Mobile MMO RebirthM Launches In North America


Caret Games has announced the official launch of their mobile MMO RebirthM in North America for January 24.

RebirthM starts players off at level 100 and lets them loose to level up indefinitely through a new upgrade system. Exclusive elite dungeon challenges will open as players level, facing off against powerful bosses that will reward valuable items. The game also boasts as PvE environment with an endless world, as well as challenging PvP modes for more rewards including a battle royale system where players fight to the last person standing.

To celebrate its launch, RebirthM is holding a number of launch events for players to receive exclusive items. More information can be found on the official Facebook page. While the launch is exclusive to North America and Brazil, Caret Games has stated that the title is slowly expanding to more countries with a global server on its way.

Planetside Arena To Launch March 26


Planetside Arena will launch on March 26, Daybreak Game Company announced in a news post circulated today.

Initially set for launch in early 2019, Planetside Arena will now feature an exclusive Founders season to get the “most dedicated” fans in before launch. Before the full game goes live, however, Daybreak is still gearing up for the first closed beta starting on January 30 with specific server times coming later this week. The founder’s season meanwhile will begin on Febuary 20, 2019 and will feature exclusive items that can only be obtained during this season of the battle pass. Those who preorder will receive immediate access to the founder’s season and battle pass.

More information can be found at the official website.

Star Trek Online Resurrects Captain Killy


Perfect World Entertainment this week announced that Mirror of Discovery, the latest expansion, is now available on PC with Xbox and Playstation 4 coming later this year. Star Trek fans will have the opportunity to meet Captain Killy of the Terran Empire, voiced by Mary Wiseman. Leader of the I.S.S. Discovery, Killy is never shown on screen in Star Trek: Discovery, however her reputation as a ruthless leader is often mentioned.

Mirror of Discovery picks up on the story left off by the prior expansion, Age of Discovery. The update in full contains the following new features:

  • Two New Featured Episodes – Captains hailing from all of the game’s various factions can experience two new playable episodes featuring Captain Sylvia Tilly of the Terran Empire.
    • “Para Pacem” – Players will witness the I.S.S. Discovery’s fated confrontation with Klingon forces, in the middle of an ion storm above Pahvo.
    • “Illusion of Communication” – Captains must stop Captain Killy from using Terran Empire technology to manipulate Pahvo’s peaceful biosphere.
  • Anniversary Events – This month, Star Trek Online celebrates nine years of exploring the Star Trek universe from within. To kick off this milestone, the game is bringing back the popular Omega Molecule Stabilization event. Players who stabilize Q’s scattered Omega particles can earn free Omega Particle Tech Upgrades and prize vouchers, redeemable for the new T6 Vulcan Scout Ship featured in Star Trek: Discovery.
  • Personal Endeavor System – Players who enjoy the game’s Endeavor System can now complete unique daily challenges to earn account-wide performance boosts in a wide variety of combat mechanics.
  • Battle at the Binary Stars – By popular demand, the Battle at the Binary Stars Event is now available as a Task Force Operation, with the debut of Advanced and Elite modes that will challenge even the most experienced players.

Source: Perfect World Press Release

Jagex Polls Completion Cape Changes In RuneScape


RuneScape is well known for its constantly changing landscape and design philosophy, weekly content updates will do that to you. The completion capes involve a long list of achievements in-game. As a show of their difficulty, these caps also happen to be best in slot stats and utility, which has made them almost mandatory for player vs monster activities.

This week’s poll is asking if players want to change that. There are two versions of the poll, one for players who have achieved the completion cape and one for those who never have. The sample questions below are for those who have never owned a completion cape.

  • Should capes be cosmetic only or remain best in slot, but easier to maintain (or no change at all)
  • If the capes are no longer best in slot, should Jagex add more requirements (Yes immediately, yes but gradually, or no)
  • Jagex wants to make the requirements for completion/trimmed capes more consistent. Should unfitting requirements be removed (yes/no)
  • How should Jagex deal with new cape requirements (special ex-comp cape, grace period, nothing)
  • Should content inaccessible to some players remain on the cape (yes, no but separate cape, no)

The poll is accessible within RuneScape and will be live for another week. Jagex did note that this is not a guaranteed content poll, so the results are not guaranteed to lead to changes.

Guardians of Ember Returns Under Gameforge


Guardians of Ember is a title so popular, I’d be willing to bet that every person reading this article hasn’t quite gotten over its untimely removal from Steam following publisher Insel Games being caught attempting to manipulate review scores. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the population of Guardians of Ember hasn’t been doing so well after its removal from Steam, or that Insel Games is no longer in charge of publishing it. Like a phoenix, Guardians of Ember hopes to rise from the ashes and presumably save Harry Potter’s life at the end of Chamber of Secrets.

What does this mean? First, Guardians of Ember is back in closed beta, and that the game will become free to play as opposed to its plan of being buy to play under the previous regime.

Those of you who bought Guardians of Ember under Insel Games will immediately have access to it under Gameforge. Whether Valve will allow the game back on Steam following this publisher transfer is yet to be seen.

Source: Steam

Jagex Distances Itself From Streamer Bully


Jagex has given a statement on an incident that took place over the weekend in which RuneScape streamer Aus Swag was banned from both Twitch and RuneScape for conduct during a live stream. Aus Swag called an individual live on air, one that he knew to be suicidal, and told her “I think you should just kill yourself, honestly.”

RuneScape community manager Mod Shauny posted a statement distancing itself from Aus Swag, noting that they do not and never have had a business relationship with him.

This morning we became aware that over the weekend a RuneScape player had live streamed himself calling a vulnerable individual who had admitted they were having suicidal thoughts, telling that person to kill themselves. The RuneScape player is not someone with whom Jagex has – or ever had – a business relationship but given the incredibly serious nature of the incident we have taken measures that make it clear such behaviour will not be tolerated.

As a result, the individual has had their RuneScape account permanently banned with immediate effect. Jagex is incredibly passionate about mental health and wellbeing, and we will continue to do all we can to help those in our community – and beyond – receive the support they need to overcome the mental health challenges they face in their day-to-day lives.

Aus Swag posted an apology to Twitter in which he claimed that the microphone was muted during his comment and that he did not intend to put her at risk. He also donated $200 to a charity centered around suicide prevention.

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[Community] 2019: The Year In Which Walmart Messed Up My Soda Pre-Order


Want to hear a joke? I pre-ordered energy drinks. Want to hear a bigger joke? They botched it.

Last month I talked about how Walmart partnered with Ubisoft and Mountain Dew to offer pre-orders for Mountain Dew Game Fuel, an energy drink that came out on store shelves this month. For $20 you could get a 12 pack of the assorted flavors and the pack came with a Division 2 box of tchotchkes and early access to the Division 2 beta. How could this possibly go wrong? It’s soda.

To be fair, I found out that the box is actually a good deal if you like sugary energy drinks since for $20 you get a 12 pack and stores in my area are selling the individual cans for $3 apiece, which would set you back $36 for the equivalent amount. I honestly forgot about this whole ordeal since I never received an email from Walmart that the order shipped, and dealing with a funeral over the past week completely tossed it out of my memory that the soda was supposed to ship on January 14.

I never received my soda, but the beta code came through fine and so did the box of stuff. I did get an email from Walmart confirming that my case is on backorder, so not only is 2019 the year that the energy drink industry adopts pre-orders from game developers, it also takes on screwing up people’s pre-orders. I’ve been on Twitter and various social media websites and there are a fair number of other people who haven’t received their orders, or for whom Walmart lost their orders entirely. Congrats, you’re the Mighty No. 9 of energy drinks.

The goodies included in the box are an assortment of tchotchkes including a screwdriver, an odd whistle/compass/light, a hat, and an 8gig dog tag drive that appears to be breaking for some people with the connector not pulling out. Honestly I thought that if anything would go wrong with this order it would be the whole beta code being distributed properly. But Walmart proved me wrong, and the thing I actually wanted to buy is now not coming.

Walmart explained in the email that if they can’t get my order by MARCH 8 then it will be cancelled and refunded. Two months for Walmart to track down twelve cans of Mountain Dew, I hope they can pull it off.

Let this be a lesson; don’t pre-order energy drinks.

I’m Back! MMO Fallout Resuming Activity


How do you do, fellow gamers?

Those of you who keep track of the MMO Fallout news feed are likely already aware that the website has been mostly silent for the past week, especially after my posts last Sunday about all of the topics I was planning on writing about. I was discussing on Twitter about starting up a website reviewing books, I had a few things planned for this website here, and I was looking forward to finally getting around to actually following up on the first Podcast episode, as well as going back to law school for the Spring semester.

And then I got the phone call on Monday at noon that my father passed away, and everything was immediately shelved.

The past week feels like it has lasted about six months, and while I tried on a few occasions to distract myself and write a few news pieces to take a momentary break from grieving, I just couldn’t find the motivation. I try not to inject my personal life into this website as much as possible, because people have enough problems of their own without having to see me publicize mine.

My plan is to get back up to speed with posting news pieces and editorials this week, but updates may be slow over the next couple of days. I’d like to thank my readers for their understanding in these rough times, as well as to those who reached out to express their condolences.

Blue Mage Joins Final Fantasy XIV With Patch 4.5


Following the release of patch 4.5, Square Enix earlier this week introduced a new job and unique way to experience the Final Fantasy XIV content. As the first limited job, the Blue Mage is available to players with a level 50 Disciple of War or Magic class/job and who have completed the main scenario quest “The Ultimate Weapon.”

The Blue Mage learns new abilities through combat and is capable of learning up to 49 unique monster abilities at release and leveling up to 50. The level cap and learnable abilities will increase in future patches.

A reveal trailer can be viewed below. More information on FFXIV available on the official website.

Jagex Issues Warning To Mobile Apps


With the launch of RuneScape on mobile devices, Jagex this week announced that they will be changing their policy in regards to how the company approaches mobile app developers using RuneScape’s IP to create unofficial companion programs. In a post published this week, the UK developer stated that they will be reaching out to app developers to discuss applying for a license to use the IP, and may seek removal of apps that do not meet their standards.

We are in the process of reviewing existing unofficial and unlicensed mobile apps and as a part of this process, we will be reaching out to the developers of existing mobile apps which utilise our IP, to explain our rights and we may give certain app owners the opportunity to discuss and apply for a licence to use our IP in relation to their existing app.

In cases where unofficial apps in our opinion do not meet our requirements or standards, or where license terms cannot be agreed we will seek their removal from mobile stores. We are constantly reviewing and updating the use of our IP and it is important to note that this current review only affects mobile apps.

Please note this is only for existing apps, and we will not be accepting any licence requests for new apps.  If you have a current live mobile app, we will contact you in the near future.

Source: RuneScape.com