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Now you can ask to join a friend's Instagram live video
Just a couple of weeks ago, Instagram made it easy to invite a friend to view your live broadcasts on the photo sharing network. Unfortunately, the invitation was only one way. Instagram has fixed that, however, with a new option: you can now request to join your friend's live video.
EVE Evolved: EVE Online vs. Elite: Dangerous
Like many EVE Online players, I grew up playing early sci-fi games like Elite and its sequel Frontier. In fact, CCP's recently released stats on the distribution of ages within the EVE community shows a peak around 29 years old, meaning that most players grew up in that same gaming era. A big part of what initially drew me to EVE Online was the prospect of playing the same kind of massive trading and space exploration game with other people, and for over 10 years it's scratched that sci-fi sandbox itch. I've watched EVE grow from a relatively unknown game with around 40,000 subscribers and laggy cruiser skirmishes into a vast game where thousands of players wage war for territory, profit, or just the adrenaline rush of PvP with something valuable on the line. Now that Elite: Dangerous is finally here, I want to see whether it can scratch the same sandbox itch as EVE and to what extent the two games can be compared. Both feature customisable ship fittings, open-world PvP with a criminal justice system, and real financial loss on death, for example, but the end result is two very different gameplay styles. And both also have that same intoxicating notion of exploring the unknown and try to make you feel like you're in a living world, but they take very different approaches to world design, content, and travel. Elite may not be a full-fledged MMO, but with a sandbox made of 400 billion procedurally generated stars and an open play mode that seamlessly merges players' games together, does it matter? In this edition of EVE Evolved, I compare my experiences in Elite: Dangerous to my experiences in EVE Online and look at their differing strategies with regard to server model, active and passive gameplay, and the new player experience.
LEGO Minifigures Online rolls out a mythological update
With a month or so to go before LEGO Minifigures Online fully launches, the game has brought forth its biggest update yet. So what does it contain? Nothing less than the new Mythology World, which also brings an increase in the level cap to 25 along with its new areas and monsters. The area also continues the main story if that's more of your thing. Aside from the new area, the Series 11 minifigures have been added to the game, along with the first batch of cash shop figures that includes the Yeti, the Mountain Climber, and the Pretzel Girl. Players can also find their friends more easily with the addition of a friend code, and the loot system has been overhauled to allow players a chance to build minifigures from loot. Check out the full set of update notes for more detail and get building in the game if it's just what you've been waiting for.
Shroud of the Avatar adds multiplayer features for release 3
If you backed Shroud of the Avatar chiefly to play around with its semi-online functionality, the newest release of the game should make you happy. The third test release features several of the multiplayer functions of the game, including chat, emotes, and friend lists. Combine that with the addition of a crafting system and new merchants, and the whole thing is closer than ever to being a fully featured online-but-not experience. The third test session will also feature a village, Braemor, expanding the amount of land that players have to explore and work within. Obviously, this test will be available only to backers of the game, but you can still jump on that through the game's official site if it sounds like something you want to play. For more details on the improvements as well as how to get into the game if you are a backer, take a look at the full release notes. [Source: Portalarium press release]
Breakfast Topic: Do you play WoW together with your significant other?
The good news: Success! You've managed to recruit your significant other into World of Warcraft! The bad news: He thinks your raiding guild is boring and he's off to dive back into retro content and enter transmog contests with a guild you consider suspiciously silly. From the sound of your comments earlier this week, many of you who've successfully recruited friends or family members into Azeroth are feeling lonely once again. It seems that many of the new recruits simply move on, move up, move over ... Less moving, more partnering, please! Today's Breakfast Topic is designed for those of you whose significant others also play World of Warcraft. You play the same game -– but do you play together in the same content? Do you play as a team or in the same guild or raid? %Poll-84669%
How game licensing works on the Xbox One (yes, it supports used games)
You will be able to give your Xbox One games to your friends, but only once and only to friends you've known for more than a month. That's according to the new rules shared today about Xbox One game licensing by Microsoft. All games will be available new in both disc or digital form, and will need to be installed on your Xbox One while logged in. From there, you'll be registered for the game on the cloud, so you'll be able to play it wherever you're logged into an Xbox One, even if you happen to be at a friend's house. You will have the option to resell that game back to a retailer, but that retailer will have to sign up with Microsoft to allow you to do so. Microsoft won't charge fees to do that, but it does say that "third party publishers may opt in or out of supporting game resale and may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers." You can give the game away, but only once and only to someone who's been on your friends list for that required 30 days. Microsoft also says that the ability to loan or rent games "won't be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners." All of the information about game licensing on the new console can be seen on the official Xbox One site.
Drama Mamas: Roommate vs. family
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. Ah, college. Good times. The music was fun, too. On to the drama. Hey drama mamas! So, I'm going to try and keep this short. I have played on the same realm for three years (since I started). My dad and brother have both recently started playing and joined me on this realm. My dad has two 85s, and my brother is still working on his first. I've also developed great relationships with my guild, but its starting to dwindle down. Here's my problem. I'm starting college next month, and my roommate (who played nor only on a different server, but the opposite faction) wants me to join her. I have no problem with this, but she really wants me to just server transfer as opposed to just starting a new alt.
X-53 Recruit-a-Friend mount being retired soon
If you've ever wanted to get your hands on Recruit-A-Friend mount #2, the X-53 Touring Rocket two-seater, then you had better get moving. Blizzard has announced that the X-53 rocket will be retired soon to make way for the new Recruit-A-Friend mount and (presumably) program for the launch of Mists of Pandaria. One might even take this as a clue that a new Recruit-A-Friend is coming soon, which means expansion time could be right around the corner. As for what the new mount is going to be, we have no idea just yet. However, MMO-Champion and Wowhead have datamined achievements, items, mounts, and some other clues that have shown a Recruit-A-Friend 3 mount in the files but no associated mount yet. Hit the jump for the full announcement about the X-53 rocket and speculate about what the next RAF mount is going to be.
Facebook adds real-time 'ticker' to overhauled news feed, donates old layout to science (video)
Facebook is about to turn your social life into an online newspaper. That's the takeaway from a new slate of changes the company unveiled yesterday, ahead of its annual f8 developer conference in San Francisco. From now on, if you log in to Facebook after a lengthy hiatus, your news feed -- much like the front page of a daily paper -- will consist of a list of "top stories," photos and updates that were posted while you were away, with each high-priority item tagged with a blue earmark. More frequent users, on the other hand, will find a list of most recent stories presented in chronological order, along with larger photos embedded directly within their news feed. The company has also introduced a new "ticker" feature that provides users with real-time updates on their friends' activity, displayed along the right-hand side of the home page. Here, you'll find the exact same updates you'd see on a real-time news feed, with the crucial difference being that you'll be able to interact with each development without missing a beat. If you see that a friend comments on a cat video, for example, you'll be able to click that item in the ticker and add your two cents, without having to navigate away from the home screen. Facebook will likely provide more details on these new features at its f8 tomorrow, but you can find more information in the demo video, after the break.
Cambridge researchers tout new location-based method to predict friends on social networks
Friend suggestions on social networks may already be a little too eerily accurate for some, but a team of researchers from Cambridge University now say they can do one better. They've devised a method that doesn't simply rely the usual friends-of-friends approach, but on where those people tend to hang out. According to researcher Salvatore Scellato, "it turns out that the properties of the places we interact can determine how likely we are to develop social ties," and that places like offices and gyms are better indications of potential friends than football stadiums or airports. That notion was borne out in their research (conducted over a period of four months using Gowalla), which found that "about 30 percent of all new social links appear among users that check-in to the same places." With the two prediction methods combined, the researchers say they're able to account for 66 percent of all new social ties. No word if they've moved onto predicting crimes next. [Image credit: Gowalla]
Veteran WoW players given free copies of the game to gift to new players
Many WoW players were shocked and confused to learn that they had a free copy of World of Warcraft Classic (it's the new "official" vanilla) sitting in their inbox starting last week. In a push for more subscribers before the big patch 4.2 push, tons of free copies of the game were distributed out to veterans to give to friends to introduce them to World of Warcraft. Not only is the game free, but these veteran reward accounts come with 30 day subscriptions for your buddies. Nethaera commented on the veteran emails being sent out -- they are not scams and are being sent to players who selected to receive news and offers from Blizzard. If you haven't gotten an veteran rewards email, check your spam folder or contact Blizzard support. I postulated on a recent Lawbringer what the world would look like with free WoW, and this seems like a good first step to getting more WoW into more hands. WoW Veteran Reward free copies The veteran award email and offer are legitimate and are being sent out to veterans who have previously opted in to receiving news and special offers from Blizzard Entertainment. We may run more of these types of promotions in the future, so if this is something you are interested in, we suggest opting in as soon as possible so you don't miss out. source The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!
Recruit-a-friend now grants bonus experience, levels to 80
Big news coming for those of you getting friends into the game -- Recruit-a-friend bonus experience and "granted" levels now goes all the way up to 80. Players have been asking for this feature and have been wondering when Blizzard would raise the Recruit-a-friend cap from level 60. Now, Outlands and Northrend content should be quicker than ever for players to complete with their friends and leveling partners. The Recruit-a-friend change was noted in the newest version of the patch 4.2 Rage of the Firelands patch notes found on Blizzard's community site. Patch 4.2 Patch Notes Recruit-A-Friend now awards bonus experience and free level grants to level 80, up from level 60. source Check out the Recruit-a-friend FAQ for more information on the program and how to level characters together and the benefits received. The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!
Breakfast Topic: Strange habits
As I write this, I am dreading the week to come. After many months of going back and forth on the matter, I have decided to leave my guild for greener pastures. I'm reluctant to leave, though, since I do like my current guild; the people are nice, the raids are fun and we have a raiding philosophy of "work with what you've got" that I have always enjoyed. Still, for everything that I love, there are shortcomings and I am willing to risk losing what I have to see if my perfect guild exists somewhere out there. So off I go to a new guild and server where I know no one. I'm scared -- scared I won't be good enough, scared they won't like me even if I am and scared I might be making a huge mistake in leaving my friends. You just have to swallow those kinds of thoughts, though. As a raider, I'm no stranger to moving around, and I've come up with many ways to deal with it. One thing I do to cope is heading up to the spot you see in the picture before I transfer. This is my favorite hiding spot in the game, only accessible by players meticulous enough to complete the Higher Learning achievement. Up here, I will sit and eat some cake, then after I've had my fill, set out my little green rag doll on the bed and /sleep. The reason for this is so that when I log back in after my transfer has gone through, I know exactly where I'll be and I can pretend I'm waking up from a dream (or nightmare) to a new, promising day. I'm not sure why I do this; maybe the familiarity? It's really all quite silly, but I've been doing it for well over a year now and it seems natural. Do you have any strange habits or rituals you do in game?
Apple updates MobileMe Gallery app
MobileMe has some great features, but Apple needs to stay on top of it to keep it competitive with other services. It's a bit pricey and hasn't changed all that much over the last couple of years, so new features are always worthy of notice. Fortunately, Apple made one small step for mankind by releasing an update to the MobileMe Gallery app for the iPhone and iPod touch today. Now it is easy to add your friends' MobileMe Galleries with just a couple of clicks on your touch screen. When you select "Add a Friend," the app will search your contact list and indicate which of your friends have MobileMe Galleries. Click on add from there, and it's done. Slick. It's not a big deal, but it's a nice touch, especially for a service on which updates are sparse. The update takes the app to version 1.1 and is as close as a tap on your iPhone's App Store icon, or you can head over to iTunes and grab it from there.
CES 09: MS wants to raise Live's 100 friend limit
While not quite an official confirmation that we'll see an increase to Xbox Live's current 100 friend limit, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg did come close to admitting that a friend limit increase is in the works.Talking at CES, Greenberg told Joystiq that "I can't commit to when that will happen, but that is something we want to do. It's definitely something we're looking at expanding and, as this social network grows, we've absolutely heard the pleas for that. It's on the list."We can haz friends list increase soon? Maybe. Until then, we'll have to continue to reject friends requests with a frowny face :(
The 10 people you need to know in WoW
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/10_MMO_Players_You_Need_to_Know'; One of my favorite people to read online is a fellow by the name of Pjammer on Livejournal. He's smart, funny, and a gifted writer, and if you are not sobbing by the end of "King of Masochists" then you are pretty much a terrible person. But another great entry is "The 16 Essential People In Your Life," which lists such valuable acquaintances as the Computer Security Guru, the Wolf, the Consigliere, and (most importantly) the Best Friend. Pjammer, quoting Harvey Mackay, correctly notes that 2 am is a bad time to make new friends. These are the kind of people you want in your life as early as possible, and to exercise a positive influence on its course. My realm's seen a number of guild instability issues of late, which is something most of us have come to expect with an upcoming expansion. I've found reason to mull over how the virtual world differs from the real world with respect to friendship, backstabbing, greed, betrayal, honor, and how people choose to handle their problems. In my considered opinion it doesn't differ at all, and your experience ingame is largely determined by the network of players assembled around you, whether that alliance is a recognized one in the form of a guild or simply a more informal group of friends.So, from my own experience and with a hat tip to Pjammer, these are the people you want in your posse for the best possible experience in the game:
Alt Text just short of the real bribe
Lore Sjöberg at Wired's Alt Text talked yesterday about the Zhevra mount you get as part of the Recruit-a-Friend program. It's a pretty fun read. He talks about the myriad of vanity items, and how these items can be such a motivator for WoW players, even though they don't really affect your gameplay at all. I do want to add a point to his article, though. The new Recruit-a-Friend benefit isn't just the Zhevra. For me, the ability to gain triple-XP is the huge motivator. I'm involved in a Guild that's doing it's best to truck through Zul'Aman content. I can't wait to get a good friend of mine involved in the fun, but getting from 0 to 70 is going to take a while. Even with the speed levelling records out there, going from zip to end-game isn't going to happen overnight. So, while my friend will be starting after Labor Day weekend, there's a little bit of delay before she's rocking out to left-handed Nalorakk. The triple-XP bonus -- and the ability to teleport me to her when she needs help -- overcomes the big hurdle to getting a friend started. This is the real power of the new Recruit-a-Friend benefit, in my opinion. The Zhevra's cool and all, but the XP bonus and teleportation feature makes getting my friend involved three times faster. The benefit doesn't just reward getting friends involved, it empowers us to get our friends involved.
'One Man's Journey' tries and fails at Wii Fit
One Man's Journey recovers from the Rock Band disaster of '07 and releases another tale of self-realization. This time, the overly-optimistic Matt Downham is looking to lose some weight and (feeding into the hype) believes Wii Fit is going to get him to do that -- just like he wanted Rock Band to turn him into a rock star. Matt's faithful companion, Friend, joins him again on this adventure of self-discovery, standing by his side and offering his own special brand of support.Of course, similar to what happened with Rock Band, Matt's hopes and dreams of Wii Fit curing his weight condition lead to what the movie advertisements refer to as a "roaring rampage of revenge" (after catching his breath from walking up the stairs). He roars. He rampages. We just hope Friend survives for the next big game launch sporting a plastic peripheral.
The Daily Grind: But all my friends play!
Why do we play MMOs? Sure, we could spend all day discussing game design, new content, casual vs. hardcore, class balance (nerf <insert class here>!), PvP, crafting, leveling curve, and economy... but in the end what makes us log on to a game day after day, through nerfs, bugs, and server meltdowns? Chances are, it's not the gameplay -- it's the people. Would you still play your favorite game were it not for your guild (or clan, or fellowship)? Or is your MMO-ing all about the game?
The DS Life: Best Friends Edition
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handhelds and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.This week's installment of The DS Life captures the warmth of youth's friendships, when comradery comes naturally and every exchange is guileless. Well, mostly guileless.
