In the MMORPG The Secret World, there are new rewards for everyone who subscribes – here we present what exactly awaits the players.
Those who pay receive generous rewards
Like many other MMORPGs, Secret World also has certain bonuses and perks designed to encourage players to take out an active subscription. In Funcom’s game, the rewards have now been updated and expanded with some useful aspects. For players with an active membership, there are 30% additional experience points and a 10% discount on all purchases in the item shop. Additionally, there are larger maximum limits for badges and shorter cooldown times for raids. You can find all the details in this graphic.
Additionally, there are “Loyalty Rewards,” which are awarded based on how long one maintains an active membership. This starts at 30 days with the “Anima Sprint” and a faction jacket, and ranges from cute Cthulhu pets to exclusive mounts like the Honey Roller.
The martial arts MMORPG Blade and Soul has surpassed the two million player mark.
A little over a month after the release, Blade and Soul received its first content patch yesterday and broke the two million player mark in North America and Europe. NCSoft announced this on Twitter. Blade and Soul is a free-to-play game. However, they do not disclose how many of the two million have logged in recently or play regularly.
After initial issues, as they had to continuously add more servers, the developers seem to slowly have the player influx under control. The game has been available in South Korea for several years and has accumulated a wealth of content over the years that they want to gradually release in the West. Financially, the game is doing excellently in Asia.
A very controversial feature has now been introduced with an update to the space MMO EVE Online: skill trading.
CCP Games explains that skill trading should be seen as passing experience to other characters. This way, you can create a second hero and transfer some skill points to them, so you don’t have to start from scratch. Some characters in EVE Online have a surplus of skill points and don’t know what to do with them. According to the logic, the skill-rich could simply transfer them to the skill-poor.
Sell your surplus skill points
It has been possible to trade a character in the MMORPG over the bazaar for some time now. Heroes are sold with everything included. Now, trading skill points is added to this. So, anyone who collects a lot of money in the game but doesn’t get to acquire skill points can now simply buy them from other players. These players extract their unnecessary points and create so-called skill injectors, which they sell to other players. However, you cannot sell acquired skill points immediately, but only after a certain period of time.
To extract skill points, you must purchase special extractors in the New Eden Store for Aurum. Additionally, extractors are offered through markets and can be purchased there with ISK currency. Alternatively, you can get them directly through account management.
A skill extractor must be filled with 500,000 skill points. Injectors can also be filled with less depending on the amount of skill points a character has. The system is intended to promote new characters and protect the prestige associated with working on a hero. Additionally, skill trading is supposed to further develop the economy of EVE Online and introduce a new aspect.
So far, players appear rather skeptical, as they believe that especially newer players will become better too quickly without having to put in much effort. Whether this is truly the case and how well the system is received will be seen over time.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the MMO shooter Destiny, you can acquire emotes for silver. However, these two gestures are completely free.
Normally, Tess Everis digs deep into your pockets when you want to acquire emotes, meaning gestures, dances, etc. For this, she has set up a stand in the Tower, the Eververse. However, if you make the effort to walk towards the hangar to the bar, you can grab two free emotes.
With these emotes, you can express your approval or disapproval. Your Guardian performs corresponding head movements and subtle hand gestures.
Not very spectacular, nothing that will blow you away; but you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. And: What you have, you have.
But before I type any more trivial sayings, I want to emphasize again that you obtain the gestures not from Tess, but at the hangar bar. I made the effort myself, as you can see in the title image – not to grab them, but of course only to show you the exact location. How selfless of me!
The following video shows the exact way:
http://youtu.be/50BR6Nusb-4
Oh, woe to you if you say anything against my hairstyle (see title image)!
In the military MMO Armored Warfare, patch 0.13 is delayed by a few days. There will be a bonus weekend.
Wednesday is usually patch day for the two current titles developed by my.com and Obsidian. However, while Skyforge was patched as planned yesterday, Armored Warfare’s tanks remained cool. Due to technical problems, the update has been postponed to Monday or Tuesday.
Nevertheless, there is a reason to take the vehicles of the tank MMO out over the weekend. On February 12, the “Grand Bear Invitational” is being held: Until February 14, all players will receive 100% more reputation. Those who play 5 games will also receive a 7-day 50% boost on credits and reputation.
On Saturday, between 6 PM and 9 PM, an additional 400% reputation bonus and 100% credit bonus will be applied.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
There is still no sign of Phantasy Star Online 2 – allegedly, secret contracts are responsible for preventing the game from reaching us.
PSO2 not on Steam due to a contract allegedly prohibiting it
The MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2 has been around for several years now. Since its first playable version in 2012 and its arrival in Asia in 2014 – including an English translation – it has been quiet. There were even initial parts of an advertising campaign for the western market, but there has been no sign of a real release. The site tssz claims to have heard from a source why the western release has been off the table since then.
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According to this, there is a contractual obligation between Sega Japan and a Chinese company that prohibits Sega from releasing Phantasy Star Online 2 on Steam. Since Steam is the main platform for Sega games, this could indeed be the reason why the MMO has still not appeared for us. Although it is also claimed that the duration of this contract is time-limited, no date is mentioned.
If there is any truth to this story, then we probably shouldn’t expect a western release of Phantasy Star Online 2 anytime soon – but fans have already slowly gotten used to that.
Overwatch has introduced many new skins for the heroes. We take a look at the coolest outfits that are now up for grabs.
Tracer as Punk and Symmetra as Goddess?
The beta of Overwatch has returned from its winter slumber and has brought numerous changes with it. The biggest innovation is probably the progression system, where players can unlock not only spray logos, voice lines, and emotes but also tons of skins.
Most skins are just simple “recolor”, meaning the standard look with new colors. However, the highest rarity skins, the “legendary” ones, give the heroes numerous new details. We want to present some of these skins to you here.
The good monkey Winstonis getting ready for a safari or his next moon trip …
Reinhardtlikes it powerful. He has an impressive black armor (Blackhardt) or – and yes, it really is called that – the Bundeswehr skin, where you can even see his face.
The healer Mercytries her luck as Valkyrie … or a naughty little devil with the “Devil” skin.
The long legged Symmetraturns blue with her “Devi” skin, which clearly reminds of a Hindu goddess. More professional appears her “Vishkar” skin, from her previous work.
Widowmakerlikes it flashy with the “Odile” skin, whereas Tracerseems to come from motorsport, with the “Mach T” costume.
Reaperunleashes the music with his “El Blanco” skin, while Roadhogreturns to the jungle – typical tribal outfits indeed.
On Meiis waiting for the (Warning, pun!) “Rescue Mei” skin, Hanzotravels through the past and presents a look from his youth.
Fans of McCreewill be delighted with his “Gambler” skin, and Zenyatta followers should be very satisfied with “Dschinyatta”.
All of the above-mentioned skins are either in the reward boxes that you get for every level up or can be purchased for credits (which are also available in the boxes).
Please note that Blizzard has already announced that the progress made during the beta will not carry over to the live version. It may even be that it will be reset multiple times during the ongoing tests. Additionally, bigger changes to the entire system are still expected.
In the MMO shooter The Division, a rumor is circulating that ignites the imagination of fans.
Two days ago, a user posted on reddit that they had attended an event at the studio of Mojang (Minecraft) in Sweden, where one of the other visitors turned out to be an employee of Massive and revealed insider information about The Division.
This person mentioned: Raids are planned. Two weeks after the launch, a raid will open, set on Riker’s Island, the prison island and home of the Rikers faction. The raid will have two difficulty levels: Normal from level 27, Hard from level 30. There will be a sort of access quest for the raid, requiring players to take out employees of “King John,” the leader of the Rikers.
The raid itself is designed for 8 players. No further information was provided.
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The other participants on reddit then said: You can’t do that. The person you spoke to has violated all contracts. This will end their career. Delete this quickly, as there is internal information about the employee in there, which could identify them (which we haven’t revealed here). The reddit user then deleted the thread.
There is currently no more information available. No one from Massive has commented on the rumors. So it’s best to take all of this with caution.
In an MMORPG, it is also essential to improve your hero through skills. The developers of the MMO Crowfall have now introduced the skill system.
Skills in Crowfall, such as “One-Handed Sword” or “Cruelty,” can be enhanced up to a value of 100 – with exceptions that can even increase to a value of 200. These skills influence and improve statistics such as “Attack Power” or “Critical Hit Chance.” Additionally, some skills allow you to utilize specific equipment or unlock powers.
Skills train themselves
To improve skills, you determine in the skill tree which skill you want to enhance. The selected skills automatically improve over time by receiving EXP every few seconds – even when you are offline. So, you don’t have to grind to improve a skill. Once you have enough EXP for a skill, you need to sleep or work for it to improve.
Of course, there are limitations because you can only train one general and one archetypical skill at the same time. Unless you have VIP status. Then the training options are expanded to one general and three different archetypical skills. Currently, there are 600 skills in Crowfall, and there should be around 1,500 by the release.
So, you will need a while to make your hero a master in multiple skills. However, not all skills are available right from the start. Some you will need to unlock by looting, crafting, or winning a campaign.
Skills are inherited
The skills build upon each other, as can be seen in the skill tree and are thematically organized by fields of knowledge. By unlocking certain skills of an archetype, so-called advancement classes are opened, which in turn unlock new skills for you. You also need to ensure that you can only train the archetypical skills that your current archetype can utilize depending on its vessel.
As a Frostweaver, it is, for example, not possible to train a Confessor skill. Unless you switch the vessel. You retain the skills even if you switch to another vessel; they are inherited. Thus, your hero continues to progress with each campaign in the MMORPG.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
It has now been almost 4 years since Riot Games introduced the “Dominion” game mode in the MOBA League of Legends. Soon it will be coming to an end.
Especially in recent years, it has become clear that this game mode no longer fit the current League of Legends. The Summoner’s Rift received its visual update and the champions are gradually being updated as well. However, Dominion is not.
This game mode, which was originally announced as something new or innovative, was unfortunately only able to maintain the hype for a short time. In an official announcement, developer Riot Games has now revealed that the Dominion game mode will be permanently disabled on February 22, 2016. Additionally, the map “The Crystal Scar” will no longer be available in free play.
Dominion – A multitude of reasons led to the deactivation of the unpopular mode in LoL
Dominion is caught in a vicious cycle. On one hand, there are long wait times because hardly any player plays this mode. When a wait time is excessively long, the opponent search expands further, resulting in players facing opponents who have very different skill levels. So if you, as an experienced player, have been in the queue for Dominion for 30 minutes, it could happen that you play against players who have not even reached level 30. This naturally leads to frustration, which in turn results in even fewer players signing up.
In the end, only 0.5% of the League of Legends players played this game mode. However, this 0.5% also included some bots, as stated in the official announcement.
Reward for “Veterans”
For those of you who enjoyed playing Dominion and might have a teary eye at this announcement, there is some good news. If you have achieved over 100 victories in normal Dominion (no cooperative games), you will receive a summoner icon that cannot be obtained in any other way.
If you only have 50 victories and want to quickly reach 100 by February 22, you unfortunately need to put that idea out of your mind. A snapshot of players and their Dominion victories was taken before the official announcement. The icon will be distributed in approximately 2 weeks after this news.
The exclusive Dominion summoner icon
The announcement also states that much has been learned from this game mode. It is now known what to expect when introducing a new game mode. The ARAM queue is an example that these new game modes can also work well. The map may still be used for new game modes, but there are currently no concrete plans for that.
Have you collected 100 wins in Dominion and gotten the exclusive icon?
At this point, we can only say: RIP Dominion
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the MMO shooter Destiny, new story content has been scarce since The Taken King. How will the story of our Guardians continue? We summarize some possibilities.
For several weeks now, there has been a feeling that Bungie does not want to bring any new story to the Destiny universe at all. Basically, we only hear about small PvP events, tinkering with lag in the Crucible, and above all about one thing: the frustration of the Guardians!
So far, there is no official roadmap for where the journey of the MMO shooter will go. On the other hand, this leaves a lot of room for speculation, dreams, and wishes. Will entirely new storylines begin, or will already known ones be continued? Currently, there are still many unanswered questions in the story that many fans are eager to have answered. We discuss some possibilities for the paths the story might take.
Will we learn more about the Hive?
The Hive is an ancient, evil race that we have primarily encountered on the Moon. After we defeated Crota in “The Dark Below” and thus stirred Father’s Wrath, we had to confront the vengeful Oryx in the last expansion. He was revered as the god of the Hive and came from the infinite reaches of the universe to destroy us. That didn’t quite work out.
Basically, the Hive has taken on the dominant role of evil. Even in two out of three raids, we had to face Hive bosses. Therefore, it is quite unlikely that 2016 will also be the year of the Hive. Other races will probably be brought to the forefront.
But: Just because we have learned so much about the Hive, we have heard a lot about things we know almost nothing about. What is the deal with Eir, Xol, Ur, Yul, and all the others?
There are many more leaders of the Hive who could take Oryx’s position and need to be defeated. One hot topic is Nokris. Not much is known about Nokris, except that he is a high-ranking Hive being. There is a statue of this mystery on the Dreadnaught, near Oryx’s altar, next to the statue of Crota and the Taken King. Is Nokris the last Hive god?
If you scan the statue with the Ghost, you will find that Nokris does not appear in anything we know about the Hive. There is not a single mention of him in the Grimoire either. Nevertheless, Nokris has earned a statue next to Crota and Oryx. How come?
Rumor has it that Nokris is the brother, sister, or mother of Crota – the gender of this being is also not known. We simply know nothing about – let’s say – him. As if he never existed, completely torn from space and time. Hence, there is also the speculation that Nokris confronted the Vex and perhaps there is a connection to the Glass Chamber. Perhaps we will have to face this Hive being in the year 2016. Who knows?
The Hive certainly offers enough story. Many more tales can be told about them.
Read on the following pages about which further storylines are conceivable.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Rift, missing artifacts will soon be available for purchase with real money – frustrated players can thus complete their collections.
Fill the final gaps with cash
With the upcoming patch on February 17, 2016, Rift will add a whole load of new artifacts that players can collect on their journeys through the MMORPG. Artifacts are part of certain collections in Rift – once you have all the artifacts in a series, you can trade them for cosmetic items, such as mounts, effect toys, or small companions.
How you get the artifacts varies depending on the collection. Some must simply be picked up from the environment, others drop from enemies, or can be fished. There will soon be more than 8000 artifacts, which corresponds to nearly 1400 collections. It’s frustrating when you can’t find that one artifact that has been missing for years to complete the collection… the developers thought so too.
From now on (that is, with the next patch), it will be possible to specifically purchase missing artifacts from the real money shop to unlock small rewards. This gives players the opportunity to finally help unsuccessful collections, but also fuels criticism that Trion is always desperately trying to squeeze money out of the game. It remains to be seen how this will actually look in the game.
A user has recreated the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, with the extensive character editor of Black Desert.
When you look at the screen, you realize what is possible with the character editor of Black Desert and are amazed: Such a level of detail is unimaginable in almost all other games. The tool has been given to players so they can pass the time, until the MMORPG appears here in the West.
Until February 15, a “Beauty Contest” is being held by the creators, under Beauty and the Beast, players can submit their most beautiful and ugliest creations on the Black Desert site. In addition to Michael Jackson, celebrities like Emma Watson and many others have also been recreated. But there are also original creations. Not everyone wants to walk around with the face of a famous stranger; some prefer their own likeness.
Admittedly, Michael Jackson did not live his entire life, but that is a different topic.
The business figures of NCSoft for the 4th quarter of 2015 are here. Guild Wars 2 has made significant gains thanks to the expansion Heart of Thorns. WildStar, on the other hand, has hardly done so.
The business figures of the MMO giant NCSoft for the 4th quarter of 2015 are here. During this period, the expansion “Heart of Thorns” of Guild Wars 2 was released, and it nearly doubled the revenues in the 4th quarter compared to the previous year. In 2014, revenues were 14.2 million Euros in the fourth quarter; in 2015, it was 27.5 million. According to NCSoft, Guild Wars 2 has solidified its position as one of the major revenue drivers, and this is due to the sale of an expansion pack that will help stabilize in-game purchases.
For the struggling MMO WildStar, the switch to Free2Play did not bring the hoped-for turnaround. Although there was an increase in revenue to nearly 2 million euros in the 4th quarter compared to the third quarter, this is significantly worse than what was earned in the 4th quarter of 2014. Overall, the numbers fall significantly behind the other NCSoft titles. It makes 7 times less revenue than NCSoft’s second smallest title, Aion.
No specific comments on WildStar and Aion are found in the report.
NCSoft fully focuses on MMORPGs on PC, but will likely soon expand its offerings
The classic games from NCSoft that are successful in Asia, such as Lineage (1998), Lineage II (2003), and Aion (2008), continue to be solid sources of profit for the Asian giant. An upward trend is shown by Blade and Soul (2012), which is now also available here in Europe and is performing well.
For NCSoft, the overall figures are positive: The franchises they have have developed well and shown record years. The presented revenue generators are all MMORPGs and PC titles. In the future, they are likely to be unfaithful to this combination.
The manufacturer Symantec, responsible for antivirus software, warns about bots and add-ons related to Hearthstone.
Booted by the Bot
Anyone who regularly engages with streams of Hearthstone will surely have encountered various add-ons that overlay the game. Some streamers use a deck tracker that keeps track of which cards have been played or calculates the probability of drawing card X exactly in the next turn. While such tools remain in a gray area, other programs clearly violate the terms of use.
One should be careful. With the wrong programs, you can quickly lose valuable accounts or even sensitive banking data.
Bots that fully automate arena matches or even “cheat programs” that claim to generate a lot of arcane dust out of nothing. Surely, some of these promises sound too good to be true, but if even one in 1000 people falls for it, the developers of the supposed helper programs have achieved their goal.
The manufacturer Symantec, which sells Norton AntiVirus among other products, has now warned against the use of such add-ons. Many of them would infect the PC with viruses upon installation, read passwords, and capture several online accounts. There have been reports specifically about a program “Hearthstone Hack Tool v 2.1.” It’s a complete scam. Instead of generating more dust and gold as promised, it installs malware that steals the user’s Bitcoins.
The blog post drew special attention as it was adorned with a screenshot of “Hearthbuddy,” a program that is popular among professionals and in the streaming scene. Meanwhile, Symantec has issued a new statement regarding the report and emphasized that they are not aware of any malware associated with Hearthbuddy. They merely wanted to present a well-known bot program. Nonetheless, they continue to warn against the use of any third-party software.
The reintroduction of the beta revealed a completely new game mode in Overwatch: Control. But is it fun as well?
New Game Mode “Control” – Excitement Until the Last Moment
The return to the beta has given Overwatch, Blizzard’s hero shooter, a completely new game mode. Those who have played some shooters will already be familiar with the principle of Control, a slight variation of “King of the Hill”.
At any given time, there is a neutral control point on the map that must be captured by both teams. This is done classically by standing on the point and driving away the opposing team. Once the control point is captured, a percentage display begins to fill up – only when it reaches 100 is the round won. It is also worth mentioning that the display continues to fill even if enemies are on the point – as long as you do not lose control, the number increases incessantly.
Turning the tide at 99% – happens often in this mode.
Incessantly? Well… almost. The crucial point from 99 to 100 can only occur when there is truly no enemy in the control point. This leads to extremely exciting rounds that are often turned around in the last second.
This process repeats itself, the team that secures two points first wins the match.
Mein-MMO says: We have also taken a brief look at “Control” and are convinced by the game mode. It is a meaningful addition and breaks the roles of the other modes where one only needs to concentrate on attacking or defending – here both come into play. At least the first matches have been a lot of fun – although it is still “just” capturing points.
That the Guardians in Destiny have always been creative should be known by now. But now something completely new is coming: Shader Birds.
Destiny is an MMO shooter. You shoot enemies, level up your characters, meet up with friends and clan members. All wonderful. However, for some fans, that is not enough. They extract more from the game than the developers ever suspected. Be it creative dance performances or Crota kills in all conceivable ways. Or this:
Shader Birds!
On Twitter, a user has now created a channel where he shows images of birds. He compares them with the shaders from Destiny. If you’re thinking that this is a strange idea: Definitely! But the result is impressive. See for yourself:
Compared to this snowy owl, the similarity may still be coincidence…
but the similarity of this shader with these feathered friends cannot be denied!
Red-Black always looks good too!
Here both have a nice shiny purple. Who can pull it off!
The team at Sandbox Interactive wants to focus on improving the game world of their MMORPG Albion Online.
Albion Online made a statement in February in a State-of-the-Game letter: It was determined that the world, as it currently is, is too boring and limited. The reason for this is that a very small team had tried to create a huge online world. Now, they are expanding the team with world builders and level designers. These will ensure that the game world is even more diverse and exciting. Additionally, the world is supposed to continue to grow, as they really want to offer players a huge sandbox in which they can let loose.
This can be afforded because Albion Online is said to be a “sustained success.”
The world will become more diverse
The new team members will focus on creating new biomes, making the world even more diverse. Fans can therefore look forward to deserts or icy landscapes, for example. In addition, the landscapes will be visually enhanced, making it more fun to explore the areas. Moreover, they are working on creating strategic depth in the distribution of resources or hotspots in the world. Basically, the world should just get significantly better.
Additional systems will be revised
During the beta, the team also found that they need to work on how to better distribute loot in dungeons. And they are also refining the character development system, as they are still not really satisfied with how heroes develop in the game.
They are also working on the crafting system and want to enable crafters to create rare items. However, they will need resources that can only be found in the most dangerous zones of the world. These include the “Black Zones,” areas where factions fight for control of territories.
High-quality resources can also be found in the “Red Zones,” but players must be aware that they can be attacked by other players at any time.
Currently, it is planned to release the MMORPG Albion Online in the third quarter of this year.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The Closed Beta of The Division has given numerous agents a glimpse into Ubisoft’s upcoming MMO shooter. Now some statistics from this testing phase are known.
Statistics can be either highly interesting or yawningly boring. Whether they are always useful is usually a whole different story. If you belong to the people who can never get enough of numbers: Here are the statistics from the Closed Beta of The Division.
According to the statistics collected by Ubisoft Massive, participants of the beta played a total of 621,653,358 minutes. One person alone spent over 90 hours in the game during the few days the testing phase lasted. That must have been some strong coffee.
A total of 6.9 million games were played and 298 million kills were executed. The agents preferred the M4 to take down enemies. Additionally, 9.3 million grenades were thrown and 15 billion shots were fired.
In the Dark Zone, 4.3 million hours were spent. A lot of loot must have been gathered. You can find all the statistics, even some not-so-serious numbers (for example, over 7 billion car doors were closed), in the graphic below.
In World of Tanks, the PlayStation 4 version is visited by the island. British forces join the Military MMO.
The PlayStation 4 version of World of Tanks has now received significant reinforcements, and they are very British. In the British tech tree, there are now 7 light tanks, 9 medium tanks, 6 heavy tanks, 9 tank destroyers, and 9 artillery – a total of 40 new tanks are added in the version for Sony’s console.
Then you add 8 maps. For fans of British war machinery, it’s certainly an occasion to have some tea and, as tradition dictates, to horribly but passionately butcher “God save the queen.”
World of Tanks is poised to be another successful campaign for Wargaming. They reached 1 million players in just 5 days; why there won’t be any crossplay with the Xbox version is explained in this article:
