NEWS | Week beginning August 3rd | Steam Scam, Fake Swatting & Bungie abandon Dinklage

Good evening guys, and welcome back to another news round-up! Let's get straight into it!

Steam Scam

First up, a game formerly available on Steam has been identified as a scam.

The game, called 'Journey of The Light', asks players to "Control a Lightball in it´s journey back to home.

"Gimme my money!"

Solve Riddles & Clues to find the right path". The game consists of 8 eight chapters and players have to complete each level to continue onto the next chapter. The developer of the game also wrote on the game's Steam page that "Journey of the Light might be one of the Hardest games on Steam". Now, the game isn't considered as being a hard game because of it's difficult puzzles, many believe it to be a scam because the game isn't actually complete-able!

Most Steam users who bought the game complained that the game was very difficult, and when comparing Steam achievements, they swiftly realised that only one account on the whole of Steam has the achievement(s) for completing Chapters 1,2 & 3. That account being the developer's.
This, of course, raised some red flags, so Steam users did some digging to find the source of problem.
When inspecting the game's files, users found that each of the levels in the game were exactly the same file size, as well as being created on the same date. Surely as you progress further into a game it should become larger? Right?

The developer came out with a statement saying that:
"It seems that i did something wrong when i released the Bug Fix #1.

I did tested the game after the bug fix, but i only checked that the bugs are gone.

I will roll the game back to it's former state and then fix the bugs again and make sure this wont happen again." (This was taken directly from Steam, so don't blame me for the bad grammar)!

At least it's pretty. Right?!

According to users on Steam, the game was never rolled back to a former state. As evidence grew and grew against the game and the developer, Steam stepped in and removed the game from the Store, and all users who bought the game are entitled to claim a refund for the game.

Scams are everywhere unfortunately, whether it be in day-to-day life or in a virtual world. Fortunately, as this is a game on an online store, who can get your money back. If something like this happened in the real world, you might not be so lucky. I guess the moral of this story is 'be careful how and where you spend your money'. But I don't need to tell you guys that! You're all adults, or old enough to make your own decisions!

Fake Swatting

Next up, a Twitch streamer has been suspended after staging a fake swatting prank.

Streamer 'Trick2G' staged a fake swatting in the final moments of his 800k follower stream. A few moments after the stream ended, the channel was suspended. When trying to navigate to his channel, it now says: "The community has closed this channel due to terms of service violations."

Swatting is a where people call SWAT teams to people's houses, leading the police to believe that the user is doing something illegal on stream.

The guilty party, Trick2G...

Two men, dressed in Team2G hats and fake tactical vests stormed into Trick's stream, forcing him onto the floor with fake assault rifles. Trick was also seen to swing a punch at one of the 'officers'. Now, if this was in fact a real swatting, that would have been a very foolish move.
The prank cost Trick a 4 month ban from Twitch, and has obviously annoyed a bunch of people from Team2G. Team2G released a blog post commenting on the situation, and said:

"Trick is an entertainer and that is just how it is, he streams 12 - 14 hours a day and brings constant laughter throughout each and every stream. Trick is known for his MY WAY streams and off the wall attitude. Now, I know some of you are saying...'Cher it is not funny to make a joke about being swatted' There is always someone that thinks only their sense of humour is what matters and if they don't think it is funny then it couldn't possibly be. That is why our country is in the shape it is now, because we fear making light of anything that might be thought of as controversial".

Someone is clearly not happy. Whether Trick will get his ban rescinded or not we'll have to wait and see. Personally, I think he does deserve a ban, just not for four months. Swatting is a very serious thing, and it can severely affect the people on the end of the swatting. Take Joshua Peters for example. Peters is a Runescape player who was swatted earlier this year. However, his 10 year old brother was the one who answered the door. Trick should definitely be punished, but maybe not for so long.

You can watch the swatting here, courtesy of YouTuber 'Nebu'.

Bye Bye Dinklage

Finally, Bungie have decided to replace Peter Dinklage, who voices 'Ghost', a robotic companion in Destiny.

Peter Dinklage, who is more famously known for playing 'Tyrion' in TV series Game of Thrones has been completely replaced by voice actor Nolan North, who is known for voicing Nathan Drake in the 'Uncharted' series, who has not only recorded new dialogue for the game, but has completely re-recorded old lines once voiced by Dinklage.

Ghost, the robotic companion

Dinklage has not contributed to voicing anymore lines for Ghost since Destiny was released. Bungie have cut several lines that were once in the game's beta, but also edited Dinklage's voice so it doesn't sound much like his own voice.
Bungie have not yet commented on why they replaced Dinklage with North, but have said that North has been signed up for the 'foreseeable future'.

North said that:

"I'm hoping we're doing this for years, If I get a chance to continue with the role, I think we can evolve Ghost as we move forward over the years. In the same way that the player learns about the game and the world, maybe the Ghost grows with them".

Not only does this confirm North will be with Destiny for a while, but we'll be getting lots more Destiny in the future, Good news! Well, not if you're Peter Dinklage...

And that's it for this week's new round-up. What did you think of these 3 stories? Have you ever been scammed, either in real life or by a video game? Do you think Trick's ban should be reduced? Did you like Dinklage as Ghost, or do you think North will do a better job? Let me know in the comments below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)