The latest Diablo III patch just added a few cool new elements like re-tuned incentives to play cooperatively, some class changes, and a gold duping loophole. I’m personally most excited about the new incentives to cooperative play, which include a boost to experience points and the likelihood to find valuable magic items, as well a few interface improvements that make it easier to keep up with your buddy when he invariably runs after one of those treasure goblins. But a quick glance at Blizzard’s forums — something I would almost never recommend — reveals that many of the players over there seem most excited about the gold duping.
I have no idea how it works, and frankly, there’s enough inflation in the game that I couldn’t care less about it. It’s trivially easy to undermine the loot chase, even without a gold dupe, which will only make it easier to undermine the loot chase. Why should I care if the latest patch further dings an already gimped economy. I might as well fret about about a half point drop in the unemployment rate in Nigeria.
As much as I like Diablo III, I’m constantly reminded that the folks who made Path of Exile did the exact right thing by removing cash from their economy.
UPDATE: This looks like it actually might be a middling to big deal! The auction house has been taken down and some players who used the gold duping exploit have been banned.
Wizards of the Coast has revealed some new information about the upcoming Magic 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers. Sealed Decks will be available to players for use in a campaign or against other mana-flinging wizards, but details were scarce until now.
The game will come with two available slots for players to start Sealed Campaigns. These slots will keep all the deck edits and additions you make, plus your progress though the Sealed Deck Campaign. If you’d like to save more than two Sealed Decks, additional slots can be purchased for $1.99 each, and each slot will give you access to a different pool of cards and allows you to unlock different boosters. All Booster Packs use cards from a 180+ card “set” that’s unique to the game. To begin a Campaign, players will pick an open slot and get six 14-card Booster Packs to open. Players are then taken to the Deck Editor so they can create a 40-card Sealed Deck out of the 84 card pool they’ve opened (plus Basic Lands).
When finished creating a deck, players can then battle their way through the Sealed Deck Campaign in order to unlock an additional three Booster Packs along the way. At the end of the Campaign there will be a boss fight where the player will play to defeat another Sealed Deck. You can also use your Sealed Decks to play against other players.
Sealed Deck gameplay has been a long-requested feature from avid Magic players.
Ubisoft and Patrice Desilets just can’t seem to work things out. Desilets, designer of Assassin’s Creed, left Ubisoft in 2010 to work for THQ as a creative director heading up two projects codenamed 1666 and Underdog. THQ went bankrupt and Ubisoft acquired the Montreal studio in the January asset auction. Desilets came along with the studio and Ubisoft said they were pleased to be working with him again.
Things must not have been as friendly as we were lead to believe. Patrice Desilets has left Ubisoft and a spokesperson had this to say about his departure:
“The acquisition of THQ Montreal in January allowed Ubisoft to welcome 170 experienced developers, including Patrice Desilets, to our existing and renowned workforce. Unfortunately, since the acquisition, the good faith discussions between Patrice and Ubisoft aimed at aligning Patrice’s and the studio’s visions have been inconclusive. As a result, Patrice has left the studio. Our priorities remain with the teams already hard at work on projects in development. They are at the root of Ubisoft Montreal’s past and future successes.”
Desilet disputes this version of events and told Polygon that he was fired without cause.
“Contrary to any statements made earlier today, this morning I was terminated by Ubisoft. I was notified of this termination in person, handed a termination notice and was unceremoniously escorted out of the building by two guards without being able to say goodbye to my team or collect my personal belongings.”
“This was not my decision.”
“Ubisoft’s actions are baseless and without merit. I intend to fight Ubisoft vigorously for my rights, for my team and for my game.”
Sources within Ubisoft say that both of Desilets’ projects have been canceled.
Bethesda announced Wolfenstein: The New Order, the next chapter in the Wolfenstein saga, will be coming to gamers in Q4 2013. The game will showcase an alternate universe 1960 in which the Nazi menace has taken over the world. Players will infiltrate their strongholds, and fight against Nazi super-weapons. The game is being developed by MachineGames, which was founded by ex-Starbreeze Studios employees.
“We are excited to bring a new chapter of Wolfenstein to gamers everywhere,” said Jens Matthies, creative director at MachineGames. “As fans of the series, working on this game is an honor, and our team is driven to create an unforgettable action-adventure experience that will make FPS fans proud.”
I expect occult-powered machine guns, Don Draper, and Austin Powers. If you’re in the nostalgic mood, check out the original game in all its pixelated glory here.
Will Wright spoke to GamesIndustry International after he gave a lecture at the University of California’s Santa Cruz. During the interview he said EA’s SimCity server problems were “inexcusable.”
When the discussion turned to the launch of Sim City Online, Wright was quick to declare his first thought. “I feel bad for the team,” Wright said. Beyond that, Wright had some definite opinions about the launch. “I could have predicted – I kind of did predict there’d be a big backlash about the DRM stuff. It’s a good game; I enjoy playing it a lot.” Still, Wright understands the audience response. “It was kind of like, ‘EA is the evil empire, there was a lot of ‘Let’s bash EA over it,'” Wright said. “That was basically inexcusable, that you charge somebody $60 for a game and they can’t play it. I can understand the outrage. If I was a consumer buying the game and that happened to me, I’d feel the same.”
Wright also talked about the state of EA and the general direction of the industry. He noted that Google’s recent hiring of veteran game designer Noah Falstein was probably related to their efforts to get better at understanding games.
