News – Page 285 – MMO Fallout

Gamigo Using Negative ArcheAge Reviews To Tease Something New

Gamigo is doing something strange. If you head over to a teaser website that is inexplicably still using the Trion Worlds domain, you’ll find a countdown leading to roughly Monday 8/19 at about 7:40p.m. EST. Since I’m pretty sure that Gamigo isn’t celebrating the end of my court internship, I’m going to assume it’s something related to their games.

The teaser gets even weirder when you read the scrolling testimonials titled “people used to say.” The players are clearly talking about ArcheAge, but even stranger the feedback in a lot of the commentary isn’t positive. It’s actually pretty negative and has to do with the game’s perception as being pay to win or the struggle to find housing.

“The P2W is strong with this one… Really hard to recommend it with something like that weighting down the whole experience.”

“I played when the game first launched. I ended up quitting after a few months because I was unable to build a house.”

“I played this game for about 2 days but gotannoyed that every thing took labor points.”

So clearly this seems to be leading up to an overhaul of some sort with a focus on pleasing the people who quit because the game was too aggressive with its microtransactions and not user friendly in terms of player housing. MassivelyOP noted that earlier this year it was suggested that a monetization overhaul would be coming to the game at some point. Is this that update?

Only time will tell.

Bad Press: Witness One Angry Gamer Content Manager’s Racist Meltdown (Language Warning)

Photographed: Disgraced ex-attorney Jack Thompson and not William Usher.

Today’s Bad Press article is less of an article and more of an image gallery. It comes to us from One Angry Gamer, specifically content manager William Usher (BillyD) having an absolute emotional breakdown over people criticizing the game Star Citizen, of which Billy has personally invested a substantial amount of money for a video game. You can see his true colors come out in the comments below.

Comments were snapshotted by myself to authenticate, and the page has been archived (also by myself) to preserve it on the off-chance that they get deleted. This is one angry gamer, and these comments are certainly not for the faint of heart. It appears that at least one contributor to One Angry Gamer has already quit the website over Usher’s tirade.

Obviously his comments speak only for himself and not for the rest of the OAG staff or its readers.

Steam Cleaning: Valve Now Moderating Workshop Submissions

You may have visited Steam’s workshop in the past and thought to yourself “this Counter Strike section could do with a lot less scam submissions in the workshop.” For those unaware, distributors of unsavory material have been targeting the Steam workshop for years by submitting fake maps with alluring titles offering free skins or free knives, and then linking users to websites that would steal their information.

Dangerous yes, and for those smart enough to not fall for said scam, an absolute annoyance as they were a constant nuisance and ever present. Unfortunately for those rascally scam artists, that era has come to an end.

Valve this week has updated the process with which workshop items are approved, and now new submissions must be approved manually by Valve staff before they are publicly visible. The same goes for any updates to existing workshop items. For its part, Valve is promising speedy approval with most submissions being approved within a day.

“Newly submitted and updated items will be placed into a moderation queue. You’ll be able view and edit the content during this process, but other players will not be able to view changes until they’re approved. For updates to existing items, subscribers will have access to the previously approved version if there is one. The approval process should be completed in less than a day. If you have any questions on the process, please contact Steam Support“

The news specifically mentions that this change is targeting scams and account theft through the workshop, so it is unlikely that Valve is policing any content other than weeding out the fake giveaways.

Source: Steam

IPE Update: Trion Worlds Lawsuit Coming To A Close As Parties Agree On Settlement

(Update 8/10/19: Included some background information on the case for those who might not be as familiar)

It’s finally over, folks. After nearly four years in court, the Trion Worlds lawsuit may finally be reaching its final days.

Earlier this month in the superior court of San Mateo, California, dockets have been submitted to the court offering notice that the parties involved in the lawsuit have agreed in principle to settle the case. According to court filings, the terms of the settlement have not yet been documented, but will be coming in the near future.

It is also worth noting that payment for the settlement will come from Navigators Insurance Company, the insurer for Trion Worlds, and Trion Worlds will be dismissed from liability for the claims.

Plaintiffs and Navigators Insurance Company, the insurer for the officers and directors of Defendant Trion Worlds, Inc., have reached an agreement in principle to settle this case on class wide basis. The proposed settlement will provide for notice to the class members of the proposed settlement, payments to members of the proposed settlement class who file claims, and will release Defendant Trion Worlds, Inc. from liability for the claims asserted in this action. The parties are working to document all of the terms of the settlement.

At some point there will be notification for members of the class who will be eligible for compensation.

Four years ago, Aaron Van Fleet and Paul Ovberg along with other plaintiffs filed suit against Trion Worlds regarding their publishing of the game ArcheAge. The lawsuit alleged false advertising regarding pre-release advertising offering a 10% discount on cash shop purchases for subscribers. That 10% discount was later retroactively scrubbed from press releases and ultimately was scrapped entirely, with Trion Worlds replacing the deal with a 10% bonus on all gem purchases that did not extend to a number of customers that would otherwise be covered by the discount on shop purchases. The lawsuit also claimed that Trion’s loot box system violated California penal code against illegal lottery.

Since then, Trion Worlds has virtually gone bust with the company transferring its assets to another Trion Worlds and then selling off those assets to Gamigo. Their defense of this lawsuit has been primarily funded from liability insurance.

As always, dockets cited will be available in the MMO Fallout Google Drive. This file is labeled “settlement.pdf”. MMO Fallout will keep a closer eye on the lawsuit and update as new information becomes available.

IPE Update: A List Of Companies Subpoena’d By Twitch

It’s time to talk about Twitch again, and that means the Twitch v. John Doe lawsuit.

When last we left our heroes, Twitch had filed suit in the Northern District of California against one hundred John Doe defendants for federal trademark infringement, breach of contract, trespass to chattels, and fraud. The lawsuit targeted the antics of users who gained some notoriety earlier in the year for filling the Artifact category of Twitch will all sorts of vile material, including hardcore pornography and videos of real life killings.

This week Judge Orrick granted Twitch’s application for leave in order to file subpoenas against third parties, with the ultimate goal being to uncover the identities of the defendants in the lawsuit. Those third parties include:

Twitter
Google
Microsoft/Hotmail
Discord
Verizon
Comcast Cable Communications LLC
Contina, Charter Communications Inc.
Optimum Online
Suddenlink Communications
OVH Hosting

Third party subpoena recipients will have 30 days with which to serve the defendants with a copy of the subpoena and a copy of the order, and then the defendants will have 30 days to file any orders contesting or squashing the subpoena, after which the third party recipients will have 10 days to produce information responsive to Twitch.

In fancy terms, those who suspect or have a good idea that they may become a defendant in this lawsuit will have ample notice that they are in fact a defendant.

As always, MMO Fallout has provided the related docket at our expense in the Google Drive.

DC Universe Online Launches On Switch

Time to play the Switch.

DC Universe Online is now available on the Switch, for those of you keeping track of the countdown timer on this website. The game launches free to play with a dedicated Switch server (sorry, no cross-play) and is up to date with content on other platforms.

[Video] Legends of Aria Launch Trailer

Today’s video comes to us from Legends of Aria, an MMORPG in the same vein as Ultima Online that just so happens to be launching on Steam as we speak. Now available in Early Access, you can pick up the sandbox game with a 34% discount, at $19.79 USD. Check out the new bard skill line, the new equipment enchanting system, or even the new wilderness.

Or you can check out the trailer below.

Epic Condemns “Disturbing Trend” Of Abuse After Fake Ooblet Developer Comments

Epic Games has released a statement today to condemn the circulation of false information intended to incite harassment against one of its developer partners over the weekend. This weekend fake screenshots and even a falsified video appeared on the net alleging to show evidence that one of the developers of the game Ooblets making a statement in their Discord chat. The images purported to show the developer advocating for the gassing of gamers, apparently in response to outrage following the decision to make the game Epic Store exclusive.

The fake photos and videos were circulated and promoted by a number of people over the weekend, including Youtuber SidAlpha who publicly berated the developer, Tim Sweeney, and those who were skeptical of the claim. SidAlpha later deleted his tweets claiming the photos/video as authentic, and has posted a video to spread the message about the fraudulent claim.

Epic’s statement about the event has been posted below in its entirety and can be seen here.

We at Epic Games have often shared our views about the game business and companies in it, and we support the entire game community’s right to speak freely and critically about these topics, including the topic of Epic, our products, and our store. When everyone shares their earnest views, the best ideas ultimately prevail.

The announcement of Ooblets highlighted a disturbing trend which is growing and undermining healthy public discourse, and that’s the coordinated and deliberate creation and promotion of false information, including fake screenshots, videos, and technical analysis, accompanied by harassment of partners, promotion of hateful themes, and intimidation of those with opposing views.

Epic is working together with many game developers and other partners to build what we believe will be a healthier and more competitive multi-store world for the future. We remain fully committed, and we will steadfastly support our partners throughout these challenges. Many thanks to all of you that continue to promote and advocate for healthy, truthful discussion about the games business and stand up to all manners of abuse.

NCSoft Income Dips In Q2, Lineage Is Doing Just Fine

NCSoft this week released their second quarter earning reports and the results are not entirely great, but not entirely bad. While sales dropped 6% over last year, profits are down 19% with net income down 17% over the same period. NCSoft’s mobile titles are still going very strong and now make up the vast majority of the company’s revenue with Lineage continuing to be the breadwinner on the traditional MMO side.

Lineage launched a remaster update and revamped monetizations that has been credited for a spike in sales and has seen user numbers more than double. NCSoft believes that this rebound revenue will remain solid and that other updates in the second half will maintain revenue numbers. According to NCSoft statements, Lineage M continues to maintain its highest numbers ever. NCSoft also expressed pride in Lineage II, noting that “the fact that a game in its sixteenth year is achieving 55% YoY growth is extremely encouraging for us,” with more updates coming in the second half of the year that should accelerate growth. There were no additional notes for Aion, Blade & Soul, and Guild Wars 2.

The second half of 2019 is set to bring Lineage II M to the market which NCSoft hopes will shake up the market with its differentiated content. Aion 2 and Blade & Soul 2 are progressing smoothly with NCSoft taking aim to ensure that the games are received well not just in Korea but in the international market as well. Lineage II M is set to launch in the fourth fiscal quarter 2019 followed by international launch in a “timely manner” with minimal gaps. They did acknowledge concerns with the Korean MMO market due to underperformance of recent launches in the country and whether the market has further growth potential. NCSoft stated that their own internal numbers indicate that there is a large potential demand of customers “waiting on the sidelines” for something to appear, and that Lineage II M is exactly the title that can satisfy that pent-up demand, however they do recognize that adding overseas revenue is necessary and that Lineage II M will cater to that market.

As for NCWest, NCSoft noted the company is going through a “process” to improve efficiency from the studio, but does not see a significant decrease in labor costs from the entity in the coming year which should assuage fears of further layoffs.

On the topic of cloud/console gaming, it was stated that PC titles from the beginning will be designed to be played on a console format going forward. There are internal projects looking into cloud gaming, but nothing that could be discussed at this time. ArenaNet is looking at several projects including a potential mobile Guild Wars 2, however there are no solid titles that could be announced at this time as all of the projects are still under review.

(Source: NCSoft quarterly income)

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