This Joymax press release on multiplayer games, virtual societies, and Asian culture, landed in my inbox the other day:
Joymax, an independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment for the global market, today announced the launch of a third “Clean Campaign” for historical fantasy MMORPG Silkroad Online. During the event, which will run until April 6, [...]
One day, you’re standing on the dock, waving goodbye to a friend, when you slip and fall and land in a crate, which is sealed and loaded onto a cargo ship, which is caught up in a storm and your Sim is shipwrecked on a deserted island! Your poor shipwrecked Sim must survive on this [...]
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, begins by introducing the protagonist, Susie Salmon (like the fish, she reminds us), who is dead, murdered by a neighbor who’s made smalltalk with her parents a few times. As her community searches for her killer, and finally come to terms with her death, Susie watches from [...]
I stumbled onto this list of writers’ guidelines over at Clarkesworld Magazine, and I thought this list of sci-fi and fantasy cliches was so impressive I had to share.
Though no particular setting, theme, or plot is anathema to us, the following are likely hard sells:
* stories in which a milquetoast [...]
Halloween is coming, which means our local grocery store has put out bulk candy and decorated for the holiday. I’d usually focus on the M&Ms, but the severed head hanging over the candy bags got me thinking.
It seemed, suddenly, like less of a surprising decor choice and more of a tangible symbol of excess, the [...]
I’ve been focus testing some new games for Merscom in Chapel Hill… I was a bit nervous going in, but they didn’t seem to hold my recent Create-a-Mall review against me. Merscom is a casual games publisher, I’ve played mostly hidden objects, casual puzzles and, sadly, another Build-a-lot game.
I expected focus testing to be just [...]
I say that we’ve been playing multiplayer, but actually I think we’re playing two entirely different games that just happen to look similar. Let’s start with the fact that Stick likes to sing the Civilization themesong… which doesn’t have words. I don’t even turn on the sound. It’s not that I don’t like the song, I just don’t care too much for in-game sound effects. I played the game for months before we happened to play a hotseat game on his PC, and I learned that the units speak in their native languages on activation. The Chinese units (usually mine) say “What do you want?” and the Romans (usually Stick’s) say “What are your orders?”
We passed this house yesterday and I made Stick turn around so I could get a photo of all the American flags at this house and the Stop Obama sign. Do you know why the US is great? We can have huge political disagreements with each other, and no one blocks Twitter!
Unfortunately, you won’t [...]
When I went to Bethie’s graduation last month, Anna Quindlen was the commencement speaker. (I know this is not exactly timely, but it took me a while to get my thoughts into a coherent shape) I was really excited to hear her, actually I was more excited about Anna Quindlen than I would have been [...]
I once had an English professor who told us that foreshadowing, symbolism and irony are literary terms, and by definition, can not happen in real life. It is our desire to see our life as a coherent story, he believed, that made us look for such things in hindsight. I disagree, but then, I think [...]
