Finalists! We’ve got ‘em. Thirty finalists have been randomly selected for their chance at the $US 500 gift certificate. Congrats to them for being lucky and right. Sometime on Monday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mountain time we will post a question on the site. The first of the 30 finalists to answer it correctly will win the prize. Be warned, we will not be emailing the finalists, just posting their names. Hit the jump for the finalists! More »
From or via GameSetWatch comes two interesting pieces, musing on something of the same subject – what is it about games that turns fans into a bunch of aggressively opinionated jerks (or is that just life, on and off the internet?)? On the one hand, any community of people is prone to in-fighting and hysteria (tripled if the participants can hide behind anonymity); on the other hand, are some of the accusations lobbed from mainstream media that unfounded? Michaël Samyn takes on the recent kerfluffle over Yak Minter’s comments regarding Frogger and game reviewing in general. The comments section is very interesting, and gets at the community issue and game reviewing in one fell swoop. Leigh Alexander takes on nastiness on another level – far beyond frustrated developers whining in their LJ – and looks at examples of gamers behaving (very) badly, like the Jade Raymond/Something Awful cartoon debacle:
In the growing wake of the controversy surrounding GameSpot’s alleged firing of editorial director Jeff Gerstmann comes a little bit of surprising solidarity.
A bunch of Ziff Davis staffers (including 1Up) made a banner to show their support for fellow game reviewers and marched it the two blocks to the GameSpot building on Friday. The banner, and impromptu march, shows that despite being competition, what may have happened at GameSpot could have wide-spread implications in the game publication industry.
We’re also told that the Kane & Lynch user reviews on Gamespot have been, at least temporarily, disabled and there are rumours that people are cancelling their Gamespot accounts “en masse”.
I’m not sure how Gamespot is going to deal with all of this since I’m pretty sure they’re not legally able to talk about why Gerstmann is no longer there. I’d assume that at some point Gerstmann might talk, but I’d guess right now he’s trying to figure out what to do in the way of a job.
What about you? Do you work as a game reviewer? Have you been forced to rewrite a review due to advertising pressure? Feel free to email us at tips if you have or to editor. Remember, you can remain anonymous.
The 1Up Show [Flickr] More »
Reader Chris W. pointed us to a nice little piece in The Guardian on the questions of video games and literacy, with author Steven Poole coming to the defence of that medium we’re all so fond of. It’s nothing new for those of us who game, but it never hurts to have another (reasonable, rational) voice in the chorus. Poole points out there are plenty of games out there that require as much reading as the average children’s novel (if not more), and while the quality of writing may be variable, it’s not as if every paperback on the shelves is fantastically written.
Ah, but is the writing in these games any good? Well, it’s variable, like the writing in books. Some of it’s rubbish and some of it is very good. (In my opinion, Phoenix Wright is funnier and cleverer than most TV made for adults.) But quality doesn’t really matter. My memory of reading as a child is basically that of voraciously hoovering up any old crap. (This turned out to be excellent training for becoming a book reviewer.)
Not all of the games that children are playing are so dependent on reading, of course. Doubtless children are also playing a lot of games where you race shiny cars or shoot zombies into bloody chunks with massive guns. Well, everybody has to relax now and then. To insist that a young person spend every minute of his or her waking day in adult-mandated forms of self-improvement would be a kind of child abuse.
In answer to the “is our children reading?” comment – no, they’re probably not reading as much as they “should”, but Poole’s point about new forms of literacy is a well-taken one. Not that it will stem the tide of ‘Video games are ruining literacy rates!’ screeching, but one can dream ….
Is our children reading? [The Guardian] More »
In case you’re interested in the goings-on of the Game Developers Conference ’08 (being held in San Francisco from 22-28 February), details about the speakers for each of the six summits have been announced. I have this horrible feeling I’m actually going to be in the general vicinity of San Francisco during the conference, but am going to be locked in the libraries of Stanford & Berkeley, which is a shame because some of these summits sound supremely interesting. The summits will be happening over the first two days of the conference, and you can find all sorts of information at the GDF website. There are full details after the jump, via Worlds In Motion. More »
With all the chatter about the Fall 360 dashboard update that’s going to incorporate more “social networking” aspects a la Facebook et al, Leigh Alexander has some interesting thoughts up on her Sexy Videogameland blog (taking off from some proposals made by N’Gai Croal in Newsweek) on potential schemes for “social sanctions” via gamertag. This is still being driven by the BioShock dilemma that doesn’t give you many options (harvest or save the Little Sisters?), but I’m not at all convinced that investing in-game experiences “with actual, long-term, lingering consequences” is going to add some deep and rich experience to gaming. Alexander doesn’t sound terribly convinced, either:
Part of the fun, sometimes, in doing atrocious things in games is that it’s fiction. The fact that it’s fiction does not make it any less impactful to me. Another part of the fun for me, in video games, is that you can experiment with the boundaries of a world, push them, and if you leave a permanent mark, you can reset, try again. I’d hate if the fear of being caught in my private, solitary mess-around actually restrained me from playing around in a game. So to answer N’Gai’s question — yes, it would change how I played games, but I don’t think for the better.
Croal’s original piece is worth taking a gander at and raises some interesting questions of where our outward gaming personas might be telling people in a few years… Still, I don’t think we should be linking in-game “personas” with real life – and I don’t even have any murdered Little Sisters lurking in my gaming closet.
Social Sanction And Game Choice? [Sexy Videogameland] More »
Tis the season for lots of stress – the holidays and end of semester hysteria usually leave me wanting to crawl under a rock and hibernate for a few weeks – so Ian Bogost’s latest Persuasive Games column for Gamasutra was a welcome read through. The topic this time is on what makes a truly relaxing game. fl0w and Cloud, for all their appearances of being ‘meditative’ and relaxing games, are what Bogost terms “lean forward games”. That is, they’re twitchy and responsive and don’t exactly lend themselves to a truly relaxing experience, no matter how soothing the visuals may be. He also gives a nod to my favourite series of relaxation-through-repetitive-task games:
… the most Zen gardening in a video game by far is in Harvest Moon. The daily reaping, milking, chicken lifting, and related chores require precision, duty, and calm. The crop watering is my pick for the most calming, especially on the Game Boy or DS where the tile-based graphics more explicitly frame which square is which.
Harvest Moon emphasises the repetition of simple tasks as much as, if not more than, their outcomes. Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon are games that invite the player to complete these tasks independent of the long-term goals they facilitate. Both are games one might boot up late at night, before bed, to wind down.
Nothing like infinitely repeating tasks that includes flinging chickens around the barnyard to make for a soothing play experience. It’s a nice little article and a shift from the usual Bogost fare, and he makes some interesting points on the nature of relaxing games.
Persuasive Games: Video Game Zen [Gamasutra] More »
In the past couple of months, there’s been lots of ‘news’ regarding colleges and businesses making a (somewhat) mad dash for virtual spaces in the hopes of upping enrollments, offering virtual tours, and perhaps making that Biology 101 class a little less boring. Coventry University in the UK is taking the virtual model and running with it, sans Second Life – I have to admit the idea of some sort of virtual doctoral coursework makes my blood run cold, but I’ve got to give them credit for trying to be ambitious:
The university wanted to help give its Serious Games Institute (SGI) a technology platform on which to build a digital model of the campus building, so that students’ movements in both the real building and its virtual reconstruction trigger location based access to learning content and experiences. This means that content can be pushed to students by the most suitable method for their location and the device they are using.
The solution uses Cisco wireless location services to track real-world positions and movements integrated within the Giunti Labs learn eXact® learning content management system. The Giunti Labs software also allows any form of digital learning content to be repurposed ‘on the fly’ for use either in the virtual SGI environment or via any device connected to the Coventry University Cisco wired and wireless networks.
And there’s more, naturally – while I’ve no doubt some people would find all this stuff useful, I’ll take my in-person seminars and not having bleeding eyes from trying to do everything via mobile device.
Coventry University creates a unique mobile learning environment in its Serious Games Institute [Click Press] More »
Nintendo didn’t send me Super Mario Galaxy yet, but they did send me this sweet patch. I have no idea what I’m supposed to sew it to, but it’s pretty damn neat. Too bad I don’t have a jumpsuit. This looks like a perfect item for giving away at the fund raiser next month. More »
To: Crecente From: Bash
Whew! Today, I spent a good chunk of time at the immigration office, trying to get my permanent resident visa. Hafta go back on Monday. Fun fun fun!
On the way back, I bought a new cell phone. Yes. Finally. Meaning that next year at TGS, I should have a cell phone (unless I accidently leave this one in my jeans and put in the washing machine like the last one). And I bought a foreign cell phone. It was only like $US 40 with the current plan I have. This is the first non-Japanese phone I’ve own in a long, long time. Differences between this American phone and the Japanese phones? Not much, really! The Japanese phones have really big, beautiful screens. My new phone doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that the Japanese phones do — meaning that I can’t put electronic money on it or watch digital 1seg TV broadcasts with it. But that’s about it, really! It even does things like read QR codes, which I don’t think American cell phones in America can do because I don’t think there are QR codes.
I really wanted an iPhone. Like pretty bad. But, meh, I’ll get their second or third generation one.
What you missed last night Sony management issues? Our amazing contest Omega Five exclusive? Jamzy writes us a note Nintendo downplays new DS More »
