Steam Powered: Valve Negligence Lets Developers Impersonate Them


Meet Wizhood, a game developed and published by Valve. Well not developed or published by Valve. Or maybe it is? The Steam store says it is.

On the latest edition of “Valve Is A Negligent Publisher,” it looks like the folks at Rakarnov Studios noticed that Valve will allow anyone who pays $100 on Steam to impersonate anyone else, including Valve themselves. The game Wizhood was noticed by intrepid Steam watchdogs to have changed its name, unabeited, to Valve itself. Maybe for nefarious reasons, maybe to see if it would actually work, maybe for poops and giggles. Either way, the name change was allowed with absolutely no oversight or confirmation required from Valve.

Even better, looking up Valve’s catalog of games now includes Wizhood as a title right under Half Life 2: Deathmatch and above Half Life 2: Episode 2. Unfortunately for Wizhood, it does not automatically include the game in the Valve Complete Pack.

Looking at the Steam database it appears that this change was made back on June 26 and may have been a tactic to increase visibility with the Steam summer sale having started just a day prior. Incidentally you can pick up Wizhood for 49 cents, a 75% saving over the standard $2. If you have any inclination of picking this game up, we suggest you do so now before the sleeping giant that is Valve wakes up.

Demonstrable: Small Saga Public Demo


Small Saga is utterly adorable. I found this title while browsing through the latest Kickstarter games and after playing through the demo I really want to talk about it. The good news is that Small Saga has already reached its goal. I won’t be contributing to the campaign because I was burned out on those years ago, but it is definitely going on my watch list for the estimated release in July 2021.

Currently being created by Jeremy Noghani, Small Saga is an RPG that plays like Final Fantasy with an isometric overworld that is reminiscent of the likes of FF Tactics or Tactics Ogre. The main narrative exists underneath London in the underground world of Rodentia. You play as mouse brothers Verm and Lance, who hear about a place called heaven where there is more food than anyone can imagine. Heaven is also inhabited by the gods, but to get there Verm and Lance will have to get past a sewer’s worth of lawless rats and one mean vole.

The demo is short and absolutely fantastic, and not just because it features tiny animals wearing people clothes and doing people things. Combat is turn based and takes a hint of inspiration from games similar to Bravely Default where characters draw from an energy pool that slowly increases each turn. You can unleash your best attacks but then have to wait in order to build up the energy, or you can go ahead with your basic attacks and do less damage.

I recommend you check out the short demo over at Itch.io. You don’t even have to download it.

Jagex Bought By US Platinum Fortune


Update 4/28/20: Yes they have.

(Update: 7/11: No they haven’t)

Jagex is no longer Chinese owned. This news was first revealed back in the old era of January 2019, but this week China’s Fukong Interactive Entertainment announced that they will sell Jagex which it described as their major source of revenue. The goal of the sale is not to offload bad assets, but to pay off heavy debts that Fukong has incurred from nearly 60 lawsuits and arbitration cases filed against the company (Fukong, not Jagex).

As part of the sale, Jagex has been valued at approximately $530 million USD. Jagex’s revenues topped over $100 million USD last year which comprised 99.5% of Fukong’s revenue. Fukong’s plans post-Jagex involve developing mobile video games.

Source: Yicai Global

IPE Update: Epic Games Brings Financial Suplex On Counterfeiters


It may not surprise you, the enlightened MMO Fallout reader, to hear that none of Epic’s roughly one thousand (Chinese and otherwise) defendants showed up or even answered the summons to appear in court regarding a lawsuit for Fortnite counterfeit merchandise. I talked about this briefly at the end of April and haven’t issued much in the way of updates because there hasn’t been anything substantial to talk about.

By the way, I’m not joking that this lawsuit started with roughly a thousand defendants. 923 in fact of which nearly 200 are included in this judgment. Over the course of the last two months, Epic has been slowly dropping defendants from the list, presumably the random accounts that could never be tied to an actual person. They were successful in forcibly transferring domains, freezing assets, and more.

The good news for Epic is that none of the thousand defendants bothered to answer the summons or show up, making it a whole lot easier to get the judge to sign an order of default judgment which Judge Guzman did on June 27. Far from simply imposing a permanent enjoinder on defendants from counterfeiting more of Epic’s products, and good luck enforcing that on some pop tent company in Shenzhen, the order goes quite a bit further. Judge Guzman awarded Epic Games $1 million in damages from each defendant.

He also ordered that Western Union must within two days permanently block all money transfers to the defendants. Ebay, Paypal, ContextLogic, and AliPay (and all of its related entities) have been ordered to permanently restrain all accounts associated with the defendants from transferring any money within two days. All monies within the accounts connected to the defendants has been seized and will be paid out to Epic and until the judgment amount is fully paid all new accounts created by the defendants will be seized and funds transferred to Epic as well. Epic also has the authority to serve any financial institution that is identified to have been accessed by the defendants, with the financial institute required to freeze their assets, remove their ability to transfer funds, and release all monies held on the accounts to Epic to ensure full payment.

As always, the legal documents have been uploaded to the MMO Fallout Google Drive, at our expense, for your perusal.

IPE Update: Paid Account Boosting Now Illegal In South Korea


A South Korean law passed last year has gone into effect, and it threatens to throw paid account boosters in prison.

Last year the Korean government passed a new law banning the use and advertising of powerleveling services. The provisions of the law, below in their original Korean, were translated by Reddit user Evenstar6132 and notes that prosecution is based on whether or not the developer allows such practice, whether there was payment, and the frequency of the act. The law is not retroactive and of course people who don’t live in South Korea are not under its jurisdiction.

It is worth noting that the prison sentence is apparently a “suspended sentence” of two years and a fine of up to $18,000. A suspended prison sentence for those unaware would not actually put the defendant in jail but acts as a type of probation. If the person does not commit a crime during that period, the jail sentence is dismissed.

Source: Reddit

MapleStory Adds Pathfinder Class Today


The Pathfinder is here! Nexon has announced the release of the much anticipated bowman class to Maplestory and now you too can finally log in create one of your own. The Pathfinder joins the ongoing fire leveling event offering 3x leveling speed for new characters, as well as the Adventure Island activities.

More information is available at the official website and in the preview trailer above.

Source:

[Video] Shai Character Class Comes To Black Desert


Pearl Abyss today announced that the latest character class Shai is now available in Black Desert on the Xbox One. Shai wields a florang (boomerang) and a Vitclari, a powerful ornament that heals and protects her allies. Shai is an expert in gathering and alchemy and is the first class to be able to create a bonfire to heal allies, as well as the first class to be able to tame and ride donkeys.

Notable Shai skills include:

  • One-Two-Three — Shai throws the Florang up to three times, knocking back all enemies that are hit.
  • Eat This! — Shai powerfully throws her Florang in a long-range attack.
  • Over Here! — Shai creates a shielded area that can protect her allies from enemy attacks.
  • Come Out, Come Out! — Shai reveals hidden enemies using her Vitclari.
  • Play Dead —  Shai can ‘play dead’ and trick other players, but it may not work against monsters…

Pearl Abyss also noted in today’s update that the Shai pre-creation event was a massive success with 80% of players participating. Players with the Game Pass can give the standard Black Desert edition a go with no additional purchase necessary.

Source: Pearl Abyss Press Release

Beta Impressions: MapleStory Rolls Out the Pathfinder


I played a bit of MapleStory this week.

It probably comes as little surprise to my readers that I still have an active MapleStory account, and even less so that Nexon invited me over to check out the upcoming Pathfinder class release for the game.

The Pathfinder is sort of an oddity as a character class, as the story revolving around this character is that she has been blighted with an ancient curse. What this translates to is that your character starts out with reduced stats. Thankfully it doesn’t stick with the player very long, even by MapleStory standards, and by skill level four the curse has been weakened out and removed from your system.

If you haven’t quite figured it out, the Pathfinder class is the latest hero added into a game with a heck of a lot of classes. I enjoyed the time that I had to play with the Pathfinder not just because I tend to play the archer class more in MMOs but because the character is just sort of an all-around bad ass. The Pathfinder is a bow-wielding class, of course, but the focus appears to be more geared toward crowd control. Many of the attacks and especially those that you receive toward the start of the game are geared toward just inflicting mass damage against anything stupid enough to come too close.

I should also note about the curse dampening that the class doesn’t start out gimped by any measure. Your character is effectively slightly less powerful in an area of the game that comprises of the tutorial locations. I assume there is some effect of some stats starting out with a 20% debuff, but considering how low your stats will already be starting out, the Pathfinder isn’t exactly going to be the Dark Souls of MapleStory classes. I’m sorry for having written that, but I had to get the joke in.

As you level up even further, the curse becomes more of a blessing as you not only overcome the stat debuffs but then utilize that ancient curse on your foes in the form of an offensive debuff attack. You also gain the ability to call forth a shadow raven with associated skills later on to improve that mechanic. The shadow raven hangs around for a while and attacks your enemies.

During my time with the Pathfinder, I also checked out the Secret Forest of Elodin theme dungeon which was as adorable as I have come to expect from MapleStory content. I won’t spoil the story for you, but it has to do with nightmares, hearing scary voices in the woods, and making sure that the good and decent folks are safe and sound. This mission, to the best of my knowledge, was already made available in the live game on June 12 (my birthday of course) and is available to all players at least level 30.

I didn’t have as much time as I wanted to play through the Adventure Island, but the even is running in the live game until August 27 and is looking to offer a ton of very cool rewards. The gist of the event should be familiar to MMO players. Players at level 61 can start earning adventure points to convert into adventure coins by killing monsters within 20 levels of their character. You can also make use of AFK items to obtain experience and coins. As the event goes on, higher ranks are being rolled out with better items, better tasks, and better passive stat boosts.

I can’t wait for the Pathfinder to hit the live server, which it will on June 26. It was a fair amount of fun for the time I had playing on the test server and I think that MapleStory players are going to enjoy it along with the various events ongoing that will make leveling another alt a bit lighter of a load.

Stay tuned to MMO Fallout for more MapleStory talk, or just head over to the official website and take a dive in for yourself. Big thanks to a number of people for bringing MMO Fallout on board to check out the class.

The Division 2 Joins Twitch Rewards Starting Now


The Division 2 is the latest game to join the Twitch Prime reward factory, and you can get your hands on the first round of goodies starting as early as now.

Over the course of the next few months, Twitch Prime members will be able to redeem a series of four apparel sets and a mask. You will of course need a copy of The Division 2 and Twitch Prime. The first outfit up for grabs is the Spears Sports Team Fan & Baseball mask. All you need to do is link your Ubisoft and Twitch accounts and you are ready to go.

The outfit won’t be around forever, so make sure to get in and pick it up ASAP.

Source: Twitch.tv

Entropia Universe Brings In Summer With New Event


Summer is the warmest season of the year, and why not spend the warmest season beating monsters to death?

Starting now and running until July 1, Summer Mayhem 2019 tasks players with stopping the evil Mulmun ritual, gaining points, and scoring some sweet loot. Upon entering the ritual area, players will be timed with the best scores earning some of Entropia’s most coveted prizes. A full list of events can be found at the official website.

Source: MindArk Press Release