Category: News

Shroud of the Avatar Teams Up With Underworld Ascendant


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Underworld Ascendant is the spiritual sequel to Ultima Underworld, the 1992 first person rpg that spearheaded many of the game mechanics we now take for granted. Since Shroud of the Avatar is cut from the same cloth, it was only a matter of time before Lord British announced his support for the game.

Backers of both games will be able to get their hands on the Dark Elven Kinsman Bucker.

This buckler, inscribed with the Dark Elven symbol, has a moonstone gem inset. If a player owns the buckler in both Shroud of the Avatar and Underworld Ascendant, then the moonstone will glow with the warmth of kinship. This signifies that the Dark Elven clans, though sundered between distant worlds, still are one.

The buckler is currently available as a $5 add-on in the Shroud of the Avatar store, where it will be added into the game around release 16. The buckler will also be available as an add-on for Underworld Ascendant supporters.

(Source: Shroud of the Avatar)

 

Crowfall: Buy Once, Play Forever


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Artcraft Entertainment has revealed their pricing system for Crowfall, announcing via FAQ that the game will be available for a single purchase.

Crowfall is a “buy once, play forever” game. That means that you buy the game once (estimated retail price of USD $50.) and you can play for the life of the game, without ever paying us again!

Players will also be able to buy cosmetic items, account services, and VIP membership tickets.

(Source: Crowfall)

Breaking: Dave Georgeson Departs Daybreak Game Studio


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Dave Georgeson has announced via Twitter that he is no longer involved in the Everquest franchise.

Update: Daybreak Game Studio has confirmed a big round of layoffs. An unknown number of employees have been affected.

(Source: Twitter)

The EFF Wants DMCA Protection For Abandoned Games


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When the servers shut down for your favorite games, often times players find themselves out of luck and with a product that is no longer usable. To make matters worse, attempts to recover the game by setting up private servers or releasing a program to circumvent the now-useless DRM, run the risk of being met by the publisher’s legal team.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has submitted comments to the Copyright Office asking for an exemption to Section 1201 of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Game developers and distributors don’t run servers forever, and often shut them off when player numbers dwindle. Having player communities step in to preserve their games is a win for everyone. However, Section 1201 creates chilling effects that keep this from happening. And for games without dedicated programmers who are willing to take legal risks, communities disperse, moving on to new games or just disappearing entirely.

Read more at the link below.

(Source: EFF.org)

ArcheAge Lifts Prohibition On AFK Players


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AFK players are the scourge of ArcheAge, or at least they were up until this week’s update. Today’s scheduled downtime brought with it the removal of ArcheAge’s AFK timer. Now players can log in and sit still to their heart’s content.

We decided to perform this week’s scheduled downtime earlier rather than later to deliver improvements like the removal of the in-game AFK kick time and a couple adjustments to further discourage in-game spam.

An AFK timer isn’t at all uncommon for MMOs, although ArcheAge saw some controversy at launch with Trion Worlds providing contradicting statements about their policy on circumventing the mechanic.

(Source: ArcheAge)

Jagex Proposes Death Changes In RuneScape


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Jagex is soliciting feedback on proposed changes to RuneScape’s death mechanic. As part of the proposed changes, players will no longer be punished for losing items due to server disconnections, the corpse run will be removed, and death will introduce a gold sink to the game’s economy.

Under the new system, players who die in non-pvp areas will appear in Death’s office. In order to retrieve their items, the player will have to buy them back at a percentage of the item’s cost, or sacrifice other items in order to contribute to the pool. Degrade on death mechanics for items will be removed as part of this update.

By forcing payments for all deaths, Jagex hopes to bring a little punishment back to dying which had lately become a minor inconvenience for most players.

You can read the entire FAQ at the link below.

(Source: RuneScape)

Dream of Mirror Online Beta Key Giveaway


MMO Fallout has partnered with Suba Games to hand out keys to the upcoming closed beta for Dream of Mirror Online. The beta starts at 5pm EST on February 13th and runs for three weeks.

What do we want out of you? Absolutely nothing. Click on the link below to retrieve your key, follow the instructions to redeem, and get ready for the beta.

About Dream of Mirror Online:

Dream of Mirror is a free-to-play MMORPG (massive multi-player online role playing game) developed by Softstar, a leading brand in the Chinese video games industry, and has surpassed 400,000 registered users in Taiwan alone.

Players can choose between four races, six classes and six professions to gain experience through amazing quests and missions. The game places a great deal of emphasis on teamwork through the strong human relationship system and the graphics provide contemporary 3D anime style with cell shading effects.

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Redemption Instructions:

  1. Obtain a BETA KEY.
  2. Visit: https://subagames.com and submit your BETA KEY in Step 2. Please note that you must be logged into your Suba Games account to proceed. If you do not have an account, you can sign up for an account at: https://subagames.com.
  3. Download and install the game client. CB starts on February 13th, 2015 (5pm EDT)

H1Z1 Wipes Servers For Update


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H1Z1 is back up from this morning’s content patch, and while the update introduces numerous mechanical changes to the game it also comes with a full wipe for all servers. The update includes bug fixes, alterations to recipes, and other convenience updates to make life a little better in the zombie apocalypse.

Players will be happy to see that numerous items have had their weights severely reduced, meaning you won’t have your sacks filled by single cans of fruit or sticks. Other items like metal sheets, meats, and ammo have had their encumbrance increased, so make sure you take a look at what you’re picking up.

(Source: Reddit)

Meet Roblox’s New CFO And CMO


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Roblox has announced the hiring of two new top executives, Rick Silvestrini and Andrew Chmyz, to the positions of chief marketing officer and chief financial officer respectively. The two sat down for an interview with Games Industry to discuss their plans for the future of Roblox, including increasing staff count by over 30%.

You can follow the link below for the full interview, but for now here is a small comment by Silvestrini about Roblox’s competition.

We are part of a media revolution as entertainment becomes more participatory and is driven by individual creativity. So I like to think of competition as any passive entertainment form that doesn’t encourage to kids to explore, to create, and to connect.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

The Secret World Letter Focuses On User Experience


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Joel Bylos is back to deliver the February Game Director’s letter for The Secret World. If you haven’t been following recent events, the Funcom team has been focusing on improving the new user experience as well as the upcoming launch of Issue #11.

The revamped experience has expanded slightly in scope by improving the tutorials in the beginning and smoothing out the difficulty curve. When we go back and change things, we also find other ways of improving the early game experience.

Foremost, Funcom is addressing the long kill-times once players leave the opening Kingsmouth area, from 7 to 25 seconds according to their statistics to kill a standard enemy. In addition, the team is reducing population in some of the more crowded areas. Mission rewards have also been reconfigured and streamlined, with the story mode now appropriately handing out goodies up until the end of Transylvania in which the player will receive their first epic weapon.

Also in the works is Issue #11, set to be the finale in the Tokyo storyline. Players will learn more about the Orochi, fighting their way to the top of a randomized tower with secret floors to discover along the way.

You can read everything at the link below.

(Source: The Secret World)