Not Massive: Civil Contract Dev Shuts Down Discussion On Discord


When it comes to abusive independent developers over the last few months, you really can’t find a much better candidate than Varius Benson. Varius Benson is the project lead of Capital Gaming RP, an indie outfit currently in the middle of creating the game Civil Contract, a roleplaying game set in Australia. Benson has also gotten into hot water over the past couple of months due to his attempts to silence negative commentary about his game, going as far as allegedly abusing the DMCA system to extort various Youtube hosts into removing negative videos about his title.

For more information on Varius Benson’s antics, I recommend checking out the videos below. It looks like Benson’s inability to handle criticism has reached a new height (or new low) as early this morning he announced that all feedback via Discord would come to an end, and that the social media app generally used for discussion would no longer be used for discussion. Benson’s statement is above as posted.

Stadia Offering Refunds For Early Buyers Of Freebies


This week Google announced that December will bring with it two new Stadia games: Farming Simulator 19 and Tomb Raider. The news is great if you’re one of those people who bought a Stadia and wanted some more free games. If you’re one of the people who bought those games only to see them be handed out for free barely two weeks after the device launched, you’re probably not too happy.

While Tomb Raider purchasers would normally just be out $10, Farming Simulator 19 costs $40. That’s a steep price for two weeks early access to a game that technically released over a year ago. Thankfully even Google is smart enough to know when to fold them, and announced that both games will be refunded to those who ask for it, even if it is outside of the normal policy.

“We know that some users have recently purchased these two games for their collection. Because of the proximity between the launch of the platform, and the announcement of these titles in Stadia Pro, we’re happy to assist you if you’d like to request a refund if you have purchased either or both of these titles, even if it’s outside of our normal policy.”

You’ll need to manually request a refund, however.

Source: Stadia

Gamigo Disables Ayanad Library On ArcheAge Unchained


Gamigo today announced that the Ayanad Library has been disabled on ArcheAge Unchained pending removal.

Howdy everyone,

The Ayanad Library has been disabled. It was planned to be retired in an upcoming update, but because of the performance issues it is causing, we have disabled it on ArcheAge: Unchained. Players that were in progress on Ayanad Library related quests, like the Ayanad Earring, will have those quests refreshed in an upcoming update. Affected players will be able to continue making progress after the update is released, which is anticipated for some time this December.

Thanks for your understanding and feedback!

~The ArcheAge Team

The Ayanad Library is an instance in ArcheAge that many players use to level up their characters. It also appears to be the source for major server lag due to the number of players opening instances.

Source: ArcheAge

Best MMORPG Sales, Courtesy of Massively Overpowered


I’m not going to say that MMO Fallout doesn’t run massive sales roundups because I don’t get paid to do this, but the last time I checked I haven’t written myself a single check that hasn’t bounced. Thankfully while I might be both a cheap boss and a layabout worker (have you seen this website recently?), there is one crew that prides itself on their work.

If you’re looking for a roundup of the best sales this week has to offer, check out Bree’s post over at Massively Overpowered. She details not just sales on games but sales within games if you’re looking for that latest piece of Lord of the Rings Online DLC or World of Warcraft expansion.

Check it out. It’ll save you a buck.

PSA: Want The Steam Controller? It’s On Sale (And Discontinued)


The Steam Controller is on sale for 90% off as part of Steam’s Autumn Sale. If you were looking to pick one up but for some reason still haven’t done so, you’ll want to take advantage of this sale. The Steam Controller is going away.

Presently priced at $5 plus shipping (your mileage may vary), Valve has confirmed that this batch of controllers will be the last. After that? You’ll need to go to the second hand market. The store page also notes that due to high demand, shipping may be delayed. The controller should ship and arrive within 4-8 days once the order is processed.

Source: Steam

ArcheAge Dealing With DDOS Attacks As Servers Strain


If you’re having trouble logging into ArcheAge today, you aren’t alone. Gamigo has stated via the official ArcheAge Twitter account that servers are dealing with several distributed denial of service attacks that the company is working on mitigating.

Players may have trouble logging in during this period.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Jagex Grinds Out 120 Farming/Herblore This Week


Jagex this week gave its players a new reason to grind out those levels and farm those farms with the expansion of two skills and introduction of new content to RuneScape.

Foremost on the list of additions this week is the expansion of the Farming and Herblore skills, increasing the skill caps to 120 and enabling an array of new content to make that level grind a little bit more worth the time. On the farming side, players now have access to the Ranch Out Of Time (Blue Cheese Out Of Time for players in Buffalo) where players can farm and breed dinosaurs in a new set of farming paddocks located on Anachronia. In addition to dinosaurs, players will also be able to grow a set of new plants and access new farming plots.

On the herblore side, leveling past 99 will give access to potion bombs.

“As players work towards 120 Farming, they’ll unlock new content at every single level: new mushrooms, new cactus patches, and the elusive Money Tree await. They’ll be able to use all these new ingredients to make potent potions that provide short-but-powerful benefits on a whole range of attributes, and the new herblore skills will allow players to concoct something even more explosive: bombs!  Sticky bombs, poison bombs, vulnerability bombs and more – the higher your Herblore level, the more efficient you will become at crafting bombs. Have fun on our rather ferocious farm!”

This week also marks the launch of the Yak Track, RuneScape’s answer to the titular battle pass. \

Source: RuneScape

Battleborn Rendered Unplayable In January 2021


2K Games announced this week that the Battleborn servers will shut down as of January 2021, leading everyone to ask the same question; “Battleborn’s servers were still online?”

Battleborn famously launched in May 2016 and became known as the game killed in the crib by Overwatch which released just three weeks after. Following a steep decline in users once Overwatch actually launched, Battleborn languished for a year and a half until Gearbox finally pulled the plug and announced that the title would no longer be seeing any content updates. After that it was only a matter of time until the servers were taken down for good.

For what it’s worth, Battleborn was actually a decent game. Not great, but decent. It was less of the Overwatch that it was compared to and more of a first person shooter variant of a Dota-style game. GQ’s Joshua Rivera made an analogy in 2017 that still fits:

“Imagine you opened up a new, pretty good pizza shop in your neighborhood, a place where people like pizza but can’t really get any nearby. It’s a good idea; the demand is there, and you’ve got a pretty good supply. Not the best slice you’ve ever had, but you can reliably make a solid pie that should make your spot a hit. Now imagine that two weeks later, let’s say… Paul Rudd opens a pizza shop a block away. And not only is that pizza shop a place where you can go and hang out with Paul Rudd and all his famous friends, but it turns out that Paul Rudd is like, a pizza savant? Just freaking impossibly good at slingin’ pies, that Paul Rudd.”

As of right now, Battleborn has been removed from digital store shelves (although you can probably still find piles of unopened copies at Goodwill). Digital currency is being removed from sale in February 2020 and the game will no longer be playable once the servers go down in January 2021.

Source: Twitter

Bloodbath Steam: Valve Burns Down The House In Mass Game Ban


(Update: It looks like a total of 833 games have been banned by Valve today)

Bloodbath Kavkaz? Nah, Bloodbath Steam.

Valve is currently in the midst of what appears to be a massive ban wave of shady Steam developers, with hundreds of games caught in the crossfire and no sign of slowing down. The ban wave began just over an hour ago as of this publishing and has been knocking out games left and right.

Chief among the ban list is Dagestan Technology, a Russian publisher of titles such as Bloodbath Kazkov.

We will update if more information become available.

Source: Sentinels of the Store