Anarchy Online Introduces PLEX, But Not For Free Players


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Funcom is jumping on board the PLEX train with the introduction of GRACE to Anarchy Online. GRACE, or Grid Access Credit Extension, costs $14.95 USD, and adds 30 days of game time to an account. GRACE can only be traded through the in-game market, does not count towards your market inventory limit, and cannot be withdrawn or traded through mail. Free players cannot use GRACE to upgrade their accounts without subscribing, as free accounts do not have access to the market and that is the only way to obtain the item from other players.

Free players will need to buy a subscription before they are able to purchase and use GRACE.

(Source: Anarchy Online)

The Old Republic: Largest Story Expansion Since Hutt Cartel


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The latest blog post for Star Wars: The Old Republic is all about future content. Now that the Hutt Cartel has been stopped on Makeb, the Dread Masters taken down a notch, what will the Republic and Sith have to do other than continue beating the tar out of each other? The answer is a three part story arc coming called Forged Alliances. Part 1 is currently available in the form of two new Flashpoint missions that will introduce players to new allies and set the stage for future content.

Forged Alliances leads up to the next content expansion for The Old Republic, which Lead Writer Charles Boyd promises will be the largest story expansion since Rise of the Hutt Cartel.

(Source: The Old Republic)

APB Reloaded Names and Shames Cheaters


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I’ve always taken the stance of wondering how you shame someone who is shameless, but that’s just me. In a new blog post by Reloaded Productions, the number of cheaters in All Points Bulletin has stayed relatively consistent, around 1% of the total game’s population. Thanks to the FairFight anti-cheat engine employed in the game, over two hundred of these players have been banned but not before spending a copious amount of real money on in-game swag. Even more surprising, cheaters are excellent customers. 60% of the cheaters were paid characters, and boy did they pay well.

Another startling fact; paid players who were banned had on average 260 hours of play time in the game, had played for over 1 year, and had on average spent $180 on virtual goods.

The team at Reloaded Productions is tossing around the idea of a purgatory area where cheaters are thrown in where they can continue playing and, preferably, spending more money.

The idea is that cheaters don’t get banned right away (which of course doesn’t happen since the system runs on various delays), and instead freshly detected cheaters get kicked into special cheaters-only districts, where they can continue playing against other cheaters without initially realizing they have been tagged (or whole groups get thrown in there as long as they have a cheater on their team).

As long as the cheaters keep paying real money, they can spend as much time in purgatory as they want.

(Source: APB List)

Eldevin Patch 1.17 Introduces Mounts


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Hunted Cow Studios has released the latest patch for Eldevin, introducing player-ridden mounts. Patch 1.17 deployed today and includes twelve new mounts for players to collect through crafting, gold, Eldevin points, drops, and as achievement rewards.

Update 1.17 features 12 new mounts that can be obtained in a variety of ways. Players can start collecting mounts by visiting the Riding Trainer near the Eldevin Fountain. Other mounts can be obtained via crafting, purchased for Eldevin Points or Valor Points and found as drops from certain powerful monsters. One mount is obtainable only as an achievement reward.

Patch 1.17 also implements a number of other changes to Eldevin, which you can find in the game’s patch notes.

(Source: Hunted Cow Studios press release)

Elder Scrolls Online Now On Steam


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Zenimax Studios has announced via Twitter that Elder Scrolls Online will be launching on Steam today (July 7th). Zenimax Online Studios will be at QuakeCon where they will give a presentation titled “The Future of The Elder Scrolls Online,” this Friday at 6pm EST.

Naoki Yoshida Talks FFXIV 1.0 Failures


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Naoki Yoshida gave a talk at the Game Developers Conference to talk about Final Fantasy XIV’s 1.0 launch, its failure, and how it was reborn. The talk lasts a little more than an hour and covers a wide range of topics including free to play vs subscription and how the landscape has changed in the past few years. Final Fantasy XIV’s relaunch, dubbed A Realm Reborn, has been met with great success.

(Source: Gamasutra)

Archlord 2 Soundtrack Available


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Cris Velasco is likely best known for his work on the Mass Effect 3 and God of War soundtracks, not to mention a pretty impressive list of other titles. Velasco was brought in to work on the soundtrack for Archlord 2, and Webzen is so proud of his work that they want everyone to have a chance at hearing it. As of earlier this week, the Archlord 2 soundtrack is freely available to download from Soundcloud.

Today, it’s time to introduce you to Cris’ work. You might have heard some of those themes already in game, while exploring Green Hills peacefully or fighting for your life in Locan’s Lab… But the world of Chantra is limitless, and it would be a shame for your ears to miss out on some of this great work.

Furthermore, players have been asked to come up with names for each individual track. Submissions can be made on the Webzen forums at the link below.

(Source: Webzen)

Guild Wars 2 Did Not Sell 3.8 Million In China


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You may have seen some news over the past few days that Guild Wars 2 has sold 3.8 million copies in China, which would be excellent were it true. As it so often turns out, the information was spread via a fansite and is inaccurate, according to an Arenanet Twitter post:

We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.

The moral of the story is: Always wait for an official source.

(Source: Twitter)

Richard Bartle: "Free To Play Has A Half Life"


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Richard Bartle is the creator of the first ever virtual world: MUD1. Bartle also believes that the free to play model has a half life, and will eventually fall out of favor with gamers. At a Develop conference in Brighton, Bartle stated that inherent qualities undermine the free to play model, despite it being a great revenue model right now.

“It will tail off because there is a fixed amount of people willing to spend enormous amounts of money, and there’s too much competition for those people.”

There is a heated debate on whether or not the bubble on free to play has burst. Check out more information at the link below.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

Eldevin Introduces Desktop Client


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Hunted Cow Studios has released the latest patch for Eldevin, bringing with it a multitude of updates including a downloadable desktop client. Dubbed Patch 1.16, Eldevin branches out of its browser-based roots and is now available in downloadable form. The client is compatible with Windows (32 and 64 bit), MacOSX, and Linux.

While the downloadable client does not currently support an announced hardware rendering engine, the goal is to have the feature implemented within the next few weeks. The hardware rendering engine will allow Eldevin to run with better graphics, at a higher framerate, and also more optimized. Check out Eldevin at the official website.

(Source: Eldevin press release)