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Storyboard: Best practices
Roleplaying is a finicky business. If organizing endgame raid groups is like herding cats, organizing coherent roleplaying is like herding cats with even more ego. And no promise of rewards. And with only other players to provide a threat. And you're herding them with a Nerf bat that many of them are more inclined to just play with. And you have to balance it around activities such as endgame raiding. It takes a lot to get roleplaying going and keep it going, is what we're getting at. It's a testament to how passionately people feel about roleplaying that, despite all of this, it happens on a consistent basis and usually without too much (unintentional) drama. But it's hard work for everyone involved, and that just inspires people to be more passionate about it as an aggregate. Hence the creation of a column entirely devoted to roleplayers and the careful art of crafting, playing, and working through characters.
Groupcrafting: The art of getting a group together
Tales of the Aggronaut sent us this multipart guide he wrote on one of the things we all do in the game that might nevertheless be tough for a lot of people: actually getting a group together. It sounds like a simple thing (just ask people whether they want to group up or not), but as you probably know from experience, sometimes it can be pretty tough. So TotA set out, instead, to do a from-the-ground-up guide, from how to find and network with people in the game to how to build a group piece-by-piece.And I like it a lot -- he starts with a preamble with some general networking tips, including finding social channels to join (many guilds and realms have a few social channels constantly filled with folks LFG or interested in playing socially) and putting together a solid friends list, then goes on to explain how to communicate (probably a great read for anyone in any part of the game) and then how to actually build a WoW group, from core classes to splitting up class roles. Very impressive -- while most veteran players have probably heard or done this stuff before, it's nice to see a clear, concise guide that starts at the beginning.And it's even nicer to see a guide that emphasizes the social aspect of gameplay. Even here at WoW.com, we're all about gameplay tips, from profession insights to class balance discussion, but sometimes we overlook that to play a social game like World of Warcraft, you sometimes need to focus on social skills. As much as theorycrafting and gear upgrading can help, sometimes it's better to learn how to be friendly and social instead.
Robofish communicate with each other, engage in synchronized swimming
Traditional fish should definitely start keeping their guard up, as we've seen a noticeable influx of robotic alternatives flapping around here recently. Joining the school today is the Robofish, a robotic swimming creature developed at the University of Washington. Reportedly, a trio of the units have been built, and during a recent workshop, the bots were able to communicate with one another and successfully swim in either one direction or in different directions. Eventually, researchers hope that these mechanical animals could explore underwater caves, track moving targets or plunge beneath ice sheets, but there's still work to be done before the creature's coordination ability is up to the challenge. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...[Via Slashdot]
NTT DoCoMo's forward-looking video overlooks the present
We've seen prophets get their agendas past the marketing department a time or two before, but NTT DoCoMo's latest peek into the "future" seemingly forgets to look at what's actually available right now. The lengthy spot showcases how mobile phones will "one day" be even more tightly integrated into our everyday lives, and while the ideas of using mobile-based keychains and passwords, geo-locators, and video telephony are certainly novel, deeming them events of the future seems a bit ignorant. Additionally, it demonstrates the phone's ability to assist with grocery shopping, take care of hailing a cab, act as a tutor, and prevent children from straying too far away -- all of which have either already been implemented or are quite a ways along the development pipeline. Of course, the pen-sized handset with retractable holographic display certainly hasn't hit mainstream channels just yet, but otherwise it seems we're all way ahead of our time. The pseudo-futuristic video awaits you in the read link.[Via PSFK]
