Blizzard now offers patch notes for a version 5.0.4 update for World of Warcraft that's now live on the PTR for their MMORPG. This includes an explanation that "PTR testing is restricted to World of Warcraft game accounts that do not have access to the Mists of Pandaria beta test," and
this page has more details on this limitation. The new version includes the typical round of balance changes as well as new features like BattleTag support, AOE looting, a new "Attack on Theramore Isle" world event, and account-wide achievements, pets, and mounts, as
explained here.
A new
interview on Gamasutra chats with Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith of Arkane Studios about
Dishonored, their upcoming action/stealth game. They discuss the design of the game and its world (and how the two designs interact), the allure of "power fantasy," catering to different audiences, non-violent solutions, combat, and more.
GamesIndustry International - Fez, Fish and The Problem with Patching.
Fez has grossed over a million dollars, and even after Microsoft has taken a lump of that, it would be outright negligent and irresponsible of Fish not to have money left over to cover an unforeseen problem like a reissued patch. Catch-22. If you're able to complain about it, you're also able to pay for it, and your users are quite entitled to excoriate you for using them as hostages in a debate with Microsoft which is of no real relevance to them.
"I don't care how indie you are, or how free and loose your ideas of commerce and creativity may be - once you've taken a million bucks from consumers, professionalism isn't optional" Equally, though, one can have sympathy with Microsoft. The company gives one patch for free, and charges for subsequent patches - not because it's greedy and avaricious (it does lots of other things for those reasons, of course), but because it doesn't want to see XBLA games being released buggy or incomplete and patched repeatedly. The Xbox is a console, and players expect not to be confronted with the kind of endless match of bugs and patches which so often afflict PC games. Microsoft has a duty to its consumers to try to enforce that, and ultimately, Fish bears responsibility for creating a patch with such a serious bug in it.
Going to run out and frolic while it's so nice out. This week was rainy, and it's supposed to be hot again next week, but today is just perfect around here (apparently this makes us the lucky ones, as there are severe thunderstorm warnings for much of the country). We just can't stray too far, as we have to pick up MrsBlue's car after an oil change. Guess we need to consult the weather before making such appointments.
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