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Global Chat: Pre-launch frenzy edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! This week's Global Chat is RIFT, RIFT, RIFT. The game isn't set to launch for a few more days, but the head-start doors opened Thursday. Even if you're not following RIFT, the flurry of interest surrounding the event was the source of some great discussion about other MMOs and the game industry in general. Follow along after the jump for a look!
Enter to run away with a free copy of Runmeter from TUAW
I just wrote about Runmeter after meeting creator Steve Kusmer at Macworld 2011 a little while back, and as a runner myself, I've used it a couple of times to track and monitor my performance during and after runs. It's very feature-rich, even compared to other running apps on the App Store, with plenty of connections to social media and great UI features. The recent 5.0 update brought in a ton of new features, and the latest update, 5.0.1, smoothed those over with some extra options, performance updates and bug fixes. Runmeter is US$4.99 on the App Store, but if you're a runner who hasn't picked it up yet, it's your lucky day. We're giving 10 copies away to lucky readers. Just enter a comment below telling us your favorite time of day to go running, and we'll choose 10 comments at random to get a promo code for the app. One note: The app sells special voices for in-app purchase, and this code doesn't include those. But you don't need them -- they're just extra add-ons that provide a little more text-to-speech functionality. Here are the rules: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment on this post letting us know your favorite time of day to run. The comment must be left before Tuesday, February 29, 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. Ten winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: App Store promo code for Runmeter (US$4.99 value). Click Here for complete Official Rules. Good luck and good running to everyone who enters!
Global Chat: Behind the scenes edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! This week much of the community's focus was on what goes on behind the scenes. Our readers chatted about development decisions from launch onward; from the brand-new Earthrise to the reincarnated Gods & Heroes, "how it's done in MMO development" came under scrutiny. Each discussion of individual games branched into interesting insights regarding MMO development and mechanics in general, so follow along after the jump to see what everyone had to say this week!
Global Chat: Stop the presses edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! We had some hot topics on Massively this week! From business models to combat style to the hottest beta events, the Massively staff had plenty to talk about. Thankfully, you, the readers, chimed in too. The great thing about so many of these conversations is that they often extend far beyond the game the original topic was about and turn into a discussion of different MMO mechanics in general. If you missed out on some of these posts and discussions this week, follow along after the break. We've gathered up the best and most thought-provoking, so we're ready to hear more of what you have to say!
Global Chat: Valorie Vamp edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! This has been an interesting week, complete with virtual vixens, potentially nervous investors, and not-Paladins. If you've missed a few Massively articles that had some great discussion, this is your chance to weigh in, so follow along after the break to see what the Massively writers liked best in this week's Global Chat.
Global Chat: Controversy edition
Remember Global Chat? It may have fallen by the wayside last year, but it's a brand-new year and a great time to bring it back. We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat, and maybe even pitch in a few of your own thoughts. If you've missed a few Massively articles that had some great discussion, this is your chance to weigh in, so follow along after the break to see what the Massively writers liked best in this week's Global Chat!
Global Chat: Welcome back edition
Remember Global Chat? It may have fallen by the wayside last year, but it's a brand-new year and a great time to bring it back. We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat, and maybe even pitch in a few of your own thoughts. For now, follow along after the break to see what the Massively writers liked best in this week's Global Chat!
Kodak adds Quick Comment option, activity sensor to refreshed Pulse digiframe
We've been talking a lot about second generation hardware at CES this year, but it's not just Intel and AMD who are unveiling their next iterative step toward consumers' pockets. Kodak has disclosed plans to update its Pulse digital photo frame -- you know, the one that can receive images via its very own email address -- with a new Quick Comments feature plus an activity sensor that switches the display off when no humanoids are moving about in front of it. It doesn't seem like you'll be able to author your own comments when responding to the sender of your latest pic, though you will be able to communicate via a selection of gorgeous pre-canned proclamations like the always popular "OMG!" and the ever-versatile "LOL!" The new Pulse will be arriving in the spring, costing $130 for the 7-inch variety or $200 for its 10-inch SKU. Skip past the break for the full press release.
Update to the Massively makeover
Hello, readers! It's been a few weeks since our massive Massively site overhaul landed, and our web gurus have been scurrying in the background fixing bugs and responding to your reports. Not all of the bugs have been vaporized just yet, but we'd like to update you on the status of some of the problems that most affect you. RSS -- Our most-reported problem over the last few weeks revolved around our RSS feeds. Many users reported a doubling-up of posts as the site spewed out two copies of every post. Others reported an inability to subscribe to specific categories and bloggers, and still others were finding that every RSS feed was producing copies of the podcast (great news for podcast fans, I guess!). Our techs currently report that all of our RSS feeds should be functioning now, but they note that many RSS readers do not well tolerate the kind of switcheroo we had to do. If you're still having problems, unsubscribe again from all of your Massively feeds and try resubbing one more time. I can tell you that I am using Google Reader and stopped having problems a few days ago. If you need to resub to specific feeds, this will help: for the writers, visit the individual pages on our team portal; for columns and features, hop over to our columns list; and for specific games, click on your chosen game in the games list for a category with a feed button. There's more behind the cut... follow along!
Ask Massively: Look guys I found a picture of a man with a hat edition
When I took over this past weekend's Week in Review column, I informed the usual steward that I would probably give the post some Dadaist nonsense title like, well, the exact title I used for this week's Ask Massively. I realized that the title was really too good to use for just a generic roundup. I have no idea who that man is, why someone painted him with a hat, or any of that. But he definitely has a pretty awesome hat. This week we have a lot of administrative questions, talking about the comment system, the different types of MMOs, and the many different games which feature spaceships. And, as usual, we have the requisite silly question which I try to include every week, because you shouldn't click on a post with a ridiculous title without something to laugh at. Click on past the break for our answers for the week, and as always, leave further questions in the comment field, or send them along to ask@massively.com!
15 Minutes of Fame: Cutting up with WoW Insider regular Brian Cutaia
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. Time flies when you're having fun -- and somehow it's been two whole years since we last profiled a reader favorite from the hallowed halls of the WoW Insider comments. Time to remedy that! So who's the latest man of the hour? Why, commenter extraordinaire Brian Cutaia, of course! He's already a prolific commenter, and he's well on his way to becoming a prolific guest writer, too. Cutaia (rhymes with "papaya") is also a vocal member of <It came from the Blog>. The only point in the WoW Insider landscape that his acerbic commentary and wry witticisms seem to be absent is Twitter. (A new frontier for Cutaia? Stranger things have happened ...) Join us today in discovering why this WoW Insider community regular is so soundly appreciated by both readers and staffers alike.
We finally, really did it: Engadget gets a new commenting system
Some things seem like they might never happen: man traveling at light-speed, AI that is truly sentient, a striped shirt that doesn't make you look fat... and a respectable Engadget commenting system. Well folks, today you can cross one of those lofty goals off of the bucket list. Yes, you read that right. Starting today -- right now -- Engadget has a brand-spanking-new comment system powered by the dynamic and insanely flexible Disqus architecture. Even if you don't know the name, you've probably seen Disqus in one form or another -- it's used on CNN, Mashable, All Things Digital, and a slew of other sites you likely frequent. So what's new with Engadget comments? Pretty much everything. For starters, the inner and outer workings of our system have changed substantially -- for the better. We've added multiple, threaded reply levels (hello 1998!), real-time updating of new comments, image and video attachments inline, and yes... comment editing. That means next time you write "dandroid" instead of "fandroid," you can actually make the fix (unless you were nicknaming your friend Dan -- then carry on). Using Disqus also allows us to make commenting on Engadget easier than ever before (for new and old users alike) by providing login connectivity with Facebook, Twitter, and OpenID. That also means that you can tweet or post to your wall when commenting, and we've got future plans for all kinds of funky integration with the services you know and love. If you don't want to use those pesky social networking services, you can create a Disqus account as well (you'll be able to comment on other Disqus sites using that account too). We're also scrapping the down- and up-ranking scheme we've had for voting on comments. If you like something, give it the +1 you've been talking about for years. And of course, if something is offensive or out of line, report it to us so we can deal with it properly. Which brings us to... moderation. Switching over to Disqus in comments also means that our ability to moderate is dramatically and drastically upgraded, which is bad, bad news for the trolls and spammers who have made commenting life on Engadget a royal pain in the backside at times. Thanks to a set of pretty powerful tools we'll be deploying, we'll be better equipped than ever before to deal with rogue commenters -- from minor pains to major trollbursts. From here on out, the editors' and moderators' ability to track, control, delete, and ban inside and outside of comments will be markedly improved, meaning that we'll act quicker and more precisely to scrap the bad eggs and keep the conversation civil. Fanboys, you're officially on notice. For those of you who love Engadget and are responsible commenters, keep up the good work, because we're toying with moderator promotions for those of you who have what it takes to keep the troublemakers in check. Active commenters -- you should know that the one thing we leave behind along with our commenting system is your Engadget account. Starting with this post, you'll need to either create a Disqus account, or use one of the aforementioned services to login and comment. Older comments and accounts won't go away, but the ability to comment on older posts will cease after a short while. We think this is a minor tradeoff considering the benefits, and we know that a lot of readers who have had some trepidation about getting into the Engadget commenting pool will finally have a chance to get their feet wet. We know everyone is going to take a little time adjusting, but we'll be on-hand to try and answer questions, and we'll also be keeping a close watch on comments for rising stars and early abusers. So, with that said, we think it's a good time to remind everyone of what we think commenting should be like on the site, so we're including our Human's Guide to Commenting on Engadget below. Enjoy... and get writing! Update: Just a note, if you see weirdness, don't panic! We're still working out a few kinks and tweaking stuff like the comment count and mobile app implementation.
Global Chat: It's not dead, but at least it's free edition
As always here at the Massively office, we've had our say about things this week! We've talked about free-to-play games and we've talked about the new Lord of the Rings Online! (Also an F2P title. You should see the trend here by now.) So, in all of this news about free-to-play, you guys had something to say as well! As is the case with Global Chat, we've had our turn to speak, now you guys get yours! I've delved through two of this week's hottest posts, and I've found a few awesome comments that need to be pointed out. Two are personal anecdotes about F2P, and one is... well... very long but very clearly stated. So come along after the break, and read what you had to say!
[1.Local]: Gigantic
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Yes, I am just naming this column after Pixies songs so I can embed them and not even attempt a theme. Thank you for noticing. I do have a gigantic love for many of our comments, though. They are fun to read and the threads are gigantically entertaining. I also really like when a gigantically different viewpoint is presented for discussion. My love for the new guild perks in Cataclysm is gigantic, and so is Cyanea's: This list is the reason why we couldn't have "guild talents" and why we get all of them instead. Any hardcore PVE or PVP guild that doesn't have either the Honor point or the Hero point gain talent is not going to be competitive. A lot of more casual guilds could've easily picked them both up, but when you're in a hardcore guild striving for world/realm firsts or whatever the equivalent is for PVP you're going to go for the most effective point distribution, forcing players who do both (like me) or who are in a primarily PVE guild and mostly PVP and vice versa to leave their friends and find other guilds just to stay competitive. All that whining about Guild Talents was pointless. Pointless indeed. Turn the page for some more gigantically fun and/or interesting comments from the past week.
[1.Local]: Where is my mind?
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. I can tell you where my mind is. It's still pole dancing outside of Booty Bay after the Midsummer Flamefest. At least, that's where I think I left it. That's the last I remember knowing where it was. I should probably go check. Before I do, we have some comments to nod our heads and/or snicker over. First, the Roleplaying Spotlight goes to Bobury aka Razell: Hi! It's Razzell here. My parents were great researchers. If you could name it, they would study it. They studied alchemy, herbs, various creatures, blacksmithing, etc. Unfortunately, they were killed. I was at their house when Gnomeregan was invaded. My house was overrun with troggs. My parents were killed, their research destroyed. I escaped. I do miss them so. It is a good thing we are taking back Gnomeregan. For the Alliance, For Gnomeregan, and for the parents! I, uh, hope you weren't expecting a theme this week, because I don't have one again. But go ahead and turn the page for some more themeless fun.
[1. Local]: I'm a slacker
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Hi. My name is Robin Torres and I'm a slacker. I have totally slacked on my [1. Local] duties for weeks now, so I have tons of goodies stored up for this time. I know that the above video is called Loser and not Slacker, but it still seemed appropriate. I would have embedded the Glee version, but those never stay up very long. Anyone who has ever worked retail must appreciate that version of the -- oh, great. Now I'm slacking and writing at the same time. A couple weeks ago, we talked about a guy named Mr. Green and a Spineless Jellyfish GM in Drama Mamas. An alternate solution to ours was suggested: Russ: You could always lure Mr. Green into the Billiards room, hand him a candlestick, and drag Mr. Body into the room and accuse him of murder! Grovinofdarkhour: But everybody knows, it was Professor Plum, in the Study, with the Revolver. So that would never work. I hope you weren't looking for continuity this week, because that's not going to happen. We've got too many fun and insightful things to go over to try to squeeze them into a coherent theme. It's all my fault, because I'm a slacker. So let's just turn the page and have at it.
[Updated] You have questions and developers have answers: Send us your burning E3 questions!
"When we're at a show, you're at the show." If you've never heard our event coverage motto before, well, let me tell you exactly what it means. It means that you're going to get up-to-the-minute news about your favorite MMOs, both current and upcoming. It means that you're going to get pictures, screenshots, videos, and more from the editors on the ground at E3. And, lastly, it means that you're going to get analysis from our opinion columnists and game-specific columnists on the MMOs you want to hear about most. If you don't believe us, take a look at our recent history. It means that the minute we hear it, you'll hear it and more. And, to that end, we want you to be more involved in our coverage! This year we have more appointments with MMO developers than ever before, and we want to make sure that we're asking the questions you want answered. So if you have a burning question that you want to make sure is asked, simply drop it here on this post in the comments section! Plus, we want to hear what you're looking forward to hearing about at this E3 too, so tell us your favorites! Keep an eye on the site next week for all of our E3 2010 coverage, starting June 15th! You won't want to miss it! For a full list of the companies we'll be interviewing, click past the break! [Update: Added Electronic Arts to the list for Need for Speed World.]
Global Chat: The column where you get to be heard
We don't blame you if you get tired of hearing our opinions. After all, when you visit our site, you're bound to come across one of our opinion columns sooner or later. There are certainly enough of those types of columns here! But, what about a column in which print what you guys have to say? We don't have many of those at all! Enter Global Chat -- our newest column where we'll highlight some of the best comments and discussions of the week from here on our site. When you guys respond to us, you always have some really great things to say and it's about time that we moved over a bit and gave some space to you. So, each week, we'll dive into our comment section and point out some of the very best of what the Massively.com community has to offer. This week we have three great discussions to point you towards, and they include such various things as Lord of the Rings Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and boobs. Seriously.
The new Massively.com Code of Conduct
Well hey there readers! Today I come to you with a brief but important announcement -- we have a new code of conduct! What does that mean for you? Well, in short, we want to take care of our comment section a little more closely than we have in the past. You're going to see us more frequently in the comments, discussing the news with you guys, and you're also going to see us moderating the comment section from time to time. What does this not mean for you? Well, we're certainly not going to squelch your opinions. We're doing this to make our comments section a great place to discuss games, news, and MMOs at large, no matter your opinion. We just want to put a few ground rules into place, and let you all know what is and what is not acceptable to write down in our comments section. For most of you, you're already abiding by the new code of conduct, so don't go worrying yourself. However, we certainly invite you all to go check out the new home of the Code of Conduct and familiarize yourself with the five basic rules of commenting. Plus, if you have any comments, questions, or concerns about any of this, you can always contact me personally at seraphina AT massively DOT com. So no worries! Comment away, dear readers! We can't wait to see what opinions you have to share with us!
Community Q&A: Send your questions in for the Fallen Earth devs!
Well hey there Massively community! I hope you guys have enjoyed our Fallen Earth giveaway and corresponding in-game event, but we're not done with Fallen Earth yet! We have received a chance to visit the secret Fallen Earth headquarters and we'd like you guys to throw some questions our way for the dev team! We're going to be videotaping all of the studio's secrets and transmitting them back to you guys, but we're also going to throw your questions at the development team while they're on video. So if there's anything you ever wanted to know about the wasteland, or any questions you wanted to ask about the team's upcoming plans or patch schedule, then be sure to drop your questions off in the comments section of this post! We'll pick the best of the bunch and ask them during our video tour in two weeks, so be on the lookout for the upcoming post!
