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'Call of Duty: Warzone' studio will try to unionize without Activision Blizzard's blessing
Meanwhile, management is shuffling potential union members to new departments.
A group of Activision Blizzard workers is unionizing
QA testers at Raven Software are forming the first union at an AAA gaming company in North America.
Google Maps Q&A feature taps into local expertise
While it's still just a beta release, the latest version of Google Maps (9.59.0, available as an APK installation) has some new features worth looking at. Key among those is a "questions & answers" section that lets you pose a query about a restaurant or attraction like the Eiffel Tower. In response, you can "get advice from the owner & broader community," according to Google, including from Local Guides or other experts.
Uber can't even fake concern for drivers in Q&A session
Given how eager Uber seems to replace drivers with autonomous cars, a Q&A session conducted by Ridesharing President Jeff Jones on Facebook went about as well as you'd expect. He answered just a dozen or so questions (out of over 500) and cut the session off after less than half of the allotted 60-minute time. The worst part as far as the drivers were concerned, however, was that his responses to their existential concerns were mainly platitudes and irrelevant links.
Upcoming 'No Man's Sky' patch will fix most issues
No Man's Sky was released for PlayStation 4 last week, but not without its fair share of problems. Developer Hello Games is aware of the game's many bugs and glitches, and is working on a patch that will solve "the most critical issues" in the "near future."
Clinton and Kaine will answer your questions on Quora
Donald Trump's Reddit AMA was a bizarre affair, as the Republican candidate answered just a dozen questions while mods banned some 2,000 accounts. Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, will go in a completely different direction with a group Q&A on Quora, the hive mind site that answers any question, however idiotic. The session is now open, and the top question so far is "how will [Hillary Clinton] address Trump supporters' major concerns?"
Square Enix Montreal gets what makes mobile games great
Apple recently named Lara Croft Go its game of the year, and deservedly so. But the back-to-basics 2D puzzler wasn't developer Square Enix Montreal's first stab at mobile gaming. The studio was initially formed to work on a now-cancelled Hitman project for consoles and then transitioned to making premium smartphone and tablet games.Since releasing Hitman Go in 2014 the team has been quietly kicking a lot of ass in the space, launching the excellent Hitman Sniper and Lara Croft Go within roughly two months of each other. It's this type of repeat success that's afforded lead programmer Antoine Routon and his mobile-exclusive team at Square Enix Montreal the freedom to tinker with publisher Square Enix's biggest properties in fresh ways."We have a lot of creative freedom we acquired by delivering good games," he says. "What's the opposite of street cred? Exec cred?" he asks, laughing.
A chat with Black Hat's unconventional keynote speaker
The most interesting thing about Black Hat 2015 keynote speaker Jennifer Granick isn't her gender -- though she appears against a backdrop of historically male keynotes. It's that Granick is director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. She previously held the same position at the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- and is known for defending some of the more notorious criminal hackers around, including Kevin Poulsen, Aaron Swartz, Jerome Heckenkamp and the hackers in the Diebold Election Systems case. Being the keynote speaker at the Black Hat conference means she's about to go front and center with the very organizations and government entities her clients have hacked. Granick is joining a colorful catalog of former keynoters who tend to represent the interests of the international cybersecurity conference's corporate-enterprise and government attendees.
We're hosting a Q&A with the US Labor Secretary about the 'gig economy'
Services like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb and Postmates are hallmarks of what's being called the "gig economy." And while presidential candidate Hillary Clinton remarked that companies like these are "unleashing innovation," they've also raised questions about workplace protections. So, to answer some of your questions (and ours), we're hosting a Facebook Q&A this Monday, July 27th at 5PM ET with Department of Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
Leafly: the web's ultimate cannabis resource
In July of 2014, New York State did what few thought possible at the time: Its legislature passed Assembly Bill 6357 (better known as the Compassionate Care Act of 2014), which effectively legalized medical cannabis; a bill Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law. Less than a week after he did so, Leafly, a cannabis information database, made headlines of its own by running an advertisement in The New York Times' -- the first of its kind in the venerable newspaper's 163-year history. Cannabis, both as an industry and as a subculture, is quickly coming out of the shadows and entering the mainstream. Nowhere is this more explicit than in the meteoric rise of Leafly. So to get some insight into the company's rapid growth and future plans, I recently spoke with co-founder Cy Scott and CEO Brendan Kennedy about where Leafly came from and what it's like to be an industry pioneer.
Join us for an Apple Watch Q&A on Facebook! (update: it's over!)
If you're on the fence about getting an Apple Watch (though it's going to be a while before you can strap on one of your own), you probably have some questions that our detailed review might not answer. We've employed our very own Deputy Managing Editor James Trew, who's been playing with one for about a week to answer your questions in a Facebook Q&A. For the next hour, post a question in the thread below and we'll answer them! (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Do you have questions about the Apple Watch? Our own Deputy Managing Editor James Trew is here to answer your questions... Posted by Engadget on Friday, May 1, 2015 Photo: Will Lipman
The Queue: This should be somber and dignified
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) really wishes she could keep answering questions forever. Honestly though the thing I loved best about Fraggle Rock was that it was really, really weird. Red asked: Q for Loremaster Anne: can you sum up the entire Warcraft story in a single paragraph? I think I'll borrow a perfectly applicable quote from one of my favorite authors: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
The Queue: Let's talk about Fraggles and Warcraft
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today! You know what? I loved Fraggle Rock when I was a kid, and I still do today. When I was a kid, it was all about the music and the story, and as I grew older, it was all about the slow and astonishing realization that a few pieces of felt and a couple of ping-pong googly eyes felt really real. It wasn't the felt or the googly eyes, it was the person operating that device as a vehicle for delivering authentic emotion. More importantly, it was the wide-eyed audience that watched it all and somewhere in their heart of hearts held the little spark of belief that it all was real. Basically what it boils down to is this: You can set the stage and build the parts, but without that genuine exchange between actor and audience, you've got nothing but a shell. Shells are nothing. The rest of it, that's the really amazing part, the part that can't be easily replaced. With that, let's answer some weekend questions, why don't we? BaronoftheLake asked: QFTQ: Where is the Exodar on Draenor? I haven't seen any Draenei ships in Draenor, and I thought that was rather strange. The Exodar was originally one section of Tempest Keep -- but Tempest Keep didn't arrive on Draenor until after it had already shattered into Outland. It's not a draenei ship, it's a naaru vessel -- it's the ship A'dal and the rest of the Sha'tar arrived on. There is one other naaru vessel on Draenor, but it's half-buried in Nagrand and falling apart.
The Queue: Dinosaurs, Twitter Questions, and a hug
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today. I don't really have a favorite dinosaur. Or it's more like I have so many favorite dinosaurs I can't pick one. And to be honest when I do sit down and think about my favorite dinosaurs, my opinion changes with the research to a degree. At the moment, I'm fond of Deinocheirus with those massive arms. But a lot of people ask me what's the deal with all the dinosaurs, like there's a proper age to like them, and I'm way, way over the limit. So I'll try, just this once, to explain what the deal is with the dinosaurs. They were our superiors. They were better suited to life on Earth than the mammals. This is indisputable. They first arose 231 million years ago during the Triassic, at a time where our own therapsid ancestors were recovering from a mass extinction that nearly wiped out all life on Earth, just as the mammals were starting to evolve. Our ancestors. Us, in potential. And our ancestors, with their highly evolved teeth, with the start of the mammalian body plan that we see today in everything from tigers to dogs to sheep to cattle, lost the competition with the archosaurian dinosaur clans. It's just that simple. For over one hundred and thirty five million years, mammals went head to head against dinosaurs in the evolutionary arms race. And in all that time no mammal larger than a modern housecat thrived. The dinosaurs won. Their dominion was so total that even after the extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, it was birds that first evolved into truly massive predators feeding on our mammal ancestors. So that's it. Dinosaurs are proven winners. They lasted for one hundred and thirty five million years, and they still exist today in the form of birds. And you'll notice that no mammal has managed to push birds out of their aerial niches. So yeah, I like dinosaurs, and I see no reason not to keep liking them for the rest of my life. I realize this was a huge digression, but to be honest, it simply wouldn't have been right for me not to talk about dinosaurs in this edition of The Queue. This edition of the Queue will likely be very, very long. I got quite a few questions on Twitter, and there's 981 comments, so we're going to try and get through as many of those as we can. Sean Boyle asks: Here's one for you Rossi. Why haven't we seen any Naga or Ethereals on Draenor? Naga are native to Azeroth. The ones we saw on Outland were part of Lady Vashj's contingent, pledged to Illidan's service. Etherals are also not native to Draenor, but were cosmic exiles whose native world of K'aresh was destroyed by Dimensius the All-Devouring, and in the process of trying to save their people from his arcane devastation the Ethereals lost their corporeal forms. Neither group was on Draenor thirty five years ago in our timeline, and as a result, they aren't on the alternate Draenor we now explore.
The Queue: Archaeology, specs, and a personal note about this column
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today. A few days ago I was trying to reflect on what my favorite Queue of all time was -- and I think it's the one where I announced my engagement to my wife. First, it was the initial time that I thought to myself, "I really love the community we have here. They're a whole lot better than a lot of the other junk on the internet." Secondly, the post marked such a momentous occasion in my life, and one that I will always hold close to my heart, that it has some major sentimental connotations. Let's jump into the questions, going loudly into that good night. Pvpscrub asked: QFTQ: Is there a catchup mechanism for Archaeology?
The Queue: Twitter Edition
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today! I've had this song stuck in my head for a couple of days, so now you guys get it. Today's Queue is a special Twitter edition, because oh my gosh 1,700 comments and there is no way I'm going to be able to sift through all of that for questions, guys! But let's get to the good stuff, shall we? @WarlockTriqz asked: How do we get that new mount that Blizz announced? Boy I wish I knew! But I really have no idea -- however, the purple color scheme and books/runes on the kitty make me think it might be something legendary quest related. I mean, we have Khadgar, who's all Kirin Tor which is all about the purple and the runes, and we have the Watchers hanging out with him, and they all ride nightsabers, presumably. So maybe something tied into that? Alternatively, maybe a tie-in for Heroes of the Storm, but I'm not sure about that one.
The Queue: Anne's Story Hour
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today! It's Sunday, the day of rest and apparently of rambling on about stories in my head, and as such I'll go ahead and indulge the few people that asked the question below. Don't worry, I've also got plenty of other far more pertinent questions to answer as well! Ligkvaern asked: I made an account just to ask this, damn you! ...What happens in Kharazhan, in your head? robertjamesftw also commented: Anne. ANNE. You may NOT tease us with hints about your head-canon and/or the stories you create in there and not share them! C'mon! Give!! I can take a hint. Please note -- none of this is actually what's going to happen in the next expansion. I have no idea what's coming in the next expansion. This is just stuff I made up in my head that seemed to make sense given what we already know. Okay? Moving on, and continuing from where I left off on Wednesday:
The Queue: I still miss Karazhan
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today! I'm glad so many people liked the fill in job I did with Wednesday's Queue. Fun fact: I've actually given way more thought to the whole tie-in idea than absolutely necessary over the past couple of months. For those that thought the answer was interesting, it's what happens next in Karazhan that is really interesting. Or would be. If it were, you know, real and not made up in my head. I miss Karazhan. adidast05 asked: Did I read that follower upgrades will no longer drop from salvage ? Follower armor set pieces will no longer drop from salvage crates -- the items that equip your follower with an ilvl 615/630 weapon or armor. Weapon Enhancements (the items that simply upgrade your weapon or armor ilvl by a certain number), are still dropping from Big Crates of Salvage as it stands on the PTR.
The Queue: Awesome Werewolf Superpowers
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today. Guys, I love you all as if you were my children. My children who leave a lot of comments in the comment section. So many comments. 737 comments as of this moment. That is a lot of questions, statements, pictures, videos, non sequitur, all sorts of things. I have to admit, on nights when I can't sleep (that's all of them) going through the Queue is like a portal into another dimension. Luckily, they still play WoW over there. Chrth asks: Q4TQ: If you were one of the humans on Fenris Isle, would you have chosen to become a Worgen or to be raised as one of the Forsaken? Consider this from a real life perspective, not game-wise (e.g. "Worgen because I love the Alliance" is not what I'm looking for). Would I rather be trapped in a rotting corpse that's slowly deteriorating, forced to consume the flesh of the living and unable to feel, or would I rather have awesome werewolf superpowers? Yeah, that's a toughie. I guess I'd have to go with awesome werewolf superpowers.
The Queue: I see only darkness before me
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today! The first time my raid guild killed Arthas and this cinematic popped up is also one of the few times in memory that everyone in the guild, including the raid leader, shushed anyone who dared speak up in vent. Someone tried to say something and was immediately silenced. It was pretty cool, actually, given that most of them weren't really anywhere near into the lore as myself. Arthas was just that iconic, I think. Speaking of Arthas, time to answer some questions! Drindaar_Lightkeeper asked: Q4tQ: Do you think Blizzard will ever return to the scourge and Lich King storyline? I know Arthas is dead, but there are still plenty of scourge out there and a new Lich King is sitting on the throne. I feel like there is still a major threat there. We're done with that particular chapter of the story, for now. Bolvar's holding everything in check presumably -- he was the only one with the will to resist the Lich King, even in his deep-fried state. It takes a powerful kind of hero to do that successfully. If, at some point, Bolvar should falter, then we'd have a problem. But I don't think that's really going to be explored anytime soon, there are too many other directions to explore first.
