March 29, 2005
Halo 2. Resident Evil 4. God of War. While I haven't played all three (okay, I've only played Halo 2 so far), they all seem to have something in common: they all present unexpected contextual actions that, in my limited experience, deepen the gameplay experience. In the coverage of Resident Evil 4 …
March 28, 2005
This will be the last of my entries bitching about the state of learning in the computer sciences. Frankly, this nonsense is taking up too much of my time, and I have many, many other tasks to complete. My future journals will return to contemplating the interactions of computer science with other …
March 25, 2005
I've long been critical of the way programming is taught in most computer science programs, at least in the US. I've had the opportunity to partake of two: UNC Greensboro, where I was enrolled for two semesters; and Stony Brook University, where I am taking my second CS course (for upper-division c…
March 22, 2005
I watch a lot of TV. I mean a LOT of TV. I also listen to the local urban radio stations quite a lot when I'm driving, though sometimes I elect for jazz or swing. Anyway, there had been a lot of buzz on the NY and CT hip-hop stations about 50 Cent having a houseparty and running a contest/promotion…
March 21, 2005
"Blender sucks! That UI is absolutely braindead"
"You just haven't gotten it yet. Once you do, you'll appreciate a lot of the thought that went into it."
"Bullshit! Blender sucks, man!"
While half participating in yet another debate of the above sort, I remembered a comment from OK/Cancel about the co…
"You just haven't gotten it yet. Once you do, you'll appreciate a lot of the thought that went into it."
"Bullshit! Blender sucks, man!"
While half participating in yet another debate of the above sort, I remembered a comment from OK/Cancel about the co…
March 18, 2005
MDI sucks.
I think I've caught your attention, so now I can substantiate my allegation. The problem with MDI is collation of document windows associated with an application, usually with a blank background window that obscures all other application windows within the frame window region. This effect…
I think I've caught your attention, so now I can substantiate my allegation. The problem with MDI is collation of document windows associated with an application, usually with a blank background window that obscures all other application windows within the frame window region. This effect…
March 18, 2005
The Daily Irritation
When installing software for Windows (using MSI, of course), notice how you're presented with a license and then asked whether you accept? The problem is that you need a radio box to indicate acceptance, and then you have to click Next to submit your choice! What, you mean I cou…
When installing software for Windows (using MSI, of course), notice how you're presented with a license and then asked whether you accept? The problem is that you need a radio box to indicate acceptance, and then you have to click Next to submit your choice! What, you mean I cou…
March 17, 2005
First off, I am aware that there is a UI mode for Windows that selects on hover. Now that we've got that out of the way...
It's amazing how click-happy user interfaces are! Click this, click that, click that, click this, ask me stupid questions and require me to click "Next" each time... The mouse i…
It's amazing how click-happy user interfaces are! Click this, click that, click that, click this, ask me stupid questions and require me to click "Next" each time... The mouse i…
March 17, 2005
John Hattan wrote these words, and this is the second time I'm quoting them in the last 24 hours:
I'd like to go a step further and say that if you're not leveraging as muc…
Quote:...I'm not going to present more reasons not to make a game engine. If you're not convinced by now, you deserve your fate.
I'd like to go a step further and say that if you're not leveraging as muc…
March 16, 2005
At the GDC I got a definite sense of a "sea change" occuring in the industry, with a shift from single-processing, single-threaded, single-core programming to at least a preparation for multi-core, multi-threaded, multi-processing environments. In addition, I sensed an increasing emphasis on middle…
March 15, 2005
Graham's laptop up and died during the GDC, so we were dumping its contents onto my laptop each day. Right after the GDC, my laptop started acting funny - the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing service simply disappeared (!) - so I wanted to take the precaution of backing up Graham's data…
March 11, 2005
I'm exhausted. It's 9:26 AM and I should already be on the expo floor, but I haven't even showered yet. I'm in Graham's hotel room (I haven't been back to Art's place for two days, what with all the responsibilities at the GDC) trying to gather the energy to get my butt out there.
By now all of you …
By now all of you …
March 08, 2005
Probably one of the most interesting and exciting aspects of the conference is getting to meet a lot of people whom you've previously only interacted with online. Art Hermansen, adventuredesign; Aaron Miller, Wavinator; Drew Sikora, Gaiiden; Dave Astle, Myopic Rhino; Kevin Hawkins, KHawk; John Hatt…
March 08, 2005
The 2005 Walk of Game (Game Walk of Fame, geddit? ugh) induction ceremony was advertised as running at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, so I scrambled and got over there a couple minutes over.
Shoulda never bothered.
Basically, what we got was a video of a previously recorded "ceremony," hosted by G4's X-Play hos…
Shoulda never bothered.
Basically, what we got was a video of a previously recorded "ceremony," hosted by G4's X-Play hos…
March 08, 2005
From the Serious Games Summit.
Somehow I ended up in a data acquisition and analysis session yesterday instead of political advocacy. Apparently, the room assignments got switched and the conference assistants by the doors weren't aware. Or maybe I just mixed up the times.
It turned out to be extreme…
Somehow I ended up in a data acquisition and analysis session yesterday instead of political advocacy. Apparently, the room assignments got switched and the conference assistants by the doors weren't aware. Or maybe I just mixed up the times.
It turned out to be extreme…
March 08, 2005
This is one of a number of notes I had been taking over the last two to three days but had not made time to upload to the journal. Some of them are directly related to the GDC, which is our current "power showing" event. Some of them are peripherally related to game development, the GDNet community…
March 08, 2005
This is one of a number of notes I had been taking over the last two to three days but had not made time to upload to the journal. Some of them are directly related to the GDC, which is our current "power showing" event. Some of them are peripherally related to game development, the GDNet community…
March 08, 2005
This is one of a number of notes I had been taking over the last two to three days but had not made time to upload to the journal. Some of them are directly related to the GDC, which is our current "power showing" event. Some of them are peripherally related to game development, the GDNet community…
March 08, 2005
This is one of a number of notes I had been taking over the last two to three days but had not made time to upload to the journal. Some of them are directly related to the GDC, which is our current "power showing" event. Some of them are peripherally related to game development, the GDNet community…
March 08, 2005
This is one of a number of notes I had been taking over the last two to three days but had not made time to upload to the journal. Some of them are directly related to the GDC, which is our current "power showing" event. Some of them are peripherally related to game development, the GDNet community…
March 08, 2005
There's now an article on the conference coverage page announcing the video availability, but I'll continue to post them here as well to get feedback in terms of how we can improve our coverage.
Feature
Next update: Kevin Hawkins, Dave Astle, Kelly Murdock. (Already got the video.)
Still to come: adve…
Feature
Next update: Kevin Hawkins, Dave Astle, Kelly Murdock. (Already got the video.)
Still to come: adve…
March 08, 2005
Profiles Feature 1
I varied the styles of the two final cuts in that John Hattan's interview uses titles to pose the questions while Drew's interview actually has me off-camera verbally asking the questions (which is what I did with John, but I edited it out). Please give feedback as to which approa…
I varied the styles of the two final cuts in that John Hattan's interview uses titles to pose the questions while Drew's interview actually has me off-camera verbally asking the questions (which is what I did with John, but I edited it out). Please give feedback as to which approa…
March 08, 2005
Alright, we're having some technical difficulties with the file upload right now (the system was put together just before GDC, and hasn't been fully put through its paces), so I'll be dumping video updates into my GDNet and personal web space and providing links to them from here.
My interview with …
My interview with …
March 07, 2005
(From the Serious Games Summit)
Who'd-a thunk a session on advertising in gaming, games as advertisement and so forth could be so exciting?! Ian Bogost provided a huge amount of thought-provoking material, a sampling of which I will try to present here.
First of all, what is advergaming? "A combinati…
Who'd-a thunk a session on advertising in gaming, games as advertisement and so forth could be so exciting?! Ian Bogost provided a huge amount of thought-provoking material, a sampling of which I will try to present here.
First of all, what is advergaming? "A combinati…
March 07, 2005
(From the Serious Games Summit)
Based on a talk given a few years back at the Austin Game Developers Conference and then distilled into a wonderful book published by Paraglyph Press, Raph gave wonderful insight into what he considers to be the fundamental nature of games and the reason why we play t…
Based on a talk given a few years back at the Austin Game Developers Conference and then distilled into a wonderful book published by Paraglyph Press, Raph gave wonderful insight into what he considers to be the fundamental nature of games and the reason why we play t…
March 05, 2005
Hello... testing? Does this still work?
*Ahem*
And so begins out Game Developers Conference 2005 odyssey. Yesterday, Friday May 4, on a whim I checked my flight details to San Francisco. I was sure my flight was on Sunday, so I'd have time on Saturday to run a few errands.
Departure: Saturday, May Mar…
*Ahem*
And so begins out Game Developers Conference 2005 odyssey. Yesterday, Friday May 4, on a whim I checked my flight details to San Francisco. I was sure my flight was on Sunday, so I'd have time on Saturday to run a few errands.
Departure: Saturday, May Mar…
September 07, 2004
Barely had I finished my previous post - okay, it was a couple of hours - than I came across a mention of Novell's Simias technology, described as an Open Source competitor to Longhorn's now-delayed WinFS storage technology. Simias is the backing store behind the Novell iFolder product.
In essence, …
In essence, …
September 07, 2004
I just got done reading a very interesting article by Joel Spolsky (of JoelonSoftware fame) that gave me cause to pause. He suggests that, previously, usability had been concerned with human-computer interaction (HCI), but that the advent of the Internet, in particular, has given rise to human-huma…
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