Tag

free-to-play

Browsing

Gacha games are a significant and influential gaming model that has enthralled modern mobile gamers. They resonate both with popular culture and gamers which has created a wave of mobile-first titles focused on random chance more than gameplay. The impact spreads beyond the games themselves, fueling gacha like elements in many of today’s modern live service games. Ever wondered where this came from and how it spread so far and wide? We’re going into detail on each of these elements and more with our ultimate guide to gacha games. Everything from what they are to where they came from to where they spread to. Join us as we take this adventure through random chance, waifus and pity rolls. What are Gacha Games? The gumball vending machines that were filled with capsules containing various micro-toys (of various rarity) are the original inspiration for gacha games. Gashepon (capsule-toy) is the basis of…

Tim Cain is known as part of the legendary trio behind Fallout 1 & 2. He also worked at Troika and programmed Vampire: The Masquerade and one of my favorite games Arcanum. He recently released a video lambasting Carbine and NCSoft while disclosing some deep interpersonal issues at Carbine. Tim’s video is authentic and his recount is accurate by all means. I covered WildStar heavily from 2011 onward and the stories back then were well known. Carbine was a toxic and unhealthy workplace which had the potential to release the best MMO of the golden age but instead failed with 9 years of development time and a further four post-launch to win back everyone ala Final Fantasy XIV. The video is very misleading in some ways. It argues that there was a lack of unified vision. That’s true, but it was also completely the fact that everyone at Carbine was…

Star Trek Online (STO) has 65 levels that each character can progress through. All content in the game is level matchable, meaning that if a party has mixed levels then everyone can match to a single players level and more or less enjoy the content together. Leveling up still lets you unlock critical systems to unlock more ships and deck them out with cool Trek gear for your virtual space odyssey. Leveling up quickly is possible a few different ways. We’ll focus on the two most enjoyable and quickest methods: playing through missions and then grinding patrols. Leveling through Missions in Star Trek Online You can level up very quickly as a free-to-play player through missions alone; this is best for brand new characters. The most enjoyable way, although not the absolute fastest, is to focus on doing the story missions more or less in order. The missions will always…

There’s a lot of slots to equip gear in Star Trek Online and gearing up can be hard starting out. You’ll need consoles, armaments, impulse engines and shields to power your ship not to mention you’ve got to equip a deflector and warp core! There’s a lot of loot that drops in the game and it can be really confusing on what to do to gear up and where to go to get ready to serve the Federation, Klingon Defense Force, etc. We break the gear guide down to before level 65, right when you hit 65 and pulling together your gear after that. Let’s begin! Gear Before Level 65 As a free-to-play player you’ll mostly be kitting your space ship out with mission rewards. You’ll be getting new gear constantly that you can use to replace your already equipped gear via missions. It comes so quickly to be quite…

Farming energy credits in Star Trek Online can be a daunting task when there isn’t any direct indication of how you can do so in the game. You need EC (energy credits) to buy items from the exchange. You’ll need them even if you don’t plan on making your EC (energy credit) fortune farming yourself and instead earning them vis-à-vis the exchange. You’ll need at least a few million in seed money to get going and that in of itself can be quite hard, especially when first starting out. This guide is assuming a full free-to-play experience. Players who wish to exchange real life money for energy credits can do so via master keys in the official Zen store. The keys can be sold directly or you can open Infinity Lockboxes to earn lobi crystals and sell the content, although you can get boxes that provide almost no value EC…