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All Points Bulletin video podcast shows off symbol creation and character customization
Since E3 2009 the All Points Bulletin team at Realtime Worlds has been releasing video podcasts showing aspects of the urban crime title, and no doubt gaining some new fans in the process. We mentioned an earlier video that focused on customization options players will have, but Realtime Worlds is taking that a step further in their latest video podcast, which walks the viewer through the layer-based symbol customization players will use in All Points Bulletin.The demonstration from senior concept artist Jon Stockwell shows how simple it is to create and manipulate layers in a symbol, resulting in your own unique look. As the video shows, that symbol can be applied to characters in the form of tattoos or graphics on clothing, and even used to detail your vehicles. Have a look at the video we've embedded for you below, and let us know what you think.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a Scribe
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the thirty-sixth in a series of roleplaying guides about how to roleplay various aspects of the lore and gaming elements of WoW. What is inscription anyways? I mean, we all know that it's the newest profession, added in Wrath of the Lich King, and it lets you make these "glyphs" which allow you to modify or improve your various class abilities in interesting ways. In gaming terms all that makes perfect sense, but when it comes to telling a story with your character, there are a lot of details missing. Technically, a glyph is a character or symbol, like a heiroglyph or a pictograph, which we can see to a certain extent when we click on the glyph and put it into our in-game glyph interface -- it looks pretty cool with all those circles and lines and stuff. But what does it really mean? Are you pasting these symbols into a book of some sort? Are they getting magically tattooed onto your skin somewhere? And where did inscription come from to begin with? Has it been around in Azeroth all along somehow, or was it some sort of ancient knowledge only discovered recently, around the time in the Warcraft lore when the Wrath of the Lich King begins? If it was discovered, then who discovered it and how? How exactly does a scribe learn these glyphs? Does he or she pore over ancient tomes that haven't been read in thousands of years, trying to decipher ancient texts? Or is the art and magic of it more in the artistic calligraphy of it rather than any difficulty in discovering or interpreting the symbols themselves? There are far more questions than answers when it comes to roleplaying a scribe, and to a large extent each roleplayer is free to choose his or her own approach. What follows is the just one suggestion as to how you might work out a plausible solution -- please feel free to read it and improve upon it in whatever way you like.
Nintendo tattoos show questionable judgment
The person above is just one of several in a collection of folks who, like others we've seen, found a place in their hearts, and skin, for Nintendo and its venerable icons. Pouring over the gallery, some of the ink is tasteful, or at least easily hidden, good advice for anyone mulling over branding their body in the name of their hobby, or company of choice. Still, while tattooing invincibility stars on your neck may seem like a good idea at the time, the sprites are equally good at keeping you untouchable by gainful employment as they are from shells and animated fungus. [Via GoNintendo]
Tattoo-like nanosensor could monitor glucose levels, enhance your cool factor
Make no mistake, there are quite a few sophisticated ways to monitor one's glucose levels, but we're pretty certain we've never seen an approach as simple and as bodacious as this. Massachusetts-based Draper Laboratories has stumbled upon a new embeddable nanosensor that could, at least in theory, eliminate those painful pricks endured today by so many diabetics. The so-called "injectable nanotech ink" could be inserted under the skin much like a tattoo, though Draper's Heather Clark notes that it "doesn't have to be a large, over-the-shoulder kind of tattoo." In fact, it can be as small as a few millimeters in size, though if it were us, we'd use it as the perfect excuse in order to plaster our backs with Ice Climbers. Testing of the new approach is expected to begin very soon, though that usually means it won't be ready for humans until at least a few years later. Ah well, plenty of time to dream up the perfect design, right?[Via medGadget]
Tatts a lot of ink: The Piranha Plant tattoo
Nintendo super-fan Eve The Demoness has finally completed her dream tattoo, as you can see. Signing her LiveJournal entries as "The Piranha Plant Princess," Eve has had her over-sized chest tattoo colored to showcase her favorite game character -- guest starring a pair of Bob-ombs. There are many schools of thought on how to show off nerd culture love -- slick visuals and creativity is the way Eve decided to go -- but some take the road less traveled.
Swift Flight Form in ink
Zeerah wrote in earlier today to send us a pretty awesome addition to our WoW tattoo gallery. They took their love for their class to the next level, and have emblazoned their leg with one of the coolest looking (in my opinion) Druid forms in WoW thus far.Personally, I think it's a pretty good choice for a tattoo. I don't have a problem with gaming tattoos, but I do think that if you're going to get one, get one that looks awesome (while also meaning something, of course). This one is pretty good I think, not that it's my place to judge. Congratulations on your ink, Zeerah! Looks like they did a pretty good job on it. It's an Alliance Druid form too, which is a plus in my book. I love both factions equally, but we're a little Horde heavy in our gallery, don't you think?%Gallery-40471%
Android tattoo girl
Natalie "Kommodore" Thompson just joined the rarified ranks of Zune Guy and the BlackBerry Storm Cankle Man with her very own Android tattoo. While obviously a fan of the brand new mobile OS, she says she did it mostly to show her support of open source in general, and ol' Tux lost out to the more-adorable little green bot (known affectionately around the Engadget HQ as "Marvin"). Add in that shutter shades t-shirt -- for a 100x multiplier -- and we're likely dealing with our very first fit-for-society tattoo nerd. Too bad she only dates robots.
Sprite Darter tattoo
Here's another tattoo, this one faction-independent. Adikchun on Zul'jin (who is a Forsaken Priest -- maybe Alliance don't get tattoos?) sent me this one after we posted the big Horde tattoo the other day, and while yes, she plays Horde, she says she got the Sprite Darter pre-BC because it was the only pet that only Alliance could get. I'm not quite sure I understand the logic there, but it is a cool tattoo, and she's right: it is a little more subtle and original than all of the Horde insignias. And while it means something special to WoW fans, it works as just a nice piece of art if you don't actually know what a Sprite Darter is.We've added this picture to our brand new gallery of all the tattoos we've collected so far over the years. If you've got a nice WoW-related piece of body art that you'd like to share, feel free to send it in and we'll give it a look. %Gallery-40471%
Tattooed for the Horde
I can't say that I'm the biggest fan of tattoos out there, but that is a nice tattoo -- xstitchfla's son Christopher got it on his arm just recently, and clearly he's flying the Horde flag proudly. It took about five hours to put on there, which seems like it would hurt a lot, but then again, Hordies can take it, right?Christopher is also headed off to Iraq next year, too, so we wish him the best of luck and hope that he stays safe.And while we're at it, just what is it with the Horde and WoW tattoos? Seems like every picture we see is of the Orc/Tauren/Troll/Blood Elf/Forsaken variety. Aren't there any Humans, Gnomes or Dwarves out there getting inked up?
Storm giveaway contest "winner" tattoos the phone on his cankle, will never find love
There are three primary rules to tattoos that we're aware of: 1. "I love my mom" tattoos are really cool. 2. "I love my short-term-girlfriend" tattoos are questionable at best. 3. "I love this gadget" tattoos have greater built-in obsolescence than sliced apples and pretty much clench the fact that nobody will ever go out with you. Also, they're really awesome. CrackBerry.com reader T.J. fell hard for rule number three and got a life-size tattoo of the BlackBerry Storm on his large, hairy calf to prove his undying devotion and win a free Storm. He even got some video of the happening (peep it below the fold), most likely to be shown in middle schools in the coming years as a huffing deterrence. We're looking forward to a Bumfight-like battle between T.J. and Zune Tattoo Guy before long, or perhaps a support group to get through this awkward, humiliating stage of life together. We'd prefer the Bumfight.
Zune Guy fed up with Zune, seeks to cover up tattoos
Say it ain't so! America's most loyal advocate for Microsoft's Zune is apparently throwing in the towel. Of course, we should warn you that this could very well be a simple ploy for attention, but if the man keeps his word, he will soon be covering his Zune tattoos with... something else. Curiously, he didn't say whether or not he would be playing the traitor card and picking up some sort of iPod, but considering that more people have seen this guy's body art in the wild than actual Zunes, the general public should know soon enough. You fought a good fight, Zune Guy, but consider yourself expelled from The Social.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Engadget logo makes top 10 in crazed man's tattoo contest
We've had our fair share of laughs from Zune Guy's obsession with inking his body with permanent reminders of just how infatuated he is with Redmond's PMP, but we must say, it's a bit weirder to see someone coming ever closer to doing the same with our logo. Apparently one Egor Lavrov has established a tattoo contest in which he accepts donations as votes for logos, and after the polls close, he has agreed to give 25% of the money raised to charity and 25% to the person who submitted the winning tattoo idea. Oh, and he's going to get the most highly ranked image inked on his arm. We'd be dubious about paying to cast a vote (read: we'd refrain entirely), but what's up with our model being on steroids, anyway?
All the World's a Stage: Dear Wrath
The art of roleplaying is like a field of tender soil. You only get something back after you put something in.World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. But wait... before we get serious about this new expansion of our relationship, Wrath, there's something you should understand about me: I may be a hunter, druid, rogue, warlock, warrior, shaman, and even a mage, but above and beyond all these things I'm also a roleplayer. Yes, I love all those promises you're making me these days about how wonderful our life together is going to be, but something inside tells me that you don't really understand what I really want. You only understand the part of me that likes to shoot, shred, stun, fear, strike, shock and even blast my pixelated enemies into oblivion. But what about my artistic vision?Oh sure, I see you smirking. What does artistic vision have to do with "Warcraft," "Wrath," and "Lich King?" ... well, you're forgetting the very first thing that anyone ever sees or hears about you: "World." You may have lots of violence, anger, and nasty enemies, but in the end what you really are is a world, a space, and a stage, where my friends and I can get together and have a good time. This is what you don't understand, Wrath: I'm a person, and I like to have things to do and talk about with other people that don't involve damage, threat, or recovering from damage and threat. Okay okay, you have a point. It's not like you've ignored this aspect of our relationship completely; I'll give you credit for that. In fact, there are some new non-violent things I'm really looking forward to, which I wouldn't be able to do without you.
Neth teases about tattoos in Wrath
Nethaera has been pretty visible on the forums lately, answering a lot of questions about Wrath of the Lich King. She even popped into one discussion asking about the possibility of being able to change faces in the expansion if only to say that plastic surgery isn't in the cards quite yet. However, Neth mentions that players will be able to change hairstyles, facial hair, and possibly even get tattoos. So while some of us who've chosen wrinkled, old mugs might not get a rejuvenating facelift (and Undead who don't have jaws will continue to miss them), a lot of customization will be available in the form of new horns for tauren, jewelry, and maybe tattoos. Salthem states the same thing in another thread, saying that there's a lot of development to be done, but that this was the direction they were taking.The April Fool's prank that Blizzard pulled this year featured the Guitar Hero-inspired Bard class, and pictures of the character had intricate tattoos on both arms. Some early speculation posited that it could be from the new profession Inscription. It could be that the tattoos were just an artist's embellishment for the prank, but it's equally probable that the barber shops in Northrend just might be tattoo parlors, as well.
Researcher crafts tattoo / scar matching system to nab outlaws
Passports and licenses are so last century -- these days, sophisticated crooks can change their identity on a whim, and one particular Michigan State University researcher is looking to stay one step ahead. Anil Jain has created an automatic image retrieval system dubbed Tattoo-ID, which "includes an annotated database containing images of scars, marks and tattoos" that is "linked to the criminal history records of all the suspects and convicts who have a tattoo." Essentially, the application will give law enforcement the ability to query on permanent skin markings, which sure beats manually flipping through ginormous books of images just hoping for a match. Reportedly, Jain and his team are continuing to improve the system, but there's been no word on how long it'll take before implementation can begin. Better stay on the straight and narrow, Zune Guy Microsoft Zune.[Via TG Daily]
38 Studios launches spiffy new website
The next step in 38 Studios' unrelenting march towards world domination has come to fruition. They've upgraded their internet digs from the flash page that they've had since they announced the formation of the company, to a slightly more mundane, but eminently more navigable design. We were a bit sad to see that their mascot Munch was relegated to background status, and couldn't eat our cursor as he once did.On the plus side, there appears to be a small bounty of goodies to be found on the new site. They've got some more pictures of the team, including a shot of big boss Curt Schilling getting the aforementioned Munch tattooed on his bicep. Of course, we will not be sated by shiny new websites and artistic expressions of dedication alone. We have to punctuate this post as we do with most of our other posts about 38 Studios with a demand for more information about Copernicus![Edited to remove reference]
This is skin art: more PS3 tattoos
Remember that story we ran a few days ago about the PS3 tattoo? Well apparently, that wasn't the first. That honor goes to SCEE employee Omar Siu who said he got his "This is Living" art piece (as seen above) on Decemeber 22, 2007. Undoubtedly, both Omar's and Mobiletone's tattoos are equally fanboyish and are full of win. We salute you guys!Omar isn't the only one who sent in pictures of PS-themed tattoos, Marc Blair also shared his tattoo of a wired Dualshock controller. Technically not PS3, but still awesome nonetheless. While we love these PS3 inspired artworks, won't someone please send in a Blu-ray inspired tattoo?! You know, to commemorate Blu-ray winning over HD DVD. Anyway we might not get those Blu-ray tats, so just have a look at Marc's skin art and another pic of Omar's tattoo after the break.
Duck Hunt tattoo showcases love for dogs, shooting, mockery
Man. There's a lot we could say about this Duck Hunt tribute tattoo. We could say it's just awesome; after all, it's pretty well done, artistically, and we approve of the subject, as far as video game ink goes. But the placement is somewhat questionable. If you're the owner, you have to wonder just what sort of message this sends. Is it an "aim here" sort of deal? Is that really what you want to convey with your body art, considering? We all want to shoot that damned dog. And if you're, uh, in an intimate situation with the owner of this patch of skin, that's got to be pretty demeaning. That dog haunted gamers around the world with his laughter.Yep, we can't help but wonder if this isn't going to be something the "lucky" tattooed individual is going to regret one day. Let's hope it's not a permanent inking and just happens to be drawn on.[Via GoNintendo]
Briton gets world's first PS3 tattoo, has certainly sparked trend
We can only assume that Blu-ray's victory in the format war pushed this particular Briton over the edge and made him truly believe that the PS3 is in fact "the best console ever made" -- his words, not ours. Quite frankly, we're not sure exactly how much alcohol was involved in making this decision, but we're going to assume that it's just a matter of time before he gets three more to one-up this fellow. Catch the video of the entire process after the jump (if you're a glutton for punishment, that is).[Via PS3Fanboy]
Fanboyism extreme: the PS3 tattoo
How much do you love your PS3? Do you love it enough to tattoo it on your body? Mobiletone, a friend of Sony Europe's "semi-official" blog, Threespeech, loves his PS3 so much that he decided to get it tattooed on his arm. In fact, he even made a video. (Presented after the cut.)"How much do I love my console? I guess this video says it all. It's been nearly a year since the PAL UK launch of the console and I decided to get this tattoo done in honour of what I consider the best console ever made. Love gaming, love women and love life."This is Living, right? Congrats on your new tattoo, but we're not ready to get our skin inked for the PS3 quite yet. Imagine how much more awesome the PS4 is going to be!
