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The Daily Grind: Are guilds too important?
They're called different names, but a guild by any moniker is still a collection of players with a distinct affiliation. In some games, guilds offer wide-reaching powers and benefits; in others they're little more than a special chat channel with no rewards past that channel's existence. But whether you're in a kinship in Lord of the Rings Online or a linkshell in Final Fantasy XI, your guild makes a big difference -- some might say too much of a difference. After all, it's awfully easy to keep playing a game you're tired of because, well, your guild still needs you. World of Warcraft clearly uses the guild as a basic measurement of grouping, to the point where outside of your circle of friends, your guild name is often more important than your character name. It's been a long accepted fact that players who socialize and join guilds are more likely to stay in the game for the long haul. But are they too heavily emphasized? Would you rather see a greater emphasis on individual skill and accomplishments? Or do you feel that lessens your attachment to the game and your fellow players?
The Daily Grind: Be yourself or someone like you
It wasn't one of the biggest news items of last week, but Blizzard's announcements regarding Battle.net and the RealID system did turn a few heads. The fact that it uses the real name of players was a bit surprising, but at the end of the day it's not the first game allowing people to track players across alts. City of Heroes has always had a global chat handle integrated with the client, and both Star Trek Online and Champions Online integrate your name directly with the name of a given character. On the one hand, this can be seen as a good thing. Rather than friending an army of alts that your friend cycles through on a regular basis, you friend somebody once and you know them. There's also no hiding behind alts for disrespectful or unpleasant players. On the other hand, it means that no one gets to advantage of taking a night off on an alt no one knows about, and it can raise some security and identity concerns. (Especially in Blizzard's case, what with the real names being used.) What do you think about global identities in MMOs? Are they a good move as a whole, or are they a bit too Big Brother for your tastes?
More looks inside of Final Fantasy XIV
It's a good time to be a Final Fantasy XIV fan, with testing now in full swing and information coming out an accelerated pace. While we'd been in the dark for some time, we're now moving into almost having an information glut. FFXIVCore has been hard at work translating everything released by Famitsu, and there's a lot to digest from there, ranging from confirmation of things we've already suspected to new information altogether. Aside from several screenshots of the game in action, we find out that characters will indeed have both first and last names on creation, in the style of Guild Wars and Dungeons and Dragons Online. The battle system will apparently use staggered sets of abilities rather than steady auto-attacks, something more akin to City of Heroes than Final Fantasy XI. Learned abilities can be used regardless of a character's class, allowing extensive mix-and-match play with each character. In addition to all of that, we also learn just how deep the character building is: levels allow you to improve your stats and skill levels allow access to new abilities, but almost everything is built on player choice. There's a lot for Final Fantasy XIV fans to digest, but the game is shaping up to be very different than its predecessor while retaining the same rich flavor.
iPad games leak out, include Plants vs. Zombies HD and Worms HD
Whoops -- somebody at Apple accidentally jumped the gun on sending a few iPad titles to the App Store. A few HD titles have snuck into iTunes' web interface a little early, and while we already knew that some of them were on the way to the iPad (Flight Control HD has already been announced, and NBA Hotshot HD was rumored), there are a few interesting new names in this list: Ammoin HD Azkend HD Flight Control HD Grind HD Labyrinth 2 HD NBA Hotshot HD Numba HD Plants vs. Zombies HD Sparkle HD Worms HD Plants vs. Zombies HD? Worms HD? Yes please. Looks like Apple is already working their way through the iPad application process, and a few apps are already approved and ready for launch on April 3rd. If this list is any indication, there will be no shortage of games to play on your new iPad. Update: 148Apps has a few more of the leaked listings. [via TA]
All the World's a Stage: A rose by any name
It could be considered a small, fine point, but I've always been a stickler about naming my characters. I've been known to sit around for days, repeatedly rerolling and renaming the same character until something clicks just right. I just can't bring myself to play a character if the name doesn't line up. For better or for worse, we only have a few basic customizable options for our character, so the name tag provides the first hints about our character to other players. If the first impression about your character is delivered by the name you've chosen, it becomes the most customizable aspect of your character. If you use one of the many mods that let you use a surname, then you'll even have two names to choose from. But, for the purposes of this article, let's just stick to the single word that everyone sees. Take a look behind the jump, and let's discuss some tips for naming your character.
Apple seizes 16 domain names from squatter
Apple dropped the hammer on a domain squatter the other day, reclaiming sixteen different domain names in one fell swoop. The company filed a complaint a while back against a guy named Daniel Bijan, who didn't bother to fight his case at all (not that he has one), and the result earlier this week gives them the rights to all of them. They run the gamut from iphonecheap.com to macbookpro.com (how did Apple not own that one?), and as of this writing, we couldn't find any that were actually being used by Apple yet -- they all seem to point to either a blank Apache page or a simple domain placeholder. And as you may have noticed, there are no secrets here -- macfriend.com is probably just a stab in the dark on the part of the domain squatter, and ipodsbaratos.com means "iPods cheap" in Spanish. Just Apple reclaiming some of their rightful web space.
The Daily Quest: Guild switching
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Everyone's playing guild musical chairs: Sheep Blink Invis just disbanded one of their guilds, We Fly Spitfires wants to find one, Nibuca's working on names for hers, and Hots and Dots is seeking mages for theirs. Hopefully we made at least one match in there somewhere. Good luck to you guildless folks! Grandpappy Frostheim says Hunters these days have no respect, I tell ya. Planet of the Hats has a nice long post up about "gear pollution," a growing problem in the game. And OutDPS tells you how to hunt for Heroic Northrend Beasts. The encounter, not the actual beasts themselves. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
An interview with the man behind the name "iMac"
This is a cool interview over at Cult of Mac -- you've heard of Steve Jobs of course, you know who Jonathan Ive is, you might have heard of Rob Janoff, but do you know Ken Segall's name? He's a former creative director from TBWA\Chiat\Day, and he has two claims to Apple fame: he worked on the "Think Different" campaign, and he's responsible for coming up with the one letter that may have defined the modern-day Apple as we know it. That's right, he named the iMac. The writeup is fascinating, even if you get the sense that we're looking through the lens of history, and things may not happened quite as stylishly as they seem. Jobs apparently showed the Bondi Blue iMac to the ad team, and while he originally "hated" the name, he obviously came around -- though Segall apparently never got the satisfaction of official approval. He closes with an interesting sentiment about the company, too: at Apple, it's always about moving forward to the next big thing, and everything is product-centered, not number-driven. Segall says he was around for a few Jobs "flare-ups," but if there was a fit thrown, it was always in trying to keep the company moving forward as quickly as possible. Interesting stuff. It's quite a legacy, too -- the iMac was originally called so because it was a Mac that connected to the Internet, but obviously since then, the i has become symbolic of many other things, all the way up to iLife, the iPod, and the iPhone. You tend to forget, after all of the millions of dollars and the culture and promotion, that it all came from the head of a guy in a conference room looking at a computer Jobs just pulled the cloth off of.
Square Enix: FFXI players may be able to keep their names in FFXIV
Good news for Final Fantasy XI players looking to make the jump into Final Fantasy XIV in 2010 -- you may be able to keep your existing FFXI character names in the upcoming title. At least, you will if Square Enix Producer Hiromichi Tanaka has his way. Tanaka and FFXIV Producer Sage Sundi were interviewed by the PlayStation Blog's Chris Morell at GamesCom 2009, when they were asked if name transfers between the Final Fantasy MMOs will be possible. Tanaka said, "It hasn't been confirmed yet, but we would like to give incentives to the players. First of all, FFXI has 32 worlds, and they may have the same name across different worlds [...]. However, when we have FFXIV, we still don't know how many worlds there's going to be yet, but players might have the same name if they all move to the same world, so there may be conflicts."Square Enix's solution, if implemented, is to have a surname system where players can keep their original name but pair it with something else unique in a surname. While the ability to import character names into FFXIV isn't confirmed, it's still good news that Square Enix is considering offering this to their long-time fans in Final Fantasy XI. [Via Joystiq]
Real-life WoW-style name tags
Now this is the sort of thing YouTube was made for. Aram Bartholl, a German artist "famous for his exploration of the relationship between the digital and physical world," did a WoW-inspired project at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, CA yesterday afternoon. It looks like it was a repetition of the project in the video above, which took place in Germany Belgium (sorry!) in 2008. Essentially, he has participants construct big floaty name tags, like the names that show up over your characters' heads. The people then walk around the city with the tags floating over them, held by additional participants. The overall effect is pretty cool. If anyone was in Laguna yesterday, I want pictures and/or video, please.
TUAW at E3: Real Tennis 2009
The last preview we've got for you from E3 last week isn't really a preview -- Real Tennis 2009 was the first game due out from Gameloft that we played in their party bus outside the Los Angeles Convention Center, and sure enough, it's out right now in the App Store for $4.99 (all of the games we played with them last week, including the impressive Castle of Magic, are due out before the end of June). As a tennis game -- Gameloft claimed it was the first on the platform, though that doesn't seem true -- it plays pretty well, though the players are controlled with onscreen buttons rather than touchscreen gestures. Serving is the only activity that tries to take full advantage of the iPhone's controls: you can target your serve with the accelerometer, and then tap the screen anywhere when the serve meter is full. The action is pretty fast, and sometimes too fast: if you don't get moving in the right direction right off the ball, your player will get to where they need to be way too late.Perhaps the most interesting part of the game lies in multiplayer: though we didn't see it in action, we were told that the game offers up to four-player WiFi multiplayer (even before 3.0 is set to make it easier for developers to do). So that's pretty impressive in and of itself -- if you can find three other people with iPhones and the game to play.
Talkcast reminder: 10pm ET this evening with special guest Alykhan Jetha of Marketcircle
Our weekly interactive podcast goes live on the air tonight at 10pm Eastern time over on the Talkshoe page, so if you're around and ready to talk some Unofficial Apple Weblog news with us, please come by and join in. I'll be hosting this evening, and Dave Caolo will be along for the ride with us, as well as a slew of other familiar names and voices from TUAW and our community. And we'll be welcoming Alykhan "AJ" Jetha as our special guest for the evening -- he's the CEO of Marketcircle, makers of Daylite and Daylite Touch, business productivity management apps for the desktop and the iPhone. Our own Stephen Sande reviewed their products here on TUAW earlier this week.Also tonight on the show, we'll talk about all of the new iPhone hardware rumors floating around, and try to separate the wheat from the chaff there. There's also rumors of an OS update that we'll try shaking down, and the iPhone 3.0 beta has hit a new milestone, so we'll look that over as well. iTunes prices are up, and sales are down, so we'll try to figure out why. And since this is the eve of the release of Tweetie for Mac, we'll talk about which clients we've used for Twitter on the desktop before and if Tweetie will be everything that everyone else is saying it is. Should be a lot of fun -- tune in promptly at 10 Eastern to give us a listen. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only interface, or you can stick with the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in so we can hear your dulcet tones. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. SIP or Gizmo users can connect directly to Talkshoe by following the instructions here. Talk with you then! Recording support for the talkcast is provided by Call Recorder from ecamm networks.
Breakfast Topic: What's the best pun name you've ever seen?
We've all seen some Alliance kiddie named "ikillhoarde" or a Warlock named "ifearyoudie." After all, what Horde wouldn't run for cover from a Hunter who's named after his very death? And woe is the person who actually thinks he can get away from a Warlock's fear. Phear the lock, baby.Add titles into the mix. "Doora the Explorer" is probably my favorite of all time. Every time I see someone named that I yell out "Swiper, No Swiping!" Of course insert the obligatory NSFW Kevin Smith reference here.Another favorite of mine that I've seen is "Highlander the Immortal."What's the best pun name that you've encountered in the game? Ever thought about renaming your character to make yourself pun-famous?
WoW Rookie: A character by any other name would be so weak
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.Your character's name is literally the essence of your World of Warcraft experience. Think about it: from the way you think of your character (a roleplaying personality, a tool for gaming achievements, an expression of yourself) to the way others see you, your name plays a defining role.While Blizzard indulges in the occasional sly riff on pop culture and even pays homage to the WoW community when naming NPCs (non-player characters) and items, you may find yourself dismayed by the results after attempting to do the same with your own characters. The way we see it, character names are like tattoos – and what seemed like a great idea at 1 a.m. on a Saturday night might not smell so fresh in the harsh light of day.Naming characters can seem overwhelming to a new player, especially if you're creating a character on an established server where many popular name combinations have already been claimed. Let's cover the basics of finding an appealing name that won't wear thin or break any rules.
Pronouncing character names correctly
Sylphine suffers from a problem that's very close to home for me: her character's name is often pronounced incorrectly by others in game. And while it's close not only because I routinely mangle names on the podcast (both accidentally and sometimes, I'll admit, for comedic purposes), but my own name is of questionable pronounciation. When I was creating my very first character ingame, I was stumbling around for a creative name, and I ended up going with a variation of the word I saw on the "Random" button in front of me: Rande. Truth be told, I have no idea how to pronounce it -- I guess I prefer "Rand" over "Randey," only because the second sounds so close to "Randy," so usually I'll just go what whatever someone says in the game. But I can see Sylphine's issue: it's probably a pain to spend so much time on a name only to have it wrecked daily.And of course, this epidemic isn't only connected to character names -- being that this is a virtual world where text is the usual form of communication, it's very common to see place names and NPC names mispronounced more often than not.In the end, you just have to do what I do: try your best and hope you get it right. And from the other side of it, don't be too angry when people mess up your name. There are 12 million of us out there, and nobody's going to get everything right.
Breakfast Topic: Should guilds police member names?
Vinna asked in the comments to yesterday's Breakfast Topic, "How do you feel when a guildmate makes a character with a questionable name, i.e. offensive/borderline offensive?" After all, your name appears above your guild name, so should guilds be policing their members' alt names?We already know that unless someone reports a name, it doesn't get changed. We also know that there are some extremely offensive names out there. So, if you are in a guild you want to stay in and someone makes an alt with a name that offends you what should you do, if anything?
Breakfast Topic: What's in a name?
Much like yesterday's Breakfast Topic, this is another story of an identity crisis. I recently discovered the wonders of being a Mage and she has replaced my Druid as my main. I changed the first letter of a favorite name, Kira, into something more Blood Elf looking (to my way of thinking): Qira. It's pretty and simple.Then one day I Googled it. It's the name of a village that some people consider to have been ethnically cleansed [Edited to be more neutral--I had such a kneejerk reaction that I didn't even research it]. I immediately paid to change the name without even spending the time to come up with a good substitute. Robiness is a fun name for an It came from the Blog character, but do I really want it for my new main?If I had slept on it, rather than changing my name instantly, I may not have changed it. After all, it wasn't my intention to commemorate anything like that. And you can't change it again for 30 days. So now what? Do I keep the name Robiness or do I change it again in a week or so when I am able? Have any of you gone through something similar?
It's not that I wasn't satisified, but...
So it's been a while since I mentioned it, but I'm still pretty gung ho on helping to enforce WoW gameplay policies, especially RP server specific policies, and I will not hesitate to report anyone I see violating them by means of name or conduct. With the recent changes to the report system, I generally just stick their names and a few notes into the Report an Issue and move on, knowing that eventually, a GM will get the report and hopefully decided to be an enforcer that day. But even though I've elected not to speak with a GM, I still often get an email telling me the usual spiel: They looked into the issue, but are not able to tell me what happened due to privacy issues and whatnot. Then comes the customer service satisfaction survey that asks me if the issue was resolved to my satisfaction.
Widget shows character name statistics
If you've ever been fascinated by the MMORPG statistics provided at sites like the Daedalus Project, here's something right up your alley; the WoW Armory Character Distribution widget, programmed to comb both the U.S. and E.U. Armories and capture data on the popularity of character names across race, class, faction, and sex. The project is still in the testing stage, and it's a bit finicky about how you enter character names. Make sure you're always hitting the submit button and not using your enter key, as otherwise the widget will keep searching for the last name you looked for instead of your new query. Its creator, Emilis, also wrote to warn that it uses live information from both armories and will occasionally be slow as a result. I imagine it might also be inaccurate if either Armory is having problems.The widget is tremendously fun to play with and has yielded some rather interesting results even with the completely random names I keep trying. "John" and "Mary," as you might expect, are overwhelmingly Human toons, whereas the greater share of people playing a "Sergei" and "Yekaterina" are Draenei. 3 people with a "Brutus" are actually playing female characters, and 1 person with a "Laura" is playing a male character (Emilis notes that gender-bending names are surprisingly common, although from what I can tell so far this seems to be a lot more true of male names for female toons than the other way around). Most people with a "Killer" are playing a Hunter, Rogue, or Warrior. Characters named "Bank" are mostly Human Warriors, but "Banktoon(s)" are mostly Orcs. And, yes, most of the people playing a toon named Legolas are Night Elf Hunters. Are you really that surprised?Thanks to Emilis for writing in!
Petaholics Anonymous releases a pet name generator
About a month ago, we posted in anticipation of a pet name generator that Petaholics Anonymous was working on (especially of interest to me, since I've been playing my Hunter like crazy lately), and now the Pet-o-licious Namerator is now up and running. Right now, I've got a raptor that I've named Jumpy, but I very well could have named it "Bahir" or "Claws," both good names out of the Namerator. As was decided back on the poll, PA has apparently put the names into Silly and Serious categories, so you choose your pet's family and whether you want a silly or serious name, and you can choose from the ones that pop out (and if you don't like any of them, you can click Generate again and you'll get more).If you've got a great pet name that's not in there, you can submit some more, as well, and apparently Bats are the most needed category (though I really love "Guano" as a silly Bat name, and "Vlad" as serious -- why would you need anything else?). Definitely some fun ideas in there for Hunters to choose from. Unfortunately, we'll probably still see Hunters going around with their pet "Cat" following them (so boring!), but maybe this will help.
