Video games: news, theory & analysis.
Video games: news, theory & analysis.
I was very excited to open that slick little box on Christmas morning. Call me a Mac fanboy. Go ahead, I'll wait. Love the features. Better than BlackBerry. All that. But whatever goes for 'games' on the iPhone is a disaster. — read on
After iTunes killed Tower Records, I'm wondering what the effect of digital distribution for games will be on brick & mortar game retailers. In particular, I'm curious to see whether GameStop will end up with a fat lip, because I'm skeptical as to what extent the games industry is impervious to the current economic downturn.
A few weeks ago a few telecom giants worried that given these circumstances, people are likely to cancel their landlines, for example. In other words, people will be looking to get rid off those expenses that are, well, unnecessary. And so in deciding between a landline and cell phone, the latter likely wins. Similarly, I expect people to stop buying those $50 games.
This does not mean, of course, that people will stop playing games. That's nonsense. What I think it means is that people will first and foremost look for ways to spend less on video games. And I see two ways to do this.
— read on
A central idea in my dissertation is the notion that games relate to reality. Chess is a modeled version of two fighting armies, and Call of Duty is a first-hand experience of being a solider. The bits and pieces that make up a game are not accidental, but a game draws on real-life for both inspiration and example. But sometimes there's a clear absence of a boundary, as in the following example. — read on
A few months ago, the Center for an Urban Future published a report on the challenges and opportunities of the NYC game industry. As the first of its kind, it takes a long hard look at NYC game scene. According to them, there are fifty-five companies in total, employing approximately 1,200 people. (To compare, Boston houses 75 and Maryland 60.)
Anyway, as my graduation nears, I'm reviewing employment options. One of which is a job in the game industry. After the jump, there'll be a happy list of ninety-three game and game-related (i.e. music) companies in NY. For your convenience.
— read on
It is an obvious proposition: women like casual games, and advertisers like women. Therefore, advertisers like casual games. And so, unsurprisingly, a host of female-targeting games are sprouting all over the Interwebs.
Thanks to the technical convenience of flash-based games, every site, blog and forum now features some idiotic clickable nonsense. But, unlike some of the people who are investing money in this, I'm skeptical that some of these new 'portals' will successfully persuade any women.
Example. — read on
After meeting with David Cole last week at the NY Games Conference, we agreed to refresh three of DFC's current reports. Codenames: MMOG, MMOG-lite and Casual Games. — read on
As of this minute conference, registrations are underway. Earlier I sent out the press release to everyone and his mother and am now slowly chewing my way through all the replies. — read on
Today I visited my doctors again and they're telling me all is well. W00t! After last week's CT scan, everything looks normal. Or, as they call it, "stable." Well anyway, it means that at the next scan in November, it will already have been a solid year since I finished that gruesome chemo. Ninjas:1, Cancer:0, indeed. Memorable pic after the jump. — read on
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