This month’s local game developer meeting (open to everyone!) promises to be a good one. I’ll have to see if I can come even though I have family out. The authors of Grand Theft Childhood will be presenting! The gathering will take place at The Skellig in Waltham on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 7:00PM. More info on the Boston Post Mortem website.

There’s a stigma about bards. People seem to picture them as buffoons with funny hats, high-pitched singing voices, and lutes. Only one of those is really true in my view of them; the lute. I get made fun of a lot for enjoying bards more than any other class, and I suppose it’s worth articulating why that is the case, so perhaps a few people will see why they’re so awesome. Continue Reading »

Ever since I saw The Incredible Hulk on Saturday (which is a pretty good comic movie. It’s no Iron Man, but it’s better than most), I’ve wanted to make a really crappy Photoshop image. I’ve decided to deliver that unto you, a public that should absolutely be fearful of my image manipulation skills. Click beyond the break to see some awesome. Continue Reading »

Some of the artists here at 38 completed their entries for the Dominance War art competition. Here they are in all their glory: Josh Singh’s Kong Lao, Minoh Kim’s Aphotic Invoker, Billy Ahlswede’s Magnuz, and Joe Mirabello’s Elemental Knight. Great job guys, and good luck in the competition! If you don’t know what Dominance War is, check out this post.

Ever want to be part of an online community in which you can be a criminal or part of the solution? I just started playing a game called MafiaMatrix and I’m having a blast. It’s a free massively multiplayer web game. I’m currently a banker (though sometimes I shoplift) and I regularly launder money for gangsters. Check out MafiaMatrix if you’re interested (that referral link benefits me somehow). Latest Character: Luckbard in Miami (Luckbad and Bard were whacked).

Jason from probablynot posted something on the Nerfbat Forums that is messing with my brain. It’s an animated gif of a spinning dancer. On the surface, everything seems so simple. You look at it, and it spins around and you may think, “what’s the big deal?” Well, I won’t give you any further information until after you’ve seen her for yourself, so continue beyond the break. Continue Reading »

Good question! The short is that it’s a thematic art contest. The long? Well, Joe Mirabello of 38 Studios explains in an interview at TenTonHammer about the international multi-forum contest. Several of the artists at 38 are entering the competition, as are hundreds, if not thousands, of others. You can see some of the art on the Dominance War website. All of the entries have to be in by April 12, so I imagine they’ll all be up shortly thereafter (and I’ll try to compile a list of all the 38 Studios artist entries).

Everyone knows I love massively multiplayer games. Not everyone knows that I love many other types of games, especially first-person shooters. I’m far more competitive in FPS games than I am in MMO games and, because of this, I always seek out the best hardware possible to enhance my game. This lead me to take an interest in the Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse, and it does not disappoint. Continue Reading »

Robert Jordan, one of the best-known fantasy authors of our time and creator of the Wheel of Time series, passed away yesterday of complications from amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy. While the illness was known even by his fans, it’s an unexpected and very unfortunate loss. My thoughts and prayers go to his friends and family, and to his dedicated fans. His last words were to tell his beloved wife Harriet that he loved her. Tami Baribeau has a screenshot of the original posting.

Thanks to Jack Thompson, notorious anti-gaming lawyer, we have another dose of inanity. This time, he is filing against the creators of BioShock (which, interestingly, has nothing to do with Rockstar as he claims). Here’s the link and here’s a clip: “Take-Two… is aggressively marketing its newest Mature-rated video game to kids under 17 years of age… On this Friday’s night’s 8 pm Eastern time airing of WWE’s wrestling program “Smackdown,” there were repeated ads for Take-Two/Rockstar Game’s Mature-rated, incredibly violent BioShock … This rampant fraudulent trade practice is precisely what ‘Big Tobacco’ did with its ‘Joe Camel’ and other teen-targeting ads, while at the same time lying to Congress that it was not marketing its adult product to kids.”