Some of you might have followed the short ascent and the slow downfall of Hellgate: London. A heavily criticized game design, major bugs at release and a poor payment model turned a once promising game to a good candidate for the “This is how you shouldn’t do it!” handbook.
Now close to the planned shutdown of the servers, HanbitSoft has announced their plans to re-launch Hellgate: London as free to play without giving specific information as to whether this also includes the non-Asian territories. Further, Hanbit has announced that they will continue the development of Hellgate: London with the focus on strengthening its community features.It is doubtful that the EU and U.S. will benefit from this as there yet has to be made an announcement regarding a possible cooperation between Hanbit and Namco/Bandai.
Though it is good to see the game remain available for its fans, this whole story leaves an acrid taste. With all this mess happening in the past months, starting with a highly premature release and followed by the skirmish between Flagship and Hanbit, leaving the fans in the dark about the future of their beloved game, I can hardly imagine that Hellgate: London will be afloat again, at least not in the EU or U.S.
Filed under: Miscellaneous — Case Sensitive @ 11:11 pm
So the die is cast! The 43rd Superbowl will be fought between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals.
While the Steelers can top their winning streak with a sixth Superbowl win, the Cardinals haven’t been in the finals for 61 years. So the Cardinals won’t make it easy for the Steelers and we can expect an exciting match on February, 1st 2009.
According to an article from Ars Technica, the Chinese government is planning to have Chinese MMO gamers registered by their real names as some kind of anti-addiction measure.
“The addictive nature of online gaming has been proven, at least anecdotally, time and time again. While not everyone who jumps into the digital realms of World of Warcraft or the various other massively-multiplayer online role-playing games is liable to get endlessly sucked in, those with addictive personalities certainly run the risk. In fact, in the East, the problem has gotten so severe that the government of China will soon require MMO players to register their real names when creating online accounts as an anti-addiction measure.”
Just another very deep incision in peoples right to privacy for those who just want to have some virtual fun in their leisure time. The true motives behind this are definetely a topic to discuss and cannot simply be explained as an “anti-addiction measure”.
A positive side effect is that this will probably prevent the gold farming industry, whose majority is operating from China according to several researches, from ruining more and more online game economies and exploit young people to farm virtual gold for next to nothing in return.
Hundreds of financial experts and analysts have yet failed to find the reasons for the global financial crisis. Guys, it’s so easy! You just need to carefully watch the news!
The past year was full of activity in the games industry. The impending recession, the fusion between Blizzard and Activision, EA’s try to take over Take 2, Midways’s financial problems and Nintendo showing everyone who’s the top seller on the console market.
While browsing some gaming community forums I’ve found the following very amusing read about how MMOG players have seen the events in the games industry from the past year.
Filed under: Miscellaneous — Case Sensitive @ 12:51 pm
Folks, this is a very sad day. A great actor has finally gone to the happy hunting ground.
Ricardo Montalban, the famous actor who played great characters like Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan or Vincent Ludwig in The Naked Gun, has died last Wednesday at the age of 88.
This time we won’t hear another “He’s back, he’s mad!”
While all of us KotoR fans are eagerly waiting for the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, we can spend the waiting time with an adaption of the all-famous ICANHASCHEEZBURGERS called ICANHASFORCE.
So it’s time for all of you leisure time jedi knights and x-wing pilots to become creative and support this fantastic site!
So the die is cast! The 43rd Superbowl will be fought between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals.
Folks, this is a very sad day. A great actor has finally gone to the happy hunting ground.
While all of us KotoR fans are eagerly waiting for the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, we can spend the waiting time with an adaption of the all-famous 