FFXIV Drops 90 Day Subscriptions For PS3


We all know that the days of Final Fantasy XIV are coming to an end so far as the Playstation 3 is concerned. With less than 90 days on the radar coming up, it makes sense that Square Enix would stop selling 90 day subscription cards, which they plan on doing after March 18.

Furthermore, on the weekend of March 18, 2017, automatic payments for 90-day recurring subscriptions will be suspended for players registered only to the PlayStation®3 version. Moving forward, we ask that these players please renew their subscriptions using shorter subscription periods.

The upgrade campaign allowing players to move up to the Playstation 4 version of the game is valid until the end of the year. More details at the link below.

(Source: FFXIV)

Hearthstone Tells Non-Americans To Pay Up: How Prices Are Changing Worldwide


The Hearthstone community is responding with frustration as Blizzard announced that the price of card packs in countries that are not America are set to rise, some as high as 30%.

Announced via the Hearthstone forums, one can find a list of new prices set to go into effect on March 22 in countries all over Europe, Africa, and South America on PC, Mac, and Android. In America, the cost of a two pack is $2.99, the two pack containing ten cards total. The price increase in some regions marks upwards of a 30% boost over what Americans are paying.

According to the announcement, this will not affect the price of the Un’Goro prelaunch bundle:

We regularly look at our pricing around the world, and from time to time we make changes such as these to align with local and regional market conditions. The price of the Un’Goro prelaunch bundle offer will not be affected by this change and will remain the same until launch.

The analytically driven among you can find a work in progress chart of the price changes here, showcasing exchange rates and how the prices will change in the coming weeks. It is worth noting that in many regions, the prices have been lower than they are in the states. How this will affect player’s purchasing decisions will have to be seen.

Best Of Greenlight: Streets of Rogue


Best of Greenlight is a space where I’d like to talk about games that are deserving of your attention, rather than focus entirely on shady independent developers and their shady asset flips and shady copyright takedown notices. The best part about the current spotlight game is that you can play it right now: It is currently in the middle of a free weekend.

Streets of Rogue looks a lot like The Escapists, is developed by Matt Dabrowski, and is currently in early access on Steam. I know what you’re thinking, ‘another retro-inspired hardcore rogue-lite?’ I’m not deaf to your complaints, in fact I’m willing to admit that if it weren’t for the free weekend that I probably wouldn’t have given this a shot myself. What this package contains is a rather charming game, with tight controls, a variety of systems, and more. In short, it actually makes an effort to set itself apart.

The core of all dungeon crawling rogue-lites is pretty much the same: You go through a dungeon, you kill the things, you get loot, and you level up. Ultimately your character dies and you start it all over again, albeit with some sort of overarching progression system that gives you a little more to go on with each passing session. Streets of Rogue is more than just that, rather than populating the level with a host of angry creatures and letting you have at it, the game actually encourages some level of diplomacy, provided you’re willing to go along with it. If you’d rather just go through each level and massacre the whole map, more power to you.

First thing you’ll do before being thrown into the fray is choose your class for that session, each one with their own strengths, weaknesses, and starting items. The soldier for instance starts with a machine gun and regenerates health when it is under 20. The gorilla, meanwhile, has a very powerful attack but his stupid gorilla brain can’t talk English, and therefore can’t interact with characters, his stupid gorilla hands can’t use guns, scientists hate him and will attack on sight, and bartenders don’t want him in their bar (have you ever seen a gorilla pay his bar tab? Point made). A number of factions populate the world, from cops to the ongoing feud between the blahd and the crepe gangs, scientists, and all kinds of strange bedfellows.

But what makes the game pretty unique is that you’re not just going through a dungeon while fighting off a range of NPCs, rather each map is a procedurally generated zone consisting of a random assortment of characters, an assortment of tasks, and you are given pretty free reign to take on those tasks as you see fit. For example, you have to terminate a character who is hiding behind a locked door. You can knock on the door and see if they’ll come answer it, beat the door down with your fists (provided you’re strong enough), blow it open with a weapon, go outside and shatter the window so the NPC comes to investigate, use a lockpick on the door, use a charge on the door, or go to the outside ventilation system (if the building has one) and inject something into it to either kill or force out the inhabitants.

To give another angle to how the AI reacts to events, in another mission I was tasked with killing a scientist in his home, which had a big mean looking bouncer standing right outside the door. I blew a charge on the door bringing the bouncer down to very low health, which was enough for him to decide the job wasn’t worth it and quit right there on the spot. In another instance, I had to terminate a character being held prisoner in the local jail. After taking out the guard and using the computer to unlock the cell doors, I found my target in a fight with another prisoner. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who wanted this guy dead.

I find the fighting to be extremely satisfying in Streets of Rogue, every punch and whack met with a sickening crunch as your target gets knocked back, even more so when you manage to punch them so hard that they crash through a wall. With the AI system in place, it’s very easy in certain areas for small fights to break out into riots, with buildings exploding and people beating each other to death as the police show up and start blasting indiscriminately, resulting in some bystanders getting shot and either joining in or freaking out and running off. Companies love using the buzzword “the game is different every time you play!” and I think this may be one of the few times that that promise actually comes true.

Your currency for meta progression is chicken nuggets, which you’ll receive for completing missions which are required in order to progress to further levels. Chicken nuggets can be used to unlock traits, rewards, and more.

Since Streets of Rogue still has a day and change left on its free weekend, I highly suggest you give the game a try. Otherwise it sells for $14.99. If you do give Streets of Rogue a try, let us know what you think in the comments below.

Blizzard Promises Bans For Overwatch AFKers


Blizzard has put AFKers on notice: According to a recent forum post, Overwatch is targeting some bad hombres, specifically players who create or join custom games with the intent of farming experience. Going forward, if players even think about joining a custom game with the intent of farming experience while away from keyboard, they may be on the receiving end of an account ban.

If you create a Custom Game that in any way encourages players to gain experience while inactive, you risk having your account banned. If you join any game mode – including Custom Games – with the intent of gaining experience while being inactive, you risk having your account banned. Also, do not name your Custom Game that in anyway even implies that gaining experience while inactive is OK – please do not even do this as a joke – because you are putting yourself at risk of having your account banned.

Director Jeff Kaplan asks that the community not force Blizzard to remove experience gain from custom games by reporting servers and not joining in on such shenanigans. More information can be found at the link below.

(Source: Overwatch)

How RuneScape Is Slowly Rolling Back Treasure Hunter


Treasure Hunter is one of the more divisive aspects of present day RuneScape 3, it serves as both an interesting feature of the game as well as a perfect example of how disgustingly greedy Jagex can be when they feel like being disgusting and greedy. Case in point, the elite skill equipment. Rolled out over the past couple of years, the elite skill outfits not only offered substantial bonuses to players who collected the four-piece outfits, they were mostly available for a very limited time. We’re talking three days to collect three sets of four piece suits tied to random lockboxes.

Players were understandably angry, since the promotions were rather blatant attempts at fishing in whales as the event would require substantial sums of money over a short period of time in order to potentially never gain all twelve pieces. As part of an initiative launched last October to balance revenue with long term game health, Jagex still plans on releasing said skilling outfits via Treasure Hunter. After a period of exclusivity they will be obtainable in-game as a high level reward.

Once you meet the 70 Mining or Runecrafting requirement, you’ll be able to collect fragments of the rune ethereal and gemstone golem outfits while training the corresponding skill through any regular method. Success chance increases with your skill level, and fragments will be automatically stored in your currency pouch.

In addition, many of the skilling outfits have been made fully available on Treasure Hunter itself, so there is still the chance of obtaining them through daily key stipends while you’re grinding out the materials. The good news is that Jagex seems to be placing less emphasis on making game-altering equipment exclusive to Treasure Hunter, which is sure to be a relief to players tired of being asked to pull out their wallets every few weeks.

Valve Updates Steam Reviews, Free Reviews Don’t Count


Valve has updated how Steam handles user reviews today in a way that will affect how paid/free reviews affect the game’s overall score. Starting today, the review score will no longer be affected by users that received the game for free, including free weekends and gifts.

With the changes we are making now, the review score (shown at the top of store pages and in various places throughout the store such as search results) will no longer include reviews by users that received the game for free, such as via a gift, or during a free weekend. Reviews can still be written by customers that obtained the game in any of these ways, but the review will not count toward the overall review score.

Free to play games will not be affected by this change.

(Source: Steam)

Neverwinter Dumps Windows XP And Old Video Cards


Neverwinter joins the growing list of games dropping support for older versions of Windows, as with today’s update the client will no longer support Windows XP and video cards that don’t meet a certain Direct3D benchmark. The update was announced back in December as an effort to improve game performance and optimize the player experience.

As of this build, Neverwinter can no longer support the Windows XP operating system, or video cards with a Direct3D Hardware Feature Level less than 10.0.

(Source: Neverwinter)

STiCLi Games on Twitter: “[People] Such As You Should Be Killed On Sight.”


In case you weren’t entirely convinced of STiCLi Games’ status as a toxic developer, another piece has come forward straight from the horse’s mouth. It doesn’t take much time to read through the entirety of STiCLi’s posting history, their account consists of 23 posts as of this publishing, but one message in particular caught our attention. The STiCLi account telling a user that people “such as you should be killed on sight.”

Some context: The conversation in question was regarding LaMia Flight 2933, a tragedy that occurred late last November when a plane crashed in Columbia. The comment that STiCLi is responding to said:

81 people were on a plane like the one in the picture? No wonder it went down

(Source: Twitter)

Snapshots: RuneScape Healing The Scar


Today’s snapshot comes to us from RuneScape. Today’s update to the ever-expanding MMO finally healed the scar in Lumbridge, where players assisted in a battle between gods Saradomin and Zamorak going on four years ago. Since then the battle-scarred land has been used for everything from holiday events to summer beach parties. With today’s update, a bit of life returns to the region with all sorts of rabbits and imps walking around.

Also part of today’s update is a major overhaul to the game’s wardrobe system.

STICLI Games: Toxic Developer With Invalid EULA


STICLI Games is the developer of Airport Master on Steam, a $15 airport simulator that by all accounts seems to be a decent game that merely suffers from a bad user interface. The developer, however, seems intent on driving their reputation directly into the river by coming right off the starting line with toxic behavior, an illegitimate end user license agreement, and enforcing trademarks that it very likely does not own.

Since we live in a world where shady, toxic indie Steam developers waste no time perjuring themselves (because filing a false DMCA is committing perjury, a very real crime) by striking critical videos, banning people who post critical reviews, and threatening critics with everything from legal action to revoking their access to the game because they had the gall to complain on or off of the forums.

But STICLI Games has taken it a step further. Imagine, as a non-business owner, what you would do to stop criticism of your game. You write it into the rules, right? While rules are fine and dandy, you need a set that has implied legal backing behind it, and that leads us to our next topic: The end user license agreement. It’s a tool that, for many small business, would never hold up in court because it wasn’t drafted by a lawyer (a competent lawyer), contains bad sections that could invalidate the whole agreement, and the owner assumes that anything written is legally binding because why not, the customer agreed to it.

STICLI Games has decided to bake justification for toxic, anti-consumer practices directly into their EULA, starting with the recognition that STICLI owns the trademarks on all properties and you are not allowed to produce content without prior written permission:

The End User recognizes that all of the rights associated with the Software as well as the rights related to the trademarks, royalties and copyrights, are the property of STICLI Games and are protected by international laws and treaties. Any use of Copyright Holder’s trademarks, imagery content, videos, graphical elements, names, plot in any activity (including but not limited to: producing 3d party video content, electronic and on-paper publishing, creation of promotional content etc.) is only possible with prior written permission of Copyright Holder.

Incidentally, we can learn a lesson from Digital Homicide’s James Romine on this subject: As he stated in his lawsuit against Jim Sterling about the use of the ECC Games name, he isn’t violating any law because ECC Games doesn’t own the trademark in the United States. And after a cursory search of the US Trademark Office, it looks like STICLI Games doesn’t own a US trademark on Airport Master. Trademark, unlike copyright, does not protect works automatically. You have to file, pay the fees, and have your application approved.

But let’s go further, because the EULA just gets better from here out.

4. TRADEMARKS AND RIGHTS TO THE SOFTWARE
The End User recognizes that all of the rights associated with the Software as well as the rights related to the trademarks, royalties and copyrights, are the property of STICLI Games and are protected by international laws and treaties. Any use of Copyright Holder’s trademarks, imagery content, videos, graphical elements, names, plot in any activity (including but not limited to: producing 3d party video content, electronic and on-paper publishing, creation of promotional content etc.) is only possible with prior written permission of Copyright Holder.

A large portion of the threatening emails I receive from developers follow this pattern, people who think they the legal authority to decide who covers their products and want to know why I didn’t ask for permission before publishing my review/editorial. Here’s the thing about copyright law: You don’t have to ask for the creator’s permission in order to cover it. I don’t need STICLI’s permission to use a screenshot as part of this publishing, I don’t need their permission to write this article about how they’d want permission from me to write this article, and I don’t need permission to review their products.

EULAs don’t magically grant companies special privileges, there have boundaries you can’t go outside of when it comes to agreeing on what can and can’t be done.

9. NO REFUNDS
Except when required by law, the Licensor shall be under no obligation to issue refunds under any circumstances. The Licensor may issue refunds basing on Licensor’s own judgement and solely as a gesture of good will.

I have seen some discussion about this clause and it isn’t technically ‘illegal’ in the basic sense because the writer was smart enough to add ‘except when required by law.’ It doesn’t make sense otherwise because STICLI doesn’t get to decide who receives a refund, that’s Valve. None of STICLI’s judgement comes into effect when it comes to Valve’s refund policy.

That means you MUST obtain prior written permission from us before uploading any videos to YouTube. Otherwise, you are breaching the EULA and we can terminate your software license without refund and fire a copyright strike on YouTube.

Also, is this a challenge? Because it sounds like a challenge, and I love a good challenge. So, in testing whether Steam would enforce Airport Master’s ‘under any circumstance’ EULA, I decided to purchase Airport Master for $14.99. I quickly came across some performance issues, including the following illegible text on most menus. It made the game, in my humble opinion, impossible to play on my system and therefore a qualifying circumstance to ask for a refund, I think most will agree.

So I asked for a refund, to which Valve said “yea sure whatever” and promptly handed it over after about two hours.

Turns out that STICLI Games’ EULA isn’t so binding after all.

One more thing: The whole argument about trademark is useless as trademark and copyright are two wholly separate entities. Trademark is all about market confusion, owning a brand and identity and being able to protect it. It is what would prevent someone from, say, starting up a business called STICKLI Games and producing a game called Airport Masters and selling it on Steam, because that is confusing the market. It stops sleazy furniture stores from advertising the “Ultimate Super Bowl Couch,” because it implies official affiliation. It does not give you full control over the use of the words.

It looks like STICLI Games is in Cyprus, and doesn’t own the trademark there either.