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A lot of Steam users today will have been met with a frustrating sight if they tried to access the Store or Community through their Steam launcher – that of a grey screen with only an error code upon it.
This is the second time in recent days that Steam has been hit with problems, apparently caused by a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on the system by two people, both of who have taken to their Twitter accounts (@chFtheCat and @LARCENY_) to boast of their ‘feat’. The reasons behind the attacks, the first one which took place over the 1st and 2nd of the month (depending on whereabouts in the world you live), are still unclear at this point but for lack of a better reason e-fame seems to the goal of the pair.
As of writing both Store and Community can still be accessed through the Steam website 90% of the time, so this attack has been nothing more than a minor irritation and won’t really make much difference to Valve, except possibly a negligible hit in the sales of the days these attacks have happened. Twitter has also acted by suspending the account of @LARCENY_ although his friend is still active, tweeting in a manner you’d expect from someone who does this sort of thing for kicks.
Valve still hasn’t commented upon the attacks, but the Launcher being taken down twice in so few days is somewhat concerning even if the site still works. It’s currently unclear how long everything will be down this time.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning closed down this Wednesday (18th Dec 2013), when the licensing agreement Electronic Arts had with Games Workshop ended. A developer who worked on the game says there is a way to preserve its world in a kind of museum-exhibit way, should EA choose to release it.
Andrew Meggs, who was the lead client engineer for Warhammer Online when he was at Mythic Entertainment, says there was an option to run the game without a server in an unreleased, developer-only build of the Warhammer Online client. If EA released this, then fans could run around in the virtual world, explore it and remember the good times.
“There were no login or character selection screens,” Meggs wrote on his blog. “There were no NPCs or other players. There was no gameplay of any kind. It was just you and the entire world spread out before you. You could fly around like Superman, or teleport anywhere at will.”
An MMO without other players or quests is not an MMO, and Meggs isn’t pretending this would be one. He’s more suggesting it as a memorial to Warhammer Online’s five year run. “It’s a double-clickable museum exhibiting much of what WAR was, so it won’t be forgotten completely. It’s an effort by all of us, as developers, to preserve a living record as our transient medium is created and destroyed. I can’t do this; I left behind the code when I left EA. But there are people inside EA who can easily make this happen.”
It’s a nice thought but it leaves me feeling like the mere suggestion creates a no-win situation to crap all over EA, as if that’s not a forum pastime already. First, they’d have to release it for free, because otherwise, the story becomes “EA Wants Warhammer Fans to Pay for an MMO with No Quests or NPCs.” Secondly, this is a licensed game, which means the licensor would have to consent to all of this, and the agreement has expired. I’m guessing that contract is pretty absolute on proscribing EA from continuing this game in any form past the expiration date.
Closing an MMO is always painful to those who played it. Sometimes it’s best to just say goodbye and move on, rather than dredge up another reason to be disappointed by the company shutting things down.
All players of My Free Zoo will receive an extraordinary log-in bonus
Bamberg, December 19th 2013. German developer and publisher of free-to-play browser games Upjers is delighted about 8 million registered players in My Free Zoo. This highly positive number confirms the developer team’s efforts to implement new content into the game on a weekly basis. By way of thanks for their loyalty, all players of My Free Zoo (www.myfreezoo.com) will receive a unique log-in present.
My Free Zoo is celebrating its 8 millionth registered player. This success is due to enthusiastic zoo directors all the world over, and of course to the hardworking developers of My Free Zoo. Since its release not even two years ago, more than 100 animals have been added to the zoo simulator. Among these are several extraordinary specimen, such as the white lion or the Western Crowned Pigeon.
Almost weekly, new animals and new features are implemented into the game. Besides the possibility to breed animals, organizations have been introduced to the game. In these organizations, the players can help out their fellow organization members in their virtual zoos as veterinarians, mechanics, shippers and as environmental officers.
Upjers would like to say thanks to all 8 million players in My Free Zoo. That’s why all of them will receive a unique log-in present with their next log-in into the game. In accordance with this cold season, every player who logs into the game up until January 9th will receive an Ice Castle.
My Free Zoo can be played for free on https://en.upjers.com/my-free-zoo.
What would you do if you had access to more than half a million LEGO bricks? Build your own mini Legoland? Maybe an Indiana Jones-style LEGO boulder? Whatever you were thinking, I bet it’s nowhere near as insane as what a 20-year-old Romanian has just accomplished.
After 20 months of work and “tens of thousands” of dollars fund-raised by his brother from Australian backers, Raul Oaida has successfully turned over 500,000 LEGO bricks into a life-size car you can actually drive, thanks to four radial engines with 256 pistons that run on compressed air. It has a top speed of anywhere between 12-17mph, dependent on weight – though given the seats are also LEGO (mercifully designed to have smooth, flat surfaces to remain comfortable, but also making them slippery) and how fragile the bricks can get at high speeds, you probably wouldn’t want to go faster anyway.
That fragility, combined with a lack of safety devices means the car will never be road legal – not to mention a nightmare for any company who dared to offer to insure it – but hey, let’s give the guy some credit, huh? And the custom rims depicting faces and symbols in each wheel – made from mixes of black and yellow bricks – add a nice classy touch. But enough talk. Hit up the video below to see the car in action – and let us know in the comments what you think.
A retailer in the UK has accidentally sent some customers a free PlayStation Vita. And is now resorting to some heavy methods in an attempt to get them back.
According to a report on Eurogamer, “a number” of people who had preordered Vita game Tearaway were instead sent a Tearaway PlayStation Vita bundle, which included the game and the hardware.
Upon realising its error, the retailer – Zavvi – asked for the bundles to be sent back. And that’s where things get messy.
British customer rights website What Consumer says “if you’ve been sent unsolicited goods, you are entitled to treat them as an unconditional gift and do with them as you choose.”
Understandably, some of those affected have done just that, leading Zavvi to send out further letters, including a “final notice” that reads:
This is our final notice to politely remind you that you did not order, or pay for, a PS Vita and if you fail to contact us by 5pm (UK time) on 10th December 2013 to arrange a convenient time for the PS Vita to be collected we reserve the right to enforce any and/or all legal remedies available to us.
Normally in these circumstances, the retailer would admit the mistake and simply take the hit. It’s rare a company would try and engage in a move like this; the PR backlash will probably make them wish they’d never bothered.
