The design and business of gaming from the perspective of an experienced developer

Category: Personal (Page 7 of 9)

Hot Coffee Panel

Tonight I did the Hot Coffee panel. I think it went well. I was smart enough to get one panelist who clearly wanted to agitate – which was a good thing. Nothing’s more dull than watching a panel with three guys who agree with each other. Still, I think there were some people in the crowd who were shocked that a game industry professional under the age of 40 would be preaching the need for social responsibility. Continue reading

Random Things that Amused Me This Week

J of Damned Vulpine pointed out to me that the frontpage of the Miami New Times web site has a GTA theme. Another sign that video games are permeating into the mainstream. There appears to be no permanent link, unfortunately.

The Senate is proposing to ban Chimeras. Metafilter snarks well on the topic:

I can’t believe the stupidity of our leaders – to make all this noise about Chimeras when anyone with sense knows that Hydras are much more dangerous. To say nothing of the corrupting influence on our youth of the Satyr and River-Nymph Agenda.

 I’ve been saving this one for a while: the Wilhelm Scream. You’ve heard it dozens of times in dozens of films, including Indiana Jones, Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings film. Originally a sound clip called “as Man Being Eaten by Alligator”, it was originally recorded in the 1950s, and has been making cameos in films ever since. The audio file at this link gives a few good examples of the Wilhelm in action.

Lastly, GrowRPG is a neat little flash puzzle. Good for wasting an hour or two.

Virtual Apple

If you need me this weekend, I’ll be reliving my childhood.

Thanks to FTA, Kegs, and the online Apple community, you can now relive, play, and enjoy old Apple 2 games and other disks through the internet and web browser. This web site uses an ActiveX application and Apple IIgs emulator to automatically download and play most Apple 2 disk images online. To play a game, just select the disk from the menu and click on Yes to automatically download the ActiveX emulator and disk images. (Note: Requires Internet Explorer and Windows) Don’t worry, there isn’t any spyware to worry about, and it’s completely free!

I remember when the Apple 2 GS was the new hot-shit computer coming down the pike. Now, it can be replicated in an ActiveX browser (albeit only every fifth game or so seems to work). Go play it before The Man ™ shuts it down.

Found via GameDevBlog.

Everybody’s Doing It — It’ll Make You Feel Good

Following Scott’s footsteps of posting laziness, I present to you some of the more bizarre search strings that somehow pointed to my blog in the month of April.

phone sex
kids having sex
do people watch too much tv
squirrel huge nuts
elephant graveyard
god of war screenshots fleshbot
keep em separated
cry more
aizu wakamatsu
high school problems
jesus billboard
boobies
diet coke marketing
huge nuts
jesus_230
nude or naked jade empire
project entropia what can i do with sweat
strip tetris
ubiq philadelphia
war booboo
effects of watching too much television
evil bastages
george clooney eyebrows
god of war screenshots nudity
how to make money project entropia
jack-jack incredibles fanfic
jesus with guinness
mammaries pics
online free not even a game card not even a pass toontown
pathological lying
person that made the mario bros.
pretty rickey grind on me
project entropia how to make money
swg down
robbed a kentucky fried chicken with a fork

You people frighten me.

I’m Watching Too Much TV

Dave Rickey has something to say about the panic that television executives are feeling about the rise of computer games as an alternative life diversion. By his count, MMO players who used to watch the 28 hours of TV that most people watch now play MMOs for 20 hours a week and watch TV for 8. Which is to say, they’re not necessarily socially more degenerative than the norm. Hell, they’re the ones actually interacting with other people!

All that being said, I’m watching too much TV right now. Getting a DVR will do this to you. I go through phases with hobbies, and currently, I’m playing MTGO on a laptop while my fiance watches TV. A DVR helps a lot – erasing the commercials makes it much easier to justify wasting any amount of your life on TV. Here’s what I’m watching. Continue reading

Making the Funny Pages Funny Again

When I was a kid, I faithfully read the comic strips every day. Somehow, somewhere I outgrew comics (and given I design friggin’ video games for a living, that’s quite an indictment). I suspect it’s partially because I no longer have a tangible newspaper anymore, prefering to use online sources for my news.

As such, I only read good comics that are available online: Dilbert (which is a lot funnier, once you’ve worked at 3DO), Penny Arcade (which is pretty funny whenever they’re not writing in-jokes that only they get) and Sinfest (which is pretty funny as long as he stays away from the cute pets).

Anyway, now I can keep track of the rest of those comics that I don’t read anymore with “I read the comics so you don’t have to” (edit: now the “Comics Curmudgeon”). Reading his insightful summaries on the strangeness in the comics is like getting in touch with old friends, while at the same time reminding me how happy I am that I don’t read these on a daily basis.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Zen Of Design

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑