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The Daily Grind: Are MMOs your main social interaction?
Maybe you work at home. Maybe you're not very social in person. Maybe you've got friends across the country or around the world and there's no way you can really gather in person on a regular basis. Maybe you're living somewhere far from the rest of your social circle. Maybe you're just more comfortable when you look like an elf. Whatever the case, for some people, logging into games like EverQuest II is the big social event of the evening. That's not to say that this is the main social outlet for everyone logging in. For every player whose social circle centers around goings-on in Guild Wars 2 there are a dozen who mostly play the game to do their own things. But what about you? Are MMOs your main social interaction over the course of an average day? Or are they just a small portion of your interpersonal dealings? 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!
Bungie's Chris Butcher talks about Destiny's public areas
Is Destiny a shooter with MMO elements or an MMO with a lot of shooting elements? According to a recent video interview with Chris Butcher, it's the former, and seeing as he's the Engineering Lead at Bungie he probably knows what he's talking about. But there's also some more nuance to the game which Butcher explains, and while it might not fall comfortably within the MMO header it's got a lot of persistent options. Butcher explains in the video how the game's many public areas work -- there's no UI elements to let you know that you've entered a shared space, just the sudden sight of other players alongside the announcement of dynamic events in the area. It's certainly an interesting take on shared spaces, and it's more than you might expect from a straight shooter. If you're looking forward to the game, the video embedded past the cut is well worth your time.
Google Spaces shows us where Wave went
So it's safe to say that Google Wave didn't really make one upon the tech world as a whole, but it certainly was a neat idea. While Wave itself now lives with the Apache Software Foundation, the core concept, easy and direct collaboration with anyone, has new life with Google Shared Spaces. The Wave gadgets have been given a standalone home here, the idea being that you create a Space, invite some people, and then do -- well, whatever it is you need to do. It's basically just a more task-focused version of Wave, and maybe that's all the service really needed. Direction. Right now there are just shy of 50 such gadgets for you to try, but anyone with a little JavaScript know-how can whip up their own in a jiffy, though sadly there's no interactive gadget-creation Space. Now that would be something. [Thanks, Hassan]
