Shroud of the Avatar is officially in the phase of launch where the game isn’t officially released but the cash shop has been open for a while and characters are no longer being wiped, or sufficient enough to review as we like to think of it. Following yesterday’s telethon, the Portalarium crew managed to rake in over $130,000 in pledges. Richard Garriott referred to the funding drive as the “best single day ever.”
Now that the servers are finally open, Portalarium’s royalty (those who pledged thousands of dollars) will be able to pick their housing spots first. Those of you whose pledges include deeds will be able to see your time slot for claiming land on your account page.
Since Shroud of the Avatar is officially (soft) launched, stay tuned for more content coverage on MMO Fallout.
Runefest, the convention of all things Jagex hosting in London, is coming fast: September 17th. As Jagex prepares to discuss upcoming updates to RuneScape, Chronicles, and their other products, the Cambridge-based developer wants players to be aware that tickets are selling out in record time. Events at Runefest include cosplay parades, challenges, Q&A sessions, a meet and greet, and more.
“We can’t wait to meet up with our fellow ‘Scapers at RuneFest 2016 as they join us for an intrepid celebration as RuneScape pushes new horizons. We’ll be showcasing the new frontiers of the Eastern Isles and announce some of new content heading to RuneScape in the year ahead,” said David Osborne, lead designer, RuneScape. “We’ll also be unveiling our plans for other games in the family, including Old School RuneScape and its ever growing popularity in the eSports sector, mobile versions ofChronicle: RuneScape Legends, and the upcoming 0.5-player game, RuneScape: Idle Adventures.”
More information about Runefest can be found here.
When is a Chinese cashmere seller relevant to the gaming industry? When they hold 30% equity in one of the developers. L&A International Holdings Ltd is not only a mouthful, a few months ago they traded for 30.6% equity interest in Red 5, developer of the ever-struggling MMO Firefall. If you’re interested in buying stocks in L&A International, you can’t. The company has been suspended from the Hong Kong stock exchange and its stock is effectively worthless.
At the request of L&A International Holdings Limited (the ‘‘Company’’), trading in the shares of the Company on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited has been halted from 1:14 p.m. on Friday, 22 July 2016 pending the release of an announcement in relation to inside information.
Shares for L&A International Holdings Ltd had dropped to .02 HKD, or slightly over a quarter of a penny USD. L&A International plans on placing more shares in the coming days. The news of their hardship precedes this week’s news that Red5 Studios appears to have undergone another round of layoffs. Community manager FadedPez posted the following on this Twitter:
So I'm no longer with Red5 as of today, no goodbye post but may solo stream later
Firefall’s last update was in May, and the game appears to be bleeding users at a steadily increasing rate over the last four months or so. Looking at its troubled past, it only seems to be a matter of time before the team (what is left of them) throw in the towel.
Sorry to hear about all the people left at Red 5 Studios getting let go. If you have job openings, be sure to reach out.
Players in Neverwinter on PS4 are finding that logging out in certain areas causes the game to break, freezing upon re-entry with no fix in sight (including reinstalling the game from scratch). The problem, it appears, is not on the client’s end but on the server’s side.
The issue hasn’t been fixed yet, but there is a quick fix that will get the game working for you.
On certain occasions, loading out of Helm’s Hold, Vellosk and a few other maps, and then logging back in will result in the game freezing on the loading screen. To work around this issue, log into an alternate character, then switch back. You may also submit a ticket to our support at support.arcgames.com.
If you’ve experienced this bug in Neverwinter, did this fix work? Let us know in the comments below.
Trion Worlds has announced that the recently implemented auction house in Defiance is being removed, citing an inability to fix server issues that the update brought about. Players will no longer be able to place auctions on the exchange beginning today (July 25th) and the feature as a whole will be completely removed within a few weeks.
As you know, we’ve been working hard to review and implement fixes. However, several challenges remain that must be resolved for the sake of the game, which include preventing players from using third party programs to inject currency into the game, maintaining a stable game environment, and fixing any issues that prevent players from logging in to the game. Removing the Exchange helps solve all of these challenges.
There are no plans to bring back the exchange in the future.
Heroes & Generals developer Reto-Moto is celebrating eight million registered players today as the flagship WW2 MMO celebrates its second anniversary. Initially launched in 2014, Heroes & Generals has been updated countless times in its tenure of early access.
“Two years ago we were one of the first 10 games to be greenlit by the community on Steam – that was an important event for the company and the game,” says Martin Pollas. “Being on Steam has been instrumental in growing the player base and strengthening our very engaged community. We look forward to keep on improving the game and bringing more content to players.”
Over the past year, the game has been updated with new weapons, vehicles, tanks, uniforms, and more. In that time, Reto-Moto has implemented more than twelve thousand tweaks and squashed more than three thousand bugs.
It is July 22nd, and that means it is the anniversary of MMO Fallout’s establishment back in 2009. Yes, this website has been running for seven years. The first article didn’t go up for nearly a week later, as I was still figuring out how to run down my other website, but July 22nd was the day that I established the MMO Fallout name.
It’s time for stats.
Views in 2009: 9,000
Views in 2015: 100,000
Views so far in 2016: 120,000
All time views: 587,000
Spam blocked: 1,140,000 comments
Malicious logins blocked: 73,000
Articles: 3,741
Most frequent commenter: Wilhelm Arcturus
Most popular search term: Guild Wars 2
Biggest referrer: Search engines
In case you haven’t been able to tell, the past few months have been the result of an effort of mine to focus on improving the level of content available on this website. Remember those videos I promised way back in 2009? They’re becoming more regular. I won’t promise anything, but that podcast I talked about in 2010 might be in the works as well.
It goes without saying that sending death threats for any reason is generally a bad idea. You don’t accomplish anything, you waste everyone’s time, and as one Sacramento man found out, it can get you arrested.
Stephen Cebula, 28, is facing criminal charges over death threats that he allegedly sent to Blizzard’s offices, threatening to show up with an AK47 and “cause a disturbance.”
According to court documents, between July 2, 2016, and July 3, 2016, Cebula transmitted messages over the internet to Blizzard Entertainment, in which he stated that he “may or may not pay [Blizzard] a visit with an AK47 amongst some other ‘fun’ tools,” and “might be inclined to ‘cause a disturbance’ at [Blizzard’s] headquarters in California with an AK47 and a few other ‘opportunistic tools.’”
If convicted, Cebula faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The defendant is, naturally, presumed innocent until proven guilty.
I’ve been meaning to start this column for quite a while now, and finally got around to figuring out what I wanted to call it. Gems in the Greenlight Gutter is a series of pieces I have planned looking at games that pop up in the Steam Greenlight list, with a twist.
Rather than looking at the bad games, as has become easy content fodder from various websites (including my own), I’m going to focus on those that showed promise. This is specifically dedicated to games that have been removed from Greenlight, as in pulled by the developer or refused approval by Valve.
Before anyone asks, there are no links to these games because they have been removed from Greenlight. Their pages no longer exist.
1. Recession
I like Recession because the concept of the game is ridiculously unbelievable. The idea of the game is simple, it appears to be a cross between Evolve and Payday 2 where four players take on the role of robbers going around doing robber things while one player plays the heavily armed cop who gets sent out to stop them because the cops can only afford to send out one guy at a time.
Recession is an amazing concept and a reminder that the Unity engine is capable of more than just releasing asset flips. This is one of those games that I really hope sees its way to completion and finds its way back on Steam.
2. Stellar
Stellar could be the modern day reboot of Asteroids, bringing very simple gameplay to a more fast paced modern audience. The fact that you seemingly can’t slow down or stop your craft forces the player to constantly be thinking on their toes.
Forget Steam Greenlight, the developers of Stellar should be trying to put this on actual arcade machines to stick in bars.
3. Running Clones
It is far too easy to dismiss Running Clones as a Thomas Was Alone clone based on the similar graphical style, but after watching the trailer I have to say this looks like a very inventive game. The whole concept revolves around freezing clones of your character to use as stepping stones in completing puzzles. It is a pretty unique idea and, once again, the minimalist design works perfectly in context.
4. ReBound
ReBound is a minimalist puzzle game where the player places arrows to guide his piece and collect all of the things on each level. Judging by the levels shown in the trailer, the game gets pretty complicated and requires a lot of forethought and presumably trial and error in order to complete.
5. Staccato
I’d like to use Staccato as an example for the Digital Homicides of the world, just to show you the difference between uninspired Unity asset flips and a game that are made with creativity. Staccato is proof that critics have no issue with games using Unity assets, they are there for programmers who can’t hire artists.
But instead of making some lazy hack and slash, Staccato is a rhythm game that allows the player to insert their own music. An Audiosurf clone, yes, but one that has a unique feel to it. If this game popped up on Steam for $5, I’d buy it hands down.
6. Pongara
Want to know the easiest way into any gamer’s heart? Nostalgia. Putting a new twist on an old concept is the new form of porting Doom to a calculator, and people (especially gamers) suck up nostalgia like it’s going out of style.
But to be completely serious, Pongara looks like an awesome concept. Seemingly not content with just creating Pong and adding a few gimmicks to it, the creator has gone as far as throwing all kinds of new game modes around what is a very simple premise.
MMO Fallout 