Asteroids, the movie

 Posted by (Visited 6763 times)  Watching, Writing
Jul 022009
 

Apparently, Candyland, Battleship, and Asteroids were optioned for movies. To my surprise, everyone focuses on Asteroids. “How can they make a movie of that??” People keep saying this but they’re wrong!

A motley crowd of ethnically diverse people thrown together by circumstance are traveling in a hermetically sealed spaceship with an incredibly valuable cargo. Inside it is dark, and sweaty, and clangy. The cargo must reach Earth before everyone there dies of the mysterious alien plague. The clock is ticking. Then — SABOTAGE! The ship falls out of hyperspace in the midst of a huge asteroid field, full of giant tumbling mountains, with deep dark crevices and deadly pockets of methane gas that spout forth in majestic geysers. They must jet and shoot to stay alive, and find fuel to get them back out. The ominous alien ships are circling, just waiting for them to make a mistake, and unbeknowst to them, one of the crew on board is a traitor to the human race…

Battleship, now, that movie will suck. 🙂

WordPress plugin for embedding Metaplace

 Posted by (Visited 7664 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 022009
 

Dara Roesner’s WordPress plugin for embedding Metaplace worlds is now up on WordPress.org. So you can grab it there, or you can go to your Dashboard, click Plugins, click Add New, and search for “metaplace.” There will be two results, actually, because SignpostMarv’s MetaverseID plugin also supports Metaplace. 🙂

In any case, from there you can install the plugin automatically! It supports both a sidebar widget and a tag for putting worlds within page or post content.

A few other embedding options have popped up already, by the way. There’s a phpBB setup walkthrough here as well, which will add [metaplace][/metaplace] bbCode to your forums. A few folks have also put it in an iGoogle gadget.

Great article on essential RPGs

 Posted by (Visited 5675 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Jul 022009
 

Game Design Essentials: 20 RPGs on Gamasutra is an excellent and in-depth look at RPGs.

I do miss at least some mention of MUD or DikuMUD, rather than jumping direct to World of Warcraft as the sole exemplar there; almost all MMORPGs today draw from those roots. And there’s also a curious lack of mention of the influence of free-form stuff or more storytelling-based RPGs, even in pen & paper.

Still, an excellent article.

CompuServe Classic is shutting down

 Posted by (Visited 6057 times)  Misc  Tagged with:
Jul 022009
 

The whimper at the end of an era.

CompuServe, the corporate entity, dates to 1969 but the CompuServe Classic online service for consumers debuted in 1979. In 1987 it was the flagship of online services with 380,000 users. A 1991 TV commercial trumpets CompuServe as the only online service with more than a half-million members.
Unfortunately time, and its acquisition by AOL, has not been kind to CompuServe. In recent years it has barely been marketed. Its Web site looks like a throwback to the (gasp!) 20th century. The “build” date on version 4.0.2 of CompuServe for Windows NT, the latest version of the access software for CompuServe Classic, is January 11, 1999.

— The Paper PC: CompuServe Classic: So Long, Old Friend.

I was never one of the hordes of truly hardcore gamers who hovered around the CompuServe and GEnie games — no money, you see. I was in high school at the time. Every once in a while I could sneak on for ten minute snatches — my dad was always horrified at the bill. He used TheSource too, because it was “more useful and had less games and distractions” I seem to recall.

CompuServe 2000 will still be around, but I am not sure anyone cares. 🙂

More on China and virtual currency

 Posted by (Visited 6197 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 012009
 

The PlaynoEvil blog has the best summary i have seen of the key issues — and they still have wideranging implications!

– If the service is shut off, customers are entitled to a refund of unused currency.

– “virtual currency should be exchanged only for virtual goods and services provided by the issuer of the currency” (this would cause problems for a lot of the third party currency folks here in the US and elsewhere)

– Companies already involved in virtual currency trading are required to register with the local cultural affairs bureau within three months.

– Minors may not buy virtual money. THIS IS POTENTIALLY HUGE. If enforced, this would essentially shut down most MMOs that use the Free-to-Play business model.

— via Chinese Government DOES NOT ban Gold Farming – Puts Free-to-Play in Jeopardy Instead – PlayNoEvil Game Security News & Analysis.

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