30 June 08 - 03:27YouTube Proven Worth While.
YouTube - Antzarctica's Channel
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YouTube - Antzarctica's Channel
30 June 08 - 03:17Nuff said. Major League Eating Comes to the WII
Major League Eating: The Game
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30 June 08 - 02:58Nothing Like a Nice, Hidden for 60 Years, German Bunker to Explore...
German Bunker in my Garden: Background
"Secret Room" thread in early 2008, I said that I thought I had a nazi bunker buried in my garden. Well, since then I decided to get off my backside and excavate it.- default - No comments / No trackbacks - § ¶
28 June 08 - 03:53Just How Big is the WoW?
Video: World of warcraft geophysical survey | Technology | guardian.co.ukWelcome to Interesting 2008: a one day conference of ideas for people who want to know about the world. Here game designer James Wallis explains the problem with geophysics inside the World of Warcraft.
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24 June 08 - 10:21Ebert VS Barker
Games vs. Art: Ebert vs. Barker :: rogerebert.com :: CommentaryA year or so ago, I rashly wrote that video games could not be art. That inspired a firestorm among gamers, who wrote me countless messages explaining why I was wrong, and urging me to play their favorite games. Of course, I was asking for it. Anything can be art. Even a can of Campbell's soup. What I should have said is that games could not be high art, as I understand it.
How do I know this? How many games have I played? I know it by the definition of the vast majority of games. They tend to involve (1) point and shoot in many variations and plotlines, (2) treasure or scavenger hunts, as in "Myst," and (3) player control of the outcome. I don't think these attributes have much to do with art; they have more in common with sports.
One of the notables taking exception to my opinion was Clive Barker, the British horror novelist, short story writer and "Hellraiser" writer-director. Barker studied English and philosophy at Liverpool, is an accomplished artist and quite possibly knows more about art in its many manifestations than the average gamer does. How can I say that? Only a guess.
Barker was a speaker at the recent Hollywood and Games Summit, and chose to respond to some of my statements. His responses are posted at www.GamesIndustry.biz. I find them stimulating, and I extend the dialogue here with further responses of my own:
Barker: "It's evident that Ebert had a prejudiced vision of what the medium is, or more importantly what it can be."
Ebert: The word "prejudiced" often translates as "disagrees with me." I might suggest that gamers have a prejudiced view of their medium, and particularly what it can be. Games may not be Shakespeare quite yet, but I have the prejudice that they never will be, and some gamers are prejudiced that they will.
Barker: "We can debate what art is, we can debate it forever. If the experience moves you in some way or another ... even if it moves your bowels ... I think it is worthy of some serious study."
Ebert: Perhaps if the experience moves your bowels, it is worthy of some serious medical study. Many experiences that move me in some way or another are not art. A year ago I lost the ability (temporarily, I hope) to speak. I was deeply moved by the experience. It was not art.
Barker: "It used to worry me that the New York Times never reviewed my books. But the point is that people like the books. Books aren't about reviewers. Games aren't about reviewers. They are about players."
Ebert: A reviewer is a reader, a viewer or a player with an opinion about what he or she has viewed, read or played. Whether that opinion is valid is up to his audience, books, games and all forms of created experience are about themselves; the real question is, do we as their consumers become more or less complex, thoughtful, insightful, witty, empathetic, intelligent, philosophical (and so on) by experiencing them? Something may be excellent as itself, and yet be ultimately worthless. A bowel movement, for example.
Barker: "I think that Roger Ebert's problem is that he thinks you can't have art if there is that amount of malleability in the narrative. In other words, Shakespeare could not have written 'Romeo and Juliet' as a game because it could have had a happy ending, you know? If only she hadn't taken the damn poison. If only he'd have gotten there quicker."
Ebert: He is right again about me. I believe art is created by an artist. If you change it, you become the artist. Would "Romeo and Juliet" have been better with a different ending? Rewritten versions of the play were actually produced with happy endings. "King Lear" was also subjected to rewrites; it's such a downer. At this point, taste comes into play. Which version of "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare's or Barker's, is superior, deeper, more moving, more "artistic"?
Barker: "We should be stretching the imaginations of our players and ourselves. Let's invent a world where the player gets to go through every emotional journey available. That is art. Offering that to people is art."
Ebert: If you can go through "every emotional journey available," doesn't that devalue each and every one of them? Art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a smorgasbord of choices. If next time, I have Romeo and Juliet go through the story naked and standing on their hands, would that be way cool, or what?
Barker: "I'm not doing an evangelical job here. I'm just saying that gaming is a great way to do what we as human beings need to do all the time -- to take ourselves away from the oppressive facts of our lives and go somewhere where we have our own control."
Ebert: Spoken with the maturity of an honest and articulate 4-year old. I do not have a need "all the time" to take myself away from the oppressive facts of my life, however oppressive they may be, in order to go somewhere where I have control. I need to stay here and take control. Right now, for example, I cannot speak, but I am writing this. You lose some, you win some.
That said, let me confess I enjoy entertainments, but I think it important to know what they are. I like the circus as much as the ballet. I like crime novels. (I just finished an advance copy of Henry Kisor's Cache of Corpses, about GPS geo-caching gamesters and a macabre murder conspiracy. Couldn't put it down.) And I like horror stories, where Edgar Allen Poe in particular represents art. I think I know what Stan Brakhage meant when he said Poe invented the cinema, lacking only film.
I treasure escapism in the movies. I tirelessly quote Pauline Kael: The movies are so rarely great art, that if we cannot appreciate great trash, we have no reason to go. I admired "Spiderman II," "Superman," and many of the "Star Wars," Indiana Jones, James Bond and Harry Potter films. The idea, I think, is to value what is good at whatever level you find it. "Spiderman II" is one of the great comic superhero movies but it is not great art.
Barker is right that we can debate art forever. I mentioned that a Campbell's soup could be art. I was imprecise. Actually, it is Andy Warhol's painting of the label that is art. Would Warhol have considered Clive Barker's video game "Undying" as art? Certainly. He would have kept it in its shrink-wrapped box, placed it inside a Plexiglas display case, mounted it on a pedestal, and labeled it "Video Game."
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24 June 08 - 10:15Courses in Video Gaming... Worthless.
Video games degrees: 95% fail to hit skills target | higher news | EducationGuardian.co.ukNearly all degree courses in video gaming at British universities leave graduates unfit to work in the industry, campaigners warned today.
Leading figures in the video games industry, which is worth about £500m to the economy each year, are unhappy with the 95% of degree courses at UK universities that are unaccredited and fail to equip graduates with the necessary skills to build a career in the industry.
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17 June 08 - 05:30This Just In: Guild Wars Is Still Fun.
Guild Wars. When played with a couple of close friends offers a decent challenge and the freedom to play as you have time. There are no must have classes due to Henchmen and Heros and there are no must have items due to Crafting being an elemental part of the game. There is just nothing better than relaxing for a couple of hours on a Sunday evening with my son and daughter and completing a couple of quests and actually advancing a little in the game. There is no camping, no grinding and no need to worry about losing an encounter. The quests are easily obtained. With all of the expansions there are a near limitless amount of quests and missions. I've been playing with my children in this game for years. Hell, I can't even remember when I bought it and started playing. I'm never disappointed. PvP is fun and challenging. Teams as small as one can compete. Our three person PvP team is well ranked and PvP is one of the more challenging elements of the game. Starting a new character is easy as the bank is shared on the account. Deleting a character is no big deal due to shared banking. Tweeking is allowed and gold farmer spam is nonexistent. RMT rules are enforced buying or selling will get you suspended and banned. Damn, I love Guild Wars. Tired of the grind? Give Guild Wars a try. Game purchase is the only fee. System requirements are very low for this day and age and the graphics are very good.- default - No comments / No trackbacks - § ¶
13 June 08 - 04:21Riveting? I think so.
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12 June 08 - 05:03How Encouters are solved in SOE MMO games... The Devs tell their buddies.
EQ2 Flames Consolidated Developer Information List - Page 12 - EQ2Flames ForumFrom: nszots@soe.sony.com
To: mcgurer@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007
Trakanon’s Lair raid zone is now ready for combat testing.
· Explanation: GU40 features a new adventure zone, Trakanon’s lair, an epic x4 raid zone.
· Testing : The zone is basically an x4 raid group instance which houses Trakanon (and nothing else). It is accessed through veeshan’s peak, so massive guarding isn’t considered necessary since it would not be envisioned that anyone could make it through veeshan’s peak.
· To enter the zone use /zone exp04_dun_veeshans_peak_epic01_trakanon, there is no content label
· When you enter you are in a zone in/zone out room which leads to gigantic stairs. You must use the side area of the stairs to walk up into the main lair.
· When you first enter the zone, trakanon will greet you from far above the platform, then fly down. At this point you can engage trakanon.
· You must have a chelsith stone with you to have any chance to succeed. /spawn expendables/baubles/chelsith_stone to get one for now. It will drop in the leviathan encounter in-game.
· Once the fight begins, you will notice the holder of a chelsith stone can touch the orb altar on the far side of the platform to energize it. Once energized if you stay within 14m of the energized orb structure, you are protected from many of trakanons more powerful abilities.
· The key to winning this encounter is to realize you must all fight within 14m of the activated orb on the far side of the platform. Trakanons arcane maelstrom breath weapon is far too lethal outside this protective area. In addition trakanons knockback abilities will prove problematic, and all but one of them is negated when you are close to this orb object (if its energized).
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11 June 08 - 05:57AoC Good Times With a Horse
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11 June 08 - 05:54Cat ASS it's a way of life...
Rumor: WoW Getting Achievements With Wrath Of The Lich KingYou know what World of Warcraft players really need? Another reason not to get up out of their chair, and Blizzard might be giving that to them in the form of in-game achievements in the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. According to DeathKnight.info, players in the Wrath of the Lich King alpha can type /achievement to bring up a screen like the one above, which shows various achievements that can be performed for points, which will more than likely then go towards buying gear and such.
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10 June 08 - 04:51Video Games Are Good for Children... Who knew?
New study reveals surprising results about kids and video games : Nation & World : Abilene Reporter-NewsTrue or false: Violent video games cause children to become more aggressive.
Sorry, that was a trick question. Despite much bandying of statistics and loud talking by critics on both sides of the argument, the real answer is that there is no real answer -- at least not one that's been proved scientifically.
So say Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner in their new book, "Grand Theft Childhood."
"In fact, much of the information in the popular press about the effects of violent video games is wrong," write the husband and wife team, who direct the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
That will, of course, be of tremendous comfort to concerned parents who find calculating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin simplicity itself compared with figuring out which video games, if any, to allow in their homes.
But the fact is, the research can't be boiled down to a simple headline, however much politicians, experts, and the media might wish otherwise, say Drs. Kutner and Olson, who conducted a $1.5 million study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice that looked at the effects of violent video games on 1,200 middle-school-age children.
That conclusion, say other experts, is what makes Kutner's and Olson's study so valuable.
"Looking at violent behavior is not a simplistic thing. There is no one thing that is going to cause a child to become violent," says Kathryn Seifert of Salisbury, Md., who's a forensic psychologist and an expert in assessing and treating children who are at risk of becoming violent. "It's a great, great study. I think what they did is wonderful."
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08 June 08 - 03:27Men are Stupid Check Books.
Adam Sandler Still Refuses to Grow Up, and So Do Most Hollywood Comedies - New York TimesThe male rejection of adulthood is now the dominant attitude in Hollywood comedy, even (or perhaps especially) in movies whose sexual frankness makes them officially unsuitable for children. Occasionally you will see a functioning if beleaguered dad, usually a widower, like Steve Carell’s character in “Dan in Real Life.” And sometimes, as in “Little Miss Sunshine,” a coeducational, multigenerational ensemble will carry the therapeutic and satirical burdens of the genre.
But far more often the center of attention will be a guy, his buddies and his toys. He will, most of the time, be nudged toward responsibility, forgiven for his quirks and nurtured in his needs and neuroses by a woman who represents an ideal amalgam of supermodel and mom.
It would be hypocritical of me to dismiss the appeal of this fantasy and silly to deny that a lot of these movies manage to be both very funny and disarmingly insightful about the male psyche. But I suspect I’m not alone in growing weary of the relentless contemplation of that psyche in its infantile state, and of the endless celebration of arrested development as a social entitlement.
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