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Will Wright working on game based off Bruce Sterling short story, Maneki Neko
After leaving EA, founding StupidFunClub and launching a TV series, it would seem Will Wright is finally ready to talk about his next game. It's based on author Bruce Sterling's short story, Maneki Neko, Eurogamer reports. Wright summed up Maneki Neko (included in Bruce Sterling's A Good Old-Fashioned Future) as the story of "a karmic computer that's keeping a balance of payments between different people, and causing them to interact with each other in interesting ways to improve their lives even though they're strangers." He added that these people earn "karmic points" that can be redeemed by "having somebody else help them." This proposed game would ideally launch on tablets, smart phones and Facebook. Console gamers won't be left out, though. Wright alluded to "one or two" other projects for home consoles (lining up with previous reports that three projects are currently underway at studio), thought he didn't go into any specifics. "But most of our work is going to be everything else: PC, tablet, Facebook and mobile," he concluded.
AGDC: The Bruce Sterling keynote - The Future of Entertainment
Bruce Sterling is a science fiction author, a futurist, and one of the founders of cyberpunk. He provided the tent-pole keynote for the Austin Game Developers Conference, although in all honesty it seemed more like a run through of a new short story draft. Several developers were walking out, scratching their heads and going "Wha... huh?" afterward. The topic was "Computer Entertainment 35 Years from Today," and Sterling came out not as Sterling, but as a time traveler from 35 years in the future and a graduate student of Dr. Sterling's. He provided visual demonstrations of nanotech networks and fiber-based computers, much to the amusement of the audience, and told us how the future might seem surprising to us at first, but it's old hat to someone like him. He bastardized a quote from Sir Arthur Clarke and said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from garbage." Words to live by.Read the full text of the keynote after the break. It'll be interesting if web surfers in the future look back on this post and laugh.
Sci-fi author Bruce Sterling to keynote, predict future at Austin GDC
Famous for groundbreaking science fiction novels such as Schizmatrix and Heavy Weather, author Bruce Sterling is also regarded as one of the world's leading futurists. That is, he's really good at predicting where everything from media to industry to consumer technology will be at in the near future. Now he's going to do the same with video games ... and what they will be like in the year 2043.Sterling will deliver his keynote address, "Computer Entertainment 35 Years from Today," at the upcoming Austin Game Developers Conference being held September 15-17. It will certainly be intriguing to hear what one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement has to say about the future of our shared hobby, especially given the recent introduction of technology such as Wii MotionPlus. We also have to wonder if he's seen Sony's famous "PS9" commercial.
MMOG charts updated, WoW keeps its huge lead
Bruce Sterling Woodcock has updated his MMOGcharts.com website with the latest research into MMO populations, and as you can see above, WoW (the green line shooting towards the sky with no hint of slowing down) is continuing its rule of the roost. In fact, Blizzard's game is in a category all by itself-- no one else even breaks the 3.5 million line. And the outlook isn't good for other MMOs, either-- Lord of the Rings Online is a clear leader in the lower section, but even they aren't showing steady growth-- more like a leveling off already.In terms of market share, WoW has its victory locked away as well, although the two Lineages and Runescape make nice showings. I am pretty surprised not to see more free-to-play MMOs on any of the lists (although these are subscription numbers so maybe that's why), but the most fascinating thing about these numbers might not be what they look like right now, but what they'll look like in December. Can any of the new MMOs coming out this year take a chunk out of Azeroth?
