Gods of Rome introduces another character in the form of the golem Talos! Forged in the flames of the underworld, he comes to dish out the pain!
Yearly Archives: 2016
ROME: Total War coming to iPad
The classic strategy game ROME: Total War is coming to iPad!
Crystal Saga II Teaser
The sequel to 2011’s Crystal Saga is on the way! R2’s Crystal Saga II is coming! Time to journey as a hero reborn!
The Aetherlight Episode 2 Trailer
The Aetherlight has another episode coming! Episode 2 is on the way, and the tension promises to be higher, the competition crazier! What will befall Julian and Edmond next?
The vulgar nature of the MOBA community
The nature of the Internet is an interesting one. We hide behind anonymity, and can say whatever we want because who cares, right? It’s just words. However in a competitive scene, it can become much worse, at least when on the Internet. In fighting game communities, when people are sitting right next to each other, it tends to be mutually supportive, friendly even. Sure, there are heated words, and salt flows when people get absolutely flattened, but everyone is trying to get better as a group. It’s a really wonderful thing to find a group like that. However, the MOBA community is a mostly frightening and terrible thing. The pro scene’s a bit better; I only know that because of my close proximity to the Smite pro community. The online scene is for a lack of a better word, toxic. I don’t really care for it, but it is. In League of Legends, for every one or two friendly but competitive players, there are ten to fifteen assholes that just rant and ramble, pick whoever they want, are willing to disconnect because your team “doesn’t deserve to win”.
One of the parts of my job is to review Gods/Champions of League and Smite. That means I have to play them as they come out. Where’s the downside you say? In League of Legends, how do you pick a character you want that’s brand new? You hope and pray. You either have to have a group of friends to play a custom, or autolock and hope for the best. It’s even worse if it’s not a lane you traditionally play/a highly contested lane like top or mid. If it’s a support? That’s easy. I can get that all day. I spent two days trying to play Kled. Two. Whole. Days. But did I finally? Sure did! You know how I pick a character in Smite? I go to the desired mode, I click them. Most of the time your team is going to be amicable as long as you don’t autolock. You tell someone in League that you’re in need of playing them for work? “Hurr hurr yeah right idiot. It’s not Kotaku so who cares?” That hurt my spirit. I don’t understand this kind of nature though. I truly don’t understand what makes people become so vile, even in normal/non-ranked/casual matches. Now I’m not saying everyone is like this. I’ve met some incredible people in online gaming, but the worst communities in online gaming are probably shooters and MOBAs. But I do have to say, Smite has probably had the most pleasant community I’ve been a part of. There are some bad apples, but I’ve seen way more positivity than negativity. I don’t know where the disconnect is, but I’m genuinely curious.
Fruit Warriors Launch Pack Giveaway
OnRPG has partnered with 37Games to celebrate the launch of SRPG Fruit Warriors with a launch pack giveaway featuring bow-ties and more!
Fruit Warriors is a browser-based fruit themed SRPG published by 37Games. Players will be sent to a beautiful wonderland and team up with dozens of cute fruit-shaped warriors for a brand new adventure. Players can travel anywhere within a fantasy fruit-themed game world. Owning various powerful mounts will improve player’s combat skills and provide fast travel. In addition, joining an adventurers’ guild allows players to set up a mighty fruit empire and extend their rule over the lands of Fruit Warriors.
- The Launch Pack Includes:
- Spirit x 10,000
- Copper x 500,000
- Bow-tie x 5
To Redeem your Key:
- Log into Fruit Warriors (http://p.my37games.com/45nc/26fruit/1.html) to create a character.
- Click on the Gift Pack icon (upper right corner) and open the Gift Pack tab.
- Paste your code and get your free gift!
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Painting with a broad brush: Western MMO Culture
A lot of very popular MMOs come from Japan or Korea, and that’s all well and good! They make very sound products and are capable of marketing to a wide audience of eastern and western players. I like a lot of these games! Some of them less than others, and it’s humorous that one of the ones I like less than most is one of the targets today. One of the sort of painful things Eastern game developers does is paint with a very broad brush. So I have to ask which of these two concepts is worse, than then I’ll perhaps offer my thoughts at the end. Now, stereotypes do exist for a reason, I can’t really argue that. That doesn’t make it okay to lump all people together into a group and say “Haha, we know you’ll buy this crap, you idiots.”
First Offender: TERA: One of Tera’s content offerings this year was “Hello Kitty is coming to TERA!” and boy isn’t that just fucking terrific? So what’s the crime here? Assuming that such a large portion of not only their audience but MMO players in general are idiots who just lap up anything anime related like a bunch of gross, dumb weeaboos. “HEY I WANT HELLO KITTY PANTS!” they expect people to cry out. “I want to look just like Badtz Maru!” It’s one thing to market summertime outfits because I can’t think of too many people the world over who don’t like holiday themed/seasonal themed stuff. But to assume we’re all a bunch of Hello Kitty fans? That’s pretty presumptuous.
Second Offender: Elsword: Now I like Elsword, a lot actually. Weird fanservice and goofy graphics aside, it’s a really fun sidescrolling MMO. Elsword offers cool stuff like grimdark and edgy characters, large breasts, and corgi mounts. So basically something for everyone. But something far more sinister lays on the horizon. The notion that we’re all sad and lonely because we play MMOs and thus the GFRIEND outfits. Male and female both, the girls in blue Japanese schoolgirl style fuku and the boys in Japanese style short shorts that I guess schoolboys wear? I may watch anime but not that much. Lord. So it either seems to boil down to they think we’re 1. Lonely and miserable or 2. Need anime style content shoved into our veins and pumped in on a regular basis. The Elsword crime is also something deeper. The characters in the game are well thought out, detailed. They have goals, desires, backstories. It’s clever, it’s interesting! Then we go from the well-written story to. . . Kpop Dances and short shorts. It takes your story, considers it, and dumps it in the toilet because Fuck You, that’s why. It’s a pretty fairly obvious paid product placement/advertisement.
Do they know their market? Honestly, they probably do. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. It feels to me like a slap in the face. That they can just produce whatever weird, crappy content they want and people are just gonna buy it. They’re not wrong; I’m willing to bet the Hello Kitty items sold like gangbusters. Especially when you slap “limited time” on the event. It’s hard for me to say which is the bigger offense to Western MMO culture. But if I had to pick, I’d go with TERA. Just because I love MMOs and enjoy watching anime doesn’t mean I want to buy up their Sanrio merchandise. Not to mention it was creepy, cringeworthy, and marketed ludicrously, uncomfortably short skirts for the lolicon style characters. It perpetuates a kind of culture I’m not at all comfortable with. I don’t really know why the guys got tuxedos and the girls got strips of plaid that are called skirts. Maybe I missed that part of the Hello Kitty experience. I’m willing to believe it.
What do you guys think? What was worse? Is it all okay? Is it not?
Elsword GFriend Dance Demo Videos
Elsword showcases the new GFriend dance moves. Raven didn’t deserve this. *Shakes Fists Angrily at KOG*!
Male Dance
Female Dance
BATTLETECH GenCon Cinematic Teaser Trailer
BATTLETECH hype continues ramping up with the release of this new GenCon 2016 cinematic trailer.
Battlefield 1 Vehicles Preview
Battlefield 1 continues its gameplay spotlight series with a highlight on vehicles!


