Interesting article in Wired about how the misunderstanding and mistreatment of games as a medium is not new or unique to games, but rather is a phase that all media must go through. There are some really choice quotes about corruption of our youth. The Culture War.

Movies
“This new form of entertainment has gone far to blast maidenhood … Depraved adults with candies and pennies beguile children with the inevitable result. The Society has prosecuted many for leading girls astray through these picture shows, but GOD alone knows how many are leading dissolute lives begun at the ‘moving pictures.’”
- The Annual Report of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1909

Comic Books
“Many adults think that the crimes described in comic books are so far removed from the child’s life that for children they are merely something imaginative or fantastic. But we have found this to be a great error. Comic books and life are connected. A bank robbery is easily translated into the rifling of a candy store. Delinquencies formerly restricted to adults are increasingly committed by young people and children … All child drug addicts, and all children drawn into the narcotics traffic as messengers, with whom we have had contact, were inveterate comic-book readers This kind of thing is not good mental nourishment for children!”
- Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 1954

Videogames
“The disturbing material in Grand Theft Auto and other games like it is stealing the innocence of our children and it’s making the difficult job of being a parent even harder … I believe that the ability of our children to access pornographic and outrageously violent material on video games rated for adults is spiraling out of control.”
- US senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2005

Posted on YouTube. Brilliant!

I saw V for Vendetta last night. It was good. Really, staggeringly, good.

The effect it had on me is a little hard to describe, but perhaps the word inspiring comes close. That is an emotion I would say I have never really experienced from a game. No game has ever made me want to be a revolutionary. Sure, there have been games about revolution, but they always come off as dry and uninspired, lacking a personal touch. There needs to be a game that really makes you believe in the cause you’re fighting for. This isn’t too tall of an order, movies have developed tons of tricks for this particular emotional manipulation. (Think Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, etc.)

Here’s a pretty good take on Vendetta from a game developer.

My brother is returning from Europe tomorrow. I can’t wait to hear about his trip. It got me thinking about all the places I’ve been.


create your own visited states map.


create your own visited countries map.

They made an internal announcement about the sale of my company. I can’t say much, because the information isn’t public yet, but it amounts to splitting the company in half. The half I work for will be wholly owned and operated by Cox. I am not excited.

I have seen the future and it belongs to Will Wright (Spore video. From last year’s GDC, I think.). I know everyone’s been saying this for a year now, but Spore looks like the game to end all games. I read a lot about procedural generation, emergent behavior, and user-created content, but it didn’t really click until I watched that presentation. Seriously, next time you have thirty-five minutes to kill and you want to see something really impressive, take a look at that video.