the camera in
always gives epic shots by obeying the law of thirds and other tricks. this is more mediated cinema than gameplay, but: awesome.
Tag: games
Exodus to the virtual world
Virtual worlds have exploded out of online game culture and now capture the attention of millions of ordinary people: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, workers, retirees. Devoting dozens of hours each week to massively multiplayer virtual reality environments (like World of Warcraft and Second Life), these millions are the start of an exodus into the refuge of fantasy, where they experience life under a new social, political, and economic order built around fun. Given the choice between a fantasy world and the real world, how many of us would choose reality? Exodus to the Virtual World explains the growing migration into virtual reality, and how it will change the way we live–both in fantasy worlds and in the real one.
Interesting read. Argues that as more people experience virtual worlds, they will demand the apt policy design in games to be applied to the real world. Result: a fun maximizing society.
Left 4 Dead
zombies!! chain saws!! frying pans!!
Enemy Architecture
tired old cliches bad.
Game developers are unconstrained in their designs for the enemy. Such designers will be punished with poor sales, not death in the gulag, if their designs for the overlord are unpopular. They could go anywhere with the homes of evildoers: halls of electric fluorescence, palaces carved from corduroy, suburban backyards. And yet, in spite of this freedom, most video game designers choose to make a definite connection to familiar – or real-world – architecture. Perhaps they think that the evil lair must emanate evil. There’s surely no room for ambiguity with videogame evildoers: the gamer needs to know that it’s okay to aim for hi-score vengeance.
Console Flow Chart
Elevated by RGBA and TBC
a complex, rendered 3d scene in 4k. but how?
Game End
Game designers are realizing that ending their world in a dramatically satisfying way is actually a very interesting logistical, ludogical, and emotional trick. In essence, we’re slowly seeing the emergence of eschatology as a design challenge.
The Story of Tetris
Tetris is a popular game developed in 1985-86 by Alexey Pajitnov (Pazhitnov), Dmitry Pavlovsky, and me. Pajitnov and Pavlovsky were computer engineers at the Computer Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I was a 16-year-old high school student. My computer science teacher Arkady Borkovsky brought me to the Computer Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences where I worked and played with IBM PCs. I quickly learned programming and enjoyed working on various fun computer projects.
Warcraft Sequel
i LOLd
Credit Crunch board game
Players start with 500m econos each. One player doubles as banker.
Players move round by throwing 4 coins and progressing as many squares as they throw heads. If a player throws 4 heads, he moves forward 4 spaces and has another turn; if he throws 4 tails, he throws again. When a player lands on a + square, he collects money from the bank; equally, when he lands on a minus square, he pays the bank.
The aim is to be the last solvent player. In order to achieve this, players try to eliminate the competition. Risk cards encourage players to pick on each other.
Players who cannot pay their fines may borrow from each other at any rate they care to settle on—for instance, 100% interest within 3 turns. They should negotiate with the other players to get the best rate possible. Players who cannot borrow must either go into Chapter 11 or be taken over.
Players may conceal their assets from each other.
Gregor J. Rothfuss 