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League of Legends mastery point exploit fixed, banhammer incoming
We all know that League of Legends breeds a fairly competitive community, but unfortunately there are players out there who don't let little things like rules and common decency get in the way of their desire to win. A number of such players were recently found to be taking advantage of an exploit that allowed them to place more mastery points in a given talent than they would legally be able to, thereby giving them an incredibly unfair advantage. Riot Games' Lead Community Manager, Tamat, stopped by the forums today to let everyone know that "that's bull****" and that it's not going to be tolerated. The post goes on to state that a fix for the exploit has been implemented, and the studio is about to lay the smack down on the guilty parties. Tamat says that the studio has "comprehensive logs and data" that have been used to identify the players who used the exploit. Riot is "going to be taking firm action against their accounts." May all the exploiters meet a swift and terrible demise at the hands of Riot's banhammer. For the full details on the matter, head on over to the official post on the League of Legends forums.
Aion Community Manager Andrew Beegle leaving NCsoft
"Today is my last day at NCsoft. One adventure ends, while another begins! I'm so excited, scared and ready to have a fun weekend!" Aion has one less Daeva today. Community Manager Andrew "Tamat" Beegle posted the above message on his personal Twitter as well as a longer message to the Aion community, bidding everyone a fond farewell. Kate "Trine" Field will be taking over for Andrew as he heads for a new opportunity in California. You can check out his full farewell message and the community response on the Aion forums, and we at Massively wish Andrew the best of luck in his new venture!
Aion server merge mail and warehouse policies explained
Wringing your hands over the possibility of losing your mail (or more importantly, your account warehouse items) during the upcoming Aion server merges? Fear not, as Andrew "Tamat" Beegle is here to soothe your concerns. Well, technically he's on the official Aion website, checking in with a post that explains the details of the forthcoming merges in regards to item and mail transfers. "All mail will transfer over to your new server, including attachments. However, to eliminate any likelihood of anything going wrong with your mail and attached items, read and delete your mail, and store attached items in your inventory," Tamat says. "All items will be saved in the account warehouse, but you will not be able to access any items that do not fit within the account warehouse's 16-slot limit. Any items exceeding 16 are still stored in the account warehouse, but will remain invisible until some items have been moved to another storage space, such as a character's cube or warehouse," he continues. Read all about it on NCsoft's official Aion website.
The more you MMO, from the Aion community team
Those crazy daevas on NCSoft's Aion Community Team want you to know about the evils of Real Money Trading, and they've put together a four minute public service video to spread the word. Buying gold, or Kinah as it's known in the world of Atreia, destroys game economies and compromises account security according to the spot posted on the official Aion web site. One of the guiding principles we have here at NCsoft is that our customers come first. A major challenge that we face in the gaming industry today is the use and abuse of an evil known as real money trading (RMT). We're in the middle of a war, a war that we fight because of the adverse effects RMT can have on you, our loyal customers. Check out the full press release as well as the embedded video at the official site.
GDC10: The expo in pictures
We have a saying around the Massively offices -- "When we go to a show, our readers go to the show." We hope you guys have really enjoyed our crazy coverage of GDC10 as much as we enjoyed running around the show like crazy people grabbing all of that information. But, while we were running around, we got some great photos from the show for you! Now you too can live the experience of running from booth to booth, passing legions upon legions of companies explaining their newest technologies and how they can improve your gaming experience. So come along with us for a whirlwind trip through GDC! Trust us, it's exciting. %Gallery-88462%
GDC10: NCSoft speaks out on Aion 1.9
We've covered a lot of newly released (and as yet unreleased) games this week at GDC 2010, so it's always good to check in with an MMORPG that's been around for awhile to see what's coming down the pipe. Today we caught up with NCSoft's Andrew 'Tamat' Beegle, North American Community Manager for Aion, and asked him all sorts of questions about Aion's big 1.9 patch. The update, already live on the game's Korean servers, will be coming to the States and Europe in short order, so read along after the jump to get a taste of what NCSoft has in store for it's loyal Daevas.
Aion releases first Eye on Community for February
Aion team member Tamat is back with the first Eye on Community for February, in which he answers player questions and talks a bit about what the developers have in store. This week's player question was regarding the fort timer surveys from a while back, and Tamat revealed that they've finished looking over the surveys and will be changing the capture timer to an hour next week. Eye on Community lived up to its name by providing a pretty extensive community roundup this time, directing players to a handy application to monitor server status, a guide to a couple of bosses (Kratia and Harpback -- if you're having trouble with them this is the place to go),a look a one players first month in Aion, and a new reason to keep one eye on the skies in PvP. Head over to the official Aion site to read the full Eye on Community.
NCsoft names new producer for Aion
NCsoft announced this evening that they have named a new producer for Aion. Chris "Kinslon" Hager left his Associate Producer position to make the step up to Aion Producer. Kinslon has been with NCsoft since the fall of 2005, working on Guild Wars and Lineage II as well as Aion. Andrew "Tamat" Beegle welcomes Kinslon: "We're all very excited to follow our new Producer forward. His intricate knowledge of Aion and deep history with the game and NCsoft are invaluable as we move forward. Needless to say, there is plenty to be excited about that we have yet to announce." The team at Aion has spoken very often about changes and new content coming in 2010, and this is presumably the first of many to come. Along with the rest of the Community team, as well as the fans, we wish Kinslon the best of luck in his new position.
Aion introduces XP bonus weekends to smooth the curve
Some will say it's unnecessary. Some will say it's coming too late. And others? Others will jump up and down in joy. What could possibly be so divisive? Oh, well, that's Aion's new bonus experience weekends! According to community manager Tamat, Aion is introducing these brand new experience gaining opportunities to help smooth the leveling curve between levels one and 35. As long as you log on during one of these weekends and are between those levels, everything you do will garner you double experience. Crafting? Yep. Gathering? Yep. Killing? Yep, it's all there. Now Tamat does go on to say that this is a temporary measure before they do something more permanent about the leveling curve, but it's a good start to address what is an issue to many people. Especially when, as we've said before, only 2% of the entire population is between the levels of 46-50 and Aion's endgame doesn't function well without people. Hard to PvP with no one there.
Massively interview with Aion's new community manager
Aion is easily one of the biggest MMOs of the year, so when a new North American community manager took over recently we decided it was the perfect time for an interview with the new team member, Andrew Beegle -- known as Tamat to community members. We asked Tamat about new methods of community interaction, the hotly anticipated experience boost patch and even some personal questions about our new community manager. You can never really know enough about the person serving as the conduit to your main MMO -- at least that's what we tell them!
Massively interview with Aion's new community manager part 2
You can get a sense of how this will pan out by looking at the depth of Western customization and design we implemented in version of Aion currently available at retail in the west. How has the team felt about Aion's reception since launch? Tamat: Aion has been met with an overwhelming amount of praise overall.
Neo Steam editor Jason Ruper on bringing steampunk to MMOs
One of the upcoming free-to-play titles that Massively had a chance to see this month is Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent from Atlus. Our hands-on gallery feature is a good introduction to the look and feel of the game world, but now that Neo Steam is in open beta, we're expecting more info about the game to be forthcoming. We came across a ZAM interview with Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent lead editor Jason Ruper, conducted by Andrew "Tamat" Beegle. Ruper gives some background on the game's setting and lore, saying, "The game has a lush, fantasy-steampunk setting, and everything -- from the machine wasteyards and polluted rivers to the rickety vehicles and the ancient ruins from before the shattering -- contributes to this setting and reminds you that your nation is in a state of reconstruction as well as in the middle of a cold war."
Bill Roper of Cryptic Studios discusses Champions Online
MMO-centric website Allakhazam is running an interesting piece on Champions Online. Tamat, the site's Editor-in-Chief, caught up with Bill Roper, the Design Director for Champions Online at Cryptic Studios. The interview ranges from what Roper does at Cryptic to some of mistakes learned along the way -- particularly in the wake of what happened with Flagship Studios and Hellgate: London.The interview covers a good range of topics, discussing Roper's transition from the business side of an MMO developer to focusing on creating a game, and how trying to compete with WoW isn't a concern for Cryptic with Champions Online. Roper also discusses the idea of bringing some of the original pen and paper Champions Online system to the MMO. He says, "We're including the core concepts of talents, perks, and even exposing the stats system to a degree. We've streamlined some of the concepts of the game to make it more accessible to a broader range of players, but without losing the beauty of what makes Champions the great game and IP it is." Have a look at the full interview with Cryptic's Bill Roper over at Allakhazam for more on the directions Champions Online will be taking.
Mia Rose interview with Allakhazam
Mia Rose chatted it up with Andrew Beegle, aka Tamat, from Allakhazam at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES).Mia is known around the World of Warcraft community for her work in WoW related adult entertainment. However she also is a known Warlock with a penchant for raiding. Mia talked about her opinions on Wrath and how excited she was to get it initially, but is now kind of so-so about it. In the interview Mia laments about how easy the current raiding content is, especially compared to how hard you had to work to get into the Black Temple back in Burning Crusade raiding.Head over to Allakhazam and take a watch. This video is completely safe for work, as well.
