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Beyond the Game examines the lives of Warcraft III players
This isn't about World of Warcraft, but it will be familiar to some of you who spent hours building up bases and creating Spirit Towers. Beyond the Game is a new documentary from the Netherlands about two world-famous Warcraft III players and how the game has affected their lives and the people around them. It looks intriguing -- having been to a few gaming tournaments and interviewed a few of the top players myself, I agree that these guys are living some really strange lives. Even if you're not a Warcraft III player, this kind of esports is getting more and more popular around the world (from the old Counterstrike to WoW's Arenas, of course), and even though it hasn't quite hit the mainstream yet, more and more players are finding this kind of existence.The film is set to be released in parts of the EU mid-March, and is being shown at a few gaming tournaments in various places around the world. There's no word on a US or DVD release yet, but we'll keep an eye out for it.
E308: PvP in The Agency
One of the many things people have been looking for in an MMOFPS environment is the ability to engage in some hardcore PvP. Shooter fans seem to absolutely love the thrill of fragging others straight off the map. While we weren't able to nail down all of the specifics from our talk with Matt Wilson, Executive Director of Development from SOE Seattle, we did manage to wrangle a few juicy tidbits from him. Some of the answers we got regarding the things they are considering for The Agency may prove to be welcome news to FPS PvP devotees.Massively: Is The Agency going to be open to a PvP type of environment?In the example we see in the video, the only thing you can do is actually blow up the bombs and kill yourself, that kind of thing. In PvP we'll have to flag friendly fire on or off -- if you want to shoot your team, you can. If you don't, you won't. In PvE, we're really focused on friendly fire being off most of the time because of players joining ad-hoc groups. We don't want to make the game a griefer's paradise.
ESL replaced Warcraft 3 with WoW
In its previous two seasons , the Intel Extreme Masters (from the Electronic Sports League) focused on two main eSports disciplines --- Counter-Strike 1.6 and Warcraft 3. Now, however, that's changing. They've announced that World of Warcraft will take over the spot from Warcraft 3, based in part on the success of previous WoW tournaments. While ESL doesn't explicitly say it's an Arena tournament, I think we can safely assume that to be the case. This is just part of the ongoing eSport effort, and I think we'll hear about a lot more tournaments in the coming months. I don't know if Blizzard meant to bump its own game from some rosters, but I suppose there's only so much room at each tournament. There's also $750,000 (US) in prize money for the victors. They've not announced how much will specifically go to World of Warcraft, but it'll definitely make it worth winning. [Via Arena Junkies]
MLG announces new PC Circuit featuring WoW
The arena battles in World of Warcraft may be challenging and fun to play, but can they also be fun to watch? Blizzard is hoping the answer is yes, and pro-gaming league Major League Gaming is hopping on for the ride. As the headliner for their new PC Circuit, they are betting big that the millions of people who play the game will want to tune in to watch the best of the best battle it out. $22,500 in prize money is set aside for the top competitors at each of the PC Circuit's three stops. One of the 32 competing teams will be walking away with some serious money for upgrades. 31 teams will be shaking their heads and wondering what happened.GotFrag eSports is giving the event the full coverage that sort of money demands. What nobody knows is how many spectators will tune in to watch what will likely be a competition nearly impossible to follow without a good understanding of PvP in WoW, or some commentators who really know their stuff. PC eSports fans were hoping for CounterStrike 1.6 and seemed disappointed with the selection of World of Warcraft as their initial gaming platform. But hey, we love WoW here. Bring it on! Just, please, be sure to get commentators who know what they're talking about.
Conquering fear of PvP (before conquering the Alliance)
It's an interesting moment, the one that mikkeneko talks about over on WoW LJ. It's the one where you first enter a battleground, or an Arena, or just head out into the world, attack someone of the opposite faction and win, and first realize that yes, you can PvP.I come, like many more experienced gamers, from a Counterstrike background (and a Doom and Quake background before that), so I've almost always known the thrill of taking on other humans at their own computers. But this moment happened for me before I ever played WoW -- back in the days of Dark Age of Camelot, I entered a battleground, saw nameless player opponents in front of me flagged red, actually killed one, and realized that yes, I could actually do this. Our own Dan O'Halloran just recently had this experience in WoW, I believe -- he told us on the podcast a little while back that he'd never played PvP, and a week or so later, he told me he'd tried out a battleground and learned it was actually a lot of fun.PvP isn't hard -- you mostly play the character as you play it in PvE, and as fast as high-end Arena matches can get, battlegrounds especially are simple enough for even casual players to enter and at least partly influence the battle. I don't remember what's so scary about PvP but I do remember it being scary way back when. If you haven't played PvP yet, though, you're missing out -- jump into a battleground, throw some spells or swords around, and you'll find that you too can PvP.
Lila Dreams devs are blogging up new MMO insights
Back in late January, Eliah posted about an interesting little MMO called Lila Dreams, that was intriguing for a few reasons. Not only is it being developed as a 2D game in Java and Flash on Kongregate.com (a website probably most known for the extremely popular Desktop Tower Defense game), but the premise sounds terrific: the game takes place all inside a little girl's dream, with platforming and "gardening," and "mood-based world altering." Sure, it might not appeal to the Counterstrike crowd, but to experienced game players and developers that just sounds perfect.Since we first posted about it, the developers of the game have been blogging, and now there's quite a bit to read there about the process behind the game, including some good tidbits about how to make an RPG without a grind, and how to include microtransactions that vibe with both players and the people who want to make money from them.It'll definitely be interesting to see what comes of this. It certainly seems new, and as a great movie once said, the new needs friends.[Via KTR]
Watch the first gameplay video of The Agency
Yesterday we handed out some new The Agency screenshots from SOE's CES presentation. That was cool enough, but in case you still weren't satisfied, there's a video of the presentation up on GameTrailers. Oh, and it's embedded above, obviously.The presenter calls The Agency "24 meets Alias meets Counterstike," and that seems appropriate enough. The game can be played either in first person mode, or in a Mass Effect-esque over-the-shoulder perspective. It looks like you'll be able to run through instanced encounters with other players and/or NPCs, and there are scripted heroic moments in addition to the usual shoot-'em-up stuff. Our favorite moment occurs when the player revives a fallen ally with defibrillators.It looks like the game borrows a lot from single-player game conventions, so it's not super innovative, but it's still refreshing to see an MMO that's not an action-bar-based, numeric-stat-grinding, sword & sorcery, D&D-style DikuMUD clone.
Today's most interesting shaky cam footage: Left 4 Dead at showdownLAN
Footage from showdownLAN has surfaced on showing off a public playtest of Left 4 Dead, an ambitious zombie-centric -esque team game from Turtle Rock Studios (Counter-Strike) and Valve. Four survivors take on waves of the Infected (think 28 Days Later) and four Super Infected as they make their way to a helicopter landing point.Shown in the clip is footage from four player-controlled survivors. Though the Super Infected can also be player-controlled, we don't have any video of that in action. There is, however, a moment where you can spot The Smoker strangling a survivor with its tongue. The video is grainy and shaky at times, but it's the best we've got on this so-far reclusive game.Left 4 Dead 411 has impressions from people who attended showdownLAN, as well as a gallery of the event. The game is due out this summer for PC and this winter for Xbox 360. Video embedded after the break.
Call of Duty dev down on destructible environments, sandbox gameplay
Sandbox gameplay. Destructible environments. Those are a few of the latest video game buzzwords used to sell ideas, and Grant Collier, studio head of Infinity Ward (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), is not happy with it.In an interview with IGN, Collier sees a problematic trend with using sandbox gameplay and "total destructibility" without first considering if it will make the game fun. "And total destructibility, you can really ruin the gameplay," he said. Collier cites Counter-Strike's über-popular Dust map, where the two choke points serve as the focal point of entertainment, and how that could be compromised with destructible environments. "It's not fun because you can blow up everything," he said, "it's fun because you know where the action's going to be and there's races against time to get to that action." "So I think right now it's a fad, and the fad will pass, we're not going to be bite on in it - we want the game to be fun first, and destructibility comes second," he said. The over-indulgence may be a fad, but the interaction that destructible environments and sandbox gameplay adds is something that isn't (and shouldn't) go away, and we think Collier would agree that said features, if properly implemented, can potentially augment gameplay.
Level designer defends Counter-Strike Texas school creation
Last week a student in Texas was classified as a "terroristic threat" after recreating his school in the game Counter-Strike. This morning Kenn Hoekstra of Pi Studios had an op-ed piece published in ForBendNow. He defends the right of the student to create the school with the same basic reasoning used to jump start every creative individual: You write/draw/design what you know.Hoekstra writes, "I speak from experience when I say that just about every aspiring level designer starts out by building what he or she knows. In this case, this poor kid built his school because he was familiar with it. Over the years, I've personally constructed the house where I grew up, my old grade school and high school, my old work office building and my apartment complex in various level editors. Why? Because it was fun! Plain and simple."Hoekstra better start running now because the Men in Black are probably going to be knocking on his door any second. Watch out aspiring game designers, keep your passion in the closet, because one day you too may be considered a "terroristic threat."[Via GamePolitics]
The Political Game: Dangerous times for gamers
Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games: You can draw a picture of your school.You can sketch it in charcoal or paint it in bright pastels or subdued watercolors. You can take an artsy black-and-white photograph of your school or a high-pixel color shot with the sunset in the background. Frame it, crop it for a web page or iron it onto the front of a t-shirt. But whatever you do, however you choose to express yourself, do not recreate your school building within a video game.That's the lesson coming out of Texas, and it's a hard one for 17-year-old Paul Hwang, a senior at Clements High in Fort Bend. By all accounts a decent kid, Hwang was adept enough with Counter-Strike's built-in level design tools to map his school. His handiwork is quite detailed and rather impressive. Joystiq, in fact, posted some screenshots of his level design yesterday.%Gallery-2937%
Images of the Clements High student's "terroristic" maps
Images of the maps made by the Clements High School student have found their way to the internet. If there are small children in the room, cover their delicate eyes. Might want to close the blinds, sweep the room for bugs, and unplug your webcam, too ... just to be safe.The blood! The horror! The ... wait. Actually, they don't look half bad. Makes their school look rather appealing, wouldn't you agree? The "Let Freedom Ring for All People" banner is a nice touch, as well. Call us crazy, but we don't see what's so "terroristic" about these creations.[Via Digg]%Gallery-2937%
Student arrested for making a map of his school
A Chinese student was removed from Clements High School in Fort Bend, Texas after parents complained he had re-created the school grounds in a game and uploaded the map for his friends to play. The boy was placed in the district's alternate education school and later arrested, as the police considered him a "terroristic threat". The Chinese community and the boy's mother have rallied behind him, saying the school has acted too harshly in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. No charges were filed, though the boy won't be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies.We don't have to point out how ridiculous this is to our Joystiq readers. How many people have created familiar surroundings using in-game editors? We once made a partial re-creation of our college in Dr. Lunatic Supreme With Cheese. Good thing nobody found out, otherwise we'd be blogging from a soft and squishy padded room right now.
CGS boasts $5 mil payroll, Playboy Mansion pro-gamer draft
Hosting its inaugural player draft far from the storied sanctum of The Garden, with a paltry $5 million league-wide payroll, (an amount routinely squandered on a single signing bonus for a young athlete in another professional league,) the Championship Gaming Series continues to take baby steps toward becoming a marquee "sports entertainment" business. Still, come June 12, 60 prospects will split the riches, as they're contracted to join one of six city-based squads that will compete in a small variety of games leading up to the CGS Grand Slam and World Championships this October. Not a bad gig, eh? But what of this Playboy Mansion draft locale? If CGS is to be taken seriously, it's gotta avoid these WWEsque publicity stunts ... right? Maybe not. A lil' scantly-clad drama might be just the lure needed to hook viewers who might not otherwise tune into a glorified LAN party.
WaPo writer talks VT shooter/Counter-Strike connection, removal
When a Washington Post story mentioned that Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung Hui played Counter-Strike in high school, we were intrigued. When the nugget disappeared from an online version of the Post story, we were even more intriguedTo clarify the situation, we caught up with Washington Post Staff Writer David Cho, who was responsible for originally reporting the factoid. Cho said the information was based on talks with some high school acquaintances of Hui's who occasionally saw him playing at an cyber cafe during his high school days.Cho said there was no solid indication either way whether or not Hui continued to play during three-and-a-half years at college. Hui's college roommates reportedly saw Hui on the computer constantly, but said he was usually writing, not playing games. Cho said a group of Virginia Tech Counter-Strike players he talked to had never heard of Hui, and that Hui hadn't attended a recent Counter-Strike tournament held on campus. As for the removal, Cho said it was standard practice to replace a rougher online version of a story with the polished print version when it was available. The Counter-Strike connection was removed, Cho said, to make room for more recent, more relevant information. Still, the fact is on file at the Post, Cho said, and it's possible it could make it into a future story.
Did WoW kill LAN parties?
WorldofWar.net points to an article over at Boot Daily which proclaims the death of LAN parties. I don't know if you've been lucky (or nerdy, I guess) enough to be party to this phenomenon, but a LAN (Local Area Network) party is where a bunch of nerds bring their computers over to someone's house or a hotel, hook them all up, and play Counterstrike, Warcraft III, or whatever the latest game is (I have fond memories of huge Rise of Nations and Soldier of Fortune matches at a friend's house) until the sun comes up.This article, however, says that LAN parties are dead, and World of Warcraft is holding the smoking gun. Not only are the nerds staying home to raid in Outland, but even when they show up to the parties, according to the article, some are playing WoW instead of participating the game of choice. The real fun of LAN parties isn't just playing-- anyone can do that now, from Xbox Live to the many, many online PC games-- but it's playing with people right next to you, and all the camaraderie and trash talking that comes from that.It's true that I haven't been back to a LAN party in a long while (though part of that might have been a move away from the city where I used to do it), but I don't see that they're dead-- just last year I was at PAX, where the culture of the LAN party was alive and well. And claiming WoW killed them is a stretch at least-- if anything it's the spread of broadband (which makes the hassle of a LAN party just not worth it to many casual players), and a general lack of really classic multiplayer games lately. Really, what's the last multiplayer experience that was strong enough to build a whole culture around? Battlefield 1942 and the sequels maybe, and then... ? Gears of War? If LAN parties are dead, it's because players are still stuck playing games that are years old-- even Dreamhack, the biggest LAN party in the world, is still playing CS 1.6 and Quake III Arena. Heck, they're playing Starcraft, which was released almost ten years ago! If LAN parties are an "endangered species," it's because the games that supported them are dying off as well.
Shadow of the Counter-Strike
We don't typically cover custom-made Counter-Strike maps, but this one is unique in its high level of detail and its tribute to one of our favorite games of the PlayStation 2's golden years. Meet de_wanda and its giant reference to Shadow of the Colossus. Weighing in at 160 MB, this map is one you're going to have to require everyone to download in advance if you plan on playing online. The creator, Soenke C. "Warby" Seidel, has an impressive collection of artwork and maps, including some 3D Shadow of the Colossus-inspired scenes, if you would like to peruse the artist's portfolio. Color us impressed. Very impressed. [Via bit-tech]
Game champion commits suicide over gambling debts
Christian Sellergren, a professional gamer who led Team Eyeballers to the 2004 CPL Counter-Strike championship, apparently took his own life last November over massive debts accrued from online gambling. The news trickled down to us through a rough translation of a recent story about the death in Swedish paper Aftonbladet. According to the report, the 21-year-old Sellergren, who went by "divino" online, turned his competitive instincts to online gambling after retiring from the eSports scene. Sellergren lost his job and accrued over $13,000 in debt to fuel his addiction, which he kept from parents and friends. While stories about pro gamers with six figure salaries and major sponsorship deals may make you think the scene is all about glitz and glamor, this story shows that is not always the case. Our sympathies go out to all of Sellergren's friends and family. If you think someone you know may have a gambling problem, please don't wait until it's too late. Get help. [Thanks Will]
The new economics of Counter-Strike
In an effort to ensure a more diverse usage of armaments, Valve is implementing a Dynamic Weapon Pricing system into Counter-Strike: Source. Essentially, all guns are divided into two categories: pistols and everything else. Within each category, data is collected from the servers as to how much money is spent on each gun. Every Monday, the price of guns will be adjusted to correlate with its popularity from the previous week -- the higher its demand, the higher its price.With this system, Counter-Strike users will be able to balance the game through their habits. Players will continue to have a starting bank of $800, but each week will be forced to tweak their strategy in order to accommodate for market trends. The MAC-10, for example, is on a downward trend and the price is falling. As soon as the gun becomes viable for its respective price range, the demand will increase. Eventually, we foresee, an equilibrium will be reached where the change in price from week to week will be marginal.The projected value of each gun and piece of equipment can be tracked on the DWP market page, where Valve has also provided a more in-depth explanation of their price-adjusting algorithm.[Via Pro-G]
Blow up U.S. tanker in Iranian game
Reuters covers the release of Counter Strike, a game that charges players with the goal of sinking a U.S. oil tanker in a critical channel, blocking the path that two-fifths of all the world's oil travels. Iran's government sponsored the game for distribution within that country.The topical nature of the game isn't new; Kuma Reality Games mirrored real-life U.S. strikes against Iraq. The anti-American sentiment isn't even new, as seen in Night of Bush Capturing.This trend of all sides using games as propaganda interests us. Are games more persuasive than radio broadcasts and dropping leaflets? When will bombers start dropping games over enemy states?
