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.

Interoperability
October 10, 2007 Game talk
59 Comments

Some of you may have seen the announcement that IBM and Linden are looking to work together on creating standards to move avatars between worlds.

In fact, there was a whole “virtual worlds interoperability summit” that happened yesterday, with a bunch of folks at it, including Linden. I have a rough liveblog of Zero Linden’s talk on the matter which I will post up eventually. Many thanks to the folks like Peter Haggar of IBM who gathered everyone together to talk about the issues.

I think interoperability is a noble goal, and federations of worlds is an inevitable development. But aspects of the discussion made me nervous. Never mind the question of whether moving avatars across worlds is already patented or not, I was a bit bothered by assumptions that seemed to exist in the room (and said so, which made me somewhat unpopular, I think).

Among them: Read More “Interoperability”

Read More Interoperability
I design a game for Penny Arcade
October 10, 2007October 11, 2007 Gamemaking
37 Comments

Well, sort of.

So there I was, at the San Diego ComicCon, sidling past the Penny Arcade table on my way to say hi to Scott Kurtz at the PvP Online booth, when suddenly this Tycho person grabbed me and pulled me aside to rant and rave. He had an idea, he said. A crazy idea.

I should have known. Another wannabe game designer. But hey, this one has this semi-popular website and regularly trashes developers he doesn’t like. I had to stand still and listen, or risk professional doom.

Basically, he said, he had this idea for a construction game. “Like, SimCity?” I said. No, like with dumptrucks and demolition balls and cranes and architects with blueprints and everything. Like, real construction, Bob-the-Builder style.

And he wanted it as an MMO.

Great, I said, humoring him. I’m working on this thing called Metaplace, and you can make it yourself, and…

“No, no…” he said. “I want you to write up a design article. For the site. Like, a guest spot.”

Read More I design a game for Penny Arcade
Multiverse interoperates with Google Earth
October 9, 2007 Game talk
3 Comments

It looks like Multiverse has become the first to make importing SketchUp and Google Earth terrain data a reality.

This is an important step towards accepting widely used standard formats for virtual world data.

Read More Multiverse interoperates with Google Earth
Charlie Stross’ HALTING STATE
October 8, 2007 Game talk, Reading
5 Comments

So, I just finished reading Halting State.

This is the best fictional take ever written about virtual worlds. It beats out Cory Doctorow’s “Anda’s Game” and Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End, IMHO. If only because it just nails the actual consequences, the actual way things work, and so on. It helps that it’s wrapped in a tasty virtual bank heist, with spy story overtones.

Among the stuff that pops up, “namechecked” so to speak: PvP sploits. God mode. ORLY. Zombie flash mobs. Leveraging ARGs for real work. Impositional game design. VC bubble shenanigans. Cross-world avatar portability. Cons and cosplay. Discworld. LARPing. 4th edition D&D. Second Life. Mirror worlds.

I could go on, but it’s clear that Charlie knows his stuff. I now have this sneaking suspicion he’s been lurking among us for quite some time, quietly spying. 😉

Read More Charlie Stross’ HALTING STATE
Penny Arcade guest column on VATSIM
October 8, 2007October 8, 2007 Game talk
2 Comments

Penny Arcade is doing guest posts, and the one today is a good primer on VATSIM, the Flight Simulator MMO most people have never heard of.

Read More Penny Arcade guest column on VATSIM

Meta

Policies

Find Raph Online