Category: games

Half-Real: Sample Chapters Available

For your perusal, I have made a few sample chapters of my book Half-Real available on the website:

  • The Preface (in which I talk about my first video game)
  • The Introduction (the overview of the field)
  • The References (the texts and the games)
  • The Index (the people, the subjects, and the games)

I am also working on an update to the dictionary, which should be ready soon.

Doctor, I assume you Chose AiAi

The latest news.com story about how video games are good for surgeons (and their patients by extension).

Doctors were measured on their performance of the “cobra rope” drill, a standard laparoscopic training exercise used to teach how to sew up an internal wound.

Researchers found that surgeons who played video games immediately before the drill completed it an average of 11 seconds faster than those who did not. Any errors committed during the training lengthened the time it took to complete the task–indicating that faster finishers made fewer mistakes.

The article mentions Super Monkey Ball, but is not clear whether that was the game used in the test.

Super Monkey Ball is becoming something of a favorite for clinical studies though.
AiAi

Seed MMO Launched

Congratulations to local developers Runestone who have just launched their new MMO, Seed.
To quote from the page:

What Seed is all about
– Sci-fi MMORPG
– Personalized stories
– Social/political gameplay
– Believable NPC’s
– 3D comic book graphics

What Seed is not about
– Combat
– Character classes
– Standard quests

Oh, cosplay already. Could be worth a go:

Seed screenshot

Pinball Retro

News.com piece on collectors of vintage pinball machines.

And things just were sliiiighty better in the old days:

“(Pinball machines) are mass produced now–cheap,” complained Hal Erickson, a regular at the secret pinball “arcade.” According to Erickson, today’s pinball makers “buy licenses and time releases to the crest of a fad, like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ or ‘Nascar.’ They’ve gotten slicker, but the designs are not as creative and individual.”There’s a huge difference in the way the game is played, too. “It’s really grueling, higher speed and intense movement…You can burn yourself out on new games,” said Erickson, who said he was ranked among the top pinball players in the world in the early 1990s. “Older games are more sane.”

The article also has links to pinball emulation sites.

Wii: Whee?

Nintendo’s announced the new name for the console what used to be called Revolution: Wii.

More at the Wii website, still called revolution.

Lots of advertising-speak, “Wii has a distinctive “ii” spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.

Glad that’s out of the way. Silly name, but then I have graphics card called GeForce, probably symbolizing something with speed.

J?rvinen’s Thesis in the Making: Chip in!

Aki J?rvinen was one of the first video game researchers I ever met, and now he is finishing his Ph.d. thesis with a new big theory of video games on his Games Without Frontiers site.
He invites us to read his chapters as they progress and to send comments.
Chapters so far:

An excellent way of making sure the thesis hits the market with no usability issues, while improving playability!

Episodic Content almost Here: Half-life 2, Episode 1

With digital distribution actually happening, including Steam and Greg Costikyan’s Manifesto Games, as well as the casual games downloadable market, one of the imagined futures of the games industry seems to have become quite real.
Another thing that has been discussed incessantly is episodic content, so behold the trailer for Half-Life 2, episode one – each episode apparently priced at $19.95, which I find reasonable enough.
On a tangent, I think it was Gabe Newell who at the GDC talked about how much better the quality of life as a developer was making episodic content. (Couldn’t it be due to do with other factors than the episodicness itself?)