UPDATE: A new trailer for the game has revealed a peek at the game’s microtransactions, confirming a shameless pay-to-win scheme.

In Halo Online Russian gamers will get the opportunity to pay for every little thing, including weapons, armor sets that give passive bonuses, Spartan passives, and even attachments that boost weapon damage.

Original story is as follows.

In a quite confusing move, 343 Industries has announced Halo Online, a brand new free-to-play game for PC.

Even more strange is the news that Halo Online free-to-play PC game will be tested exclusively in Russia via an upcoming closed beta test.

The game itself is built on Halo 3‘s engine and is a multiplayer-only PVP style game that plans to bring all the definitive FPS chaos to the PC world. The beta test is planned to start “this spring” in Russia, which means sometime soon.

Since it’s free-to-play it’s fair to assume microtransactions will be involved, and maybe a horrible pay-to-win style to boot.

Also there’s a chance Halo Online could come to other regions, although it won’t ever be released on Xbox One (of course not, you’ll have to shell out premium cash to play Halo in console form).

In the FAQ listed below, 343i doesn’t explicitly rule out a release in North America or Europe, but they’re more worried about learning what they can from Russian players before the game launches overseas.

Halo Online looks like it’ll have all of the PVP staples, but how many armor sets will be locked behind premium paywalls?

This is probably the worst time for 343i to take on a project like this.

Instead of focusing on fixing the Xbox One’s still-awkward Master Chief Collection or even wholly devoting the team to polishing up Halo 5 for its impending launch, they’ve decided to splinter precious resources to focus on a F2P Halo game.

I personally think this is an awful idea that could destroy the very soul of Halo itself.

Halo has always been a big win for the Xbox brand. Microsoft has made concessions by bringing the original Halo: Combat Evolved to PC, along with Halo 2 years later, but this kind of game isn’t Halo: it’s a bastardized attempt at a cheap cash grab.

Now if the microtransactions are entirely cosmetic, that won’t be so bad.

With a huge arsenal of armor permutations to choose from, we can see how this could work. But if the game starts charging premiums for skill sets straight out Reach, that’s when things get terrible.

343 Industries needs to be careful how they proceed here or they risk alienating themselves from the game’s fanbase–something they’ve accomplished with the abysmal Master Chief Collection launch.

No one likes microtransactions, especially the pay-to-win variety. Although it’s a lucrative structure for publishers it becomes a roadblock for gamers and locks off a portion of content behind paywalls.

And paywalls are eroding gaming.

Halo Online is tailor-made for Russian PC gamers, but we might see it cross over to other regions…which could be a good or bad thing.

That being said, 343i could take Halo Online in an interesting direction, maybe even making a distinct MMOFPS mashup. The Halo universe is so massive and full of wonder, splendor and depth, and it’s so much more than just competitive PVP multiplayer action.

Imagine a subscription-based MMO based in the Halo universe that has the depth of, say, Final Fantasy XIV? Imagine combining Halo Wars with the dynamism of the first-person shooter elements, along with a winding story arc.

There’s so much potential with a Halo Online game. But instead, it looks like 343 Industries want to go the cheap, easy way.

Below we have the Halo Online FAQ published on Halo Waypoint that might answer some questions you have.

Halo Online FAQ

Q: What type of game is Halo Online?

A: Halo Online is a free multiplayer-only PC experience that we’re launching as a closed beta test in Russia.

Q: Does Halo Online represent your future plans for the franchise on PC?

A: Halo Online is a learning opportunity for us as we explore ways to welcome new fans to the “Halo” universe. We’re excited to release a “Halo” multiplayer-only PC experience tailored for Russian gamers.

Q: When will Halo Online be available?

A: The closed beta period will begin in Russia later this spring. There is no definitive launch date at this time.

Q: Are you planning on bringing Halo Online to the Xbox One?

A: Halo Online was built from the ground up specifically for the PC. There are no plans to bring Halo Online to the Xbox One.

Q: Will gamers in other regions like North America and Europe be able to play Halo Online?

A: Right now our focus is on learning as much as we can from the closed beta period in Russia. Theoretically, any expansion outside of Russia would have to go through region-specific changes to address player expectations.

Q: Are you planning to officially launch this year?

A: There is no definitive launch date at this time as we proceed in our closed beta period in Russia.

The post The New Halo Online Free-To-Play PC Game Is A Bad Idea appeared first on VR World.

In the wake of GamerGate, the video games media complex is exposing a very strong liberal bias.

This institutional bias has been a tool to systematically misinform readers and denigrate the gamer subculture. Everywhere websites are denouncing GamerGate, associating it with abuse, misogyny and anti-feminist ideals, and go lengths to show viewers why they should stay away–very far away–from the cause lest they become tainted by this corruption.

These sites shame readers and proponents of GamerGate with attempts to appeal to their humanism, effectively coercing emotional responses. Instead of objectively reporting on a cultural dilemma, these journalists become personally involved.

This is bias, and it’s nothing new in the media industry.

What is new is that the public doesn’t want to stand for it anymore. This rebellion–not misogyny or harassment–is the heart of GamerGate.

But to end it, they’ll have to go against the media: and as history has taught us, the media is one unapologetic, undignified foe.

Games journalists, like other journalists, have taken up the dual mantle of reporter/social worker–a dynamic that’s been in play for quite some time.

Society’s designated saviors

News media informs millions of people about the daily happenings of the world. From current events to politics and even gaming, the media is there, supplying us with an ever-present flow of content specifically tailored to our needs.

But what happens when the news is skewed? What happens when misinformation and agendas replace honest, unbiased reporting?

The media has the power to change how we see the world. By leaning to the left on cultural topics like sexism and racism, the news media forgoes its duty to the people in order to perpetuate coverage that falls in line with their beliefs.

Why would a news anchor or journalist embrace such an agenda — why jeopardize professionalism for personal beliefs?

Bernard Goldberg, a journalist who spent almost 30 years on CBS News, wrote in his 2001 book Bias that journalists often become “journalists/social workers” when involved in cultural events.

Read more coverage of BSN*’s GamerGate coverage here

“When ‘proper’ victims are involved, we become journalist/social workers. And we live by the journalist/social worker motto: Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”

Goldberg also says that ” a lot of news people, after all, got into journalism in the first place so they could change the world and make it a better place.”

Every writer and journalist has their own personal motivations, ethics and ideals. Professional journalists travel the world to report on war, genocide, and other human strife.

It’s only natural for them to want to change the world for the better.

Even amid this harrowing woe, a journalist’s job remains as it always has: to report the truth to the people and not get involved. Regardless of this golden rule of journalism, some reporters make it a personal crusade to end what they see as corrupt.

“Increasingly, journalists see themselves as society’s designated saviors,” Robert Lichter of Washington’s nonpartisan Center for Media and Public Affairs told Goldberg in the late 1980’s, when homelessness was inflated and skewed by the biased, leftist media.

Now this mantle of “society’s designated saviors” has passed down to the games media.

The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, and the media has honed its blade with decades of practice. (Photo: Threadless)

When the pen becomes the sword

The most interesting aspect in all of this is not how “GamerGaters” have reacted to the cultural rift, but the response made by publications. If anything the fusillade of articles lambasting and attempting to humiliate the movement says more about the media than it does GamerGate.

And rather than take it professionally, the media has taken GamerGate personally.

In retaliation to the movement, key video games publications have brazenly attacked their own constituency in an effort to warp the public image of GamerGate. They actively compromise truth and integrity for cheapshots and provocative “clickbait”.

As I discussed in my article “How Sensationalism Continues to Ignite GamerGate“, this road is a dangerous one for any publication–whether its TV, print or online.

Much of this content is sensationalist in nature and is so saturated with bias that the writers neglect their duty to present clear, dual-sided content. What readers are given instead is eerily similar to propaganda.

“If you’re a person who cares about video games and also happens to care about other people, you should denounce GamerGate,” wrote T.C. Sottek in an October editorial on The Verge that attempted to explain GamerGate. “Don’t be fooled by ‘gamers’ who want to enlist you in abuse.”

Sottek’s piece feels like a personal tirade, a kind of rant, where he attempts to unceremoniously dismantle the movement while being oblivious to his favoritism of games journalist Leigh Alexander, games developer Zoe Quinn and left-wing feminist critic/activist Anita Sarkeesian.

The article features a video of feminism activist Anita Sarkeesian on-stage at this year’s XOXO Fest along with one of Zoe Quinn’s Tweets pointed at GamerGate.

“Manipulative identity politics, ripped straight from the handbook of conservative sophistry, are also at play,” Sottek affirms, unaware of the manipulative tactics involved with biased news coverage that laments a cause as “misogynistic”.

Sottek goes on to define how the movement transcends rebelling against corruption: “Gamergate is now a self-sustaining machine because it is fueled by reactionary rage and deception, existing now only to defend itself against criticism of ‘gamers.'”

In Gawker’s “What Is Gamergate, and Why? An Explainer for Non-Geeks”, Jay Hathaway wrote in a skewed interviewing-myself prose that “even regarded generously, Gamergate isn’t much more than a tone-deaf rabble of angry obsessives with a misguided understanding of journalistic ethics.

“But there are a lot of reasons not to regard the movement generously.”

This prose is inherently flawed as it supposes that a reader, not a biased author, is asking the questions. To elicit certain emotions from the reader, Hathaway continued to include harassment received by Zoe Quinn, which is thrown in to incite ill-will for the opposition.

This article is meant to be an explanation of GamerGate itself, but most of it discusses the harm inflicted by one side and neglects the harm that’s been done by sensationalist coverage. It’s also meant to be a person’s first entry point to the controversy, and not surprisingly, it’s skewed in favor of a left-wing agenda.

“The labels of “ethics” and “corruption” are, to date, a thin veil over an ongoing attempt to undermine women in the gaming industry and the games press,” wrote Eric Johnson in an October piece on Recode. “Anyone who advocates for gender equality, or better representation, or even just a more open discussion is considered an enemy to be bullied, boycotted or, in some cases, harassed.”

Eric Johnson’s article on Recode was headlined with a picture that’s been all-to-common in this kind of reporting. It features an angry-faced gamer looking at the viewer, projecting a very real picture of the “face of GamerGate”. This image is not unlike the dehumanized faces that accompany political propaganda, and it’s meant to instill an image that all gamers are led by raw emotion rather than sense.

This depiction is a tool, another part of the media’s arsenal to debase and disfigure an entire society–and a means to deter readers who don’t want to be known as hateful, angry people.

Johnson goes on to undermine the central reason why Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) pulled its advertisement campaign for gaming website Gamasutra, saying that the “voices of women gamers” is “seen as a threat to the gaming community”.

This is a sentiment that’s been largely affirmed by a biased press, and is far from the actual truth.

By pulling ads on Gamasutra, Intel was targeted by the biased media with a stream of biased news.

How Intel went from leading hardware maker to “misogynist” overnight

On August 28 Gamasutra ran an editorial entitled “Gamers Don’t Have to Be Your Audience, Gamers are Over” written by Leigh Alexander, a games writer who’s work has appeared on Time and various other publications.

The article was largely seen as a controversial slight to gamers, the site’s own constituency. It was seen as another “cheapshot” wherein a prominent writer was free to flex their clout and launch a tirade against their own core audience.

“‘Games culture’ is a petri dish of people who know so little about how human social interaction and professional life works that they can concoct online ‘wars’ about social justice or ‘game journalism ethics,’ straight-faced, and cause genuine human consequences,” Alexander wrote in the piece.

The content of the article was seen as the problem, and as a result, GamerGate boycotted Gamasutra altogether. If rebellion is the heart of GamerGate, the brains would be the consumerist boycott, which aims at not giving ad revenue to media presences deemed as corrupt.

The boycott was made readily apparent to Intel by way of GamerGate e-mails. Soon Intel pulled its campaign altogether, depriving the site of major advertising funds.

This, too, was sensationalized in the media. Overnight Intel had gone from world-leading hardware-maker to a “misogynist” collective aimed at “silencing women in the games industry.”

“Intel Backs Misogynist Gaming Taliban” reads an article on the UK-based publication Channel Eye. “Intel Buckles to Anti-Feminist Campaign By Pulling Ads on Gaming Site” chimed The Verge, which already has an established stance on GamerGate coverage.

These outlets conveniently overlook the swath of offensive content found in Alexander’s social media interactions on Twitter, which have since been deleted.

“Be careful with me. I am a megaphone, I am much less kind than Rami and I won’t mind making an example out of you,” Alexander said to Russ Roegner, an indie games developer, in one of her most damning Tweets.

Interestingly enough Gamasutra is a haven for indie devs like Russ Roegner, arming them with tools and contacts to establish their skills–that is until you earn the ire of a major force in their website.

It could even be argued that key websites support Alexander by writing smear content because of personal favoritism–not professional courtesy–and used their high standings in the media to retaliate.

Evidence of this kind of favoritism and cliquish behavior in the games journalism scene has since been exposed as part of the Games Journo Pros controversy, which involved a secret mailing list used by key games journalists.

In this list, high-profile games writers like Polygon‘s Ben Kuchera and Kotaku‘s Jason Schreier pressured others to avoid covering the Zoe Quinn scandal out of personal feelings. If writers will go out of their way to defend a developer, imagine what they’ll do for “one of their own” like Gamasutra‘s Leigh Alexander?

Suddenly the anti-Intel articles make much more sense.

These writers and journalists appear to want the public to believe GamerGate is a maelstrom of enmity, and are doing everything in their power to sway opinions.

Why? Because they’re guilty of liberal bias, they’ve broken one of the golden rules of journalism, and they don’t even know it.

Games media often operates in a way befit for a corrupt institution that systematically bends and redefines its own laws.

The Games Mafia: The casualties of sensationalism

As a result of biased coverage, the games media has made the very mention of GamerGate radiate with negativity. Many websites don’t want to touch it in fear of being associated with a campaign based on harassment. Pro-GamerGaters are being harassed and even doxxed–that is their personal information being disseminated through the Internet.

Some, like #NotYourShield hashtag creator and indie developer Jason Miller, have lost their livelihoods. Miller’s boss was contacted after his information was leaked and was let go from his job as a result of his role in the movement.

Other developers are afraid of the consequences of coming out in favor of Gamergate. They speak out anonymously in interviews with sites like The Escapist because they know how damning those two words can be–how powerful they are, and what they represent.

The liberal media has established their narrative, and they are responsible for contorting the public’s opinion in this way.

They are responsible for their part in creating this atmosphere where people’s professional lives can be turned upside down–and ultimately, the media is responsible for perpetuating the conflict with their sensational content.

Attacking GamerGate seems like a knee-jerk reaction to a very real threat–one that could out the media’s established, almost-incestuous relationship with itself. But even still the liberal media refuses to take responsibility for its part of the cultural rift simply because it doesn’t see what it’s done wrong.

This is not a media that’s free of corruption. This is a media that freely caters to liberal activism and shakes its finger at you for saying its wrong. It’s your fault, not theirs, and if you make a scene, they’ll put you in your place by smearing your name, ruining your livelihood and making sure you never work in the industry again.

This isn’t games media; this is the games mafia.

(Headline Photo: Twinfinite)

The post GamerGate: Does Games Journalism Have a Liberal Bias Problem? appeared first on VR World.

But, the goal of the project was not just a website… if I experienced something, that is the need of this industry for open communication, from manufacturers to consumers and back. This industry made its naming conventions so confusing that even the best of us get confused… enter Bright Side of News.

With this project, whole team of people gathered in a bid to make something different. We hope that we will succeed in our quest. As far as this blog is go, I will not shut it down… I will put my ramblings here and there, and link to stories to our main site, so keep it in your RSS readers.

The time has come for the rollout...

But for now, I invite you to visit the Bright Side of News. Site is in web beta status, currently at version 0.4. This has nothing to do with content, but with programming features. We will load the stories during the week, and as of today, it is business as usual… by weeks’ end, there will be around 60 stories on the site…

We plan to gradually put more and more features and put v1.0 (and remove version markings) in the next two weeks. We simply had to launch to see how the server will handle the load and did we pull a Windows Vista or a Windows 7

The site has impressive numbers of lines of code (over 200,000 lines), and we will use our own-developed BSN* Live CMS as a platform for our current and future publications…once that we have BSN* Live CMS into mature and rounded development phase, you can expect something in the way of WordPress, but this time, using platforms developed by Microsoft.

Once that v1.0 is live, you’ll know why we decided to go with Microsoft technologies.

Given the fact that I haven’t slept for two days, I am paying special regards to Kenneth from VikingReviews, who was the first to capture that we went live. In case that you eat danish rather than speak it, you can see the translation here.

The post The wait is over! BSN* is now live.. appeared first on VR World.

If you end up using an article as a base for your piece, just make sure you credit me and we’re all good.

The post Welcome… appeared first on VR World.