Posted by from MMO Champion
Mug'Zee Adjustment Now Live
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
We recently noticed that there was an unintended data mismatch that caused a change to the Gallagio’s Goon’s health in Mythic difficulty. While correcting that to bring Goon’s health back to where it’s supposed to be, we went ahead and reduced Mug’Zee’s health.
With a hotfix that is now live on all realms:
Liberation of Undermine
Mug’Zee, Heads of Security
Health reduced by 5% on all difficulties.
Season of Discovery Hotfixes - April 23, 2025
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Season of Discovery
Classes
Druid
The Scarlet Enclave Restoration 6-piece set bonus now has a 100% chance to spread your Rejuvenation (was 50%).
Paladin
Increased the benefit of Shock and Awe so that dealing Holy Shock damage grants you 200% of your Intellect as Spell Damage, and reduces the threat you generate by 30% for 1 minute, and you are empowered with Sunlight for 10 seconds, causing Divine Storm, Crusader Strike, and melee attacks to deal bonus Holy damage equal to 100% of your holy spell power.
The Wrath rune now benefits Sunlight.
Soul of the Sealbearer reduces the damage dealt by Sunlight.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the AI-everything department: A draft executive order from the Trump administration proposes integrating AI into K-12 education by directing federal agencies to promote AI literacy, train teachers, and establish public-private partnerships. "The draft is marked 'predecisional' and could be subject to change before it is signed, or it could be abandoned," notes the Washington Post. From the report: Titled "Advancing artificial intelligence education for American youth," the draft order would establish a White House task force on AI education that would be chaired by Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and would include the secretaries of education, agriculture, labor and energy, as well as Trump's special adviser for AI and cryptocurrency, David Sacks. The draft order would instruct federal agencies to seek public-private partnerships with industry, academia and nonprofit groups in efforts to teach students "foundational AI literacy and critical thinking skills."
The task force should look for existing federal funding such as grants that could be used for AI programs, and agencies should prioritize spending on AI education, according to the draft order. It would also instruct Education Secretary Linda McMahon to prioritize federal grant funding for training teachers on how to use AI, including for administrative tasks and teacher training and evaluation. All educators should undergo professional development to integrate AI into all subject areas, the draft order says. It would also establish a "Presidential AI Challenge" -- a competition for students and educators to demonstrate their AI skills -- and instruct Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to develop registered apprenticeships in AI-related occupations. The focus is on K-12 education, but the draft order says, "Our Nation must also make resources available for lifelong learners to develop new skills for a changing workforce."
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the roll-for-revision department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Wizards of the Coast has released the System Reference Document, the heart of the three core rule books that constitute Dungeons & Dragons' 2024 gameplay, under a Creative Commons license. This means the company cannot alter the deal further, like it almost did in early 2023, leading to considerable pushback and, eventually, a retreat. It was a long quest, but the lawful good party has earned some long-term rewards, including a new, similarly licensed reference book. [...] Version 5.2 of the SRD, all 360-plus pages of it, has now been released under the same Creative Commons license. The major change is that it includes more 2024 5th edition (i.e., D&D One) rules and content, while version 5.1 focused on 2014 rules. Legally, you can now design and publish campaigns under the 2024 5th edition rule set. More importantly, more aspects of the newest D&D rule books are available under a free license:
- "Rhythm of Play" and "Exploration" documentation - More character origins and backgrounds, including criminal, sage, soldier, and the goliath and orc species. - 16 feats, including archery, great weapon fighting, and seven boons - Five bits of equipment, 20 spells, 15 magic items, and 17 monsters, including the hippopotamus
There are some aspects of D&D you still can't really touch without bumping up against copyrights. Certain monsters from the Monster Manual, like the Kraken, are in the public domain, but their specific stats in the D&D rulebook are copyrighted. Iconic creatures and species like the Beholder, Displacer Beast, Illithid, Githyanki, Yuan-Ti, and others remain the property of WotC (and thereby Hasbro). As a creator, you'll still need to do some History (or is it Arcana?) checks before you publish and sell.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the musical-chairs department: Discord CEO and co-founder Jason Citron is stepping down from his leadership role at the company and being replaced by Humam Sakhnini, a former executive from Activision Blizzard. "Citron will remain on Discord's board of directors, and fellow co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy will continue acting as the company's chief technology officer," notes Engadget. From the report: There's an important financial context to Citron's move. The New York Times reported in March that Discord was meeting with investors to take the company public. Sakhnini has experience acting as a leader of a public company. He was also the President of King Digital -- the creator of Candy Crush and other popular mobile games -- after the company was acquired by Activision Blizzard. A veteran executive could be a natural fit to usher Discord to an IPO. Citron didn't deny the plan when VentureBeat asked if the company would go public: "As you can imagine, hiring someone like Humam is a step in that direction." "From the very beginning, our mission has been about bringing people together around games," Citron said in a statement. "It's a mission I've dedicated my career to, and I'm confident that passing the torch to Humam is the right evolution for Discord's future." While initially pitched as a way to talk to friend's before, during and after playing games, Discord has morphed into a much larger and more general social platform, serving "more than 200 million monthly active users worldwide," the company says.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the face-computers department: Meta has expanded both the feature set and availability of its Ray-Ban smart glasses. Notable updates include live translation with offline support through downloadable language packs, the ability to send messages and make calls via Instagram, and conversations with Meta AI based on real-time visual context. The Verge reports: Live translation was first teased at Meta Connect 2024 last October, and saw a limited rollout through Meta's Early Access Program in select countries last December. Starting today it's getting a wider rollout to all the markets where the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are available. You can hold a conversation with someone who speaks English, French, Italian, or Spanish, and hear a real-time translation through the smart glasses in your preferred language. If you download a language pack in advance, you can use the live translations feature without Wi-Fi or access to a cellular network, making it more convenient to use while traveling abroad.
Meta also highlighted a few other features that are still enroute or getting an expanded release. Live AI, which allows the Meta AI smart assistant to continuously see what you do for more natural conversations is now "coming soon to general availability in the US and Canada." The ability to "send and receive direct messages, photos, audio calls, and video calls from Instagram on your glasses," similar to functionality already available through WhatsApp, Messenger, and iOS and Android's native messaging apps, is coming soon as well. Access to music apps like Spotify, Amazon Music, Shazam, and Apple Music is starting to expand beyond the US and Canada, Meta says. However, asking Meta AI to play music, or for more information about what you're listening to, will still only be available to those with their "default language is set to English."
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the stranger-things department: Nintendo has filed a request for subpoena in California's Northern District Court to compel Discord to reveal the identity of user "GameFreakOUT," the alleged source of last year's extensive Pokemon leak. The company is demanding the name, address, phone number, and email of the individual behind the "Teraleak," which contained claimed source code for upcoming title Pokemon Legends: Z-A, next-generation Pokemon games, builds of older titles, and numerous concept art and lore documents.
Court documents obtained by Polygon show Nintendo included a partially redacted Discord screenshot as evidence, where GameFreakOUT shared files in a server named "FreakLeak." The breach occurred around October 12, 2024, two days after Game Freak publicly acknowledged a hack affecting employee information without confirming game data theft.
Google Forcing Some Remote Workers To Come Back 3 Days a Week or Lose Their Jobs 2025-04-23 19:15:03
After initial tests created a series of large holes in the wall of the lab, the higher-power Scanning Tunneling Tennis Ball Microscope project was quickly shut down. 
Late last year, Sony added a couple of nostalgic PlayStation 5 dashboard themes the recreated the experience of using an older PlayStation console. People really liked these themes, but Sony said they were temporary and eventually they were all removed. But now they’re coming back for good.
The worst-kept secret of the year, Bethesda’s current-gen remaster of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, finally shadow-dropped yesterday and the Xbox-360-era open-world RPG has wasted no time in reminding fans why it was such a hit nearly two decades ago. Complete with refreshed graphics, updated gameplay, and cherished…
After a year of rumors and reports, we finally got the first official teaser for the upcoming movie Predator: Badlands. And the teaser promises a Predator sequel unlike anything we’ve seen before.
The world of Oblivion Remastered allows for a lot of leeway in how you approach situations, whether you’re sneaking by guards, sword fighting like a swashbuckler, slinging magic spells, or, perhaps, talking your way out of situations. The latter often proves the most challenging for one reason: the persuasion…
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a deep and lengthy role-playing adventure with multiple characters, each with skill trees to flesh out. So, of course, as you advance through the game and unlock new skills, you’ll find that you can optimize your characters’ synergy with one another.
