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Drama Mamas: When friends feign death
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. I can totally understand feigning death to escape from a horrific family life, organized crime or a group of extremists with an irrational vendetta. But fake your own demise in order to get out of playing a video game? Really? Hello Drama Mamas, I'm not sure if anyone else who plays WoW has this same problem, but I unfortunately do. I've had two WoW friends "die" then come back after a few months with the stories of: "My cousin stole my computer and told people I died," and "My parents took away my internet and told my friends I died." Now I have another WoW friend who died this past summer. I believed this death with the details his brother was giving, until I started to get outside friend requests from my friend's name. Is there a point where we should just stop believing the stories of friends dying in WoW without outside proof? Should I mourn and then be happy when they suddenly reappear? Thank you for any advice you give. Doubtful Mourner
The Daily Grind: What was your worst death ever?
Seasons don't fear the Reaper, we've heard. Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain. Nor, apparently, do MMO players. After all, death is just a part of life to us, a daily occurrence in the hazardous occupation of adventuring. Happily, dying is but a hiccup between one existence and the next, and our resurrected bodies are more than ready to head back into the fray. However, sometimes a particular in-game death hits harder than the rest. It could be that you died in a terribly inconvenient spot and had to re-run a large swath of content just to get back to where you were. You might have kicked the bucket in a game in which death holds serious consequences, perhaps in the form of a severe death penalty or PvP item loss. A single death on your behalf could have been the linchpin between a sweet group victory and a horrible, horrible wipe. So what was your worst in-game death ever? What MMO death was so stupid, so disastrous, so laced with negative effects that you wince even to think about it today? Share, and fear the Reaper no more!
Microsoft celebrates Windows Phone 7 RTM with funeral parade for BlackBerry and iPhone (update: Thriller video!)
The iPhone's dead, long live the Windows Phone. That must be the genius proclamation that incited Microsoft to celebrate Windows Phone 7 reaching RTM status with the incomprehensible procession you see above. An elaborate parade, replete with hearses and black capes, was organized last week to denote the passing of the BlackBerry and iPhone into the land of unwanted gadgets. We'd say this is done in poor taste, but we don't enjoy stating the obvious. We will, however, enjoy the fallout from this poorly judged stunt. See our favorite image after the break and lots more at the source. Update: Apparently the team also engaged in a Thriller dance. Words are failing us, so just hop on past the break and mash play.
Qualcomm's CEO confesses: tablets killed the smartbook star
We remember it like it was yesterday -- pressed against the edge of our seat, speakerphone on 11, listening to Qualcomm preach about how these so-called "smartbooks" were coming to take over the world. Can't fault 'em for trying. A little over a year after the (admittedly valiant) effort began, Qualcomm's CEO is effectively putting this whole nightmare behind him. According to Slashgear, Paul Jacobs admitted during an event this morning that "tablets such as the iPad had already occupied the niche his company expected smartbooks to." Essentially, the iPad delivered on the concept of an "always-on, all-day device" long before smartbooks ever had a chance at gaining traction, and judging by the fact that only a handful of these guys ever made it to market, we'd say that brutally honest assessment makes a lot of sense. We aren't necessarily better off for it, mind you, but it definitely seems that the resurgence of the tablet (and the proliferation of the longevous netbook) has extinguished any hope of smartbooks dominating the world. Hey, at least this guy's man enough to know when a journey's reached its end. Sayonara, smarties.
Dell lays down the law: no more Windows XP shipments after October 22nd
Microsoft already informed its most moneyed partners that no more systems could leave their labs after October 22nd with Windows XP, but given that the proverbial boy has cried wolf before, we were inclined to think that we'd eventually face yet another push back. We guess there's still a few ticks of the clock left between now and that fateful day, but there seems to be little hope for XP to live on in any significant form beyond the aforesaid date. Dell has just published a report noting that they will stop offering XP on new machines later this month in preparation for October's cutoff, though they're quick to point out that Microsoft will continue Windows XP driver support until December 2012. For the average consumer, that means you've got just over a month to get whatever XP-equipped systems you want from Dell; for select "qualified customers," they will still be able to snag XP machines post-October 22nd through the company's Custom Factory Integration service. Hit the source link for all the details, and feel free to pour one out for a waning OS. We can shed a few more tears next month.
The Daily Grind: What do you do when things turn south?
There's a crucial tipping point in any sort of party scenario when it becomes obvious that the situation is going badly. More to the point, there's a moment when you realize that every single person in the party is likely to die in short order. In some games such as Final Fantasy XI, death is a fairly major penalty; in other games, such as World of Warcraft, death is not much more than a slight inconvenience. But even if death results in nothing more than respawning a few seconds later in Star Trek Online, when the group is together, people can act differently. So what do you do? Do you try to take enemy attention so that your fellow party members can get away? Do you make a run for it, figuring that whatever's coming for you will eat someone else first? Or do you try to go down with guns blazing and make as much of a dent as you can?
Press your ashes into vinyl for £2000, FLAC download free with purchase
We've heard a lot about the death of the record industry, but this is ridiculous! And Vinyly (get it? get it?) will press your charred remains into your very own hyper-personalized spinning analog musical platter. The starter kit comes with your own generic gravestone-style cover art, 24 minutes of audio of your choosing, and 30 copies of your final release. If you're looking for something a little more flashy, £3500 gets you a painted cover portrait, £500 gets a song written and produced just for your dead self, and £1000 gets your record distributed to brick-and-mortar stores all over the world. And Vinyly will upsell you all the way to a £10,000 FUNeral, where you can be sure the DJ will be playing you-know-what. They also do pets.
Storyboard: Exit, pursued by a bear
Roleplaying is not a universal activity, sadly. What happens among a group of characters winds up being canon in a very limited sense for that group of characters. Sure, you know the relationships between your fellow adventurers intimately, but you can still admit that anyone outside of your circle of roleplaying may have no idea who these people are. It's essentially a shared illusion, one that is easily broken when someone lets out the dread incantation of "sorry, guys, I'm quitting." It's bad enough when you're suddenly asked to accept the vagaries of television, trying to convince us that two clearly different actors are the same person, or that a character we've enjoyed is just "on a trip" that's lasted for the better part of two years. It's even worse than the entire illusion of events that requires you to accept that someone has gone missing from a major storyline. How do you accommodate a player leaving without too much damage to the shared illusion?
Verizon halting Kin sales, supply getting returned to sender?
Not that Verizon really cared much for it anyway, but according to WMExperts, the carrier is preparing to cease sales of the Microsoft's Kin altogether. As for the fate of the remaining stock, it's apparently being sent back to, well, somewhere. While a few retail stores we called disavowed any knowledge of such a thing, PhoneArena has a supposed internal screenshot that suggests they may soon change their tone. Either way, Verizon's not selling Kin online anymore, that's for sure -- quoth the raven, 404.
More questions answered on death and healing in Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2 designer Jon Peters answered several of the community's questions on death and healing earlier this week, and promised more to come. The rest of those questions were released last night on ArenaNet's blog, thanks once again to Jon. The questions had a wide range, giving more details on the mechanics of downed and defeated states, possible exploits, and even a bit of information on the philosophy behind Guild Wars 2's design. There is plenty of new information here, and Jon even managed to sneak in another Guild Wars 2 skill mention -- the elementalists's Vapor Form skill. The entire list of questions and answers can be seen on the ArenaNet blog.
Death and healing: Guild Wars 2 community questions answered
What happens if you have no money and aren't revived? Do we wait to be killed, and respawn at a waypoint? Do we have to lie on the ground, begging people passing by to come and revive us? It seems like this could suck. It's a valid question, and one that Jon Peters was more than willing to answer. ArenaNet released information on death and healing to eager Guild Wars 2 fans last Thursday. The community had a long list of followup questions, so the Guild Wars 2 team rounded them up and set out to answer them. According to Community Manager Regina Buenaobra, there were so many good questions to answer that the team decided to split them into two blog posts. The first of those two was posted last night, and addresses a handful of player concerns as well as some interesting details of how the system will work. Check out the first batch of questions on the ArenaNet blog, and keep an eye on Massively -- we'll bring you round two just as soon as it's made available!
To live and die in Tyria -- death, healing, and combat in Guild Wars 2
As the Guild Wars 2 news continues to roll in, one of the main topics of conversation has been the lack of a dedicated healer class. No monks in Guild Wars 2? What will we do? The question of death mechanics is a natural one to follow that line of thought, and it's something else we've been anxious to find out. Well, "everyone take a deep breath. It's going to be OK." That's straight from the designer's mouth. Game Designer Jon Peters finally lifted the veil on this information, so to speak, with the newest update to the GW2 site. Follow along after the jump as we take a look at "A New Way of Looking at Healing and Death."
What killed the Kin?
While the news today that Microsoft has killed its troubled Kin line didn't come as the craziest of surprises, it's definitely left a lot of lingering questions about just what happened. Now we may have a little insight into what went wrong -- and what might be in store down the road -- thanks to a reliable source of ours who's shared some news on Redmond's inner turmoil. Apparently, the troubles started long before the swirling Pink phone rumors (and way before the name Kin was ringing in our ears). According to our source, the birth of these devices began with a decision at Microsoft to create a platform agnostic, cloud-centric featurephone. A featurephone that could be had at a relatively low cost, and sold to a burgeoning market of teens and young adults who had little need for a BlackBerry-level device (or pricing). The first step in the project was acquiring Danger to leverage the work it had done with the Sidekick platform, and aligning with Verizon as a launch partner who could offer attractive pricing plans for the devices to a big pool... and here's where the trouble begins.
Massively exclusive interview: Dawntide's Martin "Wiz" Anward
The hype-machine for Working as Intended's incoming MMO, Dawntide, resumed at the end of May with the announcement of the start of open beta. Dawntide promises to be a skill-based, open-PvP sandbox a la Shadowbane or Darkfall, with territory to claim, castles to build, sieges to undertake, and boats to navigate waterways usually neglected in other games. And though the game isn't quite finished structurally, we have to agree that what's done is beautiful, and what's planned is ambitious. Might this be the ultra-realistic, survival-of-the-fittest sandbox you're looking for? We were fortunate to score an interview with Working as Intended's CEO, Martin Anward, who gave us an inside look at Dawntide's development and his team's plans for the future. Join us past the break as we ask him about boats, crafting, boats, death penalties, boats, ganking, boats, FOTM builds, boats, and boats!
Suspended animation shocker: lack of oxygen could be the key to surviving a deep freeze
Researchers in Seattle are coming closer to discovering the secrets of suspended animation. Experimenting with yeast and worms, Dr. Mark Roth has been able to determine that a significant decrease in oxygen before the deep freeze of an organism makes surviving the thaw much, much easier, and may account for several cases where people have appeared to be frozen to death but were later revived. Dr. Roth's aim, he says, is not to be able to freeze people for long periods (such as is the case in the classic film Encino Man), but to help medical professionals "buy time" and advance their understanding of the effects of freezing on the human body. Sure, but if it means we might get to meet up with Pauly Shore in like, a thousand years, why don't we just shoot for the stars on this one? Video is below.
WoW Rookie: More tips, tricks and tidbits
New around here? We've got your back! See all our collected tips, tricks and how-to's for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. Though I've been playing since open beta, there are still things that I stumble upon that I either didn't know or had forgotten. There are also many little conveniences that took me forever to figure out. So while these tips, tricks and tidbits say they are for rookies -- well, even long time veterans have a few holes in their knowledge of the workings of Azeroth. Lisa tackled some tips just a couple months ago, so I've scavenged in the comments there as well as in this guest breakfast topic. I am also going to touch on some subjects that come up a lot in the WoW.com guild, <It came from the Blog>. Built-in Talent Calculator If you, like me, have a tendency to click the wrong thing when choosing your talents, there is a way to set up a safety net. Just go to Game Menu (ESC), Interface, Features and click the Preview Talent Changes box. After that, you will be able to play with your talents a bit before accepting them.
WoW Rookie: The method in the madness of resurrection
New around here? See all our collected tips, tricks and how-to's for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. It ain't over 'til it's over -- and in World of Warcraft, it ain't over 'til every player has used the last resurrection cooldown and trick. Death is far from permanent in Azeroth, and over time, the available methods of resurrection ("rezzing") have multiplied. Some classes can resurrect only outside of combat; one class can rez even in the heat of battle. Some classes have rezzes that work only on themselves. Now that the dungeon finder makes running instance groups so easy for a leveling player, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with all the alternatives for coming back to life. There's a specific etiquette that's risen up around rezzes, as well, so take note and don't get caught looking like a chump.
Apple, Dell, and HP comment on suicides as Foxconn CEO shows off the pool
On an 84-degree day (29 C) at a Chinese factory housing some 400,000 workers, at least 2 of them were enjoying the Foxconn swimming pool. We know this because the notoriously secretive Foxconn CEO, Terry Gou, was showing off some of the workers' facilities to the press to assure the world that he was not operating a sweatshop. Foxconn has received a great deal of attention lately after a rash of suicide attempts this year left 2 workers seriously injured and 9 people dead. While these numbers are relatively low compared to World Health Organization data showing a suicide rate of about 14 deaths per 100,000 Chinese, Foxconn contends that there were only one or two suicides a year previously at its Shenzhen factories. Today Gou announced that Foxconn has 70 psychiatrists and 100 voluntary workers trained to help prevent suicide. Great, problem solved. As you probably know, Foxconn is behind the assembly of many major consumer electronics brands including HP, Nokia, Dell, and Apple -- the latter two have come out with statements expressing their respective concern. Apple had this to say: "We are saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn. We're in direct contact with Foxconn senior management and we believe they are taking this matter very seriously. A team from Apple is independently evaluating the steps they are taking to address these tragic events and we will continue our ongoing inspections of the facilities where our products are made." And Dell this: "We expect our suppliers to employ the same high standards we do in our own facilities. We enforce these standards through a variety of tools, including the Electronics Industry code of conduct, business reviews with suppliers, self-assessments and audits." During today's press event, Tang Wenying, a young Foxconn line supervisor said, "This is a good place to work because they treat us better than many (other) Chinese factories." And that may be the most worrisome aspect of this: Foxconn, by all accounts, provides some of the best conditions for the Chinese workers it employs. What does that say about the anonymous (and thus, invisible) chain of small suppliers and secondary assembly facilities nobody reads about? Update: HP says that it is also investigating "the Foxconn practices that may be associated with these tragic events."
Choose My Adventure: Death by Bieber
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H. According to your votes, Andrenorton will become an herbalist and scribe. For Selfloathius, the numbers were slightly ahead for tailoring and enchanting in the polls, but there were extra votes for engineering and other things in the comments -- with very good reasons to go along with them. So, Selfloathius will take up engineering and mining. And the winner for our favorite suicidal warlock's next death is to go to Teldrassil and jump off the tree, all while listening to Justin Bieber. Here is the schedule for the week: Christian Belt, as Selfloathius, blood elf warlock: Monday, 11:30 p.m. EDT Anne Stickney as Annephora, the troll warrior, will be on Tuesday at 1 a.m. EDT (which is Monday at 11 p.m. Zangarmarsh time) Michael Sacco as Sahko, the orc warlock: Wednesday, 7 p.m. EDT Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Wednesday, 11 p.m. EDT Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue: Thursday, 10 p.m. EDT Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the blood elf paladin: Friday, 8 p.m. EDT Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, the troll mage, Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter, Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, and Gregg Reece as Yakkowakko, the orc warlock, will be making appearances as they can %Gallery-89597% If you want to join in on the fun of Choose My Adventure, please join us on US Zangarmarsh-H in <It came from the Blog>. Ask Robiness, Robinemia or any member online for an invite. Guild ranks of Lurker or above have the ability to invite. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules, that can be summed up with "Don't be a Funsucker!" Also, please see the guild FAQ for the most common questions.
The fate of a generation of workers: Foxconn undercover fully translated (update: videos added)
Machine translations are still years or even decades away from perfection, so rather than sending you to an auto-translated page, we now present -- with exclusive permission from Southern Weekend -- a human translation of this damning article on Foxconn by undercover reporter Liu Zhiyi. (Photo: Southern Weekend) I know of two groups of young people. One group consists of university students like myself, who live in ivory towers and kept company by libraries and lake views. The other group works alongside steel machineries and large containers, all inside a factory of high-precision manufacturing environment. These guys always address their seniors as "laoban" (boss), and call their own colleagues -- regardless of familiarity -- the rude "diaomao" (pubic hair) in loud. After going undercover in Foxconn for 28 days, I came back out. I've been trying to tie the two pictures together. But it's very difficult. Even with people living in these two places sharing the same age, the same youth dream. My undercover was part of Southern Weekend's investigation on the then six Foxconn suicides. We soon found out that most of Southern Weekend's reporters were rejected due to age -- Foxconn only recruits people around the age of 20. In comparison, being just under 23 years old, I was quickly brought into Foxconn. The 28-day undercover work made a strong impact on me. It wasn't about finding out what they died for, but rather to learn how they lived.
