The Carnival of Gamers - Slashdot Edition 65
Mu Productions, for example, has a piece on the future of Machinima, a unique way to 'use' games outside of the norm.
Non-traditional use of games is the center of Press the Buttons' reflection on the 'games can control pain' study that was recently covered here on Slashdot. Using gaming to keep your focus and push away distractions ... I think we've all done that from time to time.
The Game Chair laments the mainstream understanding of games on an airline flight. Does he play his PSP near a young person with 'killer games' in the media?
Tea Leaves challenges the 'hardcore' mentality with a reflection on casual gaming. In his view 'big-box dinosaurs' are an endangered species. Younger, faster, cheaply made casual games will have their day.
Speaking of dinosaurs, Design Synthesis is saddened by the lack of respect we give older games, relegating them to the bargain bin. Where are the gaming museums?
Non-traditional gaming doesn't alway have to be fun. Outside Looking In discusses the JFK: Revolution title and what it could mean, if it weren't a puerile exercise in headline-grabbing. Why not a JFK simulation, but one that could inject some fun into learning history?
On the topic of learning: Late Night PC talks about preparing for a trip to the Game Developer's conference (something I'm going to have to do pretty soon as well).
Psychochild wonders aloud what exactly is a game? As some other entries have already noted, they can be use for more than just 'fun', so what constitutes a game?
Cathode Tan considers games as narrative and games as art in a piece cogitating the often discussed dismissal of games by Roger Ebert.
On the topic of fun: Buttonmashing owns up to an on-the job-Nintendo fix. Nostalgia and pure fun combine in Nintendo's titles: how is that a bad thing?
Finally, on the topic of standards, we come to the topic of game journalism. We've been discussing that a lot lately on Slashdot Games, and three commentators bring up the topic this month in the Carnival. Videogame Media Watch author Kyle Orland digs deep into the 1up DO4 controversy. The Curmudgeon Gamer talks about the *1* problem with gaming journalism, and Continuous Play dispairs in a piece on the state of videogame reviews.
Turning now to virtual worlds, MMOFun talks the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to MMORPG communities. Those selfsame communities can turn on the hand that feeds them, a topic Man Bytes Blog covers in How I learned to Stop Leveling and Love the Nerf Bat.
For a humorous look at community gaming, Kill Ten Rats compares real-life work practices to Raiding. Raiding for the win, apparently.
When Julian Dibbell began talking about online currency being possibly taxable, I know many people desperately cried "Shh! They might hear you!" Play No Evil risks government audit by considering the legitimization of the virtual economy.
On a final general note, Virgin Worlds has a great post looking at some of the best MMOG podcasts around. Well worth listening to if you have a spare ear at work, especially to the sublimely amusing Taverncast.
Commentators couldn't resist talking about their favorite (or least-favorite) massive games, and our last selections this month are all about specific games. Heartless, for example, rips the blood-pumper from Dungeons and Dragons Online. The game, still in Beta, disappointed him by falling short of the pen-and-paper roots he was hoping for.
Darniaq talks about the recent Star Wars Galaxies NGE upgrade. He gives the new content and systems a thorough going-over, and finds both good and bad in the changes to the Galaxy far, far away.
I'll own up to it: I do some extra-curricular blogging myself. I couldn't resist making some doomcasting remarks about the original Everquest. The changes Sony Online seems to be working into all of its games leave but one option for the near future; In my opinion, a graceful shutdown of EQ Live has to be in the cards.
I've said before '5.5 Million people can't be wrong', and our last submissions this month are all about World of Warcraft. Top of Cool concurs with Blizzard's decision about gay guild recruitment in a commentary piece called 'Why Blizzard is Right'. Tobolds talks more traditional games with a Warcraft twist by reviewing the World of Warcraft board game. AFK Gamer has a great, humorous, piece about what he would do if given GM Power in Azeroth.
As you leave the Carnival, for the time being, one last post to consider: Scott Jennings takes a long hard look at the gap between casual players and hardcore raiders in Blizzard's hit MMOG. In his view the only way to fix the gap will require some major surgery. Read the post to find out what sort of stitching it will require.
Many thanks for reading, and I hope you find some of this month's contributors worth adding to your regular browsing habits. If you liked today's post, make sure and make the Carnival of Gamers a part of your monthly reading. Next month the Carnival will be setting up shop at the VirginWorlds blog, on March the 2nd. Until then, the midway is closed.
Biggest show in town... (Score:5, Funny)
"Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."
Wow, that was cool! When's the next one?
Re:Biggest show in town... (Score:2)
Remember when this site had cool science and tech news to post? I sense a G4-ification of Slashdot.
Re:Biggest show in town... (Score:2)
Yeah, here's what I thought of first:
I would read this... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I would read this... (Score:1)
It was long enough to be an instruction manual, and you know what happens to those.
(1) Open box (2) throw manual over left shoulder (right if you're left handed) (3) consult manual when you get stuck.
Re:I would read this... (Score:2)
Re:wow (Score:2)
Welcome back my friends... (Score:4, Funny)
You'll enjoy it all we know
Step inside! step inside!
We've got thrills and shocks, supersonic fighting cocks.
Leave your hammers at the box
Come inside! come inside!
Roll up! roll up! roll up!
See the show!
Left behind the bars, rows of bishops' heads in jars
And a bomb inside a car
Spectacular! spectacular!
If you follow me there's a speciality
Some tears for you to see
Misery, misery,
Roll up! roll up! roll up!
See the show!
Next upon the bill in our house of vaudeville
We've a stripper in a till
What a thrill! what a thrill!
And not content with that, with our hands behind our backs,
We pull jesus from a hat,
Get into that! get into that!
Roll up! roll up! roll up!
See the show!
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends
We're so glad you could attend
Come inside! come inside!
There behind a glass is a real blade of grass
Be careful as you pass.
Move along! move along!
Come inside, the show's about to start
Guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you'll get your money's worth
The greatest show in heaven, hell or earth.
You've got to see the show, it's a dynamo.
You've got to see the show, it's rock and roll
Soon the gypsy queen in a glaze of vaseline
Will perform on guillotine
What a scene! what a scene!
Next upon the stand will you please extend a hand
To alexander's ragtime band
Roll up! roll up! roll up!
See the show!
Performing on a stool we've a sight to make you drool
Seven virgins and a mule
Keep it cool. keep it cool.
We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown
Were exclusively our own,
All our own. all our own.
Come and see the show! come and see the show! come and see the show!
See the show!
Re:Welcome back my friends... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Welcome back my friends... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Welcome back my friends... (Score:1)
BTW that tune comes from an album with absoultly the best title.
Holy Crap. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Holy Crap. (Score:2)
Zonk: Yes, but no.
There's waaaaaaay to many links in there. I counted 26 links which is about 1/4 of a what Fark posts in one day.
I enjoy the Games section, but this is too much.
Re:Holy Crap. (Score:1)
Activision's Call of Duty 2 for Xbox 360 (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Activision's Call of Duty 2 for Xbox 360 (Score:1, Redundant)
Surprised?
Nah, seriously. This is what IT people, programmers, etc had to deal for over a decade. Now the same "experience" is available to general public I guess. Maybe they will understand better why we have a habit to curse them.
Disclaimer: I don't own XBOX and am not going to.
Re:Activision's Call of Duty 2 for Xbox 360 (Score:2)
Re:Activision's Call of Duty 2 for Xbox 360 (Score:2)
Life's too short and I don't have time to mess with that shoddy excuse for multi-player.
SOE (Score:2)
EQ2 will basically be the training ground for changes to occur in the next EQ expansion.
SWG - I think NGE stands for Not Good, Everywhere. Fix the outstanding issues and you might have a game. Call it PlanetQuest.
Planetside - Here's what happens when you take a decent game and ignore it. Wait 6 months then say, 'oh, we're not ignorin
Re:SOE (Score:2)
~S
Re:SOE (Score:1)
Microsoft a: Sony PlayStation 3 will be successful (Score:2)
Read the entire thing at Spong, here [spong.com].
Games dull Pain (Score:5, Insightful)
They've proved that men have a much higher ability to shut out the world no matter what they're doing. Reading the newspaper, a book, playing a game, studying... anything that requires concentration.
I remember reading about it in one of those Ann Landers style articles. The question was "Why does my husband ignore me when I try to get his attention while he's reading the newspaper?"
Personally, I listen to my music loud, but when I'm reading a book, everything (music included) fades away into the background and I'm dead to the world.
Obviously, reading a book isn't feasible in an operating room, which is why I think games work much better to engage the mind & distract from the pain.
And yes, games help more than a family member to reduce stress/pain.
Re:Games dull Pain (Score:2)
Re:Games dull Pain (Score:1)
They've done studies that show women have a wildly different neurological response to shopping than men do.
It lights up the pleasure centers in their brain and a whole variety of other mental changes happen. They lose some of their rational thinking abilities (which is why a lot of women buy stuff they don't need).
Personally, I hate shopping for clothes/shoes and I hate even walking through dept stores. Especially with anyone female. I keep up a running dialogue
Hooray for the Carnival! (Score:4, Informative)
For those of who like these kinds of articles, don't miss the final link that takes you to the Carnival of Gamers HQ [buttonmashing.com], where you can visit past Carnivals as well.
I love articles like these that take a step back from the reviews and mechanics of a game and discuss some of the larger issues surrounding gaming.
Looking forward to more next month!
In response to the "Why Blizzard is Right" article (Score:2, Insightful)
Personally, this just (once again) proves to me that this country was founded primarily by sexually repressed fanatics that were kicked out of Europe for being killjoys. (It wasn't that they were being persecuted because of their religion, it was mainly because they were obnoxious - if you live anywhere near the Bible Belt, you know exac
Re:In response to the "Why Blizzard is Right" arti (Score:1, Offtopic)
Somewhat offtopic, whateva.
Re:In response to the "Why Blizzard is Right" arti (Score:1)
Re:The Carnival of Gamers - Slashdot Edition (Score:1)
On MMORPG Communities (Score:1, Informative)
His general concept is that PvP makes for bad communities. I disagree - lack of PvP doesn't magically improve the community. What determines what makes a good and bad community comes down to what resources are available and the competition for them.
If it were not for the horrible level grinding the game requires I would easily proclaim Final Fantasy XI as the greatest MMORPG ever made, simply because of the sense of community it c
Re:On MMORPG Communities (Score:2)
Pen and Paper D&D game.... (Score:5, Funny)
The game, still in Beta, disappointed him by falling short of the pen-and-paper roots he was hoping for.
I don't think some people will be happy until the games start printing out character sheets after every round.
Hmmm....
Play the new AD&D ruleset based online game! Follows the rules so closely that you'll think you were playing with pen and paper!
Features for the new AD&D online game:
-Use your webcam to scan the number from the actual die you just rolled! (dice not included)
-Must wait 5 minutes after every command to see what happens next!
-Get actual PrintOuts(tm) of your updated character sheet after every round, showing your new hit point totals along with everything else that didn't change!
-Electromagnetic hex board moves your crappy little miniatures for you! (crappy little miniatures not included)
-GameMaster personality plugins! Watch your computer grab it's stuff and walk out of your house in a big huff! (What happened to all the Cheetos?)
And so much more!
Re:Pen and Paper D&D game.... (Score:1)
Re:Pen and Paper D&D game.... (Score:2)
ganes games games games games games games games (Score:2)
Okay. Seriously now. . . What's going on here? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Has 'Zonk' been given some sort of mandate? Are Slashdot's advertisers not feeling confident in their reach for some sort of imaginary target audience?
For goodness sake.
There's an utterly fascinating real world going on out there. Talking about video games leads to video game addiction. What is Slashdot trying to become?
Computer games are masturbation for the mind.
Can we drop the games stories, already?
-FL
Re:Okay. Seriously now. . . What's going on here? (Score:1)
I'm pretty sure games fall well under the "news for nerds" subtitle for slashdot. In addition, there are a lot of computer enthusiasts out there (a major audience for slashdot) who rather enjoy playing and reading about games. Therefore I don't see any reason for slashdot to stop reporting about games.
Understanding. . . (Score:2)
Try understanding it this way. .
Of the 160 or so topics and categories available on Slashdot under which a story might be posted, only twelve have to do with games. That's about 13%. However, during the last few weeks, it seems that more than 30% of the stories on Slashdot have been dwelling on games while all those other categories have been ignored. This is very unusual for Slashdot and it also looks li
GLBT decision (Score:1)
Thanks to Zonk (Score:2)
Sorry, Blizzard is still wrong. (Score:2)
Blizzard's basically saying, “Sorry, but our customer base has a high percentage of bigots. We'd rather lose your custom than theirs.