Archives for 2015

The creators of the ColecoVision are back with a new cartridge-based console—theverge.com

I’m reviewing articles for this week’s WIGI Weekly and just discovered that Carnegie-Mellon is studying something I have been thinking about for years! Blending different mechanics together in a single game to bring different kinds of gamers together in co-op gameplay!
“Asymmetrical Cooperative Gaming (ACG) is a semester-long project at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center aimed at solving this problem by merging multiple game genres into a single game, allowing players to play together while…

Too bad there’s no “like” button on Gamasutra. . .
Lucas Pope and the rise of the 1-bit ‘dither-punk’ aesthetic—gamasutra.com

Google Cardboard ships to NY Times subscribers. VR not quite there yet for news delivery, but steps are being taken!
The New York Times VR app took me inside the news—engadget.com

Cardboard is getting more interesting. . .
YouTube adds stereoscopic VR, ‘virtual movie theater’ for Google Cardboard—theverge.com

“Will we all be playing Call of Candycraft Modern Skylander Crush Warfare soon?” I hope so! I can’t wait to play this game! It sounds awesome! I hope it comes out on Android so I can play it on my tablet! In all seriousness, though, I have been thinking about this acquisition and what I came up with on Monday is still my prevailing opinion: “…we have consistently said over the years that there is only…

I’d like to take this opportunity to say the Women in Games International Community Management team is super duper awesome! Yay!
5 Ways to Support Your Community Manager—gamasutra.com

“This is an uninformed, misguided, and unfortunate report. If the overall issue was not so serious, it would be laughable that the UN is citing this work. It is willful ignorance to utilize such incredibly outlandish and outdated data. ESA strongly supports empowering women and minorities and creating an inclusive digital environment that welcomes all perspectives. However, the UN does this important issue a great disservice and undercuts its credibility by spreading ridiculous…

This is fascinating. I’m not sure if the comment about the specific psych tests they’re using is correct, but the overall ethical question is an interesting one. As part of the DARPA serious games project I worked on, I implemented quite a bit of usability testing, some of which took place at the University of Central Florida. (A fabulous place for advanced game studies, by the way.) Due to the university’s and the project’s human use…

I finished the book, “Ready Player One” this morning. (I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I started reading.) It’s a fiction book about a future world where everyone spends most of their time in a VR universe. The book (a signed copy!) was given away in the registration bags at Oculus Connect 2 last week. I haven’t read an actual book made of paper in a long time. I read it…

Hmn, I’m interested in hearing more about this. That is, what does this ruling really mean to Twitch streamers, major YouTube game reviewers, YouTube video content creators, etc. “Means little” seems to be a rather simplistic analysis. The “Dancing Baby” was ruled fair use of a copyrighted song. That seems significant to me. . .

“A new study released by the Entertainment Software Association has revealed that adult women now occupy the largest demographic in the gaming industry. Women over 18 made up a whopping 36 percent of the gaming population, followed by adult men at 35 percent.”
Adult Women Are Now the Largest Demographic in Gaming—dailydot.com

Here’s a great article including interviews with principle scientists who are part of DARPA’s Verigames serious games project. You’ll hear from SRI’s Dr. John Murray and the University of Washington’s Dr. Michael Ernst, both major parts of serious games created to crowd source the important computer science function of formal verification using video games.
The project is coming up for completion after over three years of research. This article describes some of the important findings…

More science fun from the fascinating Verigames project I’ve been working on with all kinds of smart game developers and DARPA!
GamesBeat: Help DARPA improve national security with this flash game
And if you’re around June 19, 2015: Binary Fission Live In-Game Chat with Developers on Wednesday July 1st at 1:00 pm PDT/4:00 pm EDT! Ask questions and get tips from devs! Get a chance to try…