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Saturday, September 21, 2002
Greek Gaming News: The BBC is reporting that thanks to an incredibly stupid new law in Greece, the cradle of democracy, Greek net cafe owners are facing ruin since Greek law now forbids electronic gaming. And you thought that this country was all screwed up............. IT'S YOUR TURN Adds 2 New Game Variations: The following was posted on September 18, 2002, on the popular gaming site's message board: Topic: ItsYourTurn.com News From: §Patrick Chu (pat1) Date: 09/18/02, 18:47 Subject: new games: Pro Backgammon-9 and Mini Sabotage Rush Message: We have posted two new game variations on the site: Pro Backgammon-9: Same rules as Pro Backgammon (doubling cube used), but played to 9 points instead of the usual 5 points. Mini Sabotage Rush: Same as Mini Sabotage, except that the volcanos have been removed, and each player get 3 moves per turn. A much faster game than Mini Sabotage. At this point the rules pages have not been updated, but they will be updated in the next few days. We are taking tournament signups for Mini Sabotage Rush for the next tournament (both Open and Member). We don't anticipate ever starting tournaments for Pro Backgammon-9, because the current 5 point game already takes too long for a tournament. Please be aware that a 9-point game will take a LONG time, so be ready. Enjoy these new games. Thanks for playing at ItsYourTurn.com! TDZK UPDATE: The latest announcement from the game's front page: TDZK is up and running! Speed should be boosted, and the crashes should be gone! Swirve Mail Change News: The following email was sent by: newslettersupport@mail.com : Due to changes in the business relationship between Swirve and Mail.com, starting in 90 days we will no longer be able to deliver mail to your e-mail address at crector@swirve.com. We will, however, provide you with a new email that is very similar. We understand the importance of your e-mail account and apologize for any inconvenience this causes you. We do wish to continue serving your e-mail needs and hope you will like the new address that we have for you. Effective immediately, all new e-mail will be forwarded from your existing Swirve.com e-mail address to crector@swirvemail.com. All existing e-mail, folders and account settings will be waiting for you in this new account. The only thing that will change is your e-mail address. You can access this account by following these simple steps: Go to http://mail.swirve.com (same place as always) Type in your new crector@swirvemail.com e-mail address in the username field. [Remember to include your entire e-mail address in the username field] Use your existing Swirve.com password [Hint: Passwords are case sensitive so Abc is not the same as abc] In addition, you old Swirve.com e-mail account will continue to work for the next 90 days. That means for the next 90 days, any e-mail sent to crector@swirve.com will be delivered to your new crector@swirvemail.com e-mail account. This will also give you some time to alert your friends, family and contacts about these changes. Again, we apologize for this unfortunate situation. We hope you will find your new email address to be valuable and will continue as a customer of Mail.com. Sincerely, The Mail.com Team Thursday, September 19, 2002
Eschaton Development Update at ActionVault: The following email is from Travis Cannell, travisc@gnosticlabs.com : In this Eschaton Development Report #1, Jake brings us right up to date on Eschaton's progress including the look of the Alephians and its graphics technology. Here is the link: , http://actionvault.ign.com/features/den/eschatondev01.shtml -Travis Gnostic Labs GET IN THE GAME: THE BOOK The following email was sent by Beverly Cambron, beverly@roccomedia.com : Hi -- I wanted to let you know about the upcoming book from New Riders, "Get in the Game: Careers in the Game Industry" by Marc Mencher, as well as see if you would like a review copy. The people who play the games are the people who want to make the games. And, as we all know, plenty of people are playing games. To date, however, there has been virtually no easy to understand, yet informative and thorough guide to how the game industry works. But all that is about to change. "Get in the Game: Careers in the Game Industry" hits the shelves in just a couple of weeks. Already blessed by the game gods, Will Wright says "Marc Mencher delivers a book full of timely and relevant information for anyone interested in learning more about our dynamic industry." In 300+ information-packed pages, "Get in the Game: Careers in the Game Industry" provides step-by-step instructions on how to prepare for a game industry career. With insights from over a dozen industry experts (see Contributing Authors list, below) it's the only guide needed for finding a game industry job. Readers will discover how to meet the right industry people, learn the right skills, access the unadvertised job market, create the perfect demo, beat the competition, handle interviews, and negotiate a salary package. This book shows how to tailor a job search, answer tough interview questions, and transition into the game industry from other careers, as well as how to hone essential resume writing skills and networking skills. In short, it's a crash course on everything everyone needs to know about the game industry, including careers as Game Designers, Game Programmers, Game Artists, and Game Producers. Please let me know if you would like a copy of the book when it publishes, and I'll get it out to you as soon as it rolls off the presses. In the meantime, you can download a Press Preview PDF file including the Table of Contents, as well as the first three chapters (click here: http://www.newriders.com/getgame for the PDF ). Also, please let me know if you are interested in an author interview. Additional book details are below, but please do not hesitate to contact me for more information. Beverly Cambron Rocco Media For New Riders Publishing beverly@roccomedia.com 214 284 4100 Get in the Game: Careers in the Game Industry by Marc Mencher (New Riders) ISBN: 0735713073 www.newriders.com 29.99 US 46.99 CAN 23.50 UK Ship date: SEPTEMBER 27, 2002 Review: "Marc Mencher delivers a book full of timely and relevant information for anyone interested in learning more about our dynamic industry." Will Wright, Legendary Game Designer, Co-founder of EA / Maxis and the man behind SimCity and The Sims Series. "This book is a great resource for distilling the vital statistics in a complex industry. A great read for job seekers and fans alike." Paul Steed, 3D Animator / Modeler for the Quake Game Series and author of Modeling a Character in Max and Animating Real-Time Game Characters. Review: "Whether you're interested in game programming, design, art, or production this book offers up the inside scoop on what goes into creating your favorite games." Marc Saltzman, Author of Game Design Secrets of The Sages and CNN Technolog Contributor. Contributing Authors: William Anderson, Founder of Eagle Claw & Game Designer of Maximo. Sanjay Balakrishnan, Award-Winning Producer with multiple "top ten" games. Randy Beverly, Executive Producer, Disney Interactive. Evan Birkby, Manager of Quality Assurance, Electronic Arts. Raymond Boylan, World Wide Director of Quality Assurance, Mattel Interactive. Beverly Cambron, Founder Rocco Media. Dustin Clingman - Professor of Game Development, Full Sail Real World Education & Founder of Perpetual Motion. Brett Close, Technical Director, EA / DreamWorks. Troy Dunniway - Game Design Lead for Microsoft Games. Bran Kelly - Chief Technical Officer & Vice-President, Tremor Entertainment. Perry Rodgers, Executive Producer, WildTangent. Matthew Scibilia - Director of Art & Co-founder, Big Sky Interactive. Jason Spangler - Director of Technology, EA / Origin Systems. Murray Taylor, Studio Head/Worldwide Art Director, Infogrames Entertainment. Gaming News MPOGD Style: If you look at the MPOGD News, you will find a press release with the following headline: "Financing and Publishing Agreement Reached for Ballerium." You may be asking, what's so significant about that? Well, if you were to go to the MPOG News-Log at http://mpognewslog.blogspot.com and look at its archive, you will find that it was posted on August 24th. At MPOGD, that release was not posted until September 18th. In other words, the MPOGD News has sunk to the level of posting month-old news. And to think that I was fired from my former position as MPOGD News Editor because I wasn't good enough for Doug McIntyre any more! In any event, for all you game developers out there, if you want your news releases published on the Internet in a timely, effective manner, send it to Yours Truly at crector@clan-forsaken.com OTOH, if you want it published a month later when its not really news any more, then send it to MPOGD at doug@mpogd.com Charles Rector Editor & Publisher, MPOG News-Log http://mpognewslog.blogspot.com THE TDZK CRISIS CONTINUES: The following is from the game's front page: TDZK is down for maintenence. Judging by the rate this is going, it probably won't be up until Thursday morning. The mailserver is currently down, so the lost password option isn't working. We hope to get this corrected when we finish up the maintenence. It's rather amazing how many people leave thier passwords on autocomplete. As you've probably noticed, we've been having some major problems getting TDZK to run correctly at it's new home. We're working on it, but it might be a few days or so before eveything runs smoothly again. The web boards are at http://216.128.73.12/fourms/ Monday, September 16, 2002
Here's the latest email dispatch from Travis Cannell, travisc@gnosticlabs.com : Verviticus from Unknown Player http://www.unknownplayer.com/archive/02/09/15/1122.php\"> chats with Travis Cannell about Eschaton. Here is one interesting question taken from the bunch: Verviticus: What prevents people from not subscribing, and then making their own world for free? Travis Cannell: Nothing. If you buy a boxed copy of Eschaton you do not have to subscribe to the game. You can find other servers on the Internet that are hosting battles, hosting other universes, or just play by yourself. We are betting that you will at least try the persistent world for the free trail that we give you, and we also bet that a large portion of these people will subscribe. Remember that players cannot run a large persistent world; the bandwidth costs are way to high to provide anything like that for free. Travis Cannell Gnostic Labs T: (805)-685-5571 www.gnosticlabs.com For those of you who like my writings: Here's my latest post from the The SMR Forum : [quote="rohan"]Name me 1 game from old SM that had 5k plus sectors and 200 planets besides TI...[/quote] Easy. I can name you a lot of them, including 4 that I know for a fact that both you & your brother Wonks played in. 1st, the GameLoft SM games were all 5,000+ sector games with 200 or so planets in them. 2nd, the Shareplay newbie games, including those that I played in starting in January 2000, all had well over 5,000 sectors and almost certainly 200 or more planets. This includes NG's #8 & #9 in which both Rohan & Wonks played in as they did the GL games. I still have fond memories of NG #8 when the 3 of us were in Law & Order led by Lord Nuff where we fought as Federal Deputies against the sinister forces of evil represented by The Untouchables led by Zonker. Now, that was one wild, fun game. Wonder whatever happened to both Lord Nuff & Zonker? Some of these Shareplay newbie games were downright huge. NG #13 had 15,000 sectors in it, for example. Now, I know that some of you are going to give me the old canard about how these are only newbie games, not real games & that the real games were the vet games. What utter nonsense. The newbie games were where 85%+ of SM's playership resided. These were the games that mattered, not the lame affairs that only the Webboard Warriors and the SM Chat Parrots partaked in. The same is true for the SMR games. From what I've heard over half the players in the Travail of Amity are more or less inactive. Its clear that having a SMR Vet Game has been nothing short of a disaster. Come November, the admins should have just 1 Open Game of 5,000 sectors with 200 or so planets in all galaxies instead of the current arrangement of having 1 2,000 sector vets game and 1 3,000 sector newbies game. Now that sounds like a recipe for success. How about it, Spock & Azool? crector THE LATEST TDZK NEWS: The following was cut and pasted from the game's front page: There were some problems and we had to roll the database back to the moment of the original transfer. So anything that you've done since the new server came up is gone, we're very sorry, and we hope to finish working out the small problems quickly. As you've probably noticed, we've been having some major problems getting TDZK to run correctly at it's new home. We're working on it, but it might be a day or so before eveything runs smoothly again. The web boards are at http://216.128.73.12/fourms/ THE LATEST GAMING SITE: The Beta Lounge is, as the name implies a site devoted entirely to coverage of games in beta testing. As such, it is an excellent endeavor and worth the attention of gamers of all sorts. The following Introduction and Anncouncements are cut and pasted from the site's front page: Welcome to The Beta Lounge The Beta Lounge is a directory of online beta games and a little more.Being an avid online gamer, I play a lot of browser based games.I had the idea of building an site strictly on beta games.This a simple website deticated to beta testers from different online games to discuss ideas,opinions and give feedback.Working on limited Html knowlegde, I hope to contantly try to expand and improve it to provide a decent site for beta players and games.Your comments and feedback is always appreciated and I hope you enjoy it. - Drama Looking for Reviews on Beta Games Announcements: 16/09/02 - 14:44:28 by Drama If anybody has any reviews on online beta games, please use our article section under reviews.I personally don't have the time to play all the games, but I'd like to hear your own reviews on them.It'll also give a chance for this community to share ... [ More ] [ 0 comments ] Lost database for games from old site Announcements: 16/09/02 - 06:06:15 by Drama As I created the new site, I've lost the directory database from the old site. I will have to start the beta list all over again.If you know any beta games online,please ... (1 read) [ More ] [ 0 comments ] Fd Space Review Online Beta Game Reviews: 13/09/02 - 16:37:20 by Drama Ok my first Game review would be about FD Space. Games is really good. Lot of ships, defence. Admins talk to players, they updating game. But game has some bad things too. Games is clone to Planetarion. Same graphics, same pictures, same ships,... ... (20 reads) [ More ] [ 1 comment ] WarOnline.net Review Online Beta Game Reviews: 13/09/02 - 16:32:15 by Drama It's been over a year and a half now that I've been playing WON.It's a graphical real time war strategy game.It uses a flash based map and is played via your browser.It has different types of games(skimishes,last man standing,beginners,etc.)and also ... (6 reads) [ More ] [ 0 comments ] |