Xbox One's fancy new features will render your current collection of controllers and accessories obsolete.
Xbox 360 Controller Incompatible with Xbox One 
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on 22 May 2013, 6:40 am
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News
on 22 May 2013, 6:40 am
There has been some heated discussion on win conditions and Pay2Win business models here and elsewhere. The core issue is that if you play a game competitively and believe yourself to be winning over somebody else, you don't want that person to be able to pull out his wallet and pay for an advantage over you that makes the richer person the winner. So far, so good. But very few games sell outright wins. Even the famous "gold ammo" in World of Tanks, which gave a small but measurable advantage to those who use it, has now been changed to be available for in-game currency instead of only for real money. Most games operate on similar principles, making sure that the same equipment is available either by grinding or by paying, so that arguably paying only saves you some grind and never gives you an advantage that somebody who doesn't pay can never have.
But multiplayer online shooters or MOBA games are relatively simple in that one game only lasts minutes, and the winner and loser are very clearly determined at the end. The matter gets a lot more complicated in a MMORPG, where outside certain forms of PVP battlegrounds there is never a screen that tells you that you won. Instead of that there is a multitude of personal win conditions, very often existing only in a nebulous form in the player's head. You feel good if you overcame some challenge, whether that was beating some raid boss or collecting 100 pets. You feel as if you "won".
The tricky thing in that is that in spite of your feeling that you won, this nearly never causes somebody else to feel as if he lost. And that is important when discussing whether a game is Pay2Win, because paying to win is not really a problem; paying to make somebody else lose is. If I could buy an unbeatable tank in World of Tanks for $1,000 and win every match with it, the problem would be all the players who lost to my tank, who now feel that the game isn't worth playing any more unless they'd be willing to put up an equal amount of money.
And that is how we should judge things that are being sold in a real money shop for a Free2Play game: Can you buy something which makes somebody else lose? Because otherwise, if everything can be a win condition, then everything can be Pay2Win. You might consider selling hats in an item shop to be perfectly acceptable, because hats do not figure in your personal win condition. But what about the player who collects hats competitively? Wouldn't he be complaining that selling hats makes the game Pay2Win? There are certainly people in World of Warcraft who collect pets and mounts competitively, and Blizzard does sell pets and mounts for real money, but does that make World of Warcraft a Pay2Win game?
Ultimately it comes down to a simple squabbling about "my win condition is superior to your win condition", where some people claim that whatever win condition they set for themselves is more important than the win condition some other player chose for himself. Thus Blizzard selling items that affect raids would cause more of an outcry than them selling pets, but only because there are more people whose personal win condition relates to raids in some way. But personally anything a game company sells that doesn't make somebody else lose the game is all right in my book. If a game isn't Pay2Lose, it's okay.
But multiplayer online shooters or MOBA games are relatively simple in that one game only lasts minutes, and the winner and loser are very clearly determined at the end. The matter gets a lot more complicated in a MMORPG, where outside certain forms of PVP battlegrounds there is never a screen that tells you that you won. Instead of that there is a multitude of personal win conditions, very often existing only in a nebulous form in the player's head. You feel good if you overcame some challenge, whether that was beating some raid boss or collecting 100 pets. You feel as if you "won".
The tricky thing in that is that in spite of your feeling that you won, this nearly never causes somebody else to feel as if he lost. And that is important when discussing whether a game is Pay2Win, because paying to win is not really a problem; paying to make somebody else lose is. If I could buy an unbeatable tank in World of Tanks for $1,000 and win every match with it, the problem would be all the players who lost to my tank, who now feel that the game isn't worth playing any more unless they'd be willing to put up an equal amount of money.
And that is how we should judge things that are being sold in a real money shop for a Free2Play game: Can you buy something which makes somebody else lose? Because otherwise, if everything can be a win condition, then everything can be Pay2Win. You might consider selling hats in an item shop to be perfectly acceptable, because hats do not figure in your personal win condition. But what about the player who collects hats competitively? Wouldn't he be complaining that selling hats makes the game Pay2Win? There are certainly people in World of Warcraft who collect pets and mounts competitively, and Blizzard does sell pets and mounts for real money, but does that make World of Warcraft a Pay2Win game?
Ultimately it comes down to a simple squabbling about "my win condition is superior to your win condition", where some people claim that whatever win condition they set for themselves is more important than the win condition some other player chose for himself. Thus Blizzard selling items that affect raids would cause more of an outcry than them selling pets, but only because there are more people whose personal win condition relates to raids in some way. But personally anything a game company sells that doesn't make somebody else lose the game is all right in my book. If a game isn't Pay2Lose, it's okay.
8-Core CPU Heads Xbox One's Hardware Specs
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News on 22 May 2013, 3:34 am
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News
on 22 May 2013, 3:34 am
The Xbox One will have an 8-core CPU, 8 gig of RAM, a 500GB hard drive and a Blu-Ray disc drive.
Patch 5.3 came out today. I am actually way behind in WoW. I haven't beaten Lei Shien yet in LFR, I have 0 Secrets for the Legendary Quest, and I just hit Revered with the Klaxxi.
I did the first scenario, Blood in the Snow. Pretty good scenario, and I do like what Blizzard is doing with Moira. I must admit that I ignored the NPC telling me not to attack the big group of trolls, and promptly marked one to be shot. Well played, Blizzard, well played.
Don't really have a lot else to say about patch 5.3 so far. The PvP changes are interesting. It occurs to me that PvP gear has evolved a lot. When resilience was first introduced, better PvP gear made you harder to kill. Then better PvP gear made you harder to kill and better at killing others. Now everyone is equally hard to kill, but better PvP gear makes you better at killing others.
How was your Patch Day?
I did the first scenario, Blood in the Snow. Pretty good scenario, and I do like what Blizzard is doing with Moira. I must admit that I ignored the NPC telling me not to attack the big group of trolls, and promptly marked one to be shot. Well played, Blizzard, well played.
Don't really have a lot else to say about patch 5.3 so far. The PvP changes are interesting. It occurs to me that PvP gear has evolved a lot. When resilience was first introduced, better PvP gear made you harder to kill. Then better PvP gear made you harder to kill and better at killing others. Now everyone is equally hard to kill, but better PvP gear makes you better at killing others.
How was your Patch Day?
Massively surveys WildStar's Scientist and Settler paths, the Esper class, and the crazy things Jeremy Gaffney says
Posted by Massively on 22 May 2013, 2:00 am
Posted by Massively
on 22 May 2013, 2:00 am
Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Screenshots, Video, Classes, Economy, Game Mechanics, Interviews, Previews, PvP, Endgame, PvE, Opinion, Events (Massively's Coverage), WildStar, Crafting, Housing, Player-Generated Content, MMORPG
Massively's Gavin Townsley recently attended a WildStar media event in San Francisco, at which he was treated to a hands-on look at the upcoming sci-fantasy MMORPG's Scientist path and Esper class. He also chatted with Carbine Studios executive producer Jeremy Gaffney, who pulls a Gaffney (I'm coining that) and can't resist leaking a bit of new info about tradeskills while filling Gavin in on how endgame will work, why we should play the Settler path, and whether talent trees are passé. If you think making 10 pairs of cotton space pants sounds boring, then yeah -- you're going to like what he's got to say.
Enjoy all three articles plus the brand-new path videos we've embedded past the cut!
 |
Hands-on with WildStar's Scientist path and Esper class There is something exciting about taking your first steps into the mysteries of a new planet. I was anxious to mingle with the locals, analyze artifacts, and even pick a few plants -- that is, until I saw a flower burst from the ground as a giant vine-like beast. |
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WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney on the Settler path WildStar's Settlers don't just build bonfires for sappy Explorers to sing around; these titans of construction will save you time in dungeons, establish bigger outposts, and open up new realms of quests for everyone. |
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WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney on progression, tradeskills, and endgame Jeremy Gaffney divulges the beautiful details on essential parts of the game: character progression, tradeskills that don't suck, and life in the elder game. |
Massively surveys WildStar's Scientist and Settler paths, the Esper class, and the crazy things Jeremy Gaffney says originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 22 May 2013 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Unity's Mobile Development Tools Now Free for Indies
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News on 22 May 2013, 1:42 am
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News
on 22 May 2013, 1:42 am
The barriers that prevent newcomers from creating professional mobile games have been lowered even further.
WildStar Preview: Building Up Nexus As The Settler
Posted by WarCry: Game Codex and Reviews : Latest News on 22 May 2013, 1:00 am
Posted by WarCry: Game Codex and Reviews : Latest News
on 22 May 2013, 1:00 am
WildStar Path Videos Detail The Explorer, Soldier, Settler, And Scientist
Posted by WarCry: Game Codex and Reviews : Latest News on 22 May 2013, 1:00 am
Posted by WarCry: Game Codex and Reviews : Latest News
on 22 May 2013, 1:00 am
WildStar Preview: Collecting Nexus' Secrets As The Scientist
Posted by WarCry: Game Codex and Reviews : Latest News on 22 May 2013, 1:00 am
Posted by WarCry: Game Codex and Reviews : Latest News
on 22 May 2013, 1:00 am
WildStar Developer Interview: Discovering New Paths With Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney
Posted by WarCry: Game Codex and Reviews : Latest News on 22 May 2013, 1:00 am
Posted by WarCry: Game Codex and Reviews : Latest News
on 22 May 2013, 1:00 am
The videogame industry and I are about the same age. In the 1970s, we played with blocks. We blooped and bleated, the big people gathered around us with kindly smiles of incomprehension. By the mid-'80s, we hurtled toward puberty together. We bounced to synthesized beats, decked in neon and steeped in a culture the old folks labeled a passing fad.
The millennium came and went. We experimented. We argued. We put on airs of edginess. We prioritized style. Our girlfriend locked us out of our apartment because we made $5.25 an hour folding bath towels at K-Mart and we’d rather guzzle six-packs of Rainier tallboys on the futon or run out to see whichever aggressively apathetic Nirvana-bes were playing the local dive bars than stay home and help with the dishes and laundry.
But as 30-somethings, mainstream gaming and I went in different directions. Today, one of us knuckles-down at his white-collar gig to pay for the mortgage and the Rogaine, while the other still believes he'll be President of the United States of Firefighting Astronauts when he grows up.
EA Exec Says It Actually Will Develop Future Wii U Games
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News on 22 May 2013, 12:05 am
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News
on 22 May 2013, 12:05 am
EA's chief financial officer says the company is making Wii U games, but is focused on the Xbox and PlayStation brands.
GWJ Conference Call Episode 345
Posted by Gamers With Jobs - Conference Call on 21 May 2013, 11:42 pm
Posted by Gamers With Jobs - Conference Call
on 21 May 2013, 11:42 pm
Episode 345 - May 22nd, 2013
Sid Meier's Ace Patrol, Metro Last Light, Slamjet Stadium, Star Command, Finding The Authenticity in Games, Your Emails and More!
Sid Meier's Ace Patrol, Metro Last Light, Slamjet Stadium, Star Command, Finding The Authenticity in Games, Your Emails and More!
(Couples Retreat! 37.3 MBs, 1:05:11)
This week Shawn, Elysium, Julian and Rob Zacny cuddle up and talk about finding authenticity in gaming.
Media Link
All game servers will be down for maintenance on Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013, at 5am PDT / 7am CDT / 8am EDT / 12pm UTC/GMT. Estimated downtime is approximately 4 hours. With this maintenance: The Dragon Rising...
Super Joystiq Podcast Special: Xbox One revealed
Posted by The Joystiq Podcast on 21 May 2013, 10:00 pm
Posted by The Joystiq Podcast
on 21 May 2013, 10:00 pm
Filed under: Podcasts
Ludwig and Alexander are in Redmond covering the full goings-on at the Xbox One announcement event, but the home crew of Xav, Dave, and Jess are here to recap all the currently known details. There are still plenty of questions surrounding the system, especially when it comes to software, but Microsoft did spill plenty of details regarding the hardware.
Facts, opinions, speculation - it's all here.
Listen to the Super Joystiq Podcast:
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Continue reading Super Joystiq Podcast Special: Xbox One revealed
Super Joystiq Podcast Special: Xbox One revealed originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 21 May 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Financial Incentives And WoW Daily Burnout
Posted by Player Versus Developer on 21 May 2013, 8:57 pm
Posted by Player Versus Developer
on 21 May 2013, 8:57 pm
Recent thought-provoking posts have got me pondering whether MMO's got to the mixed place where they are today because the people making them were not sufficiently careful in what they wished for. Specifically:
A sidenote to Rohan's business model thread is that WoW's business model has changed relatively little since its launch over eight years ago, or indeed even since the older MMO's from the decade prior. The game makes money when people stay subscribed, people cancel their subscriptions when they run out of stuff to do, so clearly the answer to the question is to provide an unending supply of stuff to do. The reasoning is sound but apparently misdirected.
As Psychochild notes, the virtual world style MMO's of last decade were a different beast. These products emphasized long-term goals over short-term fun and community over convenience. On paper, the daily grind brings people into the game every day and thereby increases their interaction with the community. In practice, the sheer repetition of the daily grind de-emphasizes community - people burn out and are forced to lean more heavily on strangers to fill out their required daily groups - and instead emphasizes repetitive gameplay that will always struggle to compete with a crowded marketplace including increasingly deep and online-enabled single-player games.
In short, Blizzard may have gotten exactly what they asked for - people who ground dailies, scenarios, dungeons, LFR, pet battles, etc until they couldn't take anymore. Worse, because the only financial feedback in their model is to quit the game outright, the only feedback they got was when they started losing subscribers by the millions. Under a non-subscription model they might have gotten the message that people were getting tired of dailies before people were irreparably burned out - or at least made more money off of the players in question before they left.
Funny how our spending habits may mirror our response to in-game incentives - it's much easier to get what you ask for than what you actually want.
- Rohan wrote a thought-provoking post over the weekend suggesting that communities are too focused on business models. As exhibit A, he noted that even the notorious WoW forums largely stick to complaints about the actual game, while non-subscription titles like SWTOR have forums full of threads complaining about the business model.
- Psychochild is continuing his discussions about how MMO's are losing their stickiness, why players may be to blame, and how the resulting impact on revenue may also be rendering the genre financially unsustainable. (Scott Hartsman is also making this case 140 characters at a time on Twitter - someone buy the man a blog? :))
A sidenote to Rohan's business model thread is that WoW's business model has changed relatively little since its launch over eight years ago, or indeed even since the older MMO's from the decade prior. The game makes money when people stay subscribed, people cancel their subscriptions when they run out of stuff to do, so clearly the answer to the question is to provide an unending supply of stuff to do. The reasoning is sound but apparently misdirected.
As Psychochild notes, the virtual world style MMO's of last decade were a different beast. These products emphasized long-term goals over short-term fun and community over convenience. On paper, the daily grind brings people into the game every day and thereby increases their interaction with the community. In practice, the sheer repetition of the daily grind de-emphasizes community - people burn out and are forced to lean more heavily on strangers to fill out their required daily groups - and instead emphasizes repetitive gameplay that will always struggle to compete with a crowded marketplace including increasingly deep and online-enabled single-player games.
In short, Blizzard may have gotten exactly what they asked for - people who ground dailies, scenarios, dungeons, LFR, pet battles, etc until they couldn't take anymore. Worse, because the only financial feedback in their model is to quit the game outright, the only feedback they got was when they started losing subscribers by the millions. Under a non-subscription model they might have gotten the message that people were getting tired of dailies before people were irreparably burned out - or at least made more money off of the players in question before they left.
Funny how our spending habits may mirror our response to in-game incentives - it's much easier to get what you ask for than what you actually want.
Blizzard congratulates itself on Diablo III's anniversary
Posted by Massively on 21 May 2013, 9:00 pm
Posted by Massively
on 21 May 2013, 9:00 pm
Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, MMO Industry, Diablo III, Anniversaries
Said statistics include 67.1 million characters created world-wide, 3.3 trillion monsters killed world-wide, and 22.4 million characters that have killed Diablo. Interestingly, Blizzard left off the number of hours lost to launch server login issues, nor is there any mention of D3's much-maligned real-money auction house. You can see the full graphic after the break.
Continue reading Blizzard congratulates itself on Diablo III's anniversary
Blizzard congratulates itself on Diablo III's anniversary originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 21 May 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
- Source: PC Gamer
Commander Sackboy and the Normandy Crew are ready to mine for iridium across the LittleBigPlanet-Verse.
Escapist Podcast: Bonus: The Xbox One Reveal
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News on 21 May 2013, 7:30 pm
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News
on 21 May 2013, 7:30 pm
Deep Silver Offers Metro: Last Light Season Pass
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News on 21 May 2013, 7:40 pm
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News
on 21 May 2013, 7:40 pm
A "season pass" for four pieces of future Metro: Last Light downloadable content has turned up on Steam.
"Smart Match" Smartly Matches You Against Other Xbox One Gamers
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News on 21 May 2013, 8:21 pm
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News
on 21 May 2013, 8:21 pm
An overhaul of Xbox Live includes a brand new matchmaking system, and a new generation of achievements.
New Star Wars Animated Series Airing in 2014
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News on 21 May 2013, 8:35 pm
Posted by The Escapist : Latest News
on 21 May 2013, 8:35 pm
Star Wars Rebels will take place between Episodes III and IV and focus on the growth of the Empire and birth of the Rebellion.
CCP Celebrates 10 Years of EVE Online by Reminding Us to Train Long Skills on Patch Day
Posted by The Ancient Gaming Noob on 21 May 2013, 8:59 pm
Posted by The Ancient Gaming Noob
on 21 May 2013, 8:59 pm
Whoops, the new launcher than came out today had… issues. Which I think makes it an official EVE Online feature! It even got Winterblink to make a Warp Drive Active comic about it. CCP took their old launcher, which just used to show some news and ads, along with checking to see if you game […]
MechWarrior Online introduces new map in which players can die painfully
Posted by Massively on 21 May 2013, 6:00 pm
Posted by Massively
on 21 May 2013, 6:00 pm
Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, Patches, News Items, War, Free-to-Play, MechWarrior Online
MechWarrior Online's newest map, the Canyon Network, is riddled with slot canyons, steep drops, and high plateaus. As part of MWO's latest update, the Canyon Network is meant to provide a playground for snipers and strategic thinkers.
The Blackjack has been named as the new Mech of the Month, with the Jenner donning the mantle of Champion Mech. As part of the content update, new cobra camo patterns and faction cockpit medallions have been added to the store.
Skip below the cut to check out videos of the new Canyon Network and the Blackjack in action.
[Source: MWO press release]
The Blackjack has been named as the new Mech of the Month, with the Jenner donning the mantle of Champion Mech. As part of the content update, new cobra camo patterns and faction cockpit medallions have been added to the store.
Skip below the cut to check out videos of the new Canyon Network and the Blackjack in action.
[Source: MWO press release]
Continue reading MechWarrior Online introduces new map in which players can die painfully
MechWarrior Online introduces new map in which players can die painfully originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Filed under: City of Heroes, EverQuest II, Final Fantasy XI, The Chronicles of Spellborn, Vanguard, Miscellaneous, WildStar, Jukebox Heroes, Music
These themes don't tend to be rip-roaring in their presentation because that's not their purpose. They have to be pleasant enough without being annoying when looped endlessly. After all, sometimes players spend a loooong time making their characters or sitting there at the select screen, and the last thing you want is for their ears to become fatigued by the experience.
So here are six MMO character select and character creation themes that I've enjoyed over the years. And if you saw the title graphic up there and immediately started hearing this song in your head, then you and I probably grew up in the same era.
Continue reading Jukebox Heroes: Character select music
Jukebox Heroes: Character select music originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 21 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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