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Apple's French offices raided by competition authorities
Apple's French headquarters was raided recently. Over a 24-hour period, French competition authorities entered Apple's offices and went through documents involving Apple and the distributors it works with, looking for some sign of impropriety. The raid was reportedly brought on by a French company called eBizcuss, which went to the French authorities to complain that Apple (whose products eBizcuss sells exclusively) was holding back stock for its own stores rather than sharing new products with distributors. eBizcuss filed a complaint, and that led to the investigation. The French government has bumped up against Apple on competition before, first in its iOS App Store and then regarding the price of digital downloads. But so far, no charges have been brought forward, so we'll have to see what becomes of whatever information was found during this raid.
Siege of Orgrimmar Boss Preview: General Nazgrim
I'm not even going to sugar coat it. As a main Alliance player, I was delighted to get a chance to put the General in his place and strike down one of the Horde leaders. But as with the case of most PTR boss encounters, it was not to be. The General thoroughly kicked my behind all over the place. You'll find the General in the Ragefire Chasm area of Orgrimmar. He's expected to be the 8th encounter you'll find and he's surrounded by a large number of grunts. The General will call upon his Kor'kron legions to aid him periodically in battle. You'll be fending off waves of the Kor'kron while simultaneously battling through the different stances and rage abilities of the General. Read on for a little preview on what he does and my impressions of him!
The Soapbox: Tokens suck!
A few weeks ago we reported on a somewhat silly article in which the author advocated that studios could and should charge players real money transaction fees to trade items. I didn't see a lot of people in favor of this idea, but I definitely agreed with one thing that he pointed out: MMOs have become increasingly anti-trade in practice. It's not something that I've thought a lot about recently, but once this article triggered some introspection, I realized that the issue of trade (particularly relating to restrictions) has become a growing frustration of mine. My veteran characters in several MMOs are absolutely loaded -- with basic currency, that is (usually gold). And yet I am sitting on this Scrooge McDuck pile of wealth with no useful things to buy because (a) everything seems to take tokens these days and (b) so much of the good stuff in games is bind-to-character (or bind-to-account). I started feeling fidgety and then I let out a grunt of frustration. Tokens, in a word, suck.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Siege of Orgimmar raid testing schedule
Welcome to the first of many upcoming raid tests on the patch 5.4 PTR! The Siege of Orgrimmar is about to take place and both the Horde and the Alliance are invited! This is your chance to preview the upcoming encounters in a blank slate with no prior information. No strategies. No videos. No writeups. It's going to be you, your raid, and your brains as you figure out how to best these encounters (or break them). Blizzard will be starting with 10-player encounters before moving on to their Heroic and 25-player iterations. Testing starts Monday, June 24 and Tuesday, June 25. Like the previous Throne of Thunder tests for patch 5.2, the bosses will only be available for a limited window of time. Get your characters copied over or create a new level 90 premade if you wish to help! Monday, June 24 Fallen Protectors - 10 Player Normal - 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST) Kor'kron Dark Shaman (Who are the Dark Shaman?) - 10 Player Normal - 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST) Tuesday, June 25 Immerseus - 10 Player Normal - 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST) General Nazgrim - 10 Player Normal 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST) Catch the official blue post after the jump!
Patch 5.4 PTR: Datamined NPC, mount, and pet models
Along with the recently released patch 5.4 patch notes, our friends at MMO-Champion have data-mined some new models including armor for tier 16 and season 14 gear. Garrosh Hellscream gets a new look and we get a sneak peek at the latest sha! Everything behind the cut contains spoilers for the upcoming patch 5.4. Click through and view at your own risk! Please note: This post contains spoilers for patch 5.4.
Robotoki offices stormed by LAPD after designer unknowingly presses panic button
Robotoki, the development studio founded last year by ex-Call of Duty creative strategist Robert Bowling, was stormed by LAPD forces last Thursday after its offices' silent alarm system was activated by an unnamed designer on his way out of the building. Bowling, the only employee on site at the time, was temporarily taken into custody while the building was cleared by a four-man team – a process that involved a momentary standoff with Bowling's life-size statue of Modern Warfare 2 character Simon "Ghost" Riley, pictured above. "Our studio is equipped with a 'panic' alarm in case of an armed threat, which was installed yesterday," Bowling told Polygon. "One of our designers, who shall not be shamed, pressed it on his way out because apparently when boys find buttons that they are unsure of, their first instinct is to push it." The true cause of the incident remained unclear until security footage Bowling reviewed the day's security footage. No charges were filed or fines levied due to the false alarm.
Lindvior touches down in Lineage 2 today
Today's the day that the goddess Shilen unleashes her fury on the world of Aden in the form of her champion, the dragon Lindvior, Lord of the Western Winds. But Lineage II's latest update, Lindvior Goddess of Destruction, brings more than just this epic dragon boss to test the mettle of players. It also adds more Awakened classes (bringing the total from eight to 34), three new zones, and plenty of new armor and weapons. On top of that, players will have a new character customization system with over 100 new looks. Gon Namkung, L2's development director, stated, "This is by far the most intricate challenge that players have ever faced in Lineage II throughout its long and storied history. The entire Lineage II development team is proud of this achievement and we are confident only the best players will defeat Lindvior." He continued, "We issue this challenge to all our players, who will defeat Lindvior first!?" [Sourse: NCsoft press release]
RIFT removes currency-boosting effects for raids
Trion Worlds Lead Game Designer Bill Fisher has announced that RIFT won't be allowing raiders to use item store tokens to boost ultra-rare currency gains. In a forum thread titled RIFT is officially pay-to-win, Fisher addressed the concern over the upcoming item shop's impact in the raiding game. The specific beef was with item store tokens that offered a substantial boost to all currency gained in the game over a period of time. Trion has since nerfed the token's potency (from 100% currency bonus to 80%) as well as removed the ability to gain extra Frozen Eclipse Stones from it. Fisher explained that he decided to remove the token effect because he felt it was crossing the line of what is and is not acceptable from a cash shop. "I don't want you to have the perception that to take part in that section of the game you are going to be forced into buying something," Fisher wrote. "RIFT doesn't win the race by trying to be exploitative of any given group -- yes, it has to make money to continue getting updates, and I know everyone out there understands that."
Why raiders and multiboxers are overestimated
Recently, Blizzard Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street tweeted the following: Two things that the forum posting / tweeting community tend to overestimate: number of multiboxers, number of players interested in raiding. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) May 11, 2013 This was something of a surprising tweet. Now, of course, there are several subjective notions in there, but it merits some discussion nonetheless. Firstly, what is considered the forum posting or tweeting community? It seems that this would simply be those who regularly contribute to either of those venues, putting it simply, and indeed those with whom he is in regular contact. Do you consider yourself part of either community? And why does that community overestimate the number of people raiding or multiboxing, if they do at all? Confirmation Bias Confirmation bias is a cognitive science term, that describes a human tendency to search for, remember or interpret information in such a way that it confirms one's own preconceptions. A fine example of this is the "everybody thinks X" idea, which crops up a lot. If you believe that, for example, frost mages don't have enough burst, you might seek out other opinions that support your own, and partly ignore the clamoring crowd who assert that frost mage burst is out of control. Confirmation bias is particularly prevalent on the internet, where it's almost always possible to find another opinion that supports your own.
The false memory of WoW's difficult past
Vanilla raiding was not mechanically more difficult than current raiding. In fact, in terms of encounter difficulty, raiding in World of Warcraft has never been as challenging to remember and execute as it is right now. Fights like Lei Shen, Twin Consorts, Iron Qon, and Durumu ask players to learn mechanics and execute awareness at a level rivaled only by fights like Mimiron's Firefighter mode. And I'm not even talking heroic difficulty for those fights. Yes, it was often harder to get 40 people together, I'm not disputing that. But that's not design difficulty, that's social difficulty. The argument that WoW was objectively harder back then is beyond absurd. I was there for all of those raids. I've raided in vanilla, in BC, in Wrath, and in Cataclysm. I've done hard modes and heroic modes since they were introduced. I'm neither the cutting edge progression raider nor someone who raids occasionally for fun -- I've been everywhere from a raider pushing for realm firsts to one leading a semi-casual 10-man while tanking. One thing I can and will say with absolute certainty is this: every single expansion to World of Warcraft has increased the complexity of the raid design.
Depths of Uldaman: Why we should go back
I wrote a KYL this week talking about Uldaman, and one thing became clear to me very quickly - there's a ton of things we haven't done in Uldaman yet. We barely explore the place at all, really - the Map Room we find during the dungeon clearly shows many, many more buildings than the few we actually explore, and it's telling that the Reliquary dig and the Explorer's League digsite are half the length of the Badlands away from each other. Furthermore, the long Wrathion quest chain makes it clear that there was a lot going on in Uldaman - the Eye of the Watchers used to purify Wrathion's egg comes from Uldaman. Uldaman is often referred to as one of three Titan cities along with Uldum and Ulduar, but unlike those two it has barely been explored due to its position buried beneath the Badlands. It's possible that the original Uldaman complex reaches as far as Khaz Modan (both Gnomeregan and Ironforge are settled by beings that would have traced their descent to Uldaman, and the troggs flooding into Gnomeregan are escaping from Titan vaults that are part of the Uldaman complex) which would mean that its size rivals the Storm Peaks Titan complexes that were part of the Forge of Wills inside Ulduar or the vast Uldum ruins.
Samsung Display HQ searched by police in probe over stolen LG OLED tech
We had hoped that the dispute between Samsung and LG over their OLED tech would be resolved soon but recent developments suggest that may not be the case. Bloomberg reports Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency investigators entered the Samsung Display HQ in Asan as they look into the possibility that LG partners may have leaked secrets of its technology. A Samsung spokesperson denied any involvement, and an LG spokesperson is quoted saying the police made the allegation themselves. This comes after Yonhap News reported last month that LG accused Samsung of illegally using its patented technology and demanded Samsung Display and Samsung Electronics pay for the rights. While these two continue to duke it out legally, we have yet to see an OLED HDTV from either arrive in the US and it seems like it may be quite some time until that happens.
LSI and Intel put 1TB worth of SSD cache on a Nytro MegaRAID board
RAID cards are one of the more difficult things in the technology world to get excited about. Especially since most of these discrete add-on boards are really aimed at enterprise users, not media centers or gaming rigs. But, we've got to hand it to LSI and Intel for knowing how to make a splash. The companies caught our attention by slapping a pair of 512GB SSDs on a Nytro MegaRAID PCIe card. While there are a couple of models of the controllers, it's the RCS25ZB040LX specifically that's carrying the 1TB of flash storage. The media isn't meant for installing programs or archiving data, though, instead its dedicated cache for the controller. All that blazing fast SLC flash should help speed up any task that is reliant on frequent random reads. We don't think you'll be picking up one of these SandForce-powered bad boys for your personal server though, even an entry level version with 100GB of SLC will set you back $1,795.
Hyperspace Beacon: Six reasons Rise of the Hutt Cartel makes SWTOR better
I don't work for BioWare, and I definitely don't believe that Star Wars: The Old Republic is the greatest, most ambitious project in videogame history. However, I do believe that SWTOR is a great game, and its expansion Rise of the Hutt Cartel only makes the game better. It's not because Makeb has waterfalls. (Sure, a concept artist said that, but did that really need to make it into the final promotional video?) I think fans forget that Rise of the Hutt Cartel is not just Makeb. There are multiple additions to the core game, like new armor sets and questlines. Over the past month, I've had the opportunity to play through all of it. And for the first time in a long time, I can't wait to play through the single-player questline. Let me give you the highlights of my experience and what I believe are the best parts of RotHC.
Hyperspace Beacon: A wretched operation of Scum and Villainy, part 2
Thankfully, we can all stop wondering when the expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic is releasing and get down to the business of preparing our characters for the new content. Part of preparing for Rise of the Hutt Cartel is knowing what you're getting into when it comes to the new operation. A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to run Scum and Villainy with Memories of Xendor, one of the top guilds in the game. You might remember these guys from my Hyperspace Beacon about the tools of the raid. This group created the real-time combat parser that my own guild and I use regularly. Last week, I reported that the first three bosses were just the calm before the storm. That storm begins right away with the Operations Chief, thunders mightily with Olok, gusts onward with the Warlords, then reaches its pinnacle with Dreadmaster Styrak.
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR, a wretched operation of Scum and Villainy, part 1
Sometimes it's good to be me. When I mentioned that I had not had a chance to test out the latest operation in Star Wars: The Old Republic Rise of the Hutt Cartel on the public test server, one of my Twitch followers known as Jedi Consular put me in touch with the Memories of Xendor guild. You might remember that guild from my column about the tools of the raid. Its members made the real-time parser that I use all the time. MoX invited me to join a 16-man Scum and Villainy operation last Thursday. When we started the raid, I was shocked to find out that we were running hardmode. My groupmates told me they don't even run storymodes anymore. They skip right to the most difficult. I want to give a big thank you to Tensa, Jedi Consular, and MoX guild for helping make this article possible. Because of this group of awesome gamers, I experienced the complete raid. From Dash'roode to Dread Master Styrak, we fought every boss. SWTOR has expanded as a raiding game; each boss has its own merits and shows the game's growth from the previous raids. Read on to get my breakdown. However, I will warn you: There are major mechanics and story spoilers.
Zotac's StreamBox and RAIDbox build upon the ZBOX's HTPC pedigree
Zotac has this media-friendly SFF computer thing pretty much nailed. For years the company has been churning out ever smaller machines purpose built for living rooms and media servers. The StreamBox and RAIDbox aren't standalone computers, but accessories that build on the home theater capabilities of their ZBOX PCs. The StreamBox pushes content to your TV from a laptop, Android smartphone or tablet using DLNA or Miracast for mirroring your portable's display. In addition to the 10/100 Ethernet jack and dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n radios, there's also a USB port on board for connecting external storage devices. What kind of storage devices, you ask? Well, how about the USB 3.0 RAIDbox that was unveiled alongside the StreamBox. The box itself doesn't ship with any drives inside, but you can slip in a pair of mSATA SSDs and it wont even require an external power supply. Sadly, the really important details like price and availability haven't been announced, but you can still read the PR after the break.
LotRO's Update 10 springs into action
Lord of the Rings Online raiders rejoice: Today marks the end of a very long wait for Riders of Rohan raids. Update 10: Against the Shadow, Part II ushers in the second half of the expansion's instance cluster as well as some fairly significant stat changes as the dev team prepares for wide-sweeping class revamps. The new instances include a six-person fight, The Bells of Dale, plus a trio of 12-person raids: Flight to the Lonely Mountain, the Fires of Smaug, and the Battle for Erebor. Update 10 has beefed up fate's effects and made agility the Warden's primary stat. Also included with the patch are several new store options, the ability to turn off forced emoting, the removal of dread upon defeat on the landscape, and new scaling for all of the In Their Absence instances. You can read the patch notes on the official site.
Allods posts a preview of the upcoming Pyramid dungeon
Pyramids aren't just for ancient pharaohs or Mayans. In Allods Online, a pyramid is the site of one of the game's newest dungeons coming out with the upcoming Lords of Destiny expansion. Of course, this pyramid is also covered in magical runes and filled with the sort of enemies that require a strong level 55 raid to defeat, but isn't that always the way? Pyramids never wind up being summer bungalows for retirees. All joking aside, the Pyramid is a construction of the ancient Tep, a necromancer who studied the essence of life itself and tried to capture it inside of his stronghold. His work led to the origin of the Arisen, but he still waits within his stronghold as a vengeful shade intent on harvesting more life. Allods Online players can find more information on the dungeon layout and bosses in the full rundown on the official site.
Ready to storm the Throne of Thunder
With patch 5.2 around the horizon, one of the things I've noticed in my guild is the energizing effect of the incoming content. Our flagging interest has been restored - we're even killing new heroic bosses that we hadn't gotten around to with recent events getting in the way. If there was an opposite to a sensation of impending doom, patch 5.2 has it in spades. An impending sense of hope and optimism? Whatever it is, it's real and I'm seeing it everywhere I turn. Being the kind of person who usually flees from hope like a vampire flees from a subprime mortgage (they prefer to buy outright, those crafty vampires) I find this experience confusing, baffling, and a little worthy of study. I don't recall so much excitement for a patch in recent memory. So what's got everyone so excited about patch 5.2? Dinosaur mounts. Okay, there's more to it than that, or the dinomancers with their dinomancy (and yes, I would love to play a dinomancer) or the chance to wipe out the Zandalar once and for all, which as a Hero of the Zandalar Tribe I'm a little conflicted about. A lot more, actually. But those things certainly don't hurt.
