RIP, CGW
Games for Windows magazine ceases publication, which means that the magazine once known as Computer Gaming World is no more, after 27 years.
The deceased is survived by content and the entire staff — transplanted to 1up.com.
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.
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Virtual Worlds 2008 Wrap Up
Virtual Worlds News has a great wrap-up article covering all of the major blog posts and reactions to the show. Sounds basically like lots of dealmaking and announcements, but also some tentativeness from many commentators. Be sure to read the takes from Prokofy, Christian Renaud, Cory O., and others. Some echoes of my “high windows” keynote at the GDC Worlds in Motion Summit.
However, what really struck me walking around the show was how constrained the virtual world dream has become. There are a bunch of projects that look like less populated and less functional versions of Second Life, usually with some marketing material promising a “safer” or more “corporate” environment. A few other companies are promising rapid and cheap creation of advertising worlds, leveraging outsourced production.
Is this really the Metaverse? Is this even the 3D internet?
-Cory Ondrejka
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Is there such as thing as a casual online world?
I’m not sure there is, at least as we understand it. Not at the moment, anyway.
When we speak of “casual” we mean a cluster of things. Sometimes we mean targeting a different demographic, one not excited by the hardcore fantasy-and-sci-fi fictions we concoct. Sometimes we mean shorter play sessions. Sometimes we mean things like not requiring grouping in the worlds, which makes it easier for a less dedicated player to have fun.
More “casual” experiences often have a connotation of being shallow. One thing that is clear, though, is that it doesn’t matter how casual you make an experience, some people will use it in a hardcore manner. And that means that it must have hidden depths of some sort. A shallow experience simply doesn’t tend to keep people.
Read More “Is there such as thing as a casual online world?”
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Trevor Smith predicts the VW future
Trevor F. Smith is, of course, the prime mover behind Ogoglio and Tomorrow Space, and he has a pair of posts that lay out a bit of a roadmap for the development of a 3d web.
Don’t run away screaming– it’s a lot more plausible than you think! But of course, I have some thoughts on his thoughts, too. 🙂
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