A malevolent being in Star Wars is more powerful and dangerous than the Emperor – Never appeared in movies and series

Long before Disney’s acquisition, the world of Star Wars was expanded with books, comics, and games. The story of Luke Skywalker continued, where he faced not only Palpatine but other enemies as well. One being was even more powerful and dangerous than the Emperor.

The following article deals with a character and story that does not belong to the current Disney canon of Star Wars, causing some parts to differ from the story of the prequels.

What kind of being is it? If you have only seen the movies and series, Abeloth will probably be unfamiliar to you, even though she posed a quite powerful threat to the universe.

Abeloth existed almost 100,000 years before Episode 1 and was a servant for The Ones, who can also be seen in the Clone Wars and Rebels series. She became the Mother of The Ones, but eventually realized that she was aging.

Obsessed with her new family, she drank from a well filled with the energy of the dark side of the Force. This made her immortal, but also drove her insane. The Father of The Ones recognized Abeloth’s actions and imprisoned her. She fled multiple times, but was defeated and imprisoned each time by the Son and the Daughter.

After the films, The Ones no longer existed, and Jacen Solo, the son of Han and Leia, accidentally freed Abeloth, who caused the Jedi Order to be in danger with her abilities.

Star Wars: The Acolyte also tells a story set before the known films, which fans did not like: “Even Harry Potter is more Star Wars than this nonsense” – The latest Star Wars from Disney sets a negative record

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The Acolyte takes place decades before the Star Wars films

The Jedi had to ally with the Sith

What abilities does Abeloth have? From the well of the dark side she drank from, she possesses immense power and affinity for the dark side.

  • She is an almost limitless source of power from the dark side
  • Immortality
  • Mind control
  • Force healing
  • Short-range teleportation
  • Great knowledge
  • The ability to live as a parasite in other bodies and switch between them
  • She is also exceptional in lightsaber combat

Luke Skywalker, who was considered the most powerful Jedi and Force user in the books, could only defeat Abeloth with the help of the Sith. However, Abeloth returned multiple times as she was immortal as an entity. This led to several battles the Jedi Order had to fight against Abeloth.

In a final battle alongside the Sith Lord Darth Krayt, Luke was able to defeat Abeloth by eliminating all hosts of the entity. However, the fear of Abeloth remained within the Jedi Order, who sought to acquire the Dagger of Mortis in order to defeat Abeloth if necessary. The dagger is the only known weapon that could kill The Ones.

Where can I read the story of Abeloth? Several books have been published that tell the story after Episode 6. The one with Abeloth is the 9-part The Fate of the Jedi series.

However, the structures are already established that are not known from the films; to fully understand them, one must have read many of the books beforehand or watched summaries. An overview of all the books can be found on Wookiepedia, which also separates everything into Canon and Legends.

For many fans, the stories from Legends are the more popular continuation of the films. But not only the books have brought more interesting characters into the Star Wars universe. Games have also created popular characters: One of the best Star Wars games introduced a powerful character who could even defeat Darth Vader

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

Pokémon GO: 3 Things You Should Definitely Do During the Rocket Takeover

In Pokémon GO, the next Rocket event is just around the corner. There are 3 things you definitely shouldn’t miss.

What kind of event is this? Team GO Rocket returns in the “Galar Expedition: Takeover” event. The event starts on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at 00:00. It ends on Friday, October 11, 2024, at 20:00.

Giovanni and his minions will bring some things to the event that you shouldn’t miss. There is a chance for some strong attackers for you.

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Dynamax in Pokémon Go – How to participate in the gigantic battles

1. Catch Crypto-Heatran

At the start of the event, you will receive a new special research task where you can get a Super Rocket Radar. With it, you can search for Giovanni, the boss of Team GO Rocket.

If you find and defeat him, you can catch his Crypto-Heatran. This Pokémon will be available in its Crypto form for the first time with the event. You shouldn’t miss that.

The regular variant of Heatran has been in the game for quite some time and is one of the best attackers in Pokémon GO. It can be used both as a Fire and Steel attacker.

Crypto-Heatran will perform even better than its regular version, as usual. So you shouldn’t miss this Pokémon.

How do I receive the special research? To receive the special research, you just need to start the game at the beginning of the event. You have until the end of the current season on December 3, 2024, at 09:59 to get the research.

2. Catch strong attackers from grunts and raids

Which Pokémon from the grunts are worth it? The Rocket Grunts will also bring some strong Pokémon to the event that can be worth your while and can represent a strong reinforcement for your raid teams.

The following Pokémon can be obtained for the first time from Rocket Grunts at the start of the event:

  • Crypto-Schnuthelm*: evolves into Crypto-Hydragil and is a strong Bug-type Pokémon
  • Crypto-Laukaps*: can evolve into Crypto-Cavalanzas, which is also a strong Bug attacker
  • Crypto-Kiesling*: can be evolved into Crypto-Brockoloss and is one of the best Rock attackers
  • Crypto-Menki*: can evolve into Crypto-Rasaff and then into Crypto-Epitaff, which is a good Ghost attacker

Pokémon marked with * can also be caught as Shiny.

Which Pokémon in raids are worth it? There will also be various Crypto Raids during the event that you can participate in. You should especially pay attention to two raids if you’re looking for strong attackers.

The first good Pokémon in raids is Crypto-Machollo. You can find it in 1*-Crypto Raids. With its final evolution, Crypto-Machomei, you will have one of the stronger Fighting-type attackers.

Additionally, you can find Crypto-Pinsir in 3*-Crypto Raids. With this Pokémon, you’ll have a good Bug attacker.

Both Pokémon can also be found as Shiny.

3. Forget “Frustration”

In this Rocket event, you will again have the opportunity to forget the charge move “Frustration” on your Crypto Pokémon. To do this, you need to use a charge or elite charge TM during the event.

This allows your Crypto monsters to learn regular charge moves. Once you forget Frustration, you can also change the charge move outside of the event by using the TMs again.

This is especially worthwhile for legendary and other strong Crypto Pokémon, so you can use them effectively in battles.

So you can expect a lot of things that you shouldn’t miss during the Rocket event. Besides this event, there are of course many more activities coming up in the next weeks that will deliver you special content: All events in October 2024 in Pokémon GO.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

“The problem with WoW is that people are bad” – Player strikes a nerve with harsh words

In the Reddit section of World of Warcraft, a heated discussion about the skill level of parts of the community is currently taking place. The harsh statements of one player receive both support and criticism.

What is being discussed? On Reddit, Rohtlam proposes the thesis that many players of World of Warcraft are too bad for the difficulty level of the content they are participating in, only to blame others for it. He writes:

“The number of times in +5, +6, +7 Keystone levels where people do not know the mechanics of the M+-dungeons; heroic raids where people simply stand in harmful areas, people mindlessly smashing their DPS keys and producing at best mediocre DPS and then turning around and blaming the tank or healer for the problems, is crazy.”

Furthermore, Rohtlam criticizes: “Participating in PuG content feels unprofitable. The average WoW player is not good at this game. People just like to think they are better than they are because self-reflection is hard. Stop wasting the keystones as well as people’s time.”

WoW has been causing heated discussions for 20 years, especially regarding the state of the MMORPG:

Start video
3 times World of Warcraft was declared dead

Is the community the problem?

How does the community respond to the accusations? After just 15 hours, the Reddit thread reaches over 2,700 upvotes and more than 1,860 comments. Obviously, someone has struck a nerve.

Rohtlam receives a lot of support.

  • AttitudeAdjusterSE writes (via Reddit): “90 percent of complaints about M+ this season in this Reddit sub are simply a skill problem from people trying to play content they are not yet good enough for.”

As an example, he mentions a discussion where someone complained about their teammates in a level 9 dungeon, yet the log of the thread creator supposedly revealed significantly low DPS values.

  • Enflamed-Pancake sees the responsibility with Blizzard (via Reddit): “The game does not test whether the player understands anything about their class or the basic mechanics until they reach endgame. You level up through trivial quest content, gear up in trivial normal and heroic dungeons, and then hit the wall of modern M+ […].”
  • TheSkylsUP explains (via Reddit): “I cannot trivialize the content this season just with gear. I am doing less healing in 9 and 10 keys than in 5 or 7, and I see many DPS dealing tank-level damage or worse while they never kick or play other mechanics correctly.”

Here and there, however, Rohtlam also receives criticism for his harsh words.

  • Numbajuan writes (via Reddit): “It is an MMORPG. You can use the chat function in the game to explain the game mechanics to people or to ensure that everyone knows what to do before they do it. The toxic you-are-bad attitude […] prevents more people from ever trying to improve.”
  • GundamMotionDance explains (via Reddit): “I speak as someone who does not play M+ (because of threads like this), you sound like the most miserable, joyless community you can imagine. Every day there are dozens of such threads where people rant that the community does not deserve their outstanding performance and that everyone is wasting their time.”
  • kaji823 believes it is about The War Within (via Reddit): “Counterargument: The difficulty per key level has massively increased this season. […] +5 is currently a difficult range for every PuG. It’s not about people needing to learn how to play, it’s about the game being damn unforgiving.”

What do you think and what are your experiences in the M+ area of WoW: The War Within? Let us know in the comments! Another story from World of Warcraft comes from MeinMMO demon Cortyn: Herbalists and miners beware – I’ve skilled something dumb so you don’t have to

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

Paralyzed man pays 91,000 euros for an exoskeleton – After a defect, the company refused to repair it for 18 euros

A man invests a lot of money in an exoskeleton to be able to walk again. However, after a defect, the manufacturer refuses to repair the model. Only after a lot of media attention is his device finally repaired.

Former jockey Doug Straight was paralyzed from the waist down after an accident at a horse race and could no longer walk. For this reason, he invested around $100,000 in an exoskeleton to be able to walk again.

But after 10 years and over 300,000 steps, the device is defective, and the manufacturer refuses to repair it. Allegedly, it is only about 18 euros.

Start video
In Germany, there are over 400 USB sticks protruding from walls – What is the ‘Dead Drops’ project?

Defective battery for 18 euros in a device worth 90,000 euros

What exactly is the issue? After he had taken more than 371,000 steps, however, the suit suddenly gave up. The English magazine Techspot talks about a “cable in the watch,” but the man himself refers to a battery in the watch and not a cable. He cites the cost of $20 (about 18 euros) for the battery replacement.

What does the affected person say? The affected person explained on Facebook:

The reasons why it has stopped are a pathetic excuse for a bad company trying to make more money. The reason it doesn’t work anymore is a battery in the watch that I wear to operate the device.

I called and thought it was no big deal, but I was told that they no longer work on machines that are 5 years or older. After I paid almost $100,000 for the machine and the training, it is very hard for me to believe that a $20 battery for the watch is the reason I can no longer walk.

How did it end? Doug Straight eventually got his robotic legs repaired at the end of the day. But only after he raised a stir on social media and got the local television to report on his struggle.

Without this media attention, he probably would not have received support from the company and would not have had his exoskeleton repaired.

In Europe, “Right to Repair” is coming

What about us? In the European Union (EU), there has been a long fight for a “Right to Repair.” This is meant to ensure that devices can be repaired even after the warranty has expired, thereby reducing waste. In July 2024, a corresponding EU directive came into force, which must be implemented into national law by 2026 (via bundesregierung.de).

Manufacturers are to be obliged to ensure that products are repair-friendly so that devices can be opened with simple tools. Additionally, they want to prevent barriers for individuals from being built in, such as soldered components or software locks.

More exciting developments: The Raspberry Pi is one of the most popular computers in the world. Now researchers at Stanford University have developed an exoskeleton with such a system. In the future, the system should also be available for purchase: Popular computer could improve the lives of thousands of people – Makes walking faster and easier

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. 3djuegos.com

The success of Throne and Liberty reflects one of the saddest changes that MMOs have ever experienced

Currently, around the clock, there is a six-figure number of players on Steam in Throne and Liberty. And although the online role-playing game focuses on cooperation and competition, a familiar problem of the MMO genre can also be found here.

What is this problem? Throne and Liberty currently attracts hundreds of thousands of interested players to its servers. At one point over the weekend, there were 336,300 players simultaneously on Steam. And since thousands of characters populate a version of the game world, a wonderful MMO feeling arises on the surface again and again.

The new game from NCSoft and Amazon Games does even more to promote cooperation and competition. Specifically, the events in the open world repeatedly attract dozens or even hundreds of players to a small area. World bosses are defeated, characters are hunted in PvP, or resources are collected together.

The foundation for a great MMO experience is right. However, Throne and Liberty suffers from a deeper problem beneath the surface, which can also be found in other modern online role-playing games: Hardly anyone talks or interacts with anyone.

Within some guilds of Throne and Liberty, there will certainly be interaction. Joining a community is worthwhile for other reasons as well:

Start video
Throne and Liberty: Deshalb ist eine große und aktive Gilde so wichtig

I miss the Barrens chat

How is the problem manifested? Although countless characters are located almost around the clock in urban areas such as the town of Kastleton, we almost never observe interactions between players there. Gestures and poses are hardly used among the characters. The chat is almost always only about effectively searching for a group, a guild, or companions for one’s own community.

We’ve even yet to see a longer discussion in the chat about God and the world or even the game. One almost misses the good old Barrens chat from the vanilla days of World of Warcraft, where verbal exchanges happened regularly…

And even in randomly assembled dungeon and raid groups, hardly two words are exchanged. Discussion about boss mechanics? Not at all. Better to leave the group after two wipes. The result of this: Level 50 instances like Cursed Wasteland or Temple of Carnage have only been completed by just 1.1 and 3.1 percent of all Steam players so far.

MMO Rule Number One: Everyone does their own thing

What is the reason for all this? In terms of character progression and player experience, individual efficiency in MMOs has become increasingly important over the years. This explains why large parts of the community repeatedly choose the more efficient but less enjoyable path to achieve their goals.

Or that activities are hardly utilized because they don’t yield sufficient rewards. Additionally, the desire to get through the leveling phase as quickly as possible in order to dive into the endgame is apparent. Anyone who doesn’t fit into one’s own efficiency standards has no place in their guild or group.

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This is nothing that Throne and Liberty has invented. Such behavior could already be observed more than 15 years ago in MMOs. It is just unfortunate that the community aspect also suffers in a completely new online adventure that aims to bring back that massive MMO experience from back then. Here is just one sad story of many: Player from Throne and Liberty kicked from guild because he had to work on day 2.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. 3djuegos.com

George Lucas thought his most important film would be a flop

Star Wars is today a cult film. But before the premiere, George Lucas was far from sure whether his space opera would resonate with audiences. That’s why he quickly packed his bags.

From today’s perspective, it seems absurd: when George Lucas offered Star Wars to the studios in Hollywood after his two films THX-1138 and American Graffiti, he received a lot of rejection. Big names like Universal or Disney did not want to take the risk of backing the unusual project.

After all, it would cost a lot and include a variety of strange aliens – trust in Lucas and his ideas was low. Only the then president of 20th Century Fox, Alan Ladd Jr., eventually agreed.

When the film was almost finished, Lucas showed it to his best friends. Their verdict? Well, let’s say it was mixed.

On MeinMMO, we have ranked all 15 films of the saga – check it out and let us know your opinion.

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Star Wars Episode IV – Trailer for the download version

Brilliant film or clear flop?

Whom did Lucas show Star Wars? Two of his best friends were Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma. The two directors watched an early version of Star Wars.

At this point, large portions of the visual effects were missing, and Lucas still used archival footage from old war films in some places. Consequently, it was quite difficult to judge the unfinished film.

Nonetheless, Spielberg and De Palma came to an opinion. While Spielberg, who was never allowed to direct a Star Wars film himself, predicted great success, De Palma was skeptical. Since he and Lucas were good friends, he did not hold back with his devastating judgment.

Lucas probably agreed with him and lost faith in his own film. As the premiere approached, he got cold feet. That’s why he took an unusual step.

What did Lucas do? Instead of going to the premiere and experiencing firsthand how the film was received by audiences, Lucas grabbed his friend Spielberg and took a vacation with him. Yes, you read that right. The two traveled to Hawaii, where according to Spielberg, the idea for Indiana Jones also originated (via vanityfair.com).

Was Lucas right with his concerns? Today we know: No. Even at the premiere and the following screenings, long lines formed around the blocks near the cinemas. Only when the president of 20th Century Fox called Hawaii did Lucas learn about the surprise success of his film. And the rest is history. Did you know that a major inconsistency is already present in the first 5 minutes of Star Wars?

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

Students spy on passersby with hidden cameras and AI, find name and address in seconds

Thanks to a pair of Meta glasses with a camera, an AI, and a smartphone, students demonstrate how quickly anonymity can be lost on the street.

The cover image is a symbolic image.

How did the students do this? Students from Harvard University set out to show what can be done today with the combination of modern, publicly available technology. The goal: to warn about the dangers.

They recorded randomly selected passersby using the Meta glasses and only seconds later knew many personal details of most of them – name, age, address, origin, employer, and so on. The students describe their project named I-XRAY in detail in English in this Google Docs document.

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Far less harmless, although at first glance quite suspicious, are USB sticks that protrude seemingly at random from house walls. But behind it is an art project:

Start video
In Germany, there are over 400 USB sticks protruding from walls – What is the ‘Dead Drops’ project?

Meta glasses, AI, computer, and smartphone

How did the spying trick work exactly? The Meta glasses (via Apollo) are equipped with a camera. The students filmed randomly selected students while walking. The images were displayed via Instagram live stream on a nearby computer. Here, an AI similar to ChatGPT analyzed the footage using facial recognition.

It matched the data with publicly available websites, databases, and social networks. This way, in most cases, numerous details appeared on the students’ smartphones within seconds. An app was running that maintained continuous connection with the AI.

What data did the students obtain? Aside from the name and address, additional details about the lives of the scanned individuals often surfaced, for example:

  • Engagement of a man from India who advocated for the Muslim minority there.
  • The long-term work of an elderly woman in a charity organization.
  • Names of relatives
  • Completed educational trips
  • Parts of the Social Security Number (similar to our identity card number)
  • And generally dozens of long-forgotten photos

What can we all learn from this? We cannot really protect ourselves exhaustively against such cleverly combined technology. The only way to ensure that you contribute as little as possible to the surveillance of your own life is to be cautious. Think about it when you share personal data publicly online. Is it really necessary? Who can see all of this? Especially photos labeled with names that connect you to situations, places, or other people can become a problem.

In combination with data from criminal leaks, this can create a frighteningly comprehensive picture of your life, including friends, colleagues, and family.

Artificial intelligence can do a lot, it can even assist in cheating during state exams. What a candidate for a university career was allegedly trying to do during a state exam will likely follow him for life: Because his cheating attempt with a camera, mobile phone, and AI failed, but the police were quite impressed.

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

27-year-old is currently almost the biggest streamer worldwide on Twitch, there is only one he cannot surpass

The German streamer Kevin “Papaplatte” Teller (27) has become almost the most-watched streamer in the world on Twitch in the last 7 days. He is touring Europe with his podcast partner Reeze and streams 12 hours every day. Only a worldwide major event in League of Legends costs Papaplatte his spot in the sun.

How strong is Papaplatte on Twitch right now? In the last 7 days, from September 29 to October 5, Papaplatte was able to increase his viewer hours, the most important statistic on Twitch, by 220%. With 4.27 million viewer hours, he is performing extremely well and ranks second worldwide.

During this time, he has streamed for 85 hours and had an average of 50,319 viewers – peaking at 77,408 concurrent viewers. Papaplatte is on air for about 12 hours every day.

In terms of financially lucrative subs, he is at the top of the German Twitch scene according to Twitch Tracker, with 40,170 (approximately 85,000 €), surpassing German streamers EliasN97 and Zarbex. Internationally, however, Papaplatte is far from the top spots – IronMouse is leading with almost 300,000 subs here.

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This is how challenges for Papaplatte became a livelihood

Papaplatte and Reeze in the RV dominate Twitch

How is Papaplatte winning Twitch? Papaplatte has been touring Europe in an RV with his podcast partner “Reeze” for a week. They call it “Premium Tour 3.0” after their podcast “Edeltalk”, where Papaplatte once experienced a legendary defeat.

The tour started on September 28 and is mainly aimed at Southeast Europe, with destinations including the Czech Republic, Romania, and Albania.

With Reeze, Papaplatte was also seen in the last season of 7 vs. Wild.

Papaplatte frequently streams from the cockpit or shows situations from the trip.

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Co-Streaming in LoL is even stronger than Papaplatte

Whom can’t he surpass? Currently, the World Championship in League of Legends is taking place. The main round has just begun.

The English-speaking Twitch streamer Caedrel, an expert in League of Legends, broadcasts and comments on every match through the “Co-Streaming” program of Riot Games. He uses the official Riot stream but overlays his voice onto the matches.

This creates a massive influx of viewers. Papaplatte cannot surpass this either. Caedrel has an average of 74,000 viewers and even peaked at 226,000 concurrent viewers – especially when top players like Faker are streaming, hundreds of thousands tune in.

The combination of a huge e-sport event and an influencer who comes across personally and offers skilled analysis is popular in LoL. More people watch the individual streamer than the professional teams that usually cover the e-sport. This was also a phenomenon in Germany around the streamer Tolkin. In Spain, people watch Ibai.

German Twitch finds itself

What’s behind this: These IRL and event streams, where Twitch functions like a TV format, are a German phenomenon. This has now also caught the attention of the head of Twitch.

Such a thing rarely exists in the USA in this form. Mizkif occasionally does something like a bootcamp where influencers get fit. However, Mizkif is also someone who consciously looks to Europe and streamers like Papaplatte to find new ideas. Otherwise, the bloodless “reaction meta” largely dominates in the USA.

Big events, like a boxing event, do happen sometimes, such as in Spain, but these are events for one evening. Such longer projects over several days are a German thing.

In Germany, this form of Twitch has been especially advanced by Knossi since 2021 with events that resemble RTL2 formats like “the Fishing Camp” or Celebrity Big Brother. The streamer Skyline-TV, who also serves as the cameraman for Knossi and MontanaBlack, has established high-quality IRL streams.

In recent months, an IRL meta has established itself where streamers are on the road with fellow content creators and film their adventures. However, major gaming events from the USA are still a step bigger:
Special gaming events in LoL, WoW, and Counter-Strike dominated Twitch last week

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

Young Programmer Lands Dream Job at Blizzard, Gets Bullied and Fired: Today He Is a Celebrated SF Author

As it has now become known, Blizzard employees bullied the author Andy Weir from the company. This happened about 30 years ago, during the time of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Weir was in his mid-20s back then, a programmer, and dreamed of working for Blizzard. But after his infamous end, he became a sci-fi author and wrote “The Martian,” a massive hit.

Where does the story come from? The story comes from Jason Schreier’s new book “Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment”. The later bestselling author is quoted in a conversation with Schreier:

Andy Weir complained in the early 90s that he had to work unpaid overtime as a programmer. After he complained, the other Blizzard employees made it clear to him that he did “not fit into the culture of Blizzard”. From then on, he was ignored or humiliated.

Weir says that so many people were mean to him that he felt it was his fault. He also admits that he made some mistakes, but in his view, hardly anyone cared about him or trained him properly. After a year at Blizzard, he was fired.

Weir says: He was devastated because working for Blizzard was his dream job. Weir had started a computer science degree but dropped out. At Blizzard, he worked on Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.

This is where Andy Weir is known from:

Start video
German trailer for The Martian – Save Mark Watney

Programmer becomes sci-fi author and is praised for his scientific accuracy

What happened next for him? Weir proved to have enormous potential as a sci-fi author. He published the sci-fi novel “The Martian” in 2011, many years after his time at Blizzard, which was later successfully adapted into a film starring Matt Damon and received an Oscar nomination.

The film has repeatedly been praised for its extremely high scientific accuracy. An employee with such ability would surely have been valuable at Blizzard, had those skills been recognized.

Weir is not a “one-hit wonder” but has written other successful sci-fi novels that sold well, such as Project Hail Mary.

Money and a bad work atmosphere have been ongoing issues at Blizzard

Is this typical for Blizzard? As gamedeveloper reports from Schreier’s book, “Blizzard pays poorly and demands overtime” seems to be a recurring theme in the glorious history of the company.

There have reportedly always been issues regarding Blizzard’s salary structure. In many cases, the base salary was low, but there were high bonuses offered. However, these bonuses were always in jeopardy if things didn’t go as planned.

For instance, in 2005, those who worked on WoW reportedly received only small bonuses of around $2,000. In 1998, during StarCraft’s development, developers were told they would receive no bonus because the game was finished too late.

Anyway, it seems that things at Blizzard can get wild sometimes: It is said that some of the studio heads constantly contradicted each other, costing everyone in the team time and nerves. The bosses Metzen and Pardo reportedly had a heated argument about StarCraft II for an hour while the entire team watched.

Metzen said: It must be pink. Pardo immediately said it must be blue and only an idiot would make it pink. It was painful to watch.

Moreover, the people at Blizzard are such hardcore gamers that excessively long gaming sessions in Ultima Online delayed work on Diablo 2.

The full extent of the problems at Blizzard and a lack of seriousness in management became evident in 2021 when a sexism scandal shook the image of the glorious studio Blizzard: “Cocaine in the bathroom, sex in the lounge” – scandal surrounding WoW developers Blizzard escalates

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

The creative mind behind Space Marine 2 explains what Ubisoft and Sony are doing wrong right now

In recent weeks, there have been a growing number of major flops in huge gaming productions. Companies like Sony and Ubisoft are taking on big projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars, but they are failing. Games like Concord, Suicide Squad, or Star Wars Outlaws are falling short of expectations. Studios like Ubisoft are struggling. However, one game has recently been successful, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2.

This is what the Creative Head of Space Marine 2 says: In an interview with IGN, Chief Creative Officer Tim Willis discusses the current crisis in AAA gaming.

Willis states that the problem is not, as some believe, that AAA games take so long to develop that they release in genres that are no longer trendy, like the brutally flopped hero shooter Concord.

He says: Some AAA games completely overdo it with features and scope. The new AAA games are much too large in design.

With Space Marine 2, the focus was on the core of the game, while keeping an eye on the game’s scope. Therefore, they were even praised for making Space Marine 2 feel like an action game from the Xbox 360 era.

Even HandOfBlood had fun with the shooter:

Start video
Twitch: HandofBlood throws himself into a special outfit for Space Marine 2

Space Marine 2 exemplifies full focus on the gameplay loop

This is crucial for him: Willis says that one must focus on the “core gameplay loop”—the sequence of actions that players perform repeatedly in a game:

It is not necessarily the genre that has evolved, because great games will always sell well. One of the things we at Saber try to do […] is the conviction that what you do every second and what happens when you press those buttons, and this central gameplay loop is so crucial. So, we focus on the interaction between individual moments of the game and on the feeling that one has during those moments.

And then we stick to our core principles: Be the ultimate space marine, melee combat, ranged combat, swarms, that’s all. Many teams overload their games during development. They look at another game that has just come out and say: ‘Oh, we need to do that, we need to add this, we need to do this.’ In doing so, they lose sight of what is essential: namely, what truly makes the game enjoyable.

We are not making in Space Marine 2 […] revolutionary new gameplay mechanics that no one has ever seen. There are gameplay mechanics that people are familiar with, but we do them really, really well. And we execute them very, very effectively.

Sales expectations are unrealistically high for overloaded games

This is the advantage of the system: By having a coherent narrative, Space Marine 2 was able to keep the budget manageable, explains Willis. Thus, one does not have to achieve overly ambitious sales figures to make a profit.

Willis says: Many games currently being developed in North America, especially in California, need to sell 5 million copies to not be considered a flop.

In what business is it acceptable to say: “You’ve failed if you haven’t sold 5 million copies?”

Space Marine 2 had about half the budget of Doom Eternal. For Space Marine 2 to be a success, it simply did not need to sell as many games as other titles, explains Willis.

This is the essence: The philosophy can be summarized as “Do little, but do what you do perfectly.” This is how some of the best eateries in the world operate, with only one dish that is perfected to a high degree.

Apparently, the “main dish” in gaming is the gameplay loop—the actual gameplay that repeats endlessly.

In early September, we discussed one of the major flops that inspired the statement from the Creative Head of Space Marine 2 on MeinMMO in an analysis: Why did Concord fail so terribly on Steam and PS5 and cost Sony $250 million for a woke catastrophe?

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

New MMORPG Groans Under Player Record on Steam: This is What Amazon Says About the Many Problems

The new MMORPG Throne and Liberty is experiencing heavy traffic over the weekend of October 5th and 6th, perhaps too much. The new online role-playing game has once again set a record with 315,065 concurrent players on Steam. The peak was reached Saturday night at 10 PM. On top of that, there are players on PS5 and Xbox. However, the influx of players is causing issues. Players are complaining about connection problems and crashes. Amazon is now addressing these issues.

This is the issue with Throne and Liberty: It is known that some servers of Throne and Liberty are currently unstable and causing many connection drops. Players are either unable to establish a connection or unable to maintain it.

Amazon states: All these problems have a cause, and they are currently working on it.

The influx is simply so large that the gate servers are overwhelmed and are preventing players from connecting to the servers. These gate servers are a “bottleneck.”

Start video
Throne and Liberty: New Story Trailer Shows the Fall of the Kingdom

Some servers are reportedly full and do not allow players on

This problem is also annoying many: Amazon will also change something about the issue that prevents you from playing with friends on their servers because it is not possible to create new characters on their servers.

Players are reading messages like: “Unable to create character on the Server (10).”

However, this is just a display error: In reality, the server is only temporarily full, the limit of creatable characters has not been reached. Amazon states they know it is an inconvenience when trying to play with friends, but server caps are also important to prevent the queues from becoming too long.

They are currently working on these issues. On some North American servers, the capacity has already been increased in places.

Amazon is addressing many small problems in Throne and Liberty

This is what Amazon says: Players who are irritated that settings like keyboard layouts have disappeared or even entire characters should not worry about that.

No data has been lost – the characters are still there, they just cannot be seen right now, due to congested servers in the backend.

They also know that some servers that were in Early Access on Steam are experiencing problems with the auction house; these have been isolated. Here, they have discovered the cause and are working on it.

So it looks like Amazon is putting in some serious overtime. Players are also frustrated because this very player influx and the associated problems were also seen with Lost Ark and New World: The new MMORPG Throne and Liberty divides players, but everyone agrees: One feature is brilliant

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

WoW: Attention Herbalists and Miners – I’ve skilled something foolish so you don’t have to.

WoW demon Cortyn has thoroughly “misallocated” some characters in the professions – and now warns you not to take these specializations ever.

The professions system in World of Warcraft The War Within is largely based on the new system from Dragonflight. Although the specializations of the individual professions have changed in some cases, most of the core remains the same.

However, the fact that not everything runs 100% smoothly is especially shown by a few specializations of the gathering professions. One should definitely avoid these if one does not want to waste numerous knowledge points.

Because I play several alternate characters that essentially have herbalism and mining on the side to supply my remaining characters, I have invested in different specializations for these alternate characters. One is particularly good at mining bismuth, another at aqirit, and yet another mines Arathor’s spear better than anyone else.

But there are two specializations that I want to warn you about emphatically. Because with those, you are throwing your knowledge points directly into the trash.

Start video
WoW: The War Within – Forces Within

Mining Lodes – The ores that don’t even exist

If you have invested in “Mining Fundamentals” as a miner to be able to mine ores without dismounting, you will surely wonder in the end: Should I invest in “Rich Veins” or in “Lodes”? Both can consume up to 25 points and make you better at mining rich ore veins or lodes.

To cut it short: Invest in Rich Veins. Always.

Lodes are extremely rare. In the three weeks of gameplay during which I spent a lot of time farming, I probably came across maybe 15 lode deposits and certainly several hundred rich ore deposits.

As if that weren’t already bitter enough, lodes are usually deep in some caves, so you have to fight through many enemies just to reach them.

Moreover, you can completely ignore that The War Within takes place 80% in a cave anyway; after all, everything is underground. You will still primarily find the lodes in regular caves (which are already in caves). Very rarely can you also find a lode in a riverbed – but it simply isn’t worth the points.

Mulching consumes 40 knowledge points and endless gold

However, things are even worse with the specialization “Mulching” in the herbalism profession. In theory, it sounds like a nice specialization since you can process mycopract into mulch. If you invest a whopping 40 knowledge points into the project, you even get two additional variants of mulch.

Mulch can be used once and grants a bonus to your finesse. The finesse grants a bonus chance to find additional herbs of the same type when harvesting. But let’s first take a look at how World of Warcraft describes the various mulch types:

  • Magical Mulch: Covers the next herbs you want to collect to receive a medium amount of finesse.
  • Enchanted Mulch: Covers the next herbs you want to collect to receive a large amount of finesse.
  • Powerful Mulch: Covers the next herbs you want to collect to receive a huge amount of finesse.
WoW Mulching Specialization
20 points already thrown into the bin. A mistake that should not be repeated.

What sounds like a nice bonus in theory is complete nonsense. Because when you try out the different mulch types, you see the bonus to finesse in absolute numbers:

  • Magical Mulch provides 2% finesse.
  • Enchanted Mulch provides 3% finesse.
  • Powerful Mulch provides 5% finesse.

Depending on the mulch used, you have an increased chance of 2% to 5% of getting a few additional herbs when gathering flowers next. That doesn’t sound so bad on paper, but as soon as you look at the costs for producing mulch, that thought crumbles immediately. In parentheses, you always see the current price that one would have to pay for the materials in the auction house.

  • Magical Mulch costs 5 Mycopract. (75 gold)
  • Enchanted Mulch costs 10 Mycopract and 2 Ley Line Residues. (450 gold)
  • Powerful Mulch costs 15 Mycopract and 4 Green Spores. (325 gold)

Since a Powerful Mulch provides 5% finesse, this means that these 5% lead to getting additional flowers in 1 out of 20 cases. That means you would have to spend 6,500 gold (20×325) in order to benefit from the mulch on average just once. And that is the grand “bonus” you get for investing 40 points of profession knowledge. Grand.

Even if these 5% finesse were to trigger and you were really lucky to receive, for example, 5 golden “Arathor’s Spears”, you would then earn 1,000 gold. Even in this absolutely utopian case, that would still be a loss of 5,500 gold.

Maybe I made a big mistake somewhere – but at least I haven’t noticed it, nor has the community in the World of Warcraft subreddit.

I assume that Blizzard will adjust these specializations in one of the upcoming patches because their usefulness is currently extremely poor. At least the mulch is a pure waste of time and gold that fulfills no use even in the cheapest case.

If you want to ensure that you do not waste your profession knowledge as a gathering profession, then you should definitely stay away from the two specializations I have presented here. Because no matter how I turn it – they sound like a pure waste of resources. Farming gold is actually easier than ever right now.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

Space Marine 2: Cogitator, Vox, Astartes – Why do people in Warhammer 40,000 not use normal words?

If you’re playing Space Marine 2 – or pretty much any other game in Warhammer 40,000 – you’ll be relentlessly bombarded with bizarre words. But things like Vox are not complicated technical terms; they’re simply part of the world’s language. MeinMMO explains what lies behind them.

If you’re wondering what the hell the task: “Interact with the Cogitator” is supposed to mean, you’re certainly not alone. Space Marine 2 attracts a ton of players who have no real clue about Warhammer – and who can’t make heads or tails of such terms.

Behind such strange expressions are actually quite simple terms. So why doesn’t the game simply use the word “computer”? Strictly speaking: Because a Cogitator functions like a computer but is not one.

Space Marine 2 had to adhere to numerous guidelines, and it is quite possible that such terms are part of that. Essentially, it simply reflects that over the history of Warhammer 40,000, the language has evolved and is no longer what you know today.

Start video
Der Launch-Trailer zu Space Marine 2, dem neuen Koop-Shooter in Warhammer 40k

No one speaks English, German, or any other ‘dead’ language anymore

Space Marine 2 takes place, like almost all games in the Warhammer 40k universe, in the 41st millennium. The language has therefore had quite a lot of time to develop. And just by looking at the new terms in Cyberpunk 2077, it should become clear that you won’t get far with German or English when dealing with the Adeptus Astartes.

In the Imperium of Man, there is basically only one language left: Gothic. However, there are still subdivisions:

  • High Gothic is the language that was supposedly spoken by the Emperor, the holy language of the Imperium. According to the story, High Gothic is a mix of English, European, and Pacific languages.
  • Low Gothic is derived from High Gothic and has countless dialects that are spoken across the thousands of worlds and planets of the Imperium and have evolved over time.

Basically, no one speaks High Gothic as their mother tongue. The language is roughly equivalent to medieval Latin, and just like Latin, the average person cannot understand a word of it. High Gothic is primarily used by the Inquisition, the nobility, or during sacred rituals. The language of the people is Low Gothic.

In the world of Warhammer, you can recognize Gothic by the pseudo-Latin used in some terms. The fact that words like “computer” are still not easily readable is partly due to the long history of Warhammer and a millennium-long tech war.

A remnant of this is that servitor robots are made from humans instead of being purely technical. Here is a small dictionary with the most common terms and what they roughly mean:

  • Vox – Radio
  • Cogitator – Computer
  • Auspex – Scanner
  • Servitor – A lobotomized human who no longer has free will and whose body has been largely replaced by machine parts
  • Xenos – literally “non-human”, essentially aliens
  • (Adeptus) Astartes – Space Marines
  • Adeptus Mechanicus – The “tech department” of the Imperium
  • Astra Militarum – The imperial army
  • Magos – A high rank in the Adeptus Mechanicus
  • Heresy or Heretic – Heresy or Heretic; used for anyone who turns away from the Emperor and, for example, worships Chaos
  • Exterminatus – The complete destruction of a planet, such as by igniting the atmosphere and blowing up the core
  • Immaterium or Warp – The realm of Chaos, through which humans must travel to quickly get to other locations

Nerds have their own language and disdain “meat speech”

However, Warhammer wouldn’t be Warhammer if there were only one language. Of course, it has to be a bit more complicated. After all, not all citizens of the Imperium speak Gothic; there is another, very widespread language: Lingua Technis, or “the binary language.”

The Lingua Technis cannot be spoken or understood by “normal” humans because it consists of various noise sounds and interference noises generated by cybernetic implants.

The idea behind this language is the ability to transmit information quickly and directly without room for interpretation – essentially binary. The information is either correct or it is not; there should not be any way to interpret it. A tech-priest in the RPG Rogue Trader says: “Binhärspeech is more informative, ergonomic, and less prone to misinterpretation.”

Additionally, in Warhammer 40,000, there are also Astropaths. They are akin to long-range satellite communication, except that instead of machines, magically gifted humans function as transmitters and receivers.

Corresponding messages are transported through the Warp, and communication makes Astropaths susceptible to the influence of Chaos. Accordingly, these individuals quickly go insane and usually do not live long. In detail, an “astropathic choir” can be observed in Rogue Trader: The RPG for Warhammer 40k on Steam gives me as a fan exactly what I miss in Space Marine 2

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

World Championship in LoL has the 1st surprise from a player who shouldn’t even be there

The World Championships in League of Legends have started and the first favorite has stumbled: the Chinese champion Bilibili Gaming loses the match against LNG Esports. The decisive player was midlaner Lee “Scout” Ye-Chan (26), who actually wasn’t allowed to travel to Europe. Meanwhile, Germany is cheering for G2 and Caps and is following along on Twitch. Let’s take a look at the most important results of the first two days of the Swiss Stage of the LoL Worlds 2024.

What is the surprise at the LoL Worlds?

The big surprise is that the favorite for the World Championship victory, Bilibili Gaming, lost against LNG Esports, another team from China. This was not anticipated. LNG Esports barely qualified for the Worlds, while Bilibili Gaming dominated the Chinese league LPL in 2024.

The match was a first highlight of the Worlds: LNG managed to win the match with an outstanding midlaner Scout on Yone (7 kills, with only one death). It was questionable whether Scout could even participate in the tournament, as a legal dispute with his former team jeopardized the participation of this key player.

In Bilibili Gaming, knight plays as one of the midlaners on whom the eyes of the world are fixated. The 24-year-old has been considered a massive talent and a rising star in LoL for years, but he has yet to prove his class internationally.

Start video
LoL: Chinese pro streams after bitter defeat – Wants people to roast him

A lot of money and effort apparently could resolve the situation around Scout

How could Scout still participate in the Worlds? According to reports from South Korea (via reddit), Scout’s participation was allegedly hanging by a thread. The South Korean is involved in a legal dispute, and as an immigrant, he is actually not allowed to leave China. However, the World Championship takes place in Europe. Therefore, participation was not possible.

The precarious situation had to be clarified under significant time pressure, as Scout’s team could only qualify at the last moment.

Allegedly, Scout’s agency resolved the situation and showed “excessive support,” meaning they really went all out. Apparently, a high bail had to be posted to make this work and allow Scout to travel to Europe.

Scout also impressed against DK Plus:

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Gen G. now looks almost unbeatable

How are the other favorites doing? Two teams are already through, these are Gen G., who managed to defeat three teams from Asia and started the tournament strongly. They are considered favorites to win the World Championship in 2024.

Their midlaner Chovy is alongside knight the second star still missing the big international success and could inherit Faker as the face of LoL.

Unfortunately awesome: Chovy and Gen G. defeat the South Korean champion Hanwha Life.

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The second team that has already qualified for the knockout round with a 3-0 record is LNG Esports with Scout, who were able to defeat Bilibili Gaming along with Dplus KIA and Showmaker.

All other teams have already faced a defeat, including T1 with Faker.

G2 loses to the Korean champion

Which game had the German fans fully engaged? The German fans were especially excited on Friday afternoon when the top European team G2 had to face the champion from South Korea, Hanwha Life Esports.

The Europeans around Caps managed to keep the match balanced for a long time, but in the end, a small mistake in the fight at Baron caused G2 to be overwhelmed without a chance.

The German co-stream by Tolkin reached a peak of 44,575 viewers on Twitch:

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The 5 teams from the West fight for survival in LoL

How are the teams from the West faring? Not well at all. Fnatic, G2 Esports, and FLYQUEST each managed to win one match, but only against the absolute underdogs from the smaller regions.

Mad Lions, KOI, and Team Liquid are both sitting at 0-2 and are therefore just one step away from flying home. One team from the USA has already been eliminated in the preliminary round of the World Championship: LoL: The World Championship claims its first victim in Berlin and reddit is merciless to young US professionals

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

The developer of the Steam hit Terraria is sinking into an MMORPG and even plays during a Slipknot concert

The developer of Terraria, one of the highest-rated games on Steam, plays the MMORPG RuneScape and knows no breaks. Even at concerts, he has to fish to collect all the XP.

That players tend to spend a bit more time in MMORPGs and put other activities on hold – that’s a given. Most fans of online role-playing games likely feel this way.

However, the developer of Terraria has now returned to the online role-playing game “Old School RuneScape” after many years and apparently plays it so excessively that he even fishes in the game at concerts.

Old School RuneScape has also been on Steam for quite some time:

Start video
Old School RuneScape – Trailer for the Steam Release

Who is it about? It’s about Andrew Spinks, the creator of the Steam hit Terraria. Most will likely know him as “Redigit”; under this name, he is also active on the platform X among others.

What has he done? A few weeks ago, Redigit announced that he would be diving back into the MMORPG “Old School RuneScape” – and he has followed through on that. It really seems that he is so addicted to the game that he spends almost every free minute on it or at least makes it look that way.

https://twitter.com/Demilogic/status/1839509409040322632

He shows pictures from a Slipknot concert, praising the band for their great performance – while it’s clear that Redigit is holding a smartphone in his hand. Not to film the band during their performance, but to fish in RuneScape.

Redigit is generally a pretty laid-back guy, who even hires modders for Terraria to pay them.

What is he aiming for? The RuneScape account on X then asks about his fishing skill, to which Redigit replies: “I’m just saying, if ‘Add Terra Blade’ ever appears in your polls, that would be fine with me.”

A little hint that they should include an Easter egg related to Terraria in RuneScape.

https://twitter.com/Demilogic/status/1839710818855735430

Redigit later explains that RuneScape has also influenced his other gaming experiences. He supposedly named his auction house character in World of Warcraft “Itams Plex” (a reference to “Items pls”), because begging in RuneScape was so efficient. With that, he allegedly financed “half of the level 60 mounts of [his] guild, because he was such a good scammer”.

Both sides probably don’t take this too seriously – but who knows. Because RuneScape has referenced several other games in the past and is generally quite open to such little jokes.
Recently, RuneScape even took action against PvP duels – as they were disguised gambling.

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

Dragon Ball: The 10 Most Powerful Movie Villains of All Time in Power Ranking

Dragon Ball has, alongside a few series, also received countless movies, and of course, there are iconic villains among them. In this ranking, we want to answer the question of who the strongest movie villain is.

How was this list created? In this list, we only consider opponents who appeared in the various Dragon Ball movies. Characters who later appeared in the series are also included.

Relevant for the ranking is the current status of the protagonists at the time of the movie and which transformations were important to defeat the opponent.

Honorable Mentions: The evil Goku-impersonator Turles and the nasty Namekian Lord Slug narrowly missed the list, yet they are two fan favorites that are still represented in many games today.

No new movie, but a new series is coming soon. When exactly it takes place in the universe of the series, you’ll find out here: An insider from Dragon Ball reveals how the new anime relates to Daima with Super and DBZ

[toc]

Start video
Dragon Ball Daima – New Trailer Shows the Demon Realm

10. Cooler/ Metal Cooler

Dragon Ball Cooler Final Form
Image from Dragon Ball Z – The Movie: Revenge for Freezer

Film appearances: Dragon Ball Z – The Movie: Revenge for Freezer, Dragon Ball Z – The Movie: Cooler’s Return

Who is Cooler? Cooler is the brother of Freezer and the son of King Cold, who comes to Earth after Freezer’s death to get rid of Goku. After being defeated by him, he returned in Cooler’s Return to Planet Namek. There he merged with the Tech-Star Ghetti. He was also defeated by Goku and Vegeta here.

Cooler managed to achieve a new transformation of his race even before Golden Freezer. Otherwise, he fights similarly to his brother, with a bit more impact. Ultimately, however, he was defeated by Vegeta and Goku using the simple Super Saiyan.

9. Cyborg 13

Image from Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO

Film appearances: Dragon Ball Z: The Movie: Attack of the Cyborgs

Who is Cyborg 13? Cyborg 13 is a film-exclusive cyborg, built similarly to 16, 17, and 18 to kill Son Goku. To do that, he absorbs 2 other film-exclusive cyborgs. Ultimately, however, he is defeated by Goku as a Super Saiyan.

Cyborg 13 fought against Piccolo, Vegeta, Goku, and Trunks, managing to hold his own against the four for a brief period. Ultimately, however, Goku defeated him when he absorbed the Genkidama. He is only ranked 9th on the list because Goku had not yet reached Super Saiyan 2, but still managed to take him down.

Unlike another cyborg colleague, you will be able to play Cyborg 13 in the new game: Dragon Ball: The Master of Son-Goku is much stronger than you think – Even fights against one of the most powerful opponents

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

Throne and Liberty: Player Kicked from Guild Because He Had to Work on Day 2

Throne and Liberty is a paradise for min-maxers and competitive players. As this continues to affect casual players, a sad example from the early access phase illustrates this.

What happened to the player? A buyer of the early access version of Throne and Liberty reports in a Steam review (via Reddit) that he was kicked out of his guild because he could not play on the second day of early access and had to go to work.

Single case? EmzysErock writes under the post (via Reddit): “I was also kicked out. I experienced a tornado, and then a chlorine factory near me caught fire, and we had to leave the city.”

It is also evident elsewhere that Throne and Liberty attracts numerous competitive players who want to get the most out of the MMORPG. Individual players expressed their displeasure as early as the second day of early access because someone in the dungeon group did not know the boss mechanics, or they left the instance immediately.

The demands of some guilds could hardly be higher, with reports of a minimum online time of six to seven hours (via Reddit).

Our talk with MeinMMO and GameStar about Throne and Liberty:

Start video
The most exciting MMORPG of the year is truly MASSIVE: Discussion about Throne and Liberty from MeinMMO and GameStar

Paradise for Min-Maxers

How does Throne and Liberty promote this behavior? Although Throne and Liberty has become more attractive to casual gamers and solo players due to updates from the Korean version, the focus is still on guild activities and PvP – with some content being available only to the most ambitious and active guilds.

In addition, guild sizes are heavily limited. Initially, 70 people can fit into such a community. But when those are found, and other exciting newcomers are knocking at the gate, some guilds begin to filter out; those who do not keep up or invest too little are kicked out.

However, some comments under the post also show that not every player is keen on min-maxing. Sinister_Saiyans writes on Reddit: “You need to join our guild. Filthy Casuals. A group of people aged 30+, most of them married with children.”

On my server Geist, there is also a colorful mixture of ambitious streamer guilds and communities that want to take it much easier. So make sure to find players who fit with you. You can find out everything else in our big overview: Everything important about classes, release, crossplay, gameplay, payment model, early access, platforms of Throne and Liberty.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

Former Skyrim Developer Shows His New Game and You Can Try It Directly on Steam

A former Bethesda employee who worked on The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim presents his first own game. In addition to a trailer, there is also a free demo available on Steam.

What kind of game is it? The Axis Unseen is a horror shooter with a heavy metal touch. The game is a project by solo developer Nathan Purkeypile, who served as a Senior World/Lighting Artist on Skyrim and Fallout 4.

In a new trailer, the developer announced a release date for The Axis Unseen. The game will be released on October 22, 2024, on Steam and in the Epic Games Store. Those who want to try it out beforehand can download a free demo on Steam.

You can watch the mentioned trailer for the game here:

Start video
The Axis Unseen: A Skyrim Developer Shows Off His New Horror Shooter

What does the trailer show? The Axis Unseen sends you on the hunt for monsters from folklore. You can poke them with swords in close combat, but your primary weapon will be your bow. With it, you can shoot different types of arrows.

The various types of arrows available to you can interact with each other in different ways. For instance, wind arrows are supposed to make flames ignited by fire arrows spread more quickly.

A Creepy World and a Lot of Heavy Metal

The game clearly shows that a World Artist is at work here: The game world looks truly impressive, and the lighting mood is also appealing in the trailer. The landscape looks beautifully eerie without ending up in a dark uniform mush.  

The creatures in the game all look like they escaped from the cover of a heavy metal album: humanoid figures with long claws, deformed deer-like beings, and goat men are just a few of the monsters already shown in the trailer.

The visuals are complemented by a matching metal soundtrack by Clifford Meyer. He became known for his work with the post-metal bands Isis and Red Sparowes.

The last game Purkeypile worked on for Bethesda was Starfield. It received its first expansion with Shattered Space, but player opinions on it vary widely. More on this here: Some consider Starfield: Shattered Space to be the best Bethesda DLC ever, but reviews on Steam are weak

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

Former Blizzard Employee Enthusiastic About the New Raid in WoW: “The Craziest Boss Fight I Have Ever Seen”

The current raid in World of Warcraft is receiving a lot of praise – even from former Blizzard employees who are rediscovering their love for WoW.

The latest expansion of World of Warcraft continues to ride a wave of acclaim. Even former Blizzard employees, who have long turned their backs on the company and many games from Blizzard, are now actively playing again and have nothing but praise for many features.

The raid “Palace of Nerub’ar” is particularly praised because the boss fights are simply fun – especially the final fight, which is even praised by former Blizzard employee Pirate Software.

Start video
WoW Cinematic: Threads of Destiny

Who is this? The streamer Jason Thor Hall, known as “Pirate Software” on YouTube and Twitch, has worked in the past for companies like Amazon Games, as well as Blizzard. At Blizzard, he was responsible for identifying botters and cheaters, punishing them, or developing countermeasures to detect or prevent such behaviors more quickly.

For several years now, Pirate Software has been a successful streamer, and you may have seen him in “YouTube Shorts”, where he often discusses the inner workings of video games and their development.

What kind of boss fight is he praising? Pirate Software is talking about the fight against Queen Ansurek. She is the current boss in the raid “Palace of Nerub’ar”. She is the queen of the Nerubian empire and is in cahoots with Xal’atath – at least until her death at the end of the fight.

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What makes the fight so special? Even though Blizzard usually comes up with some interesting mechanics for end bosses, they seem to have put extra thought into Queen Ansurek, as there are a variety of mechanics that the whole raid must respond to. Pirate Software enthusiastically talks about the individual boss fight phases:

  • In the first phase, all characters must gather in a small circle without touching the center. Once the boss sends out a deadly wave, someone must reach the center of the circle so that all characters are thrown over the wave.
  • Later, all characters are summoned at intervals and die if they touch Ansurek. However, they must keep getting closer in order to deal damage.
  • The group must split up and kill mobs at the right spot to be thrown onto higher levels by an explosion.
  • In the final phase, characters must place two portals so that the whole group can reposition at the right moment to avoid another devastating ability. If the portals are placed incorrectly, most will die.

Some viewers rightly pointed out that some of these mechanics – like placing portals or pushing – have been used in previous boss fights. These mechanics were partially present in the Mausoleum of the First or the Vault of the Incarnations. However, the combination of so many abilities that require group interaction seems to be particularly well-received by Pirate Software. But he is also known for weeding out addons from his raid members.

How did you like the current boss in World of Warcraft: The War Within? Have you already conquered the raid on normal or heroic difficulty? Or are you only daring to enter the LFR or even the story mode, which can be completed alone but skips many mechanics?

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

After 3.5 months on Twitch, a German streamer announces her job live

The streamer sarahtoninx9 has only been streaming on Twitch for a few months, yet she has already achieved a lot during this time. Now, she quit her job live on stream. MeinMMO editor Lydia spoke with the streamer.

Who is the streamer? Sarah has been regularly streaming as “sarahtoninx9” since mid-June 2024 on Twitch. There, she showcases games like League of Legends and Valorant or chats with her viewers in Just Chatting – on average, about 200, often 400, and at peak times even 900 viewers tune in simultaneously (via SullyGnome).

With her humorous style, the self-proclaimed “Yapperin” quickly won fans, but she also causes some controversy. For instance, there was an uproar when she gave away small cans of alleged bathwater at gamescom 2024.

After that, everything went very quickly: Sarah became a Twitch partner and joined the influencer agency INSIGHT, which also has two of the biggest German streamers, Reved and HoneyPuu, under contract.

In September, she was able to double her followers once again, partly thanks to a Subathon, and she now has over 10,000. This success in such a short time enabled the streamer to quit her side job – and she did it live on Twitch in a very stylish manner.

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Resignation in Front of Hundreds of Viewers on Twitch

What was that for a situation? Sarah, who was in a marathon stream on Twitch from September 11 to October 3, 2024, decided last week to quit her part-time job, which she had alongside her studies and Twitch.

She revealed to her viewers that she had never really quit before. She seemed a bit nervous: Everything is happening so quickly, it doesn’t feel real yet.

On X, there was encouragement, but also skepticism: Quitting right away because things went well in the stream for a month?

You can see the decisive moment here:

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Even after a few days, Sarah still stands by her decision, as she told me in conversation. That the resignation was directly visible live on stream apparently just happened: Due to her Subathon, the streamer was almost live 24 hours a day anyway.

Moreover, she had never quit before, the streamer continued, and the Twitch chat would “professionally backseat” anyway.

Focus on Twitch, the State Exam Can Wait

When asked how her law studies would proceed, Sarah explained to me that she has already completed her exams. She plans to take the state exam at some point, as it would be a shame to waste all the time and work she put into her studies.

But not now; the focus will be fully on content creation for the time being: not just Twitch, but also continuing on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, as the streamer reveals. “The state exam is a problem for future Sarah.”

Everything is happening so quickly that she doesn’t have time to reflect on it, Sarah tells me. “I try to stay cool, but everything is really so crazy, I feel so blessed.”

Anyone who now wants to follow in the streamer’s footsteps should think carefully about it: As a part-time job, Twitch is only partially suitable, as it is simply too uncertain an income source. “I just had enormous luck,” Sarah explains. Now she can (hopefully) live her dream.

However, the streamer also knows that luck alone is not enough; behind the success lies a lot of planning that may not always be obvious to outsiders. From topic selection to speaking style in her short videos, everything is carefully thought out (via TikTok).

On September 26, Sarah reached another milestone in her still young career. She was featured in the “unofficial Best of Twitch” from Satter Hugo on YouTube.

Such viral moments, whether in clip compilations on YouTube or as standalone videos on TikTok, can dramatically increase reach and kick-start careers. You can find more about this here on MeinMMO: Twitch streamer celebrates 9 viewers with his mom – heartwarming clip makes his channel explode

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.