q-and-a
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Live chat Customer Support Q&A this Thursday
Ever had a burning question about the customer service side of World of Warcraft, or other Blizzard games? This Thursday, you'll have your chance to ask. Blizzard is hosting its first-ever CoveritLive chat featuring customer support representatives from all of Blizzard's games. The chat will be focused primarily on World of Warcraft, but the panelists can field some questions regarding Diablo III and StarCraft II support as well. Keep in mind, this is not a development Q&A -- so keep your questions about whether or not Atiesh will return to the game's loot tables along with Alleria and Turalyon for another time. However, if you have any questions regarding the policies and the customer service side of Blizzard, this is an excellent time to get those questions cleared up. The Q&A will be this Thursday, December 13, from 5-6pm PST. Unlike previous Q&A chat sessions, this one will be taking place directly on Blizzard's website. And if you need an email reminder, you can sign up for one directly through the official blog post.
The Elder Scrolls Online on Elf cannibalism and the lineage of cat people
The Elder Scrolls Online spotlight has shifted away from the Ebonheart Pact faction and is now shining most brightly on the Aldmeri Dominion. The first part of a new community Q&A peppers the devs with questions about this player faction and how it differentiates itself from the others. The playable races of the Dominion are the central focus of several questions. Players have the choice of the Wood Elf, High Elf, and Khajiit races. The latter feline humanoids may prove to be quite popular, although the devs say that there will be only one subset of the race -- the Suthay-raht -- available at launch. The team isn't avoiding the issue of the Wood Elves' cannibalism, saying that players should find mentions of it while exploring. Both Elf races will be getting plenty of story love: "We've made sure that this kind of lore about the Elves will be included in the game -- in plenty -- in all the classic ways cultural lore is delivered in the Elder Scrolls games: quest dialogue, conversations with NPCs, lore books of all kinds, music, item crafting, and so forth." The lands covered by the Dominion are touched on in the Q&A as well, including the vast jungles of Valenwood and the stunning beauty of High Elf cities.
Guild Wars 2 staff tackles the ascended gear controversy head-on
It's been a rough couple of weeks for Guild Wars 2, following the news that ArenaNet would be implementing a new tier of gear to the game. Studio Design Director Chris Whiteside and President Mike O'Brien took to Reddit today for an Ask Me Anything (AMA), accepting the brunt of the blame while denying that the team had gone against its stated design manifesto. Whiteside said that the addition of ascended gear was not meant to add a necessary grind to Guild Wars 2, but to fill in a necessary gap in gear that the team identified early on. "It's an exciting problem," he wrote, "but one that has been poorly communicated and handled. And for this I take responsibility and apologize." O'Brien chimed in to address the many comments levied about the design manifesto: "We're left with a balancing act. Some progression is OK, but pushing players onto a gear treadmill isn't OK and isn't what the game is about. I don't think [the ascended gear] invalidates the fundamental concept that GW2 can have gradual stat progression without being a gear treadmill game." The AMA didn't merely dwell on the ascended gear issue; Whiteside fielded questions about the game's approach to future events, a desire to reduce grind across the board, the potential fracturing of the community, and ArenaNet's definition of grind ("Repetitive game play that is not fun," is the official answer, in case you were wondering).
The Elder Scrolls Online grapples with questions of race, story, and setting
You have questions about The Elder Scroll Online (probably many questions, yes?), and ZeniMax has a few answers in return. The developers took on a half-dozen queries from the community, many of which were concerned with setting and story, not to mention why typical adversaries are working together all of the sudden. If you're concerned that the three factions will offer thinly veiled copies of each other's quests, the devs have good news: "Each Alliance's content in TESO is as varied and dynamic as the Alliances themselves are -- your adventures an Argonian in the Ebonheart Pact, for example, will be quite different than those of a Bosmer in the Aldmeri Dominion." Another player asked how similar places will be that are covered in both the single-player titles and the MMO; the devs replied, "The stories and events that unfold in these areas during The Elder Scrolls Online will be different than those in past Elder Scrolls games. The people living in these familiar places won't be too different from their brethren in later times; however, they will have different views and tales to tell, based on the current events that are impacting their daily lives."
'Ask me anything' Q&A with Nokia CEO Stephen Elop
It's time to open the book! We're live from Nokia's headquarters in Espoo, Finland, with Stephen Elop. The smartphone maker's CEO has set aside 30 minutes to answer your questions about anything and everything Nokia. If you haven't already submitted your questions, it's not too late! Head over to Twitter and give us a shout @EngadgetLive -- we'll be pulling our questions directly from there, along with the comments section of yesterday's post. Unfortunately we won't be able to get to everyone, but we will be setting aside the second half of the session to respond to your follow-ups, so keep an eye on the Q&A and fire off your queries. Click the image above to get started -- this page will go live just before the clock strikes 4AM ET.
Join us at 4AM ET for an 'ask me anything' Q&A with Nokia CEO Stephen Elop!
You may have since forgotten, but today was the original kick-off day for Nokia World 2012. With the big show canceled and the devices already launched, we instead opted to drop by the smartphone maker's headquarters just outside Helsinki. We're spending three days here in Finland, meeting with executives to get an inside look at the company's next-generation smartphone lineup. Our first face-to-face is with Nokia's chief executive himself, Stephen Elop, who has generously offered up 30 minutes to answer your questions. Because of the time constraints, we won't be able to accommodate every request, but we'll certainly do our best. There are two ways to submit your questions: leave a comment below, or you can send us a tweet @EngadgetLive -- once the session begins, we'll only be able to accept messages through Twitter, and you're welcome to ask questions before we start and as a follow-up to Stephen's responses, as well. In order to accommodate the largest possible audience, we'll be using our liveblog tool to post both questions and answers, so bookmark this page and hop on over there at 4AM Eastern tomorrow. As always, you'll also find the local time just below. Now about those questions... September 25, 2012 4:00 AM EDT
Star Wars: The Old Republic livestream discusses free-to-play, HK-51, and scaling
The community team behind Star Wars: The Old Republic hosted a livestream, and as you can probably imagine, the whole session has been recorded already by the team from Darth Hater for your viewing pleasure. But if you want to know the highlights and you can't wait for a more detailed take (say, from next week's Hyperspace Beacon), you can always get the rundown of some of the bigger points from the half-hour session. For those currently playing, HK-51 can be expected before the end of the year, with Cathar getting a somewhat more ambiguous release of whenever the species is ready. There will also be other species to be unlocked when the free-to-play conversion goes live, along with moddable gear (without endgame stats), mounts, and pets. The team is also looking into implementing a hood toggle for the Force-using classes of the game and scaling content down in difficulty for smaller groups of players. Check out the full recording past the break, or just take a look at the highlights.
Star Trek Online September Ask Cryptic on future content and cosmetic updates
It's the start of a new month, and that means a new Ask Cryptic for Star Trek Online. Executive Producer Daniel Stahl answers a wide array of player questions for this month, with questions that range from a timeframe on new KDF content (Season 8 at the earliest) to whether or not the game will do something to commemorate series creator Gene Roddenberry (on the table with the 1000 day veteran rewards coming shortly). Stahl also addresses the reason that the game's featured episodes vanished for a while. He explains that the team was too short-handed for a long time to develop multiple systems and updates in parallel. As the base behind Star Trek Online has expanded, the developers have moved toward having a more robust and multi-tiered development strategy once again. Players interested in the game can find all these answers and more in the full article.
Guild Wars 2 boots up support and help forums
Those seeking help from the Guild Wars 2 pantheon of gods (and developers) now have an official source of help and information. ArenaNet brought online a portion of its forums for the game to deliver news and support from a centralized location. The new Guild Wars 2 forums include a place for official announcements, the dev tracker, account issues, technical support, and reporting game bugs. For those looking to talk about the game, ask questions, and share tips, ArenaNet's also opened a Players Helping Players forum to facilitate that discussion. [Thanks to Cecil for the tip!]
Star Trek Online hasn't given up on PvP
Star Trek Online has had issues with PvP since launch, and with the departure of the developer earmarked for improving PvP, many players had probably given up hope. However, the most recent edition of Ask Cryptic reassures players that PvP development has not stopped. The team behind the game is focusing on giving PvP a lot of additional testing to ensure that it's fun, largely because it's been such a classic weakness within the game. Obviously, that's not the only question answered in the monthly Q&A session; the update also covers the pace of adding story content to the game, plans for new ships, and KDF content as a whole. There's also an interesting response to a question about Star Trek Online's conversion to free-to-play; executive producer Dan Stahl asserts that the game certainly could have survived as a subscription game, but moving to free-to-play was more productive in the current MMO marketplace. There's a lot to digest in the answers, so fans of the game would be well-served to examine the full list in detail.
Star Wars: The Old Republic posts final weekly community Q&A
It's going to be a few more months before Star Wars: The Old Republic goes free-to-play, but the community still has questions about what will happen with the change, and the latest community Q&A is meant to address the most pressing of those questions. Among the answers is confirmation that neither gear nor characters will be deleted if you opt for the free option rather than a subscription; you'll be able to choose which characters are playable with your limited number of free slots, and you'll retain everything you had as a subscriber with those characters. This week's installment is also the last of the weekly community Q&A posts. As explained by community manager Joveth Gonzalez in a recent forum post, the team is trying to move to a more active system of communication on the forums and through social media rather than providing a structured answer session once per week. Gonzalez hopes that the net effect will be more information for the players and less ambiguity. That being said, if you're curious about the change in business models, there's still important information within this final installment of the weekly series.
Massively Exclusive: SOE elaborates on Vanguard's F2P conversion
Vanguard news is ramping up in preparation for the August 14th free-to-play conversion date. In fact, Sony Online Entertainment quietly kicked off a soft launch of the revamped game yesterday, giving players a first glimpse of the new website, pricing matrix, and in-game station store. Massively sat down with Andy Sites, the game's director of development at SOE, to ask him what players can expect during and after Vanguard's F2P transition. We've got the official scoop on transition content, housing and boats, server types, and more beyond the break!
SOE's John Smedley tackles an epic AMA
What do you get when the president of SOE steps up to the mic at Reddit and tells the crowd to ask him anything? You get everything ranging from the NGE to former employee critiques to humble origin stories. The crowd didn't waste time getting John Smedley to apologize for Star Wars Galaxies' NGE once again. "Stupid decisions. Complete and utter fail and I am very sorry," he said. After that, the topic quickly turned to SOE's rising star, PlanetSide 2. Smedley said that he's been closely involved with the design of PS2. With the beta beginning on Monday, he also assured the crowd that it should take around two to three weeks to include everyone who has keys. He said that the game's coming along swimmingly: "I play the game three to four hours a day now. It's rough but fun as hell." Smedley also admitted that SOE is working on additional undisclosed IPs. When asked about SWTOR's transition to F2P, he stated, "It is the only way to go for new games. It was the right decision for SWTOR (which is a fantastic game). Wait until you see our next round of games after PS2."
SWTOR explains automatic transfers and more in weekly Q&A
Star Wars: The Old Republic's weekly Q&A session with the devs made it to release on time this week! BioWare's Will Wallace, Hall Hood, Rick Burton answer questions about travel perks in PvP, the seven commemorative pillars on Corellia, and the aftermath of the Rise of the Rakghoul plague event. Principal Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert joined in to respond to a player with concerns about how automatic transfers will work for players who do not opt to transfer their characters manually: Once we do automatic transfers, we will be doing everything possible in order to maintain the basics of the current ruleset as possible - PvE vs PvP, regional choice, language (for Europe); so in many cases, you should have a good idea of which populations you are likely to end up with. Another top concern is trying to help the populations that result have a good factional balance. We will give out a specific list once we are closer to implementation of this plan - watch for more info soon! Schubert also explains what "server stability" fixes really mean. The complete Q&A is online now at the official SWTOR blog.
Star Wars: The Old Republic posts another weekly question-and-answer session
This week's set of community questions for Star Wars: The Old Republic asked about classes. Specifically, there were two big questions asked about Deception-specialized Sith Assassins and Operative melee mobility. Consequently, the two big answers this week were about those two classes. Operative mobility is apparently a hot topic among the developers at the moment, as high-mobility fights are seen as an excellent mechanic and they can cause issues with the class. Deception spec, by contrast, received a more in-depth response explaining that the developers consider the spec to very much be a hit-and-run playstyle rather than a melee class meant for long engagements. Its performance winds up varying a great deal depending on the player: Those who understand the design intent usually have more success than those expecting higher endurance. But even if neither of these answers appeals to you, there are still other questions answered in the latest round, and you can always post a question for next week.
New MechWarrior Online Q&A focuses on weapons and environments
Piranha Games has answered another round of community questions about MechWarrior Online, and as with previous answer sessions, the new information focuses on some of the fine details of the game's design. Perhaps the most saddening one is the confirmation that 'Mechs will react to destruction simply by collapsing or possibly suffering several small internal explosions rather than the enormous fireballs of death seen in some of the other games in the franchise. There is, however, confirmation that some of the structural aspects of your 'Mech will come into play during battles. 'Mechs with higher-mounted weapons will be able to shoot over certain environmental obstacles that others cannot, while those with higher viewports will be able to see more easily through larger environments. This may come into particular relevance in urban environments, a long-time staple of the MechWarrior franchise -- and it's confirmed that there will be appropriately huge and sprawling cities. Take a look at the full answers for more details as well as some clarifications on the workings of pulse lasers.
Star Wars: The Old Republic posts the newest community answers
Are you looking forward to playing a Cathar in Star Wars: The Old Republic? Or are you looking forward to playing a different species? According to the latest round of community answers for the game, the Cathar might be one of many new species unlocked if they perform well once players get their hands on the new race. Certainly there are some other species that players are clamoring for as well, and the team is investigating other options. The answers also go into the details regarding how a tiebreaker is determined in the game's Voidstar matches; a tie goes to whichever team cleared the most objectives in the least amount of time. If none of this round of answers puts your burning questions to rest, there's always hope for next week; head on over to the official question thread and post it for next week's questions.
MechWarrior Online serves up community answers on the details of combat
Whether you're a fan of the original BattleTech tabletop games, a fan of the MechWarrior series, or a fan of both, you know that the details of 'Mech combat are always important. MechWarrior Online is being fortunately developed with an eye toward the fine details, as explained in the latest round of community questions and answers. For instance, the developers are designing LRMs to retain their intended long-distance functionality, with any missiles fired too close to the target simply bouncing off as inert duds. The game is remaining very true to its source in many ways -- for example, location of equipment in a 'Mech will still play a major part in design -- but it's also changing certain elements. One of the team's major goals is to ensure that light 'Mechs are still a threat to assault 'Mechs, making sure that no pilot will ever feel as if his machine is useless in a given engagement. There's a great deal of attention to detail in the project, something that fans of the game should appreciate.
Undead Labs on making a believable zombie apocalypse
In their gory, gruesome office, Undead Labs' devs are hard at work figuring out the best way to disembowel you and turn you into a walking nightmare. So far it's going well, according to a new Q&A by CM Sanya Weathers. Weathers sheds some light on the difficulties of creating a zombie-infested world, particularly in relation to spawn points, mob density, and artificial intelligence. "It takes surprisingly smart AI to make zombie behaviors that are believably dumb," she writes. According to her, Undead Labs' Class3 will boast "thousands" of zombies, all of which will be able to react to sounds, light, and explosions. Weathers says that the game is in the final stages of pre-alpha production and we should be seeing gameplay footage from it soon. Other topics covered in the Q&A include player weapons, how to attract zombies, types of zombies, and a fast food joint called the Swine & Bovine.
Star Wars: The Old Republic posts new Q&A and scheduled maintenance times
The newest patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic is just around the corner. Specifically, it's aimed at next Tuesday, following an extended maintenance period on the servers. So with the fruits of the design team's labor on the close horizon, it might be interesting to get a better insight into the design process with this week's community question-and-answer session, which includes a walkthrough of the process leading to the design of a new armor set. For those wondering about how loot is randomly rolled, the answers also contain a detailed breakdown of the process for determining what an enemy will drop. There's also confirmation that players can expect more character slots in the future, which is certainly good news for any players already feeling the pinch from recent character transfers. Take a look at the full list of answers, and as always, you can submit your questions for next week on the official thread.
