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Prime World charges women less to play, 'protects' them in mixed groups [Updated]

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Culture, Free-to-play, MOBA

It's ladies night at Prime World, and drinks are on the house. The upcoming MOBA is offering unique incentives to rope in real-world women to play, including discounted heroes and special buffs if girls team up with guys. The game is connected to players' Facebook accounts, so women looking for special treatment need to actually be a member of that gender.

Nival's Creative Producer Larisa Nuretdinova hopes this will expand Prime World's potential audience: "The idea is to introduce the MOBA genre not only to hardcore players who already love it, but to their friends who might be more casual, and of course to their sisters and girlfriends who may not be as hardcore."

To encourage both sexes to group up together, Nival has devised a special defensive buff that is only activated when a woman playing a female character is part of the team. According to Prime World's About page, "this bonus helps encourage beginning female players, who feel more helpful when fighting in a mixed group."

Prime World offers six heroes for free, three of each gender; additional heroes can be purchased with actual money. It's here, too, that real-world women have an advantage, as Nival is offering a discount for the ladies who go shopping in the game.

[Update: Kotaku reports that Nival later clarified that it is offering discounts for both genders purchasing the same gendered character.]

Prime World charges women less to play, 'protects' them in mixed groups [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Female-only Queens Blade launches website, pubescent fantasies

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Previews, Free-to-play

Do you ever complain that video game females are too chastely attired, even when heading into major combat? Is TERA's feminine armor covering up completely unnecessary square inches of real estate? Then you're not only someone whom we'd probably inch away from in an elevator but the target audience for Queens Blade, an upcoming MMO that features six all-female classes -- and little female clothing.

One of the game's spotlight features is the ability for characters to transform into super-powerful versions via the Maximizing System. It both lifts and separates, we're told. Actually, the transformed versions of the characters are giant, hulking suits of armor with nasty weapons.

Queens Blade now has a teaser site available with loads of information, pictures, and videos of the game. There's an option to view the site in either its native Korean or in English. If you're interested -- and we're not judging here -- stay tuned as the game is slated to head into closed beta testing earlier next year. The official trailer after the cut gives a good glimpse into this colorful post-apocalyptic landscape and the women set out to tame it.

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Female-only Queens Blade launches website, pubescent fantasies originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online contest asks how CCP could make the game more appealing to female gamers

Brendan Drain — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Contests, Culture

In co-operation with CCP Games, our friends at CrazyKinux's Musing are running an interesting contest. In the latest edition of CrazyKinux's monthly EVE Blog Banter, he's asking players to write blog posts on ideas to make EVE Online more appealing to female gamers. The best ideas will win EVE store credit, with a total of $200 up for grabs. First place will receive $75 worth of store credit to spend on EVE merchandise and second place wins $50 of credit. The next three runner-up entries will win $25 of credit each, giving everyone a total of five chances to win. Entrants have until Monday April 26th to make their thoughts on the issue known.

EVE Online is something of an oddity in the MMO scene, with an almost entirely male playerbase. While some MMOs have a roughly 40% female playerbase and others are closer to 16%, less than 5% of EVE Online players are female. With Incarna set to introduce more avenues for social gaming, now might be a good time to start finding out what barriers prevent girls from signing up to EVE. Whatever the reason for EVE's 95% male-dominated playerbase, CCP seem interested in balancing that figure by drawing in more female gamers. If you have an idea that you think would help, enter it in the EVE Blog Banter for a chance to win some EVE swag.

EVE Online contest asks how CCP could make the game more appealing to female gamers originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: Boobs and you

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Anti-Aliased

Well Happy Turkey Day everyone! It's Thanksgiving Thursday, but it's also that time of the week again -- the time where Sera gets to rant in her opinion column to her heart's content. Yes, that's right, it's time for Anti-Aliased.

This week's topic is one that's near and dear to my heart. Well, it's near to my heart, at least, and I mean that quite literally. It's also a perfect topic for today's holiday! I mean, who doesn't like to talk about large breasts on Thanksgiving? (Score one for the terrible synonym.)

During last week's column on Blade & Soul, the main topic that came up time and time again in the comments wasn't the game's combat, or the game's engine, or anything really related to the game at large. No, it seems that many of you were turned off of the game by the fact that the screenshot I used had a woman with huge boobs. That was the deal breaker for the game.

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Anti-Aliased: Boobs and you originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Funcom apologizes for involuntary breast reductions

Chris Chester — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Forums

We'll have to be completely honest with you; ever since Jorgen Tharaldsen's famous proclamation,"You'll see titties," the topic of Age of Conan and its famously epic mammaries is one that comes up rather frequently around the Massively offices. What can we say, we're admirers of the female form... also, we like boob jokes. In any case, we were rather distressed to hear of some Age of Conan players complaining that their in-game counterparts were lacking a certain lactoid luster.

It might seem like a frivolous complaint, but from the images provided by a forum user named Gust, it's become evident that the change in chesticle size is actually significant. And Funcom is taking the complaint seriously, saying in part, "Funcom can confirm that some of the female models in the game have had the size of their breasts changed. This is due to an unintended change in data that was introduced in an earlier patch, data which controls the so-called morph values associated with character models and the size of their respective body parts. We are working on a fix for this and your breasts should be back to normal soon." It's sporting of them admit their mistake, and hopefully they'll have it fixed as quickly as many of the other bugs they've had since launch.

[Via Kotaku]

Funcom apologizes for involuntary breast reductions originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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