[Rant] Another Day, PUBG Tries To Claim Ownership of “Chicken Dinner”


It must be a day ending with Y, because PUBG Corp is once again trying to fraudulently claim ownership to something it definitely didn’t create.

If PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has anything to tell us here at MMO Fallout about Brendan Greene, it’s a tale of a man deluded by his own creation. While nobody would argue the success of PUBG and that the game popularized the Battle Royale genre and made way for the titles that follow, it’s hard to get past the vast delusion of PUBG Corp. and its dreams of owning just about everything related to video games.

In its grandiose claims, PUBG Corp made bold-faced lies to the Korean courts and attempted to present a history that they were the first game to use a frying pan in a comedic fashion in a shooter (they weren’t). They go on in the lawsuit to claim ownership of everything from health bars to grenades, two story tall buildings, real-world weapons, and more. We’ve seen various thinly veiled claims from Greene and PUBG Corp. that would imply a belief that they deserve royalty payments from any game in the Battle Royale genre, as well as consultation from developers who might dare to create a title that PUBG Corp didn’t. All this despite PUBG Corp apparently having no problem plagiarizing from other sources.

Of course it should also be noted that of the parties present, only Bluehole has seen employees be criminally convicted and sentenced to prison for stealing from other developers.

But now PUBG is getting in a fight with the Chinese Intellectual Property Administration and once again it is over claims to something they didn’t create. PUBG Corp. is suing over the phrase “winner winner chicken dinner” which they are attempting to trademark. The trademark was rejected as it isn’t a formal business trademark, and now PUBG is taking the government to court. The phrase has been in existence since before 100% of the employees at PUBG Corp. have been alive, but that isn’t going to stop their lawyers from frivolously claiming ownership of what very clearly isn’t theirs.

I will follow up as soon as PUBG Corp. attempts to claim copyright ownership of the concept of people bleeding from gunshot wounds.

Other than that, I have no opinion on the matter.

Mobility: MapleStory M Releases New PvP Dungeon


MapleStory M has released its latest content update and introduced a new PvP dungeon.

The PvP dungeon includes two modes: Ranked and free. Ranked mode has players going head to head in 3v3 matches with tiers decided by seasonal ranking and rewards being distributed as ranked. Free mode will give you more leeway to create as unbalanced of a match as you would like.

The following events are also included:

  • Kemdi’s Dice Game – From April 24 to May 9, a one-of-a-kind board game experience will be available where players can earn dice through hunting. Players can then roll the special dice to advance their pieces on the board and earn rewards. Those who complete the quest will then unlock the mysterious Kemdi’s Gift Box.

  • Spring Wonder Wheel Event – Starting May 9, the Spring Wonder Wheel Event allows players the chance to win Emblem Potential Scrolls, Lucky Day Scroll, Unique Rank Up Stones, Royal Coupons, and other rare items. Maplers can earn chances to spin the wheel by finding special tickets hidden throughout the game.

Also accompanying today’s update are balances to the gold leaf shop, character classes, and the user interface.

Source: Nexon press release.

Quality Control: Valve Approves Obvious Attack on Titan Ripoff


Quality control: On Steam, it is virtually non-existent where Valve has a $100 interest in every game submitted. Between fraudware, malware, rape games, publishers heading over to Epic, and secret bitcoin miners being uploaded to the platform, Valve has had quite the PR nightmare on its hands. That being said, it’s been a while since Valve has had a genuinely embarrassing misstep.

Until today.

Twitter user Lekon brought attention to an Attack on Titan unlicensed game being approved by Valve titled none other than Attack on Titan The Game. The title is available in early access for $5 and appears to be a low quality endless runner hastily cobbled together and tossed on Steam.

Koei Tecmo America has provided an official response that the game was not approved to use the Attack on Titan property and that their legal team has already been notified. While this is hardly the most controversial thing to happen on Steam, it is another reminder on how little effort Valve puts to prevent the same troll/illegal games it promised to keep off the store.

Source: Twitter 

MapleStory 14th Anniversary Event Goes Live: Play As The Pink Bean


As we noted previously, MapleStory’s 14 Anniversary event has gone live, and will run from April 24 through June 12. Events named after past seasonal updates will be available under the 14th Street event. Players will receive the 14th Street Fairgoer title at the start of the event and increase their reputation and stats as they complete missions to receive the 14th Street Celeb medal.

You’ll also be able to create a Pink Bean character through June 12 by talking to Pink Bean outside the Chaos Pink Bean Theatre. The character is temporary, so get as much use out of it as you can. For more on MapleStory, check out the official website.

Source: Nexon Press Release

Nepal Supreme Court Demands Justification On PUBG Ban


You may have read the news that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds had been banned in Nepal and thought “this makes no sense,” and you would have the backing of the Nepal Supreme Court on your side. The South Asian country took the banhammer to the popular battle royale shooter just two weeks ago and directed all internet service providers and mobile data centers to block access to the game.

Justice Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada demanded an explanation for the ban and asked the government to provide justification beyond the vague excuse that the game was distracting children from schoolwork and chores, as well as unsubstantiated claim of violent behavior coming from addicted gamers.

Unlike India where more than a dozen people were arrested for violating its own ban, it doesn’t appear that anyone has actually been punished in the two weeks that the law was in effect. As of right now, PUBG is once again playable. Whether the government will be able to come up with a convincing excuse to put access back on the kibosh will have to be seen.

Source: Gamasutra

Titan Network In Talks To Revive City of Heroes With NCSoft Blessing


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City of Heroes is back! Or it was. In case you fell off the face of the planet over the past few days like yours truly did, you may have missed all of the hubbub surrounding City of Heroes, a game that’s getting a lot of widespread attention for a title that is dead six years running. The mishegas all began last week as we learned that City of Heroes doesn’t just have a functioning emulator, but it has been running in secret for the past six years now. Even worse, a fair few members of the press knew about it all along (Side note: The people operating the server are probably the same that do not like me and as such I was never cued in on the secret private server).

Fast forward a few days and the code for the private server was released online, leading to the launch of SCORE, a publicly playable server that went live over the weekend. Fast forward a couple more days, and the server went down due to what later turned out to be a fake legal threat. It remains offline. For more information on all of this, you can check out Massively OP’s Bree Royce who has meticulously covered all of the events.

Today, Tony V of the Titan Network announced via Twitter that there are negotiations going on with City of Heroes. Granted, there have been ongoing talks since the game shut down so make what you will of these “positive” developments.

Z1 Battle Royale Will Shut Down South American Servers


Z1 Battle Royale, the PC shooter by Daybreak Game Company, is coming to an end on season 3 and bringing big changes with it. Chief among today’s announcements includes the reveal that Daybreak is shutting down Z1’s South America servers on April 30 to coincide with the end of season 3. This move will consolidate American players into the North American servers, hopefully speeding up queue times and ensuring the servers are populated going into season 4.

Z1’s traffic has been on a steady decline over the past couple of years, with Daybreak making changes in response to the smaller population.

Source: Steam

[Bad Press] Kotaku Lies About Smash, Doubles Down


Kotaku UK, a website that bills itself as “Kotaku, but without the integrity of Jason Schreier.” When Kotaku UK isn’t pumping out plain old clickbait compost for articles, they’re pumping out slanderous clickbait compost.

Last night marked the launch of Smash Bros Ultimate 3.0, and also the release of Nintendo’s first DLC fighter Joker from Persona 5. As is standard for Smash character releases, Joker comes with his own stage, a number of costumes, and a number of songs. In other words, it’s the perfect time for tabloid e-zine Kotaku to rev up the faux outrage and find something you should be offended by.

Enter Laura K. Dale penning an article that posted today, “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Persona 5 DLC Includes a Disability Slur.” Dale listened to the track “Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There” and decided that not only does the song use the term “retarded,” but apparently justifies its use by saying “I can say it” right after. Here is Dale’s personal transcript of the lyrics.

Oh Ah Hi
Are you ready?
Ready to pick up the pieces
Let’s go, let’s play, retarded
I can say it
Are you ready?
Uh Huh

The article got the attention of Erika Harlacher, voice actress for Ann in Persona 5, who confirmed that of course the song doesn’t use the word “retarded.”

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The article has been slammed even in Kotaku’s community as racist, as a large number of commenters are calling out Dale for essentially accusing an Asian singer of using a slur because of her accent. Folks in the comment section are calling out the article for shaming someone for not speaking English good enough for Dale to understand it, when English is very likely not her first language.

You’ll also notice that the title of the article doesn’t leave anything to theory and just straight claims that the slur is absolutely included. Dale goes on to wag her finger and wax poetic about how inappropriate this is for Nintendo’s “family friendly image.” It’s hard to imagine Nintendo would allow the word “retard” to get into a song. It’s easier to imagine that Kotaku UK knows exactly what it is doing and is deliberately pushing out a bit of defamatory content and outrage-bait to jump on the coattails of a big video game update.

Laura, for her part, has posted multiple apologies via Twitter and acknowledged that her conclusion to the song’s lyrics was wrong. Kotaku UK has refused to pull the article, has not posted a genuine correction, and has simply updated the article to essentially say “some people say it’s different, but we disagree.”

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It’s disappointing to see this level of reckless behavior from Laura K. Dale, who MMO Fallout generally holds in higher regard.

MapleStory Kicks Off 14th Anniversary Event


MapleStory is turning 14 and wants you to join in on the celebrations.

From April 24 through June 12, events named after past seasonal updates will be available under the 14th Street event. Players will receive a 14th Street Fairgoer title increase their reputation and stats as they complete missions. Once all missions are complete, Maplers will receive the 14th Street Celeb medal.

In addition to the event, players will also be able to create a Pink Bean character. Players will also be able to complete the Pink Bean’s Movie Script, a set of 30 missions that award the Holy Pink Beanity Title. And finally the Big Bang Store will offer rewards for the 14th Street Coins such as new mounts, chairs, and rings. More information can be found at the official website.

Source: Nexon Press Release

[Video] Emiko Shibamura “Akindo Fighter”


Today’s video has nothing to do with video games, in fact I wouldn’t even be posting it were it not to show up in the MMO Fallout inbox.

In case you decided to read this before watching the video, Emiko Shibamura is a 65 year old Japanese fashion icon, best-selling author, and self-help guru who is breaking into the American music industry with a rap video debut. It is possibly the greatest thing I have ever seen.

Surgeon General’s Warning: The above video contains more than your daily recommended dose of beefcake.