Archive for January, 2008

30 January, 2008 | No comments

Jay Is Games: Submachine 5: The Root

It's here. The next installment in one of the most popular and critically acclaimed Flash point-and-click adventure series ever created. Submachine 5: The Root promises to take us to the very first (historically speaking) built submachine structure. At least as we know it.

30 January, 2008 | No comments

Exploding power supplies, cranky PCI cards and Level 6

I am honestly getting the hang of the World of Warcraft game now. I am at level 6 and duels with other players seem more and more attractive to me. I do understand why people may loose themselves in this world.I on the other hand have to make a living and thus decided to play only during the weekends or in the evening with a set alarm clock. It's always good to control yourself somehow. ;-)

Yesterday evening I got rather surprisingly interrupted playing though. With a loud bang and smoke rising from the computer the power supply of my computer decided to bite the dust. I jumped 10 feet and then rather quickly unplugged all the cables and ripped open the computer's cover, fire extinguisher ready. Phew, only smoke, no fire and it stank. And I realised then that's where that clacking noise had been coming from the previous days. The power supply fan stopped working. It stank so much that my neighbour rang to ask whether everything was okay.

Thank god for spare power supplies. Quickly built in I dearly hoped none of the other boards were affected. I wasn't that lucky. My Firewire card couldn't be recognised anymore and thus the video editing is on hold for a while until I find the time to buy a new one.

I couldn't help but laugh over the entire incident. The humour in it didn't escape me. That damn power supply has a name. It's called "Be Quiet! Well now it is...

Tip for the day: Never ever leave your electronics running while you are not at home!

30 January, 2008 | No comments

I Finally Met Rockhopper

I finally met Rockhopper. It is my second time meeting Rockhopper I met him on Powder Ball the last time he came. I met him on Mammoth today at about 5:45 Club Penguin Time, bikeboy93 was there. He was at the beach. Here are some pictures of Rockhopper.

30 January, 2008 | No comments

Using Nintendo Wii to combat obesity

Interesting article in The Independent about schools in Worcestershire using the Wii console to promote physical activity. Read the full article

30 January, 2008 | No comments

World of Warcraft - Stargate screwed me

Last night I finally decided out of curiosity to try the online game World of Warcraft, which is mentioned in the television series Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis in several episodes.

Now, I do like to play adventures anyways and coming from the Myst world I am really good in solving puzzles. I was never good at role plays, particulary when I have to fight monsters. I am simply too slow.

Okay, back to yesterday night. I only wanted to have a look. Honestly, just a tiny tiny look and then go to bed. It was about 9pm when I downloaded the trial version. First thing to do, set up your character. Wow, so many races to choose from. I finally settled for being a Mage. Garst I am calling myself now and so it came to be that I ended up right in the middle of the game, trial of course and of course without accepting any duels, for now.

I killed wolves (with a bleeding heart. I do like wolves) and trolls (I think they were trolls) and ended up on level 4 when a wood spider killed me over and over again. Okayyyyy, go on an exploring tour. So I discovered Stormwind and other villages / cities and slowly but surely it dawned on me I do have to do the quests that are for my level and not take on much bigger things. 

Kind of late I also realised, hey you can talk to other players. So it came to be that I ended up talking to another mage who turned out to be actually a warrior with another character and that he was 16 years old. Go me! I turn 43 on Thursday. LOL

The mage wanting to duel me to see how good I was was kind of chatty and quickly he dismissed duelling me. LOL, I constantly denied his request for a duel and he constaly wrote hey, why not? When I got the aha effect that people could actually talk to me. Instead he finally offered help fighting the wood spider. Nice!  

To my horror it was 4.30 am in the morning when I decided I had enough for now. At 6.30 am the alarm clock went off.

I am so screwed!

30 January, 2008 | No comments

The Place of Play

I recently finished my PhD thesis The Place of Play. On Toys, Technological Innovations and Geographies of Play.

You can see the cover here:

And the table of contents here:

tableofcontents.pdf

30 January, 2008 | No comments

Virtual Reality Brainwashes Youth

UPDATE: We appreciate your comments voicing your opinion. However unintentional, we admit that this article was unfair by subjecting only one side of the story. The author understands the counter-criticism of gamers and acknowledges that those influenced by violent games as portrayed in the article below form only a small percentage of the gaming population.

EMY is also aware of studies conducted by the US secret service and the US department of education concerning the influence of violent games, movies and books on children, a copy of which can be obtained here.

Once again, EMY apologises for overreaction on the authors' part and thanks you for helping us improve future content.

More

29 January, 2008 | No comments

Free Game News: Frog Escape Game

Frog Escape Game is a new Japanese Room Escape game by the author of End of Year Escape Game and New Year Escape Game. You are trapped in a room, and just like in White Cat Escape Game, you’re not alone! The author really loves animals! Have fun!

29 January, 2008 | No comments

GameDevBlog: Interview

I did a long-ass interview with Lars Doucet over at Tigsource.

29 January, 2008 | No comments

Grumpy Gamer: Cloverfield

Cloverfield is a great movie because a bunch of whiny self-absorbed twenty-something New York hipsters that live in apartments no one can afford all die.   For those of you working on your term papers dealing with film deconstruction and plot subtext for your Understanding Film class, let me break it down for you.  The whiny hipsters all represent whiny hipsters we hate.  The monster is metaphor for a giant monster, and the shallow asshole good looking people all die because they should.

There.  I saved you an evening in the library.

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