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'Metamaterial' can switch from soft to hard - and back again
University of Michigan researchers have developed a technique for a new 'metamaterial' that can change its level of solidness, but without damaging or changing the material itself. Metamaterials are man-made materials whose properties come from the way it's constructed rather than what it's composed from. Scientist can then tinker with its structure to affect its properties. Those effects can be very broad: researchers were able to create a camera that doesn't require a lens to work using different man-made materials. This one's different again.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Is Runes of Magic too easy?
It seems things are never quiet in regard to Runes of Magic these days. If it isn't holiday events or new world bosses, it's large-scale balancing issues. Players may still be plugging away at title achievements this Halloween, but the event has been going long enough for people to settle into a daily routine and get back to everyday affairs. In other words: it's something to do, but the shiny is starting to wear off. I took advantage of this lull and decided to do a Q&A on the overall difficulty of RoM. It's not a huge issue; it's more like a constant issue that creeps into other discussions on class balance or the memento system. And after the attempted change to a percentage-based mana cost, it's definitely worth consideration. Is RoM too easy? The question seems like it'd be a quick one-line answer, but there are many ways to view it that would yield different outcomes. What are players' goals? How can a change to one system affect the whole game? How will future updates affect any changes made today? Is there an answer to whether RoM is too easy or not? Well. Let's find out.
The Daily Grind: Punish or protect?
Ah, this morning we have a true opinion question for you. One that many players are very divided on. In your honest opinion, dear readers, do you think games should punish players for missteps, or do you believe the game should protect you against loss and minimize it at all possible places? In the old days of MMO gaming, death was a ruthless beast that could steal hours of your playtime away from you, setting you further away from your goal than you'd be comfortable to admit. But, as we've progressed in our designs, death is no more threatening to our adventures than the gentle breeze of the hills. Death penalties have been reduced, experience loss has been removed, and dropping items has become a dropped practice. So what's your opinion? Drop it in the box, and let it ring loud and clear!
The Daily Grind: What's your preference of difficulty?
Some people like it when the game challenges them for months on end, stopping them at the same battle over and over again until a group comes together and cooperates in a way that yields progression.Other people like to be able to sit down at a game, play it for a few hours, and feel like they've made some progress and accomplishments. They enjoy feeling rewarded after a small play session, instead of dedicating hours of work and thinking to their games.And still others would rather find extreme progress in less than an hour, being highly rewarded for very little challenge. It's not fun if it's hard, right?So today's grind question is as follows: what is your preference of difficulty? Are you the person who likes to be stumped for weeks on end, or are you more of the type who wants to get the maximum reward for the smallest effort? Speak forth into thy comment box, and let thy voice be heard! And hopefully you won't use a silly accent like us, but you can if you'd like to.
How to activate Ulduar's hard modes
You may have heard that a number of guilds have cleared Ulduar to Yogg-Saron already, which to me is perfectly fine. I like to think that a lot of good, properly-coordinated guilds will kill Yoggy this week, and the Blues agree with me. Of course, this week's Yoggy kills were on the easiest possible difficulty, so world first or not, it doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of fame and fortune.This is the beauty of Ulduar -- if you want prestige (and the best gear), you have to earn it by flexing your raiding muscle and beating encounters on their respective hard modes. If you don't have the chops or the time for the highest difficulty content, then you can still beat the instance and see every encounter.But, of course, you want those 239-level items.So you should probably read after the jump and find out how to activate each boss' hard mode, yeah?
World of Warcraft is for "hardcore" young male gamers
Yes. That's right. The most accessible MMO is too hardcore for the standard audience, according to Forbes.com and Rob Hutter of the recently unveiled Gazillion Entertainment. In a recent interview with Hutter, he was quoted as saying that the MMO market could expand outside of "targeting the hardcore gamer demographic," using World of Warcraft as his main example.Forbes.com paraphrased him as saying, "...Most people unaccustomed to MMOs might be intimidated by complex games like 'Warcraft,' Hutter says trends in technology suggest the audience for simple, well-designed games will grow quickly. The runaway success of Nintendo's Wii proved virgin gamers will try new titles if they are easy to play, while the boom in social networks like Facebook suggests people of all ages are looking for new ways to interact online, he says."While we understand what he's getting at and can appreciate trying to target gamers outside of the main demographic, we think he might need to pick a better example next time. WoW can be intimidating for first time users, but something must have clicked with the non-hardcore gaming crowd as many of them have stuck around in Azeroth. Unless, of course, all 11 million of the World of Warcraft subscribers have suddenly become hardcore male gaming nerds, and those newbies in our guilds are simply the stuff of illusion.[Via Hardcore Casual]
Onyxia: Bugged at 70
I don't get it. I'm 70, have lots of nice purples, know the game well enough, and have even done Onyxia dozens upon dozens upon dozens of times back in the pre-BC days. But why then does she inevitably present a problem for me and my friends?It's probably because she is bugged. And not just bugged, REALLY bugged.Two groups have now gone in and tried to defeat her. Each time the first attempt was a failure as people relearned not to stand too close to each other (Forsythe run to the center!), run to the side when the rains fire down (<-- 2N, 2N - 1 -->), and all those other small tidbits that make the fight what it is. However when it reached the second attempt, she started acting strange. First, she wouldn't target anyone or let anyone tank her – she just walked around her lair and jerked around a bit. We could still damage her, but that was it. And really it was only the ranged and my crossbow that were able to do any damage (more dots!).
What if WoW had Easy Mode and Hard Mode?
I was just casually wandering about the Internet yesterday, when I stumbled upon one of those random new MMORPG advertisements that you see popping up on a number of the WoW-related websites nowadays. It's for a game called Shaiya, which (like all the others), I'll probably never play, but a quick glance through it's game features revealed an interesting design choice. Without splitting up the playerbase, they've nonetheless created different "modes" to the game, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. There's an "Easy Mode," which lets you advance more quickly, but also limits you a great deal. There's also a "Normal Mode," a "Hard Mode," and even an "Ultimate Mode" for the most hardcore of players. It got me thinking about how such a system might work if transplanted into WoW:Easy Mode: This is basically just a tutorial. Not many experience points are needed to advance from level to level, but you can only reach a maximum of level 30. You cannot create or join a guild, and you get no access to any Talent points. You also are limited to Common and Uncommon items -- you cannot use any Rare, Epic, or Legendary items.Normal Mode: This is where most players will start off. You need an average amount of experience points to advance (something like what we have today). You can create and join guilds normally, and you also get Talent points. In addition, you also get access to Rare items.
Hard mode unlockable in BioShock demo
When we first saw that the Hard difficulty in the BioShock demo was not initially available, we figured it would require a quick playthrough to unlock, a la Ninja Gaiden Sigma. No dice -- beat the demo and the hard mode still sits there behind its grayed-out curtain, taunting you with the implicit judgment that you haven't played enough first-person shooters to handle it.Fear not -- unlocking that hard mode isn't as hard as you think. Apparently, if you go into your Gamertag profile and set your default difficulty to "hard," the mode will start out highlighted and selectable when you go into the demo. We've included some video of the simple trick after the break for those of you who are a little slow on the uptake.Not a groundbreaking discovery, by any means, but it is a nice way to squeeze some more fun out of that demo before the street date. That is, assuming you haven't picked up the game already.
DS Fanboy travels Around the Interweb to whine about hard games
Siliconera has started doing these great roundtables called "From Around the Interweb" in which various game writers opine on a topic. The last one was about the DS Style series-- check it out for some interesting discussion on non-games!This week, Spencer was kind enough to invite me along for a discussion of hard games. This week's panel included Spencer, RawMeatCowboy from GoNintendo, CheapyD from CheapAssGamer, PSP Fanboy's Andrew Yoon (who has made mysterious appearances here!), and, for some reason, me! We were all able to reach a consensus on the divisive issue of whether or not hard games were, in fact, hard. I had a great time and I was honored to be in such illustrious company!
Hard drive rumors are back
We know that we'd like a hard drive on the Wii-- and while we're dreaming, we'd like it to be free and preloaded with Sega CD games-- but we don't have any real evidence that one's coming. We first heard some unfounded speculation about it back in March, from a Japanese magazine.Now the rumor is back, with just as much to back it up (nothing). IGN editors speculated in a podcast that Nintendo might show one at E3, and CVG saw the fact that Neo Geo games are big as evidence. Then, of course, everyone picked up on the rumors-- including us, right now. Not to say that there's no chance of a hard drive in the future, but we'd like to remind everyone that SD cards exist and are cheap.
Wii Warm Up: USB Possibilities
As I completed a microprocessors lab on the wonders of RS-232, my mind flashed back to those two rather standard ports on the back of the Wii. Yes, the Wii still has two USB 2.0 slots on its behind, and yet not a single peep has come from Nintendo regarding their usage. Were we not promised external hard drive support? A keyboard would be lovely, too; typing with the Wiimote can get excessively tedious.Besides the obvious, though, how could the Wii make good use of these ports? Is there nothing that the Wiimote's expansion port can't cover? Hmmmm.
Sony comes out and dismisses rumors
Like we said, there was no truth to the information claiming that the 20GB system wouldn't be compatible with wireless controllers or be upgradable. Sony has come out and called that BS. A Sony representative said, "Both configurations will support bluetooth PS3 controllers. The only non-upgradeable feature of the 20GB configuration will be the HDMI output."There's also some news about Sony releasing an adaptor for the use of memory sticks, SD and compact flash cards with the console.
