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'Breach' game code theft at PAX East ends in arrest [update]
[Photo: Kevin Kelly] digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/30/breach-game-code-theft-at-pax-east-ends-in-arrest/'; An attempted theft of Atomic Games' Breach code on the PAX East show floor on the last day of the event was thwarted by vigilant members of the studio. According to a representative for the company, the suspected thief managed to download some of the code and then run into the crowd after he was spotted. He was eventually apprehended in the large crowd and the game's code was found on his computer. "The suspect did admit to us several times, including as he was doing it, that he was stealing the code. He said to myself and several other team members, after being caught, that it was not a big deal, he just really liked the game and wanted to play it with his friends," David Tractenberg, a spokesperson for Atomic, explained. "This guy had only succeeded in copying about 14MB to his laptop before our staff caught him," Atomic Games President Peter Tamte told Joystiq. "Because of the work we do for military and intelligence organizations, we take security issues like this very seriously ... It is fortunate for him that we caught him before any of this ended up on the internet. Many of the hackers who stole Valve's Half-Life 2 code were tracked down by the FBI's Cybercrime Task Force." %Gallery-88941%
PAX East 2010 Gallery
Penny Arcade creators Gabe and Tycho brought the ever-growing Penny Arcade Expo to the Bay State this weekend, with nerdfolk from all over pouring into Boston, MA for PAX East. As the sole WoW.com rep at the show (with Spiritual Guidance's Fox Van Allen in attendance as "just a dude" instead of "dude with a press badge"), I stomped the floor with the Joystiq and Massively crew, who squeezed every last drop of relevant info from the expo at record speed. "Hello my boss Chris Grant of Joystiq fame," I would tap out on my smartphone, "here's a pretty hot gaming scoop just revealed moments ago!" He would reply three seconds later with "Already posted," with an image attached of his frowning face. As for my site's particular field of interest -- was there a lot of Blizzard-related news? Not really! Thankfully, on top of news about other MMOs, there was some other stuff going on, which you can see in this gallery. There was WoW-related stuff worth writing about though, which'll be posted in the next day or so. A special thanks to all the readers who stopped by to say hello to me! We love you guys, and we'll see you at BlizzCon in full effect.%Gallery-89201%
PAX East 2010: Community manager panel
Community managers are the very definition of a paradox. They're some of the most public faces of the game, yet their role is often least understood. They serve many masters -- developers, players, marketing, press -- and are beholden to all of them at once. They're often on the blunt end of unrestrained love and unfathomable anger. No matter what they are, one thing is for sure: their job rocks. At least, according to a CM panel at PAX East entitled "Community Managers: More than Forum Monkeys." In it, five CMs from various studios shared just what goes on with their job, what limits they deal with, and what are the highs and lows of working in the public limelight 24/7. Meghan Rodberg (Turbine), Aaron Trites (Harmonix), Morgan Romine (Frag Dolls), Jess Folsom (Bioware Austin) and Linda Carlson (Sony Online Entertainment) spent a candid hour with an audience pulling back some of the mystique and misconceptions of their positions as supposed monkey tamers. Hit the jump to read about the inner workings of these fabulous five community managers.
Hands-on: Shank
We are, and I don't think I'm being premature about this, in the thrall of a full-on 2D renaissance courtesy of digital distribution platforms like XBLA and PSN. Developers are realizing that modern technology plus a less technically demanding perspective can lead to a really beautiful end product. That's the case with Shank, a fluid, violent brawler that artfully combines a sort of 2D Devil May Cry blend of sword- and gunplay with a Saturday morning animation style to create the coolest cartoon your mom would have never let you watch. %Gallery-89187%
PAX East returns to Boston in 2011 and 2012, in bigger venue
It appears the East Coast has an annual gaming mega-convention to call its own, as the Penny Arcade Expo East officially locks into Boston for two years. The wildly successful inaugural year had an estimated 60,000 attendees (twice the number originally planned for), which has led organizers to move the show from the Hynes Convention Center to the much larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for 2011 and 2012. Although the extra space will be welcomed by publishers and attendees, the other convention center is inconveniently located (especially by Boston standards) down by the harbor. While the Hynes, which is located downtown by Copley, may have been a little cramped, it's surrounded by shops and restaurants for meetups. Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik told Joystiq, "We had assumed we would be in [the Hynes] for what? Three years, I think? That was our initial idea. And already this will be our only year here. We have to move it next year." It'll be interesting to see how publishers treat PAX East in 2011. With no other major show in the first half of the year except for the Game Developers Conference, which attendees have complained for years has lost its way by having a larger media presence, PAX East could be the new place to make announcements. Especially if this year-round major game release calendar we've seen in 2010 becomes permanent. Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins spoke about PAX East's place in the industry and the recent occurrence of major releases outside the fourth quarter saying, "I think the problem is [publishers] never had a place to promote those releases, and if they're given a place to promote those releases – this is what [Penny Arcade's business guru] Robert [Khoo] has heard when he talks to the people he talks to to get the show going – they need a place that can attract you and can attract the people who play games ... enthusiasts in general, not industry observers." %Gallery-89141%
PAX East: Ken Levine and the Hug That Taught the World to Love
No matter what anyone will tell you, this months-in-the-making hug between Joystiq's Justin McElroy and Irrational Games' Ken Levine was the most important thing that happened at PAX. Fair warning, Ken drops the F-bomb in the process of admitting the harsh truth that he listens to the Joystiq Podcast. It's pretty much the best thing ever.
PAX East 2010: Fallen Earth patch 1.4 preview
Fallen Earth has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past six months, with the game's population growing even faster than the game itself as word-of-mouth does its thing. One of the highlights of PAX East this past week was the opportunity to sit down with Dave Haydysch of Fallen Earth and take a sneak peek at the upcoming patch 1.4. This is going to be another huge patch -- the fine folks at Icarus don't seem to do anything by halves -- scheduled for release sometime in Q2 of this year. (We will, of course, be watching for an exact date.) There was quite a bit to see and hear, so follow along after the jump to take a look at what is on the way to the Wasteland.
The Daily Grind: When have MMOs collided with real life?
This past weekend, the real world and virtual one collided at PAX East, as many bloggers, players and developers met in person, often for the first time. This can be a joyous experience akin to a family reunion with people you've never encountered face-to-face before, or a traumatic affair full of sobbing and shirt-rending as you realized the girl of your dreams was actually a ravenous velociraptor seeking only to feast on your tender flesh. So when have MMOs collided with your real life? Was it when you heard a couple busboys at a local restaurant talk about how they totally downed a world boss in game last night? Was it a guild meet-and-greet at Chili's that was full of familiar names and strange faces? A costume party where you dressed up as your in-game character? Or was it when you networked with a business associate during a raid?
Naughty Dog invents the missing Uncharted chapter at PAX East
Though the original Uncharted was a well paced and cleverly written experience, it wasn't without its share of largely inoffensive faults. For instance, the game's stealth aspects weren't well publicized to the player, leaving Nathan Drake's instant kill abilities unused for most playthroughs. The game's main antagonist, Navarro, wasn't really demonized in the first half of the game. There were also small plot omissions -- like, for instance, how did Elena and Drake get to their plane after the exciting conclusion of Chapter 3? Naughty Dog recently rectified these three issues during a presentation at PAX East by creating a new, "third-and-a-half" chapter for Uncharted, in which Elena and Drake had to sneak onto an airstrip filled with Navarro's goons, and escape unharmed. With a little help from the audience, the Naughty Dog developers in attendance were able to create a framework for the new chapter, and even bestowed it with yet another clever moniker: "Strip Search."
Hands-on: Raskulls (XBLA)
Most Xbox Live Arcade enthusiasts likely aren't familiar with Halfbrick Studios, the Brisbane, Australia-based studio that's only previous work on the platform involved Indie Games that weren't very successful. After switching gears and offering some PSP Minis titles, the dev studio is back on Xbox with Raskulls, a polished and quirky game that has a variety of inspirations, from Mario Kart to Bomberman to, most notably, Mr. Driller. %Gallery-50092%
PAX (f)East your eyes on the PAX East gallery
Games, attendees, cosplayers, geekextremery, Blueberry MuffinTops, the Joystiq Podcast LIVE!, and more. That's what PAX is all about. There's a lot for your eyeball-spheres here, and we're going to share it with you in case you couldn't make it, or if you just want to relive the memories. Check out the images in the gallery below, which is still growing. Got your own PAX East action snaps? Send 'em in to us. We enjoy sharing the love. %Gallery-89141%
Overheard@PAX: 'Don't drink your own Kool-Aid'
On Saturday, we attended Big Huge Games prez Tim Train's panel on the near death of his studio (saved at the eleventh hour by Curt Schilling's 38 Studios). And while we'll have a full writeup on the very candid panel for you very soon, we felt it necessary to share Train's word of warning to studios with long-term employees who are working on a single, long-term game: "Don't drink your own Kool-Aid." Train issued the warning while explaining the business missteps (from the top down) at Big Huge that lead to his studio's near downfall. He explained the tale of his studio's unsuccessful attempts at pitching a "AAA" real-time strategy game to publishers unwilling to invest in his company, and the eventual "worst day of my life" when he was mere days from sending out layoff letters to the entire staff. Like Tim, we're rather glad the day never came.
Hands-on: Skate 3 and its new difficulty levels
We've covered Skate 3's new focus on co-operative challenges, managing a team of skaters and selling some skateboards -- but the raw experience of getting on the virtual board and busting tricks, not much has changed significantly. And that's why the new difficulty levels were such an interesting addition for me. %Gallery-77563%
Reminder: Two panels you'll want to attend today
a man chooses, a slave clicks for a larger image PAX East is winding down today, but don't fret! Our own Chris Grant is going to be involved in two panels today, talking about this games journalism thing (you know: Joystiq), as well as discussing video game sequels. He will be joined by a cavalcade of the best and brightest our industry has to offer, so that's plenty of incentive to attend. And, remember: five of the folks heading into the second panel will get the completely awesome limited edition Andrew Ryan figure you see above. The treat of the first panel is undoubtedly teh infoz. So, don't want miss these panels! Here are the details: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Game Journalism... Manticore Theatre - Sunday, 2:30pm Chris Grant and a team of esteemed gaming peons will answer any and all questions you have about the art and craft of getting paid to write about games (it's a tough life). Review scores. Swag. Junkets. Bias. The death of magazines. The rise of blogs. It's all fair game. [more info] Sequelitis Snake Oil: Quack Medicine for the Video Game Industry Manticore Theatre - Sunday, 4:00pm This panel will seek to diagnose the video game industry's purported "sequelitis" by way of discussion from thoughtful panelists, including Irrational Games' Ken Levine; Obsidian's Chris Avellone; Harmonix's Dan Teasdale; Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann; and moderator Chris Grant (from Joystiq!). Mr. Levine is bringing five of the above, super limited edition Andrew Ryan figurines. There are only 200 of these in existence and they're not for sale anywhere – so come early. [more info]
Seen@PAX: The Uncharted 2 chapter title that should have been
Naughty Dog's panel at PAX East 2010 offered attendees a fairly in-depth look at how the studio created each level in Uncharted and Uncharted 2. One important aspect of the series' level design is, of course, coming up with a clever name for each chapter -- a task assigned to lead designer Richard Lemarchand. Unfortunately, "the Man" occasionally prevents Lemarchand from putting certain chapter titles in the game, keeping Uncharted 2's original train segment title card (pictured above) out of the final version. Curse you, unseen managerial powers-that-be!
Rock Band 3 to have vocal harmonies, Harmonix (accidentally) confirms
At Harmonix's PAX East 2010 panel, five Rock Band designers answered questions from the audience for "An Awkward Hour" with one major stipulation: No questions about Rock Band 3. However, when an audience member inquired whether Green Day: Rock Band songs would still have harmonies when imported into RB2, Harmonix Project Lead Chris Foster began listing off the games with harmony support. "We've said Rock Band 3 would have harmonies already, right?" Foster asked his fellow panelists, who responded with a booming, "No!" Foster clammed up without revealing more details about Rock Band 3's harmonies (or even answering the attendee's original question), only mentioning, "It's been nice working at Harmonix." (We think he was joking about that last part.)
Chiptune rock band Anamanaguchi providing soundtrack for Scott Pilgrim game
If you're a fan of both the high-energy electro-rock stylings of Anamanaguchi and the illustrated adventures of Scott Pilgrim, you're in for a serendipitous treat -- the 'Guch announced during their PAX East concert last night that they would be providing the musical accompaniment for Ubisoft's recently announced video game adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim comic series. Given the comic's penchant for 8-bit gaming references, and the band's penchant for 8-bit gaming synthesizers, we think this partnership is a match made in heaven.
Impressions: Action Castle
We ask for your patience as you attempt to wrap your mind around the concept behind Action Castle: It's a text adventure akin to Zork, only the dialogue and choices are conducted by speaking -- no pen, paper or arduous typing is involved in the process. Can you comprehend that? If so, you're one step ahead of Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik (a.k.a. Gabe), who was flummoxed when presented with a live demonstration of the "game" during the PA Q&A panel yesterday afternoon. Check out a NSFW video of the demo after the jump. We missed the first part of the presentation, but here's the prompt which kicked things off: "You are in a cottage. There is a fishing pole here. Exits are out." Hilarity ensues.
Live from the Joystiq Podcast at PAX East ... right now!
click to BBMT-size You may not be here with us in person, dearest Joystiq reader, but you're with us in our hearts. We're just as sad as you that you couldn't make it all the way to Boston's first ever PAX East, but we've got a whole bunch of pictures of the Joystiq Podcast trio (and the hundreds of people who showed up to the Manticore Theater this evening) for you right now ... live! No, seriously, we're sitting here in the front row. No, we can't stop working. But lookie! Pictures! %Gallery-89159%
PAX East: Tour Microsoft's N.E.R.D. Cambridge office with us
click to New England-size Just because you don't live in the Northeast (or couldn't afford to hop on a bus/train/plane/cattle cart to PAX East 2010) doesn't mean that you can't tour Microsoft's New England Research & Development Center with us. Sure, you might not be here in the physical sense, but our hi-res gallery below should assist you in achieving a semblance of the zeitgeist in Cambridge yesterday morning. Xbox's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Stephen "Stepto" Toulouse, Laura "Lollipop" Massey, and Eric "E" Neustadter ate breakfast with us (and two or three hundred of their closest friends), handed out some prizes, and even gave everyone a chance to check out a Surface. If you're so inclined, flip through the gallery below and tour N.E.R.D. with us, won't you? %Gallery-89140%
