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Time's history of video game consoles stirs up memories, rivalries
Picking your trench in the console wars used to be a much simpler affair. You could go with Nintendo and their pair of Italian plumbers, or you could side with Sega and their totally radical hedgehog with an attitude. It's been a while since that rivalry really mattered, but this installment of Time's look back at the first four generations of gaming consoles stirred it right back up. Let's go, Sega Genesis nerds! Fight me in real life! Just kidding, we're all friends now. Besides, I was always jealous of you all getting to play Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Time's next installment in the series is due Thursday, December 26, which should be plenty of time for PlayStation fans to finish a batch of popcorn and reminisce on their console of choice's decade of domination.
The Daily Grind: How late do you play?
We all have different schedules, different timezones, different levels of engagement in our games of choice. But whether you're going to work at 5:00 a.m. or 5 p.m., you still have a schedule. Sure, you normally don't get home until 4:00 a.m., but if that's the case you should really have been in bed an hour ago but you want to get just one more dungeon run. It's not just about being hardcore or not. Some people will log in to World of Warcraft for a raid, run what needs to be run in an efficient two hours, and then be free for most of the evening. Others log in to Final Fantasy XIV and wind up roleplaying until hours past a more reasonable bedtime. So how late do you play? Do you tend to get on when you get home and stay on until bed? Do you generally play an MMO and then move on to other things, or do you make that your last stop of the night? 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!
iOS 7 calendar display bug for end of DST hits USA
As we reported last week when the UK clocks fell back, there's a quirk in the iOS calendar display routines that's evident on the first day after the switch from Daylight Saving Time back to Standard Time. Although alarms and reminders trigger as they should (on the new schedule), the "red line" current time indicator in the Calendar app is showing one hour later than it should (old time). US users are now seeing this issue, as we "fell back" last night from DST to ST and gained a replay of the 1 am – 2 am hour. This is a purely cosmetic bug and should clear up soon; it is annoying, however, and a reminder that iOS and Mac users have often struggled with more serious time-logic flaws -- alarms that go off an hour late, for instance. The moral: for the Monday after a time switch, set a second alarm clock just in case. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
More magazines coming to Flipboard: Time, Fortune, InStyle and People
If you work in new media, there's a sure-fire way to know if you've made it: traditional media starts paying attention. Time Inc. is following in some, ahem, illustrious footsteps after announcing that it's bringing InStyle, People, Fortune and Time to Flipboard. The first two will be arriving on the platform this week, with the latter pairing debuting in December. With specially paginated content, readers will see a "unique brand experience" when you delve into each title -- presumably with plenty of space for benevolent advertisers like Gucci to exhibit their wares.
World of Warcraft's peculiar time dilation
When you've been playing a game as long as some of us have been playing World of Warcraft, you get some unusual moments of realization. One of them occurred to me recently, when talking about the upcoming 9th Anniversary of the game this November 23rd. The person I was talking to said "Yeah, my mom showed me how to play, I used to fish for her on her hunter" and it came out that said person was 21 years old, and that she has been playing the game since she was thirteen. She has effectively grown up in Azeroth, at least part time - nearly half of her life has been spent playing this game. Meanwhile, with each expansion the game has lost some players and gained others - there are people who started playing in Cataclysm and even people who started play this year (I know, I've met quite a few of them) and many of them have no idea how to even go about absorbing all that happened in those nine years. To people who've played all along, it all happened - it's part and parcel of the game, it's history we experienced. But to new players, the sheer volume of it all can be daunting - I've had players comment with disbelief when told about 40 man raiding, who don't really grasp just how many times class mechanics have been changed and revamped and altered. One healer simply couldn't grasp the concept of an out-of-combat resser, a healing character who stood back out of range of boss fights and resurrected people who died over and over again. For me, the trippy part of that conversation was reading a 21 year old relate stories of Molten Core to this newer player and realize they were stories of what she was doing in grammar school. Of course, for me WoW is a game I discovered in my 30's. My early thirties, come to think of it, and now I'm well out of that decade. So we're all aging, but the proportion of time we spent playing the game is different - for me WoW is just one of many games I've played, and certainly not almost half of my lifespan.
Fitbit to launch new 'Force' fitness and sleep-tracking watch
Not content with its current range of fitness wearables, Fitbit is set to unveil an updated version of its Flex tracking device called the Fitbit Force. As spotted by The Verge, the Force will introduce a number of features that were omitted from the Flex but are present in its popular One tracker clip. One such feature is an altimeter that calculates your current altitude and the number of steps you have climbed over a 24-hour period. The second is that the Force will offer a digital watch face, effectively turning it into a fitness-focused smartwatch. This feature will give it an edge over some of its wearable rivals -- most notably the Jawbone Up. Although Fitbit has yet to announce its new product, the company has been taking steps to update its website, uploading a sizing guide for black and slate models of the wristband, as well as early listings for replacement clasps (which have since been removed). We were able to access some of Fitbit's promotional material, which highlights the Force's different measurements metrics, and have included some of them in the gallery below. Apparently the Force will be priced at $129.95, $30 more than the Flex, when it goes on sale -- but when that is, only time will tell.
The Daily Grind: How much time do you spend on MMOs each day?
I was looking at a list of Fall game releases the other day and salivating over some of the open-world titles coming over the next couple of months. We've got Saints Row IV this week, Grand Theft Auto V and its GTA Online component in September, and the latest Assassin's Creed offering a month after that. And that's just the AAA stuff. I'm not sure how I'm going to fit those games and several others into a schedule that's already bursting at the seams, and I haven't even started talking about the MMOs I'm playing yet! Anyway, that leads into today's Daily Grind question. How much time do you find in a typical day to play MMOs? 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 Daily Grind: Why do you like character development and progression?
I dislike MMO progression. No, seriously. I dislike it mainly because it feels like a job and I already have a couple of those. If I could start every MMORPG at max level and just explore the world and/or enjoy the narrative I would do so without thinking twice about all the grindy, repetitive "gameplay" I'd be missing. See, I play video games to have certain experiences that I can't have in meatspace. I can't very well drive a GT40, hunt bounties in the Old West, or customize my own spaceship outside of gaming. But I can climb a career ladder toward a distant and theoretically rewarding end goal in real life, so I don't see the appeal of doing it in games. Obviously, though, some people love progression and character development. Heck, I'd go so far as to say that most people love them, at least in this genre, because almost every game uses them as a core mechanic. And assuming you're one of those people, today's Daily Grind question is for you. Why do you like character development and progression? 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 Road to Mordor: Time travel is possible in LotRO
Some days I get a headache trying to wrap my head around the way that time works in Lord of the Rings Online. I mean, most MMOs are pretty straightforward when it comes to the time frame; pretty much everyone, everywhere in the game is in the same point in history, give or take a phase or two. Your journey through the game gives the illusion of time passing because your story develops and you go through a series of challenges, but really everyone, NPC and player alike, is living in the same day. If the game advances the timeline, everyone moves forward with it. LotRO is not like that. LotRO is not like any other MMO I've found, mostly thanks to the fact that it's tethered to an IP that has very time-specific events. A year or so ago, I was talking to Turbine on the phone and asked if I could look at the timeline document that the team uses to keep all of the events straight in the devs' heads. I didn't get to see this document, but ever since I've been keeping a close eye on how the game treats time. The truth is -- and this is very weird to consider -- that we as players are adventurers not just through Middle-earth but through time as well. We slip forwards and backwards in the timeline, often without even realizing it. You didn't think time travel had a place in fantasy MMOs? Well it does here!
Physicists construct the most accurate clock the world has ever seen
Calling a clock the most accurate ever may sound like hyperbole, but physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado have built a pair of devices that can claim that title. The team used an optical lattice to address an issue that plagues atomic clockmakers: constantly shifting frequencies that negatively impact the accuracy of their measurements. For example, a single second can be defined by the frequency of light emitted by an atom when electrons jump from one state to the next, but those frequencies change as the atom moves. The optical lattice essentially suspends atoms to minimize the Doppler effect produced by that movement. By combining the lattice with the element ytterbium, the group was able to create a device that measures time with a precision of one part in 1018. To put that into perspective, Andrew Ludlow, one of the paper's authors, said, "A measurement at the 1018 fractional level is equivalent to specifying the age of the known universe to a precision of less than one second." To read more about the team's work, you can find the full PDF at the source.
The Daily Roundup for 04.19.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Time's Harry McCracken on the battery life mystery and Polaroid Super Shooters
Every week, a new and interesting human being tackles our decidedly geeky take on the Proustian Q&A. This is the Engadget Questionnaire. Time's technology editor-at-large Harry McCracken offers his take on OS agnosticism and the golf disconnect in our latest weekly inquiry session. A collection of responses to the rest of our tech questions resides on the other side of the break.
Productivity Tip: Time for timers
Every day you have the same 24 hours as the rest of us to get what is likely a crushing amount of work done and out of your way so you can spend some time relaxing. Or, as one author has framed it, you have 168 hours in a week to accomplish what you want and move forward toward your goals. How do some people manage this while others are constantly rushing around late to everything? I was certainly guilty of this until I started minding my time in small chunks. Here are some ways to get those tactical moments -- the day-to-day stuff -- managed and under your control. What are you doing? At any given time, what are you doing? Probably the most significant thing you aren't doing is being mindful of the time you are spending on tasks. While the Pomodoro technique might not be for everyone, simply setting a timer to keep track of how long you're working on a given task is absolutely vital. At the end of the day you will have a better idea of where your time went, and by not getting bogged down in one or two things during the day, you'll find you can better cope with the myriad items you happen to be juggling. Think about it like this: How many times have you become engrossed in your work so much that you "lost track of time?" While being in a state of flow and working on something for a long stretch can be beneficial, over time you'll find that you tire easily and get "burnt out" after too many of these marathons sessions. You'll also find smaller stuff starts slipping through the cracks. Brain scientists and productivity experts agree that there are good reasons to break up marathon work sessions into smaller chunks. This is to avoid fatigue, primarily, but also so that you are making sure you get to all the stuff you have to do in a day, not just the one thing you're communing with that morning. Mindfulness Guess what? There's an app that ships with every iOS device currently made which will help you be mindful of your time on tasks. The Clock app has both a stopwatch and a countdown timer. If you use Siri, you can easily set a timer just by telling your iDevice for how long. But of course, there are dozens of timer and productivity apps on the store to help you out. First I'm going to explain what you should be doing, then I'll list some apps to help you out. Mindfulness has a specific meaning for Buddhists, but I'm really referring to the awareness aspect. By becoming more aware of how quickly time passes while our minds are engaged in a task, we can start to feel more in control of our daily tasks. Even emergencies (which I'll handle in a moment) won't throw our life into disarray if we have the knowledge of how our time flows at any moment. I cannot stress enough how important it is to be mindful of your time, and this doesn't mean checking the clock every hour or setting a chime. Being mindful of your time means you are setting the rules, you are taking control and you are paying attention. In the book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam, one of her first suggestions is making a log of your time for an entire week. Everything, from brushing your teeth to making your bed to your commute and break times should be logged. While it sounds onerous, logging everything you do in a week is much like a very thorough physical exam. In this case you are getting an x-ray into your life. By seeing how much time you spend in the morning making espresso, you can determine whether that time is well-spent. A lot of what we do is wasted time, maybe because we're not familiar with a tool we use or maybe because we're still doing things manually when they could be automated. In any case, a complete time log is the first step to awareness and will lay bare which parts of your day are being spent doing wasteful things. Note that I'm not referring to recreation time, which I feel (like family time if you have kids) is a necessary thing. So is sleep, although I have yet to accomplish 8 hours a day of sleep as Vanderkam claims is possible! Once you see what you are doing and how long it takes you, it's time to start forcing yourself to be more mindful of your time. If you are the shortcut type, you may skip to this next part without a week's worth of data... Set a timer After you are done reading this article try an experiment. If you don't already time your tasks or use a countdown timer, try this: Choose a task to tackle next, something that's part of a project but not something you know will just take a couple of minutes, then set a timer for 20 minutes and see how far you get towards finishing that task. Pomodoros are 25 minutes, and then it is recommended to take a 5 minute break. Personally I like to go in 20 minute sprints, then take 10 minutes to read, make coffee or a snack, or just get up and walk. I find, since I work at home, that 10 minutes is enough time to handle light chores in-between work tasks. So that's it! Set a timer for 20 minutes, then get to work and do not look at the timer. If you were really engrossed in your work, that 20 minutes didn't exactly crawl by, did it? It never does. If you were bored, you likely kept wanting to look up to see how much time you had left. This is how time escapes us, as the perception of time is fluid in our brains. Once you begin to time yourself, you begin to really manage what you are doing, and time becomes just a metric for focus. The joy for me comes in knowing that, in an hour, I can likely work on two tasks (possibly to completion) and get a couple of chores done. Now multiply that by 8 (not that any of us works a mere 8 hours a day) and all of a sudden you are making steps towards completing all sorts of larger goals by forcing yourself to march to a drumbeat of small time chunks. If you pace yourself, you can go anywhere with this, just like a march in real life. Don't forget to budget time to be social, however. Emergencies and schedules What about emergencies? I have tried a regimented schedule, and frankly, it isn't for me. I'm not the guy who gets up at 6am every day, refreshed and ready to start another day carefully portioned out in hour-long blocks. For one thing, my life is messy. For another thing, the news business isn't really conducive to careful planning of one's day. Instead, I needed a way to handle the numerous emergencies at work and in life with my larger schedule and long-term goals. Here's how. First, you have to have goals. We'll cover this in another post, but for now let's just say it's impossible to know where you're going if you don't have a destination. All of your tasks are just steps toward that finish line. Next, you have to have priorities for those goals. As I said last time, I use OmniFocus to help me sort through all the things I have to do to determine, based on priority and time, what I need to do next. Only when you know what has to get done can you plan to do it. Yes, that sounds simplistic, but I find that a couple of times a year most of us could benefit from a housecleaning of our tasks and goals, otherwise we find ourselves swimming upstream with a constant torrent of downstream asks which can overwhelm us. If you know what you have to do each day (again, something we'll work on in future posts), handling emergencies actually becomes a lot easier. Yes, you will have to shift things around. No, you will not have to freak out about it. The secret is simple: Be mindful of your time. Also give yourself a break every so often. As an example, let's say you are going through email in a 20-25 minute block. You've set a timer, you dive in, and about 5 minutes into the task you see an email from your boss with the ominous, all-caps subject URGENT: RESPONSE REQUIRED. Knowing you have to respond to this, you open the email (still part of your "check email task") and read it. It takes another 5 minutes or so to read the email and scratch down a quick list of what needs to be done. As you look at the list of 3 things needed, you can break down what is needed to accomplish this emergency goal -- or not! If it's a report "due tomorrow without fail" you can probably finish your email session and then get to work. If it's due by the end of the day, it's time to reset that timer, take 5 minutes to clear your head and then restart the timer and get back to work! Again, if this is an emergency then everything else is on hold. By keeping at it in small, 20-25 minute sprints toward the finish broken up by short breaks, you can stay focused. You might even throw in a 20-minute "do something else" task if you start getting tunnel vision. The brain can only take so much, depending on your age, etc. Above all, don't panic. Know that like a brick mason laying brick by brick, over time your tasks will build towards the goal. Unless you are really terrible at what you do, you'll get there. Over time you'll learn to see how your pace is affected by longer sprints. At the end of the day you'll find you can say "I spend X hours on this" and you will feel good about the fact that you put the time in. If you didn't get that emergency handled, you'll probably know why that happened, too. It wasn't because you weren't focusing on what needed to be done! The other thing about emergencies is that we have to push other stuff we had hoped to accomplish in a given day back, which leads to stress. By knowing you can only spend so much time per day doing something, you'll feel less stressed knowing those time blocks will be there tomorrow, and whatever derailed your plans for today can hopefully be cleaned up for a fresh attempt in the morning. As for schedules, we'll talk more about them in another post, but for now it's important that you stop thinking about your day in terms of appointments, and think more about what you're trying to accomplish every day. Do your best to minimize distractions on your calendar, as in your life. Timers help you focus, as long as you don't get distracted during those times. Apps that can help I've tried a number of timer apps but have settled into only using a few. As you can imagine, too many choices means you'll just trip up on what to use, and when. So I keep it simple, but I'm mentioning a few apps I think may be interesting to some of you, since you're not all as loose with a daily schedule as I am. On iOS: Clock Well, this is free and from Apple and you have no excuse not to use the Timer function starting today. While Apple's Clock is a no-frills affair, you can set your own alert sound and the timer is Siri-enabled, if you're into that sort of thing. Untime I love this timer app for a number of reasons. It's free, it's fast and it looks cool. Not only that, the dots on the screen are like sands in an hourglass, showing you at a glance how much time you have remaining without numbers (until the last 10 seconds, when a countdown appears). I love that the numbers go away, so your brain only sees how "much" time you have remaining. The alarm is pretty great as well, and the whole app reminds me of something Tron might use. Untime is simple, elegant and cool -- just how I like my apps. Due My favorite across platforms, Due has been covered before. iCloud sync is a huge time saver when setting up task timers, however. And yes, I set multiple timers because a task of playing with Legos on the weekend with my kids takes longer than an email sweep -- this is called keeping your life balanced! 30/30 This might not be for everyone, but if you have a number of items to accomplish in a day that you do often, 30/30 is a very nicely designed app that helps you structure the order of those tasks and set timers to help you keep on target. I feel like 30/30 could benefit from a better ability to reset those lists, but on those days when I need a little more structure, 30/30 does an amazing job of helping me power through a hectic schedule. Timer Aptly named, Timer from App Cubby offers 12 slots for preset timers. I find something like this very handy if you have a number of timed things you need to do in a day. For example, I try to get in 40 minutes of cardio twice a day, so having that as a simple button makes it easy. I have a basic Pomodoro, a "sprint" of 20 minutes and a 5-minute timer all pre-set in Timer for when my day is fluid, but I still have some regimen to adhere to. App Cubby's apps are always beautifully designed, as well. (There are lots and lots of Pomodoro apps, so feel free to share your personal recommendations in the comments below.) On Mac: Due Again, since Due has a Mac version, setting timers and getting alerts doesn't get much easier, and again iCloud makes your efforts portable. ApiMac Timer If you're ready to get fancier, ApiMac's Timer is a power user's dream timer. While the free version is great, the pro version allows the app to do all sorts of awesome things like run AppleScripts, send email logs and can even put your Mac to sleep. Timebar Timebar is a minimalist's dream. It sits in the menu bar, allowing easy access to set a timer. Better yet, it shows a progress bar in the menu bar itself, and as the menu bar "drains" you have a good idea of how much time you have left on a task. For me, this only enhances my stress if I'm under pressure. For others, this might be a way to gamify certain tasks that you hope to do faster. But it's cheap, efficient and effective and offers a snooze button when you need more time. Howler Our own Kelly Hodgkins recommends this one, and if you use Growl, Howler can hook into it. Howler offers a lot of features you might not need, but if you find a basic timer isn't cutting it, or you need to loop or chain timers (perhaps you have a series of tasks which rely upon a sequence), check it out. There's also an iOS version. Wrapping up Even if you do nothing else to make your life more productive, the simple act of being aware of your time spent can have a profound impact in your happiness. When I discovered how much time I had spent mucking about in email, I began training to help change that behavior (and yes, we will cover email in another series of posts). As a result, I got about an extra hour of work time in each day without having to stay later than usual. If you feel frustrated that you can't get things done, start logging what you do and how long it takes, then start breaking up your day into manageable timed chunks no more than 30 minutes at a time. Within weeks you'll find that you feel happier and more in control than ever, and you'll know where you can improve. Don't worry about fancy tools or tricks, just keep a timer going, pause for breaks, then get back to it. Unless you are Sisyphus you will find that eventually you've rolled that boulder up that hill.
Breakfast Topic: What do you do when you don't have time for WoW?
It's a sad fact that we all have so-called "real lives" that keep us busy from dawn to dusk (and then some) with work, chores, and other responsibilities. And some days, no matter how carefully I've managed my time or kept up with my to-do list, my scheduled gaming time gets pushed off the agenda for more important things like doing laundry, getting much-needed sleep, or catching up on Once Upon a Time (no spoilers!). Of course, even when I don't have enough time to play, I usually find myself logging on to do the cooking daily and, if I feel energetic, check the auction house. (Hey, I could actually do that right now, while I'm writing this post! BRB.) And even when I don't find time for that, I keep up with my WoW friends on Twitter and Facebook, so I'm never entirely out of touch with WoW. What about you, morning readers? Do you have any WoW-inspired habits for those days you just don't have time for WoW?
The Daily Grind: Would you rather have more money or more time for gaming?
Money and time: Two things we always wish we had more of and yet come up short. When it applies to gaming, these are the two factors that can take a fun experience and pump it up. So which is better? As a married father of three, time is always in short supply in my household. Some website is always making me write about games instead of playing them, and I would be lying if I said I didn't have fantasies about creating a clone who could game 24/7 on the side. Having more time for gaming is always a perk. But money for gaming ain't half bad, either. It can be used to purchase games, buy merchandise, pay subscriptions, snap up groovy cash shop items, and even (sometimes) make up for a lack of time to play. So would you rather have more money or more time for MMO gaming? 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!
Tim Cook makes shortlist for Time's Person of the Year
Time Magazine has posted its shortlist for the annual Person of the Year awards, and there's at least one familiar face on there for Apple fans: Apple CEO Tim Cook has made the cut. Along with Barack Obama, Bill and Hilary Clinton and Yahoo CEO (and former Google exec) Marissa Mayer, Cook is under final consideration for this year's award, which will reportedly be announced tomorrow. The internet doesn't quite believe Cook deserves it: Time's annual fan poll (which is always buried under by a mob of votes from social sites like 4Chan) already chose North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as its choice. But the fan poll is basically just a stunt these days. The final decision comes down to Time editors. Given everything that's happened this year, it's hard to believe that Time will eventually choose Cook as its Person, but then again, who knows? Cook has definitely shined in his role of filling the shoes of Steve Jobs, and Apple has never been more influential in the various fields of tech, business and the creative arts as it's been this past year. So maybe we will see Apple's new CEO crowned tomorrow. [via MacRumors]
Time names Guild Wars 2 the top video game of 2012
What's the best video game of 2012? If you're Time magazine or are looking at the headline of this article, chances are you probably know the answer. Time's website counted down the year's top 10 video games, putting Guild Wars 2 at the top of the list. The author seems taken with the game's dynamic event system: "All those events and hundreds more play out in real-time -- with, as Bono would say, or without you -- lending Guild Wars 2 the feel of a living world, and the sort of compulsive anywhere-you-go playability other MMOs only dream of." Torchlight II also made it into the list at the number 10 spot, with the author saying that it delivered the same action-RPG rush of Diablo III at a third of the price.
Time lists its 100 best video games by decade
Time has put out a list of what it considers to be the 100 greatest video games ever, and some of its entries caught us a bit by surprise. For instance, did you guys know that the 1972 PC game Hunt the Wumpus is one of the best video games ever made? Right up there with Shadow of the Colossus and Chrono Trigger, it turns out.Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards? Yup, just as important as Metroid and Prince of Persia. We're not saying the list is wrong, per se, we just maybe wouldn't have put Solitaire on the same level as Myst. If anything, check out the full list here as a helpful shopping guide for the retro gamer on your holiday gift-giving list.
EverQuest, Ultima Online, and World of Warcraft among Time's top 100 games
We tend to think of MMOs as being different from other video games, but the genre has had a pretty major impact on all areas of gaming. As a result, it's no real surprise to see that three of the all-time most important MMOs show up on Time's recent list of the Top 100 Video Games of All Time. EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and Ultima Online are all included on a list that honors everything from Oregon Trail to Katamari Damacy and Pac-Man to Batman: Arkham City. The entries on EverQuest and Ultima Online both make note of the longevity and long-term success of the older titles, while the World of Warcraft article homes in on the diverse audience attracted to MMORPGs (something arguably true of the former titles as well). While other MMOs didn't make the list, it's well worth taking a look at the full article if you want a walk down video game memory lane.
Black Desert shows off time transitions
We've all sat down to play our favorite game in the evening only to be alerted to the time by sunlight filtering in through the window. In many games, however, day and night are simply toggles -- the game goes from dark to light, possibly with some dimming or brightening along the way. Black Desert is going for a more realistic approach, and a new set of photos shows off the game's transition from the deep of night into the brightness of day. According to translations, a full day cycle runs in four hours, with a gradual progression of the sun from the horizon to its zenith and then back down again. The result are shadows and light patterns that reflect the time of day. Time will also be reflected in the habits of NPCs, with shopkeepers returning home to rest and monsters swarming in increased numbers. There will also be content only available during the day or night, something to look forward to as the sun rises or sets.