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Apple's developer preview NDA is a load of Lion poop
UPDATE: A few things to note here. 1. Anyone on TUAW staff who has signed an NDA will indeed honor it. 2. As a site, we are not going to shy away from covering features in Lion that have been reported elsewhere. 3. It's entirely possible that certain sites have been given permission by Apple to report on Lion -- and that's outside the purview of the NDA. Remember the anti-drug ad where the drug-using kid tries to use peer pressure to get the straight-laced kid to try some? "Everybody's doing it," he chides the square. In the case of Apple's silent PR police, it would appear that everyone is indeed breaking the non-disclosure agreement purportedly required to download and install a preview copy of Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion. In fact, I can't recall a previous time when I've seen this much explicit hand-tipping of an upcoming product from Cupertino with absolutely no reprisals whatsoever. Can you? Apple is legendary for its secrecy. Many things have been written about the great lengths management will go to ensure secrecy of its products and plans, whether it be hardware, software or simple business moves. It's not like other companies don't have secrets -- after all, corporations have to keep plans as private as possible until they are ready to release info. This used to be a carefully calculated game. In the case of high-tech, it is even more so due to issues involving manufacturing, intellectual property (and the legal protections thereof) and good old-fashioned publicity planning. Once in a while someone will suggest that things like leaving an iPhone prototype in a bar is a calculated publicity move. I would suggest that, up until recently, Apple did not play those games. The culture at Apple is built upon secrecy, which leads to surprise, which inevitably leads to delight from customers and pundits alike. A major OS release for an already-mature product, however, is an entirely different animal. Considering the changes happening in Lion, I would posit that the formerly tight-lipped mothership is tacitly OK with the dribs and drabs and full-on explanations of Lion's new features. Why? Read on.
EQII's Destiny of Velious expansion reviewed, sort of
Hey guess what? The EverQuest II Destiny of Velious expansion NDA is down! Not! That's basically how it went for EQII fansites recently as SOE pulled a fast one in regard to allowing info on the highly anticipated expansion into the wild. We were quite interested in a preliminary Velious review, and Feldon from EQ2Wire was all set to oblige us when... well, let's just say his hands were tied. "Really, when the 'NDA lifts,' all this means is you are allowed to talk about what you experienced in beta. The gag order is lifted. You get your voice back. But anything else is still off limits," he writes. Feldon goes on to say that EQ2Wire will still be publishing a couple of articles on the expansion, but nowhere near as many as had been planned. So how's the new Norrathian content itself? Pretty good, it seems. "The group and raid zones are some of the most impressive, well-built, engaging, interesting content designed yet for EQII," Feldon tells readers. He goes on to praise flying mounts and new art assets while saving a few unkind words for public quests, solo quests, and itemization. It's quite a lengthy write-up despite the lingering restrictions, so head over to EQ2Wire and check it out for yourself.
RIFT beta powow with Scott Hartsman
This is, by any measure, a busy week for RIFT. Fresh off the second beta event, Trion Worlds has dropped the NDA for the game and announced a third beta to take place over the holidays. As the process speeds exponentially faster toward launch, Scott Hartsman and his team have a white-knuckled grip on RIFT for all the bumps, shimmies, dips and hills that such a high-profile title offers. Even with a heaping amount of work on its plate, the team has been willing to share its passion for RIFT with the press and community. During this slight lull between betas two and three, Hartsman sat down with us over the phone to jaw about lessons learned from the beta, why Trion has dropped the NDA, how RIFT's already made history, and when we might be seeing this game on the shelves. Hit the jump and let's do this thing. As Hartsman is fond of saying about the game, "S**t just got real."
Black Prophecy drops NDA, gears up for open beta
Have you been dreaming of the day when you could fly through space and shoot folks down, dogfighter-style? Did you think that the best part of Star Wars Galaxies was the Jump To Lightspeed addition? Well, if that's the case, then you're in for a treat as the NDA has finally been lifted on Reakktor Media's space battletastic MMO, Black Prophecy. As of today, all players are allowed to post screenshots, videos, and talk about everything they've seen in the last several months of testing since Black Prophecy was picked up by gamigo and worked into its current incarnation as a free-to-play game. Also of note is that all of the beta forums for the game are wide open as well, giving curious folks a chance to sift through all the threads there for an inkling of how the game has been progressing, and what players can expect. We here at Massively will be publishing our own first impressions and gallery in the coming days -- and there will undoubtedly be a livecast in the mix for those curious to see it in action. If you still haven't made it into the closed beta, never fear: Open beta is expected to begin sometime in the first part of 2011, which isn't too far away. If you did make it in to this stellar shooter beta, feel free to drop your thoughts about the game in the comments below!
RIFT announces the second beta event
If you got to take part in the closed beta event for RIFT over the weekend... well, don't tell us about it. Seriously, don't; it breaks the NDA to even say you're taking part. But if you enjoyed it, you'll get another shot at playing the game sooner rather than later. The second closed beta event has just been announced to run between 10 a.m. PST on December 17th to 10 a.m. PST on December 20th. For the second testing phase, titled "Guardians of the Vigil," players will be testing the first 20 levels of the game, presumably on the Guardian side. Reborn as ascended souls of the Vigil, players are tasked with stopping the tyrant Aedraxis, although we suspect many players will mostly be focused on whatever cool tricks their characters can do with another 10 levels. RIFT is still allowing players to sign up for the beta, so if you're interested in the second beta, you might be well-advised to give it a shot. Not that you could tell anyone about it.
The Game Archaeologist and the Asheron Recall: Player sagas
It's an odd thing to realize how far MMOs have come right in front of our eyes in a relatively short span of time. After all, 1999 wasn't that long ago, despite what Prince and Y2K would have you believe. One day we'll be telling our children -- if we aren't already -- about the primitive MMOs that didn't feature RealGore™, motion sensor-linked emotes, and mostly nude elves dancing for tips on mailboxes. They may gasp and sputter in disbelief, but you'll assert that it is true: You experienced an era when polygons were blockier than LEGO pieces, people logged in over dial-up connections, and the community was small enough for GMs to host personal live events. There's been a lot of love flowing into my email inbox and Twitter since posting the first Game Archaeologist on Asheron's Call, enough to tell me that this title is a dear old friend to many a seasoned gamer out there (including a few on the Massively staff who won't stop writing epic haikus about AC in its honor this month). As a result, I got in touch with two die-hard fans of the game, and they agreed to scribe their memories of this MMO for future generations to discover, generations who will undoubtedly marvel at the hardship and perserverence that such scrappy gamers showed in being part of the first wave of MMO players. Without further ado, please give a warm round of applause to Amanda and Jon. No, nobody can hear you clap over the internet, but it's the thought that counts.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Because of reasons!
It's weird to say it, but City of Heroes feels like it's still on the cusp of a storm. Going Rogue was a fine expansion, but it doesn't have the sense of breaking that built-up tension, that feeling of something major just over the horizon. Or perhaps it's just me, perched out on my metaphorical porch and loudly proclaiming that this next one is going to be the big one, as I puff on my metaphorical corn-cob pipe and look across the metaphorical skyline of rural Metaphorbraska. OK, that one kind of got away from me there, but what I was trying to get at was that it's time for another question-and-answer session for City of Heroes and that I don't think I'm the only person feeling like Issue 19 might hold some great secret. We'll know soon enough, although right now it's time for Issue 20's super-secret beta, which even I don't know about just yet. I'm very curious. On to the questions!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Community lives!
The community for City of Heroes got a big shot in the arm when the expansion came out. While it hadn't exactly died in the last few years, it was certainly on a lower pulse. These days, I can't log in without seeing pretty much every server near capacity. Even with a month having passed since the initial release, it seems that Going Rogue is doing a fine job of keeping people wrapped up in the game. You can rail about the lack of endgame all you want, but Praetoria's a pretty good starting ride. Of course, it's high time for us to do another community roundup post, so the fact that the community has rallied back serves my own purposes. We've got more than just a surfeit of content to talk about -- we've got a whole collection of new missions and gameplay types to work with. And, of course, there are those "just 20 levels" of starting content to chat about. So click on through to see what City of Heroes players have been chatting about for the past month.
LotRO F2P launch day roundup
Volume III, Book 2: The Ride of the Grey Company is upon us, a massive Lord of the Rings Online patch that is functioning as a virtual relaunch of the game. In addition to adding loads of new content, Turbine is transforming LotRO into a hybrid subscription/free-to-play model in the hopes that this choice will draw fresh crowds to the game. The company's even opened eight new servers for the launch -- four for US and four for EU. Unfortunately, we have received word that Codemasters is going to release the patch in Europe "later than expected." Hit the jump for a roundup of our LotRO F2P news and discussion!
The Road to Mordor: Putting the "lass" back in "class"
With the not-so-recent NDA lift on the beta, LotRO players are fast at work discussing, analyzing, dissecting and pouring over all of the information coming from testers. Like a double Shire rainbow, the main question on everyone's lips is, "What does it mean?" We want to know how this is going to impact us, our future, and our gameplay, and the massive scope of this change is both unsettling and heady. Last week we sifted through the LotRO forums for testimonies about several aspects of the beta, which was treated with a stony silence from the lot of you. Oh, I kid! Nothing gets the tongues wagging around here like a good mouthful of free-to-play, although I've been informed by the leaders of the Global Conspiracy Against Gamers Having Fun that this topic has three days left on the clock until it's locked away in a vault forever. So even though I tried to touch on the relevant points of the beta last week, there's simply so much of it out there that I had to leave some behind. It's easy to forget that this fall's update contains more than the LotRO store, like a whole barrel of additions and fixes to the game -- including class tweaks. Grab my hobbity hand, and we will venture into the land of the unknown... the land of class changes.
The Final Fantasy XIV beta will tell you everything
The start of a new phase of Final Fantasy XIV testing is always good news for the game's fans, but this particular phase has brought with it even better news. Those of you not in the beta can now regale us non-beta testers with tales of your adventures, as Square-Enix has officially announced that most everything may be spoken about freely. This coincides nicely with a long list of changes that have come in the most recent build, including several system updates and balance tweaks to the engine. The team at FFXIVCore immediately set to remedy one of the major omissions from Square's PR -- namely, the experience of crafting. This step-by-step diary of working as a crafter should answer many questions about how much depth the crafting and gathering classes possess... even though it raises several more. As always, it isn't the same as getting to play around in the Final Fantasy XIV beta yourself, but it's the next best thing to being there.
The Road to Mordor: Near-Death Adventures (NDA) lifted!
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Lord_of_the_Rings_Online_F2P_player_beta_impressions'; In case you were wondering, I'm part of the crowd that doesn't really believe in non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Oh, if I agree to one I'll stick to it and keep my word, don't get me wrong. What I mean is that I don't believe in the usefulness of NDAs, particularly in a day and age when all the information is available anyway -- this is, after all, the omniscient internet. Not to mention that by trying to keep a lid on testers and prevent them from sharing their experiences, companies tend to suppress the positive accolades (those are the people who want to keep playing, after all) while letting the badmouthers escape to tell their tale (they don't care if they break the NDA, because they're not going to play anyway). But my personal feelings aside, the brief NDA lockdown on the upcoming LotRO F2P edition (hey Turbine, can we get a name for this yet? LotRO Unlimited? Free-Range LotRO?) has lifted and testers have swarmed out from under its veil to share their stories and thoughts. I'd be remiss if we didn't spend some time this week looking at what people have to say about all of the changes, additions and updates to the game -- not to mention the looming specter of the LotRO store. Let us see what is to be seen as we scout the forums and blogosphere: LotRO exposed, uncovered, dissected and digested for the good of all. I've pulled salient quotes to help give you an idea how the beta is progressing thus far -- and remember, it is still in beta. Everything here is quite subject to change by the time LotRO II: Hobbit Boogaloo launches.
Turbine lifts The Lord of the Rings Online beta NDA
"Please be aware of what and where you are posting! Any mention of Beta or related topics outside of the Private Beta forums may result in your removal from the program! " That's been the warning at the top of the Lord of the Rings Online forums for a while now, reminding beta testers that they're under NDA. That's all about to change, as the NDA lifted this morning. Have you been dying to talk about your beta experiences? You can finally do so, and Turbine has even provided an extra outlet in the form of the Beta Journals. Beta participants will be submitting their thoughts on a given subject each week, and Turbine will post the journals for all fans to get an overview of certain areas of the game. The first entry, all about the starting areas and tutorials, is available now, and you can find plenty of general beta discussion on the LotRO forums.
Beta journals testify about the LotRO store
While the new version of Lord of the Rings Online is still under NDA lockdown, Turbine's opened a crack in the door to allow a few beta testers to jaw about the LotRO store. On the EU site, beta testers were encouraged to submit their thoughts and experiences with the new store for non-testers to assimilate, with four stories chosen to be posted. Although these stories come with the caveat that they were hand-picked to be shared, they seemed free to share both likes and dislikes about the store. Some of the positive mentions include the speed of the store's delivery to player inventory, the sheer amount of items available, fun items like emotes and mounts, and general ease of use. They report that cosmetics are a big hit with beta testers. On the flip side, the authors were critical of the unfinished feel to the store and the fact you can't see the items you're purchasing in the dressing-room window. Generally, however, the four testers are upbeat about this new LotRO feature. You can read their full thoughts at LotRO EU's site.
iPhone OS 4.0 to finally allow tethering
It turns out that the long-awaited tethering option on the iPhone (in the US anyway) is just around the corner. MacRumors discovered that there is a new configuration page for setting up Internet tethering via the iPhone inside of the latest beta of iPhone OS 4.0. The feature isn't actually enabled yet; as you can see in the picture, you'll need to call AT&T to set up the service (which, of course, will come with an additional charge). But the framework is in the latest version of the iPhone OS, so when that version gets released, presumably sometime next month when the new version of the iPhone is rumored to arrive. As you can see in the picture, we're talking about a 3G connection. I find it hard, if not impossible, to believe that this will work over my 1G iPhone's EDGE connection. Since we already know that some features of OS 4.0 won't be working on anything other than the 3GS, it's likely that there will be limitations on the number of phones out there that can actually use this service. Of course, the beta is still being tested; it's not an official release, and obviously, the service isn't set up yet, so don't throw out your various Wi-Fi or EV-DO subscriptions prematurely. However, it seems like we're closer than ever to an official tethering solution from AT&T. [via Engadget]
iPhone OS 4.0 SDK ready for download
And...it's LIVE! The 4.0 SDK for the iPhone OS is now available to developers. Head on over to Apple's iPhone Developer site (login credentials needed) to download the SDK disk image and get started. As with previous beta releases, the new firmware and SDK remains behind an NDA. This NDA will likely remain in place until the 4.0 goes live, which is expected to happen sometime in late spring. The new SDK will support features announced earlier today at the iPhone OS 4.0 roadmap media event.
Apple played favorites with iPad access
Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza has an insightful look at something that no one's really noticed yet: Apple definitely played favorites when it came to sharing the iPad. Here's the list of outlets and writers that got access to the iPad for an early review. You'll note that Boing Boing is on there, as is PC Magazine. Engadget and Gizmodo (along with TUAW, though we got one anyway) are not. Time is on there, Newsweek is not. Clearly, Apple's being careful about who's given access, and there's no one reason why an outlet might be on the list or not. And it might be even more confusing than that -- Fake Steve Jobs (a.k.a. writer Dan Lyons) tells a story about how Apple sent word out that they were unhappy about Newsweek officially hiring him after the FSJ reveal. Apple isn't just controlling access -- they're doing their best to control the entire media perception of the company. One thing that Beschizza doesn't mention (he goes on to gloat a little about Boing Boing's history with Apple) is that, in those first few days of iPad app reveals, it was pretty clear which developers had gotten an iPad early. Firemint, PopCap, MLB, EA -- there are hundreds of thousands of developers on the App Store, and Apple came to only a few to offer them a development iPad to play with early. Unfortunately, again, we'll never know the criteria for selection there other than Apple's whims (and I presume the whole thing is wrapped so tightly in an NDA that we won't even know when and how the offers were made), so we don't have a full picture of what access was offered and how. But there's no question that Apple made specific choices about how and where to send the iPad -- some people and companies got in, lots didn't.
SDK devsugar: 3.2 leaves beta
As of yesterday, with the release of the iPad hardware, the 3.2 iPhone OS SDK is no longer in beta. The SDK is now available to all members of the iPhone developer program, including the free online program. Normally, during beta, the SDK is limited to paid members only. Since the SDK is now in general release, the NDA will have timed out as well. That means that you will be able to talk freely about the 3.2 SDK outside of Apple's developer forums. Although those forums remain an excellent resource for tracking down information from Apple engineers, they are highly moderated. Since the 3.2 gold master release of the SDK is also known as "Beta 6", you can expect (with a fair degree of confidence) that a new beta should be showing up, behind the NDA and paid developer barricades, in short order. Hopefully, it will address any missing-in-action iPad features and offer some new iPhone-specific features.
Everything you ever wanted to know about TERA's testing but were afraid to ask
So your interest has been piqued in TERA. That's really understandable, considering the impression it left on us at the GDC and the jaw-dropping graphics it's put on display thus far. Based on that, it's quite possible that you signed up for the focus group testing when it was first offered. But simply signing up doesn't provide you with all of the answers to questions you need. Fear not, for if you were one of the many who signed up to test, an official sheet of information has now been posted. For those of us not taking part by choice or by poor luck, two of the most important pieces of meta-information are the fact that there will be an NDA in effect and there will not be enough spots for everyone who wanted in. One can also infer from the information about what's been added that the game is progressing nicely and still has a ways to go before launch -- yet it's still shaping up quite impressively. Those interested in finding out more can take a look at the full information sheet on the official TERA site, and keep your eyes open for more news here.
iPads sent out to select developers, kept under cover for now
Last week at GDC 2010, I talked to quite a few iPhone developers, big and small, and they all told me exactly the same thing when I asked about the iPad: "No, I haven't gotten my hands on one yet." But apparently there are at least a few developers out there who've gotten test models from Apple, according to Business Week, and the requirements that come with them are as strict as you can imagine. There are 10 pages of rules and regulations, and those include that the iPad has to be kept secured to a fixed object in a windowless room, and the company actually requires photographic proof of compliance before they'll actually ship the device out. Sounds crazy, but clearly there's reasons for such a strict agreement from both sides: developers really want to get a head start on what will surely be a huge market for apps and content starting on the iPad's release, and obviously Apple wants to make sure that the device stays under cover until it releases. You might think that they'd actually benefit from a little exposure, but don't forget: this is Apple -- they depend on the hype and interest that secrecy before release creates. After it comes out, seeing the iPad out in the world will likely sell even more units, but pre-release, Apple's customers are happy to stand in line to be the first to use the iPad. Of course, this is all from anonymous sources -- it'll be interesting to see if any of these "iPads in the wild" find their way out to the public in the form of pictures or video. Until then, the rest of us (including many developers who've played big parts in building up the App Store to where it is today) will have to wait until April 3rd. [via Engadget]
