experience

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  • An Epic Journey of Epic Proportions

    by 
    Jennie Lees
    Jennie Lees
    07.01.2006

    Last night, my raid leader was looking for fools -- ahem, volunteers -- to undergo an "Epic Journey of Epic Proportions", as he called it. I love the random and offbeat things that one ends up doing in WoW (from random Molten Core pick-up groups to helping out guildies with crazy quests), so I signed up. The epic journey in question? Infiltrating four dark, dastardly dungeons in order to "Steal fire! Become men! Obtain red (absolutely not pink at all) wisp minions!". With the Midsummer quests ending soon, and a sudden desire for rare pets, an adventure was on the cards.

  • Get that authentic "cinema experience" on your Mac

    by 
    Conrad Quilty-Harper
    Conrad Quilty-Harper
    06.14.2006

    You know the "cinema experience" that movie executives keep harping on about? Y'know, the "experience" that cinemas use to justify stupidly high snack and ticket prices? Well, a company has created a program that lets you relive this authentic experience from the comfort of your Mac. Peanut Gallery, billed as a "shared media experience" by its creators, allows you to recreate this experience from within a virtual 70's style movie theater. You can even chat over the movie along with seven other viewers via the web or Bonjour and animate little silhouette avatars that sit in rows of seats. Getting up and leaving after you realize you've spent your hard earned money on another piece of Hollywood crap has never been so easy; you don't even have to leave your chair to leave your chair! Don't worry if you're a little late for the showing, because there's also an option for a pre-show reel which, for extra realism, you'll be able to fill with annoying commercials and trailers for films you're completely uninterested in.Still, I'm a little angry that there's no implementation of a few other cinema features we all know and love including "mobile phone goes off at the tense bit" or the "crying baby". They didn't even place an obligatory anti-piracy PSA at the beginning! The pre-screening frisk down by a burly police officer is also missing. Another thing: Peanut Gallery doesn't disable my iSight or jam my cellphone for the duration of the film. Talk about unrealistic. How am I supposed to feel like I'm actually at the movies with essential parts of the cinema experience missing?!I give the program a B+ for effort, but I think a little more of a police state/Big Brother-style attitude is needed.[Via Daring Fireball]