Steam – Page 64 – MMO Fallout

TERA Opens Up Inactive Usernames

TERA’s launch on Steam means a lot of new players, and that means a lot of people looking for free names. On June 25th, characters who haven’t logged in over the past year will have their usernames changed in order to free up choices for these new incoming players:

Any characters that have not logged into the game since June 25, 2014 will have their names appended with “_1”, freeing up their old names to anyone creating a new character or using the paid Character Name Change service.

You will need to log in before June 25th to keep your name saved.

(Source: TERA)

TERA Declares Itself #1 MMO On Steam

En Masse Entertainment has declared TERA to be the #1 MMO on Steam, based on peak concurrent players compared to other MMOs on the digital platform.

Since launching on Steam on May 5, 2015, TERA has seen explosive growth, with new and returning players pushing the total number of accounts to over 4.5 million in North America and 20 million worldwide! And those players have been busy—killing an average of 6 million BAMs (Big-Ass Monsters) and clearing 70,000 dungeons a day.

You can read more about TERA’s launch on Steam with this handy infographic.

(Source: En Masse Entertainment press release)

[Less Massive] Shuttered Game Still Being Sold On Steam

Steam Early Access has seen a lot of criticism, from the fact that most games don’t see completion, to the sale of titles that are at best misleading and at worst engaging in outright fraud. It has also become the source of indie devs putting games up for sale only to engage with the community for a few months before disappearing with whatever money they had managed to gain in that time frame. Customers, on the other hand, generally have no recourse if their purchase turns out to be for nothing.

Such is the case again with Into The War, developed and abandoned by the now absent Small Town Studios. According to Steam reviews, the servers for Into the War haven’t been operational going back to early April, possibly even further. The developer’s website is offline, and their social media has gone silent.

In addition, the game’s forum currently contain a sticky telling players to not just avoid buying the game, but to report it to Steam (typos left intact).

On the store page you will see a Flag icon at the right side of the page. Use it to report the game and describe it as abandoned by the developers.(use the “Broken” option) and it’s nothing more than a scam now, with the devs running away, deleting their site and social media presence, while the game remains unplayable.

Despite the servers being offline and the developer unreachable, the game is still up for sale as of this publishing for $4.99. Those who bought the game may have a glimmer of hope, as Valve has issued refunds for other early access games abandoned by their developers and left in a broken state.

For critics of Early Access, this is just another example in an ongoing demand for more curation on the Steam platform.

(Source: Steam)

Australia To See 10% Price Hike On Steam

A 10% price hike on Steam games sold in Australia is all but confirmed, as reported by PC Gamer. As some outlets have been covering, the 2015 Australian budget will include a tax on intangible imported goods, the goal being to apply the GST (Goods and Services Tax) that had not been collected due to the law being written before such goods had become a major market.

When the new prices go into effect is presently unknown.

(Source: PC Gamer)

Valve Shuts Down Paid Skyrim Workshop, Refunds Everyone

Valve’s controversial decision to introduce a system where mod makers could put their creations up for sale is dead in the water just a couple of days after it was introduced. Last week Valve announced that creations in the Skyrim workshop would be able to charge a fee for use, with the creator taking a 25% cut of earnings.

The resulting backlash inspired groups of customers boycotting Valve, protest creations popping up in the Steam workshop, and a Reddit AMA by Valve’s own Gabe Newell.

In an announcement posted to the Steam Community, Valve admitted to underestimating the differences between the revenue sharing models in their previous ventures (TF2/DOTA cosmetics) and the mod community.

We’re going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For anyone who spent money on a mod, we’ll be refunding you the complete amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree.

Going by the announcement, it seems that this isn’t the last we will hear from paid mods. Perhaps Valve will introduce some donation method to help mod creators.

(Source: Steam)

Alganon Patches In Steamworks Support

Quest Online has revealed that Alganon will be coming to Steam next month. Alongside a number of other fixes and tweaks, support for Steamworks was added in the latest Alganon patch. According to Quest Online, Alganon will officially be on Steam next month.

Implemented support for SteamWorks backend services. Yes, Alganon is coming to Steam next month! This is the store landing page.

The link does not work as of this publishing.

(Source: Alganon)

[Not Massive] Criticism Mounting of Paid Mods Program

[Update]: Tripwire Interactive has expressly forbidden the use of paid mods in its EULA for Killing Floor 2.

Your Mods must be distributed for free, period. Neither you, nor any other person or party, may sell them to anyone, commercially exploit them in any way, or charge anyone for receiving or using them without prior written consent from Tripwire Interactive.

[Original Story] About a day has passed since Valve’s announcement of paid mods on Steam, beginning with Elder Scrolls Skyrim, and the backlash is mounting against the new system. A petition on Change.org to remove the mod shop has drawn over forty thousand signatures at the time of this publishing, while a number of people are flooding paid mods with bad reviews.

Fears that Valve’s hands-off approach to curating content would result in stolen content being listed were confirmed when a fishing mod was pulled for using assets from another mod without permission. The creator of Fore’s New Idle Animations, a mod that many other Skyrim mods rely on to function, has expressed his opposition against mods being released for money.

Valve has also seen criticism over its policy of taking a 75% cut of revenue.

Steam Severely Limits Free Accounts To Combat Bots

If you haven’t been inundated with phishing attempts lately, consider yourself lucky.

With a customer base of their size and a lucrative trading market ripe for the picking, it only makes sense that Steam is in a constant uphill battle against account theft. In the latest attempt to curb phishing, Valve has placed multiple limitations on free accounts.

Certain features will be restricted until the account has spent at least $5 USD on the store, either by adding funds, purchasing a game, or purchasing a gift.

Malicious users often operate in the community on accounts which have not spent any money, reducing the individual risk of performing the actions they do. One of the best pieces of information we can compare between regular users and malicious users are their spending habits as typically the accounts being used have no investment in their longevity.

Free users with nothing spent on their account will be limited from:

Sending friend invites
Opening group chat
Voting on Greenlight, Steam Reviews and Workshop items
Participating in the Steam Market
Posting frequently in the Steam Discussions
Gaining Steam Profile Levels (Locked to level 0) and Trading Cards
Submitting content on the Steam Workshop
Posting in an item’s Steam Workshop Discussions
Accessing the Steam Web API
Using browser and mobile chat

The limitations can only be removed by spending on the Steam store. Receiving a gift, playing demos/free weekends, or adding a retail product will not lift the limitations.

(Source: Steam)

Xsyon Now On Steam Early Access

Notorious Games has officially launched their sandbox MMO Xsyon on Steam Early Access. Now available for $29.99, and includes one month of subscription time.

During the Prelude, Xsyon is continuously evolving and expanding. This phase of the game was intended as a time for the game to adapt to its community. The development team has been working closely with the player base to determine the future of Xsyon and wishes to continue to do so with the Steam crowd.”

Players with existing Xsyon accounts can request a Steam copy for no additional charge.

(Source: Notorious Games Press Release)

Project Gorgon Successfully Greenlit

Following its unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign, Project Gorgon has been successfully greenlit for release on Steam.

There’s a lot of work to get the game Steam-ready, and I don’t know the exact timeline yet, but the hard part was getting Greenlit.

You can currently play an early build of Project Gorgon at the official website.

(Source: Steam)

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