Dead Game News: Episode 2 (Disney Infinity, Project Spark)

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More dead game news! I wasn't planning on having another one quite so soon, but a lot came up. Includes info on some mobile games, a MOBA, Hearthstone element, Disney Infinity, and Project Spark.

 

Also as a reminder, the Planetside 2 play session is tomorrow at 2pm EST (details on it are in the Planetside 2 recruitment video description).

 

COMMENTS

News is good, what's in the news is mostly bad.

 

Keep it up Ross!

Burger's up!

 

...er, I mean, subs up!

I like how you're quickfiring the news so that it's not taking up too much of your time. However, I think that it might be a good idea (if it's not too much work) to have maybe the logo or some screencaps of the game overlaid or off to the side when you first mention the game, with the generic Planetside 2 demo footage for when you explain or give more details. This way it's a little less jarring for the viewer as the visual part of the video relates more closely to the subject matter, and it has the added side benefit of lending a bit more structure for the video.

 

Hopefully, implementing these suggestions would still keep the production times low! I really admire what you're doing with the channel, and through the last two videos alone the volume of games being killed is coming across way more clearly and directly.

^ +1 for that idea

Also, if you don't mind us suggesting, It might also be a good idea to post links of your sources in the descriptions for viewers to get a detailed information the game in question. That aside, great work with the news report, Ross. Keep it up

In regards to hearthstone killing expansions it's not quite what it sounds like. Well sort of.

 

Basically you are correct in that they are rotating out expansions, and you will not be able to experience the adventures (unless you had them already so I'm told), but you can still craft the cards, or break down cards you got from it.

 

So adventures are what's being replaced here.

 

So you can still get the cards from the adventure, but getting the adventure gives you the cards for free instead of making you use crafting dust for them, and lets you dust cards you may not like.

 

So for example you can still craft the legendary Kel'Thuzad, or disenchant one you own, and then craft him again later, but if you didn't own the adventure before they shoo them away then you can't play the adventure mode even if you can craft the cards, which admittedly sucks.

 

They're doing this for several reasons. One of which being that they're going to a Magic the Gathering system where they rotate sets to keep the competitive scene more lively, and so that some cards are rotated out to make people change up decks.

 

If we're being honest however I doubt that it's because they don't care, but more of a money/cash grab.

 

You basically get the adventures within X amount of time, or else you can never play it again. They're trying to get people to make an impulse buy on something. This is very effective if you're a cheap as hell player who only uses gold for wings/adventures (like me) since they cost a whopping 700 gold per wing(most quests give 40 gold with the rarer ones being 100, and you get 1 quest a day mind), or 5-7 dollars. Blizzard would obviously prefer you spend real money, and so an arbitrary timer is now in play to hurry you up.

 

So basically you save up gold way in advance, or fork over cash to get the limited edition adventure stuff.

 

HS isn't the only game of theirs they're doing this too as well.

 

They're starting to remove the expansions legendary quest line at the end of every WoW expansion now.

 

This is again a money grab to keep players playing the entire time, or else miss out on a huge chain of lore for the expansion as well as w/e legendary items they create.

 

The party line they trotted out was basically that people should only have legendaries they earned for that expansion, and that it devalues them to have people going back, and rofl stomping things at higher levels.

 

But, they're not removing stuff from the first few expansions, but from the last few instead. Regardless of the fact that not only did they remove the legendary items, but the quests themselves to the expansions are missing large amount of plot/lore because the quests are gone in addition to the expansion.

 

I'm not claiming this is all Bobby(Robert) Koticks fault, but well... I just wouldn't be surprised if it is. He's the guy that constantly tells us how much he hates gamers, and that if he could get away with it each game would cost way more than it currently does.

Hey Ross, I fully intend to play with you today/tomorrow (depending on your timezone). I had an idea for a different game you could do maybe once or twice a year. The game is called Rust, created by the creator of Garry's Mod. Now, the criteria that you have for fan games doesn't fit perfectly, but I feel like it could work once or twice. I'm specifically talking about Rust's "legacy" version, as I find it to be a far more interesting game than the Experimental version.

 

1. Cost: 20$. Ouch. But it's well worth the money,

2. Ease of use: Point and shoot, melee weapons that are basically guns with a centimeter of range, and a VERY easy building interface

3. How many players at once?: This is the big "eeeeeeh". Rust can support up to 200 players at a time and run well. Way less than Planetside 2. My suggestion is host five one-hour games, and only allow someone to join one game at most. So 1000 unique Rossians can be by your side in the world of Rust.

 

If you're interested I'll tell you more about the mechanics and maybe in a few months we can set something up. This is also a "Dead game" thing for me. It seems like all of the community has left or joined Rust Experimental, and Legacy servers that used to be bursting with players are lucky to reach 40 players. It's a wasteland of what was once a thriving community. Seeing a server max out again would really make me happy, and I think that it'd be amazing to create a massive Ross Castle or even make what looks like a mech suit out of wood and metal.

For the record, Blizzard may be removing the Goblins vs Gnomes packs from its shop, but you can still craft the all the cards in the expansion and the Naxxramus adventure using dust, a resource you can get in exchange for duplicate copies of cards you own. While I am genuinely disappointed the Naxxramus adventure games are no longer available for purchase, all the cards you would get from the adventure can still be obtained, so much of the expansion still exists and those who already bought the adventure can still play through it any time they want, so it's not like the adventure is "dead." There is a bit of disappointment in removing Naxxramus for any new players, but I think you're blowing it out of proportion. If you actually hear the leading developer Ben Brode talk about his design plans for Hearthstone you would not be saying he "doesn't care about what he makes."

If you plan on covering "resurrections" of dead games on this channel, then you may want to mention this to any prospective Hearthstone players out there that the GvG expansion is not really lost and neither are the cards from the Nax adventure. Ben Brode even hinted that the Tavern Brawls, a special game mode of Hearthstone that changes every week, may even recreate some of those Naxxramus adventure games. All Hearthstone players would have access to them for free (like all Tavern Brawls) that week, so any players that missed buying the Nax adventure should keep an eye out for the new Tavern Brawl each week if and when it returns.