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CCP Games CEO issues letter of apology to EVE Online players
Just over three months ago, fans of EVE Online looked on in disbelief as the game they loved faced its biggest crisis of confidence since 2007's T20 developer scandal. The long-awaited Incarna expansion was pushed live with no multiplayer environments and only one race of captain's quarters. Players were forced to use the feature every time they docked, and it seemed that its only purpose was as a display case for overpriced cash-shop clothing. While players debated the controversial cash shop prices, a leaked company newsletter titled "Greed is Good" and a leaked memo from CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson threw additional fuel on the flames. In a letter to the EVE Online community today, Hilmar delivered a humble apology for everything that happened. "The estrangement from CCP that many of you have been feeling of late is my fault, and for that I am truly sorry," he began. "In short, my zeal for pushing EVE to her true potential made me lose sight of doing the simple things right. I was impatient when I should have been cautious, defiant when I should have been conciliatory and arrogant when I should have been humble." The letter goes on to tackle everything from the removal of ship spinning and the release of the captain's quarters as a full expansion to CCP's plans for the future. In an accompanying devblog, CCP Zulu provided an impressive list of in-space features aimed for the winter development period. The list includes the long-awaited hybrid weapon balance changes, assault ship bonus reworks, capital ship rebalancing, and even iteration on faction warfare.
Free for All: The 'fall' of free-to-play
Here in Texas we have been suffering from one of the worst heat waves in the history of the state. It's the type of constant heat that makes you mad at something, perhaps the sky or the sun. It's not logical, but you start to get mad at the state for being where it is. Then you start to get angry because your lawn is dying off or because your electricity bill is almost double what it was the year before. The next logical thing is to dream of colder times. I have already begun to fantasize about wrapping myself up for a crisp, cold winter's walk with the dogs. Hot cider, the holidays... it's all coming soon. I hope. The next several months will also be the time to keep an eye on a bunch of developing titles. Click past the cut and let's look at what makes me so excited for this fall!
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite winter zone?
OK, how weird is the whole "Christmas in July" thing, anyway? Are people jonesing for sleigh bells and mistletoe so badly they can't wait for a few months? Who thought it would be a smashing idea to make us think of the cold, dark days of winter in the middle of 90-degree weather? So if we're already at the weird point of thinking about snow while our thermometers are melting, we might as well go the whole hog and talk about winter zones in MMOs. I've always been partial to a good snow-and-ice-themed area, whether it be Winterspring in World of Warcraft, Forochel in Lord of the Rings Online or, y'know, Hoth. What's your favorite winter zone in MMOs? Which areas make you want to wrap a warm fur cloak about you as you venture forth into the fluffy powder and pristine icefields? And what makes that zone special for you? 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!
NJ EV owner with 50,000 miles logged dispels myth of cold weather battery woes
We see you in comments, chiming in on every EV post about how worthless they are in the cold. Charles Lane from The Washington Post recently did the same, saying things like "A change of ten degrees can sap 50% of a battery's output" and speculating that the EV industry is "just one well-publicized malfunction away from disaster." Not so, says Tom Moloughney, and he should know. He's spent the last 49,500 miles of his commuting life in an all-electric Mini E, an average of 2,500 miles per month. Now, this car is a prototype and a fairly early example of the modern electric vehicle, meaning it has no preconditioning tech to let you warm up the battery packs before you go. Despite that, Tom has logged every trip he's made in the car and indicates he rarely sees more than a loss of about five percent from the vehicle's usual range. More importantly, he's made his way through many a cold commute without getting stranded -- or freezing to death.
Apple awarded patent for capacitive touchscreen-friendly 'magic' gloves
Apple received a patent for a glove system that is compatible with a touchscreen. Anyone who has used an iPhone, iPod touch or an iPad in a cold weather climate knows the pain of having to remove a glove to answer a call or check an email. Even thin driving gloves impede your ability to use your iOS device. Rather than smear your screen with pork fat, Apple might have a more palatable solution for your cold weather needs. This latest patent describes a two-layer glove that includes a weather-protective layer and a layer compatible with a touchscreen display. The layer that protects your hand from the elements will include tactile feedback so you can feel the interaction with the display. I am not sure how the Apple version differs from gloves already on the market, but as someone who lives in a northern climate, I would love to see a pair of these stylish "magic" gloves hit retail shelves of Apple Stores. Maybe they can throw them into some accessory bundle for us northern folks. And, hey, a pair of Apple-branded gloves has to be better than using a frozen sausage. [Via 9to5Mac]
Massively's ho-ho-holiday MMO roundup for 2010
It's that time of year again -- when snow falls in lands that normally don't even see weather effects! When you're supposed to love your fellow elf, human, dwarf -- or at least maim them in the nicest, most brotherly way possible. As one would expect with a plethora of MMOs out on the market, there are gobsmackingly huge numbers of events to take advantage of. Being the festive holiday folks we are (well, OK, some of us anyway), we've gathered up a listing of some of the many things going on. So if you're curious about just what holiday merriment can be found out there, grab some egg nog (alcohol optional), click past the break, and dive into our festive roundup of holiday events. Also, be sure to keep an eye on Massively as Rubi continues giving great gifts to gamers galore in our 12 Days of Giveaways event!
'Tis the season for gifts and goodies in Vanguard
Tell us the truth, gentle reader: Have you been a good little boy or girl this year? And have you dutifully paid your monthly subscription to SOE? If you said "Yes!" on both counts, then Vanguard invites you to party it up with the Festival of Gloriann. The major cities have been dressed up in their wintry finest, and gifts have been sprinkled around for all to find. If you really want to get into the festival, you can learn more about Atnas Claws, meet Randolf the flying reindeer (and perhaps get a lift), and beat up on freaky-looking snowmen. Any similarities to real-world copyrights is just a coincidence. There are also special housing decorations and fun costumes to enjoy. The Festival of Gloriann is currently lighting up Vanguard, so check it out and give Atnas a high-five for us!
Icebound: An exclusive survey of Rift's Iron Pine Peak
As we continue the countdown to Rift: Planes of Telara's beta and launch, Trion Worlds rewards our patience by expanding our view of the world. Today, Massively reveals an exclusive overview of Rift's coolest area yet: Iron Pine Peak. If you're a fan of winter-themed zones, then you're in for a doozy! Iron Pine Peak may seem beautiful, sprinkled as it is with snow-swept vistas and scenic views down vertigo-inducing cliffs, but only the hardiest of souls will survive to appreciate it. It's a place of solitude, history, mountains, watchmen, evergreens, and one terrifying dragon encased in a prison of ice. Both factions will be converging upon this location in an effort to unravel mysteries and prevent a possible terrifying future from taking place. Hit the jump for the official description of Iron Pike Peak, a snippet of lore, a dash of video, and several new screenshots!
One Shots: Beauty amongst the ruins
When it comes to the lands of Guild Wars, many may prefer the pre-searing lands for beauty versus the mangled lands of later days. But as today's One Shots contributor, Winter, shows us, there's still sparks of loveliness in the wreckage of earlier cities. He writes in to explain a bit about this image: "Recently I was replaying the first Guild Wars campaign (Prophecies) and noticed that even in post-searing Ascalon you still can find some gorgeous places -- like this mural of Balthazar the god of war." If you've found a nugget of awesome while out playing your favorite MMO, we'd love to see it! One Shots is all about what you, as players, are doing from day to day. Email your screenshots of anything and everything to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in! %Gallery-85937%
Shinji Mikami's Vanquish headed to 360, PS3; 'Winter 2010' release worldwide
As listed in the most recent issue of Famitsu (and translated by Andriasang), Platinum Games' fourth effort for Sega, Vanquish, is headed to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this winter. The game's director, the acclaimed Shinji Mikami, spoke with the Japanese mag recently about how the game is taking shape. Apparently, Atsushi Inaba (ex-CEO of Clover Studios) will be serving as producer on what Mikami calls a "shooter that places importance on the good tempo and feeling of rhythm you get from playing an action game." The game's said to be set in a near future where US/Russian Cold War relations have resulted in a standoff. "There are lots of games where you shoot and kill people, so this time we wanted to try and see how we could convey the good feeling of shooting robots." Truer words, Mr. Mikami. Truer words. Allegedly the game is around 80 percent done at this point, with only "annoying" work left to be done -- Mikami's not a fan of enemy and ally AI development, it seems. Will we see Vanquish on North American shores this winter as well? We're not sure yet, but with the game "developed with overseas markets in its sights," we have to imagine Platinum Games would like its latest title to land in our trigger-happy hands as soon as possible.
Winter Olympics 2010: The iPhone experience
The Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics kicks off tonight at 7:30pm ET/PT. Here's a list of some ways you can enjoy this year's games on your iPhone. 2010Guide - Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games: The Official Mobile Spectator Guide [iTunes link] Free. This app is a location-aware schedule detailing more than 2,000 sport and cultural events taking place over 17 days between February 12 and 28, 2010. Updated throughout the Games, the schedule adjusts to your time zone and works even without a data connection. Plan your Olympic experience by creating a personalized itinerary using Favorites. The app also includes real-time results for every sport as well as headlines, photos and twitter streams. CTVOlympics.ca [iTunes link] Free. The official CTVOlympics.ca iPhone app. Covers up-to-the-minute headlines and news on every sport at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Stunning photo galleries with hundreds of spectacular photos, in-depth Canadian and International athlete profiles, venue information and the upcoming event schedule for the Games. It's everything you will need on the Games from Canada's official broadcasters: CTV, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, RDS, V, RIS Info Sports, OLN, OMNI, APTN and ATN. More Games-related apps and downloads after the break.
City of Heroes announces holiday contest winners
As Christmas recedes into memory, it's easy to forget about the stress of the various celebrations and just remember the nicer parts of the holiday. For our characters in City of Heroes, of course, the holidays saw yet another onslaught by elemental minions of ice seeking to spread permanent winter. But the pot was sweetened a touch by the addition of the holiday contest, a chance for players to decorate their base or alter their costume in such a way that they became a bit more seasonally appropriate. Just a bit over a month out, the winners of the contest have been announced, and it takes only a quick glance at the artistry involved to see why. Bases were transformed from fortresses of solitude into... well, they were still sort of fortresses of solitude, but now they had appropriate decorations hanging from the icicles. Meanwhile, characters were transformed into crime-fighting ski bunnies and workshop elves. Giving City of Heroes players a chance to work their creativity almost always results in some excellent material, so feel free to take a look at the official page listing the winners and screenshots of each.
One Shots: Tilting at snowmen
While many living up north enjoyed their white Christmas, many others are ready for all the snow to go away already. In the Lord of the Rings Online, it would appear that this Dwarf is either well into his holiday cups, or just feels like attacking snowmen to take his frustration out against the winter. This fun little snowman was found by Florin E., who writes in to tell us about it: I just saw the easter egg "little castle of sand" and I am really excited. I'm going to find it by myself, I love this. I do not know if you have already published this easter egg. Long time ago I was farming ore near Thorin's Gate and I found this snowman. Note: you can [also] see a little snowman in the Matthom house in the Shire. It's not too late to find those wintry holiday pictures and get those in to us! if you'd like to show off your favorite game's holiday celebration, just email your picture to us here at oneshots [at] massively [dot] com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you the nod for sending it in!%Gallery-9798%
Winter screenshot contest for Champions Online
We're approaching the winter solstice yet again, known in some parts of the world as "that time when it gets so cold your eyes frost over." In order to take at least some of the sting off the weather, Champions Online is offering players a reason to get in the mood of dressing in seven layers of clothing and turning the heat up high enough to melt plastic. After all, even heroes can get cold on occasion, and being able to project beams of force from your eyes doesn't necessarily help you drive through a whirling blizzard, so it's high time for the game's first winter screenshot contest. The contest runs until 11:59 PST on December 20th, and to enter, all that one must do is post a screenshot with a winter theme to this thread on the official boards. It could be a costume that's suited to the chilly weather, a hero traipsing about in a winter wonderland, or whatever else you can come up with that fits the theme. The winners will receive an in-game Retro Destroyer action figure for their efforts, which won't help keep you warm, but might help keep you smiling anyway as you scrape seventeen inches of ice off the front windshield of your car.
Frozen iPod returns from the grave
Andrew sent us this great story -- he found an iPod classic in the melting snow of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. It had apparently been there "since early winter," and was frozen solid... as is the case, we'd imagine, with most things left outside there between September and April.Incredibly, though, once taken home, cleaned up, and given a warm cup of tomato soup and a grilled cheese, it started right back up again. Everything was completely intact -- he says it even displayed the correct date. Pretty impressive for Apple's little music player (and mine's even stuffed in a Vaja case, so I know it'll always run for me -- assuming I don't drop it in a pile of snow somewhere). He says there is a name on the iPod, so if you've been around the Whitehorse area and have recently dropped your iPod near a place called Takhini School, leave him a note and he will probably be able to get it back to you. But do it quick -- he's giving things about a week, and then it's finder's keepers. We don't blame him: who wouldn't want an indestructible iPod?
Argent Tournament dailies: The Edge of Winter
This is the first in a series of daily guides intended to guide you through the Argent Tournament as quickly and painlessly as possible. We'll have guides for each daily going live in the weeks to come. Keep your eyes peeled and your lances ready!All of the Argent Tournament competitors want to best their rivals, and the best way to do that is (clearly) to grab some mythical weapons and bash their heads in. In this case, you're after the Edge of Winter, a mythical blade held safe by the Maiden of Winter's Breath Lake ... but not for yourself, of course. You don't need any kind of special advantage to compete. The first thing you'll want to do is head to Crystalsong Forest, near the entrance of the Crystal Vice.
Kolon's heated Sport Life Saver III makes a trip to Yellowknife totally doable
Kolon's Sport Life Saver III doesn't include any fancy extras like built-in Bluetooth, speakers or a pocket specially designed to keep old tater tots warm, but it does include an integrated heating module to keep your blood from chilling. Redesigned from the ground-up, this here coat sports a supple Gore-Tex Proshell 3L shell, a "survival kit," compass and a translucent hood. The standout feature, obviously, is the HEATEX function which provides heat of around 95 or so degrees Fahrenheit, though we're not told exactly how it's powered. Sadly, we're also left clueless when it comes to pricing and availability, but those who've been avoiding the slopes for fear of frigidness will probably pay just about anything.[Via BeSportier]
Winter: yet another publisher-deprived mature Wii game
Haven't we heard this story before? A relatively small developer touts its desire to make a good-looking mature game on Wii, only to have the project shot down by the major publishers. Then, the developer releases tons of media of the in-development game to the public, and hardcore Nintendo fans rally the troops demanding the game's release. If this sounds familiar, it's because you've been following The Conduit.n-Space (developer of Geist on Gamecube) looks to be repeating history yet again by revealing its in-limbo Wii game, Winter. The survival horror game reminds us a little bit of Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy): an inexplicable snowstorm shuts in a Midwest town, and the main character must figure out the dark secret behind the situation. The developers wanted to create a HUD-less world, where the Wii Remote and Nunchuck became extensions of the player's hands.Speaking to IGN, n-Space president Dan O'Leary explained that publishers simply couldn't get behind marketing a mature game on the Wii. "In almost every case we got hung up with the sales and marketing groups. They simply could not get behind a survival horror title on the Wii ... The idea of an 'adult' game on what they perceived to be a 'kids' console was simply too big a leap for them."If given the opportunity to finish development of the game, one of the goals would be to drastically improve the visuals, "making the best looking Wii game possible." See video footage after the break.
Winter held up by unadventurous publishers
n-Space's Winter harks back to the days of early Resident Evil games, featuring as it does claustrophobic corridors, a jumpy-as-hell atmosphere, and gruesome monsters. If that sounds promising, the footage above will probably only convince you more of the game's potential. Although a bit glitchy in places, this took only six weeks to create.Now here's the sad part of this story: Winter is another of the Wii's lost games. n-Space enjoyed a hugely positive response after pitching the project to numerous publishers in 2007, but Creative Director Ted Newman has told IGN that the game "got hung up with the sales and marketing groups." The game was put on hold, and n-Space instead focused on Target Toss Pro: Bags, presumably a title that appealed more to the suits.IGN's interview with Newman manages to be simultaneously depressing and enlightening, but is definitely worth your time. Understandably, n-Space is happy to bring this to market, but they'll need a publisher first. Interested, Sega?
Snowshaman!
This is brilliant -- after Anna jokingly asked for pictures of Snowshaman, she actually got one. Niyahti and her husband built this snowshaman, complete with two totems (though we're not sure which ones they are -- Wrath of Air and Frost Resist maybe?). Sure, it loses a little something in the translation from polygons to frozen water, but remember the medium. Considering it's handmade with snow, that's a pretty good snowshaman. The horns on the head must mean it's a Draenei, right? Though I have no idea what the sticks are coming out of the front.And hey, if you happen to get a nice bit of snowfall this month and feel like you can make a better one, feel free. We'd love to see it.
