• Gangs and Guilds in MMOs, again

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 2 Comments

    A long while ago I posted about some research that showed that gangs and guilds seemed to have mathematical characteristics in common.  A few days ago, I got this sent to me by someone at the department of CS and Engineering at the University of Minnesota:

    Hi,

    I saw a previous post on your blog about similarities between MMOs and street gangs. Me and my research group (VWO) recently published a paper which contradicts the previous results. We thought you may find it of interest.

    Thanks, Muhammad

    The blog post about the paper can be found here, with some conclusions, and you can also read the pre-print PDF of the paper. It looks like this is based on the the same set of Everquest II data that many researchers have been using for a while now — I am unsurprised to see Dmitri Williams credited.

  • The Sunday Song: August Timepieces

    Hours Categories Music
    Comments 5 Comments

    Recently some colleagues at Disney gave me a few gifts in thanks for giving a talk to some folks internally. Apparently Warren Spector picked out one of the gifts: a harmonic capo (he knows I play guitar, you see; been a few years, but we’ve jammed together). This little beastie sits on the 12th fret and presses down very lightly on the strings with rubber feet. Unlike a regular capo, though, it does not depress the strings all the way — instead, it sits lightly enough to cause an open pluck of that string to play a harmonic note — those bell-like tones you hear sometimes out of a guitar. But you can play under the capo, and still get standard notes. The result is that you play a regular chord, and any time you play an open string, you get a harmonic instead.

    Well, I had to try it out. Beautiful on the Baby Taylor; didn’t fit on my Blueridge (the heel on the neck is too thick)… and just barely fit on the 1962 Gibson, which is what you’ll hear if you click the link. Because once I had it, I started to noodle about in open G, and, well… got this done in the last couple of hours:

    – download “August Timepieces”

    Hope you like it!

    Read More “The Sunday Song: August Timepieces”

  • Videogame History Museum in danger

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 3 Comments

    If you have been to E3 lately, you have seen the awesome stuff that the Videogame History Museum puts together for its shows. If not, check out this video:

    But now Gamasutra is reporting that Time May Be Running Out For The Videogame History Museum, because they have been unable to raise the money via Kickstarter to continue what they are doing by opening an actual physical museum.

    They’ve got 12 days to go, and are only halfway there. If you want to keep this charity going and help them towards their goal of having a permanent museum location, please visit their Kickstarter page and donate!

  • Indie Game Challenge #3

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 1 Comment

    Got this in the mail, and thought some of you might be interested!

    The third annual Indie Game Challenge is now open for entries! Don’t miss your chance to showcase your skills and catapult your professional gaming career to the next level.

    Presented by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), GameStop and The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, the competition offers almost $250,000 in prize monies and scholarships, including a $100,000 grand prize for the winning game. Finalists will also receive national exposure and be eligible for additional prize money by having their pitch videos posted on GameStop.com and GameStop TV for People’s Choice Award voting.

    Individuals or teams are asked to submit game betas and pitch videos by Oct. 3, 2011. Finalists will get the opportunity of a lifetime, will be flown to Las Vegas to attend the prestigious D.I.C.E. Summit, have a chance to showcase their games to top publishers in the video game industry set up by the IGC, and will be invited to attend the Indie Game Challenge Awards in February 2012.

    If you have a game that you/your team would like to submit, or to simply support independent game developers, visit www.indiegamechallenge.com. For questions about the registration process or game submissions, please email [email protected].

    Good luck!