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The Daily Grind: Do MMOs coddle us too much in the early game?
As much as I loved playing RIFT this year -- and I truly did -- one of my biggest critiques happened to be something beloved by many. This was the fact that the early game was so skewed toward giving you everything all at once: access to mounts and all of your class souls (and several builds). As nice as it was for the moment, I soon realized that it robbed me of that strong desire I usually have to want to level and reach significant milestones in my journey, as marked by finally getting said mount or finally gaining access to new classes. The devs said that these changes were a result of player feedback, of which I have no doubt -- if you're going to ask players if they want everything as soon as they start a game, they're going to say "yes" whether it's a good idea or not. In practice, it felt like the game was coddling our new characters so much that we weren't put in much danger or had to struggle hard to gain these shiny toys. What say you? In your MMO of choice, does the game coddle newbies so much that it picks them up every time they stub their toes, is it a perfect balance of challenge and ease, or is it even too difficult? Is coddling a good thing to retain new players or is it bad for the game over the long haul? 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!
Mobislyder offers low-level roll track for filming, gleams the cube
You tried to shoot a quick handheld movie with your smartphone the other night. And it wound up looking like you shot it in the middle of an earthquake. Before putting your video editing application's "Analyze for Stabilization" feature to the test, have a gander at Glidetrack's Mobislyder. Essentially a combination of a roll track and a skateboard, the Mobislyder ships with a variety of mounts to fit a selection of smartphones, camcorders and compact cameras. This, combined with four non-rolling feet and a swivel mount, allow the Mobislyder to be used at almost any low angle. That thing you're peering at above is available for $135, which could be a solid deal for a good, steady, sliding platform to shoot from. Or, it could be $96 more than the parts you picked up from Radio Shack and Home Depot to perform the exact same function. A full video demo awaits after the break.
Insanely Great launches made-in-USA iPhone accessories with Cyber Monday deal
Whether your iPhone has been with you for years or you just picked one up this weekend during the holiday shopping rush, you're facing the same problem either way: getting it to stay where you put it, in the car or on your desk. Scores of companies offer lots of different "stick it and forget it" solutions to this challenge, but one newcomer is putting together some innovative and attractive products for iPhone car/counter mounting -- and doing it entirely in the USA, from design to hands-on manufacturing. Insanely Great Products' launch line includes six different mounting/stand solutions, all but one involving a powerful suction cup to attach the iPhone (or other flat-back device) to the mount. The Jack (image, right) and the Scooter are designed for desktop use, while the Willy (top image) and the Traveler can serve either in the car or in stationary settings. The light and flexible Clip-n-Go combines the suction cup with a customized binder clip for easy air vent attachment of a cased or naked phone, while the anodized aluminum Norm uses the same binder clip with side arms to hold a case-free phone to the dashboard vent. While the products are affordable (most of the line costs between US$10 and $20, with the aluminium Norm coming in at $35) they're set apart from most of the accessory market by their made-in-the-USA pedigree. IGP was founded with the intention of doing all manufacturing domestically; currently, all the products are assembled by hand (from US-sourced materials) in the company's Menlo Park facility. In fact, every IGP employee spends at least part of every day filling customer orders by making products themselves. This agile/all-hands manufacturing process is intended to help keep the entire team connected to the products; IG is also able to create customized or branded versions of all the items in the line, on request. It might seem a bit presumptuous for any new enterprise to call itself Insanely Great, but in this case the company at least comes by it honestly. IGP's marketing lead/co-founder Richard Ford spent several years at Apple in leadership roles on the product teams that built most of the Internet underpinnings in Mac OS 9. The other co-founder, company president Jeff Osborn, was formerly a VP at mega-ISP UUnet. For today, Cyber Monday, the company is offering 50% off three of its products -- the Jack, the Scooter and the Willy -- as long as you buy them in blue (the Monday blues, so clever) rather than the full line of colors shown above.
Lord of the Rings Online adding mount emotes
Emotes: They're not just for Elves, Hobbits, Dwarves, and Men any longer. Naaay, Turbine is preparing to give emote love in Lord of the Rings Online to player mounts as well. Players' horses and goats will soon be able to rear up, kick, and bow with the best of them. While the emotes are not yet available in the game, CM Sapience announced on the forums that players have a chance to win one for free through the LotRO lottos: All weekend long we'll be running lotteries for the brand new, unreleased, Mounted Rear Up emote. That's right, Mount Emotes are coming to the LotRO Store! Enter the lotteries this weekend and you could win it for free, before your friends can buy it. You'll have a few weeks to show it off and brag before it hits the LotRO Store. Check back often as new lotteries will be starting randomly throughout the weekend and on Halloween! The LotRO lottery system is available on the my.lotro website.
Patch 4.3 PTR: Heart of the Aspects and other new mounts
Patch 4.3 has a new mount we're all very curious about, the Heart of the Aspects. What we're curious about is how we're going to get our grubby little mitts all over it. Is it a heroic Deathwing drop? Or do we get it for completing a raid wide meta-achievement? Is it for killing Deathwing without the aid of the Aspects, the way Mimiron's Head dropped in Wrath? That last one seems unlikely to me, with the way heroic difficulty is accomplished now, but I can't rule it out. Also interesting to note is Experiment 12-B, also new in the most recent data push. What does he look like? Where does he come from? Is it for killing Ultraxion? Another possible meta-achievement mount, as we speculated the Life-Binder's Handmaiden could be? At this time, I have no idea -- but it's new and shiny and I'm sure we'll all want one. We've included the video from MMO-Champion behind the cut, so you can get a look at the Heart of the Aspects mount in motion.
EverQuest introduces pegasuses (pegasi?) to the Marketplace
Citizens of Norrath, have you ever wanted to soar about the land on the back of a horse that, inexplicably, has wings? If you answered yes, then you think about some awfully specific things. Also, you're in luck. Sony Online Entertainment has announced that your dreams can now come true, as a number of pegasus mounts have been added to EverQuest's Marketplace. Yeah, that's right, it's going to cost you a bit of cash, but isn't it worth it to fly around on a frilly little equine-avian hybrid? Of course it is, now hush and go look at the pictures in the gallery below. %Gallery-136397%
The Tattered Notebook: A 'Top Gear' look at mounts
Previously, I've been writing about the weighty topic of free-to-play vs. live subscription servers in EverQuest II. This week, I'd like to switch gears, both figuratively and literally, to talk about speed. I've recently become a fan of the show Top Gear, a British program(me) that is completely devoted to the love of cars. I don't know why -- I'm not really into cars, and my Volkswagon Passat Wagon hardly qualifies as a car with a soul. But I was watching a recent episode, the one in which Jeremy was driving an Aston Martin across country, and I thought about how far EQII's mount selection has grown. Gone are the days when your choices ranged from a horse with brown spots to a horse with white spots to the really impressive horse with brown and white spots. The only unique mounts back then were the Paladin and Shadow Knight "fun" mounts. Today, there are dozens of different types of mounts that run, leap, glide, and fly. And they're not all just marketplace quick hits; several are easily attained from simple quests or live events. In this week's Tattered Notebook, I'll look at a few of my favorite mounts with an ode to Top Gear.
The OverAchiever: Wrapping up Mountain O' Mounts
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we find ourselves gleefully counting the inhabitants of our private stables. Greetings, folks. After last week's tour through the 2011 Brewfest, we're going to wrap up our Mountain O' Mounts series today with a few ill-tempered complaints from WoW Insider's resident cheapskate, and then turn to ... well, that part's up to you. I have a lot of different OverAchievers I would like to do, but no particular preference as to which we'll do next. There are several popular series and guides from Wrath of the Lich King that I would like to update -- among others, I'm interested in revisiting evil achievements, entertaining achievements, tabards, and feats of strength -- but we still haven't done Molten Front achievements, and I've been getting a lot of requests to do a Littlest Pet Shop guide since that was added to the game. In the grand tradition of lazy writers everywhere, I'm going to let you pick! %Poll-69243%
iRoom iDock imounts your iPad to your iwall
One sure fire way to make sure you never lose your iPad? Stick the thing in your wall. Now available in North America from Bracketron, the iRoom iDock is a motorized dock for your Apple tablet that can be flush-mounted into your wall. Once connected to your power supply, the system's proximity sensor will open up when you're around to accept your tablet into its docky clutches, for some serious wall-charging action -- and if there's a power outage, the thing will open up automatically, so you can grab your slate back. The dock is available in landscape or portrait orientation and comes in black, aluminum or white -- or you can get a custom color to match your home's walls, because why not go all out with your wall-mounted iPad dock thing? Press release after the jump.
Addon Spotlight: How to update GupPet and more
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. We have a couple of fun topics to talk about today on Addon Spotlight, mostly notably what to do with GupPet, my personal favorite mount addon that hasn't been updated in some time. It makes me very sad, you might imagine, that this robust beauty of an addon is sitting unmanned and not updated, requiring my own hand to make things right. In addition, we've got some questions about action bars and bags, both incredibly important topics. Let's get to it, shall we? Hi Mathew, Guppet hasn't been updated in some time and it doesn't recognize the Flameward Hippogryph. I was wondering if there is another add-on that does a similar function (i.e. randomizing mount selection). I have a ton of mounts across multiple characters and I like to just be surprised what pops out sometimes. Thanks a ton. Tiek GupPet is in a sad state of affairs. The addon is one of my favorites, period, for its robust pet and mount configuration. Not only can you set priorities and preferences for all of your mounts when you want to randomly call them, but auto-companion pet summoning is included, as well as a built-in collector's interface for finding all of the pets and mounts you are missing. One-button random summoning, 3-D model mount and pet preview, mage, druid, and shaman class support, and more is right there in the package. There's a problem: It hasn't been updated since January.
Choose My Adventure: Ghosts
If any of you have been following me on Twitter, then you know that I have been extremely active in RIFT this week. However, I did not gain the levels I had hoped. I am currently level 17, which is nice, but I had hoped to be level 19 or 20 by now. I will definitely get there this week. I cannot say this enough: Visually, RIFT is stunning. Below you'll find the gallery of my adventures; I included 19 new screenshots this week. They complement Seriia's story throughout Freemarch and especially the Scarred Mire. The gallery includes some excellent screenshots of Jakub the Tyrant, Alsbeth the Discordant, and March Warden Eliam. My new mount and the Abyssal visions from the daily half-birthday quests also make an appearance. After the break, Seriia dreams of ghosts and tyrants. Eliam Fields seems to be a home for her; she loves the place. Also, I need your help with invasions -- I am not exactly performing the way I would like to in large group activities. Maybe a new soul will help. Let me know what you think after the break. Let the Telaran adventure begin! %Gallery-131417%
Pico Dolly replaces homemade roller skate tripods for smaller camera productions (video)
Instead of precariously perching your DSLR on a skateboard in the name of film, perhaps it's time to invest in something a little more stable -- like the extremely affordable Pico Dolly. Machined from aluminum, this 3.5-inch, three pound dolly has wheels akin to those found on Rollerblades, plus three screw mounts to attach the optional 11-inch friction arm. The contraption can glide straight or shoot in circles while taking up minimal room -- something that videographers using cameras like the A77 and E-P3 (or even the iPhone) can surely appreciate. Unlike its conceptual twin, which currently costs $150 and isn't scheduled to ship until October, the Pico Dolly can be had for $65 (or $90 if you want the friction arm included) and is scheduled to ship by September 12th. Check out the cinematic assistant in action after the break.
Patch 4.3: Worgen racial mounts
Blizzard has finally seen fit to give Worgen players -- or more specifically, the Gilnean faction -- their own mounts. Worgen originally had no racial mount because of their innate ability Running Wild, which allowed the Worgen to be their own mounts, dropping to all fours and moving at mount speed. The new Gilnean mounts appear to be unarmored horses coming in brown and grey colors. It is presumed that players will be able to purchase these mounts if they are exalted with the Gilnean faction, much like how other factions' mounts work. Players were torn over Running Wild, mostly because each mount collected counts toward the achievement Mountain o' Mounts, which rewards a Red or Blue Dragonhawk to fly around on. Many Alliance players were upset over the fact that Horde players had an easier time collecting 100 mounts because of the Goblins' trikes. Horses make sense for Worgen, as Worgen are still essentially a Human nation, and Humans in Warcraft ride horses. These two particular mounts seem a bit plain, though. These new mounts are coming in most likely to ease the disparity between mounts when faction changes occur. All in all, this is good news for Alliance mount collectors.
Movie Mount turns your iPad 2 into a serious video-making machine
We're sure there's at least one person out there who has been itching to shoot boat-loads of video with their iPad 2. Perhaps even a short film or two. After we pointed out how crazy you are, we might suggest looking into a tripod-mountable case like Makayama's Movie Mount. This simple plastic frame adds a number of things that a budding iPad videographer might appreciate, including a pair of hot shoes for hooking up lights and mics, and a mount for lenses, just in case you prefer wide-angle or telephoto shots. You can even switch between the conversion lenses and the built-in one on the fly thanks to the sliding adapter. The Movie Mount is available to pre-order now for $69.95, with the first deliveries expected to ship in October. Before you go, check out the gallery below, as well as the video and PR after the break. %Gallery-132218%
Daily Mac App: Drive Mounter
If you have multiple network drives in multiple locations, repeatedly finding and mounting them manually gets old, fast. Drive Mounter takes the tedium out of mounting drives by automating the process. OK, mounting drives can be done at login pretty easily, especially if you're only ever going to be in one place; you can even set up scripts to auto-mount drives here and there. But what happens when you have a portable Mac that you take with you and need different drives mounted in different locations on different networks? Drive Mounter makes it easy by doing all the hard work for you. It remembers which drives should be mounted on which networks and mounts them accordingly when you boot or resume you Mac. It's simple to use, just mount the drives you want to setup once on each network you connect to and record their details in Drive Mounter. Next time you resume from sleep Drive Mounter will mount the appropriate drives for your currently connected network, WiFi or LAN, allowing you to get on with your work. You can also manually force Drive Mounter to mount all the drives on its list, or temporarily disable Drive Mounter if you don't need it. It's got both a Dock icon, which can be disabled, and a menu bar icon from quick access. Drive Mounter is available for US$5.99 and if you connect a lot of network drives, could take the headache out of your work flow. Users familiar with AppleScript will be able to create something like this for free, but for the rest of us, who just want it to work, Drive Mounter could be just the ticket.
PvP, slivers and crocodiles: RIFT outlines patch 1.4
While RIFT's patch 1.4 has been on the test servers for a couple weeks now, we've finally received concrete details about Trion Worlds' latest update to this dynamic MMO. Titled "Legacy of the Fallen," 1.4 follows up the recent world event with a new epic quest line and a 10-man instance revolving around the continued threat of the Abyssal. The epic chain, called the Water Saga, not only reveals the truth about the origins of the Abyssal cult, but gives players an opportunity to score high-end loot and a special crocnard mount. Those looking for more group-oriented activities may want to check out the Drowned Halls, a 10-person sliver that presents an alternate view of history where the Abyssal have conquered Telara. Patch 1.4 has plenty of PvP action as well, including PvP rifts and alternative forms of warfronts. There are plenty of other goodies in store from the RIFT team, including quest item storage, the LFG tool expanding cross-server, and several new crafting options. Currently, there is no date for the patch.
Vogel's RingO iPad mounting system: The versatile iPad 2 mount (Updated)
Netherlands-based audio/video mount manufacturer Vogel's first introduced their iPad mounting solution in October of 2010. Now the company has brought its universal mounting system for the iPad 2 -- named RingO -- to American soil for the first time. I recently had an opportunity to try out the complete system, which consists of an iPad 2 holder, a wall mount, a car mount, and a table stand. How did RingO work as an all-around mount? Design I tested the RingO All-In-One Pack for iPad 2 (US$119.99), consisting of the four parts mentioned above. The company sells RingO through Amazon.com in the U.S., and the street price is correspondingly lower -- about $82. The individual components are also available separately, with the iPad 2 holder and wall mount going for $59.99, a separate wall mount for $29.99, the car mount for $59.99, and a table stand or flip stand for $19.99 each. Vogel's is also set to release a Flex Mount ($59.99, on an extendable arm) and an adhesive-backed wall mount ($29.99) in September of 2011. Update: According to a spokesperson for Vogel's, the only products currently available in the U.S. are the Starter Pack (wall mount and holder at $69.99) and the Car Pack ($99.99). The product is available in the physical and online Apple Stores today. The most important part of this system is the iPad 2 holder, so I'll look at it in detail first. As befitting a European design firm, Vogel's provides a very IKEA-like set of diagrammatic instructions showing how to install and remove the holder. Unlike the HandStand case, which I needed to force onto my iPad 2 with a spudger and muscle, the Vogel's case snapped right on. It's also open on the left side of the iPad 2, so the Apple Smart Cover still works. The holder is basically a hard plastic shell with cutouts for the various iPad controls and a circular cutout on the back where the various mounts click in. Let's talk about the functionality of those mounts. %Gallery-129428% Functionality The wall mount can be mounted anywhere that you can safely attach it to a surface with an included wood screw. It's a small aluminum and plastic cylinder -- pulling off the top of the cylinder reveals the hole for the screw. Once it's mounted on the wall, you put the top back on and there's just an unobtrusive aluminum fixture on the wall. The car mount is incredibly useful and absolutely the best (and safest) iPad car mount I've seen so far. It consists of a two-part tough plastic molding that locks to the headrest uprights in a car. One part has a RingO mount on a combination swivel and pivot, while the other can be released with the push of a large button to install or remove the mount from the seat. When the RingO car mount is installed, the iPad is held very steady and there's no concern about it flopping about in case of sudden car movements. Even if you're just in the market for a car mount, it would be worth it to buy the RingO Car Pack (about $70 on Amazon). The pack consists of a holder, the car mount, and the table stand. Seriously, this is an excellent car mount for iPad 2. The final piece is the Table Stand, which is the most overpriced piece of the product line. It's basically a $20 piece of plastic that snaps into the RingO holder. The Table Stand is well-designed, working in either landscape or portrait orientation, but $20? C'mon, Vogel's. Conclusion The Vogel's RingO mount system is incredibly well designed and manufactured. However, I have to wonder if the high price tag on the system compared to other stands and mounts might dampen the enthusiasm of some potential buyers. I like the fact that the Vogel's RingO mount is a system that makes it easy to go from room to table to car without having to remove the iPad 2 holder. The system will grow in September with the addition of the Flex Mount and the adhesive-backed wall mount -- the latter will be great for those who live in leased space where putting screw holes into walls might be frowned upon. As I noted before, the RingO Car Pack on its own would make an excellent solution for anyone who wants an easy-to-install and durable iPad car mount. Being able to install the mount securely in seconds is worth the cost.
Purported shot of Nikon's mirrorless mount surfaces, camera remains shy
We've already heard plenty of talk about Nikon's forthcoming entry into the world of mirrorless cameras, and it looks like we now have our first real peek at the actual goods. Unfortunately, it's just a look at the mount, not the whole camera (said to be codenamed X810), but it does appear to be the real deal (and was apparently removed from the Chinese forum it surfaced on, Xitek, at Nikon's request). Details on the camera itself are otherwise still fairly light, but it certainly sounds like Nikon has some grand plans for it -- the company's previously boasted that it wants to create a whole new market.
WoW Armory now displaying mounts and pets
The World of Warcraft Armory/community site has been updated with a useful new feature showing players the mounts and companion pets they have collected so far. You'll be able to see where each pet or mount comes from or who drops them, a picture of each, and even a listing of not-yet-collected pets and mounts, making it easier to be an achievement hunter or collector. The armory has changed drastically from its original interpretation and implementation, adding features over time that give players a more cohesive out-of-game experience. What is most interesting are the potential tie-ins later on with the previously announced WoW APIs coming down the pipe in the near future; we are still unsure of the amount of data that developers will be able to access from the WoW armory. I would not be surprised to see collected pet and mount data also being part of that package. We've got a pretty full-featured armory at this point. What other types of data do you think the armory could or should provide? Perhaps next we'll see a tabard and title tab, showing players' collected tabards and a scroll list of titles earned. The sky is the limit, apparently.
Ankama releases new Vulkania zone for DOFUS
DOFUS, the free-to-play fantasy MMO from Ankama, is embarking on a somewhat novel approach to new zone content. The game's newest map area is an archipelago called Vulkania, and it's only available to players during the months of July and August. The isle features varying terrain including white sand beaches, tropical jungles, craters, and various caverns, not to mention strange wildlife. Among the new monster species are the sauroshell family and a pet/mount called a madreggon. According to an Ankama press release, "Vulkania is also home to Grozilla and Grasmera, two terrors who are back to shake the World of Twelve once more!" The release also provides a concise summary of what we can expect from Vulkania aside from its monsters, and amenities include 40 new quests, 13 new equipment items, and 3 new titles. Check out the official DOFUS website for more.
