EA Grabs Your ‘Spore Creature Creator’ IP
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Talk about harshing my buzz. Electronic Arts is going to let us design creatures with its long-awaited Spore game and stand-alone Creature Creator, but in using the game and creator, we agree to hand over all rights in our creations to the megalithic publisher, including the right to "further modify"… [Continue Reading]


Jumping Through Hoops
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Had a fun chat with Erik Loyer this morning while breakfasting in a hotel restaurant. We were discussing how Portal forces the player to jump through the designers' hoops--it occurred to us that in Portal's case, the expression "jumping through hoops" becomes quite literal. Insert collegial chuckling here.[Continue Reading]


Policing Role-Play In ‘Age of Conan’
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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The operator of the upcoming adult-oriented Age of Conan MMO intends to establish strict rules about role-playing on designated servers, according to an official community bulletin. This might be great news for role-play enthusiasts, but I have to wonder if AoC's operator has a plan to police and… [Continue Reading]


A Smart Way to Handle In-Game Ads, For Once
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Long-time readers of this blog will know how I loathe in-game advertising and how it is often rammed into games with ham-fisted clumsiness. This being said, I'm pleased to discover that in-game ads are coming to massively-multiplayer superhero games City of Heroes / City of Villiains (known as CoX… [Continue Reading]


Imminent Toronto Gaming Action
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Indie warlord Jim Munroe informed his mailing list today that his Artsy Games Incubator is holding an open house in Toronto at the Mobile Experience Lab on Wed. April 23rd at 7pm. Writes Jim, "there'll be short presentations of the games we made using accessible tools... we're… [Continue Reading]


Game Narrative Quick Links for 2008-03-19
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SXSW 2008 Notes:  Jane McGonigal’s Keynote
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Rough notes liveblogged from Jane McGonigal's keynote presentation at SXSW...

The Lost Ring has been in pay for a week, there are already over 100 screen grabs from the game trailer posted to flickr.

We need more alternate realities... the real world needs to… [Continue Reading]


SXSWi 2008 Notes:  ‘Casual Multi-Player Online Games: Serious Revenues’
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Following are my rough notes from the SXSW panel "Casual Multi-Player Online Games: Serious Revenues," featuring Michael Smith (Mind Candy), Adrian Crook (FreeToPlay.biz), Joe Hyrkin (Gaia Online), Jeremy Liew (Lightspeed Venture Partners), and Nabeel Hyatt (Conduit Labs)...

Moderator: What constitutes immersiveness for a virtual world? 3D?… [Continue Reading]


SXSWi Reminder: ‘What Can the Video Games Industry Learn From ARGs?’
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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As previously threatened, I'll be kicking off a conversation today at SXSW about how the video games industry might pick up a few useful tips from Alternate Reality Games. The conversation takes place between 3:30pm and 4:30pm in Ballroom E. I'll be joined by Steve Peters… [Continue Reading]


SXSWi 2008 Notes:  Stories, Games and Your Brand
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Liveblogged from SXSWi in Austin, my rough notes from the panel "SXSW 2008 Notes: Stories, Games, and Your Brand."

Dan Hon case study: Cloverfield.
-- More people heard of the marketing than saw the movie (based on informal audience survey)

Rachel Clarke… [Continue Reading]


SXSWi: ‘Cross-Media Cross-Pollination: Mashing Up Video Games and ARGs’
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Thanks to Dee Cook and Dan Hon of Six to Start for joining me yesterday on a last-minute SXSWi panel entitled "Cross-Media Cross-Pollination: Mashing Up Video Games and ARGs."

We chatted about how ARGs and video games relate, and how these two game-forms might… [Continue Reading]


‘Second Skin’ Documentary Debuts Friday
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Those of you in Austin, Texas this week for South by Southwest may be fortunate enough to take in the debut of Second Skin on Friday. I've been following the documentary about virtual worlds and the real people who inhabit them for some time, and can't wait… [Continue Reading]


The Retro Roots of ‘Champions Online’
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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I can't wait to try Champions Online, the MMO adaptation of Champions, my favorite superhero role-playing game (the kind you play sitting around a table). It looks like Cryptic, the developers behind the excellent superhero MMO City of Heroes, is using everything learned from developing good… [Continue Reading]


Game Design Quick Links for 2008-02-09
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Harmless Espionage You Can Carry Out At Home
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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A couple of projects I was involved with late last year are now fully operational. Although each project was for a separate broadcaster, each puts the player in the role of a secret agent. Must have been something in the air in 2007.

The Border: Interactive,… [Continue Reading]


Case Study:  Bringing ‘Warcraft’ To The Tabletop
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Gamasutra features a fascinating rundown of what was involved in bringing World of Warcraft to the tabletop as a role-playing game. Written by Luke Johnson of White Wolf, the article identifies "content" as being the biggest challenge in extending Warcraft's world--apparently, Blizzard wasn't comfortable giving White Wolf freedom… [Continue Reading]


Quick Gaming Links for 2008-01-06
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Are MMOs Killing The Planet?
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Are massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) killing the planet? A report released by environmental group Global Action Plan suggests that computer servers, such as those which are used for online games, have a hefty carbon footprint. In a summary of its report, the group says


Not Playing The ‘Warcraft’ Blizzard Designed
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Is World of Warcraft's unending grind causing players to seek alternate forms of in-game entertainment? Seems so. Mini-games created with Warcraft's extensible "add-on" system have been in play since at least 2006, but a game update earlier this year made it even easier for players to create their own… [Continue Reading]


Humungo-Megalithic Games Company Formed
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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All the cool nerds are talking about it: Vivendi (publisher, World of Warcraft) and Activision (Pitfall!, Guitar Hero) spent a steamy weekend entwining their glistening tentacles together so elaborately that neither megacorporation could be distinguished from the other. The unholy spawn of this union is to… [Continue Reading]


Quick Links for 2007-11-28
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‘Warcraft’ Ads Mainstream The MMO
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Blizzard has released a pair of comedic World of Warcraft commercials, destined for (presumably American) national TV, featuring William Shatner's alter ego as a Shaman and Mr. T's alter ego as a "Mohawk" Night Elf. The game is already no stranger to television, having been referenced in… [Continue Reading]


Poll: Kids and Parents Don’t [Ok, Maybe They Do] Game Together
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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The Associated Press (via CNN) reports results from a poll released this week, which found that parents don't play computer and video games with kids:
  • 81% of kids aged 4 - 17 play games "at least occasionally."
  • 38% of adults play games "at least occasionally."
  • 44% of adults play online.
  • 43% of… [Continue Reading]


‘Tale of Tales’ Interviews CMP’s Simon Carless
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Simon Carless, editor and publisher with the CMP Game Group (Game Developer Magazine, Gamasutra, GameSetWatch and more) was cornered by independent art-game maker Tale of Tales earlier this year. Tale of Tales published the interview over this past weekend, touching on Carless' background,… [Continue Reading]


Toronto Joins ‘Half-Life 2’ Conflict
written by Tony Walsh on the Clickable Culture blog
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Canada's largest city becomes the backdrop for an alien invasion in City 7: Toronto Conflict, an unofficial expansion to the Half-Life 2 story created by a team of George Brown College students lead by instructor Sean Guadron. The initiative was the first thesis project of the College's postgraduate… [Continue Reading]