Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com Joystiq http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Psychonauts encyclopedia wants your brain]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/31/psychonauts-encyclopedia-wants-your-brain/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/31/psychonauts-encyclopedia-wants-your-brain/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/31/psychonauts-encyclopedia-wants-your-brain/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,


Double Fine has (thankfully) not forgotten its beloved platformer, Psychonauts -- and neither has its legion of fans. The developer recently launched a wiki-style "Psycho-pedia" to flesh out the game's 'verse, offering up articles on all of its important people, places, and things. Oh, so many things.

What's more, Tim Schafer and crew have opened the tome of knowledge to ... your knowledge. By creating an account at the site, you can update the articles with info that (gasp!) even the developer might have overlooked. Double Fine is also soliciting fan art, fan music, cosplay photos, and "any other art you may have created while under the influence of Psychonauts." We can see this getting fittingly weird.

JoystiqPsychonauts encyclopedia wants your brain originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>double-fineencyclopediaPCpsychonautstim-schaferwikiXboxXbox-360Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:30:00 EST<![CDATA[Philosony: Give a sackboy a level and he'll play for a day...]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/14/philosony-give-a-sackboy-a-level-and-hell-play-for-a-day/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/14/philosony-give-a-sackboy-a-level-and-hell-play-for-a-day/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/14/philosony-give-a-sackboy-a-level-and-hell-play-for-a-day/#comments

Teach a sackboy to make a level and he'll play for... well, an additional day. Or so it seems.

I'll be honest. This post is apt to be all over the map. There's so much that could be said and yet so little that has been said about LittleBigPlanet that I'm at a loss for where to begin. I've been trying to hone my thoughts on the game into something bloggable for more than a month now, but a recent post by Michael Abbott got me teary-eyed at the thought of little neglected sackpersons crying from loneliness. I even had a nightmare dream two-nights ago of walking into a store and seeing new copies of LBP selling for $8 (the horror!).

So for the sake of some kind of organization let me break down this discussion into three open ended questions:

#1: Why has LBP seemingly fallen off the radar?
#2: Is it possible to have truly "community made" levels?
#3: Should we think of LBP as more "toy" than "game"?


Continue reading Philosony: Give a sackboy a level and he'll play for a day...

JoystiqPhilosony: Give a sackboy a level and he'll play for a day... originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>communitycreativityindividualismjoystiqfeatureslbplittlebigplanetphilosonywikiSun, 14 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST<![CDATA[SXSW08: Edit Me! How Gamers Are Adopting the Wiki Way]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/08/sxsw08-edit-me-how-gamers-are-adopting-the-wiki-way/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/08/sxsw08-edit-me-how-gamers-are-adopting-the-wiki-way/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/08/sxsw08-edit-me-how-gamers-are-adopting-the-wiki-way/#commentsFiled under: ,


With such a strange and specialized topic, I couldn't help but stop into this SXSW panel with speakers Jake McKee (Ant's Eye View), April Burba (NCSoft), Angelique Shelton (Wikia) and George Pribul (WoWWiki, the second largest English-language wiki in the world by traffic, according to the panel). The basic topic: the state of gaming wikis, particularly those built around MMO games.

The panel began with a call out to the audience to determine what people wanted out of the presentation. One attendee wanted to better serve business clients with a wiki; another wanted to get a sense of the wiki world beyond Wikipedia; another wanted to use wikis for science education. It wasn't an entirely game-focused crowd, but the emphasis was on emergent information organization anyway, and not necessarily any one game.

Continue reading SXSW08: Edit Me! How Gamers Are Adopting the Wiki Way

JoystiqSXSW08: Edit Me! How Gamers Are Adopting the Wiki Way originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>sxswsxsw08wikiSat, 08 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The world of Zack & Wiki]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/17/the-world-of-zack-and-wiki/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/17/the-world-of-zack-and-wiki/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/17/the-world-of-zack-and-wiki/#commentsFiled under: ,


We're slightly disappointed by the levels in Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure. It's not that they don't look nice, but they're just incredibly cliched. You can see cute little representations up there on the world map: the Jungle Ruins, the Volcano Cave, the Ice Temple, and Barbaros' Castle.

Maybe the underwater level and the forced-scrolling motorcycle level are unlockable! Seriously, as much attention as this game is getting, we hope it's a little more creative than the levels make it seem. We're just going to assume that so much attention went into the puzzles that the level concepts kind of suffered.

JoystiqThe world of Zack & Wiki originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>capcomislandtreasuretreasure island zTreasureIslandZwikizackTue, 17 Jul 2007 09:50:00 EST<![CDATA[Translate! Ultimate Stars]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/11/translate-ultimate-stars/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/11/translate-ultimate-stars/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/11/translate-ultimate-stars/#commentsFiled under:


Jump Ultimate Stars is one of the most popular DS games with importers. Since it's a fighting game, it's not a huge deal to play Jump without knowing Japanese, but there are a lot of missions that may be difficult to figure out. Also, the game actually tries to tell a story, which is rare for a fighting game.

Abel Tamayo wrote in to tell us about a wonderful wiki project he's managing, called, appropriately enough, the Jump Ultimate Stars Translation Project. We've seen amazing fan translation projects from single translators, but never a project done in a collaborative wiki format. It's a great idea, one that will allow tragically busy people to help out. If you know Japanese, why not sign up? Translating a fighting game-- that's another rarity. SNK never bothered to do it.

JoystiqTranslate! Ultimate Stars originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bandaidsengrishimportsjapanesejastpjumpjump ultimate starsJumpUltimateStarsnintendonintendo dsNintendoDssnkstarstranslatetranslationultimatewikiMon, 11 Jun 2007 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Treasure Island Z gets a new name; try to give it a chance anyway]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/16/treasure-island-z-gets-a-new-name-try-to-give-it-a-chance-anywa/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/16/treasure-island-z-gets-a-new-name-try-to-give-it-a-chance-anywa/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/16/treasure-island-z-gets-a-new-name-try-to-give-it-a-chance-anywa/#commentsFiled under:

Capcom has announced the official name for their fun-looking pirate adventure, formerly known as Project Treasure Island Z. It's still got "Treasure" in it, so it's still vaguely pirate-esque, but we just aren't sure. The new name is Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure.

As if the bright, colorful graphics didn't do the job, the title drives home the point: this is a game for children. We hope you don't dismiss it based on the name alone, since it's gotten positive impressions.

[Via press release]

JoystiqTreasure Island Z gets a new name; try to give it a chance anyway originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 May 2007 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>barbaroscapcomislandnintendonintendo wiiNintendoWiitreasuretreasure island zTreasureIslandZwiiwikizackWed, 16 May 2007 19:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Wikia launches do-it-yourself online game mag]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/15/wikia-launches-do-it-yourself-online-game-mag/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/15/wikia-launches-do-it-yourself-online-game-mag/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/15/wikia-launches-do-it-yourself-online-game-mag/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

How many times have you read a video game magazine or web site and thought, "I could write better than that." Oh yeah, tough guy? You think it's easy writing this stuff? Well, now is your chance to prove it.

Launched Tuesday, Gaming.wikia is part of a group of "open-source magazines" that "allow people to blog, rate content and freely contribute news and information on topics they are passionate about," according to the press release. In other words, it's the collaborative power of Wikipedia mixed with the democratic organization of Digg.

Or maybe not. When we loaded up the site, the top story of the moment was "Motorstorm is Awesome," which included the cogent commentary "I love racing games, but this is just FREAKING AWESOME!" Is this supposed to be an online magazine or a glorified message board?

The problem with letting everyone contribute is that you have to let everyone contribute. Without a large, well-organized community to moderate out the crap, an open-source project like this can go from controlled chaos to just plain chaos rather quickly. If Gaming.wikia can attract this sort of self-policing community, more power to them. If not, there are plenty of satisfactory sources for game news out there already. Like the fine, closed-source site you're reading right now, for instance.

[Via Game|Life]

JoystiqWikia launches do-it-yourself online game mag originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>gamingmagazinemediaopen-sourcePCwikiwikiaThu, 15 Mar 2007 13:20:00 EST<![CDATA[Wii ranks high on Wiki listing]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/30/wii-ranks-high-on-wiki-listing/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/30/wii-ranks-high-on-wiki-listing/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/30/wii-ranks-high-on-wiki-listing/#commentsFiled under:

She is determined to out-tennis everyone else.
Over at the WikiCharts Top 100 for the month of August, Nintendo's Wii is ranked number 13. Not too bad for the console, managing to be beaten out by only two sexual phrases (this is the internet, after all). With a 27,750 views-a-day average, the Wikipedia entry for the Wii could stand to do better.

Maybe we should seek the aid of one Stephen Colbert?

[Thanks Andrew Yoon!]

JoystiqWii ranks high on Wiki listing originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Aug 2006 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>nintendowiiwikiwikialitywikipediaWed, 30 Aug 2006 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[More maps and modes for your Sin Episodes]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2006/06/28/more-maps-and-modes-for-your-sin-episodes/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/06/28/more-maps-and-modes-for-your-sin-episodes/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/06/28/more-maps-and-modes-for-your-sin-episodes/#commentsFiled under: ,

Ritual Entertainment is about to release four extra maps and a new gameplay mode for Sin Episodes, at no extra charge for auto-download via Steam (the "no charge" bit will no doubt make many console owners jealous). The four new maps will be dedicated to the new mode called "Arena"--which is a single player experience akin to many games' survival modes--and will be designed around typically generic first person shooter situations like an office, a turbine room and a processing plant. Shawn, the lead game designer of Sin lays it down on his blog; "It's an infinitely repayable single player mode where you continually try and beat your high score". Our translation: "shoot loads of people and then obsess over the number of enemies you shot in the groin".

Other bits mentioned on Shawn's blog include a comprehensive stat tracking system, enabling yourself and other players to compare their groinshot score, the mention of the impending release of a Software Development Kit (SDK) and a Sin development Wiki, and absolutely no news about when Episode 2 is going to hit Steam; Shawn got a little excited and forgot to give us any information beyond saying that he'd "be on the look out for some Episode 2 media in the near future" if he was you. We want dates dammit!

[Via EuroGamer]

JoystiqMore maps and modes for your Sin Episodes originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>BlogConsoleDownloadable ContentDownloadableContentEpisode 2Episode2EuroGamerExtra contentExtraContentmapsmoddingmodesRitual EntertainmentRitualEntertainmentSDKShawnSinSin EpisodesSin: Ep 2Sin:Ep2SinEpisodesSoftware developmentSoftwareDevelopmentSteamWikiWed, 28 Jun 2006 05:00:00 EST<![CDATA[First MMORPG to hit the DS]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/16/first-mmorpg-to-hit-the-ds/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/16/first-mmorpg-to-hit-the-ds/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/16/first-mmorpg-to-hit-the-ds/#commentsFiled under: ,

Have you guys ever heard of this game called Maplestory? Apparently, clever as they are, developers Wizet have you in NO WAY acquiring syrup to generously cover shortstacks of buttermilk pancakes so that you may fill your body and soul with their warm, fluffy substance. As much of a crime as that is, their focus, which is a 2D side-scrolling MMORPG, isn't too disappointing in contrast according to some. Actually, if the grapevine is to be believed, it's a downright enjoyable experience more so than consuming pancakes (crazy, I know). If you're curious, you could just download it and find out for yourself or have a gander at the rather robust Wiki for some more information.

[Thanks Zack McClelland and Joey!]

JoystiqFirst MMORPG to hit the DS originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 May 2006 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>dsmmorpgnintendowikiwizetTue, 16 May 2006 18:30:00 EST<![CDATA[Wikipedia gaming collaborations: spread your knowledge]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/09/wikipedia-gaming-collaborations-spread-your-knowledge/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/09/wikipedia-gaming-collaborations-spread-your-knowledge/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/09/wikipedia-gaming-collaborations-spread-your-knowledge/#commentsFiled under:

Ever worry that all your knowledge of gaming history and minutiae is going to waste in the dusty recesses of your brain? Itching to flex your research, copywriting or editorial skills? If so, there's a Wikipedia project which might tickle your fancy.

The "Gaming Collaboration of the Week" is an endeavour to "improve the quality of Wikipedia's computer and video game articles through widespread cooperative editing"--there are plenty of articles that need some attention, so the project should continue for some time. This week's subject is Bioforge; can you help?

[Via AFK Gamer]

JoystiqWikipedia gaming collaborations: spread your knowledge originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 09 Mar 2006 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>collaborationsencyclopediawikiwikipediaThu, 09 Mar 2006 19:30:00 EST