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Sergey Brin clarifies Apple and Facebook critique, says statement was 'distorted'
Sergey Brin wasn't too happy with how his critique of Apple and Facebook was represented in the media following an interview he gave to the Guardian. In a post on Google+ (hey, if he won't use it, who will?) Brin lamented that, "my thoughts got particularly distorted... in a way that distracts from my central tenets." The founder believes that undue attention was given to his complaints about Facebook and Apple's "restrictive" walled gardens, when he sees oppressive governments and state-sanctioned censorship as much larger issues. Of course, while Brin does say he admires his competitors, he never truly backpedals from his criticism or says that it was taken out of context. To let Sergey explain himself, hit up the source link.
The Daily Grind: Do you play classes you don't like?
I recently returned to Lord of the Rings Online in anticipation of the Rohan-themed expansion pack due later this year. As I was looking over my character page and deciding which of my toons I should take to 75, I reluctantly decided to abandon my highest level avatar. You see, he's a Guardian, and despite the fact that I'm basically throwing away 58 levels and some pretty decent gear, I simply can't bear the thought of playing what is absolutely the most boring class in any MMO, ever. Why did I roll one, then? Mainly because my launch-day guild was going for class balance, and no one else wanted to play a tank. And that's my long-winded way of leading into today's Daily Grind question. Do you play classes you don't like (and if so, why)? 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!
The Daily Grind: Now that all Guild Wars 2 professions are revealed, which will you play?
Earlier this week, the internet exploded with a leaked reveal of Guild Wars 2's eighth profession: the Mesmer. The official reveal soon followed, with some of the most amazing skill videos and game mechanics to ever hit an MMO class. OK, so I'm a Mesmer fanboi. Sue me. But now that we can flip through the entire array of Guild Wars 2 professions, we're left with the question about what class to play... or play first. Will you be burning stuff with the Elementalist, bashing stuff with the Warrior, or shooting stuff with the Ranger? Perhaps you'd like to pander to your inner kleptomaniac by playing a Thief or dance with the dead as a Necromancer. Throw in the Guardian, Engineer, and Mesmer, and it's fairly impossible to pick just one. So which will you play first? Let us know your profession plans for Guild Wars 2 in the comments below. 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!
SWTOR: So you want to play a Jedi Knight
If it's true that gamers would rather play Luke Skywalker than Uncle Owen, then the Jedi Knight is the class to put that claim to the test in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Knight is the Republic side's melee specialist and classic tank-mage, who supplements her melee attacks with taunts, buffs, and Force powers. She operates on the front lines of the war against the Sith, protecting her allies and representing the Jedi Order across the galaxy. Also, lightsabers. Two of them.
Grudge match: RIFT faction rivalry heating up for one-year anniversary
Worried that RIFT's Guardians and Defiants are less age-old enemies and more goofy odd couple roommates bumbling around to a laugh track? If faction chumminess concerns you, you'll be glad to hear that Trion Worlds is planning to escalate tensions between the two sides that will forever change the feel of the game. Trion said that it's already deep into the planning stages of heating up the conflict between the game's two sides, which is planned for next spring. The current Fae Yule festival is meant to be a quiet moment before everything explodes; a peace that is soon to be shattered. Design Director Hal Hanlin puts a date on the upcoming Factionopalypse: "We're planning to drive a wedge between the factions for the game's one-year anniversary." This puts the date of the event in early March 2012. Currently, while the two factions don't necessarily get along, they both are working toward the same goal of repelling the invading planar forces. It's just that they use different approaches and philosophies as they truck along.
Blizzard elaborates on Guardian Cub sales
Has Blizzard surrendered to the powerful RMT lobby or are there other forces at work behind the company's recent decision to introduce a loophole that allows players to buy in-game gold and items with real-world currency? According to a recent post on World of Warcraft, the sale of the Guardian Cub is meant to test the waters of fighting rampant account compromises. Blizzard claims that gold farming is actually not as common these days, but instead most of the gold that is sold through third-party services comes from stolen accounts. The idea of bypassing third-party gold sellers by providing a cash shop pet that could be resold or traded in game was meant to be a creative solution to the problem. "Players can buy one for the purpose of trying to sell it in-game, creating the potential for players to exchange real money for gold in a way that does not lead to account compromises. Of course, all that comes with the pretty important caveat that demand for the pet will be finite, and there's no guarantee you'll be able to find a buyer," Blizzard writes. The company says that it doesn't expect this will solve the overall issue, the success or failure of the unique pet will help Blizzard determine if this approach is worth pursuing further.
The Lawbringer: Guardian Cub pros and cons
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Blizzard recently treated WoW fans to a preview of the Guardian Cub tradable pet, going on sale soon at the Blizzard pet store. Immediately upon hearing that the pet was tradable, readers began inundating me with email and Twitter messages to talk about said cub on The Lawbringer, as this is sort of the thing I fancy myself a connoisseur of. So here we go -- let's talk about the ramifications of these adorable little pets on our server economies. The Guardian Cub represents a sea change in the nature of the gold selling war from Blizzard's perspective, one that has been coming for a long, long time. With a Blizzard-sanctioned way for players to dip their toes into the waters of pay-for gold, gold buying looks a little less attractive to players who would otherwise have to risk their computer's integrity and credit card security. Players have sharp opinions one way or the other on player-bought gold, so I'm going to do my best to hit the right points to discuss my opinion on the whole premise. I mean, it's right there in the FAQ. This pet has the added incentive of being a safe and secure way to potentially, maybe, make some gold off your purchase.
The Guardian comes to the iPad
The British national daily newspaper The Guardian has come to the iPad. The 190 year-old newspaper is celebrating its iPad launch by allowing users access to their first 86 issues (starting on the day you launch the app) for free when they start using the app. After that time, a monthly subscription charge will only be $13.99 for US subscribers or £9.99 for UK subscribers. Six issues will be "printed" a week. Existing subscribers to The Guardian's six or seven day print subscriptions will get the iPad edition for free. Though the Internet edition of The Guardian has an audience of over 50 million readers, the newspaper wanted to make the iPad edition align more closely with the print edition. For that reason the iPad edition will be a once-a-day edition, without the live updating of and blogging on the website. The app itself is laid out quite nicely, with articles arranged into thirteen different sections. The app was designed so that on the front page of each section users only have to swipe a maximum of two times to see all the articles available – a welcome feature since many news apps require so much swiping you forget where in them you are. And since it is part of Newsstand, The Guardian for iPad will automatically download once a day so it's ready for you when you wake up. You can download The Guardian for iPad for free from the US and UK App Stores.
Gold Capped: Legally buy gold with the Guardian Cub
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! If you buy a Guardian Cub with real money, you can sell it for in-game gold, effectively purchasing gold. If you're one of the millions of WoW players who are constantly cash-strapped in game, you now have the option of leaving the whole gold making process to others; simply buy a $10 pet that can be sold for gold on the AH. BOE gear, mounts, flying training, and alts are all expensive, and making money (playing the AH, doing dailies, selling valor point BOE gear, etc.) isn't the most fun use of some peoples' time. This change will be a welcome one for those who would rather spend the time needed to make $10 at their day job than hours grinding gold. Additionally, pet collectors who also play the gold making game will be able to get a pet from the pet store without having to lay out real money for it. So how much will these pets cost, anyway? The answer will vary from realm to realm, but one thing is certain: The demand for the pets will spike out of the door, then fall off a cliff as soon as enough people have one. Also, repeat business isn't any more likely than for other Blizzard Store items -- I almost never see people sporting their Lil' K.T or sparkle ponies these days, and I imagine that few people still pay real money for them. As the demand drops off, these will sell for less and less gold. The supply is directly related to the number of people buying them from the store for resale on the AH. This means that the more gold the cubs are worth, the more supply there will be. Eventually, as demand peters out, people will be less likely to buy them for resale. In short, if you want to buy gold without breaking the terms of service, get it while the getting is good. The gold per pet will go nowhere but down, unless Blizzard likes this system so much that it introduces more items like this.
Protect Isengard with the new LotRO Guardian dev diary
It's time for another Lord of the Rings Online developer diary, and this time around the Guardian is up to bat. So what's in store for the plate-wearing, shield-toting class come Rise of Isengard? Well, of course Turbine realizes that many Guardians are tanks first and foremost, and it will ensure that Guardians are able to continue tanking with the best of them. On top of that, however, some passes are being made to increase Guardian DPS, which Turbine feels is substandard. In order to accomplish this, they will be raising Guardian DPS "in a behind-the-scene fashion." This means that many abilities, such as Guardian's Ward, will simply "do more damage inherently as the Guardian levels up from 65," and Guardians will also be granted some additional damage from their shield abilities thanks to increased Shield Use rating from new Legendary Traits. If you're interested in the finer details, the full list of skill changes can be found in the full dev diary.
Choose My Adventure: RIFTastic!
Frenzy engulfed this last week's poll, which is one of the reasons I tweeted about it so often. EverQuest II and RIFT battled to the death over which would hold the attention of this writer for the next five weeks. Ultimately, the power of Regulos overpowered the Norrathians, but not without a fight. Usually the first community manager or game developer who catches wind of his or her game's appearance on Choose My Adventure wins. And just like past devs, Community Manager for EverQuest II Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence tweeted and posted in the EQII forums to encourage fans to vote for her game. However, Lindsay Lockhart, Lead Defiant Lore Writer for RIFT, would not have Telara beaten by Norrath, so she tweeted about it and passed the information off to Community Manager Erick "Zann" Adams, who posted it on RIFT's Facebook page. Immediately, RIFT's votes doubled then grew quickly after that. Congratulations to the RIFT fans. I hope I do your game justice, but I do want to give a shout out to all the EQII fans. I hope you stick around for this. You put up an awesome fight and certainly made the poll interesting to watch. As for this week, we step into RIFT's character creator. All the decisions are up to you! Should I roll Defiant or Guardian -- Warrior or Mage? Just cruise past the break for all the details!
The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: Ultima X: Odyssey
Last week on The Game Archaeologist: Murder most foul! A promising sequel to a hit MMO cut down in its prime, left to die on the front steps of EA's headquarters while its team was banished into exile! With special guest star, Richard Garriott's hair braid. And now, for the exciting conclusion! As disappointed that some MMO fans were over Ultima Worlds Online: Origin's cancellation, the truth is that the industry still was young, these MMOs still had their "new car smell," and hey, there was always Ultima Online to play. It was probably the right call at the time to not create your own competition, but if that was the case, EA should've never begun it to begin with. So did the company have a major case of cancellation remorse? Or did it look at other industry sequels like Asheron's Call 2 and EverQuest II and feel as though it was being upstaged? Whatever the reason, EA decided that it had been too hasty, and it greenlit development on yet another Ultima Online sequel, this one titled Ultima X: Odyssey. It would go deeper and further into development, gather more acclaim, and generate more hype than UWO:O, and in fact would get within spitting distance of launching.
The Road to Mordor: Class graduation
Amid all of the hubbabaloo of E3, Rise of Isengard reveals, and pre-order madness, something equally as significant has been taking place on the Lord of the Rings Online scene: proposed class changes. Turbine's been fairly good giving each of the classes a pass over this last year, but it looks as though something even more significant is in the offering when the expansion hits this fall. As we all know, the level cap is going up to 75, virtues will increase to a new cap of 12, and stats will be expanded in several ways. But there's even more on top of that: Orion and Zombie Columbus have been posting a steady stream of proposed class changes on the forums. These aren't all tiny tuning measures, either. In many cases, weak elements of classes and class builds will be radically revamped, and how you play these classes will change forever. As with any prospect of change, these proposed notes are both exciting and scary to behold. I felt it was high past time we at least chew on the reveals thus far and see how our classes will be graduating to the next level when Isengard arrives. Of course, these are all proposed and highly subject to change between now and whenever they're implemented. As Orion said, "Blogs are coming out before the major changes so that we can get your feedback early, often and when we are still agile enough to respond to the valid reasoning behind concerns or true issues that are found." Read with a grain of salt (if you like, perch the salt on your shoulder so it can view the screen better).
Hyperspace Beacon: Find your focus
Thanks to the new advanced class page on the Star Wars: The Old Republic website and MMORPG.com's interview with Georg Zoeller, we now know quite a bit about the skill tree breakdown of each advanced class. However, over the next few weeks, I want to take a look at a few of the classes and read between the lines of text. Several abilities are listed for each class, but how do they fit together? What does the complete package look like? The Jedi Knight looks to be one of the most popular classes to play. After all, what kid growing up didn't have a fantasy of wielding a lightsaber just like Luke Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi? I'd like to give a general overview of the advanced class abilities and collate a comprehensive list of the announced abilities. Follow me beyond the cut to see how these puzzle-pieces fit together in SWTOR.
Winged Guardian mount in action
Blizzard has just released the Winged Guardian, the newest mount in the Blizzard pet store, which of course means I had to buy it and quickly throw together a video of this majestic beast in action. The Winged Guardian works as both a ground and flying mount, scaling with your riding skill all the way up to 310% mount speed. Over a year ago, WoW players ran the gamut of emotions when the Celestial Steed was introduced. Now, however, DLC (downloadable content) has become a fact of life for many games and virtual worlds. In fact, many people (myself included) don't understand why these mounts don't come out even more frequently, because there is obviously a market for these cool extras. Check out the video of the Winged Guardian in action. So far, I like this guy. He feels thick and beefy, with a lot of weight to him -- definitely an imposing presence. Plus, it's not another dragon, and we can all be excited for that.
Chinese prisoners forced to farm gold
The Guardian ran a heartrending story yesterday about prisoners in China forced to farm gold on behalf of their prison bosses. After spending their day doing backbreaking labor, they would spend the evenings farming gold in games like World of Warcraft. According to the report, it's likely that the prison bosses made more money from the sales of these online currencies than they did even from prisoners' manual labor. If prisoners were unable to produce enough gold during their shift, they would be physically punished. "They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things," said one prisoner in the report. Blizzard's been fighting gold farming practices for a long time; we'll likely never see "legal" gold selling if Blizzard can doing anything about it. This story illustrates one more reason you should not support these services. Note: Comments on this post will be closely monitored. Racial insults, personal attacks or any of that nonsense will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be banned.
iTunes, Tiger, and irrational ire: The difference between updates and upgrades
Update: After we posted this story, reader Nate emailed us to suggest that if you find yourself in Rupert Jones' shoes (with a new iOS device that requires Leopard/iTunes 10 for sync support, but still running Tiger on your Intel Mac), call AppleCare. He says that Apple's support team will ask you for your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch serial number... and then send you a copy of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, free of charge. No word on whether this is official policy or merely an ad-hoc accommodation, and it's possible that the upgrade deal is only available to US customers, but it's worth a shot. --- Rupert Jones of the Guardian recently discovered -- to his utter shock and dismay -- that his four-year-old MacBook running a nearly four-year-old OS can't run current software without being upgraded. His MacBook runs Tiger, which means he can't run iTunes 10, which further means he can't sync with any of Apple's latest portable gear. Anyone reading this probably knows the next step: pay to upgrade to Leopard, download iTunes 10, and get on with your day/week/life. In fact, I'm willing to bet that our readers knew about OS X Leopard when it first launched in late 2007, and chose an upgrade path long ago, whether it was buying Leopard on a disc or upgrading to a new Mac with the OS pre-installed. Most of you probably also moved up to Snow Leopard when it launched, or within a few months. Rupert Jones didn't do either of those things. In the three and a half years since OS X Leopard's release, he chose to stick with an older iteration of Mac OS X. And four years later, he's blaming Apple for his inability to run current software or sync with current hardware. According to Jones, Apple is "penalizing" him and "thousands of other loyal customers," and not enabling iTunes 10 to run on older versions of Mac OS X amounts to telling these customers their computers are obsolete. "It seems we have been left with gadgets we can't use, unless we pay more money for a software update," Jones opines. There's a basic problem underlying this argument: like many people, Jones apparently doesn't understand the difference between a software update and an upgrade. That difference is usually simple, and it boils down to dollars. Updates are (mostly) free. Upgrades are (mostly) not.
Your iPhone is silently and constantly logging your location [updated]
Update 2: Apple has issued an official response. Update: This story has generated followups from Thomas Ricker at Engadget, David Pogue, Andy Ihnatko and Dan Moren at Macworld. Researcher Alex Levinson points out that despite the Guardian's positioning of the location data as a shocking revelation, this data stash was well-known to forensics experts for some time (it's even mentioned in Levinson's book on iOS forensic analysis); as we noted below, analyst Christopher Vance had written about it in 2010 as well. All concerned also note that while the location data is cached on your phone and on your computer, there is absolutely no evidence that Apple or your cell carrier are accessing that file to track you over time (although it's likely that AT&T or Verizon know your location anyway, since your phone registers itself with cell towers as you roam). That doesn't mean Apple is off the hook, by any means: US Senator Al Franken has written to Steve Jobs looking for answers about how this data is gathered, what it's used for and why it isn't encrypted. -- The Guardian reports that independent researchers Pete Warden, a former Apple employee, and Alasdair Allan, a data visualisation scientist, announced today at Where 2.0 that they've explored a file hidden inside iOS backups which appears to track the location of the device going back as far as the installation of iOS4. [The first indications of location data in this file were actually brought up some time ago, but with substantially less fanfare. –Ed.] The above map shows data taken from a test iPhone, and shows a detailed history of the phone's movements around the south of England. Warden and Allan have put up a page with a FAQ discussing their findings and an Open Source software tool you can run on your own backups to see what you iPhone knows about you. They've also published a video demonstrating the problem. Particularly worrying is that this file is unencrypted on the device (and on your Mac or PC, unless you encrypt your iTunes backups) and so easily accessible by anyone with access to your computer's iTunes backups folder or with jailbreak access to your device. Because of the way iTunes handles backup-and-restore, the data will even automatically persist across devices if you replace your iPhone.
The Queue: Almost our celestial anniversary
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Today's Queue is brought to you by Mathew McCurley and the letter F. Yay, I get to write The Queue today! With a patch 4.1 release candidate on the PTR, as well as the one-year anniversary (April 15) of the Celestial Steed, it seems that we should be expecting many things happening within the next few weeks in WoW. Oh, boy! We live in exciting times. Sparkle pony, it was almost one year since I wrote about your majesty, your grace and starry beauty. How could anyone say no to the steed from the stars? Now, we have your successor, the winged guardian, a presumably Uldum-esque creature that soars through the cataclysmic skies with the strength of the desert it has been unearthed from. I hope part of the story involves Harrison Jones finding a secret factory under the Temple of Uldum, where 5 million winged guardians await, ready to be sold and taken home "off the lot," as it were. walkerspace asked: Dear Queue, There seems to be an increase in bot activity (while I'm herbing; I want it all!). Is there anything Bizzard can do about it? Or, is the perceived activity simply more characters in the game fighting over the same limited resource?
New RIFT lore highlights the fearsome Frederic Kain
These RIFT lore reveals are getting to be old hat by now, what with Trion releasing one every week and all of them boasting both interesting prose and scrumptious screenshots. This week's entry is no exception, and it tells a grim tale from the adventures of one Frederic Kain, an uncompromising Guardian commander who leads a fearsome band of warriors known as the 12th. Whether due to Kain's eerie silence in the heat of pitched battle, or his penchant for using captured Defiant prisoners as makeshift catapult ammunition, Ascended on both sides of RIFT's eternal struggle would do well to tread a wide path around any territory occupied by Kain and his men. Check out all the gory details after the cut.
