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WoW Rookie: Thanks for the memories
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. For links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's, visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide. There's nothing quite like your first time through Azeroth. Capture those memories by snapping screenshots (pictures of what's on your screen) in game as you explore, level, discover, plummet, laugh, triumph, fail ... All the moments that make life within the World of Warcraft so utterly bewitching. Screenshot basics Take a screenshot by hitting the Print Screen button on your PC or Command+Shift+3 on your Mac. You can set a more convenient key binding in game in your Game Menu; hit Key Bindings and scroll down to Miscellaneous Functions. Screenshots get stored in the World of Warcraft folder on your computer. Look for the folder called Screenshots. Screenshots used to be saved as big, unwieldy TGAs, but now you'll find them in convenient .jpg format.
Advanced screenshotting techniques and tips
This discussion over on WoW Ladies has me thinking that we probably need to do a post on something I don't think we've ever covered before: screenshotting. Sure, they're everywhere -- almost everybody sees tons of screenshots every single day, and occasionally, you can even win some real-life loot for taking one. But I don't know that we've ever actually covered the mechanics of how to take one. So let's do that now. First and foremost, taking a screenshot is usually bound to your "Print Screen" key -- whenever you're playing the game, just hit that key on your keyboard, and a screenshot (in JPG format -- it used to be saved in TGA, but Blizzard changed that a while ago) will show up in the /Screenshots folder inside the World of Warcraft installation on your hard drive. Of course, on a Mac keyboard, there is no Print Screen button, so I have mine bound to the "Home" button instead -- you can rebind it to whatever you want in the options menu. And that's just the basics -- it gets more complicated from there.
Survey: Less than half of touchscreen users prefer touchscreen
Here's a few interesting stats from a survey recently conducted in Europe. These aren't specifically about the iPhone, but given that smartphones relied on buttons almost exclusively before Apple's handheld came along (and nowadays, everyone's bragging about their touchscreen technology), a temperature-taking on what people think of touchscreen controls is more or less a referendum on what people think of Apple's influence. At least in France, Germany and the UK, reactions are mixed. While 38% of those surveyed say they were planning to get a touchscreen on their next mobile phone, only 47% of people who already owned a touchscreen said they would get another one. In other words, less than half of touchscreen owners thought they'd stick with the technology on their next purchase. Apple remains an anomaly -- both HTC and Apple have a higher amount of current customers planning to stick with their touchscreen interface (with the full numbers being released at a conference later this month), but the fact remains: current touchscreen users aren't anywhere near 100% on living button-free forever. Especially as a gamer, that makes a lot of sense. Touchscreens are great for a lot of things -- they allow for limitless flexibility in the kinds of interfaces on offer, and especially with multi-touch, a lot of the controls on the iPhone are extremely intuitive (you automatically know now that pinching equals zooming, and so on). But as nice as touchscreen is, there are a lot of functions on mobile phones, from adjusting volume or changing music tracks on a phone out of sight in your pocket, to hitting exact button controls while twitch gaming, that work much better with tactile feedback. Steve, as he always does, made a big deal about the iPhone being a one-button interface, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see future iterations of the iPhone include either a few more buttons, or, even better, a few more haptic interface technologies.
BlizzCon 2009: Hands-on with Razer's Naga MMO mouse
We posted last week that Razer had released an MMO mouse fittingly called the Naga (technically after the Sanskrit word for "snake," but c'mon, who plays WoW and doesn't know what Naga really means, right?), and when we did that, we mentioned it would be usable on the floor at BlizzCon. Sure enough, when we ran into the hall (hey, had to get to the store before those plush murlocs sold out) in Anaheim, there it was. We sat down with Travis Wannlund, community manager for the mouse and accessory company, for a quick demo and hands-on.In that demo, we learned that Razer has actually developed their own WoW addon for the mouse's use, allowing you to map your abilities right into on-screen slots that correspond to the 3x4 touchpad of buttons on the thumb side. He also let us in on some of the design reasoning for the mouse itself, and what they've got in store for the device's future. Read on to learn more.%Gallery-70864%
Razer announces the Naga MMO mouse
BlizzCon isn't the only big gaming convention happening this week (though you'd never known it from reading our site -- we're a bit obsessive, no?). Gamescom is going on in Germany, and gaming equipment manufacturer Razer has announced there that they're releasing a new mouse, specifically designed for MMO games. They put it together in conjunction with MMO players (they say the folks at Curse had a hand in it), and while it isn't officially tied to Blizzard as far as we can tell (Steelseries already has that market cornered), there is one interesting connection. They decided to call this new mouse the "Naga."Technically the word is Sanskrit for "snake," and especially since most of Razer's mice are already named after scaly reptiles, we suppose it works. But given that the mouse is supposed to be designed for MMO gameplay (it has a twelve button thumb grid, supposedly to keep your hands off of spell buttons and on movement buttons where they belong), it's probably a happy coincidence that the name of the product is reminiscent of well-known villians in one very famous MMO. Good show, Razer.They also have a new "mousing surface" (back when I was a kid, we just called them mousepads) called the Megasoma. Both are available right now, and they ain't cheap: $80 for the mouse, and $50 for the pad. But if you want to go high-end on a mouse, and the Naga strikes your fancy, there you go.
Namco's iPhone division considering... Tekken?
Actually, I'd play that. Namco recently announced that they were forming an Apple Games division to head up game development for Apple platforms like the iPhone, and in this interview, a producer for them who used to work for Apple says that they're excited to work on bringing great games to the handheld device. Like, for example, Pac-man, Galaga, and... Soulcaliber and Tekken. You heard that right -- fighting games haven't exactly made a splash on the iPhone, as they're primarily a button-based genre, and the iPhone, of course, has no buttons.But that won't stop Namco's guy from putting the old head gears into motion: "It's just the controls that are a challenge. We are thinking about that." Think away, crazy man -- I'd love to pull out Yoshimitsu for a few rounds while waiting at a bus stop. Obviously, the easiest way to try and port these would be to put overlaid buttons on the screen, but that doesn't leave a lot of room for the fighting (and not having the tactile feedback would probably be a problem as well). Maybe some gesture-based accelerometer movement? Sky's the limit, right?. Your call, Namco -- can't wait to see what you come up with.[via Joystiq]
TUAW 2016
Good afternoon, and welcome to your daily brainload from TUAW, a division of Weblogs, Inc. owned by Comcast Online. Please make sure the neural connector is clicked in all the way, and then think "Start" when you are ready.Steve Jobs returns to Apple's Board of Directors after stint at GMSteve Jobs announced his return to Apple today after a government-mandated stint as CEO of General Motors. Obama White House spokesperson Ruth Christopher stated that since Jobs had saved the American auto company with the introduction of the extremely popular flyCar, he could return to his usual duties. Apple executives released a statement saying they were "overjoyed" to have Jobs back on the job.New MacBooks and Mac mini appear on Apple Store siteApple has quietly updated its legacy line of personal computers, adding exabyte molecular hard drives and gigacore nanoprocessors without raising the prices. Fans, unfortunately, were unimpressed with the updates -- "my implants can move faster than that," John Gruber transmitted to his brainload feed, along with a TwitFeeling of disappointment and anger. But Apple defended the updates, stating that the new computers were "perfect for the older member of your family who still need their hardware in the box, rather than out of it." Anyone who has purchased one of the older units in the past six months (if there are any of you out there still buying hardware) can be eligible for an exchange at any Apple center.MobileMe announces record number of subscribersOver three billion people have subscribed to Apple's MobileMe service since its reintroduction two years ago, according to a new study transmitted by analysts NPD. Apparently people love the fact that they no longer have to carry an iPhone, a laptop, or any hardware at all, as MobileMe now works directly with tiny processors implanted into your head to bring you brainloads, news, TwitFeelings, and the Webview over the cloud directly into your visual and memory cortexes."People really love not having to deal with devices or pesky buttons," said an NPD analyst. "MobileMe allows them to connect directly into the ethersphere, leaving them open to do or think or feel anything while anywhere." The price of the system was also lauded as one of the reasons it's so popular. Apparently after the big economic meltdown in 2010, Apple's customers are thrilled to get a full-service communication package for just over a billion dollars a year. "MobileMe has never been so worth it," said longtime user Dave Caolo.Apple announces event next Tuesday: "Go ahead. Take a guess, suckers."Press outlets around the brainsphere have recieved invites from Apple for an event next Tuesday in Chicago's Willis Tower (up until two years ago, events like this were held in San Franscisco at the Moscone Center, but of course the unfortunate earthquakes and flooding in 2014 mean that all of California is currently underwater). Rumors are flying about what might be announced at the event, but Apple hasn't given any indication of what there might be -- in fact, the invite itself features a question mark, and the text: "Take a guess, suckers. You still haven't gotten it right."Most brainloaders have speculated that the event may finally feature the debut of the long-awaited iTablet, or maybe, finally, the reveal of The Beatles unenhanced audio recordings into the iCollective. Either way, TUAW won't be there: we still haven't gotten an invite. But we will, as usual, be providing Mike Schramm's unfiltered thoughts on the event live as it happens. Remember to make sure your children are unplugged at the time.
Show and Tell: And buttons for all
Buttons are important to gamers. Usually, they're our primary method of input, and while some systems (why hello, Nintendo) may be moving us away from that tradition, we'll always have a soft spot for those little buttons.But we're not talking about those sorts of buttons today. We just like 'em. No, we're taking a look at the other sort today, the kind you wear. Badges. Pins. Sometimes, they can be just as important as the buttons on our handhelds and controllers -- if you want to display your likes and dislikes, anyway. And badge-making has long been quite the thing among the crafty gaming contingent. Take the guided tour of our selection of game-related buttons here, or dip into the gallery below wherever you'd like. You might be surprised at what you find.%Gallery-38307% Show and Tell is all about fan stuff, so long as it's Nintendo-related. We love to see your collections, your crafts, your frosted creations, your t-shirts and swag of all sorts.Just snap a few pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest. Not a handy type, but found something neat? Send us a link instead.
Belkin JoyPod plans sneak out (now confirmed false)
Update: Belkin reps have contacted us to say that the JoyPod, while a fascinating idea, is not a product they have in development. Oh well!I guessed that we'd see a more official iPhone controller sooner or later, but I didn't think it'd be this much sooner -- Touch Arcade has unearthed this photo of a Belkin-branded game controller/case for the iPhone and iPod touch called the JoyPod. Looks pretty slick, though as Engadget points out, the ratios don't really work out -- odds are that the final product will have to be a little longer to fit the iPhone in there.Very interesting, though -- now I'm curious to see if Apple really will support stuff like this. Supporting a third-party controller would seem to go against His Jobsness' suggestion that a multitouch screen could be used for anything (even typing on an awkward non-tactile keyboard), but clearly there's a demand, from consumers if not from devs themselves, to move game controls off the screen and onto buttons you can feel while pressing. How else will you be able to "exprimir al maximo tu iPhone o iPod touch"?
Wii Warm Up: About a button
We've talked a little before about the placement of buttons on the Wii Remote, but what about the number of buttons? Do you think there should be a few more? What about fewer? That would probably mean more actions performed with gestures. Does it seem like buttons are still essential for most games? Waggling through menus doesn't really seem too appealing, after all.
Remember Mario? He's back -- in button form!
What are these perfect for? Making a fabric-based stop-motion Mario animation, that's what. This latest batch of buttons from Etsy craftsman Spooon features easily movable characters and items, each faithfully recreated from original NES sprites. Why, nab a set of these handy control buttons, and you'll have hours of fun manually moving our plucky hero through all kinds of pinning adventures.Better yet, Spooon also whipped up a bunch of magnets featuring Space Invaders and Pac-man characters, so there's no real need to ever leave your kitchen. Sit by the fridge and enjoy! The sets are available in button ($8) or magnet ($10) form, so the choice of creating a retro fridge or bag is entirely up to you. The store is open for business, so take a crafty trip down nostalgia street.[Via technabob]
Wii Warm Up: Button placement
Confession: I have small hands. This means that, over the years, a lot of controllers are just difficult to use. The Dreamcast controller, the first monstrous Xbox controller ... and sometimes, the Wii remote. Yes, the controller that is supposed to be the most user-friendly thing ever is, at times, a little unwieldy. And forget waggle; it's got nothing to do with motion controls. No, it's those pesky little 1 and 2 buttons. Anyone else have trouble getting to them sometimes? Do you groan whenever you notice a game using them? They just seem hard to reach when you're in the thick of things, unless the controller is turned sideways. Of course, those of you with gigantic man-hands probably don't have any issues at all.Freaks.
Playing with your mouse
Lots of us purchase these nifty mice from the local computer store. Be they a fancy new Logitech mouse with a dozen keys placed strategically around the unit, or a slick new beauty from Apple, the mouse is a strategic part of your game play.At least, it should be.All too often people don't utilize what they have in front of them. Today we're going to look at how you can increase your game play by using your mouse more effectively. In particular, the buttons.However before we look into buttoning strategies, lets just quickly cover moving with the mouse. It's pretty simple, right? Push both buttons down, move forward. Right click and hold to turn your character. Left click and hold to look around without moving. Mike Schramm covered this in a post about a month and a half back, and it's a pretty good read for those interested more in the topic of mouse moving.So now that that's out of the way, let's look at basic mouse buttoning techniques. I own two Logitech MX5000 cordless optical mice. They work very well and have a battery life of a couple days; but even then I recharge them both every night just so I don't have disaster strike me in the middle of a raid when the battery goes out.
GDC08: Touring the GDC Store
Although the show floors haven't opened yet, the GDC Store was packed with potential consumers. Highlights include: a teddy bear ($10) slouched over and surrounded by empty shot glasses ($5) and flasks ($10), a line of clothing for toddlers ($16 to $25) and the Outlaw Volleyball soundtrack. Check out the gallery below.%Gallery-16355%
Controllers modded specifically for Gears, Halo, etc [Update]
Update 1: It seems that HGcontrollers is not the only company around modding controllers for online shooters. Their products are different from each other, so check 'em both out.Controllers with turbo buttons have existed for many years, going all the way back to the NES, and controller mods for the 360 are nothing new. But having a turbo button (among many other things) modded into what looks like a standard controller is news to us. The guys over at HGcontrollers seem to have started up a fine little business doing just that. The above graphic is really from their site (can you spot which are the real and fake buttons) and details some of the special enhancements made to the controller for the express purpose of playing shooters. The goal of these mods is to create a controller configuration that can be played through the entire game experience without having to remove one's thumbs from the sticks. Theoretically, this means that your aim with said sticks will improve, as you no longer have to take your thumb off it to hit the essential buttons. However HGcontrollers does more modding of controllers than simply moving buttons. The staff there will actually create a controller with a custom button layout, toggle switches, microprocessors (turbo) for rapid fire, and more if you've got the cash for it. In fact, their website seems to be a bit behind the times forgetting to tell its readers that there are even controllers specially built for Gears that do your Active-Reloading for you. These controllers look great and all, but specifically modding (or buying) your controller to get better at a game sort of defeats the purpose (FUN!) for us here.[Thanks, chaostheory0982]
Using permadeath as a character reset
Damion over at Zen of Design combined (or saw his readers combine) two things that are rarely done in MMOs, and draw a lot of attention when they are done. Recently, permadeath has been brought up a few times (and implemented a few as well), and other games (most notably Shadowbane) have reset all character information in the game. And Damion asked if the two ideas complemented each other-- could permadeath make sure that, as with a character reset, everyone who gets too powerful is brought back to zero?It would only work, however, if lower characters could somehow stop someone who was too powerful, and as Damion notes, permadeath usually lets people accumulate power, not lose it. If one character is able to gain enough power to break the game and you combine that with a permadeath system, then any deaths he or she causes bring everybody else back to zero. And the balance to keep the lower characters powerful enough to stop the higher character and yet not overpowered is so precarious that, as Damion says, it usually ruins the game.But we are falling yet again into Damion's stages-- permadeath, it seems, just doesn't work unless you build your game around it, and then it can't necessarily be called permadeath anymore. The very fact of gaming means that, in a social game, to build a character worth playing, death, it seems, cannot stand in your way.
Mashing buttons can cause cooldown problems
Ever since patch 2.3, a number of players have been having a lot of trouble with their instant abilities, especially in PvP. They're finding they get constant "spell is not ready yet" and "target is out of range" errors whenever they mash their buttons. The main source of this problem has to do with a change to the way your computer communicates to the server what your character is doing. It's not very easy to explain, but I'll do my best here. First, I'll explain how the change affects longer spell casts, and then afterward look at how it affects instants.Here's how things worked in patch 2.2: I press a button to cast a spell or activate an ability. My computer says, "Hey! Realm server! David wants to cast Frostbolt!" The realm server says "Okay!" 300 milliseconds or so later (this round-trip communication time is your "latency"). My computer then starts a 1.5 second global cooldown, and shows me the Frostbolt casting bar. I cannot use any other abilities from the time I press the button to the time my Frostbalt casting finishes, unless I manually cancel the spell (as with a /stopcasting macro), or unless the server tells my computer, "Okay the spell is finished already!" or "Whoops! That spell got interrupted!" Either way, without a manual interruption on my part, I'm waiting on the server to tell me the outcome of the first spell before I can tell it to start casting the second. Here's how things work in patch 2.3: I press a button to cast a spell or activate an ability. My computer says, "Hey! Realm server! David wants to cast Frostbolt!" My computer goes ahead and starts the global cooldown for me, assuming the Frostbolt will succeed. The realm says "Okay!" 300ms later, and the casting bar shows up. Alternately, if there's a problem, then the realm says "No way, silly! David isn't finished casting Fireball yet! Wait a moment to try again, and cancel that global cooldown while you're at it!" Either way, I can send my commands to the server whenever I want, as long as my global cooldown isn't currently active -- and if it gets activated too early, I just have to wait for the server to tell my computer to cancel it before casting another ability. Sounds fine, right? Before, we had to wait for latency between our computers and the realms in order for any spell to go through, but now we just have to wait if we press a button too early.
A bevy of buttons
The very moment we saw these buttons, we had an irresistible urge to not only buy them, but arrange them on some sort of button-friendly surface or fabric in a way that recreates their positions on the NES controller. Of course, then we'd be forced to recreate NES game music using nothing but our mouths (along with rhythmic head-bobbing, of course). Frankly, we shouldn't be allowed out in public. Lucky for us, these adorable buttons sold out almost immediately (we're saved from embarrassment), but the seller indicates that s/he can "remake most of what I list."Etsy craftster Slevin11 has a variety of other shiny Nintendo buttons that are not sold out as well. You can check out a huge array of Pokéballs just waiting to be snapped onto a bag, or a variety of sprites. There's some, y'know, other stuff also, but we're a little single-minded about these things.
Around Azeroth: The shiny red button
Reader Fruition sends in this shot taken in one of the Venture Co. camps in Stranglethorn Vale. Fruition notes that it's usually a bad idea to press buttons if you don't know what they do... but some of them are just so shiny and red, how can you possibly resist?Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing a copy to aroundazeroth@wow.com, with as much or as little detail as you'd like to share with the world! %Gallery-1816%
First glimpse at ten-button Rock Band guitar controller
Harmonix was just getting us warmed up, it seems. Instead of the five fret buttons we've grown accustomed to on the past Guitar Hero series, the Rock Band official Stratocaster-based guitar controller displays ten fret buttons. On the second pic embedded below, you'll notice the five new buttons down at the base of the neck. We can only imagine what kind of sick guitar solo action Harmonix has in store for us with these.The pics arrive courtesy of a Gamestop newsletter, which also details the new features embedded into the guitar controller. As we reported earlier, guitar effects will play a large role, allowing the player to flange, wah, reverb and delay their way into guitar gaming bliss. No official pricing was included at this time, though we wouldn't be surprised to see something closer to $79.99 or thereabouts for the controller alone. Price be damned, we're still going to have to give this bad boy a spin. Anyone else?
