Rather Infrequent Open Thread
I’ll be traveling for most of Friday (heading home from Trinidad), and then again on Sunday (heading to a client site near San Francisco). As such, I will be squeezing every possible hour with my wife and kids for the not-quite-two-days that I’ll be on the ground in Edmonton, and as such will probably not be doing much in the way of updating the site. So you’ll all just have to make due with what I’ve managed to dig up for you below, and talk about all things — Ultima and otherwise — amongst yourselves.
Edmonton, then San Francisco. Which, if I were a city, would be the closest thing I could have to an opposite.
As much as I’m reluctant to admit it…Starbreeze might actually do Syndicate a measure of justice:
Yes, the bullets did go around the corner. Yes, that is awesome.
Yes, it’s still (mostly) a first-person shooter…but it also seems to nail a lot of the themes that percolated through the plot of the original Syndicate, and I daresay that the abilities you’ll have in the course of the game do justice to all the mods and upgrades that the original featured. The remixed Syndicate theme is pretty solid too.
Apparently, yes. The good folks at the Wing Commander CIC have uncovered evidence of a King Kong game written in BASIC, which closely aligns with Roberts’ description of his own first game. He would have been around the age of 14 at the time it was authored.
Falling satellites seem to be all the rage right now…
…so much so that a German orbital device has decided to join in the crashing party.
Felicia Day’s character gets added to Dragon Age 2.
BioWare’s latest fantasy RPG will feature Codex Dragon as an Elven assassin in an upcoming DLC. You can see a couple of screenshots here.
…and because I know Sergorn Dragon has a bit of a thing for Jade Empire, the good folks at BioWare evidently felt it was worth re-iterating that the Oriental-themed action RPG is still very near and dear to their hearts. This is the second time in recent memory I can recall them commenting on the property in this way, which makes me wonder if they don’t have designs on a sequel.
And man, what an ensemble: Max Von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, Joan Allen (in what is evidently her video game debut), Lynda Carter (who played an iteration of Wonder Woman), Michael Hogan, Vladimir Kulich, Claudia Christian (Babylon 5), Diane Louise Salinger, Renee Victor, and George Coe.
Damn.
Ken and Roberta Williams donate a bunch of stuff to a video game museum.
And by “bunch of stuff”, Gamasutra evidently means their entire archive of stuff from back when Sierra was their little adventure game company.
The collection includes two decades of work comprising roughly 140 games, as well as design documents, artwork, newspaper articles, memorabilia, photographs, company newsletters, business records, press releases, catalogs, and annual reports, according to museum officials.
In a statement, Ken Williams said the collection, which will now be available to researchers and historians, includes many items the pair never intended for public consumption, including King’s Quest design documents that have remained secret for decades.
“Giving them up was not an easy decision, but it seemed the right time, and I’m sure her fans will enjoy this ‘behind the scenes’ peek at her creativity,” Ken Williams said. “I would encourage anyone who is curious about the history of gaming, the history of Sierra, or the creativity behind our games, to visit the museum.”
Just…wow. This all went to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games in Rochester, so if you live near there, seriously, go and check it out. If I’m ever in the area, I know I will be.
…and urged them to support the Staple Act:
At a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today, which Gamasutra listened in on, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello offered a vision for how changes in immigration, education and tax policy could help support the high tech sector and the economy as a whole.
…
First, Riccitiello said the U.S. should alter its immigration policy to allow the world’s most talented engineers and college graduates to work in the country. Despite higher wages and great benefits, Riccitiello said EA has trouble recruiting enough of the kind of talented engineers he needs in the U.S., because they are barred from working in the country.
For many of the best engineers Riccitiello comes across, since “they can’t work at my company here, they will work at my company in Shanghai,” he said. “We can’t hire them in this country and so we literally hire them somewhere else. It is direct exportation of jobs.”
Riccitiello offered his support for the Staple Act, which would effectively “staple” a green card to the back of any PhD granted to an immigrant graduating from a U.S. school, allowing her to work in the country.
The U.S. could also effect long-term change by refocusing education policy. Many of the 5,000 engineers Riccitiello said EA will hire in the next decade are not in high school yet, and they will need to be especially strong in science, technology, engineering and math.
Which, by the way, could be a bit of a problem. Indeed, the rising innumeracy rate amongst high school graduates is one of the main factors moving me to seriously consider homeschooling my kids.
More Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning goodness…
…in the form of a “Hero’s Guide to Amalur” trailer:
Voiced, I think, by Claudia Black.
Ian “Tiberius” Fraizer’s new game continues to look awesome.
Tonight’s post brought to you by speaking of education:
I...what...there is...that...wow. Just wow.
The clip for Syndicate had its music in the right place, and the video reminded me of an age old horror from my youth in 1984.
First, from an “I love violence” type perspective, it was visually delicious with particularly brutal scenes of harm against foes made personal through close-ups and facial expression. Nice.
Last, it reminded me of the uncompromisingly modern combat perspectives of staples such as Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed. Fast, precise, impersonal and violent as a means to a callous, capitalist end.
Crap like “Dead Isle” going for exploitative trailers is lamentable, but this trailer actually had me feeling sick to my stomach for a minute while I got my murderous tendencies revved up for no limit combat.
Celebrity voice acting in video games is almost certainly a waste of money. What gamer ever asked for it? Bethesda are particularly bad offenders here, since their celebrity voice acting isn’t even that good. (I’m thinking of Liam Neeson in Fallout 3 here)
I’m thinking it might be more of a perk for the designers – makes them feel a bit like big shot movie directors. But the most memorable voice acting seems to come from relative no-names – Jennifer Hale has become a minor celebrity among gamers based on her voice acting alone.
The Architect is an awesome character and the best thing about Awakening. The fact that you can kill him is just another evidence to me that the whole “transfer your save state” thing sucks. This is a character that would deserve a full fledeged as an antoganist but nooo… since Bioware games must allows you to transfer, it means he’ll never be able to have any kind of major role in a sequel.
I liked it better when writers decided teh canon… and period.
@Infinitron : Agreed. Whenever I see people rejoicing because such actor or tv star gets a big voice acting role I tend to roll my eyes, because trully some of the best voice acting comes from… voice actors really. The Metal Gear games have no celebrities and still offers some of the best voice acting of all time for instance. Celebrities can be hit or miss – the thing is doing voice acting is a very different thing from acting in front of a camera or a play, and there are wonderful actors who can get terrible doing voice acting, because it’s just not their thing.
As far as Liam Neeson goes… he thing he’s in that category : he just that he tends to suck in voice acting. This is not just in Fallout 3 – you just need to hear him as Aslan in Narnia, he’d just bad. I think the only voice acting I’ve liked Neeson doing was when he came back as Qui-Gon Jinn for a couple of Clone Wars episodes. Patrick Stewart is another one, god knows I love him, but whenever he does voice acting he just tends to sound flat and bored. There’s a few exception (he did some good work in that Castlevania game), but most of the time…. Ugh.
Now of course there are stars who do good job: Claudia Black *was* great a Morrighan for instance, but as a rule I tend to prefer having voice acting being done by voice actors.
What have I done ? It was supposed to be two post in two different newsbits. Whoops 😛
I am really excited for the release of Amalur. Everything I see about it makes me want to play it more. In fact, if it came out before Skyrim, I probably wouldn’t bother with Skyrim at all. Combat has always been one of the weakest points in the open world RPG. Oblivion tried, and so have others, but it never made it to a point that it was as fun as swinging a huge sword at a monster should be. It’s good to see it getting the love it truly deserves.
Considering Activision’s history of dickish moves lately, it’s a good thing they haven’t tried to stop Ken and Roberta’s donation (as they own all the IP rights to the things donated).
Some Sancti news: I’m moving from weekly to monthly updates and have last month’s report ready. The report is here, as always:
http://www.eightvirtues.com/sanctimonia/progress/
September is month eight from when I started making reports.
@ WtF and anyone else who enjoys learning about different cultures: my dad hooked me up with a 1992 book titled “Everyday Life Through the Ages” a few months ago when I asked him if he had any recommended reading about medieval life (he has a large library). I had some spare time and recently started reading bits and pieces.
It’s fantastic, richly illustrated and seems to be a hybrid of the general history of various cultures and the daily life of the common people. I’d post some scans or excerpts, but would end up posting half the book as it’s pretty damn cool. Do find it on Amazon or wherever it exists.
From a game designer or writer’s viewpoint it’s inspirational and serves well to snap you out of your cultural rut of the present.
You mean this book? I have it at home. It is indeed a wonderful read, and fantastic point of reference. And I quite agree…for anyone interested in any sort of game design or creative writing that needs to draw upon historical events or contexts, it will make for an invaluable resource.
I also have this book, which is a decent read, and another book as well which I forget the title of, but which is kind of like a hybrid between the two; it’s a look at world cultures like Everyday Life, but structured along a rigid timeline with a neat calendar of events in the header of every page.
Yes, except apparently there have been some reprints or revisions as this is the original cover:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/0276420357/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_all
What’s crazy is that you, I and my dad have this book and appreciate it. Seems like some people come together like debris in space, bound by gravity. Small world, as they say.
Do you know of any books that go deeply into the culture of Europe in the Middle Ages? I know there’s this female historian who has written a few books which take place in that age, but can’t remember her name. My dad knows, but I need a book of facts and not a full novel with all the drama. I want to know how (and if) they brushed their teeth, bathed, treated their significant other in public versus private, etc. I want to know where they put a cabbage when they bought it from the market. Did they cook it immediately, or did dirt-floor homes have a place for produce? How did they eat, sleep, drink, shit, piss, mate (birth control?), and avoid paying taxes? Surely this is known!
I searched Google for “medieval life” and found some good links to unverified information about the daily life of medieval citizens.
A quote: “They could hunt rabbits or hares but might be punished for this by their lord.” Not cool. I figured killing larger animals like deer or boar would result in poaching accusations, but rodents? God help you if you somehow managed to eat meat and weren’t at favor with one higher and more favored than yourself. The smart ones would probably breed small animals inside their house to eat, as to not get noticed by those other than live-in family.
They also talk about the wealthy/nobility using a thick slice of old bread as a plate for meat, which is crazy but cool.
Something wrong with something on this entry. Getting this:
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Sslaxx: Hmmm…the User Avatars plugin was updated last night; perhaps something got borked. I’ll look into it this evening.
These are the saddest words anywhere:
Artificial Life Engine
Starr Long, the game’s associate producer, explained in 1996:
Nearly everything in the world, from grass to goblins, has a purpose, and not just as cannon fodder either. The ‘virtual ecology’ affects nearly every aspect of the game world, from the very small to the very large. If the rabbit population suddenly drops (because some gung-ho adventurer was trying out his new mace) then wolves may have to find different food sources (e.g., deer). When the deer population drops as a result, the local dragon, unable to find the food he’s accustomed to, may head into a local village and attack. Since all of this happens automatically, it generates numerous adventure possibilities.
However, this feature never made it beyond the game’s beta stage. As Richard Garriott explained:
We thought it was fantastic. We’d spent an enormous amount of time and effort on it. But what happened was all the players went in and just killed everything; so fast that the game couldn’t spawn them fast enough to make the simulation even begin. And so, this thing that we’d spent all this time on, literally no-one ever noticed – ever – and we eventually just ripped it out of the game, you know, with some sadness.
Well, that’s the nature of players it seems. Not much you can do about that. Pity the tech went to waste though, sounds like it’d have been much better in a single-player game.
UO was just too small for that to work. One player could wipe out all the rabbits in Britannia pretty quickly. You’d need a much larger world (at least in an MMO) for that sort of thing to work.
It would probably be possible in a game like LOTRO… at least in some places. Much bigger world.
Agreed. Free space is necessary for a proper ecosystem to operate. Fortunately you’ll find plenty of that down here, Persian.
In other news, I will no longer be posting Sanctimonia news on this site or any other (with the exception of my own) until the source code for Ultima is given its proper due here or elsewhere (SourceForge, Gamasutra, etc.). I’ll still post videos to my VasCorpBetMani channel and make random comments about other things here. I may even update my web site.
I’m sure this will be met with many “I don’t give a shit” type feelings, which is fine, but it must be said before committed.
I appreciate all the “but it’s Ultima” coat-tail-ridings around here, but can no longer participate due to the cowardice and disrespect shown to the series under thread of current IP-holders’ “no go” discretions. I’m a fan. I don’t give two shits about IP. So, no-thanks for all the fish and I’m still outta here.
Sanctimonia:
For better or for worse, I have to give two shits — and a bit more — about IP. How long would this site last if I didn’t? And what good would it do the community if I got myself DMCAd?
For that matter, what good would it do me or the community to burn the substantial and very advantageous bridges and inroads I have with EA now, all for the sake of code that’s older than I am? I’m not saying it’s not a significant thing, but is it so pivotal and earth-shatteringly important as to be worth utterly destroying the trust that EA — and in particular the folks who work on Ultima-related things — have placed in me & in this site, and the weight they give to the opinions of those who comment here?
Because they do consider what they read here. And they do stop by and read things, comments especially.
Consider also that this site no longer exists in isolation; I’ve become closely connected with the Wing Commander CIC over the last year. If suddenly I go rogue, who is to say that they won’t suffer collateral damage because of it? That’s not a risk I am willing to take either.
And is that cowardice, or is it prudence and temperance?
Shit, by “thread” I meant “threat” of course. 🙁
You have a give and take with EA/etc., and this is an instance of giving to preserve the taking. I understand your position and I’m not upset with you. The people responsible for the decision not to allow the Ultima source code to be published here, however, are cowardly jackasses. This is my protest, as I’m otherwise powerless. If it’s pointless (and it probably is), so be it.