Wonderland

Well said, manifesto chap

Lots and lots of linkage to the Gamers' Manifesto this week, and rightly so. Me being lazy and newly-old, I've only just got round to reading it. Which is pathetic, because as manifestos go, this one is quite short. Anyway, a choice snippet:

The female demographic is seen as something that can be “targeted” by adding features to existing games, such as in-game clothes shopping, in-game makeup application and in-game cute animal pets. Game creators aren’t just casually missing the point, they’re showing a unified front of stupidity.

There is hope however. Like all industry, it is inevitable that females will eventually forge their place in the world of game design. The female designers will burst on the scene soon enough, heaving their giant bosoms of talent and creativity and brandishing their black thongs of diversity.

Written by a true gent.

PAC-MAN DOES NOT HAVE A NOSE

SO DON'T GIVE HIM ONE k gg thx. So wrong. Also from the very brilliant Videocrab E3 review (page 6).

Videocrab's E3

Now this is a review (and a further 9.5 pages of E3 coverage, all amusing):

This is Nintendo's Chibi Robo, which was overlooked completely by gamers, who waited for hours to see Legend of Zelda: It's Not Cartoony Are You Happy Now and are programmed (by hours and hours of playing Tom Clancy's Unimaginative Bullshit Squad) to ignore anything colorful or creative. Chibi Robo combines the compulsive cleaning of Mario Sunshine with the general scale of Pikmin to create something irresistably adorable. You play as a tiny robot of the near future, who has a PSP-like battery that must be recharged every five minutes; this is accomplished by lugging your power cord over to an outlet and plugging yourself in. You can take out a little toothbrush to mop up spills, toss trash into your infinitely accommodating head, and don various costumes for unexplained reasons. It was fun, but nobody cared. Poor doomed Nintendo, what with their continued insistence on developing fun, original game ideas.

Available.. sometime soon.. for the pink DS, I believe!

Human-computer animation

What do you call that style of animation where there're humans mixed up with cartoons/animation, like in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Anyway, I'm completely besotted with these renders of Half Life 2 objects into real life photos, and I agree with Andy B, this one is fantastic:

Imagine all the creative opportunities when most game objects and characters can be mapped into real world situations...

Vintage Nintendo Tetris watch

..on US eBay. I did a search because the wondrous PopGadget originally found these and linked to a reseller in the US whose site's nav I got tangled up in and after my customary 3 seconds patience limit I buggered off and found an eBayer happy to ship worldwide.

Willya look at the detail on this baby!

Little onion domes! Adorable.

Sir Bruce's MMOG roundup

Next-gen MMOG roundup from an old pro, the man who does That Chart.

Useful.

What Men Want

... seems to warrant a whole conference on how to market to the (apparently) "elusive 18-34 year old male". It's not April 1st is it?

Today, the "What Men Want" conference was scheduled for June 15-16 at the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa in Las Vegas. The conference is dedicated to discovering how to market to the always critical 18-34 male demographic. There will be representatives from companies as diverse as Sony and Microsoft to Coca-Cola, Playboy, and Time Warner.

"What Men Want" will cover a large breadth of topics, including industry trends and marketing angles from some of the most successful brand managers in the world. Speakers will include Stephen Colvin, President and CEO, Dennis Publishing US (Maxim), and the conference even features a Q&A session with DJ Funkmaster Flex. For more information, please visit whatmenwantconference.com.

Penis-shaped remote to advertise the conference !

I'm laughing so hard I can't type straight.

Good NYT article on making $ in virtual worlds

The usual story (NYT, requires idiotic reg) - so-and-so made a zillion dollars in a game!!1! pwned! - which will probably result in a small surge of prospectors invading Second Life for a few months at least. Like real life, there's prime estate there and there's undeveloped nothingness, which is going for a song, and which, over time, will become another neighbourhood (maybe valuable, maybe not). It's a gamble, over the long term.

But Mr. Ainsworth found his moneymaking options in The Sims "very limited"; he switched to Second Life, a virtual world that is less a game than a three-dimensional environment in which players can do whatever they choose. There, he has leveraged his real-life experience - he is a developer and contractor - into an online business. In 14 locations in Second Life's virtual world, he owns enough "land" to rent space to nearly 50 retailers, who in turn earn virtual money selling everything from jewelry to clothing to art (all nonexistent, of course). Mr. Ainsworth converts his game profits into real money on sites like eBay, Ige and gamingopenmarket, which charge a small fee, and he includes that income on his tax returns.

"A lot of your success or failure depends on your ability to keep the fire lit," he said. "I have good months and bad months, but the work is fun."

Earnings can be considerable. Ailin Graef, who goes by the screen name Anshe Chung in Second Life, said she was on track to earn about $100,000 in real money in her first year in the game's real estate business.

Very educational. I wonder how long it will be until students are set homework within Second Life? Quite the proving ground.

Extended lazy weekend

Bank holiday + birthday = zero blogging + juicy presents!

Yeah baby yeah!

Knuckleduster evening bag.

He actually goes in the classic serpentine wiggle. He can't climb stairs though. :o/

Pongmechanik

This nice boy (Cyber Nicholas. Fab name.) has gone and built a physical, fully-working mechanical Pong.

Bink! Bonk! Bink! Bonk!

While we're at it, IRC Pong, because it always makes me laugh:

<tag> Ouroboros: lets play Pong
<Ouroboros> Ok.
<tag> |    .
<Ouroboros> .    |
<tag> |  .
<Ouroboros>    . |
<tag> | .
<Ouroboros>      | .
<Ouroboros> Whoops

ASDA sits behind Tesco, copies over shoulder

ASDA are going to stock games and stuff in its GIANT cavernous cheapo supermarkets. And, in a particularly cunning move (how they get away with this I don't know), they're fiddling the sales tax, so they'll pile them high, sell them cheap.

Asda is following the likes of Tesco and Amazon into the world of online home entertainment sales.

The Wal-Mart-owned supermarket chain has announced it will kick off with a range of 140,000 CDs, games and DVDs, which it will sell from a Jersey base. Operating its home entertainment operation out of the Channel Islands will enable it to avoid sales tax on the products - a saving which it says will be passed onto the consumer.

Marketing to teenagers

Via gamesblog:

 IDEASFACTORY has teamed up with the Women In Games Conference 2005 to launch a competition for budding marketing talent to work in the games industry.

We want you to come up with a marketing strategy for a hypothetical game designed to appeal to a broader audience than the typical 15-24-year-old male demographic. The strategy must focus on male and female players under the age of 15, primarily in the European and North American marketplaces.

Pretty cool, eh? From research trickling in at the moment, the under-15 market is pretty much split down the middle gender wise, and all of them play games. Aleks also tells me that Bliss and Sugar have (finally!) carried some games adverts .. slowly, slowly, catchy monkey.

Meanwhile I still claim that women should get a discount on all games, as we are paying for not-being-marketed-to. 65% off, please! Or free. Yes, free. Go on.

Sound novels??

SOUND NOVELS? Ladies and gents, we have a new media (sort of).

What’s a sound novel, you ask? Exactly that. It’s a story told through text, images, and most importantly, sound. The first sound novel [for PSP] will be released in Japan (7/28) and will feature a collection of 50 ghost stories. Jitsuwa Kaidan: Shin Mimi Bukuro is a popular franchise that has spread from books to comics and movies, so it’s a suitable test subject for this new PSP media. This first sound novel is also set include a live-action video of Shin Mimi Bukuro.

How cool?

Story and character in games

A panel of game designers (including Toby Gard, He Who Made Lara) discuss story and character development; lots of useful little nuggets and insights:

“Our main regret with Halo 2 is that we didn't let our players breathe,” said Staten, explaining that the original Halo had moments where the player might calmly look at the serene atmosphere, with no action, whereas in the sequel, such moments didn't exist.

An audience member brought up the issue of so-called cutscenes, non-interactive portions of a game used to advance the story, stating that if a game's cutscenes were cinematically on par with movies, players would be drawn to them more.“I think that's inevitable,” said Milius, “that's where it should go.”

Schafer seemed to disagree. “I have a secret goal of someday making a game without cutscenes,” he said. “It's not that I don't want that cinematic experience, I'd just rather the interactive parts be on par with movies.”

...

“There are situations in an MMO where you come away and feel like you have a story to tell, from the actions and dialects,” Gard continued, in discussion about experimenting with living interactive characters. He hopes to one day see a comparable AI experience.

Morpheus 'dead'

OMG they killed Morpheus!

So if you sign up to Matrix Online now, the story is, Morpheus is already dead? Bizarre, eh?

At 9 a.m. on Thursday (May 26), members of "The Matrix Online" massive multiplayer game witnessed Keanu's butt-kicking guru, Morpheus — he of the obscure riddles and gravity-violating kung-fu — meet his bitter end at the hands of a mysterious assassin.

George Lucas didn't wait to kill Emperor Palpatine in the video game versions of "Star Wars" — he did it in "Return of the Jedi." But that was 1983. The reclusive but ever-modern "Matrix"-creating Wachowski brothers like to do things a bit differently, a philosophy that now extends beyond their movies to their "Matrix" game, a shared experience that went live in March.

"They wanted to start with something significant and meaningful and shocking, and this was it," said Paul Chadwick, the writer whose job it is to follow the brothers' broad outline and script the day-to-day events of the online "Matrix."

Chadwick has a background in comic books, where the death of the big heroes can be as permanent as a stomachache. But he says Morpheus will be taking the big sleep long-term. "I suppose never say never," he admitted, though if there are any plans for a resurrection he's not aware of them. And he's plotted at least a full year of "Matrix Online" events with the Wachowskis. Still, for what it's worth, one of the toughest characters Laurence Fishburne ever portrayed is dead. "I did it not in joy but in sorrow," Chadwick continued. "I'm sorry to see him pass."

Full story.

Good old GDC

They've put Will Wright's legendary Spore talk up. Reg required, but the content is free...

IBM's MMOG event

I just signed up for IBM's online MMOG discussion, scheduled for June 1.

Where does the games industry go next? And how can you forge a future for your company? Get answers to these - and your own - questions from the industry's top names at our exclusive MMOG Live Interactive Web broadcast. Sign up for free, and, on 1st June, you'll be rubbing virtual shoulders with the big bosses at NCSoft, Sony Online and ArenaNet. Numbers are limited, so register now to get your password and assure your place!

Raph Koster (Sony Online Entertainment), Geoff Heath, Chris Chung and Stephen Reid from NCSoft are all speaking. If you're wondering what the hell IBM has to do with this, there's a hint in the lineup:

How IBM solutions helped develop a new genre of massively multiplayer games

• What are the major technical challenges in launching a competitive online role playing game?
• How did IBM solutions help overcome these challenges?
• Does Guild Wars represent an alternate business model for massively multiplayer games?

Oh. OK.

Lightsaber Umbrella

Oh yes! A telescopic, Vader-inspired, lightsaber-handled umbrella!

Interestingly, I don't actually want one.*

*I'm lying.

Booth Dude

Rummaging around in an NCSoft E3 review, I came across Booth Dude! Last year he was on the stand, geeing up the crowd on City of Heroes, dressed in jeans and a shabby teeshirt:

This year they gave him a good haircut and a Villians outfit, complete with cape!

Now that's more like it!

Hiring Hollywood's fallout

Sounds like a straight-to-video to me: Jaws Unleashed. A game based on the films, which, much like any series, went like this: Brilliant, Not Bad For A Second Film Really Quite Good Actually, Painful. Literally, in the case of Jaws 3, because it was 3D. ooOOHhaawwwwowouch.

Anyway, it sounds like they've scooped up the person who wrote Jaws 11 or whatever and made it into a game:

It seems Amity Island has prospered in the years since the sharks gave up and moved away, and now the locals have signed an agreement with a huge company called Environplus in a bid to boost the economy.

When the son of Environplus' CEO becomes the victim of a fatal shark attack, renowned hunter Cruz Ruddock is hired to seek and destroy the perpetrator.

"CRUZ RUDDOCK"? Wahahahhhahaha!

The twist is that you get to "be" the shark, swimming and chomping your way through "more than ten" destructible environments whilst trying to avoid Ruddock and Brody.

There are both free-roaming and story modes, and a wide range of underwater, surface and air attacks to choose from. The game's "dismemberment engine" allows you to tear objects and victims apart piece by piece, and "Shark Vision" lets you target and attack people before they can say "Ow, what happened to my legs".

Completely surreal.

"C4 does games"

... sez the grauniad gamesblog:

Interesting report in the Media Guardian today about Channel Four's plans to become an entertainment brand. So as well as TV and digital radio, C4 are planning to become, "active in everything from mobile phones to computer games". Gulp.

Heh. Gulp indeed. These are interesting times we live in, where digital bits are merely output formats, and brands, IP and story are beginning to transcend the platform. The idea of a 'broadcaster' in the not-so-far future will be so quaint and curious...

OMG J Allard, no!

From Spong, today, J "Face of XBox" Allard, from Microsoft:

How he usually looks:

Please tell me the Spong pic is old? He's talking about next-gen stuff in the Spong article. Next generation of consoles, not grizzled old people wearing shabby fleeces, please J! Bring back the nathan specs and leather jacket THIS INSTANT!

I could make a faceplate joke here, but I won't.

Mm, cake.

Katamari cake (thanks Brinstar!).

Gamecube cake.

Asteroids cake.

Space Invaders cake.

Can you tell I have a birthday coming up?

Arrr! Age of Pirates!

Nokia have announced their MMOG for phones (MMMG then? Massively Multiplayer Mobile Game?): Age of Pirates (made by the rather fabulous JadeStone, the swedish night elves of mobile gaming).

Nokia, the leader in mobile communications, announced today the launch of the massively multiplayer adventure game, "Age of Piracy", expected to be available later this year on selected Java-enabled cell phones through Nokia SNAP (Scalable Network Application Package) [snore.] Mobile service.  Set in the 17th century on the Caribbean Sea, "Age of Piracy" delivers swashbuckling fun in a world of deceit, collaboration, trade and looting on the waters off the shores of the Spanish Main [hurrah!].  And in a mobile game first, "Age of Piracy" debuts a rich European comic graphics style with saturated colors and satirical humor.

Saturated colours? Anyway. The game sounds fun, capitalising on the mobile aspect of the handset: treasure collecting, head-to-head combat, social questing.. out soonish.

 

Virtual Magic Kingdom

Disney's put its Virtual Magic Kingdom multiplayer free online game (whew, what a mouthful) into live beta today!

Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom is a free online multi-Player game that lets you experience the awesome magic of Disney Theme Parks from home. Live inside of Disney's virtual world to create your own experiences, control your online Character and interact with Players from around the globe!

It's got opening times. Much like the real park, then. I'll be signing up as soon as it opens in GMT..

Time Crisis

.. on Brighton Pier, plastic (sticky) pink gun and stompable footpad: pwns!

We missed the Eurovision because of that. Totally worth it.

Do the hokey cokey - new UK trade show

ECTS died as EGN started up with GameStars. Then GameStars died and took EGN with it shortly after. GDC Europe died because of ECTS, and EGN, but has been resurrected as a standalone, and now EGN and ECTS guys have got together and created a new UK trade show (to be held at the usual time, September) and in a fairly usual place, the Islington Business Centre): Game Market Europe.

OK. Musical chairs. Whatever. Can you guys just bring back the giant glamour that was the 1997-8 ECTS please? Giant Sony parties (easy to get into, as well) and huge E3-style stands? G'wan.

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters: online component to the offline ride..

The new Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride at Disneyland (opening as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations this year) has an interesting-sounding new twist on the ride that otherwise sounds very similar to the one in Florida:      

Imagineers will incorporate a brand new online component inviting at-home fans to join in the excitement. Guests on the attraction will be virtually paired up with internet partners who will join the adventure at Disneyland in real time through web cam technology. At-home participants will help increase the scores of guests on the attraction by raising the value of targets along the way. This groundbreaking innovation, melding a Disney theme park attraction with real-time online interaction, will be a first for any Disney theme park.

Bonkers! One for Cory, that.

(Thanks Glyn!)

Tesco & Cisco

.. sitting in a tree. Tesco is going to be selling wifi products - in the supermarket!

After announcing its own music download, broadband and mobile ventures, Tesco has further upped its tech credentials with the news today that it will be selling wireless networking equipment in its supermarkets nationwide.

Tesco superstores will sell Cisco subsidiary Linksys' Wi-Fi wireless networking equipment, aimed at users wanting to kit out small or home offices for the first time.

Shoppers will be able to browse the aisles for a Linksys ADSL gateway, wireless router (802.11g), notebook adaptor and USB network adapter.

This is how the 'digital divide' will get fixed. Cheap, easy access: Nintendo with its free wifi, Playstation with its cheap, networked consoles. Will the future see Tesco "Value" brand wifi addons, Value computers, etc? Because actually, that would be fantastic.

Nerdcore sci-fi casemod contest

Lots of my favourite words in one headline! Extreme Tech are running a sci-fi (only, no fantasy stuff) casemod contest.

Every two weeks, we'll name a favorite, whose builder will get 120 DRM-free MP3 songs from eMusic (www.emusic.com). The grand prize is a Windows Media Center 2005 PC, hand built by one of the ExtremeTech editorial staff, whose approximate value will be $2,000

Nice! (Does hand-built mean the bits of DRM in Media Center will also be delicately sliced away?) Anyway.. here's last year's contenders. I like this Brain of Morbius one.

Anti Booth Babes update

So they're a bunch of blokes in wigs and pants. It's funny for a second if you're expecting pictures of ugly women (whew), but .. it's a bunch of blokes in wigs and underpants, wearing teeshirts that say 'real people, real games' with the no-women logo.

How this is helping the face of gaming, I'm not sure. It sure isn't going to make any women feel positive about it, which is - one would assume - the whole point of getting rid of cheesy booth babes?

Mm. Just a stunt then. Next time, chaps, I recommend cosplay. It's far more classy.

Wholesome and healthy

OK, taking the badly translated English into account, the Korean Culture ministry is announcing a few new games. Most notably, Gayax (whatever it is, rename it!), and iCup (ditto):

iCUP is the very differentiated on-line sports role-playing game, not only exciting but also wholesome and healthy. You can enjoy this virtual football game in the broadband-based cyber space without any time and space restrictions.

That's the only detail it gives. Wholesome and healthy? No space restrictions? If it's not actual football then, my curiosity is piqued...

Revolution gives you freedom

... from wires, at least. Nintendo's next-gen has wifi built in, and connection - anywhere - will be free.

WiFi Connection will allow DS users to play online for free from home or via hotspots and Nintendo not only envisions its system overcoming key problems inherent to online gaming like difficulty levels and connectivity but also intends to offer it all for free.

Although it was ambiguous when it came to the question of whether third-party software makers would charge players to use the service, Nintendo itself will charge no monthly bills for either the service or the software, the company said.

w00t!

UK game conf shocker part IX

At present, only two specialist games events are now scheduled to go ahead in the UK - the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival, which will take place in August, and the Game Developers Conference Europe, which runs at the beginning of September.

Yup, EGN is dead. Sigh. Talk about a shakedown..

(And SharD finally gives me his link ....)

In-game IM (again)

Sorry to self-ref, but it's an answer to an old post: I was wondering when MMOGs would integrate with existing social software (IM, specifically), and it's not far off, is the answer:

  America Online is releasing a tool kit designed to let online game developers integrate its AIM and ICQ messaging software into their titles, the company said on Monday.

Doing so will give players the ability to see whether fellow gamers are online and then communicate with them in real time. They will also be able to "ping" friends from inside a game application.

It already exists in The Matrix Online, apparently, although I guess no-one's playing that one. Full article here.

Frag Dolls UK

Call to arms for you UK ladies:

"Are you a girl gamer in the UK who thinks she has what it takes to become a Frag Doll? Then click here."

I don't have a problem with the Frag Dolls. I don't approve of it any more than I approve of manufactured pop bands or .. well, agents casting for plays. Does it matter if the Frag Dolls are manufactured? So were the Spice Girls, except the Frag Dolls can in fact play, so they're already a step up from a bunch of girls who can't actually sing.

They're a bit "sexed up". It's true. It's pretty icky. However - do people complain when Kylie hawtpants are too hawt? Not so much. These girls are far more covered up than most teenagers, and there's not a bikini in sight. This is good! It'd be cooler if they were more buffy or jedi of course, but I think they get a lot of crap where in other media they wouldn't.

At least they're not doing this.

I bet the UK ladies would be far more edgy and hardcore, anyway. G'wan. Prove me right.

Maps of WoW lands

When I was 12, I mapped out 'Sphinx Adventure' (BBC Micro) using arrows and lots of N, E, S and Ws on a giant roll of wallpaper liner. Nerdtastic! How things have progressed: some people have got together and figured out the lands, flightpaths, etc for World of Warcraft and drawn them out in fantastic detail:

Now that's dedication. (Also bloody useful, thanks people!)

Kalimdor.
Eastern Kingdoms.

Watery Eye Toy

The ones I found most impressive include the demonstration of real world objects being used to manipulate the game world with the help of the Eye Toy camera. In the demo, the creator of the Eye Toy, held up two plastic cups and used them to move their digital equivalents on the giant screen behind him. Using the Eye Toy, he was able to scoop up water and pour it from cup to cup. He also tossed sprays of water across a tub filled with floating plastic toys.

Nice! Brian's working hard for his cocktail sausages.

Playstation 3 specs

From Eurogamer:

BD-ROM discs, based on the Blu-Ray standard, will be the main media used by the PS3. Each can store up to 54GB of data, around six times more than current dual-layer DVD discs, and the system will also be compatible with existing DVD and CD games and media.

Whew!

Along with the expected network port (Gigabit Ethernet), AV multi-out port and SP/DIF optical audio out port, the PS3 also has two high-resolution HDMI video ports, slots for Memory Stick Duo, SD Cards and Compact Flash cards, six USB 2.0 ports and - like the Xbox 360 - a slot for a removeable 2.5" hard drive module.

Blimey. SD and compact flash too? Well done, Sony!

All of that will enable the system to perform a wide range of multimedia functions, surpassing even the feature-set of the company's own PSX convergence device which was released in Japan around eighteen months ago.

Mm. Did the PSX experiment teach them that people do use their consoles for 'multi media' functionality? It would seem so..

And finally:

Among the previously undisclosed abilities of the PS3 will be internet browsing functions, video chat using an EyeToy style camera peripheral, photo archival and browsing, and of course, advanced video and audio playback functionality.

So there you have it. I expect it'll be expensive initially - they can afford to have PS2s hanging around for a while, it's backward-compatible, plus the Playstation brand is strong enough for everyone to want one - eventually.

No mention of an TV tuner though, which is curious because I've heard all sorts of rumours about television in there. Maybe over IP? (Although, what exactly is 'advanced video and audio playback functionality'? They've already mentioned DVD..)

Uhoh

Our strategy blokey just wandered past whistling Darth Vader's Imperial March.
Hoo.

Hand-knitted Minish Cap

That's what it looks like from here:

WANT! omg, WANT!

(From the very funny GeekOnStun's Trip To The Nintendo Store).

More on XFire

Supposedly 'crossfire' but everyone says 'ex fire'. Wired's got an article on it, game IMing and voicecomms:

The Windows-only software runs in a small window during gameplay, letting you see when and where your friends are playing, said Cassidy, Xfire's chief executive. The 2-megabyte download works with more than 300 PC games. The system also tracks the time you and your buddies have spent playing.

Used by the PC hardcore at the moment:

Cassidy said 97 percent of Xfire's users are men ages 14 to 34, a desirable target for advertisers trying to capture a demographic that is increasingly turning off their televisions and playing video games.

I've used voicecomms about once. I found all that breathing during gaming really distracting. Plus sort of gross. Eww. Plus when Sarge or whoever 'talks' to you in a squeaky northern voice, it's really hard not to giggle.

Parappa plush

Parappa the Rapper with .. maracas .. 29 bucks!

Sims moments

Creating a mini loved-one in Sims2, and then when he flirts with the neighbour, being able to take away his toilet.

Lovely.

Sony's .. downfall?

There's this phrase that goes around: when you're trying to predict the impact of technology, "it will take twice as long as you predict to become mainstream, but when it does, the impact will be twice as big than you originally anticipated".

I'm re-reading GamesIndustry's Playstation 3 'reminder' piece, and in reaction to this bit:

Reeves also confirmed that the company is investigating the possibility of electronic distribution of content over broadband for its next generation system - describing the pursuit of this as the "ultimate goal" for the PlayStation 3, and stating that Sony hopes to see always-on network access and viable broadband distribution in place when the PS3 becomes available in 2006.

"It's going to have to be 2 or 3MB, something like that," he said, speaking about connection sizes - which are currently generally at 512k (0.5MB) in most UK broadband-enabled homes. "Ken [Kutaragi]'s even talking about 30MB! And when it gets to that, then it is broadband distribution, and people then can just download whatever game they want. But it's got to be secure, and that's where DNAS [Sony's online security protocol] comes in."

There are something like 6 million UK homes with broadband now, up from 2 million last year. Next year we get 18mbit broadband, this year's already seen 8mbit from Bulldog and co. And here we are, thinking ten years into the future, for games, television, media consumption...

Both the Playstation 3 (soon to be confirmed, of course!) and XBox 360 allow content download. Processing. Storage. The XBox will use mostly Internet Protocol(s). DRM, sure, but pretty standard stuff, by all accounts. The PS3 will use its own proprietary chip (Cell), probably proprietary formats for content, and now maybe even a proprietary online security protocol.

My usual reaction to this is, 'oh yes, SonyNet'. Multiple nets are, I'm sure, part of our future. SonyNet, .net, AOLNet, hell.. ToysRUsNet for kids, why not. But will closed nets survive?

There will be millions of customers for the PS3. XBox 360 has a bit of a head start, but probably not enough to worry Sony (although pride does come before a fall, and the new machine screams "mainstream").  Both consoles will encourage us to purchase movies, games, content.. maybe even television and consumables and services via their networks and their box under the TV.

So what will happen - will the desire for free, moveable, useful content just be weaned out of our brains by time and technology, or will we gravitate towards the machines and networks that give us more freedom?

GM vs Frag Dolls

Chortle.

Well, it just so happens we at Electronic Gaming Monthly get to play some games with the Frag Dolls this Thursday, and it just so happens that their raison d'etre = sexy gamer girls. But it's not just a fun playdate, you see. It's a competitive knock-down, drag-out fight that will cause the earth to shake and the gods to cry. They beat us pretty bad the first time we met, destroying us in Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow and Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow (though we did redeem ourselves in Halo 1). Now, it's time for the rematch. We're angry and we want our manhood (or is it manhoods? menhood?) back.

Reading the rest of the post, it sounds like the lads don't stand a chance. The Frag Dolls are the Spice Girls of gaming, and no-one ever criticised the Spice Girls for being sexy. Plus, while the Spice Girls couldn't actually sing, the Frag Dolls can, in fact, frag. Rather well too, it seems. Very good. Carry on.

Anti booth babes

Via slashdot, a reader writes in:

Believing that booth babes take attention away from the games, Agetec wants to change the focus back to where it should be. They plan on doing this not by refusing to have booth babes, but instead by hiring ten unattractive women to work their booth.

Yeah, I can't believe they'd be so sexist and stupid either. Agetec, the people behind it, seem to be an unheard-of game developer, and the logo for Anti Booth Babes is in fact outlines of normal women with a line through. Not a great message.

Looks like an attention-grabber, to me. Some lucky E3 person check it out?

Giant primer on the games industry

Published 12 May by the "Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development", it's a big, stat-riddled and fairly informative doc, especially for someone looking for the business basics. Don't go there for presentation, story or insight though (or anything particularly new - it's mostly a summary of research done by the usual suspects).

Since 2003 a significant online game market has emerged in China. Driving this growth is a rapidly expanding broadband infrastructure, and additionally China now has at least 40 000 Internet cafés nationwide and appears to be at the development stage Korea attained in the 1990s. Prospects are good for online games – out of 14 hours per month spent online, the average Chinese Internet user spends 8 hours playing some kind of online game (IGDA. 2004).

(via Terra Nova)

Learning languages in online games

SharD woke me up to an idea this morning that I've never properly considered, and it's a real elephant in the room for me (a graduate in French & Italian): how useful will MMOs and online games in general be for people wanting to learn languages? He rightly points out that in games like Guild Wars (no shards!), the mix of players in Europe means a babble of languages present at any moment in time .. maybe 20+, who knows?

(My copy arrived yesterday. w00t!)

World of Warcraft has servers for language based play, so French, German, English, etc. The English servers have a large Scandinavian population (who are always mightily entertained at my extensive repertoire of rude Swedish words) and the odd smattering of adventurous Italians. I used to play a lot of Capture The Flag Q3 with the French, partially because I speak French, partially because I like the French and partially because French leetspeak is hilarious. Also, their CTF style was elegant as hell. Seeing French - usually very precise in its spelling and accents - being used in sms-style shorthand ("keski di ca? Kel con" etc) is an eyeopener. Go check out ctfpickup.fr on Quakenet and you'll see what I mean.  

Clans and guilds were and still are often multilingual - DC.Danold (Demonic Core, my ole Quake clan) was French, and my WoW guild is half Dutch. Hanging out online with Europeans will teach you languages as fast as any exchange visit, at least in the written language. With voicecomms added - how better to listen and learn?
Just watch your spelling: leetspeak will not get you any certificates, unfortunately.

Broadcast Machine

Ready to go:

Broadcast Machine is software for your website that can publish fullscreen video files to thousands, using torrent technology to reduce or eliminate bandwidth costs.  It is free, open source, and designed for easy installation.  Broadcast Machine features an intuitive interface, integrated torrent creation, and flexible channel management.  It creates a browsable archive of videos on your website, but its real purpose is to be the perfect publishing tool for our video player that comes out in June.  Broadcast Machine creates channels that, viewed in the player, give people a TV-like experience.

 

Yes please, talk

Sony and Microsoft (plus a whole bunch of Hollywood people on both sides) are at war, again, and there's a new development just announced:

Toshiba [making HD DVD, going to be used by Microsoft], supported by Warner, Universal, Paramount and others, leads a camp that has developed one format for the next-generation of high-definition DVDs called HD DVD that had offered 30 gigabytes of storage capacity (6 to 8 hours of high-def video) on a disc that is a variation on the existing DVD technology. First, machines and movies have been announced for release in time for the holidays this year, although many are skeptical that timeline can be met. With the announcement Tuesday, Toshiba says a triple-layer HD DVD disc will increase capacity to 45 GB on a single-sided disc, or as much as 12 hours of high-def content. The double-disc "hybrid" option would offer a dual-layer 30 GB high-def disc on one side and a standard definition 8.5 GB disc on the other.

Sony and Matsushita, supported by Disney and others, have created a new but similar-looking digital disc using a proprietary technology that offers 50 GB of capacity. Launch is expected in early 2006. [Blu-Ray, to you and me]

Neither format is compatible with the other.

Fox and DreamWorks have yet to weigh in with their preference, and are not likely to anytime soon since a commitment at this stage by either or both studios would give none of the parties much of a strategic advantage [omg]. Fox is believed to be concerned about copy protection issues.

Both sides acknowledge that introducing two incompatible formats for the same type of product could be disastrous, causing consumer and retail confusion and therefore delaying acceptance and possibly killing chances altogether for the adoption of a new high-def disc format, especially as electronic and wireless delivery of movies is gaining popularity.

At stake is a financial cut and control of the disc on which consumers spend tens of billions of dollars each year to see movies, TV shows and play videogames. Sony is already planning to integrate Blu-ray into the Playstation 3, while Microsoft is expected to announce this week that HD DVD will be a non-exclusive component of the upcoming Xbox 360. Both next-gen gaming consoles will be used for DVD playback and home media networking.

Scary, tactical and political manoeuvering! But there's hope, just a glimmer:

Last month the two sides began quiet negotiations on a potential compromise standard. Both camps are scheduled to hold meetings in Tokyo starting Monday.

Amazing. What would I give to be a fly on the wall at that meeting?

Use BBC content as you see fit

Mostly. BBC Backstage has opened its doors. Possibly the coolest project at work at the moment in the vein of the Creative Archive:

backstage.bbc.co.uk is the BBC's new developer network, providing content feeds for anyone to build with.  Alternatively, share your ideas on new ways to use BBC content. This is your BBC.  We want to help you play.

Hurrah!
It's a giant experiment. The BBC wants all good things to come to you, but do please read the Terms and Conditions, plus the FAQ...

You may:

• Use the APIs or RSS feeds ('BBC Content') for your own personal and non-commercial use


• Share your prototype or idea with anyone

You must:

• Include the following attribution that you use content from BBC Backstage: "supported by backstage.bbc.co.uk"

You must not:

• Charge users for accessing your work that contains or uses BBC Content
  

• Sell applications that use or incorporate BBC Content


• Re-edit or re-contextualise BBC Content in any way that is illegal, is or is likely to bring the BBC into disrepute or is otherwise inappropriate

... the usuals. The onus is on the creator to play nice, rather than treating everyone like criminals and locking content down.

Broken record, moi?

Anyway - join in! You don't actually have to be a developer either - if you have a good idea, stick it up, invoke the LazyWeb, see what happens. The more the merrier...

World Cyber Games

Announcement is out.

Divided into online and LAN segments, the tournament lasts from April to September, with the National Final ultimately ending in New York. Matches are conducted over the Internet and via local game centers throughout the US, with winners representing their country to compete for medals and prizes in the World Cyber Games Grand Final this November in Singapore.

Participants will compete in a number of games, including Counter-Strike 1.6, StarCraft: Brood War, WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, FIFA Soccer 2005, Need for Speed Underground 2, Dead or Alive Ultimate and Halo 2.

World Cyber Games.

Incredible anonymous account of working at an independent games company

.. over at UK Resistance.   

We toiled on mostly music-related products and some unseen games (including a Dreamcast title called Hellgate, for which many still bare the scars of naivety and all-nighters due to our fear of "job dependancy deadlines"), and one of the "50th Fastest Growing Companies in Wales" almost never made it. Christmas 2001 - we were callled into the office while we joked "Haha! Merry Christmas, lads! You're sacked!". Well, guess what..? Yep, we were all sacked! Before Christmas! Haha! This was blamed on spending much money on Hellgate, but we liked to think it was more likely the £1million pub which our boss spent money on, handily located in the middle of nowhere.

Pretty shocking stuff, especially the bit about management buying giant motorbikes (because they were superbike obsessives, making a superbikes game) and spending their time revving them outside the office windows.
Very sad.

 

Luckily the PSP doesn't run Windows

Although this giant billboard in NYC could be a little  misleading:

.. and then ..

How embarrassing!

Apple fetishists, lookie here

Sony Japan releases the white PS2.

I saw one of these new slimline PS2s yesterday (only seen the boxes before). I have a chunky silver PS2, which was totally leet at the time, but wow, the new ones are tinsy! Super slim. As slim as a game/dvd box in fact, and not that much bigger.

GDC Europe back

Phew! GDC Europe didn't quit when ECTS went belly-up, instead it's hitched up its skirts and picked its way across town to Le Meridian (Piccadilly? Details are scanty at the mo) Hotel. That'll do. End of August apparently - so straight after EIEF and just before EGN?

More on women and games

I went to Cambridge Uni today, to be on a lunchtime panel at the Computer Lab, from where they run their compsci and programming courses (I think). It's right next to the Microsoft Research Lab, and I forgot to go sniff about. Anyway - subject of the day was why aren't there more women in the games industry?

Cripes we had a good chat. There was me, the fabulous Aleks Krotoski (doing a talk), David Braben (he made Elite! omg!) and Martin Hollis (he made Goldeneye! omg!).  We covered a ton of ground in the hour and a bit, unfortunately a bit too much to cover here. Briefly though, one slant on the whole shebang was that there is just no excuse for the lack of women in games. Programming, we accept, has a dearth of gals in the business, and programming courses countrywide usually have maybe 5-10% female students. Not good, not good. Much work to do there. But let's park that one a moment - the really weird one is why there is such a high number of games companies who don't have women on their books at all, in any roles. 

(While we're at it, there were lots of girls in the audience at the computer lab. Programmers, comp sci or HCI or.. I dunno. But there were  a lot. This is good.)

I have visited a few programming houses that have zero women present. Not in programming, not in project management, HR, senior management, PR, admin, producing or design. Not *one*. In most other cases, large companies have just a tiny handful of gals present. I personally know (and I can't be an exception here) a goodly number of experienced, talented women with years of experience in software design and software development, team management, etc, who would happily fit and thrive in videogame development houses. So how come games - which are software! - attract no women?

Recruitment policy? The industry's 'face'? David made the point that some companies are really, really trying, and just not succeeding as much as they'd like to yet; equally, it's pretty clear that some companies aren't so bothered.

Maxis had a preponderance of ladies when it was making The Sims, and look what happened - big bucks for Maxis. Doesn't take a genius to see that having a female perspective on the books means a healthier company. Aleks had some jawdropping figures from some UK recruitment agencies - 3% of senior management in the UK games industry is female. 2% of the programmers are female. It's just nuts.

Anyway. Enough of this for tonight, have a look at some photos instead:

David & Aleks. Happy happy!

The lab. It's fancier than our offices.

Aleks' car mats. Er, how cool is she?

(Thanks to Jez for inviting me - it was a very good day indeed.)

Role models wanted

That bloke running the games course up in Derby has certainly got his heart in the right place, and has put out a bit of a challenge really - he's after role models. Female game programmer role models. So female game programmers, in fact. Or maybe just female programmers.

It will also be looking for role models - which might not be so easy.

"I'm a programmer by trade and I know probably several hundred, and I have only ever met one woman," Mr Sear said.

Poor man! That quote looks terrible out of context. Anyway, someone help him. If you're a female games programmer, you could probably ping him via here