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Trump's campaign manager reportedly tried planting a mole at Facebook
Former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon had designs to infiltrate Facebook's hiring practices leading up to last year's election, according to BuzzFeed News. The aim was to "flood the zone with candidates of all stripes who will report back to you/Milo [Yiannopolous]" about the job application process, emails from former congressional staffer Chris Gacek to Bannon, obtained by BuzzFeed, read. The idea was to discover if there was political bias in the hiring process.
Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from Breitbart News
Editor for Breitbart News, Milo Yiannopoulos, announced that he is resigning his position at the news network effective immediately. The move comes amid a firestorm of criticism after a video recently surfaced in which he advocated for adults to be able to have sex with minors.
Twitter bans multiple 'alt-right' accounts
In the wake of releasing more tools to combat abuse on its service, Twitter has banned the accounts of a number of "alt-right" users. That includes the head of the National Policy Institute (NPI), Richard Spencer. The think tank describes itself as "dedicated to the heritage, identity and future of people of European descent in the United States and around the world." USA Today reports that the purge started with Spencer's verified status being revoked before removing his account (@RichardBSPencer), the NPI's (@npiamerica) and his publication The Radix Journal's (@radixjournal).
Twitter permanently bans one of its most offensive users
Twitter has finally done it. After years of provocative actions, repeated suspensions and even an unchecking, Twitter has permanently banned conservative writer and Breitbart Tech Editor Milo Yiannopoulos, from its service. Twitter's decision appears to come in response to Yiannopoulos leading an online trolling campaign against Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones. Jones has vowed to leave Twitter over her treatment, prompting a major online outcry.
The Daily Grind: What's the worst thing an MMO dev's ever said?
The fall season has seen two massive PR fiascos in two MMOs that just couldn't be more different: World of Warcraft and EVE Online. At BlizzCon, Blizzard cluelessly cheered on a video featuring individuals making crass anti-gay comments. And CCP managed to alienate its loyalists with an arrogant, greed-oriented internal memo. For my part, one of the most awful dev quotes surfaced during the bygone days of EverQuest, when a dev named Milo Cooper famously posted to a player, "Shut up and give me my ten bucks per month, little man. My Porsche needs some performance upgrades." (Hey, remember back when games were $10 a month?) Comments like that one just fueled anger among the playerbase, whose members already felt they were paying too much for too little in return from a studio that took them entirely for granted. So what's the worst thing you've ever seen an MMO dev say or do? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Milo & Kate engine footage shows off mega meshes, derelict backyards
Before Milo captured the hearts and minds of a people (and was taken out back and shot like he had rabies), lead programmer at Lionhead Studios, Ben Sugden, worked on a world in which the boy could live. During his GDC panel, Sugden took attendees on a tour of Milo's world -- the video past the break shows that Milo's digs were quite pleasing to the eye, if a little unkempt.
Milo's 'drama director' discusses emotion-capture
Milo and Kate -- Lionhead Studios' industry-wowing Kinect demo, first revealed at E3 2009 -- has been in limbo following last September's comment from Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer, who wasn't "convinced" the product would make it to market. We're still waiting with bated breath for news of some kind of playable implementation, but in the meantime, Milo's so-called "drama director," John Dower, has released a video diary featuring the real Milo (well, the mocap actor) and a behind-the-scenes look at creating the emotion within this would-be virtual boy. Check out the video (which contains a fair share of gameplay footage) after the jump. We warn you, though: It's just as intriguing and exciting as the first time you saw "Project Milo," which might send you into uncontrollable spells of worry that a finished product will never materialize. As always, we'll keep our fingers crossed.
Fable franchise expected to incorporate Milo's technology
It seems like just a couple months ago that Peter Molyneux was on stage at the prestiguous TED conference sharing "Project Milo" with the attendees, and now rumors suggest the virtual boy-shaped tamagotchi has been put down and carved up. We spoke with Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer in Tokyo last week and asked him about the commercial prospects of the always commercially vague Milo project. "If I had to bet, which I guess I do, I think you will see the innovation that that team put forward come to market, absolutely," Spencer told Joystiq. "Will it be under the idea and framework of 'Milo,' I'm not as convinced of that."
Rumor: Project Milo 'canceled,' tech moved to Fable project
Milo may have wandered off from the safety of the pond and into the jaws of a balverine. A Eurogamer source tells the site that Lionhead's Kinect-powered Project Milo was canceled yesterday, with 19 contractors let go. Surviving staffers on the boy simulator team will allegedly use the tech on a "Fable themed Kinect game." Lionhead told Joystiq today that it "cannot comment on rumors or speculation." In late June, the studio dismissed prior cancellation rumors by showing a photo of the team hard at work. That didn't happen this time. Studio head Peter Molyneux had mentioned in recent months that Milo had become a "very, very big tech demo." Perhaps it was time to finally focus on a commercial product and bury the boy alive. (Wow, that's terrifying imagery.)
Peter Molyneux brings Milo, Kinect, and snails to the TED stage
Poor Milo. Our virtual friend has been in our heart for about as long as Kinect (née Project Natal) has been in the public eye, always doodling, always playing with snail, rarely able to escape the confines of dark developer studio. When we talked to Milo's "father" Peter Molyneux at the last Engadget Show, he kept referencing this TED Talk demo he recently gave, and sure enough, video of that speech is now available online. The 11-minute presentation delves into a number of the setups / "magician's tricks" used to make Milo an interactive and at times empathetic character, and how natural voice recognition was implemented (thanks in part to Microsoft's TellMe database) so that the player isn't limited to simple yes and no responses. Curious about the moral ramifications of an artificial adolescent aggressive to mollusk? Definitely worth a look, as is our last Engadget Show episode if you missed it; video after the break.
Molyneux's Milo demo from TED conference now available
Lionhead Studio creative lead Peter Molyneux gave a TED talk last month featuring a whole mess of information about his team's "very big tech demo," Milo & Kate. Milo squashed snails and discovered the garden of his freshly minted New England property -- it was nothing short of moving. Now, through the magic of the internet, Molyneux's TED presentation is available for all to see (just after the break). Learn why snails are replaced with butterflies when you're playing with Kate and how that whole "hive mind" thing works -- no two Milos or Kates are the same, Molyneux claims. Also, you won't want to miss what happens just beyond the 10-minute mark. Check it out.
Molyneux: Milo currently a 'very, very big tech demo'
Peter Molyneux echoed statements made by Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg about Milo and Kate's status as a game in an interview with the Game Hunters. Molyneux said that "I don't think of it as a released product at the moment. I still think this is a very, very big tech demo. I don't think of it as something that would be a boxed product on the shelf." He did say that players would actually get a chance to interact with something based on Milo, despite one major hurdle. "There's a lot of huge mountains to climb before that happens," Molyneux said. "The reason for that is it is enormously contentious for us to do a game, a story, an experience, about a boy. You are immediately appealing to all the dark thoughts of humanity." (We totally weren't going there!) Molyneux sees this taboo as a challenge, citing Up, a film "about an old man and a Boy Scout" as a successful transcending of this taboo that we didn't really think about in the first place. The fact that Molyneux is in such a drawing-board stage gives us a clue as to why we can't expect to see it this holiday season.
The Engadget Show - 011: Peter Molyneux, Fable III, Milo, BlackBerry Torch, Windows Phone 7
Brace yourselves, humans, because we have an all new, amazing Engadget Show fresh out of the box! For your viewing pleasure, we sit down with insightful game designer Peter Molyneux to get the inside scoop on some of his ongoing projects, from Milo to Fable III. Then, Josh, Paul, and Nilay bust out RIM's latest, the BlackBerry Torch and put it through its paces live on stage. They dive into Windows Phone 7 and do battle with K-mart's Augen Android tablet, and a bunch of audience members walk away with giveaways. Oh yeah, we also have brain-busting music from Zen Albatross and mind-numbing visuals from invaderbacca that you will absolutely want to check out. What are you waiting for? Watch it now! %Gallery-98931% Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel Special guests: Peter Molyneux Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm Executive Producer: Joshua Fruhlinger Edited by: Peirre Verna Music by: Zen Albatross Visuals by: Invaderbacca Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec Taped live at The Times Center Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 011 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 011 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
Milo, meet TED: Molyneux demonstrates Milo at conference
Peter Molyneux brought out the big guns to impress the crowd at the TEDGlobal conference: a child stomping on a snail. Okay, maybe it's more impressive when you learn that the child was Milo from Milo & Kate, Molyneux's Kinect-based AI game, and the decision to squash the mollusk was split between demonstrator Dmitri and Milo himself. According to Wired UK's writeup of the talk, Milo encountered snails on a walk, and asked the demonstrator if he should step on it. When Dmitri encouraged him, Milo ended the poor e-creature's e-life. Live tweets from @TEDNews note that Milo hesitated before doing so. The demo continued with Milo going home to eat dinner, getting in an argument, and soliciting some words of encouragement from the player. All of this is significant not because we hate snails, but because this is the first demonstration we've seen of Milo since E3 2009. Molyneux ended the demonstration with the shocking truth that all the world's Milos are going to form a Borg-like hive mind, with the AI data "in the cloud" (as Wired puts it), continually learning from individual interactions. He also revealed a more concrete, game-like narrative for Milo, in which players experience a "tutorial" during which Milo's family moves, with the game opening up afterward to allow you and Milo to explore the new surroundings. [Image Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED Conference]
'Project Milo' team about 50 strong; 'product' not coming this holiday
Pictured here we see the "Project Milo Team" hard at work, according to a TweetPhoto posted by Lionhead Studios' Sam Van Tilburgh today. Van Tilburgh's proof comes in response to comments made by Aaron Greenberg about the status of Lionhead's Milo & Kate project in a video clip (see 0:41 mark) posted on the Australia-based ABC "Good Game" site. "Obviously, that's a tech demo -- and technology -- that continues to exist, but right now it's not a game that we're planning to bring to market," Greenberg said of Milo in the brief clip. While Van Tilburgh could not openly comment to Joystiq on the assumption (based on Greenberg's statement) that Milo could remain a non-retail tech demo, he did clarify, "There's about 50 people on the 'Project Milo Team'" (which would seem an unlikely number of staff and apparent resources to devote to a mere demo). Van Tilburgh deferred to Greenberg, who tweeted this official statement today: "Project Milo absolutely continues in development at Lionhead Studios, it is just not a product we plan to bring to market this holiday." While carefully worded, Greenberg's statement suggests that Milo, in some shape or form, is likely to be integrated into a retail product in the future. Just last week, Lionhead head Peter Molyneux teased that there was "a very interesting reason" why the updated Milo & Kate demo was not shown to media outlets during E3. Could it be that Molyneux is saving the big reveal for his scheduled TED talk? Probably not -- but the "game changing" designer will be lecturing about his "astonishing virtual friend" on Tuesday, July 13. Hopefully, he'll start to Kinect some of the dots.
Molyneux: 'Milo & Kate' fully playable, 'ten times more amazing' than before
While we did get to see (and be impressed by) Fable 3 at E3 last week, there was no sign of Peter Molyneux's other big project, the demo now known as Milo & Kate for the hardware now known as Kinect. Molyneux tells CVG that it is now fully playable, and "ten times more amazing" than it was when we saw it at last year's E3. The game was shown off to celebrities, presumably at the closed-doors hands-on session held during the bizarre Cirque du Soleil event last week. So why didn't we get to see it? "There's a very interesting reason why," says Molyneux, "but I can't tell you why." Really, Peter? Didn't we mature past this random, vague hype? Fable 2 was great, and Fable 3 looks good, so we'll be patient. But the reason why Microsoft didn't show off what sounds like one of its most enticing Kinect titles had better be "interesting" indeed.
Molyneux says Natal focus testing is 'almost impossible'
Peter Molyneux says that the biggest problem with Project Natal isn't the difficulty in programming for a new technology, but the potential users themselves. Speaking with the Times Online, Molyneux says that the Natal tech is "so different and new that trying to get a focus group to look at it and respond is almost impossible." Perhaps it's not just that people aren't responding to the likes of Milo, it's that they don't realize he will respond to them. Molyneux clarifies that his team is still working on the to-be-announced project, which we saw "glimpses" of at E3, and that they've increased "emotional engagement" since then. "The only way I see you at the moment is through your thumbs," he says. But Natal lets a virtual character see everything from body movement to facial expression, and that, says Molyneux, allows his team to "design experiences that truly resonate with you as an individual, rather than with a mass of people." While its an intriguing concept, such an open-ended design makes for a lot of pressure on the developer to ensure accessible to all kinds of individuals. Good thing there's plenty of time to pencil in more focus groups before Natal's holiday launch. [Via TVGB]
Fabled interview: Peter Molyneux at X10
It doesn't take much for Fable III designer Peter Molyneux to get going on and on about his latest project. We even managed to squeeze in a few questions for the Lionhead boss, who was on hand at yesterday's X10 media event to unveil his studio's next grand fable. Of course, it just wouldn't be polite to kick off a conversation with Molyneux without first checking in on the little one. Joystiq: So, how's Milo?
Popular Science explains the making of Project Natal
Vaunted science magazine Popular Science got to check out Project Natal at CES, and has posted its own take on the project over on its site. While most of the coverage we've seen of Microsoft's motion controller has been from the gaming press, Pop Sci comes at it from a software engineering perspective. Essentially, Microsoft is trying to build a sophisticated AI that can look at video of what you're doing in front of a camera, and translate that to information the game can use. To accomplish that, the coders behind Natal took lots and lots of reference pictures and videos, and they're still "teaching" the software what it looks like when you try to hit a soccer ball or wave at Milo. It's fascinating stuff -- thirty "guesses" per second at your body's location and movement based on what the computer "knows" about what bodies look like and how they move, and lots of calculations based on that data. Hopefully by the time it's supposed to release later this year, Natal will have figured out what it looks like when we melee with a battle rifle. [Thanks, Wonderflex!]
Job listing points to unannounced Lionhead project
Most would think that Lionhead is already plenty busy with both Fable III and Milo & Kate, both of which will support Project Natal. Apparently that's not busy enough for Peter Molyneux & Co., as Lionhead has posted a job listing for a network programmer who will take part "developing and maintaining the network code of an unannounced title." The listing gives no clues as to what the game might be, though it does ask that potential candidates be familiar with both the Xbox 360 and PC. With any luck, maybe we'll see the mystery project alongside next month's Fable III reveal. We're not counting on it though. What the game is -- if it's even a full game -- is anyone's guess. A new Populous, perhaps? A Fable application similar to Halo Waypoint? Our best guess: Peter Molyneux's Hype. [Via VG247]
