89. Windows 8 Hands-On: A Mobile OS that Still Has Love for the Desktop

[Article first published as Windows 8 Hands-On: A Mobile OS that Still Has Love for the Desktop on Blogcritics.]

** UPDATE: This article is on the Windows 8 Developer Preview from September 2011 - for more info on the actual release version, my series on Windows 8 RTM starts here. **

I had a lot of reservations about Windows 8 since i started seeing leaked PowerPoint slides detailing it ages ago.  From those leaks, it looked like it was going to be nothing more than some sort of mobile OS designed to compete with Google’s Chrome OS, and wouldn’t really be very useful for desktop users.  Old screenshots of the Metro interface made me think that it was just a larger size version of the Windows Phone, without a lot of additional functionality behind it.  As of Microsoft’s BUILD conference keynote just this past Tuesday, I’m glad to say I was wrong.  Microsoft released the Windows Developer Preview (I’m going to just call this WDP from here on out) Tuesday night, and after a number of tries just downloading the image, I finally got it dual booted with my Windows 7 on my laptop.  Now granted, running the preview on a laptop isn’t going to give me the complete mobile experience that I see this being great for, but it’s at least given me a taste.

One of the phrases that gets tossed around the web so much to describe the current state of computer technology is “post-PC era.”  With all due respect to proponents of this philosophy, what the hell is the matter with you and your technological world view?  I’m not saying mobile is worthless; on the contrary I think mobile is an extremely important component in today’s era of computing.  But that doesn’t mean I’m going to confine my gaming to casual games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja while running out to replace all my users’ machines with tablets and spend insane money on peripherals. Let’s face it, most high-powered gaming and traditional applications used by gamers and business users is still going to be run on traditional desktop PC’s.  As it would appear, Microsoft agrees with me, and Windows 8 still provides what I affectionately refer to as le olde school, namely Windows Explorer.  Outside of the new Metro interface, a very familiar setting awaits those of us that primarily compute mouse-and-keyboard style.  Users still have full access to a familiar Windows desktop, where they can peruse files through Windows Explorer, add desktop shortcuts, gadgets and pin applications to the taskbar.  Working with multiple monitors has also become a little bit easier, with the frustration of being unable to stretch the taskbar across multiple screens is now gone.  Exploring files includes common window and file commands on an optional menu in-window, pulled from their Office 2007 and 2010 ribbons.  Want to go virtual?  The preview has a built-in hypervisor for Hyper-V, which currently is only available as part of a server OS package.  And as far as compatibility, nothing is going to change for users used to running a Windows 7 environment.  I ran a guildie through Stratholme in World of Warcraft from it last night with no problems whatsoever.  The one thing that may take some getting used to is the lack of a start button similar to what we’ve seen in most Windows iterations.

Now for the other side of the OS.  There’s the new mobile half of it using Microsoft’s Metro interface.   I like it, and can definitely see how this would be a very intuitive and easy interface to use on a tablet.  Right now i’m scrolling left and right with my mouse, but on touchscreen enabled devices movement would be swipes from side to side.  The Metro interface works almost like a layer on top of a Windows 7-ish OS.  In that sense it has a very similar feel to Android device manufacturers’ custom UI’s that lay on top of the operating system like Motorola’s MotoBlur and HTC’s Sense, where users have tiles for shortcuts and instant information.  The preview includes a bunch of tiled apps that come pre-loaded that make it very easy to access basic information like weather and stock reports and social media apps for facebook and twitter.  It includes “touch” versions of your control panel and the new Internet Explorer 10, which I have to say, runs pretty nice.  Also, on the touch front, they demoed 5-finger multi-touch during Tuesday’s BUILD keynote.

While there is a lot I like about it, it does have its drawbacks – little things like no way to just shut down.  If I want to turn off the machine I have to switch to desktop mode and then go through the Alt-F4 menu to get there.  Then there’s the whole tiled app thing – tiled apps mean that whatever you run in Metro (social, weather, games) will always be running in the background.  Android devices work exactly the same way, and it’s the reason why apps like Advanced Task Killer are extremely popular downloads.  The Preview does have a way around it, by dropping individual background processes to use 0% CPU when not in use, but there is still memory usage there.  On my laptop I have the power to Alt-F4 an app to kill it, but that might not be so easy on tablet and mobile devices employing the OS with a virtual keyboard (also means Alt-Tabbing through everything that’s open).  And call me a traditionalist, but I still favor the full-function start button of Windows past.  But I’m going to cut Microsoft a lot of slack here – this is a developer preview, which means beta and release candidates still yet to come.  So they have a lot of time to make tweaks.

So in the end Microsoft has made a good start in making a single OS which bridges the gap between a desktop and a mobile solution for part of their single ecosystem, even though functionality still leans in favor of mobile.  As it stands now I wouldn’t buy Windows 8 to replace Windows 7 on my laptop or desktop without a little additional power on the desktop side – even though it has native tools I would normally download 3^rd party software for (I don’t need Alcohol 52% anymore for mounting ISO’s) I would at best I’d have it in a dual-boot setup.  BUT, I think slates or tablets running Windows 8 could be real winners.  The OS really seems like it would shine for casual users with its simplicity, which is one of the reasons iPads running iOS are so popular.  We'll see how they fare late next year.

I’m looking forward to what’s next.  I’d like to see how they’ll handle Xbox Live integration, since Games for Windows will be scrapped and lumped into the XBL environment.  I’m also looking forward to developers making some apps for this so we can see how the marketplace is going to flesh out.  And since this OS is targeted for both desktop and mobile, my biggest question arises:  What’s pricing and licensing going to look like?

88. Aggresive Behavior and Video Games - More Darwin than Bloody Violence?

[Article first published as Aggresive Behavior and Videogames - More Darwin than Bloody Violence? on Blogcritics.]

The effect videogames have on the human mind has been thoroughly and widely argued for years.  And that argument rests solely on one seemingly central focus: violence. 

Countless studies have been done examining a myriad of combinations – children and violent games, prolonged exposure to violent games, long term psychological effects, aggressive behavior, and the list goes on and on indefinitely.  The findings have of course been varied, and in my lay opinion, there’s too many variables involved to get a 100% accurate read on the results.  I’m not going to venture into that here, as (I) I’m not a trained psychologist and (II) it would lengthen this article to somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 words – too much for both me to write and you to read.

I just saw a study on this topic though that piqued my interest – it seemed to be a slight twist on the common “games are violent” story.  In addition to the violence aspect, Paul J.C. Adachi, a Ph.D. candidate at Brock University in Canada added a potentially important modifier.  The experiments focused on competition in games, and whether or not it was another factor to aggressive behavior in players.  It involved hot sauce too, which I’m all about. 

Using competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action as indicators, Adachi ran multiple experiments and observed the resulting behavior.  The method makes sense – he used Fuel, Conan, Left 4 Dead 2, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe and Marble Blast Ultra as his field of games.  It looks simple enough.  The games on this list it do seem to cover his three categories in varying degrees.  His method on observing behavior and aggression wasn’t as straightforward, but outright genius.  In each experiment, players were asked to prepare a hot sauce sample for a “hot sauce taster” who specifically does not like spicy food using mild to very hot sauces after playing.  It’s fair enough to say that heat level equals aggression.

In the test run (42 college students: 25 men, 17 women) using only Fuel and Conan, Adachi observed that there was no real difference in hot sauce intensity between those who played one game versus the other.  By this he concluded that videogame violence alone wasn’t enough to increase aggressive behavior.  The second test (60 college students: 32 men, 28 women) is where the meat of the results come from.  The gamer guinea pigs that played games that were highly competitive like Fuel and Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe on average made much hotter hot sauce for their testers than players subjected to Left 4 Dead 2 and Marble Blast Ultra.  I’d call that pretty aggressive.  According to Adachi, based on these observations, “These findings suggest that the level of competitiveness in video games is an important factor in the relation between video games and aggressive behavior, with highly competitive games leading to greater elevations in aggression than less competitive games.”  I highly recommend you check out the full study at the American Psychological Association’s website.  It’s got all sorts of statistical models and charts and all that happy stuff for those who really want an in-depth read.

So what’s the full story then?  Well, think about the last time you saw a report of a violent crime on your local news.  Did you become aggressive watching the report?  If I show you a screenshot of the new Mortal Kombat would you become enraged?  For me the answer is no.  This study seems to line up at least with my own observation and personal experiences.  Violence has never made me (and most people i know) more aggressive on its own – it’s always been the desire to win.  In multiplayer environments that desire to win goes up tenfold.  As does the degree of trash talk and anger.  If any of you have taken part in any kind of competitive events then I would venture that you share that experience.  Whether it’s PvP play in World of Warcraft, the final table at the World Series of Poker or a title fight in the UFC, when either victory or defeat is close a competitor is going to amp it up.

Now I’m playing through Bayonetta again, and I can sit back on my couch shooting and slicing up enemies (through attacks called torture moves no less) on most enemies and my only reaction is “Wow that was fairly simple.”  It’s when the odds seem stacked and my health bar starts approaching zero that my frustration starts to rise.  I can put the controller down and walk away, but there’s always going to be that handful of people that take it too far.  If you think that’s a bad example then here’s another:  I can get just as riled up when I see my king’s inevitable demise in a game of chess.  We’re wired to want victory.  A simple will to win and survival of the fittest. 

87. An Unlikely Party in HP's TouchPad Mess - Barnes and Noble

[Article first published as An Unlikely Party in HP's TouchPad Mess - Barnes and Noble on Blogcritics]

For a few different reasons, Hewlett-Packard has been in the news over the past few days. In their 3^rdquarter 2011 report, they stealthily announced two major changes that would transform the face of HP. And they seem to have taken most people by surprise: (1) WebOS and devices running it are over and done. That means not only thejust recently launched TouchPad, but the HP Pre phone as well, which will never see the light of day in the United States. (2) They’re getting out of the PC market by spinning off their Personal Systems Group (PSG for short). The focus has really been on the TouchPad with its rapid fall from grace, but yesterday shifted from HP to an unlikely target of both press coverage and customer ire – Barnes and Noble.

Really this all started when HP dropped the price of their TouchPad units to $99. As mentioned above, HP killed the TouchPad after discouragingly low sales since its launch in July, slashing the price to clear inventory. Over this past weekend, even retailers like Best Buy decided to get rid of inventory in a massive fire sale instead of sending the unsold remainder of their inventory back to HP (having only sold about 25,000 out of the original 270,000 they had). From the original $499 down to $399, the final price they sold their mountain of TouchPads at dropped to the same staggeringly low $99 for the 16GB version. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough on the draw to secure one, as they completely sold out. A 75% price cut and financial losses aren’t exactly the way most companies (I would imagine anyway) want to say they sold out a product but hey, they’re working with what they got.

The web went into a frenzy as a handful of other retailers began to follow suit. One of those retailers was Barnes and Noble. To be honest I wouldn’t even think of looking for a TouchPad at B&N if I wanted one, given the fact they are not only primarily a bookstore, but have their own B&N Nook that they push pretty hard against devices like Amazon’s Kindle and other budget tablet PC’s. But lo and behold, the $99 16GB TouchPad was listed on their website. I almost ordered one from them. Almost. But my suspicions of whether or not I would actually receive one got the best of me and I decided against it. And according to a number of miffed customers, I was right in doing so.

Of all of the eager customers that placed TouchPad orders with Barnes and Noble, I’ve yet to read anything online about anyone who’s gotten one. Instead of a tablet, the majority of customers seemed to have gotten an email indicating that their order was cancelled. Outraged customers took to the web and flocked to twitter to air their gripes for all to see. Just search for “barnes and noble” on twitter or the #barnesandnoble hashtag to see what I mean. For lack of a stronger and much more powerful phrase, B&N just straight oversold it.

Now I understand why these fine folks are upset. By overselling, Barnes and Noble customers were allowed to place an order on an item that B&N probably sold out of in an hour, if not less. And the belief that they would soon have a cheap shiny tablet came crashing down with a cancellation email in lieu of their new toy. By being allowed to place an order, B&N told customers “yes, we have this” and encouraged them to buy. I’ve seen a lot of sites pull items immediately after they’re sold out, and have even seen some retailers give shoppers warnings as to how many units are still available before stockout. With as much business as B&N does online, it seems kind of strange that they don’t have a better inventory tracking or order fulfillment system that can tell when orders placed are equal to or greater than the number of units on hand. Especially when it’s something everyone is going to jump for.

UPDATE: A colleague of mine did actually at one time work at Barnes and Noble and gave me some education on their inventory system. Their inventory system is meant for books, which can always be reprinted by publishers or delivered via custom print. End result, they don't really stock out. A system like that doesn't exactly work well with something like a tablet PC.

86. Spotify Welcomed to the U.S. with a Patent Infringement Lawsuit

[Article first published as Picking on the New Kid: Spotify Sued for Patent Infringement on Blogcritics.]

We here in the United States are a litigious sort, and have become increasingly more so with further advances in technology and more filings of patent applications. I’ve written a couple of things on lawsuits regarding technology and patents since I started writing about games and tech, and those few articles may actually only cover 0.0001% of all of the tech legal action that has occurred since 2009.

You see over the years the practice has become so farcically common that there’s no way I can keep up on the topic without giving it a dedicated blog of its own, updated daily. Actually, five or six times daily would probably be required to get it done. Tech lawsuit news almost always involves the world’s technical giants, namely Apple, Oracle, and any one of the companies that manufacture anything running an Android OS. So did Spotify, a company that provides a digital music service, expect to be part of the lawsuit club when they hopped on their boats and sailed over from Europe to the new world?

Expected or not, Spotify joined the club earlier this week, and got slapped with a lawsuit from PacketVideo, a company that produces software that allows users to wirelessly stream music and video. They are accusing Spotify of patent infringement, specifically US patent 5,636,276. The patent in question describes a “Device for the Distribution of Music in Digital Form,” which PacketVideo claims is the technology that enables Spotify’s cloud based service to even exist. But that’s not all – they insist that they informed Spotify in May about their ownership of this patent, but the complaints were completely ignored. Either as revenge of a friendly "welcome to America" gift, PacketVideo's goal is to win a judgment for willful violation and have the courts put a permanent injunction (as in the ban hammer) on Spotify in the US, unless of course some licensing fees and royalties start flowing PacketVideo’s way.

Spotify is a popular service that has been around in Europe since 2008, and after a long wait and users foaming at the mouth while they started signing US music labels, finally launched in the US last week. They already have deals with Sony and other major labels in place. They offer a free service for streaming licensed music, which is kept free through advertisements, which also allows users to listen to their playlists anywhere they have a Spotify client set up. Paid options are also available that drop the ads and allow users to stream without a web connection over a cell phone or mobile device. That last part may be where PacketVideo has some issues.

But Spotify maintains that their technologies are fully proprietary. In a statement to CNET, a Spotify representative said: "In just under three years, Spotify has become more popular than any other music service of its kind. This success is, in large part, due to our own highly innovative, proprietary hybrid technology that incorporates peer-to-peer technology. The result is what we humbly believe to be a better music experience-lightning fast, dead simple and really social.” They will naturally be contesting the accusations.

Even if there seems to be sufficient evidence for the lawsuit based on how long PacketVideo’s been in business and the fact that they were one of the biggest startup companies of their time, there is some counter evidence to be taken into account. First off, this patent wasn’t something they even made themselves. They bought the patent a few years ago when they acquired a Swiss company called Basel, and actually developed nothing themselves. Based on that, it doesn’t seem right for PacketVideo to claim infringement against Spotify, especially when that claim is so sweeping and unspecific. Then again, this isn't about what's right, it's about money.

Spotify is actually a very innovative service, which they developed themselves and have been executing well across the pond for a while now. If this infringement was actually something serious enough to warrant a permanent injunction, why wait until now to sue? The Basel acquisition meant that PacketVideo now operated in Europe, in the same neighborhood where Spotify planted its roots. They could have filed suit anytime since 2008. It seems a little suspect that the timing lines up with when Spotify started expanding their service area across the Atlantic - lines up to the tune of about 2 weeks for those keeping score.

This is just another entry in the long line of lawsuits rooted in old, ridiculously broad scoped patents. This is the type of activity that potentially punishes those who truly innovate and come up with new things by holding them subject to infringement suits from archaic patents that shouldn't have held any water to begin with. Filing a patent for an idea (which is all that this was) that has no meat, method of execution or even technological means at the time will ultimately stifle future technological creativity for fear of legal action. Even the FTC has recognized that patent lawsuits similar to this are a problem in today's marketplace (kinda large-ish PDF). So does PacketVideo's case hold water? Or does it all smell a bit too much like another troll's moved in under the bridge? You decide.

In the meantime I'm just going to be over here filing a patent application for a device that provides glasses-free, fully immersive, touch sensitive virtual reality. I have no idea how it'll work, and I don't think we even have the means to do it right now, but when we do, my lawyer will be suing the hell out of someone.

It was my idea first.

85. The Great Chinese Apple Store Swindle

[Article first published as The Great Chinese Apple Store Swindle on Blogcritics.]

Anyone who follows consumer tech can argue about what Apple really excels at and where their success comes from. But to me it’s one thing above all else. More than their technology and even more than their sales numbers (well sort of), what Steve Jobs’ company cares about most is the Apple brand and image. That iconic apple chunk that as evolved into their silver fruity visage since the days of Macintosh has become a beacon to Apple’s customers, even driving more serious fans to buy their products for no justification other than “Apple made it.”

That’s truth – I’ve known people and of people in the past that on more than one occasion would forego doing anything fun because they didn’t have any cash. They did however have a shiny MacBook Air. My little cousin wants an iPhone for no other reason than “Apples are cool.” She hasn’t the first damned clue about what it does aside from make calls. As much as I can’t stand hardcore Apple fanboys and fangirls though, they exist because the Cupertino King is just that damn good at managing his brand, and owning the customers’ sou... I mean creating the customer loyalty that goes with it.

They take great care in playing cloak and dagger to keep new products veiled in shadows and pushing the image that Apple stands for innovation, imagination and a sense of cool. As such, they monitor and control every aspect of that – from apps available the App Store to developers to swearing business partners to secrecy. So it would be fair to say that they treat, oh I don’t know, cheaply made knockoffs bearing the apple logo with disdain and lawyers, right? But what if the knock-off wasn’t just an iPad or iPhone, but an entire Apple Store?

That’s exactly what blogger BirdAbroad stumbled into near her home in Kunming, China. She mentions the influences of western culture taking hold there, with stores like H&M and fast food restaurants like KFC have been cropping up around that area. But an Apple Store in Kunming? Apple definitely has a Chinese presence, but in larger cities like Shanghai and Beijing. I’ve never even heard of Kunming before today, have you? It would be like a blogger in China writing about anywhere that's not New York, DC, Chicago, LA or Philadelphia. Her blog has a lot of pictures of the store, which does actually look like a legit Apple Store complete with legit Apple gear.

As she says, “They looked like Apple products. It looked like an Apple store. It had the classic Apple store winding staircase and weird upstairs sitting area. The employees were even wearing those blue t-shirts with the chunky Apple name tags around their necks.” But things still didn’t sit right with her – things like lower quality paintjobs and staircase materials raised her suspicions, along with the fact that Apple never prints the phrase “Apple Store” on their storefronts as this place had.

But it didn’t stop there of course. After some further investigation speaking with the staff, she found that they not only believed they worked for Apple, but were trained to “protect the brand,” meaning no one was allowed to take pictures. Apparently the Chinese words for “brand” and “fake store’s ass” are the same. Her final verdict – “A beautiful ripoff – a brilliant one – the best ripoff store we had ever seen (and we see them every day). “ She includes pictures of other knockoff stores just around the corner as well. None of them are this good.

The Wall Street Journal’s China Realtime Report was able to get in touch with one of the staff members of the store in question, who was under no impression that Apple was in charge of signing his checks. His statement was that “I just care that what I sell every day are authentic Apple products, and that our customers don’t come back to me to complain about the quality of the products.” He goes on to almost brag about how their store is one of the best around, even though they openly lie about any affiliation with Apple.

Apple has not commented as of yet, but I’m extremely curious to see how this is handled. Will they see this as a personal affront to the mighty fruit and lawyer up with some force? Or take the highroad and have them apply for authorized reseller status? With Apple Stores themselves being one of Apple’s golden arrows in their quiver of marketing tricks, my money’s on option #1. Remember the lost iPhone 4 that ended up in a fight with Gizmodo? When it comes to product secrecy and their brand, Apple doesn’t mess around.

STORY UPDATES 07/25/11: 2 of the stores found by BirdAbroad are being shut down by Chinese authorities. The store described as a "beautiful ripoff" is not one of them - according to Reuters, it is currently in the process of becoming an authorized Apple reseller.

84. Google+? Still a Minus for Google Apps Users

[Article first published as Google+? Still a Minus for Google Apps Users on Blogcritics.]

Malarchy.

Yeah I said it, and you didn’t misread it either. It’s spelled quite correctly regardless of the squiggly red lines I see below it editing the text. I don’t mean malarkey as in foolish or insincere. I mean malarchy, as in something that can only be classified as governed by the bad. As you all should know by now, unless you live in a spider hole, Google is gearing up their Google+ program, which is their latest try at social networking. Much like Gmail when it first came out, there was a limited trial that used an invitation system to register new users. Originally, this article was supposed to be all about Google+, as I had fully readied myself to sign up and give you fine folks some sort of review and maybe some screenshots of what it’s all about. But I can’t. I can only guess. I can only live vicariously through my friends’ experiences and curse Google, with a shaking fist of indignation held high.

I have 3 invitations, but I still can’t log on. Every time I try I get hit with that same irritating message: “Oops... you need a Google profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organization.” Since when am I an organization? Allow me explain, as the definition of “organization” is pretty narrow. You see kids the thing is this: I have a fair-sized ego. In the words of Dr. Cox from Scrubs, “this machine runs on props.” It’s not an ego so big that I would try to trademark a common phrase a la Donald Trump’s “you’re fired,” but big enough that I would (and did) register the domain name tusharnene.com, for no other purpose than to host email addresses from it and run my little blog. That’s right, mine. Doing that through Google and enom was stupidly cheap and they give you Google Apps on your domain to boot. That little detail is what makes me an “organization,” even if I am just an organization of one single damn user. Google+ requires a Google profile. And guess who isn’t allowed to make Google profiles? You guessed it, Google Apps “organizations.”

I figured it wasn’t too big of a problem. I have other email addresses aside from my Google Apps address. So let’s try going through those. “Oops... you need a Google profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organization.”… Well damn. Just being logged into my Google Apps account means that clicking invitation links from my Yahoo email address still won’t work. And I can’t do it through my Gmail account, because I can’t be logged into that and my Google Apps account simultaneously. But in my head I still had outs. I tried opening the invitation in my Yahoo address on my phone. Maybe that would do the trick. “Google+ is unavailable for your account.” … Monkeys. No dice. I was signed in under my Google Apps in account on my Droid X as well, which is synced to my email.

Now this doesn’t mean I can’t use Google+ period. I can always log out of my Apps account and use my old Gmail account. But I really don’t want to. My Apps account is open all the time – for email as well as other services like Google chat, Blogger, Feedburner and Google Analytics. I’d have to use Google+ independently if I wanted to see it at all, that is to say I have to be logged out of everything to use it. So if I’m on Google+ I can’t see my email. If I’m on my email I can’t use Google+. It’s a regular conundrum, and one that could have been avoided at that. A few months ago I got notice from Google about changes being made to all Google Apps accounts. After this transition, I couldn’t be logged in to my Apps and my other Gmail account simultaneously, which is something I did before, and something that would have circumvented my current issue. I’ve been reading about some workarounds through Google Reader, but have yet to test.

Now it’s said that Google Profiles and Google+ are still “coming soon” for Apps customers, but then again they said the same thing about Buzz and that never really panned out. It’s the matter of pure inconvenience to me that is turning me off to the entire idea before I even get it up and running. An entire subset of paying customers is being left in the dark. That’s surprising for Google, whose services I’ve generally been very pleased with. I can’t be even close to the only one who uses Google Apps for personal domain registration and use. There must be a bunch of users of equal or greater ego and/or nerdiness that does the same thing. Can this tweak really be that difficult to make?

83. World of Warcraft and Add-ons: the Fall of a Purist

[Article first published as World of Warcraft Add-Ons - the Fall of a Purist on Blogcritics.]

Now if any of you read this with any sort of regularity, you’ll know that I play World of Warcraft. Until recently, I may have been one of the few that played it without add-ons or UI modifiers. I’m counting Recount as an exception here, because that just shows how much damage we’re doing and who I can blame for breaking my traps.

I was, in short, almost a purist, and classified add-ons as sanctioned cheating since they take a lot of the challenge out of the game. In fact I said I wouldn’t allow myself to use any add-ons (again, except Recount) until I had leveled a character to 80 “clean,” which was the cap at the time. I’m the same way with most games I play on the PC and consoles. Game Genie style devices or mechanics haven’t touched my consoles via my hands since I was 10, when I doubled my party’s initial health in the first Final Fantasy for the NES. After I beat the game, the victory seemed so tainted end empty that--at 10 mind you--I felt I had to start over and beat it clean before claiming victory. It’s just how I roll. I can probably credit my father with this – he wouldn’t let me use a calculator in elementary school until I could do my multiplication tables up to 15 in my head.

I started playing WoW right before the Burning Crusade expansion came out so I didn’t play much of the game “vanilla,” but I still got through heroics and Karazhan’s ghostly denizens, and even plowed through Arthas’ frosty minions in Icecrown Citadel in Wrath of the Lich King without too much issue. Evading boss attacks and knowing when to do what was relatively easy: for example an enrage is obvious as a boss turns bright red, and most of the other attacks coming my way were clearly telegraphed with an animation (like something showing up on the ground or some sort of charge-up). On my end, I would have to just pay attention to when my abilities were active so I knew when to use them. I knew for example that when it said “Lock and Load” above my head, I had two free explosive shots at my disposal. I didn’t need fancy glowing screen filling notifications.

In every WoW iteration though, Blizzard incorporated the functions of the most popular add-ons into its stock user interface, making the need for additional add-ons even less necessary in my mind, and giving me even less of a reason to download them. My “Lock and Load” example from above now makes explosive shot glow with a gold border so I know it’s active. I’ve got no problem using that now, as it’s in a player’s stock toolkit. Eventually however, after years of countless reactions to my playing with an unedited stock interface that went from the bewildered to the surprised to the downright strange, I stepped into the Blackwing Descent raid encounter a couple months ago and it finally happened: after the slew of wipes we experienced I downloaded Deadly Boss Mods. DBM and other certain other add-ons have almost become a requirement for even being invited to raid groups, since it flat out increases the chances of success by giving you warnings and timers for absolutely everything that’s going on. Don’t have DBM installed? You might find yourself back in Stormwind or Orgrimmar spamming the Looking for Group channel, because you just got kicked from your (former) raid group.

I tried to tell myself that I wasn’t downloading it for me, but for the guild, and that my having this installed would contribute to less wipes and save us a lot of time and repair bills. After running raids in the Cataclysm expansion a few times, I found with the add-on I was required to think less and able to act more, with the jury still out on whether or not that really was a good thing. I mean I perform much better, but did DBM make me a better player or bring me down to a new lower standard of gameplay?

All of us became worse players in Wrath of the Lich King, which was incredibly easy compared to Burning Crusade and Cataclysm. A lot of people blame that lack of difficulty in Wrath for the frustration-fueled departure of players after level 80, but I think they’re only half right. It was Wrath combined with DBM and other third party add-ons that created a class of players characterized by (a) an ability to collect epic gear damn near blindfolded, (b) an expectation that all things be that easy for them, (c) an inability to cut it when things became a little bit difficult, and finally (d) a level of being spoiled that precludes them from even trying.

My self-assessment that I am a half-decent player comes from what I’m able to do with the tools I have been given – which I’ve handily been able to do through level 85. And the way some of these Cataclysm boss fights go, add-ons are pretty much needed to get through them. So I shouldn’t feel so dirty using DBM right? I guess it’s for the team. Either that or I've just gotten good at rationalizing.

Now playing a rogue on the other hand… that’s a feeling of dirtiness that’s unforgivable.

82. Interactive Advertising: NUads Mean Kinect is Open for Business

Article first published as Interactive Advertising: NUads Mean Kinect is Open for Business on Blogcritics.

I remember watching Minority Report a few years back, and having a friend say “Yeah right man there’s no way they can do that” in response to the extremely targeted 3D advertising ubiquitous in the film’s scenery. My response, almost discarded at the time, was simple, “They will soon.” Advertising equals dollars, and after all that’s what makes the world go ‘round. Once confined to billboards and TV spots, they now own the internet and are on any shred of free digital space they can find. But, as I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed they’re starting to gradually take up a larger part of our digital lives with every passing day. There is, of course, been blatant product placement and merchandising tie-ins in TV and games, but they don’t interrupt the shows I watch or the games I play, so I can forgive that. We’ve learned to live with TV commercials, going so far as to DVR a show so we can fast forward through them, so now they advertise during the show in huge, fat, view obstructing fashion. It’s been a long time since standard internet pop-ups bothered us too – most browsers automatically kill those. So advertisers have been forced to get creative.

Let me give you an example – I was over on 1up earlier, and I clicked on a trailer link for BloodRayne: Betrayal. While the movies bombed, the games were alright, so I wanted to see what was new. Now videos sometimes take a while so I went into this with intent of being patient and giving it some time. Here’s what I was treated to: first was an overall slow loading page, where advertisements on the top and side bars loaded before any actual content did. Second came the video player through which the trailer would be seen. Once the video started, it wasn’t actually the trailer for BloodRayne at all, but a 15-second unskippable commercial for Comedy Central. This in itself is usually enough for me to cancel loading the video and not watch it altogether these days, lest I put a hole in my LCD in a desperate attempt to strike the advertiser. But today I let it go only to find that there was still more advertising to be done. Now covering 90% of the video player (which was a couple seconds into the Comedy Central ad), a video window pops up for Season of the Witch. If you are wondering, by the way, it’s out on Blu-ray and DVD 6/28.

I’m not blaming 1up, I read their stuff all the time and will continue to, but it’s just an example of a widespread epidemic. I’m not exaggerating though. Here’s a screenshot. A video ad pre-empting an ad before the video I wanted to watch. Then, the pièce de résistance: “The video you are trying to watch is currently unavailable.” Pure excellence. So where does this all end?

Bad news, it doesn’t. Microsoft’s Kinect will be the newest platform of annoyance. In 2012, they’ll be introducing NUads (Native User-interface Ads), a form of interactive advertising. For instance, during a commercial, a user can say “Xbox Tweet” to automatically tweet about the brand to all of their followers. “Xbox More” will send you more information, and “Xbox Near Me” will bring up a list of local retailers. Microsoft’s Mark Kroese heralds the arrival of NUads with flowery prose to try and get us excited about it on the Microsoft Advertising blog. He notes that it “transforms traditional, linear TV advertising into an interactive experience by using the voice-and gesture-control of Kinect for Xbox 360.” The goal of this service, according to him, is to “break down the barriers between consumers and content on the TV screen.” I’ve never met anyone who actively tweets about their favorite brands, but maybe it’s just because NUads doesn't exist yet to allow them to become brand extensions for further advertising. Microsoft has a much happier phrase for that of course – “Social Advocacy.” Kroese also highlights how users can use real time voting and give feedback for advertisements. One thing reported by Gamasutra and others that Kroese omits in his laud of the program is that ads will also be embedded in the dashboard and in-game as well. The second this interrupts gameplay of any sort for me I am done.

Perhaps I’m being too tough on this and it won’t be as big of an intrusion as I’m thinking it will be. I suppose if it doesn’t interfere with gameplay it really won’t bother me all that much. What actually bothers me more is the claim that this is a revolutionary thing that will “unlock the incredible potential in interactive TV” with such gusto and unmitigated chutzpah. What advantage will Xbox users gain from this? What about those who pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription? Will their payment shield them from the ads? While this is great for Microsoft to court advertisers and drive their own revenue streams, no matter how you cut it, it doesn’t seem like a game changer to the players to me.

81. The Redner Group, 2K Games, and Duke Nukem Forever - a Q&A with Jim Redner

[Article first published as Q&A with Jim Redner: The Redner Group, 2K Games, and Duke Nukem Forever on Blogcritics.]

Videogame review ratings are, as with review ratings of all forms of media, pretty subjective. There have been games that have gotten mediocre reviews which I thoroughly enjoyed, and there have been games with fairly high critic reviews that I only thought were so-so. It’s the same grab bag you shove your digital hands into when visiting Rotten Tomatoes to check out a flick.

There are, however, certain titles (again, as there are in other forms of media) that completely polarize audiences with folks ending up completely on one side or the other of a “loved it/hated it” dichotomy. The Guitar Hero and Rockband games are a perfect example. I don’t know anyone who casually played them just for occasional kicks when they came out. Folks were either rocking out with their finest rock flourish, or throwing things at those dancing the dance of digital rock, asking them how they could destroy music this way.

After all the built up anticipation, we all knew that 2K Games and Gearbox’s Duke Nukem Forever was going to follow this same kind of line. I mean, the game was over a decade in the making. There was an army of loyal fans, with their yellowed, crinkled preorder receipts from way back when chomping at the bit to finally get their hands on a copy of DNF, while another faction wasn’t really buying into the excitement. As the release day got closer, reviews started rolling in, and unfortunately for 2K Games they weren’t good. After receiving a combined Metacritic score of 49 (for the Xbox 360 version), it was 2K Games’ outside public relations company, The Redner Group, that went on the offensive, sending out a few tweets that sparked a lot of controversy, with the following one seeming to be the harshest:

“too many went too far with their reviews…we r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom."

It looked like TRG was threatening gaming media outlets that gave 2K games low review scores. The tweet was deleted shortly after, and replaced with an apology from Jim Redner and a tweet indicating that it was only The Redner Group, and not 2K Games, that was behind the message. Despite the tweet being deleted, gaming sites around the web immediately began reporting on media outlets being threatened with blacklisting for bad reviews. But not everyone was talking about threats from TRG. In a tweet yesterday, Eurogamer.net’s Tom Bramwell said “I feel sorry for @TheRednerGroup today. We are blacklisted by @2KGames and it seems to be standard practice.” He went on to mention that they had to buy Duke Nukem Forever to review it.

Everyone had something to say, but outside from a few tweets and a public separation with 2K games, I wasn’t seeing anything from The Redner Group. To get some clarity I contacted Jim Redner yesterday, who was gracious enough to take the time to answer a few questions for me. His answers paint a picture of an emotionally charged man with a passion for gaming who gets very personal with his project. He freely admits that yes, he made a mistake, and the whole situation could have been handled better.

Read what we had to say below.

Tushar Nene (TN): Did 2K Games have any part in the tweets originating from TRG's twitter account?

Jim Redner (JR): No, 2K didn’t have anything to do with the tweets. They came directly from theRednerGroup. theRednerGroup is a small PR agency. In fact, it is just me. I work from a bedroom turned into an office. I hustle to get business and I have to compete with the bigger agencies. I am a 24/7 one-person agency. I hire freelancers to help out on occasion, but for the most part I do it all. I care for my clients and their projects. I work very hard to generate consumer awareness. It’s so hard to put so many hours and then see one story tear it down. I am so emotional[ly] tied to my projects and I acted unprofessional due to one review and it wasn’t even the lowest review. My tweet was plain dumb. I know how I should’ve handled [it]. 2K reacted as they should’ve. I actually offered to resign the account the night of the tweet because they needed to distance themselves from me.

TN: Did the tweet regarding reviewing which outlets would receive future 2K releases reflect 2K's true sentiment, as EuroGamer.net's Tom Bramwell has tweeted that they are now blacklisted?

JR: Actually, no. I don’t know much about EuroGamer and their standing with 2K. I can’t speak on their behalf at all.

I can speak to how I handled theRednerGroup’s US and Canadian media review policy. I look to support writers who have pre-launch provided coverage on the game or project that I represent. If you provide me with coverage, I will provide you with a game for review. Your pre-launch coverage and review generates consumer attention for both the game and your site. It is a symbiotic relationship. If you haven’t covered the game yet and ask for a review copy, I usually turn you down. I have a limited amount of copies to give out and I try to take care of the writers that have taken care of the game. It’s only fair. Of course I want everyone to review each game positively, but we all know that is not possible. Some games rock and some games don’t. We know well in advance of launch if a game is going generate high or low scores. Overall, we are never surprised.

Reviews are subjective. They are one person’s opinion of the game, and as you know, opinions are never wrong. I read every review. I don’t care if my game receives a poor review so long as the writer backs up the story in fact. I believe that writers have a responsibility to be ethical and fair in their reviews if they receive the game from the publisher. A writer can hate a game and say so. The responsible thing to do is to write the review in a fair manner and back up the review in fact. If they do that, I cannot and will not complain about the review?

Everyone has the right to say what they want, when they want. But, if you are going to be crass and outlandishly mean spirited, I have the right to no longer support you with content or games. Blacklisting is an ugly word. We don’t blacklist anyone. We pick who receives games and who doesn’t. We have limited amount to begin with. I think people believe that games are free for us when in fact we have to pay for them as well. A discounted price, but it still is very expensive. So why would I send a game to someone who I know is going to destroy or is capable of hate-filled stories? Where is the sense in that? If someone hits you every time you see them, would you continue to want to see them? Of course not.

I admire writers who can take a game and write solid reviews based in fact even though they would never play that game in their spare time. For instance, if someone hated sports and was told that they had to review a baseball game and then turned around wrote a well-founded review on it, regardless of the score, I find that impressive. I couldn’t do it. The vast majority of writers in this industry do that all the time and they do it well. There is a common misconception that publisher have to give games out for review. They don’t have to give games to anyone. In fact, they have as much right to refuse to send games out as writers have the right to publish whatever they want.

TN: What kind of response have you received from the community?

JR: The response from writers in the industry has been overwhelming supportive. They provided me with their opinion about my tweet, a lot of well thought out constructive feedback which I welcome. Some agreed and some disagreed but they were honest and open with me. I have tried to uphold several beliefs in how I work with people. I try to be fair. I try to be prompt and take care of the media I work with. I hope that I will be able to rebuild some of the faith I may have lost in the video game media community.

TN: What happens next for TRG?

JR: Since I am a single PR professional, I handle all aspects of a campaign. In order to compete with the bigger agencies with multi-offices and 100s of employees, I have work seven days a week from my bedroom/office. I have to be available all day and all night. I hustle. I work tirelessly and Duke Nukem Forever was my baby. Like a father protecting his son, I emotionally charge[d] when I posted that tweet. It’s hard to read outlandishly bad reviews that are really diatribes. Actually, it was just one review and it wasn’t even the lowest scoring review. It was just a mean spirited diatribe masked as a review. I should’ve had thicker skin.

My next steps are to continue my hustle. This has set me back and rightly so, but I will push forward and move on. theRednerGroup will survive this controversy in some form or fashion. I know what is important in life and I know what isn’t. I love the video game community. Much to the dismay of my future wife, I still play games. Go Borderlands! Call of Duty: Black Ops! I have played games since my next door neighbor introduced me to the Atari 2600. Asteroids, Centipede,Codebreaker. Though my tastes in games have changed over the years, my passion for them hasn’t.

---------------

Twitter is a pretty powerful tool. What was a vague idea years ago has turned into a media machine that’s being utilized by folks in business and entertainment to communicate with fans and each other, giving everyone all the latest news. Unfortunately, that kind of instant attention can be a double-edged sword; fame can become notoriety in a matter of a day. It’s just another illustration of potential problems that can occur that people never would have thought of in the pre-Facebook/Twitter era.

I’d like to thank Jim Redner again for answering my questions, and wish him and The Redner Group the best in moving past this situation.

80. could a little tech know-how prevent strangers from seeing you in the shower?

[Article first published as Lack of Computer Knowledge Allows Technician to Hack Customers' Webcams on Blogcritics.]

In my line of work and field of nerdery, I often encounter people who need my help because they just don’t understand computers. I guess normally that’s not really a big deal – I mean my company does pay me to take care of all of our technical stuff after all. A user forgot a password? No problem. RAID array fail? Hand me my tools and that superhero cape in the corner there, I’m on the case. It’s all sanctioned stuff. It’s the other problems that people come to me with, usually about their personal and home tech causing “issues” that give me worry.

Now I put the quotes around “issues” because generally no one would really describe them that way – usually all that’s required is a change in settings to get things the way they need to be. I have no problem walking them through stuff like this. The first few times that is. After answering similar questions from the same people about the same problems, or hearing how they downloaded the same virus from the same fake email address I’ve warned them about a dozen times, that’s when I get upset. Is it an inability to learn basic things? Well, not exactly. It’s more a refusal to try and understand the machines that manage their lives. We live in a time when computers help govern pretty much everything we do, be it something as simple as sending an e-mail to automating manufacturing sites. It’s engrained in our cultural and social DNA. How many of you could go a week without using email? Facebook? The internet? I doubt it would be more than a handful of you. And with every additional piece of our lives ruled by the web, there’s an additional security hole to be plugged. People getting hacked for various things are always present in the news cycle. So why is it that people refuse to try and learn more about computers? I don’t understand it myself, but it can sometimes contribute to serious problems.

I read a story today about computer repairman rigging customers’ machines to take video and pictures (in bathrooms and showers) through webcams without their consent. His setup, as in what he told customers to convince them to move their machines into the bathroom, should have thrown up red flags for most people. The culprit, Trevor Harwell of Southern California, installed software on his customers’ Macbooks to take control of their embedded webcams. This software gave the users fake error messages, telling them to “fix their internal sensor soon,” according to Sgt. Andrew Goodrich of the Fullerton Police. Alright, a standard user may be justified in thinking that there is in fact a generic “internal sensor” in their device. That’s fair. But the second message should have signaled alarms to anyone: “try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor.” So what did this error message prompt users to do? Report suspicious activity? Take it to a Mac Store or Genius Bar? Unfortunately, it prompted many of them to take their computers into the bathroom without question while they showered to get the prescribed steam to fix the problem.

Once Harwell had access, he took photos and videos, primarily of female targets, while they were either undressed or changing clothes. Those photos were routed to his own machine through a remote server. He was finally caught when a Fullerton resident did see the red flags, and reported suspicious messages on his daughter’s computer in 2010. As a result, 20-year old Harwell now faces 12 counts of computer access and fraud (those would be felonies for those keeping score) for the hundreds of thousands of images and videos in his possession. Rezitech, the company Harwell worked for, said that none of this was done while working for them, and are cooperating fully with law enforcement on this investigation.

Now I’m not going to blame the exploited users completely. IT people can operate now from a position of power and authority, much like doctors and lawyers, given the knowledge we have over the masses. Unfortunately the young man in question, a pervert and a predator, abused that position, and took advantage of those who trusted him. Look at who his targets were. They were computer users who didn’t know anything about the devices they were using. They would take anything their Mac told them as truth, and blindly comply without a single hint of suspicion. I know a lot of people who know absolutely nothing about computers, but they’d definitely have the good sense to call me before they took a computer into the shower with them.

Everything is connected these days – computers, game consoles, even televisions. Making sure you’re digitally safe should be a priority for everyone. So I ask of you all, learn a little bit more about the tech you use in your everyday life. You all have nerd friends or family members that are willing to sit down and run through some computer security stuff with you. Just ask them.

79. at&t's sleight of hand to gain political favor?

[Article first published as AT&T's Merger Sleight of Hand to Gain Political Favor? on Blogcritics.]

As the old adage goes, “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Why anyone would want to skin a cat to begin with is beyond me, but regardless, the concept is far reaching and used for many purposes. It could be said as encouragement in college labs to aspiring students, or delivered with a smirk and a wink in business and political offices when someone finds a legal loophole. The latter may be true regarding AT&T’s $39 billion merger with T-Mobile, and how companies can try to draw favor from politicians with pull when they can’t directly financially contribute to them. The merger is under scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

So let’s talk about this cat. The FEC (Federal Election Commission) prohibits corporations from contributing directly to political candidates from business accounts or using business funds. The best they can do is write a check from personal accounts to candidates and political action committees (PACs), in which case there are limits imposed as outlined by the FEC. So how else can influence be, shall we say, financially suggested? They can donate to charities closely associated with said politicians. Watchdog groups like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have been seeing a definite uptick in this kind of activity in the last few years. "It’s another way to curry favor when you’ve maxed out in your political contributions," said Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director. "We’re seeing it more and more."

In the case of AT&T, they have given almost $1.25 million to charities affiliated with lawmakers from 2008 to 2010. One such contribution was made to Alzheimer’s Association and the Blanchette Neurosciences Institute, which are charities affiliated with Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has direct jurisdiction over the FCC, which means that their approval is required for the merger to go through. Contributions were also made to charities associated with Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), a high-ranking house Democrat.

All of these contributions are 100% legal and the American public is given full disclosure, so who’s really being hurt? The problem is that not many have really put the pieces together here to see the full picture. This isn’t the first time the telecom giant has acted in this manner. Around the time they needed legislative approval from Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) to sell cable television services, they pledged at least $250,000 to a charity run by Governor Jindal’s wife.

Sen. Rockefeller’s spokesman Vince Morris said in a statement to Politico, “The senator’s interest in supporting Alzheimer’s research is separate and long term and never touches on his evaluation of the AT&T merger.” Further, “Even the idea that donating to a charity would influence him is ridiculous.”

And that may be the case. Against everything else that says otherwise, there may not be any impropriety here. I can’t tell you with 100% certainty that these donations on the part of AT&T were driven by financial and political motives. I’m just a technology nerd. But the timing on them does seem strangely coincidental when there’s a big merger they’re trying to push through that is facing a lot of scrutiny and opposition. Arguments against it include less consumer choice, potential hikes in prices and rates, and the elimination of jobs to reduce post-merger redundancy. Then there are potential anti-trust issues - this deal would turn the mobile industry into pretty much a duopoly, with AT&T and Verizon holding a combined 80% of the market. All potential reasons to try and grease some wheels, if you're picking up what i'm putting down.

Interestingly enough, Sprint Nextel Corp and their CEO Dan Hesse, who has been the most vocal opponent of this merger, reported no donations to any charities with ties to American lawmakers.