experiences
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Airbnb and Bumble push virtual first dates to stay relevant
Airbnb is introducing a collection of Bumble-approved online experiences, and Bumble is kicking off a contest to give away 100 virtual first dates.
Groupon is done selling you junk
For most folks, Groupon is probably synonymous with dirt-cheap spa days, wine tastings or trips to the fancy escape room across town. Open the app, however, and for every experience on offer, there's a listing for a faux-leather purse, off-brand latex mattress or sheepskin comfort slipper. Now, as part of its turnaround plan, Groupon is going to pull out of selling products in order to get back to the good old days.
Facebook hires former Vine head for its New Product Experimentation Team
Former Vine boss Jason Toff announced he'll be joining Facebook next. In a Twitter post, Toff shared that he'll be leading Facebook's New Product Experimentation (NPE) Team. Revealed last week, the NPE Team will focus on "entirely new experiences for building community," and the high-profile hire could be promising.
Facebook is working on 'entirely new' apps and 'experiences'
Today, Facebook announced a New Product Experimentation (NPE) Team that will be responsible for developing new apps. The goal is to give people "entirely new experiences for building community" and to do so outside of Facebook's existing platforms. According to Facebook, it's a way to create small, focused apps and gauge users' interest. Some features may be rolled into Facebook's other products, but it's too soon to say for sure.
Airbnb is investing $5 million to expand Experiences in the US
While Airbnb's focus will always likely be home rentals, it has big plans to grow Experiences this year. It's investing $5 million into expanding Experiences to 200 cities (from 50) across the US in an effort to entice more people to get up and travel. In its announcement, the company shared some growth figures related to the feature: It said global weekly guest booking are up over 2,000 percent since last year and that the number of Experiences are up by 500 percent. It now has 4,000 Experiences on offer around the world and 1,000 across 50 cities in the US.
The Daily Grind: What's the strangest AFK you've experienced?
Sometimes, people go away from the keyboard for normal reasons. Saying that I had to go AFK from World of Warcraft for a phone call wasn't all that abnormal, even if it was a call I had never expected to get from the woman who would eventually marry me. But then there are the more unusual times, like when I had to go AFK because my house was being pelted with rocks. Or the story a friend relayed of a guildmate saying, "BRB, someone is breaking into my house." There's always a story behind these incidents, even if it's just a bluff and you're running to the bathroom. So what's the strangest AFK you've experienced? Was it a case of something weird in your own life like calling animal control to deal with the wolves in your front yard, or was it a friend suddenly leaving the raid to put out a grease fire in the kitchen? 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 Soapbox: On your deathbed, you will not regret gaming
In last week's edition of The Soapbox, Mike Foster reminded us that the grim specter of death comes to us all and asserted that when your time comes, "you will not wish you had spent more time gaming." Mike took the stance that gaming provides temporary joys that can't replace real-life experiences and that it's our inherent responsibility as human beings with finite lifespans to seek out those experiences. He argued that "gaming is a hobby and not a replacement for a life well-lived" and that it's not our gaming achievements but our real life ones that we'll proudly tell our grandchildren. I think we can all agree that it's important to have offline hobbies and interests that help you keep active, but I take exception to the notion that we might regret time spent gaming on our deathbeds. Published data on the top five regrets of the dying actually seems to directly refute this idea, and my life experiences have shown the exact opposite of some of the points Mike makes. MMOs have given me some experiences that I'll probably treasure for a lifetime, and gaming as a hobby has provided me with much more than just temporary joys and escapism; it's helped me discover talents I didn't know I possessed, given me the push I needed to get a good education, led me to employment, and put me in contact with lifelong friends. On my deathbed, I'll probably wish I'd spent more time gaming rather than less. In this opinion piece, I look at evidence that suggests we won't regret gaming on our deathbeds and make the case that gaming can be just as worthwhile as offline pursuits.
Daily iPhone App: Year Walk exudes a mysterious and personal feel
We posted last week that a new app from Simogo called Year Walk was coming to the App Store, and it's now out and available for download. And man, what a piece of work it is. Simogo consists of two Swedish developers named Simon Flesser and Magnus 'Gordon' Gardebäck, and they're known for their funny, but great little games, like Bumpy Road or Beat Sneak Bandit. Year Walk, however, is much more personal and intimate -- it's just about the most artful game I've seen on iOS yet. The basic idea of the game is that your character is thinking about going on a "Year Walk", which is a sort of a Swedish quest of legend that's meant to predict the future in some way (there's so much Swedish folklore in the game that Simogo has released a free companion app for it). And so much of the game consists of you "walking" through the woods by swiping around the screen -- left and right to travel, or up and down to swipe forward or back through the woods. As you go, there are a number of Myst-like puzzles to figure out, but the whole tone of the game is serene, mysterious and vaguely creepy. Year Walk is an experiment in using the iPhone's touchscreen interface to immerse you in a feeling, in a mood, and on that count it is very, very successful. I'm still sort of reeling from my experience with Year Walk -- I haven't yet finished the game by a long shot, but even the little time I've spent with it so far has left me with a huge, great impression. This is a very, very artful and well-designed project that obviously means a lot to Simogo (even if it may be a little confusing for more casual gamers), and I have a feeling that once we roll around to the end of the year and start talking about the best iOS experiences of 2013, Year Walk will be sitting there among them. Definitely don't miss out, but do enter into it with an open, ready mind: It's available for US$3.99 on the App Store.
Wings Over Atreia: Snips and snails and Asmo tales
That's what this week's column is made of! Back when I first decided I wanted to venture to the dark side of Aion and compare the leveling experiences of the two realms, I didn't really fathom that there would be so much content added that it would be hard to break away from sampling all of the goodies on my home server. Besides that, with all of the changes, comparing the leveling is just impossible. I knew that it would be easier with the introduction of repeatable quests, but it's just plain stupid-easy to level now as opposed to way back pre-Balaurea. Even with the leveling comparison effectively nixed, I still can report on the differences in the feel of the two worlds as well as just run through and reflect on my impressions of the Asmodian life to give some screen time to the glowy-eyes. Did I mention I love the glowy eyes? With that in mind, Wings Over Atreia devotes this week to the furbacks (said with love!). Glide past the cut for a look at Daevic life in Asmodae from Ascension to the Abyss.%Gallery-137905%
Wings Over Atreia: It's just a game...
Or is it? I am sure many of you have on occasion heard quips about spending more of your life within a virtual world instead of the one your corporeal form inhabits. It happens. As gamers, we can become very attached -- dare I say addicted -- to our lives in the pixel realm. From scheduling appointments around Dredgion or Beshmundir Temple groups to skipping meals and sleep in a drive to meet that last goal (AP grind, anyone?), aficionados of Aion have had game commitments dictate real life. I am sure everyone here can admit to such an occurrence once in a while, if not more often. But what happens when the worlds overlap -- when the world of pixels invades the rest of your life? After some poignant experiences in my own life, I became interested in this topic and wondered whether other folks had similar happenings in their lives or I was just that weird (hush now!). So over the past few months, I have asked readers to share their experiences of how Aion has affected their lives by completing the phrase, "You know you have played Aion too much when..." Fold your wings, grab some popcorn, and settle in past the cut to chuckle over some of these interesting experiences and -- if you are brave enough -- share some of your own!
All the World's a Stage: The curtain falls
All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles. It's a strange feeling to look back on four years of roleplaying in WoW, more than two of which were spent writing "All the World's a Stage," and feel as though the curtain is coming down on this part of my life, just as many new things are rising up to take its place. It's a sad thing, and it's a happy thing at the same time.Part of me doesn't want to change -- it just wants to go on having more of all those experiences I've enjoyed, which have helped me grow and become the person I am today; but the other part of me embraces these changes, and looks forward toward the experiences that will make me into the person I will be tomorrow.The fact is that I need to put WoW on indefinite hiatus, but before I go, let me share some of the things I have deeply appreciated about playing the game, especially how roleplaying filled an important niche in my life, and actually helped make me a better person.
Breakfast Topic: Ding!
Some dings mean more than others. Across all my alts, I've heard the noise and seen the yellow flashes over two hundred times -- yet few of them are memorable. I find odd-numbered levels particularly boring, as nothing really happens (some armour and quests become available, but even numbers are where it's at).However, some dings are memorable enough to make up for the monotone of the majority. Hitting 60 (see right) isn't an experience most of us forget; my first "big ding" was at 40, after beating up some STV gorillas for those last few XP. What's your best ding memory?
