MMOs ‘don’t give people the tools to build community anymore,’ says EverQuest 2 creative director-
Kyle Vallee, creative director for EverQuest 2, is a huge fan of MMOs and has played basically all of them—but he thinks the genre has lost its way in one respect. The sense of community early MMOs cultivated is being sidelined, he says.
“They seem to have lost that [community focus] in other MMOs, the community has become not a big part of it,” Vallee told me at Fippy Fest, an EverQuest anniversary celebration developer Daybreak Games recently brought me out to San Diego to attend. “It seems like they don’t give people the tools to build community anymore. The couple other MMOs that I play I’m almost like a solo player 100%, I don’t group with anyone. The tools there for building communities just really seem lacking, even in the newer stuff.”
When I first starte…
Microsoft chickens out of rolling out Recall to all Copilot+ PCs, choosing instead to push the all-seeing AI tool out to Windows Insiders first-
Next week would have been an interesting time for anyone with a Copilot+ AI PC. Microsoft had originally planned to give owners of a Snapdragon X-powered laptop a preview version of its AI nosey neighbour feature, Recall, but after concerns over security and privacy, that’s been scrapped in favour of restricting it to members of the Windows Insider program.
Since its announcement last month, the much-vaunted Recall hasn’t been especially well received. I’m not sure who thought it would be a great idea to have a PC constantly keep track of everything you do on it but Microsoft has certainly promoted the AI tool rather heavily.
However, security and privacy concerns over the idea of a PC keeping snapshots and screenshots of it all in a local database. that anyone with access t…
Gigabyte releases an RTX 4090 with a smart power connector placement-
Gigabyte has quietly released a revised version of its RTX 4090 Windforce graphics card. What’s interesting about this card isn’t anything to do with higher clocks or dramatic cooler changes, it’s the positioning of the 12VHPWR power connector common to Nvidia’s high end RTX 40 cards.
The change was spotted by Harukaze5719. They show the card’s power connector has been repositioned away from the typical placement and shifted to a 90 degree position or facing what would usually be the front of the case.
It’s so simple. I’m wondering why this isn’t a far more common implementation. It’s more aesthetically pleasing for a start. The recessed connector and resulting positioning of the cable length ways along the card gets rid of what can be a protruding eye-sore. The cable can th…
Store all your favorite games on our favorite 2TB budget gaming SSD for $100-
Best Buy has a deal on a 2TB WD Black SN770 NVMe SSD, which is back down to its low Amazon Prime Day price of $100. This would make for a capacious upgrade to your PC before massive games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield, and Armored Core 5 eat up most of your system’s storage.
The listing on Best Buy claims a savings of over $140 off the ‘regular’ price. However, it’s worth noting that this 2TB SSD typically sells for around $120-$150 at most retailers. While $100 is still great for such ample storage, the discount may not be as significant as advertised.
The SN770 stands out as the best budget gaming SSD available, with read and write speeds of 5,150MB/s and 4,900MB/s, respectively. It might not be the fastest on the market, but it’s a highly capable all-around drive for g…