Surprise
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Amazon's got a new app for lazy gift givers
We all know that one person who, in lieu of a present, hands you a voucher and tells you to get yourself something nice. Whatever your feelings on that strategy, it's clear that Amazon wants to be the one-stop shop for that type of gift-giver. That's why the company has quietly launched Surprise! an app that enables you to send seasonal e-cards alongside vouchers for the everything store. For added convenience, you can even link the app to your Facebook timeline, enabling you to send cash-based gifts to loved ones just in time for their birthday in a way that won't make you look like you did it all at the last minute, no sir.
The Daily Grind: How have you been surprised lately in-game?
I love (good) surprises. I really do not want to know what anyone's gotten me for Christmas. I love it when something awesome falls in my lap out of the blue. And I delight in any MMO that can pull a fast one on me and have me smiling as a result. Sometimes MMOs can do that -- surprise you. Maybe a content patch or expansion is released earlier than expected. Maybe coming back to a game or trying a new one turns out to be a wondrous experience. Maybe you encounter a quest or meet some new friends that generate terrific memories that renew your faith in gaming. Maybe you get a free present or find a cool secret or witness a truly epic event. How have you been surprised lately in-game? Let's hear it! 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: Surprise! WildStar!
You might have noticed that there was an omission in last week's installment of The Nexus Telegraph. Every week I let you lovely people know what I'm going to be writing about next week, and when I can, the week after that. Last week I completely omitted what I'd be discussing in my next WildStar column, leaving you with no idea what I'd talk about today. Surprise! Yes, that was the thematic link. It seemed clever to me. One of the big elements that WildStar is embracing thus far is that trick of surprising the player. It's a tricky thing to pull off in an MMO because the entire genre is built around understanding and minimizing surprises as much as you can. So let's take a look at some of the game's approaches to surprise and how the game manages to create more surprises by giving you fewer surprises in some areas. Yeah, it's that sort of thing.
Does WoW still surprise you?
I didn't start playing World of Warcraft right at launch, but it's safe to say that I've been playing for a long while. For me, WoW is the video game equivalent of an old, worn t-shirt: it's comfortable and familiar. It's a game I often launch when I'm not looking for something fun and distracting, but not anything that's going to challenge me too much. I still find WoW to be a lot of fun -- I wouldn't keep playing if I didn't! -- but it's still usually something I play with the television on in the background. But sometimes, still, even after all these years, WoW does things that manage to surprise me. Of course WoW has new content -- lately, it's come more quickly than ever -- but even, sometimes, when I'm not looking for it, I'll run into something new. Now and then I bump into quest text I hadn't read carefully before, a Cataclysm change that I'd never noticed, or an Easter egg the developers snuck in. And you, reader? Do you keep finding that WoW surprises you?
Firaxis bringing Haunted Hollow to iOS
Firaxis is one of my favorite game developers -- they're the group behind the Civ series as well as the recent (and excellent) XCOM: Enemy Unknown reboot. Today, they've surprise-announced a game called Haunted Hollow, which is coming to iOS later on this spring. As you'd imagine from Firaxis, it's a strategy game, but it's a little more colorful and fun than Civ or XCOM -- you'll be building up a mansion full of monsters, trying to scare townspeople and slowly take over the town you're in. Each monster can be powered up, and there are even some multiplayer modes, either over Game Center or with pass-and-play. It sounds really great. The game will be available for free from the App Store, with the title supported by microtransactions (probably for currency, though extra themes and architecture are mentioned as well). We'll watch out for a release, and let you know when we spot the game available for download.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV declares open season on lore
Every so often, Final Fantasy XIV throws me a curveball. Case in point: the Lore forum. This was one of those things that was mentioned an eternity ago that I (and quite possibly everyone else) assumed would happen around the fifth of never. But it's a real thing, it exists now, and you can go over and get a lovely rundown of all that racial naming conventions, a primer on Roegadyn language, and assorted other threads detailing important lore tidbits. If you need more proof that things are different at Square-Enix these days, this would serve as exhibit A. This is the sort of thing that I love. But at the same time, it's something I'm not completely happy about. I should clarify; I'm entirely happy that it exists. But I'm a little perturbed regarding the timing, and I think there are ways in which its release now is kind of awkward. So rather than unmitigated gushing over the new forum, this week saw a lot of gushing and a lot of frustrated squinting.
Brad McQuaid returns to EverQuest
It's like getting the band together again. Less than a year ago, Brad McQuaid returned to Vanguard, the game that he had created. But McQuaid had room to go even further back to his first position of note... and now he's done it. It's been confirmed on the official forums that Brad McQuaid is now back with EverQuest, a fact that has resulted in no shortage of fan shock. McQuaid says that after 12 years, he couldn't resist the chance to rejoin the team and get back to work on the game, which he feels still bears many traces of work he did back when he was first involved in development. He also hints that some of his first projects will involve elements of the game that have been hinted at since launch, although he avoids further explanation. Whether you're happy or sad about it as an old-school EverQuest player, you can't deny that it's big news. [Thanks to Tess for the tip!]
Guild Wars 2 preparing a Halloween surprise for tomorrow
Is it a "surprise" when you know it's coming? Perhaps it's a convenient surprise that's considerate of your busy schedule. In any case, Guild Wars 2's Halloween event is building up to a big moment that happens... tomorrow. The dev team posted a heads-up for gamers to be in a certain location at a certain time on Sunday: Act 2 of the Guild Wars 2 Halloween event is live -- enjoy the festivities! DO NOT MISS Act 3 of Shadow of the Mad King which kicks off at the lion statue in Lion's Arch at [3:00 p.m. EDT] on Sunday, Oct 28 with a very special, one-time only surprise! Will this be a trick or a treat -- or both! -- from the Mad King Thorn? We'll just have to wait and see with the rest of you until it happens.
ArenaNet announces another stress test for Guild Wars 2
In an ongoing effort to make the Guild Wars 2 servers fit for the teeming masses that will descend upon them at launch, ArenaNet has declared yet another stress test. For those of you who missed out on Thursday's test or just want more time in Tyria, your next chance is this Friday, August 10th, from 7:00 p.m. EDT until 11:00 p.m. EDT. Characters will not be wiped before the stress test, and as always, the test is open only to those who have already pre-purchased Guild Wars 2. In the announcement of the event, the ArenaNet team reminded fans that they "might experience connectivity problems" and that any such issues "are a result of the rigorous conditions of the stress test, and are in no way representative of the state of the game at launch."
The Daily Grind: How important is surprise to you?
For some players, MMOs are all about discovery. The game is at its most fun when you're just exploring the world, figuring out what you need to do as best you can. But to other players, wandering around without a clue isn't as fun as knowing what to do and enjoying that actual accomplishment. Of course, surprises come in both big and small varieties. No matter how well you might know Star Wars: The Old Republic's quests, for example, you might avoid looking up all of the datacrons and thus get a pleasant surprise when you find one. Or maybe you don't like knowing about the bosses you'll fight in a dungeon until you get into the fight. We all like discovering things, but what we like to discover varies. So what about you? How important is having surprises in a game for you? Do you like to walk in with as little foreknowledge as possible, or do you like to have a pretty good map in your head before you start playing? 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!
RIFT flags more trial servers
In a rather surprising move for a number of RIFT players, it turns out that several of the game's servers have been converted over to trial servers. Naturally, it makes players instinctively fearful that it's the first step toward server shutdowns and closures. But that's not quite what's going on. As explained by community manager Elrar quite some time ago, trial servers are lower-population servers that are essentially being put to one side for large-scale trial programs. Character creation for subscribers is disabled on those servers, and there's a message encouraging you to move to another server with a free transfer, but it's not a shutdown, just a ramp-up to a larger trial period for non-subscribers. According to Rift Junkies, a total of 11 servers are seeing the trial tag applied, and players are encouraged to move off these servers by January 18th. If you've got a character on Belmont, Galena, Atrophinius, Crucia, Alsbeth, Estrael, Shadefallen, Sunrest, Freeholme, Dayblind, or Faemyst, now would be a good time to start planning for greener, non-trial pastures. [Thanks to Celestial Lord for the tip!]
Breakfast Topic: Moments of pleasant surprise
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Everyone who plays WoW has horror stories. Awful PUGs, bad groups, guild drama, the time you got that item ninjaed. We often pull out these horror stories in games of one-upmanship about who has had the worst experience with friends and guildies. Or when recruiting a new member to your guild, the bad memories often outweigh the good when it comes to certain players. However, if WoW were merely a collection of awful experiences and drama, there would not be millions of people paying 15 bucks a month to keep playing it. This is about those moments in which you were pleasantly surprised. I have had several throughout the six years of WoW, varying from random, in-game good luck to things that resonate in real life. One of the most pleasant surprises for me was meeting an-in game friend during a dungeon, eventually joining his guild and becoming a main tank for that guild -- the guild I still raid with to this day. I also got Undying on an 8-man Naxx run the day I turned 80 on my paladin tank alt. Friends of mine met through WoW and are now married. One of my relatives went to BlizzCon only to find a coworker also there; neither of them had known the other played, and they found out they are on the same server. Even recently, a doctor of mine saw a WoW shirt I was wearing and asked what server and faction I was, then made a joke about not knowing if he could heal me since I play Alliance. So what are your moments in which you were pleasantly surprised? What moments have made your day or left you feeling relieved and happy? Have you had the simple, in-game moments of joy that bring a smile to your face, or have you had in-game moments that affected your real life as well?
Massively interviews CCP Greyscale on the EVE Christmas gift
Early yesterday morning, a new devblog by EVE Online developer CCP Greyscale brought us an exciting first look at something awesome arriving in the upcoming Incursion expansion's December release. Speaking on behalf of development team Yggdrasill at CCP's top secret Iceland hideout, Greyscale explained CCP's plans to completely abolish learning skills in EVE. Learning skills increase a player's attributes, which decrease the time it takes to train skills. Since they take some time to train, however, dedicating time to them will only pay off after several months of subsequent skill training. As a result, new players are often advised to put off training for that ship they want or those useful industrial skills, as focusing on learning skills early on will pay off in the long run. This can stunt a player's progression in his early days, making for a very boring early play experience that can be distinctly off-putting. As part of the company's Christmas gift to all EVE players, the skillpoints we have invested in learning skills will be reimbursed so that we can add them to any skill we want. To compensate for the decrease in attributes and give new players a bit of a boost, all players will have 12 points added to every attribute. This is exciting news, as the removal of learning skills has always been strongly supported by the EVE community. We caught up with CCP Greyscale to ask a few important questions about what this change means for players. Skip past the cut for our interview with CCP Greyscale on the EVE Christmas gift and what the learning skill changes mean for players new and old.
Sony Ericsson's CEO promises 'big surprises in the next few months' (video)
The grand opening of Sony Ericsson's new Americas HQ in Atlanta isn't the sort of thing we spend sleepless nights thinking about, but a PSP Phone is. It's mighty encouraging, therefore, to hear the company's CEO Bert Nordberg tease "big surprises" coming from his team over the next few months. That revelation was accompanied by plentiful references to SE as an entertainment phone maker, a sly grin, and the usual disclaimer that "we never announce them in advance" -- though considering the gap between the Xperia X10 announcement and arrival to market, maybe Bert should reconsider that part. Either way, unless SE's big surprise is the delivery of a smartphone with an up-to-date OS and cutting-edge components on time (which would, admittedly, be a surprise), we're happy to take this as a sign that the Android 3.0-powered gaming platform-cum-smartphone is brewing nicely behind the scenes.
Lucky Mac mini buyer got Snow Leopard disc in the box?
If his story is to be believed (and it seems pretty believable), an anonymous tipster to Engadget Japanese got a nice surprise with his recent Mac mini purchase: a Snow Leopard install disc. It's one of those vanilla hardware-specific install discs, dubbing itself Mac OS version 10.6, and clearly packing the goods if the screenshots don't lie. This only adds confusion to the ship date, which has been listed as August 28th on Apple's online store, dubbed as "September" elsewhere, and obviously been totally disregarded in this specific case. No matter what, it looks like we won't have long to wait. Hit up the read link for a couple of Japanese-infused screencaps.
The Daily Grind: What announcements do you expect at GDC this week?
The Game Developers Conference is all this week and we'll be there to report the latest MMO news on your favorite games, old and new. Last year's conference revealed some exciting news on fresh projects like Love, as well as unexpected hits like the reveal of APB. As we gear up for a week of interviews, panels and hands-on play time, we can't help but wonder what the big announcements will be for this year. We already know about Funcom's unveiling of The Secret World, as well as goodies from Blizzard, Mythic and CCP, but what secrets lie in store for us hungry MMO news junkies? Let us know what you think will be the biggest surprises of GDC 2009.
The Argent Tournament in Patch 3.1
In one of the most unexpected announcements about the eagerly anticipated Patch 3.1 PTR, Zarhym announced a new world event called The Argent Tournament. The event will be included in the PTR, even though he makes it clear that many aspects of the event will still be under development. It looks like a pretty big event, based on the Argent Crusade faction in Icecrown. Some highlights include: Mounted combat - Blizzard wasn't clear if players would be using their own mounts or special vehicle-type mounts, but the say that the tournament was to prove one's worth to their own capital city A tournament coliseum - Daily quests to build a coliseum will likely be similar to the multi-phase daily quests in the Isle of Quel'danas New Achievements All new rewards -Zarhym promises new items, titles, tabards, pets, mounts, and banners (possibly like the Honor and reputation-bought Battle Standards?) This looks like a pretty big event and Blizzard managed to keep it under the radar. With all the excitement about Ulduar and the massive work that's certain the content entails, it's a pleasant surprise that Blizzard had this planned all along -- promising more festivities as time goes by. We over here at WoW Insider are giddy with the thought of the event, and as Daniel put it, it makes us feel like we're "back in High School being teased by the cutest girl in senior year". Uh, yeah. That means we're kind of excited. You should be, too.
Surprise! Age of Conan Collector's Edition revealed to be monstrous
So are you the type of person who simply loves special editions of anything? Do you pine for leather-bound bits in all their bountiful beauty? Well then FunCom has quite the surprise for you with their monster of a Collector's Edition for Age of Conan. Details were revealed today by Ten Ton Hammer. Not satisfied with a simple "ten dollars more edition", the makers of Age of Conan have gone above and beyond the call of collector's duty. That's right, you'll be getting a metal embossed cover, an actual poem written by none other than Robert E. Howard, a 128-page art book, of course a soundtrack, a "professionally crafted" leather map of Hyboria, the standard bonus DVD with various footage and five buddy keys which we assume can be used to get your friends in on the head-lopping action. Still not satisfied? Well apparently neither was FunCom, because you also get two in-game items. The Ring of Asheron gives you a 2% Experience Modifier and 3% Stamina Regeneration. Meanwhile, equipping The Drinking Cape gets you free drinks for life.Now remember, getting drunk lets you start bar fights -- so that means bar fights to your heart's content! We're pretty much sold on this thing now, even if it's clocking in at a whopping $89.95 at retail.
DS Daily: Under the radar
When we expect a game to be good, it damn well better be good. We just assume, for example, that a Zelda game is going to be fun before we even play it. Sometimes, however, the best gaming experiences are with a game that doesn't have much hype surrounding it. Then, we pop that beauty into our handhelds and it blows our minds.Have you had experiences like that with any DS games this year? If so, let us know what they were. Perhaps there are other folks out there hoping to discover hidden gems. We know we certainly are.
Wii Warm Up: So where is our September surprise?
Maybe when Reggie said we could expect something good by the end of September, he meant the actual end. That means he's got until Sunday, but he's cutting things quite close. Maybe sometime today we'll hear something ... or do you think it's silly to get our hopes up? A lot of people have been speculating that it has something to do with recent forum closures or the changes in store for Nintendo Power, but unless we're getting that content in channel form (a possibility, to be sure), then that's probably not it, since Reggie was talking about channels and WiiConnect24 at the time.So what -- and where -- is it? We've been very good, and we deserve a surprise.
