December 16, 2009
December 4, 2009
New trailer for Guild Wars 2
Update: According to a Twitter update, Felicia Day (star of The Guild) did the voice of Zojja the Asuran in the trailer. Lots of speculation on the game can be found at massively.com.
November 26, 2009
Dragon Age: Origins . . . not all that original
Darkwatermuse tries Dragon Age: Origins, and is not overwhelmed with joy and mirth:
Dragon Age: Origins enjoyment mileage will depend greatly on each gamer’s experience and familiarity with the RPG genre as well as any recent history of head injuries known to have affected their memory.
If I wasn’t familiar with the long history of RPG D&D styled games I might find myself in agreement with the more cynical rankings the game has received. Scores of 4/5 and 8.5/10 are justified only if you’ve never actually installed or played any of the game’s predecessors or have been paid handsomely through a complex financing network connected to the game’s publisher’s marketing department.
[. . .]
DWM’s biggest annoyance? Being confined to these cartoon landscapes which are clearly represented as hexes somewhere in the bowels of the game’s engine but which are not rendered in the visual 3d world we’re forced to navigate through during endless hours of click-double-clicking either the left — no, try the right one this time — button.
Christ on a dungeon ration biscuit! Whose idea was it to leave the last 15% of the game’s coding to the dyslexic?
DWM asks the question few before dared to ask, is it necessary for me to have to endure the chronic sense of shame evoked when I click on part of the screen I can only then discover can’t actually be moved to? More fool me. Again. Excuse me for having failed to recognize that empty terrain is actually harder than a young adolescent dragon’s pecker during the bumpy bus ride to school.
There’s much more . . . I had to force myself not to quote the entire review. Very reminiscent of a Yahtzee game review, with less yellow-background animation (who, interestingly enough, has also reviewed DA:O recently).
WoW considered harmful, sued for damages
It must be a slow news week: a gamer in California claims that World of Warcraft is harmful, seeks damages in a law suit:
Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore subpoenaed in World of Warcraft lawsuit
What do you do when a videogame makes you miserable? You take its makers to court and get the Depeche Mode guitarist to testify on the nature of melancholy, of courseIn one of this year’s loonier lawsuits, Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore has been subpoenaed by an American videogamer and asked to testify on the subject of “alienation”. Erik Estavillo is suing the makers of World of Warcraft, alleging that the game has alienated him from the real, orc-less world.
According to the San Jose, California resident, World of Warcraft is a “harmful virtual environment” and its developers follow “sneaky and deceitful practices”. Despite this, Estavillo admits he “relies on videogames heavily for the little ongoing happiness he can achieve in this life”. He just wants World of Warcraft to cost less money. And to stop making him so sad.
Which brings us to Depeche Mode, those purveyors of angst and sorrow. Estavillo’s court filings put forward multi-instrumentalist songwriter Martin Gore as an expert witness on melancholy. Gore should be called to Santa Clara county superior court, Estavillio suggests, “since he himself has been known to be sad, lonely, and alienated, as can be seen in the songs he writes”.
November 24, 2009
The Guild Season 3 Episode 12
November 20, 2009
Tweet of the day: “Killing a story”
FakeAPStylebook:
When a story is killed it is worth 45 experience points and drops one item from Treasure Table B.
November 17, 2009
The Guild Season 3 Episode 11
November 12, 2009
“Mafia Wars” developer got too much into the spirit of the game
I hate to say it, but I’ve worked for folks with nearly this little class, so I readily believe him:
From the beginning, the profitability and viability of popular Facebook social networking games Mafia Wars and Farmville were predicated on the backs of scams, boasts Zynga CEO Mark Pincus in this video. “I did every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues,” he crows in the clip to a gathered bunch of fellow scumbag app developers.
In games like Mafia Wars, Farmville, YoVille and Vampires Live, you know, some of the major sources of all those garbage announcements cluttering up your Facebook, players compete to complete missions and level up. By leveling up, you can complete more difficult missions and fight off weaker opponents. You can wait for your various energies to regenerate naturally over time, or you can purchase with real money in-game boosts. Or, you can complete various lead generation offers, many of which are of the “answer page after page of questions and opt in and out of receiving various kinds of spam” variety. Some of them install malware and adware that is impossible to remove. And some of them secretly subscribe you to monthly recurring $9.99 credit card charges.
Couple this reckless profiteering with in-game incentives for recruiting more players into your network and a constant blast (if you let it) of promotional messages to your friends, and it’s like Amway discovered Facebook and threw a gangster-themed house party.
November 10, 2009
The Guild Season 3, Episode 10
October 27, 2009
The Guild Halloween special
No embedding this time, so you’ll just have to follow the link.
October 20, 2009
The Guild, Season 3 Episode 8 “+10 to Bravery”
And a gag reel.
October 15, 2009
The Guild, Season 3 Episode 7
Also, Felicia Day’s commentary on this episode.
October 6, 2009
The Guild, Season 3 Episode 6: Newbtastic
September 30, 2009
Felicia Day interview in Wired
Felicia Day, creator of The Guild, interviewed by Gus Mastrapa:
Felicia Day’s stardom wasn’t handed down to her from on high by Hollywood. She’s guest-starred on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and House, but most of her legions of fans still know her because of a show she wrote and produced herself that doesn’t air on any network.
Now in its third season, The Guild — Day’s microbudget comedic web series about a group of online gamers — enjoys financing from Microsoft as well as cushy placement on the Xbox 360 dashboard. But fans are still discovering Day and her nerdy ways online.
After landing a plum role in Joss Whedon’s Emmy-winning web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog last year, Day’s got a bona fide viral hit on her hands this year, thanks to a funny promo video for Season 3 of The Guild.
If you’ve ever done online gaming, especially MMORPG gaming, you’ll probably enjoy watching The Guild. If you haven’t done any online gaming, you may not find the humour to be to your taste.
Or you have no taste.
Your call.
