Gadgetopia

A Virtual Bank With Real Woes: More Eve Online insanity.  They had a central bank and someone embezzled $200 billion in fake money…which he then sold off for $12,000 in real money.

Somewhere along the way Ebank’s top executive, who went by the online handle Ricdic, apparently got greedy. According to CCP, he made off with deposits, which he then sold for real cash to gamers on a sort of black-market exchange separate from Eve.

CCP kicked Ricdic out of the game. And Ebank has temporarily shut down while its board of directors (yes, it had one of those too) tries to sort out the mess. Depositors, meanwhile, appear to have pulled 5.5 trillion ISK of deposits.

Eve, remember, is a game where a real economy is not only tolerated, but encouraged.  So, anything fake is technically real, since it can be exchanged for real money in some form.

Kudo Tsunoda Demos Project Natal: This video is very cool.  I know this is probably vaporware at the moment, but I the driving game demo in the second half is way awesome.

Fallon’s show is getting a decent rep very demoing cool gadgets and stuff.

FUEL is named Biggest Console Game of All Time - Officially: Time to go exploring.

[new raging video game FUEL] boasts 5,560 square miles of accessible in-game terrain, making it officially the largest playable environment in a console game ever.

The accolade, presented to FUEL developers Asobo Studio, was confirmed by Guinness World Records, who have verified the record for inclusion in the next Guinness World Records Gamers Edition of the best-selling guide.

First look: 1 vs. 100 brings a live game show to Xbox Live: This sounds very neat. It’s drifting into…enhanced TV, or something? It’s an attempt to take a live event and let people interact in real time from their living rooms.

Microsoft is trying something new by hosting real, live, game-show-like content on Xbox Live. The first experiment? 1 vs. 100, a scheduled, live game show with a real host, real prizes to be won, and questions that never repeat.

[…] the live shows are scheduled, so you have to make sure you’re free to take part in the game. When you join, you either are part of the Mob, the 100, or the One. The Mob competes on the scoreboard and could win Microsoft points and Xbox Live Games […]

We’re being played. Savedukenukem.com was registered on 5/7/09, the very same day 3DRealms announced it was closing: Is the closing 3D Realms fake? Is this is all just a massive PR stunt?

This guy presents a very interesting conspiracy theory.

[…] this was all a gigantic P.R. stunt to manipulate the players and the fans with a fake “closure,” release tons of footage to restore goodwill, and then to create a fake grassroots “Save Duke!” campaign… all organized by the ad men with the goal of f*cking with the heads of you and me.

[…] OH LOOKEE HERE. Saveduke.com registered by an anonymous proxy the DAY BEFORE 3DRealms’ closure was announced. There’s nothing at the site yet, but come on… There is absolutely no good explanation for this that doesn’t involve asshattery.

Duke Nukem Developer 3D Realms Shuts Down: Duke Nukem Forever will never be released…[sigh]

A very reliable source close to Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms today confirmed to Shacknews that the development studio has shut down.

This page has a great history of the saga.

So there you have it folks, show’s over after 12 years and 9 days, less time than it took Barack Obama to go from his first election as an Illinois Senator to becoming President of the United States… And all we have to show for it are a few videos and screen shots.

The money shot is a brown and wrinkled receipt from GameStop, dated sometime in 2001, from someone who paid a $10 deposit on the game that never was.

18 Embarrassing Game AI Bugs Caught On Tape… and Fixed!: I love this — it’s a video collection of 18 AI bugs captured from various games with a discussion of why they happen.

For example, from Half-Life 2:

A player is carrying a barrel in front of his eyes such that it hides all enemy NPCs in the scene. This in turn causes the enemies to not attack until the player drops the barrel!

[…] the sensory system in Half-Life is built to help prevent player frustration, so that soldiers and enemies in the game do not attack the player until the player has noticed them.

In this case, you can use that to your advantage by carrying a barrel, but you could also demonstrate this bug by walking backwards into a room full of enemies!

It’s an interesting look at how AI in games works, and some of the compromises that have to be made.

If you’re interested in this, note that this is from a site called “aigamedev.com” — it’s all about AI in video games.

Bad Crazy in Internet Space: This is a great wrap up of the supposed insanity of the EVE Online MMORPG.

We’ve discussed EVE before, referring to an epic story of orchestrated betrayal that read like a profane spy novel. This post goes further, however, offering anecdotes about how Eve apparently regularly crosses the line into real-life for many of its players.

Seriously, read this:

I was approached by one of the leaders of Red Alliance to help [destroy this ship], but almost immediately we were down the rabbit hole. Much to my surprise, the RA director didn’t want in-game information from me; he wanted us to use the forensic resources of our intelligence agency to trace down The Enslaver’s home address. At a coordinated time, armed with this information, a RA member would apparently cut the power to The Enslaver’s house in the real world, and in EVE a RA capital fleet would assault the abruptly pilotless Titan.

[…] CCP [the makers of EVE Online] often touts this sort of thing with the bland marketing lingo of ‘player generated content.’ What that actually means is that you get to share a galaxy with Russian aluminum magnates, French-Indonesian nightclub-owning hackers, self-aggranziding ‘spymasters,’ and people who will cut the power lines to your house to destroy your internet spaceship. There’s something deliciously addictive about the sweeping, endemic insanity, one of the ever-present yet rarely remarked upon facets of this most unhinged of MMOs.

Nice skill video: This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. This guy is an inhumanly good Tetris player, which is cool enough…

The thing is, he finishes the Master level, and over the credits there’s an Easter Egg where you can apparently play an “invisible” game — where blocks come down at impossible speed, but you can’t see the blocks you’ve already laid.

He finishes that level too.

Play That Blasts Enemies but Pricks Consciences: Interesting comments about the level and tone of violence in the latest “Call of Duty” installment.

The first time I sneaked up to the window of a Japanese bunker, shoved in the nozzle of my flamethrower, squeezed the ignition and heard the terrified screaming of the men burning alive inside, I didn’t feel especially heroic. And I don’t think I was meant to.

[…] A later mission, “Eviction,” set in Berlin, opens with a German soldier on his knees pleading for his life. The Soviets consider sparing him until one pre-emptively steps forward and puts a bullet in the Nazi’s brain.

“This is not war,” another soldier says. “This is murder.”

His comrade replies: “This is how you end a war.”

My son has played this, and it’s brutal. It doesn’t flinch for an instant. At the same time, it doesn’t glamorize. It’s as dirty, realistic, and sobering as a video game is likely to get.

Quake Done Quick (with a vengeance): This has to be seen to be believed. It’s old, but still amazing.

This is a run that completes Quake on Nightmare difficulty as fast as we could manage.

I saw one level go by in nine seconds. Lots of usage of rocket jumping. The guy will often shoot a grenade someone you can’t see, only to walk over it a few seconds later and get blown upwards to where he really wanted to go.

Brings back good memories for me. I loved the original Quake.

15 Reasons PC Gaming Beats All: I always thought PC gaming was dead — killed by the console. However, I got into Steam the other day, and was pretty impressed with that. Then, today, I find this article which raises some really good points which I hadn’t thought of.

PCs are scalable. […] would you rather have a platform that can play nearly anything, past to present, contingent on do-it-yourself propensity? Or be locked into a restrictively governed molding that’s only changed out once every half-decade or so?

PCs ape consoles in emulation. Here’s a point often missed. PCs can be nearly any past-tense console, by hook or by crook.

PCs can be anywhere. […] Swapping between a desktop LCD and your larger living room variety is a snap, not to mention that doing so offers more audio/video playback options than any of the console manufacturers.

Keyboard and mouse beats all.

I’m somewhat ashamed to say I’m having a complete blast playing a Flash game called StarBaron I found a couple weeks ago. It’s all over the Net, but here’s a link to it on Kongregate.

It’s like intergalactic Risk, but with even more depth. The galaxy has planets of different sizes (bigger means more powerful), and you have spaceships. You take over planets, and try to kill the AI. Sounds simple, right? Not so fast.

Planets have orbits which they defend. If you send 20 ships through the orbit of a planet, maybe only 15 get through. This means that proximity is important — you can’t just attack a planet all the way on the other side of the galaxy as your armada would get chewed to shreds on the way. You have to leapfrog from planet to planet.

Additionally, attacking a planet from multiple sides give you a bonus (presumably because the planet would have to split its defenses). This means that to conquer Planet A, you may need to take B and C on the other sides of it.

Planets are also specified types.

• Normal planets do everything with average skill.
• Defensive planets have killer satellites in their orbits.
• Economy planets enable you to have more ships.
• Rocket planets shoot other planets and weaken them.
• Minefields attack anything in their ever-expanding orbit.
• Naval planets make ships faster than other planets.
• Fighter bases defend other planets. Etc.

Specific planet combinations become important. Two planets of good size right next to each other are handy — make one a rocket planet, and the other defensive. A bigger planet in the midst of many others is a great spot for a fighter base. You learn to scan a new map in a hurry to pick out the really strategic positions, then race to get there first.

Towards the end of the game, when the AI is boned and it’s just a matter of time, it gets really interesting. Based on the planet configuration it’s defending, it can be really tricky to root him out. It’s like a puzzle — you find yourself setting up a line of dominoes.

If I get a rocket shot at Planet A, that will reduce his orbit so I can rush Planet B. Then from Planet B, I can attack along with C, which, given their surrounding positions, should be enough to take out A.

Only one time has the AI locked itself in so tight that I couldn’t get it out. I tried for a solid hour. The AI couldn’t move out of the corner, but there was just no way to beat it.

The combination of all this an absolutely engrossing experience. Re-playability is ver high. There’s a Campaign version with a storyline that was a little weak. But the Challenge and Skirmish modes are excellent. Take the Tutorial before you try anything else.

StarBaron has the makings of one of the classic strategy games, it really does. It has the perfect balance of simplicity and depth, which is really hard to achieve.

I just killed your productivity. You’ll thank me later.

World of Warcraft Players Need Not Apply: The last frontier of bigotry.

“I happened to mention I’d spent way too much time in the early 2000s playing online game… He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players. He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100 percent because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc.”

Avatars and Second Life adultery: A tale of online cheating and real-world heartbreak: Interesting article with lots of stores about people falling in love in Second Life.

“A month later we were logging on every evening at 7pm and not logging off until 4am. Our avatars would do all the stuff normal couples do, like talking and going to clubs or ice skating. I felt as giddy as a teenager, I was walking on air.”

Sadly, when people meet in real life, it’s not always the same. Regarding a different couple than the one discussed above:

Elliott came across as quite creepy. Living alone in a tower block and riding a motorbike in black helmet and leathers, he openly admitted that his avatar fell for Carolyn’s because she was a scantily clad babe. His reaction when an apple-pie mom appeared on his doorstep was muted, to say the least.