Is E3 Ending?

I’m late on this news, living in China and all, but E3 as we know it is over.

I kind of imagined E3 as a nerds-only fashion week, with all kinds of gamers, developers and game journalists crawling out into the light for a few days of networking and demos.

“The world of interactive entertainment has changed since E3Expo was created 12 years ago. At that time we were focused on establishing the industry and securing orders for the holiday season,” said Douglas Lowenstein, President of the ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers and the owner of E3Expo. “Over the years, it has become clear that we need a more intimate program, including higher quality, more personal dialogue with the worldwide media, developers, retailers and other key industry audiences.” (From Gamasutra.com’s article)

I’m really sad to read this. It may mean the end of my dream to become an E3 booth babe! I don’t know if I could fill out the required chainmail bikini but what I lack in cup size, I could make up for in actually knowing about the games!

Free DDR Pad!

Ok, I’m not sure I really understand this one. This link will get you a Dance Dance Revolution - type pad (USB compatible) and a downloadable DDR game. You’ll need a credit card to pay the $6 for shipping, though. This offer is good until next year. The weird part is that it’s from Kraft, AKA Phillip Morris.  Weird, huh? Oh well, don’t look a gift game in the mouth.

PSP and PS2 Goes Pink

The RAZR had a limited edition pink cell phone and now Sony is doing the same with both it’s PSP and PS2. For a limited time consumers in Europe will be able to purchase both the handheld and console in hot pink.

The PSP is expected to be released October 27 and the PS2 November 8. I have to wonder how well these colors will go over with male players?

Louisiana Judge Rules That Violent Games Are Protected Under The First Amendment

 It’s great to see that that animated blood in games is entitled to constitutional protection, even though it’s bit depressing to think of the time and money spent arguing this case.

“Depictions of violence are entitled to full constitutional protection,” [Judge James] Brady wrote Thursday.

Wired Article here

Star Wars Lego Games

Lego and Star Wars have worked together before to draw the maximum number of geeks. (I did go to see the full-size Lego R2-D2 at the Big E a few years ago. Now the Star Wars Lego Game II looks like a sucess because it has everything a nerd wants: Star Wars, Legos, videogames.

If you’re not planning on getting the full game, you should still check out the Lego Lightsaber Duel online.

 

 

Failing Women?

Almost every gaming or tech  site has a headline about the EA announcement that the videogame industry is failing women. EA’s research shows 90% of boys play videogames, compared with 40% of girls.

So where are those 40%? Are you all younger than I am? Are high schools filled with teenage girls blowing off their homework for WoW? (Lile most multi-player games, WoW is pretty girl-friendly) In my middle school classes, all my male students love to play Counterstrike or other PC games, but I’ve yet to meet a girl who wants to play too.

Getting girls into gaming would be good financially, too. I’ve already posted about The Sims’ success, and the major reason for the game’s success was that both girls and guys bought and played The Sims. If you write a game that girls play, you’re doubling your sales.

Games targeted just at girls tend to be, um, how do I say this nicely? Stupid. Barbie games and shopping games aren’t terribly interesting (although I do have a soft spot for the English version of Princess Maker). So I don’t think game designers should write a pink prom adventure, but adding some more fashion options to Baldur’s Gate wouldn’t hurt.

Note to EA: Don’t stop at The Sims… although I’ll keep buying those expansions as long as you keeping making them!

Adventure In China

When I was younger, I really liked playing text-based computer games. I played a lot of Adventure, a game without any graphics in which you controlled the story by typing commands, like Open Door or Take Gold. Often, you needed to be very specific about your commands. Unlock Door might not be work where Use Key In Door did work, which led to pretty frustrating semantic arguments with my computer.

Sierra also did a bunch of text-based games, like the first few Kings’ Quest games. These games are why I almost always play a theif in games like Icewind Dale or WoW… I just feel the need to steal everything that’s not nailed down.

The other day, Stick and I were in a “Western” restaurant, and we wanted to get a plain pizza. Pizza’s pretty popular in most places I’ve visited in Shandong, and the menu had a vegetable pizza, a seafood pizza and a mayonaise fruit salad pizza.

I asked for a plain pizza. The waitress told me that that wasn’t possible, since a plain pizza wouldn’t taste good. I thought that perhaps one of us was using the wrong word for something, so we had the same conversation in broken Chinese and broken English. Yes, we have pizza. Yes, we cook it here. No, you can’t have a plain pizza because you won’t like it.

After promising not to complain if the plain pizza was unpalatable, and offering to pay the veggie pizza price for a plain pie, I wasn’t making any headway. A plain pizza, she assured me, would not taste good.

“Can I have a vegetable pizza with no tomatoes?” I asked, in broken Chinese.

“Yes,”

“Can I have a vegetable pizza with no onions?”

“Yes,”

“Can I have a vegetable pizza with no peppers?”

“Yes,”

“Can I have a vegetable pizza with no corn?”

“Yes,”

“Can I have a vegetable pizza with no tomato, onion, peppers or corn?”

“Yes,”

“Ok, that’s what I want.”

I went back to making googly eye with Stick, secure in the knowledge that years of playing text-based games are finally paying off.

Bully: GTA meets The Sims

Rockstar is releasing a new game Bully in October. Bully is a sim prep school in which the action focuses on –guess what — bullying and being bullied.

It will be interesting to see if retailers such as Wal-Mart and others who refused to stock Playboy: The Mansion, a consentual sex sim, will carry Bully.

Wired”>http://www.wired.com/news/culture/games/0,71565-0.html?tw=rss.index”> Wired article on Bully