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Ask Massively: Dancing on WildStar's grave
This week's revelation that WildStar Design Producer Stephen Frost is quitting his role is not the first and likely won't be the last blow to the beleaguered game. Carbine lost several high-profile developers before and after launch, and with raiding guilds abandoning the title, server merges on the way, endgame grind being scaled back, updates being heavily delayed, and Christmas being canceled, even more players are losing faith in the title. That's nothing new in our industry. MMOs are big and unwieldy and sometimes launch with terrible underlying problems. They can usually pull out of a nosedive, given time. So let's give them time. But there's a whole contingent of gamers already dancing on WildStar's grave when it's not even dead. It's one thing to deeply oppose a game's design, but if you take delight in watching major MMOs flounder, you don't really deserve this genre at all.
The Mac II Book
I'm going to go ahead and assume that this isn't an officially licensed Apple product. I have to admit, my favorite feature is the fact, while it's a laptop, it has a built-in wired mouse. Now that's some serious innovation! Think different, after all. [Photo credit: MJHagen]
Dutch store's bent iPhone 6 display is an unfortunate, hilarious coincidence
Regardless of which side of the "bendgate" controversy you land on, we can all get a laugh out of the iPhone 6 display at this Dutch electronics store. The image, which was first to Reddit yesterday, shows the store's angled displays holding -- and bending -- the iPhone 6 poster. According to several comments in the original thread, the store's wall displays are all angled in the exact same way, and it has nothing to do with the actual controversy, but it just so happens that the iPhone 6 has been bent at almost the exact spot where the more vocal critics claim that the new smartphone has a structural flaw. Apple just can't catch a break, huh?
There's something very disturbing about this Apple service shop ad
I don't want to say Macland -- an Apple shop in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland -- has a poor advertising strategy, but if they're relying on ads like this to get foot traffic in the door, they might want to rethink things a little bit. Then again, I'm not Icelandic, so perhaps I just don't have a good handle on the man-physically-loves-computer angle.
Those idiot kids who were bending iPhone 6s have (sorta) apologized
Yesterday a video of two teenagers going into an Apple Store and forcibly bending an iPhone 6 spread with lightning speed across the internet. Apparently the heat has gotten to the teens, as one of them has issued a profane and half hearted, though seemingly terrified, apology on YouTube. If you've never heard a smart, in-over-their-head teenager try to smooth talk their way out of a bad situation, this is one of the best examples you'll find online. No word yet on if the police have contacted them. Here's the description of the video as posted on YouTube. Okay i just made this to say that we are NOT damaging anymore iPhones because we know what we did is wrong! We are taking full responsibility for this of course. we know hoq stupid it was. and for those who are thinking we broke MULTIPLE iphones thats a LIE!!! It was the same iphone just from different angles. Do not be put off buying an iphone 6 or iphone 6 plus because the chances of it bending in your pocket is highly unlikely. We have not heard from apple as of yet but if we are charged we will be selling out stuff to pay for the iphone as we are only 15 years old. You can view the video below. Please be aware if features some foul language and can be considered not safe for work. Enjoy.
This student's fake Apple ad is just as compelling a real one
Apple advertisements have their own voice, a mixture of whimsy and technical flourish that makes each one compelling in its own way. Sometimes they're moving, often they're funny, but they're always visually striking. Because the visual elements differ from ad to ad it's a hard voice to emulate, but when it's done properly the results are impressive. Take this short film from 3D animation artist Mike Ko, for example. This wonderful short fake Apple ad was created part of his graduation project from the Otis College of Art & Design, and it's just as compelling as anything Apple or its ad agencies have officially put out. We have no idea what the product in question would be selling, perhaps a reworked version of Maps, but the execution is incredible and adorable in equal measure. You can view the short film below and find more of Ko's design work here. iphone- diorama from Mike Ko on Vimeo.
Perfect Ten: What Titan's death means for the industry and you
Blizzard's fans are in mourning this weekend and its competition is no doubt rejoicing after the World of Warcraft developer finally cancelled its seven-years-in-the-making Titan MMO. Word on the street is that Titan was a little too similar to what Bungie came up with in Destiny, although all the studio itself will say is that it ultimately wasn't fun. So Titan joins Starcraft Ghost and Warcraft Adventures in the Blizzard graveyard. It's a loss for those who were hoping to see what Blizz could do outside of World of Warcraft in the MMO space. But what does this cancellation mean for Blizzard, the industry, and us as MMO gamers? I have a few thoughts, although I'll pre-empt them by predicting that your life will most likely go on just the same it did before this momentous announcement.
Dog Days of Summer: Pluto, in the flesh and in Photoshop
We've come to the end of the summer -- it was Monday evening in North America -- which means that it's time for us to switch over to our regularly scheduled Caturday programming. But since at least part of the week was spent in summer and we had a wonderful photo to show you, we thought it was a good idea to have just one more pup. The handsome fellow in the photo above -- several times -- is Plutarch, also known as Pluto. At the time the image was captured, he was just 14 weeks old. That young age doesn't seem to have stopped Pluto from getting interested in Photoshop! Here his human Mark Sieber snapped a shot of both the real dog and the dog captured on his MacBook Pro. And with that, we end the Dog Days of Summer. Many thanks to all of the dog owners who sent us photos of their companions using or lazing near Apple gear, and to the patience of the cat owners who now have their chance to send us kitty pictures! We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Mark Sieber and Pluto!
Get ahead of the curve with Cheating Tom
Cheating Tom is a platform game where you select an avatar - either Tom or Tammy - and the goal is to graduate each level of grade school without ever learning anything or opening a book yourself. The avatar must get out of their seat and copy off of other students' papers without getting caught by the teacher. This is difficult because the student being copied off of eventually will raise their hand or start crying to get the attention of the teacher. The teacher then scans the room for cheaters. If you are out of your seat when she passes you, your character is busted. When you are caught cheating you fail and are given the option to repeat that grade until you finally cheat your way through it. There isn't a lot of strategy involved other than to jump from student to student before they get too upset and to keep an eye on the teacher to see if they are awake. There are power ups that pop up from time to time that allow you to be invisible to the teacher. Use those and they really help to complete a level and earn higher grades. The game works with iPad, iPod and the iPhone and is optimized for iPhone 5. It is free but comes with an excessive amount of video advertisements - the kind where you are forced to watch them for at least a few seconds. This is fine in the beginning but it becomes really annoying the longer you play the game. Occasionally the advertisements will also cause the app to crash. I think the game is a bit too easy for someone like myself to get addicted to. However, if a user has a real penchant for getting away with cheating, they might be tempted to buy a premium version of the Cheating Tom that does not come with advertisements. The graphics are very high quality. The characters all look like they could be straight out of a high quality animated children's TV show. They are expressive and humorous. When a student cries while you are cheating off of them, a flood of water flows from either side of their face. Some students blow steam out of their ears and don't even bother getting near those kids again in that level because they will go off again immediately. The teacher's suspicious and disapproving looks are adorable as well. All of the student characters have interesting looks - many of them have purple or green hair. There are also stereotypical nerds and cute girls in the class just to add a level of diversity I suppose. This game makes it seem like getting through school this way would be an easy thing to accomplish because it is not incredibly difficult to get through the entire game quickly. It's probably a good thing that on the app store, the description warns "Don't try this at school." Cheating Tom overall is a really fun game and a great way to pass the time. I recommend it to iPhone and iPad users who love platform games and who always wished they could earn a degree without ever having to use a calculator or memorize the 50 state capitols.
Conan's #bendgate parody is pretty much perfect
All the needless outrage over the iPhone 6's supposed tendency to bend when you sit on it with your entire weight has finally reached the late night talk show circuit courtesy of Conan. The comedian even went so far as to produce a parody of a Samsung ad that targets Apple's "flaccid" phones, and while it's probably SFW, you'll definitely want to watch it with headphones, or else expect some odd looks from your coworkers.
Welcome to our planet, where things are not indestructible
First of all: Welcome to the planet. We have many things here, but only a few of them are indestructible. Our human brains have figured out clever ways to modify even our most durable natural mineral -- diamond -- but not how to make every product completely unbreakable. In fact, most of our materials and products are capable of being destroyed if you try hard enough. While you may be new to our planet, it is OK to laugh when pants rip or glass breaks because we have found laughter is good for the soul. Something else you may soon discover is that a company called Apple makes the best personal communicators. You can browse practically the entire sum of human knowledge and experience through our Internet from a device called the iPhone 6. It also enables voice- and video-based communication, sends text-based messages and includes a free music album from a band called U2. There's a bigger model called the iPhone 6 Plus, so if you have hands the size of the Overlords, that model might fit you best. However, neither model of iPhone is made of diamond, so you'll want to be sure not to attempt to lift heavy metal objects with your iPhone, or exert undue pressure (for no particular reason) on both ends of the iPhone in an attempt to bend it. It will, like every other communicator we sell on this planet, bend or break if you apply enough pressure. Some of our comedians on this planet like to destroy things for fun, like David Letterman in this video (which you can watch on your iPhone). However, if you do inadvertently bend your iPhone, Apple continues to make more of them. In fact, the company has always had a policy whereby damage may even be covered for free -- although I still recommend purchasing AppleCare+ for your iPhone. Some outlets may try to fool you into thinking Apple has only started replacing the iPhone 6 Plus because it is Apple's thinnest iPhone yet, and it is made from the same aluminum and glass as previous models, but between you and I, those outlets are just gunning for what we call "pageviews." It's sort of like our 24-hour cable news networks. I suggest you just ignore all of those as well. Why do I bring this up? You'll find we humans are smart as individuals (well, some of us) but can sometimes be brain-dead dumb in groups. A popular story floating around since the recent launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is that the products are not indestructible (avoid all mentions of "bendgate"). I know, it's silly, but perhaps this clip from one of our fine films called Men In Black can provide a little understanding. Again, welcome to our planet! Enjoy your stay and whatever you do, don't take nude pictures of yourself with any of our smartphones -- I'll just have to explain why later.
This dog has no patience for your stupid iPad games
Everyone's gotten a little bit heated over a rough game of Candy Crush Saga, but if you think your iOS gaming temper is bad then you've never met Violet. Violet is a greyhound that loves her iPad, but doesn't take kindly to being bested by a game that's made for cats. As you can see in the video below, sometimes her temper gets the best of her.
The oversized iPhone 6 Plus needs an oversized thumb to match
Did you order an iPhone 6 Plus only to find that the phone was far too big when it finally arrived at your door? I mean seriously, the thing is practically a coffee table. But that's ok, thanks to Japan's Thanko Inc., which has come up with an absolutely genius solution to the phablet problem: A bigger thumb. You read that correctly. A Japanese accessory maker has a massive slip-on thumb for sale that is designed to help you reach all the corners of your phablet without two hands. It's obnoxious and silly and it looks like a joke... but as far as functionality goes, it would seem to work just as well as any capacitive input device. The third thumb is priced at 1,480 yen, or roughly US$13.50, and it even comes with a three-month warranty. You'd obviously get plenty of laughs if anyone ever saw you wearing something like this in public, but if you're particularly miffed by the unreachable corners of your iPhone 6 Plus, you might not care about the giggles. [via Wall Street Journal]
iPhone gets powerful endorsement from Mother Nature
The critics love the iPhone 6, but nature seems to be quite satisfied with the previous generation of Apple's smartphone. As you can see in the video below, the iPhone is quite the popular venue for this crowd of leopard frogs who just can't believe they're not actually staring at a delicious wriggling worm. It's a pretty remarkable video, if only for the fact that the "FrogTV" -- as YouTuber Joe Myers terms the video -- manages to capture the attention of so many creatures and hold it for as long as it does.
Conan's "documentary" about Apple's U2 removal program is incredible
The public reaction to Apple's giveaway of U2's latest album was decidedly mixed. Some people were excited to find the new album in their iTunes account, while a large contingent of users either didn't want to hear it or found the way the giveaway was handled an invasion of privacy. Regardless of what side you took, the giveaway obviously didn't go the way Apple intended, as shown by its creation of a removal page to help people ditch the album. Now from the rubble of the Great U2 Controversy of 2014 comes a short "documentary" of sorts from the parody factory at TBS' Conan. "Apple's U2-Removal Service" goes the extra step in making sure you forget every aspect of hearing the new U2 album, even if it means rewriting your brain. Enjoy.
Perfect Ten: Terrible, terrible MMO names
A catchy, vivid title is essential to getting your game noticed and establishing a strong brand. Yes, we as gamers will get used to pretty much any dumb name (unless it's Daikatana), but a great one allows us to mention it in polite society without getting spat on or rejected for dates. The best MMO names in my opinion are single words that sound cool or conjure up a strong association. I'm less fond of ALL CAPS ACRONYMS and any game that can't be more inventive with its title than to put "Online" after it. For the most part, MMOs play it safe and boring with titles, with only a few outliers in the awesome or terrible fringes. Today, we're going to examine the latter. I want to make a couple of quick qualifiers here. I'm not judging these games by their names; an MMO can be good or bad independent of how silly its name is. And while I know that some of these names make more sense in context, I generally feel that if I have to have it explained to me, then it's a fail.
Video: Stephen Colbert loves woos his iPhone 6, breaks iPhone 5s heart
One of the perks of being Stephen Colbert is getting your iPhone 6+ early. The fake news commentator debuted his device last night by wooing the iPhone 6+ and throwing his iPhone 5s away like a summer fling. It's not just bragging, though Colbert certain does that as well. The segment also features a humorous rundown the new Checky app which tells you how often you check your phone. It's a subtle satirical reminder that just because we have smartphones in our pockets it doesn't mean we need to spend out lives buried in them. Enjoy.
Video: The first person to buy the iPhone 6 in Perth immediately dropped it
We're all clumsy sometimes, but thankfully our "butterfingers moments" are hidden behind the veil of anonymity. People don't see us spill milk, trip over the cat, or break out phones by dropping them in the parking lot. Sometimes, however, life isn't so kind, like this gentlemen in Perth, Australia learned when he bought his brand new iPhone 6. He was stopped by a local news crew who asked to see the device. Eager to show off his new prize he pried open the box, and promptly dropped the device on the street. Right in front of the line waiting to go get their own. Congrats Jack from Perth. You're today's lesson in taking care of one's property.
Don't buy an iPhone 6 on eBay for $1,000
The iPhone 6 is currently selling for over $1,000 on eBay right now, despite not having been released yet. Initial supplies are limited so it's understandable that some people are excitedly exploring the possibilities for getting one. Still, $1,000? We're sure our readers don't need to be told this, but maybe you have a friend who needs to hear it. Don't buy an iPhone 6 on eBay for $1,000. Even if your local store is sold out until November, just wait. The amount of time you'll be able to enjoy being the only person with an iPhone 6 is insanely limited, while the things you could do with $1,000 are nearly limitless. Start a business. Take a class. Buy a beat up car and enter a demolition derby. Create a piece of art. Go out for the best meal of your life. Do anything, but don't buy an iPhone 6 for $1,000. The depreciation on the worth of an iPhone is stunning. When the iPhone 5 cost $199 for a 16GB version of the phone, $299 for a 32GB version and $399 for a 64GB version. The same cost at the iPhone 6 today with a carrier plan. Imagine telling your friends at the bar today, looking down at your iPhone 5 with lust in your heart for the iPhone 6, that you paid $1,000 for the iPhone 5 because you just couldn't wait a month. Imagine the looks on their face. Dwell on the mental image. Think of their mocking laugher. Then close that eBay window, call your local store, and ask then they'll have your model in stock. You'll feel better about it in 2015.
The headless PowerBook
According to the photo's Flickr description, this poor 12-inch PowerBook took a nasty spill down some wooden stairs, resulting in the defacing you see before you. The computer continued to function after losing its head thanks to an external monitor, but after an unfortunate power cord tripping incident led to a more serious tumble (this was before the days of MagSafe after all), it finally met its maker. We salute you for your service, sweet prince. [Photo credit: Brian Pennington]
