A player of the MMORPG Oldschool RuneScape (Steam) made a reckless bet on reddit. He proposed an extremely painful bet because he thought an MMORPG player could not possibly find a rare pet the next day. He was wrong.
What was the bet?
In the MMORPG Oldschool RuneScape, there is a player known on reddit as “crazy penguin guy”. The user “heytomsmyname” began on October 5, 2022, a grind to get a rare pet: the “Giant Squirrel”, a giant squirrel.
Anyone who completes an “Agility” course with penguins in Oldschool RuneScape has a chance of 1:9779 to get this pet. The penguin course has the best chances for the pet; other agility routes have a chance of 1:35,609.
So the player decided to run this course 100 times a day and post a “Penguin Fact” on reddit daily.
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3 MMORPGs that are still played a lot even 20 years after release
“If you find the pet tomorrow, then …”
What was the bet? The reddit user TessaHolly responded to one of these “Penguin Facts” with the bet:
If you get it tomorrow, my fiancée will spray hot coffee into my asshole.
That was on May 1st. Unfortunately for the reddit user, the crazy penguin guy actually got his pet on May 2nd.
Fiancée beamed with joy when she heard what she could do to her fiancé
This is how the bet concluded: On May 2nd, the player finally published the post he had been waiting for 200 days: He found the pet and can now escape his “icy prison”.
The player says he ended up running 25,000 rounds in the course, and still had a few “Penguin Facts” left to share.
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Did the reddit user fulfill his bet? Yes, he did. After people on reddit encouraged him to definitely fulfill his bet, it was time. As seen in a clip, he actually gave himself the coffee enema and reacted accordingly (via reddit).
In an interview with the site gamesradar he says his girlfriend was excited about the idea of spraying coffee into his butt. He says the look on his fiancée’s face lit up as if it were Christmas, and she said, “Okay!!!! Can I show it to my friends afterwards?”
Ultimately, his fiancée was less concerned about his health, but about the risk of a neighbor seeing the action. The neighbor always smokes on the balcony.
When asked how the coffee felt, the reddit user said: About the same as how the roof of the mouth feels after eating pizza that’s too hot.
Every day, people make trivial and quite crazy bets in MMORPGs or online forums. Here, someone actually fulfilled such a bet.
The EA servers seem to be having issues right now. Anyone who wants to play some of the popular games from the publisher on PC, PS5, or Xbox has no access to online modes. Especially frustrating: even single-player games are affected.
What is going on with EA? Apparently, EA’s servers are currently unavailable. Anyone trying to play FIFA or Apex Legends or buy a game will be greeted with errors or a timeout. Downloads seem to work but are extremely slow.
The official support from Electronic Arts has confirmed on Twitter that there is an outage that is currently being worked on. In the meantime, one cannot access online modes or log into their account.
When will the servers be back online? This cannot be said at the moment. The team has been working on a solution for several hours already, but there is still no update on the situation. As soon as we know more, you will find an update here.
Update at 6:10 PM: According to EA, the servers are back online (via Twitter), but users are still complaining that they cannot log in. For some, it took longer than the message; others still cannot play.
Also affected: The new Star Wars: Jedi Survivor:
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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Trailer Game Awards
“That’s why we need offline modes”
But it’s not just multiplayer games that suffer from the current server down, but also solo games like Sims or the new Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. Both games require a connection to the EA servers and have no offline mode.
This frustrates many fans who are already annoyed by the constant online requirement. RedGamingTech writes on Twitter: “And that’s why offline modes for single-player campaign games, for which we… well, paid, are very welcome?”
Jedi Survivor just came out on April 28, and many fans want to play now. The PC port is already facing major technical issues, which the server down will likely contribute to further bad moods. And exactly on May 4, the international Star Wars day.
Accordingly, many users are frustrated under EA’s tweet. There are complaints that nothing is still working. Some are trying to create some distraction with their art or are demanding free weekends for the new Star Wars game.
The topic of offline modes and single-player games has been following the industry for a long time, most recently with the upcoming Diablo 4. However, the EA chief has a clear position on this:
Destiny-2 players have not forgotten and have now launched a moving action to honor their lost hero Commander Zavala at the Guardian Games 2023.
Why are Guardians planning this action? In March 2023, Lance Reddick, the voice of Commander Zavala and “John Wick” star unexpectedly passed away at the age of 60. At that time, the Guardians, especially the Titan class, showed their condolences in-game with vigils, remembering a great actor who was one of them.
It was during those days that the idea arose to set up a memorial for Lance Reddick at the Guardian Games 2023. Because if the Titans win, Bungie will honor this with a gold plating of the Titan symbol on the Guardian Games statue for 1 year.
This week the Guardian Games are underway, and the players have not forgotten their plan.
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Destiny 2: Lightfall – Trailer to the Guardian Games 2023
Guardians call to participate in the action: Well-known Destiny 2 streamers, like GernaderJake and Uhmaayyze, already believe in a victory for the Titans. Others, such as Knitehawk, encouraged actively realizing this tribute under the motto “We do this for Commander Zavala”.
We do this for Commander Zavala! I am participating in the Guardian Games Cup as a Titan. You can expect the best TITAN content you’ve ever seen!
Even players who are not typically Titan mains want to participate and honor Reddick’s memory by playing as the class in the game that represents Zavala.
But is the Titan even the right class? Some Guardians pointed out that Lance Reddick was actually more of a Warlock player. There is a video showing the actor playing Destiny 2 with his Warlock.
However, if you look at Lance Reddick’s profile at Bungie and his gameplay history, it becomes clear that in Lightfall it was indeed the Titan he spent the most time playing. For him, it was like many other Guardians: They play the class that is strong or brings them the most fun.
But it can be said: Lance Reddick was still a true Titan. Because as Commander Zavala, he touched the hearts of Guardians more than once – and this was also outside of his official job at Bungie.
Every line of Commander Zavala has been voiced by Lance Reddick since 2014 – and more
What does this mean for the Guardian Games 2023? The call to play only one class could have implications for the Olympic competition in Destiny 2 this year. Because the games could become a pure homage to Commander Zavala and Lance Reddick.
The Titans are currently in the lead. But whether this will hold for the next 3 weeks of the event is uncertain:
Some fans fear that playing only one class might decrease the chances of winning in the Guardian Games 2023.
Others argue that it is more important to honor Commander Zavala and unite the community than to care about the competition.
What do you think about this? Should Guardians in Destiny 2 play only the Titan class at the Guardian Games 2023 to honor Commander Zavala? Or should they try to win in every category with their favorite class at all costs? Please share your opinion in the comments.
By the way, the Guardian Games in Destiny 2 can be played for free by everyone:
Season 17 of Apex Legends is starting soon, but the developer studio has recently fixed an annoying bug from the current season. A single line of code caused massive audio issues – the source was a new weapon aptly named “Nemesis”.
The fact that a developer studio had to conduct weeks of detective work to find a small bug is something Apex studio Respawn probably didn’t anticipate. The problem: grenades that don’t explode, weapons that don’t fire, damage without an apparent source.
Here you can see the story trailer for the new Apex Legends hero of the upcoming season:
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Apex Legends – Stories from the Outlands – “Encore”
At the start of the season, the studio received reports about grenades that did not explode but still added damage to players. In live gameplay, it was hard to reconstruct the sequence of events, as the cause was not always visible in the player’s field of view, according to Respawn community manager Amy Thiessen in a Reddit thread from May 3rd.
After a preliminary investigation, it turned out that the main culprit is the system used by our servers to send start/stop commands for various effects (like explosions and physical impacts).
Amy Thiessen in the Reddit thread
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During gameplay, the server limit for particle and sound effects was overloaded, causing some sounds to be discarded. The conclusion was that the requested effects were overwhelming the engine. With each seasonal update, thousands of changes to codes, scripts, and levels were added.
Amy Thiessen compares the search for the bug to finding a needle in a haystack.
Respawn faced a complex problem that had never occurred in this form before, as despite detailed reports, it was difficult to reproduce the sequence of events but had enormous effects on the community.
In a tweet on April 26th, Respawn addressed the community’s frustration:
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Tweet translation: A fix for significant audio and effects issues that have occurred since Season 16 launched has been provided by @PlayApex. We share your frustration. While this won’t resolve all the issues raised by the community, we are committed to improving the “experience” on the battlefield.
What happened next? Respawn decided to test the theory of overloaded effects on the Apex Legends servers, which they intentionally damaged. In a test, they spawned 50 characters who simultaneously fired their weapons and used their abilities until the server practically collapsed. It worked.
This allowed the team to reproduce the audio drops described by players. However, how it happened remained a mystery. According to the community manager, this is “proof that the sound effects drop, but only in completely unrealistic test situations.”
Respawn found that the reports about the sound issues tended to come from high-level players. The idea of providing a server update to track new metrics in games led immediately to a breakthrough.
With the completion of the server update, we found it. A single line of code was identified as the main cause of the problem: the new weapon from Season 16.
Amy Thiessen in the Reddit thread
The new energy assault rifle named “Nemesis” features a unique mechanic. The weapon “charges” with each burst and can shoot faster as indicated by an energy indicator on the barrel. However, this charge drops when not triggered.
And here’s the catch.
According to Respawn, every player on the server with an uncharged Nemesis created a stop effect of the charge with every frame, even if the weapon was not equipped at all.
Interestingly, this was also the explanation for why the audio drops occurred more frequently with high-level players. “14 users with a Nemesis in their inventory and a framerate of 180 FPS would be enough to cause the sound issues.”
A patch provided last week was able to eliminate the bug once and for all. One benefit is certainly that an annoying audio bug with a complicated cause can help Respawn recognize similar bugs before they reach players. At least they want to keep this in mind.
Amy Thiessen concludes the Reddit thread with the note: “One minute of players playing Apex is equivalent to 10 testers playing the same game for a year.”
(Ironically, Nemesis is the name of the Greek goddess of vengeance. The term primarily refers to retribution, compensatory justice, or just punishment in today’s language.)
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The publisher CubeGame honors us on Steam with another installment of the series after the Battle Royale The Swordsmen X in the West, which garnishes elements of its predecessor with survival ingredients. Sounds great, but for many, the interface is a real challenge.
What kind of game is this? After The Swordsmen X is already represented with a Battle Royale on Steam, publisher GameCube is now trying with another installment of the series, namely The Swordsmen X: Survival, to combine the tested elements with survival components.
In addition to sword fighting, this now includes gathering, crafting, and exploring an open world that – to be fair – still looks quite nice despite the now aging Unreal Engine 4. An update to UE4 has also been received by Blade & Soul.
You can watch a trailer of Swordsmen X: Survival here:
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The Swordsmen X: Survival – Trailer
What is the problem? Looking at the Steam reviews of the title reveals a sobering picture: The reviews are “Mostly Negative” (via Steam). Some comments from Steam users shed light on this. For example:
User Explicable: “The translation is ridiculously poor, much worse than anything Google Translator would do for free […]”.
User Dr. Raw says: “90% Chinese. Unplayable!”
However, some comments also repeatedly criticize existing bugs, animations, or objects in the game world.
What Makes The Swordsmen X: Survival Interesting Anyway
What the game offers you: On the one hand, with a bit of skill, you can set the language to English. However, this translation unfortunately brings you back to User Explicable’s statement.
On the other hand, there are indeed some details worth mentioning:
You can expect a lovingly designed martial-arts open world in Unreal Engine 4
To survive, you must withstand both extreme heat and extreme cold as well as hunger
In addition to gathering and hunting, other skills such as forging, weaving, making furniture, and cooking are important components for survival
You can accomplish all this in your own home through housing
You can expect a lot of martial arts paired with Chinese sword fighting
In addition to the dangers in the open world, you will encounter ruins and bosses
Last but not least, you can also form clans and experience the adventure together
If you like Swordsmen X: Survival after the presentation, don’t let the language barriers stop you. With tools like capture2text (via sourceforge.net), you can extract the text from screenshots and use tools like Google Translate. Some smartphones also offer functions to translate text on an image directly.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
A former leading writer at the development studio BioWare has complained on Twitter about a trend that should make all fans of story-driven games think. David Gaider believes that writing is undervalued. A rather dangerous development in a business that relies on immersion.
In a detailed statement on Twitter, a well-known author of video game stories criticizes the industry’s attitude toward good stories. He believes that even BioWare, a studio that became famous for great stories, now assigns much less priority to storytelling.
The statements come from David Gaider. He worked for BioWare for over 17 years and left the company in 2016. Gaider was at one time the lead writer for the Dragon Age series, but also worked on Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
As a video game writer, one creates the story, writes interesting characters, and brings the world to life on paper, which then gets implemented by developers.
However, there seems to be a trend in the industry that portrays video game writing as increasingly unimportant. Gaider appears to want to draw attention to this trend with his post, as he finds it concerning.
A current game with a focus on the story is the German MMO Coreborn. Check out the story trailer here:
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Coreborn: Nations of the Ultracore – The Story Trailer
What criticism does Gaider express? On Twitter, the author summarizes his thoughts in a total of 5 tweets (via twitter.com).
He states, “Writing is one of the disciplines that are constantly undervalued.” Everyone would claim they can write well – the difference between “good” and “bad” writing is often not recognized by many.
“So why pay a lot for it, right?” he asks the audience.
In the gaming sector, he sees the problem particularly acutely. He criticizes the attitude: “I have no REAL skills… I have no idea about design, I can’t program, so I’ll be an author? That’s better than quality assurance!”.
As an example of this development, Gaider cites his former employer BioWare. With games like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, the studio set standards in terms of storytelling and character development. Today, that would probably no longer be possible, Gaider implies.
Even BioWare, which built its success on a reputation for good stories and characters, slowly transformed from a company that explicitly valued its writers to a company where we… were secretly rejected because expensive narratives were seen more as a problem that held the company back.
He is aware of how harsh that sounds. But Gaider felt this clearly before his departure from BioWare in 2016: “Suddenly, all the decision-makers were asking: ‘How can we WRITE LESS?'” He believes that a good story emerges with priority and support, not by magic.
Gaider concludes with the statement that one can say they like good writing, but if they do not prioritize and support it, then they do not appreciate it enough. He also addresses the issue of payment: “And yes – pay writers what they deserve…”.
A deep look into the industry can be exciting, and the development that Gaider describes sounds like a real problem. But one must also differentiate – what value does the statement have concerning the entire industry? This is very difficult to assess.
Currently, it is rather the technical problems that are making headlines for many new games – Hogwarts Legacy, Redfall, or Jedi Survivors frustrated many players on PC.
But does this also apply to the story? How do you perceive the developments of recent years regarding the stories, characters, and the “magic of narration” in video games? Leave a comment with your opinion on the topic.
On Discord servers, meme pages, and in pretty much every circle of friends, people are trying to push everyone into the anime “Oshi no Ko” – what is behind this hype?
That there are usually one or two big “hype anime” every year among anime fans has become a norm. But it is rare for a series to achieve what “Oshi no Ko” (Eng.: “My*Star”) has accomplished. One single episode was enough to literally make the internet “explode.” For several weeks, there were memes, reaction videos, and numerous discussions about the “hype anime of 2023.”
How did “Oshi no Ko” manage this? The series has many reasons for its success. Not only the emotional and gripping storyline (more about this in the “spoiler” section), but also the unvarnished and realistic portrayal of star life, with all its lies and rivalries, contributed to the series coming across as unusually dark and serious despite humorous moments.
Instead of starting with an episode of around 24 minutes, as is usual for anime, Oshi no Ko released the first episode with a runtime of over 80 minutes. Thus, Episode 1 is more like a standalone film, having almost four times as much time to capture viewers and excite them for the story. Accordingly, the episode had ample time to introduce the characters and their motivations and to narrate the backstory for the rest of the series.
This is not only a treat for fans of the manga source material, but also shows how much energy and confidence the production studio has invested in this anime – you can see the high production quality and detailed animations. Here, they definitely did not skimp on costs.
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What is “Oshi no Ko” about? We summarize the plot of the first episode (heavily detail-reduced) here, hence a warning:
Spoiler warning: We recommend diving into “Oshi no Ko” with as little prior knowledge as possible. So consider whether you really want to read the spoiler box about the story of the first episode.
Oshi no Ko – Episode 1: “A Mother and Her Children”
“Ai Hoshino” is a young, rising idol (comparable to a pop star) in Japan, who is gathering more and more fans around her. Among them is also the gynecologist Goro, who became aware of her through one of his now-deceased patients, a young girl named Salina.
After Salina’s death, Goro continues to follow Ai’s career – until Ai suddenly appears at his hospital with her manager. The 16-year-old Ai is pregnant, decides to carry her children to term, and Goro is supposed to conduct the birth. The pregnancy and the children are to be kept hidden from the public.
However, on the calculated due date, a man shows up at the hospital, whom Goro immediately recognizes as Ai’s stalker. When Goro wants to confront him, he is overwhelmed, falls off a cliff, and dies.
But instead of leaving this world, Goro finds himself alive shortly thereafter – reborn as Ai’s son, now named “Aqua.” Just like his sister “Ruby,” the reborn Salina, both still have all the memories and knowledge from their previous lives.
To protect her idol career, Ai hides her motherhood from the public. Because if it were to come out that the 16-year-old already has children, her career would likely be over – most idols are not even allowed to have relationships.
Ruby and Aqua try, with their limited abilities as children, to support Ai’s career in the coming months and also enjoy being able to be so close to their star and getting to know Ai’s personal side.
A few months later, there is a knock at Ai’s door, which she carelessly opens, suddenly facing her stalker. The stalker pulls out a knife and stabs her in the stomach while accusing her of “betraying the fans” and being a “cheap whore playing with her fans’ feelings.”
Aqua and Ruby can only watch in shock in their child bodies as their mother slips away from them and dies after finally managing to utter a sincere “I love you.”
Several days go by during which it becomes clear that the stalker took his own life after his act. Aqua and Ruby are adopted, and the boy reflects on the events. He comes to the conclusion that only one person could have told the stalker Ai’s address: her previously unknown father.
Aqua’s new goal is clear: he will use his new life to find his father and kill him with his own hands as soon as he is able.
After a time jump, Aqua and Ruby reach the age of young adults – and that is where the series continues with Episode 2.
The series thus abruptly shifts from a cute star adoration to a dark thriller.
How successful is Oshi no Ko? An “extreme” would be an understatement. The first episode was enough to catapult Oshi no Ko directly to 1st place of the “most popular anime of all time” on the rating site “MyAnimeList” with a rating of 9.11 out of 10. Even if the rating has since dropped to 9.08 after 3 more episodes, the series remains at 2nd place – just ahead of legendary titles like “Attack on Titan,” “Steins;Gate,” or “Bleach” and just behind “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.”
Even more general rating sites, like IMDB, rate the anime at 9.0 / 10 points – the first episode even at a rarely reached 9.5 / 10.
But not only has Oshi no Ko taken the anime charts by storm, the accompanying music – in this case, the “opening” – has also made it to the mainstream. The song “Idol” by Yaosobi reached over 60 million views on YouTube in less than 3 weeks and even secured 6th place in week 2 for “most popular music videos worldwide” – something that songs with Japanese lyrics hardly ever achieve:
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Is the anime really worth it? Ultimately, it depends on whether one can get excited about anime aesthetics at all. Oshi no Ko is (forgive me the cliché) a wild rollercoaster ride of emotions and is already a series that will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the “Top 3” of 2023. The first episode can comfortably be regarded as a standalone and even reasonably complete film that can be unreservedly recommended.
It is to be expected that the hype around the series will likely diminish. The themes are still very tailored to anime fans, and the basic setting could long-term scare off many “non-anime fans.”
However, anyone who is willing to embrace a new experience or carries a little enthusiasm for anime or emotional stories in their heart receives a clear recommendation here.
Where can you watch Oshi no Ko? It all depends on your preferences. Currently, Oshi no Ko can be legally watched in Germany through the provider “Hidive” or “Akiba Pass TV” – on Hidive with English subtitles, on Akiba also with German. If you want to watch the whole series as cheaply as possible, it’s best to wait until June when the last episodes are released and then watch the series all at once.
In addition to the main story of the new Star Wars Jedi Survivor, there are also many puzzles and optional tasks with which you can earn rewards for Cal and his companion BD-1. One of these puzzles can be found on the planet Jedha in the form of the tomb of Uhrma.
Where can you find the tomb of Uhrma? The tomb itself will automatically encounter you during the main mission. If you have the Boost ability, you can reach a chasm with an improved jump at the “stormy table mountain,” where you will find a cave with hanging talismans. There is the tomb of Uhrma. Just leave the starting pantheon and go down the stairs behind it.
In the tomb itself, you will face a wall with 8 coffins that you can pull out with your power ability. If you do this in a certain pattern, the wall will open and reveal a larger room.
Solution to the Uhrma Puzzle
What do you have to do? You need to pull out a total of 4 tombs to create a specific pattern. The order does not matter. Just the following tombs need to be pulled out:
The first tomb from the top left
The first tomb from the top right
The second tomb from the bottom left
The second tomb from the bottom right
What it should look like can be seen here in the video by HarryNinetyFour:
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When the wall in the tomb opens, you can reach a chest with a new stim pack for BD-1 with a small jump. To the right of the chest stands a druid where you can collect an echo for the database. If you jump down from the height, you can remove a grate with your power abilities and reach a long corridor to the surface.
Upon reaching the surface, you can either activate the zipline on the right to reach a shortcut to the meditation point, or you go left and can circumvent a barrier with the ability “Merrin’s Boost.” Here Sutuban-Alpha awaits you. One of the legendary opponents in the game. If you defeat him, you can secure a power essence with which you can upgrade Cal.
Pokémon GO had a critically viewed month in April due to the raid changes. Now it seems to be reflected in the game’s revenues.
Update from May 4, 2023: Developer Niantic has commented on the numbers to the portal “Eurogamer“. A spokesperson from Niantic stated that revenue in 2023 is higher than in the same period in 2022: “We usually do not comment on third-party estimates of our revenues, as these are often incorrect, which is the case here,” said the statement.
It was not denied that the monthly revenues from the App Store have decreased, however, Niantic explained: “We do not focus on month-to-month trends as they fluctuate due to large live events. This year’s changes have already increased in-person raiding, and we are looking forward to introducing exciting new features in the coming months.”
Additionally, a “5 per day” limit for remote raids was introduced. These decisions caused confusion and frustration among many players. An open letter to Niantic and a petition was created aiming to have the changes reversed.
So far, there are still no signs of a further adjustment. Nevertheless, the situation seems to have an impact – namely on the game’s revenues.
Here are the numbers: The portal “mobilegamer.biz” publishes a list of the top-grossing mobile games monthly. In April, Pokémon GO is now in 12th place, after being in the top 10 previously.
In April, Pokémon GO recorded a revenue of $34.7 million, which is a lot, but noticeably less than in the previous months.
In March, revenues were still at $42.8 million (via mobilegamer.biz).
In February, with the GO Tour and the Proto-Grolle Event, even at $57.9 million (via mobilegamer.biz).
The new level of $34.7 million is reportedly the lowest monthly figure since February 2018, thus for over 5 years.
How exactly and from what types of purchases the revenue is made up is currently unknown. However, some players have announced that they want to leave the game due to the raid changes, or at least not invest any more money. It is conceivable that the cut is related to this.
How the situation develops remains to be seen for now. Already in mid-April, we wanted to know from you if the raid changes have altered your way of playing. Here you can find the results of the survey on the changes in Pokémon GO.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
A smuggling gang wanted to smuggle Nvidia graphics cards into China and hid the GPUs in a box of lobsters. But things went wrong.
The Chinese police intercepted a truck that was trying to smuggle graphics cards into the country. The GPUs worth 70,000 Euros were hidden in a box with large lobsters.
As The Register reports, the vehicle was intercepted last week (end of April). However, the officers found a strange cargo, which included not only live lobsters but also 70 Nvidia graphics cards. The Register humorously noted that the combination of seafood and graphics cards was somehow odd – “unless the delivery was meant for a fancy restaurant where seafood is grilled on old GPUs.”
The authorities in Hong Kong estimated the value of the graphics cards at $76,500. That translates to about 70,000 Euros. However, particularly interesting is the type of graphics cards that were to be smuggled across the border. Because they are not gaming graphics cards, which are currently in high demand.
No real gaming graphics cards
What exactly was smuggled? According to various statements, the smuggled GPUs are said to be Nvidia Quadro graphics cards. In the pictures, the Nvidia logo and the lettering “Quadro” are clearly visible. Such GPUs are mainly installed and used in workstations.
Some of the graphics cards are already a few years old and do not reach the performance and capabilities of a modern RTX graphics card and are not really used for gaming.
Why are so many people smuggling? Despite heavy penalties, smugglers keep trying to bring hardware into China. This is mainly due to the value-added tax of 13% that must be paid in China. Many smugglers find the risk worth it to transport hardware through various means into the big country in the east. Sometimes it goes so far that fraudsters want to smuggle goods that could equip an entire small town.
The ingenuity knows no bounds:
SSDs are installed in electric scooters and smuggled.
CPUs are brought through customs in fake baby bellies.
However, all these attempts have one thing in common: the authorities catch the fraudsters and the images of them end up on the internet. Also as a warning of what happens to such people.
How many people succeed with their smuggling operation is not known, as such figures are, unsurprisingly, not published. However, the authorities regularly report that they repeatedly catch people trying to get through with expensive hardware.
And people sometimes use the craziest methods to get hardware past customs:
Diablo 2 is considered the pinnacle of the series, and time and again, isolated voices call for the new Diablo 4 to please be just like it. A fan now says: It will not be, and that’s a good thing. Hundreds join the discussion and explain what is good and what is bad about it.
Where does the discussion come from?
Many fans found Diablo 3 “too colorful,” while Immortal is “not a real part of the series”. The hardcore fans long for the time of Diablo 2.
It became clear relatively early in Diablo 4 that it wants to be darker again and is oriented towards the style of Diablo 1 and Diablo 2.
This is what is being discussed: In a thread on Reddit, the creator has already accumulated over 640 comments with the simple statement: “Diablo 4 is not Diablo 2 or 3.” A tremendous volume for the subreddit.
His idea was actually just that he had played all 3 predecessors (excluding Immortal) but had no interest in seeing the old mechanics again: “Why can’t people just move forward in their lives?”
Apart from a few joking responses, the creator receives much support, but also criticism from other users.
In our hub, you can find all the info about the new Diablo 4. In the video, we have compiled once more what it means that Diablo 4 gets “the best features” from the predecessors:
Start video
<strong>Diablo 4 takes the best features from the predecessors – Here is what it looks like so far</strong>
“Diablo 4 feels like what Diablo 3 should have been”
Some comments address the bad aspects of the past. The famous “inventory Tetris,” which some would like to see again, is simply brutal. It’s good that Diablo 4 does not adopt such features.
Nevertheless, the new installment is closer to Diablo 2 than to its immediate predecessor Diablo 3. It feels more like a part of the franchise. That you cannot skill freely. or that items have significance again provides more replayability, as it suddenly becomes more important how you build your character. And in doubt, it must be rebuilt. In a detailed comment, it says:
Regarding mechanics, I think we have the right amount of previous iterations to create a strong basis for a really solid Diablo game. I would like to see spells [Note from the editor: meant are “charms” from Diablo 2], a real cube (hopefully Horadric) that can hold the inventory, runes, and other things […] But Diablo 4 is closer to Diablo 2 than Diablo 3 was.
It is especially welcome that Diablo 4 brings back the overwhelming, dark feeling of the first two parts. Tight spaces where deadly danger can lurk at any moment – that’s exactly what makes Diablo.
In general, there is nothing wrong with taking good things from the past. Comparisons help to better orient oneself, and there is nothing wrong with that. Only the constant arguing about it brings nothing.
If you haven’t looked at Diablo 4 yet, you can take a last look before release. From May 12-14, Blizzard will test the stability of the servers, and you can play one last time:
The Diablo games are milestones in their genre. But the story was apparently not so important to the developers at Blizzard at first – because they “forgot” to write it down.
One can think what one wants about the story of Blizzard games, but Blizzard is at least known for meticulously preserving the lore. The game company even has its own “lore historians” who archive all details of a game world and occasionally refresh presentations and seminars with details.
Blizzard is now infamous for even having its own “Vault,” a kind of treasure chamber, where many concept drawings and also story ideas and background materials lie that probably no player will ever see. Blizzard has even hired “Lorewalkers” to preserve all the story.
But that wasn’t always the case. In the first two Diablo titles, Blizzard had apparently “forgotten” that they needed to document the details of the game world – which led to rather enduring and, in retrospect, almost absurd efforts.
Because Jean Copeland, a senior manager at Blizzard, explained in an interview with PCGamer that they had to do a significant amount of diligence for Diablo (via gamesradar.com):
Before 2005, Blizzard hardly cared about documenting its own story. As a result, a future “lore guru” had to manually transcribe all spoken words to add them to the archives.
In other words: Up to and including the expansion “Lord of Destruction” for Diablo II, the words spoken in the game were not permanently documented anywhere, to create new things based on them.
Story and Blizzard – An Eternal Reason for Criticism
Some may smile cynically at “story” and “Blizzard,” as there is constant criticism from some fans that the story is changed retroactively. Such “retcons” are often seen critically and are for some the proof that Blizzard does not take the actual story seriously. There have also been such deliberate retcons in the Diablo series, which sometimes become necessary as the game world grows and becomes more complex. Copeland said:
What I have found is that when it comes to creative sessions, the word “no” or a “lore police” does not usually help creativity. We want to make sure that we give our writers the cues they need to make their stories work, because in the end we are all just trying to tell cool stories.
It is also a bit ironic that such story changes are often viewed critically – because it was mainly the interesting stories of the game worlds that kept many fans hooked on Blizzard’s titles.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The beta of Diablo 4 is said to have damaged hardware. Now a patch is in sight and the community hopes that the biggest bugs will be fixed before the final beta.
Now Nvidia has introduced its latest game-ready driver for its graphics cards, which you should definitely install before the final beta. According to Nvidia, this new update fixes a lot of problems.
Two problems caused harsh criticism in Diablo 4
What problems were there? Specifically, it mainly concerns two problems that many criticize:
On one hand, the “memory leak problems:” Because Diablo used an enormous amount of video memory on graphics cards. This caused crashes and ugly stutters.
On the other hand, there were drastic spikes in power consumption during the cutscenes. At times, there were power peaks of over 150 watts.
In the community, many are now hoping that manufacturers like Nvidia can get the problems under control with the update (via Reddit). Because then, one could also enjoy the final beta to the fullest – without having to risk one’s expensive hardware.
Here, Amazon Games then pushed a fix that mainly locked the framerate in the menus to a fixed value and reduced the load on the hardware.
Last open beta of Diablo: If you haven’t checked out Diablo 4 yet, you can do so one last time before release. From May 12 to 14, Blizzard will test the stability of the servers and you can once again test the hack ‘n’ slash:
The e-sports team G2 is a big name in League of Legends, but also in CS:GO (Steam). But a new advertisement has sparked criticism: G2 is celebrating the 18th birthday of CS:GO pro Illya “m0nesy” Osipov with a visit to a CS:GO betting casino.
What kind of gambling is this?
In the shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, trading cosmetic items, skins, is so established that skins are “as good as cash.” Certain skins are worth a fortune.
For a long time, there have been “betting sites,” where players can gamble like in a casino, but using CS:GO skins instead of real money.
Pro who just turned 18 is “the face” of new advertising deal
This is now the advertisement: The e-sports team G2 has a new advertising partner, “CSGOROlL,” and is celebrating this partnership with a promotional clip.
The Russian CS:GO pro m0Nesy goes to a casino 2 days after his 18th birthday and can elegantly and coolly gamble for skins there.
He shows his ID at the entrance as proof that he is finally 18 and also demonstrates that he has some really great skins so that he can finally gain access to the casino, where he is allowed to play with well-dressed “adults.”
Why is this being criticized? Various users on Twitter are criticizing the advertisement:
A Twitter account belonging to a trading site asks: “Why are you promoting unregulated gambling to your underage fans? This is a big problem in the CS:GO/e-sports community, and the team behind G2 should know better.”
A trader writes: “This is a dangerous precedent, in my opinion. I have so many friends and family members who have ruined their lives with gambling.”
Just the fact that such a young person is being used as a spokesperson is viewed critically. The ad seems to be saying: “Finally 18, I can finally do the really cool things in life… gambling.”
The house of a Twitch streamer was hit by gunfire during a livestream as he was playing Escape from Tarkov.
Who is it about? 50calapr is a US-based Twitch streamer. He has a rather small reach and streams irregularly to an average of 5 viewers. Overall, he has nearly 660 followers on the streaming platform.
Nevertheless, a clip of the streamer recently circulated that garnered a lot of attention. Within four days, the video reached over 113,000 views on Twitch (as of May 3, 2023).
What happened to the streamer? The streamer was playing the hardcore shooter Escape from Tarkov – a game known for maintaining a certain level of realism.
Suddenly, it became loud during the livestream, and there was a bang. Some shots hit the house of 50calapr, who initially looked shocked into the camera.
Then followed a reaction from the streamer that was equally determined and surprising: instead of seeking shelter and taking cover from the gunfire, he jumped up, set his headset aside, and grabbed a rifle that was on a stand in the background.
With the rifle in hand, he soon left the frame, and the clip ends.
Here we embed the scene from the livestream:
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What does the streamer say about the incident? In the meantime, the streamer has commented on Reddit under a post showcasing the clip of the incident. He wrote that he is fine and that no one was injured.
He also explained that the shots were a so-called drive-by shooting by a gang. In a drive-by, shots are fired from a vehicle while passing by.
It was a drug/gang-related drive-by, and fortunately, no one was injured. They shot out the glass door of my apartment complex, which is messed up.
In another comment, the streamer added that it was not the first time something bad had happened in his neighborhood. However, the rent is cheap, and he is a full-time student.
While 50calapr grabbed a weapon for his defense, other streamers do it for entertainment and cause mischief in the stream – occasionally, there are even accidents and injuries:
Chrono Odyssey was originally announced in 2020 and aimed to impress with action-packed battles and time manipulation. However, there was no gameplay to be seen at that time. Now, a new trailer has finally been released, and it has excited many MMORPG fans.
What kind of game is this? Chrono Odyssey is set to be a next-gen MMORPG in Unreal Engine 5. Your character is a member of a special unit called “Idraiginn”, which fights against the 12 Gods. According to the developer NPIXEL, it is supposed to set “new standards” in the genre.
You create your character from one of 6 classes – Swordsman, Paladin, Berserker, Sorcerer, Assassin, or Ranger. Each class has access to multiple weapons, but it is still unclear whether Paladin and Sorcerer can heal or not.
There is supposed to be an open world called “Setera”. Apparently, you can also climb mountains in it.
The battles will be action-packed, you will have to actively dodge and block, and strong boss attacks will be represented by telegraphs.
A special mechanic – the Chronotector – is supposed to allow you to rewind a short step in time to avoid instant kills. This mechanic is also supposed to play an important role in the game’s story.
A global release, no NFTs, and a well-known composer
What else do we know about Chrono Odyssey? Not much. The Korean developer NPIXEL wants to release the game globally and has set up an international website and social media accounts. However, when the game will be released is still not known.
What do the viewers say about the video? The new trailer has received a lot of praise on YouTube and managed to generate over 200,000 views and 4,000 likes within a few hours. Especially the action-packed battles, overall graphics, and soundtrack were praised:
Reather Akira, for example, writes: “This is really one of the best-looking MMOs I have ever seen. Please don’t ruin it with P2W, I beg you!”
MooseQuilts is particularly taken with the battles: “Much variety in the battles. The spells/abilities seem fun without being overly colorful and bright. The character models look good. Nice graphics.”
AkitoYami is even completely thrilled: “This is exactly how a gameplay trailer should be. Little to no bullshit throughout the entire thing, and no unnecessary loud audio effects. I love how you can hear and see the effects of the attacks; it can be a bit fast and colorful, but not too much. You presented both the graphics and the battles either individually or together and at the same time gave a pretty good idea of the kind of battles the player would experience by using a wide range of different enemy types and locations. 9.5/10 for the trailer in my opinion.”
The only criticism is that no UI is shown. Players want to know how many abilities there are and whether it is tidy or totally overloaded.
What do you think about Chrono Odyssey? Are you as excited as I am or are you waiting until you can actually get your hands on it before the hype builds up for you?
Discord changes how to use your username. There are good reasons for this, as the service itself explains. In the future, you will have to say goodbye to the numbers behind your name.
What change is there? Discord is making changes to its usernames and eliminating the numbers that follow each user. Instead of MeinMMO#1234, you will only be called MeinMMO. In the future, you should be able to change your username for almost everything.
Moreover, there will be a new option “Display Name”. In the best case, your appearance in front of your friends on Discord will change little at first, and you won’t have to worry about not being able to distinguish your thousands of friends because they all suddenly have different names.
There are several reasons for this change, as the developers explain.
Cumbersome and nobody could remember strange numbers
Co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy explained in a blog post that there are several reasonable reasons why the naming system needs to be redesigned (via discord.com):
Too complicated names: Nobody could remember the distinguishing numbers.
Distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters is important on Discord. Phibi#8936 and PHiBi#8936 are different users.
Standard names are often taken. Since there are already 9,999 Mikes, you cannot be the 10,000th, as all numbers are already gone.
You want to change your user regularly, but there were restrictions.
Special characters or certain characters were hardly or only difficult to find on Discord.
Furthermore, nobody could remember the number behind the username anyway. Discord explains: 40% of all users didn’t even know they had such a number or what their number at the end of their username was.
What will the names look like in the future? Each person will receive a unique alphanumeric username without a distinguishing feature. So, without a number that nobody could remember anyway. This username will only be used to interact with other users. These names will be limited to lowercase letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and two special characters (dot and underscore).
The second change is a non-unique display name. This can contain almost anything, as long as it complies with the community guidelines, including special characters, spaces, emojis, and non-Latin characters.
More about Discord: If you want to use Discord on the PS5, MeinMMO editor Maik Schneider has tested the service on the P5 and explains whether the wait was worth it:
All events in May 2023 at Pokémon GO in overview with dates and details. We show you all known bonuses and which events are particularly worthwhile.
What does the overview show? Niantic revealed some events that await you in May 2023. In our overview, we show you all themed events like “An Intuitive Hero” and “A Daring Hero”, raid bosses, spotlight hours, the date for Community Day, and the research breakthrough in May 2023.
We regularly update this overview for you as soon as new information about the events or new dates are revealed. So be sure to check back regularly.
All events in May 2023 in overview
In May, you can expect five spotlight hours and five raid hours. In the raids, you will encounter Pokémon such as Genesect (Spark Module)*, Kapu-Kime*, Mega-Scizor, and Mega-Pinsir. Additionally, the five themed events “An Intuitive Hero”, “Raid Day”, “A Daring Hero”, “Top Raids”, a currently unknown event, and a Community Day will start.
We show you the events here in overview. Below, we discuss the dates that might be particularly worthwhile for you.
Date
Event
1st March to 1st June
Research breakthrough with Paras, Pinsir*, Snorlax*, Swablu*, Coiffwaff* and Viscora
1st March to 1st June
Timed research on Willow’s wardrobe
17th April to 2nd May
5-star raids with Kapu-Toro*
17th April to 2nd May
Mega-raids with Mega-Lahmus*
26th April to 3rd May
PvP: Super League and Master Premier Cup
2nd May to 8th May
Event: An Intuitive Hero
2nd May to 9th May
5-star raids with Genesect (Spark Module)*
2nd May to 11th May
Mega-raids with Mega-Scizor*
2nd May
Spotlight hour with Alolan Geodude* and catch XP
3rd May
Raid hour with Genesect (Spark Module)*
3rd May to 10th May
PvP: Hyper League and Mini-Cup
6th May
Event: Raid Day
9th May to 24th May
5-star raids with Kapu-Kime*
9th May
Spotlight hour with Ponyta* and catch candies
10th May
Raid hour with Kapu-Kime*
10th May to 17th May
PvP: Hyper League and Sunshine Cup: Super League Edition
PvP: Master League with triple Stardust for wins and Catch Cup in the Rising Heroes Edition
24th May
Raid hour with Regigigas*
30th May
Spotlight hour with Hunduster* and catch Stardust
31st May
Raid hour with Regigigas*
Pokémon marked with a star (*) can be caught as Shiny
Which events are particularly worthwhile in May 2023?
These could be worthwhile: Most events have been announced by Niantic without details, only by name. From the experiences of recent years, it already shows what could be good.
An Intuitive Hero (2nd May to 8th May): The event has already been revealed by Niantic. One of the bonuses is an increased chance of Shinys when hatching 2-km, 5-km, or 10-km eggs. For the Shiny hunters among you, this could be a cool event. In addition, there are more XP and Stardust when hatching eggs.
Mega-Pinsir (11th May to 24th May) and Mega-Altaria (24th May to 1st June): Mega-Pinsir will be the best bug attacker for raids after its release. Accordingly, many trainers are already looking forward to being able to enhance their collection with a powerful fighter. Mega-Altaria has not been active in Pokémon GO for a long time, and trainers are happy to finally have the chance to obtain the Pokémon again.
As soon as there are more details about the upcoming events, we will add them to the overview so that this article remains current for you.
Have you already found a favorite among the upcoming events that you definitely want to attend? Please share your opinion about it here on MeinMMO in the comments.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the online shooter Valorant , the Lithuanian professional player Vilius Malinauskas (22), known as krea6oN, received a lifetime ban from Eastern European leagues. This likely ends his career as a professional esports player. He had mocked a disabled opponent in a Twitch clip.
This is the decision from Riot Games: Riot Games announced on May 2 (via valorant east:united):
We will not tolerate toxic behavior, and we will not tolerate the demeaning of individuals with disabilities.
Since this is his 2nd competitive ban, Vilius “Krea60n” Malinauskas is now permanently excluded from competing in Valorant East: United and Valorant Challengers East: Surge.
Start video
Valorant Skin Trailer: Radiant Entertainment System
Behavior against Twitch Streamer Costs Professional Player His Career
What was he banned for exactly? The starting point for the ban is apparently a Twitch clip that a 24-year-old content creator from Natus Vincere showed on Twitter. The Twitch streamer NAVI SOMarcus has facial tics, leading to involuntary contractions of the facial muscles.
In the clip, it is seen that the professional player mocks these facial tics, alters his voice, and mimics the streamer.
He specifically asks him:
Are you mocking my facial tics?
The professional player reacts even more aggressively and childishly.
Clearly, Riot Games reached a point here at which strict measures had to be taken.
In April 2020, the Lithuanian had also received a 3-month ban for making sexist remarks during a ranked game.
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The new field research in May 2023 for Pokémon GO is active. We have looked at the tasks and summarized them in an overview graphic. Here you can see all the tasks, rewards, and the chances for shiny encounters.
What are these researches? When you spin photo discs at PokéStops in Pokémon GO, you receive field research. You can receive one research per stop daily. The tasks and rewards you can expect change every month. Thus, there are some adjustments for May as well.
In the following graphic, you can see at a glance which Pokémon you can obtain from the different tasks.
All Field Researches in May
Where do the data come from? We have compiled the information about the field researches from the website LeekDuck.com and translated it for you.
You see the tasks grouped by categories below. Pokémon that you can also catch as shiny by chance are marked with three stars on their image for you.
Will the research stay the same in May? In the coming weeks, there will be some theme events in Pokémon GO. Often, the tasks and rewards of the field research change temporarily. In the game, these temporary quests are then marked with Event. This way, you can easily recognize whether this task is in the game only for a short time.
What do the field researches bring? You can find an overview of your researches in the game by tapping the binoculars icon in the bottom right and then selecting the Field category at the top. You can earn a research stamp by completing field researches each day. If you achieve this on seven days, you will receive a research breakthrough, which grants you additional rewards.
In addition, the researches provide you with items or the chance to obtain certain (shiny) Pokémon.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
