SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Ukraine warehouse packed with thousands of PS4s was actually a FIFA Ultimate Team bot farm:
A giant cryptocurrency farm in Ukraine that contained thousands of PlayStation 4 consoles was actually a FIFA bot farm.
Last week the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced it had shut down what was reported as a cryptocurrency mining farm that contained an incredible 3800 game consoles. Images showed racks of PS4 Slims (some claimed the photos showed PS4 Pros) - either way not the ideal hardware for a cryptocurrency farm.
It turns out the PS4s were being used to grind FIFA Ultimate Team.
According to an investigation by Ukraine business newspaper Delo, sparked by scepticism of the official claim about the farm being primarily about mining cryptocurrency, as well as the fact game discs can be seen protruding from PS4s in one of the pictures, what we're looking at in the photos is a bot farm that got stuck into the Ultimate Team grind, with the goal of selling accounts loaded up with in-game currency on the black market.
Delo said the Security Service of Ukraine has so far refused to comment on the revelation, citing the secrecy of the investigation. But the suggestion is these PS4 Slims, all controlled by PCs running bots, farmed Ultimate Team for profit.
Previously: Ukrainian Police Bust Cryptocurrency Mining Operation, Seize 3,800 PlayStation 4 Consoles.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Tuesday July 20 2021, @06:37AM (10 children)
You see, when I was young and we played computer games, we did so because it was fun. We played the game, we had some fun, that's it.
Today it seems playing games is some sort of secondary job. It sure as hell is no fun if there is actually a market for someone else playing it for you and you pay him for that. Just ponder this: You pay for the game, then you pay someone else to play it, so you can eventually play it the way it is supposed to be played...
Could it be that the game's maker tries to cover up that there is no meaningful content by making you first run a treadmill for a couple hundred hours?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by zocalo on Tuesday July 20 2021, @07:31AM (3 children)
This is why I essentially stopped buying games. Maybe it's just because I'm getting old, but with the increasingly rare exception I find them to be generally a combination of no fun, a moneypit/cashgrab, poorly balanced, and bug-ridden. Fortunately, the OSS community seems to churn out a near endless stream of games that *do* maintain the ethos of what you need, although they often lack the scale of the AAA titles of the day so won't entertain you for quite so long, but hey, "near endless stream". Then there's GOG, of course; there are plenty of classic games from yesteryear that I didn't have time to play when they first came out that are now getting remastered - there's still plenty of fun to be had if you prefer a more "classic gaming" vibe, but it's just not from the big studios.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2021, @11:39AM (1 child)
That game can suck you up for weeks on a single playthrough. Best part is, there is no real endgame, although there are lots of 'endgame challenges' you can go attempt, so you can more or less write your own story.
Minetest is similarly open world with lots of customization (both use lua to allow scripting of expansions, with c or c++ for key performance critical code.)
Best part about both of these games? They can run down to as little as a pentium 2-3 with 1 gig of ram if you're careful, and basically any computer after 2003 can run them smoothly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 21 2021, @01:18AM
The description says cataclysm is a turn-based RPG. Can you play it one person?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2021, @02:35PM
The ethos you're looking for is a game where the PLAYER acquires skill, rather than the CHARACTER.
Grinding is having your character acquire things while you, the player, achieve nothing.
A good game involves YOU, the PLAYER, getting better and better.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 20 2021, @10:32AM (3 children)
The micropayment to level up basically killed my interest in long term play games. Levels are fine, long term building for a few hours is ok but something you invest weeks or months in? That's not entertainment, that's work.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday July 20 2021, @01:29PM (2 children)
Plus you can't shake the sneaking suspicion that they are making the leveling process worse so you sort of "have to" buy the leveling boost just to at least make the process bearable.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 20 2021, @01:48PM (1 child)
Well, games are for fun (are you listening Sony? Downloading updates on my PS3 is not fun) - and if it turns in to an unpleasant grind, why play?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday July 20 2021, @05:16PM
Once upon a time that was probably the case but now it seems more and more like games are becoming like little chores or a second (unpaid) job/internship.
Why play indeed. I find myself playing less and less and it's not that I couldn't devote the time if I wanted to. But it just doesn't feel very fun anymore. There are clearly more and more games but they are not really better games, there is just more of everything (except fun).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by LabRat on Tuesday July 20 2021, @06:22PM
This particular game is run by EA. In FIFA Ultimate Team multiplayer mode, FIFA players are awarded via loot boxes (the best ones have terrible odds), which can be obtained via FUT coins obtained from grinding (what the farm was generating for sale) OR by paying for them using virtual currency bought from EA. You can't directly buy FIFA players in either case. Because of this, the economy is so broken that it has a black market.
Loot boxes are gambling. This game mode is a microtransaction hellscape. Big AAA corporation-made games are often like this these days, unfortunately; the assholes want to recoup investment by any means necessary instead of making a fun game.
Indie stuff is often cheaper and more fun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2021, @08:21PM
It is even worse than this.
This behaviour is seen as 'successful' so the "monkey see, monkey do" types all include it in their games because 'that is what the successful games do'.
But this includes games that don't even have microtransactions or pay to win/level scams.
e.g.
The 1 million survival clones that introduce arbitrary delays in picking things up, searching or harvesting. There is no reason for that other than to slow the player down and makes the game more tedious and job-like.
They even do it in single player games.
Insanity