Play’s Republic

This past weekend, Prof. Ted Castronova hosted the Second Ludium, this one on “videogames and public policy.” It was an extraordinarily interesting experience for various reasons, not the least of which was the outcome: A Synthetic Worlds Initiative-sponsored Declaration of Virtual Worlds Policy, comprising 10 planks relating to the future of virtual space. […]

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Yesterday’s The New York Times Magazine has a lengthy article about WoW gold farmers in China:
“The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer” by Julian Dibbell

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For those of you who got hooked on World of Warcraft while fulfilling the requirement for this course:
The New York Times ran a series of articles written by Seth Schiesel on conquering The Burning Crusade expansion pack. You can access the series at Conquering the Burning Crusade. (The author was the first to hit level […]

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 So. Doki Doki Majo Saiban, for the Nintendo DS: you’ve probably not heard of this game before, but judging by the title alone, you might be able to guess that it’s yet another quirky Japanese title that will probably never see release in U.S. stores. Here, though, there’s another good reason why this game won’t make […]

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Ken Kutaragi, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment (and arguably, the person who propelled Sony into the video gaming business), is set to step down from his post on the 19th of June. Given the Playstation series’ lasting impression on the world of electronic gaming, this… well, it’s certainly something of a shock. It’s also […]

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(YAY, Kerrigan! I don’t know why but anyway I love Zerg, I love Undead.)

Alright, now it seems to be clear that I’m a Blizzard fan, but I can’t stop talking about Blizzard. There’s a rumor; Blizzard will be introduce Starcraft 2 (!!!!!!!) at 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational (2007 WWI). Even though all Blizzard said is […]

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I second Garrison’s disappointment with Spore’s delay and am floored by its impact on EA’s stock price. Game releases have become high-stakes, just like the movie industry. In Hollywood, so much of a studio’s financial stature and continuing existence depends on its ability to put out hits or, better yet, blockbusters. The […]

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In the very early planning stages for this course, I had intended to end the semester with the game Spore–which (at one point in time) was to have been released in March. But now the much anticipated game has been delayed. Again.
According to Next Generation, an industry newsletter:
Stocks were down over 3.5 percent, […]

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The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that a virtual auction will be held in Second Life to benefit “victims’ families and people on campus who are struggling to cope with last month’s deadly shooting rampage.” Bids are to be submitted in Linden (L$) amounts.
You can browse photos of the items available at the auction website.

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