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Funcom hints at Secret World death penalty, sabotage missions
All is very hush hush around Funcom's The Secret World. While a good bit of new info surfaced at last month's GDC, there are still more questions than answers regarding the firm's followup to Age of Conan. That said, occasionally the devs will dangle a tasty morsel, and in a new interview at Game Snafu, Funcom designer Martin Bruusgaard does just that with regard to TSW's death penalty mechanics. "We will not implement a death system that can be exploited as a fast travel system, because dying in The Secret World should be a sign of failure, and not optimization in any way. We don't want to punish the players in a form where they can lose stuff, neither items nor experience, but rather penalize on time," he explains. Designer Joel Bylos also chimes in with some interesting bits about the game's questing mechanics, chief among them a hint about new sabotage missions. "These missions share a similar gameplay style to the original Deus Ex game -- avoiding security cameras, disabling traps and hacking computers, etc. Generally the traps are dynamic only in the sense that players can disable/enable them in the world. This becomes interesting when other players can accidentally trigger an alarm in the camp you are sneaking through," Bylos says. Check out the full interview at Game Snafu.
RIFT updates River of Souls world event
RIFT's worldwide River of Souls event, starring the charismatic Alsbeth the Discordant, has been trucking in game for a few days now, but Trion Worlds didn't want to rest on its laurels even so. After evaluating how the event was progressing, the team added a patch yesterday to make a number of improvements and adjustments. The biggest change is that the game is now spawning event-related rifts at a much-increased rate, to the relief of frustrated players looking for a good death rift and finding none. The update also encourages players to stay in level-appropriate zones by not counting closed rifts for the player if the player is far above that zone's level. Trion added several new items to the event merchant, including additional pets and death-themed accessories. It's now easier to purchase these items, as the game is handing out Otherworldly Sourcestone -- the currency for the event -- in increased amounts. The notes also indicate that players will have better chances at big rewards as the River of Souls event progresses, which gives us something to look forward to in the next few weeks! You can read the full patch notes over on the RIFT forums.
iPhone theft results in a tragic death
We have often written feel-good stories about the quick recovery of stolen iPhones, usually with the assistance of Find My iPhone. Unfortunately, today's story of a theft turned horrifying and tragic when a Chicago woman died after a fleeing thief shoved her down a flight of stairs. According to the Chicago Breaking News, Sally Katona-King was standing at the Fullerton station platform on her way home from work during rush hour Monday afternoon when a thief stole the iPhone from another commuter and pushed Katona-King in his haste to flee the scene. Katona-King was hospitalized after falling down a set of stairs at the station and died Tuesday from what officials believe was a cerebral hemorrhage.
Paul Baran, early internet engineer and architect, passes away at 84
Most of you may not believe it, but the internet as we know it didn't really exist a mere 20 years ago. Paul Baran, an engineer of the ARPANET (an early attempt at a networked information superhighway) has passed away today at the age of 84. As the father of packet-switching -- the basis of all online information exchanges -- he was initially scoffed at by major communications players like AT&T, who thought the tech was too advanced to be realized at the time. However, after the US Department of Defense saw the need for an effective large-scale information network following WWII, the ARPANET was eventually -- and successfully -- built based on these packet-switching concepts and evolved to form the current interweb. We've definitely lost a visionary in the field of networking, and here's to hoping the next generation of like-minded innovators has the same perseverance and success. [Image: Computer History Museum]
The Perfect Ten: Death penalties
Death penalties belong in that tier of MMO discussion topics that is reserved for the most controversial subjects, along with skimpy armor and the New Game Enhancements. Death, as we know well, comes for us all with big, nasty, pointy teeth. But for some reason, we are not fans of it, neither in real life nor in online games. One of the reasons death penalties continue to be a divisive subject is that they used to be brutal beyond belief in MMOs back in the olden days of yore. As the MMO genre progressed, the penalties were lightened and experimented with in an effort to avoid driving players barking mad because of them. So we've ended up with two camps: one group of gamers who campaign for harsh death penalties to make the world seem exciting and dangerous, and another group that campaigns for lenient penalties in the interests of sanity. So today we're going to go through 10 of the most-used types of death penalties in MMOs, starting with the most brutal and ending with the most lenient. Stay for the after-column party as well, as you'll get a taste for this debate in the comments section!
iPod classic still the 5th most popular US MP3 player
Speculation has been poking around lately that the iPod classic's time is not long for this world, but before you start etching out the gravestone, take a look at these recent sales rankings from the NPD Group. According to the numbers, the iPod classic is still the fifth most popular MP3 player in the US, right behind all four versions of the iPod touch. Apple, in fact, claims 9 out of the top 10 spots on the list, but while the shuffle and the nano are down in the 6-9 spots, the iPod classic still reigns supreme when you don't need to have apps. That makes sense -- despite my iPhone, I still carry around an old 80 GB iPod, and I'd still maintain that for people who really want to carry their whole music library in their pocket, there's no match for the iPod classic and its, well, ... classic click wheel design. In fact, as we suggested, in opposition to all of the naysayers proclaiming the death of the old school iPod, a refresh is much more likely: Apple could add much more capacity, especially considering the improvements in memory lately. And while apps are nice, and 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity make for things like streaming music, some people just want to sit back and listen to gigabytes' worth of MP3 files. Long live the iPod classic!
Breakfast Topic: What caused your first Cataclysm death?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. One of the great things about expansions is all the "firsts" we get to experience. For example: my first 310% flight speed, my first time flying in the old world, my first archaeology artifact -- there are so many fantastic things that come with an expansion! However, there are also some rude awakenings. I was surprised when frost came back as a mage leveling spec. I was also taken aback at just how quickly I perished when I tried to take on more than one mob. Let me paint a picture for you. Here we have this overconfident fire mage coming into Mount Hyjal for the first time. She grabs some quests and heads out to kill some fire elementals. She tags one, and puts Living Bomb up. It proceeds to make a lot of elementals angry with her. She shrugs off the multitude of fiery beings heading her way -- "I'll just AoE them down." That doesn't bode well. Slowly, her life force ebbs away, she gets weaker and weaker, there's a darkness coming over her, and then she's just ... gone. I stare at my screen. Did that really just happen? Did I seriously just die to my first Cataclysm mob? I quickly look around the room; awww crud, yes, my husband saw that. Well, that's a bit embarrassing! I then take some time to see what the other mages in the area are running as. "Ahem, well I guess I'll go spec frost now ..." I'm curious where and when the rest of you saw your first Cataclysm demise. Was it due to overconfidence or a wrong spec? Did you make it without dying until your first dungeon?
Damion Schubert philosophizes about SWTOR's death penalty
Nothing in the world is certain, except death and taxes. The same is true for video games. If there is a game in which you don't fail completing a mission at least once, then it is probably too easy. We know "death" is going to happen, so how a game designer handles this death penalty can make or break a player's fun -- and ultimately the success of the game. Damion Schubert, Lead Combat Designer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, jumped on the SWTOR official forums today to discuss his philosophies behind the game's death penalty. He believes that the penalty for failure has to be balanced. If it's too harsh or too light, it is no longer fun for the player. There should be a separation between challenge and punishment, according to him. "I would rather our challenges be gated by whether or not you have the skill, the gear, and the teamwork to succeed than whether or not you have the credits and/or time to wait out the forced downtime in between, you know, the fun part," Schubert explains in the post. Catch the whole discussion on the official forums and let us know what you think.
Ten levels of RIFT: A guide to your first day in Telara
With two RIFT beta events under my belt, I was given the supreme honor of creating a guide to the first 10 levels of the game. Naturally, I fell apart under the stress, assumed the fetal position for a couple days while whimpering about "frame rates," and then was prodded into action by our editors. That's quite literally "prodded," mind you -- Massively purchased a pair of cattle prods last year at a police auction. It's going to be years until the scorch marks fade from my spine. The purpose of this guide is two-fold. First, we want to give anyone who's interested in RIFT but couldn't get into the beta a chance to vicariously experience RIFT's newbie path. Second, while RIFT is careful to hold your hand during your first steps into Telara, there are always a lot of things that can be easily missed while one is partaking in the wonders of a new virtual world. So this guide is here to share a few tips and pointers that beta testers may have missed. What are you waiting for? Roll up a new character by hitting the jump!
Witcher 2's 'Insane' difficulty mode offers no respawn, only permanent death
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will include "permanent death" as an ominous feature of its "Insane" difficulty option. Eurogamer spoke with CD Projekt gameplay designer Mateusz Kanik, who explained that players can save the game on Insane, but if they die that career string will be disabled for reloading. However, the developer does plan on adding a "resurrection scroll; maybe DLC or something." The harsh design decision comes from CD Projekt's admiration for the notoriously sinister Demon's Souls' lovingly abusive relationship with the player. Kanik added that there will be an achievement "for sure" for beating the game on Insane. Come on, CD Projekt, at least offer up one of those Witcher heads for the accomplishment, considering death is on the line.
Atari bringing action RPG Venetica to North America in January
Venetica didn't really win critics over back when it was released in Germany -- while the story is supposed to be pretty good, the gameplay was called bland and repetitive. Nevertheless, Atari is bringing the game to North America, and will release it on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on January 11 of next year. Venetica takes place in 16th century Venice, and casts the player in the role of a girl named Scarlett, who just so happens to be Death's daughter. She has to save the world and her father from a powerful necromancer. Sounds like fun -- just be careful around Death, otherwise he might end up making you do his job for him.
Apple's Director of Global Data Center Operations passes away at 41
We regret to report that Olivier Sanche, Apple's Director of Global Data Center Operations, passed away on Thanksgiving from a heart attack at the young age of 41. As DataCenterKnowledge notes, Sanche was "a thought leader in data center energy efficiency, and used his expertise to streamline operations at many of the world's largest technology companies, making a major collective impact on the industry's carbon output in the process." Olivier Sanche was Director of Global Data Center Operations at AT&T before moving on to become Senior Director of Data Centers Services and Strategy at eBay. After eBay, Sanche joined Apple in August 2009 and spearheaded the $1 billion North Carolina data center, which is expected to open by the end of the year. Mr. Sanche is survived by his wife and daughter. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends.
Hardcore mode coming to Minecraft, the world ends when you die
Some madman over at PC Gamer has been trying out something called the "Minecraft Experiment," in which player death results in the immediate deletion of the world he or she has been working so hard to spruce up. The game's creator, Markus Persson recently posted on his blog that the feature series has inspired him to include a similar "Hardcore" mode in the game, where the world will be destroyed and reset every time the player gets killed by a Creeper, skeleton, gravity or any of the other deadly forces present in the game. Look, we have a hard enough time rationalizing the remarkable amounts of time we put into this game already. To play a mode where, with one missed jump, entire weeks of our lives are erased, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-style? That's straight-up masochism, dudes.
The Daily Grind: Do you rage quit?
Our favorite games provoke a range of emotions, and whether it's love, hate, fear, amusement, or simple relaxation, we usually keep coming back for more. Anger is an emotional response that is pretty common for some folks, so common in fact that the catch phrase "rage quit" is circulated several times daily on many message boards and in-game chat channels. While most emotions make us want to play more, anger often leads to a quick disconnect, and depending on your personality, either a string of expletives or a weary sigh. Whether it's due to failure in the team-based combat scenarios common to Global Agenda, losing your loot (and everything else) in FFA corpse-defiling contests like Lineage II and Darkfall, or dying at the hands of AI in one of the thousands of PvE-focused titles littering the landscape, we're constantly confronted with digital mortality and its emotional effects. The question of the day, Massively folk, is have you, do you, or did you used to rage quit? Why and in what game(s)?
Wasteland Diaries: Flag up
Since the addition of the open world PvP flag to Fallen Earth, I haven't seen it being used often enough. There are only a handful of players, including me, who stay flagged for PvP 24/7. For a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Fallen Earth is a pretty safe and cozy place for most. The majority of the game takes place in relatively civilized areas where clones can't harm one another. PvP zones are optional, and many players simply avoid them. With the well-guarded towns, sporadic and weak mobs that are always right where you left them, and the resilience of player characters, there isn't a huge element of danger out there. I know a lot of these issues are being addressed with the combat changes, but today's wasteland isn't too frightening. I drive into PvP zones and almost breathe a sigh of relief, because everyone around me is on an even keel. When I roll into a crowded town, that is when I'm really on my guard. I appear to go about my business normally, but I'm looking over both shoulders. You never know who in the crowd might have it in for you or might just attack you on a whim. Truth be told, it's not so bad. Most people won't pay you any mind. After the cut, I'll take a look at the past month I've spent PvP-flagged and try to explain why I think it's the only way to play.
Storyboard: The unshuffled mortal coil
Welcome to this week's Storyboard, which originally was going to be very different than normal until I started writing my first idea. I discovered an important fact halfway through the writing -- the idea was really stupid. So I killed it, and that segues nicely into what I want to talk about: Death. Sooner or later every group of roleplayers in an MMO has to deal with it, and considering how many worlds have certain monsters roaming about whose only purpose is delivering untold harm to player characters, it's probably going to be sooner. Of course, death poses all sorts of problems in game design anyway -- what are the penalties, what are the lingering effects, is it a major inconvenience or a small hiccup, et cetera. But it poses a unique problem for roleplaying, because as it stands, you don't stay dead for long no matter what. So how do you deal with the implications of a world where death is less of a great beyond and, at most, a lost potential character title?
Man with bionic arms dies after car crash
Otto Bock's mind-controlled bionic arms let Austria's Christian Kandlbauer work, play and even drive, but it seems the latter passion may have lead to the 22-year-old's untimely demise. Two days after a road accident where the young man's specially-modified Subaru crashed into a tree, Kandlbauer was pronounced brain-dead and taken off life support late last week. It's not known whether the prosthetic arms themselves had anything to do with the crash -- one was found ripped from his body at the scene -- but both he and his vehicle were cleared to drive by local authorities after passing a number of tests. Honestly, it's a tragedy for science and humanity either way.
Breakfast Topic: Let's talk about fun ways to die
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Yes, when we hear the graveyard music, we often indulge in various expressions of nerd rage. However, there is no denying that there are some cool, funny and emblematic ways to die, both throughout the leveling process and in the endgame. Who has not gotten stomped by the Fel Reaver in Hellfire Peninsula? Were you ever pwned by Hogger? And what about all those times when your famous last words were, "I'm a _____. Five levels above me? No big deal ..." My characters have met their deaths in the elevator of the Undercity, been shot out of the sky near Alliance camps in Outland and steamrolled under various groups of mobs in Stranglethorn Vale. One of my favorite deaths occurred when my husband and I rolled Forsaken toons together. I rolled a warrior, he rolled a rogue, and we had fun roflpwning low-level mobs in our BoA gear. We found our way to Silverpine Forest, and I noticed that one of the nearby worgen had a different skin color than the others. Of course, being the compulsive silver-elite-killer that I am, I immediately targeted the mob, only to discover that it was a gold elite -- a level 20 Son of Arugal. I shouted and we ran, avoiding the mob the first time, only to have it pat up behind us and kill me a few minutes later. Darling hubby got away (stupid rogues -- always run when there's a fight). One of my more shameful deaths occurred after playing chicken with the ground on my level 80 druid. The most exciting part of this game is wondering if there is enough lag at the moment that you click the flight form button that you'll end up dying anyway. I was flying over Dalaran and told my hubby, "Hey, watch this!" As he stood at the bank, I proceeded to fall through the air, expecting to be able to transform into flight form at the last second. Oh wait, fail -- I forgot that you cannot mount up on flying mounts in Dalaran. After he stopped laughing, he was nice and rezzed my splattered corpse. Sure, we all die in raid wipes and in PvP -- but what about the neat ways to die in the game? What has been your favorite or most hilarious death in the World?
Choose My Adventure: Second verse, same as the first
It's been another interesting week in Vanguard, to say the least. Remember that thing I said last week about crafting and diplomacy being deep? I can now say with absolute certainty that they are so double-rainbow intensely deep that I've spent the last several days primarily working on those two skills as opposed to moving on to the next village. Indeed, attempting to finish all the quests in Sun Village has sent me back to Tentrees Farmstead (the first starter town) to pick up even more crafting and diplomacy work! Will I ever escape, or will I be sucked into an ever-swirling loop of crafting, diplomacy, harvesting, or whatever odd side-skill lurks just ahead, ready to whomp me over the head and make off with my magical cookies? Well, this week you'll get to decide, as I put the future of my fuzzy little Raki to a vote! But first, join me after the break as I recap the last week's adventure in Telon.
Segway Inc. owner rides over cliff to his death
UK businessman Jimi Heselden, the man who believed in the Segway so much that he went ahead and bought the company, has died after reportedly driving a ruggedized version of the scooter off a cliff and into a river. He was found early on Sunday morning in the River Wharfe, having earlier been touring his estate in the personal transporter. The cause of the accident is not yet known. Mr. Heselden was 62 years old and, true to our geeky hearts, generated his fortune by coming up with an innovative design for wire cage walls that has since become standard equipment for NATO, American, and British forces. Our thoughts are with the good gent's family, and please, behave yourselves in comments. [Thanks, David]
