Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Moderately-entertaining free multiplayer-only browser-based Diablo ‘em up Drakensang Online is going to expand before Christmas. Bigpoint have told us that “The NORLANDE expansion update is bringing several new quests, more than a dozen new levels, numerous monsters and champions, new bosses, and new character items and equipment to the game.” More importantly, there’s now some additional class variety with Rangers. These chaps are “agile archers, but also pack a punch.” According to the info “The Rangers will be accompanied by a whole new skill system that makes skills easier and better to use”. This is, apparently, part of increasing the currently limited skill sets for all characters, and making the game’s customisation have a bit more depth. So that’s good!

If you want a single reason why the free-to-play market seems to so attractive to the people interested in making money from games, then take a look at this craziness: Gamesbrief have run a story claiming that Bigpoint’s DarkOrbit game has sold two thousand €1,000 “drones”, which are virtual items that help players in combat. The article explains: “There are different levels of drone ranking up to the 10th Drone. The 10th Drone – also called the Zeus Drone – is very rare – you need to have all 9 previous drones and collect blueprints to make it in the game. Earlier this month, on a total of four separate days, Bigpoint made it possible to buy a 10th Drone for €1,000.” And such is the popularity of the game, that quite a large number of people were willing to buy it. Or at least that’s what publishers Bigpoint claim. Are you one of those people who spent that much? Speak up! And also lend us a fiver.

(Unrelated, does anyone want to buy our mysterious The Tenth Blog Post? We’ll make it available next week for £79,000? Anyone? You won’t even have had to read previous RPS posts!)

Speaking to Edge, a CGO of bigshot F2P company Bigpoint, Philip Reisberger, has hit out at big publishers trying to get into the free-to-play arena, taking a shot at Valve as he did so: “There are millions, hundreds of millions of people willing to invest even though they aren’t obliged to. The crucial part of the design is not having to invest, but wanting to. Most people in the Bigpoint universe don’t ever pay. But if they want to pay, don’t just offer hats – offer them something that will help them.” Reisberger believes that players should be allowed to pay for a competitive advantage: “If selling an advantage ruins the game, you haven’t done the balancing right,” he said. “EA and Ubisoft, for example, they’re both trying, but they’re not really there yet.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by other F2P companies I’ve spoken to: they’re generally unimpressed with the efforts of more traditional firms to get into the market. Are they worried? Maybe. But I sense there’s also an element of envy there – companies like Valve and EA are using their existing reach to bring F2P options to gamers who might not previously have considered it. Not that Reisberger will be worried, Bigpoint gets 250k new signs ups every day.

The men of Bigpoint send word that their Diablo-like MMO based on the Drakensang games (ish) has entered the open phase of its beta activities. I had a moderate amount of fun with it when I played in the closed beta – you can read my account here – and reports are that it’s developed a fair bit since then. You can sign up for it here. There’s also a lovely trailer to tie up this post with a bow, below.
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For the past couple of days I’ve been filling idle moments by dabbling in the Drakensang Online beta. Let me just state, for those of you who have been attracted to this article by the Drakensang name in the header, that this has little to do with the original Germanically twee-ruggedness of the Drakensang RPGs. It captures a little of their art-style, perhaps, but this is a very light Diablo-like MMO with seriously low specs. It’s a beast whacker, a loot gatherer, a quest-runner, an inventory… inventorer? You know the sort of thing. That’s not to say it’s a bad game, especially for free, which it will be. It’s also rather clever with its browser-based tech, with one of the best web-players I’ve seen outside of Unity. Some more thoughts (and a trailer) on all this below.

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The chaps over at Bigpoint send word that their latest online RPG, the rather beautiful-looking Drakensang Online (based on the German single-player RPG series’ “Anderworld” setting – is that right? Not The Dark Eye stuff, anyway…) is now taking beta applications. Go and hit the “Play Now For Free” button on their site to bring up the registration form. Word is that you’ll hear back any time from today if your application is successful. For firm evidence of the game’s pretties, go and take a look at the trailer, which I’ve embedded below. It’s got a splendid Diablo-y look to it, so I hope the game lives up to these initial glances. We’ll have some more on it soon!
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EA Phenomic’s project with German developer Bigpoint, Lord Of Ultima, has launched, freed from beta. It’s a browser-based MMO RTS, which boasts will continue changing your territory while you’re logged out. It’s got Ultima in the title. I’m not clear why.

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Battlestar Galactica (the original) is famous for owing a debt or two, or three, or four, or five, or six, or seven to Star Wars – cheekily dashing to cinemas before Lucas’ could sequelise his space opera. The tables have turned this time around though, with Battlestar Galactica (new version) Online getting, well, online before Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic does.

Today, in fact. You can join the human vs Cylon war for free, and quicker than you can say “by your command.”
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Via Blues I spot that there is finally a smidgeon of Battlestar Galactica Online footage for us to point at and exchange worried comments as it approaches. Some space combat, some lumpy-lookin’ people. But which one is the cyclon? It’s the one in the metal suit, you fool, run! And so on.

You can sign up for the beta on the main site.
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This is interesting. Bigpoint send word that the moderately popular German RPG Drakensang will be reappearing as free-to-play online RPG. Apparently it’s going to feature top end 3D graphics in a browser, too. Bigpoint tell us that “The in-house developed Nebula engine – which was used in the development of the PC versions of Drakensang – makes it possible to play the game in a browser without players needing to install any software onto their computer.” The site isn’t fully up yet, just this German-language email registration page.

I’ve posted the brief teaser trailer below, and it’s got a bit of in-game footage in there. Not looking bad at all, although it’s set more at a Diablo sort of angle than the last Drakensang game. Go take a look.
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That being the official Battlestar Galactica MMO, rather than the spangly space-shooter we posted about last week. BSG Online is a free to play browser thingy created by Bigpoint, a German firm who’ve made a mountain of cash making a slew of browser MMOs in the past. I suspect standard behaviour from many quarters is to sneer at the very concept of free to play and browser-based, but I get the sense there’s quite a lot of money/effort going into this one. That doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily be the BSG game we’re crying out for, of course, but it also doesn’t mean this’ll be a shoddy cash grab either. One way to find out: sign yourself up to yonder beta. Closed at the moment, but taking on new sign ups all the time, and due to go open in December. Go!