The second shade was neither hostile nor evasive; at first glance it seemed friendly and articulate. To a casual observer it appeared to be some 17th-century nobleman, well-groomed and handsome, greeting us as we moved through the house and offering to explain his situation. Kyle was the first to take him up on the offer, and also the last. We only heard the first thing he said to Kyle: “I’m not supposed to be here. There’s been a terrible mistake.” Joanne was unsettled, and though she could not explain why, try as she might, she ushered us away from the shade even as Kyle settled on the floor to listen to the shade. She even shouted at the top of her lungs so we could hear none of his words until we were two floors down, at which point we could still hear the voice but not make out the words. Joanne herself was hoarse from shouting for half a week. Kyle didn’t come downstairs that evening, or the following morning. When we went upstairs to find him once … [Read more...] about WRUP: The second shade of Sycamore House edition
Halloween event pokemon go
The MOP Up: Blizzard’s new playgrounds
Ranked Season 4 started up in Heroes of the Storm this past week, and that’s just the start of the fun with Blizzard’s MOBA. The Garden of Terror update added the Fall of King’s Crest update, changed the Team League to support all party types, and changed up the battleground rotation. And while we’re in Blizzard territory, the studio discussed the creation of Overwatch’s Korean-themed Busan map, in which it said “the water plays a part in each point.” Eager to play on this one? Read on for a roundup of other smaller MMO news stories and videos from this past week in this edition of The MOP Up (and if you don’t see a news story that we should have, drop us a tip)! That multiplayer fighting game with the weird masks, AKA Absolver, pumped out its free Downfall expansion this past week. Check out the new Downfall PvE mode, the Faejin combat style, and the school challenges. Wakfu is gearing up for Halloween with its Update … [Read more...] about The MOP Up: Blizzard’s new playgrounds
Pokemon Go raised $5.8M Sunday in spite of live event catastrophe
Pokemon Go’s weekend Fest event may have been a massive and predictable failure of communication and preparation, but it wasn’t a failure for Niantic’s piggy bank: SensorTower reports that the game pulled in almost six million bucks on Sunday alone as players logged in to catch special legendary pixel critters. “According to our revenue data, players spent approximately $5.8 million worldwide in the game on Sunday, July 23, the day publisher Niantic flipped the virtual switch that unleashed two legendary creatures into the game world for players to team up and (attempt) to capture,” says the app-tracking firm. That makes this past Sunday the biggest revenue day for the game since its Halloween event last year, in spite of the flopped Chicago event that saw Niantic’s CEO booed onstage. No bad deed goes unrewarded, right? We covered the disastrous Pokemon Go live event at length earlier this week. Niantic has since apologized, with … [Read more...] about Pokemon Go raised $5.8M Sunday in spite of live event catastrophe
Generation 3 is basically Pokemon Go’s One Tamriel: How Niantic has actually improved POGO
A lot of critical things have been said about Pokemon Go and Niantic in the past. Professionals that tried to defend certain UI elements still had plenty of suggestions a non-professional could have made. Same goes for players and professionals that noted the need for quests. In fact, Niantic’s insistence on doing local events instead of global events created some huge PR problems, and that’s without noting that, for a social game, the game actually lacked a lot of social features. But there’s a weird thing: Niantic’s addressed many of those issues. Several are ones I’ve previously suggested. There’ve been several UI improvements, new quests, at least two events per month since February 2018 that aren’t just cash shop sales, and a push towards community building. It’s far from perfect, like the glaring omission of in-game communication or a social media connection, but we’ll ignore that for now. What I want to … [Read more...] about Generation 3 is basically Pokemon Go’s One Tamriel: How Niantic has actually improved POGO