One of the biggest games in the world has been unplayable since this afternoon. Ahead of its next season — or possible a completely new chapter — Fortnite has gone down in just about every way imaginable. It’s widely believed that when the game is back up and running it will be a rebooted version featuring a brand new map.
Source: Fortnite has been down for hours as millions of players stare at a black hole – The Verge
Once the TCU onlining was decided, the fight just became about carnage: who could kill the most the fastest. The fleets committed by both sides represent a staggering amount of time, effort, and ISK. Each titan costs about 100 billion ISK (up to 160 or even 220b for particularly expensive fits), which can be purchased for about $3,000 USD by buying game time and selling it to other players for ISK. More than that, though, to build a titan requires several weeks and a nice quiet undisturbed area of space, something harder to find in the current climate. Supercarriers are similarly challenging. Dreadnaughts and carriers, while not as difficult to build, still represent a significant investment of effort on the part of an industrialist somewhere.
via B-R5RB: The Biggest Battle in All Of EVE | TheMittani.com.
In its latest earnings statement filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Zynga reported the number of daily average users (DAU) dropped to 39 million in the second quarter of 2013—the lowest ever since the company began keeping track. Last quarter, the DAU fell to the then-lowest record, 52 million users. The fall to 39 million means that 25 percent of its daily user base stopped using Zynga products in just one quarter.
via Game over for Zynga? Firm loses 25 percent of daily active users in one quarter | Ars Technica.
Before there were the current generations of MMOs there were MUDs – multi-user dungeons or ‘dimensions’. And before there were MUDs there was MUD: A multi-player, text-based game running off a mainframe at Essex University.
MUD (known as MUD1 since the release of its successor, MUD2) used an interface similar to that of single player text adventure games and transplanted it to a multi-player realm where players could live virtual lives, solving puzzles, collecting treasure and killing fantastic creatures (and/or each other). The game launched in 1978, developed by Essex students Roy Trubshaw and, later, Richard Bartle.
via The birth of MMOs: World of Warcraft’s debt to MUD – games – Software – Techworld.
The decade of history of EVE Online is unique. It has its heroes, scoundrels, heists and intrigue. Unlike other games, those are not stories written by developers and acted out by NPCs. They are true stories about the actions of the players that inhabit this world.
via EVE Online | Stories From The First Decade.
Go to this site and read some stories. This game has always amazed me with the news it generates through the stories it has produced throughout the years. I find games like this very complicated. The stories do read like a novel or possible screenplay.
The cause
A single misclick.
No, really: A Titan pilot beneath the Cluster banner was attempting a “bridge”—using a ship to act as an artificial warp corridor for other ships—to Asakai VI when he accidentally warped himself straight into a very surprised Pandemic Legion fleet. The pilot, named Dabigredboat, immediately came under heavy attack as the Legion pounced on the extremely valuable ship.
via EVE Online’s Battle of Asakai: who was involved, the stakes, and the aftermath | News | PC Gamer.
I sometimes find the drama in these MMORPG fascinating and Eve Online usually has the best stories. The cynical side of me suspects this might have been staged as a marketing promotion. I hear nothing but good things about Eve Online however.
Some particular user going by the name ‘Jadd’ has posted a video claiming to have nuked entire cities. There is no official news of Blizzard as yet about the reason behind the dead cities. We have got the videos [below].
[Update]: There is a lot of chatter on Ycombinator and WOWInsider about this story.
Worlds Inc. owns US patents numbers 8,082,501, 7,493,558, 7,945,856 and 7,181,690 titled “System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space” and has additional continuation claims in process before the U.S Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). These patents relate to computer architecture for three-dimensional graphical multi-user interactive virtual world systems. Such systems are utilized in Massive Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG).
The game, a science fictional adventure set in a star cluster dominated by five major civilizations, first launched in 2003, and its subscriber base (currently about 400,000) has grown every year since launch. Revenue has been growing too, at a compound annual growth rate of 53 percent, bringing in total revenue of $300 million over the game’s lifetime. As for profits, CCP would only say that it has “very healthy margins” — a claim backed up by the fact that it has grown to more than 450 employees despite only raising $3 million in seed funding.
via EVE Online Saw $66M In Revenue Last Year, Mulls IPO | TechCrunch.
This game made the tech news many years ago.
Recommended system configuration for running EVE Online:
- OS: Windows® XP Service Pack 2 / Vista / 7
- CPU: Intel Pentium® or AMD dual core @ 2 Ghz or greater which supports SSE2
- RAM: 2 GB
- HD space: 20Gb Free Space
- Network: ADSL connection or faster
- Video: ATi Radeon 5750 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
- Drivers: DirectX® 9.0c (included) and latest video drivers
- DVD-ROM : 2 speed DVD reader or greater required.
The minimum screen resolution for EVE is 1024×768.
Audio hardware must support SSE and be Direct Sound compatible. For optimum performance, use latest drivers available.Please note that Windows 95, 98, ME, NT and 2000 are not supported.