Author: Admin

Neverwinter Still Addressing Level Grind


neverwinter_scourge_warlock_071414_3_wm

Despite its advances over the past months, Perfect World Entertainment is still working on balancing the level 60-70 experience in Neverwinter to be less of a grind. Today’s update on the official blog focuses on the Elemental Evil campaign quests:

We’ve been analyzing the current state of content from 60-70 and we agreed with the sentiment that it felt too grindy compared to the 1-60 experience. We knew we had to do something to improve the experience, but the big question was, how? We had to be very careful how we changed the experience, because it’s a massive task and affects existing players.

The plan of action goes as such: Elemental Evil was introduced as a retroactive quest, one that players could start at level 60 and use as an alternate form of leveling. Rather than having the campaign use repeatable quests, players will run through the campaign once. In fact, vigilance quests are leaving entirely with the only repeatable quests in their respective areas unlocking once the player has completed all four zones.

Neverwinter will have a double experience weekend beginning April 7th and running through the 11th.

(Source: Neverwinter)

Elder Scrolls Online Is “Huge and Thriving”


ESO_ThievesGuild_SneakyBow_1453992808

In celebration of Elder Scrolls Online’s second anniversary, game director Matt Firor has taken to the official website to reminisce on the past two years. In addition to showcasing his own character’s progress since the 2014 launch, Firor also noted that the community is ‘huge and thriving,’ a statement that will no doubt be questioned in the comment section below.

Over the last year, we have grown our family by leaps and bounds. We launched the console versions of ESO, which opened the game up to millions more new players. We added three DLCs’ worth of content, allowing players to explore the Imperial City, Wrothgar, and Hew’s Bane. And we will continue to make the game better every day. Our population is huge and thriving, and we are happy to share our enthusiasm and nostalgia with you.

Cue the demands for hard numbers in three, two, one…

(Source: Elder Scrolls Online)

Black Desert Online Community Votes In Pathing


BlackDesert_Pc_01

Daum has posed a simple question to its players: Would you like it to be possible to auto-path allowing players to level up stats while away from their keyboard?

We wanted to put up a simple poll to get an idea of how many people would like to see the Auto-Path Loop feature added to our version.  For those who have not seen this feature, it allows you to make a series of marks on the map that create a green pathing line, once laid out your character will follow this course repeatedly.  If you do this with a mount you are given the option to auto eat carrots to keep your horses stamina up.  Overall this mechanic allows you to level your breath, strength, and horse while AFK.

So far, 84% of the voters have replied yes, more than two thousand as of this article being published. The proposal has been applauded by many as an alternative to reduce the tedium of training the associated stats, as well as allowing merchants to train horses to higher levels to make them more available on the open market.

(Source: Black Desert Online)

Crowdfunding Fraudsters: Life Is Strange 2


photo-original

Update: And the campaign has been shut down.

2a:  a person who is not what he or she pretends to be :impostor; also:  one who defrauds:cheat

Today’s Crowdfunding Fraudster comes to us from Kickstarter, for Life Is Strange 2. You may be thinking right now, “Connor, Life Is Strange was a completely legitimate game. It was published by Square Enix for crying out loud. How could a crowdfunding effort to make a sequel be fraudulent?”

The answer is simple: This campaign isn’t being run by developer Dontnod Entertainment, nor is it manned by publisher Square Enix. This campaign was started by a fan Scott Ashby, trying to raise twenty thousand dollars to persuade Dontnod to make the sequel a reality. According to the campaign page, there are two options should this be successfully funded: Give the money to Dontnod to fund the sequel or use the money to buy the rights to Life is Strange and hand it over to another developer to make said sequel.

Despite the money going to someone else to create the game, the campaign creator has already made some promises on how the game will be including 16 different endings, a musical mini-game, and other game features. Quite presumptive to think you can raise nowhere near the amount of money that such a game would require to develop, but to also hold said money ransom unless your demands are met. Whoever donates at the $1,000 level will be allowed to write the backstory for Principal Wells with every $1,000 donation after that being allowed to voice a character. Because that’s exactly what you want in a story, character plots that are essentially fanfiction and amateur voice actors.

So obviously the campaign is filled with as much ambition as it is lacking self awareness or a basic understanding of how the gaming industry works. Ashby does not have the rights to the game, is not making anywhere near enough money to buy said rights, can’t compel the developer anyway, and in some distant parallel universe where this campaign had any hope of succeeding, could simply walk away with twenty grand in his pocket and say that at least he tried.

Ultimately the sincerity of the campaign creator is irrelevant to the ultimate outcome: That backers will not see a return on their investment, and fans of the game could be tricked into thinking that this is somehow legitimate. The sooner that this project gets shut down, the better.

(Source: Kickstarter)

In Plain English: Bassett V. Electronic Arts Dismissed


bassett

It’s been over a year since we last checked in on the curious case of Justin Bassett and Electronic Arts, so a brief history may be in order:

Justin Bassett sued Electronic Arts over the company shutting down their game servers even though the games are still available in stores with online play advertised on the box. EA attempted to take the case into arbitration, citing their EULA, and Bassett argued that the arbitration clause was not valid as it was added later on. EA argued that Bassett agreed to the new EULA when he attempted to log into the online servers. Last year, the judge sided with Electronic Arts and threw the case into arbitration.

As I said back then, we will probably never know what the final ruling was as arbitration results are almost always sealed to the public. What we do know is that, as of last month, the case has been dismissed with prejudice.

Plaintiff Justin T. Bassett (“Plaintiff”) and defendant Electronic Arts Inc., the parties to the above-captioned action, stipulate and agree, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(ii), that Plaintiff hereby does and shall voluntarily dismiss the above-captioned action, and all of the claims within it, with prejudice.

What does that mean? Dismissal with prejudice bars Bassett from bringing an action on the same claim in the future.

Defiance Piling On Events This Month


DefianceContinues

Trion Worlds is celebrating three years of Defiance with events aplenty this month. Starting April 1st and going through the 25th, players will be able to engage with the Midsummer Mutiny, Hulker Hell, New Frontier Harvest, Solstice Strike, and Colony Courtship events. Players are also invited to share their memories of the game on social media.

As part of the event, previous elite lockboxes and synergy crates are returning to the game store.

(Source: Defiance)

Daybreak Game Company Already Making Another Game


EverQuestNextLandmark64 2014-02-03 00-23-35-78

You might be under the impression that Daybreak Game Company is facing tough times, given the layoffs, shutting off a large section of its library, and recent cancellation of Everquest Next, but don’t let that fool you: Daybreak is hiring. According to their official website, Daybreak is hiring for an unannounced title and is seeking a senior producer and a creative director.

There aren’t a whole lot of details, but judging from the experience required the game will be action-oriented and launch on PC and consoles. Given their recent history, it is very likely that this title will wind up on sale as an early access title.

(Source: Daybreak Game Company)

Test Wild Terra Free This Week


df0a282c-1d2d-456a-b475-4c8b52085859

Wild Terra is an upcoming MMO where players train and live on a map that generates as they explore, and the developers have opened up testing to everyone for the next week. From March 29th to April 5th, you’ll be able to download the client and give the game a try.

MMO Fallout will have more coverage on Wild Terra coming this week.

(Source: Wild Terra)

Trion Worlds Punishes Impersonation Scam, Community Explodes


ARCHEAGE 2014-10-10 11-55-13-59

Trion Worlds has spent the better part of the past six or so months attempting to slowly detoxify the very virulent community whose actions they have actively coddled and defended as ‘in the spirit of the game,’ and that shift in management has come to a head once again with Trion reversing a trade scam against a high profile streamer during a charity event. The streamer was duped into trading expensive equipment to an imposter account during a charity stream for Doctors Without Borders, after which Trion reversed the trade and banned the imposter account.

Impersonating someone else, even if it’s by name, to separate someone from their hard earned goods is not allowed and has not been allowed in ArcheAge. In the past, there have been situations where a player impersonated another player and, in those situations, our Customer Service team has reversed the outcome of the scam no matter if it was items or gold.

Some of the anger seems to stem from the fact that the impersonation rule, while it has always existed, has admittedly not been publicized and may not even have been properly enforced until this recent incident. The majority of it, however, is coming from the ‘hardcore’ end of the community who view the idea of impersonating another player to defraud someone as fair game, with the usual attitude of ‘the victim deserved it for being stupid.’

We realize that this policy has not been made public in the past, but this high profile incident has made us realize that we need to publicly acknowledge and reinforce our stance on name impersonation within the game. This is not a new policy that was made simply for this stream — this is a policy that we as a company have had for the past year and beyond, and it is a policy that is referenced within our Terms of Use (11. Code of Conduct, Rule A.)

There are numerous false reports circulating that the rule did not exist before this event, and MMO Fallout has been able to confirm via archives of the terms of service that the rule has always been in place. Regardless of certain members of the community using wordplay, unaffiliated rules, and technical trickery as justification, it objectively was not allowed, even with ArcheAge’s lax stance on scams. The rule explicitly forbids creating a character with a name “belonging to another person with the intent to impersonate that person, including without limitation a “Game Master” or any other employee or agent of Trion.”

Still, there is plenty of valid criticism towards Trion Worlds for not bringing this rule to light until it happened to a high profile player, regardless of the fact that it existed prior to this incident.

(Source: ArcheAge)

[Not Massive] Fig’s Crowd Funding Platform Is Fading


medium

Psychonauts 2 raised more than $3 million in crowd funding using a new platform called Fig, one which Double Fine President Tim Schafer serves on the advisory board. More than twenty thousand people pooled their money together to make the sequel to 2005’s Psychonauts a reality, but did the success of a widely anticipated game bring lasting attention to the Fig platform? Judging from the followup campaigns, it doesn’t seem so.

And let’s be fair, Fig is still a very young platform, it still has a life ahead of it to blow up into a big platform for video game crowdfunding. For now, however, the platform is comprised of five campaigns overall. Psychonauts 2 and Outer Wilds were both successful in reaching their goal, however the latter only aimed for $125 grand and beat the mark by one thousand dollars. Anchors in the Drift, the third and last campaign to have ended, missed its goal by a wide margin: Just a fifth of the half a million for a free to play ARPG from the creators of Scribblenauts.

Fig’s other two remaining projects aren’t looking that great. The Rock Band 4 PC port, for which Harmonix wants $1.5 million up front, has ten days to go and just scratched half a million dollars. The other campaign, a video game based on the Jay & Silent Bob characters from film creator Kevin Smith, may see itself become the platform’s third successful campaign if it raises fifty grand in the next five days.

With the success of Kickstarter and Indiegogo, all sorts of third party groups are coming out of the woodwork with their own short-lived crowdfunding platforms, and if Fig wants to continue off of its early successes, it will need to keep the momentum going.