Future of play focus of video game maker gathering
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Video game makers from around the world will gather in San Francisco beginning on Monday to collaborate about the future of play.
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Video gamers are getting younger and younger. And parents and the video game industry agree that the implications are likely to be huge.
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Tycho:  I should have all the science lined up by the end of the week, ready to stuff into the piano black lozenge I've obtained to celebrate my return to personal computing.  Wish me luck; I've never before had the opportunity to fry four processors at once.       I know things.  Specifically, things that may be of interest to you.  For example, I know if playing Eye of Judgment online is an onerous as it might seem.  It is not!  I cannot express my relief.    Well, let's try.  In my last, vast expose, I broke down a card's unique language and expressed some misgivings about online play - ultimately just accepting it, because what they're trying to do is so weird that there's no prior art.  Essentially, you "register" your thirty card deck with the system itself, where it is stored and named for future use.  This process is extremely straightforward:  it is simply a matter of you laying your cards anywhere on the mat, a few at a time.  It will probably take two minutes if you really keep on it.  Then, you jump online, choose what nation you want to play for, and track down a partner.  At this point, the game will "draw" you your five card hand by showing you the card art onscreen.  You get one Mulligan (or redraw), but if you like your hand you move into the game proper.  We laid out our deck by element, face up, and this smoothed the turn to turn process considerably.      In the build we have, and I hope this is changed for release, it shows you these cards in a single file line without their name or text - just the art.  Once you got familiar with these images, slightly modified from their card format, it's pretty quick - but the names should be displayed on this screen.  You can use the controller to pull up the names, but let's be serious - at no point should the player be forced to interact with a mundane controller once the game is underway.     You should know that the game really wants a well-lit environment.  You don't need a flare gun or anything, but we didn't have what we needed before and certain squares would slow down the game flow with partial reads that would only resolve after several attempts and minute card adjustments.  I should state that here in the office, we removed all the overhead lights, installing a single track of illumination that we point at the ceiling, where lights used to be.  We tend to transform any place we live into a cave.  So, our scenario might be somewhat atypical.    Also, I know if playing Rock Band with all the instruments off of a USB hub is onerous.  You will be happy to know that it is not - we played said instruments spread out on an actual stage, and found it more than satifactory.  The reality is that the drum kit already needs its own wire, so it isn't as though the future had actually arrived anyway.  Plus, the mic isn't wireless either. This makes the contrived brouhaha over wired guitars a fairly transparent traffic ploy.    This is a matter quite apart from Microsoft's reticence to play ball with unique, third party hardware.  And when I say "play ball," I'm taking about the shakedown operation they've got going licensing their wireless technology, which either makes products for their system more expensive or (in the salient case of Rock Band) results in them bundling a wired controller for the same price as a wireless one on a competitor's system.  This is the last holiday they can get away with this sort of thing...  right?
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Fans of open-source programming and multiplayer gaming explore ways to bring the concept of the metaverse -- an infinitely expandable virtual world -- closer to fruition. By Daniel Terdiman.
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The online community is introducing tools for developing games, media-sharing features and other programs that better integrate with the Internetâs leading social-networking site.
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Tantalizing new games for Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3, and Microsoft Xbox 360 are on the horizon.
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Tycho:  We attended the same Nintendo Media Summit you have seen reported elsewhere, in the hopes of seeing Super Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - titles which are not minigame compilations, portable puzzle games, or games for my mom.  I don't want to say that the complimentary breakfast and lunch were a factor.  Let me say that we were hungry when we made the decision to go.
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The last 12 months proved to be a high point in video gaming, but what does the future hold?
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Video-game developers, manufacturers, publishers and players from around the world will gather in Singapore in September for a convention expected to be the region's largest.
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Some video-game veterans plan to announce the formation of a new publisher that they hope will act as the equivalent of an independent film company for small game developers.
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Gamer's expo draws players from all over and a mix of vendor exhibitors.
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Bored with your current universe? Sony Computer Entertainment has the answer: create your own. At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, the PlayStation 3 manufacturer announced its planned release of Game 3.0, a system of online collaboration and user-created content.
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Some developers wonder if GDC will remain their annual rendezvous as the conference replaces E3 as the largest industry-only game event worldwide.
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Tycho: I just read through one of the conduits of Leipzig gaming news, and was jolted by a piece of news: Xbox Live is going to be moving into classic board games. I don't mean, like, Chutes and Ladders or some shit - though I don't doubt that GrowPot420 would snap that up on day one. No, I mean like Settlers of Catan and Carcassone. Pillars of the tabletop gaming community, so to speak. This is probably the biggest news of that convention for me. Getting people together to play these games, or finding people to play them with at all can be a trying endeavor. This is near Goddamn optimal.(CW)TB
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A video game maker created a wish list of its ideal job candidates and set up a campaign to woo each one. A personalized iPod helped grab their attention.
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Today's cutting-edge video games have the look and sound of movies; some even have blockbuster budgets. But even game developers concede that their creations usually lack the emotional impact of a great film or book. Bridging that gap will be a key topic at the Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco, a five-day gathering that attracts the industry's talent pool.
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Game designers work to distill the magic that gives a game broad, mainstream appeal. Susan Arendt reports from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Plus: Full GDC coverage in Game|Life.