Woot we’re back!

I intended on posting a warning and then leave the site for a month, but Yahoo acted a little quicker than I imagined (a lot, actually!). They took it down within the hour. Conversely, they were very slow bringin’ it back.

And I didn’t even have the common decency to give you a 404. Sorries =/

Anyhow, lets get back to the gamin’!

Cheers…

A series of business miscues… and the last vestiges of a rational gaming press have finally succumbed to the forces of stupidification.

Computer Games Magazine, my favourite magazine in the industry (and quite possibly, ever) has fallen. It takes with it another promising venture, Massive Magazine.

Tom Chick, Henry Jenkins, Cindy Yans, and a host of other fantabulous writers and illustrators will now presumably move to other places to share their insights (or hilarity, depending on which you’re looking for).

It’s hard to describe what a stunning loss this is for me. I even shipped a select boxload of back-issues to Australia. And up until this month, a nice treat would arrive monthly in my email - the digital edition.

It was a magazine that reinforced the notion that games are not just for teenagers and nut-jobs, but “normal” adults like you and I (yeah right!).

Many people have had their say, so I’ll just post a couple comments from CGOnline’s forums.

CG, ye will be missed. Massive, we barely knew ye.

–

dand3
Re:It’s official: this site is dead - 2007/03/14 04:16

I am so very sorry. I hope a “White Knight” picks up the magazines. Both are unique; CGM is not written for the socially challenged 13 year old market, and the MMO genre is ripe for a dedicated magazine.

I enjoyed Steve B.’s editorials, editorial direction, and editorial skills. I also enjoyed seeing Cindy’s considerable growth as a writer over the years.

Jimivern
Re:It’s official: this site is dead - 2007/03/15 18:09
This is dissapointing. Computer Games was one of the few (possibly only?) magazines that didn’t cater to the assinine spike TV demographic that the gaming community is stereotyped into. Heavy on text and ideas, low on screenshots and gratuitous swearing this mag will be missed.

I’ll be looking for where the writers go though, Cindy Yans, Steve Bauman and Tom Chick are some of the best gaming writers out there.

I made three images, summing up my thoughts on “now-gen”.

Continue reading Game consoles are the new soft drink….

A big thank-you

Two years, 56 posts, and my adventure in ascii gaming continues.

On this very happy anniversary, I get to pause, poke my head out of the sand, and begin the flagellation.

First off, I’d like to extend a welcome to many new readers, and thank some old ones. For your great patience as you’ve slogged through lengthy articles over these two years… a sincere thank-you!! I really appreciate it.

Continue reading My adventures in ASCII…

As mentioned in my previous article, gamers expect a community from the game publisher. In a sense, this demonstrates the unique position of videogames in the landscape of entertainment. Consequentially, feedback and community become a cost of doing business.

I believe we’re quickly reaching the point where publisher-run communities no longer serve their purpose. The communities are too vast. Moreover, the gamers themselves have evolved toward a deeper level of sophistication. Gamers are the reason we’ve come this far, and we simply demand more.

Continue reading Massively online communities : the genre paradox II…

The nature of things

When online gaming was getting started, there was a certain novelty in spending vast swathes of time with the same people on the same game servers, night after night. It seemed inevitable that we’d eventually all team up. And team up we did. Forming groups is the most basic of human qualities, and is certainly no less true in virtual worlds.

Continue reading Massively online communities : the genre paradox…

Is there a point where pure expertise takes you far from the elemental principles of your subject? Such that your perspective actually becomes skewed? It’s an interesting question, and certainly a difficult one. History is replete with experts that get blindsided by innovation or worse, redundancy.

When listening to someone as clearly expert as John Carmack, it’s absolutely clear that there are few that can exceed his knowledge or experience in graphics technology. Every year, John delivers the keynote at his own QuakeCon convention. It’s somewhat of an industry joke that no one really understands what he says there. His whole manner exudes someone totally steeped in technology (more specifically, graphics technology). It’s always interesting, even if you don’t fully grasp every last ounce of his wisdom. He gets up, delivers a clinically fascinating speech, and leaves.

Continue reading Carmack unplugged…

Innovation is surprising. It’s not something for which we already have a front-row seat. Its the thing that leaps out of the darkness, hitting us straight in the mouth. And we’re happy for it. Cold water can be good, it wakes us out of our reverie. The next wave. I see the wishful promises across print, spun out of relentless animated GIFs, flooding across the wires, and streamed into my home. Wireless and Mobile Entertainment. “Come”, they say. “Let us show you nextgen”. I walked through a door once, beckoned by my host. Someone was talking. “Craig, here’s the future.”

Continue reading Immersion, anywhere…

Quiz. What do these three things have in common?

a) Hockey
b) Artillery
c) MMORPG Design

Give up?

The answer : it’s where you aim your shot.

In the immediacy of hockey, players don’t pass to where their teammate is, but where they’ll be in the next 0.5 seconds. In artillery, shots follow a ballistic trajectory. In sum, the game isn’t won by playing the current game. It’s won by anticipation.

Continue reading Aiming at Vanguard…

A big congratulations goes out to Neardeath Studios on the 10th year of Meridian 59. What a fantastic accomplishment. M59 is the first, the longest-running, and most respected MMORPG of them all.

This article is in response to M59 co-creator Brian “Psychochild” Green’s post, “Why middleware will not save us“. He hits pretty hard, and sets his sights on the “middleware market” in the MMORPG space. I’ll say I agree with the bulk of it. Yet, some of the specifics cause me trouble. Thus this post.

His argument noted two levels of the MMORPG industry, the indies and the AAAs (”the blockbuster games”). The gist of his article is that, as a technological cure-all, MMORPG middleware companies fail in their promise. They will make little impact on game development in MMORPG games. A gross-oversimplification on my part, so I’d encourage you go read Psychochild’s post.

First off, how does one define middleware?

Continue reading MMORPGs, Security, and the Grand Promise of Middleware…