RaiderZ is actually a fairly good game

It’ll be my review this week, the closed beta test has been ongoing and I got in as soon as it splashed down.

Needless to say, it’s pretty well built, and fun; although I can see the enchantment wearing thin very soon.

That is all.

Star Trek Online and the Social Implications of Becoming Free-to-Play

It’s time for a new MMO Anthropology about Star Trek Online, developed by Cryptic Studios and now published by Perfect World Entertainment—it is a game in transition from pay-to-play to free-to-play.

As an originally pay-to-play MMO, Star Trek Online contains a great deal of content and an amazing eye to detail. Although, it is still buggy as all hell and sometimes those bugs really interfere with gameplay.

In this article, a discussion is brought forward about how going free-to-play will effect change to the communities present especially as players who used to pay a subscription find themselves amid players who do not. With pay-to-play communities there is a sense of risk and sunk cost to playing whereas with free-to-play it’s all about who buys what.

Star Trek Online is trying to alleviate this by making it about level-of-service as well as having cash-only ships (although they can also be had by free-to-play players by using an exchange system that allows trading reward-currency for pay-currency.)

Just see the essay for more, or watch the video for the summary.

Link, via MMO Anthropology and YouTube.

GameOgre: Forsaken World First Impressions

Just got this published over at the new GameOgre video game review blog and I’d like everyone to check it out. Forsaken World by Perfect World Entertainment is a free-to-play MMO video game with a fantasy bent. I got into the game and ran around a little and came back out relatively unscathed.

If you happen to play, please give me a peep in the comments section; even if you don’t let me know what you think of the game from my review and if you’re interested in trying it out.

Link, via GameOgre.