Laying it on a bit thick, universe, but I take your point.
Related: Last time at the same restaurant.
Completely Changed Today
I Heart Chaos: Cloud Assassin
From my newest piece on iheartchaos (Just a reminder, my posts here are totally worksafe, but this site is not entirely PG. Ahem.)
The new Cloud Assassin smartphone game makes the dorm (and boring workplace) game mobile and accessible. Playerscan challenge and invite players by phone number, and map their last known locations. In an awesome cyberpunk move, completely unimagined in my college water-pistol and rubber-snake assassin games, checking another player’s last known location also reveals your own. You make your kill by snapping a photo of your target’s back, and uploading it. And, yes, there’s a space for text-based trashtalking.
Ah, technology. Changing how we pretend to off our friends. Isn’t it great?
Posted in Game Reviews, New York City
Tagged Game Reviews, games, I heart chaos, New York City
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New York Pride
Last weekend, I went to the NYC Pride parade with Roy and some of his friends. The parade is always a good show, that combination of elaborate costumes and nudity, dedicated political activism and dick jokes, and there was extra excitement and energy because New York just approved gay marriage.
I’m pretty cynical about marriage in general, but it was an absolute delight to be around so many newly-engaged couples. I’m so proud of New York for recognizing that the desire to be in a relationship with someone doesn’t have all that much to do with biological plumbing, and I hope other states follow soon. Everyone should be able to lock the person they love into a lifetime of nagging about socks and bills! (Um. I’m a total catch. And I don’t have relationship issues or anything. Not at all.)
Google had an awesome banner with two droids holding hands, which made me suddenly wonder if the Android logo has gender. They were throwing chapsticks into the crowd, and by this time, we’d worked our way right up to the barriers, so Roy caught one and I was jealous.
“Don’t be too sad,” Roy said, “You caught the condoms from that other float.”
“But that’s not special!” I insisted, “Condoms are in stores! I don’t know where to find gay Google lip balm!”
There are moments when I’m so crazy about New York, and I ask myself how I thought I could be happy in Raleigh. Well, the Peruvian mermaid lesbians were one of those moments.
Socks, Inc.
Socks, Inc. was one of the local games demoed at last week’s NYGaming.
Socks, Inc. is a supercute AR game. Players create a sock puppet character, and set off to do real-world challenges, like snapping a picture of your sock out in nature, eating a snack or playing a sport. The uploaded pictures and videos are moderated and then shared with other users (answering the obvious questions about a children’s game and user-generated content). Check out the hilarious Alien Overload sock photostream for an example.
(This is an adorable and informative trailer, even though it includes my unfavorite games-related slogan. I admit to finding World of DateCraft pretty cute and clever in 2007, but I wish we could all lay off “World of ___Craft” in games journalism.)
Via Socks, Inc. | The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Game Reviews, Previews, News & Downloads
Posted in Game Reviews, New York City
Tagged Awkward Hug, Game Reviews, games, IGM, Indie Game Mag, indiegames, New York City, nygaming, Socks Inc
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Secret Message
I think the MTA is trying to tell me something.
Facebook’s Most Engaging Pages
Facebook’s Most Engaging Pages
Name Fans Interactions
1. Jesus Daily 6,029,225 1,632,131
2. Justin Bieber 30,140,809 1,023,869
3. The Bible 7,671,321 909,359
4. Lady Gaga 38,768,408 890,318
Via AllFacebook.com
I was going to post this without any editorial remarks…. I can not resist pointing out that Lady Gaga has more fans than Jesus, but Jesus fans’ talk more.
Changing Gears
When I picked up my first ZipCar, a couple weeks ago, I went out to the parking spot in Newark, and swiped my card over the car’s windshield. The doors unlocked, I got in and pressed the go button (Priuses are too modern for a key ignition), plugged my phone in to listen to Pandora through the car’s speakers, and then I drove off.
I should apologize to the drivers of New Jersey here. If you saw someone shouting “I’m driving in the future!” over and over, that was me.
I picked up another ZipCar car at Alewife to drive out to Eric’s in Boxboro. The non-futuristic part of this is that each time I have to find my way to a new car, and I don’t have the world’s greatest navigational sense. I had no idea just how many parking decks there are at Montclair State, or how many bike lockups there are at Alewife Station.
So I picked up the car, after a scenic tour of the Alewife parking areas, and started out towards Eric’s. I may have a bit of automobile anxiety, and I was hoping to keep that from Harold for as long as possible, but finally I had to ask if he thought the car was wicked loud too. He did.
It sounded a bit like a standard in the wrong gear, and it was having some trouble accelorating, but my highly scientific tests (translation: noticing that there was no clutch) proved it was an automatic. That was inexplicably in first gear.
I was about to pull over and cry, when I realized that apparently Mazdas have a wacky optional manual thingy sport shift. Just like Eric promised me about ten years ago, someday I’ll be glad I learned to drive stick.
When I put my hand on the console, I could feel when to shift gears. And then I was Kaylee on Serenity, I was Geordi LaForge in engineering, I suddenly got why manual-transmission freaks are so in love with their cars. It’s entirely possibly that I was shrieking delightedly when I got up to speed.
I should apologize to the drivers of Massachusetts here. If you saw someone changing gears and squealing “Upshifting! Downshifting! I’m awesome!” that was me.
Bad Press
Duke Nukem Forever dev 2K Games has severed their long-time working relationship with PR firm The Redner Group after the firm threatened to blacklist journalists who gave the game negative scores.
Clearly unimpressed with some of the comments about Duke’s latest outing, The Redner Group founder Jim Redner posted on Twitter earlier today, “Too many went too far with their reviews…we are reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom.”
Via Duke Nukem Forever dev drops PR firm following threats to games journalists
But if you’re not providing review copies to people who made fun of Duke Nukem Forever’s release date, are any games journos at all eligible for a review copy?
Posted in New York City
Tagged Duke Nukem Forever, games, games industry, games journalism, New York City, Redner
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