Bioshock Infinite is a story about choices and their consequences, relationships, manipulation, the trousers of time, and how people react to terrible things. It’s also about a finger that is far more significant than it seems. Bioshock Infinite is equal parts drama, horror, and The Outer Limits, spiced with flashbacks, flashforwards and Disney-Princess moments and [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: Review: Bioshock Infinite

Linden Lab, the makers of shared creative spaces including Second Life®, PatternsTM, CreatorverseTM, and dioTM, today announced the launch of Versu, a new character-driven interactive fiction platform that immerses readers in living stories. Versu is available for free today for iPad on the App Store. Versions for Android devices will be released soon. A product [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: Linden Lab Launches a New Platform for Character-Driven Interactive Fiction: Versu for iPad

Over the past several years, there have been three major players in the console market, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. A console-maker has a number of avenues for drawing revenue from its console. It charges for console development kits, and code-signing, which allows it to pull a share of all third-party games revenue. It can charge [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: King of the hole

Within mere minutes of any mass-shooting, the media (and assorted interest groups) are keen to tell you why the shooter(s) did what they did. In the recent shooting at Sandy Hook, Newtown, Connecticut, everyone was keen to explain in detail exactly why Adam Lanza murdered a bunch of people and then killed himself. Of course, [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: Guns, violence, video-games, and the media

Day four This-morning, I had climbed a rise to take bearings on some landmarks, to see if I could figure their precise locations. One distant spire (what is it? A lighthouse? One of the primitive statues, perhaps? I do not know) was obscured by some trees, and I took a few steps sideways to try [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: Play it now – Miasmata

Linden Lab today announced two new products, along with a complete revamp of its Web-site. First up, the press-release. Today, we get to share a bit about CreatorverseTM and PatternsTM –  the first two of four new products we’ll be releasing this year. We are now the makers of not only Second Life®, but also [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: Linden Lab announces two new products

Uniloc USA Inc, and Uniloc Luxembourg S.A. have today filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District Court of Texas against Minecraft maker Mojang, asserting patent infringement of US Patent 6857067. The patent in question essentially appears to cover just about all forms of DRM and targets Minecraft on Android devices, as these devices call home [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: Minecraft maker, Mojang, sued for patent infringement by plaintiff who can’t spell “Minecraft”

In the wake of the release of Funcom’s new subscription-MMOG, The Secret World, my minions, Seshat and Feldspar delve into this new offering in the MMOG market and return with their impressions. The Secret World drops players into a modern, yet magical world where most of the conspiracy theories are true. As the unexpected recipient [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: Seshat and Feldspar visit The Secret World

So, here’s an interesting divide between USA law and EU law. In the USA, you almost never buy software or video games. No, the license says you’re only buying a license to use the software (which is conveniently being loaned to you free-of-charge on a disk or as a digital download or whatever) under limited [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: Landmark EU ruling permits resale of digital downloads/licenses [updated]

The release (and reaction to) Bioware’s Mass Effect 3 gave me an occasion to talk about game endings and the sorts of narrative cop-outs that arise from them. Now, Mass Effect 3 has had an “extended cut” of its endings, and I’m going to take that as a cue to do an extended cut of [...] (Read more...)

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0 Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Full post: The final choice is the weakest choice