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

Month: April 2006 (Page 2 of 2)

Being Loved Long Time – Virtually

1Up has discovered that there are prostitutes in Second Life! Of course, if you’re reading this blog, you probably already knew that. MMO Prostitutes have been around forever. In Meridian 59, taking off your chain mail shirt to show the ratty brown undershirt underneath was about as sexy as you could act, yet we had our first virtual prostitute day one. World’s oldest profession indeed.

Still, there’s no doubt that the culture of SL takes this to the next level. Scott recently linked to the Second Life Escort Ratings (which the article mentions, and is definitely worth a read). What I found more interesting is people working to solve the primary problem when selling this particular… service. Continue reading

Government At Work: Giving Bad Games Free Press

Quick – which review is more likely to make a kid run out and buy 25 to Life? From The Pennsylvania congress, via GamePolitics:

“…and be it further RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives respectfully acknowledge law enforcement officers and honor the memory of the brave men and women killed in the line of duty by expressing support for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and antiviolence campaign…”

Continue reading

Vote Me For Most Successful Game Blog!

I’m hoping to get into Guinness. Seems that they no longer need any sort of actual metric, just someone to throw some cash their way to put an ad in their good book. From GameSpot.

Lara Croft has today been awarded a Guinness World Record that recognises her as the “most successful human video game heroine.” The Tomb Raider star won the prize for “transcending the boundaries of video games and becoming a recognisable figure in mainstream society”.

Continue reading

Meanwhile, In The Land of Make-Believe

I haven’t talked about the game ratings thing at all lately, largely because Game Politics does it so much better than I do. Blogroll them if you’re not already.

That being said, GP turned me on to this story of the Virginia Legislature trying to get Mature games with labels that are at least 3 inches X 3 inches square (or put another way, covering up a full quarter of the front of a standard DVD game case). Clicky clicky for a general mockup.

Brenda Brathwaite goes on to point out the obvious: Game Ratings are already much larger and more prominent than movie ratings on DVD. This is not to say that there aren’t steps we can’t take to improve how our industry is percieved and that ratings are accurate. It would just be nice to see politicians display some appropriate perspective.

I See Ugly People

A conversation, last night, in the computer den, while playing WoW.

Me: You’re ugly.
Fiancee: What?
Me: Really, you’re like the most hideous thing I’ve ever seen.
Fiancee: …..
Me: Um, I meant in the game! Really!

Apparently, a bug last night made it so the player portraits you were seeing didn’t accurately reflect your groupmates, so it turned her spunky red-headed dwarf into a blonde, hag-faced dwarf-like beast with two black eyes. On her machine, my gnome had a different mustache. Continue reading

More Proof Localization Is Hard

I’ve frequently pounded on the desk and said that localization means more than turning ‘Yes, Mister’ into ‘Si, senor’, and being sure your font draws the tilde. Localization means actually understanding how that content must be changed to capture the hearts and minds of different territories.

Why is this hard? Because it’s hard to understand who likes what, and why. For example, CSI: Miami is the #1 American TV show on the worldwide stage . It’s #12 here, and I think most people who watch it do so because, well, it’s so bad it’s snarkworthy. I know that’s why I watch it – usually in the background while going through bloglines. Let’s just say for me, I’m actually a little happy when our cut-rate DVR accidentally deletes an episode. And this is the #1 American show worldwide?

Other monster worldwide hits include Baywatch and Dallas. Which is to say, while the rest of the world hates Ugly Americans, apparently they love to watch them on the telly.

Newer posts »

© 2024 Zen Of Design

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑