http://covertcreations.com/blog randomly timed outputs from covert.c's thought matrix Sun, 24 Jun 2007 04:36:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2007/06/24/whoops/ 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 ... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2007/03/27/the-death-of-computer-games-magazine/ I made three images, summing up my thoughts on "now-gen". Click below for a couple more... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2007/02/21/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 ... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2007/02/05/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 ... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2007/01/24/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 ... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2007/01/17/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 ... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2006/12/09/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 ... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2006/11/16/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 ... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2006/10/23/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 ... http://covertcreations.com/blog/2006/10/06/mmorpgs-security-and-the-grand-promise-of-middleware/