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26 CommentsThe who, what and why of the World Esports Association
The three facts that most people who follow esports agree upon are (1) its popularity is growing, really fast, (2) there's a lot of money swilling around from sponsors and media companies, and (3) it's a chaotic, lawless mess, badly in need of sorting.
This is the backdrop for the World Esports Association (WESA) announced today by ESL, the biggest league organizer in the world, along with a panoply of top European teams, including Fnatic, Natus Vincere, EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro, Gamers2, Faze, mousesports and Ninjas in Pyjamas. More teams from around the world are likely to join in the months ahead.
WESA is to esports what FIFA, the NFL, the NBA etc. are to their respective sports, or at least that is what WESA wants to be. Soccer, football and basketball have been around for a long time,...
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1 CommentFig still can't collect from some investors, four months after Psychonauts 2's campaign
In just a few hours equity crowdfunding platform Fig will conclude its fourth successful campaign. Consortium: The Tower, a science fiction game being funded in part by BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk, will bring in somewhere around $350,000. But only a portion of that money can be collected, because Fig is still working with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on key parts of its business model.
Now, as the company treads water well beyond the period of time they originally expected to have to wait for SEC approval, Fig itself has brought on additional investment from famed developer Cliff Bleszinski.
Fig burst on to the scene earlier this year with a fairly transparent vision for an open equity crowdfunding model. Its first campaign, for a game called Outer...
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24 CommentsJohn Romero and Adrian Carmack's new FPS Blackroom is set in a violent world of holographs
John Romero and Adrian Carmack — best known for their work on the revolutionary 1993 first-person shooting game Doom — today revealed a new FPS project, called Blackroom.
The onetime co-founders of id Software have teamed up to create a game that is set in a holographic world gone wrong. In a release from the game's development house Night Work Games, Blackroom was described as offering a ten-hour single player campaign as well as six multiplayer maps.
Blackroom, due for release on Mac and PC in 2018, will offer co-op, one-on-one deathmatch and free-for-all arena modes. The game will be fully moddable, with player-made maps expected. Night Work Games today launched a Kickstarter for Blackroom seeking $700,000. Romero said he will be seeking investors if the Kickstarter hits its...
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11 CommentsStar Fox Zero is about trying new things — whether old-school fans like it or not
Star Fox Zero, now out on Wii U, harkens back to the series' roots in many ways, except for a major one: its control scheme. Gameplay is based heavily on the Wii U GamePad's motion controls for steering the Arwing and taking on enemies. The ways Star Fox Zero and its even more unique companion title, Star Fox Guard, play are significant changes over, say, Star Fox 64, which Nintendo has named as a major inspiration.
Whether that's for better or worse has proven polarizing — but directors Yugo Hayashi (of Nintendo) and Yusuke Hashimoto (from co-developer PlatinumGames) see it as in keeping with the series' DNA.
"For me personally, I've played the Star Fox games since the Super Nintendo," Hayashi said in an interview through a translator on the eve of the game's American launch. "It's...
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144 CommentsAlex St. John's daughter responds to his 'vile' opinions
When Alex St. John posted his opinions about game industry workers being "wage-slaves" who have "embraced a culture of victimology" he received plenty of negative feedback.
Now his daughter, Drupal engineer Amilia St. John, has responded, most particularly to her father's views on women in tech.
In a blog post today, Amilia St. John writes about her dad's "horrific toddler meltdown" which, she says, represents "the usual self aggrandizing agenda that older generations like to pedal on days when they need to feed their superiority complexes." She describes his opinions on women in gaming as "distasteful," "vile" and "revolting".
Noting the widespread reaction to her father's post, and his use of her photograph in a presentation he uses, she added, "As his toxic waste trash fire not...
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3 CommentsHow a love of film helped BioShock and Her Story's creators change games
Few would argue that Her Story and BioShock are especially similar games. One is a package of short full-motion video clips that, when strung together, unravel a mystery; the other, a first-person exploration game set underwater and filled with existential dread (and guns). But in a talk during this year's Tribeca Film Festival, both games' lead writers sat side by side as they discussed what makes their best-known titles similar.
Ken Levine (BioShock) and Sam Barlow (Her Story) participated in a panel called "From Film to Game," speaking about how their education and experience in the former medium contributed to their work in the latter. It's through their cinematic qualities that these titles stand apart from other games — as well as through Barlow and Levine's backgrounds in...
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261 CommentsGame industry vet draws ire from developers for defense of 80-hour workweeks
Alex St. John believes game development employees are "wage-slaves" who have "embraced a culture of victimology."
In an opinion piece on VentureBeat over the weekend, the former head of WildTangent wrote that developers should quit whining about fair wages and long hours and get down to doing what they love because, after all, "pushing a mouse around for a paycheck" isn't really hard work.
St. John was responding to a new initiative by the International Game Developers Association to tackle unpaid overtime and long hours. He claimed that "making games is not a job, it's an art" and that "there's no amount of money that anybody can pay people with a wage-slave attitude."
St. John has been the boss of many people working in games and tech. He was a senior figure at Microsoft in the...
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1 CommentHow the UN used a video game to raise awareness for land mines
Instagram is a massively popular social network where hundreds of millions of people share photos and videos with the world. It's the platform of choice for shots of fancy meals, poorly lit bar scenes and cute animals. Now it can also be used to play a video game — albeit one that's hacked together.
Earlier this week, the United Nations observed the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. The annual event began a: decade ago, on April 4, 2006, as a way for the UN to highlight mine action: the effort to clear land mines and related explosive devices from countries around the globe; educate people about the dangers of such weapons; assist victims of land mines; advocate for a mine-free world; and destroy stockpiles of mines. The UN currently supports mine...
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171 CommentsBaldur's Gate studio responds to harassment over trans character
Beamdog today released a statement to Polygon, following heated online criticism about Baldur's Gate expansion Siege of Dragonspear's inclusion of a trans woman and a one-line joke reference to reactionary culture group GamerGate. Polygon ran the full story about this affair yesterday.
In the statement, Trent Oster, CEO of the Canadian developer, hit out at critics of the game who have harassed and insulted members of his staff, including writer Amber Scott.
"We stand behind all our developers."
"While we appreciate all feedback we receive from our fans, both positive as well as negative, some of the negative feedback has focused not on Siege of Dragonspear but on individual developers at Beamdog, to the point of online threats and harassment," he said.
"I just want to make it...
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241 CommentsVitriol and harassment hit developers of new Baldur's Gate expansion
Baldur's Gate expansion developer Beamdog today faced a barrage of heated online criticism about Siege of Dragonspear's inclusion of a variety of characters in a fantasy world, including a powerful woman and a trans woman.
Since the expansion came out last week, it has become the latest focus for reactionary outrage about video game narratives that take on contemporary social issues or attempt to break down the exclusionary nature of many game stories.
Siege of Dragonspear also includes a line poking fun at right-wing culture movement, GamerGate. Its writer, Amber Scott, is the latest woman working in gaming to face online harassment and insults. Her Twitter feed today features multiple insults and threats, as well as some messages of support.
The game's Steam and GOG pages have been...
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60 CommentsPlayers in Eve Online are at war, here's what we know
Earlier this week players in Eve Online were involved in one of that game's famously large and expensive battles. But sources tell Polygon that this was just the opening round of what could be the largest military mobilization in that game's history. Digging deeper into the subject, we've been able to chart the rise of a new in-game faction, called the Moneybadger Coalition, a group of thousands of players being bankrolled by an online casino.
Eve Online is a famously complex — and famously tedious — massively multiplayer online game set in a science fiction universe. Some call it the most thrilling boring game in the universe. But it's more than just a spreadsheet in space. It's also one of the most fascinating space operas ever made, an experience so rich that it's been made into a...
