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The Daily Grind: Should there be a statute of limitations on dev statements?
Like elephants, gamers have wrinkled, grey hides and freely poop all over the savannah. Oh! And like elephants, gamers never forget. They especially never forget anything a developer has said in the past if it ended up being contradicted by the studio or a prelude to a momentous mistake. I've been guilty of slingshotting these statements back to the point of origin from time to time, and judging by our comments section, there are quite a few of you who get a special thrill out of being able to bludgeon devs with their own words. But lately I've been wondering if there should be a point where we, y'know, just let these quotes go. Time moves on, situations change, and devs are as fallible as the rest of us. Should there be a statute of limitations on dev statements, and if so, how long should that be? 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!
The Nexus Telegraph: In which no WildStar injuries happened
My performance on the dance floor during PAX East 2013's WildStar party is the stuff of dark legends (in my mind, anyway), but it was not replicated this year. Indeed, when I tried to get into this year's WildStar community party, the entranceway was inaccessible due to the sheer mass of people. As I naturally handle crowds about as well as a Mechari handles knock-knock jokes, I opted to turn around and go back to my hotel room. There was a Ghostbusters marathon on, so it was still kind of awesome. This did not, however, mean that the convention was devoid of interesting stories; it just was devoid of stories in which I sustained injuries greatly impacting my normal hiking routes. So let's talk about what things really stuck out in my mind through the whole con. For my money, that comes down to the focus on the endgame and a really stupid statement. Where to start?
HD DVD camp issues sad little response to Netflix, Best Buy snubs
Out of the many jobs in today's multi-billion dollar consumer electronics industry, the one we'd probably want least right now is writer of press releases for the HD DVD Promotional Group. After each major defection, these poor folks have to whip up a positive-sounding response to what everyone knows is very bad news -- but after yesterday's one-two punches by Netflix and Best Buy, even these paid cheerleaders are having trouble finding the right spin. Here's what they had to say, as reported by CNET: "We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail."Doesn't sound like there's too much fight left there, does it? If the best you can do to support your dying format is to rehash the same canned argument and celebrate your remaining shelf space, well, there would seem to be a bigger problem than you're willing to admit. At this point, we're just curious to see how it will all end: after investing so much time, energy, money, and vitriol on this bitter format war, how does Toshiba move forward in a world almost completely dominated by its rival in blue?[Via High-Def Digest]
Apple breaks silence - denies claims of wireless iPod, kinda
Apple doesn't feed the press many scraps, if any, and they rarely - if ever - comment on unreleased products. Apple Taiwan, however, has broken the silence by denying claims of Apple sending staff to major Asian markets to demonstrate these rumored wPods. So no, they didn't exactly deny claims that the devices exist - just claims that they're getting trained on how to use and sell them.Speculation has been heating up about a wPod in light of Microsoft's announcement of Zune, an iPod competitor, that could feature wifi. Yes, I know wifi is an announced feature, so in all likelihood it should feature wifi, but in the tried and true Vista spirit of scrapping announced features, it sounds like Microsoft has already dropped video support from Zune. With the way things are going, they'll be lucky if the device ships with the ability to play music.But I digress. Back on the topic of wifi and everyone's favorite little white music player, we very well might not see it in the next version. Apple hasn't been publicly hip on the idea (though Jobs did say video wouldn't happen either), it's tough to build in and, perhaps more importantly, it eats batteries for breakfast. The iPod already receives criticism for its 14 hour battery life (with only 2 or 3 hours of video) in light of competitors like Sony who get upwards of 20 and 30 hours, so adding a juice-hungry feature like wifi is no small step for a device like this.Regardless, we'll see what we can see in the upcoming months, as the iPod is definitely ready for a refresh. Who knows, maybe you'll be able to buy iTMS music from the palm of your hand soon enough.
Overheard after E3: Childbirth
With E3 over, Jen from Wonderland and NCsoft had this to say about her experiences:"E3 is like childbirth. You can't possibly imagine what it's like until you've done it."Hours to days of unending pain? Pass the sedatives.
