Hope
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The UAE successfully put a probe in orbit around Mars
The Hope probe has reached orbit around Mars.
RSA security conference: 25 years of discontent and pranks
The first time I went anywhere near the RSA information security conference in San Francisco, it was by way of a prank. Two things I love to cover are computer crime and and enterprise security, so when I met friends for drinks at a downtown hotel bar during the conference one year they were genuinely surprised I'd never attended RSA. One of my drinking pals that night was Twitter's head of security, and he jokingly asked if I wanted to go to RSA -- right now.
Tinder gets a lo-fi makeover in 'Millennial Swipe Simulator 2015'
If you've been using Tinder for long enough chances are that you've opened the app in the morning with some rather surprising matches. Brainlessly swiping right on whoever fits the bill for you in the hopes that they'll do the same and you'll potentially have a love connection is part of the experience. It's this sort of activity the web-based Millennial Swipe Sim 2015 aims to replicate. In the "game" you have to keep swiping (regardless of direction) to keep your boredom meter from filling lest you die. Seriously. Funnily enough, developer Will Herring (a Buzzfeed creative director and former GamePro (R.I.P.) editor) managed sneaking some of the app's quirks in. Like people in group photos and the same profiles that keep popping up repeatedly, for example. What's missing though are wedding shots from the altar or church steps and profiles consisting entirely of photos of one's children. Maybe in the next update?
The Think Tank: One MMO wish for 2015
Every year when we roll out our prediction articles with anything negative (because of course something negative is likely to happen in this industry over the span of a year), a commenter invariably accuses us of wishing for the negative thing to occur. It just ain't so. Predictions aren't wishes. In many cases, we're hoping to be wrong about our suspicions and hunches and dread. We're crossing our fingers that the wind turns and statistical likelihoods are flukily wrong. Can't bet the ranch on hopes and dreams. But wishes can be fun too. That's what we're doing in this first Think Tank of the new year. This, my friends, is what wishes look like.
The Road to Mordor: When storm clouds gather...
When I think about the news swirling around Lord of the Rings Online lately, I feel a bit like Sam and Frodo getting their first glimpse of Mordor and Mount Doom. It's hard to think of cheer and happiniess when the view is full of heavy clouds and ash. I have several positive articles that I'd rather be penning this week, but I think it would be a mistake to avoid the questions and feelings that all LotRO players are experiencing right now, including me. It may not be the journey that I'd like to be taking, but it's the one that's needed right now. So let's sit down together, fill our tankards, and mull over just what's going on with our Middle-earth. Maybe in the talking and in the company we will find the solace and comfort that we need.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. devs: 'There is cause for hope,' more news in January
GSC Game World, developer of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, was rumored to have shut down earlier this month, a move that would have affected roughly 45 employees. However, GSC still appears to be alive and kicking wiggling its legs slightly, announcing via Twitter that "there is cause for hope!" In the same tweet, GSC said it "will not be releasing any official news until around mid January," which suggests the studio will still be running in some capacity at least until then. GSC was developing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, and we can only hope for some good news in January from the studio.
The Daily Grind: What makes you optimistic?
Being negative about the industry these days seems to be the norm, and it's kind of understandable. APB managed to set a record for being the fastest MMO death ever, Final Fantasy XIV launched to massively mixed opinions, and not everyone is really on board for the coming Cataclysm. It's very easy to look to next year and assume that more promises will be broken, that coming titles won't live up to the hype, and that everything is doom and gloom for the forseeable future. Despite all of that, however, there are reasons to be just a bit more optimistic. There has to be something that inspires you to at least adjust your opinion ever-so-slightly upward, that maybe things won't turn out as bad as your nervousness might indicate. Whether it's an upcoming title, patches or expansions that are handled well, or even just a humble move by developers, what makes you hopeful for the future of MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our 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 The Daily Grind!
Where's my rollover data, AT&T?
You've seen the commercials and heard that they're "your minutes" so why is "your data" any different? The almost-too-painfully-obvious-to-even-say-aloud answer is that AT&T will make more money by not offering rollover data, so they aren't. I don't expect this will change anytime soon. AT&T has done nothing to suggest they have any interest in providing value to their iPhone and iPad customers, but let's imagine a different world, one where AT&T hoped to keep some of their iPhone customers, perhaps a world where other carriers had the iPhone and AT&T had to actually compete for their business. Read on to imagine with me...
Valve hopes to make an MMO someday
In a discussion with the CVG site, Valve's Doug Lombardi revealed that the trend-setting company is always looking to new genres. Talking primarily about their hopes to someday make a game for the Wii, Lombardi offers up tantalizing hope for MMO-playing fans of their landmark first-person shooter titles. The site quotes Lombardi as saying, "Gabe (Valve co-founder, Gabe Newell) is a huge fan of MMORPGs and he's always wanted to make one ... But that's a big risk to venture out on." Developers in the company are also looking to make kids titles for Nintendo's console, a direct result of the aging and family development of the games industry.Lombardi goes on to say that these areas of interest would really stretch the company creatively, and they'd love to tackle them ... but that we probably shouldn't hold our breath. Their leap outside of the FPS comfort zone to the Wii or MMOs won't come this year or next. But it does, at least, give us some hope.
All the World's a Stage: Joining the right circle
One of the most common difficulties many roleplayers face is that of finding other people to roleplay with. To help overcome this challenge, All the World's a Stage presents a guide to finding roleplayers in three parts: "finding the right realm" for roleplaying, "joining the right circle" of roleplaying friends, and "wearing the right mask" to attract other roleplayers to you.So, here you are. You decided that you want to give roleplaying a try, so you picked an RP server and started leveling up. You even tried roleplaying with one person you met along the way, saying "Hail, traveler! Would you like to undertake this task with me?" Things were going along quite nicely for a few minutes until the other person said, "Dood, this quest suxxors, lol," and you realized that something had gone horribly, terribly wrong.A mystery baffles roleplayers everywhere: why is it that even on a space like an RP server, set aside for roleplaying, it can be so hard to find other people to roleplay with? Even if you have thoroughly researched the question of which server is the best place for roleplaying, still you will not be happy there until you find a circle of friends whose roleplaying you can appreciate, and who appreciate yours in return.
Thinksecret throws their guess in the Leopard hat: October 26th
If you listened live to our TUAW talkcast last night (and you should have, because we were on fire, if I may say so myself), you heard us doing the same thing all Apple fans are doing this week: speculating on the (hopefully impending) release date of Leopard. Most of us still hold out hope for October (and we did realize that coming out around Halloween would make for some excellent Apple-related Halloween costumes), but personally, I'm still betting on October 26th. As we said last night, not only would that make for a weekend full of Leopard-y goodness, but the full moon is on the 25th, so the stars will be aligned just right for Time Machine.And Thinksecret agrees with me (that's awfully nice of them). Their sources (although I can tell you that I wasn't asked) say that Leopard is still on track for an October 26th release. I said last night that I expected Apple to actually announce a release date this coming week, but apparently it's still too early for that-- a new (and final) Leopard build is expected this week, and once that gets final approval, Thinksecret says October 26th is the day.However, time is definitely running out. Let's not forget that Apple announced Tiger a full 17 days before release, and that deadline passed last week. If they're not done debugging Leopard, there's a good chance we won't see it in October at all anyway. Not even the witches and goblins of Halloween will make Jobs do something he doesn't want to do.Thanks, Dewey K!
