[Update - Nicholas Puleo, Editor-in-Chief of Evil Avatar and founder of Co-Optimus.com has kindly agreed to step in and join the panel. Thanks Nick!]
Just wanted to let you all know that Rob and I will be participating on a panel at PAX next weekend. The topic is whether Casual Game influences are "killing" Core Games, and we've been able to get some great panelists together for the event. They include Mark Deloura (who previously managed Sony's developer relations for Playstation and PSP), Jane Pinkard (of GameGirlAdvance fame), and of course everyone's favorite actor-geek Wil Wheaton (aka Wesley from ST:TNG and the guy who did the PAX keynote last year.) N'Gai Croal of Newsweek/Level Up fame was also planning to join us, but unfortunately can't make it due to a conflict.
The panel will occur on Saturday, August 30th from 6:00 to 7:00 PM in the Raven Theater.
Panel description:
Is Casual Killing Core Games?
Are you annoyed because casual gamers and casual gaming mechanics are killing your favorite games? Are you too busy playing Puzzle Quest to care? Do you think casual gaming is finally culling the herd of outdated gaming sacred cows? Come and watch industry insiders, top press, and celebrities debate whether casual should be feared or embraced.
Moderator: Rob Gruhl, Senior Platform Strategist, Microsoft Game Platform Strategy Team
Panel Speakers:
N’Gai Croal, Newsweek Technology Writer and Blogger of Level Up (sadly no!) - Mark Deloura, CTO Greenleaf and ex Sony Devrel
- Jane Pinkard, GameGirlAdvance and Bizdev Foundation 9
- Wil Wheaton, Professional Geek, Actor, and Voice-over Artist… AKA the guy who did the keynote last year. ;)
- Andre Vrignaud, Senior Platform Strategist, Microsoft Game Platform Strategy Team
Should be a good time - hope to see any of you who might be at PAX!
Don't know about you, but my home theater rack and PC desk are a rat's nest of cabling that include joysticks, keyboards, mice, speakers, Ethernet, phone cords, USB, Firewire, and a variety of power strips, with a plethora of power cables (many of which have their own transformers and different plug sizes) all tangled with one another.
I've always dreamed of a wireless world where you simply put the device where you want it and it just works. There have been some good steps in that direction with the advent of wireless peripherals, and I'm looking forward to high-bandwidth wireless technologies that will allow the equivalent of wireless video/audio connections such as HDMI. But until recently, it didn't appear there was a viable solution for wireless electricity to power those devices.
The New York Times recently reported that Intel engineers have demonstrated a prototype wireless power solution that may eventually deliver on the dream. To quote:
On Thursday, the chip maker plans to demonstrate the use of a magnetic field to broadcast up to 60 watts of power two to three feet. It says it can do that losing only 25 percent of the power in transmission.
“Something like this technology could be embedded in tables and work surfaces,” said Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer, “so as soon as you put down an appropriately equipped device it would immediately begin drawing power.”
60 watts may not seem like a lot, especially to power-hungry desktop PC users, but it's plenty to recharge the battery in a laptop, mobile phone, game controller, keyboard, mouse, speaker, etc. Imagine a world where your device is always fully-charged simply by virtue of your having been sitting and working at a continual power tap! I suspect this could even work with more power-hungry devices (such as a desktop PC or home theater equipment such as an amp) with attached battery storage. Not as elegant, but who knows? Perhaps they'll be able to advance the technology so it can support these heavy-load devices?
Just to be clear, this was a tech demo at Intel's IDF (Intel Development Forum) event, and is certainly nowhere near a shipping product yet. However, Intel never shows off anything without reason, and I certainly wish them well in trying to deliver a cost-effective, safe solution for the home and office.
Saw that Quantic Dream just released a new trailer of Heavy Rain (PS3 exclusive) at Leipzig. You can check it out here. Afterward, it's worth reading a new IGN preview.
I'm definitely looking forward to this one - looks great! Will likely be the second game (after Uncharted) that I actually play for a significant amount of time on the system. That said, if you're not sure why all the excitement, check out Indigo Prophecy on the Xbox (available for download from Marketplace). First 2/3s of the game are excellent, and you'll get a sense of the cinematic atmosphere that Quantic Dream is known for.
Many of you have heard of the Uncanny Valley. (For those of you who haven't, here's a quick quote from Wikipedia: "as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.")
I just came across a video showing off a completely computer generated figure that appears to pass that valley. There are still a few tiny rough edges - note the occasional over-extended lips (the "I just got braces" look) - but overall the effect is astounding. Gives me high hopes for future games - I'd love to know if this was being used for Heavy Rain, for example.
Have gotten a few pings from folks - yes, I'm still alive... and flattered that folks are still swinging by the site even though there haven't been many updates lately. Thanks for that!
I apologize for lack of updates. I am still intending to write here, but between a crazy couple of months at work (as we worked on the New Xbox Experience) and a much needed vacation to Hawaii I just haven't had the time. Also, I'm still hoping to move the blog to Graffiti, so there's a bit of a wildcard there as well.
More soon!