — in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it.”

Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online? “Yes,” he said.

Okay, sure. This is how they planned on announcing KOTORO. Nothing on the Bioware site. No mention at Lucasarts.com. Zip over at EA.com. Just a three-sentence comment and a one-word answer.

This is either the best tease in history, or one of the bigger heartburn-inducers I’ve ever seen for a PR department.

I mean, how do you call the Chief Executive of the company on the carpet for a good old-fashioned butt chewing? However, let’s ponder a result of this announcement that hasn’t really been discussed since this was revealed:

The clock is now running on Star Wars Galaxies…the only question remaining is “How long until it sunsets?”

I can’t see LucasArts allowing two Star Wars MMOs to run simultaneously; of course, as I said above the projected release date for KOTORO would most likely be in early 2011 at best, which means that SWG doesn’t have to vanish by the end of the month. But SWG has been hurting for a while now; how many new subscribers can they actually hope to attract to a game that now has a fairly definite shelf-life?

It will be very interesting indeed to see what effect this has on SWG, both short-term and long-term.

And could someone please run by Smedley’s house and check on him? If he was eating dinner when he heard about this, he may need the Heimlich.

This entire weekend was filled with the kind of quality “this is what some guy who can’t go on the record told me” reporting we’ve come to expect on the internet, this time regarding Flagship Studios.

At the end of last week, rumors started spreading that quite a few members of the development teams for Hellgate:London and Mythos had been given the “light red ladies’ undergarment” treatment…rumors which quickly turned into “unnamed sources” releasing the information that the entire company had gone belly-up, with the IPs for the two games transferring to two different companies as the result of the IPs being used as collateral for business loans that were (it is assumed) going into default.

As usual, the internet was all over this like chins on Rosie O’Donnell. But one thing has been interesting…the activity on the Hellgate:London official forums. Tiggs (yes, SWG vets, that Tiggs) started the weekend throwing thread locks around like Mardi Gras beads, but did allow one thread to remain open as a “wailing wall” (a practice used to allow the community to blow off steam while making it a bit easier for a swamped community relations team to moderate things), and as you would expect, that one thread has turned into over 600 pages of…humor, lolcats and hopefulness?

Really? Really. Read for yourself. (Although it’s starting to turn a bit hostile around page 610 or so.)

The local Korean portal for Hellgate:London (managed by Handbitsoft, the party allegedly receiving the H:L IP) says the following:

<insert a lot of Korean text I can’t read here>

…which reliable sources tell me translates as:

[heyl] Development cause of death of the gate [phul] the lag ten stew D secret principles company operation was discontinued in overseas news [heyl] to spare the gate, with anxiety of all type those minutes and [heyl] the anxiety [manh] the [u] will be sour is thought in future about service progr-

Okay…never mind…I forgot that Babelfish sucks. The site that broke the story, VE3D.IGN.com, has a running update on the number of employees that are confirmed to no longer be employed with Flagship at their post here, confirmed by checking Flagship/PingO employees’ LinkedIn profiles which apparently several former employees have already updated.

There’s been no official word from Flagship (aside from Tiggs stating “If I had answers I would tell you”, and Tiggs’ minion Chosen on the official H:L boards saying, and I quote, “We’re all fine here,” which could mean anything from “We got donuts today” to “All the rumors are bunk” to a really good usage of a Han Solo quote), so until something a bit more official comes out, we’ll all just have to wait and see.

I am starting to worry a bit over the chances of finally getting that Mythos beta invite I had asked Santa for, however. (And yes, I realize it’s July…the fat man can get off his duff and do a mid-year run.)

Handbitsoft continues to make statements that they are now in control of the Mythos IP, but there’s some confusion on the entire issue, including VE3D’s newest report that Bill Roper and the Flagship crew are going to form a casual games company.

As an internet typer-guy, I think I speak for all when I say “Where the hell did THAT come from!?!”

Stay tuned for more.

I have an eight-year-old boy who (practically overnight) turned into a rabid professional wrestling fan.

I have a wife that loves the concept of vampires, reads everything in that genre’ she can get her hands on, and became interested when I told her that CCP had purchased White Wolf in 2006 and intended to turn World of Darkness into an MMORPG.

I have a brother that has a law degree.

Throw those three obviously connected things into a blender, and you get this:

World Wrestling Entertainment successfully defended itself in a
lawsuit brought against the company over the rights to the ring name
of former WWE star Gangrel by CCP hf and CCP North America when the
case was dismissed by Judge Marvin H. Shoob on 6/30.

It seems that the WWE licensed the name “Gangrel” back in 1998 for a five-year period to promote a wrestler with a vampire motif, but has used the name as recently as last year, still promoting the rather charming chap to the right.

In ruling that he wasn’t going to rule (it makes sense in legal circles), Judge Shoob stated that CCP had not proven that they were making “active use of the trademark, nor that their vampire-based games made use of the Gangrel character,” so they were not able to sue on the basis of infringement.

Their claim that they (WWE) use and continue to use
the Gangrel name was ruled “insufficient to allege trademark rights.”

It was implied that CCP has a possible avenue to sue over copyright, but that’s about it. However, since this ruling on not ruling has come out, it seems clear that we’re all able to use the name “Gangrel” for anything we please, without fear of redress, right?

The can of worms, my friends…’tis open, since we all know that since 2003 (when the licensing to WWE expired), CCP/White Wolf hasn’t made use of the name Gangrel at all, so it’s open season I assume.

On a side note, I did some research on Judge Shoob, and I’ve read about several of his higher-profile rulings. I have to say that I haven’t found a lack of common sense at all…quite the opposite in fact…in his rulings; he seems to be pretty good at his job. This leads me to believe that in this case, the law isn’t as cut and dried as it seems. (In other news, water is wet, fire is hot, and Paris Hilton is communicable.)

In the interest of giving Judge Shoob some “face time”, I put “judge shoob” into Google’s image search. Apparently, he’s pictured in one of the three images below. God, I love the internet.

Yes, there have been a ton of problems with hacked accounts in World of Warcraft, some of them due to power-leveling services, some due to talented hackers, and a few due to stupidity.

Yes, there have been attempts to combat the problem by Blizzard, with various levels of success.

Yes, there’s now a keyfob.

This means th-…wait a minute. A keyfob?!? According to the WarCry Network, you bet your sweet epic there’s a keyfob:

Designed to attach to a keychain, the lightweight and waterproof Blizzard® Authenticator is an electronic device that generates a six-digit security code at the press of a button. This code is unique, valid only once, and active for a limited time; it must be provided along with the account name and password when signing in to the World of Warcraft account linked to it.

Hoo-boy. While on the surface this seems like a good idea (and in many ways it is), let’s think of the negatives:

1. Keeping up with the damn thing.
2. Not breaking the damn thing.
3. This starting a trend, leading to trying to hide your NeoPets fob when the guys are coming over. “No, really…that’s my sister’s.”
4. This sentence being spoken out loud to you: “Okay, dear…I’ve hidden your little WoW-thingy. Do what I say if you ever want to play again.”
5. If it does become a trend, the Second Life users modding their fobs to look like penises and throwing them around other people’s houses could reach epidemic proportions.

As you can tell, while this looks to be a great idea, it’s does have the potential to create as many problems as it solves.

Either way, everything should come up whine and roses, though. Unless they switch concepts, and we all wind up with a WoW-Doggle.

Worlds In Motion has an interesting story up today about Virtual Greats, a new company being launched by Millions of Us, an ad agency that deals with corporate and product branding inside virtual worlds.

Virtual Greats is one of those concepts that will either be a dismal failure, or the type of concept that will see the cries of “Why didn’t I think of that!?!” overshadowed only by the sound of the “Me too!” stampede. From the original story in Variety:

Virtual Greats said it eventually plans to offer its digital goods across 60 virtual worlds and social media platforms, with the company handling the financial and technical elements of each sale. Revenue is split between Virtual Goods, the copyright holder and the distribution partner.

Company has initially brokered a deal with virtual world Gaia Online, which has more than 5 million members made up of mostly teens that visit the site per month.

On the surface, this looks like ringtones for virtual worlds. The plan, according to Millions of Us CEO Reuben Steiger, is to sell custom avatars, moves, catchphrases, hairstyles and clothing licensed from various properties and celebrities (among other things)…and they’ve already started amassing their list of deals.

Elvis Presley Enterprises. Snoop Dogg. Paris Hilton. Raven Simone. Tila Tequila. Marvel’s The Incredible Hul…wait. Did that say “Paris Hilton“?

Wouldn’t that be a virus risk? (Thank you, thank you…the cheap jokes are the most fun.)

Seriously, I see this targeting the same market that spent over $500 million in 2007 in the United States alone on ringtones, only instead of letting you get something from your favorite artist for your phone, you can get something from your favorite artist, actor or property for your in-world life.

However, one thing I find myself wondering…60 virtual worlds and social media platforms? They have so far dealt mainly with four…Gaia Online, Second Life, Zwinky and Habbo Hotel; admittedly all potential money machines for this kind of thing, but where are the other 54 or so worlds going to come from?

If I’m in EQII and your dark elf says “That’s hot!” while looking like Paris Hilton…you’re going on the gank list. Of course, the possibility of a flying penis in Second Life singing Elvis’ “Love Me Tender” might offset that risk.

Or not, now that I think about it.

Definitely a company (and concept) to watch.

Dear players,

I want to start out with something you probably haven’t given much thought to…I’m a gamer, too. That means that, at some point, I’ve been affected by bad MMORPG launches, game-breaking bugs and nerfs the size of buffalo to my favorite class.

You seem to be under the impression that I’m just some tech guy, totally detached from how my job affects you, and just in it for a paycheck.

I won’t lie to you…there are some developers that are just that. But guess what? They’re not the norm for our line of work, any more than every MMO player is a 133t-speaking asshole. “Dev” doesn’t fill the same space in a sentence as “storm trooper”… interchangeable, uniform and filled with evil intent (or at the least, a blind incompetence).

Developer is my job title, not who I am, dammit.

Yes, I know you’re upset at times with the game I helped make. I understand that you want to have more fun in my game. I realize that the class balancing nerf you’re griping so loudly about is important to you. But guess what? It’s important to me, too.

I take as much pride in building this game as you do in the character you’ve built while playing it.

Do you really think we have a secret “MMORPG developer” branch of the Illuminati, with secret handshakes, code words and a far-reaching plan to make you miserable? If you do, then you’re an idiot. My ability to feed my family depends on being able to do my job well. If I don’t, I could wind up on the “Geek Squad” helping fifty-year-old women fix the “retractable cup holder” on their computer tower. Do I always succeed? No, but then again, no one should be expected to be perfect by their boss or their customers.

Which brings me to another point…so, you pay my salary, eh? Well, in a round-about way, you do. A tiny portion of it. But guess what? If McDonald’s stopped serving hamburgers because a few vegetarians complained loudly enough, they’d be out of business. Therefore, even though they do get those complaints from time to time, and those people make good on their threats and take their business elsewhere, McDonald’s still does things the way that best benefits the majority of their customers, and therefore their business. There’s a lesson in that, and it’s this:

It is impossible for the phrase “the customer is always right” to be accurate in the gaming industry.

For everything that drives you crazy about our game, there’s another paying subscriber that loves it. One wants it to change, or they’ll unsubscribe; the other wants it to stay exactly like it is, or they’ll unsubscribe. Okay, brainiac…which customer is right? Who’s idea of “fun” should I go with? Decide quickly; if you take too long to respond to the poorly-worded forum post, you’re obviously “ignoring the paying customers”. What’s that, you say?

• “But everyone thinks like I do.”
• “Everyone else would love the changes I want.”

Or (my personal favorite):

• “Everyone thinks this sucks! U got 2 l1st3n 2 ur 5ubscr1b3r5…w3 pay ur salary!!11!!!”

All of those are incorrect, and you’re a self-centered jerk if you think otherwise.

• If everyone thought just like you do, we’d still be trying to decide if rocks were edible.
• If I make the changes you want, you’ll be happy and I’ll make someone else unhappy.
• That’s not remotely cool, neat or legible; if you want someone to take you seriously, learn 2 spe11, n00b.

Why is it that you look at console games, arcade games, even single-player computer games, and if you don’t think they’re fun, you just don’t play them? Why isn’t there a Mario forum with Luigi fans screaming that they can’t enjoy the game unless he’s faster? MMORPGs are the only genre’ of game where the attitude exists that the game should be changed to fit what you expect of it.

Of course, it’s also the only genre’ that requires a monthly fee (in some cases), but that’s really no excuse. The same attitude is present in players of free-to-play MMORPGs, too.