www.youtube.com Click here to watch Versus: Prototype 2′s Alex Mercer or James Heller! Versus: Gaming System: Console or PC S03E18 This week on Versus, Steve and Larson tackle a debate sure to enflame the passions of gamers everywhere: which gaming system is superior, the console or the PC. – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - In this video you will see: 1) HOW TO not pay through the teeth for upgrades. 2) HOW TO mod. 3) HOW TO enjoy pornography. – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - FOR MORE MACHINIMA, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE SPORTS GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE MMO & RPG GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE ANIMATIONS & SHORTS, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE TRAILERS, GO TO: www.youtube.com TAGS: Steve Larson Versus Vs MACHVersus Machinima console PC gaming video games "Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception" "Halo" "Gear of War 3" "Batman: Arkham City" Bastion "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" "Super Mario Bros Wii" "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" "Battlefield 3" "Starcraft 2" "Prototype 2" "Alex Mercer" Zeus "James Heller" Marine wife child dead biomass Blacklight virus Blackwatch Gentek "New York Zero" Red Zone Activision "Radical Entertainment" "Xbox 360" "Playstation 3" PS3 Microsoft Windows
Path of Exile – Exclusive Shadow Class Footage & Update
May 20th, 2012Totalbiscuit takes a fresh look at Path of Exile with its newest updates and addition of a new class, the Shadow.
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EA to Piggyback Origin on Popular Kickstarter Games
May 20th, 2012
As Electronic Arts continues to work toward having Origin reach feature parity with Steam — and hopefully finding something unique it can offer in the process — it also is focused on getting the software installed on as many computers as possible. Bundling it with EA’s own computer games has proven to be one effective way of doing this, whether it be with Battlefield 3 or Mass Effect 3, as has exclusively offering the digital version of its big MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, through the service. Now it’s extending a helping hand to independent developers who have turned to crowd-funding to get their games made in a move that will further help to increase the size of Origin’s userbase.
The publisher today announced it will waive Origin’s distribution fees for 90 days for any developer wanting to bring its crowd-funded, downloadable PC game to the service, just so long as the game is ready to publish. Develop notes the only costs developers will be subjected to are those pertaining to transactions, such as the fee charged by credit card companies. Even with that small caveat, this is still a potentially great deal for independent developers who will be able to receive a significantly larger portion of revenue on each game it sells in the three months following release. Particularly when you consider many of the games that have been funded by Kickstarter are unlikely to ever be multi-million unit sellers, that extra money could prove to be a major boon.
“The public support for crowd-funding creative game ideas coming from small developers today is nothing short of phenomenal,” said Origin senior VP David DeMartini. “It’s also incredibly healthy for the gaming industry. Gamers around the world deserve a chance to play every great new game, and by waiving distribution fees on Origin we can help make that a reality for successfully crowd-funded developers.”
Only one such game has been confirmed for release through Origin so far, but it is one of Kickstarter’s biggest to date: Wasteland 2. The game far exceeded developer inXile Entertainment’s funding goal, raising over $3.3 million by the time its April deadline was reached.
“I have had a long relationship with EA and it is great to see them recognize and support the crowd-funded games model,” said inXile CEO Brian Fargo. “Having Origin waive their distribution fees for 90 days for fan funded games is a major economic bonus for small developers. We look forward to bringing Wasteland 2 to the Origin audience.”
The savings being passed on to inXile by Origin may prove to benefit more than just the game’s developer. Fargo announced an initiative in March called Kick it Forward which will see five percent of Wasteland 2′s profits be given to other Kickstarter developers. Origin not charging any distribution fees means there should be more money to distribute through this program, which has to be welcome news for developers hoping to launch a Kickstarter campaign following Wasteland 2′s release later next year.
It’s a generous offer from EA, which gets to look good, help support indie games that the public has demonstrated an interest in supporting, and build a relationship with these developers. The one potential downside I can foresee is potential Kickstarter backers who are averse to using Origin being hesitant to support any project that proclaims it has plans to release through Origin. Developers may be able to avoid this if they commit to giving backers a DRM-free copy that does not make use of Origin. In fact, offering this exclusively through Kickstarter may be a way of encouraging backers to pledge to a project.
The benefits for the publisher go beyond those mentioned above, too, as distributing these games through Origin (and presumably including its in-game overlay) means increasing the number of computers the service is installed on. This may not help it to suddenly topple Steam, but any advantageous move it can make is going to be a welcome one, particularly if it’s something like this that won’t prove to be costly. EA is sacrificing revenue, but with transaction fees being covered by the developers that should be no big deal, especially since sales made after the first 90 days of availability will be treated like those of any other game — which is to say, EA will start to get the sizable cut that digital distributors take.
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UBC researcher helping turn rehab into a game
May 20th, 2012In a Vancouver experiment over the past year and a half, seven paralyzed patients played computer games at home while electrodes in a wrist cuff sent electrical currents to paralyzed muscles so they could contract, allowing users to grasp and move a joystick. The wrist stimulator is controlled by users when they click their teeth to trigger hand opening or closing. Every tooth click generates a …
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Computer effects have starring role in "Indy"
May 18th, 2012SAN FRANCISCO — In these hallowed halls, Indiana Jones almost seems out of place.
A banner with a two-dimensional cutout of the swashbuckling archaeologist swings through the lobby of Industrial Light and Magic, where life-size replicas of Darth Vader and Bobba Fett from “Star Wars” stand guard.
The home of George Lucas’ visual effects company is a high-tech temple to everything from the dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park” to the talking robots in “Transformers.” But Indy can’t take credit for the digital wizardry for which ILM has become famous over the last couple of decades.
Not yet, anyway. That’s because he hasn’t been around for 19 years, a time in which special effects mostly has migrated from soundstage to server.
The first three Indy films were gritty, sweaty and tactile affairs, largely because everything onscreen physically existed somewhere. Not so with “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” — though that almost was the case.
When first approaching the latest “Indy,” director Steven Spielberg considered dusting off his old-school approach.
“He thought maybe we should just go back to the way we did things before, like matte paintings on glass and things like that,” said visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman. “We entertained that idea for a little bit, but we realized we could serve the story better by using our digital tools.”
That decision ultimately led to a filmmaking innovation that brings the random reactions of a virtual world to the big screen, giving more control to ILM’s computers than ever before.
To the children romping outside at ILM’s in-house daycare located just past the lobby, the notion of a digital “environment” being responsible for much of what’s onscreen will probably seem quaint someday. But to the adult audiences who’ve glimpsed the latest Indy escapade, it’s a big part of the reason this one looks so different.
Helman, who previously worked with Spielberg on “Munich” and “War of the Worlds,” was tasked with creating realistic-yet-fantastic environments and creatures for “Crystal Skull,” which finds Jones traipsing from New England to New Mexico, Peru and the Amazon.
“It’s horrifying to work on a movie that has this many fans, but at the same time, it’s an opportunity and a challenge,” Helman told The Associated Press. “I think we were all very, very respectful of the other three movies but also to the fans. All the effects work that we’re doing are completely reality-based.”
That is if your reality includes a blooming atomic mushroom cloud, seemingly endless Area 51 warehouse, vicious monkey army, the City of Gold, thousands of man-eating ants and sundry otherworldly things.
About 300 artists and editors worked for eight months in post-production on a high-tech computer network at ILM’s offices inside the Presidio of San Francisco, a long way from the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Temple of Doom” days, when “Indiana Jones” special effects mostly consisted of miniature sets and a few blue-screen mash-ups.
In the film’s biggest action sequence, Jones and company battle Russian soldiers and play hot potato with the “Crystal Skull,” all while careening through a fertile Amazonian jungle riding atop military vehicles. When not dodging trees and palm fronds, the jeeps plow through enough vegetation to give an arborist heart palpitations.
“The script calls for a virgin jungle, but there’s not one we could safely run four vehicles through,” said Helman. “We basically shot it the same way we would’ve shot it 20 years ago.”
Spielberg filmed the pursuit scene on dirt roads in a more sparse jungle in Hawaii. Helman traveled to Argentina, where he was born, and Brazil to capture images that would be used to craft the junglescape, including a looming cliff where part of the chase takes place.
At the ILM offices, Helman and his team meshed the Hawaiian footage with the Brazilian and Argentinian imagery, adding huge swathes of flora using a new digital-effects technique. The result is a fictitious jungle, one with its own look, layout and laws of physics, that only exists inside the computers at ILM.
“The whole film for us has been really big on particle simulation, which is creating an environment inside of a computer and telling the computer the rules of the world,” said Helman, who also worked on two of the “Star Wars” films. “You give the computer this gravity, this mass, this amount of wind and see what happens.”
That means instead of crafting movement for every vine and leaf that Indy & co. hammer through, visual effects artists were able to drag and drop virtual vegetation programmed to react to the vehicles’ presence and actors’ movements. It’s an application that’s long become de rigueur for video games, and come full circle to the big screen.
Even though they were going for something organic, Helman said the filmmakers took some liberties with the laws of physics — more gravity, more mass, more wind — to “make it more cinematic.”
The result is a highly detailed chase scene that’s far different from Indy’s landmark escape from a giant rolling ball of a boulder in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” And it’s just one of the many effects Helman and his crew created for the film.
However, there’s one thing that he insists didn’t receive a computer-generated makeover this time around: Indy’s signature accessories.
“We did not generate whips or hats,” he said, cracking a smile. “Let me tell you that.”
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Computer predicts Bayern Munich to beat Chelsea
May 18th, 2012Entering the semifinals, the AccuScore computer projected Bayern Munich to be the most likely side to win the UEFA Champions League. With Real Madrid and Barcelona still involved at that point, most thought the computer was broken. With Chelsea and Bayern Munich having eliminated the Spanish giants, the computer is standing firm on conclusively picking Bayern Munich to win the Champions League final.
With the match taking place in Bayern Munich’s home stadium, the computer projects Bayern to hold a decisive advantage with a 70-percent probability of winning Europe’s premier club competition. The German powerhouse won 14 of its 17 Bundesliga matches at the Allianz Arena this season. In the Champions League, the Bavarians outscored visitors 21-4 with a perfect seven wins in seven games on Champions League match days in Munich. Playing at home is a big advantage for Bayern and Mario Gomez, in particular.
Bayern Munich’s Mario Gomez has been a scoring machine in the Champions League. (Reuters)Gomez is the the most likely scorer in the final with a 55-percent chance of scoring once and and 18-percent chance of bagging a brace. He netted 11 of his 12 Champions League goals at the Allianz this season, and he scored in every Champions League match he started in Munich during the 2011-12 campaign. Bayern plays better at home, like most teams, but Gomez seems to always score at the Allianz. He’s a big part of why the computer is giving Bayern a 70-percent chance of winning.
On the other side, the computer calculates Chelsea to have a 30-percent chance of winning. The Blues, however, are familiar with being labeled heavy underdogs, and that role didn’t have much of an impact in the semifinals. Earning a 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou and scoring both goals with only 10 men against a full-strength Barcelona proved that point. Chelsea, though, has the unenviable task of winning in Munich.
The Blues’ 2011-12 away record was less than exemplary. In the domestic league, Chelsea only had six wins in 19 tries away from Stamford Bridge. The Blues were substantially worse in the Champions League. The Londoners only had one win in six European away matches this season. However, the 2-2 result in the Champions League semifinal in Barcelona reminded all doubters that this team is capable of beating the odds.
After the semifinals, the parallels between Chelsea and Bayern Munich were hard to ignore. Both these teams conquered Spanish giants in the semis. Both fell behind in the second leg but roared back to claim a berth in the final. Both possessed shot stoppers that made astonishing saves and won matches. Both teams have the opportunity of earning the label of “best team in Europe,” but neither team can lay claim to being the best team in its own country.
[Related: Join Yahoo! Sports' live chat for the Champions League final]
Considering their respective semifinal performances, both sides deserve to be in the Champions League final. Looking at the numbers, the computer says Bayern will win in Munich, but Chelsea won’t mind being the underdog. After all, the Blues certainly weren’t favorites to make the final.
Recent Form:
Bayern Munich lost in the DfB Pokal Final (German Cup) to Borussia Dortmund. The Bavarians were handled quite easily and suffered their fifth straight defeat to Dortmund, a club record. Chelsea, on the other hand, won the FA Cup. After the FA Cup victory, Chelsea went on to finish the Premier League in sixth place with a 4-1 loss to Liverpool and a 2-1 win against Blackburn. In the win against Blackburn, John Terry and Raul Miereles scored, but both are suspended for the final.
Suspended Players:
Due to the accumulation of yellow cards and an idiotic knee from Terry, several key players are suspended for both sides.
Chelsea
Chelsea has four suspended players: Ramires, Terry, Branislav Ivanovic and Miereles. These key players pose a real problem for Chelsea’s squad.
Assuming David Luiz and Gary Cahill recover from their respective injuries in time, the middle of Chelsea’s defense will not be in complete shambles due to Terry’s red card in the semis. However, neither Luiz or Cahill has not trained and face a fitness test ahead of the final. If either are not good to go, José
Bosingwa would move into the middle of the Chelsea defense.
Ivanovic will most likely be replaced by Bosingwa at right back, if Cahill and Luiz are passed fit. Roberto Di Matteo has the option of employing the 33-year-old Portuguese full back Paulo Ferreira. At the moment, the only certainty on Chelsea’s defense is Ashley Cole.
The suspensions of Ramires and Miereles pose a serious problem. Salomon Kalou will likely start in the more attacking role that Ramires was playing since Di Matteo took over, but Chelsea will lose something defensively. Miereles would likely have been Ramires’ replacement if the Portuguese midfielder wasn’t also suspended.
Ramires was the key to Chelsea’s only goal at Stamford Bridge against Barcelona, and he scored a tremendously important short-handed goal in the second leg at the Camp Nou. Both goals relied on the Brazilian’s speed on the counter attack. Unfortunately, Chelsea doesn’t have a midfield replacement that can offer the constant hard work Ramires brings to every match. More than likely, the likes of Florent Malouda or Michael Essien will have to enter the fray. Malouda is the most likely replacement, but he was not able to complete a half against Blackburn. Chelsea may be forced to call on Essien to put in one last big-match performance.
Bayern Munich
Bayern has three suspended players for the final: David Alaba, Holger Badstuber, and Luiz Gustavo Dias. However, Bayern is better equipped to deal with the missing players than Chelsea.
[Related: Chelsea hopes Bayern Munich succumbs to pressure of playing at home]
Alaba will likely be replaced by Diego Contento, a 22-year-old German left back. The 19-year-old Alaba was converted into the left-back position and sparked Bayern to a late run in the domestic and European competitions. Bayern also has the option to switch Philipp Lahm to left back and start Rafinha, but manager Jupp Heynckes showed his hands in the final Bundesliga match of the season by starting Diego Contento.
Badstuber’s suspension is a bit more hurtful for the German club, with Daniel Van Buyten not making an appearance since January due to injury. Anatoliy Tymoshchuk is expected to fill the role in the heart of the defense, but the Ukrainian captain certainly did not impress in Bayern’s 4-1 Bundesliga finale against Cologne. Tymo has played in this role several times over the past two seasons, so Bayern is comfortable with the change.
The suspension of Dias will likely move Toni Kroos back into the holding midfielder role alongside Bastian Schweinsteiger in Bayern’s preferred 4-2-3-1 set up. This should allow Thomas Muller to return into the starting lineup in an attacking position between Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben. Muller started in this role for most of the season, so Bayern should be comfortable with the forced changes.
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EC-Council Foundation Announces Innovative Child Online Protection Initiative at the World Summit of Information …
May 16th, 2012Online Global Cyber Defense Competition comprised of computer network defense and computer forensics games that mimics real world scenarios to attract over 15,000 players from 6 continents for both the high school and professional category.
May 16, 2012 –
Geneva (PRWEB) May 16, 2012 — Jay Bavisi, the President of EC-Council Foundation, a 501c3 not-for-profit organization, announced a new online competition open to every country in the world with the goal of raising awareness of information security and online safety among teenagers and adults. The announcement of the competition, dubbed the “High School Challenge”, came today while Mr. Bavisi spoke on a high-level executive panel at the World Summit of Information Security 2012, organized by the International Telecommunication Union in cooperation with UNESCO, UNCTAD, and UNDP in Geneva. Speaking alongside Mr. Bavisi, the high-level panel consisted of the Secretary General of ITU, Dr. Hamadoun Toure; Mohd Noor Amin, Chairman of the Management Board of IMPACT; H.E. Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director of General Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of U.A.E.; Honorable M. Gilbert Noel Ouedraogo, Minister of Transport of Burkina Faso; H.E. Valery Borissov, Deputy Minister of Transport and Information Technologies; and Dr. Salim Alruzaiqi, Information Technology Authority, Communications CEO of Oman.
The new online competition format was created with the intent of incorporating teens and young adults into EC-Council Foundation’s existing and groundbreaking ethical hacking competition, The Global CyberLympics.
CyberLympics has been endorsed by the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), which is the cyber security executing arm of the United Nations’ specialized agency, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has officially been appointed as the Patron of the Global CyberLympics. With that appointment, Dr. Toure became the Chair of the Global CyberLympics Advisory Council (GCAC).
The Global CyberLympics is a not-for-profit initiative lead and organized by EC-Council Foundation with the goal of increasing education and ethics in information security through a series of cyber competitions that encompass forensics, ethical hacking, and defense. The “High School Challenge” is a key initiative for Global CyberLympics with the goal of fostering an environment that creates child online protection through education. The mission statement of the Global CyberLympics is “Unifying Global Cyber Defense through the Games” and last year, over 1,500 people applied to participate in the competition. The regional qualifying competitions were held at Cyber security conferences across the globe and the top two teams from each region were invited to participate in the World Finals. As travelling to the competition can prove costly and logistically complicated for children, the online “High School Challenge” will allow for great participation. As a Technology Sponsor of the games, the competitions will be powered by SAIC’s (SAIC) (NYSE: SAI) CyberNEXS™, a live, realistic game environment that has been used for well over 150 training and competition events globally, enabling users to develop the skills to recognize and defend against cyber attacks..
The CyberLympics World Finals is scheduled on the 29 -31 October, 2012 at the Hacker Halted Conference in Miami. For more information about CyberLympics or to register, please visit: http://www.cyberlympics.org
Contact: Dan Callahan -Program Manager (dan(dot)callahan(at)eccouncil(dot)org)
About the EC-Council Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity, was established in 2012 by the founders of the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council).
The International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) is a member-based organization that certifies individuals in various e-business and information security skills. It is the owner and creator of the world famous Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI) and EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA)/License Penetration Tester (LPT) programs, and as well as many others programs, that are offered in over 87 countries through a training network of more than 450 training partners globally and has trained over 90,000 individuals and certified more than 40,000 security professionals.
The Foundation was set up as a not for profit initiative by the founders of EC-Council to raise awareness, build capacity across nations, and ultimately promote global peace while ensuring that the global community raises its awareness for the immediate need for child online protection. One of the key initiatives of the foundation is the Global CyberLympics; a unifying body for Global Cyber Defense. Global CyberLympics is a series of cybersecurity related competitions including: Forensics, Penetration Testing, Computer Network Defense, and Capture the Flag.
The Foundation also supports select regional, national, and international high school, collegiate and professional education programs and cyber competitions. The EC-Council Foundation mission is to foster collaboration and participation by Global Digital Citizens to become advocates for safe and secure on-line activities and child online protection.
Dan Callahan
EC Council Foundation
505-341-3228
Email Information
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Computer games guru honoured as 'role model'
May 16th, 2012A COMPUTER games developer and programmer has been named as this year’s recipient of the Guildford Roll of Honour.
Peter Molyneux OBE will collect the accolade at a ceremony held in the Guildhall on Wednesday, July 11.
The award aims to recognise and celebrate people who have made a difference to Guildford and the surrounding area, either economically, socially or artistically.
Now in its second year, the award is a joint venture between the University of Surrey and the borough council.
Mr Molyneux has been chosen for his business success and contribution to the UK computer games design and programming industry, which has a strong presence in the town.
“Guildford is a fantastic place to start and grow a business,” said Mr Molyneux.
“It is home to a pool of amazingly talented people and the town has attracted some of the world’s finest computer games companies.”
He started his career in the games industry in 1987 and created and sold two major companies – Bullfrog, which was sold to Electronic Arts in 1995, and Lionhead Studios, acquired by Microsoft in 2006.
While at Bullfrog, Mr Molyneux developed the game Populus, which sold more than four million copies, and he is also responsible for Theme Park, Magic Carpet, Dungeon Keeper, Black and White and the Fable series.
Recently, Mr Molyneux left his creative director role at Microsoft Game Studios Europe to help grow a new venture called 22cans, based
in Guildford.
Keith Robson, director of research and enterprise at the University of Surrey, said: “The university is proud to be supporting this exclusive and prestigious annual award, which honours a select group of individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to the economy of Guildford and the surrounding region.
“Peter is a fantastic role model for the new generation of Surrey student entrepreneurs.
“Bullfrog, Lionhead and his latest venture, 22cans, have all been started in Guildford, creating significant local employment and wealth and helping to make Guildford a recognised centre for the gaming industry.”
Councillor Tony Rooth, Guildford Borough Council leader, said: “Those who receive the roll of honour are role models for young people. They can also act as ambassadors to promote the successes of our thriving borough.
“Guildford Borough Council is committed to ensuring that our borough remains attractive to the leading entrepreneurs and innovators of the future.”
The award’s first recipient, last year, was professor Sir Martin Sweeting, executive chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.
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Monroe teachers to attend Fairfield University workshop on using computer games to promote STEM learning; Google grant …
May 14th, 2012
Monroe teachers to attend Fairfield University workshop on using computer games to promote STEM learning; Google grant funds the program
Monday, 14 May 2012 00:45
Some Monroe public school teachers will attend a workshop June 27 to 29 designed to share educational methods for creating and integrating interactive educational computer games into the curriculum to help middle and high school students learn computer science and engineering concepts.
Workshop organizers at Fairfield University said teachers in attendance will learn how to use “computing education as the glue within science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curriculum development and execution,” and create exciting ways to teach their students. A grant from Google will fund the program.
To take place in college’s engineering labs
The Fairfield faculty-led workshop, to be led by Fairfield University faculty and held in the university’s School of Engineering labs, is primarily for teachers from the Diocese of Bridgeport and the public school districts of Monroe, Ansonia, Bridgeport and Trumbull. Monroe has a STEM Academy for middle school students and offers robotics and various other computer courses at Masuk High School.
“We will be recruiting and having about 15 secondary teachers on campus in June,” said Amalia Rusu, assistant professor of software engineering, who was awarded a $10,000 grant from Google for the CS4HS (Computer Science for High School) program. “The workshop promises to offer teachers engaging ideas that they can bring back to their own classrooms.”
The workshop comes at a time when American students are lagging behind students in China, India and other parts of the world in computer science, math and science study. At the same time, the United States has fallen behind in technological and scientific advancements.
Promoting computer science
The CS4HS program is an initiative sponsored by Google to promote computer science and “computational thinking” in middle and high school curriculum. With grants from Google’s Education Group, universities can develop two- to three-day workshops for local teachers. These workshops incorporate informational talks by faculty, researchers and industry leaders, and discussions on new and emerging computer science curricula at the high school and middle school level.
Leading the workshop will be Fairfield University faculty member Rusu, assisted by Douglas Lyon, professor of computer engineering, and John H. E. Lasseter, assistant professor of computer science. “During the three-day workshop, various learning activities will alternate between presentations and hands-on labs,” Rusu said. “Everything that will be delivered is based on our proposal, ideas and teaching methods. Google sponsors us with funds to put our ideas in practice and help computer science education in that way.”
Fairfield University also offers a STEM program for high school students. For information about the teacher workshop, email Rusu at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
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Dreaming of a Day When All Games Are Released Digitally Like Diablo 3
May 14th, 2012
After almost ten years of waiting, Diablo 3 is out tomorrow and fans of the series the world over might be taking a sick day to celebrate.
Fortunately for many, the day will not begin by waking up early, driving to the store and shelling out for a box copy of the game. Rather, many fans have already bought the game directly from Blizzard. The files are already downloaded, and they sit on the computer just waiting to be installed when the green light is given on launch day.
It’s not a new process for most PC gamers, but it’s one that feels foreign to us console players. Those early morning or late night trips to Gamestop to pick up physical copies of a new game are ones we’ve made practically our whole lives, but it really does seem like those days are drawing to a close. I’d cite a recent Penny Arcade comic as to how ridiculous this process now seems to many.
We are getting close to an age where physical media is all but irrelevant, and games are the last bastion resisting the changeover for reasons that remain unclear. The next console generation will have a large say on if digital delivery is making a complete takeover. It’s a win for the publishers as they no longer have to give a piece of the pie to retailers, and with digital distribution, there is effectively no more competition from used games which give them nothing, and only benefit outlets like Gamestop.
Frankly, that’s a world I’d love to live in, and I’m tired of people saying that we need the option to have a glorified pawn shop for games rather than moving to an all-digital format. Every time I express such a sentiment, I hear cries from those resisting the change. “I like having a physical disc! I want to be able to sell my games to pay for new ones!”
But when you look at the reality of how technology is progressing in every medium but gaming, such sentiments seem foolish. Are there many PC gamers complaining that they don’t have a shelf of boxes to look at? No, most are satisfied with a mammoth list of games they’ve amassed on Steam, which produces the same sort of “collector’s enjoyment.” Are Netflix or iTunes users lamenting the fact that they can’t sell back old films or albums to pay for new ones they want to purchase? Of course not.
We don’t need you any more.
So why then is there this sect of gamers who seem so resistant to where the industry is heading? Unless you’re a Gamestop employee, I simply don’t understand the argument. Anyone who has used Steam would extol its virtues until the end of time. And downloading a game directly from a publisher like we’re doing with Diablo? It’s even better for supporting the companies who make the games you love.
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