Dwell On It » Video Games

Gaia Online raises $50,000 for disaster relief, uncaps donations

Tateru Nino — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:51:53 +0000

Due to the severity of problems in Japan, and the terrific response of the Gaia Online community in purchasing the fund-raising items that are on offer, Gaia Online has removed the original $10,000 donation cap.

Gaia Online joins in virtual-world fund-raising for Japan disaster victims

Tateru Nino — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 06:00:26 +0000

Gaia Online has also entered the ring with its own fund-raising efforts for victims of the disasters in Japan.

New comic: Public Service

Tateru Nino — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:09:49 +0000

Jump to the new comic, or new readers can click the banner to begin at the rather rough beginning:

The 13th Annual Independent Games Festival finalists

Tateru Nino — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 02:47:57 +0000

The 13th IGF is drawing to a close this year, and the list of finalists provides some very stiff competition, particularly with the likes of Minecraft and SpyParty in the mix.

It’s the DLC, darnit

Tateru Nino — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:00:41 +0000

I’ve been thinking about The Sims 3 and Bioshock 2, and Dragon Age and other titles which I just haven’t picked up (and it doesn’t look like I am likely to). I know why that is. It’s the DLC/addons.

Millions of Gaia Online Members to Guest Judge 2010 New York Comic Con Masquerade

Tateru Nino — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:54:27 +0000

Gaia Online users get to proxy-vote at the Comic-Con masquerade live via webcast on 9 October. Cool notion.

Play it now – Dwarf Fortress

Tateru Nino — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 06:14:33 +0000

Seven dwarfs, a wagon with tools and supplies, and a landscape rich in raw materials. Set up a colony, protect your dwarfs, expand and grow rich.

That’s Dwarf Fortress, perhaps the deepest and most intricate sandbox simulation game I’ve seen, and I have been meaning to write it up for a long time.


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Wow

Tateru Nino — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 03:35:24 +0000

Okay, so my reaction to the announcement of Bioshock Infinite was almost extraordinarily lukewarm.

Play it now – Energy Tycoon

Tateru Nino — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 12:37:25 +0000

Where did this come from?

While it’s not really very complete, Energy Tycoon has come quite a long way in production and polish without seeming to catch much attention.


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Corporate missteps and empty suits

Tateru Nino — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:52:00 +0000

Luke Halliwell, formerly a technical lead at the pretty-much defunct Realtime Worlds, has a multipart post-mortem up on how the company went wrong, blew through $100 million bucks in funding and went out of business just ten weeks after launching its flagship MMOG.

Play it now – Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Tateru Nino — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 19:27:35 +0000

Or maybe don’t play this one, actually. I likes me a good horror game, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a very good horror game. It’s so very good, in fact, that some of you will probably hate it.

It’s from the folks who did Penumbra, so I pre-ordered this without much in the way of hesitation.

Gaia Online Delivers an Epic New Eco-Adventure with Frontier Skies

Tateru Nino — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:12:41 +0000

Apparently the folks at Atomic PR have their eye on me, because they just sent me a copy of their latest press-release. I actually quite like getting press-releases, since certain companies have been quite… erratic about sending me their releases at all.

Anyway, this is from the Gaia Online folks who don’t take themselves too seriously, which I definitely feel is a beneficial trait.


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Give me some power-tools, and lock up your grandkids

Tateru Nino — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:45:55 +0000

So, Philip Rosedale, Linden Lab’s CEO thinks that Second Life should be more like the iPhone.

Is that, expensive, shiny, rigidly controlled by the manufacturer, and coupled to a heavily-monetised Web-based store?

Play it now — Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale

Tateru Nino — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 07:49:08 +0000

Once upon a time there was a girl and a fairy.

The girl, Recette Lemongrass, lived on her own because her father had gone adventuring and not returned.

The fairy, Tear, worked for the Terme Finance company, and Recette’s father’s debts were about to come due.

Reasoning that getting the money back was better than taking Recette’s house and auctioning it at a loss, Tear helped Recette set up a small item shop on the main street of the town. Just the sort of thing to cater to locals, and the hordes of hopeful adventurers and treasure-seekers needing supplies.

Working off your debt retailing doesn’t sound very exciting, but Recette and Tear’s adventure is only just beginning.

The end of Acclaim?

Tateru Nino — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:12:01 +0000

Acclaim Enertainment was a notable video-game publisher from 1987 to 2004. After a history of lawsuits, talk of shady dealings and piracy, and criticism for tasteless and offensive advertising campaigns, Acclaim Entertainment finally was faced with falling sales, and mounting debts.


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The used-games market

Tateru Nino — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:12:24 +0000

Games publishers have been making increasing amounts of noise about the used market for games. So, let’s look at another industry example.


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Stop that game! (2)

Tateru Nino — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:54:50 +0000

There are many grounds for which people object to certain kinds of video games. Another in the list concerns wargames that are made about modern conflicts, either comparatively recent ones, or actually ongoing military actions.


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Stop that game!

Tateru Nino — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:09:38 +0000

Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video-game following the fictional story of a man of Sicilian descent who joins an Italian crime family in the period around 1950, a time when Italian crime families were near the height of their power and influence. It’s a familiar theme, having been portrayed in books, games, movies and television for decades.

UNICO National, the largest Italian American service organisation in the USA who have never seen or played the game, nor apparently been in contact with anyone who has (because at the time of their complaint, it had not been released) are calling it “a pile of racist nonsense” and demanding that the game not be released until all Italians and Italian-Americans are removed from it.

It strikes me that this would result in a rather substandard story.


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Realtime Worlds rehires some MyWorld staff. Grooming for sale

Tateru Nino — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:53:44 +0000

Troubled developer, Realtime Worlds has gone into administration now – an insolvency measure few companies successfully return from. Selling Project: MyWorld could pull it off for them, however.

Dwell On It » Video Games

Gaia Online raises $50,000 for disaster relief, uncaps donations

Gaia Online joins in virtual-world fund-raising for Japan disaster victims

New comic: Public Service

The 13th Annual Independent Games Festival finalists

It’s the DLC, darnit

Recommended reading: keeping and gaining users in the long haul

Millions of Gaia Online Members to Guest Judge 2010 New York Comic Con Masquerade

Play it now – Dwarf Fortress

Wow

Play it now – Energy Tycoon

Corporate missteps and empty suits

Play it now – Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Gaia Online Delivers an Epic New Eco-Adventure with Frontier Skies

Give me some power-tools, and lock up your grandkids

Play it now — Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale

The end of Acclaim?

The used-games market

Stop that game! (2)

Stop that game!

Realtime Worlds rehires some MyWorld staff. Grooming for sale