American Idol is weird this year

 Posted by (Visited 6107 times)  Music, Watching
Apr 242008
 

Yes, of course I watch it.

Idol has always rewarded performers who built an emotional connection over good singers; that’s why people like Syesha Mercado are doomed to exit earlier than they should. But this year is downright strange, with not one but two folkies among the finalists. I don’t think that Brooke White or Jason Castro will win (one of the Davids will) but the fact that they are doing so well is interesting in what is says about pop culture. Along with the rise of new female singer-songwriters, this makes me wonder if we’re due for another shift away from glossy pop.

Another ‘Idol’ finalist booted from competition – CNN.com

As music goes, so goes quite a lot of pop culture. Movies also seem to be caught in the grip of an intent towards honest emotion lately, even in raunch comedies. Wonder what that means for games.

Interdependent systems

 Posted by (Visited 13806 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
Apr 222008
 

Next Generation has an informative email from Russell Williams, the CEO of Flying Lab, giving the reasons why they are having to merge servers. It’s a great insight into the complex equation involved in estimating how many servers to have.

One of the items in particular caught my eye:

Game systems
Pirates’ gameplay is very organic, designed in such a way that the different systems feed into one another. In a PvE-only game, focusing mainly on content, this isn’t a big deal. But in Pirates of the Burning Sea we have systems that require a minimum number of players to function correctly, such as our economy, and they break other systems if they’re not working correctly (such as PvP). If we didn’t have these kinds of interdependent systems, we wouldn’t even be considering server merges.

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HiPiHi in open beta

 Posted by (Visited 5968 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , ,
Apr 212008
 

SuezanneC Baskerville notes that HiPiHi is entering open beta now.

For those that do not recall, this is the Chinese take on Second Life — I got a close-up demo of it about a year ago while at VW Fall, and it looks like a pretty complete system. It offers not only the sort of building you see in SL, but also has things like prefab buildings and layouts offered by the operator.

If you read through the social media slides I posted last week, you know that China is a massively connected society these days, and growing more so. We have mostly seen that to date with MMORPGs in this space, but the hyperactivity there surrounding UGC, particularly with blogs, is fascinating. It will be interesting to see how things go with HiPiHi.

The Sunday Poem: Peace

 Posted by (Visited 7568 times)  The Sunday Poem  Tagged with:
Apr 202008
 

Peace shouldn’t be quiet, clouds soft and pliant,
A mellow sky scene in blue.
Peace should be blaring, a jazz band past caring,
A squabble of children and you.
The clangor of pots, your eyes full of spots,
Buttercups growing in dew.
Peace is invention, it’s sustained attention,
It’s chemistry going kaboom.
It’s racing of go karts and artichoke hearts
And farming in Kalamazoo.

It’s silence as well, but the silence of bells
The moment they still for a few;
An aftershock sound that echoes around
And gives way to rush and to hue.
It’s not smug inertia, safe from what hurts ya;
Pain is what gives us the glue.
It’s temperate intemperance, all quantum events,
Mosquitoes buzzing canoes.
A whole raucous party, that’s peace’s priority:
Space to be scattered and true.

Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother

 Posted by (Visited 7059 times)  Reading  Tagged with: ,
Apr 192008
 

Little Brother, by Cory DoctorowMaking Light has a post about Cory’s new book, promising to send advance reader copies to bloggers who talk about the book. All the copies are gone, of course, since we live on Internet time.

But I’ve been lucky enough to have read it at various stages of development over the last year. So I don’t need a copy. 🙂 Connections have their privileges!

And the bottom line is, go buy Little Brother when it goes on sale in twelve days. It’s aimed at teens. Don’t let that stop you. It’s not a space opera, a military SF novel, not a Singularity sort of thing, and there are no elves. Don’t let that stop you either. Because it’s urgent, and real, and you will learn something from it.

It’s a book about a kid whose town (San Francisco) gets attacked by terrorists, and who finds it then slipping into a sort of Homeland Security nightmare. A kid who fights back with the tech he has to hand — videogame consoles and ARGs and friend networks. And also a lot of guts.

It’s a story not only about paranoia and freedom, but also about security and insecurity. The hacks described are real; there’s an afterword with real-world resources.

I am looking forward to reading it again, between proper covers instead of on loose sheets of paper.

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