The game lineup has been announced, along with the match=up type, and iut certainly looks interesting. From the ESA's press release the games this year will be:
Counter-Strike 1.6 (5v5) - (PC)
StarCraft: Brood War (1v1) - (PC)
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (1v1) - (PC)
FIFA 08 (1v1) - (PC)
Need for Speed: ProStreet (1v1) - (PC)
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (1v1) - (PC)
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (1v1) - (PC)
Red Stone (4v4) - (PC)
Carom3D (1v1) - (PC)
Asphalt 3 (1v1) - (Mobile)
Project Gotham Racing 4 (1v1) - (Xbox 360)
Guitar Hero 3 (1v1) - (Xbox 360)
Halo 3 (4v4) - (Xbox 360)
Virtua Fighter 5 (1v1) - (Xbox 360)
Monday, March 17, 2008
Beta Build of Sleeper Hit Rythmn Game "Rez" for Dreamcast Released
K-Project, the beta version of Rez for the Dreamcast. The file is a self-booting image that will fit on a standard 80-Minute CD-R.
Here are the details from the .NFO file:
K-Project, the beta version of Rez for the Dreamcast. The file is a self-booting image that will fit on a standard 80-Minute CD-R.
Here are the details from the .NFO file
==== K-Project ====
(Rez beta version)
Date: March 3, 2008
# of RARs: 7 x 20MB
Filename: kprjbeta
Some notable differences from the retail version:
- Debug menus appear in the beginning of the game; this can
sometimes disappear if this isn't your first time playing the disc.
- A mouse cursor appears during the beginning; a mouse can probably
be used to mess with the debug menus.
- Loading screen shows 'Project Eden'; the title screen says 'VIBES.'
- The menus are different from the retail release.
- Some of the sound effects have changed from the retail release.
- The music is mostly different from the retail release.
- The bosses act differently than in the retail release.
- The timing of the attack waves is less precise than the retail
version, and sometimes groups of enemies will appear and disappear
during transitional sections.
- The VMU displays a different animation than the retail version.
- The options on the main menu are different:
PLAY - Same as retail
EXTRA - Play all areas one after the other, like BEYOND mode
in retail, sans options
REPLAY - Shows a replay of your last played game
DEMO - Similar to HOW TO PLAY in retail, but can select
tutorial or short demos from stages 1 to 4
- Sometimes a small debug window flashes at the top right of the screen.
- Some of the graphics in-game are different from the retail version.
- The end-of-level score screen looks different.
- You can continue right where you died, unlike in the retail version.
- There is a unique intro to each Boss in the Boss Rush area which is
not in the retail version. You shoot groups of enemies that
form the name of the boss to earn bonus points.
- There is no music during the Boss Rush.
- The third boss in the Boss Rush is different.
- The final boss is similar to the retail version, but you start in the
center and gradually pan out at each evolutionary stage. The
video footage between each stage is also different.
- There is no ending, but the Boss Rush is labelled as Area 6 and you
are scored separately from Area 5.
- There's a sinister 3D picture on the options scrren.
- VMU saving, just like the retail version, works fine and takes 9 blocks.
== Nothing was ripped from the GD-R to create a burnable MIL-CD. ==
== This MIL-CD image was kept as true as possible to the GD-R in ==
== all possible ways, including the track and files structure. ==
Wow, this sounds like a hell of a find. Here's the original link:
http://underground-gamer.com/details.php?id=27140
Here's the megaupload version:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J5HR8VNM
A hat tip to the Lost Levels forums, where you can also get a guide to the Dreamcast Keyboard commands for the debug menu for the Rez Beta.
Here are the details from the .NFO file:
K-Project, the beta version of Rez for the Dreamcast. The file is a self-booting image that will fit on a standard 80-Minute CD-R.
Here are the details from the .NFO file
==== K-Project ====
(Rez beta version)
Date: March 3, 2008
# of RARs: 7 x 20MB
Filename: kprjbeta
Some notable differences from the retail version:
- Debug menus appear in the beginning of the game; this can
sometimes disappear if this isn't your first time playing the disc.
- A mouse cursor appears during the beginning; a mouse can probably
be used to mess with the debug menus.
- Loading screen shows 'Project Eden'; the title screen says 'VIBES.'
- The menus are different from the retail release.
- Some of the sound effects have changed from the retail release.
- The music is mostly different from the retail release.
- The bosses act differently than in the retail release.
- The timing of the attack waves is less precise than the retail
version, and sometimes groups of enemies will appear and disappear
during transitional sections.
- The VMU displays a different animation than the retail version.
- The options on the main menu are different:
PLAY - Same as retail
EXTRA - Play all areas one after the other, like BEYOND mode
in retail, sans options
REPLAY - Shows a replay of your last played game
DEMO - Similar to HOW TO PLAY in retail, but can select
tutorial or short demos from stages 1 to 4
- Sometimes a small debug window flashes at the top right of the screen.
- Some of the graphics in-game are different from the retail version.
- The end-of-level score screen looks different.
- You can continue right where you died, unlike in the retail version.
- There is a unique intro to each Boss in the Boss Rush area which is
not in the retail version. You shoot groups of enemies that
form the name of the boss to earn bonus points.
- There is no music during the Boss Rush.
- The third boss in the Boss Rush is different.
- The final boss is similar to the retail version, but you start in the
center and gradually pan out at each evolutionary stage. The
video footage between each stage is also different.
- There is no ending, but the Boss Rush is labelled as Area 6 and you
are scored separately from Area 5.
- There's a sinister 3D picture on the options scrren.
- VMU saving, just like the retail version, works fine and takes 9 blocks.
== Nothing was ripped from the GD-R to create a burnable MIL-CD. ==
== This MIL-CD image was kept as true as possible to the GD-R in ==
== all possible ways, including the track and files structure. ==
Wow, this sounds like a hell of a find. Here's the original link:
http://underground-gamer.com/details.php?id=27140
Here's the megaupload version:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J5HR8VNM
A hat tip to the Lost Levels forums, where you can also get a guide to the Dreamcast Keyboard commands for the debug menu for the Rez Beta.
Reminder For Those Robotech Fans NOT In The USA or Canada
From Kevin S himself, on the Palladium Message boards:
Please Note: We’ve forgotten to remind people in our last few Press Releases that, currently, Palladium can only sell the RPG in the USA and Canada. I know that must disappoint a great many of our friends and fans overseas. Each additional country costs an additional licensing fee (and a substantial one at that), so it just wasn’t cost effective for us to add even places like England, France, Germany and Australia. That may change in the future, depending on how many books our distributors in those countries think they can sell, but for now, only the USA and Canada can get the books. I hope you understand.
So, take any Amazon release info with a grain of salt. Aside from having someone you know in the US or Canada that could buy a copy and ship it to you, any other international orders seem to be out of reach for now.
Please Note: We’ve forgotten to remind people in our last few Press Releases that, currently, Palladium can only sell the RPG in the USA and Canada. I know that must disappoint a great many of our friends and fans overseas. Each additional country costs an additional licensing fee (and a substantial one at that), so it just wasn’t cost effective for us to add even places like England, France, Germany and Australia. That may change in the future, depending on how many books our distributors in those countries think they can sell, but for now, only the USA and Canada can get the books. I hope you understand.
So, take any Amazon release info with a grain of salt. Aside from having someone you know in the US or Canada that could buy a copy and ship it to you, any other international orders seem to be out of reach for now.
Life Meter: Amazing Art & Creative Comics, All About Video Games
Hey, you!
You read The Code, so you obviously like video games.
You probably like art. You've maybe even read a comic or two in your lifetime, I'd wager.
Then you will love the happy mutants over at LifeMeter.
Edited by Zack Giallongo, Dave Roman, and Stephanie Yue, Life Meter is a collection of comics and cartoon art inspired by the artists' collective appreciation and love of video games. The site manages to show off a diverse range of art styles, while maintaining respect for the characters and their game worlds.
And contributors to Life Meter have racked up some pretty impressive recognition. Life Meter contributor Matt Loux's videogame inspired graphic novel, Sidescrollers,
was listed by The American Library Association as one of the Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2008.
You can check out the art gallery or read up on the collection of comics.
(The art piece used in this post is entitled Castelvania by Bill Mudron and is one of many outstand fan works presented in the Life Meter art gallery.)
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Two More Great Tributes To Gary Gygax
There are two more great articles released in the wake of Gary Gyx's death that I wanted to call your attention to:
Jeremy Parish and the 1UP.com editorial staff compiled a wonderful article entitled Five Things Games Have Learned from Dungeons & Dragons that shows just what sort of far-reaching effects on video games and computer games Gary Gygax has wrought.
From the 1Up article:
It's taken three decades, but videogames are finally catching on to one of the most fundamental elements of D&D: emergent gameplay. Because the rules and guidebooks for the tabletop game were merely a suggestion, a set of conditions and constraints for building an adventure, the actual content and outcome of every group and every session varied wildly. This wasn't a matter of the random math, though -- it was the human factor. The dungeon master was a sort of guide, nudging the heroes in the right direction and adapting rapidly when they strayed. Not surprisingly, videogames have generally kind of sucked at this. The computer serves as a dungeon master by proxy for the creators, and computers aren't known for their boundless imagination. But they're catching up thanks to canny design. MMOs are very much the successors to D&D, bringing people together to deal with the randomness that results from so many real players gathered in a single place (not to mention the occasional interference of the game masters). But even smaller-scale games like Battlefield and Halo 3 have become sandboxes for goofing around, and single-player games like The Sims and Grand Theft Auto give players enough freedom to make their own fun.
And Wired has a great article chronicling the life of Gary Gygax, and includes lots of little-known games and some photos from Gygax's family. A choice personal bit of trivia from the article:
Gygax and a few of his buddies carried that DIY spirit even further, devising a game of their own around WWII tank combat. He was determined that his game would avoid the "goofy bell curve"that resulted from rolling a pair of six-sided dice (2s and 12s are rare, while 6s, 7s, and 8s are comparatively frequent). To achieve a more linear curve, he determined that players must pluck 1 of 20 numbered poker chips from a hat, so that there was an equal 5 percent probability of each outcome. Gygax later found the perfect replacement for this clunky system: In a school supply catalog, he discovered dice shaped like all of the Platonic solids, including the icosahedron: A 20-sided die.
But don't just take my word for it; check 'em out!
Jeremy Parish and the 1UP.com editorial staff compiled a wonderful article entitled Five Things Games Have Learned from Dungeons & Dragons that shows just what sort of far-reaching effects on video games and computer games Gary Gygax has wrought.
From the 1Up article:
It's taken three decades, but videogames are finally catching on to one of the most fundamental elements of D&D: emergent gameplay. Because the rules and guidebooks for the tabletop game were merely a suggestion, a set of conditions and constraints for building an adventure, the actual content and outcome of every group and every session varied wildly. This wasn't a matter of the random math, though -- it was the human factor. The dungeon master was a sort of guide, nudging the heroes in the right direction and adapting rapidly when they strayed. Not surprisingly, videogames have generally kind of sucked at this. The computer serves as a dungeon master by proxy for the creators, and computers aren't known for their boundless imagination. But they're catching up thanks to canny design. MMOs are very much the successors to D&D, bringing people together to deal with the randomness that results from so many real players gathered in a single place (not to mention the occasional interference of the game masters). But even smaller-scale games like Battlefield and Halo 3 have become sandboxes for goofing around, and single-player games like The Sims and Grand Theft Auto give players enough freedom to make their own fun.
And Wired has a great article chronicling the life of Gary Gygax, and includes lots of little-known games and some photos from Gygax's family. A choice personal bit of trivia from the article:
Gygax and a few of his buddies carried that DIY spirit even further, devising a game of their own around WWII tank combat. He was determined that his game would avoid the "goofy bell curve"that resulted from rolling a pair of six-sided dice (2s and 12s are rare, while 6s, 7s, and 8s are comparatively frequent). To achieve a more linear curve, he determined that players must pluck 1 of 20 numbered poker chips from a hat, so that there was an equal 5 percent probability of each outcome. Gygax later found the perfect replacement for this clunky system: In a school supply catalog, he discovered dice shaped like all of the Platonic solids, including the icosahedron: A 20-sided die.
But don't just take my word for it; check 'em out!
Dungeons & Doggerel 2: Electric Bugaloo
Remember my previous post detailing spell poems I wrote for my 2nd Edition D&D Bard?
Reader R^2 has contributed a few more! here they are:
Time Stop--
For this spell all the Mythal is beckoned
And the power of aracnists reckoned
All reality twists
While this spell exists,
But it's Time Stop, so I've got second.
Prismatic Sphere--
If you're as dangerous as you appear,
I'll defend with a Prismatic Sphere.
You've got seven dispels
Before this ward is quelled
While you do that, I'll go get a beer.
Power Word, Kill--
I've patiently waited until
your health dropped below 60. Now we'll
Allow no saving throw
'Cuz when it comes, you go;
That's what I mean by "Power Word Kill"
Gate--
The gods themselves laugh and chortle
At reality at the whim of mortals
Let's pop open this Gate
To see if we can relate
Because now, we're thinking with portals
Reader R^2 has contributed a few more! here they are:
Time Stop--
For this spell all the Mythal is beckoned
And the power of aracnists reckoned
All reality twists
While this spell exists,
But it's Time Stop, so I've got second.
Prismatic Sphere--
If you're as dangerous as you appear,
I'll defend with a Prismatic Sphere.
You've got seven dispels
Before this ward is quelled
While you do that, I'll go get a beer.
Power Word, Kill--
I've patiently waited until
your health dropped below 60. Now we'll
Allow no saving throw
'Cuz when it comes, you go;
That's what I mean by "Power Word Kill"
Gate--
The gods themselves laugh and chortle
At reality at the whim of mortals
Let's pop open this Gate
To see if we can relate
Because now, we're thinking with portals
Dungeons And Dragons Special Martial Arts
In the aforementioned houseruled 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games my gaming group runs, players are continually encouraged to come up with new or unique ways of doing things with one's character. One of my characters, a half-dragon thief/martial artist, has a few maneuvers I've created that may be of interest to anyone that used martial arts in either 2nd AD&D or the Oriental Adventures handbook setting.
Long Talon Heart Strike:
Forgoing all other attacks for the round, on a successful hit with this maneuver, the opponent struck will take no damage. However, once the opponent has moved a total of 15 feet (or ten feet if the opponent is size Small or smaller), they must immediately make a saving throw vs. Death Magic. A successful save means the opponent is stunned for 1d2 rounds. A failed save means that the opponent falls, instantly dead.
The Long Talon Heart Strike may only be attempted once on an opponent. If the opponent's save is successful, then it is immune to the attack forever after. This attack will automatically fail if used against undead.
Heart of The Dragon Kata:
Once/day the martial artist may apply half of their level (or level of Martial Artist, if they are multi-classed) as a bonus to one's Strength score. This bonus lasts only one round.
Relentless Midnight Kata:
Once/day, if the Martial Artist has been wounded to half or more of one's maximum hit points, the Martial Artist may spend one melee attack to gain temporary hit points equal to four times the Martial Artist's level. These hit points are temporary, lasting for 1d6 rounds, and the martial artist will suffer damage at the end of the 1d6 duration if healing has not been performed.
Long Talon Heart Strike:
Forgoing all other attacks for the round, on a successful hit with this maneuver, the opponent struck will take no damage. However, once the opponent has moved a total of 15 feet (or ten feet if the opponent is size Small or smaller), they must immediately make a saving throw vs. Death Magic. A successful save means the opponent is stunned for 1d2 rounds. A failed save means that the opponent falls, instantly dead.
The Long Talon Heart Strike may only be attempted once on an opponent. If the opponent's save is successful, then it is immune to the attack forever after. This attack will automatically fail if used against undead.
Heart of The Dragon Kata:
Once/day the martial artist may apply half of their level (or level of Martial Artist, if they are multi-classed) as a bonus to one's Strength score. This bonus lasts only one round.
Relentless Midnight Kata:
Once/day, if the Martial Artist has been wounded to half or more of one's maximum hit points, the Martial Artist may spend one melee attack to gain temporary hit points equal to four times the Martial Artist's level. These hit points are temporary, lasting for 1d6 rounds, and the martial artist will suffer damage at the end of the 1d6 duration if healing has not been performed.
Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Tetris With A Twist: Retro Sabotage
Retro Sabotage, at first blush, seems to be a collection of mini-versions of classic arcade games like Space Invaders, Pong, Pac-Man or Tetris... but there is more than meets the eye.
Some of the games, like "pong 2.0" are pure parody. Others, like "Compromise", have some very interesting nuggets of gameplay.
They update every Thursday, and if you have a single pixel's worth of gaming nostalgia, or a sense of humor, you'll want to check it it.
Remembering Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons
Last week, Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, the grandfather of tabletop roleplaying games, passed away at the age of 69.
On a personal level, news of his passing made me very sad. I had hoped to meet him at GenCon some day, shake his hand, and thank him for creating a product that had such a profound impact on not just the person I am today, but the writer I strove to become. The house I live in now, with the friends I have down here in Texas, I would not have if it was not for D&D. My work with RPGX? A fellow D&D player in our gaming group introduced me to RPGX's head honcho. One of my best friends, a man who became ordained just so he could be the one to officiate at my wedding was someone I first got to know via a few sessions where he ran some amazing Dungeons and Dragons games.
Tributes have been pouring in from all over the 'net in ways personal, profound, profane, hilarious, and heart-warming.
Here's a run down of some of the best tributes:
Web comics:
Online Communities:
Also of note are three illuminatingt looks at Gygax: a cute interview with Gygax from 2001,
and video of Gygax reflecting upon the influence of D&D in the movie Uber Goober: A Film About Gamers, and an article about Gygax from The Believer published September 2006.
Every tabletop or fantasy gamer owes this man a debt of gratitude. I'd say if you're a nerd of any stripe, you probably have a memory of your first encounter with Dungeons and Dragons.
Share in the comments section!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tell My Wife I Love Her!
My wife was given WoW and a bit of World of Warcraft time by a friend of hers.
She just started her first character.
Pray for me! ;_;
She just started her first character.
Pray for me! ;_;
Dungeons & Dogerell: Spell POems in AD&D
Okay, so it's probably no big surprise that I am Dorky McNerdpants, and thus play D&D once a week with a bunch of friends (and it's house-ruled 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons, to boot!).
One of my characters is a Celtic-flavored bard by the Name of Daffyd ApOwen, and one quirk I gave him are the fact that along with whatever requirment he has for casting spells, he has to end it with some sort of poem.
So...
Armor: "Gather energies around me/ Magic armor doth surround me."
Burning Hands: "Heart's passion, desert sands/Inner flame brings burning hands."
Color Spray: "From my hands, I shall show/ Wonders of the sky's rainbow!"
Comprehend Languages: "With my touch, words are clear/ Whether I must read or I must here."
Enlarge: "Girth now grows with but a word/Magic can be its own reward/"
Reduce (reversed form of Enlarge): "Larger creature, now ye ken/The diff'rence 'tween mice and men."
Featherfall: "Gentle winds, heed my call!/Gift me with a feather's fall!"
Hypnotism: "Trust in me I suggest/ That you heed my one request."
Light: "Glowing softly, captured day/Sliver o'Sun, light our way."
Magic Missile: "Mage's missile shall do harm/ All in sight should take alarm!"
Message: "Bear my words upon this gust/of wind to whom that i must trust."
Read Magic: "Open my mind that I might see/ Reveal thy secrets unto me."
Shield Magic: "Magic Missile, do no harm/Mages now should be alarmed!"
Sleep: "Close your eyes and dream deep/Now 'tis time to go to sleep"
Ventriloquism: "Magic's weaves, place my voice/ In a location of my choice."
Now for second level spells, I figured that instead of just doing the rhyming line again, or adding more lines, a spell could just have a one line evocative image, like so:
Blur: "'Tis neither here, nor there/ but everywhere."
Continual Light: "And thus! The Sun opens its unblinking eye!"
Detect Invisible: "Lo! The Weave's hand parts the Unseen's veil!"
Detect Evil: "Hark! Evil's shroud is ripped away!"
Flaming Sphere: "Doom in fire's what I desire!"
Knock: "No matter the lock, my will is the key!"
Leomund's Trap: "Wand'ring fingers, prying eyes/Rogues'll get a nasty surprise!"
Magic Mouth: "Speak when magic deems others should be spoken to."
Melf's Acid Arrow: "Sizzle, bubble, bowstring and trouble!"
Pyrotechnics: "Snake of smoke, coil about me."
Web: "What a tangled Mythal Weave..."
Now, while this character will not be able to cast 8th level spells for quite some time, I figured that the second-highest level of spells in the PLayer's Handbook needed an awesome for to go with it: Haiku!
I only have one written so far, though.
Binding:
"The Mythal weaves ties that bind/
Mine bind further still/
An unbreakable circle."
Ninth level spels are the highest level available in the player's handbook, so what sort of epic form should be used for these spells?
Limericks, DUH!
Wish:
"I'm finally of magickal skill
Enough to bend it to my will.
Of the Mythal I ask
This one humble task:
Make the following wish be fulfilled."
Astral Spell:
"When body and soul're combined,
the complete person's intertwined.
Separate 'em, you're dead,
but with an astral thread,
and this spell, well, you're totally fine."
One of my characters is a Celtic-flavored bard by the Name of Daffyd ApOwen, and one quirk I gave him are the fact that along with whatever requirment he has for casting spells, he has to end it with some sort of poem.
So...
Armor: "Gather energies around me/ Magic armor doth surround me."
Burning Hands: "Heart's passion, desert sands/Inner flame brings burning hands."
Color Spray: "From my hands, I shall show/ Wonders of the sky's rainbow!"
Comprehend Languages: "With my touch, words are clear/ Whether I must read or I must here."
Enlarge: "Girth now grows with but a word/Magic can be its own reward/"
Reduce (reversed form of Enlarge): "Larger creature, now ye ken/The diff'rence 'tween mice and men."
Featherfall: "Gentle winds, heed my call!/Gift me with a feather's fall!"
Hypnotism: "Trust in me I suggest/ That you heed my one request."
Light: "Glowing softly, captured day/Sliver o'Sun, light our way."
Magic Missile: "Mage's missile shall do harm/ All in sight should take alarm!"
Message: "Bear my words upon this gust/of wind to whom that i must trust."
Read Magic: "Open my mind that I might see/ Reveal thy secrets unto me."
Shield Magic: "Magic Missile, do no harm/Mages now should be alarmed!"
Sleep: "Close your eyes and dream deep/Now 'tis time to go to sleep"
Ventriloquism: "Magic's weaves, place my voice/ In a location of my choice."
Now for second level spells, I figured that instead of just doing the rhyming line again, or adding more lines, a spell could just have a one line evocative image, like so:
Blur: "'Tis neither here, nor there/ but everywhere."
Continual Light: "And thus! The Sun opens its unblinking eye!"
Detect Invisible: "Lo! The Weave's hand parts the Unseen's veil!"
Detect Evil: "Hark! Evil's shroud is ripped away!"
Flaming Sphere: "Doom in fire's what I desire!"
Knock: "No matter the lock, my will is the key!"
Leomund's Trap: "Wand'ring fingers, prying eyes/Rogues'll get a nasty surprise!"
Magic Mouth: "Speak when magic deems others should be spoken to."
Melf's Acid Arrow: "Sizzle, bubble, bowstring and trouble!"
Pyrotechnics: "Snake of smoke, coil about me."
Web: "What a tangled Mythal Weave..."
Now, while this character will not be able to cast 8th level spells for quite some time, I figured that the second-highest level of spells in the PLayer's Handbook needed an awesome for to go with it: Haiku!
I only have one written so far, though.
Binding:
"The Mythal weaves ties that bind/
Mine bind further still/
An unbreakable circle."
Ninth level spels are the highest level available in the player's handbook, so what sort of epic form should be used for these spells?
Limericks, DUH!
Wish:
"I'm finally of magickal skill
Enough to bend it to my will.
Of the Mythal I ask
This one humble task:
Make the following wish be fulfilled."
Astral Spell:
"When body and soul're combined,
the complete person's intertwined.
Separate 'em, you're dead,
but with an astral thread,
and this spell, well, you're totally fine."
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Raph Koster: "I sit and I look at what we do and I think 'Goddamn we're irrelevent.' "
Raph Koster, the lead designer of Ultima Online and creative director of Star Wars Galaxies kicked off the Worlds in Motion summit with a keynote address. The address was nominally about "...why virtual worlds and online spaces are more than a fad-and why you absolutely should care."
It turned into something that has echoed across the game development blogosphere, touching off a firestorm of criticism, commentary and (one would hope) some self-reflection.
The quote that makes up this entry's title comes during the slideshow presentation where he says
But all is not lost, he says. Gaming and virtual worlds do have importance because
How can we harness this focus and energy to help others? It's not like there's zero reach. Ralph said "We have cybercafes in rural Senegal -- people without food and water still have Google. ".
Is this pie-in-the sky idealism, or will virtual world building lead to real social change for the good of others?
And even if it can, does that mean it should? OR should games be games, social movements be social movements and never the twain shall meet?
It turned into something that has echoed across the game development blogosphere, touching off a firestorm of criticism, commentary and (one would hope) some self-reflection.
The quote that makes up this entry's title comes during the slideshow presentation where he says
"... the Neal Stephensons dreamt of the infinite promise, and you wonder how it addresses the things that we wrestle with in the real world... The collective venture capital at the summit has to be north of 50 million; enough to replace the FEMA trailers the people of New Orleans are living in. "I sit and I look at what we do and I think 'Goddamn we're irrelevent.' Have I brought you down enough yet?"
But all is not lost, he says. Gaming and virtual worlds do have importance because
"What we do in this room can have an impact... We see windows into virtual worlds when we download the [World of Warcraft]client. The metaverse is more windows -- breaking down the barriers between the worlds. We're heading for a world full of windows -- the question is what we'll be seeing through them. Will it be like a mirror or something new? We're not playing with toys but with people. We need to use what we already have and make a difference. Whether we empower each other makes a difference."Definitely a lot of food for thought. It's not just video games, but our everyday lives are becoming more and more virtual every day: online banking, shopping, craiglist, ebay, online dating, message boards, blogs, you name it.
How can we harness this focus and energy to help others? It's not like there's zero reach. Ralph said "We have cybercafes in rural Senegal -- people without food and water still have Google. ".
Is this pie-in-the sky idealism, or will virtual world building lead to real social change for the good of others?
And even if it can, does that mean it should? OR should games be games, social movements be social movements and never the twain shall meet?
Kill Dr. Lucky Lord British
Lord British, the in-game alter-ego of Ultima series creator Richard Garriot is essentially immortal and nearly impossible to kill.
That doesn't mean that it's completely impossible, nor that gamers haven't tried.
Computer & Videogames has a feature article that covers all the ways Lord British can or has died.
Bonus video: How to kill Lord British in Ultima IX:
That doesn't mean that it's completely impossible, nor that gamers haven't tried.
Computer & Videogames has a feature article that covers all the ways Lord British can or has died.
Bonus video: How to kill Lord British in Ultima IX:
8-Bit NES Tribute and the WWE: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together!
I loves me some pro wrestling. I obviously loves me some old-school NES games.
John Cena, a pro wrestler for WWE has combined both in what is the only T-shirt related to pro wrestling I've ever wanted to a)buy and b) wear in public:
OH HELL YES.
At the risk of losing my "wrestling smart internet guy indie cred", I will say that John Cena is one of my favorite wrestlers, and him coming up with a shirt like this is just AWESOME.
And he's not frontin', either! In his very first DVD, he talks about his love of old-school NES games, is wearing a "NO! I don't need a strategy guide" T-Shirt from the webcomic Deisel Sweeties, and he did a freestyle rap for a webmaster who runs an NES video game site that namedrops everything from Excitebike to the Konami Code.
Gamers, we're EVERYWHERE.
Thanks to Nyterayn of PMO for clueing me in!
John Cena, a pro wrestler for WWE has combined both in what is the only T-shirt related to pro wrestling I've ever wanted to a)buy and b) wear in public:
OH HELL YES.
At the risk of losing my "wrestling smart internet guy indie cred", I will say that John Cena is one of my favorite wrestlers, and him coming up with a shirt like this is just AWESOME.
And he's not frontin', either! In his very first DVD, he talks about his love of old-school NES games, is wearing a "NO! I don't need a strategy guide" T-Shirt from the webcomic Deisel Sweeties, and he did a freestyle rap for a webmaster who runs an NES video game site that namedrops everything from Excitebike to the Konami Code.
Gamers, we're EVERYWHERE.
Thanks to Nyterayn of PMO for clueing me in!
Librarian Forgives Fines If You Beat Her at DDR.
No, really.
Look, the article even says so:
Patrons were invited to make good on unpaid fines by donating canned and packaged foods for the local soup kitchen or by entering a dance competition, “Dance Dance Revolution.”
Look, the article even says so:
Patrons were invited to make good on unpaid fines by donating canned and packaged foods for the local soup kitchen or by entering a dance competition, “Dance Dance Revolution.”
To sweeten the pot, during most of the day the library served coffee, bagels, pastries and ice cream, donated by area businesses.
By midafternoon, the cans and packages were piling up on a table inside library director Michelle Sampson’s office while circulation assistant Katie Spofford was setting up the video dance game on a PlayStation in a carpeted room upstairs.
I'd still probably lose, though. When it comes to DDR, I'm strictly a White Guy Beta.
(Found via The Shifted Librarian.)
Mario Teaches Quantum Physics
The Mechanically Separated Meat blog took the youtube video of merged games played against "Kaizo Mario World" (which I first blogged about in this entry) and used the resulting video as the starting point for an illuminating and very accessible discussion of the Many Worlds hypothesis in quantum physics.
From the essay in question:
tiny quantum events can create ripples that have big effects on non-quantum systems. One good example of this is the Quantum Suicide “experiment” that some proponents of the Many-Worlds Interpretation claim (I think jokingly) could actually be used to test the MWI. The way it works is, you basically run the Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment on yourself– you set up an apparatus whereby an atom has a 50% chance of decaying each second, and there’s a detector which waits for the atom to decay. When the detector goes off, it triggers a gun, which shoots you in the head and kills you. So all you have to do is set up this experiment, and sit in front of it for awhile. If after sixty seconds you find you are still alive, then the many-worlds interpretation is true, because there is only about a one in 1018 chance of surviving in front of the Quantum Suicide machine for a full minute, so the only plausible explanation for your survival is that the MWI is true and you just happen to be the one universe where the atom’s 50% chance of decay turned up “no” sixty times in a row. Now, given, in order to do this, you had to create about 1018 universes where the Quantum Suicide machine did kill you, or copies of you, and your one surviving consciousness doesn’t have any way of telling the people in the other 1018 universes that you survived and MWI is true. This is, of course, roughly as silly as the thing about there being a universe where all the atoms in your heart randomly decided to tunnel out of your body.
From the essay in question:
tiny quantum events can create ripples that have big effects on non-quantum systems. One good example of this is the Quantum Suicide “experiment” that some proponents of the Many-Worlds Interpretation claim (I think jokingly) could actually be used to test the MWI. The way it works is, you basically run the Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment on yourself– you set up an apparatus whereby an atom has a 50% chance of decaying each second, and there’s a detector which waits for the atom to decay. When the detector goes off, it triggers a gun, which shoots you in the head and kills you. So all you have to do is set up this experiment, and sit in front of it for awhile. If after sixty seconds you find you are still alive, then the many-worlds interpretation is true, because there is only about a one in 1018 chance of surviving in front of the Quantum Suicide machine for a full minute, so the only plausible explanation for your survival is that the MWI is true and you just happen to be the one universe where the atom’s 50% chance of decay turned up “no” sixty times in a row. Now, given, in order to do this, you had to create about 1018 universes where the Quantum Suicide machine did kill you, or copies of you, and your one surviving consciousness doesn’t have any way of telling the people in the other 1018 universes that you survived and MWI is true. This is, of course, roughly as silly as the thing about there being a universe where all the atoms in your heart randomly decided to tunnel out of your body.
But, we can kind of think of the multi-playthrough Kaizo Mario World video as a silly, sci-fi style demonstration of the Quantum Suicide experiment. At each moment of the playthrough there’s a lot of different things Mario could have done, and almost all of them lead to horrible death. The anthropic principle, in the form of the emulator’s save/restore feature, postselects for the possibilities where Mario actually survives and ensures that although a lot of possible paths have to get discarded, the camera remains fixed on the one path where after one minute and fifty-six seconds some observer still exists.
You can read the whole entry here.
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