Author: Admin

Rant: Blizzard Robs Hearthstone Player Of Winnings To Appease China


Another day, another Activision subsidiary acting in a heartless, sociopathic manner.

The Hearthstone 2019 Grandmasters took place this week, and very likely the only thing the public will remember of it once all is said and done is that Blizzard once again kowtowed to an abusive dictatorship because that sweet, sweet cash is just to hard to pass up. Oh and depending on who you ask the Chinese public is one of the only things keeping the dreadful Overwatch League capable of presenting any numbers to rake in those sign on fees.

In case you’ve been living under a rock or more likely sleeping for these past six or seven hours, Blizzard is taking some blows to the noggin after how they handled one of their competitors in the Hearthstone Grandmasters. Pro player Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai went on an interview in which he shouted “Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution of our age!” In case you’ve really been living under a rock, feel free to peruse this BBC summary of the last few months.

Blizzard’s response was to immediately act like the regime it bowed to and take out not only blitzchung but any witnesses within reach. The company released a statement that not only has Blitzchung been removed from the Grandmasters and banned for one year, but that his winnings will be forfeited for offending the dear leaders of China, and as the only other people on screen at the time of the statement, the two hosts would be fired as well.

“Effective immediately, Blitzchung is removed from Grandmasters and will receive no prizing for Grandmasters Season 2. Additionally, Blitzchung is ineligible to participate in Hearthstone esports for 12 months beginning from Oct. 5th, 2019 and extending to Oct. 5th, 2020. We will also immediately cease working with both casters.”

Yea, the guys who dove under the table to hide from the comments? They need to be punished for their…crimes. Blizzard justifies the firing by pointing to this provision of their player agreement, and sure. Why not. They also zapped the VOD from their website so people (read: China) might not hear the offending words.

Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player’s prize total to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard’s Website Terms. 

Is Blizzard within their legal right to fire the player? I’ll give a 99% vote of confidence that yes if brought before a court that Blizzard would come out victorious. Obviously the company knows that their decision won’t go down well considering Tencent owns a stake in Activision and this isn’t the first time Blizzard has flushed its integrity down the toilet to appease a violent dictatorship. They have completely silenced any direct response to the article. This hasn’t stopped the Hearthstone Reddit from blowing up in anger and announcing that they are quitting the game.

I’d like to leave Blizzard with a thought, like Andy Rooney might. The world will move on but in three weeks you will be hosting Blizzcon. If you thought your employees shouting “do you not have phones” was embarrassing, just wait until people get up to that microphone and start grilling them on the really tough questions.

Oh and to the game bloggers who might be drafting up those articles to put up a defensive wall around Blizzard and China. You’re being watched.

Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter.

RuneScape and Old School Announce Updates At Runefest


This past weekend was Runefest and that means big updates coming for both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape.

First up the big news is that RuneScape is getting a new skill. Archaeology will see players digging up fossils and all sorts of relics and powerful objects that have been lost to time. Archaeology is set to hit in January 2020. Second up on the list is an update to player owned farms, bringing animal husbandry to the land out of time where players will be able to raise, trade, and breed dinosaurs. The ranch will be available by the end of the year. Third up is a series of questlines and lore set to hit RuneScape sometime in 2020.

RuneScape Mobile will go live for all members in early access for all members this year along with an overhauled interface to really put that phone to use.

Over on the Old School side, the Morytania expansion will see more of the vampire world being opened up to players including new quests and the ultimate showdown against the big baddie Lord Drakan himself. The Morytania expansion hits in early 2020. Before then, players will be able to take part in seasonal leagues starting in November 14. These temporary leagues will see players tackling ironman content on the continent of Zeah in return for rewards in the main game.

Phil Mansell, Jagex CEO, was quoted:

“Revealing and sharing our plans for future content is always exciting and this year’s keynotes brought blockbuster news, including our headline new Archaeology skill in RuneScape, Early Access coming to RuneScape Mobile, and Old School’s new Morytania Expansion. The announcements showcase our ongoing commitment to creating significant and meaningful content for RuneScape and Old School, and it was truly rewarding to see the reaction from our players in person and on the live stream.”

Source: Jagex press release

Editorial: Writers Guild Holds Game Award Hostage, Nobody Cares


The Writers Guild of America has decided to take the video game award portion of its show hostage, and who the hell cares?

In case you weren’t aware, the Writers Guild of America has a video game category of its award show that shows the respect and acknowledgement to great writers in the industry and frankly I can’t finish this sentence with a straight face. In reality, the video game portion of the Writers Guild award show is about as fair as the annual “Hideo Kojima is my best friend” award that Geoff Keighley hands out at The Game Awards every year. Take a gander back at the last ten years of the WGA awards show and you’ll see a common name pop up: Sony.

Yea, Sony and a small handful of other developers are the only people who qualify to be considered for a WG award because to be considered you have to be a Writers Guild writer, and since Sony is generally the only competent writer in the bunch, they have won roughly eight years out of the last ten. After all the Writers Guild Awards is all about recognizing talent, and that means telling those subhumans who don’t pay union dues to take a hike and go [expletive deleted] themselves. Oh and you folks who want to be in the union, good luck getting any representation or respect from your union leaders.

What has the Writers Guild done for video game writers? Two things: Jack and squat. The Writers Guild does not do anything on behalf of video game writers except demand those monthly checks, and furthermore doesn’t even allow them to vote as a full member of the guild because video games aren’t real writing in their eyes. What the Writers Guild wants is dues. They want more dues, and they are holding an award hostage that 99% of the gaming industry doesn’t care about hosted by an organization that many developers/publishers don’t respect, until it gets more cash money. As stated to USGamer:

“There won’t be a Videogame Writing Award in 2020; however, the category will be reinstated when there is a critical mass of videogames covered by the WGA in order to provide a meaningful award selection process.”

Translation: We’re not getting bribed enough to show a paltry amount of attention and hand an award out once a year.

It might seem like I’m angry about the whole ordeal, but I’m not. If anything this move will lose the Writers Guild what few video game centric writers that they have, whose only reason for staying in the union is because that’s what made them eligible for the award. Hell, maybe more of them will realize what a gigantic waste their union dues have been and they’ll make sure to warn other writers not to funnel money into a protection racket.

The Writers Guild is angry that the video game industry is massive, bigger than television and film combined. Not only is it massive, but because the unions ignored the industry during its early formative days as inconsequential trash, it is now too big for the union to put their boot over its neck and demand a ransom. There are hundreds of other game awards that have more prestige, respect, and attention than the Writers Guild. I’m confident that few outside of Sony’s studios care much to check in on the Writers Guild submitting its latest “Sony’s check cleared” award.

Hell even Sony barely seems to care. I took a gander at the websites and press releases for the games that won awards, and good luck finding Sony flaunting their Writers Guild award in promo material. Given the flurry of incoming referrals I see on a weekly basis, MMO Fallout’s editorials have more acknowledgement in the gaming industry than a Writers Guild award.

The Writers Guild pulling out its video game award is like a Twitch streamer who averages three viewers announcing he’ll no longer be streaming because Twitch doesn’t acknowledge its biggest supporters. Nobody. Cares.

Runefest 2019: Jagex To Discuss New Skill (Archaeology) Today (10/5)


This weekend kicked off Runefest, Jagex’s festival to all things RuneScape. If you want to see some cosplay, buy some merch, and play RuneScape with other people who also enjoy RuneScape enough to fly to England and buy a ticket to a weekend convention, you’ve come to the right place.

Among the upcoming content to be discussed, Jagex threw down the gauntlet in the wee hours of the morning by announcing RuneScape’s next skill: Archaeology. The skill will be discussed more at 17:00 BST (16:00 game time, noon EST) at the RuneScape Twitch account. Tune in 10/5, that’s October 5 for those of you living in the states and May 10 for those living in Europe.

Check it out.

Planetside Arena Already Adjusting For Low Population Matches


Planetside Arena Squads mode can handle up to 300 people per match, but at the rate the game is going Daybreak Game Company can only hope that the entire population of the game hits half that number. In the few weeks since the Planetside battle royale spinoff launched, the game’s population has plummeted and is continuing to drop. As a result, players are finding themselves in a massive arena built for 1,000 with not a lot of things to shoot at.

Thankfully Daybreak is on the case. This week’s update has brought with it changes to how the pain field works and where players drop in low population matches:

In order to escalate squad engagement more quickly during low-population times, we’ve made several adjustments to the location Squads drop in and pain field behavior. During lower population matches, Squads will deploy closer to the initial safe zone and in proximity to other Squads.  In addition, depending on match population thresholds being met, the time between phases and speed at which the pain field moves will vary – the lower the population, the shorter the wait times between phases and faster the pain field migration.

More update details on the official website.

Mike O’Brien Leaves ArenaNet


Mike O’Brien has announced today that he is departing ArenaNet to create a new startup studio. The notice was given via the official Guild Wars 2 website with Mike stating that he wishes to “go back to the beginning and make small games again.”

We couldn’t have known then the extent of the journey we were embarking on or all the wonderful and talented people who would join us along the way. For the past two decades we’ve gotten to work with brilliant developers and advisors, we’ve enjoyed an amazing relationship with the Guild Wars community, and were able to pursue the games of our dreams.
I’ve appreciated every moment of it. But the time has come for me to take a step back. Next week I’ll join some of my friends in forming a new studio. We’ll go back to the beginning and make small games again.

O’Brien is one of the original founders of ArenaNet after leaving Blizzard in 1999, and has held a few titles on Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 over the years. His announcement can be found at the official website.

Source: ArenaNet

Destiny 2 Explodes On Steam, Six Figure Traffic


This may come as a massive surprise, but Destiny 2 has launched on Steam alongside its free to play update and players are flocking to the game in droves. The PC servers have attained over 220,000 peak concurrency in the past couple of days and people seem to be pretty happy.

Current review scores for Destiny 2 put the game at a 75% “mostly positive” rating with a lot of the negative feedback surrounding players whose characters didn’t transfer over properly or people who have a problem with Bungie’s changes to characters (everyone starts out at 750 power now). Destiny 2 is currently #12 on the Xbox most played list and is no doubt doing just as well on PS4 if not better.

[Mobility] X-Men Update Comes To Marvel Future Fight


Netmarble today issued an update to the super hero mobile game Marvel Future Fight that unlocks the potential functionality for Magik and adds in all new X-Men Phoenix Five uniforms for Magik and Namor.

The update also includes a 40% discount on all uniforms from October 1 through 7. From October 1 through 9, agents can participate in the X-Men vs. Inhumans faction battle where players actions on the field add points to their faction to determine who wins and loses. Rewards including Colossus will be sent based on ranking and participation.

For more details, check out the official website.

[Video] Black Desert (Xbox) Gets Tamer Class


Black Desert on Xbox One just got handed a big new update as Pearl Abyss releases the Tamer class.

The Tamer makes her way to Black Desert. Accompanied by her legendary beast Heilang, the tamer wields a Shortsword and a Trinket to demolish her enemies. Those who are still standing once the tamer unleashes her attacks, are instantly met with the teeth of Heilang. Let’s find out more about the Tamer!

More information on the tamer class can be found at the official website.

[Rant] Mobility: Mario Kart Tour Is Nintendo’s Latest Foray Into Childhood Gambling


Mario Kart Tour has picked probably the worst week to launch in the history of the septic tank that is mobile gaming.

This prior week of September 22 of 2019 the year of our lord, has gifted mobile gamers with something many of us could only dream of. Both iOS and Android users were treated this past week to the respective launch of Apple Arcade as well as the Google Play Pass, and in both cases users are still on their free trial. The services offer access to hundreds of games combined, in Apple’s case exclusive titles, free of microtransactions and predatory mobile shenanigans, and for what it’s worth high quality games for the mobile platform.

Then Nintendo sauntered in with Mario Kart Tour like a man with no self-awareness walking into a feminist AA meeting donning his unclean wife-beater, carrying a Pabst, blowing a big fart and then asking which one of the lovely ladies would like to take him home and make him a sandwich. Mario Kart Tour is a depressing game to look at, not only because it is a low-quality facsimile of the real thing but because of the knowledge that mobile expectations of workmanship are so low that people will eat up the shoddy, low-effort design and spit out lots of moolah into Nintendo’s open pockets despite the readily available, higher quality, also portable version of Mario Kart being a step away.

Mario Kart Tour isn’t here to give you an enjoyable experience, that is literally not what it was made for. It has one goal and makes that very clear from the opening second of the game: Money and gambling. Lots of money and lots of gambling, especially for you children. The first thing you do in the game is “fire the cannon,” which is Nintendo’s kid friendly way of saying “open this loot box you [expletive deleted].” You open a loot box to determine your first character. You open a loot box after your first race. After three races and a short tutorial, what do you do? Open a loot box. And the game doesn’t let you drift away from the loot boxes either. In typical mobile tutorial fashion, it will lock every other section of the game until you relent because dammit you’re going to gamble and you’re going to like it. Otherwise you’re going to have no game, you indescribably cheap cretin.

There are 20 characters at the moment in Mario Kart Tour and you’ll need to unlock them one by one using (you guessed it) loot boxes. Odds of unlocking characters varies from the “normal” 5% to the “super” .26%. Yea, if you wanted to play as any of the standard racers like Mario, Peach, DK, Toad, Bowser, etc, you’ll be looking at 1% odds on the loot boxes. Because this game isn’t about fun, it’s about maximizing profits off of FOMO, compulsive collectors, and children with mom’s credit card. The same goes for your cart and the umbrella, which also unlock via loot box and have non-cosmetic effects like giving you more items per box or increasing your combo boosts. If you wanted to know why Dry Bowser has a .2% chance of unlocking, see how many levels choosing him as a character nets you bonus items.

Nintendo has also already started dabbling in time-limited loot box drops. Tomorrow (10/2) is the last day to get Pauline, her yellow taxi, and fare flier cart piece. Each one has a 1% chance of dropping in loot boxes. It will absolutely not be in the next limited loot box. It may be available at some point in the future, then again it may not. If it does reappear, it may have a higher chance of dropping and it may have a lower chance. Nintendo will never tell, because shut up and buy more currency.

Rarer goods also grant more opening bonus points, and others just straight up grant you 2x and 3x combo points. That’s important because Mario Kart Tour is less concerned with your place and more concerned with your points. Grab up those hot racers and vehicles and you’re basically a good way to a perfect five star rating before the map even begins.

Mario Kart Tour is deceptive from head to toe. First of all the game tricks you into thinking that you are playing against other people. You aren’t, the online mode isn’t in the game yet to play multiplayer matches with people around the world. You’ll kinda figure this out on your own pretty early, but Nintendo went to some lengths to hide the fact that you are playing solo. For starters every other racer has a genuine Nintendo usernames (a lot of Japanese letters). When you launch a map it actually goes through the process of mock filling up a lobby. As a result, you’re often needlessly put together in matches with many duplicate characters. I can understand that online, but in single player? What a joke.

Matches now consist of two laps instead of the Mario Kart industry standard three, presumably because some cynical boardroom meeting looked at cynically collected data and cynically suggested that two laps was the perfect amount of time to keep mobile gamers’ attention and three laps was just way too long.

You might be thinking the same thing that I did when you read “Mario Kart Tour” and “mobile game,” and that’s “haha I bet this game plays itself.” It does. By golly it does. Mario Kart Tour has auto-acceleration and auto-turning. I have set my phone down and came back to find that my character almost always made it in the top 3. It’s fine, the controls in this game are rotten garbage anyway. I can’t count how many times I saw my cart drifting sideways in defiance of most laws of gravity. It’s like your car is being pulled on an invisible rope behind and invisible car. It never feels like you are actually in control, more like an invisible hand gesturing the racer toward more gold coins.

Then you have the membership, which is why I brought up the Apple Arcade information earlier. Mario Kart Tour wants you to pay $5 per month for its membership, the same cost that will get you access to hundreds of better quality games. What do you get for your $5 gold pass? You get extra rewards from racing in tours, you get extra badges from gold challenges, and you get access to 200cc. Yep. 200cc is locked behind a subscription. By the way, I played through a few races on 200cc and didn’t touch the phone screen. I came in fourth nearly every time.

If you’re looking for guidance on whether to spend money on Mario Kart Tour you just need to look at another one of Nintendo’s egregious cash farms: Miitomo. When the news came that Nintendo would be shutting down that gacha game, what was the company’s response? A big middle finger pointing at their no refunds policy. Who doesn’t salivate at the prospect of a Mario Kart game that Nintendo intentionally produced to feel like a crap Chinese knockoff, that you’re expected to lay down more money for than the price of a Switch console, that Nintendo will throw up a big f*ck you and remove access to all of your purchases for once the game no longer rakes in the enormous monthly average revenue they expect? I already have my wallet out but it’s being dropped into the furnace.

I have no trust in Mario Kart Tour. There is a weekly ranked cup that grants rubies depending on your overall score which should offer unlimited replay (keep your score up, be the best guy) but I don’t trust it. I got to #1 rank with no effort on the cup, the other people are just first names (Anna, Jose, Clara). Are they real people? Did I get roped into a group with 20 people who all have first names as their usernames? Does Nintendo hide the usernames and post first names? I don’t know. I don’t think I’d trust Nintendo that these are real people and not just another cog in the bullshot machine if they managed to show me government identification from each player in my crew.

Is anyone in a group where the first place has 13,944 points? Because that’s me. Please tell me you are real.

Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter.