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Amazon's Alexa will give medical advice from the NHS
The NHS has teamed up with Amazon to bring its health information to Alexa. As part of the NHS' long term plan to make its services available digitally, users will soon be able to ask Alexa questions such as "Alex, how do I treat a migraine?" or "Alexa, what are the symptoms of chicken pox?" Alexa will then provide information drawn directly from the NHS website.
AI service gives 'Overwatch' players in-game coaching
A typical Overwatch match is hectic and fast-paced. You can't exactly consult strategy guides in the middle of a manic team fight to figure out the best course of action, so you've probably had to rely on your own experience and knowledge of the game. Your Overwatch decision making might be about to get a boost though, as an AI analytics service called Visor could help you improve at the team-based shooter by analyzing what's happening in real time and providing in-game contextual tips.
LinkedIn's Career Advice is ready to find you a mentor
Finding someone to help you advance your career can be tricky. After a limited trial in August, LinkedIn is rolling out its Career Advice feature to all its members in the US, UK, India and Australia. According to the company, more than 80 percent of professionals on the site have indicated a willingness to be a mentor or have one.
Dear Veronica: Technophobe parents and the reality of VR
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-477148{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-477148, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-477148{width:630px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-477148").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Welcome to the very first episode of Dear Veronica! Today we're covering a wide range of questions, from how to deal with parents who refuse to text, to whether or not it's time to invest in a sweet VR setup for your man cave or lady lair. If you have questions for the show, make sure you post them using the hashtag #DearVeronica. My internet gnomes will scour social media for them, looking to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Vine (yes, we'd love your video questions too!). In case you missed it, we also posted an interview with artist Sirron Norris, who created the emoji background for the set. Enjoy, and keep those questions coming!
Dear Veronica: Your guide to 21st century living
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-113329{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-113329, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-113329{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-113329").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Dear Veronica is a new tech etiquette show starring Veronica Belmont, debuting on Engadget Wednesday, June 10th, 2015. Like many of you, I have a curious mind. We're interested in technology, sure; but there's so much more to our culture these days than just gadgets and OS updates. Technology intersects with nearly every part of our lives: from medicine to art, etiquette and sports, food and love. When the team at Engadget asked me to come create a new show with them, it was this idea that was stuck in my mind. I wanted to make a series that helps us navigate this uncharted terrain. Technology is evolving so quickly that we (humans, most of us) may not be adapting fast enough. We haven't figured out the social mores. The rulebooks haven't been rewritten yet. We're kind of just figuring it out as we go. Like, what's the deal with the poop emoji, anyway? You know, the important stuff.
Ask Massively: The most popular Massively posts of 2014
Like MMOs themselves, the MMO-related stories we like aren't always the most popular across the internet. And sometimes the articles that go viral are unassuming duds with our actual commenters, not the most controversial and heated. That's what we're going to look at today in this edition of Ask Massively: the 10 most popular posts of 2014, weighted by pageviews, though we'll talk a bit about comment count as well. Enjoy this trek into the year gone by.
Hi-Rez offers more advice on how to break into the games industry
If Hi-Rez's last set of videos on how to break into the games industry didn't scare you off for good, then congrats: You are exactly the kind of idealistic glutton for punishment who should totally jump into the games industry to be underpaid and overworked for your valuable skills! Last time, the SMITE developers covered design, programming, and QA; this round, they're focused on 3-D character art and 2-D concept Art. Just before the holidays, they also pushed out a trio on marketing, shoutcasting, and streaming. Enjoy!
Ask Massively: The one where we talk about our 2014 awards
Massively's 2014 awards series is over, but we like to go back and take a look at the reader polls and some of the big questions and neat comments that arose during the course of our rollout because many of our awards were contentious, as they are every year. It'd be no fun if they weren't, I suppose. Allow us to pontificate, and in the course of the review, we'll try to answer some frequently asked questions as well.
How to break into the games industry according to Hi-Rez
If for some reason you find yourself possessed of an urge to seek a career in the video games industry, convinced that it's a stable meritocracy that will help you build skills and provide financial support for your family, then don't watch the videos in the post; instead, flee, flee for your lives! Just kidding. Mostly. Hi-Rez Studios -- of SMITE, Tribes: Ascend, and Global Agenda fame -- has released a series of videos this week all about breaking into the games industry. Unless you already have a giant pile of money to fund your own studio, the videos actually provide some useful advice, focusing on cultivating a specific skill in demand at game studios. There are five videos in all: two on the basics and one apiece on design, programming, and that most glamorous of jobs, QA. Check 'em out below.
Ask Massively: Scoring last year's MMO predictions
One of my favorite things to do every year is go back to the previous year's staff predictions. What did we think 2014 was going to look like in the MMO world back at the end of 2013? How wrong were we, and where did we hit eerily close to the mark? I won't include everything, just some of the more prophetic and ridiculous ideas our current staff offered a year ago. Feel free to share your own fulfilled prophecies down in the comments.
Ask Massively: Ridiculing e-sports is bad for MMOs
I don't love e-sports. I've never really been a fan. I used to enjoy spectating Guild Wars matches, but only in short bursts. Truth is, I prefer playing in PvP to watching it. I feel that way about real sports too; the ones I like, I'd rather play than watch. (Except tennis. I have no idea why, but I could watch that all day.) And if the MMORPG community's comments are any judge, I am not alone in my indifference to e-sports. Actually, "indifference" is probably too tame a word; some MMO gamers are outright hostile to e-sports, be those e-sports jammed into proper MMORPGs or waaaaay out on the fringes of the online gamosphere. That hostile ridicule of e-sports, however, degrades online gaming, our corner of it as much as anyone's.
The Daily Grind: What advice would you give as a gamer to a developer?
Communication between developers and gamers isn't always as simple as a one-on-one chat. The devs have an enormous microphone that gamers can't help but hear, but they also have everything they say scrutinized and analyzed past the point of helpfulness. Gamers, on the other hand, can only shout into the wind and hope that their voice rises above the rest of the mob to be heard by a studio team. But let's pretend that today, all of the MMO devs in the world are in an audience and you are up on stage with the mic. What advice would you give them? What would you want devs to know if they were really listening to you? 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!
Ask Massively: Dancing on WildStar's grave
This week's revelation that WildStar Design Producer Stephen Frost is quitting his role is not the first and likely won't be the last blow to the beleaguered game. Carbine lost several high-profile developers before and after launch, and with raiding guilds abandoning the title, server merges on the way, endgame grind being scaled back, updates being heavily delayed, and Christmas being canceled, even more players are losing faith in the title. That's nothing new in our industry. MMOs are big and unwieldy and sometimes launch with terrible underlying problems. They can usually pull out of a nosedive, given time. So let's give them time. But there's a whole contingent of gamers already dancing on WildStar's grave when it's not even dead. It's one thing to deeply oppose a game's design, but if you take delight in watching major MMOs flounder, you don't really deserve this genre at all.
Breakfast Topic: What do you think of Durotan?
The latest edition of Lords of War was released yesterday, and I have to say it's my favorite so far. The voice acting was top notch, and the story was slightly less in-your-face with the violence and vengeance. Instead, it was almost touching, in a way -- with a haunting warning message that makes it absolutely, abundantly clear why Durotan and the Frostwolves aren't currently hanging out with the rest of the Iron Horde. It was also cool to see some younger orcs, and get a look at Geyah before she became the Greatmother we all know from Garadar. This is, however, the first time we've seen a story that is pretty blatantly divergent from the lore we already know. In our history, Durotan's brother was never mentioned -- maybe he got himself killed at a young age, maybe he simply didn't exist, we don't really know. I think the only thing bothering me right now, and I should really just let it go for the sake of the story but it's becoming harder to do so, is how the heck did Maraad know any of this was going on? Why would he be talking about Durotan's virtues, when in our version of history, Durotan was the one who unveiled Telmor and allowed hundreds of draenei to be brutally murdered? Obviously the story is from an alternate version of history, but the Maraad introductions are becoming increasingly implausible. But I'm doing my best to just ignore that aspect, because frankly the animated tales are some of the best stuff I've ever seen. With beautifully drawn stories like these, I think I can let one draenei's mysterious all-seeing knowledge of everything orc related slide. What did you guys think of the latest Lords of War? What do you think of the Frostwolf Clan -- and what do you think of Durotan?
Ask Massively: Destiny is not the boss of me
Bungie's Destiny launches next week, and since it is by most appearances an MMO (or possibly a fragrance), we've been covering it, albeit lightly since our primary audience is not a console-only audience. But hasn't Bungie said that Destiny isn't an MMO? That was Massively reader icnoevil's primary objection to our coverage: So if the devs themselves have said the game is not an MMO, why does it keep showing up on this site? There's a little thing I repeat to myself every once in a while when studio reps are being pushy about our coverage: I don't work for them. I work for Joystiq.
Ask Massively: Emergency soccer practice
Today's Ask Massively question comes to us from a reader named Chris, who has had it up to here with you quitters! Yes, you, guy who just AFKed out of Warsong Gulch! After playing my fifth consecutive round of SMITE with an AFK player, I am fed up. AFKer, quitters, or whatever you want to call them -- they suck. Why is it unreasonable to expect gamers to commit to finishing a simple (even possibly enjoyable) 30-minute activity? Why can't they stay in their seat and just freakin' click some buttons? Leaving doesn't cost the quitter anything, but it certainly sucks for the team you leave short-handed. If this were a little league baseball game, we wouldn't say, "It's just a game, so you go ahead and eat pizza with your buddies instead of playing with us." And why can't game companies find a way to make this problem go away? Reporting systems are just a small step away from absolutely useless! I know that real-world stuff happens. The doorbell rings, the power goes out, or the kids set the kitchen on fire. But AFK rates seem way too high for just that. Gamers seem to conveniently forget what it really means to finish what they started. And if you can't do it for a simple game, how in the hell will you do it when it is something truly hard? Unfortunately, I know this problem well. In my guild, we call it "emergency soccer practice," an actual reason someone once gave us for quitting a dungeon group.
The Nexus Telegraph: The basics of crafting a WildStar build
There are few things I love so much as writing a column for June 30th only to find out on the 30th that the patch I'm discussing is going live on July 1st. You know, when it's too late to change anything. I really would have been happy to have found that out before the day. But, hey, WildStar's first patch came out, and now I've had a couple of weeks to explore it a bit. Am I happy with it? Sufficiently, yes, although I haven't yet digested it in full. For one month out from launch, I can't complain much. Of course, that's not the first thing that I want to talk about today. I want to talk about builds. Rather than giving you the absolute best-of-the-best builds for tanking and DPS and so forth, which I can't quite do, I want to help you figure out how to make a build that works. It's a satisfyingly interactive, and there are lots of very functional options however you choose to build your character.
Ask Massively: Seven seriously spectacular reasons to hate clickbait
Oh hi! Welcome to our clickbait article, and thanks for clicking! No really, let's talk about clickbait. Massively reader Avaera recently posed to me a question that dovetailed nicely with a few complaints I've seen in our comments. He wrote, Does Massively make a deliberate effort to minimize the number of perceived "clickbait" opinion pieces? That is, to make sure that any controversial topics or unpopular opinions are discussed only sparingly, so that the perception and reputation of the site is kept relatively neutral? I can completely understand trying to manage a certain tone for the community; I'm just curious if that is an explicit factor in some editorial decisions. I'll tell you, but first you have to click to find out!
The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the best newbie support system?
Everybody's a new player to a particular MMO at some point, even if grizzled vets would like you to believe that they were already at the level cap when the cosmos came into being. I think it's easy to forget how complex and mystifying these games can be to a fresh set of eyes, especially when one is coming into the game long after launch. That's why I always applaud an MMO that puts an emphasis on supporting newbies with helpful advice and even structured mentorships. Two examples come to mind: Fallen Earth has a terrific help channel that's staffed with volunteers and CMs on a regular basis, and Anarchy Online had a player advisory group that roams the beginner zones looking to help lost players. So which MMO do you think has the best newbie support system? 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!
The Think Tank: Finding the magic in MMOs
About a month ago, a Massively reader wrote to our team to ask for help on an issue many of us -- and probably many of you -- struggle with: a genre with lots of games and not enough stickiness (and patience!). I've been around the MMO block (since EverQuest); I even dabbled in Meridian 59. And I keep seeing game articles that make me want to try or retry lots of MMOs, but between my schedule and investment in other titles already, I cannot bring myself to jump into old or new games for more than a few play sessions. There's so many to play that I just can't bring myself to settle down for a little bit to really get enough of the experience to enjoy it. For example, I recently played Asheron's Call for a total of three hours after subbing and reading articles that compelled me to try it. But it felt foreign and clunky. I couldn't stick around to really appreciate it. I fear the same results in other games I'd like to try. Can you give me advice on shedding the urge to judge and dismiss a game if it doesn't click with me immediately? Is there a way to not be jaded or lazy with being a newbie (yet again) in older titles? Help me play more MMOs for the sake of experience and new loves! - MMO junkie seeking help "finding the magic" I polled the team for advice in this week's Think Tank!