It’s interesting how sometimes companies you might have interacted with on a daily basis in the past return to haunt your present – or in this case, my future.
Moon over Endor’s Ayane has an article up about developer Simutronics, who recently re-organized to deal with the demand for HeroEngine, an engine used by a variety of companies, and most recently and curiously, Bioware. Apparently, the engine will be used for Star Wars: The Old Republic, necessitating the need to expand offices and increase developer support.
Simutronics is not an unfamiliar name to me – but it isn’t because of the fact that I’ve been following SW:TOR for a while. No, Simu and I have a relationship that goes way back to my years in college (hey, it wasn’t THAT long ago, but I’m just saying) when hours and hours in a computer lab doing work was somewhat buoyed by a little-known pay-to-play MUD called Gemstone III. Gemstone, now Gemstone IV, was interesting in that it had dynamic events driven by GM-controlled characters, a system of customization that made getting an item designed unique, and roleplayers and stories galore. Even though the lure of graphical MMOs eventually cut deep into the playerbase, Gemstone retained a loyalty of a few thousand players that became a tight-knit community of folks from all walks of life. Among any of the old school developers out there, Simutronics seemed to me to have the most staying power.
All of this feeling has been proven with the fact that Simu’s HeroEngine is now good enough to be employed by a developer as credible and huge as Bioware. Simutronics has to re-organize teams in DC and in St. Louis to accommodate the new business, and the company is now making forays into iPhone development as well as cultivating their engine. I have to say, Simu has come a long way since I was grinding away at ice trolls in a black-and-white text-driven environment. If SWTOR is as much of a success as we think it might be, then Simutronics is going to have a whole hell of a lot more to celebrate about than just possessing some nostalgic memories of mine. I’ll be cheering for them.
Recently I had the pleasure of showcasing cult classic Battle Royale to a couple of co-workers who’d never seen the film before. Geek media, especially media that is not well known in popular culture, is always a trip when you hand it off to a new audience, and it’s even better when it’s a piece of cinema that’s garnered a small, but loyal, following.
For those who haven’t seen Battle Royale, think Lord of the Flies (where a class of boys trapped on an island with no rules turns to savagery) with a dash of 1984 (where dystopian society turns to extremes to maintain order) thrown in. The entire premise of the movie rests on a question posed to the audience about what happens to rather innocent school culture when faced with extreme situations. The students in the film are drugged, brought to a remote island, and forced to kill one another until one survivor remains, part of an overall effort by their society to make better, more respectful children.
The cool part about exposing new people to this kind of dystopian, cultish effort is the fact that films such as Battle Royale are unabashed in their cheesy, cliche-laden presentation. It creates a kind of charm that is infectious to geeks, who take a sort of pride in liking the obscure and the unpopular. From the count of students being killed to little twists such as an accidental poisoning leading to a schoolgirl gun fight, the film marches along to the tune of its own drum. It’s blatantly violent, sometimes hilarious at inopportune moments and has made stars out of certain actors/actresses (hello Chiaki Kurayama, pre-Kill Bill) who have shined in brief moments. These are the kinds of things that geeks love to share with either other geeks or even better, an uninitiated audience of “normals” who have no idea what to expect.
Of course, there’s always the notion that showing geek media to people sometimes backfires (I’ve had people want the movie turned off after a certain part involving a head, a grenade, and resulting creative weaponry), but honestly, that’s kind of the appeal to showcasing a small, culty movie to people – you never know what you’re going to get. Personally, the laughter and “WTF” moments I got from the people I showed it to this time were proof positive that I’d succeeded in creating more converts. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned around and showed it to others to get the thrill of watching others react to it. Sharing is caring, indeed.
Syp has a notion regarding returning to an MMO, with LOTRO being the most recent foray back from other shores. Syp talks a bit about his experiences logging on, what’s changed, and how the community reacted to his need to accomplish game tasks.
I’m seeing this trend more and more among my fellow bloggers and MMO players in general – this thing about going back to a game you previously played for various reasons. Some go back because others are in the mix that they miss gaming with. Some go back because something else in another game has turned them off. And yet others go back because of a sense of nostalgia, a fond remembrance of good times and many hours spent in a favorite game.
Pessimists among us would say the mass return of players to various MMOs is a reflection of poor quality on the market’s current offerings and their staying power. But you know me – I’m always a sunny person with these things, and going back to MMOs you like is not necessarily a doom and gloom notion about the market as a whole. Really, I think that current MMOs, if they don’t satisfy someone, speak to a desire that he or she wants out of a game – one that can only sometimes be found in a game they played before. Leaving an MMO for the “new and shiny” and then coming back, also known as the “MMO Tourism” syndrome, is not terribly awful because people learn more keenly what they want and desire out of a game. General notions of “fun” and “cool” turn into more specific things such as “balanced, fast-paced PvP” or “dungeon crawls with bosses that aren’t just a tank-and-spank affair”.
Putting the tourism argument aside, there’s nothing wrong with nostalgia, either. In our general culture, “nostalgia” and its revival today is met many times with positive reaction. Sure, there are some movie remakes or TV show “reimaginings” that have flopped, but for every failure there is at least 1 or 2 successes that are successful at bringing back old feelings. Such as it is with MMOs, with Blizzard being the most visible of examples with the upcoming Cataclysm. This kind of re-visitation is not a weakening of the current market but a strengthening of the core things that make MMOs a success, and trust me – developers are watching what tweaks a player’s sense of good times.
I myself have forayed back into WAR for a bit. Mythic may have had its challenges, but the greeting of a returning player is certainly not one of them. You get pop-up entries of what’s changed, a new user experience that gives you a tutorial of game controls both new and old, and a real easy way to get back into the game with things like a limited, but endless, free trial. Along with the instant gratification PvP and casual nature of the game, it’s nice to come back to a title that doesn’t demand my attention in hours-long raids or a grind that would make Greek rock-pusher Sisyphus cry. I’d have never found out what I really wanted in an MMO had I not tried others to find out – and I suspect some of the rest of you have the same experience. Viva la Old School!
So while I was on my little hiatus, Google did it again, and by that I mean they came out with yet another free tool to hook people on. Following up with the social aspect of Google Wave, Google Buzz arrived a few days ago, integrated with Gmail and designed to be a response to social networking services like Facebook and Twitter. What’s the Buzz about? Well, with auto-follow on your most frequently mailed contacts, ability to share URL’s with your followers and who you follow, and Google’s almost idiot-proof interface design, Buzz has generated…well a bit of buzz for people.
A lot of naysayers say that Google spreads itself too thin by basically trying to do anything and everything, and that this latest foray into territory held by dedicated services is destined to fail. But Google, if anything, has learned to cultivate its tools by integrating them with its existing bread and butter services. Wave, for example, has had a slow start due to a lack of seamless integration with Gmail. Buzz, on the other hand, includes a brand new section in your Gmail and allows you to access you and your friend’s feeds at the click of a mouse. It’s why the response has been a bit favorable than it could have been.
I typically like to use Twitter and Facebook integrated together, so hopefully Buzz has the ability to integrate with all those services in order to present updates. It was interesting to see how many of my most frequent Gmail emailers decided to follow me – some did, and some didn’t, and my friends have taken to posting everything on Buzz from news articles to picture links. Funny how social networking services take off like that.
Whether or not Google’s newest tool will succeed remains to be seen – but it’s at least nice to see that a company isn’t willing to rest on the laurels of its past successes. If Google was satisfied with just its search engine, then we’d never see the convenience of Gmail or Google Docs or Google Video. Sure, there are some tools that are just a bit forgettable (Google Notebook anyone), but there’ve been more hits than misses, so I’m looking forward to what Buzz has to offer us.
The day after Valentine’s is usually a path strewn with empty candy boxes and discarded flower food packets. In these cases, when couples return to a bit of a normal routine and single people breathe a sigh of relief, there’s always a return to the normal, and in some cases, the hilarious.
So whether you felt off about your Valentine’s Day, or you just treated it as another lazy Sunday, I think you’ll appreciate a little randomness involving boxes from our friends at Collegehumor. Check it out:
It’s wholly appropriate that I make my glorious return to blogging about the positive and the neato in the geek media world on Valentine’s Day. It’s a day when couples celebrate their love affair with each other, and single people celebrate their love affair with Haagen Dazs. Either way, potentially good times and good eating (that’s what she said).
Anyway, among my geekery friends, the traditional norms of roses, candy, and jewelry persist, but in the years since I’ve admitted to being a student of the geek arts, I’ve seen some pretty interesting gifts for V-Day. The wi-fi shirt that’s pictured here and available over at ThinkGeek is just one such present I’ve seen bestowed on a lucky guy or gal. Gamers have given in-game rare items to their sweethearts. E-carding has given way to collages made in Picasa and mailed videos have given way to surprise calls on Skype. And the traditional gifts I’ve mentioned have all taken on an ability to be ordered, picked up, tracked, and delivered from the comfort of your own home.
There’s also the fact that geekery tools have allowed people to share what they’ve got or send messages to loved ones instantly. Today’s Facebook feed has a ton of stuff related to all the things people are doing (or not doing) on today’s holiday of love, Twitter is filled with, well, twitterpated people, and generally, people are using the Internet more to express love (or love to hate). I can’t say this is a bad thing, because even though Valentine’s Day is sometimes a private holiday for those who celebrate it, it’s nice to see how your friends are faring. And if you’re single? Well, the tools are out there to change that, with the Internet being an increasingly viable method of meeting people – even if it’s to collectively grouse at all the lovey-dovey going on.
Either way, geek chic and tech is here to stay and holidays like Valentine’s Day provide a reminder that things, they are a-changing when it comes to how to best go about it. I hope that regardless of where you are in relationship status, that everyone reading has someone special that they can express a bit of affection to, whether that’s a lover, spouse, friend, or family member. If anything else, you can count on the fact that I love everyone who’s reading, and who’ll continue to reading now that I’m back in force.
There are definitely times when it comes to writing a blog that you need to take a bit of a break. Writing every day is nice, and in some cases cathartic, but everyone has to recharge their batteries once in a while. This is one of those times.
2010 brings with it a lot of changes to me, personally. These are changes that are both positive and interesting. That being said, it’s getting a bit hectic right now, making it more and more difficult to update people with sunshine and rainbows.
So as much as my humble readership might miss it, I’ll be taking a brief little break – maybe a week or two – just to recharge my batteries and get re-focused. I plan on coming back as optimistic as ever, so be sure to stay tuned!
Ah, game trailers. Those little bits of eye-candy that tease us with epic details and amazing visuals. Ocular pornography for geeks who like games, I like to call them. You’ll see the latest trailer I assaulted my eyes with at the bottom of this post.
It got me thinking, really. I mean, gamers today react in two ways to a trailer for something. They either get extremely excited and psyched, or they adopt a sense of cynicism about fluff that doesn’t present the realities of what gameplay is actually going to be like. These are two extremes that I think present themselves in any comment thread on Youtube or Gametrailers, with sometimes hilarious results. Nothing like seeing “MAN THIS IS AWESOME” next to “MAN THIS SUCKS”. Ah, contrasts.
Me? Even though I’m not surprisingly in the “MAN THIS IS AWESOME” column, I also have realistic expectations about the visual orgy that hits my face when I see a games trailer. Trailers are curious little things, and like movies, are meant to tease, elicit a small sense of surprise, and generate buzz. That, however, is all they can and should be. They aren’t an indication of actual experience. They sometimes aren’t quite the graphical look the game will have. And they most certainly aren’t a prediction of how badly a game decides to crash when you’re in the middle of killing something.
I think as long as people understand what game trailers are, then it’s not only easy but also appropriate to be excited and happy about them – because that’s what they’re supposed to do. In that respect, I’d rather be happy for the 2+ minutes I’m watching one rather than cynical for life. So that being said, here’s the latest trailer I’ve watched for TERA online, a new MMO coming out soon. Will it succeed? Time will tell – but for now, just enjoy, right?
We near the end of the month of January, and going to work or school might seem like it’s the total dumps. When you’re freezing your ass off, finding out there’s no parking, and figuring out how to make it through the day without becoming a total zombie, it’s hard to think of things that are fun and entertaining.
Not to worry, folks, because College Humor decides to soothe your Monday blahs with a little original vid paying homage to Star Wars, an IP guaranteed to bring you into the theaters and make you smile. Still, with all the re-re-re-edited and re-re-re-re-…er, redone stuff, you might seem lost about what has changed. Don’t worry though – the below video will be your beacon of light in your darkened re-edited Star Wars ignorance. Have a good one, folks!
I totally blame Conan O’Brien for me missing a post yesterday, but it was totally worth it, especially when it came down to Conan’s last, serious speech regarding his short time as the host of the Tonight Show. I’ll have more about this later, but for now, I think it honestly speaks for itself – especially the closing.
Before we end this rodeo, a few things need to be said. There has been a lot of speculation in the press about what I legally can and can’t say about NBC.
To set the record straight, tonight I am allowed to say anything I want. And what I want to say is this: between my time at Saturday Night Live, TheLate Night show, and my brief run here onThe Tonight Show, I have worked with NBC for over twenty years. Yes, we have our differences right now and yes, we’re going to go our separate ways. But this company has been my home for most of my adult life. I am enormously proud of the work we have done together, and I want to thank NBC for making it all possible.
Walking away from The Tonight Show is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Making this choice has been enormously difficult. This is the best job in the world, I absolutely love doing it, and I have the best staff and crew in the history of the medium. I will fight anybody who says I don’t, but no one would.
But despite this sense of loss, I really feel this should be a happy moment. Every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second. I’ve had more good fortune than anyone I know and if our next gig is doing a show in a 7-Eleven parking lot, we’ll find a way to make it fun. We really will. I have no problems.
And…I don’t want to do it in a 7-Eleven parking lot.
And finally, I have to say something to our fans.
The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational. To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life.
All I ask of is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch - please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”
See that? Even Conan endorses optimism. Thanks Conan. You’ll be missed.
It’s interesting how sometimes companies you might have interacted with on a daily basis in the past return to haunt your present – or in this case, my future.
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