Popularity
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Pandora's radio data now included in Billboard Hot 100
Despite recent layoffs and the fact that it only launched a streaming service last month, Pandora is a giant player in the internet radio market. Billboard unveiled a partnership with the service for its Hot 100 chart, and says it immediately impacted 35 songs. It pushed nine of those up by five or more spots in the rankings, including Sex With Me from Rihanna and Rob $tone's Chill Bill, which leaped 10 places. Lady Gaga's Million Reasons, meanwhile, is now on the Hot 100 thanks to Pandora, Billboard says.
YouTube says some games are weirdly popular by region
Some games are universal -- Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto, for instance, are popular in almost every country despite being different from each other in nearly every way. Pokémon Go is also a hit everywhere except, not surprisingly, Russia. After checking game streams against regions, YouTube researchers found that many games are popular in some regions and a not at all in others, though. For instance, Madden NFL '16 is uniquely popular in the US, which is not a shocker for such a regional sport.
Tinder hits 100 million downloads, but newbies beware
Many New Year's resolutions were apparently "hook up with someone," because Tinder said it had its biggest day in active user growth on January 3. That's part of an overall trend that culminated yesterday in the dating app reaching 100 million downloads since it launched in September 2012. CEO Sean Rad said that "more downloads increases the potential for making matches and creating meaningful connections," and added that more features are "on the way." However, new users might want to temper their excitement with a huge amount of caution, according to recent UK police statistics.
Here are the most popular emojis by state (kind of)
Emoji are insanely popular, despite the near-endless stream of stickers and GIFs that dominate our messaging apps these days. But depending on where you live, some emoji are more popular than others. The folks behind SwiftKey, the predictive keyboard app for iOS and Android, have been mining their community's usage via SwiftKey Cloud to see which icons rank highest across the US. They've come up with an interactive map, but to be clear -- each state's pick isn't based on sheer volume. As a spokesperson explained to Gizmodo: "To identify the 'top' emoji per state, we cross-referenced the list of emoji each state uses more than the US average with the emoji each state uses more than all other states." So there you have it. You might be able to poke a few flaws in the methodology, but it's still fun to see where different emoji are used more often. Georgia really likes the moon, for instance, and Utah has a soft spot for lollipops. Who knew?
ArcheAge jumps into Raptr's 10 most-played games in September
ArcheAge is seeing its debut month popularity reflected in Raptr's own tracking, as the digital service saw the MMO rise 25 spots as it transitioned from beta to launch. "Based on current trends, ArcheAge has a good chance of remaining in the top 10 in October," the company predicted. Other MMOs in Raptr's top 20 include World of Warcraft holding strong at #2 as well as Final Fantasy XIV, Guild Wars 2, Warframe, and Star Wars: The Old Republic vying for spots #12 through #15.
RIFT offers early access to a new dimension
If you're enjoying RIFT's free-to-play model, you're probably also enjoying the game's various Dimensions. This means that you're no doubt excited about the upcoming launch of a new Dimension, Three Springs, complete with its own unique Dimension items. But you don't have to wait for its full release, as the development team is offering a select few players a chance to get early access to this Dimension. How do you manage that? By being awesome. On July 9th, the owner of the top weekly rated Dimension on each server will receive a special early access key to Three Springs and the associated items on a character of the owner's choice. That means you'll need to have the most awesome Dimension on your server during voting from July 3rd through the 9th to try it before you can buy it. So what are you waiting for? Crack your knuckles and get decorating -- there's a new space to create!
This is the Modem World: The internet may be killing cash
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. We worship money. It can be exchanged for life-sustaining stuff, makes us powerful and drives us to make new things. It also drives us to do some very strange stuff, but that's a subject for another day and place. You may not bow to the altar of the dollar, but you certainly recognize the need to have some in order to survive. While we adore money as a society, its time may be limited as a currency, and the internet may be to blame. Money wasn't always king. Before we traded cash, we exchanged gold, cows, clamshells, rice, copper, tea leaves and even bat guano. At some point in those currencies' lives, people determined that there were other things worth more and moved on to trade those.
Nexon releases Dungeon Fighter Gunner for iPhone
Nexon has released a version of its extremely popular (in Asia, at least) Dungeon Fighter Online game on the iPhone, called Dungeon Fighter Gunner. You can download the title right now -- it's pretty standard fare, featuring lots of onscreen touch controls, and the same 2D beat-em-up style gameplay that makes the online title so popular overseas. But what's most important about this app isn't necessarily what it is, but what it represents. Dungeon Fighter Online is a huge franchise, boasting over 300 million registered users around the world. That's gigantic -- by comparison, World of Warcraft (definitely the largest MMORPG in the West) hosted about 12 million users at its peak. DFO is by far Nexon's biggest title, and while it has put a few apps onto the store already, this is the first app it's released that's been related to the DFO juggernaut. So we'll have to see how this one does. There are some huge brands out there in terms of online gaming, both in the East and West, that could benefit a lot from some tie-in titles on the App Store. If this game does well, or gains just a fraction of the audience it already has on the PC, we could be looking at the first in a series of big tie-in hits.
Facebook testing 'highlight' feature, lets users pay $2 to promote their status updates
Finding ways to throw money at Mark Zuckerberg is notoriously difficult, but a new 'highlight' feature could be just the trick. Currently being tested with a small population of users, it allows an ordinary member to pay $2 to ensure that their latest status update crops up in more of their friends' news streams. Ordinarily, the degree to which a status update is streamed depends on the number of likes or comments it has, which ensures that users generally only see the juiciest gossip, but paying this little premium would cause Facebook's algorithms to distort that in your favor. In other words, it's money replacing popularity, or simply -- sigh -- life.
Apple workers quite fond of CEO Tim Cook
Apple employees were happy when Steve Jobs was at the helm and now his successor is receiving the same adoration. According to Glassdoor's March 2012 list of the top 25 highest rated CEOs, Tim Cook takes the top spot with a 97 percent approval rating. This matches Steve Jobs's rating when he resigned from the CEO position last August. It also beat Job's 2011 rating (March 2010 to March 2011) which was 95 percent. [Via AllThingsD]
The Daily Grind: Does a class' popularity influence your desire to play it?
There are a few constants that dog my adventures into every MMO. I will play a female character even though I am a man, I will go nuts over pet classes if they are available, I will probably create a legion of alts before ever hitting the level cap, and I will wear stylish hats even if the stats aren't the greatest. But above all of that, the biggest constant in my playing career is that I almost always refuse to pick MMO classes that are extremely popular. I think it's because I -- like probably most of you -- like to feel unique in games, even though it's usually difficult to achieve. Choosing a class that's in the minority helps with that feeling, and conversely, going with the FOTM or whatever the kids are calling it these days makes me feel like I've got my unique snowflake status revoked. So is this insane? Do you allow class popularity to influence your desire to play it, or do you just go with whatever sounds like the most fun? 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!
Shocker! The internet is not egalitarian, popular forum posters have it easy
Researchers at the University of Georgia analyzed six years' worth of Usenet posts, and you know what they discovered? Life ain't fair. The most popular two percent of posters who started discussion threads hogged 50 percent of all replies, while everyone else struggled for attention. What made some thread-starters more attractive than others? Thankfully it wasn't rampant flaming. The distinguishing trait was actually how factual they were: only 12 percent of posts by popular posters contained personal opinions or comments. However, posting a bit of news isn't all it takes to win followers. In a related experiment, 200 volunteers were unleashed onto "simulated" discussion forums and their behavior revealed an even more important factor. The slightly flummoxed researchers called it a "preferential attachment", which pulled readers towards posters who already had an excess of followers. In other words, life still ain't fair. For a delightfully factual breakdown of the full results, check out the PR after the break.
Ron Sugar wins board member popularity contest
OK, weekend pop quiz! Quick, who's the most popular member of the Apple board with shareholders? Head-scratching allowed, coffee may be taken, think hard, no taking peeks at the illustration or headline here...Well, if you answered 'Steve Jobs', you're probably human. And if you're an anonymous financial institution you answered 'Ronald Sugar.' Since anonymous financial institutions outweigh humans more than two-to-one when it comes to owning Apple shares, the most popular Apple director is, as reported by Fortune's Apple 2.0, Ronald Sugar. The former CEO of aerospace company Northrop Grumman joined Apple in November to replace Jerry York, who died last March and Google's Eric Schmidt, who left in 2009. As you can see from the table taken from the SEC form 8-K filed last Thursday, Steve Jobs was re-elected to the board of Apple with nearly 3.5 million votes less than were cast for Ronald Sugar -- and that, as before, Andrea Jung was the least popular board member. We probably shouldn't read too much into the voting -- 70% of Apple shares are held by financial institutions, and 4.8 million votes were cast against re-electing Steve Jobs to the board at all. chart courtesy of Apple 2.0/Fortune
The Mog Log: Bottle show
It's a strange time in the Final Fantasy online world right now. For the first time in what seems to be a very long while, we don't know exactly what's coming next. Final Fantasy XIV has Naoki Yoshida's letter and poll, and Final Fantasy XI has the vague promise of another nine levels, but neither game has a future with any sort of clear-cut milestones right now. The next update on what to expect could come in a week, or it could come tomorrow. (Tomorrow for me, anyway. I'm writing this on Thursday; it's unlikely that much will happen on Sunday.) While I made my predictions last week, and we'll see over the next year how accurate they are, I don't really know how many of those things will come to pass. And I have to wonder whether we're not the only ones who don't know what's waiting around the bend -- I think Square-Enix isn't totally sure what its next move is, because I think the past year has really forced a re-evaluation of some beliefs. I don't think it's a matter of cluelessness so much as not developing a plan B when plan A had worked up to this point, but I think plan A had only worked due to unique circumstances.
Firefox beats Internet Explorer in Europe, according to at least one Statcounter
Measuring browser use is an inexact science, we all know that, but at least one traffic monitor is reporting that Firefox has managed to beat out Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the fine continent that is Europe. StatCounter reports that during the month of December, FF afficionados accounted for 38.11 percent of all analyzed traffic, a few precious digits ahead of IE's 37.52 percent. This marks the first time Microsoft's browser has lost the crown in a major territory, though apparently the handover of the number one spot has been thanks to the third player in this contest, Google's Chrome. StatCounter says it was Chrome's consumption of IE's market share that has led to the current situation, whereas Firefox's big achievement is to merely maintain its position. Guess that EU-imposed browser ballot screen is having the desire effect after all, eh? [Thanks, Nickolas]
Art Lebedev stacks Optimus Popularis keys up against Maximus: smaller, higher res
Art Lebedev gave us an update on its slimmer, long-promised Optiumus Popularis keyboard last month, but the design shop hasn't ever provided many concrete details about it apart from the fact that it won't be OLED-based this time around. We now at least know a bit more about those all-important keys, however, which are said to be both smaller and higher-res than the OLED keys on the Optiumus Maximus -- 15 mm square and 64 x 64, to be specific -- and have a much smaller "inactive" area (as illustrated by the gray border above). Still not much more than that, unfortunately, but this is Art Lebedev, so you can count on a trickle of information to continue right up until the keyboard rolls out at the end of this year / early next year -- assuming it isn't delayed, that is.
The Daily Grind: Does popularity influence your play decisions?
Popularity can be an odd beast. For a fairly long stretch in World of Warcraft, there was one creature that could always be found in droves, no matter the time or place: the night elf hunter. While hunters are no longer the most popular class in the game, there's still no shortage of veterans who will look at you with suspicion if you have one. They became synonymous with inexperience and overplayed characters -- and as a combination of one of the most popular races with the most popular class at the time, it was all but inevitable. From Guild Wars to EVE Online, there are always certain things with seemingly endless popularity. Some players will flock to the flavor of the month, either because they believe it's overpowered, or due to the assumption that everyone else can't be wrong. On the flip side, some people make it their practice to find the least popular combination of abilities and play that, just to be unique. So where do you fall? Have you ever made your choice of character based on what was (or wasn't) popular at the time? If so, do you try to go with the flow or against it?
Ebooks making libraries popular again, can do nothing about your 80s scrunchie
A few forward-thinking libraries in the UK have started offering ebook downloads as an alternative to borrowing physical copies of books, and the local public's reaction has been one of overwhelming enthusiasm. Seemingly attracted by the idea of being able to collect and return books without having to actually attend the library, Brits have been eagerly joining up to the new scheme. Free downloads that last for 14 days before self-deleting can be had either in the library or at home, and transitioned onto your Sony Reader, iRex iLiad, or that new hotness, B&N's nook. Naturally, the proprietary-format Kindle isn't invited to this party. We've already seen a similar initiative in the USA, and can only hope this kind of convenience becomes mainstream before too long.
Darkmoon Faire France cancelled
Upper Deck has posted on their site that they have canceled the upcoming Darkmoon Faire event in France for the TCG. They've been having events all over the world of this kind, featuring tournaments, exhibitions, and interaction with the game's officials and designers (I checked out one such event when it was in Chicago last year). And while they had planned to hold a Faire in Paris in 2009, apparently it's not going to happen -- they say there was "complications" with the "venue," and the event has been shut down. They are still trying to come to France, however: they're hoping to hold an event called the Tournois du Voile d'Hiver ("Tournament of Winter's Veil" in English) in Toulouse in November.And this really does just look like a schedule conflict, as they are still holding events in Amsterdam, Austin, and Vegas later on in 2009, and from what we've seen at various conventions this year, Upper Deck's WoW-related TCG and minis games are bigger than ever (in fact, given what I saw at Gen Con and have heard from various UD employees, it's possible that the WoW games are the company's biggest-selling non-sports product). They're planning to bring the Darkmoon Faire back to Paris next year, and that's probably exactly what they'll do.
The Guardian on The Guild
British newspaper The Guardian has a look at our favorite web series, The Guild, and how it has taken the MMO community by storm and vaulted its way up into one of the most popular television series that's not actually on television. There's no question that The Guild's popularity online was fueled by the fact that it follows a group of people who spend most of their time online, and with a built-in audience the size of World of Warcraft's, you might think that all they had to do was get the references right.But as The Guardian notes, success for The Guild isn't just a matter of hitting a niche audience. Felicia Day and Kim Evey say they spent eight hours a day emailing the show around when it first came out. And while the show is of course sponsored by Microsoft now, the whole first season was powered by hard work and donations. The Guardian attributes The Guild's success to "direct marketing of content to a niche peer group" -- find an audience, and then make sure they know what you're doing.And of course, as a Guardian commenter notes, it doesn't hurt that the show is funny, and as Felicia told us herself, they've gone out of their way to explain and convey the WoW-related stuff to an audience that might not always play MMOs. The series is attracting a lot of attention these days, not just as an MMO story, but also a how-to guide of how to get a television series off the ground without actually being on broadcast television.
