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Exploring a 'Cyber Renaissance' in Deus Ex: Human Revolution
When Art Director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête sat down to design the overarching look of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, he had two big criteria for his designs to meet. First, he wanted to choose "illustration over simulation" -- rather than creating something exactly real, he wanted to make a game that had a definite style. And second, he adhered to the theory that "design distinction creates desire" -- if a game (he used Bioshock and Team Fortress 2 as examples) has a distinct art style, it will already start to stand out in players' imaginations. And so, from all of the various genres and settings for the third Deus Ex game, Belletête and the team landed on the phrase "Cyber Renaissance" to describe the look they chose. In a pre-E3 presentation this week, Belletête talked about "Cyber Renaissance," and how it defined the art and architecture of Square Enix's Deus Ex title.
Rumor: Blizzard's next MMO to be an MMOFPS
Yep, another MMO rumor for you guys about the Blizzard's next title. While Blizzard has been very adamant in saying that their next MMO would be very different from World of Warcraft, there might be more difference here than just the game's setting. The French gaming site NoFrag is reporting that Blizzard's next game will include an FPS portion as well as a social portion, splitting the player between two systems. While the player will be able to meet people, chat, and make friends in the social area of the game, they will also be able to then launch into the FPS portion with their friends and battle over objectives. Adding this to the widely spread rumor that this next game is going to be a sci-fi title and Kaplan's hints that the game might be hitting consoles? We have a feeling we might be looking at a cyberpunk setting here, if players are switching between two "modes" of play. The social play would be set in the real world while the FPS would be set in a virtual landscape. But, of course, that's just our best guess. [Via Blue's News]
Will Blizzard show their next MMO at BlizzCon 2010?
WoW.com's Zach Yonzon takes a speculative look at BlizzCon 2010 and all the possibilities that lie ahead. The article predicts that Blizzard will officially announce their sophomore MMO effort this year, which seems likely given StarCraft II's impending release and Diablo III being a known quantity. To top it off, the developer probably wouldn't mind stifling some of the substantial buzz building up around Star Wars: The Old Republic. We'd love to see the cyberpunk MMO described in the article, but who wouldn't want a sci-fi MMO that's like Diablo's dark fantasy to Warcraft's light-heartedness? Nobody (well, except for Blizzard) really knows what the future holds, although for now you can read about it and share your thoughts if that helps out -- at least, it helps us feel slightly less helpless when pondering our MMO gaming future.
The Daily Grind: What's your dream MMO?
Everybody dreams of an MMO that does everything perfectly, at least for them. Ours would be some kind of deep, communal sandbox cyberpunk affair. Something like "Bladerunner the MMO", with lots of emphasis on character customization ala All Points Bulletin and plenty of motivation for socialization. Combat would be of the third-person shooter variant, although with RPG systems coming into play via skill progression. Visually, it should focus on a style that's immediately noticeable -- not necessarily "cartoony" but definitely stylized. The overall palette would be something familiar yet grungy, as if it were right out of a William Gibson or Neal Stephenson book. Of course, this is about your dream MMO and not ours. Something tells us ours probably isn't very high on the popularity scale, anyhow. The dream often demands more than reality can deliver, but assuming your dream title could somehow manifest... what would it be?
Movie Gadget Friday: Strange Days
Ariel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema. On our last episode of Movie Gadget Friday, we rode around the robotics-dependent world of Runaway. Traversing from robots-gone-wrong to "wire-tripping"-technology-junkies, this week jacks-in to the cyberpunk streets of LA in Strange Days. While lacking in computer gadgetry, there is no shortage of leather pants, grunge metal, huge cell phones and random rioting in this 1995 film. Keeping true to the times, we can't get over how even the murderer commits crimes while managing to sport a fanny pack. SQUID Receptor Rig Short for Super-conducting Quantum Interference Device, the SQUID receptor rig consists of a two-part system: a lightweight, flexible mesh of electrodes and a recorder. The technology had originally been developed for the feds to replace body wires, but has since leaked onto the black market. The SQUID acts as a magnetic field measurement tool on a micro level. By placing the electrodes over your head and activating the recorder, your first-person audio-visual-sensory experience is recorded wirelessly, direct from the cerebral cortex onto a TDK 60-minute MiniDisc. The rig can also be hacked using a signal splitter and simstim attachment - allowing someone else to experience your experience in real-time. Optional accessories for the rig include a fanny pack for closely storing the recorder and various wigs for concealing your otherwise obvious surveillance of others. Unfortunately, there appears to be no way to directly upload these recordings to the net, leaving room for inefficient, in-person, illegal "playback" dealings of MiniDiscs similar to buying and selling drugs. From sex to committing crimes, clients to the self-proclaimed "switchboard of souls" dealers are able to jack-in to a variety of illicit activities without leaving their home. More after the break.
The Digital Continuum: Blizzard's mysterious MMO Part 2
Everything from BioWare's upcoming Dragon Age -- which leans a little more towards classic fantasy with elves and dwarfs -- to the aforementioned Warhamchine, which while heavily steampunk also carries many dark fantasy connotations. It's not a term you hear too often, but Science Fantasy is something everyone probably quite familiar with: Star Wars. This is basically a world where, while science fiction is seemingly the source setting, fantasy is always lurking somewhere in the background.
The Digital Continuum: Blizzard's mysterious MMO
We've got a good reason to believe that Blizzard's next MMO is in actuality a new IP, which means it's the perfect time to discuss the potential of this newly crafted world. Assuming that Games Workshop isn't the inspiring factor for yet another Blizzard game, I'll lay out five settings that I hope will catch a few of you off guard.Here's the thing about Blizzard, they rarely stick to vanilla settings. Diablo is the only real exception, but even it had the addition of the Japanese inspired Assassin class and Celtic inspired Druid class. StarCraft's races range over a several influences and Warcraft pulls stuff from all over the place, chief among them being some steampunk.Will it be the same for this new IP?
First official confirmation that new Blizzard MMO is original IP
While we've had reason to believe that Blizzard's next MMO would be a new IP, but this marks the first occasion that we've had some kind of official confirmation of our speculation.In a post on the official World of Warcraft forums, Blizzard community manager Zarhym came out and said the new MMO was in fact an original IP, saying, "We have nothing to advertise for the new MMO because it's a shell of a game thus far. We've already stated it'll be a brand new franchise, which means the lore, art, and game play are being developed entirely from scratch. It's an overwhelming process, but a process through which we excel. Our track record supports this." While it's no press release or big event reveal, this is certainly the closest we've come to someone officially with Blizzard saying that, yes, it's not a previously created franchise.So now that speculation on whether or not it's a new IP is over, we can begin to speculate on what genre this new IP will be! Science fiction, steampunk, cyberpunk or another fantasy setting? It's hard to say, although our hopes go for something decidedly not fantasy since Blizzard has already spent plenty of energy in those genres up to this point.
Cyberpunk MMO Otherland launches game preview site
It was only a few months ago when we first got word of a new cyberpunk/VR-themed MMO in development. Otherland is based on the the sci-fi novels of Tad Williams, which deal heavily with the interplay of the virtual and the real. Otherland is being built on the Unreal 3 engine by Singapore-based development studio Real U, a wholly-owned subsidiary of dtp entertainment AG in Germany.The Otherland information page states the game will release in 2011 for PC, and it could potentially offer some interesting dimensions to MMO gameplay. The site states: "MMO fans can expect a fascinating gameplay experience. Based on the globally successful novels, the Otherland gameplay is distinguished by a unique narrative structure. Rather than retelling the story, players will experience their own individual stories within the Otherland universe and will encounter many of the familiar characters from the books. The game world will change dynamically around them during the course of the game."
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.
Snatcher Pilot Disk ported, fantastic
Fresh off its abridged port of visual novel Fate/Stay Night: Trial Edition, Multiple: Option has posted another homebrew adaptation of a text-heavy game, Snatcher Pilot Disk.This release is based on the PC-Engine demo of Hideo Kojima and Konami's acclaimed adventure title, but uses still images from the Sega CD version. Though there isn't much players can do to deviate from the game's very linear progression, the cyberpunk plot and voice acting keep Snatcher Pilot DS interesting. For those of you who demand interactivity beyond selecting text options, there's also a fun bug-blasting segment towards the end.Unfortunately, this "pilot" comprises only the first act of the full Snatcher game, taking players through the J.U.N.K.E.R. headquarters and factory scene (Multiple: Option does not plan to port the complete game). Still, it's an entertaining, 10-minute experience worth playing through. [Via PAlib]
The Daily Grind: What tabletop games would make good MMOs?
One of the tidbits of news that made many of us happy here this week was the claim (and yesterday's follow-up statement) that the MMO underway at Cryptic is most likely a Champions MMO. If the sheer geekgasm that occured amongst many veteran tabletop players is any indication, careful planning and design will likely make this a winning title, drawing quite a bit of player-base to it. Of course, this got us to thinking about some of the tabletop games we've played, and in turn this brought up a variety of interesting IPs that could be optioned for a MMO. Today we thought we'd ask you -- if given your choice of all the different tabletop RPG systems out there, which do you want to see as an MMO? Are there any particular rulesets that you think would lend themselves more readily to the workings of an MMO? Are there any niche games that the world never picked up, but would be fantastic for an MMO?
Why Fantasy, and not Science Fiction, Part Eleventy-Billion
As my compadre Eli writes here, there is reasoning available that Fantasy MMOs have flourished due to there being a greater preponderance of Fantasy titles, in various media, upon which to draw inspiration to sustain an MMO. The lack of substantive Science Fiction titles of the time, therefore, leads to the correlating dearth of such MMOs. However, this argument only mentions in passing what I think is the more crucial element, which is this:Fantasy titles are about the Hero's Journey, or the Epic. Science Fiction titles are about exploration of ideas. One of these story types makes for better adaptation to immersive gameplay. Guess which?Now, I will back up a bit and acknowledge that as a blanket statement, what I said does not (and should not be considered to) cover every Fantasy or Science Fiction title everywhere. Clearly, Star Wars is the most well-known Epic SF story, but then again, Lucas based the plot almost entirely on Joseph Campbell's monomyth, which was itself formulated around the epic myths and stories of history. And perhaps one of the finest Fantasy titles ever written, John Crowley's Little, Big, uses Fantasy tropes to examine the idea of the complexity of human relationships, rather than one character's journey to overcome evil. But having made those concessions, let me make my case.
MetaPlace goes MetaPunk
If you're not familiar with MetaPlace, here's the deal: it's an open platform that allows users to create and share their own casual massively multiplayer games. It's platform-agnostic -- meaning it'll be usable by anyone with access to the web. Oh, and did we mention it's the brainchild of Raph Koster, one of the big names in MMO development, and the guy behind Penny Arcade's hypothetical construction MMO?MetaPlace is still in alpha testing, but fans of the project are thinking ahead. Check out the brand new official website of MetaPunk, a MetaPlace-based "cyberpunk massively multiplayer online role playing game." It's never too early to start planning for the fun. MetaPlace could be one of the most exciting things on the MMO horizon, so if it's something that sounds even remotely interesting to you, get involved in the community.[Via Cuppytalk]
The Daily Grind: Pick a genre, any genre
For today's edition of The Daily Grind, we thought we'd ask you what you were looking for in your next big MMO? Are you one of the many for whom fantasy is the universe you want to escape into? Or are you looking for something new? I know many of us were sad to see Perpetual's title Gods and Heroes get shelved, as Historical MMOs are definitely a cool concept. Personally, I have to admit, I'm hoping someone will eventually option someone like Phillip K. Dick or William Gibson and we'll see a strong cyberpunk MMO in the Sci-Fi genre. How about you? If you had your pick of any genre that you'd like to see some new MMOs in, what would you pick? Would you like to be a dark elf, or a civil war soldier? Take the poll, leave your thoughts, and let's see what you all want. What genre do you want to see more MMOs in? Fantasy Horror War Sci-Fi Historical Puzzle Sports Super-hero Real-life Something else you didn't list (comment below please) Free polls from Pollhost.com
Adgadget: Fantasy fembots market male products
Ariel Waldman contributes Adgadget, a column about the intersection of advertising and technology.Technologically better equipped than booth babes, fantasy fembots seem to be popping up everywhere in ad campaigns these days. Alcohol seems to be popular with the fembots -- they're employed in ads from both Heineken and Svedka -- but Philips is utilizing them in a campaign for an electric razor as well. It's pretty easy to be creeped out by the influx of ready-to-serve robots -- and not just because these fembots could be the beginnings of the Singularity in disguise. (C'mon, what more suitable "smarter-than-human brain-computer-interface" would be better to take over the human race than one that offered kegs and clean shaves as a "gift from the Greeks"? And who better to be behind the downfall of society than advertisers?) Misogynist undertones run rampant throughout all the ads, so it's no shock that feminine cyborgs are used exclusively in advertising targeting young males -- they tap right into stock fantasies of complete feminine subservience.
