Intelligent Artifice

Interactive Software Federation of Europe April 29, 2003

Interactive Software Federation of Europe

Behind the Pan European Games Information (PEGI) age rating system is a shadowy organization called the Interactive Software Federation of Europe or ISFE. I call it shadowy because I’ve only heard about it once until now and I couldn’t find anything on the web. They have a website now. It looks like they’re a lobbying group for the interactive entertainment industry, aimed at the European Union and the World Trade Organisation and the like.

I recently had lobbying in general and lobbying in Brussels in particular explained to me by a friend of mine who has done this for a living. It is apparently not as extremely money-oriented as lobbying in the US. I’m glad there appears to be someone representing the industry’s interests in Brussels: the European industry can use all the help it can get.

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Mental development through videogames

It’s not a new subject in academia, but Wired has an article by a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on how children develop their minds through the playing of videogames. And he’s not just talking about improving hand-eye coordination.

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Everquest porn

It took surprisingly long. Or maybe it didn’t, I wouldn’t know. Beats that torture stuff that got all the press a few years ago.

(From ErosBlog. And no, this is not another blatant attempt to attract visitors by mentioning pr0n.)

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The Pan European Games Information age rating system April 28, 2003

The Pan European Games Information (PEGI) age rating system was recently introduced into the interactive entertainment markets of sixteen European countries.

Germany is not among them. Perhaps this is because the shiny new law to protect the young from media is incompatible with PEGI. I don’t know, I haven’t looked into the new law yet. It’s already cause a lot of controversy. In any case, it looks as if the USK, the German age rating system, will stay around.

On the Dutch part of the site one can read:

“Het is het eerste Pan-Europese classificatiesysteem voor computer- en videospelletjes.”

This means: “It is the first pan-European classification system for little computer and video games.”
or in German: “Es ist das erste pan-Europaeische Klassifikationssystem fuer Computer- und Video-Spielchen.”

The diminutive form, which is very easy to use in Dutch, is ALWAYS used when talking about video games in the Netherlands. It drives me nuts… it’s as if some kind of childish activity, and not a $%^&-ing ten billion dollar industry.

I honestly think this phenomenon is linked to the status of interactive entertainment in The Netherlands. This is why I left my home country in 1991 in order to pursue my career.

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Ninja Tune meets Shinobi

Ninja Tune is one of the few music labels I actually know better than their musicians. I buy their compilations on sight. And now they’ve teamed up with Sega’s Shinobi. Sadly, it looks like Sega and/or Sony are just sponsoring a tour, there’s not much more going on.

The Shinobi site features cool graphics and gesture recognition, but makes my browser crash.

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The technology behind the Matrix

The technology behind the Matrix sequels and game

Wired has an article on the reality-sampling technology behind The Matrix sequels and the computer game.

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British researchers conclude hard-core gamers are not all acned teenagers April 26, 2003

Shock, horror. The findings are not entirely unexpected:

“Over 60% of players were older than 19.
About 85% of players were male.
Fifteen percent of people play for more than 50 hours a week.
A “significant minority” (15%) adopt a character gender opposite to their own.”

But it’s good to see some research along these lines.

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Come because your search engine mistakenly thinks I have something you’re looking for, stay for the quality content April 25, 2003

Not only do I not have a DOA nude patch, I also do not have that card deck of the most wanted Iraqis, nor do I have a GTA 3 nude patch. The mind boggles.

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The CompuServe Game Developer forum

The CompuServe Game Developer forum

Reading the name Diana Gruber in Evan Robinson’s blog entry mentioned below brought back a lot of good memories of hanging out on the Game Developer forum on CompuServe from 1995 to 1997. I made a lot of friends there, some of whom I still have contact with (like Mark Barrett and Lee Sheldon), and some of whom I haven’t seen in years - which reminds I should send them an email… And I should also find a way to decode those old CompuServe threads. I still have all of them… in the format used by the CompuServe Information Manager 3.0… for the Mac… argh argh. If someone can help me with this, please let me know. Otherwise I’ll try to hack the format myself on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

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Evan Robinson’s Mischievous Ramblings

I briefly met Evan Robinson in 1997 at a conference organized by Chris Crawford, and then I saw him again at a roundtable at this year’s GDC, but didn’t have the opportunity to talk to him. But since then, I have discovered his blog (as he has discovered mine), and I’ve been wanting to mention it here for a while. So, while the blog entries I’m referring to are not entirely topical anymore, here goes.

He talks about Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball - which I am not mentioning to increase the traffic on this site, even though it will undoubtedly have that effect - and I agree with what he says. I kinda like DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball, for similar reasons. (I don’t have a nude patch! Go away.)

He has also written two posts (one and two) about his impressions of this year’s GDC.

He reacts to Greg Costikyan’s rant on the dire state of the games industry here. Basically he says he’s heard similar discussions many times before and that he sees various signs of hope. I can only agree.

Most interestingly, Evan talks about why he’s back in the industry after a 6 year hiatus, and why he left in the first place. It turns out he was involved during the very ugly time when the CGDC, as it was then called, went from being run by a couple of developers to being a run by a large corporation. In the process, a very large amount of money changed hands, and some people disagreed strongly with how this played out. Most notably, Chris Crawford exposed his view of the whole affair in great detail on the Game Developer forum on CompuServe (where I hung out a lot back in those days). Some of the accused and various other people gave some counter-arguments, but no-one managed to convince me that a few people did not receive six figure amounts of cash and that this was not a bit shady, to say the least. But it’s been a while, I wasn’t involved, and I can’t read those old CompuServe threads anymore - which is a pity, because there was some good stuff there. Anyway, Evan mentions his side of this, and how it affected him personally to the point of feeling cast out from the industry - understandably, I must say. Chris basically felt and reacted the same way.

Nobody talks about that time much nowadays.

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