Game talk

This is the catch-all category for stuff about games and game design. It easily makes up the vast majority of the site’s content. If you are looking for something specific, I highly recommend looking into the tags used on the site instead. They can narrow down the hunt immensely.

  • BBC’s dot.life on Flash

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 10 Comments

    The BBC News dot.life blog has a piece about web gaming and how the industry is changing, with a pile of quotes from yours truly. It was a very fun conversation with Darren Waters.

    The relaunch of a 10-year-old video game inside a web browser is not just a chance to wallow in some nostalgia, but also a strong pointer to the direction in which the video games industry is heading, and a potential herald of the future of rich internet media on many types of devices…

    …The shift to the network – both in terms of delivery of content and at the end of point of the experience itself – is touching every aspect of the media industry and for video gamers it means a lot more fun in a browser near you soon.

  • Metaplace CNET article

    Hours Categories Gamemaking

    Everyone has probably heard about this already via other sources, but here it is:

    Built to run inside the browser on any Internet-connected machine, Metaplace employs a simple, 2D, Flash-based graphics system that fronts for a fairly sophisticated set of content creation tools and what may one day be a complex open-ended economy built around user-created content.

    In fact, because of the 2D and Flash nature of Metaplace, it’s easy to miss that the platform offers users some of the easiest virtual-world building tools that have ever been made available.

    — Metaplace: Platform for user-created virtual worlds | Gaming and Culture – CNET News.

  • Another silly game design meme

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 19 Comments

    This seemed amusing, especially since I am barely blogging and need content. 😉

    Hi Raph! 🙂

    Inspired by “#backflick” on Twitter, I’ve started #backgames:

    BackGames = Videogame plots in reverse

    I’ve written 15. Here are a few, to whet your appetite….

    *Cave Story* A traveller lands on a floating island, helps the Doctor enslave the Mimigas, then falls asleep & forgets everything.

    *Katamari Damacy* A prince must hide the stars, by rolling them across the earth’s surface, until they break into small everyday objects.

    *Asteroids* A spaceship tends a galactic garden, growing tiny rocks into huge boulders.

    Thought your visitors might like to submit a few of their own?

    — Gabe aka Mr_Staypuft JustOneMoreGame

  • France & videogame addiction

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 1 Comment

    From Olivier comes this little tidbit:

    Hi Raph, Here are some news from France. Politics try to put addiction to videogames into the new Hospital reform law. Here is a translation at my blog.

    Best, Olivier M.

    His translation of the legalese:

    After Article 25 insert the following:

    When a game presents a risk to public health because of its addictive potential, support each unit and its packaging bear, under conditions set by a decree of the Minister for Health, a message of sanitary . The implementation of this obligation is incumbent upon the publisher or, failing that, the distributor responsible for distribution in France of the video game.

    SUMMARY STATEMENT

    Adolescents constitute a particularly vulnerable target to computer. Consultations for addiction to video games are primarily concerned with children and adolescents. Faced with this phenomenon, a common sign in 25 European countries was established. PEGGY system (Pan-European Game Information) provides guidance in the form of symbols printed on the boxes of video games. However, many parents do not understand the meaning of symbols. This amendment seeks to make the implementation of a prevention message clear about the risks of addiction that can cause some video games.

    As Olivier notes, it’s kind of a bad sign when legislation on games is being done by folks who don’t know what PEGI is.

  • Neuroscience of gambling

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 8 Comments

    I mentioned in Theory of Fun that humans kinda suck as odds estimation and that this is one reason why games of chance persist. But maybe there’s more!

    It turns out that the reward system that lights up when we get a near-miss in a game of skill (which makes sense) gives us the same reward when we have a near-miss in a game of chance (but only if we get to make a choice in the game, such as picking our lotto numbers, even though this has no influence over the outcome of the game).

    via Neuroscience of gambling – Boing Boing.

    It’s a radio segment from Quirks & Quarks available here.