Blizzard is experimenting with an in-game transaction store for World of Warcraft. The Enduring Elixr of Wisdom, a consumable potion to double XP, has appeared in the public test server with the note “In Game Store.” When asked, a Blizzard representative confirmed on the Battle.net forums that the consumable is part of an ongoing test for an in-game shop.
We are currently exploring the possibility of adding a way for players in certain regions to make purchases directly within the game. As part of this process, elements related to this will be appearing on the PTR. We’ll provide additional updates on our plans as development progresses.
Blizzard already offers in-game products like mounts and pets through a web store, but this would be the first public acknowledgement of a store being built into the game to offer player buffs.
Among the many useless things in Guild Wars 2 is the above pet I found during the Dragon Bash ceremony. It popped out of one of the dragon chests that normally has candy and fireworks. He’s a sort of winged reptilian holograph thing that I enjoy watching flap around at my heels. He’s called a “knight”, but he looks like a dragon to me. He doesn’t do anything, but that doesn’t stop me from liking him.
It’s the same with Guild Wars 2’s score system, which is a running tally of points for all the achievements you’ve completed, like your gamerscore on Xbox Live or your trophy level on the Playstation Network. The score doesn’t do anything, but that doesn’t stop me from liking it. Especially since my score is so much higher than Jason McMaster’s or Nick Diamon’s. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a better person than either of those guys, but it does mean I’m a more committed Guild Wars 2 player. Actually, in some circles, that probably does mean I’m a better person. Fair enough.
However, the era of your score in Guild Wars 2 not doing anything is nearly over. From this official post:
In the upcoming release, we’re adding a reward structure to achievement points. As you complete achievements and increase your achievement score, you’ll unlock new, exclusive rewards for your account. Don’t worry — the system is retroactive! Every point that you’ve earned while adventuring across Tyria will count towards exciting rewards…
The rewards includes consumables, titles, exclusive armor and weapon models, and account-wide boosts for earning resources. The reference to “the upcoming release” means the July 9th Bazaar of the Four Winds updates, at which point my score of 1390 will mean something new.
The one thing gamers are in agreement about regarding the Xbox One is how much they love Kinect being sold with every console and required for the full TV surfing experience. Who doesn’t like waving at their TV to change channels instead of pushing a button on the remote? Microsoft is giving gamers a legitimate reason to love the all-seeing-eye of Kinect by officially confirming to Polygon that 25-digit codes could be a thing of the past.
“As confirmed by Marc Whitten on Twitter, Kinect on Xbox One will allow our customers to redeem QR codes and confirm digital game downloads,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Polygon. “The technological advancements of Kinect for Xbox One allows for a much deeper integration on our platform and we’re excited to share more about new Kinect capabilities in the coming months.”
The original Tweet from VP of Xbox Live, Marc Whitten, was in response to a Reddit comment about letting gamers use Kinect to scan codes instead of fumbling with long sequences of numbers to redeem tokens on the Xbox 360. Hooray for Kinect!
QR codes are those crazy squares on ads that your smartphone owning friends scan to get more ads. Theoretically, you could use QR codes with the Xbox One for more than just making gamers’ lives easier. You could, for example, have QR codes on a product that gamers could hold up to Kinect to enable a more dyanamic ad on the TV. Hooray Kinect?
According to a Bloomberg report, Julie Larson-Green may be the next head of Microsoft’s hardware efforts, including the Xbox division. Larson-Green has been with Microsoft since 1993 and has previously worked on development of Office 2003, Office 2007, Windows 7, and Windows 8. She was a vocal champion of the Ribbon interface for Office.
If Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer chooses to place Larson-Green in the position of overseeing hardware engineering, she will inherit the embattled Xbox division just before one of the company’s most important product launches. The next-gen Xbox One PR has been hampered by DRM backpedaling, stiff competition from Sony’s PS4 showing at E3, and the recent departure of former head Don Mattrick to Zynga.
Before Don Mattrick left, it had been rumored that he would’ve been the pick for the position that may ultimately be given to Julie Larsen-Green in the upcoming reorganization.
The problem with ragequitting is that it’s hard to sustain rage, which makes it hard to sustain the quitting part. Especially when you’re trying to quit a game you really like. For instance, I had no problem quitting SimCity. I didn’t even like it enough to ragequit it. I sadquit it. Sadquitting is easy to sustain.
I ragequit Marvel Heroes because of an ill-timed server rollback (ill-timed in that I lost a rare drop). But two things brought me back in last night, both announced in an email insidiously sent to those of us who’ve played the game. The first thing is the beginning of rebalancing for almost all the characters’ skill trees. Initially, this means boosting defensive powers so characters bear up longer under attack. I’m playing Iron Man and it’s like I’m tanking. Which, frankly, feels kind of right. The patch notes include plenty of details, but since the rebalancing is an ongoing thing in its early stages, the notes convey a slightly insipid “pardon our dust/work in progress” vibe with “design notes” such as:
The Punisher has many improvements this patch and will continue to get improvements until he is extremely fun, has multiple builds and is the ultimate killing machine!
And:
Wolverine has been training in the Danger Room and has come out much stronger. He will continue to train until he has reached the max level of fun and powerful.
Also, speaking of tanking with Iron Man, he went on sale. That was the second thing mentioned in the email. All the characters in this free-to-play game are on sale to varying degrees. It’s about time. The only thing more ridiculous than Gazillion charging $20 for Iron Man is some sucker paying $20 for Iron Man. But now that he’s on sale for $15? Heck, I spent that much seeing Iron Man 2, and I didn’t even like that movie! So now, as the owner of a level 12 Iron Man who sits inside an energy shield and lets rip with a repulsor barrage that gratifyingly melts away the bad guys, I’m keenly aware ragequitting and sheepishreturning often go hand-in-hand.
ArenaNet has announced that the next event in their free Living World content updates to Guild Wars 2 will be the Bazaar of the Four Winds which will let players race around the Labyrinthine Cliffs. ArenaNet stated that they were aiming for a bi-weekly update schedule and apparently, they were serious enough about it to reorganize the company around the concept. Design director Chris Whiteside told Polygon that he thinks this kind of commitment is unique.
“To get it out on a two week cadence and put this kind of exciting and fresh content out every two weeks required us to basically change the whole structure of the company, build and set up four different teams that would work on rotating cadences and to really empower the developers on the teams to be able to pick and choose what they really wanted to work on and what’s most important to them and the places,” Whiteside said. “ArenaNet is known for taking risks. So the idea of having just launched the game and restructuring to build toward this two week cadence… as far as I’m aware, no one else has done it to this level of content.”
Whiteside stated that although their goal is to keep the optional content updates coming on a regular schedule, another team will be working on the main game. Bazaar of the Four Winds starts on July 9th. The current Living World event is the Sky Pirates of Tyria.
Double Fine’s Tim Schafer updated Broken Age crowd-funding participants with the news that the adventure game will be split in two during development and the first half will be released faster than projected on Steam Early Access. Double Fine will continue working on the game after the Early Access release until the game is complete. Schafer estimated that the game’s full release would’ve been pushed back to 2015 without this new strategy.
We were always planning to release the beta on Steam, but in addition to that we now have Steam Early Access, which is a new opportunity that actually lets you charge money for pre-release content. That means we could actually sell this early access version of the game to the public at large, and use that money to fund the remaining game development. The second part of the game would come in a free update a few months down the road, closer to April-May.
So, everybody gets to play the game sooner, and we don’t have to cut the game down drastically. Backers still get the whole game this way – nobody has to pay again for the second half.
Schafer attributed the ballooning schedule for the game to the crowd-funding success which resulted in the project raising over $3 million dollars when only $400k had been requested. Schafer also noted that backers will still have exclusive beta access before the Steam Early Access release.
One of the more fun lists to discuss every year after E3 is the Game Critics Best of E3 winners. This year, a lot of votes went to Titanfall, the mechs versus pilots shooter being developed by Respawn for the Xbox One and PC. It won Best of Show and also snatched up the top spots for Best Original Game, Best Console Game, Best PC Game, Best Action Game, and Best Online Multiplayer. I’m sure Major Nelson is happy that people did see Titanfall. Voting publications included The Los Angeles Times, Wired, IGN, Polygon, USA Today, CNN, Spike, and Entertainment Weekly among others.
Judges are generally Editors in Chief of major North American media outlets that have consistently covered the videogame industry and have clearly shown an interest in critically evaluating interactive entertainment. Each media outlet is allotted one slot on the judge panel. Judges are encouraged, where appropriate, to solicit the opinions of colleagues at their respective media outlets when determining the nominees and winners.
For reference, the 2012 big winner was The Last of Us, and 2011’s favorite was Bioshock Infinite. Unfortunately, the game that won the most awards in 2010 was Rage.
Cheers, Ubisoft! The best part about every game publisher having their own games account system is the speed with which they can communicate with their users when something goes horribly wrong. Emails were sent to Uplay customers today warning them that Ubisoft’s servers were hacked and some data was compromised.
We recently found that one of our Web sites was exploited to gain unauthorized access to some of our online systems. We instantly took steps to close off this access, to begin a thorough investigation with relevant authorities, internal and external security experts, and to start restoring the integrity of any compromised systems.
During this process, we learned that data were illegally accessed from our account database, including user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords. No personal payment information is stored with Ubisoft, meaning your debit/credit card information was safe from this intrusion.
Oh, good! Just the email addresses, names, and passwords of accounts were accessed! Whew! At least now I have an excuse for my abysmal Far Cry 3 multiplayer scores. Some other guy was using my account. Just kidding. Not even dirty hackers play Far Cry 3 multiplayer.
The email warning from Ubisoft included a link to a support page detailing the steps people should take to secure their accounts.
Dwarf Fortress is that super-complex game with ASCII character graphics that’s been bouncing around the internet for over ten years. You’ve probably heard of it. You may have even given it a go. It’s funded entirely with donations and can be played for free. Gamasutra interviewed Tarn and Zach Adams, creators of the infamously deep game, and they revealed that their project will be complete in about 20 more years if everything goes according to plan. And that’s not a joke.
According to the brothers, their “deadline” for version 1.0 will come in about 20 more years. Tarn Adams thinks that by that time, they may add tutorials, a more friendly interface, and some context-sensitive help. He doesn’t want to spend much time working on graphics. He feels working on graphics impedes his development process.
“We talk about the graphics slowing down development, and it’s one of the main reasons why we don’t have them,” he says. “Tutorials are sort of the same way, in that they are an anchor that you need to keep updated. But that’s definitely a sacrifice that I’m willing to make, just because I think they would make a big difference just to get people started.”
As long as donation money keeps rolling in, the Adams brothers will continue working on the game. Should the money ever stop, the pair said they are open to exploring other options like moving on to a new project with a Kickstarter or even just releasing the game for someone else to tackle.
AllThingsD broke the story earlier today, but Zynga has officially confirmed it. Don Mattrick is leaving Microsoft as the President of Interactive Entertainment, which includes the Xbox division, and becoming Zynga’s new CEO and board member. Mark Pincus will continue as Zynga’s Chairman and Chief Product Officer.
Don is unique in the game business. He can execute in multiple domains – hardware, software and network, and he’s been the person responsible for game franchises like “Need for Speed,” “FIFA” and “The Sims.” He’s one of the top executives in the overall entertainment business and he’s a great coach who has inspired people to do their best work and build strong, productive teams.
Microsoft is rumored to be gearing up for a major reorganization, but according to multiple sources, Mattrick’s departure is not part of that shake-up and his move has been planned for months. Mattrick’s first duties at Zynga will likely be to address the company’s financial issues. Zynga has struggled as much of its audience has drifted to other distractions.
Microsoft has not announced who will take over Mattrick’s post.
EA has made the SimCity Airships Set DLC available for $8.99. Fans of disasters couldn’t be happier. Dirigibles and hot air balloons can take to the skies of your cities while your garbage trucks clog up the roads!
Stadiums not quite at capacity? Then you need the Airship Hangar. Plop the Airship Hangar in your city and you’ll be able to welcome Airships bearing tourists from the region. With the added flexibility, you’ll have no trouble filling stadium seats or getting gamblers in your casinos. Local shops will benefit from the steady stream of tourists on airships as well.Tourists aren’t the only kind of Sims that your city needs! Add a Commuter Airship Mooring to your Airship Hangar to float commuting Sims to work or shop in your city, or to take your city’s Sims to a neighboring city.
Will those traveling Sims ever show up in the neighboring cities, or will they be stuck in the limbo between account communication? Just pretend they passed into some alternate timeline in which mass transit is a popular mode of travel and SimCity wasn’t a complete mess.
Bad news for all remaining Darkspore fans. According to an announcement on the official forum, EA’s gene-splicing action RPG has been abandoned by the publisher. Months of server issues have apparently made the game unplayable for many players.
Darkspore is no longer developed. It is for almost all intents & purposes an abandoned title. If you cannot play the game & have flicked through technical issues for any fixes, then contact EA Customer Support; especially if it regards CD-Keys or refunds.
Error 73003 has gone unfixed & remains an issue.
Error Code 3 has arisen for the majority/all & remains an issue.
I will however keep the forums here as clean & tidy as possible in my spare time. Why? Well why not. If it helps anyone with minor problems, or find their way somewhere, then that’s great.
I wish you all luck, no matter what path you choose with Darkspore.
Darkspore has been de-listed from Steam, lending credence to the announcement. You can still purchase the game from EA’s Origin service should you feel like giving the publisher some money.
UPDATE: The Darkspore forums have been updated with new information.
Welcome to the Darkspore forums. Thanks for supporting the game. We recently resolved an issue that was causing some players to not be able to connect to the game. If you any encounter any other issues, please contact help.ea.com for customer support. We will continue to support Darkspore, so feel free to continue to discuss the game here. Thanks
If you’re like me and you’ve been waiting for the patches for State of Decay to finally come through Microsoft’s certification process, you’re now cleared for some zombie apocalypse this weekend. The latest update adds a whole mess of fixes and revisions, including the ones from the first patch fumbled in a previous update that also went through Microsoft’s certification process.
Of course, if you haven’t been playing while you waited, you might have trouble in store. The simulation in State of Decay runs in real time, whether you’re playing or not. Your characters will go on missions, eat your food, expend your ammo, and sometimes come to dire straits. When I started the game today after applying the update, nearly half of my survivors had gone missing. So far, I’ve found one of them. Marcus, my most powerful character, is still AWOL and I don’t see a mission yet to recover him.
I adore this game, but I am absolutely mystified about a design decision that punishes players for not playing. That should be the exclusive domain of subscription-based MMOs.
Victory for grizzled guys in beards on rocket assault motorcycles! Patent Arcade posted that the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has ruled that Activision Blizzard’s use of the term “Delta Force” in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 does not infringe on the trademark that NovaLogic claims to hold from their series of games starting with 1998’s Delta Force. Judge Walter ruled that Activision’s use of the name was protected as free speech and would not harm NovaLogic’s brand.
“Because the phrase ‘Delta Force’ and its insignia have an established and well-known prior meaning and connotation…that is unrelated to plaintiff and that meaning and connotation predate plaintiff’s use of the registered trademarks, it is highly unlikely that consumers will be misled.”
NovaLogic had also argued that Activision waived their free speech rights because Vivendi Games had paid royalties to NovaLogic for the Delta Force name in 2005, before they were acquired by Activision. The court did not accept this argument because Activision was not directly involved in the agreement.
