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Georgia election server reportedly wiped in wake of lawsuit
There's something going on in Georgia. First, the state rejected help from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to inspect its voting equipment for potential hacker inroads. Strangely, the man responsible for this and a massive private data leak, Georgia's Secretary of State Brian Kemp, was placed on a DHS election cybersecurity panel. Now the Associated Press reports that a computer server important to a lawsuit against Georgia election officials has been wiped clean right after the suit was filed.
Yahoo Japan will erase your digital footprint after you pass away
What happens to your online life after you've passed away? Unless you've left your passwords in the will, those Facebook and Twitter profiles will linger on for years to come. If you'd prefer your digital life to be as neatly tidied up as your real one, then Yahoo Japan is offering the solution. The outfit is offering Yahoo Ending, a service that'll help locals prepare for their funerals in the real world, as well as closing down their social media profiles after notifying followers and friends of their demise. The package will also close down any digital wallet accounts held by Yahoo, and can even offer basic will-writing advice for those who need it. There's no word on if the company plans to bring the offering to the western world, so until then, we'll just have to hope that future archaeologists don't use our poolside selfies as exhibits in a museum.
Salem prepares for full wipe
The end of the world is nigh for Salem and it's rankling more than a few players' sensibilities. Earlier this month, the developers announced that they will be conducting a full wipe of Salem in an upcoming patch. This will reset the map and delete all characters in order to condense the population onto a single server. Currently the game is running on multiple servers, which the devs deem as "overestablished." Players are upset that the sandbox MMO is being wiped in light of the team previously promising that it wouldn't do such a thing. Seatribe is sympathetic but resolute: "We did not arrive at this decision lightly. We have considered all our options and for various reasons found them wanting." The good news is that the patch will add in plenty of new features and tweaks, including a rework of the gluttony system, improvements to character proficiencies, and the implementation of a new map generator. Every item that characters purchased from the store beforehand will be restored to them once the patch goes live. [Thanks to Nine for the tip!]
The Soapbox: The Raid Finder ruined raiding
I don't typically limit myself to ranting about only one game at a time, but I decided to make an exception this week and speak out against World of Warcraft's Raid Finder mechanic. I was running a small and modestly successful raiding guild when this system was introduced, and my team definitely felt the onslaught of this guild-destroying game mechanic first hand. Raid Finder, commonly dubbed LFR by the cool kids in Orgrimmar, is a system that demolishes the competency barrier that stands in the way of freshly level-capped characters and normal raiding content. The system allows players to join a random raiding group in order to tackle a nerfed version of a normal raid and exists mainly to maximise inclusion in the game's best PvE endgame content. LFR was quite popular among casual players that were usually passed up when it came to raiding group formation, but it didn't offer much progress to seasoned raiders. The gear gained had lower stats than its corresponding normal raid counterpart, but the LFR tier simply didn't need the co-ordination required of a group tackling regular raids. A void was created somewhere in between the casual masses who could benefit from the LFR mechanic and the hardcore raiders that simply did not need help with progression. My casual raiding guild was caught in the middle and ultimately met its demise at the hands of LFR, which simultaneously depleted the PUG pool and gave our members another way to see the endgame content they wanted without putting in virtual blood, sweat, and tears.
Blizzard drops details on Hearthstone beta wipe
Blizzard Entertainment's Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft collectible card game is currently in closed beta, and those folks fortunate enough to have a beta key are about to see big changes to their accounts. Today Blizzard outlined plans to completely wipe the progress of all beta participants -- gold, experience, class levels, unlocked cards, and arcane dust quantities will all be reset. This wipe isn't unexpected. Blizzard noted at the beginning of beta that data would be reset at some point during the testing phase. The wipe coincides with what Blizz is calling a "pretty major" beta patch, the details of which will be revealed in the near future. Once the wipe goes through, testers in Hearthstone will be effectively starting the game as new players. For those that spent real money on card packs, Blizzard is reimbursing the value via in-game gold. Those players will be able to purchase the same number of packs and arena tickets without paying a second time, though replacing the exact cards is not a guarantee due to the random nature of the packs. This is the last planned reset for Hearthstone; Blizzard is aiming for a full release before the end of the year so no further progress wipes are expected through beta and launch.
The Daily Grind: When are rollbacks and wipes absolutely necessary?
In the last few weeks, two big games we cover on Massively have been slammed with exploits that have injured their respective economies: Diablo III and Neverwinter. In Diablo III's case, a gold duping bug apparently pumped insane amounts of cash into the economy. Neverwinter's exploits run the gamut from Foundry abuses to negative auction hall bids that don't consume gold to classes that can one-shot bosses making farming trivial. According to these claims, NW exploiters are making off with thousands of real-life dollars when cashing out their ill-gotten funds. In both cases, players called for characters wipes and rollbacks, believing each exploit severe enough to merit a clean slate. But in Diablo III's case, while the studio dealt harshly with the exploiters, the developers disagreed with the need for wipes and do-overs, presumably having concluded that such drastic measures would impact the legit playerbase far more than would a dented economy. Neverwinter, on the other hand, chose to roll back the servers, causing widespread uproar. That brings us to today's question: Which studio was right? How bad does an exploit have to be before character wipes and server rollbacks are absolutely necessary? 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!
Breakfast Topic: Do you enjoy wiping?
OK, I'll admit that headline was perhaps an overly blunt way to phrase this particular question. Let's try it again: Do you enjoy the actual process of progression raiding? Plenty of raiders claim to love pushing progression, but I'm not sure all of them enjoy fumbling for a strategy and dying and racking up mistake after mistake and death after death as the night wears on. I know some players do, though. I know that because I'm one of them. I love a good wipe. There's an art to it, after all. I love the process of running back to the raid site, mulling over what went wrong. I enjoy the frantic whispers with other players ("Did you see what happened right before the boss rose up? Do you think if everybody moved apart right then that we could avoid some of those issues?"). I relish that moment when the creative thinkers tentatively offer up some harebrained maneuver (most certainly not something already laid out on any strat site or YouTube video) that turns out to be solid gold. I've even enjoyed wipes caused by players having problems with their execution; as long as they're improving with each attempt, I'm totally cool holding their hand along the way. I'll admit that there comes a point in a night of wiping when patience wears thin and it's time to call the raid. Still, that doesn't mean I don't look forward to the next opportunity to puzzle and manhandle my way through new content with a group of guildmates and friends. (All of this assumes a group of known friends; I don't know of anyone who would enjoy wiping in LFR mode.) My fondness for wiping uphill five miles through the snow is probably not one that's shared by the majority of the playerbase, but I've been wrong about these things before. Who here loves to wipe? Do we have any odd birds here who, even more than the thrill of victory, enjoy the process of picking up the pieces of an encounter and trying them again in a different configuration?
The Daily Grind: When have you let your group down?
I'll let you in on a little secret: I live in mortal fear of letting my group down in MMOs, which is one of the reasons I don't often group up with others. I hate the feeling of stress that accompanies the first run through a dungeon or during a tricky boss fight, because I just know I'll be the one to slip up and end up wiping us all. It's not just paranoia; it's happened. Last year, my Guild Wars guild was doing a lengthy Underworld run for a Hall of Monuments point and everyone wiped. Except for me. Great huh? Yeah, except that I didn't have a resurrection skill slotted, any resurrection items on me, and I couldn't go to the town to get some. So there was a lot of awkward silence on Vent and me mumbling apologies. Go me! So what about you? When have you let your group down and just how much did that scar you for life? 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!
Breakfast Topic: Do you view death as a failure?
Have you become so comfortable in WoW that dying during the course of normal play makes you die again -- from embarrassment? Progression raiding aside, death as a personal failure certainly seems to be the prevailing attitude in some quarters. When you're so familiar with every nook and cranny of the content, the general mechanics, and your character's abilities that you can recover from just about any momentary lapse of attention or care, death does begin to smell a little fail-tastic. Or does it? My fondest memories in any MMO almost always revolve around moments of temporary insanity -- times when we bit off way more than we could chew and somebody (or everybody) died spectacularly as a result. Heck, there's even a guild based on the premise! Still, you won't get very far exploring the range of what your character can do if you never push the envelope. Some players relish the challenge of seeing how far they get soloing a raid instance; others quail from the inevitable string of deaths. An overly cautious approach can push activities like PvP completely off the table for players who are afraid that death equals failure in their eyes and the rest of the players around them. Does death during the normal course of questing, grouping, or running a raid you're fairly familiar with represent a personal failure to you? Do you feel embarrassment when you die in front of other players? Do you prefer that the game be balanced so that you rarely if ever die? Maybe you believe a little death and danger add spice to in-game life. If you wish WoW's overall challenge rating were a little less forgiving, do you think you'd feel comfortable with dying more frequently, or do you think the bar and community attitudes on death and skill are already firmly entrenched?
Exclusive Ryzom interview details player wipes and server merges
If you have been a Ryzom fan as long as I have, you know that the road to Atys has been long and bumpy. Unfortunately, the bumps haven't stopped. Winchgate has just announced that it's planning to merge existing servers and wipe existing characters. That means if you have built characters over these last several years, they will no longer be as they were Massively interviewed Vianney Lecroart, Ryzom's CTO, to ask about what this means for the game and community, so read on for first the official announcement and then Lecroart's comments.
Dawntide closing beta server for massive world revamp
The curious saga of Dawntide continues, and the next chapter includes a wipe, a world revamp, and two weeks of sheer unadulterated mayhem. The fantasy sandbox has had a rough go of it in 2011, first with funding issues and then with all of the trials and gameplay tribulations that come with bringing an indie MMO project to fruition. Due to the large-scale world re-design, the title will be going dark for a couple of months beginning on December 19th. The game's open beta server will be wiped, and the devs at Working as Intended will be constructing and populating "a new, more interesting, detailed and visually appealing world." Prior to the wipe, players will enjoy skill gains at five times the normal rate as well as no-holds barred PvP in every corner of the game world save for the starting towns. WAI is also allowing players to keep their equipment upon death until wipe day, but the official website notes that these changes are only temporary and will not be returning when the server reopens in January or February.
Darkfall devblog addresses Darkfall 2.0 progress, lack of communication
Darkfall fans, rejoice! More news about Darkfall 2.0 is upon us. Tasos Flambouras stopped by the game's blog today to mention that the team does "notice the anxiety on the forums concerning development progress, timing of Darkfall's re-launch, speculation about a wipe between Darkfall and the re-launch, and our spotty communication as of late." He then set out to make amends for these transgressions by giving fans an update on Darkfall 2.0's development progress. Flambouras noted that "the remaining work is broken down... and supported with a clear timeframe... so at this point we know exactly when we're done with the development." More details on Darkfall 2.0 will be revealed in upcoming updates. But Darkfall 2.0 isn't the only thing on the Aventurine head-honcho's agenda. He also takes some time to talk about whether or not there will be a full wipe when 2.0 launches (the team hasn't decided yet), business deals (the studio is in "final stages of cooperation with several partners"), and the studio's lack of communication (the studio says it's sorry and promises to do better). For the full, unabridged dev blog update, just head on over to the game's official site.
Brasso Gadget Care polish review
At Engadget, we tend not to make a big fuss about cleaning products, but this one deserves a little shout-out: Brasso, a well-established metal polish brand in good ol' Blighty, is pushing out its Gadget Care polish gel to the masses tomorrow. What really caught our attention was the fact that this will be Brasso's first new product for a whopping 110 years, but of course, at the end of the day it's all about whether the polish does what it says on the bottle, and whether it'll leave your gadgets' paintwork unharmed. The selling point's simple: not only does this gel clean your gadgets, but it also leaves a layer of silicone that's supposedly both anti-static (or dust-hating) and smear-preventing. Well, 'tis certainly a very bold claim, so join us after the break to see if this new Brasso's worth your money.%Gallery-104531%
HTCSense.com goes live, only Desire HD and Desire Z supported at launch
Let's say you're a mobile phone maker. Now, what's the first thing you do after raking in $360 million in a quarter? We're guessing that "launching a new backup / remote wipe portal" wasn't the first thing that came to mind, but that's precisely what HTC has done. HTCSense.com was officially introduced alongside the Desire HD and Desire Z in London last month, promising to one day allow registered owners to use the web in order to locate a lost handset, remotely wipe a lost handset and maintain a backup of your contacts, texts, customizations, etc. in the cloud. Looks like "one day" is "today," with the portal finally opening its doors to registrants. Unfortunately, the only two phones supported at the moment are the two it was introduced alongside of (neither of which are publicly available), so it looks like you'll spend most of your time at the source link ingesting what it can offer you in the future. But hey, who said a little schooling was a bad thing? Update: Pocketnow has a walkthrough of the new services (via a ROM hack on the HD2), with a video embedded after the break. We know it's tough to wait, but at least this glimpse will make it a bit easier, yeah? [Thanks, Marcus]
HTCSense.com will backup and remotely locate / wipe HTC devices
HTC's announcing more than hardware this morning, it's also announcing an enhanced HTC Sense experience. At the heart is HTCSense.com, a series of dashboard-connected services for backup, security, and control of your HTC handset. A new locate feature triggers the handset to ring loudly (even when set to silent) while flagging its location on an online map. If the phone was lost or stolen, owners can remote lock and/or wipe the phone. Backups will automatically archive your contacts, text messages, call history, customizations and data. Sense is also adding advanced multimedia capabilities to help ease the way we capture, share, and upload our content. HTC's also added on-the-fly capture effects and filters to manipulate depth of field or for adding distortion and vintage effects. Update: We've got a gallery's worth of interface shots from the new Sense experience! %Gallery-102313%
Toshiba Wipe deletes your encrypted data so you don't have to
Toshiba announced a new self-encrypting disk technology today, which is sure to be welcome news to the those of you who work with sensitive data, wish to keep your extensive True Blood fanfiction collection under wraps, or are just plain paranoid. The imaginatively named Wipe ships with the company's TCG-spec'd Self-Encrypting Drive models, allowing sysadmins to securely erase user data when a machine powers down, when an encrypted HDD is removed from the system, or when a leased machine is returned to its owner. And this ain't just for PCs -- the system is also designed to work with your copier and / or printer system. Interested? Of course you are! Check out the PR after the break -- it's primo stuff.
Apple launches 'Find My iPhone' app to remotely wipe and find your lost treasure
Stay with us here because this one isn't obvious. Apple just launched its Find My iPhone app on the iTunes App Store -- a service previously limited to MobileMe's web interface. The App will find your iPhone or iPad or iPod touch should it be lost or stolen. So obviously, you don't install it on your lost/stolen device, you install it on a different iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, yours or somebody else's (try a Starbucks). Panicked owners can then login with their MobileMe account to map their missing property and then remotely lock the device or wipe the data. The App can only be installed on iOS 3.1.3 or later devices and is available now for free.%Gallery-95615% [Thanks, Brian M.]
WoW Rookie: The method in the madness of resurrection
New around here? See all our collected tips, tricks and how-to's for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. It ain't over 'til it's over -- and in World of Warcraft, it ain't over 'til every player has used the last resurrection cooldown and trick. Death is far from permanent in Azeroth, and over time, the available methods of resurrection ("rezzing") have multiplied. Some classes can resurrect only outside of combat; one class can rez even in the heat of battle. Some classes have rezzes that work only on themselves. Now that the dungeon finder makes running instance groups so easy for a leveling player, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with all the alternatives for coming back to life. There's a specific etiquette that's risen up around rezzes, as well, so take note and don't get caught looking like a chump.
Breakfast Topic: A chat channel with a bank
This article has been brought to you by Seed, Aol's guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Watch for the next call for submissions and a chance to submit your own article. The next new byline you see here may be yours! When Wrath of the Lich King was first released, my guild was red-hot for Naxx. We recruited. We started a website and started swapping ideas, posting videos, strategies and of course developed some great friendships. Although we didn't steamroll over content like a lot of our other guild peers on the server (a lot of us seasoned players had been there/done that with the hardcore raiding guild scene and were over it), we still went along at a decent pace and were satisfied with our overall progress. Things were going well. Ulduar was around the corner, and everyone was ready to do a great big cannonball into new content. New strats, pics, videos and posts were going up on the guild forums. People were reading up, doing their homework and ready to roll right into Ulduar. We were getting through the first couple of bosses with no problems, but then we ran into a boss in that my guild failed to read any strats or watch any videos on: the RL Boss. Our guild could not get past the RL Boss. People were getting married, getting divorced, buying a house, losing a house. You name it, it was happening. As luck would have it, it wasn't our second-tier raiders either; it was the performers that were taking a four-quarter breather from the game. After a while, the guild leadership just gave up. Any senior raiders who were left started pugging, and there were a few months with absolutely nothing on the guild calendar. There have been a few half-hearted attempts, but those were over before they began. Rumor has it that the GM has put the kibosh on recruitment, effectively making the remnants of our guild a chat channel with a bank. Has your guild wiped on the RL Boss enough times to discourage any guild activities, even to the point that the guild actually disbanded? What happened?
The Daily Grind: What's the worst in-game mistake you've ever made?
We've all been there, right at that moment. You know the one -- when you miss-click, when you aren't paying full attention, when you say something you shouldn't, when you turn right instead of left. Suddenly, your eyes widen, stomach drops and mouth goes dry. You've made a terrible, terrible mistake. And we want to know all about it! So let's engage in a bit of virtual therapy today and get our worst in-game mistakes off our chests (sorry, no "It was a mistake to sign up for such-and-such MMO" comments needed). Trudge up memories that you thought were long forgotten, and share with the group what horrific misjudgment you've made in the past. Did you accidentally sell an incredibly rare piece of loot to a vendor? Did you delete the wrong character on the selection screen? Did you go /afk just a little too long and come back to find that you just wiped your entire raid? What in-game mistake made you stand up, slap your forehead and shout "D'OH!" loud enough for the neighborhood to hear?
