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The Daily Grind: What makes an MMO a 'WoW clone'?
Eminent MMO designer Raph Koster inspired today's Daily Grind with his recent article titled When is a Clone, in which he discusses the difference between clones, reskins, variants, families, genres, and other words that gamers often use interchangeably when debating the merits of their favorite games. Specifically, he lays out a "recipe" for inventing a new game as opposed to just cloning one; for example, he suggests that developers might model a new scenario mathematically or alter the physical dimensions or major goals of an existing ruleset. But the truth is that gamers, especially MMO players, will probably never stop using the word clone when we mean iteration. We wield the word as a curse, knowing that a game isn't a literal clone but choosing to employ hyperbole to make a point about the sameyness of so many MMOs that slap a fresh coat of paint on World of Warcraft and expect praise. Today, we're asking you: What, exactly, makes an MMO a WoW clone? 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!
MechWarrior Online reveals Centurion mech
Been looking for the perfect mech in MechWarrior Online? Not been able to find it? Today's reveal of the Centurion mech and its variants may be the answer to your troubles. This new mech has good speed and medium armor without sacrificing the deadliness of its walking arsenal. That balance makes it an excellent mech for getting the feel of the game and an idea for how you'd best like to play. Three variants of the mech allow for a little more customization of playstyle. The CN9-A and CN9-AH variants are toting 8.5 tons of armor. The CN9-A has weapons for any range, while the CN9-AH exchanges close-quarters weapons for greater ranged hostility. The CN9-AL has an impressive 11 tons of armor strapped on and bears lasers where the other variants have cannon. Check out the official post for all the details, or skip below the jump to see the introduction video for yourself. Apparently the MWO team is in a revealing sort of mood because a Spider mech design was also posted today.
Buying an iPad 2? Here's the rarer, more efficient specimen you need to (somehow) track down
Not all iPads are made equal, even if they're all packaged and branded identically. There's a major new mutation within the 2nd generation tablet and it brings significantly better battery life. Specifically, the fourth and latest production model of the iPad 2 (known as iPad2,4) has not only a lower price tag ($399) but also a new 32nm processor, which is significantly smaller and more efficient than those in previous iPad 2s (which had 45nm chips and an older transistor design). According to AnandTech, this results in an overall 16 percent increase in battery life during web browsing and as much as a 30 percent boost when playing games. Obviously that's worth having, but how can you tell if a boxed-up iPad 2 has the new processor before taking it to the checkout? Here's the downer: you can't. Until retailers' inventories naturally flood with the updated type, the only way to tell is by switching the slate on and running a utility like GeekBench -- and perhaps there'll be circumstances where you can give that a go on the shop floor. Alternatively, if third-party sellers discover that their stock is the iPad2,4, they could pull off a Darwinian win-win by marketing that fact to buyers.
Another Mac Flashback variant out, but still uses same (patched) vulnerability
We're not quite done with Flashback yet. The good news is that the number of Macs affected by the trojan has gone down greatly, but the bad news is that there's a new variant of it out in the public. It's called Flashback.S, and just like the original, it can worm its way into a Mac's home folder without the admin password. But the new version still just takes advantage of that same vulnerability in Java, and that's already been patched. So if you've updated your Java post-Flashback, there's nothing to worry about. It's been quite a nuisance for Mac owners, however!
Hours after security update, new MacDefender variant evades it
And the cycle continues. Yes, just hours after Apple released a security update designed to smack down the recently-prevalent MacDefender malware, ZDnet's Ed Bott reports that a new variant of the bogus 'security' software has been released into the wild. This version is called "Mdinstall.pkg" and it works exactly as before, installing itself on Safari without any approval needed (as long as the default "Open 'safe' files after downloading" setting is on, which we recommend you disable). The timestamp on the file reportedly shows that it was put together as recently as last night, which means that these hackers are actively working against any defenses Apple put in place yesterday. The security update from Apple -- so far only available for Snow Leopard 10.6.7 users, meaning that 10.5 Leopard users (not to mention 10.4 Tiger) are still vulnerable -- adds a new option in the Security preference pane, seen here. The anti-malware tool apparently checks in with Apple's servers periodically to update its definitions suite, just as you would expect it to. So what's the solution here? Short of Apple simply removing the ability of Safari to open up files like this at all (which would of course hamper that functionality for folks who use it), the only real solution is to do what you've got to do on all computer systems subject to attacks: practice constant vigilance. It'll be interesting to see if Apple steps back up again on this one with another update (which would then incur another variant of the malware), but until then, users have to be educated and careful about what they click on in the browser. If you're already fighting off an installation of the Mac Defender malware, be sure to check out our handy removal guide.
