D developer to create Wii games?
Kenji Eno, who made D, D2, and Enemy Zero, will be returning to video games. Fumito Ueda, the Ico guy, was in Eno’s previous company, and Takahashi and Ueda are friends, so all the fringe designers seem to hang out together. I think Eno is sort of a second rate Ueda, but I’m always happy when a designer makes a quirky game so I wish him well. Since a lot of his games depend on sound so much, a project with Mizuguchi of Rez fame could be really cool.
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Japan’s Meatloaf to return to video games? |
For those of you trying to keep track, here is a list of strange Japanese designers:
Tetsuya Mizuguchi: Rez, Space Channel 5, Lumines, Meteos
Kenji Eno: D, D2, Enemy Zero
Fumito Ueda: Ico, Shadow of the Colossus
Keita Takahashi: Katamary Damacy
Yoot Saito: Seaman, Odama
Goichi Suda: Killer 7
Bill Gates not into motion sensing conrollers
A coworker of mine recently called Bill Gates a genius. In America, we are led to believe those with power and money must be smarter than us. If we can’t take solace in being stupid than how can we explain our relatively low social standing? On the topic of motion sensing controllers, Bill said:
“There’s room for innovation here, but moving that controller around — it’s something that’s not mainstream for most games.” I don’t even know how to interpret this. The Wii isn’t out yet so obviously most (all) games don’t have players moving the controller around.
“It’s tough because sometimes you move the controller, and you don’t [mean] to fly into the ground. You just want to put the controller down.” If you put an Xbox controller down while playing, unless you paused the game, bad things will probably happen. I’m assuming the Wii has a pause button since the NES had one. This is also a stupid thing to say because we easily adapt to input devices. I may like to move around yet I have still mastered a mouse.
“People aren’t that good at totally standing still. Even pilots actually sit in a chair when they do their flying.” Gates must have heard rumors about Nintendo forcibly removing couches from people’s homes. They have already commented that allowing the Wii controller to control Link’s sword fighting would be too tiring to the player so they clearly understand they shouldn’t turn gaming into a work out. And again, I can use a mouse AND sit even though mice require physical movement.
While this isn’t definitive proof Bill Gates IQ is under 150, it’s a decent argument.
Lead designer of Morrowind retires
Before reading this I’d never heard of Ken Rolston but he won me over. He accepts that the things I didn’t like about Morrowind can be seen as flaws in the game, but then he also thinks freedom is more important than plot arc. So he designs one hugely successful game and then helps design its sequel and all of the sudden the guy knows something about game design? Yeah, whatever, my opinions are just as valid, only more right.
Rolston has a good sense of humor and came from pen and paper RPGs so he has my respect. The industry will be weaker without him.
The first war between north american and the UK was more of a war of independence, and not really a revolution, since we didn’t actually destroy the government in London.
I know it has nothing to do with video games, but I just felt like being nitpicky.
Nothing to do with video games? Your post has inspired me. I now know what I want to submit to the Garage Games competition –
Semantics: The Game
You are a linguist who’s always been seen as something of a loose cannon. Prove to your collegues that you have what it takes to be the English department’s next dean by pursuing the truths of language. What is a revolution? What is a war of independence? Solve these mysteries and more or be forever denied tenure.
*Rated T for violence against the English language
Is it a terribly, terribly bad thing that I’m actually intregued by that game concept? I think I’d prefer one based on etymology, though. You could track down ancient source texts, journey to small, linguistically isolated villages…slowly assembling the story of how a language evolved. You could even go multiplayer and confer with other players, collaborating on papers for real virtual peer-reviewed journals.
You could even go into other fields of research with that…physics, biology, archaeology. Metaphysical philosophy might make for a boring game, but a massively multiplayer biology/natural philosophy game set in another world at the dawn of the industrial age would be fantastic. The struggle to discover, taxonomize and name new creatures, securing your immortal place in the game world’s history could actually be pretty intense. Trying to figure out how genetics worked in this game world could be difficult, particularly if it had been intelligently designed. Which, being a game world, it would be :)
A physical sciences research game set in a world without relativity would be interesting too. The luminiferous aether would offer certain properties if it existed, and engines could be built that would use electrical currents to push against it, as I understand. It would need a very detailed engine for constructing new physical objects. (Far better than second life), and a kick-ass physics engine, but over the months and years players would build on other player’s discoveries to actually create whole new possibilities within the game world. Discoveries could be used as millitary weapons or to increase trade and communication…all sorts of stuff.
Gentlemen, I give you the Massively multiplayer research science game!
Anyway, if you’re already basing your whole argument regarding a console on the historical connotations of one of former working name’s multiple definitions, you probably have very little room to sarcastically mock me when I bring semantics into the picture :)
“Me no like games about talkie talkie. Me want things explode. NOW!”
-Bill Gates