game_philosophy@unimore: February 2009

During a talk at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, industry veteran and Shiny Entertainment founder Dave Perry (Earthworm Jim, Messiah) reflected on gaming's past -- and pointed to the future, where he sees single-player experiences taking a distant back se...Š

Where's The Cash For Flash?

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Gamasutra.com | February 9, 2009

Flash games are hugely popular, and they're cheap to make. But is there money to be made as a Flash developer? That depends, say the people interviewed for this article, not only on the quality of your games, of course, but more importantly, on how ...Š

INTERVIEW: Spiel Studios

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Casualgaming.biz | February 18, 2009

Here CasualGaming.biz talks to Spiel Studios founder Mohit Sureka about the Indian market and the importance of iPhone to casual gamingŠŠ

Design Language: Design by Darwin

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Gamasutra | February 12, 2009

Happy Birthday Darwin! You might have been a great game designer.Š

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

IHT.com Article: Grand Theft Auto: The story continues, as gritty as ever

Grand Theft Auto: The story continues, as gritty as ever

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/18/arts/18gta.php

By Seth Schiesel The New York Times

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Of the many great lines in the classic 1985 film "The Breakfast Club," my favorite has always been the knowing enticement delivered by Judd Nelson's character, the delinquent John Bender: "Being bad feels pretty good, huh?"

It most certainly can, and that is why the Grand Theft Auto series is so successful, both commercially and artistically. In its ambition, fearlessness, style and production quality, it stands apart from every other game franchise.

All sorts of games are about visions of power, often accompanied by violence. But most titles are set far away from what most people would consider the real world: off in outer space, on a historical battlefield, in a mythical land of dragons and elves. A distant, fanciful realm both heightens a sense of fantasy and allows designers to avoid tough questions about social responsibility.

Most designers fear those questions. Rockstar Games, maker of Grand Theft Auto, does not. The company appears to recognize that it is not necessarily irresponsible to portray the real world's underbelly. After all, Americans love gangsters and criminals in their entertainment. Americans even like to see the bad guys win once in a while.

Grand Theft Auto IV and its tale of the Balkan immigrant Niko Bellic were a revelation last year. This week, Rockstar is releasing the first additional episode for the title as a $19.99 download available only for the Xbox 360 via Microsoft's Xbox Live Internet service (it is not available at retail stores).

Called "The Lost and Damned," the new episode is set in the same dark, vibrant, often hilariously sarcastic version of the metropolitan New York area that provided the backdrop for, and was the most compelling element of, the original game. While dystopian, this vision is not nihilistic. Like the original, the new episode conveys a humor, wit, intelligence and sense of cultural satire that, although sophomoric at times, at least never takes itself too seriously.

"The Lost and Damned" suffers from a few curious and unfortunate design decisions – players often have less freedom than in the original – that will probably prompt most to return to the original game after completing the new episode's main story. But there is no question that it is the most fully realized, thoroughly produced and substantial downloadable add-on yet released for a console game. Anyone who enjoys Grand Theft Auto IV should get it.

From a business perspective, 2009 may be shaping up as the year when downloads become a viable path to develop and release significant console games; if so, "The Lost and Damned" will be leading the way. (The new episode will probably become available for the PlayStation 3 and PCs once Rockstar's exclusive deal with Microsoft expires, but it is unclear when that will happen.)

In "The Lost and Damned," the player takes the role of one Johnny Klebitz, vice president of a New Jersey motorcycle gang called the Lost. Johnny has been running the gang ever since its president, Billy, went into a drug rehab program as part of a plea deal. As the episode begins, Billy is leaving the program and returning to what he considers his rightful place at the head of the pack. Naturally, Johnny and Billy have different ideas about how the gang should be run and how aggressively they should confront their archrivals, the Angels of Death.

The writing here is as streetwise and sassy as in the original game, but perhaps it is somewhat inevitable that the scope of Johnny's story feels much smaller and less epic than Niko's journey last year. Ultimately, this is the story of a small-time biker gang in New Jersey, little more.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, you could move into a penthouse if you liked. In "The Lost and Damned," your only beds are some ratty mattresses in a couple of filthy, run-down buildings. In Grand Theft Auto IV you could choose the overall vibe of your lifestyle (what you drive, where you live). In "The Lost and Damned" there is no way to change the hard-core thrash metal coming from the radio in your disgusting kitchen.

That's fine if you like hard-core thrash metal. But a vital part of the Grand Theft Auto experience has always been giving players free rein to define their own tastes and preferences. The new episode gets away from that a bit.

In terms of the actual mechanics of driving and shooting, it's significantly easier than Grand Theft Auto IV. It often requires you to drive a motorcycle (another contrast with the original game, in which players usually could choose from a range of vehicles), and the bikes' handling is significantly more forgiving than in the original game. So while "The Lost and Damned" includes about a third as many missions as the original, it takes significantly less than a third as long to complete. I got through the main story in about 8.5 hours (and then spent about the same amount of time exploring and completing optional shootouts and races).

For $19.99, that is a great value. Despite its occasional stumbles, "The Lost and Damned" sets a new standard for what a downloadable console add-on can achieve. Being bad still feels pretty good.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

DIGAREC Series Vol. 1 (via Stephan Günzel , Potsdam)

Dear members of the program committee,

Yesterday the conference proceedings of the Philosophy of Computer Games 2008 went online.

The complete document can be retrieved from the website of the Potsdam University Press: http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2008/2007/

(Single articles can be found here: http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/abfrage_collections.php?coll_id=413&la=de - the print version will be out in about a mounth. We'll send you a personal copy then.)

Thank you for the great support and hope to see you again soon!

All the best

Dieter, Michael and Stephan

_________________

Dr. Stephan Günzel

Universität Potsdam / Institut für Künste und Medien

Studiengang Europäische Medienwissenschaft

Zentrum für Computerspielforschung DIGAREC

Am Neuen Palais 10, Haus 1, Raum 33/34, D-14469 Potsdam

Tel. dienstl.: +49/(0)331-9771629

Tel. privat: +49/(0)30-2822834

www.raumwissenschaften.de

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Computing Now: A Match Made in Heaven - Gaming Enters the Cloud

A Match Made in Heaven: Gaming Enters the Cloud

by James Figueroa

[http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/archive/news008]

Online gaming has been implemented in several ways—through traditional consoles connected to the Internet, on PCs that usually require a downloaded client, and with browser games often created in Flash with limited graphics. All of that is about to change.

Led by a stunning announcement by AMD at the Consumer Electronics Show last month, cloud computing is set to become the next frontier in the gaming world. Fusion Render Cloud, AMD's planned petaflop-busting supercomputer, is expected to stream the highest-quality graphics to the smallest devices, and figures to be the most intriguing and talked-about example of cloud gaming in the next few years should it proceed past the concept stage. Others are sure to follow in its wake, and some have already preceded it to the cloud. Playce, a startup that wants to revolutionize casual gaming, announced its plans for cloud gaming last September and is set to enter beta testing this month. Gaming platform Steam has taken a small step, offering an extension for users to store settings and configurations on the company's servers.

Until recently, however, there has been little discussion about a marriage between gaming and cloud computing. Cloud services have primarily been geared toward enterprise and business needs, such as Salesforce.com and Google Apps, which make use of greater capacity and scalability but don't require large amounts of bandwidth.

"There has always been the assumption that gaming will be irrelevant, you will never be able to do gaming in the cloud because it is so graphics intensive, especially 3D gaming like World of Warcraft," said Geva Perry, a cloud computing expert who has tracked the development of cloud gaming in his blog. "We are getting more and more bandwidth, and now we are seeing the ability to process intense computations on the server side, and this one is a huge breakthrough."

Petaflop Power

If anything, the concept for Fusion Render Cloud is certainly ambitious. The massively parallel supercomputer is expected to break the petaflop barrier—more than one quadrillion floating-point operations per second—to take a place among the fastest computers in the world. The prototype supercomputer will run on Phenom II processors, AMD 790 chipsets, and more than 1,000 ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics processors, according to AMD. Another company, Otoy, is developing the software to render scalable server-side graphics that would be compressed and streamed in real time.

All that technology is expected to coalesce into an idea nearly as powerful as the processing power behind it. "Imagine watching a movie half-way through on your cell phone while on the bus ride home, then, upon entering your home or apartment, switching over to your HDTV and continuing to watch the same movie from exactly where you left off, seamlessly, and at full-screen resolution," said AMD director of digital media Charlie Boswell. "Imagine playing the most visually intensive first-person-shooter game at the highest image-quality settings on your cell phone without ever having to download and install the software or use up valuable storage space or battery life with compute-intensive tasks."

The ability to send high-end graphics to small devices is a key aspect of Fusion Render Cloud. Most technology pundits agree that portability is an increasingly important factor for today's computing needs, and the success of the iPhone ensures that consumers will want quality games that can fit in a pocket. Netbooks also figure to become increasingly popular, and cloud gaming would fit well with those devices, which lack powerful graphics cards.

Otoy's technology would compress data streams using the GPU's massive parallel computing capability to reach those devices efficiently, according to AMD representative Gary Silcott. "Their testing to date has demonstrated that latency and bandwidth are manageable," he said.

What's more, cloud computing could make games more accessible to casual users, many of whom don't make a big and constant investment in hardware in the same manner as hardcore gamers. "All these computer guys sort of worshipping the technology really just gets in the way of the common user," Boswell said in an Inquirer interview. "Fusion Render Cloud is going to bring in those people who have been excluded by the digital divide."

Some game companies, including Electronic Arts, are already preparing content to be delivered through Fusion Render Cloud, expected to debut sometime in the latter half of 2009. Those games are likely to take full advantage of the platform, including virtual-world games with unlimited photorealistic detail.

The technology won't be limited to games. Movies and other PC applications figure to get a boost from AMD's supercomputer, as special-effects designers take advantage of the system's combination of CPUs and GPUs.

Sin City and Spy Kids director Robert Rodriguez is already a fan, expressing his support with AMD's announcement. "Having the means to create interactive eye-definition movie and game assets with Fusion Render Cloud and then to make them available to a broader audience through new distribution methods will bring about a renaissance in content creation and consumption," Rodriguez said.

Essentially, the concept could provide moviemakers and game creators with a platform to create high-definition graphics without needing advanced equipment. "Leveraging the processing capability of the Fusion Render Cloud to output a high-definition scene could greatly accelerate the production time without having to have the assets in-house," Silcott said. "That's the radical change envisioned with this prototype. The capability becomes available to a much longer list of creative content developers."

A Playce in the Cloud

While a startup company like Playce doesn't have the resources to compete with a heavyweight such as AMD, its goal is to serve individual game designers who want to create small, socially oriented games that don’t require a large time investment.

"We wanted to create a completely different experience," cofounder Carmel Gerber said at TechCrunch 50 last year. "We believe that people should be able to send a link to a friend, jump to a site together, and play a really hot, immersive 3D game. No DVD, no download, and no cost."

To do that, Playce is creating a platform based on georeferenced satellite imagery, using real-world locations as the basis for 3D games such as car races and first-person shooters. It's a concept the company likened to a combination of Playstation and Google Earth.

"Our world is very exact," Carmel said. "That means every pixel has a world coordinate, and like other geoworld applications, every pixel also has an http address."

The company has developed a streaming optimization technology to deliver its games through standard Internet connections. In an interview with VC Café, the company said the graphics engine would be capable of streaming three to four terabytes of data, roughly the same performance as Google Earth.

The real test will be Playce's ability to attract developers, and the company thinks its model will easily catch on. Developers will have access to an API (currently using C++ but eventually featuring a custom language that doesn't require coding experience), advanced 3D tools, hosting, and marketing and monetization services. "The game developers that we spoke with estimated that we can save them between 50 and 70 percent of their game development costs," Gerber said. Developers would also be able to port games to different locations, enabling them to quickly produce sequels.

"This is the beauty of the cloud," said Perry, who foresees platforms like Playce eventually catching on with larger companies. "Now if you have a concept for a game, you don't need to set up the whole infrastructure, which would be very complex and expensive. You just focus on what you do best, which is the creative aspect of it and the game design and so on."

At this point, Playce has about 500 developers ready to participate in its beta, and the company is building up its available virtual reality worlds, with parts of Los Angeles and Asia ready to go.

Game Over for Consoles?

Some forms of cloud gaming figure to start as hybrids, evidenced by Steam Cloud, which rolled out last year. Beginning with the game Left 4 Dead, users' game options can be saved to Steam's servers, which makes it easier to install games on different computers or make upgrades without losing data. The company plans to eventually make the feature available on its back catalog.

However, it may not be long—perhaps within a decade—before cloud gaming becomes the dominant platform and drives consoles to the brink of extinction. The news about Fusion Render Cloud had bloggers buzzing about an exciting future in which games are available wherever you go, on a variety of devices, with no need for storage or GPUs.

"All you really need on your end is a screen and a keyboard or mouse or joystick," Perry said. "Everything else happens on the server side. I do think if you take this development and extrapolate it into the future, it will mean the end of gaming consoles. It may take years, but that is the direction it’s going."

Leaders in the gaming industry have sensed the change coming, but there is no consensus about how long consoles will survive. In a BBC article, Electronic Arts’' head of international publishing Gerhard Florin said gaming platforms must go open source to accommodate the new form of distribution. "We're platform agnostic and we definitely don't want to have one platform which is a walled garden," Florin said. "I am not sure how long we will have dedicated consoles—but we could be talking up to 15 years."

AMD envisions its prototype as a complement for consoles, so there could still be a place for GPUs at the client level. "The Fusion Render Cloud concept is a gaming scenario that is very attractive for some usage models, but doesn't replace other options," Silcott said. "It is very early in the development of the prototype to be making projections on what usage will actually look like and how it will impact the market."

Silcott listed a variety of reasons that GPUs could still be relevant, including sharing compute load with CPUs on general-purpose applications such as video transcoding, accelerating graphics in combination with Fusion Render Cloud, and reducing client performance demands.

Ultimately, gamers might simply add cloud gaming to the variety of options currently available, using their Wii one day and hopping onto the cloud the next. At this point, the only certainty is that gaming will go through some exciting changes in the future.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

EDGE Online: The 15 Clearest Benefits of Gaming

The 15 Clearest Benefits of Gaming
By Kris Graft
February 6, 2009

[http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-15-clearest-benefits-gaming?page=0%2C0]

Over the past decades, videogames have undoubtedly come under fire from a multitude of sources, whether it’s a bill claiming games incite violence, a musician damning Guitar Hero or agenda-driven researchers coming to questionable conclusions.

Just like prescription drugs or food, gaming outside the bounds of moderation can lead to serious drawbacks. But most reasonable experts in fields such as psychology, education and research acknowledge that interactive entertainment has important benefits that have the potential to shape the world’s future.

An important idea to keep in mind: Iowa State University psychologist Douglas Gentile said at the 2008 American Psychologist Association convention, “The big picture is that there are several dimensions on which games have effects. [Dimensions include] the amount they are played, the content of each game, what you have to pay attention to on the screen, and how you control the motions.

“This means that games are not 'good' or 'bad,' but are powerful educational tools and have many effects we might not have expected they could.”

Edge spoke with Chicago-based psychologist Dr. Kourosh Dini, Sharp Brains CEO and education expert Alvaro Fernandez and XEODesign president Nicole Lazarro, in addition to compiling other authoritative opinions on 15 of gaming’s most prominent benefits.

Read the rest of the article online, and comment on it here ...

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Sandbox: Game Pirates Get Busted

Game Pirates Get Busted

http://blogs.spectrum.ieee.org/gizmos/2009/02/game_pirates_get_busted.htm

Videogame piracy has always been overshadowed by music and movie piracy. Still, over the years, I've heard estimates putting the bootleg games at roughly a $3 billion annual drain. Today, here's news via Edge about what's claimed to be the biggest raid on game pirates ever:

---------------------

Raids on videogame pirates continue in the U.K.

The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association said Monday that authorities recently raided an illegal counterfeiting operation--one that had been previously warned by the HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs).

The January 29 raid turned up over 50K copies of illegal game copying devices, as well as counterfeit peripherals for Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. ELSPA has sent seized items in for forensic testing.

The allegedly offending company's name has been withheld for "legal reasons," ELSPA said. Mailbags at the raid location were reportedly filled with illegal product and ready to ship across Europe.

Leading up to the raid, ELSPA investigators made several "covert test purchases" on the company's website. The organization claimed the business imported over 38K illegal copying devices, with 32K of them imported since December 2008.

The Sandbox: Consoles and Movie Downloads - A Perfect Match

Consoles and Movie Downloads - A Perfect Match

Gamers aren't just using consoles to play around anymore.

http://blogs.spectrum.ieee.org/gizmos/2009/02/consoles_and_movie_downloads_a.htm

Back in November, Microsoft allowed consumer to subscribe to a Netflix movie downoad service. Now word comes that over 1 million people have signed up. In total, there are 17,000 movies to choose from in both standard and HD quality.

According to a story on Edge, video downloads are booming - to the tune of 174 percent growth compared to last year. Hmm...seems like part of Microsoft's plan to own the living room, which is why it got into home console business in the first place.

EDGE: 360 Netflix Service Passes 1M User Milestone

http://www.edge-online.com/news/360‭-‬netflix-service-passes‭-‬1m-user-milestone

More than one million Xbox Live subscribers in the US have downloaded and activated the Netflix service since its launch back in November.

Microsoft adds that 1.5 billion minutes of footage have been collectively viewed since the movie and TV streaming service opened.

“Netflix is a great win for Xbox living rooms nationwide. These families are getting more entertainment from Xbox 360 than from any other device connected to their TVs, ” says John Schappert, corporate VP in charge of the Live service at Microsoft.

“ Adding Netflix to our ever-growing library of 30,000 movies and TV shows makes Xbox 360 the best value in home entertainment, " he added.

Microsoft was quick to mention that Netflix is not the only video content resource the Xbox 360 provides: “ Video Marketplace offers over 17,000 pieces of standard and high-definition ( HD ) content to the Xbox Live community. ”

Saturday, February 7, 2009

MIT Press Podcast Interview 18: Stephen H. Axilrod, Ian Bogost

Edit

MITP 018 17:02

Source: mitpress.mit.edu

MIT Press Podcast Interview 18:

http://mitpress.mit.edu/podcasts/MITP_018.mp3

Stephen H. Axilrod is the author of Inside the Fed: Monetary Policy and Its Management, Martin through Greenspan to Bernanke. Mr. Axilrod worked from 1952 to 1986 at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., rising to Staff Director for Monetary and Financial Policy and Staff Director and Secretary of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's main monetary policy arm. Since 1986 he has worked in private markets and as a consultant on monetary policy with foreign monetary authorities.

Ian Bogost is the author of Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. Mr. Bogost is Assistant Professor in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture, at Georgia Institute of Technology and Founding Partner, Persuasive Games LLC. He is also the author of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogame Criticism and Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism, both published by the MIT Press.

IEEE Spectrum: Science and Technology News Podcasts

IEEE Spectrum: Science and Technology News Podcasts

The Race For A New Game Machine:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/radio?date=29.12.08&segStart=5

The Sandbox: The Oscars of Games

The Oscars of Games (The Sandbox)

http://blogs.spectrum.ieee.org/gizmos/2009/01/the_oscars_of_games.htm

The Oscars of Games

There's all this talk now about the Academy Awards, but the Oscars of videogames is coming soon too.

Today, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences announced its 12th annual awards nominations. The big gun: LittleBigPlanet, which has a whopping 10 nominations. Of course here at the Sandbox, LBP has been a longtime fave from the moment I pawed it at E3 way back in 2007. Nice to see it getting the recognition it deserves. Here's the full list of nominees below:

Family Game of the Year

* Boom Blox - Electronic Arts - EA Los Angeles

* LittleBigPlanet - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party - Ubisoft - Ubisoft Paris

* Rock Band 2 - MTV Games - Harmonix Music Systems, Inc.

* Wii Fit - Nintendo - Nintendo

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year

* Advance Wars: Days of Ruin - Nintendo - Intelligent Systems

* Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Electronic Arts - EA Los Angeles

* Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution - 2K Games - Firaxis

* Sins of a Solar Empire - Stardock Entertainment - Ironclad Games

* Tom Clancy's EndWar - Ubisoft - Ubisoft Shanghai

Outstanding Achievement in Animation

* Castle Crashers - Microsoft Game Studios - The Behemoth

* Gears of War 2 - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* Left 4 Dead - Valve Software - Valve Software

* Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. - Kojima Productions

* Prince of Persia - Ubisoft - Ubisoft Montreal

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction

* Dead Space - Electronic Arts - EA Redwood Shores

* Fable II - Microsoft Game Studios - Lionhead Studios

* LittleBigPlanet - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Mirror’s Edge - Electronic Arts - Digital Illusions

* Prince of Persia - Ubisoft - Ubisoft Montreal

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering

* Gears of War 2 - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* LittleBigPlanet - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. - Kojima Productions

* Resistance 2 - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Insomniac Games

* Tomb Raider: Underworld - Eidos/Warner Bros. Interactive - Crystal Dynamics

Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering

* Fable II - Microsoft Game Studios - Lionhead Studios

* Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks - Bethesda Game Studios

* Left 4 Dead - Valve Software - Valve Software

* Spore - Electronic Arts - Maxis

* Tom Clancy's EndWar - Ubisoft - Ubisoft Shanghai

Outstanding Character Performance

* Gears of War 2 (Dom) - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* Gears of War 2 (Marcus) - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* LittleBigPlanet (Sackboy) - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Old Snake) - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. - Kojima Productions

* Tomb Raider: Underworld (Lara Croft) - Eidos/Warner Bros. Interactive - Crystal Dynamics

Outstanding Achievement in Adapted Story

* Lego Batman: The Videogame - Warner Bros. Interactive - TT Games

* Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe - Midway - Midway

* Naruto: The Broken Bond - Ubisoft - Ubisoft

* Quantum of Solace - Activision - Treyarch

* Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - LucasArts - LucasArts

Outstanding Achievement in Original Story

* Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway - Ubisoft - Gearbox Software

* Fable II - Microsoft Game Studios - Lionhead Studios

* Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks - Bethesda Game Studios

* Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar Games - Rockstar North

* Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Nintendo - Level 5, Inc.

Role-Playing Game of the Year

* Fable II - Microsoft Game Studios - Lionhead Studios

* Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks - Bethesda Game Studios

* Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time - Nintendo - Chunsoft

* Tales of Vesperia - Namco Bandai Games - Namco Bandai Games

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming

* Braid - Microsoft Game Studios - Number None

* Left 4 Dead - Valve Software - Valve Software

* LittleBigPlanet - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Spore - Electronic Arts - Maxis

* Wii Fit - Nintendo - Nintendo

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition

* de Blob - THQ - Blue Tongue

* Dead Space - Electronic Arts - EA Redwood Shores

* Fable II - Microsoft Game Studios - Lionhead Studios

* Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. - Kojima Productions

* World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard Entertainment - Blizzard Entertainment

Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack

* Guitar Hero World Tour - Activision - Neversoft Entertainment

* LittleBigPlanet - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Motorstorm Pacific Rift - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Evolution Studios

* Rock Band 2 - MTV Games - Harmonix Music Systems, Inc.

* Singstar PS3 Vol. 1 - Sony Computer Entertainment America - SCE London Studio

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design

* Dead Space - Electronic Arts - EA Redwood Shores

* Gears of War 2 - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* LittleBigPlanet - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Prince of Persia - Ubisoft - Ubisoft Montreal

* Wipeout HD - Sony Computer Entertainment America - SCE Studios Liverpool

Computer Game of the Year

* Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks - Bethesda Game Studios

* Left 4 Dead - Valve Software - Valve Software

* Mass Effect - Electronic Arts - Bioware

* Spore - Electronic Arts - Maxis

* World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard Entertainment - Blizzard Entertainment

Adventure Game of the Year

* Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. - Konami

* God of War: Chains of Olympus - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Ready at Dawn

* Mirror’s Edge - Electronic Arts - Digital Illusions

* Naruto: The Broken Bond - Ubisoft - Ubisoft

* Prince of Persia - Ubisoft - Ubisoft Montreal

Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year

* EVE Online: Quantum Rise - CCP - CCP hf.

* Pirates of the Burning Sea - Sony Online Entertainment - Flying Lab Software

* PMOG - GameLayers - GameLayers

* Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning - Electronic Arts - Mythic Entertainment

* World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard Entertainment - Blizzard Entertainment

Sports Game of the Year

* FIFA 09 - Electronic Arts - EA Canada

* Madden NFL 09 - Electronic Arts - EA Tiburon

* MLB 08: The Show - Sony Computer Entertainment America - SCE Studios San Diego

* NBA 2K9 - 2K Sports - Visual Concepts

* NHL 09 - Electronic Arts - EA Canada

Racing Game of the Year

* Burnout Paradise - Electronic Arts - Critereon Games

* GRID - Codemasters - Codemasters

* Mario Kart Wii - Nintendo - Nintendo

* Motorstorm Pacific Rift - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Evolution Studios

* Pure - Disney Interactive Studios - Black Rock Studio

Fighting Game of the Year

* Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe - Midway - Midway

* Soul Calibur IV - Namco Bandai Games - Project Soul

* Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Nintendo - Nintendo, HAL Laboratory, Sora Ltd.

* Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix - Capcom - Backbone Entertainment

* WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 - THQ - Yuke's Co., Ltd.

Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play

* Call of Duty: World at War - Activision - Treyarch

* Gears of War 2 - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* Left 4 Dead - Valve Software - Valve Software

* NHL 09 - Electronic Arts - EA Canada

* Rock Band 2 - MTV Games - Harmonix Music Systems, Inc.

Action Game of the Year

* Call of Duty: World at War - Activision - Treyarch

* Dead Space - Electronic Arts - EA Redwood Shores

* Far Cry 2 - Ubisoft - Ubisoft Montreal

* Gears of War 2 - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar Games - Rockstar North

Handheld Game of the Year

* Advance Wars: Days of Ruin - Nintendo - Intelligent Systems

* Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. - Konami

* God of War: Chains of Olympus - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Ready at Dawn

* Patapon - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Sony Computer Entertainment International

* Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Nintendo - Level 5, Inc.

Cellular Game of the Year

* Reset Generation - Nokia - RedLynx

* Spore Origins - Electronic Arts - Babaroga, Tricky Software

* Trism - Demiforce - Demiforce

Casual Game of the Year

* Braid - Microsoft Game Studios - Number None

* Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhurst - Big Fish Games - Big Fish Games

* Patapon - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Sony Computer Entertainment International

* Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Nintendo - Level 5, Inc.

* World of Goo - Nintendo - 2D Boy

Outstanding Achievement in Game Design

* Fable II - Microsoft Game Studios - Lionhead Studios

* Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks - Bethesda Game Studios

* Gears of War 2 - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* Left 4 Dead - Valve Software - Valve Software

* World of Goo - Nintendo - 2D Boy

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction

* Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks - Bethesda Game Studios

* Gears of War 2 - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* Left 4 Dead - Valve Software - Valve Software

* LittleBigPlanet - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. - Kojima Productions

Console Game of the Year

* Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks - Bethesda Game Studios

* Gears of War 2 - Microsoft Game Studios - Epic Games, Inc.

* Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar Games - Rockstar North

* LittleBigPlanet - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. - Kojima Productions

Overall Game of the Year

* Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks - Bethesda Game Studios

* Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar Games - Rockstar North

* Left 4 Dead - Valve Software - Valve Software

* LittleBigPlanet - Sony Computer Entertainment America - Media Molecule

* Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. - Kojima Productions

Posted by David Kushner on January 26, 2009 4:48 PM

European Journal of ePractice

European Journal of ePractice N°6

http://www.epracticejournal.eu/home

Key enablers for eTransformation? eID, Interoperability and Open Source

The European Commission’s eGovernment Action Plan considers innovations in eIdentification, interoperability and open source software to be keys to opening the door to the transformational potential of eGovernment. The developers of eGovernment services are therefore directing additional resources on these innovations as a means for providing high impact services. But will initiatives in these areas work? Will they facilitate the efficient and correct operation of public eServices? What does the evidence suggest?

The contributions to this special issue highlight the challenges confronting efforts to create these enabling conditions. Interoperability and appropriate identification systems are major challenges in their own right. As some contributions argue, open source can help some government agencies approach these goals, but it is only one of many strategies that need to be considered.

Author: William Dutton

Monday, February 2, 2009

Games for Health Conference 2009

The Games for Health Project presents the Fifth Annual Games or Health Conference. Our best event yet promises to provide great insight to the growing worlds of exergaming/active games, health training games, disease management efforts, and much much more. Our conference platform provides attendees with great content, important networking opportunities, and a focus on providing opportunities to develop new projects and improve existing efforts.

Complete conference details here:

http://gamesforhealth.org/index3.html

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Exerpt:

Games for Health Program Overview

Our schedule will be available on March 1, 2009. You may see both the planned conference session schedule and last year's schedule until then. The overall program of events is as follows:

Games for Health Conference (June 11-12, 2009)

Our main event is the core Games for Health Conference. Featuring two-days of talks, more then 300 attendees and 40 sessions provided by an international array of over 50 speakers cutting across a wide range of activities in health and health care. Topics include exergaming, physical therapy, disease management, health behavior change, biofeedback, epidemiology, training, cognitive exercise, nutrition and health education.

To submit a session, panel, or roundtable for consideration for our program please visit our call for content.

Games Accessibility Day (June 10, 2009)

Making all games accessible to people with lifelong or temporary physical and/or cognitive disabilities is an important need for the videogame field in general. At the same time the ability to use games to directly help people with disabilities is an important output of the games for health field. Much of the research and development activity in the general field of games accessibility has important crossover benefits to the health field. Games Accessibility Day is an entire event devoted to talks, networking, and demos dedicated to making all games more accessible, and helping people with disabilities play their way to better health and wellness.

Virtual Worlds and Health Day (June 10, 2009)

Games for Health will feature a full day of content focused on the use of virtual world systems and health. Virtual worlds combine social systems with game-based interfaces and graphics to create entirely new synthetic spaces to train, practice, and visualize. Such systems hold great promise to health and healthcare through layering on of game-play or enabling pure simulation or new forms of social interaction.

Games for Health Receptions (June 11 & 12, 2009)

This year's Games for Health Conference features two receptions for attendees.

On June 11, our main reception will provide our biggest networking event and a showcase for exciting work in the games for health field.

On June 10 we will host a small reception for attendees of our pre-conference events and early arrivals for the Games for Health Conference.

IGDA Post-Mortem Reception & Meetup (June 9, 2009)

For more about Post-Mortem: Greater Boston's IGDA Chapter please visit: http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/

Exhibit & Trade Show Rooms (June 11-12, 2009)

Games for Health features two main rooms of exhibits including The Active Gaming Room sponsored by Humana. This year we expect exhibits from over 20 companies and organizations.

Poster Session (June 11-12, 2009)

A Poster Session of relevant projects and research will be a new addition to Games for Health this year. We plan to feature 6-12 posters during the entire program of Games for Health. To submit a poster for consideration please visit our call for content.

game_philosophy@unimore

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Job Opportunities in Game Development. From Svetlana Gildebrandt and other Game Developers group members on LinkedIn

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

IHT.com Article: Grand Theft Auto: The story continues, as gritty as ever

Saturday, February 14, 2009

DIGAREC Series Vol. 1 (via Stephan Günzel , Potsdam)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Computing Now: A Match Made in Heaven - Gaming Enters the Cloud

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

EDGE Online: The 15 Clearest Benefits of Gaming

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Sandbox: Game Pirates Get Busted

The Sandbox: Consoles and Movie Downloads - A Perfect Match

EDGE: 360 Netflix Service Passes 1M User Milestone

Saturday, February 7, 2009

MIT Press Podcast Interview 18: Stephen H. Axilrod, Ian Bogost

IEEE Spectrum: Science and Technology News Podcasts

The Sandbox: The Oscars of Games

European Journal of ePractice

Monday, February 2, 2009

Games for Health Conference 2009

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