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Behold Placeholder, Blessed Holder of Places
A new Warlords of Draenor alpha build went live yesterday. Along with the usual assortment of new creature models, maps, icons, and class changes, datamining revealed perhaps the single greatest sword in Azeroth's history: Placeholder, Blessed Holder of Places. The Placeholder name has a storied place in WoW's history. Long ago in the original beta, an NPC named Captain Placeholder teleported players from Menethil Harbor to Auberdine before the transport ships had been created. He triumphantly returned to live realms for a time after a bug broke the ships. Years later, he showed up in the Cataclysm beta as Cap'n Placeholder, though he served no purpose and never appeared in the release version of the expansion. An NPC conversation in Menethil harbor spoke of him as an Alliance hero, stating "Nobody could hold a place like him. Nobody." In the Mists beta, a newly promoted Adm'rl Placeholder once again saved the day. He transported players from Orgrimmar and Stormwind to the Valley of the Four Winds while the Jade Forest zone was closed for remodeling. Is Placeholder the famous captain's sword? What item will it become? Why is it marked as junk? Why does it stack to 20, and what "reward not yet complete" will eventually find its way into our backpacks? A future patch will reveal all! Until then, hold a place in your heart for this amazing sword.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Captain Placeholder gets a promotion
As you may already know, Jade Forest is disabled in the current Mists of Pandaria beta build. If you, like me, left several level 85s standing around the place while you leveled to 90 on one, you'll be teleported out (in my case, I was ported to the nearby Valley of the Four Winds), and you'll need to find a way back to Orgrimmar or Stormwind. Once there, you'll need to find Adm'rl Placeholder, the Most Interesting Questgiver in the World. He doesn't often give quests, but when he does, they're memorable. Some of you may remember him from his days as a Captain. The Adm'rl offers a quest which, when accepted, teleports you back to the Valley of the Four Winds, this time to speak to Private Tim P. O'Rary, who will upon completion of the conversation quest (you may have to wait a few minutes for him to recognize you) will immediately boost you to level 86. Enjoy questing in the Valley, the Krasarang Wilds and of course the new leveling dungeons. I'm so glad that Placeholder got a promotion, I cannot even tell you. He's found in the trade district next to the AH in Stormwind and just outside Garrosh's playhouse for the Horde. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Xperia S, now with more PlayStation Store
While we generally liked our time with the Xperia S, we were a little perplexed as why it went on sale with a placeholder instead of proper access to Sony's PlayStation Store. That changes today, as early adopters attempting to access it will now be pointed to a new page where they can download the storefront as-well as the PS Pocket app. Per Android Central, currently there's around a dozen titles available, although curiously some still require the S' more gaming-focused brother, the Xperia Play. Seeing the update? Let us know how you fare in the comments.
What is 'ix.Mac.MarketingName' and why is it listed as a supported device for iOS apps?
On today's session of "things to ponder before lunch," we have a strange new text string added to the iTunes preview of some iOS apps, which identifies an "ix.Mac.MarketingName" as one of the compatible devices with software designed for iOS. We're seeing it listed alongside a whole bunch of apps, but importantly not all of them, which hints that it might not be just a stray piece of code or a bug in the system. The location-aware and voice-centric MyVoice Communication Aid and Microsoft's Bing for iPad apps do not include that funky MarketingName code, suggesting that it's there as a placeholder for a new supported device of some sort -- could apps finally be coming to the Apple TV? For now, we'd rather not stack speculation on top of uncertainty, so we'll just jot this down as another interesting development in the walled garden of Cupertino and wait patiently to see what (if anything) comes from it. [Thanks, Daniel, Chris and Nick]
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood confirmed by Ubisoft
[Destructoid] Kotaku has been sent an image of the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood's placeholder box art, presumably by a rogue GameStop employee. Ubisoft confirmed the image as legit, officially revealing the next title in the Assassin's Creed series starring Ezio Auditore de Firenze, and in turn confirming the veracity of a handful of details contained on the back of the temporary box art. The blurb reads, "Live and breathe as Ezio, now a legendary master assassin, in his struggle against the Templar order. Lead your own brotherhood of Assassins and strike at the heart of the enemy: Rome. And for the first time, take part in an innovative multiplayer layer allowing you to embody an assassin of your choosing and define their killing style." As you've likely guessed by now, this is the spinoff that Ubisoft revealed to be in production a few months back -- the same spinoff spotted in a domain name registration just two weeks ago (which lends more credibility to the possibility that the next Driver game will be based in San Francisco, we suppose). The tiny screenshots seen on the back of the placeholder art additionally boast "A never-before-seen online multiplayer experience" and the ability to "Lead your own brotherhood of assassins, as Ezio, and conquer Rome." As you can see on the right side, a pre-order sticker advertises the pre-order bonus of an "exclusive multiplayer character." Kotaku thinks it could be Altair, but we're gonna be rebels and hope for Renaissance-era Sam Fisher. That's synergy, baby! Update: A Ubisoft rep told Joystiq, "Ubisoft confirms the authenticity of this image and will provide more information next week."
Apple seizes 16 domain names from squatter
Apple dropped the hammer on a domain squatter the other day, reclaiming sixteen different domain names in one fell swoop. The company filed a complaint a while back against a guy named Daniel Bijan, who didn't bother to fight his case at all (not that he has one), and the result earlier this week gives them the rights to all of them. They run the gamut from iphonecheap.com to macbookpro.com (how did Apple not own that one?), and as of this writing, we couldn't find any that were actually being used by Apple yet -- they all seem to point to either a blank Apache page or a simple domain placeholder. And as you may have noticed, there are no secrets here -- macfriend.com is probably just a stab in the dark on the part of the domain squatter, and ipodsbaratos.com means "iPods cheap" in Spanish. Just Apple reclaiming some of their rightful web space.
New Mac placeholders appear in Future Shop stock system
If there's one thing we've learned over years (aside from the fact that Segway users will always be looked at strangely), it's that Best Buy's inventory systems are famous for turning us on to forthcoming wares. Just this year, strange part numbers in its stock system have correctly predicted the arrival of new MacBook Pros, the Nikon D90 and an unlocked US 3G Touch Diamond. Now, we're feasting our eyes upon the latest snippet from Future Shop's (Best Buy's Canadian sibling) inventory system, which shows a half dozen new Mac placeholders for French and English language machines. Unfortunately, "Apple Mac" is about as vague as it gets, but we wouldn't be shocked one iota to see new MBPs surface in the near future. C'mon stock system -- don't let us down.
The end of Naxxramas
I was just chatting with my colleagues here at WoW Insider about Blizzard's apparent neglect of their old content (since the expansion zones actually start at 68, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon are basically useless once Wrath comes around), and now here's another sign that Blizzard wants out with the old and in with the new. We had rumored this a while ago, but now it's been confirmed by the CMs: Old school Naxxramas is going to disappear forever when the dungeon moves up north to become a raid in Wrath of the Lich King.Which means if you want to see Naxx in its 40 man version, do it now -- I believe, as I said way back when we first heard about this, that this is the first time Blizzard has removed major content from the game completely (though it's certainly not the first time they've removed something, poor Captain Placeholder). This, of course, also leaves up in the air what's going to happen to all the items around Naxx -- what about Atiesh? Not to mention lore -- we hear that the fact that a group of players beat KT and took his phylactery and returned it to the Argent Dawn is mentioned in the expansion already -- but how did that happen if the dungeon won't be there any more?Blizzard will probably clean it all up, and I'm sure that out of game, it'll make enough sense. But it's a shame to officially hear that 40 man Naxxaramas as we know it, the jewel of patch 1.11, will soon be gone forever.
Apple leaves placeholder text in a published MobileMe page, eh?
Canada has many things going for it: maple trees everywhere, single-payer health care system and a one-of-a-kind Apple page. One of our readers just tipped us about an error on the MobileMe signup completion page for Canada. Apparently, Apple's designers left in some placeholder text on the signup "thank you" page. While Apple does (yes, they really do) make some mistakes, leaving greeked text on a webpage isn't usually one of them. [If you're saying "that looks like Latin, not Greek," see here. -Ed.]You can see the Freudian slip by visiting Apple's Canadian MobileMe signup completion page.
What really happened to the boat crews
The boats that ferry us across Azeroth are near and dear to everyone. It could be our inner pirate, eager to plunder the lubbers and scallywag some seaports. Certainly, everyone knows the tale of Captain Placeholder. The Azeroth Triangle has stolen other victims, though -- the ship's crews have been missing, hinted at returning, and then still missing. In a series of pithy moments last week, Nethaera and Eyonix revealed the sad fate of the fearless crews. It wasn't, as Neth originally claimed, workplace safety hazards that caused the vendors to go AWOL. According to Eyonix, the sight of so many poledancing Blood Elves harrowed the seamen such that they were forced to plunge to icy depths and ultimately drown. Captain Placeholder, Eyonix jokes, is the human form of Deathwing. I don't care if Eyonix disclaims two or three times that it was a joke -- for me, this is now lore and canon. Captain Placeholder is Deathwing, and I don't care what anyone else has to say about it. Clearly, he killed the boat crews to protect that secret. I fear for the fate of Eyonix for letting this spoiler into the public eye.
Getting nostalgic about old player favorites
Minkyminky kicks it off on the forums: there's a lot of things that have disappeared from the game that players really loved, and it's pretty nostalgic to think about what we used to have, and have since lost. Plainsrunning was a Tauren racial ability that was in the game before Blizzard implemented Kodos. After a quest, the cows got an aura (canceled with combat, underwater, or indoors, just like a normal mount) that let them move faster and faster up to a certain speed. Swirly ball was what the Rogue's Detect traps ability used to be-- a castable 3 minute buff that showed an annoying swirly ball that could be used to detect lag or just make noise. The old Hunter's Mark (as you all should know, this one wasn't long ago) was just an arrow, not the fancy schmancy (garish, if you ask me) deal we've got now. Baron Geddon's Living Bomb debuff used to be able to hit pets. Hunters would then dismiss their pets-- and resummon them in the Auction House to create carnage. The Hakkar virus was another debuff, this one from Hakkar, that did damage to anyone standing around the player. The debuff hit everyone in an AoE based on the target for a few hundred damage every few seconds for a few minutes, and passed on the plague. So players beat Hakkar, ported back to IF, and spread the disease around the world. This one actually made it to the media, and was used as a study for how disease spreads in a virtual environment. Captain Placeholder (my personal favorite) was a placeholder who went up while the ships between the continents were bugged. Don't miss the Lament of Captain Placeholder. Trolls used to have a "keel two dwarves in the mornin'" emote that got removed from the game, either for violence or drug references, depending on who you ask. Unfortunately, as cool as all of these things are, there's not much chance we'll ever seen any of them in the game again-- most of them are graphics that got updated to something Blizzard thought was cooler, or just simply bugs or placeholders that got "fixed" for good.But the other interesting thing is that almost all of them are clear examples of emergent gameplay-- the devs didn't plan for this stuff to be popular, it just became so. If nothing else, they can learn from what happened with these, and (as with world events) bring them back in other forms. And that's a really interesting thought-- a game designed by the players themselves.
