Donkey Kong As Symbol of Modern Oligarchy

Matt says,

Kottke's plug for the Independent Documentary Association's list of the 25 best documentaries reminds me to recommend one that was underhyped last year -- The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. I like Keith Phipps' perceptive review best; he calls it "a film about what it takes to make it in America." It's hilarious, a bit sad, and enormously revealing.

Wall-play-per

Matt says,

If these Blik wall decals were easier to put up, my entire apartment would be covered in Donkey Kong platforms, rolling platforms, and freaky-looking princesses. Via Brand Flakes.

FYI, the Line Rider Dude's Name is Bosh

Robin says,

Terrific interview with Boštjan Cadez, the creator of Line Rider. I wonder: If you could somehow tally up the total cultural impact of something like Line Rider, what would it be roughly equivalent to? An indie band's new album? A minor hit cable TV show? Something smaller? Something bigger?

(FYI, Snarkmarket's TCI is approximately equivalent to a single mid-January stump speech by a third-tier presidential candidate. I just checked.)

We're in this weird phase where bizarre niche hits, powered by viral internet jet fuel, can be really huge... but still somehow invisible.

Re: Line Rider-as-technology, not Line Rider-as-web-phenomenon, I liked this bit of explanation:

Anyway, I enjoyed procedural animation because it didn't involve frame by frame 'slave' work, which I was always too lazy to do. But procedural stuff gets boring, monotone and predictive very fast. It especially bugged me with VJ-ing. Pre-coded stuff was too much like video -- too much in the past -- and even if it was reacting to audio in real time, it looked always the same. So I started thinking about how to find something which had the best of both worlds: something which I could change on the fly, some way of animating stuff by just drawing it.

I think there's a lot of potential in that "best of both worlds." Think: Spore, Crayon Physics, and things yet to come.

Spore's Procedural Jams

Robin says,

Snarkmarket pal Aaron McLeran gave a GDC talk about his work on Spore's music system.

That link includes a small picture of the programming environment he used, but you've got to see Aaron interact with it live to understand how truly cool it is. It's this crazy hybrid of computer code and, like, circuit design, and the music keeps playing as he makes changes, so you hear it evolving and improving in real-time.

Bonus: Here's some video of Aaron demoing part of the game.

Game Remixes

Matt says,

I'm loving the clever remixes of old-school games at Retro Sabotage, brought to my attention by the fine folks at Grand Text Auto.

Pundits: The Eyeball Monster

Matt says,

There's a giant eyeball monster in Super Paper Mario that tracks you in every direction as you move around a room and shoots laser beams at you. To defeat it, Mario has to flip into 3D mode and run around and around it until it tries to shoot, gets confused, and implodes.

Eyeball monster = media pundits. Mario = '08 Presidential candidates. It's fun to watch.

Oh, and btw: Speaking of life imitating Mario, Andy Towle's right. The video for Janet Jackson's new single "Feedback" is so Super Mario Galaxy.

Wii Ninja

Matt says,

Over the past year, I have successfully acquired five Wiis at retail price; I felt this was notable enough for a blog post.

Wii #1: Purchased 11/06, for a vita.mn contest. Camped out in front of a Target in beautiful Red Wing, MN, at 4:45 a.m., behind Jan, Peter, Elaine, Philip and Sam, in front of a group of about 50. When we finally got the golden tickets (to come back and get a Wii), me and four of the others went to Denny's while we waited for the store to open.

Wiis #2 & 3: Got a call one random Sunday afternoon in August from my coworker's boyfriend, who saw some Wiis sitting on a shelf at Target. Drove to Target, picked up one for me and one for my nephews/niece.

Wiis #4 & 5: Purchased from Amazon mere seconds after receiving text messages from WiiAlerts.com. One is for a vita.mn contest, the other is for a friend's wife to give to a friend for Christmas. Big ups to WiiAlerts; it totally works.

Making Mario

Robin says,

Interesting interview up at Gamasutra with one of the developers of the 3D Mario games, from Mario 64 to Mario Galaxy. They get into some pretty great detail:

One example [of a persistent problem with 3D] is the difficulty of stomping Goomba enemies in 3D, a basic, typical activity in a Mario game. "On the TV screen, objects don't have the same kind of physicality," [Koizumi] said. "That's what makes it difficult to make people grasp the physicality and depth."

One solution is adding shadow. "We decided to drop a shadow on the ground everywhere in Mario 64," said Koizumi. "That way, every floating object would have a reference point on the ground." Shadows are so effective at conveying depth, said Koizumi, that adding them has become an "iron-clad necessity," having shadows fall directly under the character regardless of the light source. "It might not be realistic, but it's much easier to play with the shadow directly below," he added.

(Emphasis mine.) Or, how about this: Why is Mario Galaxy set on spherical planetoid levels?

Neither will the player get lost easily, or need to adjust the camera -- by using spheres, Koizumi said, they had created a game field that never ended.

This became the overall theme of development – "we should tune the game so people can play without ever having to think about the camera," Koizumi said.

It's so the camera -- a thorny problem in 3D games, even today -- never has to change direction! Sneaky!

There's lots more on realism vs. gameplay in there. Worth a read.

Check Out the Death Map

Robin says,

I downloaded and loved Half-Life 2 Episode 2. You know what I also loved? These stats on how everyone played the game. (Via Waxy.)

Game Roundup

Matt says,

• Mr. Clive Thompson pointed out the addictive Bloxorz the other day.
• Priscilla just looks gorgeous (via Infocult).
• Flow in Games is both beautiful and mesmerizing (also via Infocult).

BioShock

Robin says,

Apparently BioShock is... get ready for it... a video game with good writing. We've heard this before, obviously, but those games didn't get 98 out of 100 on Metacritic. Holy moley.

Serious Games with Stephen Colbert

Robin says,

Ian Bogost, the guy behind Persuasive Games and other things, was on Colbert... AND HE WAS REALLY GOOD!

Seriously, is it just me, or did Bogost weather the Colbert interview better than almost any (sort of semi-serious) guest ever? And managed to get some subtle points across! I'm floored.

(I realize this could just be b/c I am pre-obsessed with this topic. Tell me if his performance wasn't actually as awesome as I think.)

If You Live in New York, Go to This

Robin says,

And then report back to me on its awesomeness.

School of Games

Robin says,

One of the coolest things I've read in a while:

The nonprofit John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today announced that it has awarded a grant of $1.1 million to assist in the development of a New York City public school aimed at teaching literacy and other skills through game design and game-inspired methods to children in grades 6-12.

The project is being led by the Gamelab Institute of Play. Gamelab is the insanely cool indie game developer in NYC. Loads of reading on their site, but here's the choice nugget:

All players in the school -- teachers, students, parents and administrators -- will be empowered to innovate using 21st century literacies that are native to games and design. This means learning to think about the world as a set of in interconnected systems that can be affected or changed through action and choice, the ability to navigate complex information networks, the power to build worlds and tell stories, to see collaboration in competition, and communicate across diverse social spaces.

Okay, that actually manages to make it sound less cool... but seriously, come on, think about it. This is 100% the future.

Frame-Grab from the Future

Robin says,

So Second Life and it ilk generally leave me cold these days, but I gotta admit, these notes from a panel on virtual worlds made me shiver a little. By the time they get to the Q&A it's nuts. Definitely worth a read.

Gray Lady Gaming

Robin says,

All right. All right. I think I might finally have to break down and get TimesSelect. The NYT is running Flash games as editorials.

(Actually, I think it's a huge mistake to put these games -- especially the first few! -- behind the pay wall. They are viral material. So maybe capitulation would send the wrong signal?)

History Games

Robin says,

Historian Niall Ferguson loves simulation games. The piece (by Clive Thompson, natch) is so tightly-written that it resists blockquoting... so just go read it.

Okay, one blockquote. This is a pretty rad statement coming from a Harvard historian:

"Serious games are the next big platform," he says.

I've been reading "The End of History and the Last Man" to get ready for Francis Fukuyama's fast-approaching Long Now talk and now I'm wondering what the End of History game would look like...

I think it might involve holding down for two seconds, then pressing up and the A button to make Hegel do a lightning kick.

Asymmetric Warfare

Matt says,

In Peacemakers, you play a leader of either Israel or Palestine. To win as Israel, you have to earn a high approval rating with the people of both Israel and Palestine. To win as Palestine, you must win the hearts of both Palestinians and residents of other parts of the world. If your approval rating with either of your constituencies sinks below a given threshold, you lose. The simulation is illustrated with video footage from actual news reports. Ernest Adams writes it up for Gamasutra.

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games

Robin says,

Awesome, awesome, awesome: Matt Barton at Gamasutra is writing an encyclopedic, illustrated history of computer role-playing games. Part one (1980-1983), part two (1985-1993), part three (1994-2004). Open, print, snuggle up in bed.

Incremental Awesomeness

Robin says,

So there's this game called Desktop Tower Defense (yeah, thanks for nothing). It is one of those super-addictive web games that comes out periodically (see also).

Usually they get made and sort of sit there. Well, the guy behind Desktop Tower Defense... is upgrading it!

This is brilliant. If Desktop Tower Defense gets new enemies and units every two weeks or so I am pretty much never going to stop playing.

The Restaurant Game

Matt says,

Another awesome idea passed along by Grand Text Auto: The MIT Media Lab has created a lightweight multiplayer restaurant simulation. You can play as a waitron or as a diner, and all your interactions with other players will be recorded and used to train an AI system. The resulting AI will power a single-player game, to be released next year.

Flash-Based Epidemiologic Strategy Game

Matt says,

My high score in Virus 2 is 43441. I got down to 25 attempts, and my fastest growth time was 23.

I think I'd wager that the number of games invented in the last 10 years and spread around the world outweighs the number invented in the last 10,000.

Why Was I Not Told of These Sooner?

Robin says,

Game Tunnel lists the top ten indie games of 2006. I had not heard of a single one... and they all look great!

Especially "Kudos"... holy moley, seriously?

Kudos is a turn based strategy game where you control someone's life. You decide where they work, who they hang out with, and what they do to relax. Do you want to be an alcoholic saxophone playing taxi driver? or maybe a reclusive but brilliant astrophysicist. Kudos is not about flashy graphics or high polygon counts. Kudos is about exploring areas of gameplay you haven't seen in mainstream games. Hopefully, Kudos is pretty original.

I am going to try this out; I'll let you know how it goes.

Spore Score

Matt says,

Before they were just talking, but now it's reality: Brian Eno's scoring Spore. (Walkerrific.)

Live Action Hamster Video Game

Matt says,

Via.

Gears of War... and... Sadness

Robin says,

You know that trick where you mix hyperviolent action sequences with slow, wistful music and it makes it all feel really deep? Yeah, that trick really works.

What makes it noteworthy in this case is that it's a sequence from a videogame... and that makes me wonder: How cool would it be if, in the game itself, when the action hit a certain threshold, a fever pitch of annihilation, the music shifted gears just like this and things slowed down a little?

What kind of feeling would that create? Could it make you feel, er, a little bad about all the relentless killing? A little melancholy about the whole situation?

Now that would be interesting!

Update: People have remixed the spot with different songs. Hilarity: here, here, and here.

(Via.)

World of Falstaff

Robin says,

Edward Castronova, the virtual-world economist who writes at Terra Nova, is building a Shakespeare-themed MMOG at Indiana University. It's going to be set in "Richard III" to start. I think this sounds supercool. I just hope the aesthetics are up to snuff; too often, academic game projects are full of high-level ideas... and 1996-level graphics.

(Via 3pointD.)

Totaka's Song

Robin says,

There is a secret song hidden in many Nintendo games published over the past ten years.

It sounds exactly as a secret song should.

Interactive Story, Act Two

Robin says,

The guys who made Façade (previously: here and here) are making a new interactive narrative game, and it sounds weird. I don't yet know whether I mean that in the weird-cool or the weird-uh-okay sense.

Façade is worth a spin if you've never tried it. It's very inventive. Note to the Façade guys for this new joint: Inventive-ness doesn't make up for crappy graphics. Use the Unreal Engine or something.

Blast from the past: Searching for "facade" in the archives I found this post. It's good! And it has one of my favorite Snarkmarket comment threads of all time.

Sony's Talmudic Parable

Robin says,

New contender for least expected cultural cross-comparison ever: Friend of the snark Josh Korr compares Sony and Nintendo to Hillel and Shammai.

'Impossible' Romances

Robin says,

Oh, this is incredibly sweet: MMO demographics overlord Nick Yee has a new report about real-world relationships that began in games like Everquest and WoW. It's more narrative journalism than dry survey, honestly, and it's one of the most fascinating windows into relationships, not just games, that I have gotten in a long time.

Check out this page in particular, about the subtle virtues of the MMO environment:

As other players point out, working together through crises reveals much more about another person than going to the movies with them. Watching how someone interacts with others in different social settings (under different amounts of stress) and how they work through problems can be very character-revealing.

I found that the way people acted to me in-game was usually the way they acted towards me and others in real life. EQ was a great way to see how a potential partner treated others. [WoW, F, 22]

And then there's the notion that many of these relationships are "impossible" -- that is, if the couple had met in real life first, nothing would have happened. More here and here.

Xbox DIY

Robin says,

Microsoft is releasing a free development kit for Xbox 360 games: You make them on your PC and download them to the Xbox. It ain't exactly full democratization of game development -- you can't share games made this way with random friends on Xbox Live -- but still, it's pretty great. Deets on Gamasutra.

Update: Microsoft's Peter Moore enumerates eight ways to open up the world of game development. Excellent and correct.

Where's the Merchant Ivory of Video Games?

Robin says,

I'm not sure I agree with the analogy here, but it's a fun read: Ernest Adams on why we need highbrow games in Gamasutra.

Update: Some interesting comments on the piece.

An Alien to Call Your Own

Robin says,

When you play Spore, will you be to order a real, physical 3D 'printout' of your totally custom alien creature? Signs say yes. That is SO cool.

Test Drive Unlimited

Robin says,

Whoah! This game sounds awesome!

The game models the entire Hawaiian island of Oahu and allows players to race any of 90 cars over more than 1,000 miles of roads [...] the idea is that thousands of players will cruise the island simultaneously over the Internet, challenging one another at any traffic light to lay down some rubber. On the Xbox 360, the game's main system, the graphics dazzle and the cars evoke a realistic sense of speed.

Note that I am now a proud possessor of an Xbox 360, and thus especially interested in news of cool games for said system.

(Via.)

The Lester Bangs of Ludology

Robin says,

Clive Thompson on the video game criticism we're all waiting for:

The game criticism of tomorrow won't look anything like the stuff that Pauline Kael wrote. It'll be some crazy, unruly spawn of sportswriting, gonzo journalism, analytic philosophy, memoir and investigative reporting. The Lester Bangs of gaming is going to be a philosopher of play.

Really great piece. Go read it.

Monkey Island's Maker

Robin says,

Cool interview on Gamasutra with Ron Gilbert, the guy who designed all those great Monkey Island games during LucasArts' golden age of point-and-click adventures. He sounds some familiar refrains:

Publishers today, if you look at any of the mainstream publishers, they get so fixated on these very large budgets. It's kind of amazing. For instance, the budget for my game is actually quite modest compared to most, and that's actually a red flag for them. If you don't come in wanting to spend $10 or $15 million, it's like they don't take you seriously at some level, and I think that's a real problem.

Episodic Games

Robin says,

On the heels of Half-Life 2 I downloaded and played Half-Life 2: Episode One, the first in a series of Half-Life episodes that Valve is releasing: $19.95, a solid four hours of fun, big cliffhanger at the end, next episode in a couple of months. Done and done.

Here's Clive Thompson on why this is a great model.

Massively Multimaker ...

Matt says,

Chris Bateman at Only a Game continues to express cool ideas about games. And they remind me I have a post buried somewhere in my head about Inform 7.

Business Quote of the Week

Robin says,

"Well that's the strategy our president picked. We try to act behind the scenes, and we follow our clients' desires, instructions and everything, so our policy is not to have a vision."

That's Koichi Sawada from game developer Tose, in an interview with Gamasutra. Tose is like the video game equivalent of Flextronics: a behind-the-scenes partner to lots of big, well-known companies. The interview is weirdly fascinating.

Corporation for Public Gaming

Robin says,

I'm pretty sure this is a horrible idea... yet I can't help but like the sound of it: the Corporation for Public Gaming. Like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, you know? (Via.)

You Don't Have Time For This.

Matt says,

There is nothing socially redeeming about the game Dad 'n' Me. It is violent, pointless, endless, and addictive. There's not even the ironic, hipster sheen that normally comes with playing video games past the age of 17. Why would you want to throw your life away at such a young age? Do not click here and play this game, because it will actually rot your mind. I link to it merely to warn you away.

Spore's Sandbox

Robin says,

At the Game Developer's Conference, Will Wright gives a 35-minute demo of Spore. In the game, you evolve a little creature over the eons, from bacteria to Battlestar Galactica -- that, we knew. But check this out: The rest of the world (and ultimately the universe) is filled out entirely by other creatures created by other players at other times. The game plucks them from the shared Spore-verse to build a balanced ecosystem.

If you watch the video to the end you'll get to hear Will Wright say the phrase "fractally surf."

Games That Make You Jump and Yell

Robin says,

In a presentation about games and stories, Kim Plowright cites an amazing video game moment:

The second is from Metal Gear Solid, where an apparently psychic character controls your ally/girlfriend, who starts shooting at you. He then starts reading your mind. The game reads your console memory, and Psycho Mantis [the psychic] makes snarky comments about other games you play. He then controls your character -- only by unplugging your controller and putting it into the other port can you defeat him. So you get up, in the real world, off the sofa, and break the fourth wall.

That is so cool.

And along similar lines, let me warn you right now NEVER to play the computer game F.E.A.R. I tried the first level late at night at Minus Kelvin's place and it freaked me OUT. (Here's the secret: As you explore a dark, scary warehouse, you never actually encounter any bad guys. All you see, the entire time, is fleeting shadows... and all you hear is footsteps in the next room. Creeeeeepy.)

Doing Deals in Azeroth

Robin says,

Jane Pinckard asks: Is World of Warcraft the new golf? That is: Is the game becoming a substrate for networking, even dealmaking?

Interesting idea, and I will add that I have heard stories -- independent of this article -- of tech execs using the game as an after-hours meeting space.

Yielding Control

Robin says,

It's not surprising to hear Will Wright extoll the virtues of procedurally-generated video game content. But J. Allard, the head of Microsoft's Xbox unit? Slightly more surprising:

"(Gaming) is the only medium where we yield control of the protagonist. Let's yield control of the director--and the producer," said Allard, a vice president at Microsoft. "We're going to take on the Wikipedia model. We're going to take on...the open-source model, if you will, for gaming."

World of Wikicraft y'all.

P.S. I really cannot wait for Spore.

Free and Fun

Robin says,

Clive Thompson has a list of video games that are all both innovative and free. Can't go wrong!

In related news, Façade won the top game award at Slamdance. (Who knew Slamdance had game awards?) We've discussed it here before.

Mappae Mundi

Matt says,

The astonishing thing about these maps of video game worlds is how much smaller and less complicated they look when you see them this way. (Kottkettish.)

SMB2, All Jazzed Out

Matt says,

Best ever. Adrian H has recorded a gypsy jazz version of the Super Mario Bros. 2 main theme, and it's crazy delicious, much like the game itself.

SMB2 was the unsung Super Mario Bros. game, and I could never figure out why. The feminist in me always appreciated that the Princess in SMB2 was finally given some agency beyond being the helpless, fainting damsel in distress that drives the plot in most Mario games. And she had the power of levitation, which was much cooler than Mario's janky raccoon tail in SMB3. (Although his cape in Super Mario World was excellent.) The game also had a very cool, cute, recognizably Japanese aesthetic about it. And something about plucking and chucking vegetables was oddly comforting. Two thumbs up, to the game, and its gypsy jazz revival.

Another MMORPG About War

Matt says,

But this one's free! Someone try out Enemy Nations and tell us if it's any good. According to TRFJ, it's "billed as ‘the best game you’ve never played’ and a cross between Sim City, Civilisation and Age of Empires." Not a bad pedigree.

Why Are Most Online Games About Genocide?

Robin says,

Raph Koster, one of the designers behind the Star Wars: Galaxies MMORPG, has a really excellent post up on his blog:

We shape the player experience by the verbs we provide. Right now, the only way to interact meaningfully with our fantasy worlds is at the edge of a sword, and through the barrel of a gun.

It's true. Not that online games should be Sesame Street scenarios... but come on, do they all have to be bloody crusades?

Snapshot from the Uncanny City

Matt says,

What's wrong with this photograph? (Answer in the extended entry.)

Virtual Apocalyptic Tourism

Robin says,

Clive Thompson takes a spin around Asheron's Call 2 -- an online game scheduled to power down forever in just a couple of weeks -- to find out: What's it like in a place where the world is literally about to end?

Some people talk about "new games journalism" (c.f. the New Journalism) and I think this piece hits closer to the mark than anything I have yet read.

Come Back To Me, Misbegotten Sons of Street Fighter II

Robin says,

NERDS ONLY: Why the Nintendo Revolution is secretly going to return Nintendo to the realm of the hard-core gamer.

It is a spurious argument, perhaps, but an appealing one. It did not always used to be the case that normal people had a PS2 and 12-year-old monster-trading boys had a Gamecube. Nintendo used to rock for all ages.

The larger point in hello, nintendo's blogpost is about the potential radness of the Revolution's controller, mentioned here before. It really is amazing that nobody else stopped to think, Hey, we're making a brand new game console... maybe we should change the controller. Funny how some assumptions are just sooo deep.

My Review of "Façade"

Matt says,

Remember how I promised to review Façade? Seemed like too much effort, after actually playing it. Aggregate the thoughts in this thread, and you pretty much have my review. Disappointing, although I'm always happy to see any stabs at innovation.

Silicon Scribes Unite

Robin says,

How cool is this? There's going to be a Game Writer's Conference in Austin! I feel that I would enjoy blog-style coverage of this event... I hope somebody steps up to the plate.

Got this from Grand Text Auto and it's reminded me that I still mean to write my review of Facade, the interactive story noted here before. Soon...

Video Game Financing

Robin says,

You will need a very high nerd quotient to appreciate this speech by Dean Takahashi, the Merc's video game industry beat reporter, at the Video Game Investor Conference (!) recently held here in SF.

But if you possess such a quotient I predict you will find it rewarding reading; there's a lot of inside-baseball games-industry stuff that was entirely new to me.

Indigo Prophecy Released

Matt says,

Remember that awesome-sounding game called Fahrenheit Indigo Prophecy I told you about last June (and updated you on in April)? It's finally out, and fortunately, it still sounds awesome. And it's got a super-respectable MetaCritic score of 85. Sadly, my PS2's in storage till Monday. Still gonna buy it though. (Via Grand Text Auto, which also tags to a long piece by the game's creator about the process of developing it.)

Revolution

Robin says,

I was briefly skeptical of Nintendo's new controller design, but this promo just totally changed my mind. It's a little bizarre and over-the-top but I LOVE IT. Or rather, it's a little bizarre and over-the-top and therefore I LOVE IT.

Your Parents Help You Hook It Up

Robin says,

The first Zelda commercial (MPEG file). I want to say it's hilariously bad, but I just watched it three times in a row, so I guess on some level it's really, really excellent.

Site Discovery of the Day

Robin says,

I just ran across a video game criticism site I have never seen or heard of before -- The New Gamer. Featured on the home page is an essay from June titled discusses God of War: Guilt and Penance in Ancient Greece.

Yeah.

I know it seems too good to be true, but check it out:

While a sense of compassion may not have been what David Jaffe had intended when he created God of War, I'd be lying if I said I felt nothing as I dragged that solider down the hallway to his doom. Despite that, I continued playing -- all the way to the end, never outraged or disappointed in myself enough to cease playing, but then again I had also just solved a 'puzzle', I could revel in the glory that this sacrifice allowed me to dive deeper into the game, and get one more step closer to redemption. But is there redemption for the gamer in a pre-rendered ending?

So yes, it took me about twelve microseconds to add this site's feed to Bloglines.

Click Click, Woof Woof

Robin says,

Clive Thompson on Nintendogs, the new, um, dog simulator for the Nintendo DS.

Honestly I don't know what to think about this.

Façade Released

Matt says,

The interactive short story Façade has been released. I'll post with thoughts after I play it.

Spore

Matt says,

The site's online. Previously mentioned. And also. (Via MeFi.)

Pushing the Limits (or) To Zerg Or Not To Zerg?

Robin says,

I wish I had more time to write about this mind-blowing entry from Terra Nova. Here's a bit to get you interested:

In fact, one might argue that the hallmark of a good gamer, as compared to a non-gamer who games, might be stated thusly: the gamer knows how to efficiently approach and parse a new world, where the non-gamer doesn't.

This too:

Zergs, by instinct, try to stretch the concept of the group to its natural conclusion: bigger is badder, and badder is a safer griffon upon from to throttle loot from poor souls. Besides, very large zergs have an epic feel… or at least a colorful spread of color and character – as far as they eye can see - between the lagged screen refreshes, that is.

Checkitout!

When Kids Used to Play Video Games

Matt says,

I was going to post a link to Steven Johnson's excellent NYT Magazine article called "Watching TV Makes You Smarter." Now I'll up the ante by also posting a link to a thought experiment on his blog where he asks what today's video game detractors would have said if video games had come before books. Both well worth reading.

World of Wikicraft

Matt says,

Lexicon is a game in which you and your fellow players create an encyclopedia for a world that doesn't exist. For example. (Via.)

Indigo Prophecy (Not 9/11)

Matt says,

Remember Fahrenheit? Probably not, 'cause I think I was the only one with a mild fixation on it. Anyway, it's now called "Indigo Prophecy" and it's being published by Atari, not Vivendi Universal. Ostensibly coming out for the PC in June, for the PS2 and Xbox in September. [ Interviews 1 | 2 with game creator David Cage ]

The Medium You Create By Consuming

Robin says,

More on Will Wright's new game:

He's sidestepped the whole idea of massive teams of content creators in favor of a system of building games based on player-content and emergence. The results are stunning.

It's an incredibly detailed, exciting write-up. If you're at all into video games, check this out.

Via Wonderland.

SimEverything

Robin says,

Carol T Chung reports on Will Wright's new game, called "Spore":

You start off as this insignificant bit of bacteria and you grow and evolve through advantageous mutation [...] You go from being bacteria to a galactic god.

On the face of it, this is raddest ever, but then again, the problem with these sim games is the sometimes spurious assumptions made in the algorithms. Well, I guess by "problem" I mean "dissimilarity to actual bacteria → galactic god evolutionary processes," which is probably okay. So never mind, raddest ever.

Update: More deets from Gamespot.

That Ruby Sword of Blazing Fury Will Cost You $0.005

Robin says,

Ooh: Next-gen Xbox will include support for in-game micropayments.