Magic

Shh! Don't tell Tim Langdell anyone!

Incidentally, I actually installed Xcom Apoc two weeks ago, I got the game many years ago as a free gift from a PC Gamer subscription and still have the disc. However, it was a nightmare to run, in fact I couldn't get it to, even with VDMS and DosBox. On googling for a solution, I read horror stories about people who spent days on end trying.

So I decided to save some time and got it on Steam for about £3 - which uses a custom version of DosBox to run it anyway! I'm really enjoying it, even each individual alien invasion is samey and if there's occasionally a crash. The game has an excellent difficulty curve in the aliens you face, followed by their increasingly crafty technology (Shields anyone?). I've just had a base invasion by the Cult of Sirius, which was followed by some reprisal raids of my own on their temples. I've also got to the point where I can research a dimension probe and finally take the fight to them.

I decided to play it as research for a game design of my own, I'd still KILL for a modern version (Disregarding those "After-X" imitation games - they were good but didn't quite have the same feel at all).

I've actually read The Simpsons and Philosophy and the introduction makes an important distinction - the essays in the book are linking philosophy to the Simpsons, NOT the other way around. It's a big difference as I sincerely doubt any of it was intended by Groening and all in the production of the TV series. Some of the book involves the question of whether Homer displays Aristotlean virtues, whether Bart and Nietschze's beliefs are similar, Ned Flander's religious nature, greed and Mr Burns and Lisa as the unpopular intellect.

If this WOW book is truly linking the two together, and not taking itself *too* seriously, then I think that's a good thing, absolutely everyone should read up on philosophy.

IIRC, those games were all third party ones, I presume Codies are referring to or are now focussing on their internal games (racing and OFP at least).

There's more to this, check out the news at GP:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/10/12/chinese-agency-foreign-online-game-operators-not-allowed

"Two arms of the Chinese government appear to be battling over whether or not non-Chinese companies can operate online games within the country’s borders.

The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) issued a statement on Friday saying that “foreign companies are not allowed to operate online games in China in any form.” The only problem? Control of China’s online gaming industry was taken away from GAPP last month and given to the Ministry of Culture. Proactive Investors reports that Tuo Zu Hai, a Vice Director in the Ministry of Culture was “startled to hear the news” emanating from GAPP."

The Germans are pulling back! Come on comrades! We're re-taking RED SQUARE!

Except that China isn't a communist country, it's a _single party_ country. That's quite the difference.

That said, the news is still, to be frank, alarming especially given the strides China has made in the last decade. Despite the relaxing of certain aspects of life for the Chinese people (At least economically), the government then comes back with despot-like statements like this. The fiasco with the WOW WOTLK expansion may have just been the beginning, it's easy to worry that the government feels threatened by exterior culture. I suppose like any such regime, they're paranoid of the outside world.