Thursday

Interesting links:

• Left 4 Dead: Brilliant multi-player in the perfectly simple framework
  
  "Left 4 Dead's" solution is to find a familiar genre that perfectly fits the co-op gameplay and embraces it. So it's a zombie movie, full of stock characters, settings, and visual/musical details. We all immediately get it. We know these characters, we know where they are, and we know what they want. As a result, "Left 4 Dead" doesn't waste its resources attempting to build an original plot or single-player experience that matches the quality of the co-op. It just drops us into the cliches and gets going with what it does best.
  
  
• Dubious Wisdom
  
  Bill Harris has a great post from a couple of days back on the “Consolation of Gaming.” It really struck a chord with me. Not the self-assembling girl friend from Korea part but all the other stuff: The stress of all the events in the external world, the struggle with a deteriorating middle aged body and the escapism that gaming offers.
  
  
• The Consolation of Gaming
  
  This is where I always insert the story about my old girlfriend. I had a girlfriend once who snuck her stuff into my apartment one piece at a time. It's like she was trying to ship a jeep out of Korea, but in reverse.
  
  
• Woman, Mother, Space Marine
  
  But as much as videogames have profited from Giger's art, they have made a killing from Aliens director James Cameron's depiction of space marines. Cameron wanted a Vietnam feel for his sequel to Alien. He wanted to show advanced weaponry and training failing against a low-tech enemy, and he also wanted to depict the military defending corporate interests. Thus, the mightily equipped Colonial Marines ship out to planet LV-426 to advance the interests of the Weyland-Yutani corporation. These soldiers have dominated the imaginations of game developers ever since.
  
  
• To Do: Finish Any Game
  
  Looking through my stack of old games the other day, I realized the enormous quantity of games I've never finished. It's an amount that easily dwarfs the number of games I have completed. I'm not ashamed of it, and I will lay claim in conversation to having played them. It's a glorious thing to walk through life, sampling everything, committing to nothing. What other medium allows us to be so blithely indifferent to its consumption? If you say you've read a book or seen a movie, there's an implicit assumption that you watched the entire movie or read the book from cover to cover. Consuming the totality of a book or a movie is often a defining factor in its quality. We sheepishly admit to never having finished Moby Dick or we proudly tell people we walked out of Pineapple Express. But the videogame we never finish is hardly a source of embarrassment or disgust. We played it, and that is enough.
  
  
• What A Lot Of Rockets: TF2 Extreme!!!!!!!111one
  
  Is Team Fortress 2 the lord God’s greatest gift to machinima? The video beneath the cut rather suggests it is. A tiny part of my brain curls up and dies when I try to guess at just how much time the chap behind this mass slaughter/domino effect experiment spent on it, but the explodey, spectacular results speak for themselves.
  
  
• Retro: Where Time Stood Still
  
  When people ask me about emotions and games, I always think of my early-teenage experiences with the Denton Design’s Where Time Stood Still. It was the first time a game had provoked one. And if you’ve just glanced at the cover above, it’s not the emotion you think I’m talking about.
  
  
• Dark Magicks: Doom In A Browser
  
  Doom! Dooooom! In a browser! Yes! It’s only the shareware chapter, and controls can’t currently be rebound from their archaic cursor key default, but what a proof of concept it is. Browser X-Com next, please.
  
  
• Papervision
  
  Offworld dug up this splendid piece of augmented reality footage. Awesome. I mean, it’s not like webcams ever get much use in our gaming lives, but this does open up some possibilities. This clever tech comes from Australian clever types Digital Pictures, whose website seems to have been knocked over by general web interest.
  
  
• Half-Life Turns Ten Today
  
  Yep, Valve’s unfortgettable opening salvo officially gets a decade under its belt on this very day. This terrifies me in ways I can’t quite vocalise.
  
  
• Slow Learners: Disciples III
  
  Unlike KB’s cheerfully low-fi Warcraftian look, this seems pretty hung up on spectacle. KB was really a 2D sheep in 3D wolf’s clothing, but this one’s definitely making a virtue of that third dimension, and then slathering it with moody gloom.
  
  
  
  
• GILLEN'S KING IN WARHAMMER'S CROWN OF DESTRUCT
  
  Kieron Gillen enlisted in a timeless fantasy battle where good tries to triumph over evil, by battling ogres, trolls and any other nasties that appear. Gillen's penned the Warhammer Crown of Destruction comic series from Boom Studios. For those who don't know much about the miniatures, the rpg or the video game, Gillen told THE PULSE, "Warhammer Fantasy is... well, you know the medieval paranoid mindset you imagine around 1000AD. The sense that the end times are nigh? Well, Warhammer's that. Except the end times are nigh. And getting nigh-ier."
  
  
• Grand Theft Auto IV Video Editor Tutorial Trailer
  
  Rockstar has released a new "Grand Theft Auto IV" editor tutorial video, giving viewers a look at the upcoming editor that will be available with the PC version of the game.
  
  
  
  
• Get a Life! By Reggie McNeal
  
  Get a Life! encourages readers to practice a currently downplayed form of healthy self-awareness and self evaluation, so that they can live their very best for God. McNeal teaches readers that an intently purposeful life can be achieved by asking five questions: "Why am I here?," "What is really important to me?," "What is my scorecard?," "What am I really good at?," and "What do I need to learn?"
  
  
• Freeware and Open Source Software
  
  
• Karen's Alarm Clock
  


• Get tougher!
  
  It seems like life is so rough on so many people right now, and in many ways it is on me too. Broken relationships, battles and wars world-wide, economic and financial turmoil, depression, drug abuse all around me and on the rise, disease, and so much more. I am determined to stay up, to fight being down, to make the most of things, to do the best for others, to go the extra mile (and beyond for others), to reach out in a time of need, to be a very real friend, and to not expect anything in return, but to be happy when good things do come my way. I will continue to believe in, and hope for, the best for those people I can help, and for myself as well. I know that having great nutritional habits, staying healthy (mentally, physically, and spiritually), working out daily, helping others wherever and whenever I can, and doing the right things keeps me from bottoming out like many are doing right now. It gives me the hope and strength to keep moving on and to keep fighting the good fight, even when things look scary and grim. With a crashing stock market, lost retirement funds, limited income, and so much more to be sad about today, the one thing I do still have is my life, health, and fitness. It is the one thing I have heavily invested in and it won't disappear when the stock market drops. In times like these, it is great to be in "total life shape" so I can take all that life throws my way, and still have enough left over to help others as well. I take all of "me" wherever I go. I am life, and my body is what houses life and moves it through life's playing field (the present is the stage where life is played out). Staying fit and healthy is so worth the fight and the effort, especially right now! I don't find myself trying to fill voids or gaps by acquiring or buying things, or by working on projects or hobbies to stay busy, my on-going/life-long project is taking care of my own health, fitness, and overall well-being, and in-turn finding myself better able to help others.
  

Meetups

• The Melbourne Entrepreneurs Meetup Group
  
  Melbourne based group of entrepreneurs ranging from aspiring to highly experienced. Inclusive culture (no egos or pretensions) and proven track record of value adding in expanding contacts and learning.
  
  -- My name is Peter Christo, and I'm the organiser of the Melbourne Entrepreneurs Meetup Group.
  
  I am involved in a few ventures, and have had a number of business in the past, some successful some not so. I also write the Melbourne Coffee Review (www.melbournecoffeereview.com) which is not a commercial venture, but is a lot of fun.
  
  I also lecture at RMIT on Entrepreneurship and am a mentor at VUT's Rural Entrepreneur program. I'm kind of part academic with some tangible runs on the board business wise.
  
  I have a range of ventures which I am happy to share details on, but my core business is Christo Partners (www.christopartners.com) and its sister business Pitch Club (www.pitchclub.biz).
  
  Each meet-up now, we have up to 2 presenters tell their tale of woe, idea or strategy for eg: growth and the group then, over good coffee give them their views.
  
  It has some great results.
  


• The Melbourne Dance Meetup Group
  
  If you're interested in meeting, networking, collaborating or simply making new friends with artists, designers, business entrepreneurs, and professionals then come along to our next social gathering and take the opportunity to mix with the raw talent of Melbourne.
  


• The Melbourne Personal Growth Meetup Group
  
  A Night to Reflect On Personal Growth!
  
  A meeting with like minded people to draw from their experience on a journey to personal achievement.
  
  THERE IS NO REASON TO REINVENT THE WHEEL
  
  We will cover "Ideal Self and Life", the way people see themselves.
  
  This is a concept that majority of people struggle with, I know I do.
  


• The Business Innovation and Social Responsibility Meetup
  
  What kind of innovation has the biggest impact?
  
  This Meetup brings people together to discuss the exciting aspects of innovation and business development. We'll look at some innovation theories and business strategies that can get you thinking differently about your markets and how to make an impact in them. This will be valuable to anyone who owns a business or is involved in product development or business strategy for a corporation.
  
  Each Meetup will focus on a different theme and type of innovation. We will cover ideas in an informal setting where people can discuss their unique companies and how the ideas would relate to their situation.
  
  By the end of the Meetup you will have met some interesting people and will hopefully have some new ideas for your business or product/service development.
  


• Melbourne Game Development Meetup Group
  
  Meet with local professional and aspiring video game developers.