Always-thoughtful Georgetown alum and level–80 economist-mage Ted Castronova has been thinking about the ongoing recession and, in an interesting thought exercise, traces it back to the virtual world. An Exodus Recession? “I thought we would not see a real-world recession caused by the removal of consumption energy into virtual environments until sometime in the far [...] Read more – ‘Terra Nova: An Exodus Recession?’.
Reading Owen Good’s (excellent!) short article on the difficulties presented in bringing pro wrestling to the game console (The Spectacle Of Pro Wrestling, Played With A Straight Face), I came across this little gem: “Calling pro wrestling ‘fake’ is neither accurate nor informed. The term is ‘kayfabe.’ Kayfabe isn’t a euphemism for false. Kayfabe is [...] Read more – ‘The Spectacle Of Pro Wrestling, Played With A Straight Face’.
If you haven’t yet read SF Weekly‘s delicious article on San Francisco-based Zynga, publishers of FarmVille, (“FarmVillains: Steal someone else’s game. Change its name. Make millions. Repeat.”), put down those seeds and drop that hoe and head over there now. Criticisms and speculation about Zynga’s theft of ideas have been aired before, chiefly in tech-industry [...] Read more – ‘FarmVillains: “I don’t fucking want innovation”’.
Unable to sleep, Gail Nichols spent a lot of time in front of PopCap’s Bejeweled, a game notable for its non-competitive, flow–inducing modes. According to the Washington Post, Nichols liked the game so much that she got in touch with the manufacturer, PopCap Games. The inventors of the game were surprised to hear about its [...] Read more – ‘PopCap funds study on games, mental health’.
Augmented reality applications and games have been a gleam in the eyes of developers (and the promise of trade show charlatans) for decades, but with increasingly ubiquitous video cam inputs and tons of spare processing power, they are finally becoming a reality. Via Gizmodo: Players interact with their virtual pet using a bundled card and [...] Read more – ‘Eyepet: Augmented Reality’.
