Submission + - Welcome to the WoW Guide (thewowguide.info)
Ryan writes: "This is a World of Warcraft site with tons of World of Warcraft Videos and Guides to help you along your journey."
Submission + - The Computer Games that could end all other Games! (blogspot.com)
MrRobot writes: "Each generation of video game adds another layer to the pyramid. The pyramid is actually inverted meaning that as subsequent layers are piled on top, the structure becomes more and more precarious. As advances in video games technology are applied, the industry becomes more and more at risk from disruptive innovators. The cost and complexity of video game development has increased many fold, the competition in the market and the risks from insider threats is increasing all the time — much of it through low employee morale.
Many of these risks will seemingly be reduced by consolidation of the market players through acquisition and natural erosion of studios, leading to a future where much of the industry is dominated by only a few major players.
But whilst this may (seemingly) create more protection for the big publishers, this is not necessarily going to be a good thing for the industry.
Disruptive technologists are already working on projects that would see massively multiplayer games go online for a fraction of the cost of what publishers are currently investing. These games will drive demand through viral marketing campaigns and will offer subscriptions at a fraction of the price of todays PS3 or Xbox games. Content design is changing, from high aesthetics where the gamer doesn't have you use their imagination to persuasive environments that tear at their imagination and make them use it.
So who actually will be driving these new projects?
Answer: Hackers will be driving them.
All power to the new game developers of the 21st century!
www.intrench.com"
Many of these risks will seemingly be reduced by consolidation of the market players through acquisition and natural erosion of studios, leading to a future where much of the industry is dominated by only a few major players.
But whilst this may (seemingly) create more protection for the big publishers, this is not necessarily going to be a good thing for the industry.
Disruptive technologists are already working on projects that would see massively multiplayer games go online for a fraction of the cost of what publishers are currently investing. These games will drive demand through viral marketing campaigns and will offer subscriptions at a fraction of the price of todays PS3 or Xbox games. Content design is changing, from high aesthetics where the gamer doesn't have you use their imagination to persuasive environments that tear at their imagination and make them use it.
So who actually will be driving these new projects?
Answer: Hackers will be driving them.
All power to the new game developers of the 21st century!
www.intrench.com"
Submission + - A video game where you design electric circuits (akithgames.com)
Michael Todd writes: "A game for nerds has come out, called Engine of War.
In this game you design electric circuits to allow you to better fight waves of zombies.
Easy to learn, complex to master, combine parts to make teleporters that detect nearby enemies, homing missiles that follow the mouse, and shields that adapt to the enemy's weapons!
Dual-wield custom weapons, that can be attached to various systems of frequency sensors, position beacons, or any of the other interlocking 63 circuit parts.
None of that sissy bioshock 'plumbing'-hacking here! This game appeals to physics teachers, programmers and nerds. No previous knowledge or skill needed, just brains.
A free 60 minute demo can be directly downloaded here ."
In this game you design electric circuits to allow you to better fight waves of zombies.
Easy to learn, complex to master, combine parts to make teleporters that detect nearby enemies, homing missiles that follow the mouse, and shields that adapt to the enemy's weapons!
Dual-wield custom weapons, that can be attached to various systems of frequency sensors, position beacons, or any of the other interlocking 63 circuit parts.
None of that sissy bioshock 'plumbing'-hacking here! This game appeals to physics teachers, programmers and nerds. No previous knowledge or skill needed, just brains.
A free 60 minute demo can be directly downloaded here ."
Submission + - Video Game Actors Don't Get Their Due (nytimes.com)
Dekortage writes: "The New York Times reports today about Michael Hollick, the actor who provided the voice of Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV. Although the game has made more than $600 million in sales for Rockstar Games, Hollick earns nothing beyond the original $100K he was paid. If this was television, film, or radio, Hollick and the other GTA actors could have made millions by now. Hollick says, "I don't blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games. Yes, the technology is important, but it's the human performances within them that people really connect to, and I hope actors will get more respect for the work they do within those technologies." Is it time for video game actors to be treated as well as those in other mediums?"
Submission + - Blizzard's EULA compliant WoW spyware (rootkit.com)
Corrado writes: "rootkit has a fairly good look at the "warden client" that comes with every copy of World of Warcraft. Apparently, this little piece of software is very liberal in what it does to your computer and gathers quite a bit of data. Every 15 seconds it looks at all your open windows, every process, URLs, IMs, etc. and checks to see if your cheating. This feels like a massive invasion of privacy and its all perfectly legal through the WoW EULA."
Submission + - Uncut GTA IV fights censorship battle in New Zeala (geekpulp.co.nz)
Ahmad writes: "As you may or may not be aware, New Zealand was delivered the censored version of GTA IV probably because of the ease of supplying us with the same version of the game as Australia (where they don't have an R18 rating so the game was edited to come under the MA15+ highest rating).
Today marks the end of a battle for Stan Calif, who submitted the game to the censors for classification in defiance of Take-Two Interactive's refusal to provide New Zealanders with the unaltered game.
I believe that this should be of interest to gamers worldwide as it covers issues of gaming censorship, as well as a "little guy" taking on big business and winning at least a moral victory.
http://www.geekpulp.co.nz/2008/05/21/gta-iv-uncut-hits-new-zealand-streets/"
Submission + - SPAM: Online Slot Tournaments, IGT Slots and Online Casi
pennyslots writes: "find the online slot play that you might expect to find in Vegas. This means IGT slots like Monopoly, Wheel of Fortune, Texas Tea, Cleopatra, Double Diamond, and also, new online slots that emulate Vegas classics from Manufacturers like Microgaming, Rival Gaming, Realtime Gaming and Vegas Technology"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Game Empowers Anyone to be America's Budget Hero (marketplace.org)
Bradley1011 writes: "Greetings from American Public Media, producer and distributor of public radio programs, including Marketplace.
I thought you might be interested to know that American Public Media recently launched Budget Hero — our newest interactive game that lets people explore the major issues of the election by changing the federal budget to match their stands on issues and their values.
Budget Hero tries to bring a level of clarity and simplicity to the federal budget. It is bound to be controversial since the game puts numbers against issues like bringing home troops from Iraq soon or gradually or not at all and providing options on taxes, Social Security and Medicare. American Public Media worked closely with the Congressional Budget Office, GAO and others on the data and devoted months of reporter and researcher time to creating the game.
You can play at http://www.marketplace.org/budgethero.
American Public Media has also created a "widget" version of Budget Hero to embed on Web sites. To learn more about how to add the Budget Hero widget to a Web site, visit http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/engage08/budgethero/widget/."
Congress Slashes Funding for Peaceful Conflict Resolution Game 84
In a departure from the usual video game setting a recent educational video game called "Cool School" was designed to teach kids peaceful conflict resolution. Unfortunately Congress has decided to slash the funding of this program that has been receiving rave reviews from the testers at schools in Illinois. "Cool School focuses on taking players through a school where just about everything (desks, books, and other objects) are alive and have their own personality. Over the course of ten levels and over 50 different situations designed by Professor Melanie Killen and then-doctoral student Nancy Margie (both of the University of Maryland). The primary goal of the game is to teach students how to solve social conflict through skills like negotiation and cooperation. During the title's development, Killen and Margie were able to work with some talented members of the video game industry, including independent developer F.J. Lennon and animator Dave Warhol." The game is now available as a free download and will play on both Mac OS X and Windows XP.
Submission + - Jake Gyllenhaal Lands Prince of Persia Title Role. (snagwiremedia.com)
Erik Johnson writes: "It was announced earlier today that Jake Gyllenhaal will play the title role in the upcoming Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films video game adaptation: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time."
Submission + - Square Enix Eying Studio Acquisitions (snagwiremedia.com)
Erik Johnson writes: "Speaking at a technology, media and telecoms summit in Tokyo, SE president Yoichi Wada admits that the publisher and developer is considering acquiring a stake in external developers."
US Spies Use Custom Video Games for Training 148
Wired reports that the US Defense Intelligence Agency has just acquired three PC-based video games which they will use to train the next wave of analysts. The games are short, but they have branching story lines that change depending on how a trainee reacts to various problems. Quoting:
"'It is clear that our new workforce is very comfortable with this approach,' says Bruce Bennett, chief of the analysis-training branch at the DIA's Joint Military Intelligence Training Center. Wired.com had an opportunity to play all three games, Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust. The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg, but the games themselves are actually a surprisingly clever and occasionally surreal blend of education, humor and intellectual challenge, aimed at teaching the player how to think."
Submission + - Pirated 'Grand Theft Auto IV' Hits Internet
Narrative Fallacy writes: "Illegal copies of the new GTA IV game appear to be available for download from bit torrent file-sharing sites, six days before the game is officially released. The files in question are supposedly an illegal copy of the Xbox 360 version of the game, and have been seeded across various torrent sites by a group calling themselves iCON. Grand Theft Auto IV, which gets its official global release on April 29, is expected to sell around six million copies in its first week. When the first Grand Theft Auto appeared just over ten years ago it was a top-down-view, two-dimensional game with fairly rudimentary graphics produced by a small Scottish designer. "In terms of someone successfully combining an action game and an exploratory world to hang out in and be entertained by," says Rockstar's senior creative honcho Dan Houser, "it was definitely the first game that did it successfully. The mission play was there and the non-mission play was there and you moved between the two very seamlessly." GTA IV may retain the classic lines and and slick handling of its predecessors but it has been given a thorough tune-up. "The big deal", says Houser, was "detail — our goal was to make a high-definition gaming experience and then figure out what that means tonally through the whole experience, so it's not just about graphics, it's about animation, physics, writing, storytelling, physics, characterisation...""
Submission + - SGW Beta Registration Anouncement
orkim writes: If the Sci-Fi channel and Stargate Atlantis isn't enough for your Stargate fix, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment has announced the beginning of beta registration. The e-mails started hitting inboxes earlier today so the registration server has been hit and miss throughout the day. At this point, only forum members are receiving the beta registration e-mails. The game has been rumored to be slated for release in September. Lets hope for a good beta test to ensure the number of in-game bugs are small on launch day. This is great news to all the Stargate geeks out there!
Submission + - New Video Game Auction Site (chasethechuckwagon.com)
Mike Kennedy writes: "http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/04/prweb833464.htm
I would appreciate any plugs you can give the Chuckwagon in it's effort to create a less expensive auction alternative and collector community.
Thank you.
Mike Kennedy
Owner, ChaseTheChuckwagon.com"
