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Smedley confirms EverQuest Next will arrive on PlayStation 4
Although CEO John Smedley's Reddit AMAA last Friday was to address the closures of four SOE games, he also fielded questions about other titles. And one tidbit that Smedley slipped in was that EverQuest Next will definitely be available on the PlayStation 4, a fact that he all but assured players last November but stopped short of confirming. For those who weren't following the AMAA (or maybe lost that brief announcement in the conversation), it was also officially tweeted when the AMAA closed.
The Daily Grind: Do you get annoyed when game devs communicate via Reddit?
I loathe Reddit. I won't go into the hows and whys because that's better saved for a Soapbox, but suffice it to say that I roll my eyes when game companies including SOE, ArenaNet, and countless others take to the service to communicate with their fanbases instead of using their own forums or Twitter accounts. I understand why they do it -- salesmen always need to speak to a larger audience, of course -- but it still rankles. What about you, Massively readers? Am I alone here or do you also get annoyed having to go through a third-party community to learn about your game of choice? 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!
Is League of Legends greedy? No, says Riot Games president
Responding to claims that Riot Games is being greedy and lazy for failing to create an updated client for League of Legends, President Marc Merrill posted a sharp-tongued rebuttal on Reddit yesterday. "It's pretty frustrating when people try to position us as greedy," Merill began, "because look at it from our perspective: We build pretty much the first successful free online game in the west that core gamers actually really like and play. We did this by building a really fun game, constantly investing over and over to grow and improve this game and by NOT selling power or being money hungry." Merill said that "millions upon millions" play the game for completely free, which is completely fine with Riot Games, and that the studio does the right thing in the end such as its response to the e-sports contract controversy. "I completely disagree with your greed accusation and yes, it pisses me off because I've spent the last eight years of my life building this company, game, and team to deliver great value and to treat players well," he wrote.
CCP Rise stops by Reddit for an EVE Online AMA
EVE Online game designer CCP Rise spent a couple of hours on Reddit today answering questions about the past, present, and future of CCP's space-themed sandbox. Questions ranged from incredibly broad to ridiculously specific, but some interesting tidbits did crop up as the Q&A went on. When asked about the long-delayed ability to walk around stations and interact with other players via character avatars, CCP Rise explained that the team is focused primarily on enhancing in-space gameplay and that putting people on avatar development would require too much in terms of resources and time. He also praised the current Council of Stellar Management for helping the CCP team dodge potential blunders and better understand EVE's players. The whole thing is worth a read if you're an EVE pilot or are interested in a small peek at the life of an MMO game designer.
Tenacious bugs, optimization woes continue to delay DayZ
People have been killing zombies in Arma 2 mod DayZ for years, yet the game's long-awaited standalone client remains in development limbo. The culprit? Bugs and code optimization. "We think we need a minimum of 15 [server side] FPS [with] 50 players, 2000 zombies, and 25000 loot items," explained designer Dean Hall in a recent Reddit post. "Our latest tests have all shown some runaway systems in the code we have to tidy up. The variable synchronization system that was developed for work with the network bubble, is checking the variables very often. We're optimizing this. Also, there are many string comparisons." It goes on like that for a few more sentences, but the key takeaway here is that there are very real, technical hurdles that must be leapt before the game can hit retail. Despite this refreshing level of transparency, Hall refuses to assign a release window to the standalone version of DayZ. "If I start saying 'oh it won't be out then' people start asking me about the day after, and the day after," said Hall. "So it just encourages people to keep asking me when it is, and the "announced date" would be when I go 'yeah, it could be out then'." Edit: This piece has been altered to specify that the "15 FPS" mentioned in Hall's message was not referring to the framerate players will see in game, but was instead referring to server side FPS.
Daily Update for September 23, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all 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 inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
No, iOS 7 does not make your phone magically waterproof
Ah, the merry pranksters of the interwebs: your gleeful enthusiasm for messing with people shall never fade. It seems some of the jokers on Reddit and other corners of the web have taken it upon themselves to convince other people -- perhaps slightly less technically savvy -- that among iOS 7's many new features is a resistance to immersion in water. No, really. See the impressive graphic above. That took some effort. As pointed out in a few places, the idea that a software update could magically bestow water resistance on hardware is a bit farfetched, but unfortunately that didn't stop some folks from going ahead and testing it out. Ouch. So that there's no confusion: this is false. It is fake. It is a hoax. iOS 7 does not make your phone water-resistant. Have a nice Monday! Thanks, Oscar! [Want to help your friends and family learn the real story about the new iPhone OS? Send them a link to our Don't Panic Guide to iOS 7. -- Ed.]
John Smedley takes to Reddit to answer SOE layoff questions [Updated]
In response to the question about how the recent SOE layoffs will affect PlanetSide 2, CEO John Smedley took to Reddit with a few answers. He specifically stated that layoffs will not impact the development of the MMOFPS and that there is still a large team working on it, even though some from that team were let go. "It won't impact the game because we have other people who are going to take the load over. Simple as that... We carefully planned and are distributing tasks appropriately to other people on the team." Smedley also dismissed the idea that devs were let go because of the integration of Player Studio as absurd. What about the other games in SOE's portfolio? Smedley announced that a full status report on all games is planned for next week. [Update: Polygon has posted excerpts from an SOE email, quoting Smedley calling the layoffs a "horrible, sickening experience" and explaining that personnel shifts were a result of budgetary necessity not poor game sales. In fact, he hopes to rehire laid-off employees. He also promises that work on EQ Next will not slow down: "In fact you can fully expect it to ramp up and a lot of people will end up helping to make the most amazing thing we've ever done as a company."]
The Daily Grind: Should MMO studios outsource their communities?
If you played MMOs at the dawn of the genre, you'll recall that player forums were not considered a mandatory feature of a studio's infrastructure. Many communities resorted to wild, offensive, private forums in an attempt to avoid heavily moderated official boards that looked more like advertisements than conversations by the time the mods were done with them. (Anyone else remember Crossroads of Britannia? Good times.) Since then, MMO studios have figured out that forums (and their annoying cousins, social media) are highly useful tools for getting information to and feedback from their playerbases. But sometimes it's gone too far; we've criticized studios for posting updates only to social media outlets at the expense of their own native forums. Well, move over, ArenaNet, because Hi-Rez has topped you: Earlier this week, Hi-Rez decided to shut down its games' official forums and move forum discussion and support to Reddit, which upset not only those people whose skin crawls at the idea of participating on Reddit but also Redditors themselves, who proposed (unsuccessfully) that Hi-Rez employees be banned, essentially, for mooching. So what do you think -- should MMO studios outsource or crowdsource their forums, communities, and support to unofficial and potentially toxic private social media venues? Does it signal an industry shift, an insensitive budgetary decision from Hi-Rez, or a genuine desire to go where the perceived population density is highest? 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!
New Nexus 7 surfaces in photos, packaging and all (update: more photos, video)
You know that new Nexus 7 that's been leaked several times over the past few weeks? Well, it looks like someone got their hands on it early, according to these newly released images on Reddit. There's not much else to glean from these snapshots aside from new packaging (we've included an image of that after the break), a SKU and what is obviously a new Nexus tablet -- the rear matches the leaked renders we saw from @evleaks a couple of days ago. Aside from its 7-inch screen size, rumored specs include a 5-megapixel camera and that highly-anticipated Android 4.3. We're not sure how this guy got it so early, but this does signify the imminent arrival of Google's next tablet. Update: A tipster has sent in more pictures of a device and packaging, showing off its rounded edges and Android 4.3 OS. Check out the gallery for a quick look or after the break for a video unboxing and hands-on posted by Android Police... all before Google's new slate is even officially launched. [Thanks, Rafael]%Gallery-194498%
Banned Xbox One accounts will retain access to purchased games
Users banned on Xbox One will not lose access to the games they've purchased, Director of Programming Larry Hyrb (Major Nelson, colloquially) told Reddit Games during an E3 video interview. This became a popular question following an Xbox Support Twitter answer from June 13 that read, "If your account is banned, you also forfeit the licenses to any games that have licenses tied to it as listed in the ToU." The question specified Xbox One, but later, Xbox Support said this answer was in reference to Xbox 360. Major Nelson had a clear answer for future banned users on Xbox One: "Absolutely not, you will always have access to the games you purchased." As for what will happen if, down the road, Xbox One's authentication servers are shut down, Major Nelson couldn't say. "I'll get the real answer, I just don't know it yet," he said.
Major Nelson takes Xbox One questions, says banned users will 'absolutely not' lose games
E3 is over, but Microsoft still has a long way to go to answer questions from gamers about its new Xbox One console, particularly when it comes to the effects of DRM. Director of Programming of Xbox Live Larry Hryb aka Major Nelson takes on the most upvoted ones from posters in Reddit's games section in this video interview with Chloe Dykstra. One question that seems to have a clear answer is whether banned users will lose access to any games they've activated, as he stated "Absolutely not, you will always have access to the games you purchased." That goes against a previous response from the Xbox Support twitter account, although that may have been the result of confusion between the Xbox One and Xbox 360 policies. A question with no satisfying response yet however, is what gamers can expect years down the road if Xbox One's authentication servers are shut down. Major Nelson followed up with a response in the comment thread that "I'll get the real answer, I just don't know it yet." Interestingly, the question he wished more people would have asked is about the "family package" and, we assume game sharing with a single account, after previously bringing up its cloud library as one upside to the new DRM setup. Tracking back to the original debut's focus on the console's HDMI input and TV overlays he mentioned using snap mode to watch TV while gaming, or getting Xbox Live notifications and jumping "instantly" to a game while watching TV. A similar crowdsourced interview was planned with the PlayStation team, but cancelled. Major Nelson says he will address more questions leading up to launch and is planning an ask me anything session later, so keep your (many) inquiries at the ready.
Skype co-founder reveals service's origins as WiFi-sharing network
Everyone and their mother knows Skype as a call and chat messenger, but it would've been a completely different beast if its founders' original plans came to fruition."The initial idea was to develop a WiFi-sharing network, and then provide various 'telecom-like' services on top of that, such as TV and telephony," explained founding engineer Jaan Tallinn in a Reddit AMA. Tallinn compared the project to Fon, but he and his co-founders hit a wall: they couldn't offer TV services because they were battling copyright lawsuits as developers of P2P file-sharing site Kazaa. The team also had trouble finding a decent VoIP product to attach to the service and wound up concocting their own technology instead. The new VoIP tech, which was supposed to be named Skyper until the team noticed Skyper.net was already taken, eventually became the focus of the service. It's an interesting look at the birth of the chat messenger we know today. Now if only we could figure out if the government has direct access to Skype's logs, we'd be set.
Guild Wars 2 data mining finds evidence of LFG tool
An enterprising Redditor has discovered evidence of a looking for group tool in Guild Wars 2's current files. After plowing through file strings in the game's .dat file, the player found hints that a LFG tool is not just in development but may be coming soon to a game near us. The files imply players will be able to filter/advertise/find/pull an LFG search, advertising one's group, finding players for living world content, and pulling together a party for a full range of dungeons and PvP. The .dat file has a few more insights into the future of Guild Wars 2, including back-to-school town clothes, swimwear, a dragon mask, an unlimited logging axe, festive dragon coffers, and something called Skyhammer. Regarding the latter, one of its commands reads, "Maintain control of the Skyhammer cannon to call down lightning and vaporize your foes." Obviously, you need one of these, don't you?
Andy Schatz lets slip scrapped competitive modes for Monaco
Andy Schatz took some time off from thievery in his recent release, Monaco, and sat down with the fine people of Reddit to answer all of the questions they threw at him, such as, "Which features didn't make it into the game?" "Cops and Robbers, and Thief vs Thief," Schatz replied. "We wanted to add two additional competitive game modes to the game. We got them to playable, but we discovered that for both modes the balance didn't really work within the existing levels." Thief vs Thief had players compete in a single stage, to see who could collect the most coins, grab the trophy and get out first – but the player who left the gate first had a huge advantage, sucking up all of the coins, and the mode didn't turn out to be as fun as Schatz had hoped, he said. Cops and Robbers added a police officer to every level, but the early stages were too easy and the later stages too difficult. With some tweaks, Schatz said he hoped to bring Cops and Robbers to Monaco "at some point," possibly as DLC. Monaco's characters evolved along with the gameplay, and Schatz described how each of them spawned, early in development: "The Gentleman used to be a hypnotist, The Lookout used to be the Prowler (parkour expert), The Mole used to be The Muscle, The Pickpocket used to be The Rat (could rat out teammates to save himself). The Redhead had a taser or a pistol at one point. The Pickpocket started out as dwarf twins instead of a man with a monkey." Stranger things. Once Monaco's final touches were all settled, Schatz said he had an idea to develop a "good console RTS (or at least simple-controls RTS) that is as strategically as deep as the competitive RTSes." First, he has to work on the Monaco level editor, expansions and maybe more ports – he singled out Vita and PS4, while Mac and Linux ports are already on the books.
Readers' ideas for WoW improvements
A little ago WoW Insider posted an article asking our readers to suggest things they'd like to add to WoW to make the game better. We were really excited to hear your responses, and you didn't let us down. Several commenters had what we considered were actually some great ideas, and we thought we'd pull them out for some further discussion. This is, in my opinion, a fantastic idea. Many's the time, when leveling a DPS character, that I've been conflicted between wanting to round off the storyline of an area, and wanting to progress with my leveling. With the speed of leveling in WoW at the moment with the buffs gained from heirlooms, guild perks and the like, it's really easy to out-level zones before you're done with the story. Now, of course, the option exists to simply ignore the gray mobs and the gray quests and the fact that you're being far less efficient than you would be if you moved on to another zone, but why should players have to make that choice?
What one thing should Blizzard implement to make WoW better?
We happened upon a great thread today on Reddit, created by user Zimraphel, which asked other Reddit users to name features that would make the game better for them. I really liked this idea, and particularly some of the responses. Zimraphel placed no emphasis on realism in the suggestions, nor on the likelihood of their being implemented, so we will do the same here. There were several answers that particularly piqued my interest, including one saying that Blizzard should implement a bulk server transfer at a reduced rate. Many players have several characters on a server, it's rare that, on your main server, you have only one character that you'd want to take with you if you transferred, and the $25 cost is considerable for what could be 11 characters. A bulk transfer service with a reduced cost would be a great idea. Another idea I really liked was the one to have the option to transfer your whole account to another region, such as switching it from the US to the EU. And an option for tanks to disable auto-taunt from pets! What about you, what would you add to WoW? I'd love portals in other main cities, back to the Shrine or whichever city has all the portals in it. I want to hang out in Ironforge, but it's so much more inconvenient and I'm really rather lazy. Think outside the box, though, the world is your oyster!
Reddit's reworked privacy policy clarifies data handling, comes into effect May 15th
The online Aladdin's cave and AMA forum Reddit has revealed a revamped privacy policy intended to make clear exactly how it deals with users' data. Legalese is notably absent, with credit for that going to Lauren Gelman, a legal consultant who's previously worked with the likes of the EFF -- a member, like Reddit, of the Internet Defense League. Essentially, the new policy is geared towards allowing "your participation to remain as anonymous as you choose," with the website stating that any of your data won't be shared without consent, unless the law requires it. Even then, you will be notified, with the only exception being a court order that prevents it. Reddit also notes that deleting your account will remove your username from posts and comments, but they will remain on the site. As only the last edit performed stays on the servers, however, you could trek back through your history and strip everything out to finalize your departure. There's much more in the announcement post and full policy document over at the source links, in case you wanna have a read before it all kicks in on May 15th.
Camelot Unchained unveils new video, Mark Jacobs visits Reddit for AMA
The Camelot Unchained information deluge continues with the release of a new video and a Reddit AMA by Mark Jacobs himself. The video is a half-hour-long affair in which Jacobs provides fans (and prospective Kickstarter pledgers) with an in-depth look at the lore of Camelot Unchained and the myriad features that the game is bringing to the table. Also, as it happens, you can check it out after the cut. Meanwhile, on Reddit, Jacobs stopped by /r/IAmA to answer questions from the communit. Suffice it to say, questions range from the standard, "tell us about the progression system" to details on server structure, maximum player population, and much much more. Surprisingly, however, horse-sized ducks don't appear to be mentioned even once. To check the full Q&A session out for yourself, head on through the source link below.
Phil Fish: Fez 'should be out on pretty much everything,' eventually
Fez has found its way to Steam, hitting PCs on May 1 – but that's not all developer Phil Fish has up his tiny, red hat. Fish hosted a Reddit AMA today, where he revealed Mac, Linux, Vita, Ouya and iOS versions of Fez are all in various stages of planning and development.Mac and Ouya ports are definitely on the way, while Linux is part of some "vague plans, but plans nonetheless. Fez should eventually be out on pretty much everything," Fish said. For Vita and PSN, Fish said he's working with Sony "to figure something out." An iOS launch is "highly probable."Fish also says "thanks for all the spreadsheet jokes." And you all thought you were so original.Check out all of the Fez information you never knew you wanted right here, and make sure to see the Fez Fish Gaijin Games created for Runner 2 (Warning: It's a fish in tightie whities, and we do mean tight).
