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Apple pulled an app that promoted potentially COVID-unsafe parties
Apple has pulled an iOS app called Vybe Together that promoted private parties in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gear VR gets social with Oculus Rooms and Parties
A few months ago at Oculus' annual developer conference, the company announced a couple of social VR features known simply as Parties and Rooms. Parties is basically built-in voice chat, while Rooms is a virtual hangout space. Today, those features are finally live, at least for the Gear VR; Rift users will have to wait until 2017. Combined, Parties and Rooms are part of Oculus' continued efforts to prove that virtual reality can be used not just to play games, but also to connect people around the world.
Virtually hang out with up to 7 friends in Oculus' 'VR Rooms'
Oculus announced a host of new social features for platform during its OC/3 press event on Thursday. In addition to Avatars, which allow users to customize outlines of their faces with various accessories and skins, the company also rolled out Parties and Room. Parties are just what they sound like -- groups of up to eight users can band together and chat. And if you want a dedicated area to do that in, Oculus also announced Rooms. This collaborative space differs from the Facebook-centric chat app that we saw back at F8 earlier this year. Rooms is designed to behave more like a virtual living room where groups can congregate to play games or watch a movie, rather than a simple gathering of avatars.
EverQuest Next Landmark going into closed beta next week [Updated]
SOE announced today that EverQuest Next Landmark will be transitioning out of alpha next week and into closed beta on Wednesday, March 26th. During the transition, all progress on the alpha servers will be wiped except for saved templates, character names, and Founder's Pack purchases. Landmark also got an important update today, the biggest part of which is the addition of a party system. While there is no specific UI for it yet, players can invite friends to a group through slash commands, via a friends list, or by right-clicking on them in the world. Groups earn a 20% bonus to harvested loot. The update also added in-game email, social media integration, and the ability to teleport to the continent hub or to your friends. [Update: The Landmark team has also posted to explain the differences between time-limited beta keys and founder packs.]
WildStar offers cross-realm play
Don't stress too much about what server you initially pick for WildStar, since the game will feature several cross-realm options to keep the larger community in touch with each other. Carbine Studios revealed a few details as to how this will work in this week's WildStar Wednesday. In the post, the studio talks about how it's supporting cross-realm play through three primary features. Players will have the ability to talk to anyone on any realm using the chat system, they'll be able to group up with friends through the party system, and they'll be able to meet random strangers through the group finder. The cross-realm play does have a big limitation, however. Cross-realm parties will not be able to hang out on the landscape, but can only enter instances, battlegrounds, or arenas, and these parties will not be able to trade items between each other. Players who are not interested in cross-realm play will also have the option to toggle their account to group with only members of their server.
The Mog Log: FFXIV lessons from Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XIV is in the final push to launch now, with phase 4 right around the corner and early access shortly after that. This is good news for me, since it means I can get back to actually playing the game that I write about every week after nearly a year. And, you know, the game is pretty awesome, so that's a bright point as well. It also means that the future isn't what it used to be. The relaunch has been The Future for a very long time, but now the relaunch is The Almost Right This Second, and The Future consists of patches and expansions and new classes and the like. All good things, all welcome, and all things that could take a few lessons from Final Fantasy XI. I've said before that Final Fantasy XIV was designed to fix some problems from Final Fantasy XI that it never was going to have, but that's not what I'm talking about. Instead of talking about preventing players from leveling consistently or hunting the possibility of RMT with McCarthy-level vigilance, let's look at some simple lessons to internalize in the future.
The Mog Log: The mandatory early dungeons of Final Fantasy XIV
You're going to be exploring at least three dungeons in Final Fantasy XIV no matter what, possibly more. Progression in the main story requires a trip through Sastasha Seagrot, the Tam-Tara Deepcroft, and Copperbell Mines. While I've talked a great deal about the ethics of including this grouping experience, what I haven't really discussed are the actual dungeons themselves, even though that's certainly a big deal. Let's be honest here: If this stuff isn't fun, all of the talk about the validity of forced grouping is kind of pointless. Even if you can, there are times when you shouldn't. Fortunately for the long-term viability of these dungeons, all three have more than just nice loot (which is apparently shared between them); they also offer a fun ride through regardless. So as you could probably infer from all of the text up to this point, let's take a gander at the first three dungeons in the game and the ones we know for a fact you have to clear right off.
Choose My Adventure: A last round of TERA dungeons with Higiri
Some things are really just acquired tastes. At first they seem lackluster or even outright bad, but that's mostly because you need to adjust a bit more. If you give it some time and practice, all of the difficulties fade away. As it turns out, what seemed unpleasant at first becomes enjoyable, and what you mistook as irritation was really just confusion. And so you can tell others that even if this seems a bit bad at first, stick with it because it gets better. TERA's dungeons apparently do not fall under that category. This week was another week with Higiri, exploring the depths of TERA's dungeons, trying my hand at more tanking, and seeing whether I warmed up a little more to the experience now that I knew something of what to expect. And I definitely had a better picture of what was going on in the dungeon from start to finish, so that was excellent. Unfortunately, it didn't really win me over.
The Daily Grind: What's your ideal group size?
Every MMO lets you team up with other players. This is unsurprising when you consider that it's one of the main selling points of the genre. But there's always an upward limit, and there are always target team sizes that the game bases content around. Content is largely designed in World of Warcraft to target groups of five, Guild Wars tailors most of its content for groups of eight, and Final Fantasy XI expects a team of six. But each of these games also provides content for more variable sizes. Today's question isn't whether or not you like teaming up; it's about what your ideal majority size would be. Do you generally prefer to have a group of three? Groups of two? Groups of five? How many people do you like to party up with on a regular basis? Or would you prefer that most content simply scaled to the number of participants involved? 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!
Pathfinder Online will let players run the kingdom
If you've played the Pathfinder tabletop game that Pathfinder Online is based upon, you know that you need to have grouping. After all, the former is all about bands of adventurers exploring the wilds. So it's fitting that the most recent developer blog is all about the game's methods of managing groups and playing in different numbers. And this isn't just a matter of parties or solo play -- at the high end, players can be running entire kingdoms as a social unit. Solo play is meant to be somewhat discouraged, as the blog notes it will be a much more difficult road for a dedicated lone wolf. Parties will be the next step up, holding an undetermined number of players (the working target has about 24 players at the high end). Above those are chartered companies, settlements, and as mentioned, entire new player-run kingdoms. It's going to produce some interesting dynamics to have player organizations in such abundance, but the developers seem to have some confidence in their initial designs.
iPads invade Super Bowl parties
I've talked quite a bit before about the growing "second screen" phenomenon, where iPads and other mobile devices are used as a second screen while either working on another computer or watching television. And with the biggest event on television yesterday, there was likely a lot of "second screen" viewing going around. ZDNet's James Kendrick says his was one of three iPads around the coffee table at his Super Bowl party, and with tens of thousands of tweets per second going out during the most interesting parts of the game, Kendrick's experience was undoubtedly not unique. Car maker Chevrolet actually participated in the event with the Chevy Game Time app, which not only posted ads available on the iPad the second they went live on the TV, but also offered up contests and more interactivity during the show. And the NFL and NBC famously streamed the whole event live on the Internet for the first time this year -- while I didn't get a chance to pull the game up myself yesterday, I heard a few people say that it was in fact available to stream on the iPad. The commercials weren't available on the stream, though, so it'll probably be a few years before people learn the stream is out there, and before it becomes a better substitute for the TV experience. Still, the Super Bowl certainly showed off a few major trends that we're seeing in entertainment consumption lately. Apple's devices especially are providing ways for both consumers and brands to interact and extend the "watching" experience, even outside of a standard TV broadcast.
The Road to Mordor: Party planning committee, assemble!
Considering that Fellowship of the Ring begins with a huge party -- thrown in honor of Bilbo Baggins' eleventy-first birthday -- I think it's appropriate that Lord of the Rings Online is conducive to parties. I'm not just talking about dev-designed festivals, although those are great; I'm referring to parties that the community whips up from time to time. Part of the appeal of LotRO to me is that it isn't just all about killing and leveling; it's also about exploring and living in this virtual Middle-earth. Life for the Free Peoples means celebrating even in the midst of oppressive evil, and it's in keeping with the spirit of the enterprise to throw a shindig now and then. Turbine's given us quite a few tools and resources to use when assembling a party, and I thought that today we'd take an unusual detour from the Road to Mordor and go through the steps of throwing a memorable and enjoyable soirée. Ready to cut loose? Footloose? Good! Let's tear up the dance floor!
The Daily Grind: Do you like to level in parties?
Back in the old days of MMOs -- and feel free to insert your own jokes about dinosaurs roaming the earth -- leveling was something that was done in groups. Soloing was for farming or running from place to place, but for the most part, you leveled with several other people, meaning that you knew from a very early level what you needed to do when in a group. It also meant, unfortunately, that it was really difficult to just play on your own schedule instead of the times when everyone else was on and available. To some players who grew up on games like EverQuest, the idea that almost every game can be soloed to max level is a bit jarring. But there are lots of reasons to level in parties anyway, ranging from working with others when you play a group-centric build to just wanting other people around when you level. So do you like to try and level up in groups? Or do you group up for special events and level on your own for the most part? 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 Daily Grind: Do you attend fan-created events in game?
Guild Wars has Wintersday, Lord of the Rings Online has the Spring Festival ... heck, many MMOs have at least one developer-created party per year, often more. Those aren't the only ones, though. Enthusiastic fans love to get involved and create events to celebrate milestones, support charities, or just have fun and blast through content as a big group. Large or small, these sorts of events are everywhere. What we want to know today is whether or not you participate in them? If the community is promoting a party in your game of choice, do you add it to your calendar and make sure to stop by? Are there deciding factors that help you decide whether you'll attend or not, factors like event size, level of organization, or potential prizes and loot? Hit the comment button and let us know! 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: Groupthink
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. I can pinpoint exactly the moment that the luster of World of Warcraft's big old-game-changing expansion wore off for me. And it didn't take very long, just long enough for me to pick up a quest named It's Raid Night Every Night for my Dwarf. It was an unremarkable quest in every way, with the only really clever-ish bit being the title that slyly winks at players about one of the game's criticisms. Except that it's not exactly an unfair criticism. If you were at the level cap and wanted to keep playing the game with anything approaching forward motion, it was raid night every night. The joke left a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, this isn't an article about WoW except in passing and by association. It's about the temptation and tendency to have group content as the panacea, as the overwhelming focus of any new content. It's about why we get so much content that focuses on large group efforts, and why that isn't necessarily such a good thing -- for the players or even the developers.
The Daily Grind: What was your favorite experience as a healer?
If you're going to play a game in which your allies will rush forward into their imminent death despite your best efforts, someone's going to need to take the task of keeping them from death. Sometimes the healer is up on the front lines like the Warrior Priests of Warhammer Online, but most often your job in the healer is to stand back and keep everyone alive in spite of their determination to stand in fire. It's not a glamorous job, but boy is it ever important. From games like World of Warcraft that require a dedicated healer to games like City of Heroes where your "healer" may have no direct healing spells, the third part of the holy trinity sees the least direct action but still tables a lot of responsibility. So what's your favorite experience from taking on the role of the walking band-aid? Were you stuck in a group with members who couldn't keep themselves alive at all if not for your healing? Or is there a particular game that always made healing feel more fun than any other task in the game? 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!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Between the lines of PAX
I think that the first year of PAX East spoiled me for any and all future City of Heroes panels. At the time Paragon Studios held that panel, there was a new expansion due out in that marvelous sweet spot when it's just far enough away that a lot of questions are unanswered but not so far away that we can't be told all of the cool parts. Every panel since then has had a bit less to share, but really, that's kind of the nature of the beast. Until we get expansion number three on deck, we aren't going to have another panel with that much information and that many surprises unloaded all at once. Still, another part of my brain can't help but feel as if the most interesting part of this year's presence for City of Heroes wasn't the panel itself but the other elements surrounding the panel. (Considering that I already wrote up what happened there, this may also serve a stunningly convenient purpose for writing a column about the convention.) There's certainly no hints of a big revelation around the corner, but there were little elements hither and yon that piqued my interest for various reasons.
Embark Beach and Mercenary Heroes coming to Guild Wars
Do you play Guild Wars with nothing to lose and nothing to prove? Then you might wind up dancing with yourself in the newest update to the game, which will add a new system of Mercenary Heroes -- turning other characters on your account into special heroes just for your use. And since this update also gives players the option to have a full party of seven heroes, there's plenty of reason to improve alts and play with them even on other characters. Of course, that's the least of the features packed into the new update, and you may not even need the new heroes with the introduction of the group-focused Embark Beach. Allowing players transport to a multitude of locations and missions, the outpost serves as a waypoint for players to find groups and get right into the action of a mission without any trouble. It's also a hub for services, making it an ideal place for players to congregate and look for any needed assistance. That's not even touching upon the new daily quests in Pre-Searing Ascalon, the changes to the Survivor title track to make it earnable on an existing character even after that character has died, and a new Minion UI feature. In short, Guild Wars players have plenty to dance about in the new update, whether by themselves or with others. %Gallery-9135%
Final Fantasy XIV explains the ins and outs of party play
Final Fantasy XI's development team was notorious for being silent on every aspect of the game, no matter how much players begged for an explanation of systems. It's a tradition that has most certainly not been carried over to Final Fantasy XIV, where the developers have taken the time to answer a number of questions and explain several parts of game systems left unclear elsewhere. The most recent development team dispatch covers the MMO staples of parties and quests, explaining everything from the exchanging of guildleves to the effects of scaled difficulty. Party bonuses are among the bigger elements in this particular dispatch, with an explanation of the necessary level range to receive bonus skill points and experience. The short version is that while players are not penalized in any fashion while solo, as long as all the class ranks of the party are within a five-level band, all members will gain the party bonus. Since linking leves also increases the chance of a gil-laden treasure chest appearing, it's another step in the game rewarding party play without punishing solo players. Final Fantasy XIV players should take a look at the full dispatch, as well as glancing at the patch notes for the most recent version update.
DIY LED place cards are necessary -- if your wedding must be nerdy and work intensive
Weddings are stressful, but if you out your mind to it, they can really reflect who you are as a couple. That's what the above DIY LED place cards could do, should you choose to follow the instructions and make some for your special day... or whatever. Using acrylic sheeting, binder clips, lithium batteries and LEDs, a Dremel tool and a little gumption and you'll have special, super nerdy place cards whipped up in no time. As long as you're sure this project won't be a relationship-ender, hit up the source link to get in on the fun yourself.
