How Boing Boing undermined its own argument against Amazon Kindle
There’s been a strong and decidedly split reaction to Amazon’s new Kindle eBook reader, which was released this week. As of today, Amazon reports that they have sold out of the device, so people are obviously buying it. But concern over its closed nature, including binding users to Amazon’s DRM-based sales channel, have helped the reader earn a 2 1/2… read more
Links to my week of posts as guest editor
Last week I served as guest editor at popular games and game culture blog Kotaku All in all, I wrote 45 articles at Kotaku, which I’ve now linked below. I haven’t even tried to read all the comments on those threads though. I had a great time doing it and I’m really grateful that Brian Crecente extended the invitation.
for the week of November 12
Games uberblog Kotaku‘s managing editor Brian Crecente is on vacation in Australia, and he invited me to serve as a guest editor for this week. I’ll be posting links to my daily stories here every day or so, or you can just sift through the archives on the site. My first posts should start mid-morning Monday, Eastern Time.
Small, cute, insidious
Note: Chumby representative Andrew “Bunnie” Huang has replied to this thread, and I have in turn replied to his response with more questions. I encourage you to read through all the comments for more detail. Finally, I should point out that I am not an attorney and nothing herein should be considered legal advice. Chumby is a WiFi-connected microcomputer that… read more
Sam Waterston in pumpkin, on my stoop
We take our jack-o-lanterns very seriously at my house. It’s a challenge of skill, wit, and patience. One year, for example, I had to make a Harry Potter Dark Mark. This year, Abbey got the idea for a Jack McCoy-o-Lantern. You know, featuring Sam Waterston. From Law & Order. Here he is, glowing of gourd just outside my front door.… read more
An alternative aesthetic of casual games. From my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra
In recent years, casual games have become an increasingly popular and important part of the videogame landscape. Proponents argue that casual games both open up new audiences for games and make new styles of games possible, but the genre has largely floundered in copycat titles. One reason for this is a lack of imagination about what casual might mean. I… read more
My plenary address at the Southern Interactive Entertainment & Game Expo
The following is the plenary address I gave today at the first SIEGE conference here in Atlanta on October 6, 2007. The title of the session was â??Games: Can They Be Important?â? My fellow plenary speakers were Ernest Adams and Daniel Greenberg. Today it is possible to work though an entire undergraduate and graduate education in videogames. Whether thatâ??s… read more
A letter of complaint to U Haul, circa 1998
22 May 1998 The U Haul Corporation P.O. Box 21502 Phoenix, AZ 85036-1502 Dear Sirs and Madams: Chrome shimmering in the afternoon sun, fleets of U Haul trucks and trailers lie in wait on lots across the nation, armed with mighty orange racing stripes and obliquely printed American vistas—imagery meant to inspire even the most bleak-hearted self-mover to Napoleonic spirits.… read more
Built-in DVD players forbid screen captures with software constraint
Recently, I had the need to capture a still from a DVD a Persuasive Games client had sent over as guidelines for some game assets. I didn’t want to rip the whole DVD, so I went to use the built-in screen capture facility in Apple OS X: the old standby Command-Shift-3. I was surprised to see the following result. The… read more
On the controversial use of the Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man
Earlier this year, the Church of England threatened to sue Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for depicting the Manchester Cathedral in the latter’s sci-fi shooter Resistance: Fall of Man. The church had complained about the game’s inclusion of the cathedral, which was named and modeled after the 700-year-old church in this industrial city in northwest England. After considerable pressure and public… read more