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Amazon and the NFL team up to create a 'Digital Athlete' simulation
Amazon's AWS and the NFL plan to use AI and machine learning to protect players. The partners announced today that they'll co-develop a "Digital Athlete" platform, which will create a computer simulation model of an NFL player. Using the computer simulation, they'll be able to test different game scenarios without putting actual players at risk.
Microsoft extends NFL deal for Surface on the sidelines
About five years ago, Microsoft scored a $400 million deal to supply the NFL with Surface tablets. With the deal about to expire, the football league just renewed its partnership for the sideline tech with Microsoft for another year, according to a report at SportsPro.
Destiny announces 3.2 million daily players
It's been a month since Destiny's launch, which is as good a time as any to see how healthy the game is now. As it turns out? Quite healthy indeed. Bungie is reporting that the game has 3.2 million players logging into the game on a regular basis, with the average play session lasting three hours at a stretch even during weekdays. Bungie also took the opportunity to respond to player complaints about the Iron Banner event. While the event was advertised as allowing gear and power to matter more directly in the Crucible, the event did not simply turn off all restrictions; players are still normalized to an extent so that a level 30 Guardian cannot defeat someone else in a single shot. Power matters, but skill matters too, and the biggest functional difference you can have between players is about a seven-level gap. For more details, take a look at the full explanation.
Hearthstone boasts 20 million registered players
Does it ever seem like there's an endless flow of players in Hearthstone? There's not. But there are quite a lot of players, with Blizzard Entertainment announcing today that the game has broken 20 million registered accounts. If those were all people with real cards, that would be... a lot of cards. Like, at least a dozen. The game launched on the iPad in April and is aiming at an Android tablet release in the near future, as well as expanding to iOS/Android phones. Hearthstone will also have its first world championship at Blizzcon this year, with contestants fighting for a $250,000 prize pool. [Source: Blizzard Entertainment press release]
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar ain't doing so good
If you somehow missed it, last week the WildStar team announced that the game will be squishing into megaservers to help bolster populations. What the hell happened? Contrary to what the developers would like you to believe, this is not good news. It's especially bad news if you're part of the roleplaying community, as you're about to get shoved into a server configuration that's almost specifically designed to prevent you from roleplaying outside of a handful of shared plots, but it's bad news for everyone. And it's bad news for the game when server merges are a reasonable reaction after less than three full months of operation. We all know that the game launched to good reviews, and it's far too early to say, "Well, it failed." At the same time, this is not a sign of a robust and vibrant future. This is the first stage of an organized retreat, and it doesn't inspire confidence. So what, exactly, took place that brought the game from the high of its launch to server mergers today?
League of Legends cracks down on more bad seeds
Riot Games has announced its next level of enforcement for problematic players in the wildly popular League of Legends. After working toward player reform over the last few years, the studio is now looking at a more aggressive approach. In cases of "extreme toxicity" (i.e. racism, death threats, homophobic remarks, etc.), troublesome players can expect a more severe penalty ranging from a 14-day ban to a permanent ban from the game. In the case that an "unfair ban" comes into question, Riot says they will now be fully transparent with chat logs and post the exact log that led to the player's ban. Intentional leavers/AFKers are also a concern for Riot as they plan to address these problems in the future.
I'm so bored with the Horde
This isn't a rant about how the Horde is bad, or how you should feel bad for playing them, or anything. If you like playing Horde, I'm not arguing that you're wrong to do so. I know that's a subjective thing, and some folks just plain like specific Horde races better. This is more about how, after Mists of Pandaria, I'm completely exhausted as a player with Horde stories and the Horde/Alliance conflict. I'm not inherently opposed to Horde/Alliance conflict. In fact, I think it made Mists of Pandaria a very strong expansion, with a strong and interesting story. I especially liked patch 5.1, and played both the Horde and Alliance storylines. And frankly, that was the last time any of my Horde characters got any serious play. Since 5.1 I've felt myself shifting away from the Horde. Part of that was going back to raiding on my draenei warrior, of course. But a bigger part of it was simple ennui, and a general culture shift in the Horde that left me feeling totally unable to connect to it. When I rolled my first Horde characters (an orc shaman and tauren warrior back in vanilla days) there was a real, concrete tone shift when I played them vs, when I played my Alliance characters. A sense of desperate odds, of outcasts banding together to stand against a hostile world, facing off against a monolithic power. That's gone. It's probably gone forever. Even after the events of Mists of Pandaria, it's impossible to view the faction that banded together from the events of Warcraft III as the same entity anymore - over the course of two expansions, the Horde went from underdogs to aggressors. And while I've heard many players say things like "the orcs are not the whole Horde" to attempt to distance ourselves, fact is, my tauren did the quests in Twilight Highlands. My blood elf led the charge onto Pandaria's shores, and he stole the Divine Bell so that Garrosh could make use of it. Up until patch 5.3, if you played Horde, there was no real way to not aid Garrosh's cause - you were complicit in everything that helped make the Warchief's plan work. The orcs may not be the whole Horde, but what excuse does that give your pandaren or forsaken, when they're the ones who delivered the keys to the kingdom into Garrosh's hands?
Feedback and what it does and doesn't do
For as long as I've been playing World of Warcraft (which is as long as it's been around) one thing I've seen over and over again is the constant debate between players about the forums and what they're for. Blizzard has stated repeatedly that they listen to player concerns and take feedback very seriously, but they've also stated that they don't design by committee. Still, we've seen design choices made with the player base and its reactions in place - Mists of Pandaria had a far more engaging and active endgame than did Cataclysm, and it evolved over the course of the expansion in response to player reaction. Similarly, many credit (or blame) the steep increase in difficulty in heroic dungeons between the end of Wrath of the Lich King and the neginning of Cataclysm on fanbase complaints. One question that seems to get asked a lot is does anyone at Blizzard care about the forums, which to my mind is a strange question to ask given the evidence I just cited. Clearly, player feedback (and not just from the forums, either) is something that Blizzard pays a lot of attention to. CM Takralus gave a brief on what, exactly, the CM's do with player feedback on the forums and how it is brought to the devs' attention. Let's talk a bit about feedback. When is it useful and when isn't it useful?
RIFT sees a player surge thanks to Steam
The near-ubiquity of Steam as a distribution platform can certainly drive players to your game. A little less than a week after RIFT launched on Steam, Trion Worlds is reporting that RIFT and Defiance have seen a combined influx of 250,000 new players, beating out the numbers reported both for the launch of Storm Legion and RIFT's free-to-play conversion. It's the largest influx of players the game has ever seen since its original launch, for that matter: Trion says it made for the "highest single day gain in new users" since the game first opened its doors. What does that mean for the long run? That's the eternal question. RIFT launched its most recent major patch yesterday, but whether or not it will encourage players new to the game to subscribe or buy things in the cash shop is up for debate. Regardless, it's a good sign of health for the game as a whole, so congratulations are in order to the RIFT team on the number bump. [Source: Trion Worlds press release]
'Old School' RuneScape grows to 1M players, opens God Wars dungeon
The "Old School" version of RuneScape has proven to be a hit with players, growing to over one million users. Jagex trumpeted the milestone along with a new update to the game bringing back the God Wars dungeon. Executive Producer Phil Mansell thinks that this shows classic servers have strong appeal for the community: "Seeing RuneScape Old School hit the million player mark so soon after launch is a great milestone for the game, and our players have joined the celebration by voting for the game's most epic update to date." Over 89% of the playerbase voted for the inclusion of the God Wars dungeon, in which groups will face-off against four bosses for a shot at a legendary Godsword and other shiny gear. You can check out the dungeon video after the break. [Source: Jagex press release]
Guild Wars 2 seeing 'slow but steady growth' in players
Buy-to-play games can be difficult to judge in terms of metrics. You can't point to the total number of people who have bought the game because there's no proof those people are still playing. Guild Wars 2 has sold plenty of boxes, and according to lead designer Isaiah Cartwright those boxes are translating to long-term players after all. In fact, Cartwright told Polygon that the game is experiencing growth in both overall and concurrent players after launch. While the game did experience a population drop after launch, Cartwright stressed that this was entirely normal and something that every designer should plan for. He declined to give hard numbers on player growth, but he did state that the game's current update plan came about as a result of looking at the game's metrics and determining what players were more likely to log in for. Guild Wars 1 is also apparently maintaining a solid number of players, and while the game is in maintenance mode, Cartwright states that it's in no risk of shutting down.
The Daily Grind: What's your ideal group size?
World of Warcraft is introducing flexible raids soon, allowing you to experience major content with any size of group that you want. Assuming, of course, that you want to experience that content with at least nine other people. The flexibility is nice, but it doesn't allow you to run with any group size that you want. But maybe that isn't an issue for you in the slightest. Maybe your ideal group size is a dozen people. Perhaps you'd prefer five people along with you, or seven, or just two. City of Heroes scaled most content to group size no matter what, asking players to bring as many people along as they liked and not worry about having too many or too few. So let's throw the question over to you, dear readers. What's your ideal group size? Are you happiest in small groups, pairs, large groups, or massive onslaughts whose numbers block out the sun? 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!
The useless distinction between casual and hardcore
If the words 'casual' and 'hardcore' ever had a useful role in determining the differences between players in World of Warcraft, and I am not convinced they ever did, they no longer do. A player who wants to have an alt of every single class at max level and makes that happen is not playing the game casually even if she never raids. A player who collects several hundred pets and levels many of them through pet battles, or has a similarly high number of mounts, or determines to go out and get every cooking recipe in the game (including Dirge's Kickin' Chimeraok Chops which you can't even get anymore but somehow he finds a way) is playing the game very seriously indeed. Quite frankly, despite the fact that I raid a set schedule, I often feel like I'm significantly more 'casual' than many players who never raid at all. I know I play a lot less - I definitely do not log on every day, I don't run LFR unless I missed a boss in normal (because I want a shot at my Secrets of the Empire off of that boss) and I don't do pet battles, farm, or even do daily quests anymore. So with my roughly fifteen hours of WoW a week, 12 of it spent inside a raid and the other three futzing about older raids for transmog gear, am I casual or hardcore? And does it matter? Ordinarily I'd explore the answer in the paragraphs to come. But frankly, the answer is no. It doesn't matter. It is so far from mattering that the light from it mattering won't reach us for fifty thousand years. What matters is finding out what players want to do with their time and letting them do it.
Halo 4 getting new Forge Island map for free on April 11
343 Industries has announced at PAX East this weekend that Halo 4 is getting a new Forge map, with plenty of blank, open canvas for Halo level makers to paint their creativity on. As you can see in the quick video on IGN's page, "Forge Island" actually has three different islands of varying size, all completely flat and round, to give map makers lots of room to build whatever they want.The map will also come with some new Forge pieces, which the developers have already used to build a copy of Hang 'Em High. 343 specifically asked at the panel if a fan would be kind enough to remake Blood Gulch on the biggest island, so that's possible too. The new map and related tools are all being released for free on April 11, just a few days after the Castle Map Pack arrives on April 8.
When things get better
There's no other way to put it - I was not having fun in World of Warcraft the past couple of months. A big chunk of that was my personal health woes, which are what they are and have nothing to do with the game. Since those have eased up, it's not surprising that I'd enjoy the game more than I was before. But what's come to my attention is how much of that "not having fun" had nothing to do with the game itself, nor my personal situation, but one person. One person in my guild made the game not fun for me. What's really amazing is, I only figured this out once that person wasn't around to ruin my good time. Daily quests? I've been doing them like gangbusters this week - to the point where, on some days I actually had to go back to Cataclysm content because I ran out of dailies to do. Heroic dungeons? Yup. Scenarios? Double yup. Raids? Been in the thick of 'em, and even increased my performance. Leveling alts? Yes I have. The only thing I haven't done is LFR, and that's because I don't need anything from it. I even hit up Sha of Anger, and I haven't looked at that guy in 2013.
BattleBlock Theater closed beta starts Feb. 28, still time to sign up
We've been following The Behemoth's followup to Castle Crashers, BattleBlock Theater, for years now – and it's almost, almost ready to play. The Behemoth has announced that the beta, which took signups back in January, will begin two weeks from now on February 28. Roughly ten thousand players will be allowed in, and The Behemoth says there's still time to become one of them. A new video of BattleBlock Theater, above, shows what the beta will look like. Count on there being laughter, merriment, and plenty of antlers.
The Daily Grind: How well do you know your in-game friends?
I'm a fairly open guy. As far as I'm concerned, my job makes me something of a public figure, and that means a certain amount of transparency is implied. So I don't shy away from letting people know who I am, and while I'm frequently roleplaying, I make an effort to get to know the people behind the characters. I like to get to know the people behind the characters to see who it is I'm playing with. Not everyone else feels the same way. For some people, logging in to play EVE Online means that it's EVE Online time, not time to play the game while talking about television in chat. That can lead to fewer long-term friendships that transcend the game, but it also means that you have a more immersive experience. So what about you? Do you get to know your in-game friends as people, or do you stick to just knowing them as characters? 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!
Mass Effect 3 enacts Operation Overdrive this weekend
The forces of Mass Effect 3 are back at it again this weekend, running a weekly event called Operation Overdrive. Just like the other events in this series, there's both a squad and an allied goal, with separate rewards for each.The squad goal this time will be to hit full extraction on any map in just 20 minutes or less, and that will nab you a Commendation Pack if completed. The Allied Goal is across all of the game's players, and asks for 200,000 extraction waves to be beaten in total. Completing that goal will get everyone involved a Victory Pack. Not to mention all of the lives that will be saved from repelling the Reaper invasion, right?
Temple Run breaks 100 million downloads
There's big news from Imangi Software, the husband-and-wife team behind the breakout iOS hit Temple Run. The game has picked up 100 million downloads in within a year on the App Store. The team has a lot to show for it, like a long time on the Top Free apps chart, plenty of microtransactions (surely), and even that Disney-branded spinoff for Brave. It's well deserved, as Temple Run is a great, fun game. And it's getting better still. The latest update brings high-res Retina Display graphics to the iPad. There's also a new powerup that will revive you at the end of a run, and the ability to turn off powerups whenever you want. All that comes with a few more bugfixes, so the game is running smoother than ever. Temple Run is a phenomenal success, and it's east to see why. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
The Soapbox: Why solo players don't just play a single-player game
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. When I play an MMO, I tend to play solo. This isn't because I outright dislike grouping -- I've said exactly the opposite before -- but when given the choice, I'll default to solo. I don't always have a reliable play schedule, I like having the freedom to start and stop projects at my whim, and most importantly, I like the option of just tuning out a bit and losing myself in a solitary romp every now and again. Some people get very bothered by this, though, and they really dislike the fact that there are solo players asking for more solo content. Sometimes it's rooted in a fear that solo content will interfere with group content, and sometimes it's because of the fear that no one will group if there's plenty to do solo, but the same argument gets brought up every time: "If you want to play solo, you should be playing a single-player game." Except they're not the same thing. Not by far. There are distinct benefits to playing in an MMO even if you prefer doing most content solo instead of in a group.
