april fools day
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Microsoft mercifully puts an end to April Fools' Day gags
Do you hate tech companies' forced attempts at humor on April Fools' Day? So does Microsoft. The Verge has learned that company marketing chief Chris Capossela told employees not to indulge in any public April Fools' Day gags through a company memo. Data suggested that these pranks not only have "limited positive impact" but can result in "unwanted news cycles," Capossela said -- to put it another way, they can frequently backfire.
Neverwinter's Rise of Tiamat gameplay trailer is here
Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic have been pimping the heck out of the upcoming Rise of Tiamat module for Neverwinter, the fifth episode in the season of dragons storyline. While the module itself doesn't land on official servers until November 18th, the gameplay trailer is here right now. Spoiler: Thar be dragons! Don't forget that Neverwinter's April Fools' Day event returns this Thursday for a reprise lasting until the Rise of Tiamat launch. Check out the trailer below.
Neverwinter resurrects its April Fools' Day event next week
Nope, it's not April Fools' Day, but it's going to look like it next week in Neverwinter. Cryptic is reintroducing Respen's Marvelous Game, its 2014 April 1st event, from November 13th to November 17th. The minigame turns your character into a tabletop miniature that slides around the tabletop skirmish map as you collect special dice currency and other rewards. Massively's Justin Olivetti included the event in his roundup of the top 10 MMO pranks of all time. The event's reprise leads into the launch of Neverwinter: Rise of Tiamat, which launches on November 18th. We've included pics of the event below![Source: Neverwinter press release]
The Secret World's Joel Bylos takes on mankinigate
The Secret World's Lead Content Designer Joel Bylos has just posted an explanation for last week's mankinigate episode. As we reported on April 4th, a mankini outfit for male characters was added to the game's cash shop as part of the April Fools' Day patch but was later removed from that shop and from those who had purchased it, with no reason given. Today, Bylos told forumgoers that the mankini wearables were always intended to be a limited-availability April Fools joke and that players were meant to keep them. But... Funcom management feels strongly that the Mankini outfit goes against what The Secret World intellectual property (IP) is all about and they did not want this item to stay in the game permanently. We all agree on the fact that The Secret World should be the best urban contemporary horror MMO out there, and they want to make sure that everything we bring into the game stays true to the setting and the atmosphere we have created – however it is safe to say that there is sometimes disagreement on nuance. For that reason, Management made the decision to pull it from the game entirely. While he disagrees with purging the gear from those who bought it, he stresses that it was "pulled due to concerns over the integrity of the IP, not because of the gender or skimpiness of the outfit." The female wetsuit has also been removed from the store but will remain wearable by those who purchased it. [With thanks to tipster Snurx! We've included Bylos' entire post after the cut.]
Weekends with Engadget: Amazon's Fire TV, Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8.1 and more!
Welcome to Weekends with Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines from the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. For even more action, subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!
The Daily Grind: What was your favorite April Fools' Day prank?
You might not have noticed, but yesterday was April Fools' Day, and in the MMO industry that means a lot of studios blowing off steam by being abnormally silly and trying to trick players with weird promises. Some people like the goofs, some don't, but I'm willing to bet that there was at least one that got your nod of approval. So what was your favorite April Fools this year? Did you get genuinely tricked by anything or find yourself laughing in delight at the cleverness of developers? 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!
Daily Roundup: April Fools' roundup, a tour of ThinkGeek's headquarters, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
April Fools' Day around the virtual world
I was in Guild Wars 2 last night at 10 p.m. PDT when my Asura's head... grew. And wobbled. And bobbled. As did the heads of the not-so-scary-anymore Nightmare Court villains I had been murdering in pursuit of my dailies. Ah, I remembered. It's April Fools' somewhere! Here are some of the MMOs that tried to prank us today: Blizzard showed off a hideous new model for World of Warcraft's Draenei women and announced a new fighting game full of rejected characters. Neverwinter introduces a brand-new playable race -- the Dragon! EverQuest Next wants you to choose the next class: Duct Tapomancer, Rubberbandian, Origami Assassin, or Martinizer. Star Wars: The Old Republic introduced asteroid starships. Final Fantasy XIV teased the worst NPC companions ever. TERA has been overrun by beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! Lord of the Rings Online announced plans for a major sports league. DC Universe Online brought to life the Unicorn Trinket. EverQuest II celebrated Bristlebane Day. Path of Exile gave up and went pay-to-win. Destiny unveiled the "Get Your Ass To Mars" collectors edition. World of Warplanes promised playable UFOs. The Repopulation posted patch notes including The Adventures of Ding Veisel. World of Tanks introduced World of Tanks: The Crayfish. League of Legends turned its meta upside down with a goofy Ultra Rapid Fire mode. Finally, rather than add to the pranks, we sent you on an April Fools' Day quest. The first person to complete it was reader Nathan6! The words in order were waffle, platypus, macguyver, shazbot, and doge, and here is the "prize" page. Thanks for playing, everyone! ;)
World of Warcraft shows off the 'redesigned' female Draenei
For far too long, Draenei have existed as bastions of unassailable beauty and elegance in World of Warcraft. We're told the race has fallen to the depths of the Broken and the Lost Ones, but you don't really see that in the game. Fortunately for fans, the new redesign to the female Draenei shows a closer connection between the various subtypes of the races, while simultaneously emphasizing the roots of the game's resident space goats. (Those roots would be "space" and "goat," incidentally. Truly.) Among the major changes Blizzard threatens to make to the model are the addition of fur, a slimming of the lower legs and hooves, and the removal of the ridiculously long tail from the model. The eye design also speaks to the ways in which this ancient and mystical race sees things in a way that most of Azeroth's residents can only imagine. It's a bit more of a departure from the existing model than the other redesigns, but take a look at the full diary for a closer look. And then remember what day it is. You don't need to reroll your Shaman as a Dwarf. We promise.
The Massively April Fools' Day Quest [We have a winner!]
As a citizen of the internet, you know what to expect on April Fools' Day: lots of sites trying to trick you into believing outrageous lies or attempting to make you laugh. As Massively is a paragon of both truth and humorlessness in journalism, we promise to do neither today. Instead, we challenge you to a quest: a Massively April Fools' Day Quest. We have created a super-secret page here on the site that can be discovered only by finding five special words. So your task is to play scavenger hunt with our posts today -- specifically, to look at the tags at the bottom of each post that goes out during the day and find five separate tags (total) that clearly do not belong with the rest. All posts published today are eligible! Once you find these five words, you'll use them to assemble the url, starting with "massively.joystiq.com/" and then adding the five words separated by hyphens. For example, if the five words were apple, banana, pear, mango, kiwi, you could try "massively.joystiq.com/apple-banana-pear-mango-kiwi" to see if that worked. Yes, part of the challenge of the quest is to experiment with the order of the words because there is only one path to the solution. If you complete the quest, please be a good sport and keep the answer to yourself. The first person to figure out the solution and leave us a tip with the correct answer in it will have his or her name added to this post and will forevermore be internet famous. Good luck! [Update: We have a winner! Reader Nathan was the very first person to submit the correct URL, followed by Greaterdivinity just a few minutes later. Congrats to both of you! Here's the "prize page" with the words in order -- don't look if you're still working on the puzzle.]
Final Fantasy XIV teases human-NPC relationship system
Well it's April 1st already, at least in Japan, and Final Fantasy XIV has something to contribute to this off-beat day: a Favour system for the game. Allegedly, this system will help players curry favor with NPCs and develop relationships with them because that's not creepy at all. To build an NPC's affection, players will have to perform certain tasks, hand out gifts, and even sport a particular look because that's not demeaning at all. As a player rises in affection, he or she will move to later "phases" and have access to new features (such as minigames) and interactions with the NPC. So if you've ever wanted to start a relationship with a cute NPC that will result in an over-possessive, jealous lover who will deny you the ability to group with members of the opposite sex, here you go. Because that's not bizarre at all.
Neverwinter spoofs game-within-a-game
Neverwinter has jumped the gun on April Fools' Day with its "preview" of Respen's Marvelous Game. The idea is that Neverwinter will add a game-within-a-game, allowing characters in the MMO to sit down and engage in some good ol' fashion tabletop D&D: "Respen's Marvelous Game takes place atop a table, with your character being transformed into a miniature statuette. This new event will challenge you on a whole new level. Now you will know what it is like to be on the other side of a tabletop game!" Of course, this is just a joke. Or is it? Cryptic teased the possibility of earning a green slime companion and said that it will be revealing more details tomorrow.
Why World of Warcraft passed on April Fools' Day this year
World of Warcraft usually puts together some pretty ornate pranks for the first of April. It's hard to forget about the console version of Molten Core, the Bard class, or the Tinfoil Hat. This year, fans were treated to... well, nothing. That's a pretty dramatic departure, and it prompted community manager Zarhym to take to the field and answer the obvious question about why no one got to have a laugh this year. Zarhym explains that there were two main causes, the first being that the team simply hadn't come up with a joke that really stuck despite several ideas being bandied about. Add to that the fact that the team members usually responsible for assembling these jokes were otherwise occupied, and they were left without a joke and without people to implement the gag. So this year will go down as being sadly bereft of foolery from Blizzard.
Listen to the entire Guild Wars 2 Super Adventure Box soundtrack
Enjoying your Super Adventure Box groove in Guild Wars 2? Then you've probably noticed the kicking 8-bit tunes as well. ArenaNet Composers Maclaine Diemer and Leif Chappelle put together 26 minutes of brand-new (and old-school) music tracks to power the super adventure, and you can listen to the whole shebang on SoundCloud. "It's not easy reducing a lush, bombastic orchestral piece into just the four channels we have available to us for 8-bit music," Diemer said. "After the initial statement of the theme, a galloping rhythm and bass line with more of a classic Zelda feel kick in, followed by a new melody that bridges the gap between the Guild Wars 2 we know and love and the world of Super Adventure Box." What's even better is that each of the tracks has composer notes attached to them, so if you're interested in how the duo came up with these catchy tunes and what inspired them, your curiosity shall soon be sated.
April Fools' Day comes to the PTR courtesy of Wowhead
If you haven't had enough of April Fools' Day quite yet -- and in light of Blizzard's joke no-show this year, maybe you haven't -- you'll enjoy Wowhead's celebration of this silly holiday in the form of what they tell us is new information about patch 5.3 on the PTR. So just what have we got to look forward to? We think the highlight is the new Earth Week holiday, in which we'll be cleaning up Azeroth and battling the forces of evil otherwise known as The Crown Chemical Co. We'll also be fighting a new boss called the Sky Sludge, which drops five epic rings that seem awfully familiar. But if that doesn't strike your fancy, there's also new cosmetic armor and auras, in-game Hearthstone, and the delicious-looking Doritos Locos Feast. And, while we are pretty sure this is all a joke, Blizzard has been known to have a strange sense of humor before...
April Fools' Day roundup: hamster beats, pirate's booty and Play-Doh printing
April Fools' Day is tough. Believe us. We know. It's 24 hours of fake news, bad jokes and Gangnam Style references. But not all of it is the internet equivalent to lining a toilet with plastic wrap. Sometimes, good stuff manages to slip through the proverbial cracks in the web. After the break, check out some of the holiday's highlights. If you dare.
Your guide to Guild Wars 2's Super Adventure Box
April is almost upon us, which means that the first day of April is almost upon us, which means that April Fools' Day is almost upon us. In the past, the folks at ArenaNet have proven themselves fond of celebrating this occasion, which has given fans high hopes for continued trolling in the world of Guild Wars 2. Since March's patch, strange things have been appearing that all seem to hint at some sort of April Fools' joke: Super Adventure Box achievements on the hero panel, mysterious Continue Coins falling out of chests, and a new range of weapon skins added to the sPvP weapon pane. Of course, it's been pointed out to me that perhaps the most delicious joke of all would be to put in all those clues and then have no actual prank. I can almost taste the rage of fans who had compulsively run characters through jumping puzzles for days in an attempt to stock up on Continue Coins that suddenly turned out to be worthless. Fortunately (or not, depending on your sense of humor), that's not the case at all. The Super Adventure Box is real, and it's almost time for you to start playing it. Let's talk about it, shall we?
One Shots: Bringing it back for realsies
By now, everyone's figured out that today's One Shots revival was an April Fool's joke, but you guys have been such great sports about it that we're going to Bring Back One Shots starting next weekend as a once-a-week featurette. No... really. No joke! So... do send your screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include all the usual details, like your name, the name of the game shown in the screenshot, and a little explanation of the scene. Large, colorful, clear, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. We'll pore over the submissions every week and pick out one that really sings to us to showcase, and then we'll see how it goes. If we get lots of submissions and the feature does well, we'll keep it around more permanently! We've tucked our first entry, from Ehra, behind the break to cap off the April Fool's festivities!
One Shots: None shall pass... until the sun comes out
Who dares attempting to pass? You? Are you trying to pass the Great and Terrible White Wizard? Well, please don't. He wouldn't like it very much. In fact, he might become so put out that he'll cast a spell with his +5 staff of mockery and turn you into another piece of coal for his suit. For years I have wanted to pass by this snowman in Lord of the Rings Online but chickened out each and every time I came under his glare. Just look into those eyes and tell me that you don't feel your will melting away and your feet frozen into place. Back away, my friend. Back away slowly and never return. Do you have a picture of a favorite MMO anthropomorphic pile of snow? The very first thing you should do is not send it in to us at oneshots@massively.com, along with your name, the game, and a description of the scene, and we won't publish it. Bring back One Shots!
April Fool's jokes streak across the MMO community
It may be the weekend, but that's never stopped pranksters in the past from pulling off truly epic April Fool's jokes. Many MMO studios, bloggers, and fan site operators are lining up to take a shot at the jester's crown today, hoping that their blatant (and entertaining) lies will at least amuse, if not trick, players. It would be fool-hardy (har har) to try to round them all up, so suffice it to say that office clowns have been quite busy thus far. From Star Wars: The Old Republic's announcement of playable ship droids and City of Heroes' offer of ludicrous marketplace sales to Blizzard's focus on educational kids games and StarCraft 2's playable supply depots to SOE scaring visitors with Chatdy, the gags are flying fast and furious. We might be the most impressed with a deeply detailed wiki entry for a Guild Wars mission called Annihilator 2: Searing Day, during which players are sent into the past to save Gwen from the G-1000. If you've spotted any other pranks, please share them in the comments!
