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