Age of Wonders 3 already had a pretty good level editor in the game for players to use to make their games a little bit more customised to their liking. Now the developers have announced that they’re going to add mod tools to the game in the future

Triumph announced the plans in a recent blog post. The tools will be implemented within the next patch for the game and will be compatible with Steam Workshop as well as various other mod making avenues. You’ll be able to effect certain parts of the game like the game balance and you can add new specialisations and units; however you won’t be allowed to tweak the core gameplay, models or textures with the tools provided.

Mods will have a switch in the launcher to turn them on and off, and will be useable across the single-player and multiplayer parts of the game; so no mods that give you an unfair advantage. More rules and features will be made clear in a future announcement.

Wildstar is due to go free-to-play in Autumn and its now taking beta registrations ahead of this transition, in a bit to attract new players to the game.

New players will get access to two character slots, four costume slots and two bank slots for free, although subscribers will get more slots and various other benefits as a result of paying for them. However even if you’re not subscribing you will still have access to the full game, all classes and all skills. However all players will have to sign up to a ‘Signature program’ to be allowed to create guilds and gain access to some other perks.

Both types of player will inhabit the same server space though, which means that those currently playing will soon probably see an influx of new players for them to play with. Or troll. Either and or.

Following a statement from Daybreak Game Company that president John Smedley was taking some time off and stepping down from his role into a different one, it seems that it’s been confirmed that he has fully left the company for good.

The move comes as the result of a harassment campaign by a hacker group that saw Smedley’s financial details leaked online and a bomb threat being made. It resulted in Smedley taking to Twitter to vow he’d track down and bring down those responsible, even threatening to pursue the parents of the hackers in court. He stepped down not soon after and his Facebook lists him now as the CEO of a new, as of yet unknown company.

Daybreak confirmed the leaving to GameInformer, “On behalf of Daybreak, we wish Smed well in his new endeavors. Any questions regarding his new business should be directed to him.”

Nintendo has filed a patent for a console that apparently has no optical drive. A Neogaf user by the name of Rosti spotted the patent. It shows a schematic of a console that “is not provided with an optical disk drive”, according to the filing’s abstract. The patent further shows games stored on a hard drive and mentions “high speed communications such as ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) or optical communication as a way to deliver game data. This could allow Nintendo to go for an all digital future and deliver games via a server distribution process.

Also of note is the fact that the filing does show a card reader included in the console for reading and writing from devices “such as an SD memory card”. Nintendo has been relatively quiet about it’s new NX console due to concerns that competitors would try and capitalize on it’s ideas. If the filing is for the upcoming NX, it could mark a significant departure from traditional game delivery methods for the Big N.

What do you think? Those comments aren’t going to write themselves!

Wow, Spotify. How and why does a service mainly geared around music streaming become one of the most intrusive around? With the latest Spotify update, there’s a new privacy policy going into effect – and the TL;DR version is that if you’re at all concerned about data privacy, now may well be the time to jump ship, because this new policy definitely isn’t.

Here are just some examples of the type of snooping Spotify wants to get up to with the latest policy:

Use Spotify on your mobile? Hope you’re okay with sharing your Contacts, Photos and Media…

With your permission, we may collect information stored on your mobile device, such as contacts, photos, or media files. Local law may require that you seek the consent of your contacts to provide their personal information to Spotify, which may use that information for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy.

Tracking Your Location

Depending on the type of device that you use to interact with the Service and your settings, we may also collect information about your location based on, for example, your phone’s GPS location or other forms of locating mobile devices (e.g., Bluetooth). We may also collect sensor data (e.g., data about the speed of your movements, such as whether you are running, walking, or in transit).

Third party services – well, at least you can disconnect Facebook…

You may integrate your Spotify account with Third Party Applications. If you do, we may receive similar information related to your interactions with the Service on the Third Party Application, as well as information about your publicly available activity on the Third Party Application. This includes, for example, your “Like”s and posts on Facebook.

(To be fair, this is really only saying that Spotify will do what anyone on Facebook can do anyway – look at the things you’ve posted publicly; as well as anything related to Spotify itself. If you’ve integrated your Spotify with Facebook, you pretty much already accepted this was going to happen anyway; but if you find it creepy, you might want to disconnect Facebook from Spotify via your Preferences)

Storing (and Sharing!) Your Credit Card Information

If you sign up for a Trial (as defined in the Terms and Conditions of Use), purchase any of our Paid Subscriptions (as defined in the Terms and Conditions of Use), or make other purchases through the Service, your credit or debit card information (such as card type and expiration date) and other financial data that we need to process your payment may be collected and stored by us and/or the payment processors with which we work. We may also collect some limited information, such as your postal code, mobile number, and details of your transaction history, all of which are necessary to provide the Service.

Spotify claim that they collect personal data from users primarily to improve the overall experience for people using the service; but it’s clear that not all of the data being gathered is to benefit the service itself. Indeed, if you look more closely at the paragraphs explaining how they intend to use the data, the real purpose becomes clear – advertising:

We may use the information we collect, including your personal information….to provide, personalise, and improve your experience with the Service and products, services, and advertising (including for third party products and services) made available on or outside the Service (including on other sites that you visit), for example by providing customised, personalised, or localised content, recommendations, features, and advertising on or outside of the Service

So, if you love music but also love privacy, maybe it’s time to ditch Spotify and look for a new streaming service instead. Or maybe consider a medium curated not just by bots (friendly as they are), but also by real-life DJs who care and which broadcasts a schedule of live shows that let you influence exactly what you want to hear? If that sounds good, you’re already in the right place 😉