Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

---

• How to Handle the Internet’s Worst Trolls
• Atlantica Online MMO Review
• Looking at the Future of Video Games
• Ghosts’n Goblins Online (KR)
• When Mega Man Ruled the World: An Anniversary Tribute
• Assassins Creed 3 Trailer Now Available

How to Handle the Internet’s Worst Trolls Posted: 07 Mar 2012 04:25 AM PST The deplorable behavior of a vocal minority has given Xbox Live a well-deserved reputation. Fans know to keep their headsets off it they don’t want to listen to an endless stream of ignorant slurs. Other online game communities maintain equally poor reputations — ever been a new player in a game of League of Legends or DOTA? As players, we have the luxury of taking our attention elsewhere — either to single-player or to other games entirely. The developers of these games don’t have that option, the community picks the game, not the other way around. Bound to serve their game’s fans, regardless of how poor, game makers must learn to handle their native populations’ trolls and anti-social behavior. Mike Drach, Producer on the popular ForumWarz game, learned through a long process of trial and error, how to manage the one of the most unruly communities, and shared the lessons he’s learned in a presentation at the Game Developers Conference. With communities becoming more important to the industry, Drach explained how to cope and make the most of the fan base you’re given. Never take it personally: Even when it seems impossible, Drach stressed the importance of not letting criticism get under one’s skin. Even after a section of the community undertook a massive off-site campaign that filled sections of the game with crude drawings of dog feces — the implication being that the game was crap, Drach stated that taking the matter personally would only encourage more unwanted behavior. Show no weakness (but don’t show off): “The worst thing you can do is seem ‘butthurt,’” said Drach using the community’s favorite loaded word to describe anyone who takes exception to their behavior. Showing that criticism or harassment bothers you will only bring more attacks. On the other hand, making a large show of how little you care will only encourage trolls to escalate their behavior. “Sometimes the best response is not to engage at all, and never stoop to their level.” Choose your mods wisely: Prominent community members don’t always make for good moderators. Reaching out to everyone, even lurkers who read but don’t engage the community can help a game find a good team. Let the haters hate: “If you community has trolls, give them the chance to be themselves,” he said referring to the split nature of his game’s community. Normal talk goes into the Civil Discussion forums, while the trolls head over to the Role-Play forum. You’ll find this particular strategy in use in communities all over the internet. Creating a specific lazes faire forum attracts the worst of the worst, allowing the rest of the community to go about their business and actually enjoy the game. Throw the book at them. Build and maintain a long list of forums rules so that you can deal out bans to the worst users and justify it to the rest of the community. It’s also important to expressly maintain the right to ban or discipline any forum member for any reason in order to allow yourself the chance to respond to unexpected behaviors. Keep your enemies close: As troubling as trolls can be, banning for every infraction will destroy a community quickly. Oftentimes, the most incendiary posters will change their behavior if a moderator or developer simply asks them to knock it off. If that doesn’t work, Drach recommends taking time to think about a problem before banning. Other tools like ‘hellbans’ (user’s posts are invisible to everyone but themselves) or disemvowelment can do the same job without the problems of bans which can lead much more difficult to control offsite trolling. Don’t underestimate your users: The soft touch advocated the last lesson helps prevent retaliation against game makers by community members. Alienated fans, particularly those with a history of anti-social posting, can create headaches for mods when they post shocking or illegal content, orchestrate hacks or scams, or even post personal information about developers. While ForumWarz isn’t your average AAA online-action title, the principles of community management he laid out could apply to any online community, especially to hardcore games entering the free-to-play arena like MechWarrior, Tribes, and Battlefield. GDC 2012: Gaming’s Vanishing Middle Class As the industry polarizes toward insanely expensive blockbusters and free-to-play social games, Ryan Winterhalter asks if gaming’s creative, fertile middle ground is a thing of the past. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/news/handle-internet-worst-trolls Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us.

Atlantica Online MMO Review Posted: 07 Mar 2012 01:27 AM PST Atlantica Online, recently voted the best MMORPG of 2008, utilizes a unique turn-based style of combat to offer players of all ages a tactical and strategic alternative to the MMORPG genre. With amazing high-quality graphics and sound, an engaging storyline, and several end-game PvP options, it's no wonder Atlantica Online is now being called the best F2P MMORPG of all time.   Publisher: NDoors Playerbase: High Graphics: High Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: High PvP: Duels / Guild vs Guild/ Arena / Open PvP Filesize: 2GB Website: http://atlantica.nexon.net/ Pros: +Fantastic graphics. +Turn-based combat. +7 starting classes, plenty of subclasses. +Heaps of quests. +PvP and guild systems. +Auto-run. Cons: -Limited character customization  -Turn-based combat not for everyone.  -Game difficulty is too easy -Monster graphics are re-used frequently   Known officially as a 'strategy MMORPG', Atlantica Online has achieved success solely through it's innovative turn-based combat system, and guild control system. While there are few character choices in the beginning, players can choose from over 20 different 'Mercenaries' later in the game, with a maximum of 8, thereby constructing their own unique team and style. Higher level characters have much to look forward to in the way of PvP, participating in large scale guild battles over towns and land. Primary Character Weapon Choices - Sword, Spear, Axe, Gun, Gun, Cannon, Staff, Maniac, Musician D-Class Mercenaries – Swordsman, Spearman, Archer, Gunner, Artilleryman, Shaman, Monk, Viking C-Class Mercenaries - Beast Trainer, Witch, Princess, Prophet, Exorcist, Oracle, Inventor, Cannoneer, Lady Knight, Janissary, Hwarang, Minstrel B-Class Mercenaries - Spartan, Pirate, Elementalist       Atlantica Online System Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP/ 2000 / Vista CPU: Pentium 4 1GHz or higher RAM: 512MB or higher HDD: 5GB or more VGA: GeForce4 TI4200, 64MB or better (vertex pixel shading support required) Recommended Specification: OS: Windows XP/ 2000 / Vista CPU:Pentium 4 2GHz or higher RAM: 1GB or higher HDD: 10GB or more VGA: GeForce4 TI4200, 64MB or better (vertex pixel shading support required), DirectX 10

Looking at the Future of Video Games Posted: 06 Mar 2012 04:18 PM PST The 2012 Game Developers Conference is in full swing this week, sprawling across all three buildings of San Francisco’s Moscone Center. While lots of interesting things happen each year at GDC, we realize they’re often very dry and technical GDC is an swap meet where the people who make the games you love trade ideas, not a convention like PAX or a trade show like E3. In other words, you shouldn’t expect many huge announcements or in-depth hands-on with hot upcoming titles this week. Instead, 1UP’s editors will each be tackling appointments, lectures, and interviews from their own individual perspective and reporting back to you on the angle they’ve each elected to explore. From the challenges of preparing for next-gen hardware to the role of narrative, we’re talking to the people who make games about the future of their work. What’s in store for them, and by extension, you? That’s what we aim to find out this week. Unfortunate trends continue to make gaming hostile towards female players. Bob Mackey investigates what it will take to change this. OP-ED: With Mass Effect 3, BioWare Snuggles up to Inclusivity There’s much more to Mass Effect 3′s same-sex romance options than simply courting controversy. What do developers at GDC2012 view as the actual future for this most vaunted of platforms? Thierry Nguyen investigates. Coming Soon! As we move into the next generation of consoles, Jeremy Parish asks how the classics of bygone days shape the new age of game design. Square Enix Localization Looks to the Future From spoony bards to mog clocks, how Square is tackling the translation needs of the HD era. MyCheats editor Marty Sliva pursues his belief that games don’t need to tell a story, but rather supply the tools for us to create our own personal narratives. Why Does Asura’s Wrath Not Trust Me? The action spectacle stifles all user creativity in its aim to echo anime. Managing editor Matt Leone spot-checks some of the most exciting small independent games and developers, then looks forward to what?s coming next.   Contrast: A Portal-Inspired Puzzle Game About Shadows A new indie game centers itself on one mechanic — the idea that you can move in 3D or flatten yourself against walls in 2D. It’s the year 2012, and we’re in the seventh generation of our current console cycle. Associate editor Jose Otero is convinced that this extraordinary period could be coming to a close soon, as rumors continue to point to the possibility of new hardware from Sony and Microsoft. Is it too soon to pull the trigger and move home consoles forward? Coming Soon! As the industry polarizes toward insanely expensive blockbusters and free-to-play social games, Ryan Winterhalter asks if gaming’s creative, fertile middle ground is a thing of the past. How to Handle the Internet’s Worst Trolls One developer explains how to make a deal with the devil. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/news/future-video-games Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us.

Ghosts’n Goblins Online (KR) Posted: 06 Mar 2012 04:18 PM PST [More info] Several months after Closed Beta 1 ended, Ghosts’n Goblins Online will finally be entering Closed Beta 2 today in Korea! Lasting only a mere 5 days, Player Vs Player (PvP) will be added and the main feature to be tested out along with a couple of new dungeons and areas. PvP will come in either 1 Vs 1 or 3 Vs 3, with new skilled only limited for this mode. For example, there is a skill which allows players to attack a nearby foe even if they are knocked down. There will be a PvP match-making window, where players can search for others on equal level of PvP skills. I suppose this is done by matching the K/D ratio. Points will be given out after each match, and they can be used to upgrade their characters. The new dungeons will include an underwater sewer area, where players will have to maneuver carefully to avoid being drowned. I guess these are just normal pit holes which players will fall into if jumping is not controlled properly. To cap things off, there will be various new skills, and the auction house and mail system now usable. The game UI is apparently tweaked as well to allow players to access keys faster and more graphical resolutions are implemented. My only question is, how the hell are players able to test all these new features with just 5 days?! Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/ghostsn-goblins-online-kr-pvp-added-for.html Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us.

When Mega Man Ruled the World: An Anniversary Tribute Posted: 06 Mar 2012 01:26 PM PST When the original Mega Man hit the NES in 1987, it was a revelation: The slickest, most open-ended platform shooter ever made. With only ten stages, it was short compared to standards like Super Mario Bros. and Wonder Boy, but what it lacked in length it made up for with replayability… not to mention sheer challenge. Its sequel, 1989′s Mega Man 2, was even more spectacular. Together, the two games defined a genre and became high-water marks for 8-bit game design. Sadly, a decade later, Mega Man had practically become a mockery of itself. The old-school sprites of Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 were comforting to gamers who weren’t completely convinced that the PlayStation’s chunky polygons should be an absolute replacement for classic game design; yet at the same time, the 2D Mega Man titles felt like relics, doing nothing to push the limits of technology or play mechanics. Mega Man had become iterative, where once he was innovative. Meanwhile, the Legends spin-off actually did introduce new ideas, including an early form of Zelda’s Z-targeting and real-time story cutscenes with lip-synched facial animations, but it was largely dismissed by Mega Man fans and detractors alike: By the former for being too different from the older games, and by the latter for wearing the name “Mega Man.” When Nintendo’s 32-bit handheld Game Boy Advance was announced a few years later, Capcom producer Keiji Inafune and his team set out to revitalize the series and restore its luster. Unlike Legends, this new game would diverge far enough away from the classic template of gun-driven action that there would be no confusion over its purpose. Instead, this game would reinvent Mega Man for the post-Pokémon age. Debuting Oct. 30, 2001, Mega Man Battle Network — or “Rockman.EXE” in Japan — would be a collection-heavy portable role-playing game where the player’s avatar wasn’t Mega Man himself but rather a young man named Lan Hikari who in turn used Mega Man as his own virtual intermediary into the world of cyber-battling. And to ensure its popularity, the game would offer both an afternoon cartoon tie-in and a heavy emphasis on head-to-head competition with players, including special events where Capcom would distribute exclusive content, Mew-like. In truth, that’s about as far as the Pokémon connection went: Surface inspiration. Calling Battle Network a Pokémon clone would be downright fatuous; a few minutes is all it takes to realize that the two series’ overall design and play mechanics are wildly different. Capcom cleverly looked to the classic Mega Man titles for inspiration, drawing on both the series’ fiction and its play elements. Mega Man faced off against bosses like Ice Man and Guts Man as he unraveled the evil Lord Wily’s plan to destroy the digital network that formed the backbone of the game’s society. In the process, the player would acquire abilities from defeated foes — all foes rather than bosses only. Unlike fights in Pokémon, though, Mega Man was a permanent one-member party for combat throughout the adventure, and his abilities were augmented with chips collected from vanquished enemies. Narratively, Battle Network stood as an alternate reality to the original Mega Man series. Where the classic games represented a world where doctors Thomas Light and Albert W. Wily revolutionized the world with robotics, Battle Network’s was a world where Tadashi Hikari (Japanese for “Right Light” — a cheeky reference to inconsistencies in how Dr. Light’s had been transliterated into English over the years) had instead applied his genius to computer networks. Rather than creating robot masters to do his bidding, Wily instead recruited human operators of Internet warrior-avatars called Navis. Where Mega Man had been special in the old games due to the infinite flexibility enabled by his adaptable nature, here the titular character was unique for being a virtual personality construct based on Lan’s twin brother Hub, who had died as an infant. Lan and Hub/Mega Man shared a special link that enabled them to fight far more efficiently than other human-Navi partnerships, though it also meant that (unlike other Navis) Mega Man couldn’t be restored from a backup file in the event of deletion, and his destruction would be fatal to Lan. While it made for a handy dramatic device, the almost mystical connection between Lan and Mega Man underscored one of the biggest problems with the Battle Network games: As a story-driven series, it relied entirely too much on terrible plotting. The first game set the tone for the following games, bending logic and reason in the service of advancing the plot and creating excuses for virtual combat. Adults would often find themselves helpless at the hands of minor technical inconveniences, villains would suffer from sudden deficits of common sense, and society itself would break down in bizarre ways, all to allow Lan and his virtual brother to save the day with video game combat. This led to some truly bizarre contrivances, like the time a bear threatening school kids at a campground turned out to be a fake creature with a loudspeaker and an Internet connection. The Battle Network games missed no opportunity to sacrifice coherent plotting for flimsy excuses to battle. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/features/mega-man-ruled-world-memorial-tribute Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us.

Assassins Creed 3 Trailer Now Available Posted: 06 Mar 2012 10:17 AM PST Good news, Assassins Creed 3 fans! Ubisoft has unveiled a reveal trailer for the third episode in the series. It's nearly a minute and a half long and features a new assassin in native American Indian guise. No need for us to gab on about it though, check it out below: Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/assassins-creed-3-trailer-now-available/ Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us.

You are subscribed to email updates from Gameforumer.com: MMORPG | Gaming News | Reviews | Gaming Community | Gaming Directory and more To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610