Archive for 'Building a Better VR'
Time for Open Source Gaming?
A Screen Shot from an Open Source Game under Development at RIT In a new article in Wired News, Daniel Terdiman takes up the possibility that current game development might eventually be replaced by open source wiki style projects. Of course, as evidenced by our State of Play talk, we agree! He talks to Hugh [...]
Full Storyraganarok and cultural design
at terra nova, nick yee has written an interesting discussion about how cultural assumptions inform the design of in-game culture. he mentions the differences in ideas about how appearance and profession affect identity in western v non-western game. read it here.
Full Storyavatar beauty contest seeking models and other yummies
this little morsel is from Variety: Miss Digital World — An Avatar Beauty Contest Wired News has a story about a beauty contest searching for the best looking female digital avatar.
Full StoryBartle: We’re d00med by n00bs!
In a provocative new paper, Richard Bartle argues that game development is constrained in large part by the need to make games newbie friendly. Does this mean that innovative games like Second Life and A Tale in the Desert will forever going to be boutique games? Can they find a way to become newbie friendly [...]
Full StoryExploring Online Conflict Resolution
In an historic meeting at the State of Play, a group of game developers, lawyers, and conflict mediators met to discuss strategies for conflict resolution online. The headline idea emerging from the meeting was the thought that rather than impose uniform conflict resolution strategies in a top down manner, it might be more useful for [...]
Full StoryStreaming Waggie, Teppie, and Uri
Whew, a week in detox has *almost* helped me to recover from my night with the gamedevs, and I can (belatedly) get back to blogging The State of Play. These posts will dribble out as I have time. First thing you might want to check out (if you haven’t already) is the streamcast of the [...]
Full StoryAhh, the crazy hijinks of GM created sexist NPCs
I was waiting for the situation to clarify before I posted on this, but it is really only getting more murky, and I do think it is very important that dedicated Herald readers check out the situation. Near as I can tell, the GMs in A Tale in the Desert 2 constrtucted an NPC trader [...]
Full Story30 Million down the toilet
Forbes.com has a very interesting article on the success of City of Heros, but along the way it drops this little nugget: “Cryptic thereby defies a troubling trend: Internet games, first ballyhooed as the next big thing, have struggled. Electronic Arts dropped perhaps $30 million (EA won’t confirm it) building, marketing and supporting Sims Online, [...]
Full StoryBartle Mourns the Loss of Creative Freedom in MMORPGs
In a recent post on Terra Nova, game making pioneer/god Richard Bartle (d00dz, he co-wrote the first MUD) mourns the loss of creative freedom in the new MMORPGs. Why are we all giving up our creative freedom so happily? Do we all just wanna be SOE’s beyotches or is it just that we have no [...]
Full StorySecond Skin, part 1: Interview with Chip Midnight
by Miravoir Psaltry There is such an amalgamation of creative talent in SL… everywhere you look you can see the work of a myriad of geniuses. We have Coco Chanel, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Enzo echoed here, and we have modern day Michelangelos and Renoirs in the form of the SL skin artists… those who [...]
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