High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle 
The Last Moments Of GAME 
How Bad User Interfaces Are Ruining Video Games And Other Wonderful Things 
She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant 
The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks 
Sunday Comics: Dead Island World of Warcraft merchandisers supreme Jinx have unleashed their new winter line just in time for Christmas, complete with the return of the talking, hand-humping murloc plushies.
The folks at J!nx are absolutely brilliant. Wanting to bring something other than hats, shirts, and gurgling murlocs to the BlizzCon 2008 party, they’ve come up with a way to combine all the competition of a PVP arena with the carnival fun of tossing bean bags through holes, the J!nx PVP Arena. While I had missed it on Friday due to swarms of murloc-hungry fans, late Saturday night I got a chance to try my hand at an extremely entertaining way to play World of Warcraft without technically playing World of Warcraft.
At BlizzCon 2008 there was one booth I managed to avoid for the majority of the show, but towards the end when the crowds were clearing off I couldn’t help but notice the amazing masks and accessories the folks at Rubie’s Costume Company had brought along with them. Not only did they sell your standard latex elf ears and a full assortment of masks, including the $US160+ full Tauren, they were even working on new masks at the booth. I sat and watched a guy working on the Illidan head for awhile, but I was really impressed with the detail on the Draenei being created on the other side of the booth. If not for my abject fear of putting plastic over my head, I might have been tempted to pick one up myself. galleryPost('blizzmasks', 3, '');
It can be hard to come up with interview questions about a game you’ve been following as closely as I have the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King, so when I found myself with 15 minutes with the game’s lead producer J. Allen Brack, I instead delivered praise for a specific moment that occurs during the Death Knight starting experience. It turns out I was not the only person impressed with what Blizzard has crafted. Mind you I don’t want to ruin the surprise for folks who haven’t experienced it yet, so I will have to remain a bit vague. Let’s just say that your character is faced with a task that they normally would never complete, but are forced to anyway, caught in the thrall of the vile Lich King.
Over the last couple of days I’ve briefly touched on Diablo III’s new rune system, but after talking a bit with the game’s lead can designer Jay Wilson I figured the system warranted it’s own post. You see, while past games have featured items that augment the powers of your abilities, the massive scope of the rune system sets it apart.
Look kids, it’s the cast of the hit internet series The Guild! In case you’ve not heard of The Guild, it’s a hysterically funny look at a group of MMO players and how they react when things get a bit too real. The lovely red-haired woman there is Felicia Day, who Buffy fans may remember as someone only Buffy fans would remember. She plays the guild’s healer, Codex, who one day gets a surprise visit from Sandeep Parikh, the warlock who assumes the two have hit it off and decides to move in with her. If you’ve ever been in an MMO guild you know these people, from the inattentive mother Clara (far left) to the young, “spirited” player Bladezz, played by Vincent Caso there on the far right. Vincent…I am so sorry I called you a dick today. I really meant your character, I swear. You’re a lovely man. Anyway, check out the show’s website and find out what happens when a guild stops being real and starts getting…really real.
Remember that excited feeling you got when you first killed a monster in the original Diablo? How you knew that this was going to be a game that ate a great deal of your life? And then Diablo II came out, and it was pretty much the same feeling as Diablo I, only updated for the computer systesm of the day, somehow maintaining the same level of excitement and fun as the original? Well I’ve just gotten a chance to play through a half hour of Diablo III, and damn if I don’t have that same giddy feeling all over again.
I’d have to say that the very best cosplay I’ve seen at BlizzCon 2008 I’ve sadly seen without a camera. Like the two girls dressed up as a demon and a Draenei, kissing each other as I rushed to an interview with the lead designer on StarCraft II. Priorities won out in the end, but I will forever carry the image etched in my mind. Here’s a selection of some of the costumes I did manage to catch on film. Oddly enough, the pirate is a girl I’ve known for nearly 10 years now and hadn’t seen in nearly six of them. Smallish world after all, isn’t it?
By far the most popular item available for purchase at BlizzCon 2008, the plush talking murloc doll from the lovely folks at Jinx completely sold out yesterday at the convention, and today’s allotment is going quickly as well, with lines stretch across the convention floor. I managed to beg, plead, cry, and pay $US40 for one of the little bastards, which I quickly brought up to the press room to unbox. Things were going great, until the little fish creature took a liking to my hand. The possibly NSFW results, after the jump.
I just got out of a brief interview with Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson, where we discussed a few things about the role of gender in video games and the new rune system in Diablo III, but the whole time I was in there I couldn’t take my eyes off of his t-shirt. I’ve seen it around the convention, but this was my first chance to see it up close. Behold, the new logo for Diablo III. I really dig the ponies.
