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16,000 Cheaters and Spammers Banned from Aion

Nathan Grayson — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:37:09 -0600

Do you play MMOs? Have you ever purchased in-game currency with real money, or whipped up an auto-pilot “botting” script for a character? Don’t worry – you can tell us. We’ll keep your dirty little secret. Just keep your voice down, because NCSoft might be listening.

“Over the last week we've been working on a list, we've been checking it twice, and today we found out who was naughty or nice. Ban Hammer Claus just came to town. When the servers come back online, nearly 16,000 accounts will have been removed from the game,” an NCSoft rep wrote on Aion’s message boards.

But, but… when we were kids, our parents told us that Ban Hammer Claus didn’t exist! He’s just a myth – like the Tooth Fairy and competently functioning Mac products!

But 16,000 bans don’t lie. From now on, we’ll be on our best behavior, with the help of a handy FAQ NCSoft put together. You should read it too, lest you wish to face NCSoft’s seasonally themed wrath.

Blizzard: Potential WarCraft 4 Devs Tied up for “Next Few Years”

Nathan Grayson — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:53:14 -0600

Aside from one obscure little game whose name escapes our memory at the moment, WarCraft has been out of action since WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne’s release back in 2003. Don’t take this world without WarCraft to mean that Blizzard’s completely iced the idea of a fourth entry in the popular fantasy RTS series, though. Just be prepared to wait a tick before scratching your orc-commanding, night elf-outsmarting itch.

"Warcraft 4 is certainly something that gets talked about on a pretty regular basis," Blizzard’s J. Allen Brack said in an interview with AusGamers. "While I think we're all excited about a Warcraft 4, in concept, [the WarCraft 3 team is] going to finish up StarCraft 2, and then they're going to work on the two StarCraft expansions that we've announced, so they're booked for the next few years."

And though he stopped just short of nailing the team to the project, Brack did say that "it does sort of make sense."

Another Blizzard game, another tremendous wait. But at least we can while away the, well, years until Diablo III’s launch with Torchlight. As for WarCraft 4, though... hey Runic, ever think about making an RTS?

Microsoft Offers to Pay News Corp to "De-List" From Google

Justin Kerr — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:39:00 -0600

When Rupert Murdoch announced that he was thinking of taking his News Corp web properties out of the Google search index, speculation as to Microsoft and Bing's involvement was rampant. Turns out, there might have actually been something to the rumors for once. According to the folks over at The Financial Times, Microsoft is willing to grease Murdoch palms to go exclusive with Bing, a move that newspapers will no doubt welcome.

The idea is essentially to force Google to pay for content, something it has historically never done. The news certainly came to the disappointment of Google which tends to endorse the "openness of the web", but Google's UK director Matt Brittin told a conference last week that Google doesn't need news content to stay afloat. "Economically it's not a big part of how we generate revenue" he said. In the end Google will likely still gain indirect access to the content by crawling third party websites that link to News Corp stories, but it will certainly impact Google News and start a new and possibly disturbing trend.

Steve Ballmer has admitted that he is willing to spend heavily for many years to make Bing a serious rival to Google, and Rupert Murdoch is but one of many struggling old media mongrels eager to cash in on the competition in search. If the two parties do end up inking an agreement, expect to see Bing advertise heavily as the only place to find The Wall Street Journal and possibly more deals to come.

Will this earn Bing market share? And what effect do you think this will have on the open web?

Next Dragon Age DLC Pack Coming “This Holiday Season”

Nathan Grayson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:15:27 -0600

In our experience, DLC usually serves as the thin mint after a fulfilling game experience. Problem: At our current rate of progress, we’re on track to finish Dragon Age by next holiday season. But, for those of you who haven’t been diagnosed with chronic slowpoke syndrome, BioWare’s putting a fresh helping of content on your already stacked holiday gaming plate.

The new mini-arc “summons players to a new quest in which they will return to the fateful battleground in Ostagar where the Grey Wardens were nearly wiped out. Players will discover King Cailan’s top-secret political agenda and go behind enemy lines to revisit a place that many feared had been lost to history.”

It’s going for 400 BioWare Points, or $5.00. For now, BioWare’s keeping mum on release specifics, only saying to expect the DLC “this holiday season.”

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re actually off to go fight the Blight at Ostagar right now. Oh man, that King Cailan is so dreamy. We sure hope nothing bad happens to him!

Stardock: Only 23% of Demigod Players Even Tried to Play Online

Nathan Grayson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:35:58 -0600

Single-player RTS campaigns are great and all, but matching wits with the CPU’s cold robo-logic is only enjoyable for so long. After the story’s curtains close, we dive straight into multiplayer and never look back. But – if Demigod’s numbers are any indication – we may be in the minority. See, according to Stardock, a pithy 23% of players even tried to march their troops across the information super highway in Demigod. In other words, many never even succeeded in playing a single online match.

“Demigod continues to sell thousands of copies weekly – enough to remain at retail during the Christmas season despite it coming out last Spring – but the number of people available to play online is typically less than 2,000 at a given time. This is in stark contrast to MMORPGs and FPS’s which tend to have very large online communities,” read Stardock’s report.

This, of course, is made all the more startling by the fact that Demigod doesn’t even have a single-player storyline. Future Stardock RTSes, however, won’t make the same mistake.

“Our conclusion is that strategy games that we make and publish in the future will support multiplayer but will not sacrifice the single player experience to do so,” Stardock noted.

Granted, Demigod was notorious for hobbling out the gate with crippling online issues, so that may have sent a few players back into the CPU’s cold embrace. Still though, the game’s been out since spring, so we doubt those early missteps are completely to blame.

Maybe we’re just so awesome at Demigod that we scared everyone else away. But, uh, we can’t play a match right now. We, er… have turkey in the oven! Yup.

(Phew. Only time of year that excuse actually works!)

Rumor: Third Developer to Heed the Call of Duty

Nathan Grayson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:36:54 -0600

Of all the crimes Activision could be accused of, extreme restraint isn’t one of them. If a property in its stable of games fattens its way into bonafide cash cow territory, you can bet that Activision will milk it bone-dry. But if you’ve ever tried chugging an entire gallon of milk, you know that people’s tolerance for the stuff is a bit lacking. Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero are already facing diminishing returns from consumer fatigue, and at this rate, it won’t be long before Call of Duty wears out its welcome – especially if yet another developer hops aboard Activision’s favorite money train.

The LA Times, however, is reporting just that. “Although Infinity Ward and Treyarch have produced sequels in alternating years since 2005, the publisher now has a third development studio working on future versions,” read the publication’s article on Modern Warfare 2’s launch.

As for this third mystery developer’s purpose, little is known. Speculation says that the series newcomer could be digging the development trenches on a Call of Duty MMO – something Activision boss Bobby Kotick has expressed interest in on multiple occasions. Or maybe Call of Duty: World at War’s ever-popular Nazi Zombies are finally getting their own game. We really have no idea.

Or – and this is crazy, but work with us here – maybe, after nearly a decade of working on the same series, Infinity Ward is ready to move on to greener pastures, and Activision’s called in a new team to pick up where the Call of Duty creator left off.

Naaaaah.

Hackers Create “Dedicated Servers” in Modern Warfare 2

Nathan Grayson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:46:08 -0600

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Modern Warfare 2’s adoring public has spoken and, well, Infinity Ward didn’t quite step up and deliver. Enter hackers. And so they said, “Let there be something like dedicated servers,” and it was… not so good. The long and short of it? Hackers like to cheat. Straight from the horse’s mouth:

“Thanks to AgentGOD and his great work bringing the developer console back into the PC version, a whole new wave of servers are possible with vast amounts of customisation. Things such as unlimited ammo, massive experience points (10000xp for a single kill), Field of View tweaks, speed and gravity adjustments and so much more,” reads a Youtube video description of the hackers in question.

“The best bit is, this is all ranked and on IWNet! I guess the game is no longer balanced to f*** the PC gamers over!”

As of now, Infinity Ward has yet to respond to our questions about potential plans for anti-cheat measures. We imagine the trigger-happy developer has something in store for the infinite rocket-firing, gravity-defying scum, though.

If not, well, imagine that a bunch of Unreal Tournament’s colorful combatants decided to travel back in time and take over our world. Because that’ll make getting obliterated by lightning-fast, nigh-invincible super soldiers a little less frustrating.

EA Shuts Down Developer of Mercenaries, The Saboteur

Nathan Grayson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:58:37 -0600

As part of a restructuring plan that involves – among other, less heartbreaking things -- laying-off 1,500 employees, EA recently placed nearly all of Mercenaries developer Pandemic on the chopping block.

Studio founders Josh Resnick, Andrew Goldman, and Greg Borrud are leading the mass exodus, with roughly 200 former staffers in tow. Pandemic’s still-twitching remains will be moved to EA’s Los Angeles studio, where games under the Pandemic brand name will continue to be developed.

If it’s any consolation, though, the development community is doing a great job of making sure Pandemic’s fine folks land on their feet. Among others, Gearbox is inviting former Pandemic employees off the cold streets and into the perpetually warm state of Texas.

As always, we wish the best of luck to everyone affected by this unfortunate turn of events.