On Slashdot they reviewed Robert Glass' book Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering. Fact 21 snagged by eye: "(f)or every 25% increase in problem complexity, there is a 100% increase in solution complexity." I submit for your comments the idea that the reason many developers have a hard time finding anything of value not only from researchers, but often from their own players, is that they are, in effect, seeing a different world, all the time. They looked friendly enough--at least, no one had fruit ready to throw at us. It was simply kind of surreal, after reading the comments on TN this past week and hearing other things at the conference about the problems with game studies and developer/academic relations.

Yet another visual chat system is making the break for mainstream acceptance. This one is called IMVU. The neat thing about is it that it sits on top of a range of Instant Message clients and though its in Beta it seems fairly stable. Like many other things virtual IMVU has its own currency Avatar Dollars (AV$) and allows users to buy and sell clothing and accessories.

The TN community will be getting together at the lobby bar of the Austiin Hilton, across from the convention center, on Thursday September 9 at 5pm. If you happen to be at AGC, do stop by and say hello.

So, Dragon Empires joins Mythica, True Fantasy Live Online, Ultima X Odyssey and Warhammer Online on the list of MMORPGs that never made it. I submit for your comments the idea that the reason many developers have a hard time finding anything of value not only from researchers, but often from their own players, is that they are, in effect, seeing a different world, all the time. They looked friendly enough--at least, no one had fruit ready to throw at us.

I've got a lot of thoughts sparked by DiGRA coming, including a long meditation on the dreaded ludology-narratology thing, but first I wanted to mention an interesting sub-theme I noticed weaving its way through the conference: emergence, complex systems, non-human agency, network theory and related topics. Nicholas Glean dealt centrally with these issues. I understand Seth Giddings as also being engaged on these topics, though I missed his paper presentation. I submit for your comments the idea that the reason many developers have a hard time finding anything of value not only from researchers, but often from their own players, is that they are, in effect, seeing a different world, all the time.

After our "high energy" presentation, the questions were even stranger. Someone asked why humanities research got left out, and we had to say that we couldn't find it to be directly relevant on our top 10 list of bulleted points. Ian made the point, and I agreed, that doing the research for this panel made us think differently about academic research. While I'm not going to say that what we've done personally has no value, it was a definite challenge to try and make it *directly relevant* in a BULLETED POINT for developers. And there are huge gaps in what we don't know. Where is the research about sports games, to take just one example? Anyway, the point is, I enjoyed the exercise, and learned a lot from it. I hope the audience did as well.

Raya spent four months in 2004 interviewing 110 women, primarily EQ players, about their experiences in mogs. It's a nine-part series, should be interesting. Figuring out what exactly is 'pink' about online gaming - maybe nothing - is not easy. I submit for your comments the idea that the reason many developers have a hard time finding anything of value not only from researchers, but often from their own players, is that they are, in effect, seeing a different world, all the time. They looked friendly enough--at least, no one had fruit ready to throw at us. It was simply kind of surreal, after reading the comments on TN this past week and hearing other things at the conference about the problems with game studies and developer/academic relations.

Most of the game plays out exactly the same as Panzers: Phase One. I would refer gamers to check out my review of the first game for a better understanding of what Panzers is all about.

Then in June 2004 a preview copy made it's way onto my desk and I was still impressed with the game. So now September/October 2004 and the final version of Codename: Panzers has been safely installed on my computer. Once again I'm very impressed with the game and military & strategy gamers will be just as impressed with Codename: Panzers.

OK, here is the problem, the first person shooter is arguably the most popular genre in all of video games. Sorry fans of sims and strategy, the numbers don't lie, the FPS is it.