Norman Reedus' character in Death Stranding, Sam Porter Bridges, is said to suffer from a condition called aphenphosmphobia. While it's clear there is something bothering Sam, the name of the condition itself is only mentioned in passing, so if you didn't catch it, it can be easy to pass off as part of the larger fictional world-building.
But it isn't a fictional condition. Aphenphosmphobia is a real phobia, and as you play through Death Stranding, it becomes more clear how it affects Sam, where he might have developed it, and how it fits into the themes and motifs of the story. We won't spoil that for you now, but we can explain the meaning of aphenphosmphobia, and what it is.
What Is Aphenphosmphobia? Symptoms and Causes
Aphenphosmphobia is a phobia, or extreme and irrational fear, of intimacy. That includes physical touch, which is why Sam reels from hugs or even simple handshakes in Death Stranding. But it is also a fear of "emotional bonds," according to a website called Phobia Guru. Symptoms of Aphenphosmphobia range from increased heart rate to physical pain in reaction to intimacy--a literal "fight or flight" response.
It's important that Sam, the one who fears developing bonds with other humans, is the one tasked with forging bonds across Death Stranding's fractured America. It becomes part of his emotional development as a character, but it's also an interesting starting place for the player, who might begin their journey unsure of how to affect change in the game's world right away or if the connections they're tasked with making will really matter. One of the causes of Aphenphosmphobia is an intense fear of abandonment, which translates into a reluctance to start relationships for fear they will eventually crumble. That becomes thematically important in Death Stranding.
"Reconnecting America" sounds like a monumental task, but as our Death Stranding review puts it, the type of human connection required for that is Death Stranding's most "remarkable achievement."
Every year GitHub release their State of the Octoverse report containing a huge number of insights drawn from datamining the massive number of public and private repositories on GitHub. One of the most interesting parts of the report is always the most popular programming languages. This year, the 10 most popular programming languages on GitHub are:
JavaScript
Python
Java
PHP
C#
C++
TypeScript
Shell
C
Ruby
The list was created using the following criteria:
Top 10 primary languages over time, ranked by number of unique contributors to public and private repositories tagged with the appropriate primary language.
Every year Stack Overflow have a similar report, drawn instead from a developer survey. The language popularity reports are remarkably consistent between the two 2019 reports.
You can learn more about the reports watching the video below.
Working With Nintendo Re-Energised The New Super Lucky’s Tale Development Team
Releasing a game on a Nintendo platform is often a career goal for both aspiring and accomplished game developers. For the team over at Playful, it was no different.
During an interview with Nintendo Life video producer Zion Grassl, Playful founder Paul Bettner and company president Mark Stanley revealed how Nintendo helped re-energise the development studio behind the recent release, New Super Lucky’s Tale:
We saw that energy and that passion the [development] team had to keep going with the Lucky franchise and we said okay let’s just keep going, let’s take that and put it into the product and keep evolving it and improving it
we met with Nintendo after that…we combined those superpowers with the energy Nintendo brought to it when they first laid their hands on the game, on the early builds of the game – they were so thrilled by it and that just energized us even more
Playful was also thrilled by the “warm embrace” when Nintendo tested it out:
And we felt that the Nintendo audience was such a perfect fit for a game like this, but we didn’t know at the time how Nintendo was going to feel about that, and it has just been the most warm embrace by their team, they played it – they didn’t know either, I think, but they sat down they played the game and you know they kind of just looked up and smiled, that’s it basically. That was like the best feeling because they know their audience and they know the quality they expect of games, especially that they’re gonna kind of partner with the developer directly to bring something to market and so having that embrace, it means a lot to us
It’s always fantastic to hear when developers have such positive experiences with Nintendo. Of course, this isn’t the first time a development team has been overjoyed to work with the iconic Japanese company.
One fantastic moment we’re reminded of was when Ubisoft Milan creative director – and lifelong Nintendo fan – Davide Solani was caught bawling his eyes out at Ubisoft’s E3 2017 press conference when Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was revealed to the world.
Do you think New Super Lucky’s Tale is a good fit on the Switch? Comment below.
New Super Lucky’s Tale Dev Open To A Sequel, Still Has Some Unused Ideas
In the same Nintendo Life interview with the New Super Lucky’s Tale development team, the game’s creative director Dan Hurd revealed Playful was open to the idea of a sequel and even had some unused ideas he would like to put to use one day:
We even had some early prototypes where Lucky had like a companion character, there’s something I would still like to do there at some point, I think we got too complicated with it, but there’s a really cool opportunity for that if we go into like a sequel or something from this title and those are the types of things I immediately look to.
If a follow-up game was to go ahead, according to Dan it would have to “shake-up” the experience by offering something fundamentally new, rather than an experience that was more of the same:
How do we further refine the core of what we love about this, but really shake-up other pieces of that make it feel fresh and invigorating. I would probably like it a little less if it just didn’t add that much to the core experience, cause then why am I spending time with it – I want our players to really experience something fundamentally new by the inclusion of that, so that’s kind of the high bar we’ve set…for new moves or new characters, they kind of must add that breath of fresh air of the way you experience and approach the game.
To hear more about the Playful’s new game and its experience developing for the Switch, be sure to view the full video above which goes for a whopping 18-minutes.
Would you like to see Lucky’s charming 3D platform game receive a sequel in the future? Comment below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-11-2019, 05:24 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Apple Arcade Adds Five More Games, Including RPG From Threes Dev
Apple promised 100 games for Apple Arcade during its launch window, and the service has been slowly building to that number with regular weekly releases. This week brings another six games, including the latest release from Threes developer Asher Vollmer.
The new releases this week include UFO on Tape: First Contact, Sociable Soccer, Discolored, Marble It Up: Mayhem, and Guildlings. That last game is the game from Vollmer and Sirvo Studios, promising a YA novel-like setting of fantasy turn-based combat against a magical realist environment.
UFO on Tape has you speed through environments with your phone camera looking for evidence of aliens. Sociable Soccer is part soccer, part management sim, while Discolored is a puzzle adventure that has you restoring the color to a black-and-white world. Finally, Marble It Up has you roll a marble through intricate levels brimming with ramps and obstacles.
Apple Arcade is Apple's gaming subscription service, promising all-you-can-eat games for $5 per month, without in-app purchases or F2P hooks. If you need more recommendations, check out some of our favorite picks on the service. Meanwhile if you're an Android user, you can check out the similarly priced Google Play Pass.
How Steve Jobs saved Apple with the online Apple Store
Alongside the return of Steve Jobs and advent of the iMac and iPod, Apple’s first online store officially opened for business on November 10, 1997 and went on to play a crucial role in the company’s survival and resurgence.
Detail from an early appearance of the Apple Store online
It wasn’t enough that Steve Jobs came back to Apple and stripped its messy range down to a few core products. The iMac wasn’t enough to turn the company around either —not by itself. While it may not have seemed it at the time, the launch of the online Apple Store on November 10, 1997 turned out to be crucial component of the company’s survival.
There’s an argument that it was born of irritation rather than anyone seeing how useful it would be. But while there is truth in that, the full story is that Apple badly needed its own online store.
Back in the 1990s, there were no bricks-and-mortar Apple Stores. You had to buy Macs through specialist dealers or through big chain stores. The chains famously employed whatever the opposite of Geniuses is, and they all pushed whichever box they got the most commission on.
Given that Apple was rarely, if ever, the most profitable sale for someone in a store, what Macs were there tended to be ignored. And you don’t run a retail store by taking up space with inventory that isn’t selling, so Apple was being stocked by fewer places.
Shortly before the launch of its own online store, Apple announced a deal with CompUSA to create what it called a store-within-a-store. It meant a higher profile for Apple than before, but it was still under someone else’s control.
A Sears store selling a Macintosh Performa back in the day. Those are washing machines behind them.
“All that the salesman cared about was a $50 spiff,” Steve Jobs later told Walter Isaacson. “Unless we could find ways to get our message to customers at the store, we were screwed.”
Whereas apple.com/store was owned and run by no one but Apple itself.
There were few online stores for computers in the late 1990s, but what there was proved to drive Apple down this road though a combination of irritation and insight.
Dell
There was really only one online store for computers at the time, and that was Dell’s. The company didn’t design computers in the sense that Apple did, it really just packaged them, but at the time, it packaged them extremely successfully.
Dell had also circumvented the need for resellers and chain stores, by chiefly selling over the phone. Not only did it cut out the need and the cost of these other companies, it meant Dell could ask customers what they wanted and then give it to them.
Just as Apple was starting to do, Dell had got its stock of completed computers down to a minimum. “If I’ve got 11 days of inventory and my competitor has 80,” said Michael Dell at the time, “and Intel comes out with a new 450 megahertz chip, that means I’m going to get to market 69 days sooner.”
While few or no other sellers were doing much online, in 1995 Dell began to create its web store. It launched in July 1996 and by that December was earning $1 million per day.
Apple had to be aware of this success and had to see that it was a way that it too could go around resellers and get Macs in front of people. However, this was also Dell. This was the company whose owner Michael Dell famously wrote off Apple’s chances. “I’d shut [Apple] down and give the money back to the shareholders,” he said in October 1997.
And it is also the company who originally built this extremely successful online store using WebObjects —software tools created by Steve Jobs’s NeXT firm.
How Dell’s hugely successful online store looked around the time Apple launched its own
So Apple, having bought NeXT and brought back Steve Jobs, had the talent to make a store but it also had the need if it were to make its machines as easy to buy as they were intended to use. Michael Dell’s comment came after Apple had started to develop its online store, but it definitely smarted —as you can see in video of Steve Jobs launching the Apple online store.
What Jobs says in it, though, is directed both at potential buyers —and at Michael Dell.
“In 1996, Dell pioneered the online store and Dell’s online store has become, up till now, the standard of ecommerce sites,” said Jobs. “We’re basically setting a new standard for online ecommerce with this store. [And] I guess what we want to tell you, Michael, is that with our new products and our new store and our new build-to-order manufacturing, we’re coming after you, buddy.”
Instant success
The new online Apple Store brought in $12 million of revenue in its first 30 days, for an average of $730,000 per day. That’s three-quarters of where Dell’s daily revenue had reached after its first six months. ‘
It’s not possible to compare Apple’s online sales then with how the online store does today. Apple doesn’t release figures that would help, and the company itself is radically different today. Back in 1997, there were no services, for instance, it was all hardware sales. And while there were physical stores you could Macs in —in October 1998, Apple announced a deal with Best Buy —there were no Apple Stores.
However, there surely wouldn’t be physical Apple Stores today if the online one hadn’t succeeded and if it hadn’t helped Apple survive. Similarly, resellers were declining, so even if Apple had managed to get through the 1990s, it’s likely that there would be few physical places to buy Apple gear.
Back in the day, this was considered high resolution. A typical opening screen from the online Apple Store in its earliest days.
So while it can only give a taste of how Apple has changed, it is possible to take the company’s latest financial announcements and break them down to give some slight basis for comparison.
From the last financial earnings call, if you focus solely on hardware sales alone and ignore businesses like Services which didn’t exist in 1997, Apple sold $570 million worth of devices each day in the last quarter.
Changing fortunes
The online Apple Store was key to getting Apple back up on its feet, but it’s also proved to be instrumental since the company became a born-again success.
It’s now a promotional tool as well, as Apple makes a big deal of taking down the entire store for hours when it is about to announce a new product.
While any other company would long for the world to notice when its online store is down, Apple has also used it to pull off something that surely no other company would dream of.
We no longer see the huge lines around the block as people queue up and camp out to be first to buy a new device. You can question why anyone would ever do that —though trust us, it is remarkably fun —but the optics were fantastic. News coverage never seemed to tire of showing us these lines of people, and that was free advertising that kept reminding the world that Apple was this popular.
Maybe the company saw that the furore was dying down by itself, but Apple took steps to instead have us waiting in front of our computers or iOS devices for the launches.
It’s done that by opening pre-orders ahead of the release date, and opening them at a specific time.
Nobody else gets worldwide headlines for taking their web store offline.
Now instead of the lines around the block, the news is always that devices have sold out in a very short time.
Apple’s online store is an incredible operation that usually manages to look simple. It’s hard to grasp just how many transactions go through it. But what’s easy to comprehend is that Apple owns and runs the whole process without any retailer or big chain reseller in the middle.
As it does with its hardware and software, Apple owns the whole stack in its online store and it absolutely maximises every benefit that brings.
This game and Fire Emblem: Three Houses weren’t the only titles on the Switch to receive major updates this week, though. On the third-party front, Activision’s kart racer Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled got its latest seasonal update.
This new season adds the Neon Circus Grand Prix, a new mode titled Ring Rally, the new track Koala Carnival, new characters (Pasadena O’Possum, Ebenezer Von Clutch, Koala Kong, King Chicken), and three new rides: Nitro Bumper Kart, Pressurizer and Daredevil.
In addition to this, the Pit Stop has also been stocked with circus-themed skins, neon wheels and an all-new item: animated paint jobs. Below is the event infographic:
Have you tried out the latest update for CTR yet? What about the new mode? Rev your engines in the comments below.
Review: Just Dance 2020 – The Same Old Song And Dance Perfected Over 10 Years
Just like Christmas or a hefty council tax bill, you can always rely on the FIFA of dance to pop up with a new entry each year. Just Dance 2020 celebrates the tenth anniversary of Ubisoft’s popular franchise – the original Wii exclusive launched in November 2009 – and if you’ve played any of the numerous titles that have appeared on store shelves since then, you’ll know exactly what to expect here.
The standard Just Dance blueprint remains the same as it always has been – you’ll grab a Joy-Con in one hand (or a smartphone, as control support for your mobile has made a welcome return this year) and dance along to a number of pop hits. You copy the moves of a professional dancer on-screen, ensuring that nobody can see you from the street outside as you struggle to touch your toes and accidentally fall onto the cat. It’s a tried-and-trusted formula that can be immensely fun both alone and with friends.
The similarities don’t end with the basics, however; Just Dance 2020 is almost identical to last year’s version in almost every possible way. The main section of the game, fittingly called ‘Just Dance’, has been directly lifted from 2019’s entry, with a home screen full of tips and notices, a Playlists section that lists recommended songs and lets you build your own routines, and a portion that gives you access to your user profile to view stats and collectables. We went back to last year’s Just Dance 2019 for comparison’s sake, and for a second we thought we’d accidentally loaded up 2020 again.
It also has the same ‘Kids’ section, where a selection of child-friendly routines can be found for songs like Baby Shark (do do, dodo do do), and the same online mode, ‘World Dance Floor’. Just like before, World Dance Floor is an addictive little mode which has you challenging players from all around the world in real-time, with all active players voting on which song gets played next.
There are a couple of differences, though. First up, is the addition of an ‘All Stars’ mode, which is essentially a cute little celebration of the series’ 10th anniversary. It kicks off with a cutscene featuring the Just Dance panda mascot, before sending you on a bus journey that sees you playing one song from each of the past main series games. Reaching the end of the journey unlocks an exclusive song, and while the mode’s not enough to justify a purchase on its own, we enjoyed feeling a sense of progression and purpose as we played through it.
Secondly, is the song list, which is arguably the main (and only) reason to upgrade year on year. Some of our personal highlights this year include Billie Eilish’s ‘bad guy’ and ‘I Don’t Care’ by Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber, but feel free to check out the full set of 40 new tracks. As always, it’s mostly full of current hits that us old fogies have never heard before, but are sure to go down a treat with those that are a little more hip and happening – see what we mean?
So, now that all of that’s out of the way, there’s one more thing we need to discuss before you rush off to your local game store, and that’s Just Dance Unlimited. If you’re unaware, Just Dance Unlimited is a subscription-based service which now grants you access to an additional 500 songs. As you can no doubt guess, it dramatically improves the game by giving you a wonderfully generous supply of tracks to dance along to, but essentially comes as an additional cost on top of the one you just paid for the base game. You actually get one month free with any purchase on Switch, but once that month’s over you’ll either have to pay to keep it going or lose all of that extra content.
At the time of writing, you can get a year’s subscription for £19.99 / $24.99 (with one-day, 30-day, and 90-day bundles also available for less). If you’re going to be playing the game every day, the subscription’s no issue and will be worth the money, but for anyone who’s not entirely devoted to the franchise, the whole thing becomes a harder sell. It also means that, if you already own one of the recent Just Dance games like 2019 or 2018, you could just get a subscription for the game you already own – all you’d lose out on is this year’s new set of 40 songs.
This subscription model puts us in the same predicament every time we review a Just Dance game. To put things simply, Just Dance 2020 is a really nicely polished title that has been slowly but surely perfected over the years. It’s great fun and we’re happy to report that the game has kept last year’s modern feel and sleek menus, but the bulk of its actual content will forever be locked behind the Unlimited subscription. If you don’t mind paying the extra charge or haven’t owned a game from the series in a while, you should absolutely pick this up, but if you already own a recent title, it becomes much harder to justify an upgrade.
Conclusion
Just Dance 2020 is a celebration of the series’ tenth anniversary in more ways than one, with years’ worth of releases all leading up to a formula that has truly been perfected and a decent new song list to boot. You’ll want to be subscribed to Just Dance Unlimited to get the most out of your purchase, however, and a combination of your needs, budget and access to previous titles makes the decision much more difficult than it should be. Newcomers to the series won’t find a better experience out there, but seasoned players might want to think about saving some cash and sticking with their current setup.
October 31st Xbox Insider Release Notes – Omega Ring (1911.191024-1945)
Hey Omega ring users! Today’s Xbox Insider Release Notes highlight the latest fixes, known issues, and features coming to your console. Starting at 2:00 p.m. PT today, users will receive the latest 1911 Xbox One system update (build: 19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1911\18363.8102.191024-1945). Keep reading for more details.
System Update Details:
OS version released: 19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1911\18363.8102.191024-1945
Available: 2:00 p.m. PT – October 31, 2019
Mandatory: 3:00 a.m. PT – November 1, 2019
New Features:
Voice to Text
Dictation is back with support for more languages! With either a headset or Kinect, you can press the View button when the keyboard is on screen to start converting speech to text. Check out the full list of languages below, and head to Settings -> System -> Language & location if you want to change your keyboard & dictation language.
Supported languages:
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional – Hong Kong)
Chinese (Traditional – Taiwan)
Danish
Dutch
English (Australia)
English (Canada)
English (India)
English (UK)
English (US)
Finnish
French (Canada)
French (France)
German
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese (Brazil)
Portuguese (Portugal)
Russian
Spanish (Mexico)
Spanish (Spain)
Swedish
My Games & Apps
When you uninstall a title from your collection, you will now receive a notification if the game is part of a Group or Content Block on the dashboard and offer to remove the pins or content block when you delete the title.
Fixes for Omega
We’ve heard your feedback, and we’re happy to announce the following fixes have been implemented for this 1911 build:
Party
Fixed an issue where users would get an error when leaving a party.
Virtual Keyboard
Various UI fixes while using Light Theme.
System
Various updates to properly reflect local languages across the console.
Known Issues for Omega
We understand some issues have been listed in previous Xbox Insider Release Notes. These issues aren’t being ignored, but it will take Xbox engineers more time to find a solution. We appreciate your patience at this time!
Audio
Users who have Dolby Atmos enabled and console display settings set to 120hz with 36 bits per pixel (12-bit) are experiencing loss of Dolby Atmos audio in some situations.
Workaround: Disable 120hz or set Video Fidelity to 30 bits per pixel (10-bit) or lower.
Dolby Access
Users are unable to complete the setup for Dolby Atmos in the app and the app is not recognizing Dolby Atmos headphones.
Note: This is an issue with the Dolby Access app and the app developers are aware and investigating.
My Games & Apps
Uninstalling a title (game/app) fails for some users with the error message “Something Went Wrong”. We are aware of this and investigating.
Party
The overlay for Party chat may display the same users multiple times.
Profile Color
Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.
Are you not seeing your issue listed above? Make sure to use Report a problem to keep us informed of your issue. We may not be able to respond to everyone, but the data we’ll gather is crucial to finding a resolution.
Learn more about feedback and how each ring is differentiated in the following links:
For more information regarding the Xbox Insider Program follow us on Twitter and join the community subreddit for support and updates. Keep an eye on future Xbox Insider Release Notes for more information regarding your Xbox One Update Preview ring!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-10-2019, 11:16 AM - Forum: Lounge
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CoD and WoW push Activision Blizzard to better-than-expected Q3
Revenue at Activision Blizzard is down year-over-year but higher than expected for the three month period ending September 30, 2019, something the company credits to better-than-expected performance for both Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.
Though it is worth noting that, given the quarter closed at the end of September, the recent launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and any potential impact from last month’s Blizzard boycotts wouldn’t be reflected in this current period.
Activision Blizzard as a whole reported GAAP net revenues of $1.28 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2019, beating the $1.1 billion revenue expectation the company had set back in August. GAAP net revenue from digital sources alone hit $1.01 billion this quarter.
Net bookings for the quarter, which include products and services sold digitally or sold-in physically, came in at $1.21 billion for the quarter, down from $1.66 billion last year.
“Recent launches have enabled significant growth in the size of our audiences for our Call of Duty and World of Warcraft franchises,” said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick in a press release. “As we introduce mobile and free-to-play games based on our franchises we believe we can increase audience size, engagement and monetization across our wholly-owned franchises.”
Activision on its own saw 36 million monthly active users across its games this quarter, and a press release notes that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, the now second most recent console release in the franchise, saw sharp growth in net bookings compared to its predecessor. Activision saw $209 million in revenue, down year-over-year due in part to the boost last year saw from the Q3 launch of Destiny 2’s Forsaken expansion. Destiny 2 as a whole has since separated from Activision after developer Bungie retook publishing rights for the game earlier this year.
Over at Blizzard, World of Warcraft Classic has, since its August release, drove the largest quarterly increase in World of Warcraft subscriptions in the franchise’s 15 year lifetime.The segment alone brought in $294 million in revenue, down year-over-year compared to Q3 2018 which saw the launch of a World of Warcraft expansion. King, meanwhile, saw over 247 million monthly active users for the quarter, and continues to leverage its Candy Crush franchise on mobile. Revenue at King came in at $500 million for the quarter, roughly flat year-over-year.
