schrodingers-cat
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Worms dev invites you to think inside the box with Schrodinger's Cat
In 1935, Erwin Schrodinger designed a thought experiment in which a feline trapped in a box could be said to be simultaneously alive and dead until it was observed as being one or the other (to be clear, the experiment was imaginary, so weep not for its nine lives); this experiment is now known as "Schrodinger's Cat." In 2014, "Schrodinger's Cat" will also be the name of a video game collaboration between Worms series developer Team17 and indie developer Italic Pig. Schrodinger's Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark invites players into the box in which Schrodinger would have placed one unfortunate kitty for some fun. The game's trailer, however, warns that Schrodinger "doesn't know the half of what goes on in there" before showing a purple cat using anthropomorphic particles to move about in a subatomic zoo. ... Wait, what? Go home, science. You're drunk. Yes, Schrodinger's Cat is a platformer in which players explore the subatomic level of existence and use quantum physics to solve puzzles. And who said quantum science wasn't fun? Schrodinger's Cat is slated to release in Q3 of this year for PC, Mac and Linux via Steam. [Image: Italic Pig]
Alt-week 10.13.12: is the Universe a simulation, cloning dinosaurs and singing mice
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Are you reading this? Seriously, are you? Sure, we know you think you are, but what if you're just a sub-feature of a complex computer program. A sprite, nothing more than the creation of software. The problem with this question is, how would you ever know? You wouldn't, right? Well, not so fast there. Turns out, maybe there is a way to unravel the matrix (if there is one). It'll come as no surprise, that this is one of the topics in this week's collection of alternative stories. Think that's all we got? Not even close. We'll explore the truth behind cloning dinosaurs, as well a rare performance by singing mice -- all before dinner. Or is it really dinner? This is alt-week.
Breakfast Topic: The joy of phasing
Rayless on the General Forums asks a question that I've always wondered about but never poked into; how exactly does phasing work? If you've leveled through the Death Knight starting area, done the Wrath Gate questline, or quested in Icecrown (and you should really do all three), you've had the opportunity to see Blizzard's most intricate phasing in action. However, Zarhym and Crygil are pretty cryptic on how it's done, and it's up to players to fill in the details. In a nutshell, phasing is all about the information that's sent (or not sent) to your computer by the game server; Blizzard can toy with anything that's not client-side, affecting which buildings and NPCs you can "see" but not affecting the game's basic geography. I was surprised to discover that phasing has technically been in the game since launch -- ghosts and stealth are a form of phasing, as are (I would assume) the ghosts of Caer Darrow -- but the hugely elaborate set pieces of Wrath are simply a more complicated evolution of the same mechanic. Given the success of phasing, players have been kicking around suggestions for instances or zones that could do with a touch of it, and Gnomeregan seems to be a pretty consistent pick. I'd have to agree, but I'd also add the Echo Isles (the Gnomes and Trolls have overcome their low-level foes by now, surely?) and perhaps Duskwood for starters. Is there any other zone or instance that you think would benefit from a little reality-bending?
