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May 7, 2008

Online World Atlas: Moshi Monsters / Worlds In Motion

“In Moshi Monsters, users “adopt” one monster from a range of six species to care for. Users are placed in charge of ensuring the monster remains happy and fed by purchasing goods from the local town (either food or furniture and items to decorate their monster’s home) and raises money to purchase these items by taking part in daily Brain Age style puzzles. Players can also play some games in town for fun, plus interact with other users by visiting their monsters’ homes and leaving messages on their pinboards — specifically those that have been designated as “friends” by players who know each other’s usernames.”

I’m filling in Worlds In Motion’s Online World Atlas now, which is a fun little gig exploring virtual worlds and then saying what I think of them. First up was this - a cute, very Pete Folwery monster raising MMO that I rather liked. Do pop by and say hello to my monster, Shibito!

May 7th, 2008 : Features, Worlds In Motion
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May 5, 2008

Q&A: D2C’s Scott Orr Talks WiiWare, PSP As ‘Sleeping Giant’ / Gamasutra

“Developer D2C Games (founded by Madden veteran Scott Orr) has announced SPOGS Racing for WiiWare, and Gamasutra talks to Orr about why his firm picked Wii’s downloadable service over the others, and why he thinks the PSP platform is “a sleeping giant” in terms of possible sales.”

I liked Orr’s willingness to talk about his history in the game industry. It’s strangely thrilling to talk to someone involved in the development of Eagle Eye Mysteries, a classic “edutainment” title that’s similar to the Phoenix Wright games (sort of.)

May 5th, 2008 : Gamasutra, Interviews
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May 3, 2008

Q&A: WhiteMoon Dreams On A New Indie Development Ethos / Gamasutra

“Veterans of the Medal of Honor and Fallout franchises have created new U.S. developer WhiteMoon Dreams, working with “a major Japanese publisher” on a new title - Gamasutra talks to the firm’s principals about the 12-person developer’s lean, mean philosophy.”

A new Q&A!

May 3rd, 2008 : Gamasutra, Interviews
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May 2, 2008

Film Friday: “Red Skull” / Torontoist

“Yes, we’re being very obvious by leading with Iron Man this week, considering that it’s everywhere anyway as this year’s first big “summer” blockbuster. However, and we have a feeling we might have mentioned this before, we’re sold on any film which recognizes that a trademark way to make your hero look as awesome as possible is to have them walk towards the camera with their back to an explosion - like they don’t even care!”

Also this week: an Over The Top film festival preview, including reviews of I Think We’re Alone Now, Frownland, Pop Skull (which is completely amazing and a top recommendation) and Hokuro Brothers: Full Throttle.

May 2nd, 2008 : Columns, Torontoist
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May 1, 2008

Q&A: CD Projekt’s Ohle On The Witcher, PR’s Place In The Blogosphere / Gamasutra

“CD Projekt’s PC RPG The Witcher has been a notable and perhaps surprising hit in the PC market - Gamasutra catches up with PR/marketing VP Tom Ohle to talk about the challenges of publicizing it, the state of PC gaming, and the place of PR in the current age of blogs and news aggregators.”

I think this is a really great interview (if I don’t say so myself) examining part of the industry people don’t tend to examine - the place of PR and marketing - along with some chat about the PC industry.

May 1st, 2008 : Gamasutra, Interviews
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April 28, 2008

Q&A: Cadence’s Vucurevich On Processing Power’s Continued Importance / Gamasutra

“Even with every next-gen console’s specialized CPUs, we don’t often think of the importance of the architecture design at the chip level. Following a recent roundtable by chip design software specialist Cadence, CTO Ted Vucurevich talks with Gamasutra about his vision of gaming hardware’s future.”

Self explanatory!

April 28th, 2008 : Gamasutra, Interviews
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April 26, 2008

Ken Levine on BioShock’s Narrative Drive / Gamasutra

“I was kind of interested in BioShock, especially because you explore the illusion of choice within games as the metastory. It’s over and above that. One of the things that interests me is that there’s a point where you realize that’s what’s happened, but after that, you’re not actually given any choice! Could you talk about that part?”

Yay! The excellent interview I helped Christian Nutt with is now up on Gamasutra. Exciting if you like the idea of reading a very literal transcription of me spending more time talking to Ken Levine about how Cloverfield sucks than anything else (although, admittedly, there’s a point to it.)

April 26th, 2008 : Features, Gamasutra, Interviews
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April 25, 2008

Film Friday: “Be Excellent To Each Other” / Torontoist

“Harold & Kumar are back! Oh glorious day—how on earth could we not lead with the return of this generation’s most important stoners? Their original quest for White Castle burgers (which we’ve never tried, and still wonder about) was maybe a little patchy but (for some reason) completely rewatchable in the way the best quick-fire comedies are, and the results for Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay seem to promise a similar experience, but one with a more satirical bent.”

This week included some reviews of films screening at Hot Docs: Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides, Shadow of the Holy Book and Vesterbro, but my coverage was hampered towards the end by the idiotic TTC strike.

Ah well.

April 25th, 2008 : Columns, Torontoist
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April 18, 2008

Film Friday: “Forgetting Al Pacino” / Torontoist

“We were interested to see Ben X as a result of its award-winning status and heavy use of MMORPG Archlord as part of the story, but despite not having any sort of preconceptions we were still sorely disappointed. It’s a mess of a film in form (mixing up first-person narrative with TV-style interviews) that tried to tell a foolish, crowd-pleasing story about a bullied kid with Autism moving forward with his life. Except you’d have to be pretty unobservant to not note that the conclusion undoes any goodwill by implying that he could only move on by going completely insane.

It will make you feel weird, so we suggest you skip it.”

Hot Docs is this week, and my coverage started yesterday. I’ll post more covereage here after it’s all over and done with, most probably.

April 18th, 2008 : Columns, Torontoist
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April 17, 2008

Q&A: Ankama Discusses Dofus-Arena, Wakfu / Gamasutra

“Dofus is the most popular MMORPG that you’ve never heard of: with 7 million registered players, comic books, and spin-off titles in development. Ankama Studios’ Cédric Gérard and Frederic Brunet discuss the IGF-winning company’s current status and upcoming titles, including Dofus-Arena and Wakfu.”

Don’t worry! I’ve never played Dofus either.

(I probably shouldn’t admit to that.)

April 17th, 2008 : Gamasutra, Interviews
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