10 by 10 room

Meant to link these a week ago: Making Games for Poor Kids (RPGnet) and Chris’s take, Loaded.

I’ve been trying to figure out, myself, if storygaming is necessarily a hobby for the middle-class / upper-middle-class, or if it can be possibly more accessible than, say, video gaming. (It’s already been said that video gaming could become the “new golf” of the 21st-century leisure class. Hence I coing a new phrase, golf2.0.)

Of course, there’s no shortage of cool, free games out there, just a shortage of broad exposure.

Dev makes Luke fall over.

From Nathan’s Notes from Vericon. But he lies! I did nothing of the sort!!

Well… nevermind.

(I found the panel to be really interesting, even the in-fighting about the True Nature of GURPS.)

Blizzard recently seems to be enforcing their anti-discrimination policy about Sexual Orientation by discouraging players from having their characters publically possess an alternative sexuality in World of Warcraft, preventing in-game groups that are supportive of GLBT players/characters from advertising.

The article is here.

Some of these quotes are pretty interesting, in showing how the company is approaching minority sexualities among players and characters.

Blizzard’s stance was clear that recruiting for a guild using “GLBT” was inappropriate as, the company said, it may “incite certain responses in other players that will allow for discussion that we feel has no place in our game.”

Also…

“Many people are insulted just at the word ‘homosexual’ or any other word referring to sexual orientation,” Blizzard responded to Blatzheim in an e-mail. “Also to discriminate against other players, such as not allowing any heterosexuals into the guild simply because of their sexual orientation, could cause extreme offense to a large percentage of our players and should be avoided.”

Honestly, I wonder if forming a guild of all gay characters is any different from forming one of only elves. Should that be considered racial discrimination? In-game, maybe, but something that’s retricted by an anti-discrimination policy?

By clamping down on characters’ sexualities, Blizzard seems to be trying to prevent sexuality from being one of the big issues of WoW, avoiding anti-gay witch hunts or whatever. Or maybe they’re just being big poo-heads.

In any case, these kind of situations will probably keep coming up, blurring the lines between player and character and, eventually, you’ll probably see 1st Amendment or anti-discrimination lawsuits involving online roleplaying personae.

If you’re near Boston, go to VeriCon! 2/3 of the 10×10team will be there. I’m hoping to play some “Dead Weight” or perhaps even “Dance and Dawn”. And Yahtzee!

The future of zombie horror storygaming is: acrobatic. I think Luchacabra’s new title Dead Weight. is going to be a heavy hitter.

Play-by-Blog! Robin Laws has one and it seems to have spread. Possibly more like “interactive fiction” than a “roleplaying game”, but definitions are for suckers. Remember: if it’s cool, it’s a STORYGAME.

SteveD, RPGnet darling and generally cool guy, tried to ransom Walk the Line, basically a Serenity RPG with a great name and some really interesting mechanics. He tried to ransom it, but there were some copyright ramifications that forced him to cancel.

Nonetheless, it seems like SteveD is still going to revise the game (to make it more law-proof). Read more about it here.

The PSP will soon be offering a port of the mythical Rez. But will its hypnotic stimulations work on the small screen? Talk about not getting the point.

posted for Rosseau

Paul O’Brien is rightly skeptical about British megacorp Virgin launching a new line of comics… in India.

Looking at the descriptions of the 2006 IGF Student Showcase Winners, I can’t help but think that college design departments are where the most interesting electronic games are emerging from (cross ref. Katamari Damacy). I don’t know if a new trend towards experimentation and play will ever break through the layers of risk-adverse corperateness (aside from Nintendo, where it currently rules the roost: the DS, the Revolution), but, in the meantime, I’m going to download a couple of these and enjoy them.

Ooooo, Cloud, yum!