The Zerg Overmind must be smiling down on me, because a few days after I received my StarCraft II beta invite another key popped into my inbox! The first must have been for press, while the second came from attending BlizzCon a couple of years ago. To any extent, I have one to give away!

What do you need to do to get it? Not much! Just become a Facebook fan. The winner will be picked randomly on Friday night!

Related posts:

1. Start off the New Year with an iPod shuffle [Contest]
2. Judging the Boxee Dev Challenge!

My friend Rob sent me this video, which I had somehow missed when it came out this summer. I agree with the points that Daniel Floyd and Leigh Alexander make, especially how browser-based and casual titles can lead to regular console gaming (I’ve long called The Sims a “gateway drug game”). What I really liked was how some game companies, like Ubisoft, are creating games that “appeal to a younger generation of girls,” in effect planting the seeds for them to grow up with a love for games.

Working for Qore, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of great women working in the gaming industry, such as Amy Hennig (who couldn’t be more brilliant), Tracy Espeleta, and Kellee Santiago. Coincidentially, I read today on Chris Pirillo’s Twitter feed that Sony Online Entertainment is actually offering a scholarship and internship to a girl looking to work in game design and production:

Applications are now being accepted for the 2010 G.I.R.L. Scholarship to help educate and recruit more women into the field of video game production and design. Sponsored by Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) a global leader in online gaming, and administered by Scholarship America®, a leading non-profit educational support program, applications are available at https://www.scholarshipamerica.org/gamersinreallife and more details, including official rules for entry are also available online at http://www.station.sony.com/girl/.

If you know a girl who may be interested, please pass thing along! It seems like a really great opportunity to encourage more women to become involved in this industry.

No related posts.

Like most things, they didn’t really care. But I’m going to place him on top of the bookshelf just to be on the safe side!

And here he is at the park, doing what he does best: being adorable.

I do need a name for him, though, so if you’ve got any good suggestions let me know in the comments!

No related posts.

My friend Obsidian from Extralife Radio and Commissioned Comic created this amazing portrait of my main WoW toon, Winema. He’s doing his semi-regular COMMISSIONATHLON, which he explains on his site:

Simply put, the ‘Thlon is an event I created where I try to produce at least 1 piece of fantasy art a day for several weeks. The whole production process is recorded by use of a webcam and each resulting video is posted on the internet, along with the resulting art piece. All the images made are art commissions.

He also shows how he sketches and paints everything live on Ustream, so you can see how the whole thing is created!

Anyhow, I think she looks wonderful. For the Horde!

Related posts:

1. The WoW Pod both frightens and intrigues me

According to their webpage:

Inside, the gamer finds him/herself comfortable seated in front of the computer screen with easy-to-reach water, pre-packaged food, and a toilet conveniently placed underneath his/her custom-built throne.

When hungry, the gamer selects a food item (‘Crunchy Spider Surprise’, ‘Beer Basted Ribs’, etc.) and a seasoning pack. By scanning in the food items, the video game physically adjusts a hot plate to cook the item for the correct amount of time. The virtual character then jubilantly announces the status of the meal to both the gamer and the other individuals playing online: “Vorcon’s meal is about to be done!” “Better eat the ribs while they’re hot!” etc.

But…. would you use it? Would I use it? I think it could be an interesting experiment to try for a few days, but I’m pretty sure Ryan wouldn’t let me have one at home (I’m at the computer enough as it is).

The WoW Pod, created at MIT, will be on display until September 2009. Hopefully I’ll get out to the Boston area to see it!

Related posts:

1. A portrait of Winema

I was listening to the gdgt roundtable this morning, and they started talking about the iPhone / iPod Touch as a gaming device. Josh Topolsky insisted that Apple was trying to drink Sony and Nintendo’s milkshakes, while Ryan said that Apple is just going for the “value add” of having games.

This got me thinking about my iPhone and the experiences I’ve had using it as a handheld gaming device, especially compared with the Nintendo DS and the PSP. Granted, gaming on my phone has not been my number one priority, but I’ve download a few decent ones: Spore Origins, Tris (which I believe is now unavailable) and Tap Tap Revenge. But at the end of the day, was it more fun for me to play games on my iPhone than if I’d brought along the DS or PSP? Well, no, not especially. Was it more convenient to not have to carry a second device? Of course. Yet the overall experience quality is still going to be better on a standalone gaming platform. I just wonder if people really care all that much about having the absolute best experience… maybe they just don’t need it.

This brings me to another point on the podcast: do mainstream users really care about the nit-pickings of technologists when it comes to their buying decisions? Yes, there can definitely be a trickle effect of opinion that can sway people (“Oh, I’ve heard this phone is very buggy, I’m going to wait for the next version”). But what about mainstream gamers? Are games on the iPod/iPhone ever going to effect the number of handheld devices being purchased, and the amount they’re used? Is it just a nice added benefit to the phone, or a major selling point?

Developers are cranking out some beautiful looking games for the App Store, and I’m sure they’re enjoying the direct-to-buyer system (that is, if their app makes it through the approval process), but I wonder what other frequent gamers are thinking.

Do you think people will eventually buy the iPod or iPhone with the primary function of being their gaming device?

Image courtesy of Apple.com

Related posts:

1. The iPhone app organizer I would love to see
2. Culture of the Apps
3. A little iPhone organization would be nice

Let’s compare (and btw, neither of these videos are particularly safe for work):

Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation:

So, is Soulja Boy the new liaison for gamers to the mainstream world*? Discuss.

*Wouldn’t that be hilarious?

Related posts:

1. Learn espresso from the best

How does it work? Each person creates a creature of their very own, and then the adorable (or hideous, depending on your tastes) creatures will be voted on by the Internet. The most-beloved monstrosity wins $15,000 for a charity of the creator’s choice!

I’m really excited to be a part of the competition, and I look forward to destroying Kevin Rose and Scott Beale when the voting opens! There will be some other exciting competitors too (actual famous people!!) so I’ll update you all when EA has everything set up. My charity is going to be the James Kim Technology Foundation.

The Creature Creator itself is extremely intuitive. Within five minutes I had a creature up and running (see Bugnose below, who didn’t make the cut as my final entrant into the contest).

Here’s Coodoodle, who you’ll be hopefully voting for! She shoots poison from her rear end, so be careful.

I’ll be uploading photos here as I play with it more!

No related posts.

Honestly? It’s one of the coolest looking things I’ve seen in a long time, and I’m not just saying that because we’ve been working our asses off on it! Unfortunately, I don’t get to be in the first episode as much as we’d like, since I came into the project towards the end of the shooting cycle. But the stuff we’ve done already for episodes two and three is very fun.

Everyone is already fixating on the free demos, themes and betas, but it will take them until Thursday (when it goes live) to see how the video segments and behind the scenes clips are really what I think this whole thing is about. I’m just psyched that I get to be a part of it, and talk to the developers and artists behind some truly cool upcoming games.

There’s way more info on the Playstation Blog, but if you have any questions for me drop them in the comments and maybe I’ll whip up a FAQ for the next post!

Related posts:

1. Questions and Qomments (see what I did there?)
2. Culture of the Apps
3. 5Across video panel on PBS’s MediaShift

1. The Wii Fit isn’t fun enough to make me come back to it. If they’re trying to reach out to gamers in some way, make it a little more entertaining.
2. The trainers speak like they’ve taken too much Vicodin. I need high-energy encouragement, man!
3. I have terrible balance, and apparently this is very important for doing almost every single exercise in the game.
4. The jackknife and push-ups were pretty effective, and they could actually tell when I was dropping my hips and being lazy.
5. The step aerobics game was pretty awesome, especially after I unlocked the advanced class, but it would be even better if I could use my own music.
6. The yoga poses are OK for stretching, but it’s really easy to do a yoga pose incorrectly and hurt yourself. These are basic, but I think it’s better to have someone (real) around to show you the right moves.

Overall, the best thing to come out of Wii Fit was that it got me motivated to head back to the gym again. If you’re really interested in fitness and feeling better about your body, take the $89.99 and spend it on a fun class at the gym, or put it towards getting a human trainer that will really get your ass back in gear.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll respond there as well. Ryan also has an in-depth look at his fitness odyssey over at Engadget.

UPDATE: Twitterer @NinaSpezz showed me this parody that I missed! Hilarious, and also true…

Related posts:

1. Vii Fit: Day 1

How do you make a game girlfriend-friendly?

You do jump-in, jump-out co-op. You have configurable difficulty settings for the other player. You have very cool and bad-ass main characters that have a very human side. And you make sure that the female characters in your game don’t have ginormous tits and aren’t bad stereotypes.

Yes, stereotypes are annoying, but I have a feeling that’s not what is keeping your girlfriends from playing GoW. Because frankly, I think we’re all a little desensitized to stereotypes in video games: play 10 minutes of (the absolutely stellar) GTA4 to see what I’m talking about.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m probably not typical. However, I think there’s a decently-sized segment of the female gamer population that feels the same way. It’s nothing in-game that would ever keep me from playing GoW2. You could make the female characters mostly naked and baking cookies in the cut scenes for all I care (OK, that was a joke). I played through the entire story mode of GoW, and the last thing on my mind was the outfits. No, it’s the online play experience that I can’t tolerate. As a woman who has attempted to play against random people on various shooters, I can say with certainty that anonymous jerkwads who have never known the touch of a woman are the reason I won’t try it again. Half the time you’re better off pretending to be a 14-year old boy with a high voice than admit to being a girl.

In an excellently-written article on Gamasutra, Bill Fulton (who developed the online social aspects of Shadowrun) wrote:

Of all the ways I spend my free time, playing games online is the only one I would describe as “frequently barbaric”. Insults of all kinds, including racist and homophobic slurs, are commonplace.

The women I know who play online avoid anything that would identify them as female — including voice communication — in order to avoid the unwanted, and frequently negative, attention.
…
Why do I care? Some gamers might be thinking “If he’s so thin-skinned that he can’t take the online banter, maybe he shouldn’t play online.” Unfortunately, many people do just that — they stop playing online.

Is it a reality of online gaming, particularly on Xbox Live, something that we just have to put up with? Sure, you can mute them, but it unless the game has it built directly into their interface, you’ll be wasting valuable playing time digging around in their gamer card. The rating system is also a joke, since it won’t really keep people out of your lobby. Every game should have an easy way to mute and block certain players when you’re playing online, and it seems that not many do.

If that were fixed, it would certainly make me want to play more online. I appreciate that Cliffy B. is thinking about making the game “girlfriend-friendly” but I don’t know if that’s really at the heart of the matter. What does that even mean anyway? Would a girlfriend that was considering playing a game like GoW2 really be the kind of girl to change her mind because of a few tight outfits? That’s another blog post, I guess.

No related posts.

As some of you may have seen on Engadget, Ryan is challenging himself to a month of suffering at the hands of the Wii Fit. And while he is nowhere near overweight, we do live a somewhat… sedentary lifestyle. A lot of sitting is involved. Therefore I’ve decide to come along on his fitness odyssey, not only as a supportive measure, but also to encourage myself to live a healthier lifestyle.

Yes, if it takes a video game to get me off my lazy ass, then so be it.

According to the little white board sitting on my living room floor, here are my stats so far:
Weight (I can’t believe I’m telling you these things): 117 lbs
Height: 5′7″
BMI: 18.5
Body Age: 35 (WTF?!)
Actual Age: 25

OK, so apparently I’m a little underweight (my burrito belly is begging to differ). I’m not sure how Wii Fit expects to solve this problem (“Please get off the Wii Fit and go eat a pizza while watching Battlestar Galactica”) but I guess I need to build more muscle mass. The Fit also told me that my balance sucks by asking me “Do you trip a lot when you walk?” You snarky bastard.

I’ll be reporting every couple of days to let you know how this thing is going. I know the Wii Fit isn’t exactly the same as training for a triathlon, but it’s more exercising than I ever do (except for climbing, which I hope to work more into this month as well). Wish me luck!

No related posts.

We were soooo close to getting through the song! 99% isn’t bad, and if we had more time to practice (instead of having only played the song once!) I’m sure we would have made it. But it was a ton of fun, and I even saved the band a couple of times with my overdrive

But I want to thank Jonathan for giving me one of the most memorable experiences I’ll ever have. I’m a huge fan of his music, and I got to live out my rock star dreams for real. Not much can beat that!

Jonathan Coulton performs “Still Alive” in Rock Band from Joy Stiq

Special thanks to Chris from Joystiq for recording the video! Go check out his post for more details.

No related posts.

Today’s Mahalo Daily is a feature on the Independent Games Festival, happening here in the West Hall of Moscone.

No related posts.

“zomg, as if it wasn’t lame enough that you play WoW, you play it on a Mac which means you suck even that much more.”

Yes. Well. I’ve decided that I need to broaden my horizons a little and try some other games, but the problem is that my MacBook Pro is running low on space, so I don’t really feel like partitioning my hard drive to run Bootcamp for games that only run on Windows. Therefore, I need to decide what to do:

1. Buy a new Mac, install Bootcamp / Windows
2. Buy a PC
3. Build a gaming PC

Right now I’m leaning towards the “build a PC” side of things, but my experience in that area is weak. What is the best gear (without going into insane, $3000-priced things)? What are the best sites to buy from? Help me out, this copy of Tabula Rasa isn’t getting any younger.

No related posts.

Rock Band is going to seriously fulfill some teen-aged rock and roll fantasies, I can tell you that much. Although, the thought of singing “Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer any place other than my shower is very scary. For everyone else, at least. Are they any songs you wish they had added?

In the meantime, if you’re stuck, check out the Mahalo guide for Guitar Hero III. And yes, in case you were wondering, there will be a show announcement made this week!

Image link

No related posts.

Ryan: I’m going to play Halo 3 now.
Veronica: OK. Mind if I sit here?
Ryan: No, I don’t mind, just make zero noise and don’t bug me.

No related posts.

This is by far the funniest comparison I’ve seen of the three major consoles. Yahtzee Croshaw produces this hilarious series called Zero Punctuation on The Escapist, and this is how I wish Prizefight could have been (if it were animated, curse-heavy, and with an accent).

Thanks to kkc, who sent this to me!

No related posts.

Episode One:

Episode Two:

I think it’s especially funny to think about the lines between real and virtual world blurring… but as much as I love my guild, it would be a little odd to find one of them on my doorstep one day! But hey, that’s what meet-ups are for!

No related posts.

UPDATE: Yes, I know it’s fake. Yes, I knew it at the time. Do I care? Not really. The Internet is serious business, folks.

No related posts.