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You can see your friends' HQ Trivia answers, but only on Fridays
Now that hit mobile game HQ has become more social, the company is reportedly planning to let you see your friends' answers on Fridays. TechCrunch says the feature has been in testing for a while, now, and will roll out to all HQ players this week.
Microsoft's Yahoo Answers rival quietly opens for testing
We've all stared, wide-eyed, at the people on Yahoo Answers who want to know how to become a real mermaid or why their cat vibrates. It appears that Microsoft has too, but it's philosophy is not to join its one-time friend, but to beat it with a homegrown rival. Bing Distill is a question and answer website where "millions ask" and, perhaps unsurprisingly, "you answer."
The Mog Log Extra: End of an era
By now you know. I wrote my first column of The Mog Log almost exactly five years ago. I've been writing it for the entirety of Final Fantasy XIV's run now. I've been talking about the online Final Fantasy games since before I was married, and it's been a wonderful experience. I had every intention of continuing to do so for another decade. As long as there was a place to talk about it here, I was going to make use of it. This isn't just a farewell for the column; it's a farewell for something that's made up a huge portion of my life and changed my life in huge ways. As the fall comes to Eorzea, it also comes to us, and I wanted -- insisted -- that I would at least get to have one final chance to say goodbye. So let's take one last look together before we say farewell.
Tree of Savior answers questions about wizards and companions
Are you excited to get your hands on Tree of Savior when and if it gets a release over here? Then you'll be happy to look through the latest community Q&A, which has been helpfully translated into English. Like most community addresses, it covers a variety of different topics, ranging from casting spells on the move to working with companions in the game. Not all spells in the game can be cast while moving, depending greatly upon the type of spell and the class using it. Similarly, there's been discussion about which classes, if any, will be allowed to dual-wield. Companions can be stored at the barracks, allowing you to choose between several different companions based upon the situation, although not all companions will have the same degree of closeness with a given character. For more information, peruse the full set of answers.
MechWarrior Online serves up community answers on the details of combat
Whether you're a fan of the original BattleTech tabletop games, a fan of the MechWarrior series, or a fan of both, you know that the details of 'Mech combat are always important. MechWarrior Online is being fortunately developed with an eye toward the fine details, as explained in the latest round of community questions and answers. For instance, the developers are designing LRMs to retain their intended long-distance functionality, with any missiles fired too close to the target simply bouncing off as inert duds. The game is remaining very true to its source in many ways -- for example, location of equipment in a 'Mech will still play a major part in design -- but it's also changing certain elements. One of the team's major goals is to ensure that light 'Mechs are still a threat to assault 'Mechs, making sure that no pilot will ever feel as if his machine is useless in a given engagement. There's a great deal of attention to detail in the project, something that fans of the game should appreciate.
Star Wars: The Old Republic posts new Q&A and scheduled maintenance times
The newest patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic is just around the corner. Specifically, it's aimed at next Tuesday, following an extended maintenance period on the servers. So with the fruits of the design team's labor on the close horizon, it might be interesting to get a better insight into the design process with this week's community question-and-answer session, which includes a walkthrough of the process leading to the design of a new armor set. For those wondering about how loot is randomly rolled, the answers also contain a detailed breakdown of the process for determining what an enemy will drop. There's also confirmation that players can expect more character slots in the future, which is certainly good news for any players already feeling the pinch from recent character transfers. Take a look at the full list of answers, and as always, you can submit your questions for next week on the official thread.
Star Wars: The Old Republic explains mechanical questions in a new Q&A
The latest community question-and-answer session for Star Wars: The Old Republic doesn't answer any questions you may have about the server change kerfluffle. It does, however, answer a large variety of questions about mechanical changes and upcoming improvements to the game. If you're wondering about acquiring your very own HK droid, for instance, you should know that the designers are currently thinking it's going to involve a galaxy-wide quest, a level-50 character on one faction, a mid-level character on the other faction, and some different approaches to the game as a whole. Most of the other answers are somewhat less far-reaching, such as the rationale behind limiting group finder flashpoints to instances within a player's level range to avoid abuse. Players wondering about the fact that you can't find certain sister stats on the same Enhancements (such as Critical Rating and Power) can also find an answer which breaks down how stats are grouped together and why obviously linked stats are kept separate. Players should take the time to examine the full list of answers, and add any new questions they may have to the official thread for next week.
Guild Wars 2 devs answer anything, including launch date speculation
ArenaNet President Mike O'Brien and his motley crew of pirates, flibbertigibbets, and developers just stormed the seas of Reddit and fought valiantly through a dynamic event of Q&As concerning Guild Wars 2. No topic was off-limits, although the team didn't necessarily address all of the hundreds of queries put forth. Some of the questions answered included confirmation that there will be a way for guilds to raise their membership cap, word on bug fixes, a detailed explanation of the new trait system, and excitement for the upcoming beta weekend event. For those hoping to hear word on playable Asura or Sylvari, however, the rote response throughout the Q&A was, "Watch this space." What bug will the team actually miss? "Sit jumping," Mike Ferguson replied. "I don't know why, but it seems like everybody loves it (except the guy that introduced it). I'll actually be sad to see it go." O'Brien did directly address the rampant curiosity surrounding the game's launch date: "The fundamental issue here is that we just don't have a release date right now. We're using beta testing in the traditional sense. When beta testing shows that the game is where we want it to be, we'll lock in a release date. We're not that far off. We're obviously going to release in 2012, and any statements to the contrary are absurd."
TERA offers answers, launching with level 60 cap
Western players have two new things to look forward to when TERA launches on May 1st: level 59 and level 60. That's right, according to a forum post by Producer Brian Knox, the level cap for En Masse's launch will be bumped up by two levels. As a result of the level cap increase, the team's had to rework the formerly max-level dungeons. "We have shuffled them around -- some up and some down," Knox writes. "We will have more detailed information on it closer to open beta but it should create a much smoother progression to 60 as well as a good amount of content at level 60." For those with many questions about the game, En Masse has launched a new section of the official site called TERA Answers. TERA Answers is a knowledge base that allows players to submit and search for questions and answers to game issues. It's meant to supplement the official forums, as helpful answers may be buried in the latter's case.
Ask Massively: Big questions deserve big answers edition
Some questions are just too good to leave to my sole discretion. I like to think that I can provide a reasonable response to a number of questions, but I also think there are some questions that merit more opinions. Case in point: a question last week from potaco about whether or not it's harder to focus on a single game instead of several games as a Massively employee. So I'm consolidating responses from the whole team right now, and we'll have an answer to that question this week. This week's Ask Massively is still packed, however, with questions about getting a new computer for World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic as well as whether or not Guild Wars 2 will provide credible competition for other games when it launches. If you've got a question you would like to see answered in a future installment of the column, mail it along to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for brevity and/or clarity.
MechWarrior Online developers answer forum questions
If you're looking forward to the future of warfare today, you're probably keeping a close eye on the development of MechWarrior Online. And the developers are no doubt aware of this, as they've just posted a lengthy set of answers on the game's official forums, covering a broad range of topics from update speed to character development. While the answers confirm that at this point the software is still yet to see an alpha test, there's still a great deal of information therein. Aside from a few answers that are likely to prove discordant come launch (such as plans for biweekly update patches), the team is aiming at starting off with a strong PvP environment with persistent world elements in a similar fashion to MAG. PvE will not be in at launch, but it is on the table for later release. That's only the barest summary of the information in the full set of answers, which should keep any intent pilot eagerly anticipating his or her personal 'Mech. [Thanks to nimzy for the tip!]
Ask Massively: This is a sneaking mission edition
Let's get something straight: Even though I'm late to the party with Metal Gear Solid 4, I'm a fan of the series. It's not perfect by any means, but it's one of my favorite franchises of all time. That having been said, why is it always a sneaking mission? Just once, I'd like to be told that this is a march-in-with-an-automatic-gun-and-shoot-people-in-the-face mission. But no, solo sneaking mission, every single time. I know, it's the series hallmark, but since my second playthrough is already going to be a bloodbath with a stealth unit equipped, part of me wants to do that on the first playthrough. Just once. Appropriately enough, this week's questions for Ask Massively involve stealth in MMOs. They also involve subscription fees, but that doesn't really segue naturally. If you've got a question you'd like to see in a future installment of the column, feel free to leave it in the comments or mail it along to ask@massively.com.
Ask Massively: Stir-crazy edition
With no power, no real Internet access, no running water, and no access to just about anything, I was getting a little bit stir-crazy. Fortunately, I've made use of my training as a Boy Scout and assembled a crude pastiche of elements to bring some of my favorite electronic online games into the offline space. Success has been mixed. Sitting in dowtown and periodically shouting that a level 34 Dragoon was looking for a party produced exactly the right reaction to simulate logging in to Final Fantasy XI, but my attempt at "logging in" to City of Heroes resulted in a lengthy discussion with police regarding the appropriateness of waving a Nerf sword at teenagers. My makeshift attempts at answering this week's lineup for Ask Massively, however, have proved pretty fruitful all around. Skip on past the break for discussions about some very meta considerations, not the least of which being a potential subdivision of the site. As always, leaving a question in the comments or mailing it to ask@massively.com will quite possibly get it included in a future edition of the column. Sometimes even if the question is ridiculous.
Ask Massively: You're missing the best part of the appearance tab news edition
I've made no secret of the fact that I've long since fallen out of love with World of Warcraft, but I think people are missing the best element of the whole addition of an appearance tab. Sure, it's something that players have been asking to get for years on end without receiving a response, but the best part is that its addition essentially invalidates every single answer we've received to date about why it can't be done. That amuses me to no end. This week's Ask Massively has nothing to do with that news, however; instead, it covers the excitement of upcoming games, the lack of upcoming games, and the relevance of functions within games. I'd promise a zebra as well, but he had places to go. As always, you can leave your questions for a future installment in the comment field or mail them along to ask@massively.com, whichever you prefer.
iFixit introduces Dozuki, to provide and share crowdsourced service and repair manuals
iFixit is, of course, the great upgrade and repair community with all kinds of step-by-step instructions for Macs, iPods, iPhones, and almost any other devices you happen to have, Apple or otherwise. Now, the company has introduced a new release called Dozuki, which is designed to make sharing and providing manuals for service or repair even easier. Dozuki is still in a closed beta, but the idea as we understand it is that users will be able to create and share manuals via PDF across all of iFixit's outlets, including the official iOS app. Guidebook is the side of the platform that will deal with documents, while Answers will share questions and their answers with whoever needs them. Both sides of the software are currently in a private beta, which you can sign up for on the website. Dozuki is set to launch to the public later on this fall.
Addon Spotlight: A very mailbag episode
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Oh, hi. There have been so many mailbag questions lately that it might be a good idea to just, you know, get them all out of the way in one shot. You guys love sending me in questions! If you've got a question for Addon Spotlight, send it on over to mat@wowinsider.com and hopefully I can get to your question. There will be addon recommendations. There will be heartbreak and sadness. There will be reunions and jubilation. So many emotions are running through me right now. A mighty burden Hey Mat, I know you dislike Carbonite, and it took me a long time to understand why, but I get it now. It's huge and slows down my computer, and they don't make their code easy for other addon authors to use. I've decided to not use it anymore, but there are a few things I really, really miss about it! Top on the list is the infinite scroll and sizing of the map and its google earth type layer. I also really liked being able to right click the map to place a "go to" waypoint. Finally, I miss the "Punks" feature that alerts me when an enemy player is nearby and also puts a dot on the minimap with the player's approximate location and time last seen. Everything else it does that I like I've found replacement addons to use, and I like that I'm using less memory than with Carbonite. I'm also having a lot fewer conflicts with my other mods. Are there any addons out there that can give me back the three features outlined above? Thanks for any help you can give me! Ann Thanks for the email, Ann. Carbonite is one of those addons that has its heart in the right place but overstays its welcome very quickly, like relatives in your living room or that raider who holds down his push-to-talk button constantly. The bloat you feel with Carbonite is heavy, it's true. All of the features that you describe, like the map scaling and that Google Earth layer, are the ones causing you the bloat and slowness. That's the problem.
Undead Labs talks about environments and the undead
The upcoming zombie games from Undead Labs are aiming to give players a feeling of genuinely surviving in a world ruled by shambling corpses. To make that work correctly, players are going to need lots of little touches here and there to reinforce just what has gone wrong and what sort of threat living humans are facing. In the most recent set of questions and answers from the development team, more elements of the environment and interaction with same are spelled out, giving prospective survivors an idea of what to expect. While the game isn't planned to be an ornate physics simulator, there will be a practical limit to how much an individual can carry -- and while vehicles can carry more, the problems of noise and fuel will place some limits on stacking an SUV to the brim with heavy weapons. Hunting wildlife and handling aquatic environments will both be issues in the game, with the obvious caveat that humans drown far more easily than zombies. There are a lot of other interesting tidbits in the full rundown as well as some valuable takeaways that aspiring survivors would do well to internalize.
Ask Massively: Career day edition
As you read this, depending on the time this goes live, I will either be knee-deep in a Career Day presentation or be coming down off the high of getting to talk about my job to a bunch of middle-school children. I'm writing this before I'll know whether it went well or not, but I'm hopeful. Truth be told, I have exactly the sort of job now that I would have loved to hear about when I was a young boy, so I'm expecting this will be pretty fun. Plus I'll be having school lunch again for the first time since my high school graduation. That's got to be worth a few points on the nostalgia-o-matic, right? This week's Ask Massively is thus an honorary career day edition, as we tackle questions about careers, classes, and professions throughout the wide world of gaming. On deck this week are questions about Guild Wars and doing things you oughtn't with classes, World of Warcraft's lockstep class system, and the range of flexibility in Star Wars: The Old Republic. As always, you can send off your own questions to ask@massively.com or leave them in the comment field for next week's column.
Another month, another round of answers for Star Trek Online
About once a month, Star Trek Online has producer Dan Stahl sit down and answer the newest round of player questions regarding the game's future additions. It's May, of course, which means that it's time for the newest Ask Cryptic, covering the recent additions to the game's microtransaction store as well as plans for Season 4 and beyond. And as always, while there are more features being asked about than are planned for the next major update, there are very few elements not planned for eventual inclusion. Further ship customization is discussed, with the implementation of Duty Officers in Season 4 promised to help add more differentiation between individual ships. There's also mention of the debate about bringing lower-tier ships up to par for use in endgame activities, which is currently not on the table but is still under heavy debate in both development and on the forums. Players of Star Trek Online are encouraged to check out the latest round of answers for more info.
Apple officially answers questions on location tracking, says it doesn't do it
1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone? Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so. The big hubbub that arose last week around location tracking within the iPhone has now received its due response from Apple itself. Firstly, the Cupertino company claims it does not, and has no plans to, track users' iPhones. What it's actually doing is "maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location," which are then used to provide speedier calculation of your position when you want to use the device's maps or other location-based services. The data collection that was recently brought to the public attention represents, according to Apple, the location of WiFi hotspots and cell towers around you, not your actual iPhone. Still, the fact iPhones have been shown to store as much as a year's worth of data is considered a bug by Apple, who plans to limit that period to a week in a future software update. The additional issue of data being collected after users turned off Location Services is also a bug, also to be fixed by Apple in that upcoming update. Left unanswered, however, are the questions of when Apple "uncovered" these bugs, as it claims, and why the fix for them is only coming now. Specialists have known about this behavior since at least September of last year. Either way, the software remedy is promised over the next few weeks, while the next major iteration of iOS should encrypt the cache file that's been the subject of all the scrutiny. You'll find the full Q&A after the break. P.S. -- One of Apple's answers seems to disclose an extra bit of new information: "Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years."
