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DIYRockets starts a challenge to build open source, 3D-printed rocket engines
DIYRockets believes that our chances of advancing space exploration improve when everyone can lend a hand. The company is putting its money where its mouth is by launching a competition to develop 3D-printed rocket motors using Sunglass' cloud design platform. Teams who sign up have to build an engine that could boost a nanosatellite-level payload into low Earth orbit using 3D-printed steel and other safe materials. The only major stipulations are that creators present a good business case and open-source their creations to help out other builders. DIYRockets' prize strategy reflects its for-the-greater-good ambitions: there's a $5,000 award for the best motor, but there are separate $2,500 prizes for both a student creation and the design that contributes the most to the industry. Registration officially starts on March 9th, and runs until April 6th, with the finished models due on June 1st. We'll be closer to a crowdsourced vision of space when the winners are revealed by July 1st.
Should green fire be prestigious?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill wishes the mages would stop sending out the bad voodoo vibes to everything she owns so she can buy new fun things for her birthday instead of old replacements. There's plenty to look for through the datamining, but the question on everyone's mind is, "How do I start the questline?" Trust me, when someone finds out, I'm sure the internet will explode about it. It'll probably be on a Monday, during my other job's hours, and right after this column posts, knowing my luck. But before I get into an all-out walkthrough of the questline, I want to discuss one thing: does green fire have to be exclusive? Is exclusivity required for meaningfulness?
Challenge Modes could be coming to older dungeons
Blizzard Community Manager Draztal posted on the forums today in response to a topic created about Challenge Modes. Draztal Quote: Will you guys ever consider adding more CMs, perhaps old dungeons like Ragefire Chasm/Wailing Caverns?. Actually, the developers would like to add Challenge Modes to existing dungeons from previous expansions. No timelines or anything, though, but it's definitely something they're considering. source This seems like a really exciting proposition, and the question is, what dungeons would be the best ones to redo? We discussed this at WoW Insider, very briefly, and one suggestion was Upper Blackrock Spire and Lower Blackrock Spire. My preference would likely not be anything that took place in Blackrock Mountain, just because it seems like such a samey place, but what do you all think, dear readers?
'Smoked by Windows Phone' campaign stops the smack talk, asks you to 'Meet your Match'
The "Smoked By Windows Phone" marketing drive has seen over 250,000 head-to-head handset battles so far, with many hits for Redmond and also a few embarrassing misses. The campaign is now changing tack to embrace a slightly safer, less physical tone, under the banner of "Meet your Match." The side-by-side comparisons with rival phones will remain, but the spotlight has been broadened to cover features like camera work and sharing, among others, instead of focusing only on speed. While it's likely the offer of free phones as prizes that will light up faces in the promo vids, regardless of the strengths of the OS itself, the overall pitch certainly feels more on-point than some others we've seen.
Dreamhack, now with more Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard has announced that they'll be present at this year's Dreamhack Winter 2012 in Jonkoping, Sweden, from Novermber 22nd to the 25th. In addition to Starcraft Academy, where lucky people will learn how to play SCII from professional SCII players, there will be a Jade Serpent Challenge Mode contest (you can use your own computer), as well as round table discussions about World of Warcraft, Starcraft II and Diablo III. The round tables will be on November 23rd and 24th, and if you're interested in participating, send an email to community-EN@blizzard.com with [DHW12] in the subject line. (If you use that link, it should be included for you.) The World of Warcraft round tables are scheduled for Friday at 12:30 CET – 14:00 CET and Saturday at 16:30 CET – 18:00 CET. Your email should include your name and what panels you're interested in participating in. So if you're going to Dreamhack, definitely go chat with the fine folks at Blizzard. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Mass Effect 3 goes trick-or-treating with a Halloween Challenge
BioWare is celebrating Halloween with a special trick and treat-inspired multiplayer challenge in Mass Effect 3. Beginning today and running through November 5, there are three new tasks for players to take on to earn a special holiday reward: Players need to run five extractions on the Firebase Ghost map (or its Hazard version), earn 7500 points against zombies (also known as husks or abominations in the Mass Effect parlance) and earn 10,000 points against monsters (which includes brutes, scions, praetorians, and banshees). Completing the tasks on any difficulty will earn players a Halloween Challenge Banner. What's too bad is that you won't get the Halloween-themed characters teased above to join your gang. Bioware doesn't say, but we're pretty sure they're crew members for some other Mass Effect 3 team, maybe helmed by one Commander SCARE-perd of the USS Norman-DIE! Boooooo! [Ed. Note: You're fired.]
Google patches SVG and IPC exploits in Chrome, discoverer banks $60,000 in the process
Google revels in hacking contests as ways of testing Chrome's worth. Even if the browser is compromised, the failure provides a shot at fixing an exploit under much safer circumstances than an in-the-wild attack. No better example exists than the results of Google's Pwnium 2 challenge in Malaysia: the company has already patched vulnerabilities found in the contest that surround SVG images and IPC (inter-process communication) before they become real problems. Staying one step ahead of truly malicious hackers carries a price, however. Pwnium 2 winner Pinkie Pie -- yes, Pinkie Pie -- is being paid $60,000 in prize money for catching the exploits. That may be a small price to pay if it reassures a few more Internet Explorer users looking to hop the fence.
Mass Effect 3 enacts Operation Overdrive this weekend
The forces of Mass Effect 3 are back at it again this weekend, running a weekly event called Operation Overdrive. Just like the other events in this series, there's both a squad and an allied goal, with separate rewards for each.The squad goal this time will be to hit full extraction on any map in just 20 minutes or less, and that will nab you a Commendation Pack if completed. The Allied Goal is across all of the game's players, and asks for 200,000 extraction waves to be beaten in total. Completing that goal will get everyone involved a Victory Pack. Not to mention all of the lives that will be saved from repelling the Reaper invasion, right?
Challenge Mode Leaderboards live on Battle.net
The Blizzard web team has announced the arrival of Challenge Mode leader boards on the Battle.net sites in the EU and the US. These leaderboards aren't exactly alight with activity right now, as most players are still engaged in leveling and the minimum level for challenge mode dungeons is 90. However, once more people get to 90, get familiar with the dungeon content, and get their item level up to the advised, but not required, 463, the leader boards the team have put together will be an invaluable resource. They allow you, of course, to view all the top-ranked team runs, but also allow you to filter those by class. You could look up every team with a priest in it, or a mage. And once you have that information, you can also use the leaderboards to easily access their spec and gear. If you're logged in, you can also check out how well your guild is doing in challenge modes for various dungeons. Check the full post out after the break!
No nerfs, no lockouts, no consumable restrictions for Challenge Mode dungeons
Blizzard's Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas, a.k.a. Watcher, has taken to the forums a few times lately, along with Community Manager Zarhym, to provide clarification on Challenge Modes. With all the bad air swirling around Blizzard from certain minority groups within the WoW community about catering to casuals, challenge modes are something they seem very keen to stand firm on. When asked if challenge modes would ever be nerfed, Ion replied as follows: Watcher If at all feasible, we're not going to be adjusting the content itself. Persistent leaderboards are the backbone of the system, and if we make the dungeon easier, then your 14:13 time last week might actually be more impressive than my 14:05 clear today, but there would be no way of knowing that. It's conceivable that we might adjust the actual Gold/Silver/Bronze cutoff times slightly if it turns out we were badly off the mark with the tuning, but we're pretty confident in our numbers. source Zarhym also weighed in with his own input on the nerf question.
DC Universe Online's update 18 goes live
If you're hoping for a bunch of new content with the latest update to DC Universe Online, you'll be disappointed. If you're hoping for a better system of player rewards and more challenging encounters, you'll be quite pleased. Game Update 18 ushers in several changes to the game's challenges, alerts, and duos, providing players with both a smoother set of progression content and a more unified system of rewards. Aside from reorganizing several pieces of group content into clearer progression tiers, the update unifies reward currencies into Marks of Triumph. Reward items are all purchased via Marks of Triumph, with higher-tier items requiring a correspondingly larger number of Marks. Players will also receive a weekly award box the first time they clear a Tier 1 through 3 challenge within a week; these award boxes contain both Marks of Triumph and a random level-appropriate item. For more details on the particulars of these revisions, take a look at the full update list, or just log in and start playing.
Big updates for Fairway Solitaire and Junk Jack
Two of my favorite iOS games from the last few years have gotten big updates today. Fairway Solitaire is a really brilliant puzzle/card game that combines golf and solitaire in a fun way, and it's gotten a big update that adds a whole bunch of ongoing content. The game now has a "Daily Mode" where you can play a brand new challenge every single day, and earn new Challenge Cups to unlock even more courses. There's also a new card back and push notifications -- Fairway Solitaire is completely free, and that makes it one of the best cost-to-fun ratio games I've ever seen on any platform. Definitely give it a look if you haven't yet. Junk Jack has also gotten another big update, although the team behind that game has warned players not to install it just yet (there's apparently a game-breaking bug involved). Whenever the expedited update does drop, there will be a whole mess of new items in the 2D Minecraft-like sandbox title, including bows, animals to tame, new hidden treasures, lots of inventory and UI updates, and lots of revamped graphics in the world. The update sounds awesome, and Junk Jack is a great game. It's too bad the team got caught by a bug, but hopefully the next update will be out as soon as possible and everything will work fine again.
Sigma R&D shows Kinect sign language and Jedi savvy to win gesture challenge (video)
Sigma R&D has won first prize in a gesture challenge to show just how much more talent -- like sign language translation and light saber fun -- can be unlocked in a Kinect. Normally the Microsoft device can only scope body and full mitt movements, but the research company was able to track individual fingers with a Kinect or similar sensor, plus its custom software, allowing a user's hand to become a more finely tuned controller. To prove it, the company introduced a virtual lightsaber to a subject, tracking his swordsmanship perfectly and using his thumb extension to turn it on and off. The system even detected when a passing gesture was made, seamlessly making a virtual transfer of the weapon. The same tech was also used to read sign language, displaying the intended letters on the screen for a quick translation. The SDK is due in the fall, when we can't wait to finally get our hands on a Jedi weapon that isn't dangerous or plasticky. To believe it for yourself, see the videos after the break.
Microsoft touts 98-percent 'Smoked by Windows Phone' success rate, a few beg to differ
Microsoft's "Smoked by Windows Phone" challenge has been long on claims that Windows Phone can outrace your smartphone platform of choice in day-to-day tasks, but it's been short on hard numbers. Until now, that is. Company Evangelist Ben Rudolph claims that over 50,000 smartphones -- or 98 percent of all contenders -- have been beaten in the challenges since the company started running them back at CES, with just 638 people having proved their devices faster at a trade show or a Microsoft Store. That's good news for advocates, although it doesn't come without its share of controversies over fairness and whether or not the challenges overlook the advantages of your Android phone, BlackBerry or iPhone. Ultimately, the real challenge for Microsoft may be translating those successes into real improvements for its so-so market share.
Lord of the Rings Online explains Moria revamp
Since the word came down recently that Turbine is revamping much of Lord of the Rings Online's Moria, players have been buzzing about the merits and scope of such a project. Content Developer Lauren Salk posted an article on the official site explaining the reasoning behind the decision as well as the specific changes involved. Salk said that Turbine wanted to respond to player complaints about the difficulty and pace of Moria's leveling experience. She admits that the quests did not always lead to the best places and resulted in a frustrating stint underground instead of an amazing journey. Salk confessed that the zone even frustrated her mother, who never made it all the way through. With Update 7, LotRO will update half of Moria, while the latter half will come later on down the road. In addition to a smoother quest flow, additional quests, and an easier difficulty level, Turbine's adding tasks for all to enjoy. Travel through Moria will become more pleasant, as the lighting will be adjusted, additional stable routes added, monsters moved out of the major pathways, and a no-reputation goat made available from the start.
The Soapbox: The perils of passive gaming
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. My folks don't really understand my infatuation with video games (and MMORPGs in particular). "How can you sit there and play a game for two or three hours at a time?" my mom is fond of asking. Ironically, this usually happens on a visit that ends where most of our visits do: on the couch in front of the television. Don't get me wrong; she's no couch potato, and in fact she has the meanest green thumb you'll ever see. When the sun goes down, though, my parents (like most of their generation, I'll wager) park their butts in front of the TV. That I should park my own posterior in front of the computer is exceedingly strange to them even though online gaming is to the 21st century what television was to the 20th. I wonder, though, if games are starting to become more passive forms of TV-like entertainment.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New Dungeon and Raid Finder UI
The Dungeon and Raid Finder tools are getting a visual overhaul in Mists of Pandaria, combining multiple tools into one. The new menu, opened by default with I or Ctrl+I, mashes together the Dungeon and Raid Finders into one utility along with the new Scenario Finder and a tab for dungeon Challenges. I liked when the PvP interface was mashed together but it still had the drop-down menu issue. Hopefully, there will be a day when drop-down menus are gone forever. Check out this gallery of the new Dungeon and Raid Finder utilities that I just snapped in beta. What do you guys think? %Gallery-151580% 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!
Captain's Log: Focus on the Foundry
The Foundry is Star Trek Online's user-generated content tool, one that allows players to create their very own playable missions in the game. Those missions also become available as content to the rest of the playerbase. It's a tool that differentiates STO from most other MMOs and encourages fans to expand on the universe of STO and Star Trek in general. Join me as in this Captain's Log, I focus on the Foundry, some of its missions, and the community that keeps it going.
German appeals court lets Motorola to continue push notification patent against Apple
Germany has been the site of quite a few patent battles between Motorola and Apple in the past, and there's another crater on the landscape over there: One of the High Regional Courts in that country has made a decision on Motorola's ongoing challenge against Apple over push notifications, saying that a motion by Apple to try and suspend an injunction by Motorola attempting to keep Cupertino from using iCloud over there has been denied. In other words, Motorola is free to continue its battle to try and prevent Apple from using push notifications. Not great news for Apple, and not bad news for Motorola. Motorola is obviously trying to keep Apple from using iCloud and push notifications in Germany, claiming that it already owns the patent on that technology. FOSS Patents has a more complete rundown of what's going on if you're tracking the legal maneuvers.
ArenaNet closes the book on Guild Wars' Winds of Change
If you missed the Winds of Change arc that's bridging the gap between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, now's a great time to head to the official ArenaNet blog to catch up. The devs have provided a handy summary post and a bit of an explanation for their narrative goals as both Guild Wars and its highly anticipated sequel move forward. ArenaNet also acknowledges the community feedback regarding the difficulty of the Winds of Change content, and the firm says that initially "the difficulty was getting in the way of people enjoying the story, making it far more of a slog than we'd intended and actively undermining their enjoyment of it." Happily, recent updates have led to "major balance tweaks" and second looks at both normal and hard-mode content, so if you were frustrated before, it's worth your time to give it another go.
