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A history of griefing: gamers who ruin your day for kicks Sometimes it’s purely for fun, sometimes it’s to make a point, and sometimes it’s even to make a profit.
You’re in the zombie nightmare of DayZ and about to be eaten by one of the charging undead when suddenly a helicopter appears. Its pilots – and simply owning a helicopter lets you know they’re big shots – gun down your pursuer and offer you a lift. What you don’t know is that instead of flying you to safety, your destination is the tiny, featureless Schadenfreude Island some 15km off the main coast of Chernarus. The only reason they’ve saved you is for the amusement of knowing you’re condemned to stand there until you waste away, and that they were smart enough to fool you. Griefing: it comes in many…
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Eve Online developer under fire for banning real-world politician "Spaceships have never been seriouser business."
Eve Online studio CCP Games has come under fire for banning real-world GOP politician Brian Schoeneman. The veteran politician and Eve Online player ran for a seat in Eve Online’s in-game representative council and won, but was removed and banned from the game after CCP Games said it received evidence showing that the Schoeneman, who went by the name Brisc Rubal in-game, had breached a non-disclosure agreement with the studio. Schoeneman denies the allegation. The massively multiplayer game has been the subject of many a write-up about its in-game politics and its unique gameplay, which encourages players to devote hundreds of hours every year to building a virtual community. The…
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The largest ever MMO battle—3000 players!—was an accident Someone forgot to pay rent, resulting in a space battle involving over 3000 players and $300k worth of the game's currency gone forever.
MMOs have been fairly run-of-the-mill ever since Blizzard achieved its massive success with World of Warcraft. One MMO that somehow managed to survive the influx of casual play and generic fantasy races is Eve Online, the space sim that has regularly been likened to playing a spreadsheet rather than a game. While that assessment turns out to be true more often than not, another thing Eve is known for is truly massive player-versus-player battles. It seems the game sets a new record for the scale of online battles every year now, and though this year has only just begun, Eve is at it again. This time around, the battle appears to be the crux…
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What your MMO says about you We've got you figured out.
MMO’s like World of Warcraft are everywhere, sucking up time we would otherwise be wasting on meaningful, human contact. But when’s the last time meaningful human contact got you Shalug’doom, the Axe of Unmaking? Probably barely ever. To the casual internet user you might think World of Warcraft is the be all and end all of MMO gaming, but in truth it’s merely the tip of the iceberg. There are literally dozens of other ways you can eschew reality and pretend to be a hero or super powered villain without ever having to stop eating corn nuts or face the sun. And with all those choices, surely there’s something to…