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Happy Memorial Day from TUAW
It's Memorial Day in the USA, and the TUAW crew is taking time to honor the men and women of our military and spend time with family. Posting will be light today, but we'll be back in full swing tomorrow. Enjoy your day. It's almost summer!
A desire for more holidays and other events
Once upon a time, World of Warcraft's holiday events were one of my favorite parts of the game. Not only did they make the game world feel alive, they changed the standard day-to-day gameplay routine. When those events went live, I didn't even consider spending my time doing the same daily hubs, reputation grinds, or dungeons I'd been doing all along. There were new quests, light-hearted quests, and the holiday bosses asked me to revisit dungeons I may not have run in ages. I didn't even care much for the loot dropped by those bosses, I just liked seeing and fighting them. Before those bosses became something in the dungeon finder, I ran them as much as I could, just because I knew they'd be gone for a year afterwards. The rewards from quests, even when they were light-hearted items that didn't contribute to a character's power level whatsoever, were fun little short-term goals. Unfortunately, these events long ago fell to the wayside, receiving few updates beyond increasing the item level of gear drops from bosses. Patch 5.4 introduced a pandaren brewmaster to Brewfest, Love is in the Air's last update was the addition of the Swift Lovebird in patch 4.3.2, but generally speaking, ilevel increases have been the majority of the changes. The focus has been on the Darkmoon Faire more than anything else, which has, itself, become part of the routine. It's understandable that these events have fallen out of production, it's difficult to justify creating temporary content over something more permanent, but I do miss the temporary, fleeting content. More than updates to old events, I'd love to see new events, holidays pulling from Azerothian culture rather than our own, or even events on a smaller scale. Let's kick around some ideas, shall we?
Breakfast Topic: Your holiday frustrations
Love Is in the Air once again, which means -- you guessed it -- crowds of people in a rush to complete their holiday quests and achievements before time runs out. I'm a fan of holidays for a change of pace, but the crowds -- especially on day one or two -- can be tremendously frustrating... especially when you've got twenty people standing on top of your quest-giver. Argh! So, readers, let's talk holidays: what are your holiday frustrations... and, better yet, what are your frustration workarounds? The frustrated among us really, really want to know.
Breakfast Topic: Do you revisit old dailies?
We're heading towards the end of daily quests, and while it's more than likely that no one will be mourning them, I've started to look back on them fondly since finding out they're going away. (But it's through the same aged haze of nostalgia that I look back on 40-man raiding with, so it's probably not to be trusted.) I've revisited the Isle of Quel'Danas, done past-expansion fishing dailies (I'm still trying to get those crocolisks), and done a ton of Cataclysm dailies. When I don't have to do them for advancement and I don't have to force myself into completing them every day, the dailies available really don't seem so bad. Some of them, like the Quel'danas bombing run or helping bear cubs in Hyjal, are even -- dare I say it? -- fun. But then again, that could just be the nostalgia talking. So today I'm wondering, dear readers: do you ever revisit old dailies? Do they seem more entertaining in hindsight than they did when you were on the reputation treadmill and grinding out dailies as quickly as possible? Tell us about it!
What surprises are left for Warlords?
At BlizzCon and after, we've learned an awful lot about the next expansion, Warlords of Draenor. While there's been some conversation post-BlizzCon about whether what Warlords has in store is enough for an expansion without any new classes or races, I just wonder what surprises Warlords has left in store. With all that we already know, what does Blizzard still have up its sleeve? Is there content yet to come that will amaze us? As we get closer to the beta date, we're sure to find out -- but in the meantime, what surprises do you think Warlords will be throwing our way? Does Blizzard have big features it's keeping under wraps -- like a new race or class? And, just as importantly, will gnomes finally find their way into a cinematic? Tell us what you think!
Breakfast Topic: Your favorite in-game event
World of Warcraft's Lunar Festival has just wrapped up and the Love Is in the Air event is about to begin -- with the time between the two bridged by an appearance of the Darkmoon Faire. No matter what your favorite in-game holiday or event is, you can almost always find something special going on in the game... for better or worse. So today let's talk in-game events. Do you love them? Do you loathe them? Are you totally indifferent to them? Do you wish these crazy holiday quests would get out of your way so you can go back to raiding, PvPing, or whatever else? Leave your expressions of joy and/or misery in the comments!
Google Calendar now helps you remember holidays in 30 more countries
If you've ever made the faux pas of contacting foreign coworkers while they're out celebrating national holidays, you'll appreciate the latest update to Google Calendar. The service now accounts for special occasions in 30 more countries, including Argentina and Switzerland. It also covers a larger range of holidays, and you'll see their dates further in advance. Google may not patch up any damaged international relations with its Calendar update, but it'll at least help you avoid future incidents.
Happy holidays from Blizzard
Finally, gnomes get top billing in a Blizzard cinematic holiday card. Now should we take this to mean that we'll finally be getting the pony Ghostcrawler promised us so long ago?
Review: VideoCard for Christmas, New Year for iOS
If you're a bit tardy getting those holiday cards out, here's an app that might get you out of a jam. VideoCard is a free for a limited time and allows you to create a clever animated card to send to family and friends. Here's how it works: You open the app, select music for your card from your library, select a cover, then an inside template. The covers are nicely animated with holiday scenes. You take a picture or a video that gets inserted at the end of the animation. When the card is rendered, you can email it, post to Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, or send it as an SMS message. You can also save it to your camera roll. The templates are varied and professional-looking, and the animation is smooth. A couple of quibbles: You can only take a picture 'live.' You can't use images in your camera roll, which seems a odd choice. If you send an emai, the subject line defaults to 'Merry Christmas," but you can manually fix the spelling error or make a new subject. The audio selection doesn't really fade but ends abruptly. Still, I like the idea of this app, and at a price of free, it's worth a try. Certainly, people will appreciate the video cards that are unique.
The Daily Grind: What would you like for a game present?
The problem with people asking, "What do you want for the holidays" is that most of the things you actually want aren't valid answers. What would I like? I'd like to see Final Fantasy XIV adapt its PvP advancement series for PvE purposes and have housing that people can actually afford. I'd like to see WildStar implement body sliders. I'd like City of Titans to be an enormous hit, and I'd really like to see a Transformers MMO that looks playable and enjoyable. Yes, they may be pie-in-the-sky wishes, but darn it, that's what I'd like. So what about you, readers? Regardless of whether or not it will happen (and it probably won't), what would you like for a game-related present? Bring back a title that died? Add extra features to an existing title? Have developers join forces to make some sort of combination super-title? The choice is yours even as the odds are low. 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!
Get some holiday snow on your computer screen
It's the holidays, in case you hadn't noticed. You've decorated the tree, hung some lights outside and probably have some LED-flashing snowmen somewhere around the house. So how about that Mac? Here's a look at some free and inexpensive apps that will give your monitor that holiday glow. Let it Snow (U.S. $0.99). A really nice simulation of snowfall with a real physics engine and gusts of wind. Looks great with the right desktop picture. LotsaSnow (Free) This is a free screensaver that makes every snowflake unique, just like real life. The screensaver uses a bit of processing power according to the developer, but that's the price for all those unique snowflakes. Live Wall- Holiday Season ($0.99) More than 50 holiday-themed animated wallpapers for your Mac desktop. Tired of snow? Try NightLights Desktop ($0.99). This Mac app will put Christmas lights on the edges of your screen. You can make them blink and control the sequence. For iOS there are some snowy options, but due to the way iOS devices work you can't get animated snow on your home screen. Snowflakes for iPhone or iPad creates detailed and non-repeating snowflakes in the app itself. There is an almost infinite variety of shapes and colors. A little off topic, but a fun app is Snowman maker salon (free). Strictly for kids, build a snowman right on your iPhone or iPad screen. Another cool app is Live Christmas Tree (free). It gives you a twinkling tree on your screen. You can also capture the image and use it for wallpaper, but it won't twinkle. Zen of Snow Lite (free) These are some really relaxing holiday scenes. Shake your iPhone or iPad and like a snow globe you get motion.
5 things you still need to buy before Christmas
There's a good chance that your next five days will be filled with frantic last-minute gift buying, all culminating in your family's holiday celebration. You might even think your shopping list has been conquered, but I beg to differ. Here are a handful of items you still need to pick up to make sure your gift recipients truly have a happy holiday. iTunes Gift Card A holiday standby, an iTunes gift card is one of the few items that can fit just about everyone on your list. Worried that your gift won't carry the same punch as the one you might be receiving? Toss an iTunes gift card on top and you'll never hear a complaint. iPhone/iPad charging cord The perfect bonus item for Apple fans, no one can ever have too many iOS charging cords. They get lost; they get forgotten; and they get eaten by pets, so if you're looking for a cheap (less than US$20 at most stores) add-on, these cords are like gift-giving gold. EarPods Everyone loves music, and Apple's new-ish earphone evolution is a great stocking stuffer. You can pick up a pair for roughly $29, and there's no chance you won't get a smile. In fact, if anyone wants to gift me a pair (or 30), that would be great, because my cats like to use them as dental floss. Adapter You probably know at least one or two friends or family members who upgraded to new iOS devices this year, and that means that their old-style charging cords are now almost useless. That is, unless you save the day and toss them a few 30-Pin-to-Lightning adapters. For around $30, it's like giving the gift of eternal life. Batteries Ok, I know there are very few Apple products or accessories that sport replaceable batteries these days, but you know what does? Just about every electronic toy, ever. So in the interest of helping those of you who don't have Apple devotees on your gift lists, make sure you pick up about a dozen AAs and you'll be the savior of any holiday gathering. [Image credits: Heather Kennedy, Hermanturnip]
RIFT celebrates Fae Yule with festivities
It's holiday time in Telara, and that means the Fae are back to their old tricks of hiding, stealing, and re-hiding gifts during RIFT's Fae Yule celebration. Will players find all the gifts stolen from the dragon cults that are scattered across the zone? If so, they can collect and complete six different artifact sets! This year's celebration also includes a Very Merry Warfront, tours of Telara's holiday Dimensions, and plenty of special festive zone events, Instant Adventures, rifts, footholds, special gifts, and more. Even raid bosses are in a giving mood during the season, occasionally dropping an extra loot chest for adventurers. Get a peek of the wintry wonders in the trailer below. Fae Yule lasts until January 9, 2014. [Update: Fae Yule has been extended a week until the 9th, and store items will be available for purchase through the 15th. Thanks to Potaco for the tip!] [Source: Trion press release]
Apple dresses up its homepage for the holidays
If you are visiting Apple's website to read about the new Mac Pro, there will be a holiday surprise waiting for you. Gone is the front page and its lineup of products -- replacing it is the company's touching holiday ad. From Apple's home page, you can watch both the original commercial and the full home movie featured in the ad. If you haven't watched the clip, it's worth a few minutes of your time. Just make sure you have some tissues handy to dab the tears from your eyes.
Get your Winter Veil quests done despite the crowds
The first day -- or first few days -- of any in-game holiday is always busy. Sometimes it's so busy (as above), that the number of people crowded in on their mounts makes it impossible to see or interact with the questgivers. Complaints on the official forums have drawn out Bashiok, who offers a couple of solutions to the problem: Bashiok Grr! Yeah, some people can be jerks. Some people are just oblivious though, too. If you think someone is specifically and intentionally blocking an NPC in a malicious way, that is behavior specifically mentioned in our harassment policy, and something you can report that player for and we'll take a look. An easy workaround though is enabling nameplates for friendly characters (default Shift+V) and then right click on the nameplate of the NPC you're wanting to interact with. source Of course most people in these crowds are probably just trying to get their quests done like you are, so chances are you'll get more traction by bringing up nameplates with Shift+V -- or waiting for a few days until the excitement calms down.
Feast of Winter Veil begins on Monday
The season of Winter Veil is nearly upon us, adding a big dose of holiday festivity to the game world. Even if you've done this holiday before, it's hard to resist the temptation of getting your own Gaudy Winter Veil Sweater, filling out your battle pet collection with a Lump of Coal, or just getting into a snowball fight. Patch 5.4 files suggested some changes to the holiday this year, and Wowhead says we can look forward to new a new pet and toy this season. If you're looking forward to participating in this year's holiday festivities, Winter Veil will run from December 16 to January 2, and you'll find holiday decor and events in most major cities. Happy holidays!
The 12 Days of iMas, Day 1: An iPhone flask and a holiday hangover
You're going to see a lot of gift guides this year with things like the iPad Air, iPhone 5s and MacBook Pro gracing their pages, but you already know those devices are drop-dead awesome, right? So what do you get an Apple fan that already has all the Apple gear they could ever want? You get them weird accessories and Apple-inspired gifts that they never even knew they wanted, of course! Behold! Today is the first day of a 12-day feature where we'll show you the strangest Apple-flavored gifts we can find. Day 1: An "iPhone" flask The holidays are stressful, and there's a good chance you'll be in a number of situations over the next month where four ounces of your favorite adult beverage would ease your nerves. But you can't exactly whip out a bottle of Scotch at a family gathering without getting some weird looks, so avoid the awkward conversations and potential intervention and conceal your tasty treat within a fake iPhone lookalike! The "iPhone Flask Smart Phone 4 Oz. Pocket Flask Realistic Smart Flask Design" (yeah, it's a generic product with an SEO-grabbing name) is priced at a rock-bottom US$5.95 and features rubber lining and a "realistic look." Ok, so that last bullet point is pretty questionable, but maybe you'll believe it's a real phone once you've emptied the contents into your belly.
PayPal starts selling iTunes digital gift cards, sells out of $15, $25 options immediately
When it comes to retailers that sell gift cards, you probably don't immediately think of PayPal, but that might soon change. The eBay-owned company is diving into the digital gift card business and is touting iTunes as its first major partner. The company just began selling redeemable iTunes gift codes via a new web portal and proceeded to sell out of the two cheapest versions without much delay. You can currently purchase US$50 and $100 iTunes codes via the new PayPal Digital Gifts store, but the $15 and $25 options are already depleted. There's no indication of whether PayPal's stocks will be replenished in time for some last-minute holiday gifting, but if you have a few bucks burning a hole in your PayPal account, it may pay to check back in a day or two. [via Engadget]
Apple offering 0% financing on hardware in European online stores
The shopping season has begun and many retailers are urging shoppers to buy, including Apple. The company has begun offering 0 percent financing on hardware purchases from many of its European online stores today. The 0 percent financing offer is good for any hardware purchase above £449/€400 and allows people to pay in 10 monthly installments with 0 percent interest. Some countries are offering a 12-month window to pay with 0 percent interest. According to the official terms and conditions, the offer is only available at Apple's online store and is not available in its retail stores. It runs from December 2, 2013 and midnight of January 10, 2014. The financing is available in both the Apple Store for Consumers and the Apple Store for Education.
World of Warcraft gives thanks with Pilgrim's Bounty
It's finally that wonderful time of year when Alliance and Horde alike come together (not with each other, of course) to, for some reason, give thanks for their continued existence in a world that seems perpetually on the brink of catastrophic destruction. World of Warcraft's in-game Pilgrim's Bounty event is going on now and will continue until December 2nd and, much like its real-world counterpart, it's mostly about food. Cooking daily quests make up a good deal of the event's activities, and it's only during Pilgrim's Bounty that players can acquire the recipes for seasonal dishes such as pumpkin pie and slow-roasted turkey. No seasonal event would be complete without some unique items and achievements to go with it, of course, and Pilgrim's Bounty has that covered too. Players can bring some old-world flair to their characters' wardrobes by gathering an outfit of pilgrim's clothing, and there are nine achievements for players to complete over the course of the event. Completing all nine achievements will unlock the Pilgrim meta-achievement, which grants the cute and potentially delicious plump turkey companion pet. For all the details on Pilgrim's Harvest, head on over to the World of Warcraft official site.
