Section_Ei8ht

I only really play Guild Wars, but if you're coming from wow, then Guild Wars will seem waaaaay too simple.

story: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/sex%2C-crime-and-videogames/gang-kidnaps-gamer-to-get-password-using-fake-orkut-date-280966.php

found via digg: http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Gang_Kidnaps_Top_Gamer_to_Get_His_Password_Using_Fake_Orkut_Date

An armed gang of four kidnapped one of the world's top RPG gamers after one criminal's girlfriend lured him into a fake date using Orkut, Google's social network. After sequestering him in Sao Paulo, they held a gun against the victim's head for five hours to get his password, which they wanted to sell for $8,000. And yes, the story gets even better.

Surprisingly enough, after five hours the hostage wasn't talking. The group leader had a gun against his head all that time but the guy didn't say a word. At that point, the crooks gave up and decided to let him go. The brazilian police then caught the four suspects, aged 19 to 27.

According to the police, the captive is the world leader in GunBound, a turn-based RPG-style multiplayer online game. Developed in South Korea, in this artillery game you get more experience points, offensive and defensive capabilities depending on your skills during battle, as well as money to buy more weapons, armor and all kinds of gear for your multiple avatars. You can only play with one of your avatars each time, but all of them belong to a single account.

The game looks to be quite popular, so the four gangsters decided they could make some quick cash if they kidnapped him to steal his user. Their plan: use one of the criminal's girlfriends, called Tamires, to get him into a date using Google's online social network Orkut, which is also extremely popular in Brazil. After contacting and seducing him, she told the GunBound wizard to meet her in a shopping mall.

But she never appeared. Instead, Igor the boyfriend did. Gun in hand, he abducted and held the player prisoner, planning to rely the password to his mates using a cellphone. Against all odds, our hero (or very stupid guy) resisted. Probably using some Stamina +357 spell. Or a Big Cojones +577 mana potion.

Whatever he did to resist the torture for a stupid game password, boys and girls, there's a moral to this story: if you live in Brazil, keep playing Tetris.

At first I thought this was messed up, but then I read the part about it being in Brazil (sorry Mino ).

[edit]I also find it funny how they call GunBound an RPG

What do you know.

I did that because I was reorganising my room and then I thought why not use hammer

Funny thing, because I did the same thing when I reorganized my room a few weeks ago

I've done a crap load of interviews (all for programming positions though), so if you have any more specific questions you can shoot me a PM, and I'll tell you how they all went sideways .

Just out of curiosity, what kind of questions did you get asked during your programming interviews? Did a lot of them give you on the spot questions like Write a modified quicksort that has a worst case of O(n lgn) college type questions, or was it more casual, software engineering type questions?

I only ask because in a few years when I get my degree, I'll be in many situations like that and I have no idea what to expect. Just looking for a little head's up

Chaos Theory does have the best soundtrack of all the SC games, but Double Agent gets the job done. The Iceland and HQ themes are the best of the DA stuff, but as for CT's soundtrack goes, Ruthless and its reprise are the best, by far.

I've been listening to both at work all day today. I find them to be quite motivating.

did a bit of googling, found this: http://www.behaviormusic.com/artists/mi ... /music.htm

So a guy comes to a forum to learn the art of level design, but after just 10 posts there have already been multiple concerning MVC. Even if he had asked about programming I would not start out confusing him with MVC stuff.

Just making a sub-point to hessi's point

If you want to do the art stuff, you dont need programming, but if you want to do game program, then you'll want to pick up an introductory C++ book. its a bit harder to learn than managed languages, but its worth it if you're in it for the long haul. Plus, its pretty much the game industry standard language.

and he would require a book covering programming paradigms like MVC. programming is not only to hack some code. al lot of work is designing the correct software architecture. so i would give the adivce to start with some hacking, but before getting serious he should try to understand basic concepts of how to organise code/software

I realize that this is in the modeling forum and now kind of out of place, but regardless...

If you want to learn about game specific MVC design and implementation, then I recommend Game Coding Complete, 2nd Edition. It was written by the lead programmer of the Ultima games. If he still wants to focus on programming, then I recommend an intro to C++ book to learn the basics of code hacking and algorithms, and then move up to the game coding book.

Its a great read. Focuses more on the design and implementation aspect rather than teaching you how to code it, but its written for someone who already has done a bit of coding.

Anyway, sorry for the side note. Back to modeling mumbo-jumbo

[edit]

Also, for anyone that cares, heres a great book that will get you started on learning C++. C++ How to Program. It starts off by pretending you know nothing about coding, but does well to work its way up to more advanced stuff. I really only read the last half of the book and breezed through the first parts. I just needed to pick up on the differences between C++ and vm managed languages after spending three years coding exclusively in them (Java and C# mostly).

I'm done now, I promise.

If you want to do the art stuff, you dont need programming, but if you want to do game program, then you'll want to pick up an introductory C++ book. its a bit harder to learn than managed languages, but its worth it if you're in it for the long haul. Plus, its pretty much the game industry standard language.

Never heard of her.

From http://www.360-gamer.com/news.asp?id=1166

Full Interview (German): http://stern.de/computer-technik/computer/:Spieleentwickler-Ikone-Will-Wright-Geld/591930.html

Will Wright: 'Sequels and clones are bad' [News]

Uploaded By: Mark Podd | Published at 16:59 (GMT) on Friday, June 29, 2007

Sims father speaking out against sequels? Surely not?

Spore developer, Sims creator and all-round industry icon Will Wright has criticised the steady flow of clones and sequels in gaming and has warned that games developers must start innovating now if they’re to avoid trouble down the line.

Speaking in an interview with Stern.de, Wright, when asked of his feelings on the number of sequels and copycat games found in the games industry, said: “Yes, this is indeed a bad development. It seems that it’s preferable to play it safe rather than be creative. At the moment, this seems to work. But for how much longer? Besides, there are simply too many games on the market. As a result of this, many great games go straight under.”

Although Spore is currently still in development, Wright was still quizzed on whether there’d be a point to developing a sequel to such an open-ended game: “Well, I’m not sure about that yet. You could be right, though.” Going on to mention that the money a sequel would earn “isn’t so important” any more.

Wright also stated that he was no longer playing, or working on, The Sims: “I usually accompany my games for about five, six years. Further developments or sequels are then handled by our producers. I must then simply approach a new project.”

Spore, the life simulator Wright is currently working on, has thus far only been confirmed for the PC, although it has been the subject of frequent rumours linking it with next-gen console such as the PS3 and 360.

While I agree that many sequels and remakes turn out pretty crappy, there are a few great gems out there that really out-do their predecessors. We could use a bit more innovation in the industry than we currently have.

Its also kind of funny how ironic it is to have this statement coming from the man behind the dozen or so Sims expansion packs and the 4+ Sim City games...

Discuss.

Pretty much the only thing I use my phone for is to call people to tell them to get on skype so we can talk there

(And of course, the obvious use of someone calling me in an emergency...)

I bought mine last October. Still fine, no problems... yet... (crosses-fingers)

The new movie is technically a remake of the old Charleton Heston movie The Omega Man, which in turn was an adaptation of the book I Am Legend.

The book is amazing. I highly recommend it. Its not just a generic zombie/vampire end-of-the-world book, it is the zombie/vampire end-of-the-world book.

I'm looking forward to it, but I'm still dissapointed that they are making it more like the omega man and less like the book. It kinda takes away the whole point of the title. I'd say more, but that would spoil the book (of course, if you want the spoiler, read the wiki article's plot summary).

BMS would have been finished by now if some of its members could stop tripping over their own egos.

Very nice! Especially for someone who claims to not know what they're doing. Keet at it. You definitly have an eye for what makes a good photo.

Yeah, CSS is a bit cumbersome at first, speaking from experience. I started working with tables and then started doing flash development exclusively, and because of that, I completely missed the transition from tables to CSS and xhtml. Its a lot to take in at first, but if you stick with it, you'll get it eventually.

It's as they say: No pain, no gain.

Pretty much the only thing I care about is not having to pay full price for the game and a monthly fee.

Guild Wars pulled it off quite well, imo.

But with that pointless rant out of the way: Fallout.

So... Manhunt 2 gets banned, whereas torture porn movies like Hostel 2 and Captivity are no biggie?

Yes, I realize that there is a slight difference in watching someone be brutally murdered on screen and picking up a controller and "actively participating" in one, but come on folks, isn't this why we have game ratings? If the game is too violent for little Timmy, then the stores shouldn't sell it to him and the parents shouldn't buy it for him.

Oh wait... never mind. I forgot, most parents are lazy, stupid idiots.

http://www.local10.com/news/13466229/detail.html

HIALEAH, Fla. -- A teenager with a brown belt in karate used a samurai sword to scare off a burglar who was after his PlayStation 3 video game console.

Last Friday afternoon, Damian Fernandez and his 15-year-old sister, Deanne Fernandez, were home alone at their northwest Miami-Dade County home while their parents were at work when they heard knocking on the front door. Moments later, two men were prying the front door unlocked, prompting Deanne to hide in her closet.

"I was so scared," she said.

As her brother slept in the next room, the burglars ransacked their parents' room, taking some jewelry before moving on to what they were really after -- a PlayStation 3.

According to a police report, one of the burglars kicked in Deanne's bedroom door. She said she could see his foot through the closet panels.

The burglar found the empty PlayStation 3 box and ran out of the room, but Damian was waiting for him.

"Once I saw him take off running back, I jumped off my (bunk) bed and I grabbed my sword … and I just waited for him," he said.

Damian said he lunged at him with his samurai sword, striking him in the chest.

"He freaked out," Damian said.

The burglar ran out of the house with Damian chasing him down the road. When police arrived, a K-9 officer located the burglar hiding behind a neighbor's palm tree. The second burglar got away.

Javier Cotera, 21, was arrested and released early the next morning on bond.

Local 10 attempted to contact Cotera at his Hialeah home, but his family said he wasn't there and that they didn't know anything about it.

Damian and Deanne's father, Delio Fernandez, said he is concerned Cotera is out of jail.

"If he would have had a gun, I could have lost one of my children," he said.

Cotera is scheduled to appear in court in two weeks to face three felony charges.

That kid is awesome. My USP would have been my preferred weapon, though. A nice leg wound would have done the trick.

Sweet, this means there'll be some nice demos at this year's quakecon.

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30.

I'm back on my World War II kick, figured I'd give it a play through. An all around solid game. I'll definitely pick on Earned In Blood when I'm through with this one, but some of the missions are hella-hard.

Damn annoying checkpoint saves...

I played it for a bit. The concept is great and very original. The game looks very unique, but I will agree that it does get a little boring, but then again, most side scrollers get boring to me after about 5 minutes.

i dunno i had hoped she got raped by raving lesbians in the prison... just so she could learn a lesson or two about why she shouldnt fuck things over

Either that or they decided that her raped by raving lesbians wasn't that much of a punishment for her.

making games is as much art as making a film or conducting a symphony.