It has been a bruising month for Chinese gaming hegemon Tencent. First, their US based subsidiary Riot Games was accused of sexism which required major readjustments at the studio. These culture problems also brought to light Riot's declining profitability, with the company on course to run a deficit unless something changes soon. Closer to home, Tencent found itself on the [...]
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Bots have been an issue in MMOs since the very beginning. Early MMORPG developers were constantly frustrated by players employing botting programs to farm resources are quickly speed through content. Often the same people using these botting programs were RMTers who were making a buck while destroying fragile in-game economies. Even the biggest titles like World of Warcraft never found [...]
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Its not easy being king. League of Legends, and the studio behind the hit MOBA, Riot Games have been a major leading force in the gaming industry for years. This week, the legendary studio finds itself under assault. One broadside against Riot Games is a lengthy investigative piece by Kotaku alleging rampant sexism at the studio's offices across the world. [...]
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With the latest expansion for World of Warcraft set to launch next week, the internet busy digesting the lore cinematic Blizzard has put out. Of particular interest on the web is the direction the writers have taken Sylvanas. The latest lore video has ordering the destruction of the Teldrassil tree. Many were outraged that such a storied figure in the [...]
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July 26 will mark the Early Access launch of Warlords Awakening on Steam. The Korean fantasy MMORPG has a generic theme to it, but the action combat may tempt Diablo 3 or Path of Exile players to give it a shot between seasons. At least that's what publisher PLAYWITH Inc is banking on. But first, a bit of history. Originally [...]
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Ubisoft's new anti toxicity measures for Rainbox Six Siege kicked in this week and the results have been mixed. The new policy includes a list of forbidden words which when typed, result in an automatic ban. First time offenders cannot play any game mode, including custom matches, for ~27 minutes. Second and third time offenses last 2 hours while additional [...]
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The Guild Wars 2 community was ignited this week by the firing of two staff members, writer Jessica Price and a developer who defended her actions on twitter. It was a post on said social media platform that set this train in motion. Jessica Price responded to what seems like an innocuous tweet then dug in her heels in the [...]
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The last time we discussed the EU, the GDPR, a sweeping data privacy bill had just come in force. Starting on May 25, 2018 all companies serving the EU region had to offer users a simple way to view what personal data was being stored on them and an easy way to opt out of said data collection. The burden [...]
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What happens when MMORPG drama leaks into the real world? This week a local issue in the Final Fantasy 14 community made headlines when outlets like PCGamer published a lengthy expose on the ongoing controversy. Dubbed MoogleGate, the story centers on a 30-something year old player with the in-game name OldBear. The allegations involve using his position as the head [...]
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Valve's Steam platform has dominated the PC gaming market for years now. If you're reading this post, its likely you too are active on Steam. Despite publishers like EA, Ubisoft, and Blizzard creating their own launchers, most of us still prefer to use Steam. Part of the continued attraction of Steam as a platform are the constant sales Valve runs, [...]
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