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A Theory of Fun
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Archive for August, 2006

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The Guardian interviews Blizzard’s Paul Sams

August 31st, 2006

A few bits that jump out:

Paul Sams of Blizzard says in the Guardian that

Globally, around 10% of WoW players are women whereas historically for this genre it was around 2%.

Whoa, that’s way off.

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Posted in Game talk | 27 Comments »
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DFC answers the same WoW question

August 30th, 2006

Is It Possible to Surpass World of Warcraft? on GameDaily BIZ is DFC Intelligence’s David Cole taking on the same topic as the “Warcrack panel.” He comes to largely the same conclusions:

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Posted in Game talk | 26 Comments »
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Genius

August 30th, 2006

Today’s Real Life nails the issue of modern convenience versus fun. :)

Posted in Game talk, Reading | 5 Comments »
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Playing for fun

August 30th, 2006

People play games to have fun, not to make the world a better place to live.

“People read books only for enjoyment, never to learn anything.”

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Posted in Game talk | 24 Comments »
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Austin Game Conference

August 29th, 2006

So, next week I will be at the Austin Game Conference. My schedule:

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Posted in Game talk | 13 Comments »
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Giving them what they want

August 29th, 2006

Over on the thread about the Worldcon panel on WoW, an anonymous poster engaged in a bit of sarcasm:

What?!?!?!?

This makes no sense!

Players apparently want to….. to play a game that’s…. that’s…. ‘fun’…?

They……. like……. combat????

They… don’t like waiting on other players in order to proceed in the game?

They… want to choose who they socialize with and when, rather than have it forced on them?

No no no, this is all wrong! These players must be wrong. Clearly they do not know what they want at all, because they cannot possibly want these things.

Of course, the sarcasm falls slightly flat, because it misses the point of the post, to my mind. But it does raise other questions.

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Posted in Game talk | 48 Comments »
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ijji is here

August 28th, 2006

ijji - Live Games Online is NHN’s try at cracking the casual gamer market in the US. Of course, we’ve already got Shockwave.com and Pogo and any others — but what NHN brings to the table is the fact that their portal is #1 in most of the Pacific Rim. It’ll be interesting to see how it does here.

Posted in Game talk | 2 Comments »
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Games teaching pointless skills

August 28th, 2006

Here’s a great example: someone who has more than mastered Tetris.

I know it’s hugely long, but you do need to stick with it to get to the double-sized blocks, the invisible segment, and so on.

Posted in Game talk | 6 Comments »
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Do classes suck?

August 28th, 2006

I was away, of course, but i am sure that plenty of people have expected me to jump in on the never-ending debate on class-based systems. So I thought I should, but with brevity.

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Posted in Game talk | 87 Comments »
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The Sunday Poem: On the Carretera Panamericana, South of Lima

August 27th, 2006

The billboards along the road, dry,
Sandblasted pink and pale,
Aren’t even markers of distance yet.
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Posted in The Sunday Poem | No Comments »