In the fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, Game Director Matt Firor spoke about the game’s success since switching to a Buy2Play model and its release on consoles.
Producer Matt Firor.
Today is a The Elder Scrolls Online day on “Mein MMO.” TESO had a highly interesting appearance at Quakecon in Dallas, which we will address in several articles. Before announcing plans for the future, they also talked about the last few months.
According to Game Director Matt Firor, The Elder Scrolls Online has become “huge” since switching to a Buy2Play payment model in March. It has been a “crazy ride on the rocket.” The numbers obtained at the console launch were “totally insane.” They took a few weeks to get the servers back up and running and have increased capacity since then, making things run much smoother.
The site vgchartz, whose numbers should be taken with caution, mentions sales figures of 0.81 million (PS4) and 0.67 million (Xbox One) after just two weeks. The PC version of The Elder Scrolls Online had, also according to vgchartz, sold “only” 300,000 copies after 2 weeks. It now stands at 0.69 million.
Throughout the day, we will continue to report on The Elder Scrolls Online’s appearance at Quakecon. They discussed, among other things, the upcoming DLCs, including not just the Imperial City and Orsinium, but also two additional DLCs that are to follow.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The latest patch for World of Warcraft has been live for a few weeks now, but the biggest secret has only just been revealed: Cat lovers are having a long-awaited wish fulfilled.
Kittens like it cozy
The peaceful Eredar Draenei cuddling with the cat.
Patch 6.2 brought a lot of new features. While there had been information about the Tanaan Jungle for a long time and everyone knew about the new raid “Hellfire Citadel”, there was indeed one detail that didn’t even show up in the patch notes. Although it’s just a small, cosmetic change, most cat enthusiasts are beside themselves:When you summon a cat pet, target it, and type /sit (or /sit), the feline friend jumps into its owner’s lap and snuggles there.
After all the bad reviews that the big Patch 6.2 received, one can definitely say (at least from a personal perspective) that this is the best and most lore-appropriate change delivered to us by the update. At least in the forum and on Twitter, this little feature is being celebrated.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Star Wars Battlefront, Audio Director Ben Minto provides extensive insights into his work. He ensures that everything sounds as it does later on. But where do you get a blaster sound from? By hitting a rope with a wedding ring.
As gamers, we only see the result of games, the sum of all parts. How this is done exactly is a mystery. What a graphic designer does can still be roughly imagined: he probably draws a lot. What a writer contributes to a video game can also be somewhat summarized; he writes texts and devises stories. With programmers, however, most people it’s where it stops.
But what does an “audio designer” do in a video game? Ben Minto, Audio Director of Star Wars Battlefront, gives us a really exciting insight into a thrilling job.
You won’t see the Icelandic seals … but you will hear them.
He walks through the forests of Endor with a directional microphone, which astonishingly are located on the Pacific Coast near Skywalker Ranch, capturing the wind in the giant trees on the Pacific Coast. The original recording of Endor was also made here.
But he is not only outdoors searching for sounds; a good part of his job consists of mixing existing sounds. Many noises in the finished game reveal little about their origin. Grunts from Icelandic seals are used for the lava flow atmosphere on Sullust. From a leaky beer pump and the ultrasound recordings of his unborn son, Minto mixes a machine sound.
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He travels to the largest structure in Western Europe, a 412-meter tall longwave radio mast, to capture a sound that resembles a blaster. For essentially, the radio mast is a huge tension cable. And for the sound of the original blasters, the sound engineers used to hit a tension cable with a rock or a wedding ring. Minto also tried this; he found the better sound when he heard the cable singing in the wind.
It’s a puzzle work on the computer that Minto engages in to find the perfect sound, and whenever one is missing, it seems he grabs his microphone, travels to extraordinary places, and even thinks about the job in his free time. While the team celebrated the completion of Battlefield 3 in Dubai, Minto was in the desert: he was recording wind sounds.
With patch 3.4 for Rift, some new features are on the way: A new battlefield awaits, and a fan site even believes in the introduction of a 5th class: The Primalist.
Content of 3.4 – PvP and the Primalist?
Patch 3.3 has just been released and work is already underway on 3.4.
The patch 3.3 of Rift has only been on the live servers for a few days, but work is already in full swing on the next small expansion, which logically will be 3.4 and is titled “Into the Wilds“. In addition to a new zone called “Planetouched Wilds”, much is already known about the PvP battlefield that will also be released. The map “Assault on the Bronze Tomb” will be played in two rounds: One team takes on the role of the attackers and must capture several rooms until they can ultimately take over the sanctum of the opposing team. The defenders must prevent this or hold out as long as possible. After the completion of a round, the sides are switched and the team with the better time wins.
At the same time, a new calling, a new “base class,” the Primalist may also appear in the game, as it not only thematically fits the new zone but is also supposed to be released simultaneously with it, as the fan site riftgrate knows. As soon as there is new information, we will report on it.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online is known for its events, many of which are organized by the players themselves – now the popular “Weatherstock” event is coming up and brings lots of music.
The party is on Landroval
For the 7th time, players on the Landroval server are hosting the “Weatherstock” event, where numerous bands can showcase their musical pieces. What initially seems like a small role-playing event has turned into a massive virtual event over the years. More than 900 players regularly participate in this (damn well) organized event and are enchanted by the various bands for several hours.
This is the two-day schedule for this year’s festival. The specified times correspond to US Eastern Time. To convert them to our time, you must add 6 hours. So, it starts on Friday at 5:50 PM at the stage in Bree and ends at 3:30 AM. On Saturday, players gather at 5:30 PM at the Forsaken Inn. The competition ends at 10:30 PM, after which there will be a voting.
This whole experience is made possible not least by LOTRO’s unique music system, which allows players to compose their own pieces or perform existing tracks. Of course, a lot of humor will be included as well. The organizers talk about experiencing “the unique phenomenon called LAG”. Those who want a little impression of the atmosphere should take a look at the events from previous years, which they want to surpass significantly:
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Celebrations will also take place away from the weather hill: The HdRO Summer Festival runs until August 5th, featuring horse races, Hobbits’ tastings, mug races, treasure hunts, fishing competitions, and much more.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Destiny, a 32cm action figure, a true collector’s item, is available for purchase. The price is steep and the Hawkmoon exclusive.
One has to chuckle when following the turbulence of the last weeks in Destiny and now reading the special offer from an action figure manufacturer: A major topic in Destiny was special editions, rewards that would only come with certain boxes. And this has only been recent.
The dispute over the exclusivity of some weapons dates back at least a year. There has also long been heated debate over what players without DLC miss out on.
An action figure of a Titan is now hitting the market. The manufacturer 3A promises a detailed reproduction in scale 1:6 with 24 “Points of Articulation”, two sets of interchangeable hands, and battle-tested armor (over fabric underwear). At a price point of $190 (approximately €174), this is not a toy but a collector’s item.
The Titan is of course not defenseless: As miniaturized weapon models, there are the auto rifle Shadow Price, the legendary shotgun Felwinter’s Lie, and the faithful machine gun Zombie Apocalypse.
At launch, there will be a collaboration with Bambalandstore and there and only there, one will receive an edition that also includes the Hawkmoon. This will be missing in later editions. This will sound familiar to Destiny players: The virtual counterpart to the hand cannon Hawkmoon has been missing for all Xbox players since its release in 2014. The weapon is PlayStation exclusive. Furthermore, it is said that the Bambaland version will be shipped internationally for free.
The sale at Bambalandstore is set to start on July 27 at 9:00 AM Hong Kong time. That is at 3:00 AM our time on the night from Sunday to Monday.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In early August, Gamescom will take place in Cologne. The upcoming MMO shooter The Division will be there.
In March 2016, The Division is expected to compete primarily with Destiny, although no one from the involved companies really says so, but that seems to be the direction it’s heading.
Ubisoft’s MMO shooter has already been postponed twice. A date circulated by Ubisoft in 2014 was considered absurd even among its own ranks, at least according to an anonymous source from the developer team. For a long time, they wanted to keep the 2015 date until they had to abandon it or rather slipped out through a backdoor and turned the calendar year 2015 into fiscal year 2015.Now it is supposed to be in March 2016 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One: Civilization is collapsing in New York City and only a special unit, The Division, can ensure that not everything falls apart.
The Division will be playable in Cologne at Gamescom. It is included in Ubisoft’s lineup for the fair. The French publisher will be found in Hall 6.1 at Stand B020.
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This weekend, we want to discuss the highs and lows of everyday life in the world of MMOs with you again. For this, we need to wander a little into the past and find out: Which MMO has improved the most since its launch?
Initial Challenges on the Agenda
Cooking was a horror at the beginning in WildStar. Days of farming without success.
We don’t have to beat around the bush: MMOs are often many things at their “official launch”, but certainly not in an optimal state. In most cases, one could rather speak of a beta version 2.0 that still needs a few months or even years to really be a pleasure. A good example would probably be WildStar, which still had relatively many bugs at launch. The crafting was a nightmare (and some recipes were missing entirely), some endgame zones were monotonous, and entire adventures were partly buggy and thus only frustrating.
But even with genre giants like World of Warcraft, it is often forgotten that at the time of release, much was far from “perfect” and many problems were only resolved over a period of 10 years.
There are some rare exceptions that worked relatively well right from the start, such as Guild Wars 2. The density of bugs was manageable; only regarding endgame content was it a bit thin.
This now leads us to the question: Which MMO has undergone the most remarkable transformation since its release?
It took months for TERA to become a real pleasure. At first, there was (almost) only bare skin.
Cortyn says:In my long “MMO career”, I have seen many MMOs come and go. Most of them I only looked at at launch, so I can say little about how they have changed over the years – but I have checked in occasionally with a few. Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the great examples that a switch to Free2Play can indeed benefit a game. Nowadays, the classes feel significantly more exciting to play, and especially “Shadow of Revan” has finally given the game a stronger story component again.
World of Warcraft has also gone through a long maturation process – which many players like to forget.
Even my long-term love-hate relationship World of Warcraft has continued to improve over the years. Subjectively, the game felt “good” to me even at launch – at least by the standards of the time, which were not particularly high for an MMO.
But now let’s turn to you: Which game did you find not particularly good at the beginning but has become a real hit over the years? What changes have influenced this perception for you? Discuss it with us in the comments!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
With the upcoming HearthStone expansion “The Grand Tournament“, there are some new features and changes – but one is missing: a tournament mode. Why is that?
Not the Right Time for a Tournament
At polygon, they conducted a brief interview with the Game Director of Hearthstone, Eric Dodds, and asked him why “The Grand Tournament” brings so many innovations, but not the long-demanded tournament mode. He found the question “interesting” and mentioned that one must wait for the right moment for everything – and that moment simply hasn’t come yet.
The wacky card chaos was “more appropriate” than a tournament mode.
In all decisions, the developers ask themselves: “What is the right and most important thing for the game at this moment?” According to Dodds, they currently do not consider a “serious and competition-oriented” mode to be important, but rather a silly and wacky one, like the weekly card chaos.
Moreover, it is perfectly fine if the card chaos does not appeal to all players every week – if a different group enjoys the rule variations each time, the developers have achieved their goal.
Despite all this, they still do not rule out a tournament mode – for now, they are letting the community host tournaments themselves.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Originally, the beta of the PvP MMORPG Camelot Unchained was supposed to start this August. However, the sudden departure of a programmer means that the testing phase will likely not begin until next year.
Camelot Unchained is highly anticipated by many MMO fans. The spiritual successor to the cult game Dark Age of Camelot promises exciting and epic PvP battles between three factions. The alphas that have taken place so far have already been well-received by fans. The developers announced some time ago that they hired a new programmer, with whom work was expected to progress much better and faster. Therefore, they planned to launch the beta for this August.
The team is getting smaller
However, everything has now changed. Over Twitch, City-State Entertainment founder Mark Jacobs explained that the beta cannot start as planned. The programmer they hired and had been searching for so long left the company after just a few days. Mark Jacobs expressed his disappointment and anger. The employee was supposed to start on Monday, and everything was set. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Jacobs was out of the office due to his wife’s surgery. On Wednesday, Jacobs received an email from the employee, explaining that he had been offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – an offer he could not refuse and therefore had to resign.
Since City State Entertainment is a very small team, the loss of one person, especially such a talented programmer, would be fatal. It has thrown all plans into disarray, which is why the beta can definitely not start in August. Indeed, the completely overturned planning means that it is rather unlikely to expect the beta this year. Nevertheless, the team continues to work on the game with full motivation, and Jacobs is confident that even with the reduced team, a lot can be achieved by the end of the year.
In the MMO shooter Destiny , Xur arrives at the Tower or the Reef on July 24th. What exotic weapons and armor pieces does he have this time, … if he has anything at all?
A week ago, the hunt for Xur yielded a unique result: The guy was spotted and confronted in the Tower’s hangar. When asked about his weapon, he shrugged his tentacles: The space fox took it. This immediately sparked speculation that he must have had that one weapon whose name we can’t remember right now, and it was snatched from his paws in the last seconds. Sneaky!
This is Xur’s best friend!
No weapon in Xur’s inventory, not even a substitute or something. Bungie’s night was disturbingly disrupted. “Just look at this,” was tweeted electronically, until eventually it was tweeted again: “Well, it is what it is.”
Guardians then, as they always do, demanded a balance: “Then give him two weapons next week! Or … You know which ones! He should bring those!” Bungie held up the “No comment” sign that we have come to know well.
In any case, we can expect an interesting Xur today. Will Bungie do anything to compensate for last week’s absence? Before you all enthusiastically nod your heads, remember: Xur is the guy, who brought “No Land Outside” for Christmas. He is the kind of guy who gives his best friend scratchy socks for his birthday. Although … Master Rahool deserves them too.
All about Xur on July 24, July 25, and July 26 in Destiny
When does Xur come and when does he leave again?
Xur arrives on Friday, July 24th at 11:00 AM in the Tower. He stays for 48 hours and leaves again on July 26th at 11:00 AM German time.
Where is Xur?
Xur is near the Speaker, by the large gate.
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Gearbox, the minds behind Borderlands, are developing a shooter with MOBA DNA called Battleborn . What resolution are they aiming for? The same for both consoles?
Gamingbolt spoke with the Publishing Producer of Battleborn and asked him what resolution is targeted on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles.
The answer is: 1080p. The game is still in development and that could change, but that has been the goal from the beginning and they are trying to achieve it.
Battleborn will be released for PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One in Q4 2015 or Q1 2016.
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Another one gone: On the night from Wednesday to Thursday, John Smedley, the controversial head of the MMO studio DGC, announced his resignation.
Image from happier days: A man with a dog – John Smedley.
The reasons are not known; one can only speculate what exactly led the industry veteran to vacate his seat.
A few days ago, when he publicly announced his withdrawal from Twitter and reddit, he said something like: “Life is too short to be distracted from your goals. I just wanted to make games.” Maybe that’s impossible when you are scapegoated for your company’s game servers being under DDOS attacks. And that, from the fans’ perspective, is “only” because you vented your anger on Twitter and publicly declared war on a cybercriminal.
His parents need to be held accountable for his actions in addition to his going to jail. @what_security – So I’m coming for you Julius.
It is not even clear why the group of cybercriminals chose Smedley as their enemy number 1 last year. Maybe because he was the head of “Sony Online Entertainment” and they hastily concluded: He must be responsible for Sony’s internet security! Let’s make an example of him, let’s really hit him!
The fact that Smedley had nothing to do with PSN, but led an MMO studio within Sony that focused on PC games, might have escaped the underage cybercriminals. The consequences are known: A bomb threat forced a passenger plane to make an emergency landing, SWAT teams were dispatched, personal documents were released online, photos of Smedley’s father’s grave were defaced with obscenities and posted. All this has left scars on Smedley, who took pride in being a president that was approachable, someone who remained accessible and relatable despite all difficulties for the fans.
One of the Lizard Squad cybercriminals gave an interview to Sky News…
https://youtu.be/ngp4kSB5z80?t=57s
No, the reasons for Smedley’s resignation are not known. Maybe he just got up one day and thought: “Why am I putting myself through this?” And he’s not the first one to do so. Markus Persson, the former mastermind behind Minecraft, is considerably more conciliatory and less controversial than Smedley. But even Persson eventually lost the desire to be the big figure, the front man, the one that everyone could rub against, the one with expectations. He didn’t want to be a symbol anymore; it wasn’t about the money for him, as he said when leaving Minecraft, but rather about his soul, about his mental health.
Persson left all the commotion behind after watching a video on YouTube about Phil Fish.
The controversial indie developer Phil Fish is on the other side of the scale, even more aggressive, even more controversial than Smedley could ever be. The indie developer liked to argue with opponents, especially publicly, seeking friction, enjoying it. Until he became too prominent. The number of opponents he provoked to the boiling point grew so much that among them were people who seemed willing to do him personal harm by any means necessary. And that is possible today, as Smedley learned, from the shadows and anonymously.
Following the motto “Many dogs are the death of the hare”, it eventually became a biting comment, a public attack, one mockery too many. Fish, who even his fiercest critics considered a talented game developer, withdrew from the public eye.
Phil Fish was examined in this internet documentary as a prime example of an “Internet celebrity”…
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Women are facing very similar problems online. And they don’t need to have the alpha male syndrome or a big ego. Two things that one cannot deny either Fish or Smedley have. Women get in trouble online when they irritate. Uncomfortable women get in trouble. Women with challenging views who want to talk about questioning the portrayal of women in video games. They irritate the wrong people, the ones who have nothing to lose. And in 2015, that can lead to bomb and murder threats. The most prominent example is certainly Anita Sarkeesian, who has faced various attacks with her series “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games“. The mildest of them being that she lacks gamer cred…
It’s a strange world we live in. Every form of culture, every movie, every video game, every TV series shows us how important it is to speak up, to be brave, to stand out from the crowd. We cheer for heroes who do exactly that. Those who refuse to duck, those who show their colors: They get our full sympathy… in the cinema or on the couch.
We demand people with edges and corners. We are done with flimsy platitudes, with peddlers who avoid every position. We are fed up with people who never want to ruffle any feathers. We demand opinions, want to be taken seriously, want to be heard.
Smedley has done all that: Over a year ago, we watched John Smedley communicate with players, how he clearly stated what he thought, how he admitted mistakes, approached fans, and spoke with them. And we wondered. Since when has Sony been this cool?
Anita Sarkeesian in conversation with Stephen Colbert in his role as a right-wing conservative media eater…
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But in practice, it is precisely those who do this, the controversial types, the bothersome ones, those who annoy us, those who provoke us to think, those who talk to us, who serve us something different than thin PR-talk, exactly those are subjected to attacks from an anonymous mass that wants to set them straight, that wants to show them boundaries, that tells them: If you do that, we will finish you off. If you say something that doesn’t suit us, then you will regret it. Exactly these people are vulnerable, wear themselves out in endless skirmishes, they are played unfairly and harassed.
The aggressors see themselves in the role of David: They are individuals who want to take down a Goliath, a person of influence, using any means at their disposal. Because what does he think he is? What does he think who he is? We’ll show him! And thus, we become someone too. We are the ones who have influence, who must be paid attention to.
This is the new logo of DGC. Under this and Smedley’s eye, they promised golden times for Planetside 2, H1Z1 and Everquest Next.
How do we want our public figures? Strong in opinion, communicative, approachable, but always composed and noncommittal? Do we want them to be loved and liked by everyone? And what if not? What if their nose doesn’t fit the wrong people? If their ideas clash where people are not too polite, where they do not value exchange of opinions, where they nurture other methods of communication, sending death threats or SWAT teams instead of arguments?
Should they really be silent and duck away?
And what if not? Do we then demand them to be statues, to silently endure? To be above such things. A death threat here, some published private documents there, pages of hate mail and midnight calls… What does it matter to the proud oak when the boar rubs against it?
No, we cannot demand that. They are not statues. They are people who one morning wake up and say: “Why am I putting myself through this?” And maybe fewer of these people will get up if it’s more comfortable not to be vulnerable, to refrain from certain things, to have more self-control.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the MMO shooter Destiny a special Trials weekend is coming, and they want to solve the “Wrapper of the Pit” problem. They’ve also shown a lot of images of new weapons.
On the night from Thursday to Friday, Bungie will release the Weekly Update. The developers explain what happened during the week, address community complaints, or present future plans. This week had a bit of everything. It’s like the lukewarm buffet of Weekly Updates.
Special Trials of Osiris and the August Iron Banner have a date
There has been a lot of discontent recently surrounding the Trials of Osiris: Only 6 maps are available, which could get boring. Therefore, they’re bringing in some variety: This weekend all 6 maps will be active. One will be randomly selected per round. It’s an experiment.
Starting next week, on July 28, a new Iron Banner will be active.
Omnolon: Experimental, daring, multifaceted
Exciting look at new weapons
The main part of the Weekly Update focused on new weapons. They are set to come with The Taken King in September. Here they showcased 3 weapon manufacturers, each with its own style. There will be different weapon types from these manufacturers – they showed 3 weapons from each manufacturer along with the corresponding concept art from the talented model makers at Destiny:
Häkke specializes in rather conventional weapons, where functionality is a priority. The guns have balanced stats and are solid – their design resembles weapons from our time.
Omnolon, on the other hand, manufactures experimental weapons and specializes in everything related to energy. The perks of these weapons tend to focus on enhancing player attributes rather than increasing weapon stats.
Manufacturer SUROS is committed to elegant design and offers various upgrade options for its weapons, allowing users to customize the weapon to their needs.
Suros: Elegant, adaptable, noble
Additionally, Bungie announces that there will be more weapons through quests, factions would have their own weapons, the gunsmith has developed “methods to involve players in his business” – and: There will even be class-specific weapons. All interesting approaches, but not explored in depth.
This time, it’s worth taking a look at the original Weekly Update: Not only are there more images of weapons and artwork. Bungie has also released the heat maps of the Trials of Osiris maps: This shows where guardians particularly like to gather.
It’s a little questionable whether Xur will adapt to the wishes of the players on Friday, July 24, at his appearance at 11:00 AM, as much as a model from Suros, but he’s still got some making up to do: Last week he had no weapon available: Here we report on his inventory.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Under a news post on the Russian site siliconrus.com a lively exchange took place between the YouTuber and the producer of War Thunder, Pavel Kulikov. Both accused each other of bad behavior. For a while, it seemed that they could resolve the issue. The YouTuber admitted mistakes; Kulikov stated that the ban of the YouTube channel was based on a misunderstanding – an employee had acted out of zeal.
NDA should remain secret, became public
Apparently, Kulikov subsequently offered the YouTuber a “cooperation contract” that can only be described as a gag order. The YouTuber was to release 4 episodes of War Thunder on his channel weekly and not mention anything that could cast a bad light on War Thunder. In case of breach of contract, a fine of $10,000 was threatened for each incident.
This contract was supposed to remain “confidential”, but the YouTuber leaked it to the Russian gaming site “Kanobu” and made allegations against Kulikov that amounted to extortion. In a confidential conversation, Kulikov allegedly said that they would only withdraw the “strikes” if Fyodorov signed the contract and ensured strict confidentiality.
The agreements went even further, as Fyodorov indicated to Kanobu. He would also have been forbidden to report on the competing games World of Tanks, World of Warships, and Armored Warfare . Topics that resonated well with his channel. Fyodorov would then have become completely dependent on Gaijin Entertainment, the developers behind War Thunder.
CEO of Gaijin Software intervenes
Following the Kanobu report, the CEO of Gaijin Entertainment, Anton Yuditsev, intervened and apologized to the YouTuber. He will naturally get his channel back. The producer had exceeded his authority, acted on his own, and against the guidelines of Gaijin Entertainment, and has already been dismissed from his position.
On Twitter, Kulikov apologized to YouTuber Fyodorov and thanked him for 8 years at Gaijin Entertainment. It seems that he has left the company.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The free-to-play MMO Neverwinter will receive its new update “Strongholds” on August 11. The guild strongholds are coming to PC. A trailer is now available.
The strongholds will arrive in August, giving players time to expand their strongholds, set up, and get to know the environment. A 20-vs-20 PvP mode is expected to be introduced in September, where players can compete against each other, with their own stronghold behind them.
Strongholds will be the 7th expansion of Neverwinter on PC. This feature has been particularly anticipated, as it has been talked about for months. You can follow this on our Neverwinter themed page.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Diablo 3, a player has reached Paragon level 2000, and that’s because he is not as greedy as others, but more popular and nicer.
Paragon level 1000 is already an achievement in Diablo 3, 2000 is simply intense. And the player Vajet reaches 2000 when you calculate his achievements from Season 3 (1789 Paragon level) with the EXP of his non-season characters (1339 Paragon level). An unofficial leaderboard is already showing this now, the official one only at the end of Season 3.
As Kotaku reports, Vajet has slain 15,374,712 monsters on his journey, 1,929,374 of them were elites. To reach Paragon level 2000 requires as much EXP as reaching Paragon level 1000 11.5 times.
How he achieved this and why he has gained such a significant lead, he explains in a conversation with Diablo3Ladder. Like many who aim so high, he plays supporters like Monk or Crusader. Because they can equip items that grant EXP bonuses during the “Greater Rift” runs, while everyone else needs their “best DPS items.” Supporters then contribute less to the group’s damage than others, but provide buffs and tank a bit.
The move to supporter is obvious for leader runners. Because in EXP gear, they receive up to three times as many experience points compared to a player in his “best” gear.
In return, supporters are expected to acquire the keys to open trials or Greater Rifts. Vajet said he organized extremely fast farming groups and did not wear the complete EXP gear but only parts of it, so the runs would not take too long; otherwise, DPS players would have become angry with him.
Competitors who would have worn all the EXP gear would eventually have difficulty finding teammates due to their slowing effect. Vajet almost never had this problem.
Mein MMO says:Somewhere in this story, there is certainly a lesson hidden. Nevertheless, the time investment is of course enormous. Moral of the story or not.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
At WildStar, not only is the transition to Free2Play coming, but also a complete overhaul of character stats to create much more clarity. Read here what players need to prepare for in the coming months.
Abolition of Complicated Names
The arguments and quarrels over loot should soon be a thing of the past.
As previously reported, they want to say goodbye to complicated names. Courage, finesse, and perception helped WildStar have some unique names, but obviously did not achieve the desired success. Many players were confused by the stats, and even veterans of the MMO genre had to extensively inform themselves to understand why courage brings completely different advantages to an esper than to an archhunter. Discussions about loot distribution should now be easier since every player clearly knows which class derives what benefit from the respective stats.
The 6 Primary Stats
Instead of the quirky old names, they have opted for 6 easily understandable stats that should reveal to every player at first glance what is at stake:
Attack/Support Power directly affects damage dealt and healing and thus determines the strength of player abilities.
Armor reduces any damage taken.
Health Points increase the damage value a player can suffer before dying (who would have thought).
Max Shield Capacity increases the damage value that the player’s shield can absorb.
PvP Power amplifies all damage dealt and healing in PvP areas.
PvP Defense reduces all damage taken in PvP areas.
A Total of 24 Secondary Stats
Despite the transition, characters are expected to roughly maintain their old strength.
If you now think that WildStar loses depth in character development, you are massively mistaken. Because in addition to the 6 primary attributes, there are a proud 24 secondary stats! Some of them are already in the game and their functionality will not be touched. Others have been slightly modified, and a small group is even completely new.
The Multi-Hit Chance is reminiscent of the same value from World of Warcraft and ensures that attacks and heals are re-cast with a certain chance. The strength of this second attack is determined by the new value Multi-Hit Toughness.
Healers with no focus issues can benefit from Momentum, which increases the effectiveness of heals by a fixed percentage, but this also increases mana costs.
Especially in PvP, there could be different character traits.
Until now, support and attack power was the optimum; every class has filled up as many rune slots as possible. To present players with new choices, these values are completely removed from the runes. Players will then need to decide on the new values and thus have greater options to shape their character according to their own ideas and adapt to their personal play style. New “Lifesteal” builds could certainly make for interesting PvP matches – or very, very long battles.
A Little Opinion
Will everything really go as Carbine hopes?
Overall, the changes seem quite reasonable and are likely to lead to a lot of different characters within the same class – at least in the first weeks. However, it is probably only a matter of time before theorycrafters calculate a mathematical optimum for the new stats, and whether the desired diversity will still be given is another matter.
Another point of criticism is the value “Momentum”, which falls out of line in its function – as it seems to be the only value that also has a negative impact (higher focus costs) on the respective character, and thus appears a bit inconsistent. But here it seems: wait and drink a veggie smoothie.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The military MMO War Thunder has a problem with its most popular Russian YouTuber and has temporarily banned him.
Tension between War Thunder and 140,000-subscriber channel since November 2013
As reported by silicon.rus, Gaijin Entertainment has had the YouTuber “alconafter” banned from YouTube. The YouTuber himself thought it was because he had recently been involved with mail.ru and “Armored Warfare”. He previously worked closely with Gaijin, had a press account, and enjoyed certain privileges. All of that was taken away from him in November 2013 when there was a controversial stream in which one of his guests called for a flash mob in protest against a patch.
Despite these disadvantages, alconafter remains the largest War Thunder YouTuber in the Russian language with 140,000 subscribers.
The current reason for Gaijin’s numerous copyright complaints to YouTube was that Gaijin accused “alconafter” of promoting a stream by claiming that a “Gaijin employee” would appear. Furthermore, it was alleged that “alconafter” wanted to create a false impression with cheap sensationalist journalism.
The corresponding “employee” is a history expert who has also worked for War Thunder but is not an “official employee”. Alconafter has since admitted his mistake.
Allegedly, World of Tanks also got involved …
World of Tanks and Armored Warfare are said to have offered help
The situation is getting even trickier: According to the “Military MMO” blog Ritas Status Report, both Wargaming (World of Tanks) and mail.ru (Armored Warfare) have offered legal support to the banned YouTuber to help him get his channel back. This was learned from relevant “sources” which are not disclosed.
The postings from Ritas Status Blog suggest that War Thunder wants to bury a YouTuber who now prefers to cover Armored Warfare and World of Warships on his channel instead of War Thunder.
… and Armored Warfare gets involved in the dispute.
Peace Agreement under news articles
As silicon.rus continues to report, legal support from the tank MMOs may not even be necessary. It seems that an agreement has been reached. The ban on the channel by YouTube was a mistake, an automatic process at YouTube that Gaijin did not want. An overzealous employee reportedly reported numerous copyright violations on his own accord, triggering the automatic ban. The strikes have since been revoked.
Apparently, War Thunder offered the YouTuber a “cooperation agreement”.
The somewhat bizarre aspect of the matter is that the discussion between War Thunder and the YouTuber took place in the comments of the post by “silicon.rus”. There, the YouTuber Kirill Fyodorov discussed with the Executive Producer of War Thunder, Pavel Kulikov. After a while, things became a bit more conciliatory, but they have now fallen into a dispute again about whether the details of the cooperation agreement should be public or not.
A reported version of the contract states that the YouTuber is obliged to produce 4 videos a week about War Thunder and remove material that discredits War Thunder. Whether the contract is accurate and whether the YouTuber has signed it is currently unknown.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The fantasy MMORPG Echo of Soul is holding a competition: Players are invited to submit a photo with a really big sword.
A fierce dispute has erupted at Aeria Games: PvE players felt so insulted by the arrogant humiliations from PvP players that they saw no other option but to resolve it as in the old, bad days with sword, stapler, and office chair.
The leader of the defeated PvP faction sees only one chance to avenge his shame: He needs a bigger sword.
Players are to craft this for him and have their photo taken with it. They can then win a replica of another, super large sword (The Sword of Enlightenment) or founder packs.
