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There could be as many as six billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy
The findings could have a big impact on future space missions.
Should this be the flag for planet Earth?
What's going to happen when astronauts finally land on Mars? In all likelihood, the expedition will be a joint effort between multiple nations and space agencies. So when a perilous explorer steps out onto the red planet, we might need a new flag. One that represents Earth. Such a mission is unlikely to happen any time soon, but already one designer has drawn up a potential flag design. It features a blue background and seven interlocking rings, which creator Oskar Pernefeldt says forms a flower. It was made for a graduation project, so there's nothing to suggest it'll be adopted, and oddly NASA is listed among the project's contributors. Do you think it does the job? Let us know below. Update: NASA has confirmed it wasn't involved in the creation of the flag design. "When we go to Mars, we will carry an American flag," a spokesperson told Engadget.
Korean press miffed at lack of flagship Apple Store
South Korea really loves Apple's new iPhones. The company managed to outpace pre-orders of the Galaxy Note 4 -- which comes from South Korea-based Samsung -- more than three times over. Unfortunately, the South Korean press hasn't been quite as charmed by Apple, and as Patently Apple points out, some reports coming out of the country are taking an oddly envious tone in regards to other countries getting official Apple Store treatment. "Apple announced on Oct. 26 that it is going to set up 25 more Apple Stores in China within two years in addition to the 15 already open," reads one report. "However, the company is not running any Apple Store in Korea, although it has done business in the country for five years," it continues, adding "Even Zimbabwe has one." The reporter cites an unnamed "industry insider" who claims that Apple would only consider a store in a couple of locations in South Korea, and that the cost of renting a space is a key factor in Apple not having set up shop in the country yet. The report wraps up by questioning "when Apple is going to take proper care of Korean customers."
Chronulator: how to make world time both ugly and confusing
I work with people all over the world and it's useful to know in advance what time it is where they are to schedule voice and video calls. Frankly, it's not that complex. The basic iOS Clock app has that covered. Or you could just ask Siri. And there are an endless number of apps that can help you visualize the time difference. Somehow Chronulator manages to make the task of figuring out the time somewhere else a real trial. This free app requires iOS 6.1 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. Here's a test: using the main display from the Chronulator app, tell me what time is it in London? Chronulator uses a large dial set on a black background and displays city or location names as some sort of curved flag or banner. Some, but not all of the locations also include a thin line connecting to a 24-hour clock around the dial's face. The banners make it difficult to quickly glance at the display and determine what time it is in various locations. That defeats the purpose of the app. The app is made even more confusing for those of us who do not think in a 24 hour or "military time" clock. That's another conversion you have to do in your head (what time is 1500 hours?). Yes, I can do math, but the point of an app like this is to make it easy to see what time it is somewhere else, not calculate it. For fun, here's the same display with the app's maximum of 7 locations: I still don't know what time it is in London. You can touch this display dial to turn the clock, so to speak, and see what time it will be in Tokyo when it's 2 P.M. where you are. Apparently you will still be unable to tell what time it will be in London. It's also confusion that Zero hour (12 A.M.) is at the bottom of the dial, not the top. I don't find this app to be useful. I find it much easier to just ask Siri, "What time is it in Tokyo?" Frankly, you don't need any 3rd party apps for this. If you want to see the times in multiple world cities just use the built in iOS clock, which you can quickly display by sweeping up from the bottom of the screen. It's a clean, easy to understand display and it's built right in. If you do need a reference display I recommend the very nicely designed Every Time Zone web site. It works great as a web app on your iOS device, too. Also, check out The Time Is Now. Don't bother with Chronulator. There's enough confusion and ugliness in life as it is.
LEGO Minifigures Online rolls out a mythological update
With a month or so to go before LEGO Minifigures Online fully launches, the game has brought forth its biggest update yet. So what does it contain? Nothing less than the new Mythology World, which also brings an increase in the level cap to 25 along with its new areas and monsters. The area also continues the main story if that's more of your thing. Aside from the new area, the Series 11 minifigures have been added to the game, along with the first batch of cash shop figures that includes the Yeti, the Mountain Climber, and the Pretzel Girl. Players can also find their friends more easily with the addition of a friend code, and the loot system has been overhauled to allow players a chance to build minifigures from loot. Check out the full set of update notes for more detail and get building in the game if it's just what you've been waiting for.
Listen as a Google-backed piano turns live radio streams into 'world music'
If Google promised to fund your bohemian lifestyle for six months, in return for some kind of interactive art installation, what would you create? For the New York-based artist, Zach Lieberman, the answer was something totally out of the ordinary: He built the world's most connected digital piano, which plays notes extracted from our planet's cacophony of live radio streams.
Take a trip across Chicago in Watch Dogs video
Some players may want to familiarize themselves with the world ahead of Watch Dogs' release tomorrow and need all the resources they can get. With that in mind, this video guides viewers through the game's map, courtesy of the YouTubers at PlayStation Access. The video does miss a few areas of the map, but generally winds its way across the game's version of Chicago. Watch Dogs will launch tomorrow for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The Ubisoft Montreal-developed open-world game will also arrive on Wii U at some point, which Ubisoft said it is "fully focused on" earlier this month. [Image: Ubisoft]
Minecraft video demonstrates world customization update
Minecraft developer Mojang showed off one piece of the forthcoming update for the PC game in a new video today, which offers more options for world customization in the game. The video shows the game's 16 new terrain-modifying sliders, allowing players to manually set the foundation of their Minecraft worlds down to its "depth base size" and "upper limit scale." Additionally, the update will include other customization functions, such as the ability to decide which structures are generated by the game like caves, villages, temples and strongholds. Players will also have the option to set the number of dungeons and the height of their world's sea level in the game. If all that sounds too complex, Mojang included seven preset worlds and their slider settings to get players acquainted with the building tools. There's no word on when the Minecraft update is scheduled to arrive. [Image: Mojang]
The World as Story: Emergent storytelling in World of Warcraft
How does storytelling function in World of Warcraft? What are its limits? Does it have to unfold solely via quest text, or can it be told via other means? I ask this in part due to a developing discussion on the scale and scope of how the world we interact with as we play reveals the story elements. Back when I first started playing WoW, game story was almost exclusively revealed via quest text. When it wasn't, it was often revealed via in-game books. I remembered being floored with the pre-fight scene between Majordomo Executus and Ragnaros because it was a bit of story happening entirely in front of my eyes via dialogue and scene. Over the years World of Warcraft has added a host of tools to its story delivery options - cutscenes, scenarios, events like Battle for Undercity, open-ended exploration, and quest integration with each of these kinds of vectors for story. It's not all just text anymore - we have in-game cinematics, cut-scenes rendered and played through using totally in game scenes, dialogue (the end of the Isle of Thunder, when Jaina and Lor'themar confronted one another was entirely realized through in-game dialogue), scenarios like A Little Patience and Dagger in the Dark, and even more complex combinations of all of them. The Dominance Offensive/Operation Shieldwall story in particular was unveiled through all of these techniques, using every arrow in the quiver to drive the story points home. I'm bringing this up because of the recent revelation that not all secondary objectives in Warlords of Draenor will have quest text. The discussion led to a series of tweets from Dave Kosak that I think definitely are worth discussing. How do we get story in an MMO? Can the world we encounter be the story itself? As we move through it, how can it be best presented to us?
City of Titans gives a cab's-eye view of the city
Superhero games aren't just about having fantastic powers; they're about the space you live in. Cities have characters all of their own; Metropolis is all gleaming idealism, Marvel's New York is like an enlarged version of the real New York, and Gotham City is approximately 85% gargoyles by volume. So it's important for City of Titans fans to know what Titan City is like before they start playing. And who better to explain the city than your average Titan City cab driver? As it turns out, pretty much every joke you can think of about superhuman battles has already been made. In a city filled with heroes, you know that every so often there's going to be a villain knocked through your office, and a support structure exists for dealing with just that eventuality. Read the full Kickstarter update for more details on how the game world works and how people can keep living in a city where you occasionally find a portal to nether dimensions opening right above your favorite Thai restaurant.
Proteus launching on PS3 and Vita this month with new world generation options
Curve Studios' "video dream" Proteus will launch this month on PS3 and Vita. The exploration game will include new world creation features on the Sony platforms. Players can generate their worlds using the Vita's location-tracking option and by using the current date on both PS3 and Vita. Also, players will have the chance to "remix" their worlds by using the Vita's back touch panel, and can still let the game randomly create their pixelated dreamscape. Proteus first launched on PC and Mac in January. For those that can't wait for the PS3 and Vita versions, it is available on both Steam and DRM-free through the game's official site DRM-free for $10.
The Elder Scrolls Online wants you to explore everywhere
Any RPG player worth his or her salt knows that there are two primary maxims to making it big: explore everywhere and take everything not nailed down. Fortunately, ZeniMax subscribes to this philosophy as well, which is why the team has placed an emphasis on exploration and loot-gobbling in The Elder Scrolls Online. In a new video, Creative Director Paul Sage shows how players can loot all manner of goods in the world and then use those items for crafting. He also points out how the world will be populated with readable books, fishable areas, hidden chests, and ability-boosting stones. So if you were wondering if it's OK to rob a church in TESO, the following video should assure you that it's more than fine -- it's encouraged.
The Daily Grind: Which game world do you love the best?
The game world can be a magical, wondrous place, and it can be a mechanical, sterile gaming experience. The difference between the two types is both subtle and clearly apparent for me. I've been in MMOs where the world is just a stage where props have been thrown around to provide a basic, expected setting. I've also been in MMOs where the world honestly comes alive to me through the shared imaginations of myself and the developers. So I have a simple dare when I log into a game: Make me fall in love with your world. Enchant me. Come alive to me. Be more than a winter zone stitched together with a lava zone, and exude a history and continuity that helps me believe that this could be a place where people actually lived. Of all of the game worlds you've experienced, which do you love the best and why? 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!
Iran unblocks Gmail, admits it only wants to restrict YouTube in the country
Iranians who lost access to Gmail on September 24th should now be able to access their emails again after the government relaxed its ban. Telecommunications minister Rezi Miri conceded that the internet filter used couldn't distinguish between the eponymous email service and YouTube, which has been banned for distributing inflammatory materials. Officials have said that, at least initially, its own proprietary intranet will exist alongside the internet, but didn't go into specifics. [Original Image: Wikimedia Commons]
Minecraft: Pocket Edition gets furnaces
Mojang has updated the mobile version of Minecraft (subtitled Pocket Edition), adding furances and smelting to the mix. Now you can either find or build block type yourself. You can also grow your own trees by collecting saplings from cut leaves, and find Diamond, Gold, and Iron ore. You can then smelt ore into various objects and tools to continue exploring the world. In other words, the game is basically Minecraft, only on the mobile iOS platform. Minecraft is available for US$6.99 in a universal version from the App Store right now. There's also a free version with limited features, but it doesn't include this latest update anyway, so if you want to play the real thing on a mobile platform, you must shell out seven bucks.
ArenaNet shares world and gem store details for Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event
Unless some crazy Asura experiments are playing havoc with the timestream, the much-anticipated second Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event is getting closer all the time! In preparation for that, the ArenaNet blog is now sporting a new dose of information about worlds and world transfers in this beta weekend. One of the big changes for this BWE is the inclusion of dedicated French and German servers. A number of the European servers have been marked specifically for French and German, two of the officially supported languages. New players will be able to pick any of the 96 servers (that's 48 US-based servers and 48 European) to be their home world. Players from the previous BWE will have a 30-hour window from 3:00 p.m. EDT on Friday to 9:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday during which they can transfer between worlds without spending any gems. After that time-frame, transfers will cost the normal 1,800 gems. Each account will be credited with 500 free gems automatically. Players will also be able to get an additional 2,000 gems; you won't actually be charged for the transaction, but you'll have to enter valid credit card details in the Gem Store. Check out the exhaustive server list on the the official post.
Ask Massively: Haven't had an animal picture since March edition
So I was looking at the Wikipedia page for capybaras when I realized that I haven't had an animal picture as my header here since March. That just doesn't seem right. I do try to make a conscious effort to avoid putting animals up here all the time, but considering that a good portion of my day is spent thinking about critters, two months seems a really long while. So, here's a capybara. I was originally going to go with a tapir, but I have to pace myself. What was this column supposed to be about? Oh, right, it's the new installment of Ask Massively, discussing the issue of non-European fantasy settings and the potential for more love of crowdsourced projects. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, mail it along to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.
ArenaNet reveals world transfer details for Guild Wars 2
To wrap up what's been a very exciting day for Guild Wars 2 beta weekend participants, ArenaNet has published a blog post detailing world choice and the mechanics of transferring worlds. Upon first logging into the game, players will be able to pick any home world server available, including those in a different region from where they purchased the game. All characters thereafter are created on that home world. World transfers are possible, but have both a time and gem cost. A player can change home worlds only once every seven days and must shell out 1,800 gems to do so. Once the game goes live, however, a "guesting" feature will be available to allow players to join friends on any world, although players won't be able to participate in WvW for their temporary host server. Guesting won't be in for the beta weekend event, but players will be able to test out transferring worlds. Each account will be able to unlock 2,000 free gems for the BWE, which will cover the cost of a transfer and a little more. A complete server list for the upcoming beta weekend event is available in ArenaNet's blog post.
New iPad launching in 21 additional countries this month
Apple today issued a press release announcing the new third-generation iPad will go on sale in another twleve countries starting on Friday, April 20. Notably, one of the twelve is the important South Korean market. The other eleven countries include Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela. Then one week later on Friday, April 27, Apple will begin selling the new iPad in an additional nine countries: Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand. Both the Wi-Fi and 4G models will be on sale and available through Apple's online store and at select Apple Authorized Resellers. The new iPad will be available in 56 countries around the world as of April 27th.
Total war and Mists of Pandaria
If you've ever seen Joyeux Noel, you're familiar with the concept of a temporary armistice -- not like the AQ-40 events where Alliance and Horde fought together against a greater threat, but instead a simple cease-fire for various reasons. I recently mentioned the idea of Cross-Faction Real ID raiding, but this isn't that. Instead, I'm finding myself wondering about how the war in warcraft is presented in World of Warcraft and how it could be presented. Warfare often has twists and turns that when viewed later through the lens of history seem absurd. In our own history (a history devoid of things like magic), we've seen bat bombs, fire balloons, and even British Secret Service agents playing pranks on Nazi sympathizers in South America. War is often terrible, yes, but it's also ludicrous and insane. How much more bizarre, incomprehensible and deranged could war become in a world where orcs throw demon fire at humans who pull the raw power of Light down through themselves? This leads me to wonder how total war between the factions in World of Warcraft will be presented.
