Quotulatiousness

September 30, 2009

Felicia Day interview in Wired

Filed under: Gaming, Media — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 09:21

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.

September 29, 2009

The Guild, Season 3 Episode 5

Filed under: Gaming, Humour — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:07

<br /><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&#038;vid=d492d422-9f08-481f-a6c7-e0f096cf614e" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 5: Application&#39;d">Video: Season 3 &#8211; Episode 5: Application&#39;d</a>

September 22, 2009

The Guild, Season 3 Episode 4

Filed under: Gaming, Humour — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 15:36

<br /><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&#038;vid=2db36212-baaf-4fe6-9cc5-cdefe4b27f40" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 4: Get it back!">Video: Season 3 &#8211; Episode 4: Get it back!</a>

And try to imagine the horror . . . or just go to http://finnsmulders.com/.

If you can’t get enough, here are some bloopers.

September 16, 2009

The Guild, Season 3 Episode 3

Filed under: Gaming, Humour — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 00:09

<br /><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&#038;vid=80a029bc-7a7a-4f6e-b63c-8c4e73975e20" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 3: Player Down">Video: Season 3 &#8211; Episode 3: Player Down</a>

August 20, 2009

New Guild Wars 2 trailer

Filed under: Gaming — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 12:08

I’m certainly looking forward to the as-yet-undetermined release date for Guild Wars 2. I resisted getting into the original Guild Wars, despite Victor’s strong enthusiasm for the game, but I eventually gave in . . . and I’m still playing it several hours per week now.

Here’s the new trailer. It certainly looks attractive, but you can’t tell much about game mechanics from the cinematics.

I’m hoping that they’ll retain the “flavour” of gameplay in the original, while still bringing the game up to the current state of the art in other areas. Call me an optimist . . .

August 8, 2009

This looks like a lot of fun

Filed under: Gaming, Technology — Tags: — Nicholas @ 00:07

H/T to Register Hardware.

July 15, 2009

Entertaining Timewaster

Filed under: Gaming, USA — Tags: — Nicholas @ 13:05

This should be a doddle for USians, but not so easy for those of us who always confuse those square-ish states in flyover country: Know Your States.

I managed 90%, but I dropped New Jersey accidentally, which certainly messed up my accuracy.

H/T to “JtMc” for the link.

(Cross-posted to the old blog, http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005585.html.)

July 13, 2009

Games for girls, critiqued

Filed under: Gaming, Technology — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 08:01

With all the unending uproar about how Grand Gears of BioDoomShockWar encourages violence and anti-social behaviour among boys, games for girls have been travelling under the radar. No longer:

Ridiculous Life Lessons From New Girl Games
Some parents worry that videogames might cause their children to become violent and antisocial, but what if the opposite were true? What if games could make kids exceedingly likable and fashionable?

A wave of new games for tween girls seeks to do just that, serving up innocuous gameplay designed to let players become perfect little princesses. Aimed at that lucrative, Hannah Montana-fueled intersection of childhood and adolescence, these games might give 8- to 12-year-olds their first experiences with fashion, make-up, popularity . . . even boys.

The weird thing is that you can view these “wholesome” games as being just as bad for girls as Grand Theft Auto’s random bloodshed and rampant criminality is for young, impressionable boys. And while GTA‘s influence on boys has been dissected to death, what about the Nintendo DS’ upcoming avalanche of games for tween girls? What kinds of values do preteens learn from these titles? Valuable life lessons, or bad habits?

Just for the record, I think kids are far more resilient than either class of critic can imagine. Playing a violent video game does not, in my experience, turn youngsters into nihilistic killers, nor would I expect girls to turn into proto-Stepford Wives after playing one of these “girly” games. Kids who have pre-existing problems may find more than just entertainment value in games, but (as with so many other “problems”), depriving everyone of the opportunity just to keep some people away from it isn’t the answer . . . nor — if our collective long experiences with prohibiting drugs, sex, alcohol, and risky behaviour of all kinds — will it be any more successful.

(Cross-posted to the old blog, http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005575.html.)

« Newer Posts

Powered by WordPress