Tag: game news

Electronic Arts skips E3 again for EA Play

It seems like every big gaming company is trying to host their own events. PlayStation‘s PlayStation Expo and Nintendo’s Directs are central focused events on their IP’s or games coming out for their generation. The events are easier to maintain and there are no competitors to take away from their main showcase. Electronic Arts is one of the largest gaming companies and they are hosting their own event before E3: EA Play.

EA Play will be hosted in Hollywood at the Hollywood Palladium from Saturday, June 9 to Monday, June 11. The event is free for the public and tickets will be released in spring. Last year, they showcased A Way Out, Star Wars Battlefront 2, and Anthem. This year, press has heard they will showcase more information on Anthem, Sims 4, more EA sports and the upcoming Battlefield game. The game is expected to be playable at EA Plays. There may be a new Dragon Age game announced based on an interview in January where Bioware announced they were working on a new title in the franchise.

Similar to last years event, there will be YouTube creators and Twitch personalities at the event. Hopefully its better and less scripted. OR we can watch a prank YouTuber stumble his way through an announcement. That’s always hilarious to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFBfkX7F0Xg

We’ll see if EA improves their image after the Star Wars Battlefront 2 release. Consumers and the government are watching warily at Electronic Arts as it’ll take a while to recover from the loot box controversies.

Sources:

Digital Trends

EA Plays

Screen Rant

Nexus Mods plan for compensation for Content Creators

Nexus Mods has always been a popular site for mods for PC Games, specifically, Skyrim. Mod authors have created thousands of mods to improve the game and add unique features that were never available in the game. The mods were provided by the community members and didn’t cost a single dollar. Now Nexus Mods is going to provide a compensation plan for content creators who want to join the new program. It will be known as a Donation Point Program.

How it works:

Nexus Mods will contribute $5000-$10,000 to a monthly pot. Based on how many donation points (DP) are earned, it will create a larger fund that will be distributed through to mod authors based on downloads. $1 is worth 1,000 DP so mod creation will not be able to replace a full-time job. For example, if the total donation money pool is $10,000 (which is 10,000,000 DP) and the total unique download count is 5,000,000 then that means each unique download would be worth 2 DP. Ergo, a mod author who receives 25,000 unique downloads that month will receive 50,000 DP, which is the equivalent of $50 to redeem. The money value can be redeemed for PayPal donation or Amazon credit or unique items in the future directed towards modding.

What counts as unique downloads?

Unique downloads refer to a mod author’s page visit. So if the author has 14 mods on one page, any download from one user counts as one dp. Even if a user downloads all 14, the author would still only receive one point. All previous downloads will not count for the program. The unique download was considered the safest method by Nexus Mods.The start of the Donation Point program will begin in Q1 2018.

How to make the System safe and fair?

It would be extremely difficult to create unique views as somebody would need to create 20,000 accounts to receive at least $200 from downloads. Authors will only receive points after 3 months after the download. That way, downloads can be reviewed to see if there are any misconducts. Nexus Mods is pushing the program until Bethesda states otherwise.  Any Mod author can opt out of the system. You can even state which mods you would want to opt in or out. If your mod is being used in the point system for a packaged mod program and you’re uncomfortable with them earning points on it, you can ask to remove it. The author always has the rights to the mod they created.

What else?

You can also save your points to redeem at a future date. The points won’t disappear each month. They are also expected to add a point transfer system if you want to give it to another author.

Opinions:

The Nexus Mods community has been relatively split on whether it is a good system or not. I don’t know much about the modding community but you can check the comments to hear from many people’s perspectives: mod authors and consumers alike.

Sources:

Nexus Mod – Skyrim

 

EA wants to keep Microtransaction in Star Wars Battlefront 2 and doesn’t understand Gamers

Electronic Arts have lost $3 billion in stock value after the microtransaction loot box system was discovered to create a pay-to-win situation in Star Wars Battlefront 2. Many fans were critical of the system and EA pulled loot boxes from the game before the official launch.  After news programs and governments around the world began to notice, EA received mass criticisms from many audiences.  The Belgian Gaming Commission waded in, as did Hawaii State Representative Chris Lee, who publicly denounced EA‘s game as “a Star Wars-themed online casino designed to lure kids into spending money”.

Despite this, EA decided to double down on keeping MTX (Microtransaction). EA‘s Chief Finance officer, Blake Jorgensen said “”We’re not giving up on the notion of MTX [microtransactions].” Whether they will continue to use the loot box feature in the future is still a debate for EA. Many fans protested the game because players could earn Star Cards that buffed the characters which created an imbalance in multiplayer. You could also not predict what you would obtain in a loot crate which some government leaders considered similar to gambling. To earn enough currency to purchase certain characters or features required substantial game time or you could bypass with real currency.

Jorgensen said that EA was focusing on improving the beta over the MTX and wasn’t aware how the public would react. The statement is quite outlandish considering many of the gaming community has shunned the loot box system; including for popular games that use them such as Overwatch. He also stated that certain players have more money than other while others have more time. EA worked to create a balance between the two to create a value system that would appeal to both. That is usually a fine method if there wasn’t boost in the game that would make you stronger than other players.

“For us it’s a great learning experience. We are trying to run the company with an ear to the consumer at all times, not only in the testing phase but when the game is up and running” said Jorgensen. EA, a gaming company which is older than 30 years, is still trying to understand their modern audience. It is unacceptable and an excuse that nobody who understands the modern game market would believe.

Supposedly, LucasArts is extremely focused on Star Wars Battlefront 2 following the canon according to Jorgensen. “There might be things we can do cosmetically, and we’re working with Lucas on that, but coming into it, it wasn’t as easy as if we were building a game around our own IP where it didn’t really matter. It matters in Star Wars, because Star Wars fans want realism. But Star Wars fans also may want to tailor things: different colour Lightsabers, things like that, so you may see something like that.” This would make EA look better if the skins were added to the game but it has been shown on Uninspired Zebra’s YouTube channel that there is a menu for customizing skins. Also, the previous game had skins! So EA is trying to manipulate the narrative by trying to tell people that they are making changes to Star Wars Battlefront 2 when they should already understand the backlash from their audience over microtransaction and what is the modern method most multiplayer use MTX. It is embarrassing for the company and mostly the developers who put in so much effort to make Star Wars Battlefront 2 a good game.

Sources:

Eurogamer

Polygon

Epic sues 14-year old for cheat mods in Fortnite

Fortnite, Epic Games‘ battle royal type game, has an issue with cheat mods in the game and community. They have filed two civil complaints against two alleged associates who use cheats from Addicted Cheats to actively kill Twitch Streamers players live online. This is known as stream sniping. Players actively look at Streamers live cam footage to find them and actively hunt them from an unfair advantage.

The service from Addicted Cheats is $5 – $15 a month. It allows people to use aimbots and track players throughout the map. The cheat has to modify the game’s source code which is against Fornite’s End User License Agreement and the Copyright Act. Fortnite‘s rule of conduct doesn’t forbid stream sniping like Player Unknown Battlegrounds but forbids cheating. One defendant has been banned multiple times and has created multiple accounts and continued cheating. When asked why “Because its [sic] fun to rage and see streamers cry about how loaded they are and then get them stomped anyways.” He also found another way to cheat after Epic created a block on cheaters stating “Now method is exposed . . . Epic Eat my ass.” As you can tell, he doesn’t feel guilty over his actions.

The other accused is a 14-year-old. Whether Epic was aware of their age prior to the lawsuit. The mother is quite unhappy and has written a letter to the court which attacks Epic‘s handling of the case. TLDR version below from Kotaku:

  • She says that Fortnite’s terms require parental consent for minors and that she never gave this consent.
  • She says the case is based on a loss of profits but argues that it’s a free-to-play video game. In order to prove a loss Epic would need to provide a statement certifying that Rogers’ cheating directly caused a “mass profit loss”.
  • She claims that by going after individual players, rather than the websites selling/providing the software necessary to cheat in an online game, Epic is “using a 14-year-old child as a scapegoat”.
  • She claims that her son did not, as Epic allege, help create the cheat software, but simply downloaded it as a user, and that Epic “has no capability of proving any form of modification”.
  • Finally, the mother says that by releasing her son’s name publicly in conjunction with the move that Epic has violated Delaware laws related to the release of information on minors.

The 14-year-old lives in Delaware and can be sued for damages based on how much the considered loss in money Epic states in the lawsuit. The parent would have to pay the sum. Adolescents can also sign contracts but have different degrees. Epic has yet to respond on whether they will proceed on using the 14-year-old.

Sources

Kotaku

14-year-old sued with mother’s letter