Originality Vs. Established IP In Games 71

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday May 03, 2009 @03:26AM from the where's-my-known-space-mmo dept.

Ten Ton Hammer has an article about the differences between developing a game based upon existing intellectual property and the creation of an entirely new story and setting. They make the point that while doing the former may result in an easier time building a fan base, those same fans will often be the hardest to please. "By creating a game based on a popular IP, the company in question has a huge responsibility to 'do it right.' Unfortunately, not everyone realizes the reality of one little secret — every single fan out there has a different idea of what 'right' is. ... Lord of the Rings is a perfect example. For a person that may be familiar with the movies and little else, it's a great game with an impressive amount of depth and attention to detail. For the mass of fanatical fans that have spent more time poring over every book Tolkien ever wrote than even Tolkien himself, any deviation from the lore of his world is paramount to sacrilege on the most horrific scale."

Submission + - DNA to test old theory of Roman village in China

Submitted by

Reverse Gear

on Monday February 05, 2007 @01:41AM

Reverse Gear writes: "Many of the inhabitants of a lonely village in north western China seems to have distinctive western features.
An old theory from the 1950'ies suggests that an old roman legion which in 53BC had lost it's commander, Markus Craccus, in what is now Iran, had been traveling east as mercenaries until they were caught by the Chinese 17 years later. The Chinese described them as using a "fish-scale formation". The remainders of the legion is then suggested to have been the ancestors of the village.
Scientists are now trying to verify the fascinating theory by testing the DNA of the inhabitants of the Chinese village."

Journal Journal: PDF to become an open, ISO standard

Journal by LWGLIN on Monday January 29, 2007 @06:24AM

This is great news: "Adobe Systems Inc. on Jan. 29 announced that it has released the full PDF (Portable Document Format) 1.7 specification to AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management. AIIM, in turn, will start working on making PDF an ISO standard."
Now I won't have to start endless discussions with people not liking PDF because it is 'proprietary', an argument that IMHO made no sense because Adobe has alwa

Journal Journal: Why "C:\Program Files\" ?!? 2

Journal by ChezWhiz on Sunday January 21, 2007 @07:17PM

I've always installed software to the default location authored by the vendor, usually somewhere under "c:\Program Files\". Most installation software vendors (InstallShield, Wise, etc.) tout that location as an "industry standard best practice" for installing software on Windows systems and point to Microsoft's Application Development Guidelines. Now I'm working on the next release of some software that has been installed to a folder on the root of the hard drive for 25 years (that's not a ty

Journal Journal: Republican Aide Tries to Hire Hackers 427

Journal by Noryungi on Friday December 22, 2006 @08:36AM

Seems like a Republican Communications Director contacted Attrition.org, trying to hire hackers to improve his educational records. I don't know what is his dumbest move: (a) contacting Attrition in the first place, (b) using a real name Yahoo email address or (c) speaking at length about what he needed? This is so dumb i

Submission + - Free Will doesn't exist - you're under arrest

Submitted by pragueexpat on Friday December 22, 2006 @07:33AM

pragueexpat writes: Do we have free will? Apparently not, according to an article in the new issue of the Economist. Entitled "Free to choose?", the shocker is this sentence: "The British government, though, is seeking to change the law in order to lock up people with personality disorders that are thought to make them likely to commit crimes, before any crime is committed."

Submission + - New Animated Star Trek In The Works

Submitted by Philias on Thursday December 14, 2006 @03:32AM

Philias writes: A new web-based Star Trek Animated Series may be in the works. CBS are considering a pitch by veteran Trek producer Dave Rossi for a 'Clone Wars' style animated series for StarTrek.com. Like Clone Wars the episodes would be just a few minutes long. Unlike the old animated Trek show from the 70s, this one would be with a whole new crew set in a new time period. The setting is to be a war-torn post-9/11-like Trek universe 150 years after the time of Picard. Details and artwork at TrekMovie.com