Tribe
Latest
ICYMI: Goat-inspired robot design and apple picking
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A researcher at Carnegie Mellon created the GOAT leg for robots that moves much like a pogo-stick and posted a video of its tests to YouTube. Meanwhile a robot to harvest apples might still be in prototype, but it's miles more advanced than the thing that just shakes trees violently until all the apples fall off. The mechanized sushi chef video can be found here, the boy who swallowed a dog toy here, and Joe Biden not being able to let go is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Nether adds crafting, creature mode, and tribes
The mean streets of Nether are easing up a bit on players, as Phosphor Games has patched in a slew of helpful systems for its February update. The trio of new features includes crafting, a creature mode, and tribes. Crafting encourages players to scavenge from their adventures and fashion gear and weapons to use and trade. If being a bad guy is your thing, then the new creature mode allows users to step into the twisted role of a nether to stalk victims. And tribes, Nether's version of guilds, are now in the game with bases, a skill tree, and special objectives to be patched in later in the month. Players who join a tribe from now through February 15th will earn special bonuses including currency and a free uniform. We've got a video showing some of the February update features after the jump, so get a move on, little doggy! [Source: Phosphor Games press release]
Hero Academy update adds Tribe team, optimizes app for iPad
Sick and tired of the lack of variety in your team selection when playing Hero Academy? You've got three teams: the Council, the Dark Elves and the Dwarves. Three is plenty, right? Not for Robot Entertainment -- a new team known as the Tribe is coming soon.On top of the new team, Robot Entertainment is also adding a new battlefield, free to all players, and iPad support that optimizes the universal app with high-res graphics and more screen space specifically designed for iPad. For a breakdown of the new content, march on past the break.
Spirit Tales introduces the Lunar Fox and Maned Dragon tribes
If you are allergic to stupefyingly adorable things, you may want to look away now. If you're not, you may be interested in KoramGame's upcoming free-to-play title Spirit Tales. Fans of fluffy wittle animal-people with eyes the size of some small galaxies will find themselves right at home with the two newly announced tribes, the Lunar Fox tribe and the Maned Dragon tribe. Each tribe has its own unique classes available to it; the Maned Dragon tribe sticks to tradition with the mainstays of Warrior (which plays the role of defender) and Archer (which supplies ranged DPS), while the Lunar Fox tribe bring some magic and cunning (and lots of DPS) to the table with the Sorcerer and Assassin classes. The full details on each tribe and its respective classes can be found over at the official Spirit Tales forums.
Choose My Adventure: The final countdown
Your voices were heard! At least, I do hope those are your voices I've been hearing in my head... they are telling me to do things. And I listened. I am instructed to listen to the voices. The voices can't hurt me, right? Well, maybe not the voices themselves, but since they chimed in on experimenting with combat, I know I am about to get hurt some! This week concludes our foray into Xsyon for Choose My Adventure, but I dare say it does not end my time there. Although the game does not fit the standard mold of MMO fare today, it has been quite enjoyable and a great change of pace. I have kept myself entertained with my adventures in-game and I still look forward to logging in each time (minus the apprehension as the combat loomed closer). Take a (final) hike past the cut for the results of our look at combat, some final impressions on the game, and a sneak peek at your next CMA guinea pig.
Choose My Adventure: I've been digging on the homestead...
All the live long day! Sing it with me now... There really is something to be said for creating your own world. How many of you gamers out there have just ached for a MMO game in which you could truly affect the world instead of rolling along on a predestined path that is the same for everyone? As I delve deeper into Xsyon, that is what I find -- a world where my actions have real meaning. A world where we can change not only the political and economic landscapes but the literal landscape. For Choose My Adventure this week, you, the Massively readers, decided that I shall work on my architecture skills and place a homestead (thereby allowing me to terraform). This really highlights some of the most unique features of the game. Although I dove into these new tasks with gusto, I now know why olden-day manual laborers sang songs during their work -- there is serious need of brain stimulation during long, monotonous labor. And building a new world from the ground up is seriously a long and slow process. If nothing else, Xsyon is not a game for the instant-gratification crowd. Which is all the better, in my opinion. For a deeper look at terraforming, crafting, and general life in the Tahoe Basin, build a bridge over the cut and check out where our adventures led this week.
Studying the WoW Tribe: Gamasutra asks "Is there life after World of Warcraft?"
Gamasutra has an in-depth interview with several academics asking "Is there life after World of Warcraft?" Neils Clark suggests that the majority of of MMO players don't spread themselves out over multiple MMO games, but instead migrate like a flock of birds or a "gamer tribe". I do think that the same chunk of players went from EQ to Galaxies to WoW with some dabbling in games like AO, DAOC and CoH inbetween. Obviously, Blizzard attracted about 8 million extra people to our "tribe", however, so I wonder if our tribe just got a lot bigger or if we are now just one tribe of many.Clark interviews 5 academics about how gamers will move from WoW to other games and what what has made WoW the powerhouse that it is. The discussions of social networks, lures of new fantasies and the ramifications of a WoW collapse are very interesting.Clark also says that he thinks WoW is the "king of the mountain" not because it is the best game out there but because it attracted the "right people". I say the "right people" are playing because it's currently the best game out there. What do you think?
