EVE Online contest winners

All of our EVE Online customers were invited to give us feedback and be entered to win a EVE 60 day game code. I want to thank all of you who replied with answers to the questions. Something happened with the email we sent out that was totally unexpected. I had hoped that 10 to 20 people would reply. But Holy Cow! 1650 people replied!

From all of the replies there are some themes of what is needed and wanted by the EVE community. We are still going through all of the data. We will be taking the top 10 most requested items and will do the items that are the easiest to get done that will have the most impact for you. We'll then take the harder items to accomplish and begin work on those. We have already started work on one of the sites and it should be ready to announce within the next 2 to 4 weeks.

I'll be sure to email everyone and post here once the first site is up.

I have asked the winners if we can public more than just some basic information about them. Here is some basic details about each of the winners. If they reply back to me with more information I'll update this.

** Phil Stilber of Sylacauga Alabama USA, frozenphil in game from Goonfleet
** Zackary of Pagosa Springs Colorado USA
** Paul of West Yorkshire United Kingdom
** Robert of Melbourne Victoria Austrailia Eve Name: Bobby Byrde Corp: [ANZA] Alliance: [SCA]
** Andries van der Meulen of Amersfoort Netherlands. Characters: Vassago Qua'ieried (Male Gallente Gallente) Corp: Dark Influence [DARN] and Vassago Telrunya (Male Caldari Achura) Corp: Dark Influence [DARN]



Thanks again to everyone who participated. This was so successful we will do more of these in the future!

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King comes out on the 13th of November. That is this next Thursday. We will have the codes available at Shattered Crystal at Midnight Eastern Time. We have confirmed that we will have the product before the release date so we will have them available in the store.

We will be sending the codes only with these. If you were in the beta then you already have the software. If you do not have the software you will either need to figure out a way to get it or you should not purchase one of our codes if you can not get the software. You should instead purchase a retail copy from your local video game store.

We also have the WoW Battlechest available if you are looking to start a brand new account.

Also of note. You can go to the WoW WotLK item on our store and sign up for an email alert that will go out as soon as the item has been stocked. It's easy to do and our system will send out the emails within a few minutes of us making the codes available.

One last word. We do expect to sell out on release day. We got a hell of a lot of copies but we already know that we have more people wanting them than what we were able to get. So don't wait to get yours as they will go quickly. :)

CONCORD 30 Day Pilot License for EvE Online

CCP has heard the cry of it's players about the removal of the 30 day ETC (EvE Time Code). We had the opportunity to talk with CCP about this new ability to split EvE time codes and sell them or give them to other players. We discuss all of this in the video. Below is a quote from their site.

ETC secure transfers made easier, more accessible and ingame

We‘ve had the secure transfer mechanism for almost 2 years now. Players have been able to exchange their EVE Gametime Codes (ETC) to other players for ISK through the account management pages and now more than 30 thousand players utilizing it on a regular basis.

We felt it was time to move forward with it--do another iteration to make it much easier and accessible exchange ISK for game time. The current situation has a series of flaws with it which we hope to address, while at the same time opening up totally new ground for current and potential EVE players.

With this new approach, you can take your run of the mill ETC code and enter it in-game through the escape menu, converting it into two in-game items called “CONCORD 30 Day Pilot License”. You can then put them directly on to the market or into a contract! This means:

Benefit to you as a player

• Lower barrier of entry for exchanging ETCs. Everybody can do it easily in-game
• ETCs now use a transparent and efficient market, our very own EVE market
• Fights price fixing--one of the single most complained about issues with the current secure exchange
• Opens up for a larger supply, lowering the ISK exchange rate in the long run as anyone can exchange their ETCs more easily
• Enables you to create corporate Contracts for your members in exchange for Pilot Licenses
• Empowers you to recruit new players on trial into your corporations with Pilot Licenses
• Allows you to give someone a “free beer” (I like this part)
• Cramps down on RMTs (Real Money Traders) style with a kill and a smile
• It‘s pure awesome

Benefits to EVE and CCP

• Cramps down on RMTs style with a kill and a smile
• More and better options for you means more of you and your friends are able to play EVE. That means more subscriptions for EVE, meaning more yardwarre and larger EVE expansions
• Provides a 30-day option while addressing our internal issues with the old 30-day ETCs
• Has the potential to increase monetary velocity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_Velocity)

But we are aware of the drawbacks here, such as:

• A larger supply and demand could also increase prices
• Potential immersion breaker, we’re sure you can look past it
• For safety reasons, the Pilot License can‘t leave a station, so you have to create the location you want to exchange it at
• The Pilot License can‘t enter any form of container
• It‘s pure evil

CONCORD 30 Day Pilot License

The 30-day renewable license pioneered by CONCORD is an alternative to its pod pilot contract license. Pilots on this new renewal scheme can purchase license extensions for ISK and thereby forgo the need for a contract altogether.

This item extends your gametime by 30 days when activated. It cannot leave stations but can be traded on the market and through contracts, except via courier.

You might also wonder why it‘s a 30-day license, given our recent move to 60-day ETCs. That‘s quite simple. We needed a single unit which easily mapped to most of our ETCs. While this leaves out the 50 and 100 day ETCs, the rest divide quite nicely with the time-length of the pilot’s license.

We are going to try this out in the next couple of months and see what the results are. You should see this in Quantum Rise or shortly following it. I personally think that it will enable a lot of people to continue to play EVE despite the current world economy and enable others, that could never pay 15 USD in foreign currency but have time to play, to start playing EVE. Like this one time, in Iceland camp, it‘s almost impossible to get foreign currency. 15 USD would buy me a case of beer whereas previously it would get my voracious liver only one.

Giving players a more robust system to exchange game-time for ISK is something we also deem necessary as a result of abuse, exploitation, fraud and hard core companies trying to sell you ISK directly. In the end, this only hurts you the customer and therefore the universe of EVE.

We must continue to battle this and it‘s time for a new strategy. We see what the secure trade of ETCs between players did and we want to investigate ways of making that easier by enable all players to trade amongst themselves directly. If the key to battling RMT is to allow players to casually and securely exchange gametime for ISK, thereby neutralizing RMT companies as a necessary supply, then that is an acceptable, necessary evil.

We ask you, “don‘t hate, participate” in this endeavour.

Source

RuneScape Membership Cards

We've added a new category for RuneScape. Specifically the items added are RuneScape Membership cards. They come in 30 and 90 days. For those who do not know. RuneScape actually has more players that World of Warcraft does. It's a pretty amazing game.

So if you need the membership cards we now have them available.

G1 Credits now at lower prices

We have been working to get the prices down on our G1 Credits we sell for Gamersfirst. We have made the first of two steps in this. All G1 Credits that are 1600 and above are now at normal retail price.

We did previously have a premium added on top making them higher than retail price. We have made adjustments allowing us to lower the price.

Personally I hate selling items at above retail. But in some situations it's required as there is not enough profit in them to cover the costs of selling the items. Our second phase for this will be to get the items that are 1200 credits and below down as well. I'll make another announcement once that happens.

Knight Online added to available games

I'm pleased to say we have started adding Gamersfirst (G1) games. We've added a category for Knight Online and then we also added a category that will cover all of their games for G1 Credits.

We are currently building categories for the other Gamersfirst games and will make announcements when they are fully available.

I also want to add one more item here. the most common question we have been getting lately is how to redeem the credits. Here are the quick steps.

1. Go to the gamersfirst website and log into your account, if you do not have an account, make one and link it to your K2 game account.
2. Click on “Refill” (the orange button near the right hand edge of the screen)
3. Find the correct G1 Credit amount, and click “refill”
4. Choose ESN, enter your code, and enjoy your G1 Credits!

Aeonsoft's Fly For Fun (Flyff)

Shattered Crystal now stocks gPotato's, the virtual currency used in an assortment of free mmos published by Gala-Net. Flyff is one of those games and its exactly how it sounds, you fly for fun. This is apparently a hook for this game as most/all transportation can be done by simply flying around on a broomstick or hover board. Most 3d mmo's offer some form of flight transportation but the player is rarely in control of these sequences. Flyff incorporates the aerial aspect right into its combat system, where any battle can evolve from one-on-one ground battles into mid-air conflicts involving multiple pc's (player characters).

In order to really dig into a game like this you need to make a different sort of investment. Most mmo's reward you for your time, time = reward, everyone is on the same level and the more you play the more powerful you will get. Free mmo's are a bit different in that you are rewarded for purchasing exclusive items with real life cash, money = reward, everyone is on the same level until someone pwns you, then you spend your rent money just so you can upgrade that weapon and return the pwn.

I would say that both options have their frustrations and i can make up an excuse for hating both systems; "ur only better cuz u play all day and night!" or "ur only better cuz you spend your grocery money on swordz!". Either way you cut it, Fly for Fun is actually fun, the ability to soar really minimizes some of the monotony of getting from point A to point B.

Anyone looking for a casual free 3d mmo, check out Flyff's Official Site.

Already have an account and love it? Why not up your game? Buy gPotato's from Shattered Crystal!