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.
Virtual Worlds News reports that Stardoll has reached 10 million registered users, with 6 million monthly uniques (it’s so nice to see people reporting uniques lately!).
Their audience is 94% tween and teen girls — which is just extraordinary. They’re the most popular site on the Net for girls ages 9-17.
But there’s not much world there, beyond a fairly simplistic “virtual suite.” Which begs the question, how much world do you really need?
I suppose it is possible for new interfaces to go too far. The link is to a USA Today article about a new game from Sega that analyzes stress patterns in your voice to arrive at (dubious) opinions about words they are having you read off the screen. Like, “marriage,” “divorce,” and “affair.”
Maybe the intent is to make the words come true. Then no one could say that games don’t have an impact. If not on society, then at least one your personal relationships. 😉
CEDEC has kindly invited me to speak, and I will be saying something along these lines:
The New Gaming Landscape
The games industry is under attack, and in response it is evolving rapidly. In every part of the world, the evolution has been in different directions. This talk will cover the major business trends driving change (rising costs, team sizes, online connectivity, and the rise of the Web versus closed platforms). We will discuss some of the changes happening from a design perspective, such as art games, serious games, online games, user-created content, web games, and so on. The goal will be to have a better understanding of both the changing landscape and the sorts of game design that we must explore in order to take part in the new global industry.
This is my first time ever in Japan… I am really looking forward to it.
IGDA San Diego has posted the audio and video of the SIGGRAPH Sandbox panel I was on.
I haven’t reviewed it to see if we were any good. 😉
