With linear stories you want to start amplifying. In Star Wars, it all comes down to these two possibilities – the rebels are crushed, or the Death Star blows up. One of the fundamental things I’ve found as an interactive storyteller is that in linear stories the director knows the future. He or she knows the minor details that are important to present to you. But we [interactive storytellers] don’t know those things. Ours are chaotic systems. Very minor initial conditions can lead to wide-ranging end conditions.

In a linear drama you can show the causal chain; in interactive drama you can’t so much. We’re playing with it in movies in interesting ways: interesting sub-plots (Magnolia); one of the things that keeps your interest is your wondering how these back stories are going to come together. This is a common thing that people do with causal change. Timecode is another version of this. It’s parallel multi-threaded storytelling.

Wonderland: SXSW: Will Wright Keynote

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RTS fans should be nearing a state of ecstasy right now. If not now, then Now.

Supreme Commander has just been released, which is a title that delivers a full fledged war in a tiny little box. And when we mean full fledged, we mean strategic level stuff going down. Massive armies, massive scale, and massive fights that last hours.

For those people who want more bang in a tighter package, there’s C&C 3: Tiberium Wars which continues the futuristic C&C series: alien Tiberium crystals continue to teraform planet Earth, making life in general a bit more complicated. Not only are these things poisonous for humans, but they also contain gobs of energy (as any self-respecting crystal should), so wars are started over the control of fields of these things. Oh yeah, and these crystals are explosive, too, so watch your step.

Those of you who are fans of C&C Generals, and C&C Red Alert 2, will recognize the action packed feel of C&C 3. Unlike Supreme Commander, C&C 3 skirmish matches last around an hour - which is just around the moment things go big badda boom, in a big, green exploding way.

So if you’re looking to toast some buttocks of the classic C&C NOD and GDI factions, or the new alien faction introduced in C&C 3 (it’s about time these guys showed up, how much more teraforming did the Earth need?) then check the demo on Fileplanet or Fileshack.

Enjoy!

PS: Hey there Monkeys, long time no see!

So, it’s going to take as long to level between 60-70 in The Burning Crusade as it does from 1-60? Apparently that statement, being bandied about World of Warcraft forums and in-game chat was a little off the mark, as one server in Europe already has a level 70 character. A gnome mage by the name of Gawell of the Millenium guild on Europe’s Archimonde server hit level new level cap a mere 28 hours after the expansion launched. A Frenchman, the player and his guild planned out the leveling rush step by step, rotating party members in and out based on where and what they were fighting.

There’s an interview up with the player on the World of Raids forums, where he goes into a little detail regarding the planning behind the accomplishment. While at first I was ready to jump on the “he has no life” bandwagon, the more I think about it the more I admire the planning and dedication the 40 man guild put into the project. Michael Fahey

First Level 70 WoW Character - Kotaku

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“As a Starcraft player I can tell you that I hope it wouldn’t go a decade - we launched Starcraft in ‘98 - I hope it wouldn’t go a decade before we stand here and celebrate the next Starcraft together,” Itzik Ben Bassat told crowds gathered at World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade’s official launch event in London last night.”Don’t forget that we have two more franchises that we love - Diablo and Starcraft,” Bassat had declared.”We haven’t forgotten that we have these two franchises, and what I can tell you is that I look forward to stand here in a few years, or whenever it’s going to be, and celebrate with you the launch of the next Starcraft or the next Diablo.”According to our people on the ground, the Blizzard PRs “looked a bit uncomfortable” around this point. So that’s welcome to the Internet the hard way, really.Whether all that means Bassat knows something that we don’t though, or whether he’s just teasing or speculating, is impossible to say - but Blizzard is notoriously secret and perfectionist about its work, and it wouldn’t be a massive surprise to discover a sequel lurking in development somewhere.

News - Blizz exec hints at Starcraft 2 // PC /// Eurogamer

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“Three Mages form a PuG only to discover they share the ‘follow yonder star and drop off phat l00t’ quest.”

Terra Nova: |\| 4 + ! \/ 1 7 ‘/ Sillyness

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South Park recently aired an episode involving World of Warcraft in which half of the show featured custom machinima footage. Machinima.com was given access to key members of the animation staff in order to find out more about the creative process behind the episode.Joining us are Frank Agnone, Producer; J. J. Franzen, Technology Supervisor; and Eric Stough, Director of Animation.

Machinima.com: “Make Love, Not Warcraft”

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Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

There was an interesting post on slasldot that had two opposing viewpoints on Gametap. Namely is it a good model or a bad model. Good read either way, and both agree that $10 a month for such a large catalog of games is a no-brainer win for gamers (at least while the company is around).

We’ve already discussed the Evils of GameTap, so it seemed only fair to talk about what makes GameTap so good. Gamers With Jobs’ Julian Murdoch talks about how the GameTap system ‘revolutionizes’ the 90-minute gaming session … all for the cost of a single console game. From the article:

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters

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Battlefield 2142 recently was released. Many folks were very excited to play the game, as Battlefield 2 was such a fantastic title.
Players were shocked then, to find a note reading the following in their newly opened boxes:

When you use the Software while connected to the Internet, the Advertising Technology may record your IP address and other anonymous information (”Advertising Data”). The Advertising Data is temporarily used by IGA to enable the presentation and measurement of in-game advertisements and other in-game objects which are uploaded temporarily to your personal computer or game console and changed during online game play. The Advertising Technology does not collect any personally identifiable information about you, and EA will not provide IGA with any of your personally identifiable information. The servers used by the Advertising Technology may, from time to time, be located outside your country of residence.

Now, sites like EA has since responded, with some clarifications:

The advertising program in Battlefield 2142 does not access any files which are not directly related to the game. It does not capture personal data such as cookies, account login detail, or surfing history.

BF 2142 delivers ads by region. The advertising system uses a player’s IP address to determine the region of the player, assisting to serve the appropriate ads by region and language. For instance, a player in Paris might be presented with ads in French. The information collected will not be repurposed for other uses.

Battlefield 2142 also tracks “impression data” related to in-game advertisements: location of a billboard in the game, brand advertised, duration of advertisement impression, etc. This information is used to help advertisers qualify the reach of a given advertisement.

If you are as angry at the inclusion of this technology in your games, especially without foreknowledge on the outside of the box, why not sign the Petition HERE to get the technology removed from the game.

Read the coverage at Blue’s News

Originally I found the story on Terra Nova. Crazy man. Crazy.

Reports are coming in from the field - ASCN have engaged their doomsday device against a BoB fleet.Initial reports state that, unfortunately, the weapon was not fired upon the correct cynosaural field, and subsequently, destroyed many of ASCN’s own support.We anxiously await the next..

EVE Online | EVE Insider | Forums | 208

Dont miss this blow by blow…

The link at the bottom are the forums.

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