External News

The secrets of storytelling

2008-08-20T04:50:20Z

Scientific American had an interesting article on "The Secrets of Storytelling". (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secrets-of-storytelling) The article was interesting in it's take on why storytelling works so well for humans. Most of the reasons relate to social activities. Interesting food for thought when we deal with social activities in online games. Read More......(read more)

Oh, it’s ON like an AC0 Donkey Kong

2008-08-20T02:27:25Z

McCain’s latest salvo at Obama: It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement… Someone needs to let Granddad McCain know that since he left the military in 1937, quite a few of today’s Generation Kill actually not only play Dungeons [...] Read More......(read more)

An Important NDA Announcement

2008-08-20T00:16:39Z

As you may have seen from pretty much everywhere on the Interwebs, the Warhammer Online beta NDA has been lifted. Now that it has, I am finally authorized to announce, per express permission of Mark “Here To Fix Yer Gubbins” Jacobs: I am not in the Warhammer Online beta. Thank you for waiting until today for me [...] Read More......(read more)

NOTED: Acclaim seeing $75 per paying customer - David Perry

2008-08-19T08:59:00Z

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Got Banned? Sue for Emotional Distress

2008-08-19T08:52:00Z

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Bill Roper on Flagship’s Endgame

2008-08-18T18:54:25Z

Finally, 1UP nails the Flagship founder for an interview about his side of the drama surrounding Hellgate: Explosion. Part of the challenge was that when we originally came up with the concept of doing the game, the whole idea of continuing content was pretty amorphous. How that was going to happen, who pays for that — [...] Read More......(read more)

Road to WAR

2008-08-18T12:43:00Z

I’ve made no secret that I’m looking forward to checking out Warhammer Online. I have the game pre-ordered for in-store pickup and I’m a member of a wish-we-were-still-hardcore casual guild called Casualties of WAR. Mythic recently launched a fun little site called Road to WAR in which players acquire real life territories for gold and [...] Read More......(read more)

The Devil is in the Details- Breaking An Online Poker Shuffle in 1999

2008-08-18T08:53:00Z

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NOTED: Blizzard's Diablo series has sold 18.5 Million Games

2008-08-18T08:26:00Z

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Final Fantasy: A Restrospectivation

2008-08-18T08:24:14Z

Final Fantasies One Through Three: don’t count. FF2 REALLY doesn’t count because it uses the worst use-based skill system EVER. You have to get beaten to gain hit points. This is not a message we want to be sharing with our children. These games have all been re-issued for every platform out there, because everyone [...] Read More......(read more)

Massive Guys on Massive Games: Episode #5

2008-08-17T21:40:13Z

Lucky episode #5 of the Massive Guys on Massive Games podcast is now available. Hosts Ryan “Blackguard” Shwayder and Steve “Moorgard” Danuser discuss the Olympics, Michael Phelps, Alicia Sacramone, and PvP in the latest episode. Show Notes: - You can find future episodes via the podcast feed or by hitting up MMOPodcast.com. - If you’d like to download [...] Read More......(read more)

The Sunday Video: November

2008-08-17T19:08:12Z

I actually did this a while ago, but finally posted it up somewhere. November from Raph Koster on Vimeo. Read More......(read more)

Weekend Design Challenge: Evaluating your local culture

2008-08-16T22:12:03Z

This week, let's turn our attention to ourselves for a change. Culture is an important part of games, so let's take a look at what local cultural aspects are important to game design. This is hard, because it is often difficult to identify what makes your culture unique in the eyes of others. Read More......(read more)

Braid

2008-08-16T22:05:14Z

I finished Braid this morning. It was a lot of fun… I got through all but one of the puzzles, but had basically no clue on that one so I cheated and used a walkthrough. Once I heard the solution, it turned out to be something I totally should have Read More......(read more)

Hey, Look, I’m The News For Lunch

2008-08-16T09:25:47Z

I give a brief interview to Wagner James Au over at GigaOM. Read More......(read more)