Blog von Brummbar has an excellent post about games from past platforms: Retro Lament

The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > When Life Is a Roll of the Dice
(Free registration required)

I had to chuckle at this piece, which is about a woman’s ‘addiction’ to online backgammon. It all reads so good naturedly, and she makes it sound so nice.

Now if instead the times ran a piece on someone who playing Everquest compulsively, it’d be all about how harmful the game is, and how geeky and dysfunctional the players are.

*sigh*

Well, I’ll look at it from a glass-half-full perspective. It is nice to read a generally positive article on online gaming in the mainstream press.

Gamespy has a preview of the new CoN sequel: PlayStation 2: Champions: Return to Arms

One of the biggest and buggiest problems to interfere with CoN was the online play. This was in part to the poorly designed lobby and game creation interface that SOE chose to deploy with the final product. Having learned a lesson the hard way, RtA promises to fix all those annoying issues and potential gameplay exploits by taking the step of storing all data on its own servers.

Sounds good to me. Champions of Norrath was a great game hampered by a terrible lobby and game creation UI. Hopefully getting into an online game will be much easier this time around.

Getting the swing with ‘Spider-Man 2’

I’ve only scratched the surface of Spiderman 2 (I’m sorta holding off until I’ve seen the movie) but what I’ve seen has been really fun so far.

CNN.com – Playing mind games with ‘Psi-Ops’ – Jul 2, 2004

I’d passed over this one. After reading this review I might stick it in my Gamefly queue.

I first saw coverage of this on G4TechTV’s Pulse. Ben, a young boy with leukemia was approached by the Make-A-Wish Foundation and asked what his one wish would be. He decided he wanted to make a videogame.

So they set out to look for a game developer that would help him. All the really big shops turned him down. Fuck you, Electronic Arts, you heartless bastards. (I believe Microsoft and Activision were two other major gamedev shops that turned the project down.)

Enter the good folks at LucasArts! (/cheer LucasArts!) and specifically Eric Johnston, the game developer who met with Ben once a week to work on his game (except for one Tuesday when Ben couldn’t make it because he was grounded. 🙂 ).

Well, here’s the CNN article but its dry going compared to the Pulse piece.
CNN.com – Former cancer patient debuts cancer-fighting video game

And you can find the game itself available for download here:
Ben’s Game

Stories like this one, and the Children’s Charity Fund that the folks at Penny Arcade put together last year at Christmas…they don’t get as much media coverage as all the ‘violence in videogames is creating a generation of monsters’ garbage. But these are the stories that tell a truer tale of the gamer lifestyle, if you ask me.

Think of how many gaming fan-sites are put up every year. Gamers work hard to help their fellow gamers enjoy the hobby. And that’s the foundation of hobby’s community. It just builds up from there. Sure they squabble on message boards and don’t always behave as well as they should, but at the end of the day, if you go to a gaming board and ask for help, you’ll get it. Gamers are naturally a supportive bunch.

BTW, in case you don’t click through the article, this story has a happy ending. Ben is in remission and doing well. 🙂

Online gaming addiction: The next legal hotbed

Thank goodness I’m not addicted to these games! I can quit any time I want. I just happen to not want to right now… 🙂

CNN.com – Video game review: ‘Riddick’ redefines Xbox gaming

I’m reading so much good press about this that, while I was out getting myself DRIV3R, I picked up Riddick, too!