Monthly Archives: July 2012

OnRPG Shotgun News 7/2/12: Gaikai, THQ, Rise of Immortals, and More!

OnRPG Shotgun News 7/2/12: Gaikai, THQ, Rise of Immortals, and More!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Sony Acquires Cloud Gaming Company Gaikai

Sony has purchased cloud gaming company Gaikai for $380 million. Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House said the following on the deal;

 

“SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices.”

 

Rumors of this purchase have been surfacing for over a month but both sides have denied it until now.

 

 

THQ Announces Reverse Stock Split

During a special meeting of stockholders approved an amendment to effect a reverse split of its stock which has been set at 1 for 10. This will reduce the number of stock from around 68.5 million to about 6.9 million. This is all in an attempt to get the required $1.00 per share minimum bid required by NASDAQ for listing.

 

 

Petroglyph Announces Licensing Partnership for Rise of Immortals

 

Petroglyph, the developer and publisher of Rise of Immortals has announced a new partnership with RISE GAMES. This is to bring Rise of Immortals to a Turkish audience. RISE GAMES is able to reach out to major internet cafes and game stores across Turkey giving them a bigger audience.

 

 

South Korean “Shutdown Law” Faces Legal Action

 

The legality of South Korea’s Shutdown Law has come into question by citizens and game companies. The law prevents anyone under the age of sixteen from playing games during a six hour block at night. This is meant to encourage studying. Two lawsuits have been filed against this law. One is from game publishers NCSoft, Nexon and Neowiz. The other is from a Korean organization which represents parents and children who say the law undermines parental rights. Both lawsuits were filed last fall and are now being heard in court.

ROSE Online Starts Off Summer with Full Month of Events

ROSE Online Starts Off Summer With A Full Month Of Special Events

 

ROSE Online

 

Gravity Interactive, a publisher of exciting MMORPGs), today announced that it has launched a series of summer events for its popular MMORPG, ROSE Online. “Roserians” can participate in the events all month long starting today, June 29th, and take their shot at winning cool in-game items and Visa gift cards.

 

 

All month long players will have a chance to win Item Mall Points and Visa Gift Cards in the “Login and Get Loot” event. All players have to do is log onto ROSE Online and they’re entered to win. It’s that easy! For every daily ROSE Online login, players will get another chance to win. This event is happening all month long, so players should grab their friends and start logging in today through July 31st!

 

ROSE Online

 

Summer is all about hanging with friends and so is the latest refer-a-friend event, “Playing with Friends Just Keeps on Getting Better!” During the entire month of July, players can invite friends to play their favorite game with them and be rewarded! For recruiting one friend, players will receive a Judy’s Box (1 box limited per WarpPortal account). In addition, players using the “Friends with Benefits” program can send friends a link or just share on their favorite social network site and let friends hook them up with bonus WP Energy! If a player, using “Friends with Benefits” recruits a friend from now until July 31st, and they make a payment, players will earn 30% of the WP Energy value they purchased instead of the regular 10% bonus.

 

 

Roserians can also participate in the GoCash promotion happening now through August 28th. Every Thursday following a GoCash game card redemption increment of $7 on the WarpPortal, players will receive a limited edition Drinking Hat (HP +250, MP +150), great for those hot summer days, in their game accounts event storage!

Faithless is He: Visit Sunny Kingsmouth

Faithless is He: Visit Sunny Kingsmouth

By Jonathan Doyle (Ardua), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Hello one and all, hello from Kingsmouth. In case you missed it you’ll be happy, or worried, to hear that Dark Days are Here.

 

 

The Secret World has opened its gates for pre-order customers and the servers stand ready for everyone else tomorrow.

 

 

Let’s go over some things shall we?

 

A Funcom Launch

I’ll get this little bit of difficulty out of the way nice and early, as I am sure it is also the thing pressing down on most peoples’ minds if they haven’t already committed to the Secret World. How was the pre-order launch? Well… it was flawless. At least from my perspective. Oh I am sure you’ll find someone to quibble, but that’s the Internet and games. There’ve been no outages on the server; there have been no massive upheavals or anything.

 

I have experienced four little faults.

 

  1. On Friday night, the first night, so many people wanted their pre-order goods that it rather slowed the store. Eventually it was taken down for upgrades and by Saturday morning it was lightning quick. Fault? Popularity. Solved? Oh yes.
  2. A minor chat bug that on one occasion each across three people on three days affected us once each. Quitting group and rejoining fixed that.  More a minor passing irritant than a bug.
  3. One quest and only one for me, in the entirety of Kingsmouth is bugged. That was the case last night and well known to people. I imagine a fix is incoming soon.
  4. This one is entirely my own fault. I need more ram. Oh the game plays fine on what I have, but the occasional spike makes my system seize. That’s no fault of Funcom or EA, that’s me being behind the hardware curve.

 

 

So as far as launch worries about Funcom not being ready once again, I’d say they finally got their system worked out because the soft launch was near flawless! We’ll see how it goes with more people jumping aboard but personally I am saying that this has been a complete success. If you want to be cranky, let’s say third time is the charm. Ragnar and the team have been active on the boards and on twitter throughout the weekend and the only server maintenance downtime so far was placed on early GMT time and finished up faster than originally forecast.

 

 

With all of that, seriously, don’t let the name of the company and other peoples’ wrong opinions of it scare you into missing this gem.

 

 

We Have The Technology!

Launch covered; let’s talk about actually getting to grips with the game. Do you have friends already playing and are worried about meeting up with them? Don’t be!

 

 

Lead Designer Martin Bruusgaard covered the server set up they are using here, but let me break it down for you.

 

 

There is, like in EVE Online, a single server. On that server there are shards, here called dimensions. The only change to the dimensions has been the renaming of the Role Play dimension from Faerie to Arcadia after some people apparently took issue with the name. Still, no one can say the designers weren’t listening.

 

 

At character creation you have two options. First, you can link The Secret World with your Facebook account. This allows you to see where any of your Facebook friends might be playing. Second, pick a dimension, any dimension. It literally does not stop you from playing with anyone. Want to roll up on Cerberus but join me on Arcadia to battle zombies? Feel free. Players can and are teleported from Dimension to Dimension to team up. The only important provision is that should you play the Fusang Projects live battleground, you are playing the one tied to your home dimension. Stonehenge and El Dorado are cross dimension, Fusang is not.

 

 

(Just to put peoples’ minds at ease? I am on the Role play server and I can tell you, Fusang gets plenty of attention. Don’t let story telling make you think they aren’t also fighting.)

 

 

All the tools to play where and how you want to are given to you from the very start. All the tools necessary to get through the investigations and fights are provided within. Which leads me to my last thought..

 

 

Blurring The Lines

How often have you reached for a book while playing Guild Wars? Have you ever needed reference material for Champions Online? Does Team Fortress 2 leave you wishing you knew more about Morse code?

 

 

Ragnar and the team have long talked about blurring the lines between the real and the game. They are, in my small opinion, succeeding. Together with two firm faithful friends (even if they are bloody Dragons. “Templar for the Win!” As you are told in London) I have stomped and sprinted my way back and forth across Kingsmouth. I have fought demons, I have fought zombies and I have fought evil. That, admittedly, is pretty much the premise of any game with combat. You fight the things that need fighting. You kill the things that need killing. The Secret World though… sometimes it asks you to be sneaky… sometimes it asks you to be nosey.

 

 

Nosey is where it gets interesting.

 

 

Oh anyone can sing the praises of the story quests, in fact I may do that very thing myself when I see you next week. Plenty of people I know have found great humour and great acting in the cut scenes; I don’t mind saying I think I love Edgar from the Scrap yard. The story and the acting and the very scenes set by The Secret World, even in its first area, are magnificent.

 

 

Then along comes the investigation quests. Then comes the thinking. Oh, sure, you could ask help channel. You can check wikis or look up guides or check the boards. You will eventually be able to look up step by step walkthroughs that tell you everything to do, but leave out all the whys. Rewards are a great excuse, complete the mission, and get the xp.

 

 

But for me? Oh no. I am meeting these special challenges head on. I never have played a game that needed me to check a Bible, a real Bible not some in game interactive Bible that has the answers spelled out, to crack a code. I’ve never played a game before that makes me stop, think and try to puzzle things out with friends.  The Investigation quests are magnificent and I expect them only to get harder and more brain wracking and wrecking as time goes on.

 

 

Any game can make it hard to win, any game can throw walking bags of hit points at you and call it hard content. Any game can offer you fighting.

 

 

The Secret World is offering me a puzzle, daring me to work it all out. It has thrown down the gauntlet of a challenge in its fighting, in its sabotage and most of all in its investigation and storyline missions. I am going to take up that challenge. I am going to work it all out and live on those blurred lines between the real and the secret worlds.

 

 

Though first… I have Morse code to crack. See you in Kingsmouth my friends.

MEAD: The Evolution of RIFT’s Crafting

MEAD: The Evolution of RIFT’s Crafting

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

I don’t often get the chance to express my opinion on things in RIFT. Sure, there are little comments here and there. Squeeing over the newest and latest thing but I never get to just give the article of the week over to my thoughts, feelings and desires. There is of course a very simple reason for this. Trion releases too much awesomeness for me to talk about. But this time! This time I’m ahead of the game. I’ve already talked about all the major points of 1.9 which just came out this week. And there hasn’t been anything new about Storm Legion. So I’m going to talk about my favorite past time in RIFT, crafting.

 

RIFT Crafting

 

From the moment I started playing RIFT over a year ago I’ve been addicted to crafting. In theory you’re supposed to slowly level your skill as you level your character. With the resources you need being available at just the right time. It didn’t work that way for me though. I’d finish one crafting level then immediately move on to the next. Even when I didn’t have the supplies to do so. In that case I’d buy them. It was expensive. Took me more than a year to get my first 100 platinum. And that only happened because I stopped buying crafting supplies and started selling artifacts on a very regular basis. But I loved crafting. I spent hours in the Manufactory making things, breaking them down then making more things.

 

 

But eventually I hit a point. A point where crafting wasn’t important anymore. Sure, I did my daily crafting quests from time to time. And I’d join in on a Crafting Rift group maybe once a week. But crafting wasn’t important anymore. I got my things I wanted. I wasn’t making any money off it so why continue? And then, like the Trion devs on high heard my cries of sorrow, new recipes were released. And they were purple and people were asking for them. They even came with new, very expensive materials which could only be made on a timer. And for a while getting everything gathered was great. But once again, that rut was back. While crafted items have always been very good and second only to planar gear which is difficult to get, there would always come a time when crafting wasn’t needed anymore, for a short time at least. Then came fishing and survivalist. And while there isn’t any money to be made there, since everyone and their Tartagon is doing it there is still a ton of fun to be had.

 

RIFT Fishing

 

I don’t even mind sitting around in zones that I’ve outleveled already just to get that one last rare fish I need for the achievement. I could fish for days. It’s more of a lifestyle than an art. I’m taking my time with fishing. I haven’t levelled it very far yet and that’s ok. But that isn’t enough to make me feel like crafting is important and something that is included in all things. That’s where the new orange armor comes in. Players do a dungeon, get the materials for this new spiffy armor which can only be crafted by the people who have really put the time in. It creates a bit of a community between the raiders and the crafters. But that still left us out of touch with the pvpers. That’s changed now as well!

 

 

1.9 gave us Conquest. The three faction pvp has more than just stabbing the enemy and taking control points. Players can craft buffs for allies. If you want you never even have to raise a weapon to the enemy. You can just stand there making things for your side. Crafters are slowly being dragged out away from the forges and into the rest of the world. They’re no longer the redheaded stepchild who never sees the light of day and isn’t really all that important past a certain point.

 

RIFT More Crafting

 

Storm Legion will be the ultimate step in bringing crafting to the community. As we saw in the E3 live feed there are going to be areas in the new parts of the world which will only be accessible with the help of raids and tons of people. Instead of crafting rifts, which only really matter to other crafters, there will be colossi raids formed by crafters. And everyone will want to take part. Partly because its new and shiny. But also because it is fun and has a little something for everyone. When it has become old news though, crafters will still be forming those raids, they’ll still want access to those materials. And that will almost force them to become leaders. And that isn’t a bad thing. Not at all. We crafters have an important role to play in Telara. And as time goes on our role is becoming more and more important. A crafter’s job is never done. There will always be something new on the horizon. I love crafting just as much now as I ever have. Though I admit I love doing crafting rifts much more than doing any actual crafting anymore. I’m very excited for the future of crafting. As much as I am for the future of all of RIFT.

Eternal Blade Dev Diary: Upgrade System

Eternal Blade Dev Diary: Upgrade System

By StirFry Robot, gPotato Representative

 

 

Enhancement System

A few weeks ago gPotato began revealing some of the ways in which Eternal Blade will allow you to customize your weapons and characters with the introduction of our Jewel Socketing System. This week I will be covering another way to strengthen your equipment: the Enhancement System!

 

While increasing specific stats with various jewels is great, sometimes you just want to upgrade your weapon as a whole. With the Enhancement System, you will be able to increase the overall power of your weapons and improve any existing stat bonuses the weapon already granted.

 

 

Enhancement Stones

The ability to enhance your weapons is granted by items known as Enhancement Stones. Enhancement Stones are collected from defeated monsters or created through an “Equipment Desctruction” option, which allows you to break down equipment you don’t need. Breaking down equipment rewards you with various upgrade materials, including the Enhancement Stones. The better the equipment’s grade, the better the upgrade materials you receive.

 

Depending on your item’s level, you will require different types of Enhancement Stones. Currently there are 4 types of Enhancement Stones which you will be using to upgrade your equipment.

 

 

The List of stone types is as follows:

Silver Enhancement Stone

Cerulean Enhancement Stone

Maroon Enhancement Stone

Onyx Enhancement

 

Enhancing Items

Once you have the necessary stone type to enhance your items, simply pay a visit to your local blacksmith to continue the upgrading process. Items can be safely upgraded to +5 by only using these enhancement stones.

 

 

With each subsequent upgrade, your weapon will also gain an increasingly brighter and more intricate glow effect.

 

 

 

 

Like I said: after +5, there is a small chance that an unsuccessful upgrade will cause the item to break. You can prevent this using an Enhancement Stabilizer, but it is optional. The most likely result of a failed upgrade is that the item de-levels or simply stays at the same level. The system is designed to be very accessible, so upgrade away!

 

 

Take care Bladers and stay tuned for further dev diaries to be released every Friday leading up to launch!