I have been wanting to see the new King Kong movie and just haven't got around to it, since it is on the list I plan to play it and watch the movie. I found this article that talks a little about the game development and adaptation to game from film. It also says that one of the game's goal is to make the user cry, which interested me since we saw that one presentation on why we don't cry in games.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9968336/
This is for the people who expressed their dislike for Uwe Boll. I didn't know much about this person so I tried to find out a little bit, apparently there are a large number of people, over 18,000 now, who don't care for him.
http://www.petitiononline.com/RRH53888/petition.html
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Wii Shortage
http://gamepolitics.com/2008/04/02/is-wii-shortage-related-to-weak-us-dollar/
This is an interesting article that states that Wii's have been undersupplied to the US to protect Nintendo against declining profits.The USD has been regaining some of its strength vs. the EURO and JPY. The JPY has also depreciated against the Euro, further reducing Nintendo's profits. (historical FX data from OANDA)
This is an interesting article that states that Wii's have been undersupplied to the US to protect Nintendo against declining profits.The USD has been regaining some of its strength vs. the EURO and JPY. The JPY has also depreciated against the Euro, further reducing Nintendo's profits. (historical FX data from OANDA)
ARGs
I was shocked to see that no one has brought up Alternate Reality Gaming. From the standpoint of gaming across multiple media and translating an experience from one domain to another, certainly ARGs are worth mentioning. Anyway, it's something worth mentioning since the text from ARGs often can go from text story to sound files, hacking of websites, and even real life meetings.
For people that need a little catching up...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game
And ARGs are popular enough nowadays that they even have their own network dedicated to finding them...
http://www.argn.com/
So why is it important to talk about ARGs in translated spaces?
1. It takes the mystery novel appeal and translates it to a mass audience in real time
2. It's a unique cultural experience with massive insight into game development and the needs of the casual and hardcore gamer
3. It's the only medium where you can get hilariously ironic free referential swag for participating: http://www.argn.com/archive/000711harvey_dent_campaign_swag.php
For people that need a little catching up...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game
And ARGs are popular enough nowadays that they even have their own network dedicated to finding them...
http://www.argn.com/
So why is it important to talk about ARGs in translated spaces?
1. It takes the mystery novel appeal and translates it to a mass audience in real time
2. It's a unique cultural experience with massive insight into game development and the needs of the casual and hardcore gamer
3. It's the only medium where you can get hilariously ironic free referential swag for participating: http://www.argn.com/archive/000711harvey_dent_campaign_swag.php
From Text to... Text?
You've probably heard mention of it and the devious "kill you 4 hours later" puzzles. For adventure gamers, it is infamous. It is none other than the text based Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text-based video game. Amusingly enough, it's one of the most accurate translations of a book's universe and mood to a video game ever without being a direct text read-out of the book. Since everyone's doing something new, I thought I'd post on something old (and who wants to read about ET again).
Anyway, rather than rant about my personal experience for 3 pages, I figured I'd just give the gift of letting you experience it yourselves. The following is the 20th anniversary edition of the game brought free by the BBC network. It can be hard if you haven't played a text-based adventure game (and hard even if you have), but it's a good fun read and play. You'll probably feel just as hopeless as Arthur Dent did in the books.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_andrew.shtml
A good reason for this translating so well is the fact that Douglas Adams, along with Starship Titanic, worked directly on this and saw video games as an amazing opportunity for storytelling. Needless to say, as cruel as it is, a lot of love was put into this game.
Anyway, rather than rant about my personal experience for 3 pages, I figured I'd just give the gift of letting you experience it yourselves. The following is the 20th anniversary edition of the game brought free by the BBC network. It can be hard if you haven't played a text-based adventure game (and hard even if you have), but it's a good fun read and play. You'll probably feel just as hopeless as Arthur Dent did in the books.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_andrew.shtml
A good reason for this translating so well is the fact that Douglas Adams, along with Starship Titanic, worked directly on this and saw video games as an amazing opportunity for storytelling. Needless to say, as cruel as it is, a lot of love was put into this game.
Just like it's like taking a book out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhJKvualUA0&feature=related
This is an interview with Raymond E. Feist, a writer who gave Dynamix game developers permission to make a game based on his fantasy world. He didn't actually write for Betrayal at Krondor (which is why he says when he played it, he was surprised). Feist liked how the game developers worked in his world that he later wrote a novelization of the game (Krondor: The Betrayal) and sequels.
Betrayal at Krondor was well-received by players and critics, as stated by Wikipedia, although I'm not sure if the game sold as well. People today might say it's too much reading, but I don't mind all the reading if it's decent like this game, Quest for Glory, or Daggerfall.
This is an interview with Raymond E. Feist, a writer who gave Dynamix game developers permission to make a game based on his fantasy world. He didn't actually write for Betrayal at Krondor (which is why he says when he played it, he was surprised). Feist liked how the game developers worked in his world that he later wrote a novelization of the game (Krondor: The Betrayal) and sequels.
Betrayal at Krondor was well-received by players and critics, as stated by Wikipedia, although I'm not sure if the game sold as well. People today might say it's too much reading, but I don't mind all the reading if it's decent like this game, Quest for Glory, or Daggerfall.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Cyber Socializing.
Drifting away from the game/film dynamics for a bit and back to socializing in MMOs, I came across a very interesting study carried out by a UK based university on the topic of cyber socializing. Though the study used a small and self-selecting sample of gamers and is far from being conclusive, the researchers feel their findings should pave the way for further research, particularly whether gender-swapping in an online setting has a propensity for affecting a player's gender identity in the real world. Additionally, all the respondents came from four popular online gaming websites (Allakhazam, Women Gamers, White Wolf and IGN's Everquest Vault), further reducing the possibility for a widely varied population. The Allakhazam site was used as the main recruitment forum because of its large audience. It also caters for more than five MMORPGs, including the majors Everquest 1 and 2, Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, and Lineage II.
The study conducted by Zaheer Hussain and Mark D. Griffiths (Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK) titled "Gender Swapping and Socializing in Cyberspace: An Exploratory Study" suggests that a majority of MMO gamers cross th gender barrier. A test-group of 119 online gamers ranging from 18 to 69 years of age completed a questionnaire. The results showed that just over one in five gamers (21%) said they preferred socializing online to offline. Significantly more male gamers than female gamers said that they found it easier to converse online than offline. It was also found that 57% of gamers had engaged in gender swapping, and it is suggested in the study that the online female persona has a number of positive social attributes in a male-oriented environment.
The original study in .pdf format can be found here.
The study conducted by Zaheer Hussain and Mark D. Griffiths (Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK) titled "Gender Swapping and Socializing in Cyberspace: An Exploratory Study" suggests that a majority of MMO gamers cross th gender barrier. A test-group of 119 online gamers ranging from 18 to 69 years of age completed a questionnaire. The results showed that just over one in five gamers (21%) said they preferred socializing online to offline. Significantly more male gamers than female gamers said that they found it easier to converse online than offline. It was also found that 57% of gamers had engaged in gender swapping, and it is suggested in the study that the online female persona has a number of positive social attributes in a male-oriented environment.
The original study in .pdf format can be found here.
Event on Wednesday
The AFI Dallas film festival is going on this week, and there's a talk tomorrow evening that fits in with our current discussion about film and games. The panel takes place at 5:30 PM tomorrow, April 2nd, on the 16th floor Wet Deck at the W Dallas Victory Hotel. Free and open to the public.
BLURRING THE LINES: How Does the Film Industry Impact the Gaming World?...and Vice-versa
Co-hosted by the Dallas chapter of the International Game Developers Association
Today’s video games are complex creations with scripts, art direction and fully-developed characters. How are these games impacted by film and its creative practices and storytelling techniques? And how has a new generation of gamers forced the entertainment industry to reexamine the projects it puts onto the big screen? We’ll examine how the creative and business model for each industry is changing.
Moderator: Gordon Keith, The Gordon Keith Show Panelists: Randy Pitchford; Marty Stratton; and John O’Keefe
BLURRING THE LINES: How Does the Film Industry Impact the Gaming World?...and Vice-versa
Co-hosted by the Dallas chapter of the International Game Developers Association
Today’s video games are complex creations with scripts, art direction and fully-developed characters. How are these games impacted by film and its creative practices and storytelling techniques? And how has a new generation of gamers forced the entertainment industry to reexamine the projects it puts onto the big screen? We’ll examine how the creative and business model for each industry is changing.
Moderator: Gordon Keith, The Gordon Keith Show Panelists: Randy Pitchford; Marty Stratton; and John O’Keefe
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