Category: News

RuneScape Bonds Eradicate Gold Farming


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In September, Jagex introduced bonds, an item that players could buy with real money and either trade to other players for gold or redeem for membership, spins, and runecoins. In a press release sent out today, Jagex has revealed that since bonds have been introduced, the amount of illegal gold being injected into the economy has dropped 81% by their own metrics.

“While we anticipated that the launch of Bonds would impact the flow of illegal wealth into the game, we are thrilled the initiative has resulted in such a strong and immediate impact. This action lays the foundations for RuneScape to continue going from strength to strength in its second successful decade!”

RuneScape has historically had a large problem with gold farming and bots, due to the ease of access to the client and grind-focused nature of the game. Bonds are just another step in an ongoing process to rid the game of gold farmers.

(Source: Jagex press release)

Planetside 2 Infographic


 

The Planetside 2 infographic is corny and probably inaccurate. I wouldn’t know, I’m too busy going through my formal attire.

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Mechanist Games Will Compensate Players


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As plenty of you already know, City of Steam’s English servers under R2 Games are shutting down November 21st. In a press release by Mechanist Games sent out today, the developer has revealed plans to compensate backers and restore the faith of their community. While not all of the details are final, when City of Steam: Arkadia launches in November, supporters will find their Electrum restored.

We will recharge all original supporter accounts their total Electrum’s worth on the new Mechanist servers. We want to restore faith in our players, especially those early adopters who believed in us.

Unfortunately, characters created on R2’s servers will not be brought over to Arkadia, however accounts will be compensated based on how far they managed to get in the original game.

Mechanist will be opening new servers, not continuing R2’s servers. But to honor the loyalty of returning players, compensation will be given on these new servers based on the specs of their old characters. We have a strong desire to give everyone the fresh new start this game deserves, but we also really want to thank the loyal players who stuck with City of Steam and welcome them home, whether they spent Electrum or not.

Gamers in City of Steam’s other territories will be happy to know that their service will be mostly uninterrupted. Foreign language versions of City of Steam will also be upgraded to Arkadia, but will continue to enjoy their current publisher.

Those game versions are not affected by the English version’s publishing handover. They can continue playing now, and enjoy the improvements that come along with City of Steam: Arkadia when it is ready. And just like any other version upgrade, all the non-English language versions will also receive it.

(Source: City of Steam)

Rift Shutting Down In Russia


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Rift is shutting down in yet another region, and much like the Chinese version before it, the blame seems to lie in Trion Worlds not supporting localization. As posted on the official website, Belver announced that the servers would shut down October 25th, noting that the reason stems from Trion Worlds refusing to support the localized version. As compensation, Belver is offering bonuses in several of their other games.

 

Everyone who wants to join the players of our other online projects, the prizes and bonuses. After creating the new characters in Black Fire, Runes of Magic Audition 2 or just email our technical support at support.belver.ru login and enter the game that you played in the Rift and the new character in another of our game – after bonuses will be credited to you within 5 working days.

Chinese developer Shanda Games also laid the blame squarely on Trion World’s shoulders, noting very poor international relations from the developer and ignoring requests to localize content. Rift in China shut down just six months after is launch, while the service in Russia began in December 2011.

(Source: Official website)

MMOrning Shots: Mad Hatting


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That hat is ridiculous, and I must have it. Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Red 5 Studios and their open world shooter Firefall. There isn’t anything particularly spooky or scary about Firefall’s Halloween event, but there are skeletons. Kind of. Did you know that Firefall is valued at $100 million? Check out the open beta at http://www.firefallthegame.com/

A Message From Mechanist Games


Hello everyone,

First of all, we’d like to thank all players for supporting this game since the very beginning; it couldn’t have come this far without you.

Circumstances have contributed to a significant loss of players and we’ve decided to cease the current game operations for the Global English version and take City of Steam back. This is a decision we have taken months to reach, and are confident that it’s best for the health of the players, the community and the game itself.

City of Steam is not shutting it down. We at Mechanist Games will improve and self-publish the game, and endeavor to make it available to as many of the original fans as possible by cooperating with popular English language browser-gaming platforms (to be announced).

City of Steam will be upgraded during the time it is offline to better suit the player demographics of the new browser-gaming platforms publishing the game; new content, new features, new systems, massive change to the economy and statistics, new equipment and cosmetics, new quests and an overhaul of most of the level art and main quests. Some features will be removed. There will also be a massive flying fortress for characters of any level to congregate in.

Because of these numerous and sizeable changes, the game will be re-launched in November under the title City of Steam: Arkadia.

Thanks to all the game’s players, and the support of the City of Steam community.

Mechanist Games

(Source: City of Steam)

MMOrning Shots: Exiled To Storage Room B


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If you hadn’t heard, today is the day that Path of Exile finally graduates from Open Beta University and makes its way into the open world. In celebration of this achievement, I figured I would dig up the oldest piece of concept art sent to us by the folks at Grinding Gear Games and show it to you all. As you can see from the picture, this is concept art for the game’s Shadow, a class that relies on hitting fast, setting traps, and evading attacks.

Path of Exile’s launch introduces the seventh class, the Scion, as well as new zones and a number of other enhancements. Check it out at http://www.pathofexile.com/.

Mechanist Games Revokes City of Steam From R2 Games


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Back when I previewed City of Steam’s open beta, I noted that while the game was still fun in multiple aspects, that the game had been taken a rather notable hit in quality since its closed beta and before R2 Games was announced as the publisher. Certain game mechanics were severely simplified, the FAQ for the game was so shoddily put together that it was a combination of Engrish, questions and answers that had nothing to do with City of Steam, and bits rolled over from other games. The cash shop grew, prices rose, and suddenly Electrum found its way into many aspects of City of Steam life. And then the game stopped receiving updates and patches, and customer support went silent.

Players who left due to the monetization and simplification will be happy to hear that R2 Games will soon be out of the picture. Mechanist Games has announced on Facebook that they are taking back City of Steam. While the R2 Games servers will be shutting down November 21st, it will be relaunched as City of Steam: Arkadia.

Hello all, today we officially announce that Mechanist Games has taken CoS back. Stay tuned for City of Steam: Arcadia this November! More info coming soon!

R2 Games will not be offering refunds for any recent Electrum purchases.

(Source: City of Steam)

Red 5 Studios Sees $24 Million Investment


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You may remember The9 as the developer in charge of World of Warcraft’s operations in China up until 2009 when operations moved over to NetEase. The9 is also the parent company of Red 5 Studios, the creators of the oft-delayed and ever changing MMO shooter Firefall. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, The9 plans on issuing $24 million in stocks to Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development Ltd. That name may be a mouthful, but if the deal goes ahead as planned, Oriental Pearl will have a twenty percent stake in the company.

Firefall is valued at $100 million and is currently in open beta/soft launch.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

Turbine Responds To True Heart Criticism


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Turbine’s Senior Producer has posted an announcement on the Dungeons and Dragons Online forum announcing that due to player feedback and internal testing, the price of Heroic Hearts of Wood will be greatly reduced when Update 20 goes live. Additionally, players will still be able to purchase Hearts of Wood from the Twelve barter NPC, at least for the time being.

The prices on Lamannia are not final – inspired by the Lamannia feedback, the Heroic Heart of Wood will be greatly reduced from the price displayed in the bartershop today. We’ll be looking at your additional feedback and how players play through sagas, and adjust the costs appropriately. We expect the average player to, upon reaching the minimum level requirement, spend additional hours to obtain a Heart of Wood – but never hundreds of hours.

The post goes on to explain that the original change was to address two goals, the unification to a single currency for Hearts of Wood and to address a major oversight with Tokens of the Twelve, the currency players currently use to buy Hearts of Wood. The tokens were originally intended to be rewards for completing difficult tasks, however the development team did not factor in Epic levels and the tokens have since become rather trivial to obtain. In response, Turbine has been slowly depreciating the value of the token and has not added to the reward system in the past year.

(Source: DDO Forums)