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McWhertor - he's the foxy one on the right with the beard who thinks the wiimote is a mobile phone - has put together a gaming tees shop with his buddy Scott. And the shirts, they are good!
Although good in the ultra-hipster sense of you have to be supra hardcore to get the references.
Or just pretend. That's what I do.
No wait, I take it back, I know that one!
Good on ya, Mike n' Scott. We like!
Pixie Hollow is Disney's latest virtual world for kids, based on their fairies and the fairy-builder they discussed at ETech 07. Virtual World News says,
Disney's fairy-themed world, Pixie Hollow, comes with a line of physical toys called Clickables. Bracelets and jewelry boxes allow users to trade virtual goods and add online friends by coming together in the real world.
.. for safety reasons, according to the Disney spokesperson, who points out that swapping toys in real life means less of a risk of swapping data with strangers. Fascinating paragraph pulled out by VWN on how the Disney machine went about brainstorming such a thing:
We knew that online worlds were going to be a big deal and so we got about 50 of our smartest people together from different divisions and of different job types - marketing people, technology people, designers, even finance people and lawyers - and we had a big brainstorm. [...] We came up with probably a few hundred ideas but narrowed it down to 75 really good ones from the two days. Then we narrowed it down to our top 10 and top 5 and in there was the nugget of the Clickables concept. Then we decided that this was such an important area that we would create a dedicated team around it, called our Toymorrow team that would be a little swat team focused on technology in the toy space.
"Toymorrow". Very clever. The Clickables themselves sound pretty novel, too:
...a new technology called Clickables that we are launching in connection to our new Disney Fairies virtual world. It's a way for kids to take their online world experience into the real world. The core of it is a magical bracelet. By simply clicking their [real] bracelets together, girls become friends in the online environment. And it's safer too because if you had to physically click with your friend that means they were in physical proximity to you, you saw them, and you know who they are.
That is indeed pretty magical - and requires the purchase of plenty of realworld objects. Ka-ching. What about boy fairies, though? There's a missed opportunity..
This was doing the rounds a few days back but I was meaning to point at it: Machinarium is the next offering coming from Amanita Design, the (tiny and amazing) development studio behind some of my favourite games ever: Samorost and Samorost 2. The music alone on those two is enough to lower your blood pressure by a few bar.
(And they say games aren't art. Pfft.)
I approached Amanita Design last year to see if they could do something for us at work, but unfortunately they were too busy: gainfully so, of course! Disappointing for me though, I love these guys.
(via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
Uhoh, better not let him indoors see these cosplaying two: a recipe for instant self-combustion if I ever saw one. Thanks to Bonnie for finding these lady Links.
Over at the source site, DS Fanboy, I find these screens for Sim City 2 on the DS. Love the Japanese themeing! But Sim City on the DS. Oh dear. This could be trouble.
I'm always envious of people who have a gaming room. I am the not-very-proud owner of a gaming beanbag. (One day though, I shall have a gaming room, and I already have a Space Invader quilt for the wall, thanks to this crafty lady.)
HOW big is their telly??
Meanwhile, I content myself with my beanbag. It's corduroy, you know.
...
..
.
Okay, I can't resist. While someone mentioned Space Invaders...
A pot holder!
A beer cosy! (hah!)
A keychain!
Okay, again, I'm done. Going to Spitalfields for a nose-about.
Remember the fabulous knitted zombies? Their creator has also produced this gem, a knitted Hellboy:
Oh it's good. But that's not all. Michael Myers? Oh yes.
Pics copyright cakeyvoice.
And the icing on the cake: SADAKO. (Please, see the Japanese original of The Ring, if you haven't yet. Worth the import tax, every penny and then some.)
You can even buy some of these "knitted minions".
For posterity, this. Many people will have experienced similar, I think. My current UK guild is a bunch of real-life friends, many of whom are new(ish) to WoW (and loving it). A guildie recently wrote:
So, an idle question:
When you hit lvl 70, do you keep earning XP?
Another guildie continued:
.. and, do you keep doing quests? what do you do after 70?
To which (four level-70s) Jonathan replied:
You don't earn any more XP, no, but the XP you would earn from completing quests gets turned into extra gold instead. You'll have a bunch of solo quests to keep doing when you hit 70, for which you get more money and sometimes better equipment as quest rewards. Further progression comes from doing instances to get better equipment which then lets you do harder instances to get better equipment which lets you do raids (instances for more than 5 people, typically 10 or 25) to get better equipment which lets you do harder raids to get better equipment which lets you ..
And there goes your life.
A guildie replied:
When you put it like that it sounds so.....futile....
Another guildie responds:
You see this is the point I lose the will to live...why are we playing this again?
Which led to:
Cos it releases crack from a keyboard while you play as a reward.
He responded:
Finger ingested rock...that's it, I forgot
At which point, I said,
I feel like framing this thread.
And now you can frame it. In Needlepoint.
And she was right:
She made this! And there's a how-to there as well...
Anyone any good at needlepoint?
So yes, technically there is a possibility that some so-called terror groups might've decided to use Second Life, or WoW, or similar, to meet'n'greet.
Why they'd want to is another question. Data isn't usually encrypted; servers are most often held in the US.
But I spose the US govt has to keep spending that 67c in the tax dollar on "defense" somehow! This mightn't lead anywhere sensible though. What next, checking Club Penguin? Where does it end?
Brian Crecente's brother Drew is offering up a prize of $1000 for a game that can deal with the topic of teen dating violence - without using violence.
In memory of Jennifer Ann, Drew's daughter, this is an excellent and worthy challenge, and also extremely tough to do. A flash game about violence that doesn't portray violence? Cerebral stuff.
The contest is open to anyone over 18 (not just US citizens), and the game does have to be in Flash, a complete game and not just a paper prototype, and fully playable. Deadline is April 15.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the results.
Sande had a video link up to an interview with the CEO of Guppyworks, creators of Guppylife, an MMO "for girls" - but the vid's been taken down for some reason. I'm curious though: details are slim but, it's Danish, it has AI, and is about cuddling critters, by the looks of it.
GuppyLife is an MMO for girls. The overall purpose of the game is to take care of the small furry inhabitants of the world, the guppies. A guppy is a small life loving creature with an innocence of a child and a thrill for fun and adventure. Guppies are quite intelligent. With a little guidance they learn to sing, dance, and most importantly be nice to both friends and strangers. Without guidance however, they will pickup bad habits or get sad and depressed.
Heh, bring on the Evil Guppies!
The environment design's pretty fantastic though, eh?
No news of any release date, as far as I can see.
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