Useless gaming news & chatter

[schild]

Mighty Quest is not a good video game.

[Falconeer]

I agree, it ended up being very disappointing. But they just revamped a lot of things and hey, there's people here playing Dungeon Keeper on mobiles or that Marvel thing, so they might want to take a look.

On the topic of dubious action RPGs, How did you like Dead Island Epidemic?

[schild]

Dead Island Epidemic forgot about something called "loot." I can see how they could overlook it though, because it's not like the most important part of anything related to isometric games at all.

[Falconeer]

Giveaway for the beta of Velvet Sundown, a strange multiplayer RPG.

Jump into the role of a star and chat your way into deep drama (   ) .

"With its international playboys, glamourous high heels, luxury yachts and beautiful sunsets, we can't wait to get back into Mary's world." -WIRED UK

Play the people
Dramagame is not about beating the game but chatting with real people. Your social skills are challenged as you manipulate your way through and into the drama. Make new friends through shared experiences and enjoy quality time online with your existing ones.

Start as the star
Dramagame will set you up with a new identity each time. You are that someone, actually someone rich and famous. Your co-players will reward you for acting like a rock star - for being fun, etertaining and pushing the story forward. You have history, you have motives and you have reasons to chat. Find your inner demons and angels as you explore your id.

Life is too short to grind away
Dramagame has a running start directly into the best gameplay. No grinding for levels required. No grinding required to learn the game. People from various backgrounds aged 16 - 50 are already enjoying the game, so can you. Use your browser to enter the game and get a full repeatable experience the length of a TV-episode.

Holy Grail of games
Dramagame is massively emergent gameplay. We've made the storylines, yet you control the story and the twists along the way. No harvesting the crops day in-and-out. No twitching about with guns. No scoreboards to beat to death. Instead, Dramagame is deep, truly social entertainment.

Seems like the foundations they could successfully build the Jane Austen MMORPG on.
Only 400 keys left.

EDIT: "Gameplay" and more info in a 2 minutes video.

[MrHat]

Mighty Quest is not a good video game.

So strange because the videos make it look amazing.

[calapine]

Sign up for the Tropico 5 closed beta here:

http://betatest.kalypsomedia.com/TROPICO5

Requires a Kalypso gameaccount as well as an account on the Kalypso forums, so some form-filling needed if those aren't created yet.

[schild]

Mighty Quest is not a good video game.

So strange because the videos make it look amazing.

Remember the trailer for Dead Island? Yea.

[Yegolev]

Sign up for the Tropico 5 closed beta here:

OH KAY.....


IS THAT ABRAHAM LINCOLN?

[calapine]

It looks like their clumsy attempt of a capitalist El Commandante.

[schild]

Sign up for the Tropico 5 closed beta here:

OH KAY.....


IS THAT ABRAHAM LINCOLN?

Fidel Lincoln. Abraham Castro. I'm partial to the latter.

[calapine]

"Free-to-play" misleading advertising
By Brendan Sinclair

European Commission meets with devs to improve consumer protections, wants them to stop calling games free if they have in-app purchases

Complaints from consumers who unwittingly purchased in-game upgrades in free-to-play titles have become common enough that the European Commission is taking action on the matter. EC members are meeting with tech companies and national enforcement authorities today and tomorrow to go over concerns about consumer protections in the burgeoning market, the group announced today.

"Consumers and in particular children need better protection against unexpected costs from in-app purchases," consumer policy commissioner Neven Mimica said in a statement. "National enforcement authorities and the European Commission are discussing with industry how to address this issue which not only causes financial harm to consumers but can also put at stake the credibility of this very promising market. Coming up with concrete solutions as soon as possible will be a win-win for all."

The Consumer Protection Cooperation and EC member states have released a list of common positions on the subject, with misleading advertising at the top.

"The use of the word 'free' (or similar unequivocal terms) as such, and without any appropriate qualifications, should only be allowed for games which are indeed free in their entirety, or in other words which contain no possibility of making in-app purchases, not even on an optional basis," the group said.

Beyond that, the CPC and EC want developers to cut out any direct calls for purchasing in-game items (such as "Buy now!" or "Upgrade now!") in any title likely to appeal to children. On top of that, in-app purchases should not be made without the consumer's explicit consent, and all apps and app listings should prominently feature an e-mail address to which customers can direct questions before they decide to play or even download a title.

The EC has said the purpose of the meetings is to make sure there's a common understanding between authorities and game companies on these subjects, but said it will work with national consumer rights enforcement bodies to follow through with any action deemed necessary.

Hmm. Will be interesting to see what (or if at all) this will lead to.

[schild]

The nanny state is strong in Europe.

Don't give kids your passwords. Problem solved.

[jakonovski]

But kids will get passwords from their parents, no matter what anyone says. Hence the initiative.

[rk47]

It's a good move.

[satael]

Any initiative that makes the difference between free and free* clear is good in my opinion.

* the product is free except if you decide to use it

[Xanthippe]

If my kids played something with in game purchases, they asked. If they were too little to ask, they're too little to play the game alone. If they had bought something without asking, they would not have not been allowed to play anymore.

I don't see this being a problem the government needs to solve. It's a parenting problem.

Certainly, games for children ought to give parents proper tools for in game purchases (a special password for purchasing, and so on).

[Merusk]

But kids will get passwords from their parents, no matter what anyone says. Hence the initiative.

Then these people are lazy or stupid and deserve to pay for it. Boo hoo, my heart bleeds.

My kids don't have my PC password, the iPad password or the Admin password to their PC.  I'm not giving it to them, ever, because then they'll do shit I don't want them to do.

[Samwise]

When I was a kid I figured out my mom's Internet password so I could download porn when she wasn't home.  I'm pretty sure she never caught on, seeing as she never changed the password.   

[schild]

But kids will get passwords from their parents, no matter what anyone says. Hence the initiative.

Then these people are lazy or stupid and deserve to pay for it. Boo hoo, my heart bleeds.

My kids don't have my PC password, the iPad password or the Admin password to their PC.  I'm not giving it to them, ever, because then they'll do shit I don't want them to do.

This. Nothing good will ever come from kids getting passwords.

Exhibit A for me is: Me.

[jakonovski]

But kids will get passwords from their parents, no matter what anyone says. Hence the initiative.

Then these people are lazy or stupid and deserve to pay for it. Boo hoo, my heart bleeds.

My kids don't have my PC password, the iPad password or the Admin password to their PC.  I'm not giving it to them, ever, because then they'll do shit I don't want them to do.

I don't understand this vehemence. Do you want legislation or lack thereof out of spite?

[Trippy]

It's not as simple as "don't give your kids your app store password". There are "convenience" features that these stores/OSes have/had such as not requiring you to enter your password for, say, 15 minutes, after entering your password the first time. So what happens is you enter your password on your kids device to download a "free" app for them and then walk away not realizing that they can now buy whatever in-app purchases they want for the next 15 minutes. Apple had a settle a lawsuit about this and now in iOS, at least, (haven't checked on Android/Google Play) there's a (buried) setting that let's you turn off in-app purchases completely (independent of the App Store password timeout setting).

[Lucas]

Some news on "Carmageddon : Reincarnation" (funded back in June 2012, with an est. delivery date of March 2013 :P) : they'll soon be on Steam Early Access (March 27th), still in a pre-alpha state. After the DLC debacle of last autumn (basically, they first promised future content free for backers, then, after an announcement, it sounded like they wanted them to pay for it, before finally giving up after the uproar) and an extended radio silence, this looked like on permanent vapourware status and verging on the "scam" side, but then the early access announcement arrived, plus this "Damage Tech" video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP2rlFnqRrg

Which fits the Carmageddon style very nicely, I must say. Hopefully a fun game will come along as well :P

Here is a short summary of the project development:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmageddon:_Reincarnation

[Paelos]

But kids will get passwords from their parents, no matter what anyone says. Hence the initiative.

Then these people are lazy or stupid and deserve to pay for it. Boo hoo, my heart bleeds.

My kids don't have my PC password, the iPad password or the Admin password to their PC.  I'm not giving it to them, ever, because then they'll do shit I don't want them to do.

I don't understand this vehemence. Do you want legislation or lack thereof out of spite?

I like the legislation just to spite marketing people, who are soul-sucking lying whores.

[Ironwood]

Every business needs to have Marketing people or you don't have jobs.

[Ingmar]

Every business needs to have Marketing people or you don't have jobs.

 

[Paelos]

Every business needs to have Marketing people or you don't have jobs.

Not the same.

[Ironwood]

Of course it's not.  Like Buddhism.

 

[Sky]

Apple has a huge marketing department, but they still lost jobs.

[Ironwood]

 

[Rasix]

[Sky]

[schild]

[rk47]

[schild]

I would beat the average so hard.

Edit: Fuck me, it's real: http://vodo.net/nsfw?referer=EpicBundle&source=epicbundle

[rk47]

I would beat the average so hard.

Edit: Fuck me, it's real: http://vodo.net/nsfw?referer=EpicBundle&source=epicbundle

Gift me 'My Girlfriend is a President' 
And I will give you a Radicalthon.