Todd Harris, the Chief Operating Officer (a kind of manager) behind SMITE spoke in an interview with gamesindustry about eSports and the role players take there.
Making Money with Players – and for Them.
According to Harris, one must never lose sight of the fact that the players themselves bring the excitement and the content that make up such a championship. Without the talented and dedicated players, the individual games would be just a hollow shell. They might be fun, but they are not suitable for large events. If one wants to capitalize on this enthusiasm, then players must be involved – because most professionals do not play for fun, but to make a living out of it.
Those who want to support their team directly can do so in Smite with specific chests.
SMITE has taken a pioneering role here. There are thematic skins for some gods in the game that feature the logo of their favorite team. When players choose to purchase such a skin, the teams receive a certain percentage of the profit.
Stories Behind the Players
Harris is confident that many are interested in the stories behind the players. Because people are more than just avatars hiding behind a pseudonym. He draws comparisons to the Olympic Games and mentions that he often only watches because he is interested in the athletes’ pasts.
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For the near future, he sees an increase in console eSports. Until now, there has only been Call of Duty, but the number of different genres is increasing. “Both console manufacturers (Sony and Microsoft) have become significantly more flexible when it comes to developers wanting to provide regular updates for their games.”
Whether Harris is correct with this prediction will be revealed in the future.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
It was unclear what to make of it and what exactly kind of quest it would be. Expectations were low. Now it turns out: it is a full-fledged quest series that presents players with various challenges.
The Red Bull Quest is divided into four parts, providing a Sparrow and Ghost
Red Bull has now presented details of this quest – without a video, just in text. Not all details are perfectly clear. We summarize the most important points, but note that the final outcome may differ from the somewhat PR-heavy descriptions:
The quest starts at Amanda Holiday in the Tower, players must complete an “Energy Spark” quest in the Dreadnought with 100%, which is likely some kind of “obstacle course” where players need to achieve speed boosts to get faster – that seems quite challenging.
Next, the new “King of the Taken” Strike S.A.B.E.R. must be completed at level 40 within a time limit, where players must accomplish special tasks and ultimately defeat a gigantic hovering boss (yes, we know what you are all thinking).
Once that’s done, a Sparrow is rewarded.
Next comes the Crucible – players must win three Rift matches and dunk the “Spark” themselves, meaning they have to hand over the “flag”. In the second part of the quest, they must win Rift matches as a team, with one of the energy-drinking questers having to achieve the highest score in the match.
After completing these PvP quest steps, this Ghost shell is rewarded:
The final step involves another PvE segment. Players must complete a special version of the “Sunless Cell” Strike within a time limit, which is the one with the final battle in darkness.
The last step involves a 40-level version of the “Shield Brothers” Strike. This is already supposed to be significantly more difficult than what was seen in the Destiny stream.
If that is completed, you can upgrade the first Sparrow to this one (the first looks almost the same):
It can perform tricks and is incredibly fast: a Tumbler.
The Red Bull Quest sounds better than expected, but still has a “taste”.
Sounds like the quest resembles a seafood buffet, having a bit of everything, varied, interesting, and quite challenging. Although some may curse that they have to deal with the disliked PvP.
In Red Bull’s presentation, even top players had some difficulty with the tasks. How it looks in practice and whether these are “special strikes” or just the “normal” 40-level strikes, which will surely become routine for some in 2-3 weeks, remains to be seen. However, it definitely sounds significantly more interesting than what one generally imagines under “commercially motivated, cross-sponsor” quests.
The whole operation surely had a taste from the start (and not a refreshing one). This does not change. The reactions from fans to such cross-promo things are divided. Competitors also have their fun with it.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Currently, there is a crisis at Method, the reigning, most successful raid guild of World of Warcraft. Many members are leaving the guild and want to build something new…
From Conflict to Serenity
Guilds are formed and disbanded every day in World of Warcraft. This is basically nothing particularly exciting. However, when suddenly 7 members disappear from Method, the most successful guild in the world, it causes quite a stir in the raid scene. What in the first moments might have been seen as a joke has now become reality: Many former members of Method have founded the new guild Serenity (which means “serenity”). Now, those responsible have spoken about their reasons for the fresh start.
Sco, one of the remaining members of Method, spoke up and mentioned that there is currently a significant restructuring happening within the guild. The reasons for this are “so numerous that a psychologist could probably write a whole book about it.“ Nevertheless, Sco tries to break it down into a few points, and the essence is: Different motivations within the guild, distrust in the leaders’ motivational capabilities, and the general decline of interest in hardcore raiding in World of Warcraft.
Statement from Serenity
In the meantime, Serenity has also spoken up and briefly addressed the reasons that led to the guild’s re-establishment: Lack of leadership and differing opinions on the direction Method should take. With Serenity, these problems are supposed to be a thing of the past: They want to be even more “hardcore” and invest everything to become the best raid guild in the world while maintaining a friendly guild atmosphere – something that was no longer the case at Method towards the end.
The future of Serenity? Promising.
Additionally, Serenity is benefiting from members of several raid guilds. Also, Slootbag, the main tank of the guild Midwinter, has left his former companions and joined Serenity. For him, it was especially important to join a guild that invests all resources into the race for a First Kill, which he did not see given in his previous guild.
How Serenity develops is still uncertain. However, it already seems certain that with the launch of the expansion Legion, there will be a new major player in the race for First Kills. That there are also sponsorship funds involved is also no secret for a raid guild at this level – at least Sco hinted at this.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the military MMO “Armored Warfare”, players head to the deserted island even in Early Access.
While World of Tanks is set in the past, Armored Warfare covers a time period that is closer to our present. The latest map is even set in a “near” future. In the year 2030, conflicts have intensified and shifted: An unnamed Pacific island serves as the backdrop for a conflict between military companies. This island has become a key strategic point due to the rising sea levels, being the only patch of contiguous land for miles.
Certainly an unusual setting to see heavy war machinery in action. Here is the trailer.
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Nexon, the publisher of Tree of Savior in Japan and Korea, has released this new trailer, which shows gameplay of the 4 starting classes: Archer, Cleric, Swordsman, and Wizard. A total of 80 classes are expected to emerge from these 4.
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The first closed beta will begin in Japan at the beginning of October (don’t worry, Korea is already much further along). The number of participants has been increased from the original 1000 to 2000.
Fans were angrily demanding a rollback. That is when you say: “We restore the servers to the state they were in before everything went wrong.” But Trion Worlds could not manage this back then. Since those days in November, the massive hype around ArcheAge has faded. Its reputation has taken a hit.
Yesterday, a very similar situation arose. But this time, Trion Worlds executed the rollback. From the perspective of the ArcheAge servers, nothing happened yesterday.
Only 10% of players could log in
That players cannot all log in during a massive rush is usually a significant annoyance in MMORPGs, but it has no lasting effects. Even with the launch of a World of Warcraft add-on, not everyone can play in the first few days: they just reach max level later. But ArcheAge is front-loaded, as building plots are distributed in the first hours, and they are limited. Those who arrive late cannot secure a good plot cheaply but have to buy it from other players at a high price.
According to Trion Worlds, only 10% of players could log in yesterday in ArcheAge. These few lucky players secured a significant number of building plots on the new servers. Thus, they gained an advantage in just a few hours, from which they could have benefitted for months – not to mention that some could also sell the plots for real money.
Therefore, Trion Worlds has decided to go for a rollback this time.
“Everything is fine with ArcheAge … this time it was our launcher Glyph”
Trion Worlds says that the issues were not due to ArcheAge itself. Everything is running stable there. They identified Trion Worlds’ launcher “Glyph” as the Achilles’ heel. The launcher could not handle so many players trying to log in simultaneously. And once again (as it was nearly a year ago), the endless intro bug occurred.
The problem seems to have been exacerbated by starting everything “at the same time,” EU and US servers, all new worlds going online simultaneously.
If you now think: Did they learn nothing from the past catastrophes, from Auroria? Yes, they did.
http://youtu.be/fT2Vld8wbEU
Rollback and new restart
What happens now? There will be a rollback. Everything that happened last night doesn’t matter anymore. They will start over with 2.0. They apologize to the players, return everything that was spent during that time, and promise “compensation packages.”
Additionally, they have set a new date for Patch 2.0 and the restart. This time, the restart will take place in “stages.”
In Europe, it will start today, September 13, at 3:00 PM. First, the “normal servers” will open, half an hour later the new merged servers, and another half an hour later the restart servers.
In the USA, this should also happen at 10:00 PM if everything goes according to plan.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Heroes of the Storm impressive gameplay moments frequently occur. But occasionally there are true comedy gems among them …
About Team Blockades and Little Pandas with Sweets
Undoubtedly, Heroes of the Storm belongs – like all MOBAs – to the games that can quickly create enormous frustration potential. However, some missteps of teammates turn out to be quite entertaining in retrospect. On the YouTube channel Heroes of the Storm Highlights , not only are the most exciting plays captured, but also regularly the funniest clips that players will likely remember for a long time. The current issue features some truly fantastic moments, especially Leoric stealing the enemy’s map boss in a creative way, I will definitely remember that.
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In the hack’n slash Diablo 3 there’s an exploit that allows some players to progress through tougher Rifts. Blizzard is closing it now.
It circulated in recent days among Diablo fans: the so-called “Snapshot” exploit or Hellfire Amulet exploit. The exact mechanics are not that important at this point. It was hardly discovered by chance and it made characters noticeably stronger: the exploiters could activate all passive abilities of their class simultaneously.
The exploit was discussed in the relevant forums. Blizzard has now announced that it will close it as soon as possible with a hotfix.
Blizzard further states that they will investigate incidents and punish those who exploited the bug (they say they will act accordingly). They urge all players to play fair. Exploiting such bugs can not only lead to penalties but also affects the enjoyment of everyone.
The sandbox MMO ArcheAge starts its second year tonight with a trailer
Tonight at 10:00 PM, if all goes according to plan, the fresh Patch 2.0 for ArcheAge will be released. It brings a new hero system, changes for the guilds, and new upgrade options for houses. The zone Diamond Coast is being revamped, with goodies and gifts for both returning players and loyal veterans.
Additionally, there will be a server merge, and “restart” servers will be launched. Therefore, the hunt for building plots on virgin servers will start again tonight around 10:00 PM.
All in all, Trion Worlds wants to evoke the feeling: It’s starting again! It’s a fresh start! Be part of it.
This atmosphere is also what the trailer aims to create:
http://youtu.be/fT2Vld8wbEU
The patch can already be downloaded via the Glyph platform.
With Knights of the Fallen Empire, there will be some class changes in Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a developer blog, detailed discussions were held about the changes to the Agent and Smuggler …
Hiding and Seeking – Both Improved!
With the upcoming expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire, the developers of SWTOR are taking another close look at the classes in the game and want to improve the overall gameplay experience. In the latest developer blog, changes to the Imperial Agent and the Smuggler were discussed. The overall goal is clearly defined: They should be harder to catch and be able to pursue their enemies even better than before.
New Abilities – Teleporting and Resetting
Saboteurs and Scoundrels can look forward to the new ability Holo-Traverse (or Trick Movement). This teleports the player to a friendly or hostile target nearby and increases movement speed by 70% for 3 seconds. With a cooldown of 45 seconds, this will prove very useful in PvP and could cost some fleeing enemies their lives.
Sharpshooters (and Gunslingers) will also receive a new ability, Imperial Preparation (Trick Box). This resets a large portion of the active cooldowns of abilities. The list is quite long: Escape, Security Measures, Shield Probe, Impulse Coverage, Fortify, Covered Escape, and their Republic counterparts are affected. The cooldown is 3 minutes – a rogue who thinks of “Preparation” from World of Warcraft might be amused.
New Features and Changed Progression
As with the lightsaber wielders, there are additional changes to the progression of the individual classes. The level delineations will be slightly altered at which various abilities are unlocked. Basically, everything shifts a little further back, but players at level 60 will not experience any noteworthy adjustments.
However, there are also some new features that provide serious alternatives to the previous ones. For example, you can give the Fragmentation Bomb/Acid Grenade a 10% chance to explode twice. If you prefer to restrain your enemies, choose the Choking Shots, with which Overload Shot and Quick Shot slow the hit target down by a proud 40% for 6 seconds.
A complete (but only preliminary) list of the planned changes can be found on the official SWTOR page.
Learn more about Knights of the Fallen Empire on our SWTOR theme page.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Japan, Dragons Dogma Online, a new multiplayer online game from Capcom, currently hits like a belly-flopping dragon in the outdoor pool. In just 10 days, it has been downloaded over 1,000,000 times …
370,000 Heroes in 10 Days
With over 1 million downloads in just 10 days, Dragon’s Dogma Online definitely ranks among the surprise hits of the year in Japan. In the same period, 370,000 characters were created, who are now bustling around in the new world (which conversely means that over two-thirds of the players who downloaded it have not yet created a character … Japan indeed).
To celebrate the great success, Capcom is currently offering all players 72 hours of premium membership to fully test all the benefits of the additional subscription. Capcom emphasizes that Dragon’s Dogma is on track to become one of the “most important titles in the online business.”
http://youtu.be/iNxmg4w7azQ
The game was released simultaneously for PC, PS3, and PS4. If you want to try Dragon’s Dogma Online here, you are out of luck. The game has an IP block and only runs in Japan. Whether a localization for the western market is planned is still unknown.
In the MMO shooter Destiny 18 new exotic armor pieces are coming with the “Taken King” expansion. They are already in the official database. We present them.
Patch 2.0 already included the exotic items, even if they do not exist yet, they are already in Bungie’s official database. So it is not “datamined” what we present to you here, but official.
Last Wednesday, we already introduced you to 13 new exotic weapons. However, we know that this is not all. Some are hidden by Bungie. The situation is different with the armors. 18 pieces, 6 for each class, were promised in advance. There are 18 pieces, 6 for each class, in the database. So they should all be there.
All 18 items are available as “drops” in The Taken King. They are not tied to any special quests. Xur can sell them. And all can be “remade.” The armors are therefore configurable and changeable within certain parameters, except for the namesake perk – that stays as it is.
Have fun on the following pages with the 18 new armor pieces.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The two servers Estel (EU) and Elendilmir (US) will start things off and will be the first to open their gates. These will also be the two servers that will be closed first.
However, there is no rush: Until 2016, everyone can continue to play on their old, doomed worlds.
Turbine advises that kinship leaders, i.e., guild leaders, should take the lead and transfer first to ensure that there are no issues here.
In the background, work is vigorously underway on the new data center and hardware, so that The Lord of the Rings Online can provide players in the remaining worlds with a great gaming experience.
If everything works out with the first worlds, they plan to gradually release more worlds. For the EU servers, the following order has been established for the release of transfers:
Estel
Gilrain
Eldar
Anduin
Morthund
Maiar
Vanyar
Withywindle
Snowbourn
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
If you want to check out “Midnight,” this weekend is a great time. There are a variety of bonuses active: A triple bonus doubles all experience gained, all Dilithium, and every mark earned over the weekend.
Completing “Midnight” is also worthwhile. Special rewards await for each week you finish the episode once. The reward for the first week is a Sol Defense Deflector Shield, which is part of the three-piece set “Desperate Defense.”
Players who complete “Midnight” for the first time also receive the title “Peacemaker” and an outfit, which remains valid beyond the week.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The episode is, although smaller compared to earlier ones, again split into two parts. The 4-player alert “Desecrated Cathedral” deals with the story of Raven.
In the solo content “Oa under Siege” the story about Green Lantern continues. You must fend off Black Lanterns.
The major topic in the community regarding the patch so far: The loot drop rate for elite items is too low.
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In South Korea, players of League of Legends can currently become quite rich – they just have to play extremely badly.
The Twist of Perpetrators and Victims
In recent months, a dubious trend has emerged in South Korea, where players of League of Legends are lured into expensive traps and seemingly bad gamers earn their livelihood: Complaints of online insults. In South Korea, there is a law against online insults with quite severe penalties. Those who become abusive towards their peers can face fines of up to $20,000 – or alternatively three years in prison.
Going feed a little – it could make someone rich.
Now, trolls of a special kind are taking advantage of this law: They join a game of League of Legends, introduce themselves to the entire team (so that everyone knows the name and it can be clearly assigned). Once the round starts, they primarily convince with poor gaming performance, die continuously, and feed the opposing team. If a teammate loses control and becomes abusive, the trap snaps shut. Screenshots of the chat are taken and sent directly to the police. If the alleged flamers then learn of their legal violation, the perpetrator intervenes again and offers an out-of-court solution – usually in the range of $300 to $2000.
While I personally welcome a law that punishes insults on the internet more severely, the system there is questionable and easily exploitable. It should deter trolls but has instead turned into a job.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The latest hero in Heroes of the Storm, Rexxar, has quite a few amusing quotes on the lips of the ogres, if one gives him the time to let them out…
Enough of the monkey business!
Heroes of the Storm follows Blizzard’s long tradition of equipping each unit with amusing statements. Since there’s hardly any time to listen to all the quotes in peace during the heat of an actual battle, the “Try It Out” mode is perfect for this. At heart, Rexxar seems to be the epitome of a typical WoW hunter, who claims all loot by default – why? He’s a hunter! He can carry it! There’s also reference to his past in the Desolace area or his origins in the shattered world. You should listen to his statements yourself:
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Especially the more than clear reference to Hearthstone is well done, as the hunter is quite disliked there – at least by all his enemies. What do you think of these quotes? Too silly or do they fit perfectly into the game’s atmosphere?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the MMO shooter Destiny , the last patch has changed a lot in the Tower. Now there are collections and quests – all in a kind of “hanging monitor” or rather, in a display case.
For a long time, players in Destiny were plagued by a major space problem. The vault was simply too small. With patch 2.0, it has been significantly enlarged, but new “kiosks” have also been introduced.
The name is a bit misleading; these are those blue constructions. They are called kiosks or collections, look like oversized iPads, but function like display cases. Well, like futuristic display cases, because what you take out doesn’t really go away. You always just grab a copy.
Display case for shaders, emblems, ships, and sparrows
Filling such a display case is relatively easy: Items once obtained fill a compartment in a display case. Copies of this item can be “taken out.” Each compartment in this display case also has a label. It indicates what you need to do to obtain the respective item. This can be as simple as buying from a vendor, or it may require complicated quest lines or special heroic deeds.
There are collections for:
Shaders
Emblems
Ships
Sparrows
and gestures
Having is better than needing
This means you no longer have to keep sparrows, emblems, shaders, or ships in your inventory, but can take a copy of a specific item out of the display case when you need it. Use it as long as you want. Then just destroy it. There are plenty of new copies available.
This caters to the collecting frenzy of players in Destiny, who like to keep “lasting symbols” for every little achievement they’ve ever made, even if they will never use them. The average Destiny player follows the ancient MMO wisdom: “Having is better than needing.”
Designs for armor and weapons
A special category is the “blueprint collections” (or designs) for exotic weapons and armor. The principle works the same, but a special feature makes it a bit more complicated: Here, “Year 2 versions” of existing exotic weapons or armor can also be drawn out. These “new old” items can achieve higher stats than their Year 1 counterparts.
To draw these, you need legendary marks (available starting September 15) and you must own the Year 1 version to fill and unlock the corresponding display case. However, this does not work with every “old” exotic: Only selected Year 1 items have received a “Year 2 version.” Not all of them have. However, it is said that Year 2 versions of other well-known exotics will gradually come.
Compared to display cases, the designs have two disadvantages: one, it costs something to draw items.
Secondly, items drawn from exotic designs start “naked.” Bungie has already stated: The space for an upgraded exotic is in the guardian’s inventory or vault. So they should not be disassembled.
The blueprints seem rather designed for players to draw Year 1 exotics that do not yet have a Year 2 version by September 15, or to part with items they have no use for but still “have.”
World of Warcraft is full of Easter eggs, and some of these secrets are unveiled only after many years. In this case, paladins can rejoice …
Throw Ghostcrawler Against the Wall!
In a gigantic game like World of Warcraft, the developers constantly make little references. These can be either tributes to former employees or little jokes that they indulge in the form of Easter eggs to commemorate themselves or a certain incident in the game. Normally, these secrets are uncovered by the community quite quickly, but in this special case, it took nearly 3 years!
Table, sneak away – and Ghostcrawler along with it!
The toy “Rotating Table” was introduced in Mists of Pandaria and allows the player to create a table that is knocked over after a short delay. The previously hidden feature: When a paladin uses the table, there is a small chance that a blue crab appears on the table – the avatar of Ghostcrawler, a former designer of WoW.
Righteous Fury – Late Revenge
The origin of this joke lies in the past, specifically at the release of Wrath of the Lich King. At the start of the expansion, retribution paladins were overpowered and could handle any challenge in PvP and PvE on their own. After that, Ghostcrawler announced that he would nerf paladins “TO THE GROUND” (which also happened shortly thereafter). In the following years, he repeatedly joked about how much fun it was for him to continually weaken paladins.
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The rotating table obviously alludes to exactly these incidents – now paladins can still show the former developer what they think of his balancing plans.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The question in the stream that elicited this reaction specifically revolved around Game Director Jeff “Doomsaw” Donais and Item Designer “Amthua.” Two key figures who are now leaving Gazillion.
Departing Game Director Speaks Out
Game Director Donais then addressed the fans in a letter. His departure from Gazillion had been planned for some time.
Donais has been working, as he recounts, for many exhausting years in the gaming industry. Whenever he wanted to catch his breath, a new ambitious project came up with 100-hour weeks. He first worked at Wizard of the Coast on Magic, later at Blizzard, at Riot, and now on Marvel Heroes.
Therefore, he had long been preparing for his exit, eyeing a retirement that he could fortunately afford, identifying and preparing a capable successor. Donais will likely later support the team in an advisory role. For now, he wants to focus on his wife, who deserves more attention (unless she is a disguised Skrull).
Employees Praise Gazillion
As Donais says, the recent layoffs had nothing to do with the performance of the employees, but were purely motivated by costs. Donais believes that the game is still in good hands.
Amthua also describes his time at Gazillion as fulfilling and praises the studio and colleagues in the highest terms. Brevik is not only a visionary CEO but also a down-to-earth, great person. Gazillion is more than just a company; it is more like a family.
The Marvel license attracts many idealists, as reports indicate. People for whom a dream comes true by working on a superhero Marvel game.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
