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Microsoft’s Mixer game streaming service adds new ways to interact
Microsoft's game streaming service and Twitch competitor, Mixer, is entering its second season, and with it comes a slew of new features to help fans engage and allow streamers to make more money. The first addition is Skills, which will let viewers send animated stickers and GIFs, launch effects like fireworks and laser shows or keep digital beach balls bouncing. Skills can be bought, and using it will help streamers financially. But for users that don't want to drop cash, they can use Sparks (new, earnable tokens) instead. Sparks can be earned by watching streams, and those Sparks can then purchase Skills.
'Master of None' season 2 is coming to Netflix next year
If you've been anxiously awaiting news on the second season of Netflix's Master of None, you're in luck. Comedian and star of the original series Aziz Ansari took to Twitter today to officially announce the show's return in 2017. While you'll have to wait a while for new episodes to hit, there's plenty of time to catch up if you haven't watched it yet. For the uninitiated, the show chronicles the life of Dev (Ansari), a single New Yorker who hilariously tries to balance work, dating, family and more. But seriously, just watch it already.
'Serial' slows down its release schedule
Broadcast TV may be tied to a rigid schedule of weekly releases, but services like Netflix have shown that the internet has no such restriction. It's a fact that the creators of Serial are now taking advantage of after announcing that new episodes of season two will now be aired on a fortnightly, not weekly basis. Rather than out of a capricious desire to keep you in suspense, the move is due to the team suddenly being given access to new material. In a report by the New York Times, the show's executive producer reveals that the first few episodes have "opened up more avenues of reporting."
Star Trek: TNG S2 Blu-ray detailed ahead of December 4th release
The step-by-step restoration and high-def re-release of Star Trek: The Next Generation continues, and next month Season Two will arrive on Blu-ray. We already got a peek at its trailer during Comic-Con and heard about some of the special features that were on the way but now we have the full list. If you're not waiting 'til Season 3 hits the streets, you can enjoy more than two hours of new special features including a documentary on the making of season two. There's also a couple different cuts of The Measure of a Man episode, including HD extras you haven't seen before, and a 1988 Reading Rainbow segment featuring our good friend Levar Burton. Check the press release and the trailer after the break for all the details, you can snag the season two set on Amazon for $115 or so.
Guild Season 2 DVD preorder available now, out 5/19
The Guild's second season is now available for preorder on DVD, and apparently it's an Amazon Exclusive -- yes, the ever-more-corporate folks at The Guild are going with the big online retailer to distribute their second DVD collection. But we can't blame them too much -- surely it's a chance at a wider distribution, and probably less work for them in general. You can preorder the DVD set right now for just $12.99, and according to The Guild's site, the set will have commentary tracks, subtitles in English, and Behind the Scenes and Audition footage. If you're as much of a fan of the series as we are, it sounds well worth the purchase.Amazon has a release date of May 19th, and it also looks like they're doing a re-release of season one on the same day (though we're not sure if that new season one cover demotes new material or if it's the same version of the season one DVD they were selling before). And of course if you're not interested in picking up any extras, you can still just watch the episodes online at their site, or by downloading them in HD from Xbox Live for free.
The Guild gets down in episode 11 of season 2
It's throw down time around The Guild this week, in the second to last episode of the second season. Codex gets it on in a back room at the party, and Bladezz gets screwed (though not quite in the way that he'd hoped). Zaboo finally gets a chance to show how much of a man he's become, with a little support from the rest of the guys. And things are set right up for the season finale next week. The show's available on MSN and Xbox Live right now, so go check it out.In other guild news, there's now an official podcast for the show, run by two of the folks behind the scenes on the video shoots. And the official site has also posted a list of all the Guildies on Twitter, so you can stalk follow anyone you like. Oh, and as long as you're on Twitter, don't forget to follow stalk us, too.Season finale next week -- should be good.EDIT: Podcast link working now.
Drysc says what's up with PvP gear for Season 4
Drysc has posted on the forums to clear up any questions about what's happening with PvP gear in Season 4. And while the rumors that Naxx gear was leaving the game marked the first instance of Blizzard removing content, here's the second: season one gear will no longer be available during Season 4. Not a big loss, since there is now other good PvP gear floating around, but a loss nonetheless.Season 2 gear, as expected, will move to honor, with no ratings requirements. And Season 3 gear will be released according to the ratings requirements and rules set out the other day.Got all that? So start saving that honor and/or practicing for the good ratings now. You have to think that, with all of this news solidified from Blizzard about Season 4, the start must surely be right around the corner. But of course this is Blizzard we're dealing with -- we won't know when it's coming until it's actually here.
Incoming nether drake fix
It looks like the swift nether drake situation is getting fixed sooner rather than later, and they're going to have to bring the realms down for a few early-morning hours to do it. (Edit: early morning for some, but prime time for Oceania!) From the breaking news box:We will be bringing down all realms to implement a fix for the Arena end-of-season rewards, and sending the correct rewards to teams that participated. This maintenance will begin at 5:00 AM PDT, June 22, and will last until approximately 7:00 AM PDT. For more information on this issue and resolution please visit the PvP Discussion forum.Over in the PvP forums, Drysc posted the following:During this maintenance all of the end-of-season rewards will be resent to the correct teams and players. By resending the rewards players who already have an Armored Nether Drake will simply receive duplicates. As these are unique items the new mail messages can only be deleted. The Arena titles will also be applied again, and players will have the correct title available to them after the maintenance. We appreciate everyone's patience in awaiting this resolution, and apologize for any inconvenience or frustration that it may have caused.
Arena Season 2 item stats (Warrior) [u]
MMO-Champion comes through again with concrete details on new content. As listed in the patch notes, 2.1.2 on the PTRs contains the Arena Season 2 items. The set names are apparently "Merciless Gladiator's [Whatever]." Most of the sets do not seem to be activated yet, but we have the full stats and appearance of the Warrior set, Merciless Gladiator's Battlegear (pictured at right).Thanks to a helpful commenter at Wowhead, I have the following comparison between this set and the Season 1 equivalent, Gladiator's Battlegear. The new set has, as compared to the old one:+639 armor+36 strength+31 stamina+22 crit rating+18 hit rating+6 resilienceThe gem slots and set bonuses remain the same. It would be nice if you could mix and match between Season 1 and Season 2 sets in order to get set bonuses, but I'm not sure whether this is actually the case.Hopefully stats on the other sets will come to light soon; if that happens, I'll update this post.Update: skins and set bonuses for all the classes' sets are now available.
Blue Notes: Arena Season 2 delay, spam reporting tweaks
The upcoming second Arena season, with new rewards, will be starting on June 19th, a week later than originally estimated (Drysc): As we mentioned in our initial announcement of the second arena season, the start of the next season is planned to coincide with the release of a small patch. Due to additional development time and testing needed we will be delaying the scheduled release of the patch, and thus the start of Arena Season 2 by one week, to June 19. This current schedule is of course subject to change as well. Also, don't forget that team ratings will be reset to the default 1500 with the start of the new season, allowing all teams to once again compete for top honors with a fresh start. The delay was necessary because the new items for the new season are contained in the patch (presumably 2.1.2), and the patch will evidently not be ready for the 12th. The new date will be June 20th instead for European subscribers, by the way.Also, the new-in-2.1 "report spam" feature is getting slightly changed (Eyonix):The new spam-reporting feature has been updated so that you can now report members inside your group or raid. This will allow players who are invited to groups created for purposes of spam to report the abuse appropriately. To report this type of spam, simply right-click on the player's name in the chat interface, and choosing the "Report Spam" option. Once you have selected this option, a dialogue box will open to confirm that you wish to report the target player, and your report will be sent once you confirm your choice. Please make sure you're only using this reporting feature for spam. All other forms of abuse should be reported appropriately, by petitioning a Game Master.This will keep people from pulling you into a group from the LFG tool just to spam you, which I've heard has been occurring here and there. How's the spam reporting functionality working out for you? Personally, I've been seeing very much less spam since 2.1 came out.
A few details on Arena Season 2
It was recently announced that the second Arena season would be starting on June 12th, and now we have a few details about the new Gladiator items that will come along with the new season (courtesy of Drysc):Yes, new Arena weapons are included. All of the current items will see new versions for season 2, with some new additions. The new honor rewards will be new versions of the epic items (boot, belt, bracer). A new back-slot item won't be added, but a new ring will be available. The arena set items are always intended to match their equivalent tier sets in appearance to easily link them through visual recognition to their PvE counterparts. Arena season 1 item cost reduction will be about 15%. There are more healing-centric items planned for season 2. I honestly hadn't noticed the similarity between arena items and tier items, but it makes sense. That's not a very big cost reduction: gloves, for instance, will go from 1125 to 956 arena points or so. I was expecting a much bigger discount. With prices like that I don't predict many people will opt to buy the season one items, unless it's to get set bonuses.One more tidbit that's come to light about arena seasons is that it is currently planned to keep two seasons' worth of items available at all times. That is to say, when Season 3 comes out, Season 1 items will no longer be available (though Season 2 items will be). [via World of Ming]
My Dream App to hold developer competition for Season 2
My Dream App, the wildly successful American Idol of the Mac software world, is coming back for a Season 2 - and they need a few good developers. But this time around, they're adding a new layer to the competition by allowing users to vote on the actual developers who will get the chance to code the winning apps. A press release and announcement on the My Dream App site states that the crew will be at the upcoming WWDC 07 in June doing video interviews with interested developers, but an email address is also provided if devs want to get a jump on things.Whether you are eagerly watching development of the apps from Season 1 (and yes, they're still making progress; this stuff doesn't happen overnight), this new season should be pretty fun. I'm definitely interested to see which developers are interested in hopping on board, and which ones the public chooses to build the app winners.
