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WSVG president breaks down what happened
GameDaily BIZ tracked down Matt Ringel the (former?) president of the World Series of Videogames, to figure out just what the hell happened last week.As you can see from our own interview with Ringel earlier this year, things seems to be rolling along great for the WSVG-- they were working with Blizzard to make presentation much better for Arena PvP, and they had gotten a deal together with CBS to show their videogame tournaments in a series of specials. But Ringel says the WSVG wasn't alone in the space-- the CPL is another big player, and one who many have cited as a successor to the WSVG-- and advertisers had a big problem determining what the differences were between all the organizations. Ringel doesn't add much more, except to say that the WSVG is really, truly dead: Games Media is going to focus on their online properties, including Gameriot.com.As we said on the podcast last Saturday, this doesn't mean professional gaming is over-- it just means the WSVG didn't do it right. But considering the WSVG was working hand-in-hand with Blizzard to promote Arena PvP, it might mean the end of non-Blizzard professional Arena matches. My guess is that instead of partnering with another organization to run professional tournaments, Blizzard will be much more inclined to just run their own, at BlizzCon and other Blizzard-related events.[ via Joystiq ]
WSVG shuts down, cancels all events
Wow. Last we heard, the WSVG was going gangbusters. They had events appearing on CBS, they were working with Blizzard to make Arena PvP huge, and their president was extremely optimistic about the future of professional videogaming.But earlier this afternoon, the World Series of Videogames shut its doors, and announced that all of their future events are cancelled. In their notice, they cite the "challenge of securing adequate revenues" to keep up their big events (they had tourneys planned in LA, London, and Sweden yet this year). Games Media Properties, WSVG's parent company, says they will continue to grow the "online advertising network" of websites-- which sites these are, we're not sure.Again, wow. GotFrag has already talked to Pandemic about the closing, and they say they're going to go into a "waiting game" as regards to professional Arena PvP, and that they're "deeply disappointed" in WSVG's "inability to finish out the season." They, too, had no idea this was coming. Will someone else step up into the WSVG's place in professional gaming promotion? Blizzard was doing a lot of work directly with the WSVG in terms of presentation, and while it's hard to say this will be the end of professional Arena PvP, there's no question this will have a major effect on professional gaming at large. The World Series of Videogames as we know it is no more.Thanks, Jason!Update: Curse has more, including players calling it "a huge blow to WoW professional gaming."
Google closing down Video Store
Welp, that didn't take too long. Around 1.5 years after it was first announced, Google has decided to "shut down its premium video service." Nevertheless, the most intriguing aspect of the whole shebang is that customers who purchased DRM-laden files will reportedly no longer be able to view them once the Video Store closes up shop, and rather than refunding customers with, you know, real money, it sounds like Google plans to offer "fixed credit on the firm's online payment system, Google Checkout, instead." Interestingly, another report noted that the search giant would "provide refunds or online shopping vouchers for previously purchased videos that won't be viewable," so it looks like the final verdict remains to be seen.[Via BBC, thanks Steffen]
SunRocket silently calls it quits, abandons VoIP biz
And you thought Sprint was catching flack for denying an exceedingly small portion of its customers service. Turns out, Vonage rival SunRocket has apparently shut its doors and abandoned the business -- all without a single warning or notice beforehand. Callers who recently dialed in for customer care reached an automated message saying that the firm was "no longer taking customer service or sales calls," and each individual that was employed at the call center has supposedly lost their job. As expected, no attempts by Reuters to contact SunRocket were successful, so we still have no idea if paying customers will ever see a pro-rated refund if their service does indeed cease to exist. So, dear readers, are any of you feeling the SunRocket burn?[Thanks, Jerad]UPDATE: Well, what do you know. Here's an article suggesting that SunRocket has actually been acquired by Pluto. We've seen no confirmations as of yet, but we'll keep an eye out.[Thanks for the update, Bob]
NFL shuts down church's Super Bowl Bash, ratings to blame
C'mon folks, everyone and their grandmother will likely be watching the Super Bowl this coming Sunday (even across the pond), and even if you have no interest in the Colts, Bears, or large men in awkward suits, someone in your family probably feels otherwise. Nevertheless, the NFL showcased its mighty power (and terrible decision making) by condemning Fall Creek Baptist Church's "Super Bowl Bash," saying that advertising a fee-based party that utilized "license-protected words" was against regulations. Furthermore, ditching the door charge and the taboo language wasn't good enough to solve the problem, as "the law" limits Super Bowl (wait, can we say that now?) party TVs to a quantity of one, and that single set must not be over 55-inches. Needless to say, we don't doubt that good few of you fine, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens will be catching the big game with a couple of your friends on your 60-inch plasma (or 100-inch projection screen), but we'd highly recommend building an underground bunker between now and Sunday to make sure your plans are safe. Of course, bars and other eateries are somehow exempt from this bogus rule, and as expected, all the grumbling stems from Nielsen's obvious inability to estimate just how many folks are watching a single tube on this advertisers' dream night, but ratings drops or not, we wouldn't mess with Touchdown Jesus.
Sony accuses Lik-Sang of "sour grapes"
In other news from our favorite Japanese corporate giant, Sony is denying that its legal action was the reason that Lik-Sang was forced to close its virtual doors earlier today. According to GamesIndustry.biz, Sony has accused the Hong Kong-based retailer of "sour grapes," pointing out that Lik-Sang did not contest the UK legal battle, "and therefore incurred no legal costs." That seems pretty fair, given that Lik-Sang had a pretty borderline business model to begin with. In related news, Sony also claimed that the reason why several Sony Europe execs bought PSPs from Lik-Sang was for "investigatory purposes," and certainly not because they were impatient.
Apple issues one-liner support doc on random MacBook shutdown problem
Apple seems to be *so* happy to finally fess up that this MacBook RSS (Random Shutdown Syndrome) isn't just all in our heads. xlr8yourmac tracked down a new Apple Knowledgebase article that is another amusing one-liner from Apple's support crew: "If your MacBook is shutting down intermittently, please contact AppleCare for service." A little bird told us they finally know what's going on and have a fix for the issue, but don't quote us on that.If you are an unfortunate MacBook RSS victim and you do give AppleCare a call, feel free to comment here with your experience and how Apple is treating this issue. We honestly don't know much more about it aside from this theory, so we're in the dark as much as you are.[via InsanelyMac News]
An explanation for random MacBook shutdowns?
Blogger Martin Backschat has more or less translated a German article that takes a stab at trying to figure out what is going on with this random MacBook shutdown issue. One only needs to check out MacBook Random Shutdown.com or comb the archives of digg and Apple discussion forums to grasp how many are plagued by this dark game of workflow Russian roulette, but we have yet to hear even a peep from Apple as to what the problem is, and how they're going to fix it.Martin says the theory centers on a cable that runs between the heat sensor and the CPU's heat sink being too short. The heat sink expands when operating the MacBook, which causes it to contact the heat sensor's cable and melt its insulation - hence, a short circuit and a shutdown. Once the MacBook is no longer running, the heat sink cools down and contracts during the process, breaking the short circuit and allowing the machine to boot again (this expansion and contraction can happen pretty quickly, so it would make sense if your machine can boot almost immediately after shutdown). It's a twisted game these components play with each other for sure, and we're all hoping for some kind of a statement or - ideally - a solution from Apple soon. The more widespread and publicized this issue becomes, the farther away these Macs will get from their 'it just works' reputation. Something tells us 'it just works - until it decides not to and randomly shut down, blowing away all your work' wouldn't roll off Justin Long's tongue nearly as well.[via digg]
Test your MacBook for random shutdowns
Some MacBook owners around the web are reporting a 'random shutdown' issue, where the machine will - as you might guess - seemingly shutdown at random; either during work or patiently idling for your next command. If you haven't experienced this issue yourself yet but are still concerned about it, The Apple Files has devised an unofficial test to see if you might be a victim. The test involves entering a few simple commands into the Terminal and testing a few things over roughly half an hour of your time. Just to be thorough, the author recommends running this test two or three times to be sure, but it's really up to how paranoid you're feeling. Again, this is an unofficial test, and we haven't seen any official reports or announcements from Apple on this issue, its cause or how widespread it might be, but it's simply nice to have options, hey?[via digg]
Rolling Restarts on US Realms Tonight
Well, they may have already happened on your realm, but starting at 4:38PM PDT rolling restarts began across all US realms. The restarts were apparently necessary to hotfix an issue with enchantments and items vanishing from players' inventories that was mentioned earlier. There's still no details on exactly what the issue with enchantments was, but it would have been serious to merit prime-time restarts...
TUAW Tip: shortcuts for Sleep, Restart and Shut Down
We here at TUAW are suckers for productive shortcuts, and since yesterday's System Preferences tip was such a hit, I thought I'd post a few shortcuts to speed up the Sleep, Restart and Shut Down commands. There's actually quite a few ways to accomplish these tasks, so I'll try to mention all the methods I've heard of. The first: hold the option key while selecting Restart or Shut Down from the Apple Menu to bypass the 'Are You Sure?' dialog, and cut right to the chase. You even get visual feedback in the Apple Menu; click the menu, then press the option key to see the trailing dots disappear from those two commands (as far as I know, this is a typical UI feedback element used throughout the OS; any commands - at least in Cocoa apps - that have keyboard modifiers will change their appearance in the menu if you press the modifier before choosing the option).The second method is my personal favorite: 100% keyboard shortcuts. Here's a list: Sleep = opt + cmd + eject Restart = ctrl + cmd + eject Shut Down = ctrl + opt + cmd + eject The third method, involving the power key, can still be counted as a keyboard shortcut, but since I almost never touch the power key (I Sleep my Macs about 99% of the time via my aforementioned favorite method), I don't really consider it part of my typical keystroke regimen. For you power key lovers out there, you can press your Mac's power key, and at the resulting 'Are you sure?' dialog that contains four buttons (Restart, Sleep, Cancel and Shut Down), you can press the first letters of a couple of these actions. Specifically, 'r' for Restart, 's' for Sleep and Enter for Shut Down. 'C' for Cancel doesn't seem to work, but Esc should get you out of the dialog if you need to keep computing.Here's hoping you don't have a Homer Simpson-like brain, where each new shortcut you learn knocks out an old one. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on these shortcuts, and enjoy one more trick for working with your Mac just a little bit faster.
The Five Stages of Server Shutdown
Ever had an unexpected server restart? Unsure what to do on these occasions? Never fear, for WoW Insider's handy pocket guide to server shutdowns will help you through the process:Disbelief. [SERVER] Shutdown in 15:00 flashes on the screen. A murmur ripples through all the chat channels: did I just see what I think I saw? Did you see it too? Are we really being shut down? It's very important to check with your friends just in case someone's managed to play a dirty trick on you. If you don't have any friends, the LookingForGroup channel will welcome you with open arms. Anger. Once enough people have confirmed that the shutdown is happening, those involved in complicated tasks -- and even those just idling in cities -- get angry. Chances are the shutdown happened at the worst possible time -- you just encountered a boss in BWL, you're four hours into a four-hour-and-five-minutes BG queue, or you're this close to finishing a quest. Instead of finishing what you're doing, start expressing this rage via all chat channels available to you. Acceptance. Okay, it's gonna happen, and the timer flashing up reminds you it's gonna happen soon. So you start a little finishing up what you started, you tie up a couple of loose ends, hearth and then... well, there's a little time to kill before the event... Silliness. ...so join the millions of others on the Ironforge AH bridge who are huddling together for warmth at this apocalyptic moment. (And, coincidentally, trying to force the server to crash before it actually shuts down.) But just standing there isn't good enough! It's time for phase 5! SPAM! Now the LookingForGroup channel comes into its own. Fill it up with as much spam as you can, /yell your little heart out, fire off your worst macros and AOE spells. When you're bored of that, if there's a little time to kill, start tearing into the other spammers -- if you're lucky you might get banned from LFG!
Automate shutdown and restart processes
Yet more apps that have made my "why doesn't OS X do this natively?" list are Mac Shutdown X and Mac Restart X. The concept of Mac Shutdown X is simple: shut down a Mac automatically based on various kinds of events, such as a download finishing or a file disappearing. While the list of usable events is slim at the moment, the developers state on their product site that they're very open to suggestions. Mac Shutdown X can shut down on a schedule, just like OS X's Energy Preference Pane, but you can also use a calendar and clock to specify a specific date and time in the future for shutting down. Conversely, Mac Restart X does exactly what you might think: it allows you to set a schedule or specify a date (but not events - yet) for automatically restarting your Mac.While I'm sure some people could find these separate apps handy in various ways, the fact that they sell for $10 each makes me think they should simply be combined into one utility for one price. Regardless, it's a good niche to have filled by a simple little to-the-point app.[via MacNN]
