Over at GameOgre there’s an article about World of Warcraft’s Starter Edition accounts and what they mean for Activision-Blizzard as a whole. Also, they answer the question as to why WoW didn’t just go all the way to free-to-play with their offering.
Easy answer: spammers and gold farmers.
The long answer is a bit more complex, but it still boils down to the same distillation.
Link, via GameOgre.
WonderKing Online is a free-to-play 2D side-scrolling platformer MMO developed by the South Korean company Ryu & Soft and published in the United States by Ignited Games (EU by Bigpoint). At first glance, it’s very similar to Maple Story. I found myself in magical, glittering forests full of cute (but oddly hostile) critters and adorable characters to play alongside.
I had a fairly good time for my short stay. I raised a mage and a scout both up to level 10 (well, level 15 now) and then tapped out my first impressions. I know, it’s a lot like Maple Story, but I couldn’t get into MS because it made very little sense and didn’t train you in what the hell was going on.
WonderKing Online does a fairly good job in explaining what things are and where to go in the very beginning. Certainly the skill set gets huge after a while, but it’s a slow burn.
Go check it out.
Link, via GameOgre.
There have been some “privacy scares” in relation to the cloud-storage desktop application DropBox recently that may have shaken confidence in the product; however, I am not going to leave them just because of these issues. These problems even triggered possible FTC scrutiny into their activities.
First, not too long ago it was revealed that even though DropBox touts the fact that they encrypt the contents of your shared data, the crypto key is available internally to employees—this means that they can decrypt your information and look at it anytime they want. The reason for this is that the only way that they can enable a user to retrieve the contents of their box if they lose their password is to keep the key in house. Otherwise, a user who forgets their password loses access to their data forever.
The second scandal happened recently when DropBox accidentally opened up everyone's storage to access via any password. This meant that anyone connecting to any DropBox account could have pilfered the contents for the four hour period it was open.
Why am I largely unconcerned?
I don’t store anything in my DropBox that I don’t already allow to be publicly accessible. Certainly, I do keep some secret information in there that I’d rather not people see (such as manuscripts for upcoming novels) but I do the second-best-thing that I do for anything I put into the cloud: I encrypt it.
Any passwords, sensitive information, or secrets that end up in my DropBox are encrypted and often named things that make it difficult to discern what’s in them. An attacker who manages to break DropBox’s security (or gets in when its down) will have to content with a second layer of defenses—my defenses—and certainly it’s not about to stop a determined attacker to copy and attempt to decrypt my information; but at that point I wouldn’t be able to do much to stop them anyway.
Using encryption on top of my manuscripts and secrets doesn’t just protect them from potential prying eyes, but it also means that I can be reasonably certain that they haven’t been tampered with. Attempting to change one of my cryptographic files would ultimately destroy it and render it useless (annoying to me but I keep backups.)
If you use any cloud service (backup, sharing, etc.) don’t expect that their security is ever secure enough. “Always padlock your own fscking data,” as Elaine Mercer from Black Hat Magick would say.
…oh and a Samus Aran Zero Suit edition Let’s Play of Saints Row 2.
Not a big update right now, but it goes like this: the website for Black Hat Magick is down because the server that normally would run the webserial had its motherboard melt.
It’s now non-operational; however, I did have the werewithal to get different hosting and now there’s a page explaining the situation on that domain. Refresh the page a few times, see what happens!
My good friend, Omni, also went out to the local Fry’s and bought a copy of America McGee’s Alice 2: The Madness Returns for Xbox 360. The dragon is playing it right now.
Plans are to turn it into a Let’s Play for YouTUBE.
Or, of the love of the gods, give me the option to produce a background setting that doesn’t affect the end work product so that I can bring this back? I’ve been using this for a long time now to write because it makes it much easier for me to see the text.
Now that I have Office 2010, I discovered that it’s been gone since Office 2007. Worse, while there’s the ability to turn it on – it cannot be activated by default in the Normal document template! Why would anyone set it up so that it can be turned on via a background setting, yet cannot be made default?
If anyone out there knows a solution to this (I even tried a macro) or an add-in for Office 2010. Let me know. Otherwise, I’m going to downgrade back to Office 2002.
At least that works.
Here’s a taste of my review (only the first paragraph, go read the rest if you want to know more):
It’s a blue sky over Malinovka as your tank platoon rolls tread over the dying grass, playing a lethal game of cat-and-mouse against the enemy forces hiding amidst the heavy brush. Engines blurt out on all sides as your comrades roll out and you follow in their muddy tracks when the coughing turret-report of an enemy tank signals they’ve sighted us before we them. Shells whistle overhead, radios chatter with severe language—a nearby friendly catches fire and explodes—your gunner bears the cannon sights down on a light track rambling over a hill…
This squad-based tank-shooter simulation can be a really worthwhile to spend an hour or so just trucking around the battlefield. Even though it is other people you’re up against, it doesn’t generate the teeth-breaking competition fears that other games might. As it runs a little bit slower than most FPS squad-based games.
I am constantly comparing the PvP to things like World of Warcraft battlegrounds where you have objectives and capture the flag and such, nothing similar yet in World of Tanks: just tanks, that is all. The sounds are nice, hearing the hits score is interesting, and sometimes even getting blown up can have its own delight.
If you happen to get into game, send me a message, we can hook up.
Link, via GameOgre.
At the beginning of this week we saw the opening of EMC World, which SiliconANGLE got people at—namely SA’s editor and chief Mark Hopkins—as a result we got some news about Hadoop, and a video of Tom Roloff, Senior VP of EMC Consulting, speaking about Big Data. For video games, a Czech computer scientist designed an error-correcting algorithm for video cameras and Happy Cloud is looking to leverage the cloud to aid quicker click-to-play. Apple got called to the principal’s office (aka Congress subcommittee) over their Location tracking snafus which they fixed last week in patch 4.3.3. The Pirate Bay thought they were being blocked by Comcast in the United States; and Facebook got caught hiring a PR company to smear Google.
Only one MMO game review to speak of, but it’s a game really worth playing because it’s quite fun. That game would happen to be World of Tanks. Published by Wargaming.net this game has actually had be somewhat entranced for a while. I don’t know how long I’ll keep playing it—it has a rather limited playability as it’s the same thing over and over—but they did an excellent job.
The cloud is a big deal, and cloud data in government is even more interesting. During his term, President Obama signed legislation into play that requires that the government be more open about their data. In order to help, Microsoft put on their superhero cape and tried to come to the rescue—Microsoft Tapped to Enable the US Government Open Cloud—of course, others such as Google have already been working hard on this.
In an attempt to address privacy concerns cropping up out of smartphones, Congress called upon both Google and Apple to explain themselves. Apple Faces Congress over Location Tracking Concerns—no doubt they felt a little squeamish when trying to explain why the phone didn’t stop recording customer locations when they turned Location Services off. Of course, the Google Android also records this sort of information; but the difference that makes a difference in people’s minds seems to be that Apple’s iPhone did so without consent.
As it turns out Comcast customers discovered that they couldn’t reach The Pirate Bay. Alarms went off, but it doesn’t look like Comcast had anything to do with it—Comcast Users Unable to Reach The Pirate Bay, ISP Says “It’s Not Us”—and it wasn’t…this week Comcast assisted TPB with determined where the problem existed and it’s on its way to being fixed.
Well, it looks like Facebook got caught badmouthing Google behind their backs—Facebook Hired PR Company Burson-Marsteller to Plant Negative Google Stories—in possibly one of the worst-executed-smear-campaigns-ever. USA Today broke the story after public relations experts from Burson-Marsteller tried to sell them on exaggerated concerns about Google’s Social Circle application. Now we’ll just have to see how Facebook runs damage control. Who expects them to back away and says, “Sure, we hired them, but we didn’t tell them to mudsling Google. Honest!”
You can catch up with everyone else about these facts over at the Mill Ave news and the article on the subject:
I’m tentatively calling this story Hadaly’s Day Out (feat. Brother Jed) and hopefully it will bring some light and amusement to those who already suffer this celebrity’s presence on the campus.
Immediately after that story is published, a Mill Avenue Vexations short-story and extension of that self-same story will publish here. I will not be announcing its name until it’s time for it’s publication. And you don’t need to read one to enjoy the other—although they’re probably both pretty fun.
Spread the news! Expect us.
Link, via Mill Avenue Vexations.
It’s been a grim month for the cloud, Amazon EC2 crashed-and-burned in mid-April and late the month-of-Spring-flowers the PlayStation Network lost its buttered toast. While all of these companies are still scratching their heads, leaving numerous customers and websites in the dark, we wonder how this will reflect on trust in the cloud and on the Internet. Amazon’s EC2 debacle created a crash-sense (which had been handled better by Google when it happened to them) and the PSN failures include a credit-card theft of notable proportions.
Finally there’s a little bit about Twitter being a powerful tool for spreading the news, but it’s more or less like a vast grapevine with all of the pitfalls that come with that. As a result I posit that Twitter Doesn’t Compete with Broadcast Media, It Amplifies.
And, Nokia seems to be biding their time before they come to the market with a tablet. A lot of speculation is running rampant on what might end up on that tablet when it does appear. With Nokia Waiting for the Right Time to Enter Tablet Marketplace we hear from Stephen Elop that he wants any Nokia product to stand out in a wash of too-similar products as the iPad dominates the market.
Free MMORPGs have gotten a few new First Impressions to play around with,
The worgen get a particularly interesting connection to the world, mostly in that they have a phased starting zone a lot like how the Death Knights do. You can’t jump directly into gen pop as a worgen and are instead forced to play through an epic narrative of romance, patriotism, loss, and eventual expulsion.
If you’d like to join my friends, they’ve set up a small all-worgen guild on the new WoW server Nesingwary. They’re called <The Knights of Gilneas.> You can find me there on intermittent afternoons as Fidelia.
Link, via Green Dragon Inn.
Being that it’s generally my job to be social for all my friends, I’ve set up a Facebook page dedicated to his operation and the book.
From the web page,
You see, I believe a few things. Maybe you believe in something similar. If so, I invite you to explore our teachings, especially the lucid dreaming guide.
I believe that we are all connected. In some small way, what happens to one of us, happens to all. We share the same loves, the same joys, the same pains. We have the same needs, desires, and fears. When we are at our best, we move together. When we are at our worst, we move together. We are connected.
If this is your kind of thing, go check it out.
If not, I’m sure we can find something for you to chew on.
Link, via Facebook.
The game is still in beta so my review is somewhat forgiving of some of the issues I discovered. Overall, the biggest problem is how short the story is. However, if you like space fighter simulations in solo mode – you’ll probably love what Gamingo did with Black Prophecy.
Here’s a taste of my review,
In the beginning there was Privateer and it was good; then came Descent, I, II, and III and Freespace, Tachyon: The Fringe, and the Independence War series; and then there was Microsoft’s Freelancer—the MMO world rejoiced when Jumpgate made a grand entrance and cried when it crashed and burned in the mountains of obscurity (never fear, we might see Jumpgate: Evolution!) Finally, there’s those who wanted to scratch their eyes out when Starwars Galaxies: The Jump to Lightspeed gave us a space fighter simulation MMO…
Up next to fill up the cold, dead vacuum of space fighter simulation MMOs is Black Prophecy and a beautiful vacuum filler it is indeed. Developed by Reakktor Media and published by Gamigo Games, this game looks like it could be contending for the an amazing space fighter simulation, with a strong graphics engine, an okay ship control system, and a spellbinding science fiction narrative.
Link, via GameOgre.
Last week, I spent a while wandering around another closed-beta: Wakfu, a tactical combat MMO produced by Square-Enix. I took my experience and published a first-impressions article over at GameOgre.com of this free-to-play MMO.
While the game’s graphics don’t entirely play nice with my eyes—too small and doll-like even with the zoom feature—it still has a lot of cute effects going for it. From the turn-based tactical combat, the very cute animals (killing sheep called gobbals really) and also a socio-ecological feature set for its persistent universe.
Killing too much of the wrong thing makes it go away forever; of course, a portion of the game can be had by re-planting in the wake of destroyers. I believe that experience can also be gained doing that—although not the sort of experience that aids you in combat.
Link, via GameOgre.
The MMO part isn’t bad either.
Even with the preview event being a closed beta (invite only) there were plenty of people to interact with. The community is extremely friendly and I had a great deal of fun. Looks like its shut down now in preparation for the final launch.
The actual game launches on April 4th.
See you there!
Link, via GameOgre.
In a rare term of wit, one of my favorite states—as I live there part of the year—has managed to come down with a ruling about recording the police while in public. This happened over a case involving rapper Dr. Dre and one of his concerts.
According to an article in the Michigan Messenger,
The suit was filed by Gary Brown, now a Detroit City Councilman but formerly a high-ranking police official. He and other officers were videotaped while threatening to shut down a concert featuring Dre and Eminem if they showed a sexually explicit video. The video was then included in a DVD produced about the tour.
The court, in a 6-1 ruling, dismissed the suit, saying that there is no right to privacy for police while on the job. The implications of this ruling are far more important than they may seem initially because it explicitly makes it legal in the state of Michigan to record the police while they perform their duties.
This is incredibly important because cell phone videos of police officers have revealed misconduct, abuse and lying on reports in case after case around the country. But in some states, like Illinois, it is illegal to videotape the police in the performance of their duties.
It should be made clear that the police in this happened to be proceeding in the back stage of a concert with multiple cameras and third parties wandering everywhere. The concept of a “public space” was in full force and the conversation was not taken out of public into private.
The entire idea that public officers would be stupid enough to argue that they had an “expectation of privacy” in these circumstances is wholly ridiculous. I would love to see what the single dissenting ruling opinion had to say on this subject.
Furthermore, if you are a public official and operating in that capacity and in public while doing so there’s no real expectation of privacy. Many police SOP is to report all contact with civilians when operating in an official capacity; the requirement of report itself removes any concept of expectation of privacy. The operations of law upon the citizenry should be fully accessible to the citizens they affect sans a writ or warrant withdrawing it from them. This is necessary especially for the ability of the public to assist with their own defense against the State in matters of accusation.
I should be able to record any conversation I am a participant thereof—and further, especially those that involve the operations of public law.
This does not infer that such recordings should be automatically admissible in a court of law; but it should proceed forth from the law that anything that I can legally access should be mine to retain.
The ex-officer in this case felt that the recording of his actions embarrassed him. And they did—his actions were embarrassing. As an officer of the court and a holder of the public trust he was entrusted with certain powers and authorities that flow forth from that public trust and part of being a public official is being under public scrutiny and the public eye.
Many states still have laws on their books which make recording the police illegal; even when the police have the right to record a conversation or action with an individual who is directly affected by it. This really needs to stop. Recording the police is not “wiretapping” and stretching laws that prohibit wiretapping and eavesdropping is obviously ridiculous when the police are exempt from the same rules sans need of a warrant.
If you happen to play, please give me a peep in the comments section; even if you don’t let me know what you think of the game from my review and if you’re interested in trying it out.
Link, via GameOgre.
Why should you buy it and read it?
Because, if you have a Kindle it’s only $2.99 and it’ll give you at least a night of enjoyment (if not several.) Plus, with Nokia in the news so many times recently, it should also be semi-topical—even if it is set almost a hundred years into our presumed cybertech future.
Who knows. Perhaps Nokia will take over the mobile industry and give us near-telepathy.
It could happen.
Link, via Amazon.com.
I won’t spoil it here for you (as we’ve already put a commentary up about my review on Vox Ex Machina) but suffice it to say: I really liked the game. I am not one for FPS-style games; but this one really has taken some of what I’d love to see in an MMOFPSRPG to heart. Yes, it’s a Massively Multiplayer Game, a First-Person-Shooter, and a Role Playing Game.
I love the stories that it tells, and I’ve even fought in some PvP matches in order to finish some missions for the various crime families around the city.
Level progression is interesting and having jobs that run along the lines of ”shoot this many people with a rifle” to complete really make for an interesting job-on-the-side in a job where you’re already shooting people.
Be sure to read the full review.
Link, via GameOgre.
Most recent post for the Green Dragon Inn, decided to do up a little discussion on the newer instances in Azeroth.
Two weeks ago or so, Ghostcralwer, everyone’s favorite dev, decided to weigh in on complaints that the new instances are much too difficult. Some disagree, but he seems to believe they’re on the money. As I’ve seen, the new instances certainly require a lot more coordination than the standard dungeons (up ‘til 80.)
Conclusion: They seem harder, but it’s because of the increased coordination and lack of knowledge…they’re also more fun. You should check it out and tell me what you think.
Link, via the Green Dragon Inn.
Burning rubber where angels fear to tread.
