24 Apr 2005, 05:55
20 Apr 2005, 11:42
http://stationexchange.station.sony.com/
It was bound to happen, sooner or later, but it is still shocking to see it materialized. I have never been interested in buying online properties, since I assume that acquiring them in the game is one of the main reasons for playing in the first place. Playing a MMO has to be fun in itself, but as we know already, fun is a dish with many ingredients.
So, rather than find my own stance among all the moral, ethical, emotional, rational debates about the meaning of this, I’ll be realistic about my assumptions, and simply sit back and see what happens.
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15 Apr 2005, 12:19
Looks like the people at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid haven’t got tired of me yet, and have invited me to give a lecture by the end of April. Details here: http://www.fdi.ucm.es/local/eventos/index.html.
In the lecture I try to explore four key areas of videogames as a professional career: the business side, the engineering (the lecture is for their Computer Science campus), entertainment, and the value of games as art. Broad topic!
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11 Apr 2005, 23:26
Allow me to chuckle over this: [Majesco]’s NASDAQ symbol has been switched from MJES to COOL. The changes are designed to “more accurately reflect the company’s identity as a diversified digital entertainment company."
I got a link (which I’m not spreading here) to a pretty sick site: lots of pictures of a cute bunny, and the promise that the animal will die at a certain date if the site owner hasn’t received $50K in donations.
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06 Apr 2005, 17:11
I watched Shakespeare In Love and Cyrano de Bergerac again this week… two masterpieces in my opinion. Witty, heartwarming and flawlessly executed. I love how well the music works in both of them (Shakespeare’s Oscar-winning score is one of my favourite movie soundtracks of all time).
03 Apr 2005, 15:38
It has happened! I love World of Warcraft, but I have only played it for a couple hours in the past week (4 weeks if you count my Scotland trip).
One of the reasons is Devil May Cry 3 on the Playstation 2. The concept: you are a human-demon slashing and gunning hordes of demons in a quest to prevent the Demon World from taking over Earth, while uncovering the secrets of your family as you progress.
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31 Mar 2005, 15:29
After reading a number of SF novels from the last few years, I keep getting frustrated at what feels like a failed renaissance of the genre. I enjoy the emphasis on real world politics, innovative science and weird but believable theories, now that time travel, hyperspace and robots are pretty much exhausted. Many books seem too much “Crichtonized” – trying to match the formula that blends larger-than-life characters involved in a limited version of world-changing events.
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30 Mar 2005, 12:30
In the wake of GDC 2005, weblogs are more active than ever, which means lot of stuff to read and enjoy! Forgive me this bit of cynism, but sometimes, random quotes ARE a good substitute for depth of thought.
Greg Costikyan: “Iwata-san has the heart of a gamer — and my question is, what poor bastard’s chest did he carve it from, and how often do they perform human sacrifices at Nintendo HQ?
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27 Mar 2005, 02:51
My trip to Scotland is over, about two weeks roaming around the highlands and Edinburgh. It was great fun, weather was not too bad, and I was left wanting more! Hopefully I’ll upload some piccies soon.
Thanks to Coque for the link to this article that details the history of Topo Soft. Every time I read about Stardust I want to bang my head on the wall for the multidirectional control system that Jose Manuel Muñoz proposed us – it was quite original and we loved it, but in hindsight, it made the game quite frustrating to play.
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08 Mar 2005, 07:02
Some stuff coming from GDC:
Raph Koster’s keynote transcription
More as I come across them.