Mysteries
Latest
A plethora of World of Warcraft mysteries
Well, actually the article from Kotaku mentions ten, but I feel strongly that ten is a plethora. The video from the DDG guides covers various commenters questions about what that snake in Gundrak is, what the dwarves dug up in Bael Modan, what happened to Neptulon after he got snatched out of Throne of the Tides, and where Tyr went after he abandoned his Temple in Northrend. It's pretty neat stuff all told, so go watch it already. Number one is pretty interesting, at least I think so. I go there from time to time via the Stratholme dungeon.
Defiance teases players with a video for Ark Hunter Chronicles
Defiance is certainly giving potential players lots of videos to watch. That's not entirely surprising considering the game's whole cross-media synergy angle, but it's exciting for anyone who prefers a moving picture to straight text. The latest video from Trion Worlds is showing off a teaser for Ark Hunter Chronicles, which are promised to be coming soon. What's not promised just yet is a reveal of what to expect beyond the title. What are Ark Hunter Chronicles? Some sort of chronicle related to ark hunters, probably. That's pretty straightforward. But are they preview episodes of the upcoming show? Preview videos for the game? Trading cards that tell a story? Commemorative plates? We don't know, as the video doesn't say, although the plate thing seems a little bit unlikely. All we know is that they're coming soon, and you can watch a teaser trailer for them just after the break. Eagle-eyed viewers may spot something extra toward the end, as well...
Why I Play: The Secret World
I can't stop! No, seriously -- I had delusions of sneaking this article out a week earlier than scheduled, but that involved actually tearing myself away from Kingsmouth long enough to log out and write. And you can see how well that turned out! It's hard enough trying to do so now; every time I think about The Secret World, I want to jump right back in and... um, excuse me a moment, I'll be right back... Hey, I just needed to test something in-game for this article, honest! Though if the test was to be able to log in and right back out of TSW, I failed. I checked what I needed to and thought to myself, "Just five more minutes." Before I knew it, too many hours flew by. And this was not an isolated incident, either. As much as I enjoy playing MMORPGs (anyone who has heard me in a game can attest to that!), it has been quite a while since I truly reveled in my time in game and champed at the bit to get back in when I had to leave. It's no secret that I have been waiting for this game for years now, and I have to say I am not disappointed. Funcom's newest release has truly ensnared me. So what is so compelling about The Secret World? Do you have a minute or five?
What was GameStore? Looks like sample code
Earlier today, Kelly posted about GameStore, a new Apple app that appeared on the App Store right before the New Year and was pulled several minutes ago. I forked over my dollar and downloaded a copy to see what the app was all about. It turns out, that there wasn't a lot of there there, and what there was looked an awful lot like...sample code. Specifically, sample code that demonstrates how to perform in-app purchases. The application's identifier was com.apple.iphonesdk.GameStore. Compare this with com.apple.Cards, the identifier for Apple's Cards app. "iphonesdk" hints that the application was meant for developer audiences, i.e. users of the iOS Software Development Kit. Next, I looked at the contents of the application bundle. Therein I found numerous listings for consumable and non-consumable items. These included things like "Awesome Sword" and "Consumable Bullets" as well as the less descriptive "sku.gamestore.nonconsumable.item1." All the classes in the app consisted of such generic elements as "MyProduct," "StoreEngine" and "ProductInfoViewController." Basically, it looked like sample code. Adding to this hypothesis is the tab called "PaymentQ." The queue is of deep interest to developers and absolutely of no interest to end-users. So how did this app end up on the App Store? I have an hypothesis. As I point out in my developer cookbook, although you can easily add IAP features to applications that are already for sale on App Store, you cannot fully develop and test your in-application purchasing for new apps without submitting your application to iTunes. What developers do is upload a working skeleton application to iTunes Connect. You do this with the full understanding that you'll be replacing or, for tutorials, rejecting your binary at some point in the future. Once uploaded, you can test your IAPs, and make sure all your purchasing processes work. Looks like the app was submitted in order to provide a live testbed and may have gotten approved inadvertently. After consulting with the TUAW team, our take on this is "likely sample code accidentally deployed to App Store" by Apple and then quickly pulled once people took notice. TUAW reached out directly to the developer we suspect was behind the app upload before it got pulled.
The fourth pillar of fear: Ragnar Tørnquist dishes on story in The Secret World
BioWare and ArenaNet aren't the only MMO studios to be beating on the drums of storytelling lately -- Funcom feels just as strongly that good stories not only have a place in MMOs but are essential to making memorable games. In a new post over at The Secret World, Ragnar Tørnquist attempts to whet our appetite for a main course of storytelling. "The story in The Secret World is a giant jigsaw puzzle. That's really the only way to describe it. There are thousands of pieces scattered all over the game world, both figuratively and geographically, and as you play the game, you are actively uncovering -- unearthing -- the stories, large and small, that form the enormous tapestry of a backstory that goes back aeons." All aspects of The Secret World are "infused with story," Tørnquist promises; the game will connect players to the world through context and meaning. He hopes that TSW's mysteries will keep players coming back to the game due to our insatiable desire to know the secrets behind them. He also hints that some of these stories will feature tough decisions and painful consequences: "Joining the ranks of the shadow-masters, it's in your best interest to play by their rules, follow their agenda, ensure that the secret world remains a secret, and if that means making compromises and allowing people to get hurt... Well. No one ever said being a hero would be easy." These mysteries will come to light during many of the player missions, which we heard about yesterday. While we wait for the launch, Tørnquist encourages us to check out the elements of story that Funcom's released already such as fake websites and other ARG activities.
Ragnar Tørnquist on what sets The Secret World apart
One of the games we've seen a lot of reader interest in at Massively is The Secret World, in development at Funcom. One of the key people behind the upcoming horror MMO is Ragnar Tørnquist, Producer and Director of The Secret World. Tørnquist recently sat down for an interview with Vladimir "Evoker" Georgiev from UGDB.com to discuss what will set The Secret World apart from other MMOs we've played. One of the refreshing aspects of the game is there are no levels or classes in TSW. Tørnquist tells UGDB, "Our goal is to make sure that players can sit down and play this game and enjoy themselves from the very beginning. You don't start out fighting rats with a rusty sword. You get cool firearms, black magic, occult weapons from the outset -- and you're fighting demons and the undead, not wild boar or petty criminals."
Scattered Shots: How do you make sense of all the beta hunter changes?
Is the tauren above about to cut off his own head -- or lunge forward to attack? Perhaps he's just feeling confused about upcoming changes to hunters? Would you, too, like to know just what's going to happen to your class? Well, you can rest easy now, because Scattered Shots has all the answers to your most urgent questions.The short answer is: You don't; at the moment there is no making sense of all the Wrath hunter changes. We find ourselves at the mid-point of Blizzard's mysterious scheme for hunters, right in-between significant changes already in-progress and vague changes which they've promised or the future. We remain uncertain about which ones are going to make it live, which will be changed again, and which will be removed or added later on. Any analysis we do right now (and indeed much of the analysis we've already done) may or may not be completely out of date in a matter of days or weeks, and if your head hurts from all the ups and downs of turbulent beta-zone theorycrafting, rest assured that Scattered Shots feels your pain.The long answer is: Even though the jigsaw puzzle isn't complete, it's still a pretty neat picture to look at. Today isn't the day for point-for-point talent analyses plus spreadsheets of sting/shot-damage coefficients -- what a headache that would be. No, today is an opportunity to stand back and look at how all this is beginning to fit together, to see how the path our class is trekking through the wilderness of beta-testing ambiguity solves some of our long-standing problems, gives us more of what makes hunters great, and leaves us with several crucial questions mysteriously unanswered.What follows, ladies and gentauren, are the X-files of hunter beta mysteries, a fuzzy look through the crystal ball into the future of our class, the thrilling buildup to the surprising twist that comes just before the epic climax of the Hunter Saga season finale and leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat, biting on the tip of your fingernails, and gasping for air in the thrall of cliffhanger suspense.
Crytek teases 'Crysis Warhead'
Crysis developer Crytek just placed the mysterious image you see above on the splash page for its site. Could "Crysis Warhead" be the "good reason" for not continuing work on the original Crysis the developer recently hinted at? They did say we'd know more "very, very soon." Sequel? Title of the console port? Actual military weapon utilizing a PC powerful enough to run Crysis at max settings? We just love mysteries.[Thanks, Matt]
Sirius to retailers: stop taking Stiletto pre-orders
It looks like those folks jonesing to get their portable Sirius on are going to have to wait just a little bit longer, as the satellite radio giant has apparently asked all of its retail partners to suspend pre-orders on the Stiletto 100 until further notice. The TSS Radio e-tail site where the information first appeared claims that they "still expect the Stiletto near the end of September / early October," although another authorized retailer, Crutchfield, has taken down its pre-order page altogether. So far no one seems to know exactly why Sirius made this move at such a late date, but aside from supply problems (which are unlikely), the major contender for the delay would seem to be our old friends over at the RIAA. What's strange about this scenario is that unlike rival XM -- which is still battling the record labels over licensing fees for their portable players / recorders -- Sirius seems to have made nice with the recording industry following the little brouhaha over its dockable S50 player. Bottom line is that we don't like a mystery, so we're gonna poke around a little more and see if we can get to the bottom of this unexpected development -- meanwhile, it's SiriuCE or bust for live, pocketable (albeit crappy) Sirius content until further notice.
