Aventurine Lays Out Seven Layers Of Improvement


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Well, they did seven days ago, but cut me some slack. Aventurine has laid out a seven-step plan for improving Darkfall: Unholy Wars. The entire post can be found on the forum (link below) and covers seven topics based on communication with the community, on how to improve the game of Darkfall.

The post goes into a number of ideas, including an enchanting system, alignment systems for criminals, expanded PvE experience, and more. Aventurine’s ideas range in their completion stage from early concept to ready for launch within the next few patch cycles. If you have a few minutes to spare, take a look at the ideas presented in the link below.

(Source: Darkfall)

RuneScape Shutting Down Spanish Service


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Spanish speaking RuneScape players will log in today to discover some disappointing news about their game: Jagex is sunsetting the Spanish servers. In a post on the Spanish RuneScape website, Mod Pips announced that the Spanish server will no longer be supported as of today, and will shut down on November 3rd. The reason provided is that the service never grasped the level of income needed to justify the expense of translation.

In other words, we find it more expensive to produce and provide support in this version that the gain we get from it, so that as a business, we can not justify their maintenance.

Members coming from Axeso5 will receive an additional 30 days of game time and are encouraged to come over to the English, German, French, or Brazilian Portugese servers (characters can freely log between them). While future Jagex products may be translated into Spanish, with considerations to market prospects, there are no more plans to translate RuneScape any further.

(Source: RuneScape)

Darkfall's Spooky Scary Halloween Event


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Halloween is upon us, and that means spooky events filled with ghosts, goblins, witches, zombies, and even some old string. Beginning October 30th and running for five days, Aventurine wants you to celebrate Halloween in the traditional way: Beating the crap out of monsters. Over the holiday event, certain creatures will spawn with candies for the taking, as well as limited holiday feats that can be completed for their own rewards. Beginning today, you can find Darkfall subscriptions on sale for 50% off.

The sale only runs until the 29th, so don’t be too spooked.

(Source: Aventurine press release)

First TERA Expansion Announced


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Hopefully today’s MMOrning Shot didn’t spoil anything for you. En Masse Entertainment announced the first expansion to TERA, dubbed Fate of Arun. The expansion will task players with exploring the mysterious northern continent of Arun, taking on a new evil power and perhaps saving the native Khirians in the process. The expansion also raises the level cap to 65 and introduces new gear, zones, skills, and dungeons for high level players.

“It’s been an incredible two years since TERA first launched in North America,” said En Masse Entertainment Producer Patrick “Treeshark” Sun. “Fate of Arun will be, without a doubt, the biggest addition to the world of TERA new and returning players have ever seen – and we’re excited to reveal more details in the upcoming weeks.”

(Source: En Masse Entertainent Press Release)

MMOrning Shots: Location, Location, Location


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Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from TERA, showing off the game’s first expansion Fate of Arun.

Check out MMOrning Shots almost every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Diaries From The Old Republice: Fly Me To Coruscant


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Let’s get one thing out of the way: I haven’t played The Old Republic in a very, very long time. Before strongholds, before legacy, before achievements, before just about any of that stuff. I think I might have logged in once or twice after the game went free to play, but aside from that all I have to show for my pre-order is a level 26 smuggler. Those of you who have read my playthrough pieces know that I level slow, in fact even with the 12x experience boost, I can’t guarantee that I will get my current character to level 55 before the expansion hits…in December. Yea, I’m that pathetic.

For the sake of figuring out just how far I could outlevel the content, I decided to make a new character and go for a Jedi Knight. The 12x experience boost only applies to story missions, which is a good thing. At the rate that story missions are propelling me through my levels, side missions don’t offer much outside of some equipment or planetary tokens. I’ve told myself that I should be focusing on story missions for now, and that I can always come back and mop up missed side missions once my speed run is over and done with. Since each story mission provides at least one level, I am currently at level 22 running a level 16 story mission.

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The Old Republic is supposed to be several KOTOR sequels wrapped into one, and with that in mind I am going to play the story and enjoy it. So far the Jedi story is pretty cut and dry, but the characters are interesting and the overall plot manages to seamlessly change from planet to planet. The story is basic Star Wars: There is a sith doing bad things, and you kill him only to find out that there is a badder sith somewhere else controlling his strings. Rinse and repeat. The side missions that appear in the middle are where the creative minds at Bioware really shine through.

For instance, you arrive on Coruscant to find that not a whole lot of people particularly like you. The Republic troops on Coruscant don’t trust the Jedi because they up and left when the Jedi temple was sacked by the Sith, leaving the planet to be overrun by criminal cartels. While the resource-starved Republic was forced to withdraw its forces, a militia called the Justicars formed up to fight the various crime syndicates only to find that their efforts too would not be enough. Many have lost hope in the Republic, and some are even considering switching over to the Empire who seem more willing to stamp out crime on the planet. It seems that even in the old Republic, there is no shortage of misery caused by the inaction of the Jedi order.

One small aspect that I enjoy is the crew affection rating. In conversations, you can gain or lose affection rating with your companion based on what you say. As a jedi, my companions are better tuned toward feats of courage and compassion than malice and revenge. They call it the Jedi Order for a reason.

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While I wouldn’t describe my feelings as overenthusiastic, I am having some fun playing through The Old Republic. Who knows, maybe by the time the December deadline comes around, I’ll be on my second character. I doubt it.

NCWest Layoffs Inbound Across All Departments


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NCSoft has confirmed a round of layoffs at its western operations, affecting all of its studios outside of ArenaNet. The layoffs come as a result of “restructuring of key operations within NC West,” as the developer pushes towards mobile and tablet gaming, as well as emerging technologies. Polygon has cited an unnamed source stating that over sixty members of the Carbine Studios team were laid off.

The statement by NCSoft:

Today we announced a restructuring of key operations within NC West. As a result of this restructuring, we are implementing staff reductions across our Western operations with the exclusion of ArenaNet. While decisions like this are always hard, they are necessary as we begin the implementation of a new strategy designed to strengthen our footing as a leader in global entertainment.

Moving forward, we will continue to focus on our core development capabilities and the intellectual properties (WildStar, Aion, Lineage, and Guild Wars franchises) that have made NCSOFT what it is today. However, we are looking to move into new business segments like mobile and tablet games as well as explore emerging technologies.

Again, the decision to reduce staff was not an easy one, and we sincerely wish everyone well in their next endeavors.

(Source: Polygon)

[Editorial] Gem Store Update Poorly Introduced, Response Even Worse


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The latest gem store update to Guild Wars 2 has had players up in arms, and it’s hard not to sympathize with their position. Previously, buying and selling gems was a process that involved deciding how much you wanted to buy/sell, setting an asking price, and waiting until your order was filled. If you wanted enough gems for a Black Lion chest key, you could get it. If you had 124 gems and wanted an item that cost 125 gems, you could buy that extra gem.

If you can figure out what is wrong with the new gem shop interface in the screenshot above, you probably don’t work for Arenanet. Given that the trade shop was built to be flexible and user-friendly, the change to a system that is entirely based on fixed, inflexible increments seems counterproductive and quite baffling in its logic, but so far Arenanet doesn’t seem to understand why players would be angry about being forced to buy 400 gems minimum.

As seems to be the popular excuse, Arenanet blamed the update on new players not understanding the system, a problem that apparently only exists in Arenanet’s customer support tickets. Communications team lead Gaile Gray has not helped the situation by going on the offensive against players in the forums. In her first response, Gray explained that “very few people bought gems at smaller denominations.” Following pages of complaints and suggestions, Gray made another post making no acknowledgement of the previous suggestions and instead decrying “most” of the posters as nonconstructive ranters.

Ok, guys. Some of you are unhappy about this change, I can see that. BUT… quite honestly, most of you are sort of (I hate to use the word) ranting (sorry!) instead of offering suggestions.

The comment on this update being geared towards new players is suspicious at best, considering that the lowest increment of gems now costs 75 gold. How many new players are going to have 75 gold to spend on the gem store? None. The only impact that this could conceivably have on new players is to remove their ability to purchase smaller amounts of gems and funnel them toward buying the gems with real money.

Guild Wars 2 has a habit of introducing updates which beg the question “who asked for this?” The answer is usually a lot of unseen people who submit support tickets and then apparently never feel the need to discuss the matter anywhere else, because if you searched the forums you wouldn’t come up with many, if any, results.

Arenanet has already confirmed that an update will allow player to use either system to their choosing, begging the question on why it wasn’t just included in the first place.

Valve Pulls Game After Developer Tweets Threat


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Social media has brought many great things to the gaming community, chief among which being a much closer and more personal connection with the people who make our games. Unfortunately, it has also had the effect of giving faces to the otherwise faceless, a voice to those who for the sake of the company’s public image, perhaps shouldn’t be given an open microphone.

Paranautical Activity has been removed from Steam and Valve has terminated its contract with the developer after Mike Maulbeck posted a profanity-laced rant on Twitter. In his tweets, Maulbeck called Valve “incompetent,” lamented the company’s monopoly, and expressed his hopes that the platform would no longer be a monopoly by the time his next game released. Maulbeck posted another tweet that has since been deleted, stating “I am going to kill gabe newell. He is going to die.”

Whether or not the “threat” was genuine is irrelevant to what transpired. At the end of the day, video games are a business and companies like Valve expect a certain amount of professional conduct from their partners. Business issues should be dealt with professionally via email, not through vitriolic rants on Twitter.

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