Shady – MMO Fallout

About a week ago I published an editorial talking about the existence of games on Steam that cost a lot of money and don’t exactly justify their price. Titles that look like mobile ports or Unity shovelware that nobody seems to play and not only are being sold for money but a lot of money at that. My hunch at the time was that some of these games may be falling into a less than legal realm, being used as a form of money laundering which certainly wouldn’t be surprising or the first time such a title has shown up on Steam. This isn’t an accusation, just a speculation.

Well it appears I’m not the only one looking into these games as Valve has seen fit to give several of them the boot this week. Let’s dive in.

#1: Lab3D

Lab3D was developed and published by Tantal back in August 2019 and you may need Lasik surgery if you take a look at this screenshot and don’t immediately say “paying $200 is basically robbing the developer, make it $400.” Two hundred smackers, and the developer sounds completely legitimate when responding to a question about the price with:

“No, not trolling. Consider this a kind of experiment, only shhhh. And I can change the base price at any time.”

Lab3D had one review and 51 followers. Was it a money laundering scheme? A troll game? Only the developer knows.

#2: Fantasy Smith VR

Fantasy Smith VR was a $90 product by developer Okamoto 3 Nori, and in addition to the $90 base price it also featured several pieces of DLC all priced out at $40 a pop. Fantasy Smith VR is a little odd because it started out as a $12.99 product before the price suddenly and without explanation hiked up to $89.99 where it sat until Valve banned the game this week. Out of everything on this list, Fantasy Smith VR actually seems like a real game. If you head over to the community hub you’ll find people talking about it playing it and not being happy that the developer hasn’t spoken to anyone.

One of these things is not like the other.

#3: Hunting In Ancient Asia

Hunting in Ancient Asia is another $200 game, this time by Thoth Technology Ltd. everyone’s favorite game developer. Hunting In Ancient Asia had nobody playing it, roughly four instances of one person logged in since it launched in September despite 125 followers. Thoth Technology’s ban could be linked to some questionable reviews that may or may not have been at the behest of the developer. We will never know.

Unlike the other developers on this list, Thoth Technology Ltd. actually had other games on Steam and at more of a reasonable price. In an effort to become the Digital Homicide of virtual reality, Thoth not so much released as it did spam Steam with a bunch of shoddy looking VR titles over the span of the last eleven months, one of which was being sold for $100. I have to assume that the titles sound more elegant in their original Simplified Chinese and were at some level created with education or therapy based clients in mind.

Check em out.

#4: The Ones That Remain

There is a laundry list of games that in my frank opinion warrant Valve’s second look despite the fact that if any of these titles are involved in less than legal operations those activities are probably long over and done with and the cash paid out. These are games that cost $200 (or $100), have zero customers or close to it as far as I can tell, and have no public activity by the developer.

Crisis Action VR; Pixel Wonder
Strike Mole/Physical Ball; Lize
Mouse Run; ATM Game
NUMBER; rongyao0577
LLK; Chenyun0577
Hiscores Gold; Alexander in Uganda
Lgnorant girl doll; wandwand
Adventure Trip; Sunsmaybe Games
Luna and Cynthia; wandwand
Shoot Pump Shoot; Aurora Borealis
Blast Em!; Xiotex Studios Ltd

BDO10

Here at MMO Fallout, I’ve made several attempts to warn people of the dangers of downloading bot software and doing business with gold farmers in online games. Not only do you risk the safety of your accounts, but you also take a chance of having your computer compromised and your identity stolen. Gold farmers, it may surprise you, have a heavy hand in actual crime, and I’m not talking about selling gold to teenagers/adults who feel inadequate in their electronic wealth. I’m talking about people who deal in actual stolen credit cards and often steal from their own customers.

Such is the case, once again, as botters in Black Desert Online recently found out that a popular program was bugged with a keylogger. Users are logging into their accounts to find their characters wiped and items stolen. Hopefully this will serve as a lesson for players looking to get ahead through illegitimate means, but given past history it is only a matter of time before the next incident.

(Source: Reddit)

Tag: Shady

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