Online Gaming News

Hackers Targeting Xbox Live October 8 @ 7 PM source

darthcamaro writes "Windows isn't the only piece of Microsoft technology that hackers are attacking anymore. During a presentation at the SecTor security conference in Toronto, a Facetime security researcher revealed numerous methods by which Xbox users are being hacked today. 'Though the Xbox doesn't have the number one market share, it is the top target for hackers,' Boyd said. 'Xbox Live has 17 million plus subscribers, and that service requires payment.'"

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Amazon Selling PS3, PSP Digital Access Game Codes (PC World) October 8 @ 12 AM source

PC World - Sony Computer Entertainment America and Amazon US are joining hands to sell codes redeemable for games and game-related content through Sony's US PlayStation Network. The deal allows customers to purchase "digital access codes" through Amazon's video game store, then redeem those codes while logged into the PlayStation 3 or PSP's PlayStation Store, thus unlocking the relevant piece of digital content for immediate download.

Gold Spam Becoming a Sore Topic For Aion Players October 6 @ 10 AM source

Usagi_yo writes "Endless whispers for Kinah (Aion's in-game currency), scrolling chat tabs of multi-line spam messages from currency traders, phishing scams, key-logger scam, power leveling — it's all there and it's very ugly for NCsoft's release of Aion MMORPG, as players are starting to revolt only two weeks into the game's release." This reader originally pointed to the Aion general forums, which displayed a ton of threads complaining about spammers. Many of those threads have since been deleted (though more continue to crop up). Make of that what you will. I've been playing Aion a bit, and the spamming is certainly becoming a problem. When it began, it was mainly just whisper-spam from level 1 accounts, which NCSoft quickly stepped on by denying whispers before level 5. Not the most elegant solution, but it was a decent attempt to complement the /anon command, which makes your character invisible to /who searches. Then the spammers just started leveling to 5, which doesn't take too long, but in order to make up for lost time, they co-opted the global "looking for group" channel, flooding it such that the channel is now useless. You can easily block the channel from view (giving up entirely on what was once a helpful channel), or individually block each of the spammers as they arrive, but hopefully NCSoft will soon implement a solution that's less annoying to players. They say they're still on the case.

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Learning About Real-World Economies Through Game Economies October 4 @ 7 PM source

Reuters has a report about research being done on the in-game economies of MMOs like EverQuest II and World of Warcraft to better understand much larger economic situations in the real world. The games are used as case studies where researchers can do controlled experiments that they couldn't necessarily attempt if real money or goods were involved. "After studying 314 million transactions within the fantasy world of Norrath in EverQuest II, including trading in-game goods like armor, shields, leather, herbs and food, the researchers were able to calculate the GDP of one of the game servers (the back-end computer that hosts thousands of players in one world). As more people opened accounts and flocked to Norrath, spending money on new items, researchers saw inflation spike more than 50 percent in five months. 'We have seen that kind of volatility during times of war and in developing nations in the real world,' said [Dmitri Williams, assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication]. 'Our own economy has turned out to be less stable than we'd all assumed.'"

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Early Look At EVE Creators' DUST 514 October 4 @ 10 AM source

CCP Games, the developer behind space MMORPG EVE Online, made waves in August when they announced DUST 514, a console MMOFPS which will tie into the EVE universe. Eurogamer is now running a preview of the new MMO, providing more information on how it will work and the way in which it will interact with EVE and its players. Quoting: "... battles take place on dynamic battlefields about 5 kilometers across. Unlike EVE itself, there will be a cap to the number of players per battle — CCP is 'still playing with numbers' (and presumably watching the development of 256-player MAG with interest), but assures us that this will not be less than 64 players. There will be a command structure, with infantry and squadron leaders on each side led by a player-commander on board the hulking Mobile Command Center airship. The commander will effectively be playing a real-time strategy game with living units, and will have an RTS-style view of the battlefield. He'll be dependent on the situational awareness of infantry players to clear the fog of war. He'll also be the target, with the ultimate aim of a battle — after several, varying sub-objectives — being to destroy the opposing side's MCC."

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Jack Thompson Sues Facebook Over Video-Game Backlash (PC Magazine) October 2 @ 2 AM source

PC Magazine - A disbarred Florida lawyer who has been vocal in his opposition to violent video games sued Facebook this week over comments on the social networking site that he considers to be a threat to his personal safety. Facebook said it would contest the suit in court.

New PSPGo Accompanied By Firmware, Store Update (PC Magazine) October 1 @ 8 PM source

PC Magazine - As expected, Sony rolled out its redesigned PSPGo portable game console on Thursday, whose chief innovation is the elimination of physical media in favor of an online download system.

First look: Eliminate (Macworld.com) October 1 @ 8 PM source

Macworld.com - Snipe your enemies through a scope. Buy sci-fi weapons in your quest for multiplayer supremacy. Own some noobs. Sound like another high-end, first-person shooter for the PC? Think again. Thanks to Ngmoco, online multiplayer FPS action is coming to the iPhone.

Anti-video-game Crusader Sues Facebook for $40M (PC World) October 1 @ 6 AM source

PC World - A long-time critic of the video game industry has sued Facebook for US$40 million, saying that the social networking site harmed him by not removing angry postings made by Facebook gamers.

Gamers Are More Aggressive To Strangers September 30 @ 12 PM source

TheClockworkSoul writes "According to NewScientist, victorious gamers enjoy a surge of testosterone — but only if their vanquished foe is a stranger. Interestingly, when male gamers beat friends in a shoot-em-up video game, their levels of the hormone plummeted. This suggests that multiplayer video games tap into the same mechanisms as warfare, where testosterone's effect on aggression is advantageous. Against a group of strangers — be it an opposing football team or an opposing army – there is little reason to hold back, so testosterone's effects on aggression offer an advantage. 'In a serious out-group competition you can kill all your rivals and you're better for it,' says David Geary, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Missouri in Columbia, who led the study. However, when competing against friends or relatives to establish social hierarchy, annihilation doesn't make sense. 'You can't alienate your in-group partners, because you need them,' he says."

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