[Update] Skyforge Dev Threatens Game Bans Over Pay To Win Talk


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Allods Team doesn’t like the term free-to-play, so much so that community manager Maeron has warned that discussion on the matter could result in your game access being revoked. In his response, Maeron points to a trend in players pasting the p2w label on pretty much everything that costs money, a label that he believes causes undue damage to a game. The discussion occurred in a thread inquiring about whether the US/EU cash shops would be the same as the Russian shop.

Those familiar with Allods Team’s previous game, Allods Online, likely feel that their concerns over pay to win are more than justified. Allods Online, despite all the praise it received for quality and polish, was heavily criticized for its cash shop, from a 1,000% increase in price over the Russian version to the widely unpopular Fear of Death debuff (and its cash-shop cure) that was replaced with an equally unpopular mechanic that would curse items on death and invert their stats, also curable with a cash shop item.

Whatever the case, with this reaction it is certain that Skyforge’s cash shop will be placed under heavy scrutiny by its community.

Update: The thread has been reopened and Maeron’s comments retracted. A followup has been posted on the thread.

Answers will be coming as we agreed already. I’m really sorry I caused all that stir… My intent was mostly to urge players not to use harsh wording so no fences will raise and harm our exchanges… But I must have been carried away… I apologize.

(Source: Skyforge)

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Celebrate 25 Years Of Cable For $2.50


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Gazillion Entertainment is celebrating Cable’s 25th birthday (the hero, not the character) with a sale on all things tied to the hero. From today until the end of the month, everything Cable related is marked down to $2.50 including the hero himself. That’s one hero, six costumes, and one stash tab.

That’s $2.50 each.

(Source: Marvel Heroes)

APB Servers To Begin Merger


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APB: Reloaded will be merging its five servers into three over the next month or so in order to bring players closer together. On April 22nd, the two EU servers will be merged into one with the US servers merging into their own on May 6th. The third server Han, which runs for the Asian region, won’t see any change.

Character name priority will be given based on account age, playtime, and last login. The console (PS4/XOne) servers will run from the same locations as the PC servers.

(Source: APB Reloaded)

Mini-Documentary Shows Handless Gamer’s Skills


Massimiliano Sechi is known around League of Legends as the Handless Gamer, or MacsHG. Sechi, a Sardinian native born with no hands, has managed to not just reach the Diamond rank in League of Legends, he’s managed to outclass countless other League of Legends players by playing with his feet.

The mini-documentary above, created by Razer, showcases how Sechi uses Razer technology to play his favorite games from League to World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. If you have ten minutes to spare, it is definitely worth a look. Echi’s motto of “no excuses” rings especially loud as he passes his driving test.

Funcom Extends Issue Pack To Current Players


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If the last month has taught us anything, it’s that current players don’t take kindly to being cut out of lucrative deals. Funcom’s announced sale of the base game plus four additional issues for $20 ruffled more than a few feathers when it was revealed that the sale was for new accounts only.

Thankfully the outrage has been heard and Funcom has extended the sale to everyone. Up until March 31st, you’ll be able to get your hands on Issues 5-8 for $20. This sale is completed through the Funcom account management page and not through the in-game store.

(Source: The Secret World)

RuneScape Launches 200th Quest


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This week marks a milestone in RuneScape history, with the launch of the game’s 200th quest: Dimension of Disaster. As voted on by the community, the latest quest asks a very simple question, what would life be like in Gielinor if the hero didn’t exist? Players step into an alternate timeline where necromancer Zemouregal has taken over Varrock, zombified its citizens, and now rules with an iron fist.

The player must go back and complete previous quests, albeit with a sinister twist, to free the alternate world.

“The parallel universe storyline of Dimension of Disaster is an opportunity for the RuneScape team to celebrate the extraordinary affect that the player’s hero has had on the world of Gielinor and its inhabitants. We’re thrilled to finally share this 200th quest and hope the fans has as much fun with this as they have had with the previous 199!”
-Phil Mansell, Vice President of RuneScape.

You’ll need a RuneScape membership to take part in the Dimension of Disaster quest.

(Source: Jagex press release)

Crowfall’s Backer Stretch Goals Thus Far


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With about 70 hours left to go in the Crowfall Kickstarter, more than fourteen thousand have pledged their support. The latest stretch goal is the Guinea Beast pack animal. The next stretch goal, at 14.5 thousand backers, will offer bonus tax-free land parcels to backers at varying tiers.

  • Female Centaur characters and enhanced particle effects.
  • All-father statue for all backers.
  • 1 free month VIP for everyone.
  • Character mounts and caravans plus bonuses for higher tier backers.
  • Guinea Beast pack animal for everyone.

(Source: Kickstarter)

Eve Online Kill Of The Week: March 15th Edition


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I recently proposed the idea of an Eve Online Kill of the Week column as an idea to drive traffic, since the article about the PLEX kill got a fair amount of interest, and people really seem to enjoy these kind of pieces. As I expected and hoped, the interest has a lot less to do with who is getting killed and more with just the sheer amount of money lost. Since Eve’s ISK can be translated into real world dollars, the losses can be understood even by people who don’t play the game.

Last week’s Kill of the Week was Officer Fargo of Common Sense Ltd. As you can see from the data above, the pilot was killed on March 16th in nullsec (lowest security space) while piloting a Titan class Avatar ship worth over 118 billion ISK, or over $2,500 USD when converted into real money. Of the 118 billion ISK, over 8 billion was dropped as salvageable and the rest was destroyed. The Avatar ship itself amounted to 100 billion of the overall total.

According to the Eve Online wiki, the Avatar is the most common Titan class ship in terms of production, usage, and death. The Avatar can be “easily tanked” by a Triage Carrier.

SOE Live Fan Successor Up On Kickstarter


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With SOE Live cancelled for the time being, fans are hoping to continue the festivities with their own event. Dubbed Project Fanfaire, the event will be held in August at the Hotel South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Ticket amounts are spelled out in the rewards. This is a fan planned convention to replace SOE Live while Daybreak Gaming Company makes the transition to a brand new company.

Tickets begin at $174.

(Source: Kickstarter)

Trion Worlds Offering “Community Appreciation” Package


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Trion Worlds recently found itself in a bit of controversy following the company’s attempt to win back ex-customers by doling out gift packages. The packages were considered far too generous by members of the community, including expensive gift packages and items that previously required heavy investment into the game’s lockboxes. In response, community manager Scapes announced that a plan would be announced today once it was finalized in internal meetings.

At their Livestream today, Trion announced the details of the plan. Paying patrons (paid real money) will receive a cyanfin mount, starlight glider, 30 Golden Library Index items, 10 Tyrenos index items, 10 experience potions, 7 day passes to the library floors, 5 worker’s comp potions, 2 vocation tonics, and 1 of each lucky point and archeum essence. Non-paying accounts will receive the index items (only one Tyrenos), 4 lockboxes, 2 worker’s comp potions, and 1 vocation tonic.

Players who bought the cash shop lockbox will receive tokens for each box that they purchased that can be used to buy any of the lockboxes that have been released to date.

(Source: Trion Worlds Livestream)