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Upvote while you showboat with Xbox One's Reddit app
Xbox One becomes the first console to get a Reddit-based app when Reddx launches on the console today in the US and Canada. Fans of the aggregation site/social hub/gif-abase can snap in the exclusive Reddx app, allowing them to play games or watch shows in one window while upvoting and downvoting in the other. According to the developer Stern Beast, ReddX supports image panning and zooming; gif playing with rewind, pause and fast forward features; and full input support across controller, voice, Kinect gestures, SmartGlass, USB keyboards and Xbox One media remotes. Also, it's free to all Xbox One users, so yes, you can lose yourself to the time-eating clutches of the Trees Sucking at Things subreddit without a Gold membership.
You can now browse Reddit from your Xbox One
The internet's front page is coming to an Xbox One near you. ReddX is what Microsoft is calling the first ever Reddit app for TVs and it'll allow you to browse through r/gaming or the rest of the site while you're, you know, playing games, and it's rolling out today. A post on Xbox Wire notes that there are media-specific achievements to unlock that are named after gaming memes (Scumbag EA, perhaps?) and there's even a customized main page. More than that, you'll be able to upvote, comment and perform any of the site's functions while holding an Xbox One controller or SmartGlass device. You can also control GIFs, view image galleries and even watch embedded YouTube videos without leaving the app, and, because it's on the Xbox One it can of course be snapped in alongside something else and is controllable with voice. To show off just how it all works, Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb wrote a post to Reddit directly from the application.
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.
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for July 14, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. Be sure that your podcast software is set up to subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
How Aaron Swartz went from internet activist to martyr
In 2000 Aaron Swartz was just a terrifyingly smart 14 year-old. He was a faceless name on a mailing list, quietly contributing code and copy to RSS 1.0. Roughly twelve years later, in January of 2013, he became an unfortunate casualty in an ongoing battle that pits the government and its business allies against a growing army of online activists.
Carbine spotlights WildStar's PvE raid design
WildStar's raid team has just completed a Reddit ask-me-anything about -- you guessed it -- raids in the upcoming sci-fantasy themepark. Lead Dungeon and Raid Designer Brett Scheinert (aka CRB_Timetravel) was joined by an array of Carbine Studios developers to answer player questions about the large PvE encounters in the elder game. Here are a few highlights: Which encounter will "cause the most tears"? That'd be Avatus, the last boss of Datascape, Scheinert says, but the elemental pairs in Datascape will be rough too. "Because [they] change every week (and there are 9 possibilities, each of which is almost an entirely new encounter), guilds will spend an entire week reaching then learning a pairing... then the instance will reset and they'll be back to ground zero." At least at launch, raid tools will be "in the hands of the addon developers." "Voice chat definitely helps but is not necessary." Additional post-launch raid content is "in development," so raid tiers will be flexible. The team won't "admit defeat that easily" should 40-man raids prove unpopular. Enrage timers "just feel lame," so the devs are using them sparingly. Casual players won't be able to extend lockout timers at launch. Carbine is still sorting out how latency will affect Oceanic players in raids. There's plenty more to consume over on Reddit!
WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney praises ESO's marketing
In a recent thread on Reddit's Elder Scrolls Online subreddit, a user by the name of Nuclayer posted that he was curious about the approach ZeniMax and Bethesda are taking for the paid promotion of the newly launched fantasy MMO. "Maybe I just missed all the stuff about it," the user says, "but from my personal perspective [it] feels like they really didn't put that much into letting us know about this game." Because WildStar was mentioned in the post as a game that's doing marketing right, Carbine's Jeremy Gaffney jumped into the thread to offer his own opinion. "Elder Scrolls is redonculously huge as a franchise," the WildStar Exec Producer offers. "Skyrim sold, what, 16 million copies? So everyone knows about it in advance - check out the Facebook, TESO has literally 10x the likes. So Zen can be much more broad in their marketing." Gaffney goes on to explain quite candidly the marketing strategy for WildStar and how his studio is probably spending way less than ZeniMax did on ESO. He makes sure to give plenty of kudos to ZeniMax for what it's done so far with ESO. Check out the whole thread for more from the fans of both games. Spoiler alert: It's actually a friendly Reddit thread.
Here are some of the best reaction GIFs according to Reddit
Sometimes there's no better way to respond to a story or a comment than with an animated GIF. Specifically, a reaction GIF, which should be no stranger to anyone who's ever spent a significant amount of time in online chat rooms and internet message boards. And out of the millions of GIFs out there, a few have risen to the top. Which ones? Well, the Museum of the Moving Image has asked the Reddit community to come up with what it deems as the 37 most frequently deployed GIFs on the internet for an exhibit. After looking through the submissions, we have to admit there are definitely some familiar GIFs on here (We've seen the Homer Simpson fading into the bushes animation one too many times for example). If you want to check out the whole list, either head over to the source link or visit the museum in-person before the exhibit closes on May 15th. Meanwhile, we've decided to pair up some of our latest stories with a few from the list for a bit of fun. Check 'em out after the break.
AlienTube lets you replace YouTube comments with Reddit threads
YouTube is a wonderful part of living in modern times. Right now with a few simple keystrokes you can find video of almost anything from a tiny hamster eating tiny burritos to news reports directly from war zones. There are two tradeoffs for using YouTube. The first, advertising, is just part of paying for all this free content, but the second is a bane to most reasonable human beings. I speak, of course, of the comment section. YouTube's comment section is notorious for its cruelty, racism, profanity, and general trolling. It's often an unpleasant place to be, but now you can banish it from your life. AlienTube is a new extension for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera that replaces your normal YouTube comments with Reddit comments. Instead of YouTube's comments, AlienTube shows you the sub-Reddits a video has been on, with tabs for each different sub-Reddit. Users can comment and vote directly from the YouTube site. This makes it easy to find the sort of discussion you're looking for, while avoiding the riffraff that YouTube's comment section has become notorious for. You can download the extension right here for free.
Today's Elder Scrolls Online AMA discusses bug fixes, housing, spellcrafting, and more
The Elder Scrolls Online's Paul Sage, Matt Firor, Rich Lambert, Brian Wheeler, and Nick Konkle descended upon Reddit today along with a bevy of community managers to run another ask-me-anything, perfectly timed after the release of this morning's release of ZeniMax's plans for the game in 2014. Here are just a few of the highlights: Spellcrafting will involve the rediscovering of "traditional" Elder Scrolls schools of magic, like alteration and destruction. Wheeler hinted that aesthetic changes might be en route for the Imperial City. There are no current plans for smaller scale PvP zones or dueling. Grouping, werewolf, quest achievement, and PvP vampire issues are being worked on. SLI support arrives with Craglorn. Lambert confirmed the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood will have their own skill lines. There's no time-frame for player housing right now. "We want to do it right," Community Manager Jessica Folsom said. Guar mounts are also planned sans timeline. Aside from weekly stability patches and "after the dust settles," the team still plans content updates every four to six weeks. The complete AMA is on Reddit for your review. [With thanks to tipster Leiloni!]
Reddit is looking for someone to build their iOS app
It isn't hyperbole to say that reddit has had a dramatic impact on the Internet since its birth in 2005. From political discussion to comedy to providing an occasionally creepy home for the net's dark side, reddit's reach includes almost every demographic of web surfer. There's just one hitch; the (currently) 59th biggest website in the world, the one that thrives on easy discussion and interaction, doesn't have a mobile app. Users who are away from their computers are stuck navigating the web of text on the site via their tiny mobile device screens. Thankfully the era of an app-less reddit seems to be coming to an end. The company is hiring someone to bringing reddit to the iOS store. In a post today the reddit told users exactly what they're looking for. reddit is going mobile and hiring mobile app developers. The world is going mobile, and so is reddit. We're hiring developers to help us build and maintain apps to highlight great content from reddit for a broader, global audience. Our focus is on making it easier for people to find great content on reddit through mobile apps, clean design and machine learning. Our team will also works closely with our amazing third-party developers to help them build successful apps to allow more people use reddit the way they want to use it. We have a collaborative team with a mix of design, full-stack, data and PM skills. Your role will be to build an app that combines great design, the best content from the front page of the internet, and algorithm-based recommendations. We're about bringing choice to users and bringing great content as well. We'd love your help trying new approaches, testing boundaries and creating beautiful products to share the world's best content and communities. Skills & Requirements Love mobile apps. We're excited about the potential of mobile and how it will change how we share our content with the world. Be fearless. No idea is too crazy and no problem is too hard. We're big on experimentation, trying and trying again. And we love the idea of trying something new. Be curious. Help us figure out what is working, what isn't working, and why. Be data-oriented and love the user.Have a sound appreciation for simplicity. The options are endless; our focus is on hiding the complexity from users and making our apps simple. The magic of the apps should be how simple it is for people to find great content and communities on reddit. Get things done. Our team is small, but our vision is large. We use Hall and IRC to share ideas and coordinate. We make decisions and move fast. Experience shipping apps on a quick release cycle is a plus. Front end experience. Strong Java skills (for Android) or Objective C (for iOS or Mac apps) are needed. A design background (Android/iOS/HTML design/styling/layout work) is helpful. Love users. We want to help users find great content and communities that are interesting to them. We protect and respect user privacy. Be able to work in San Francisco, CA. Our office is in San Francisco, we love it here, and you should, too. If you're interested in applying for the gig you can submit an application here.
John Smedley discusses H1Z1 monetization
Player characters in H1Z1 won't be concerned with money, seeing as how they'll be busy trying to fortify themselves against hordes of shambling zombies. Sony Online Entertainment, however, does indeed want to make money off of the game. President John Smedley took to Reddit to share the details of the team's first monetization meeting, and while it's not a decisive list of how the game will make money, it serves as a preview. The early list contains character slots, wearable items, crates with random selections of wearable items, and emotes. The team also intends to allow players to loot wearables from other players, but looted cash items will degrade over time rather than being perpetual acquisitions. Smedley makes it clear that resources like food, water, and ammunition will not be sold, nor will any boosts to those resources, since acquiring these assets makes up the core of the gameplay. Take a look at the post for the details and the community response.
Reddit's tech community just got scolded, is no longer front page news
Thousands of self-managed forums make up Reddit's sizable corner of the internet, but only a few dozen bear the coveted "default" status that places them on every new user's list of subscribed communities. Now, there's one fewer. A dramatic saga of censorship, poor moderation and keyword-based deletion scripts have ousted the technology subreddit (/r/technology) from the default list. The change came shortly after users sleuthed out a number of keywords that, if present in a post's headline, would cause it to be automatically deleted. The community's moderators eventually confirmed that a bot called AutoModerator was used to cull content -- specifically targeting politicized or controversial terms. Unfortunately, the banned words included terms like anti-piracy, SOPA, NSA, Snowden, Bitcoin and even CEO, ensuring that dozens of hot-topic stories would never make it to Reddit's front page.
Trove empowers community to pitch biomes and classes
Trion Worlds is empowering the Trove community even further by inviting players to pitch ideas for a new biome and class to be added to the game. A Reddit thread has the details of how this process will unfold. Players will begin by brainstorming ideas for biomes, and after some time, the dev team will pick the best (and top-voted) submissions and allow players to vote on the very best one. Following that, the team will poll players for decorations, dungeon designs, and enemy ideas, and then get the biome into the game within the month. There are also plans for a similar pitching-and-voting process afterward in regard to a new class. On a phone call, Trion told Massively that it's looking to push the crowdsourcing aspect further and further as time goes on. The team is incredibly impressed with what the community has created so far with weapons, hairstyles, dungeons, and hats, and it can't wait to see what comes from this experiment. One thing that the team revealed is the upcoming addition of music blocks: Physical objects that make notes (and even chords) when walked on. We asked if Trion was looking to crowdsource the soundtrack for the game as well, and while the devs said that no players had yet stepped forward, they promised that if some did with great tunes, those would definitely be included into the game proper.
Four videos of RIFT's new souls in action
RIFT subreddit moderator Seatin has posted to YouTube complete videos of all four of RIFT's upcoming 2.7 souls and how they perform in combat. To recap, the update will deliver: The Arbiter, an elemental tanking soul for the Mage, The Physician, a primary healing soul for the Rogue, The Oracle, a buffing and debuffing soul for the Cleric, and The Liberator, a tank-healer soul for the Warrior. Enjoy the videos after the break!
Reddit wants you to decide who gets 10 percent of its ad revenue this year
This year Reddit is contributing more than memes to society, it's passing out cash. In a blog post today the site announced plans to donate 10 percent of its advertising revenue for the year to non-profits. At the end of the year, the site plans to open up a virtual suggestion box where users can nominate non-profits they think should receive the money. An election will then be held, and funds awarded to the top 10 non-profits selected by the Reddit community. Campaigning for your favorite organization will, of course, be allowed; however, stuffing the ballot box will not -- the site is currently working on ways to curb cheating and trolling (good luck with that), and reserves the right to take the power away from the people if things get out of hand. [Image credit: Antonio Zugaldia]
The Last of Us Creative Director: '50/50' shot for sequel
Naughty Dog seemingly won everyone over last year (including Joystiq and the DICE Awards) with The Last of Us, its tale of survival in a clicker-ridden world. Its ending felt fairly conclusive, but in a recent discussion (which you should not explore if you're wary of spoilers for the game or DLC) on Reddit, a fan asked what the odds are for a future chance to visit The Last of Us' world once more. "If you're asking about a sequel ... right now I'd say it's 50/50," Creative Director Neil Druckmann responded. If that's not enough to rile people up, Game Director Bruce Straley teased in the same thread that the team is "working on the 3rd DLC drop for MP right now! ... and maybe something else ... we'll see." It's almost like they enjoy teasing fans! Of course, if you missed your date with "Left Behind," the game's Valentines Day dose of narrative DLC, that's an immediate opportunity to spend more time with Ellie. [Image: Sony]
Windows Phone 8.1 leak reveals new messaging and storage settings, and more
Up until now, the most we'd heard about the next rumored update to Microsoft's Windows Phone OS centered on two features: Cortana, the company's Siri-like digital assistant, and Action Center, its native notification center. Today, however, we have a clearer idea of where Windows Phone 8.1 could be headed thanks to a Reddit user who's allegedly gained access to the new SDK as part of Microsoft's developer preview program.
Bill Gates weighs in on the new Microsoft, philanthropy and leaping over chairs
Bill Gates plays bridge, washes dishes each night and prefers In-N-Out to McDonald's and Burger King (as any sane person would). The Gates Foundation chairman offered up those tidbits and more in another Reddit AMA today, an hour-long dialogue that unearthed a few gems. Let's consider the Microsoft situation. We already knew Gates would play a more prominent role in the company now that Satya Nadella is running the show, and he confirmed that he's going to spend about one-third of his time on "product work" for the company. Pretty vague stuff, but he clarified just a bit: "I make sure we pick ambitious scenarios and that we have a strong architecture to deliver on them. I encourage good work (hopefully)."
Do Battlegrounds need tutorials?
When I first starting doing Battlegrounds way back in vanilla, it was pretty easy to learn exactly what the rules were. Not because I went and researched the individual Battlegrounds, but because I had a team of guildmates that were happily running the new feature over and over for a fun break from raiding. In later years, I joined a guild that was by and large devoted to PvP content over PvE. With the original honor grind being as ruthlessly difficult as it was, I was happy to help heal those in the guild working on that arduous trek to High Warlord -- and I never had to ask what to do in a Battleground. I was well informed from the get-go. But at some point after Burning Crusade, I simply lost interest in PvP. I think it was after the introduction of arenas. Most of my PvP-oriented friends became absolutely enthralled with the idea of doing arenas, gaining ranks, and more importantly earning those hard-won season's end mount rewards. It wasn't that I didn't have an interest in the mounts, or that I didn't like PvP anymore. It was more that I knew, logistically speaking, that I wasn't particularly good at PvP. It didn't matter so much when the games were just a matter of win or lose, but when it came to arenas, I really didn't want to ruin the carefully-earned rankings my friends had obtained. I came from an era of the original honor grind. Rankings were sacred back then. Consequentially, I don't really do PvP anymore. Not because I don't enjoy a good Battleground, but because at this stage in the game, I haven't the faintest idea what to do in any of them.
