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Terminator 'MMO' comes to iPhone
Sci-fi fans of the revamped Terminator IP may have something else to be happy about: a Terminator iPhone MMO called "Ambush." Based off Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Ambush is a game played either online or through an iPhone. Gameplay is centered on predicting the movement of enemies through a virtual city, setting traps to eliminate the opposing side while evading their attempts to find you. iPhone 3G users can use their device's GPS to avoid such traps while racking up points. The game was developed by 65 Media, a marketing firm known for its past work on interactive and alternate reality games (ARGs). Ambush may not be a true MMO in the client/leveling/loot sense, but has a system of points gained through employing traps and counter-traps. It's perhaps more akin to Aurora Feint's debatable label as an MMO title, which has already proven to be very popular. Such titles are the earliest forays into that grey area of 'MMOs' for the iPhone, and more are certainly on the way. Ambush is free-to-play and available for iPhones with the 2.0 Software Update, downloadable at the Apple App Store. More information about the game, and how to play it on both the iPhone and online, can be found in the Ambush FAQ. [Via Spoiler TV]
GDC 08: Entertainment content convergence in online worlds
We spent most of Monday ensconced in the GDC Worlds in Motion summit track, which made "standing room only" seem extremely spacious -- most of the sessions were packed to the gills and then some. It seems like more than a few industry types are interested in the intersections between gaming and virtual worlds. Case in point, the following session we've paraphrased (hopefully not too liberally!) from Reuben Steiger, CEO of Milllions of Us, a company that builds marketing campaigns and content for virtual worlds. Reuben: Storytelling is the bedrock of human culture. (Looking at a slide with a real campfire on the left and a user-created campfire in Second Life on the right) -- users in virtual worlds are recreating this storytelling tradition. I'm going to make a contention: the internet has failed as a storytelling medium. Instead, the norm is bathroom humor and ridiculous jokes. So virtual worlds: are they games or not? What defines a game -- linguists and semioticians get real worked up about it. The audience might say "virtual worlds are games without rules, competition, goals or fun." And it's hard to blame them. Extreme openness has defined virtual worlds, where fun can be in a way you define as opposed to what some game developer feels is fun. But the appeal of virtual worlds is that we can tell stories on a broader and less walled playing field.
Free Air Force, Missed Call and Sarah Connor XBLM downloads
It has been a long, long while since we've told you about free XBLM theme and gamer picture downloads and we're a little disappointed in ourselves. It's inexcusable and, for our lack of free download notification, we apologize. But today is a new day and a time to re-invent ourselves, so we figured we'd point you towards new and free XBLM downloads. That is if you're in the US. Newly available and free for download is some Air Force content (theme and gamer pictures), One Missed Call content (theme and gamer pictures) and The Sarah Connor Chronicles content too. Enjoy your free goodies US Live members and we promise to keep you better informed about free stuff. This time we'll slap our own wrists.
