The Pros of Cons
It's inevitable. Even with all the great high-end computer games and now the massively multiplayer market boom, gamers still like to gather in groups. They like to know that there are others like them, with a passion for games of all sorts. They like to discuss strategy, fight battles and generally have a good time […]
The Cart Before The Horse?
Trying something new at Disney "That's just how things are." Conventional thought dictates that you release a game with a movie tie-in after the movie has already been out. Yep, that's what conventional wisdom says. Of course, conventional wisdom used to say that the world was flat. The Walt Disney Company has been entertaining us […]
Focused on Olympus
A leader in other markets goes after the game industry Contributions to the computer game industry generally come from one of three places: a long-standing powerhouse company, an up-and-coming pioneer and, more rarely, a company that has an established history in other industries that decides to move into ours. It's the last category that is […]
Forging Ahead
Creating a new genre in the Age of the Internet. Sometimes I think television should adhere to some kind of truth in advertising law. I started to watch a show called "BattleBots," and much to my disappointment, they didn't show robots at all. I turned the channel, and saw another show, this one called "Robot […]
Still Out There…
Out of the hype, but still in the money is a way of life Not everything needs huge amounts of hype to be successful. It sure helps, but it’s not absolutely crucial in order to make a living in this industry. That’s what Bethesda Softworks has been proving time and time again over most of […]
An Exercise in Innovation
Trying to make professional gaming a reality. Rare is the game that is released nowadays without some sort of online mode of play. More and more producers are providing means to play over the Internet, even to the point where some games are released without any standalone component at all. The day may indeed come […]
Is It Too Soon”?”
A talk with a controversial groundbreaker You don’t have to go very far in a historical conversation without broaching a sensitive or controversial subject. This century had been filled with tragedies, and even talking about some of them "too soon" has been considered controversial. I hear it was quite a number of years before one […]
Taking a Risk
Sometimes a programmer’s got to do what a programmer’s got to do "Don’t quit your day job," was what people would say to part-time musicians and performers as a way of saying that they weren’t yet ready to make a living in the arts. Some may say the same thing to aspiring game makers in […]
Starting Out with a Bang
A new company tries to get a piece of the action My grandmother always told me not to put all of my eggs into one basket. But all too often in the interactive software industry, that’s exactly what you have to do. A startup company sometimes can devote its limited resources to the development of […]