Somebody’s nicked Heroquest, we rarely have enough of us in for a decent game of Werewolf and my Rock Band expertise doesn’t extend far beyond songs by the Police (oh, the joy in their eyes as they’re forced to play ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’ *again*!), so I bought some new stuff for game hour this week. I wasn’t around for the deboxings this morning though, since I’ve taken the day off to recuperate after juggling like a trained octopus all month.
Finished Mass Effect this morning, finally. Expected it to be good and it was, although the Paragon ending left me a bit cold and the romance stuff was eye-rollingly bad. At least [spoiler alert!] Kaidan didn’t pounce on Shepard at the end. Thinking about it… if ME’s supposed to be a trilogy, I wonder if we’ll be able to import our Shepards all the way through?
Ever one to be on the bleeding edge of what’s going on in tv today, I’ve just finished watching Veronica Mars. I’m not gonna go on and on about this, but I have to ask: how on earth did that show suffer viewing figures low enough to cause it to be cancelled? Was it badly promoted? Terrible time slot? Cos I don’t get it – VM was every bit as clever, fun and teen-swoony as Buffy was, so why didn’t it take? (I hope for their sakes that Rob Thomas and the CW think that one over hard while planning the spin-off to 90210.)
But more to the point: if heavies like Stephen King and Joss Whedon loved the show, and fans are devoted enough to keep their fansites alive a year later, shell out a whopping £78.50 plus travel to see Veronica and Logan at a con in the UK (compare with £55 for the WoW Invitational) and $800+ to take a VM-themed cruise… then why has Veronica’s story skidded to a halt? A tv series demands a lot of infrastructure and investment: in crew, locations, promotional stuff – but a story just needs, well, a story, and a way to tell it, right?
Continue reading ‘Keeping Veronica alive – on the cheap’
Back home after an eventful couple of flights on Monday; now entertaining my mother who’s visiting from Virginia.
I’ve got quite a bit to catch up on from days 3 and 4. Happily, sxswi is churning out podcasts now. Video too – click through from here.
Recommended: You Are Here: Gaming and User’s Geolocation in Web 2.0
Queued up: The Suxorz: The Worst Social Media Ad Campaigns of 2007; Hi-Tech Craft: Why Sewing and Knitting Still Matter
One for the fellas at work (sorry, no swag :/): Expression Engine 2 Sneak Peak (not my spelling!)
Rachel Clarke Bibrik Ltd
Jeremy Ettinghausen Digital Publisher, Penguin Books
Roo Reynolds Metaverse Evangelist, IBM
Dan Hon CEO, Six to Start
Dan Heaf, BBC, moderator
Heaf: How can games, stories, puzzles etc. help engage users with your brand? We’ve seen in film and tv that these techniques have been put in place to great effect. Outside of those genres, can such tactics be effective? Continue reading ’sxswi 2008: day 2, Stories, Games and Your Brand’
OK, so in the afternoon I went to Stories, Games and Your Brand, another panel featuring Dan and other smart people. Tony’s notes are less rambly than mine. :) As a result of being in that session, I missed Zuckerberg’s trainwreck of an interview, but now all the sour faces I encountered outside Ballroom A afterwards make sense!
Kathy Sierra was next up in A with Tools for Enchantment: 20 Ways to Woo Users. Packed house. Predictably fun talk – my notes don’t capture it well so it’s worth waiting for the video.
Finally, The Supercollider: A Hero of the Social Network, Matt’s panel. [Edit: there's a summary at dessalles.] His slides were superb. Two people tripped over my charger, but thankfully no-one was hurt (although some hard-disk protector feature on my laptop kicked in, which was worrying until it didn’t actually do anything and went away).
Et voila! Now I head off to some drive-thru to pick up dinner, like a very sad person. For the best really I think, since I’m flying back tomorrow and need to pack, be properly hydrated etc. Have fun, moo party people! ;)
Was very lucky to even get to the first panel, having left late with no thought for probable queues for the parking garage! (I’m staying at the Hyatt Place, about a 10-minute drive away from the ACC.)
Today I went to:
What Teens Want Online & On Their Phones: No ads, Flash games. High text allowance. Wholesome kids. Dan liveblogged it.
You Are Here: Gaming and User’s Geolocation in Web 2.0: Really, really interesting stuff. Liveblogged at NowPublic (scroll); überthings, socialight
[Laptop battery went flat and I'd left the charger in the hotel. Spent rest of the day scribbling on various surfaces.]
Opening Remarks with Henry Jenkins and Steven Johnson: Funny, hopeful, inspiring. Summary at Geek Gestalt
Cross-Media Cross-Pollination: Mashing Up Video Games and ARGs: Dan’s panel with Tony and Dee, lovely people I met at lunch. Great overview of ARGs and what they can learn from videogames; gears turning. I’m sad that I have to head back home before Jane McGonigal’s keynote.
Social Network Coups: The Users are Revolting!: Turned out to be even more entertaining than I expected. Examples of how CMs at Metafilter, Lifehacker, Second Life and io9 handled community uprisings. I’ll post the podcast when it’s up.
The line for badge collection was reeeaally long, but then I did just turn up about an hour before the first panel started so that’s pretty fair. Haven’t picked up swag bag yet but hear it’s absurdly heavy and there ain’t no pens (!!).
Dan sat next to me for the opener, Edit Me! How Gamers are Adopting the Wiki Way featuring NC’s own CuppaJo. I took notes, but Dan’s a better typist and he’s published his transcript already.
I’m having a bash at the PMOG beta from home (would be far too distracting at work!), and like it a lot so far. It’s got loads of potential for creating fun journeys and sharing interests with people. Not sure about the social aspects yet, but I’m reserving judgment til the features have a bit more flesh.
LOVE the steampunky theme, and the art is awesome – particularly the badge designs. Reminds me a lot of Arcanum.
Here I am. If you’re not playing yet and would like to try it out, ping me and I’ll invite you (while supplies last).
Is anyone still playing Chore Wars? It was built on such a brilliant concept that I really hoped to see it take off, although having put it through its paces myself I can see why it might be slow to do so.
My problem was that when I tried to rope my husband in to play, he’d do the chores but just wasn’t interested in updating the site, so I ended up with a solo game that wasn’t any fun. I might’ve hung in there longer given SMS updating and better support for parties that don’t actually live together (and if that stuff ever makes it in I’ll go back and give it another shot), but as it is I can thank the experience of Chore Wars for helping me figure out a few things that I want from a chore-focused game.
Continue reading ‘Whatever happened to… Chore Wars’
