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Joystiq Presents: That's a wrap
Our final Joystiq Presents podcast gives members of the staff a moment to thank the Joystiq community and say a final farewell. Listen to the MP3 Listen to other Joystiq Presents episodes.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Alas, and so we go
Everyone heard the earth-shattering roar that shook Tyria this past weekend, right? No, it wasn't another Elder Dragon awakening; I'm talking about the fan response to ArenaNet's presentation at PAX South in which CEO Mike O'Brien and Lead Developer Colin Johanson revealed what Heart of Thorns means for Guild Wars 2. Yes, Virginia: It's an expansion pack. The irony is a little too much, to be honest. Heart of Thorns is the most exciting thing to happen to GW2 since launch, but I won't be able to cover it in this column. I'm going to get all maudlin if I dwell on that, so let's cap things off by talking about the game. And since I want to end my last FSC on a happy note, I'm going to talk about all of the things I'm tremendously excited for in HoT. Once more past the cut, dear friends!
The Mog Log Extra: End of an era
By now you know. I wrote my first column of The Mog Log almost exactly five years ago. I've been writing it for the entirety of Final Fantasy XIV's run now. I've been talking about the online Final Fantasy games since before I was married, and it's been a wonderful experience. I had every intention of continuing to do so for another decade. As long as there was a place to talk about it here, I was going to make use of it. This isn't just a farewell for the column; it's a farewell for something that's made up a huge portion of my life and changed my life in huge ways. As the fall comes to Eorzea, it also comes to us, and I wanted -- insisted -- that I would at least get to have one final chance to say goodbye. So let's take one last look together before we say farewell.
Live at 10pm tonight: It's The End Of The World As We Know It, final Sunday "Talkcast"
It may be Superbowl Sunday, but for those of us who have enjoyed reading, contributing to or editing The Unofficial Apple Weblog it's anything but super. As you all know, our parent company has lowered the curtain on this motley crew, and we are set to officially cease publication on Tuesday of next week. For me personally, TUAW's finale is surprisingly emotional. I mused on Twitter that the outpouring of positive feedback and gratitude is a bit like surreptitiously attending your own funeral; comments like these from Federico Viticci, Xeni Jardin, Harry McCracken and Rene Ritchie remind me that the work we've done here over the past decade has not gone unappreciated. It's hard to believe that it was more than eight years ago when Laurie Duncan and Scott McNulty first welcomed me aboard as a shiny new blogger; I never could have imagined the wonderful people I'd meet and work with, great products I'd review, or the strange media experiences I'd have. Recent days have seen far less of me here than I'd have liked, as my day job demanded the bulk of my time and attention. (My entire tenure with the site was as a freelancer, but prior to 2013 my full-time gig was more compatible with my secret identity as a Mac blogger.) With Tuesday's closure, there will be a lot of stories unwritten and reviews undone -- particular apologies to David Sparks, whose great ebook on presentations still sits at the top of my "posts to be written" pile. Still, there was one key appointment at TUAW that I tried to make every week. For almost seven years of Sundays, when 10 pm Eastern (and 7 pm Pacific, and 5 pm Hawaii time) rolled around, you could find the TUAW team holding forth live on our weekly Talkcast show. From the very first episodes in August of 2007 up to our final broadcast in July of 2014, we tried to connect our enthusiasm for TUAW's coverage with the strong opinions and great information that our audience members brought to bear. Always an audio-only affair (despite some flirtations with visual media, and the success of our sister TUAW TV Live show hosted by Steve Sande and Shawn "Doc Rock" Boyd), the radio call-in style show featured a rotating team of hosts, a lineup of occasional all-star guests, and the ever-present gallery of readers, listeners and fans who rapidly became a part of the site family. You all rock, and we miss you (which is why Kelly Guimont and I have continued to podcast on The Aftershow). So, we're going to go around one last time. Tonight at 10 pm ET, we're doing a live Hangout -- with video this time! -- to cheer all of you and thank you for your years of support. The TUAW TV Live team is also planning a farewell show for Tuesday afternoon, with exact details to be determined, but for tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999! You can join the Hangout on Air by visiting our G+ Events page, or simply watch via the embedded video below. Can't wait to see you.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The end of the city of heroes
"Name?" "Mr. Swift." The small man on the other end of the table sighed as if he'd heard the punchline too many times already. "Sir, I understand that you're unhappy about recent events, but this is a necessity. I don't want to keep you here longer than necessary, but I can throw you in jail for a night for obstructing this audit. I'm not asking for your moniker; I'm asking for your name, and it's only out of politeness." He tapped the side of his laptop for emphasis. "Now before I have to look it up -- your name." It was a little thing, really. But it felt huge. "Orson Herschel Siegal," Swift replied, purposely looking away from the auditor and searching for something in the stark white room to pull his attention away.
Farewell and thank you!
Well, the time has come. After almost five years at Massively and over three and a half at the helm, it's time for me to step down as Editor-in-Chief. On September 30th, I'll be handing the site over to the capable hands of Bree Royce, who has been such an integral part of the behind-the-scenes goings-on at the site already that it should be a seamless transition. It's certainly been a wild ride, and as much as it pains me to leave everything I've helped build with my blood, sweat, and tears, it's a necessary change at this point in my life. As a guy who has been everything from a graphic designer to a police officer to the Orkin man, I can honestly say this has been the best job I've ever had.
Choose My Adventure: Au revoir, adventurers
Our adventurers will be taking a break from being ordered around for a while. We're not sure when we will return, but for now, we ride off into the sunset (or run wearily, depending on our respective levels) and say farewell. You may still see us at the monthly events on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) with It came from the Blog. And Roblinator will continue her adventures (without your being able to choose them) with the usual suspects on a regular basis. Before we go, Haemon has something to say after the break.
Breakfast Topic: A message to someone who's left a lasting impression
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. I've played World of Warcraft since October of 2006 and during that time have seen many realms, their communities, and the special people that have made a lasting impression on my WoW memories. Many of my friends and family have also switched their character's names, transferred to other realms, or even faction-changed (or some wicked combination of the three!) -- but when that happens, you lose that factor of recognition, and you sometimes even lose a friendship along the way. When I was in my PvP is my all and everything mode, I hopped across realms, switched names, and swapped races to try and find the right teams, the right realms, and the right players so I could maximize my Arena ratings and potential. But in doing so, I burned many bridges across the way, until I met a particular Undead rogue who made a lasting impression on me. He guided me through class-by-class duels when I was a novice. He never hesitated to give me constructive criticism and helpful advice when I lost 0-100 against a death knight. And he certainly never told me to "get good" or any of the other >9,000 ways someone can insult you. And when I left my home realm, I felt I owed it to him to write him a letter before I left. I didn't know this guy in real life, but something just told me I had to. I told him I was grateful for his kind words, his encouragement, and his patience and that I wished him the best in his WoW career, as he had in mine. And there it is! This is what I said to the person who made the most lasting impression. What would you say to that someone?
Fantasy Earth Zero shutting down on March 24th
Sad news today for fans of Fantasy Earth Zero -- after officially launching less than a year ago, the game will be shutting down in North America in just under two months. Gamepot USA has posted a full statement explaining the game's shutdown schedule as well as the policies on refunds for any game currency purchased within the last month. The game's cash shop has been closed, with all servers set to quadruple experience and money so that players can enjoy the time that's left. Fantasy Earth Zero took the long way around to get released stateside in the first place, after being developed by Square-Enix and then nearly shut down in Japan due to poor sales. An emotional farewell letter has also been posted, something fans of the game will no doubt wish to read. There's still time left to enjoy the accelerated servers before the shutdown, but when the lights go out on March 24th, they won't be coming back on. [Thanks to Jeffrey for the tip.]
The Daily Grind: When have you said goodbye?
Spend enough time in any game, and you're bound to form connections. It's the structure of MMOs, after all -- they aren't meant to be played all alone. And yet as time wears on, no matter how close a friend you've found in another player, you will find yourself going in different directions. There comes a point when either you or your best friends in-game are leaving, and you have to say your goodbyes. Even though you never mean to lose touch with your friends from an old favorite, it's hard to maintain a friendship when your point of common interest is gone. Sometimes you can manage it, but frequently you have to accept that the good memories of the past are just that. So when have you had to say goodbye to your friends from a game? Was it a friendship that came back in a later game down the road, or do you look back wistfully at the good times you had? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
All the World's a Stage: The curtain falls
All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles. It's a strange feeling to look back on four years of roleplaying in WoW, more than two of which were spent writing "All the World's a Stage," and feel as though the curtain is coming down on this part of my life, just as many new things are rising up to take its place. It's a sad thing, and it's a happy thing at the same time.Part of me doesn't want to change -- it just wants to go on having more of all those experiences I've enjoyed, which have helped me grow and become the person I am today; but the other part of me embraces these changes, and looks forward toward the experiences that will make me into the person I will be tomorrow.The fact is that I need to put WoW on indefinite hiatus, but before I go, let me share some of the things I have deeply appreciated about playing the game, especially how roleplaying filled an important niche in my life, and actually helped make me a better person.
Farewell and thank you, WoW.com
I've told this story a few times before: I actually started out on WoW.com as a comment troll. A few years back, Jennie Lees was the lead blogger here, and she posted something silly about a wallpaper or a plush doll, I don't remember. I was also reading the forums at the time, and Blizzard had just dropped new priest patch notes. "Why are you posting this junk," I commented angrily, "when the priest notes just dropped?" She was nice about it -- she actually emailed me and said that the priest updates post was coming soon. And I felt so bad about it, I never activated the comment. But a little while after that, when WoW Insider posted that they were looking for some new writers, I applied, and said that I was sorry for that comment, but that I was working on becoming a writer and could help out with posting on the site when needed. When I started writing for WoW Insider (now WoW.com, obviously), I was working retail in Chicago, writing part-time in the evenings. The site itself got only a few thousand hits a month, with one or two weekly features and maybe ten comments per post. Now, over three years later, I'm a fulltime freelance writer, I've been to three BlizzCons, I've written over 1.7 million words in over 3,300 posts here about everything in Azeroth, and the site itself rivals some of the best blogs on the Internet, routinely garnering millions of hits a month. I helped build this site with my own two hands, and while I definitely can't claim all the credit (there was and is a huge team of people who keep this thing running), it's with a fair amount of sorrow that I'm here to tell you today will be my last day on WoW.com.
FileFront suspending operations indefinitely
Our old friend Moo Money wrote in a little earlier today (along with a few readers) to alert us of some news that has the potential to hit the WoW community pretty hard: FileFront is closing its doors, citing poor economic conditions as the reason why they're indefinitely suspending the site's operations. As of March 30th, 2009, FileFront will be gone.Countless WoW videos are currently hosted on FileFront, including some of our favorite machinima, many that we've highlighted on the site previously. It's not just machinima, either. I know many of my friends that arena heavily find and host their videos on FileFront, and my raid has linked to strategy videos that were hosted there, too.
MMOGology: Phasing phwns the phuture
It's been fascinating to watch MMOGs evolve over the past fifteen years I've been playing them. They started out as text based worlds populated by a few hundred people with over-active imaginations. Today they're a mainstream hobby endorsed by celebrities like Mr. T and William Shatner. Whoulda thunk? As the genre has matured so have the parameters of what defines an MMOG. One of my biggest gripes with them has always been that the worlds we play in are too often static and unchanging. You feel as though your character and his actions never have any real or lasting effect on the world around him. Thankfully that has begun to change with the recent advent of a technology dubbed as "phasing". For those of you that haven't played Blizard's Wrath of the Lich King, phasing allows players to view a changed version of their world based on triggering events like the completion of quests. It's amazing that it isn't more talked about because phasing has and will continue to change the way we experience dynamic storytelling in MMOGs.
Future of Mythos beta uncertain
Mythos beta testers are experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions as they await official word on what will happen to Mythos. The bad news struck Friday, July 11th. It was confirmed that the ranks were culled as layoffs (over 30 confirmed at VE3D's count) occurred at Flagship Studios, developers of Hellgate: London and Mythos. Staff at PingO, an online services subsidiary felt the impact too. To help shed some new light there is a response from Travis Baldree, Lead developer on Mythos. In a post entitled, "A Fond Farewell" Baldree espouses gratitude to the Mythos beta community, the close relationship between employees, and does not disclose any specific details on the future of Mythos. Baldree is also unsure of how long Mythos in its current beta form will remain operational, but claims he will inform the community when possible. While Baldree did hint at reopening beta testing in the future, the question regarding on who owns the intellectual property and rights is probably going to be decided in a legal battle. Other developers that worked on Mythos also posted their farewells and appreciation to the beta community in the same thread. (We have copied Baldree's post after the jump in case the forums shutdown.)[Via Warcry]
Engadget's farewell card to Bill G
Well, Bill, it's just about quittin' time out here on the left coast, so with your final day at Microsoft drawing to a close, we wanted to present you with a little farewell card. It's not much, but we hope you like it.Bill,I can't believe you're already taking off! They even going to let your pension fully vest? Just kidding, I think heard somewhere that you're worth a lot of money or something. Thanks for the Xbox 360 and for always being so damn friendly -- promise I'll try my best to think only of Allchin whenever I bluescreen. Come visit soon and KIT, okay?Yours Truly, Ryan
AO designer says adieu, moves on to The Secret World
Anarchy Online content designer Nina "Aythem" Sund has been writing developer journal entries over at Ten Ton Hammer for several months, sharing game design wisdom and insider anecdotes with players. Her latest entry had a different tone, though. She used the medium to bid farewell to AO players as she moves on to work on Funcom's next MMO, The Secret World.As a parting gift, she spent the rest of her entry telling fans how they too can become game designers. Hers is good advice if that's an aspiration for you. Unfortunately, she didn't slip out any news or information on The Secret World, which as so far been very, well ... secret. Ten Ton Hammer attached two bits of concept art, though, so savor that!We hope Funcom will continue to support AO even though it now has Age of Conan and The Secret World to worry about, too. Sund was a popular quest designer at AO; we're glad she'll be adding her touch to TSW, but poor AO!
/silly: Arturis's farewell
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Due to personal reasons I can not and will not discuss here, I will no longer be drawing the weekly /silly comic for WoW Insider. I am thankful to you, the thriving mass of WoW Insider readers, for taking the time to view my strip for the past 11 weeks. To those that commented with support and praise, I offer an even larger helping of the Thank You pie. You are the reason I stayed up those late Monday nights, forcing myself to draw out the twisted images in my head in order to share them with the world. I sought your approval, and I received it in spades. Will there be a future for /silly, after I am gone? That is up to the higher-ups at WoW Insider to decide. If they do replace me and continue on with the series, I hope you all will show the new artist the respect and support that you gave to me. And I hope that the comics will make me laugh as much as mine made you.As for my future, do not worry. I have more passion for gaming than most people you will ever meet, burning deep within my soul like a warlock DoT that will never expire; like the Light that drives a paladin to battle against overwhelming odds. I will find another way to be a part of the industry that I love, and with a little luck, you will see the name Arturis again.Arthur E. "Arturis" Orneck
Overheard at E3: A trumpet fade out
At approximately 3:59PM PST (7:00PM EST), a noise entered the show floor that trumped all other soundwave. It was a trumpet, signaling the end of E3. A woman's voice comes on, telling us to exit the premises and to come back next year.We're gone, it's over, but we still have much to write up. Stay tuned over the weekend and next week as we continue to post our impressions and experiences at E3, and give you our picks for the best of show.
