ArcheAge grants founders 30 free days as compensation

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes

Founders are now receiving 30 free days as Patrons in the Sandpark MMO ArcheAge to compensate for the issues of last week.

After several attempts to restore the founders’ status and privileges, it seems to have finally succeeded on Saturday evening our time. After a night shift by Trion Worlds staff with the Korean developers of XLGames, who develop the original Korean game, they managed to solve the pesky Patron bug. This bug caused founders, who were supposed to receive benefits, to not get them in-game.

First, the 30 free days will be consumed

Those who log in as founders now and find that they only have 30 days of Patron status instead of significantly more, because they purchased a more expensive package, need not be alarmed. This is intentional. As the community manager Scapes informs, founders have received 30 free days as a “bonus” as Patrons.

First, the time from this bonus will be deducted, and only when the 30 days are up will the actual Patron game time begin. These bonus days should also apply to players who are not founders but have already purchased Patron time.

ArcheAge

As seen in forum posts, not everyone has received this bonus time yet. However, this should happen gradually. Those who are still missing Patron time, which they are entitled to, should contact customer support.

ArcheAge has solved a problem, now it’s time to tackle the queues

Next, Trion Worlds is targeting the still long queues. While the USA has received two new servers, Luzius and Ezi, and a block is in place on the four largest servers to create new characters, the necessary hardware for additional European servers is on its way to the data center in Amsterdam and must pass through customs first. At least for Sunday, new EU servers are therefore ruled out.

ArcheAge Headstart Rush

Currently, Trion Worlds is working hard to improve the AFK check system and ensure that the queue advances faster until they can open new servers.

They likely do not want to increase the capacity of existing servers further. This has already been done – the servers have been increased by 20% since launch, with the most popular server even by 30%. Thus, Kyporsa is the largest ArcheAge server at least in the western hemisphere. According to Trion Worlds, further expansion would have negative effects on gameplay. There simply are not enough resources for such a server population, leading to technical issues.

Update Monday 10:30: In a statement, Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman now speaks of compensation for the Patron players, but not of 30 days, but rather that the Patron status will be calculated only from Saturday, September 20. This would be a credit of 8 days and a bonus of 4 days. Because the head start, which was originally not supposed to be counted towards Patron time, has indeed been accruing since September 12.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Trion Worlds

Landmarks in H1Z1: Eye estimate instead of Mini-map

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes

In the survival MMO H1Z1, players – like soldiers – must watch out for prominent objects, such as water towers, if they want to meet up with friends.

The zombie MMO H1Z1 is supposed to be different. They have proclaimed “realism” as their goal. If there ever is a zombie apocalypse, it will unfold just like in H1Z1, fans and developers agree. Just as high-ranking US military officials once said that if attacked by giant combat robots, the US Army would respond just as in the Transformers movies, which were authentically researched.

H1Z1_Wasserturm

Now, in a “realistic” zombie apocalypse, it would probably be hard to log in next to your friend or magically “sense” him on the mini-map. And in H1Z1, it is supposed to be part of the adventure to find each other in this world. Because it is expansive. And since the first areas of the world are modeled after the Pacific Northwest of the USA – which is a pretty sparsely populated region on the border with Canada – everything might look a bit bleak and monotonous. Many forests, farms, small villages – very little flickering neon light or cool water slides.

H1Z1_Wasserturmbraun

Therefore, players should prepare to meet up with friends based on distinctive landmarks, and those should also be clearly visible from afar. Phrases like “Meet me at the house with the doghouse” or “I am at the intersection where three zombies are lying in front of a pickup truck” make it difficult. Hence, well-visible water towers should serve as landmarks. They were recently introduced in a blog post, and to the delight of fans, they were all presented in multiple colors.

Well, saying it is the delight of fans might be a bit exaggerated. On Reddit, the announcement was rather met with gallows humor. There – as everywhere else – people are waiting for a date for early access. It seems that nothing will come of it in September either. SOE is not sending any signals in that direction. And at the Nvidia event, a delegation from H1Z1 was present, but unfortunately, nothing was announced.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. H1Z1
  2. reddit

Destiny: Players die billions of times in the Crucible

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time < 1 minutes

During the weekend, Destiny provides more precise numbers about the MMO shooter. An average session lasts three hours during the week, and even four on weekends. The deaths that have already occurred in the Crucible are now in the tens of millions.

100 million hours, Bungie proudly announces, have already been spent by players in Destiny. Enough time to watch the extended version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (the really, really long one) exactly 8,797,653 times. That’s quite a lot of Lord of the Rings.

Destiny captivates: Typical session lasts three hours

A typical session of Destiny players lasts about three hours. On weekends, the sessions even exceed four hours.

And 167 million “activities” have already been conducted in the game. A Crucible match, although involving 12 players, counts as just one activity.

One last special note: In Destiny, PvP players do not just die once, but a dozen times. A billion deaths of players have already occurred in Destiny’s Crucible, in PvP mode.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Bungie.net

WildStar: Engima with World-First, other top guilds give up

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes

In the SF-MMO WildStar, the guild Enigma has achieved a World First in the 40-man raid Datascape. While other progression guilds, including the German guild Chase, are withdrawing from the game.

For many players, the raids in WildStar are the ultimate goal. Before you can enter, you must complete a long access quest, the gear must be right, you need to master your character from A to Z, and then you need 39 others for whom the same applies.

WildStar Chua War

While for most normal mortals the 20-man raid “The Genarchive” is hard enough, top guilds managed to overcome this months ago and have been hanging out in the “Datascapes”, a 40-man raid, for a few weeks now. Since it was also difficult for the top guilds to increase their raid roster in WildStar from 20 to 40, many struggled to make significant progress (additionally, certain encounters in the raid were apparently buggy).

While Enigma is currently celebrating another World First kill, other guilds, as reported by readycheck.org, are ceasing their raid activities. Both Voodoo, who could still compete with Enigma in the Datascapes, and the German progression guild Chase are turning their backs on WildStar. Chase was unable to expand to 40 players. Voodoo was simply tired of waiting for improvements in the game from Carbine. Although they loved the game, they have now decided to take this step. You can find the full statements from both guilds in the sources.

But now to the positive: If you want to see what raiding at the highest level is like in WildStar – Enigma has released a kill video of “Volatility Lattice”.

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Source(s):
  1. Statements von Chase und Voodoo
  2. reddit

The Elder Scrolls Online: Musical Declaration of Love

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time < 1 minutes

The fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online is currently enjoying a musical tribute from a fan.

The Disney song “Let it Go” from Frozen is once again inspiring the masses. This time, a TESO fan has reworked the song to fit The Elder Scrolls Online and “MMO.” Although this tribute to the joys of playing together in an online game may not quite match the original in terms of singing, the song has received approval from the employees at Zenimax and has brought smiles to some fans’ faces.

“Everyone in the office loves the song,” was the response from the community management at The Elder Scrolls Online.

Since Update 4 has also been rolled out without at least those major issues that have accompanied such updates in the past, perhaps there is now some time to catch our breath and simply enjoy the game we have.

In the video, Tamriel looks damn good. We have to say that.

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Rift: How this works with the minions – A taste of World of Warcraft?

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes
Rift

The dark fantasy MMO Rift is now introducing the fundamentals of the minion system, which will be introduced to Telara with the new expansion.

Rift, the MMO from Trion Worlds, which isn’t currently driving many crazy, plans to introduce a new feature with the expansion “Nightmare Tides” on October 8: collectible minions. This is a similar model to what players of Star Trek Online already know and what players of World of Warcraft will encounter on November 12.

We already discussed this new trend in detail months ago and wondered how individual games would implement these companion systems .

For Rift, the following ideas were chosen:

  • Minions are represented by cards.
    Rift_Karten2
  • Minions count across all characters for each character of the same server cluster in Rift. Players can only own one version of a minion at a time.
  • Minions are sent on missions, from which they can return with Dimension items, notoriety, artifacts, or crafting materials.
  • Minions have advantages in the form of elemental points that predispose them for specific missions. If a mission favors a minion with fire affinity and you send such a minion into the field, it will have a higher chance to return with more loot. A mission cannot fail; it can only yield more or less loot.
  • The missions take place in real-time, and minions have a stamina value that regenerates automatically.
  • Minions can be obtained as rewards for a variety of things. Some will also be available in the shop.

Mein MMO says: Yeah, this is essentially the system one would expect. It is basically a variant of the Duty Officer system in Star Trek Online, although there is nothing really surprising or new about it. It is merely a kind of mini-browser game within the game: It gives players a bit more to do and, above all, a sort of display case, where some won’t rest until every slot has the appropriate minion. Clever, but not exactly groundbreaking. World of Warcraft seems to want to go a bit further here.

What else we have about the free-to-play MMO Rift can be found on our topic page.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Rift

Kingdom Under Fire II is set to conquer the PlayStation 4 as a F2P this summer 2015

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time < 1 minutes

The MMO Kingdom under Fire II, a mix of strategy and action, is set to conquer the Playstation 4 as a free-to-play title in the summer of 2015.

Kingdom under Fire II has gone through a turbulent development process. Some have been looking forward to the unique mix of various genres for years, but there have always been difficulties: sometimes the developer ran out of money; sometimes it was said that the technology was not yet ready to implement the ideas of the game. Currently, Kingdom under Fire II is playable on PC in Southeast Asia, and even an English version exists in Malaysia and Singapore.

Kingdom under Fire II aims to be the spearhead of the Free2Play MMO movement

The game is expected to begin its great success in the West in summer 2015, according to the developer Blueside. They plan to release the game for the Playstation 4 in English, Chinese, and Korean versions. The CEO of Blueside, Sejung Kim, speaks of rapid growth in the MMO segment for the Playstation 4. They would like to participate in this with Kingdom under Fire II and march ahead as a free-to-play online title.

According to mmoculture, an XBox One version of the title is still awaited. It is suspected that Microsoft may be opposed to F2P titles on their platform.
Accompanying this news, there are two trailers for the game.

We have already covered Kingdom under Fire II in this article on mein-mmo.

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  1. MMO Culture

Elite Dangerous: What changes in the next beta phase?

MeinMMO MeinMMO Reading time < 1 minutes

In the beta of the space MMO Elite: Dangerous, players can now expect a first major update. We present the changes in a short video.

The Elite beta test is running, just like in the premium beta, in different phases. So far, there has been little happening. Since the start of beta 1 on July 29, there have only been a few minor changes and bug fixes. Now, however, Frontier Development is gearing up considerably.

On September 30, the first phase ends and the beta of Elite: Dangerous moves into the second phase, Beta 2. Here, a proper update is served up with some changes and innovations for the hungry fans of the space MMO.

The main focus of the changes is clearly on the endless expanses of space: these are becoming significantly larger, more populated, and include some new challenges.

A general introduction to the game has already been provided here. What awaits you now on September 30 in Elite: Dangerous has been summarized for you in an info video by our YouTube partner Shumbok:

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SMITE – What is the Odyssey?  

Cortyn Cortyn Reading time 2 minutes

If you have played SMITE in the last few weeks, you have probably noticed the relatively new button on the main screen, the small ship icon that takes you to the “Odyssey”. But what exactly is it all about?

At first glance, it is clear that it is likely not referring to the voyages of Odysseus, although the entire concept is of course inspired by that. This refers to the “journey” to the SMITE World Championship in January 2015. Each week, the journey progresses further and a new item is unlocked, which can then be purchased in the game for jewels. This may seem like a very prolonged marketing campaign, since content that you also have to pay for is released over twenty weeks, but it serves another purpose: Every item from the Odyssey increases the prize pool for the World Championship, and after just a few weeks, the prize money already amounts to a whopping $800,000!

And to encourage purchases, each item also comes with a treasure chest for free – it can contain just about anything, some examples include a voice pack, a special skin for a deity, a special guardian skin, or an account booster that increases your favor gain for a few days.

SMITE God Mercury

The biggest highlights of the Odyssey are undoubtedly the “Run.exe” skin for Mercury and the “Pixel-Buster” skin for Freya – each costs 600 jewels, which is around 8 euros. Whether the gimmicks are important enough for someone to pay such an amount is something everyone must decide for themselves – however, those who own a majority of all Odyssey items receive (in addition to the chests) more nice perks, such as exclusive frames on the loading screen.

SMITE is a free-to-play MOBA with a mythological background, which comes very close to the MMO gameplay feeling due to its third-person perspective and the telegraph system. Interested? Then it’s best to read our review of SMITE.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. www.hirezstudios.com

World of Warcraft: Lords of War Part 4 – Kilrogg

Cortyn Cortyn Reading time < 1 minutes

In the newly released World of Warcraft short film “The Lords of War – Part 4” Blizzard reveals the backstory of the orc leader Kilrogg, who had to retreat deep into the jungle with his tribal companion at the behest of his father due to the arrival of the Arakkoa. For Orcs, such a fearful, cowardly way of life is of course deeply dishonorable. How exactly Kilrogg changes the fate of his followers and why they are called “Clan of the Bleeding Eye” you can best find out by watching the short film yourself.

Kilrogg will likely be one of the boss enemies in Warlords of Draenor, but the name is already not entirely unknown in the game, as the warlock spell “Eye of Kilrogg” is named after this very orc.

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ArcheAge: Missing Patron Status to be Fixed *Update*

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 3 minutes

In the sandbox MMO ArcheAge, many paying players have not received the privileges they are entitled to. A hotfix aims to remedy this.

Update 11:10: The servers were offline for only a few minutes, contrary to the announcement, and are now back online. Many players continue to complain about not enjoying Patron status. This seems to be another failed attempt by Trion Worlds to comprehensively solve the issue.

Update 20:15: As the Community Manager Scapes reports, they plan to make another attempt in the coming hours to resolve the Patron issue. This is the most critical change currently underway, which is why they held discussions overnight (US time) with the Korean developers of XLGames to find a solution to the Patron problem in ArcheAge.

Update 21:30: This time the fix seems to be effective. Reports are increasing that Patrons are regaining their missing status.

Original message:
From 10:20 on Saturday morning until around noon, the European servers are expected to remain closed. During this time, a “possible” hotfix for the Patron issue is to be implemented.

The careful wording shows how cautious Trion Worlds has become with its phrasing. In recent days, they had announced that they had the problem under control but had to backtrack. The fix was expected to be applied during the bi-weekly European server maintenance this morning, but that did not seem to happen: the servers came back online after only one hour instead of the expected two hours, but without the anticipated hotfix.

The thread where players who hopefully had few exceptions with the missing Patron status were asked to report swelled as if a peanut allergy sufferer had accidentally picked the wrong spread.

ArcheAge_Donkey

Without Patron status, the only option in ArcheAge is to reach for the bottle

In ArcheAge, the Patron status grants doubled labor point regeneration while in-game, and at least a single regeneration while logged out. Without this status, players regenerate the essential points for progression only when they are online and since players continue to have significant issues bypassing the queues to actually log onto the servers, the problem is further exacerbated.

Paying players who were sure they could use their time in-game to pursue crafting tasks now find themselves without the necessary resources. If they want to craft, they must resort to labor potions, which either cost gold in the auction house or the premium currency “Credits” in the in-game shop.

The issues have been intensified by the fact that the first rents for houses are now due. To pay them, Patron status is required; otherwise, the painstakingly gathered farm could soon be found back in the mailbox. However, players can be reassured: they have seven days to pay the rent. By then, Trion Worlds intends to have resolved the issue.

ArcheAge

Founders: Old problems resolved, new ones appeared

However, a fix has been found for founders who never received the title, cloak, or other benefits of their purchase. Now any founder can claim a founder pack for a single character via their account page at Trion Worlds. This allows founders who were not affected by the bug to equip another character with the cloak and other bonuses.

However, there is currently excitement on Reddit about the “10% discount” on all items in the cash shop, which was promised to founders, now disappearing from the game. Over the weekend, Trion Worlds stated it would be difficult to respond to this. However, they are confident that a solution will be announced next week that will satisfy the players. This is apparently another item on Trion Worlds’ growing to-do list, from which they hope to solve the Patron problem by this afternoon.

Since last night, two new NA servers are online, and European servers are also planned, but they still need to go through customs.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Trion Worlds
  2. Trion Worlds (Update)

World of Warcraft: Garrison will be OP, should destroy balance

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 3 minutes

World of Warcraft new expansion Warlords of Draenor will bring some new things into the game that are too strong, even a bit crazy. And that is exactly the plan.

In an interview with Polygon, Cory Stockton, who is responsible for the design of the Garrison, explains Blizzard’s plans and a fresh design approach: it’s okay to risk the balance. After ten years, you can do crazy things. He absolutely expects that there will be comments about some of the new abilities and features in the Garrison like, “Blizzard is crazy! This needs to be nerfed immediately!” The forums might explode, there would be topics of discussion, that is exactly what is intended.

After 10 years, it’s okay to do something crazy

In the conversation with Polygon, much revolved around a workshop in the Garrison that introduces items that clearly “break the rules”: grenades, jet packs, and gloves that can shove enemies away.

All these things have been designed with the intention of breaking the rules that have been in place for so long. A few years ago, no one would have thought that such things would be introduced in World of Warcraft. Today, these are conscious decisions to keep the game fresh.

World of Warcraft - Garrison at the Horde

World of Warcraft, now master of hotfixes, takes more risks

But of course, Blizzard is already standing by with the fire extinguisher, should one of these fires really get out of control. Over the years, they have become the masters of hotfixes. And if one of the fresh Garrison items is exploited, they can fix and nerf it quickly.

When asked why Blizzard brings these items into World of Warcraft if they are going to nerf them anyway, Stockton replied, “That’s just how it works. If you introduce weak items and tell players that you will buff them later, they have already lost interest in them.” If players once believe something is bad, it stays bad. That’s why it’s better to start strong and then correct as needed.

World of Warcraft - Garrison at the Alliance


Today, unlike the early days of World of Warcraft, it is also possible to tailor items specifically for PvE or PvP, so that an item only deals damage to enemy players or to mobs. Such possibilities were not available at the beginning. This also explains Blizzard’s new courage.

Garrison will be further refined over Warlords of Draenor, then likely abandoned

The Garrison in Warlords of Draenor will be developed throughout the entire expansion and new content will be created for it. Perhaps new buildings will be introduced, or maybe the upgrade level will go up to four.

After the expansion, the concept may be transferred to other zones. However, the currently built Garrisons will likely remain on Draenor. The follower system that is introduced with the Garrison is probably also going to be used for further expansions of World of Warcraft. Here, great potential for the future is seen.

More about the MMO World of Warcraft can be found on our topic page.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Polygon

ArcheAge: New EU servers still need to go through customs

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes

The rush at Sandpark ArcheAge continues and leads to queues and frustration. Now more servers have been announced.

Update 19:30: A new statement is here. While the NA servers are currently being set up, the EU servers still need to go through customs. The servers were purchased in North America and now need to be brought to the data center in Amsterdam and presumably cleared through customs beforehand. Trion Worlds explains that it would have taken longer to purchase the servers directly in Europe because they would have first needed to find a business partner. Despite the difficulties, efforts are being made to ensure that Europe receives the servers as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, founders will receive an additional five days of Patron status, as the head start has already been deducted from the time, although this was not originally intended.

Original Announcement:

In the USA, the workday at Trion Worlds has just begun and they are already announcing new servers. After CEO Scott Hartsman mentioned last night US time that new hardware had arrived in Texas, community member Scapes announced at 5:20 PM our time today in a thread where people were complaining about the current situation: “Good news! New servers are on the way for Europe and North America.”

A precise schedule for when the servers will arrive has not yet been established. It could happen within the next few hours, possibly during our peak playtime – as mentioned, it is currently just morning in the USA.

Four European servers launched for the head start, three more opened shortly before or at release, bringing the total to seven servers for players. The new servers would be the first since the release on Tuesday.

ArcheAge_afk

Free Character Transfer Being Considered

Further discussions are currently taking place in the forum about what measures Trion Worlds could still use to alleviate the rush on the four original servers and better distribute the load. For one, there is the idea of offering a free character transfer from an overloaded server to a fresh one. It is also not ruled out that, as soon as the situation eases on some servers, character creation on the busiest servers may be temporarily suspended.

Moreover, the account system is still not functioning properly, resulting in players who should have Patron status not receiving it. This issue was supposed to be resolved with a fix in Europe already yesterday. However, it appears that this did not work.

The problematic server Eanna, which has been experiencing issues for several days, was down again today, which surely worsens the overall situation. Currently, ArcheAge is already causing problems: AFK players are blocking valuable server capacity.

In other MMOs, one would slowly expect the initial rush to subside after players have reached the maximum level and perhaps play less. However, ArcheAge is a special case that rewards players who are online. Additionally, the weekend is approaching, which is expected to see increased traffic.

On our topic page, you can find more about ArcheAge.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Trion Worlds Forum
  2. Update (Zoll-Statement)

Destiny: Bundles boost sales of Playstation 4 and Xbox One

Dawid Hallmann Dawid Hallmann Reading time 2 minutes

In the UK, Destiny has proven to be a system seller for the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One. However, the Playstation 4 benefited a little more from it than the competition from Microsoft. Responsible for the sales boost are budget-friendly bundles, where hardware is sold together with Destiny.

Destiny, Bungie’s luxury MMO, was intended to boost the sales of the next-gen consoles Playstation 4 and Xbox One as an attractive MMO shooter. Both Microsoft and Sony positioned Destiny as a flagship for their consoles. They offered their hardware at competitive prices and included Destiny for free as well. Now the first results of this duel are in – at least in the UK. For both companies, Destiny was worthwhile, but for Playstation somewhat more.

Both Playstation 4 and Xbox One with record weeks thanks to bundles

In the UK, sales of Playstation 4 consoles increased by 300%. Some are referring to it as a “second Christmas” for the Playstation 4. Consoles typically sell best at Christmas. Although no specific figures have been announced and only comparisons are being made, it seems that the Playstation 4 is benefiting significantly more from Destiny than the Xbox One.

Destiny Amazon Xbox
Amazon.de is currently offering the Xbox One bundle with Destiny for 399 euros. The promotion ends on September 23rd. Here you can go to the offer page on Amazon.

Microsoft also reported an excellent week thanks to Destiny and its own bundles. This may have been due to the reduced price with which they wanted to undercut Sony. However, they had to concede defeat to Sony in the United Kingdom. For every newly sold Xbox One, there were two sold Playstation 4s, reports mgv.com, citing industry sources.

In Germany, retail companies like Amazon also offered both consoles together with Destiny at a competitive price. For 399 euros, you can still get the Xbox One together with the MMO shooter Destiny. The offer is valid until September 23rd.

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Hearthstone: Only one in two hundred makes it to Legend

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes

Only one in two hundred makes it into the coveted legend ranks in Hearthstone, according to a statistic.

“You are better than you think,” Blizzard encourages us in a new blog post. And the statistic proves: Even if you are somewhere in the perceived nirvana of rank 12, 13, or 14 (kind of an ELO hell), you have already surpassed 75% of the remaining players.

Hearthstone Rank

From season to season, many only played up to rank 20, to grab the card back, and then gave up the ascent to a higher rank, the so-called ladder climb. Because it is tedious: For each win, you get stars; with each defeat, you lose some. Although winning streaks offer bonus stars and the ranks in Hearthstone rise steeply. However, some lucky streaks come to a sudden halt when the right card doesn’t show up or your deck proves to be vulnerable against exactly the card combination that everyone else seems to play. And then you tumble back down, your portrait image becomes more and more humble, and so does your mood.

75% of all players in Hearthstone are between rank 25 and 15. 17.5% of all players are between ranks 14 and 10. At the top, it gets tight: only 5.5% manage to reach rank 9 to 5, one in twenty players. Ranks 4 to 1 are achieved by only 1.5% of the players. And where the music plays and the biggest streamers move, only 0.5% of all players reach the legend rank.

From Rank 5, the real struggle begins in Hearthstone

According to Blizzard, the level significantly increases from rank 5, winning streaks become rare, and more time goes into theorycrafting to forge the perfect deck.

In that, Hearthstone encourages players who are making their way up, in the blog post to courage and pride. Regardless of whether one is playing as an angry chicken or a powerful sea giant, it is important to have fun with the game.

Blizzard’s free card game Hearthstone enjoys unbroken popularity. Recently, Blizzard announced that 20 million players have grabbed the cards with World of Warcraft motifs at least once. Hearthstone is booming and even at rank 15, you are not entirely at the end of the food chain. Good news indeed!

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Blizzard

Blade and Soul Release in the West: Things are happening – Still in 2014 in English? *Update*

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes

At the Nivida event Game24, a representative from NCSoft announced that the MMO Blade & Soul is set to come to the West soon.

Currently, a 24-hour Nvidia event, Game24, is taking place. “Game Reveals” have also been announced. We at mein-mmo.de expected that there would be some news regarding SOEs survival MMO H1Z1, but many have been waiting much longer for Blade & Soul.

Shortly after the introduction of a Dota player and after the two moderators had a laugh about a dozing Skype user, they suddenly announced that NCSoft wanted to make an important announcement.

During a longer prepared segment, one of the Executive Producers from NCSoft, who has worked on many titles from the Korean publisher, presented his works: including Lineage 2 and Blade & Soul. He referred to Blade & Soul as an MMO that focuses primarily on character development. Amid this general showcase, he also mentioned that they want to offer Blade & Soul in English before the end of the year.

Blade and Soul


Since the stream was live and the presentation was only subtitled in English, and this important statement for fans was found amidst theoretical considerations about the role of an MMO in a standardized society in general and the benefits of Nvidia graphics cards in particular, the nuances of the statement are currently unclear. It will soon be clarified whether this refers to a beta (which is to be expected), what extent the port will take, what the exact timeline looks like, and what the details will be.

At Gamescom in Cologne, a representative from a large Blade&Soul fan site had the opportunity to speak with the Product Manager for the game in the West and already received some information there. Among other things, a confirmation of the port and that a release for the end of 2015 is planned. Officially, however, this was not the case, as they wanted to wait until September.

Apparently, NCSoft has decided to announce this in the context of a live event, which is airing in the USA at a rather late hour.

It is certain that there will be more detailed reports in the next few hours, and hopefully clarity will arise about what exactly was announced.

Update 25.9 1:20: Okay, we have finally found a video of the event. The crucial passage begins around 5:15. And yes: Jan Hyun Bae, the CPO of NCSoft, indeed states that Blade and Soul is set to come to English-speaking countries before next year.

Update 25.9 15:45: NCSoft just contacted us by phone and pointed out that there is likely a translation error in the video. Blade and Soul is no longer set to release in 2014 for Europe and North America. However, it is definitely coming in 2015.

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Guild Wars 2: Is GW2 still worth it?

Nico Saborowski Nico Saborowski Reading time 4 minutes

Since 2012, I have occasionally played Guild Wars 2. Thanks to the absence of an item spiral, this is going quite well. However, lately, there have been growing calls for even more content. We take the feature release in September as an opportunity to ask ourselves: Is Guild Wars 2 still worth it?

2 Years of Guild Wars 2 – What’s Happening?

Admittedly, this question carries a certain accusation. But it must be directed at the game and ArenaNet as well. In China, the game had a strong launch this year, despite inaccurate player numbers. In Europe and North America, however, players have already experienced 2 years of living story and world vs. world battles. At least the living story regularly provides refreshing content. When the malevolent Sylvari Scarlet Briar attacked Lion’s Arch in the spring and laid waste to the capital, I had just jumped back into the adventure that is Guild Wars 2. By the way, Scarlet was also killed, but she didn’t hesitate to awaken an ancient dragon. So, future adventures following the living story, which change entire regions in Guild Wars 2, are ensured.

Guild Wars 2 Boss Screenshot

The Thing with PvP

Contrary to the positive trend of Guild Wars 2, there are also many threads in the official forum predicting doom for this MMO. I have particularly noticed criticism of the PvP system. The structured PvP is said to be too monotonous, there are too few skills, and new maps would also be desirable. On the other hand, there is the grand adventure called World vs. World. Three servers battling for a week, and with a victory, they climb the rankings. I spent a large part of my Guild Wars 2 time in WvW and often found myself among the winners as a riverbank player. Once you have captured every fort and fought through countless battles, often being yelled at in the server’s TeamSpeak, WvW also becomes monotonous. Nevertheless, it offers a unique PvP experience in the MMO world that I haven’t encountered before.

World vs World PvP in Guild Wars 2

…and what else is new in Guild Wars 2?

With regular feature releases, efforts are made to bring some momentum to the operations of Guild Wars 2. The first one was in April and the second followed in September. Especially the changes to the Trading Post were absolutely necessary to stay up-to-date in the MMO market. The world of Guild Wars 2 is made more beginner-friendly through the feature release. Similar to Wildstar, players now receive a reward for each level they ascend. Great for the new players in China, but less interesting for Europeans.

Several improvements have also been made in WvW and with the WvW Autumn tournament a new event has been announced. “Bye, Bye WvW Rally” – it will once again be about fame and honor between Spaniards, French, English, and Germans!  GW2 knows how to handle cross-border feuds skillfully.

Buy-to-play and Improved Trading Post

Guild Wars 2

I consider the Buy-to-play model in Guild Wars 2 to be very successful. This payment model is rare, but it works wonderfully for the ArenaNet title. Once purchased, you are not dependent on a subscription and can log in when you feel like it.

To keep customers satisfied and especially engaged with the in-game shop, regular updates are essential and can rarely be postponed for weeks as seen with Wildstar. The more players are logged in, the more costumes and other useful items are sold through the Trading Post. This was fundamentally improved during the feature release which was very comprehensive. You buy once, you play forever. This model is the most customer-friendly form of distribution as a quick look at new content is always possible.

Guild Wars 2 Is Worth It… But Differently

GW2 Megaserver

Two years have passed for the game now, and right at the start, players (myself included) wondered how an MMO could survive without a clear item spiral. Guild Wars 2 has managed exactly that and provides the community with regular updates, whether with content for the PvE area or feature releases for all other areas. However, the content runs out quickly, so one can only say to a limited extent that the game is still worth it or even generally worthwhile: Hardcore gamers will quickly find themselves running out of steam, especially when they have leveled all classes to 80. It is particularly here that the calls for an expansion are becoming louder.

Casuals and occasional players will continue to have their fun, as there will always be something new to discover in Guild Wars 2. The advancement of the living story alone invites players to check back every two weeks. Additionally, the buy-to-play model does not bother with annoying subscription costs. So yes, Guild Wars 2 is worth it and as the Raptr numbers or trending data from Google confirm, the game still belongs to the most popular MMOs on the market.

If you want more information about the online role-playing game, feel free to read our review of GW2. For another perspective, the article for whom Guild Wars 2 is not worth it is also recommendable.

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ArcheAge: Surprised by success, hardware was out

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes

In the sandpark MMO ArcheAge, Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman has now commented on the bumpy launch and promises improvement.

scott-hartsmann
Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman.

The sandpark MMO ArcheAge has a “problem of success.” The game has received more attention than anticipated, leading to issues that need to be addressed. Scott Hartsman, the CEO of Trion Worlds, the western publisher of the game, stated in a letter to the fans that many players have expressed they have not been this excited about an MMO as they are now with ArcheAge. However, while some are happy with the game, others are less so, especially when they are stuck in queues. Trion Worlds is aware of this, as they are in the same queues as the players.

Even at the release of ArcheAge, reserve hardware was needed

The enthusiasm for ArcheAge has surprised Trion Worlds. Normally, predictions about the influx expected for a game are relatively accurate. Indicators for its size include website registrations, alpha and beta players, how long each has played, and so on. It is a science in itself. Trion Worlds must keep an eye not only on the short-term server situation but also on the long-term.

However, at the start of ArcheAge, so many players signed up that on the first day, all the hardware that was intended for launch was brought online, along with overflow hardware.

Hartsman is happy to inform fans that new hardware has arrived in Texas. Currently, efforts are being made to get it up and running online. This will take some time. However, they intend to keep players better informed about their progress and plans. They expect this in days, not weeks. Hartsman hints that there may be issues in assisting both regions, North America and Europe, simultaneously.

ArcheAge Handelsfahrt

AFK Issue will be addressed manually if necessary

The issues with full servers and the queues will also be alleviated by working on the AFK problem. Those who do not play “actively” might find themselves logged out when they return to their computer, according to Hartsman. If necessary, AFK players will also be removed from the server manually. All this is just to get players onto the servers who actually want to play.

Moreover, Hartsman mentioned that they are already working on strengthening the customer support staff. They had already hired entire groups of support staff before the launch and will continue to do so, with a focus on the quality of support and ensuring they recruit native speakers from diverse backgrounds.

On our ArcheAge topic page, you can find more about the game.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Statement Hartsman

ArcheAge has an AFK problem: Hence the queues

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes

ArcheAge is suffering from long queues since the head start. Now the problem is slowly becoming clear: Players simply stay logged in. There is no functioning system to kick AFK players from the server so that others can take their place.

The queue situation in ArcheAge is critical. On the busiest servers, the server is already full by late morning. Anyone planning to log in during prime time can expect several hours of queues. Even in the afternoon, paying players wait long in queues, not to mention free-to-play players.

In the English forum on reddit, it has long become a running gag to refer to ArcheAge only as ArcheQue – in reference to the fantasy epic “A Game of Thrones,” “A Game of Lanes” is also circulating as a nickname.

ArcheAge MMORPG 2014

No functioning idle kick system in ArcheAge

The problem seems to have been identified: The “AFK Detect” system of ArcheAge apparently does not function adequately. As a result, players can bypass an auto-kick from the server that normally takes effect after a certain period. Especially tantalizing: Players who remain on the character selection screen apparently take a spot on the server and ensure that the queues remain excessively long, even though ArcheAge has significantly increased server capacity since the head start.

In this screen, there is no kicking at all, so players can stay logged in while they are in bed or at work and later continue playing without having to join the queue.

Trion Worlds is aware of the problem and wants to improve its “AFK” and “Idle Detect” systems as quickly as possible.

ArcheAge Release

The AFK system in ArcheAge had already been criticized ahead of the release. Patron players regenerate coveted labor points twice as fast when they are online. Free-to-play players only regenerate these labor points while their characters are logged into the game.

As a result, power gamers have decided early on to stay logged in as much as possible, whether they are at the computer or not. Not to mention that this system is harmful to the environment, it is also currently detrimental to the queue situation.

In games of Asian origin, such mechanisms are sometimes found – in some online games, it is possible to set up a kind of stall with the logged-in characters to sell items while the player is not at the computer. Such systems are usually not common in the design of Western games.

More about the sandbox MMO can be found on our ArcheAge topic page.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Foren-Statement Scapes
  2. reddit

Destiny: Legendary item in every 3rd legendary engram?

Schuhmann Schuhmann Reading time 2 minutes

In the luxury MMO Destiny, a group of fans on reddit has now set out to investigate the probability of which quality level comes from which type of Engram.

Engrams are somewhat like malicious surprise eggs in Destiny. They come in different colors, and while there is tension when opening them, it’s not always fun, and even when everything seems right, you might get the chocolate in the wrong flavor.

What’s inside the Engrams? What role does the quality level of the Engrams play in the quality of the gear?

What happens when you open 590 Engrams in Destiny?

A group of four fans has presented results on reddit. In a post, they explain what happens when you decode 500 Engrams. It seems that, although some unlucky ones may not believe it, the quality of the Engrams does indeed play a crucial role.

However, the color of the Engrams in Destiny only increases the likelihood of a hit; it cannot guarantee it.

Interestingly, while green and blue Engrams usually yield items of the same color, the legendary, purple Engrams do not. They tend to drop blue items more frequently than purple ones.

Of the 290 opened green Engrams, the majority were “green” – almost 70% of unusual quality. A little weaker and only white were 23%, slightly stronger and blue 7% of the received items.

For the 250 decoded blue Engrams, the situation is quite similar, just one level better: 74% blue, 21% green, and 4% purple were dropped.

Destiny Moon Screenshot

In Destiny, is there a legendary item in only every third legendary Engram?

It gets tricky with the legendary Engrams, the purple ones. They are also rarer in Destiny. Therefore, in the presented experiment, the reference number is lower with only 55 decoded items, but the distribution seems to change significantly here.

Because from the legendary Engrams, instead of 70% items with the same quality level as the others, only about 35% purple drops come out. The majority is 60% blue. There were even green items (3%). And among the 55 opened legendary Engrams, there was only a single gold one. There was one lonely exotic item among them, with a probability of just under 2%.

This data is not absolutely valid and indisputable due to the small quantity. However, a trend seems to be emerging. The results of the group of four are being hotly debated on reddit.

However, when opening, the enjoyment factor does not depend only on the quality of the item but also on whether it is intended for your class and whether it matches your playstyle, how the stats distribute, and so on. And how likely that is remains another question.

As for what the legendary Engrams think about having such a strange drop pattern, they regularly tweet that.

More about the MMO shooter can be found on our Destiny topic page.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. reddit