controversy
Latest
India's $35 tablet delay dashes hopes, destroys dreams
College students eagerly awaiting India's ambitious $35 tablet are going to have to put their dreams on hold -- there's been a delay. Earlier this week, the Times of India reported that the Indian government dropped HCL Technologies, the company responsible for manufacturing the great democratic tablet, for failing to follow through on the 600 million rupee (or $13,198,416) guarantee -- apparently a disagreement over production costs is to blame. Last summer, the country's Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal, made a number of appearances toting a mockup of the Android-based tablet, and promising a launch date of January 15th. Officials say the project is still on track and should be ready this summer. However, while the government seeks a replacement for HCL, skeptics continue to sound warnings that parts alone will cost more than $35. We'd like to chalk this up to haters hating, but we can't seem to forget what became of the $10 laptop.
The Anvil of Crom: Greatest Hits Vol. 2010
Oh no! It's the end of a calendar year! It's that arbitrary point in space and time at which bloggers, journalists, and basically anyone who makes a living via the written word foists off a bunch of top 10 (or five, or other random number) lists on his loyal readers. Sadly folks, I'm no different, and though I'll gladly poke fun at the tradition, I'll also engage in it this week here at The Anvil of Crom. Looking back, it's been quite an eventful year, both for Age of Conan and for Massively's coverage of the game. From the Rise of the Godslayer expansion to the various nerfs, buffs, rants, and interviews, 2010 has been one for the Hyborian history books. Turn the page for eight reasons why.
The Perfect Ten: Most controversial MMO stories of 2010
Well, this is it, folks. The end of the year. A time of reflection, of massive weight gain and of lists. Man, we like our lists, do we not? Fortunately, at Perfect Ten Industries, we've been excelling in lists for months now. Frankly, we're just getting warmed up! While 2010 may not have been much to write home about in terms of newly launched MMOs, there was more than enough controversy to keep the discussion brewing for months. MMOs are big business, and when every move you make is closely scrutinized by millions of gamers, there's no room to slip up unless you like forum hyenas pouncing all over you, snapping and snarling at your faulty flesh. So let's take a jaunt down our top 10 list of the most controversial stories of 2010 on Massively, keeping in mind that it was devilishly hard just to keep this list to 10 at all. What's a week without being riled up about pixels and polygons, after all?
The Mog Log: Eleventh-hour changing of the guard
When I woke up on Friday, I was greeted by a message from Square-Enix, and that alone was enough to make me start wondering what in the world was going on now. As a direct result of that message, the gist of which can be gotten here if you've somehow missed it, I'm going to have to postpone the column I had previously written on Final Fantasy XI and Abyssea. I apologize, but I'm hoping the column will work out like a fine wine and just be better with age. Then again, considering that Final Fantasy XI is sharing the same management bug as Final Fantasy XIV, perhaps not. And yes, wow, that was a big one. Tanaka dethroned, a new development team installed, and a whole lot of uncertainty about what this means for the future of Final Fantasy XIV. It could be a step forward, it could be a step backward, and unfortunately the official statements can be read in a multitude of different ways. Oh, right, and the free trial is being further extended until the development team can confidently outline a plan regarding the game's new direction... but what direction is that actually going to be?
Blizzard comments on video games addiction documentary
Video game addiction is hardly a new subject around these here parts, but it still remains a much-discussed and controversial topic even so. Today, BBC investigative journalism program Panorama will add to the conversation with an in-depth look into the causes of gaming addiction and the consequences of players who become a little too hooked. The episode, titled "Addicted to gaming?", is expected to come down harshly against the practices of video game studios. According to CVG, it's no surprise that the documentary is airing the very night that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm launches, as Panorama uses WoW as one of its key examples. One of the stories follows the tale of Chris Dandos, a teenager who stopped going to school to play WoW for up to 20 hours a day. In response to the episode's focus, Blizzard released the following comment: "Our games are designed to be fun... but like all forms of entertainment... day-to-day life should always take precedence. World of Warcraft contains practical tools that assist players and parents in monitoring playing time."
The Daily Grind: Are you upset with how MMOs handle women?
While this year's BlizzCon didn't feature any shocking revelations about World of Warcraft, it still contained some shocking revelations for a few people during one of the question-and-answer panels. A question about the game's treatment of female characters wasn't just brushed off, it was mocked by the development team. This has been picked up in a couple of places, with the uniform opinion not just being that it was a bad way to respond to the question, it was a bad sign that developers can essentially brush off the question altogether. It's not an unfamiliar debate, one that runs through every media in one form or another. Whether you're a man or a woman, you might be of the mind that there's a serious problem with how the genre treats a substantial portion of its audience... or you might be of the mind that people get way too bent out of shape over a bit of extra skin on female characters. So where do you stand? Are you unhappy with the way that women are represented in MMOs, or do you think that it's much ado about nothing? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Namco welcomes back Chilean miners with Mr. Driller image, apologizes
Namco Bandai wasn't exempt from the celebration that spread across the globe earlier this week when rescue workers retrieved 33 miners who had been trapped in a Chilean mine since early August. During the exhaustive rescue operation, the publisher Tweeted the image seen above, featuring its own mining mascot, Mr. Driller, as well as a Chilean flag and the message "Bienvenido de nuevo," or "welcome back!" Apparently, the image rubbed some people the wrong way, as Namco Bandai has since pulled it from the company's Twitter account. In a statement Tweeted earlier today, the publisher said, "we would like to offer a profound apology to everyone. It was inexcusable." We're not so sure, Namco Bandai -- we think we could find it in our hearts to excuse you for joining in the global celebration with a lighthearted, context-appropriate greeting card.
Final Fantasy XIV fansite mines out guildleves and hidden models
Final Fantasy XIV is a game that's provoked no shortage of strong opinions, ranging from adoration to venomous loathing. If you're knee-deep in playing it, however, you could certainly use a full rundown of the guildleves available in the game. FFXIVCore, which has been quite active over the course of the beta, has provided a full rundown of the leves in the game, sortable by various criteria and listing all relevant data about each given levequest. Should that not be quite enough to tickle your fancy, some astute glancing through the data files for the game has revealed the ship models and several other currently unused files within the game. Although the models are untextured, there are some that should provide no end of fan speculation, such as the model very clearly resembling the ubiquitous Ifrit. Final Fantasy XIV hopefuls whose expectations have sunk will probably not care, but current players should be happy for the new resource.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV did not ruin your birthday party
If you were one of the many, many people trying desperately to get Square-Enix's account management page to work on Wednesday evening, you're probably not one of the people this week's article is aimed at. It's pretty clear that even amidst all of the recent controversy surrounding Final Fantasy XIV, there is no shortage of players who couldn't wait to get into the game at the first opportunity. So if you were also up until way too darn late hitting "Refresh" and getting sick of hearing that the connection was reset, you don't need to worry. But there are a lot of things that have prompted players to call the premature death of Final Fantasy XIV. The fatigue system in particular did a wonderful job of making roughly nobody happy, spawning rage-filled comments that are still showing up in my inbox. Guildleve cooldowns are another big complaint, the one that originally prompted me to start planning this article. (Yes, well before Komoto tried to calm people down and accidentally did precisely the opposite.) But the sky isn't actually falling, and these systems do have their positive points... and there are very good reasons that we shouldn't be worried.
Devil in the details for Final Fantasy XIV's fatigue
When the news broke yesterday regarding the fatigue system in Final Fantasy XIV, it made virtually no one happy. Even the system's defenders generally had an attitude of "it's not all that bad," and most players were up in arms over the very idea. But a day can make a lot of difference, and as it turns out, we didn't quite have the clear picture of the fatigue system that we thought we did. The official translation from Square-Enix covers most of the same ground, but adds several important facts. The two most salient points are the fact that the limiting factors are not time-based but value-based, and the fact that the "cooldown" on fatigue sets in as soon as a player starts doing something that won't grant skill or experience points. There's no word on whether or not this will be the case during time spent logged off, but it means that the much-loathed figures about how much time would be productive are not altogether correct. Take a look at the official translation, which should provide a much-needed balm for several angry Final Fantasy XIV fans. [Thanks to John for the tip!]
EA won't bow to Medal of Honor controversy
Allow gamers to take up the mantle of the Taliban in your game and you're bound to receive some ire. EA is learning all about that with Medal of Honor, as the mainstream media and the British government have vocalized concerns. British Defence Secretary Liam Fox has actually called for a countrywide ban of the game outright, stating that it's "shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers," even though you don't actually kill any British troops in the game. Still, EA Games president Frank Gibeau isn't sweating the bad press. "We respect the media's views," Gibeau replied, "but at the same time [these reports] don't compromise our creative vision and what we want to do. The development teams care very much about what they're building, and of course a bit of criticism from the media causes some to get demoralised, but at the end of the day we're proud of what we're doing." Gibeau even compared the flak to the same types of reports that went on about Modern Warfare 2's infamous airport sequence -- one of many comparisons the two games have received. Gibeau is of the mind that the collaboration between EA and the US Military and Congressional Medal of Honor Society is what will win people over in the end, not just because of the accurate depiction of the ongoing conflict, but because it has allowed EA to produce "the best story for the game." Plus, we all know the world has a natural affinity for whiskered gentlemen -- just look at the popularity of Grizzly Adams! [Thanks, fais]
Second Life's Emerald client facing obsolescence
Recent months have not been wholly kind to Second Life, and those circumstances don't seem finished just yet. The Emerald client, one of the most popular third-party viewers -- estimated to be used by as many as half of all players -- has fallen out of favor with Linden Labs and is no longer an officially endorsed option. Scott Jennings has posted a full rundown of the client's history, charting its progress from the earliest inception of the project to its current status of having fallen from grace. The short version (or as short a version as you can get for drama four years in the making) is that Emerald's coders included some rather... hack-tacular backdoors in the client's coding. This is a downside for reasons that should not need to be specified, but does add up to some major problems for the large playerbase still using Emerald. Second Life has had a hard time getting its users to switch to the 2.0 viewer, and about the only upside may be that the removal of Emerald will change that... but the overall drama isn't going to be kind for either the Emerald project or Linden Labs itself.
PSA: Not all Italian Americans are descended from Mafia 2
Wednesday 18 August Weight: Ugh. I don't even want to know what I weigh after inhaling that slice. Food consumed today: Do I really have to spell it out again? P. I. Z. Z. A. And I know for sure the guys running that joint aren't in the mafia or whatever. I don't even think they're Italian. Evening. Cloudy. A good night for the gym. Oh Diary, what to do about these UNICO National people? They've gone and denounced Mafia 2 as a "pile of racist nonsense" -- which is great to get some added publicity a week before launch. Lord knows this game has been in development for-ever. But still, to suggest the game will "indoctrinate a new generation into directly associating Italians and Italian Americans with violent, murderous organized crime" -- really? Mafia 2 is clearly a period piece. I mean, look at the cars in that game. Oh, and those clothes! What a riot! Frankly, and I don't think I'm alone here, when I think Italian American -- sure, I used to think The Godfather, and then it was The Sopranos -- but now it's GTL, you know? Those are good values. I mean, look just how far a strong body can take you. And who wants to walk around looking all pale? Which reminds me! I need to go schedule my dry cleaning to be delivered in the morning. TTYL! -Zelny
EVE Evolved: Dissent in the EVE community
Space MMO EVE Online and its developer CCP Games are usually spoken about in a positive manner. We often hear about the awesome things that go on in the sandbox, or how CCP has gotten players involved in game development through their CSM programme. In the past few months, however, negative sentiments toward the company have been growing at an alarming rate. Players have been complaining about lag and the quality of game design ever since the Dominion expansion was released. As far as players can see, EVE Online was in a fantastic state after the Apocrypha expansion's release, and it has gone sharply downhill since then. Over the past two years, players have made an increasingly vocal case to CCP in favour of fixing bugs and gameplay issues before adding new features. They point to previous features, such as faction warfare, that were abandoned shortly after their release in favour of developing yet another new game feature. Over the years, EVE has been littered with incomplete features in dire need of balance tweaks and gameplay revisions. The past few months, in particular, have seen a worsening of public opinion. The release of the CSM minutes and recent devblogs have caused a significant vocal backlash from the community. In this controversial opinion piece, I dig into the controversy surrounding CCP's recent communication with EVE Online's playerbase and the reactions forum-going players have had.
The Daily Grind: Could politics make for an interesting MMO?
Politics: it divides us, fascinates us and involves us on multiple levels. Along with religion, free-to-play and GearScore, it's perhaps one of the most controversial topics among gamers. Everyone has an opinion, everyone chooses a side, and everyone cares about something political -- or at least, it seems. Seeing our love for the political sphere, do you think politics could make for an interesting MMO? It's not as if it's a foreign notion, after all. EVE Online incorporates politics into its web of intrigue; TERA devs have hinted at a political system; and A Tale in the Desert allows players to vote to shape the game. Even guilds, to some degree, incorporate a political structure and tactics. So could a purely political MMO work -- and would you play it? What if the entire game were nothing but players and NPCs jockeying for power, ruling countries, enacting laws, and making decisions that could either hinder or help your political career? Would the game need to be set in an alternate universe free of real-world politics to avoid clouding the game with personal affiliations? Is there enough "game" in politics to build an MMO around it?
Star Trek Online adds more C-Store options and controversy [Update]
There's a pattern that seems to repeat itself every time Cryptic adds new items to Star Trek Online's C-Store -- or at least, a sequence of events wherein players are at first excited, then angry or annoyed when the prices are revealed. A bunch of new items have been added to the store: two additional costume slots (not on the website at the moment), two additional ship slots, and two additional bridge officer spots. The trouble arises with the handling of the upgrades, particularly with the new costume slots, as they're counted on a per-character basis. A similar upgrade is available in the store for Champions Online, for the exact same price -- but it increases the number of costumes available on every character rather than just the character it's purchased on. The per-character upgrades, coupled with a reduced importance for costumes in Star Trek Online, all help make many players feel a bit shorted by the price tag. Others are arguing that the add-on is only $2.50, an argument that's gone on at length on the official forums. Controversy is nothing new to the game, but this much debate over a fairly minor item leads one to be a bit curious about what reception future items might find. [Update: Cryptic has contacted us with news on upcoming changes to this system, "We're going to change the way the costume slot purchases work so they become account-wide rather than per-character. And, of course, our customer service department will be able to assist anyone who purchased the upgrade multiple times to cover multiple characters."] [Thanks to Cap for the tip!]
Aika's lead nation system kicks in without warning
With all of the major updates in Aika's first free expansion, Ashes of Betrayal, it might have been easy to miss the inclusion of an underdog system designed to help the lowest-ranked nation in the game's overarching PvP system. What the development team didn't discuss at the time was the other half of the system -- a mechanic to ensure that the lead nation wouldn't have nearly as much dominance over its opponents. That system was rather forcibly demonstrated to players over the weekend, with a post going live explaining exactly what the system is and how it works. The short version is that when a nation is determined (via automatic processes) to be in the lead, it is no longer capable of forming alliances and is kicked out of any existing alliances. This has met with some resistance from Aika's players both in the news post and in threads on the official forums, as it essentially broke an alliance without warning or any explanation at the time. Some players are viewing the penalties to an arbitrarily determined "lead nation" as crippling a nation while splitting friendly nations apart forcibly. Even if the system itself provides an interesting balance mechanic, it's still leaving a bad taste in the mouths of the game's players, especially in light of earlier incidents when information wasn't immediately available.
Ankhesentapemkah removed from EVE's Council of Stellar Management
EVE Online's democratically elected Council of Stellar Management has been the cause of a great deal of controversy since the programme's inception. The idea that players can bring their concerns on game design issues to a player-elected representative has been popular with forum-posters. Council members work tirelessly to compile lists of issues that are important to the player-base, then present them to CCP in the CSM Summit every six months. While the council has managed to push through some very important issues and work on key features, it's been the focus of several scandals and a great deal of EVE drama. Controversial council member Eva "Ankhesentapemkah" Jobse was removed from the council today. The official reason given for her dismissal was "a breach of the non-disclosure agreement (NDA)." The exact nature of the breach has not been publicised as the sensitive nature of the data involved renders the issue a private matter between Eva and CCP Games. As usually happens when information isn't available, the forums have exploded with speculation over what exactly Eva did that breached the NDA. Although Eva has yet to comment publicly on the issue, fellow council member Sokratesz was quick to allay suspicions that it was due to information posted in her personal CSM blog. When reached for comment, Eva had the following to say: "All I can say at the moment is that out of respect for the CSM, the players of EVE, as well as the good people at CCP, I cannot give any details besides my personal conviction that CCP's statement is not in relation to any of my recent publications, and that I do not share CCP's conclusion that there has in fact been an NDA breach. I am currently engaged in following up this situation with CCP." Eva plans to keep her followers updated on her situation via her CSM blog as the situation develops.
All Points Bulletin interview on the approaching release
The time leading up to launch for All Points Bulletin has been a bit rocky here and there, with hot spots of controversy regarding the game's pricing model and the review embargo set for a surprisingly late date. But still, with about a week left before the game goes live, there's plenty to be excited about. (We'd link you to our own first impressions, but you'll have to travel into the future to be allowed to read it.) Our sister site Joystiq had a chance to talk with producer Jesse Knapp about the game's state just prior to launch. There are several interesting tidbits in the interview, such as discussion about how the game allows for criminals to fight amongst themselves on the premise that the designers expected an imbalance in that faction. There's also talk about the decision to avoid a microtransaction model in favor of the currently variable spread of subscription options for players. While the developers are still a bit up in the air about the game's status as an MMO, we're sure we have more than a few readers who are anticipating All Points Bulletin and who will find some interesting tidbits in the interview.
Star Trek Online pushes pre-order bonus items to the C-Store
Are you a Star Trek Online player who wants a Borg bridge officer or access to the original USS Enterprise, but missed out on the limited-time offers for them? The good news is that you no longer have to be bereft of the pre-order perks just because you came into the game late. Cryptic is offering a variety of the pre-order items and bonuses on the C-Store as part of a large update to their stock. Among the new items are uniforms for Deep Space Nine and The Wrath of Khan, playable Joined Trill, and of course the original Constitution-class Enterprise. Understandably, there's a fair bit of furor about the new additions to the store. Lifetime subscribers are especially upset about the changes, as some of the additions were specifically aimed at them -- and unlike pre-ordering customers, they didn't pay the same price as everyone else. While the developers are understanding, they've stated repeatedly that they see this as best for the game and the players. It certainly is a net benefit for non-lifetime Star Trek Online players, but it certainly isn't going to tone down the controversy of the game's microtransaction system.
