Maybe this is no news for you, but Todd Alcott has a refreshing perspective and puts it quite well: “‘Doom’ is a great game, but ‘Half-Life’ is a great narrative.” Even though Half-Life was released ten years ago, the sense that you’re really part of a story (and not just watching a story for a bit, then playing a game, then watching some story again) is still something few games evoke. Most recently, I felt it while playing Half-Life 2. ↵
This is something I’ve been wondering about: “Microsoft, somehow, is letting Sony keep fighting in the battle for second place even without exclusive killer apps. What happens when it has them?” The sales curve for Xbox 360 seems to have flattened for the last year or so, a sign that somehow it only appeals to a limited audience. Now that PlayStation 3 is picking up steam, that sales curve is going to be ripped to shreds. ↵
“We as outsiders to this whole gaming industry have the ability and the license to probe and ask questions to figure out what’s really going on and to get to the bottom of things and change the conversation from the marketing-driven factors of gaming.” Words of wisdom from MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo, who’s doing some of the most interesting things in games journalism. ↵
As Diablo3.com was recently acquired by developer Blizzard, a new ‘Diablo’ game could very well be coming up. No surprise there. What did surprise me is that the previous owner “being a loyal fan of Blizzard’s series, […] handed it over to Blizzard completely gratis”. One piece of advice: never donate your domain to a company that makes a billion a year. ↵
Chris Dahlen: “I’m sensitive about time. When I have to be somewhere, I’m rarely late. I get anxious about missing things. So I have a giant pet peeve with games that can’t consistently handle a perception of time – when they act like the clock’s ticking, but it ain’t.” Like in GTA IV. ↵
“When [Activision CEO Bobby Kotick] says Guitar Hero isn’t just about guitars, that franchise is clearly stepping into a minefield of potential failure. […] A friend of mine once told me the design document of one of the modern adventure-style Sonic games started with the words ‘Sonic is not just about running really fast’. […] Once a company wants a franchise to be something it’s not, they have to be really lucky not to screw it up.” ↵
Is ‘Spore’ for everyone? “I’m used to living in a world drunk on Spore anticipation […]. But among the newbies, there was a significant amount of uncertainty and performance anxiety. People weren’t sure they would be able to build something, even with encouragement and example. One even said, over my shoulder, ‘I’m not sure I’m creative in that way.’” The cartoony style (that crystallized along the way) answers some of my concerns, but I still doubt Spore will come close to the success of ‘The Sims’. ↵
The Flemmish experimental game ‘The Graveyard’ is really interesting. I’m already in touch with the developers to do an interview and will hopefully write a newspaper article about it soon. ↵
I’m waiting for a second generation iPhone (it would also be nice if it were officially released here in The Netherlands). Hopefully, by that time, some of the great games that should be possible will have emerged. So far there’s one iPhone game I’d love to play: Trism. ↵
“Packet Garden captures information about how you use the internet and uses this stored information to grow a private world you can later explore.” This reminds me of an idea I had ages ago: a game in which your actions result in the defragmentation of your hard drive. ↵
There are four types of fun in games: Hard Fun, Easy Fun, People Fun and Serious Fun. David Sirlin applied this scheme to ‘Super Mario Galaxy’. ↵
Intriguing insight: “World of Warcraft is an environment for people to create games, a web of intertwined systems that are all connected through common terrain. Some of these games rely on other games in the environment (most of them, for example, rely on leveling up) but all of them are different games.” ↵
Two weeks ago, the popular Flash game ‘Desktop TD’ was one year old. The creators posted some intriguing statistics on their blog, including the fact that the game made more than $100,000. I love how open they are about their achievements. ↵
“…old media have vastly more shocking content than video games… a prime example of a book that children are encouraged to read is the Bible. […] The King James version has ‘harlot’ in it 48 times, ‘sodomite’ 5 times, ‘fornicator’ 5 times, ‘smite’ 133 times, ‘kill’ 208 times and ‘maim’ 7 times.” Well, just this morning I gunned down a couple hundred zombies in a mere six or seven minutes. Games are all about repetition – turning some violent games into a hypnotizing killing drill. Which is what frightens some observers. Sure, it’s a fun argument, but the Bible really doesn’t compare. ↵
“I’m convinced that [‘Killer 7’ and ‘No More Heroes’ creator Suda Goichi’s] aesthetic vision and artistic sensibility are mirrored in the works of the maverick filmmakers who launched the French New Wave.” That makes these games sound very intriguing. However, I tried to like Killer 7 and failed so hard, that I feel no inclination whatsoever to check out Goichi’s latest. ↵