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EVE Evolved: Four top tips for living in wormholes
One of the biggest goals you can reach for in many sandbox MMOs is building your own empire and controlling a small corner of the game world. For much of EVE Online's lifetime, that privilege was reserved for the powerful few leaders of the game's large territorial alliances, which carve up vast swathes of space between them. A handful of alliances still control the lawless nullsec regions today, but there are still opportunities for smaller corporations and even individuals to stake a claim in the chaotic world of wormhole space. Exploring and farming in wormholes is very profitable activity, but permanently moving in and setting up a starbase can be an intimidating prospect. One wrong decision might lead to pilots getting stranded in the void without bookmarks, your starbase coming under attack, or the whole expedition being robbed blind by a corporate infiltrator. The early days of wormhole exploration were rife with stories of hardship, heists, and devastating wars fought through shifting networks of wormholes. A lot has changed since the wormholes first opened in 2009, and today many of those problems have solutions. In this EVE Evolved opinion piece, I look at some of the ways wormhole life has improved since Apocrypha and give four of my favourite tips for anyone planning to colonise wormhole space.
The Daily Grind: Will you defend a game no matter what?
There are people out there who are going to hate your game of choice; It's just the nature of the beast. No matter what the next World of Warcraft expansion actually contains, some people will consider it the most vile aberration of gaming on the face of the planet. Most of us, fans of the game or not, just shrug and move on. But not everyone. There are fans who see an insult as a call to defend the game, whether the game in question is Mortal Online or Star Wars: The Old Republic. Some people feel that the best thing to do is to stand up and shout the game's praises. At the best of times, this can dispel incorrect notions or outdated views and convince impartial onlookers that perhaps the game in question deserves a better reputation. At the worst of times, it comes off as a fan perilously incapable of seeing his or her favorite game receive any criticism whatsoever. So what about you? Will you defend a certain game no matter what? 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!
Facebook paying Microsoft $550 million for 650 patents, Ballmer clicks 'like'
Microsoft has agreed to sell on around 650 patents to Facebook in a deal worth $550 million. The Haüs of Zuckerberg will stump up the cash in exchange for various social networking patents that were registered by AOL (disclaimer: Engadget's parent company) and sold to Redmond for $1 billion a fortnight ago. Microsoft will hold onto the remaining 275 in its portfolio and cross-license those that it's sold on, but not the 300 patents that AOL licensed but kept hold of. The social network will likely utilize the portfolio to better defend itself from litigation like the lawsuit brought by Yahoo back in March. If you're interested in reading the phrase "protect Facebook's interests over the long term," then head past the break for the official word from the men who invented poking.
The Daily Grind: Do you defend your favorite MMO?
You see it all the time in forums and comments. Someone will come out against a game mechanic, or class, or quest, comparing it unfavorably to a different (and presumably better) game. Someone who loves the maligned game jumps in to defend it, frequently attacking the other game in retaliation. Then it's the initial attacker's turn to defend, rinse and repeat, ad nauseam.After the dust has settled, however, is either party any the wiser for the exchange? Two extremes of opinion typically tend to cancel each other out, either side espousing their own beliefs so vehemently that no middle ground can be attained. In the end, does it really matter if someone else thinks your game sucks? Do you bother to defend your favorite MMO?
Ken Levine defends Lair, deserves playful scolding
There's no denying that Ken Levine, lead of 2K Boston and guru of BioShock, is a golden boy in the industry right now. So when he defends the odious Lair in the latest episode of the Gamers with Jobs podcast, we can't help but politely, yet firmly, say, "No Ken Levine, bad! Wrong! We care too much about you at this moment to see you defending that ... that thing. Now go to your office, estimate the insane amounts of money you'll make before the end of the decade, and think about what you said!"Levine is even in his defense of Lair saying things like, "I'm sure somebody came to them at some point and said, 'We have this motion control controller, and we have to make a go of it. And we really think you should try to make your game exclusively on that.'" He also goes on to say that beyond Wii Sports, there are a lot of games where he wonders if people wouldn't just be happier with a d-pad and analog stick. There's actually a lot of good stuff with Levine in the well-produced podcast, definitely worth a listen and a mention on this week's Podcast rodeo.[Via GameDaily BIZ]
