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Is this HTC Sense on Windows Phone 7? (update: and is this HTC's Hub?)
Whoa, Nelly! Just 24 hours after we caught wind of a leaked webOS 2.0 video, in flies this. If the "Confidential use only" watermark is accurate, the video embedded after the break is HTC's Sense overlay on Windows Phone 7. If you'll recall, we finally heard that Sense would indeed be hitting Microsoft's forthcoming mobile OS after all back in July, but we've yet to see any real indication of what the end product would look like. Until now, of course. With "the holidays" rapidly approaching and Redmond holding funerals for rival operating systems, there's a better-than-average chance that this is legitimate. Frankly, we're digging what we're seeing thus far, but is it wrong to wish that even more panels were shown off? Update: And what's this? Yet another video has fallen into our laps, and it's featuring an HTC handset we've never seen before. Pocket PT is calling it the Hub (while tipster Eric suggests it may be the Mozart), suggesting that it's also running Sense atop Windows Phone 7 in the video after the break. When it rains, right? [Thanks, Sid and Pedro]
1.5 GHz Scorpion and quartet of HTC Windows Phone 7 handsets headed to North America?
Conflipper is a regular in the underworld of HTC ROM cooking. So when he tweets about unreleased devices and their respective carrier support you really outta listen. First up is the HTC Scorpion (aka, Olympian) which he claims is going to Verizon and Bell Mobility -- a device previously rumored to be packing Froyo with WiMax and a 1.5GHz Snapdragon whipped topping. Conflipper also claims to have the inside scoop on a quartet of Windows Phone 7 devices and their respective North American launch partners: the HTC Spark_W (Bell Mobility and Verizon), HTC Gold_W (Sprint), HTC Shubert (Telus), and the HTC Mondrian (Telus, Rogers and AT&T). Note that the "_W" in those handsets signifies a worldphone device with dual-mode CDMA and GSM radios. And in the immortal words of Klaus Meine, "Time, it needs time." So true.
What's broken with MMOs and their combat?
Do DPS, crafting, tank, and the future of aggro management make your heart go a flutter? Damion Shubert has been doing MMO design for ten years and is currently working on an announced project for BioWare. He held a roundtable on the next generation of MMO design and the big issue was: "Why does combat suck" in MMOs? Thoughts revolved around the idea that combat is overused, simple and easy for people to grasp. Shubert says, "Our combat models right now are asking people to enter no risk situation ... Players choose their own challenges and bore themselves to death ... then they bitch how the games aren't challenging enough. We force them to play cautiously, can you imagine if Gears of War told you not to take risks?" After years of watching MMO players and having access to background statistics of game he says people's penchant for exploitation is key. Player's will try to find the easy way out of anything. He also says one of the greatest innovations of World of Warcraft was how they rewarded their quests. WoW gives substantial rewards for completing quests and leads players down a path rather than having players camp and repeat the same single action over and over again. Shubert emphasizes that combat MMOs are not the only type out there and Korea makes us look pitiful, "They have MMO dance games, golf games and everything else." So, why haven't those types of MMOs caught on in other places and what other types of massive online game would we like to see?
