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Lost Pages of Taborea: Improving versatility in RoM's content
I'm bouncing off last week's Lost Pages of Taborea to elaborate on why Runes of Magic's content is lackluster, especially in light of the ability to over-gear but also to come up with some ideas to keep it from becoming meaningless and boring. It's not absolutely necessary, but it will help if you've read last week's article. RoM's gear-system ensures that you get a lot of variety in choosing what kind of character to make and how you want to play it, but there's a threshold at which the only way to allow for even more diversity among class builds is to offset the linear difficulty of new content by replacing your stats with more powerful versions of themselves, adding refinements and tiering, upgrades that just up your sheer power. Players get funneled into more restrictive builds as they gain levels. The downfall is in the content itself because it becomes super-easy-mode killing after over-gearing. It's turning on a cheat code. Any need -- or desire -- to manage blood bars or skill rotations gets thrown out with the trash. It's a foreseeable issue in just about any game across any platform or genre in which you would allow the players to gain extra amounts of power. But is there a way to allow for it and keep in some challenge and variety? Some solutions might be to slow down the pace of combat, stretch the utility of player bars, make content more dynamic, or throw in some sandbox behavior.
Pioneer debuts new Sound Wing HVT speakers, novel tech touted within
There's a ton of gadgetry that goes into speakers, but the notable thing here is that the Pioneer folks have begun using HVT, or Horizontal-Vertical Transforming technology -- but more on that in sec. This beauty is engineered to reduce unwanted vibration and preserve bass caliber while outputting 100W of sound. Featuring a double diaphragm packaged close together, the Sound Wing gives off omnidirectional sound -- that's 360 degrees of noise. And thanks to HVT, the coils within the speaker have been rearranged to reduce the wasted space in traditional speakers -- though for some reason this particular unit still measures a portly 109mm thick. Seeing that the tech Pioneer has implemented here is novel, we're interested to see how this thing will sound in the real world. You'll find the Sound Wing in Japan for ¥41,000 (about $507) come June.
Apple's segmentation strategy and why it works
Here's a little interesting weekend reading from Mark Sigal on O'Reilly about "Apple's segmentation strategy." Sigal does a huge overview of Apple's direction over the last ten years, and in the end, argues that Apple has shirked the conventional wisdom of marketing products horizontally (making a special type of peanut butter for every customer, for example), and has instead segmented its products vertically (creating one product for a particular use case -- an iPad for reading, an iPod for listening, and an iPhone for apps). Apple is successful -- extremely successful, says Sigal -- not because it has become the biggest company in its various industries, but because it has thought carefully about how to sell products, and then sold them at exactly the right prices. And even when it's not right, says Sigal, Apple never makes a move that isn't strong and confident anyway. Even when the Apple TV is just a hobby, it's always just a hobby. Sigal's point with all of this is that when Apple is doing what it does best -- targeting a specific market and overtaking it with quality -- the old rules of horizontal marketing and sales just don't apply. Apple is fine with not having the market share on smartphones, because it's not chasing those old goals. Apple doesn't add features or change products in a panic -- it added a camera to the iPod touch only when it was ready, and even then, it was careful not to make it better than the iPhone 4's camera and all of its selling points. At any rate, Sigal's piece is a very interesting read. It's a little heavy for the weekend, maybe, but well worth going through to provide some insight on just why Apple remains so popular and profitable, even when other factors seem to rise against it. [via MacStories]
Lost Pages of Taborea: Roleplaying horizontally
I'm definitely not what you would term a hardcore player. I've been playing for a whole year and have just reached level 54/45 on my main. My gear is OK -- not great -- and that's only because an old guild mate loaned the pieces to me months before he quit playing. I haven't been able to run through any dungeon since Mystic Altar and I don't even try to pick fights with other players my level. So, how can I sit here and tell you that I love Runes of Magic enough to forfeit the majority of my young adult life to it? Two words: role and horizontal. Roleplaying is something that is understandably not for everyone, but I'm not talking about a strict actor or actress role. I'm talking about just crossing the line between viewing an MMO as a video game that owes you everything and accepting a little responsibility to use some imagination to increase how much fun you have. Horizontal gameplay is a term that's been thrown around a lot lately, referring to ever expanding content that doesn't rely entirely on leveling. Jump past the break to see why this is such a sweet combination in RoM.
Raging Thunder races onto the iPhone (unofficially for now)
The iPhone continues to impress in terms of gaming possibility. Raging Thunder isn't actually done yet on the iPhone (obviously -- judging by this video there are more glitches on this thing than a Matrix full of black cats), but once it gets rolling, the award-winning game, put together by Polarbit, looks like a pretty sweet racing experience. The accelerometer actually serves as a nice wheel (with a little help from the Wii wheel), and the graphics aren't too shabby, either.We've already seen a few different games like this floating around at TUAW (including one from a big developer that we can't tell you about), but with a little bug fixing and optimization, the right tuning, and a horizontal mode, the iPhone could easily have a great accelerometer-controlled racing game available at launch. And that's just launch -- we can't wait to see what happens when a game like the Wii's latest Boom Blox (which lets you push and pull Jenga-type block structures around -- multitouch, anyone?) makes its way over to our little Apple handheld.Racing Thunder is available right now on Installer.app, but this kind of stuff is what we're really looking for in the SDK when it comes out in June.
Thermal imaging shows horizontal PS3s are cooler
Whether you want to act like you're in the armed services or are looking for a new use for those pairs of infrared, night-vision, or thermal goggles lying around the house, why not take images of the PS3 using them? Polygamia did, claiming the thermal images are proof positive that keeping your PS3 in the horizontal position keeps the console cooler.From the images, it seems accurate that the horizontal position is really the way to go. Anyone else got some dirty jokes in their minds? Keep them to yourselves -- this is totally professional talk here. Having these images is a bit better than conjecture and debate, so if you've got the space and want to prolong your system's life, do the right thing and lay that fine creature down instead of forcing it to stand. Oops, we did it anyway.[Via PlayStation Forums]
Wii Warm Up: Horizontal, or vertical?
This might be a dumb question, but how do you have your Wii set up? Sure, when we look at the many contents of the Wii console's packaging, we see that Nintendo provided ample materials so that you may set our console up in the fashion you see above: vertical. Standing tall and proud like Mufasa on the edge of Pride Rock, the Wii commands a presence in any person's A/V set-up.But, just because Nintendo made it easy, doesn't mean that you chose that path, right? Maybe you travel with your Wii a lot and when it is resting at home, you lay it down on its side horizontally? Maybe the console stand isn't in line with your house's decor or you think the rubber feet on the Wii itself is suitable enough for its placement on some wooden table or, dare we say, carpet?Either way, it seems like such a small question, but one which would provide an insightful answer. To us, anyway.
Bring on the horizontal changes, please
Mystic Worlds lays out exactly what is, in my humble opinion, the biggest problem with World of Warcraft right now: We need some horizontal change. As I said in my impressions of BlizzCon, Blizzard seems intent on building more and more vertical content into the game-- Zul'Aman is built to be played after Karazhan, and Wrath of the Lich King will add another 10 levels onto the top of the 70 we have now. And while Blizzard keeps building up, they're more or less ditching everything that happens from 1-58. Even worse, the only changes we're seeing there are going to be to move past that stuff faster-- not only are they ignoring it, they're working on pushing it out of the game entirely.So Mystic Worlds wants more horizontal changes. That doesn't necessarily mean midlevel content (although a lot of her suggestions mean more things to do for midlevel players). Instead it means that Blizzard should take a breath, and set their teams on making the existing game experience more fulfilling. Things like guild halls, single player dungeons, more professions (Inscription will probably provide new items 1-70, but Woodworking has been necessary for a long time), and little touches-- more live events, gambling minigames (that all players can do), and fun little additions that all players can get involved in, not just those who have made it to 70.Now, there has to be some part of Blizzard that is pushing for this stuff-- it's not quite as simple as casual vs. raiders in this case. But Blizzard seems to think that they're behind on high end content, and that they're rushing to catch up to players who are hungry for more of it. I don't think either perception is true. If anyone is hungry for new things to do, it's players who have more than three alts, and yet a main that hasn't yet reached 70. I'm more than willing to trade one of the three or four 25 man instances planned in WotLK for two or three of these "horizontal changes," and I'd guess most other players are, too.
Catering to your horizontal style needs
As with any new console, third parties have begun their attempt to flood the market with silly accessories and "conveniences" for proud new Wii owners. Accessories are probably the single most profitable category (in terms of return on investment) in the video game industry, and big names like Pelican and MadCatz always come to the forefront.JoyTech, however, are the culprits of the latest accessorization, and most of it is absolute crap. Though we believe the particular accessory shown above, the Wii Controller Grip, will make any horizontal style games a bit more comfortable, some of the nonsense like Wii Sports Pack is the lowest of the low. Follow the link at your own risk ... cheap third-party crap resides therein.
