Joystiq

Bungie discussing 'Destiny' at GDC 2013

Mike Schramm — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:15:00 EST

Bungie and Activision's new IP, Destiny, will be the subject of a session during this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Dubbed a "Brave New World: New Bungie IP," the talk will cover the studio's approach in putting together Destiny's original setting, "a place where the next ten years of great Bungie adventures will unfold."

The Destiny leaks last year suggested a "fun and accessible" multi-platform project, set in the future and featuring a large-scale war between man and alien (bearing a strong resemblance, in other words, to Halo). Having been teased with Destiny and its iconography for months now, we expect some insight into just how Bungie's new universe is shaping up.

The Game Developers Conference runs from March 25 until March 29. The time and date of Bungie's panel has yet to be announced.

Bungie discussing 'Destiny' at GDC 2013 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Watch a live stream of Joystiq's PAX panel with Erik Wolpaw, Tim Schafer, Kotaku [Update: It's over!]

Jessica Conditt — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:00:00 EST

Joystiq's Ben Gilbert is sitting down with Valve's Erik Wolpaw (writer on the Portal series), Double Fine's Tim Schafer (company president and fundraising maven) and Kotaku's Jason Shreier at PAX Prime today, to talk "Plot vs. Play."

This ragtag group will dissect the importance of narrative over gameplay, vice versa, inside-out and inverted, and it's all captured live for you to watch below via Twitch TV. The panel begins at 3 p.m. ET, or as the indoctrinated few call it, right now.

Update: The panel and live stream are now finished. If you missed the action, keep an eye on the PAX Prime 2012 page on Twitch TV, which should update with the day's recording.

Watch a live stream of Joystiq's PAX panel with Erik Wolpaw, Tim Schafer, Kotaku [Update: It's over!] originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic shares Gears of War insight and trivia at Comic-Con panel

Mike Schramm — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 03:00:00 EST

Cliff Bleszinski, Design Director at Epic Games, along with Production Director Rod Fergusson, voice actor Fred Tatasciore (the voice of Baird as well as "most of the Locusts") and writers Rob Auten and Tom Bissell all took the stage at Comic-Con 2012 for a panel about Gears of War: Judgment. The biggest piece of news out of the panel was that Judgment has a release date: We'll be killing grubs as Baird in the prequel on March 19.

The rest of the panel, however, contained a few juicy bits of Gears trivia, just for fans of the series. If you've lived and died with the COGs for three games now, read on.

Continue reading Epic shares Gears of War insight and trivia at Comic-Con panel

Epic shares Gears of War insight and trivia at Comic-Con panel originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlizzCon 2010: Diablo 3 panel covers Artisans, armor models and atmosphere

Daniel Whitcomb — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:30:00 EST

The Diablo 3 crafting sanctuary panel, much as the name suggests, did introduce a look at the new Diablo 3 item crafting system. However, it also covered quite a few interesting inside looks at the philosophy and process of the upcoming Blizzard game.

As game director Jay Wilson puts it, Sanctuary is a world at war. It's been 20 years since the events of Diablo 2, in which the 3 prime evils were vanquished, and hell has been preparing for revenge ever since. The development team has been working on building that world under siege, and this panel was meant to reveal a little bit about how they've been going about doing that.

Continue reading BlizzCon 2010: Diablo 3 panel covers Artisans, armor models and atmosphere

BlizzCon 2010: Diablo 3 panel covers Artisans, armor models and atmosphere originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reminder: Two panels you'll want to attend today

David Hinkle — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST

a man chooses, a slave clicks for a larger image

PAX East is winding down today, but don't fret! Our own Chris Grant is going to be involved in two panels today, talking about this games journalism thing (you know: Joystiq), as well as discussing video game sequels. He will be joined by a cavalcade of the best and brightest our industry has to offer, so that's plenty of incentive to attend. And, remember: five of the folks heading into the second panel will get the completely awesome limited edition Andrew Ryan figure you see above. The treat of the first panel is undoubtedly teh infoz.

So, don't want miss these panels! Here are the details:

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Game Journalism...
Manticore Theatre - Sunday, 2:30pm
Chris Grant and a team of esteemed gaming peons will answer any and all questions you have about the art and craft of getting paid to write about games (it's a tough life). Review scores. Swag. Junkets. Bias. The death of magazines. The rise of blogs. It's all fair game. [more info]
Sequelitis Snake Oil: Quack Medicine for the Video Game Industry
Manticore Theatre - Sunday, 4:00pm
This panel will seek to diagnose the video game industry's purported "sequelitis" by way of discussion from thoughtful panelists, including Irrational Games' Ken Levine; Obsidian's Chris Avellone; Harmonix's Dan Teasdale; Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann; and moderator Chris Grant (from Joystiq!). Mr. Levine is bringing five of the above, super limited edition Andrew Ryan figurines. There are only 200 of these in existence and they're not for sale anywhere - so come early. [more info]

Reminder: Two panels you'll want to attend today originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Overheard@PAX: The sound of 1,000 knuckles cracking

Griffin McElroy — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:30:00 EST

There are few words one could use to describe the audio phenomenon which occurs at each Penny Arcade Expo, other than, of course, yucky. The video posted after the jump was captured at the first Penny Arcade panel at PAX East, in which everyone in the room simultaneously cracks their knuckles. It is really, really gross and nobody should watch it. We wish we hadn't seen it. We also wish we hadn't filmed it, and then copied it to our computer, and put it online, and put it in this post -- a process forcing us to relive that horrifying moment eight or nine times.

Continue reading Overheard@PAX: The sound of 1,000 knuckles cracking

Overheard@PAX: The sound of 1,000 knuckles cracking originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visceral Games to stream Dead Space 2 panel live from PAX East

Mike Schramm — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:55:00 EST

Can't make it to PAX East this year? We feel your pain -- while there are quite a few Joystiqeurs winging their way off to the East Coast to partake with Mike and Jerry and the gang, there are almost as many of us still stranded back at home with all of you. But fortunately, our friends at Visceral Games are doing their best to share the love -- they'll be Ustreaming their Dead Space 2 PAX East panel live this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. EST. We've included the feed on this very post, so bookmark this page right now, and then come on back Saturday afternoon.

Producers Steve Papoutsis and Rich Briggs will be in attendance along with Art Director Ian Milham, and the guys will "bring players up to speed on the Dead Space universe and prepare them for what's to come in Dead Space 2." They're even showing a bonus look at "the all new Isaac suit," and they'll be answering questions live from the simultaneous Facebook chat, too. Of course, a Q&A with the Dead Space 2 producers is little consolation to missing out on eating breakfast cereal with professional hugger Justin McElroy, but those of us at home this weekend will have to take what we can get.

Continue reading Visceral Games to stream Dead Space 2 panel live from PAX East

Visceral Games to stream Dead Space 2 panel live from PAX East originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Recently laid-off devs rant about being recently laid off

Griffin McElroy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:30:00 EST

I think we can all agree that, aside from being hit by a speeding train or dropping a hot meal you've been cooking for hours, being fired from your job is like, the worst thing that can happen to you. As such, we expected the speakers on last week's GDC rant panel, titled "Fired and Fired-up: Jobless Developer's Rant," to be especially inflammatory. We were not disappointed.

Just past the jump, we've highlighted three of our favorite presentations from the panel. Some of them get awfully, explicitly blue, so if you happen to find yourself reading this video game news site while at work, you might want to think twice about going beyond the break. (You should also get back to work, you lazy so-and-so!)

Continue reading Recently laid-off devs rant about being recently laid off

Recently laid-off devs rant about being recently laid off originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC: Toriyama explains the themes of the Fabula Nova Crystallis trilogy

Griffin McElroy — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST

The creators of Final Fantasy XIII have been notoriously tight-lipped about the Fabula Nova Crystallis trilogy, a series comprised of FFXIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and the PSP-exclusive Final Fantasy Agito XIII. During a GDC panel titled "The Crystal Mythos," director Motomu Toriyama gave a few scant details about the other two branches of the trilogy, and the few similarities connecting the entries in the franchise's 13th series.

Toriyama's main point during his presentation is that Agito and Versus won't be sequels to the recently released Final Fantasy XIII -- they'll both have their own unique set of characters, gameplay systems and overarching stories. The only thing connecting them is the "Crystal Mythos" motif -- a theme where the fates of ordinary humans are controlled by omnipotent gods. Players of Final Fantasy XIII should already be acquainted with this storytelling device.

The other detail about the series Toriyama mentioned was that, like XIII, the rest of the series will continue to focus on story-driven gameplay rather than allowing the player to explore an open world. For better or worse, it sounds like Versus and Agito will possess the same linearity for which XIII was frequently criticized.

GDC: Toriyama explains the themes of the Fabula Nova Crystallis trilogy originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC: How Sucker Punch built inFamous' big city with a small team

Griffin McElroy — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST

Last year's shockingly awesome superhero title inFamous boasted a massive sandbox world known as Empire City -- a playground full of climbable, grindable, shootable objects. It was an impressive environment, made all the more impressive by a startling piece of information revealed by Sucker Punch's Nate Fox during a recent GDC panel: The whole city was created by a team of just 12 artists.

Fox explained that this feat was accomplished with the liberal reusing of the game's catalog of environmental assets. For example, there were only two types of cars in the game, differentiated by hue shifts and decals. The map was partitioned into a hexagonal grid -- the inspiration for which came from the popular board game Carcassonne, Fox explained. Edges of each hex were designed to effortlessly fit together, allowing designers to make minor changes to each compartment, and paste the location into another chunk of the city.

This might sound like a cheap tactic for a developer to employ, but Fox explained that a developer's time and resources are limited. By swiftly executing the creation of a game's setting, the developers are given more of an opportunity to focus on designing "evil lairs" and other memorable landmarks. Oh, and according to Fox, the industry term for these outstanding structures is "Weenies." Yes, for that reason. Yes, that is wonderful.

Gallery: inFAMOUS

GDC: How Sucker Punch built inFamous' big city with a small team originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC: Making games to prevent violence against children

Griffin McElroy — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST

The highlight of yesterday's GDC Serious Game Summit panels focused on an appropriately consequential topic: How games can help protect children from the commonplace dangers they face from predators, both online and off. The panel was led by Child Safety Research and Innovation Center president Allan McCullough -- a man who's strived to develop games which teach young people how to identify and avoid dangerous situations.

The two Flash-based games which represent the fruits of McCullough's two decades of labor look deceptively simple on the surface. They are, after all, hand-illustrated, poorly animated educational games geared towards children, with budgets too small to allow the hiring of professional voice actors and experienced gaming professionals. However, beneath the crude surface of these games lie clever methods of imparting crucial information to their young players which could ostensibly help them avoid encounters with people who mean them harm.

Continue reading GDC: Making games to prevent violence against children

GDC: Making games to prevent violence against children originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ron Jeremy: games 'far worse' for kids than porn

Griffin McElroy — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST

We should warn you guys: The subject of this story is ... well, he's a man named Ron Jeremy. We know you guys probably haven't heard of this man before, but ... well, he's an actor. You definitely haven't seen him in anything, because ... he does adult films. Yes, pornography. We're sorry we had to take this post in such a blue direction, but we felt it important for you to be informed.

Mr. Jeremy, the pornographic actor, recently appeared on a CES panel which debated the effects of adult entertainment in the Internet era. As a riposte to an attack on his industry, Mr. Jeremy said, "we don't want kids to watch porn, though if they do, there are far worse influences out there - like video games. Studies have found that violent video games are much bigger a negative influence on kids." Oh, yeah? Then why is it acceptable to enjoy video games in public venues? Game, set and match, sir.

Ron Jeremy: games 'far worse' for kids than porn originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC 2010 schedule and speakers partially revealed

Griffin McElroy — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:30:00 EST

Though it lacks the glitz, glamor and booth babes of consumer-based expos, the Game Developer's Conference has plenty to capture the attention of the cerebral game enthusiast. The event's official site recently posted a smattering of the lectures, roundtables, and panels which will take place from March 9 - 13, showcasing the efforts of the creators of Brütal Legend, Uncharted 2 and Braid, to name a few.

These events are broken into tracks representing the various types of work that go into making a game. For instance, Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand will be leading a post-mortem of Uncharted 2 as part of the Production Track. Double Fine's Peter Demoreuille and Drew Skillman will be talking about crafting the visuals of Brutal Legend for the Art Track. And Jonathan Blow is leading a discussion on implementing time travel in games as part of the sparsely populated Quantum Physics Phenomena Track.

[Via Gamasutra]

GDC 2010 schedule and speakers partially revealed originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square Enix head encourages Japanese devs to focus on 'adult' games

Andrew Yoon — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:30:00 EST

Once again, Tokyo Game Show plays host to a panel featuring the heads of the largest Japanese gaming companies. This year's panel entitled "Strategies and Visions of Top Makers in the Global Era" featured, from left, moderator Asami, Capcom's Haruhiro Tsujimoto, Konami's Kazumi Kitaue, Square's Yoichi Wada, Sony's Shuhei Yoshida, and Namco's Shin Unozawa.

Last year, Wada's assessment of the Japanese game industry was grim, noting that the Japanese industry had "lost its position." This year, he continued talking about the changes necessary for the industry to progress. With sales of 4 million units of Dragon Quest IX sold in Japan so far, Wada admits that things are rather good for now. However, he pointed to a growing problem: Japan's lack of adult-oriented games. "There are not many publishers that create games for adults," he said. "In the West, they tend to believe it's cool to play games, even adults."

Wada lamented that the perception doesn't hold true in Japan. He pointed out the outdated ratings system in Japan, which forces many publishers to censor many games, or avoid Japanese release altogether. While he agrees that "game ratings [are] to protect children," he believes it must be revised in that market. Should Japanese companies commit to change, "we can possibly lead the global market," he said towards the end of the panel. Of course, "it's hard to bring about change. Change is yet to come."

Square Enix head encourages Japanese devs to focus on 'adult' games originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PAX: Two new Ratchet and Clank Future: Crack in Time weapons revealed

Griffin McElroy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST

Insomniac Games' "Weapons 101" PAX panel had a pair of treats for Ratchet and Clank fans. After giving attendees a look at Crack in Time's expansive list of armaments, the game's director, Brian Allgeier, revealed two brand new guns: The Chimp-O-Matic, which turns enemies into adorable monkeys (and changes robotic enemies into robotic monkey toys with cymbals), and the Rift Inducer 5000, a weapon which summons tentacles from an interdimensional portal, which in turn grasp enemies and abscond with them through the vortex.

Man, that seems kinda unfair, doesn't it? "You, enemy, will be turned into an adorable monkey. However, your friend is going to be abducted to a Hell dimension, where he'll be defiled by Cthulhu forever."

PAX: Two new Ratchet and Clank Future: Crack in Time weapons revealed originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uncharted Comic-Con panel video features voice talent, creators, Walken

Griffin McElroy — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST

If you're an Uncharted superfan (and really, you should be) who didn't get to make the pilgrimage to San Diego Comic-Con this year, you should really check out the highlight reel from Naughty Dog's panel at the event. There's a rogue's gallery of recognizable voices and faces sounding off about their experiences with the franchise, as well as a few discussions about the making of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

If you don't feel like watching the entirety of the lengthy video, we at least recommend that you jump to 13:15 to see Nolan North's spot-on Christopher Walken impression. See that? That's why he's been in every video game released over the past five years.

Continue reading Uncharted Comic-Con panel video features voice talent, creators, Walken

Uncharted Comic-Con panel video features voice talent, creators, Walken originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EA GLAAD to host panel addressing homophobia in online gaming

Ludwig Kietzmann — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST

Entitled "Homophobia in Virtual Communities," a new panel, initiated by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and hosted at EA's Redwood City headquarters, will delve into methods of combating hateful language and discriminatory behavior encountered and propagated by online game players. According to Gamasutra, those contributing to the discussion this Saturday, July 18th, will include GayGamer founder Flynn de Marco, Maxis senior producer Caryl Shaw, and Stephen Toulouse, program manager and virtual bouncer for Xbox Live.

Those with clear recollections or inexplicable mastery of our terrible in-site search will recognize Toulouse as one of the voices heard in a recent debate regarding Xbox Live's GLBT policies. Unless you're under the impression that GLBT is a kind of sandwich, it may be worth your while to gain further details on the panel over at the GLAAD website.

EA GLAAD to host panel addressing homophobia in online gaming originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlizzCon 2008: Starcraft II lore panel

Mike Schramm — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Features, PC

Chris Metzen and Andrew Chambers sat down at BlizzCon to chat about the lore and story behind the universe of Starcraft II. As we saw in the gameplay panel yesterday, Blizzard is aiming to really break a lot of new characters into the foreground using the adventure game-style cutscenes, and Metzen and Chambers seem really excited to bring some new faces into the RTS staple sequel.

To start off the panel, they ran through a few of the folks we'll meet in the Terran campaign. Dr. Hanson is a "Dr. Lady with glasses (so she looks really cute)," said Chambers -- originally she was designed to be a male citizen kind of person (someone the player just helps to make their way through the campaign), but they moved on to try and make Jim Raynor (Starcraft's protagionist) a sort of romantic interest. As much of a romantic interest as a hard-bitten mercenary can have, anyway.

Lots more from the SC2 lore panel below.

Continue reading BlizzCon 2008: Starcraft II lore panel

BlizzCon 2008: Starcraft II lore panel originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic to protect plasmas from flying Wiimotes

Candace Savino — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: News

We've heard many a tale about people flinging their Wiimotes into expensive HDTVs. Despite Nintendo's precautions, some folks still manage to let their controllers fly. Because of this, Panasonic has decided to release ~~idiot-proof~~ Wii-proof plasmas, with panels that protect the screen by resisting up to four joules of energy.

We can't imagine there being a huge market of people wanting this model, with the exception of the truly paranoid. Even so, Crave writes that it won't take too much effort for Panasonic to beef-up certain plasma screens, since they're generally more durable than LCD panels.

Sure, a stronger screen might be useful for other reasons (not all of us have kids, and for all we know, they like to throw stuff at TVs for fun). If you're considering this purchase for Wii purposes, though, might we suggest you simply use protection?

[Via Destructoid]

Panasonic to protect plasmas from flying Wiimotes originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DS Fanboy travels Around the Interweb to whine about hard games

JC Fletcher — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: News

Siliconera has started doing these great roundtables called "From Around the Interweb" in which various game writers opine on a topic. The last one was about the DS Style series-- check it out for some interesting discussion on non-games!

This week, Spencer was kind enough to invite me along for a discussion of hard games. This week's panel included Spencer, RawMeatCowboy from GoNintendo, CheapyD from CheapAssGamer, PSP Fanboy's Andrew Yoon (who has made mysterious appearances here!), and, for some reason, me! We were all able to reach a consensus on the divisive issue of whether or not hard games were, in fact, hard. I had a great time and I was honored to be in such illustrious company!

DS Fanboy travels Around the Interweb to whine about hard games originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panel de Pon presents a pleasant puzzler

JC Fletcher — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Screens, Imports

Plenty of pictures of Panel de Pon have been posted for perusal, at, um... Pgame Pwatch ... yeah, okay, we're done. We kind of like the look of the new Tetris Attack here-- the blocks are colorful and Meteos-esque, while the backgrounds are all rave-like and evoke Lumines. We could roll our eyes at the fact that Intelligent Systems is cribbing so heavily from Q? Entertainment in their visuals, but we honestly don't mind because it looks cool and because Panel de Pon couldn't not be awesome.

Please peruse the pretty panel pictures past the post partition.

Continue reading Panel de Pon presents a pleasant puzzler

Panel de Pon presents a pleasant puzzler originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panel de Pon coming to DS

JC Fletcher — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:15:00 EST

Filed under: News, Rumors

We have great news for puzzle fans! Panel de Pon, aka Tetris Attack, aka Pokémon Puzzle League, aka Puzzle League is going to get a DS release in Japan in April, according to some rumor-hounds at NeoGAF. This marks the first time we can think of that the same game has appeared on both the Game Boy Advance and the DS.

We can think of one thing in particular that could elevate this new version over its predecessors: delicious online multiplayer. We're dreaming of future Game Nights already.

Panel de Pon coming to DS originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blogphotopodcasting: Fanboy style

Ken Weeks — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 01:00:00 EST

Filed under: News, Interviews

Major Nelson's latest podcast consists of a panel at the Penny Arcade Expo with an unwieldy title and one familiar participant. "Blogphotopodcasting: New Media in the Game Industry" features none other than Xbox360Fanboy's (and Joystiq's) Christopher Grant as a dulcet voice of reason.

Blogphotopodcasting: Fanboy style originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Aug 2006 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Games vs. popular media: the debate

Jennie Lees — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Business

Gamasutra reports on a panel held this weekend in Austin entitled "Games: the bastard children of popular media". Responding to Roger Ebert's comment last year that video games don't measure up to the standard set by other popular media, the panellists' debate covered movies, youth culture and even the moral situations of Ultima IV, pointing out that:

Games, being interactive, are meant to tell stories in a different way, by giving their audiences a participatory experience. Instead of watching a movie about the horrors of war, a gamer can play Civilization and see what happens to an area of the world.

An interesting point brought up in the report is that of longevity--will we be playing the games we play now in 500 years' time, just as Shakespeare's plays are still studied and performed? It's unlikely; printed paper, unlike today's consoles, probably won't become obsolete. Perhaps what survives of today's games might not be code and sprites, but characters, stories and concepts, with Mario becoming as time-honoured as Hamlet and Macbeth.

Games vs. popular media: the debate originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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